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Kitsune Lina
Pure Flow Prince Philoniel stood before the kingdom's high priest, patiently awaiting the arrival of his bride and whatever plot the Temple had planned. Surrounding him were most of the nobles and merchants of the city. Liberally placed through out the room were guardsmen. All of them were carefully watching everybody, but they also seemed to be waiting for someone.
There were, in fact, more guardsmen than were normally seen in one place at one time. Of course that only made sense. In addition to the fact that this was a royal wedding there was the fact that Lady R'Lyeh had already been kidnapped once already. If any gathering needed increased protection, it was this one.
Behind the rather irritable high priest, he'd been called upon with hardly any warning at all, stood the thrones. One of which had not been displayed in what the collected nobles thought was far too long a time. The presence of both royal thrones represented, more than anything else, the hope they had for this marriage.
As the nobility and merchant class of Sailoon sat and waited, the common people and many of the younger scions of the noble houses were engaged in the quickly developing festival outside. As luck would have it, or Regin had planned it, the marriage was falling on the date of a pre-existing holiday. That combined with the joy and charity surrounding the royal wedding was causing the day to rise to almost mass euphoria.
The streets were flooded with people in all manner of party dress, costumes extravagant and simple. Even the destitute of the city were getting into the party with costumes provided by Regin's Temple. It was a constant stream of colors and people, with the odd bit of magic thrown in by a minor spellcaster or two to further liven the day. The illusionary dragons were especially decorous, emotions were running high.
Considering the overall variety and festive attitude it was odd that so many people had chosen to dress up as monks or guardsmen. That was, until you realized that they were guardsmen and monks. If you were paying attention enough to notice that, then you would easily notice that the monks weren't really very monk-like. And if you noticed that, it was an easy leap from there to notice that the guards and the monks were watching each other like hawks.
Nobody much noticed five cloaked figures walking in a tight line through the crowds. One of the smaller figures had taken the lead, mostly out of long habit still not broken by more than a year and a half mostly on her own.
"I hope this doesn't take long," Lina grumbled from under her cloak. Grumbling and trying to force her way through the crowd were currently her only methods of expressing irritation. For the first time in months, Lina was in full human form.
"Well some things apparently don't change," Gourry commented.
"What was that?" Lina snapped.
"We're trying to sneak in," Zelgadis reminded them. "Not alert the entire city that the slayers are here."
"You could bring a tavern down around its ears and they wouldn't notice us," Lina commented, stressing the you almost unconsciously. She didn't generally think about her lost magic any more, but it still rested uncomfortably under the surface.
"This my city, I can't believe I'm sneaking into my own home," Amelia grumbled in mood decently similar to Lina's.
"Hmm, I wonder if its a female thing," Xellos commented. The other two guys considered this under their hoods.
"Xellos, dear."
"What is it Lina-chan?" the mazoku responded playfully.
"Please be quiet, we're trying to sneak in."
"Don't you even think about agreeing with him," Amelia snapped at Zelgadis.
"Me agree with Xellos?"
"Okay, silly idea."
"Maybe sometimes." Amelia almost fell to the ground when the chimera added that last comment. She righted herself quickly, looked about at the other slayers, cloaked though they were, and smiled slightly. Gourry was right, some things didn't change, and she was glad of that.
"Come on, the passage is this way." Amelia led them along to one of the few places relatively free of people. The fact that the palace garbage heap was here might have had something to do with that.
"Nice place for a secret passage," Zelgadis commented.
"Yeah, who could stand to get close enough to it to search," Lina agreed.
"I've just completely re-evaluated my impression of your family, Amelia," Xellos added. Amelia and Gourry looked and saw that all three of them were near to tears. Amelia wondered what the place smelled like to people with enhanced senses of smell, and sweatdropped.
"Oh, sorry," she said, opening the passage and letting the three non-humans rush past her and release strangled breaths.
"What's wrong with them," Gourry asked. "It wasn't that bad." Lina, Xellos and Zelgadis glared at the blonde swordsman who just shrugged it off as usual.
As soon as the passage was closed behind them, Lina shifted again to her preferred form. She was glad in a way that the armor didn't have scaled breeches, it would have been difficult to explain why she needed the armor designed with a hole for a tail.
"Let's not waste time," Zelgadis commented calmly.
"You go on ahead," Xellos said suddenly. "I have to find something."
"You were the one that insisted all five of us, and only us, go," Amelia pointed out.
"This is my part to play," Xellos explained. "I have to keep the gate from opening. To do that I need to find where it has been prepared." Lina sniffed at the air and stared at her love. There was a scent there that she didn't know and didn't trust.
"You're not going to do something stupid, are you?" she asked cautiously.
"Don't worry about me, I have everything well in hand," Xellos promised. Lina narrowed her eyes, but the scent said he was telling the truth.
"Be careful," Lina said, and on impulse she embraced him quickly.
"I will, you don't have to worry about anything," he said brushing her ear before fading away into nothing. Lina stared in confusion at where he had just been in her arms before turning about.
"Well? Let's get on with this!" she growled. Amelia blinked and started leading the way through the passage, Zelgadis lingered, remembering his conversation with the mazoku.
"What are you up to, Xellos."
"Are you coming stone-boy!" A somber procession of men in monk's robes moved through the halls of the palace under the watchful eye of the city guard. At the group's head was Regin, still appearing to be a staid, emotionless little man. Only now people were actually meeting him eye to eye. His unimpressive appearance wasn't causing him to be overlooked anymore, too bad for the pathetic humans they hadn't bothered to pay attention to him earlier.
Most of the humans didn't notice anything about him that they didn't see before. One or two, however, recoiled as they met his gaze. The slit pupiled gaze of a mazoku. Regin would have preferred that they not suspect anything at all, but he could use this preparation to his advantage.
Behind the procession, in a position of respect walked Martina. She hardly seemed now like the maniacal princess that she was in truth. Martina walked slowly to the pace of the "monks'" march smiling sweetly while draped head to toe in flowing, silvery white silk. Her eyes were narrowed in what was truly ecstatic anticipation. Regin felt the guardsmen's pity and concern for her, the innocent girl being used by these evil men, and laughed inwardly. When the betrayal came, the Pure Flow would be great indeed.
As they entered into the great throne room Regin sensed the reverent awe of those humans still unaware of what was coming. The various guardsmen added spices of loyalty and conviction to the rather sickening mass of emotions, with Philoniel's own righteous desire for justice, and love for his "Lady R'Lyeh", completing the revolting combination.
The rogue mazoku suffered through it as the ceremony proceeded ever onward until it came to the culmination of the ritual. That would be the point where all the hope and love and expectation of the masses would be at their highest. That would be the point at which they would be the least prepared for the strike. That would make the reversal of emotions as great as possible. That would...
"In the name of Justice I demand that this wedding come to an end!" All eyes turned to see Amelia Wil Tesla Sailoon gesturing down the aisle in front of her well known companions. Regin's expressionless face broke into an enraged snarl.
"DO IT NOW!!" The mazoku's magic carried the message far and way, its volume never dropping from that roar, fading away only at the edges of the city. Wedding guests looked from the slayers to Master Reginald in blank surprise, celebrants in the streets quieted in confusion, and monks across the city brandished knives and started randomly attacking anybody in reach, just as they had been ordered to.
Regin rushed upwards towards the bride and groom. Philoniel placed himself in front of the on-rushing mazoku, not noticing that his bride was drawing a blade of her own. Regin wasn't interested in the prince however, he batted the huge man aside with a strength that could only be ascribed to creatures like chimera and mazoku. Martina stared in open shock and unbelieving betrayal as her "servant" extended an arm and blasted a hole through her chest.
Throughout the city in a single instance, hope, joy, and happiness was suddenly converted into hate, fear, and despair. The sudden reversal heightened the new emtions above and beyond what they would have been if the attack had taken place on any other day. Runes had been painted and carved in out of the way places by thugs and monks not really aware of what they were doing. These runes collected, concentrated and channeled the force of the collected terror of the city along a specific route.
Zelgadis's eyes popped open as he saw the faint trails of energy collecting into one mass stream and leading away deeper into the palace.
"That's what he was talking about," Zelgadis said, turning his glance to Lina's amulet. "But what is he planning." They entered battle trying to fight there way to the murderous rouge mazoku. Inside the top of the palace's highest tower, Xellos watched as the energy collected into a drawn circle of the guard post, and explode upward through the roof. Only he, Regin and Zelgadis would have been able to see what caused the tower's roof to be demolished. All the humans would see were the shards of stone and wood raining down on the courtyard below.
"A pure flow," Xellos smiled. "Thank you, Regin." He stepped up from his seat and walked into it.
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