Slayers: Alive
Episode 115: Panic! False Accusations Of Despair
Some time later, another earthquake shook the land as Xellos and Filia arrived in the town where the Maces and Vases shop was located. It had begun to snow lightly, but the temperature was far too cold for the amount of snow, causing the travelers to stay close together in an effort not to freeze. The frequent tremors had become common across the world. People used to run and scream whenever they happened, but lately a deep depression had settle into most towns and cities, so the people just quietly ignored the shaking, perceiving that they had no choice but to accept the world's end. Some called out to Ceifeed for help; others begged the dragon lords to assist them. Yet overall, they were a small minority, as most people had given up on calling out to anyone.
The pair of travelers quickened their pace towards their destination. The shop was full of cracks that looked like they had been fixed numerous times, but the patch work would not last for long. A sort of wooden outer cage tried to frame the walls and keep them in place. Filia and Xellos entered the structure, with the golden dragon quietly mourning the sorry state of her once cheerful shop. At least it was still standing, so her family could still find shelter in it. A loud noise from near by made Filia turn her head back towards the street just in time to see a damaged structure collapsing. It was Elena's restaurant, which never really took off due to the lack of ingredients available to cook with.
Before panic and worry had the chance to fully settle into Filia, a familiar voice greeted her, "boss! Welcome back!" Filia turned to face the inside of the shop and saw Jillas, Elena, Palou and Val, relieved that they were unharmed. The golden dragon closed the front door of the shop behind her as if to block out the depressing view of the ruined buildings all over the street.
Little Val jumped into his mother's waiting arms. "I'm so glad you're not hurt, I missed you so much!" The shelves around the shop held only a few vases as there was plenty of property damage involved with the earthquakes. The small amount of vases that remained were tied to the shelves in Jillas' final effort to save them. At least the maces survived, since they were built to receive, or rather give, hard hits. A lot of those had been sold in the time before the town's collective depression fully settled in and the people felt a little better with a weapon on their hands, even if this catastrophe was something that could not be fought with a weapon.
Another person joined them in the main shop area and Filia was surprised to see it was Kally. She was rather quiet and distant, engrossed in her own thoughts. "If only I was still a monster now, this would be such a feast!" Leave it to Xellos to say something sarcastic at a serious and solemn time. Never mind that the monsters had began to be drained from the astral side and were not having an easy time anymore, thus rendering his sarcasm untrue.
"Xellos!" Filia half-scolded with no real anger. "It's good to see everyone here, I know the times have been harsh but we need to stay strong! Kally, how are Tiffany and the others doing at the resort? What brings you to visit us?" Filia tried to make the conversation flow as casually as possible so as to not further trouble the already sad Kally.
"They're okay... they were okay when I last saw them, or as okay as they could be given the situation. I'm here because my brother is..." She paused unsure of what to say, then finished with a neutral sounding, "passing by and I hope to catch up to him." It was plainly obvious that she was sugar-coating what she really wanted to say.
"Jillas!" The angry voices of the townspeople were heard from outside. "We know you're in there, we know you did it! Come out murderer!" At times such as this, when it seemed impossible to be able to do anything about the dire state of the world, more than ever people clung to their own interpretation of justice in desperation. If there was anything they could do, just so they could feel that they were doing something, they would do it and console themselves with it, even if it was in falsehood.
"That's not true!" Palou yelled back. "It's all a lie, he didn't hurt anyone!" His mother hugged him, trying to comfort the child. "Why do they say such mean things? We were all together the whole time, why won't they believe us?" The young fox boy hugged his mother in frustration and innocent confusion.
"Palou, honey... Sometimes when people face hardships they jump to conclusions. They're taking their anger out on someone innocent and that's wrong, but they don't know any better in their sadness." Though she kept a sweet tone for Palou's sake as she held him and gently caressed the fur atop his head, it was evident that Elena had enough of this. There was a fire of anger and frustration in her eyes that the calm fox lady had never shown before.
"Open the door!" Without waiting for any further replies, the door was forced open, left hanging off one of its hinges as it had already been weakened from the earlier earthquakes. An angry mob formed by the townspeople stood at the door, maces on hand. "We knew we couldn't trust you," a young man accused. "In times like this is when you beasts start to show your true nature."
"Those maces..." Filia gasped. "How dare you wield the maces I crafted against Jillas? He was the one who sold them to you, wasn't he?"
"That was before he committed his crime," the leader of the mob accused. "It's ironic that the terrible beasts will be slain by their own weapons. This is what you deserve, death for the beastman and for the dragon! The so called protectors of the world are nothing but falsehood!" He went on the attack, attempting to hit Filia with the mace.
"Watch out, boss!" Jillas urgently warned, but it wasn't really necessary.
Filia easily caught the mace and held it in place. The man pulled it back, trying to loosen the weapon from her grip, but a dragon's strength was simply far too superior to the strength of a human. "I don't know what has made you throw false accusations at Jillas and the dragons, but I won't tolerate you hurting my family and with my own weapons no less." It was like insult upon attempted injury.
The rest of the mob readied their weapons as well. "So you finally show your true colors, Filia," Sasha accused. "You're a wild beast just like the others, I never liked you anyway."
Fed up with the situation, Xellos began to quietly chant a spell. "Darkness beyond twilight, crimson beyond blood that flows..."
Sasha was joined by her fellow hypocritical gossiper Anna. "Defending that murderer makes you an accomplice. The dragons may act all high and mighty but they couldn't care less about humanity!"
"Buried in the stream of time is where your power grows..." Something was off, Shabranigdu's power wasn't responding to Xellos.
Manna threw out a theory that fueled the angry mob's wrath even more. "Now that the land produces no food, I bet the dragons and beasts are returning to their terrible primal instincts. No doubt about it, they intend to feed on us humans!"
"I pledge myself to conquer all the foes who stand, before the mighty gift bestowed in my unworthy hands..." Mighty gift? The small traces of power that Xellos managed to get out of Shabranigdu were anything but mighty. It was as if Ruby Eyes was being drained so strongly in a different direction that his power could no longer be called upon for a spell.
Furious murmurs filled the angry mob, they were convinced they would be slaughtered, so they determined that they had no choice but to act first, kill or be killed. Despite that, Filia wasn't exactly comfortable with blowing up all the townspeople, not to mention that they were currently in her shop and her family was dangerously close by. "Xellos, you can't use the Dragon Slave now!"
"Let the fools who stand before me be destroyed by the power you and I possess, Dragon Slave!" Nothing happened. "It seems that Lord Ruby Eyes in his frozen state is terribly exposed to fall victim to the Stillness. I don't think I'll be able to use that spell anymore, at least not until this war is over," which meant that their forces had suffered an unexpected reduction of power.
"Even Shabranigdu?" As much as Filia disliked Shabranigdu, the fact that even Ruby Eyes was being drained away by the Stillness worried her. It further proved that they were up against a terribly powerful foe.
"Kill them! Kill them!" The restless crowd shouted in wrath.
"Stop!" Jillas stepped forward. "Filia has been away from the town, you can't possibly have any false accusations for her. I'm the one you want. I didn't do anything wrong, but if it'll stop this madness, then I'll turn myself in!"
"Jillas, you can't!" Elena protested.
"There's no choice..." Jillas concluded. "I only ask that you stop this senseless fighting!"
The townspeople discussed the matters among themselves. If Filia got out of hand and decided to transform into a dragon and start devouring them, then they could use Jillas as a hostage to negotiate. Given that possibility, it would not be convenient to kill him. Yet they certainly couldn't let him run free. "Very well," the angry mob's leader agreed. "The murderer will be sent to Prisoner Island."
"This isn't fair," Filia cried, she still remained uninformed of the specifics with which the accusation originated, but she knew that Jillas was a good person.
"There's no choice, please stay safe boss and protect everyone." Jillas was taken away by the angry mob that finally departed from the shop.
"We can't... we can't..." Filia muttered in shock as the crowd walked further away with Jillas in their custody. "We can't let them get away with this!"
"I could try a different spell to blow them up," Xellos offered.
"Jillas wouldn't want that," Elena solemnly pointed out. "He wants to prove his innocence, he wants to show that beastmen and humans can live together in peace. His past... he told me all about it." About how his people were murdered by humans who feared them, blaming them for crimes they didn't commit, some crimes that never even happened.
"Mama... we are going to save him, aren't we?" Palou asked, his big blue innocent eyes filled with confusion and worry. It was obvious that with the passing of time the foxes had become much closer.
Jillas didn't want more unneeded bloodshed, he didn't want to fuel the enmity between humans and beastmen that had formed in a town that was once so peaceful and open minded. Elena understood and respected his wishes, but all of that didn't mean that she was willing to let things stay the way they were. "We'll have to free him in a sneakier way."
Filia nodded in determination, "right, we'll take him away from the ferry that goes to Prisoner Island and be on our way. The townspeople don't need to know and besides, I don't think we should be here anymore anyway." It was a sad event to have to abandon her shop where she had so many precious memories, but her loved ones were much more precious. "This town no longer has a place for us, but I know where we can go. After we've rescued Jillas, we can go to Seyruun. Prince Philionel is a very kind ruler who loves justice. He will not stand by and accept this injustice, I'm sure he'll welcome us to live in his kingdom and there we'll find peace. We just need to explain what happened... which I still don't fully understand myself."
Elena knew that there was no use in sugar-coating the situation any longer, for the sake of not worrying the children. The happenings were far too clear and obvious; they couldn't pretend they had everything under control anymore. "There has been a series of murders in town, committed with guns. The townspeople assumed that Jillas did it, but I know he's innocent. We tried to tell them that Jillas wouldn't senselessly kill innocent people and that we were with him the whole time, but they wouldn't hear a word of it."
"I think my brother was the one who did it," Kally sadly confessed.
"Kalio?" Filia gasped in shock. "Why would he do something like this?"
"He's not himself," Kally desperately tried to explain. "Long ago, when Kalio was still a child, he was regarded as a prodigy with the sword. He was hypnotized into letting go of his senses and to fight without holding anything back, he was turned into a berserker. To avoid his power running completely out of control, he was assigned a guide. Because of our almost psychic link as twins, I was the natural choice to be his guide. I cannot speak to him, but I can feel what he feels. I can sense his pain and his distress and sometimes the things that he has witnessed come to me in dreams."
Kally continued with her revelations. "After we left the Dragon Slayers, Kalio would always hold back when using the sword. He wanted to forget what he learned from the Dragon Slayers and develop new skills that he could use to defend the innocent and protect his new home of Seyruun. Recently, something terrible happened. I had a dream in which the Dragon Slayers attacked Kalio while he was traveling with Medusa. They casted a strange spell on him that made him lose his senses again. Kalio hates being in a berserk state and they forced him into it."
Tears were streaming down Kally's face as she spoke in a shaky voice. "In his berserk state, he killed Medusa. It was the Dragon Slayers who forced him to kill her. They snapped him out of his trance soon after and let him feel the pain and guilt until his very emotions were locked away because they were too much to bear. I left Amor Resort and departed towards Kalio at once, but it was already too late. My dear brother is a mere puppet to Ryoushi and the Dragon Slayers and they are the puppets of the one who claims to be Gaia."
"The enemy knows where we are and were our family is. How dare they target this once peaceful town?" Filia cried out in a mix of anger, sadness and frustration. "We need to rescue Jillas, then he can head to Seyruun with Elena, Palou and Val; it's the only safe place to take refuge until this war is over. Then Xellos and I will do find a way to rescue Kalio too."
"Why are you assuming I would want to rescue a pathetic brainwashed human?" Xellos asked with his usual smile.
"Fine then, I'll do it myself!" Filia snapped. "Then we'll all go to Seyruun and live a peaceful and happy life!"
"Will going to Seyruun really help anything?" Kally grimaced. "Wouldn't we just endanger the kingdom with our presence?"
"Seyruun is a strong city and we have friends there who will protect it. Gravos and Naga are helping Philionel right now," Filia assured.
"Let's not forget, Seyruun is now also allied to Lord Beast Master," Xellos added with his trademark grin. "Although they might have failed to notice the small print in that food purchase contract."
Filia shuddered involuntarily, at this rate Zelas would take over the world by the time the war against the Stillness was over. It was true that the monster lord didn't want the world to be destroyed, but she wanted to eternally torture it and that was certainly something to worry about, even if she held back just enough not to break it. Then another thought occurred to Filia, Zelas was an astral being, the monsters were under attack now that the Void, who attacked the mind, had joined Lamentation, who attacked the body. "How is Zelas doing with the situation, anyway?"
"How considerate of you to worry about me." The sudden voice made Filia jump startled. There stood none other than Beast Master herself with her usual imposing presence and elegant appearance. "Lord Ruby Eyes is frozen and thought of by many as being dead in a sense. He has been divided into pieces and is immobilized, incapable of taking action. Because of that, Shabranigdu is very exposed to becoming a victim of the Stillness. I, on the other hand, am very much in one piece, able to move around and interact directly with the world. Furthermore, no one thinks of me as being dead. I'm sure the wedding guests, Lina's friends and acquaintances from all across the land, were all too honored to meet me. There's also my recent little visit to Dragon's Peak at the Kataart Mountains. I bet Milgazia and his little friends can't stop thinking about my amazing brass rackets skills."
Filia wanted to complain about how much it annoyed her when people popped out of nowhere and startled her, but she knew that would only motivate Zelas to do it more often. "Beast Master, what brings you here?" The golden dragon asked in the most civil tone she could manage, trying to contain the annoyed twitching of her eye as she spoke.
"Getting down to business, I noticed something about the Stillness," Zelas went straight to the point. "Its power increases whenever something ceases to exist in the world. When all the members of a certain village are killed for example and even when all the flora of a certain type is extinguished from existence. To put it plainly, when something becomes permanently nothing and due to its total extinction has no hope of ever existing again. Those small victories help empower the Stillness. The power that it gains is proportional to the situation. Imagine what the effect would be if a species became extinct, or a race..."
Filia's eyes widened in realization. "Val..." The worries she carried increased immeasurably. "Val is the last of the ancient dragons." She held the child protectively in her arms. "All of this... The Stillness is actually trying to get to Val, to leave him without anyone to protect him and take his life."
"Did you hear that, Lord Beast Master? I told you Filia could manage to jump start her single brain cell sometimes," Xellos sarcastically mocked.
Filia glared at how casual Xellos was being about the deadly danger, but was not really taken by surprised by his mocking sarcastic comment. Zelas laughed, "oh yes, it's quite the accomplishment for such a stupid creature to be able to reach an accurate conclusion," the monster lord mockingly agreed. "With all matters clarified, I'll be taking Val now."
"What?" Filia screeched in a panic. "You can't! Xellos, say something! Talk her out of it!"
"Something," Xellos replied with a grin. "There, I humored one of your requests; now stop being a stupid dragon. Beast Master just said that Val needs to be alive and well, or the enemy will become more powerful. He'll be safer with her than with anyone else." Xellos took Val out of Filia's arms, who reluctantly let him go.
The protective golden dragon watched as her ancient dragon child was handed over to the monster lord. "You're actually going to keep him safe, right?" Filia pleaded.
"Oh yes, safe and happy," Zelas grinned mischievously as she held Val. "Little one, I'll teach you all the best mischief so you can share it with your mommy, it'll be so much fun." The assurance only made Filia's stress increase. They had to get this battle done and over with fast, before Zelas turned her grandchild into a criminal.
To be Continued
Prisoner Island is a reference to Samurai Pizza Cats, although, unlike the secret resort in that series, the Prisoner Island in this fanfic is actually a jail.