Sacrilege

Scylla groaned in annoyance when she heard the sound of footsteps in the sand. She didn't need to look to guess who it was. 'Maybe if I pretend to be asleep she'll leave,' she thought. But no, the footsteps became gradually louder and when she finally opened her eyes she found herself staring at a pair of dainty white slippers.

Scylla rolled over onto her back and glared up at Charybdis. "I thought I told you never to bother me here," she said irritably.

Charybdis kneeled in the sand beside Scylla. Scylla could tell that Charybdis was worried about something by the way she bit at her lower lip and toyed with a lock of her hair. She had been acting funny lately. Sort of secretive, as if she was hiding something really important. This annoyed Scylla greatly. She was supposed to be the secretive one. "Oh, what's wrong, dear? Is there anything you want to tell me about?" she said sweetly.

Charybdis gazed out at some random, distant point on the horizon. "I just have a question. That's all. You haven't been around much lately. I thought I'd find you here."

"Of course I do. There's no way I ever would have missed a show like that. But there's really not much to say. The Lord of Nightmares possessed a girl that cast the Giga Slave and destroyed him. Just like that. Phibrizzo didn't even put up a fight. Didn't seem very dramatic to me at all..."

"That is quite possibly the most ridiculous question I've ever heard. She introduced herself, stupid! 'My power is my mind, I am the one who has dreamed for years uncounted of regaining my human form yadda yadda yadda...'"

Charybdis rose to her feet and walked away. "So it was true. My vision was true," she whispered to herself.

Charybdis bowed before Hellmaster Phibrizzo. "I came as soon as I received your summons, Lord Hellmaster. How may I serve you?" She was so scared she couldn't bring herself to look up at him. She had heard gruesome stories of what he did to lesser monsters for his own personal amusement. Surely she was safe, being the priestess of Deep Sea Dolphin. But she didn't feel very confident about that.

Charybdis blinked. His voice was that of a young boy. She ventured a glance at the Hellmaster. He looked far too small for his heavily built, wrought iron throne. He was slouched back in the seat, leaning on his left elbow. One leg was propped against the opposite arm, the other kicked absently in the air, too short to reach the floor. He wasn't looking at her, but rather at a metallic orb he held in his right hand.

Charybdis closed her eyes and concentrated. She saw a flashing image of Phibrizzo floating in the air, curled into a fetal position. Then a girl surrounded by a luminous golden aura. Phibrizzo trying to run out of a pillar of light, his body torn and ragged, a crazed look on what was left of his face. Then nothing. The only sound was the echo of 'This isn't what I wanted!'.

"How very interesting. But, it just won't do to go alone. I'll take the rest of the world with me."

Charybdis looked up at the Hellmaster. He was crying. She went to him and gently wiped away his tears with her glove. He lay his head on her shoulder. His soft, feathery hair smelled faintly of sulfur.

"I performed a ritual, so that when I die, Ziro and Phobia will be reborn. Just in case I fail, you see. I'm counting on you to keep it a secret. They'll need guidance. Please help them."

Charybdis returned to her guests' room to find Breeze sitting on the floor shredding the curtains. "Stop that immediately!" she yelled. Her nerves were starting to wear thin. Deep Sea Dolphin's palace had hundreds of rooms, each of which Charybdis had personally, painstakingly decorated. She had searched for weeks to find window treatments that matched the priceless antique vase ... which was lying in a thousand pieces on the carpet. Charybdis forced herself to take a couple of deep breaths. Peace in, anger out. Peace in, anger out. She should have stuck them in the padded room that she used to keep Dolphin in.

Charybdis looked around the room to see if anything else had been damaged. Something was missing. "Where's Phobos?"

Breeze shrugged her shoulders innocently. "I dunno." He had stalked off in a huff when, as revenge for tricking her with a fake soul orb, she made a facetious remark about him playing with Phibrizzo's balls. Apparently he didn't think it was very funny. She actually felt infinitely more at ease with him not around. It hadn't taken her long at all to realize that Phobos was about as stable as an inverted pyramid.

"Damn it. I told him not to wander around. You stay put and please don't tear anything else up."

Charybdis slammed the door behind her. It felt good. Babysitting the dukes of Hell was no easy task. She couldn't wait until she had the chance to light some scented aromatherapy candles and have a nice, long, hot bubble bath. And tea. Yes, tea would be nice. She wondered where Phobos could have wandered off to. One could stay lost for weeks here if unfamiliar with the floor plan. Charybdis teleported to her scrying pool.

Phobos skulked down the long hallway, cursing Phibrizzo under his breath for having the most obnoxious little shit in existence for a priest. He wasn't particularly worried about being seen. From what Charybdis had told him, the only ones living here were her, Deep Sea Dolphin, and occasionally Scylla. The odds were in his favor that he wasn't going to run into anyone. He made his way to Charybdis's altar room.

A woman in a dark blue dress sat on the edge of the scrying pool. Her long, shining hair was such a dark shade of teal that it looked nearly black. She trailed a finger in the water, and had a far-off look in her seafoam green eyes.

'Figures,' thought Phobos as he peeked through the cracked door. 'At least she didn't see me.' He turned to walk away as silently as possible.

A voice followed him. "Are you scared? Yes, I think you are. Are you afraid that I know who you are? Are you afraid of what I might do?"

Phobos swung open the doors and entered the dimly lit room. She was looking straight at him in a way that was extremely unnerving. "I don't think any introductions are necessary," she said, extending her hand.

Phobos took her hand and kissed it lightly. "Deep Sea Dolphin, it's a pleasure to finally meet you." Even mazoku were expected to act genteel when dealing with superiors, but that was mainly because having a dark lord pissed at you was a very, very bad thing.

She could tell that he was very nervous. Dolphin smiled and licked her lips. He should be. She stepped close in front of him and put her hands on his shoulders. "You've changed quite a bit. I'm sure the other one has, too. Tell me, do you fear me, boy? Don't lie. I'll know."

Phobos looked into Deep Sea Dolphin's eyes, and suddenly realized that he was terrified. Her gaze was so piercing it hurt. "I . . ."

"I don't know why Phibrizzo thought he needed to keep you from me. But Phibrizzo always thought I was loony. I don't expect others to understand. Let's just say that I have a rather unique perspective," she suddenly narrowed her eyes and pushed Phobos away. "Your soul is consumed by fear and hatred as mine was consumed by chaos. You court your own destruction."

Phobos and Deep Sea Dolphin turned to see Charybdis standing in the doorway, looking very unpleasantly surprised.

"Shame on you for bringing such a pretty boy here and keeping him all to yourself."

"I suppose I can forgive you but it had better not happen again. If you really want to help them, take them here," she said, waving her hand over the dark, swirling water of the scrying pool. Dolphin then sashayed out of the room, humming an ancient song to herself.

Phobos and Charybdis stood blinking for a minute, and then peered into the pool. The image was of ruins on the ocean floor.

The name of the sunken continent had long been forgotten by both the humans and the monsters. For over a thousand years it lay undisturbed, until three mazoku appeared in its heart. The magical barriers surrounding it were very similar to the one around Deep Sea Dolphin's palace, so it had been no trick for Charybdis to bypass them.

"During the Kouma War a battle took place here between the Hellmaster's priest and general, and the shrine maidens of the last temple of L-sama," Charybdis said, gesturing to the crumbling structure behind her. "As a result of that battle the continent sank into the ocean. Humankind lost all knowledge of holy dragon magic. Ziro and Phobia were killed here. That's all I know of what transpired."

"There's something very important here," Phobos said to himself. "Something was left undone." He teleported onto the top of a column to better survey the ruins.

Something shiny caught Breeze's eye. She wandered over to see what it was. Upon closer inspection it appeared to be a glassy black blade on some sort of weapon, most of which was under a large mortar stone. She quickly thought of a way to free it.

Charybdis and Phobos materialized behind Breeze and whacked her upside the head at exactly the same time.

"Could you please refrain from blowing anything else up? You're going to make everything crash down around us," said Charybdis. "After we search the area you can demolish as much as you want, but for now I must insist that you keep the explosions to a minimum."

"Yeah, okay," said Breeze, who had not heard a word of what was said. Her eyes were on the bright glimmer in the center of the large dust cloud. It was the obsidian crescent blade of a sickle, shining as if it had just been polished. Or as if even the dust was afraid of it. Breeze picked up the sickle and tested the blade. The slightest touch drew blood on her thumb. "Wow, this is so cool. MINE!" she proclaimed cheerily.

"If you're quite through here I suggest we start searching," said Charybdis. Phobos had already gone towards the temple. She found him in a rather odd posture, as if he'd suddenly decided to take up miming. He was leaning forward with his hands spread against something that just didn't seem to be there.

"There's another barrier here that I can't get through," he called over his shoulder.

Charybdis picked up her skirts and stepped over the rubble-strewn stone floor to where Phobos was. She tested the barrier. "This was placed by someone far more powerful than me. I don't think I can break it."

Phobos suddenly started laughing. 'Yes, I've seen this before. It's the same kind of barrier that keeps spirits trapped in Hell. How ironic.'

Breeze shrugged. "I just walked past. Don't worry, I'll check it out. Be back in a few." She turned and disappeared into the shadows.

Breeze held her new sickle in one hand, and a light spell in the other as she slowly made her way through long corridor. The floor was thick with dust, which Breeze's overly large boots kicked up in a wake behind her. Each panel of the stone wall still bore most of the faded original paint used to depict scenes of the history of creation. Each column was inscribed from floor to ceiling with prayers in the shine maiden's dead language. Breeze yawned. She hoped she would find something here that was actually interesting. Eventually she came to what she supposed was an altar. It was flanked by two eight foot tall golden statues of a long-haired woman. The one on the left held a gold scythe and the one on the right held a gold shovel. Between them was a pedestal with a scroll on it. And that was all. "Feh," Breeze grumped as she swiped the scroll.

"Ha ha! What do ya think of that, biyatch?!" yelled Phibrizzo as he jumped up on the arm of the couch.

L-sama held her head in her hands. She almost couldn't believe what she'd just seen on the scrying wall. This was not good. This was very, very not good. With her creation scroll in the hands of the mazoku, all hell could break loose. Which was, no doubt, what Phibrizzo intended.

"Yeah, well they have to figure out how to use it first," L-sama growled. She was exasperated, but not completely hopeless. Call it luck, fate, or whatever, the universe sometimes had a way of effectuating her desires all on its own; she had designed it that way. But Phibrizzo was not to be snapped out of his euphoria.

Phobos's eyes went to the thing that Breeze was waving over her head. "It's just a scroll," he said, sounding a bit disappointed. It wasn't even a very interesting-looking scroll.

"Duh, it's just a scroll. But it looked like it might be important. It was on a pedestal and everything."

As Breeze extended her arm to hand it to him, something moving very fast in front of her made her jump back. She noticed that her hand was empty. ". . . . HEY!"

Now floating in the air above them was a young blonde woman wearing black scale armor and a very smug expression. In one hand she held a black trident. In the other she had the scroll.

"I honestly had no idea she would do this," she said. "Scylla, please give it back."

"Oh, get a clue!" Scylla snapped back at Charybdis. "Do you honestly think that Lady Dolphin wanted them to have this?"

"Oh, really?" said Phobos, now face-to-face with her, his hand around her wrist.

Scylla brought her knee up sharply into Phobos's stomach as she wrenched her arm out of his grasp. She noticed that her hand was empty.

Xellos smiled as he read the first few words of the scroll. He kissed both Scylla and Phobos on the cheek before vanishing.


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