Slayers: Alive

Slayers: Alive 22

Slayers: Alive - Episode 064: Flowers! Garden of Evil

Lina, Gourry, Amelia, Zelgadis, Filia and Xellos, followed James down the dark stone stairs into a deep basement below Arcius' estate. The bottom was pitch black, but not for long. The large underground dome was lit up by many fluorescent flowers growing out of the walls of the cave. The cave floor was covered in an endless rainbow of flowers of many colors and styles, "it's beautiful!" Amelia exclaimed.

"Indeed!" Several feet away from the group there was a large tree that somehow flourished underground. Both the top and the bottom had roots with branches filled with green leaves sticking out of the middle of the trunk. The tree's roots reached the cavern's walls, heading in every direction through the soil underground. "These flowers are almost as beautiful as me, the great Narcissus! You thought you could take me by surprise, did you? Here you are, pretending you have no idea who I am when in reality you know it all!"

Lina and company looked at each other in confusion, with Gourry inquiring, "we do?"

"Yes, you do!" Arcius, who was now calling himself Narcissus, laughed in a very villainous fashion. "You know all about me being a servant of the Green Alchemist, you know that I'm the one who drained the nutrients of this land to increase the power of the amazing Green Alchemist. You know that I was plotting to kill Xellos. That is why Filia became enraged last night and destroyed the Golden Dragon Cafe. As a golden dragon, she could no longer bear the lies that I subjected this town to, even though my family is supposed to be tasked with keeping the peace and symbolizing the bond of friendship between dragons and humans. You almost had me fooled, but Filia's loss of control made me realized your ignorance was just an act. So here I am, willing to strike before you have more time to plot. It is obvious you were planning to attack me, so let us not waste anymore time and prepare to fight!"

Filia stared at Narcissus in disbelief, "you were the bad guy all along, you tricked us!"

"As if you didn't know!" Narcissus retorted.

"Of course we knew, we knew all along," Xellos' sarcastic tone was clear to Lina's group, but it flew right over Narcissus' head, who assumed it was all part of his smug mockery.

Lina put down the hair she was still carrying and stretched her arms over her head casually. "The villain has revealed himself and uncovered the case of the famine, so we might as well take action." She stepped forward, taking on a challenging stance and pointing at Narcissus. "You horrible fiend, how dare you threaten the very sustenance of the world? Disabling the means for people to produce food is a terrible crime! Your acts of injustice will be punished!"

Amelia was all too happy to jump in and join Lina. Usually, she was the one giving the justice speeches, but with food as a casualty, this was too personal to Lina. "Prepare yourself, evil doer, we will deliver swift justice for your despicable deeds!"

Lina and Amelia posed together pointing at Narcissus as they shouted heroically in unison, "in the name of all that is delicious, we'll punish you!"

"If you're quite done, I'd like to get this done and over with," Narcissus impatiently complained. "Jaws, attack!"

"Right away, sir," the seemingly harmless butler morphed into his true form. His skin turned green as his limbs changed into vines. The vines covered in thorns tore apart the uniform he was wearing to reveal that he was a big piranha plant without any human aspects left in him. His body was in the shape of an X where his arms and legs used to be. Another vine protruded from the torso, holding up a large red head with white spots. The round head opened up to reveal a multitude of sharp teeth in its large mouth. In the middle of the torso vine, there was a glowing seed, covered by a large leaf that protected its front like a shield. Around the neck area of the vine, there was a sort of amulet with a small glowing gem that previously served to hide the true identity of the creature, making his energy feel as that of a normal human.