Sagan went quiet for a while. “Then what were we supposed to do?” he eventually asked in response.
“How should I know?”
“That was fast!” Alaina threw in for some reason (still speaking through the Regulus Discs).
“Well, what do you expect? No one can tell you what’s going to make you happy or how you should go about getting there. You have to ask yourself what’s really important to you, then keep thinking about how best to live your life without losing sight of it. There isn’t one fixed answer. That’s all any of us can do. Though, obviously, it’s easier said than done.”
I wasn’t sure if he accepted my words or not, but Sagan simply sighed and fell silent. He seemed to regret what he’d done, but I wasn’t sure he really felt sorry for it, exactly. Either way, though, I had to get the Hounds to repay Atessa for everything they’d done to it.
But just then... “Crack Wall!” We felt a presence and heard a voice and leaped back!
Krakabwoobwoobwoosh! Next came a series of small explosions. The whole area filled with thick smoke.
“Sagan! Let’s withdraw!” The voice that called out belonged to the female elf who’d worn the Wings armor, Lucida! Her spell seemed like nothing more than a loud distraction and smoke screen, but it kept us from getting our bearings.
Sagan had already surrendered, so I wasn’t sure he’d put up a fight if we gave chase. But Lucida, who didn’t know exactly what had just gone down, was a different story.
I readied a spell. “Diem Wind!”
But by the time I set my magical gust loose, Sagan and Tessius were already gone. All they’d left behind were two suits of light armor, the Cyclops and Horns Zanaffars, as if to say they were giving them up. Without a word, Gourry walked over to them, swung his sword... and with that, the last of the Zanaffars were destroyed.
“Should we chase down the Hounds?” Zel asked.
“No,” Alaina replied. “I’ll take over from here. It would be difficult for humans to pursue elves seriously attempting to flee through the forest. I’ll return to our village, explain things there, and rustle up a search force. I’ll see that they atone for their crimes against Atessa. But all that aside...” She looked around questioningly, then turned to me. “Is there... another of you here?”
That was an odd question, and yet...
“Yeah, there is.” The immediate answer came from Gourry, of all people. Me, Zel, and Amelia turned to him quizzically as he called out, “You’re there, right? Might as well show yourself, Xellos!”
“Erk?!” we all shouted in shock.
“Oh, you noticed me?” I heard his voice as a presence abruptly appeared behind me.
I jumped, whipping around. “Xellos?!”
Black hair and vestments. A mild expression punctuated by a bright smile. At a glance, he seemed your typical easygoing priest... but your typical easygoing priest didn’t pop up out of nowhere like that.
“You’ve been here the whole time?!” I cried.
“Yes. The whole time,” he responded flippantly.
Alaina collapsed to the ground. “Lina! L-L-Lina! That man...” she said hoarsely, quivering.
“Er...” I hesitated for a moment, then decided to be honest. “Yeah, he’s a demon acquaintance of ours.”
“What?!” Alaina’s voice cracked.
To be fair, freaking out was a normal reaction. We’d met Xellos during the previous Zanaffar incident and he’d traveled with us for a time, but despite appearances, he was a hella high-ranking demon. During the Incarnation War a thousand years ago, it was said that Xellos, Priest of Greater Beast Zellas Metallium, had destroyed an entire army of dragons all by himself. If Alaina could “see” Xellos’s true astral form, I perfectly understood her panic.
But Xellos smiled at Alaina and said, “No need to worry. I have no intention of making any trouble.”
“Eek!” Alaina scrambled backward and cowered behind my legs. “A stranger talked to me...”
Wait, it’s just the social anxiety?! I’d assumed she was afraid because Xellos was a high-ranking demon, but... Of course that’s all it was.
“I assume you’re here for the Zanaffars, then?” Zelgadis asked.
“Brilliantly deduced,” Xellos confirmed with a nod. “As you may already know, my standing order is to destroy Claire Bible manuscripts... but it seems knowledge leaked from that last one managed to reach the Forest Hounds. I was at quite a loss. Multiple elves controlling Zanaffars... it seemed rather troublesome to deal with myself. Should I tag on a little overtime to take care of it personally, or pretend I never saw it and accept the scolding later? While I was weighing these two options, a set of familiar faces just happened to appear, so I thought, why not take advantage of them? Though I did help you out in secret a time or two.”
Well, just come right out and say you took advantage of us, why don’t you?! “Your work ethic leaves a lot to be desired, y’know?” I muttered in vague disgust.
Xellos raised a scolding finger at me. “I prefer to say I’m efficient and logical. Or perhaps...” He glanced over at Amelia. “As Miss Amelia here might say, I rose up to save my old allies in their hour of need!”
In response to this obviously sarcastic comment, Amelia cooed, “Oh, how thrilling!” Eyes sparkling, she excitedly clenched her fists. “You couldn’t help but aid the imperiled friends alongside whom you’d once fought! Despite your protestations to the contrary, your heart truly does burn with justice! So to assist your former allies, you transcended your nature as a demon and—”
“Please no I take it all back I was being entirely facetious!” Xellos raved, waving his hands hastily. Once again, he’d underestimated Amelia’s zeal for all things righteous. “B-But I am impressed that you noticed me, Master Gourry.”
Ah, the good ol’ change-the-subject strategy...
“Well, y’know,” Gourry said, scratching his head. “While I was fighting, that thing that would pull my sword around... What’s it called again? The astrid plane? Those attack thingies disappeared at random a few times. I don’t know a lot of guys who could do something like that.”
“That explains that,” I said, finally catching on. “I’d been thinking our luck was a little too good. So you were helping out behind the scenes, huh? There was the nullification of astral attacks that Gourry mentioned, the dumb luck we had when Centaur attacked, the way that Amelia’s refraction spell just so happened to ricochet right through Heavy Armor, the fact that massive lightning spell managed to miss all of us...”
Upon hearing my speculation, Xellos scratched at his cheek bashfully. “Well... I was involved in most of that, but not the Centaur incident. That was purely dumb luck.”