US Research Division Omega - Survey File D1901

Nexus II
by Black Dragon (black_dragon74@hotmail.com)
https://www.angelfire.com/anime5/faniclair

I'm a DungeonMaster now! It's cool! I'm gonna start some wars and epic power struggles!
In other news, my Nerd Quotient has just jumped twenty points.

Chapter 17
Back Story and Murder
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"Well, you heard the boss," Rayden said conversationally, approaching Rakkyo while shrugging.

The blond man sighed while shaking his head. "Be serious now. I-GLURK!"

Rakkyo was cut off as Rayden seized him by the throat, eagerly pushing the man back to the edge of the cave and then slamming him into the wall.

Crack! Rakkyo's eyes bugged out as the rock behind him split apart, and he started coughing painfully.

"H-Hey... wait..."

Most of the civilians and rebels in the cave simply stared at the scene in horror and confusion, most of them reasonably sure that the blond man hadn't done anything to warrant his execution, but none knowing him well enough to say for sure and interfere.

"Wait! Stop!" The crowd parted as a girl of about six or seventeen years rushed to the fore, her face pale as she saw Rakkyo being held against the wall. "Let Rakkyo go, please!

Ranma's eyes narrowed as he stared at the new arrival, which only served to make K and Kaze more confused. "Stop? Why?"

"Don't hurt him!" The girl shouted pleadingly, her eyes tearing. "Please! I love him!"

A vein popped up on Ranma's head.

"Rayden, don't," the pigtailed man said, seeing that Rayden's hand was going for his sword.

The girl let out a relieved breath, her lips cracking into a smile.

"Kill him SLOWLY," Ranma said mercilessly, his hand gripping into a fist.

Everyone in the room save Rayden gaped at this command, and K fell straight off of Ranma's shoulder, landing on the ground in a stunned heap.

"Gotcha," Rayden said indifferently, slowly putting more pressure on Rakkyo's throat as the man started to struggle.

"All right, all right, what's going on here?"


Ranma blinked in surprise at hearing a familiar voice, and brightened considerably when he saw the chef from the slave kitchens moving to the front of the crowd of refugees. "Hey, it's you! You got out okay!"

"Aye, I did. As did most of the fortress staff, near as I can tell." The gruff man crossed his arms over his shoulders. "But what's this all about, then?"

"It's a long story," Ranma said negligently, shrugging. "Just feel reassured that he deserves what he's getting."

"No," the man said firmly, glaring down at him. "Let the sap go."

Ranma looked annoyed as he gestured to Rakkyo. "Aw, c'mon! The jerk's a freaking dragon!"

A multitude of gasps rose from the crowd, and several people backed away from the confrontation taking place.

"Wait, I'm throttling a dragon?" Rayden asked, looking completely surprised by the revelation. "AWESOME."

"I know what he is! I don't care!" The girl from before protested. "I still love him!"

"Okay, first of all, no, you don't know what he is," Ranma snapped, glaring at the girl in a very uncharacteristic manner. "I guess you know his species, which is only the first clue to what kind of monster he is, and apparently he's been toying with you long enough that you're well on your way to figuring it out first hand, but you don't know jack."

He pointed toward Rakkyo as the blond man's cheeks began to reach a light purple tint. "This filthy, overgrown reptile is the single most disgusting, manipulative jerk you'll ever meet, and I don't intend to let him live long enough to prove me right!"

"I'm not calling you a liar," the chef said sternly, "but nonetheless, this beast helped several of the slaves escape the castle during the initial carnage. It wouldn't be fitting for me to let you kill him over a personal grudge."

Ranma was silent for several moments as Rakkyo's gasps started getting weaker.

"You go ahead and TRY to transform or pull some magic trick," Rayden said, grinning. "I'll nail you against the wall like a prize trout before you even know what hit you."

Finally, Ranma pointed toward the grief-stricken young woman. "Was she in the group of slaves that he saved?"

"Yes! Yes I was!" She cried, nodding rapidly.

"I figured as much," Ranma mumbled irritably. "Ray, let him go."

The Dread Knight frowned before releasing his grip regretfully. "You see this? This is the problem with killing people slowly. Sometimes they survive."

"R-Ranma! Please! Were you THAT upset when we parted ways?" Rakkyo gasped out as he collapsed onto his knees.

Ranma's glare hardened. "Ray?"

Whump! Rakkyo squeaked a bit as the demonic swordsman kicked him in the stomach.

"Ha! This is fun! We should run into people Ranma hates more often!" Rayden cheered.

"Rakkyo! No!" The girl Rakkyo had rescued rushed over to the fallen dragon, cradling him gently.

Ranma looked absolutely disgusted at the sight. "Well, all right then. Good game, everybody. Let's pack it up and move along."

"You're leaving already?" the chef asked, his expression softer now that Rakkyo wasn't being actively killed. "There's still a lot of work to be done, lad."

"Yeah, I know, but we kind of just unseated an emperor, wiped out a kingdom, and sent an entire army into a berserk rampage," Ranma reasoned, rubbing the back of his head. "We're not really into nation building, you know?"

"So we heading out?" Rayden, who was the only one not struck speechless by Ranma's short bout of cold, murderous fury, jabbed a thumb down the cave. "Our bikes are that way, I think. We can be outta here in an hour."

"Cool. Let's go," Ranma said simply, gesturing sharply to Kaze and K as he moved to follow the Dread Knight.

Kaze and K shared a nervous glance before the former picked up the latter and followed their companions. Everyone else in the tunnel, most of whom had no idea who the four individuals were but well aware of how well they were armed, quickly moved to give way, letting the party deeper into the cavern.

"Wait, wait!" Rakkyo said, glowing slightly as he stood up. "Don't leave! Ranma, at least hear me out!"

Ranma didn't stop. "No. You already used up your good karma for today, jackass; the next time I run into you, it's gonna take more than a couple rescued hostages to keep you alive."


That proclamation had the effect of moving the scattered civilians out of their way even faster, and before long Ranma's party was in the deeper parts of the cavern and away from the main body of rebels and rescued villagers. There were a few people in these smaller tunnels, but most of them were eating, sleeping, or completely absorbed in some other task that needed doing while all hell was breaking loose outside.

"So... I'm somewhat concerned about that little episode back there," Kaze said timidly. "Not to judge you, of course, but he didn't seem very... what's the term... 'guilty of a capital offense'?"

"Not that I really care, but I was sort of curious," Rayden asked, turning toward the smaller man. "What did that guy do to you, anyway?"

"Remember how I said I hate dragons?" the pigtailed man snapped.

The others nodded.

"That guy was my old martial arts master," Ranma growled. He didn't really want to talk about this subject at all, but recognized that after such an uncharacteristic burst of vengeful hatred, he probably owed his companions an explanation.

K raised a metal eyebrow. "That dragon's a martial arts master?"

"No, he's not."

"Ohhhh..." K, Kaze, and Rayden all said simultaneously.

"He's a selfish bastard who'll TELL someone he's a martial arts master in order to get them to perform months and months of hard labor as 'training'," Ranma clarified.

"My, that does sound unpleasant," Kaze mumbled. "But is it really that bad? He's the one who taught you that 'dragon's flame' school, is he not?"

"That's a gray area," Ranma admitted. "In order to rope me into his stupid training, he showed off a lot of stuff that he claimed were martial arts techniques, but were actually just flashy versions of his ordinary dragon powers. Those are the techniques I use."

"Wait, wait, I'm confused," Kaze said, scratching his head. "So the techniques you use, you learned from him, but what he taught weren't actually techniques?"

"That's about it, yeah," Ranma said. "Everything he ever told me was a lie to sucker me into working for him. But I fell for it, and through all the abuse I actually DID improve a lot, just because I thought that it was all real training. Eventually I even managed to master the techniques he showed me, not because he taught me anything useful, but just because I kept working on it and experimenting until I could finally manage to do the same thing he could, only without the benefit of being a beast of ungodly power already."

"So... the fire aura-" K begin, only to be cut off.

"Was developed as a survival technique to work around the bastard's ovens and furnaces," Ranma growled. "He'd tell me to keep them going all day and work in a barely ventilated room while he entertained and took long baths with local women."

"Eh, that's not so harsh," Rayden said, shrugging. "I've been through worse training than that."

"Sure, it's not so bad... if it's, you know, actual TRAINING," Ranma growled out, his voice taking on a rather manic edge. "I could've gone through all that easily for the sake of power. Hell, I DID. The problem is that it was all a bunch of lies. All of it! The filthy lizard makes a habit of taking in orphans and destitute people, telling them that he'll train them or teach them in exchange for work! And then he keeps them working and working, taking all the benefit for himself, until finally the students either leave or push themselves too hard and cripple themselves... or die, in some cases. I know there's no way a human could survive working the furnaces repeatedly without some sort of defense."

Kaze frowned. "How does he keep up the charade if he doesn't have a single apparent success?"

"Well, actually, he DOES have an apparent success now," Ranma deadpanned, "but to answer your real question, Rakkyo makes sure to keep his species a secret around the humans where he lived, and passed himself off as a master wizard, warrior, archer, monk, or whatever he needed to do in order to impress people."

Ranma sneered. "He's an aura dragon, so he can pull off lots of quick, fancy stuff like phasing through objects or making himself bulletproof for a few seconds, but he's not real powerful in an actual fight. And, of course, he can't teach any of his tricks to anybody any more than I can teach K how to have opposable thumbs."

"Actually, Greken did teach me that," K said, taking to the air and then glowing brightly as he shifted forms. After a moment, the small, metallic dragon was replaced with a small, silver-haired pre-teen in a white toga.

"Ah, fantastic!" Kaze said, admiring the transformed dragon. "It's good to see that your growth has advanced to this point!"

"Yeah, I just-"

"AHEM!" K was cut off by Rayden clearing his throat quite deliberately. "If you don't mind, we were kind of in the middle of talking about Ranma wanting someone dead?"

"Thanks, Ray," Ranma said, also a little miffed at having his story interrupted just because K took his analogy literally.

"As I was saying, Rakkyo spread his own rumors as to how great a teacher he was, and although I'd heard a few names, I'm pretty sure those examples were lies too. In any case, whenever a student ran out on him and he needed help or money again, he'd leave his little mansion, find some wanderer, orphan, or loser, and give an inspiring speech as to how he saw incredible potential in them, more than he'd ever seen in anyone, and how he would forge them into a great hero, blah blah blah."

"Ah, I see. And then, to everyone's surprise, he actually managed the deed," Kaze concluded.

"Yeah, he did. Not that it was any thanks to him."

Then Ranma's face twisted into an especially hateful scowl. "But you know what? I could have lived with all that. I woulda let bygone be bygones and left the jerk with a couple lumps on his head. I mean, even if he was just manipulating me, I managed to turn his lies into an actual style, working out the ki manipulation tricks in order to survive the heat and hauling ever-increasing loads of supplies around. In the end, I improved a lot, and that was all that really mattered to me, whether my master was a monk or a con man."

He shook his head. "But no. You know why I ended up leaving that place? Rakkyo tried to kill me. REPEATEDLY. First he locked the door to the furnaces so that I couldn't get out when the day was over. When I got out of that, he made one of the furnaces explode the next day. After that he finally figured out that heat-based 'accidents' wouldn't work, so he cast a little spell to weaken me while I was hauling up materials. Next he caused a cave-in while I was working in the tunnels he was making me dig. Meals started getting bigger, which came as a nice surprise until I figured out that they were loaded with poison. There were traps set up, more attempts to kill me with magic, the occasional attack in my sleep..."

Rayden frowned. "Okay, yeah, that's a little worse than my training regimen."

"Every time I'd confront him about the attacks, he'd either shrug it off as training or fake innocence when he could. But finally, the old newt finally got sick of my refusal to lay down and die and challenged me for real."

The pigtailed man crossed his arms over his chest. "Well, maybe 'challenged' is a bit generous. He led me out into the forest and then went dragon on me, intent on killing me then and there. At the time, I didn't know what was going on, so I ended up running away rather than fightin' him." He gently coughed into his fist as he continued. "I mean, I could've beaten him if I'd really wanted to, but I had no idea he was a dragon until that point, and I was a little exhausted from not eating and barely sleeping, you know? I just didn't feel like it."

"Yeah, okay, we get it," K drawled. "But I'm pretty sure the question we're all wondering is: why did Rakkyo want to kill you?"

"Girls," Ranma spat the word out like a wad of poison. "That asshole wanted me dead because he was jealous."

"What? He was a dragon, wasn't he?" Rayden asked, scratching his head.

"Yeah, well, as you may have noticed, some of them don't mind human chicks," Ranma said drolly, jabbing a thumb at K, who merely shrugged. "Rakkyo, frankly, loved 'em. Constantly. Until they got sick of him or found him chasing another girl and finally left him. With him playing the 'wise, powerful hero' schtick, and probably using some magic on them too - wouldn't put anything past him - he had plenty of women. Perverted freak."

After mumbling a few more insults for good measure, Ranma got back to the story. "Well, occasionally they'd run into me, the teenage kid doin' all the work for the sake of the Art, and a few of 'em apparently decided that they liked me more than the old bastard. Of course, I was always too busy every waking moment to bother with women, and Rakkyo was pretty good about steering 'em clear of me when they lingered in the wrong places."

Finally, Ranma sighed, his enraged expression cooling rapidly toward depression. "Then there was this one girl, Tamara if I remember right, that actually came after I'd finished for the day and was heading to sleep. We were talking for a while, and I guess I started opening up a lot more than I'd intended; I'd been pretty much starved of any decent human contact for months at that point, so I was desperate for someone to talk to, and..." he cleared his throat meaningfully. "Well, one thing led to another, and I ended up getting even less sleep than usual that night."

K and Kaze each gave the pigtailed man a wordless but encouraging thumbs-up.

"The old lizard was REALLY pissed off about it, apparently, though he couldn't complain about it directly; especially seeing as he'd spent the night with another chick he'd brought along at the same time. Besides the pointless jealousy, I guess he was also ticked off that I'd proven damn near indestructible so far. I'd actually put up with his work for so long and 'figured out' his techniques such that I was starting to stand up to him and demand some real training and instruction. Because he's an idiot, he decided the easiest solution was to just kill me off."

This elicited a snort from his companions; killing Ranma was a feat that eluded war dragons and demon lords in its difficulty. Rakkyo, on the other hand, could have gotten rid of the boy quickly and not-too-painfully just by telling the truth.

"After he attacked me in the forest it took me a while to puzzle everything out and realize that I'd been duped since day one. After I recovered my strength, I seriously debated going back and wiping out the damn lizard, and maybe leveling his house too, but before I could gather the supplies a mercenary company recruited me for a big hunt up north." Ranma shook his head. "So in the end, I settled for not having to ever see the bastard again rather than getting to see his head mounted on a wall. I hadn't heard from him again until today."

"And then, with vengeance finally within your grasp, victory was pried from your bloody fingers by the pathetic sobbing of a stupid girl," Rayden said morosely, his expression grave. "Your story just gets more and more tragic."

"Yeah, well here's the happy ending: we're getting out of this pit of violent monsters and getting back on the road," Ranma said, his expression lightening as he saw the hover bikes sitting at the end of the tunnel. They were tied to bolts on the wall and had been parked next to several horses and a saurus that had apparently been trained to allow human riders. "Take one long, final look at what's left of Greken's kingdom, guys! You'll probably never see it again!"


Looking out of the tunnel, Kaze squinted to try to see through the columns of smoke, and he frowned as he saw an enormous red dragon swoop down and blast a long swath of the ground with its fire breath.

"You know, sometimes I envy you, Shikodan," the evon said. "Looking down upon something like this, it's rather hard to feel proud of what we've done here. This anarchic chaos is hardly much better than Greken's dominion."

"Feh. Regrets are for weak-minded fools," the demon knight said, grinning at the sight of the carnage. "But besides that, looking at the ashes of a battlefield and wondering about how it could have gone better is a victor's privilege. Enjoy it, priest."

Kaze snorted lightly, his mouth curling into a small smile. "Leave it to the mass murderer to find comforting words and convenient philosophies in a bloodbath," he said before turning around.

"Hey, hey, I prefer the term 'warrior' to mass murderer," Rayden complained as he followed the priest back into the cavern.

"You're not fooling anybody," Ranma said, smirking while K mounted his hover bike behind him, still in human form. "Now let's get outta here! If I never see another stupid dragon again, it'll be too soon!"

"Ah-HEM!" K practically shouted, looking quite put out.

"Oh, hush."

"Tsk! How tiresome," Doppler mumbled to himself as he stared bemusedly at a small, uneven crystal dangling in the air in front of him. "Another librarium cortex in a language I can't crack. Worthless."

With a gesture of his hand, the jewel flew across the room before bouncing harshly off of a wall and landing in a small bin that was already mostly full of such artifacts.

"Countless millennia of history and knowledge in the palm of my hand, and yet entirely out of reach," the demon mage complained to himself. "It figures that the ancients wouldn't use one universal language. Oh no, we wouldn't want to make this EASY for anyone. Bah."

The demon mage stewed silently by himself for a full minute before one of his arms rose to massage his chin.

"Artifacts aside, the real mystery is still that weird magi we found entombed within the vault," Doppler said. "Definitely some manner of immortal... but then, I'm making unfounded assumptions again. It could just as easily be a construct of ancient magic, or a being gifted with some sort of improved regeneration."

He grew more interested as he mused aloud before sighing and hanging his head. "But it's all for naught if I can't study the bloke. And it's a rather important policy of mine not to capture and hold specimens that I can't kill or control. A pity."

A light flared in his palms as he turned toward a computer console in the corner of his study. "Let's see... what else is on my agenda this week?"

After a few seconds he was scrolling through the files, each one carefully organized in order of progress as it rolled into view for the demon lord's perusal.

"Unit 771 is ready for training, good..."

"Genom has returned from her survey work and is studying the results..."

"Demetrius is getting restless again..."

"Shikodan is still playing around in the eastern wastes..."

The last item gave Doppler pause, as he remembered that it was related to a project much further down on his priority list: the Saotome fellow that had swiped Greken's magic glove. He had only the vaguest idea of what the Dread Knight was doing being led around by a random human adventurer, but then the dark paladin had always been characterized more by his lapses in logic than by his sense or pride.

This was, in turn, related to the Vault and his findings there, supposedly. The glove that Saotome wore that was more or less the cause of such outrage with the dragon keeper was supposed to be an artifact recovered from the Vault and smuggled away from the primary research shipments, no doubt at extraordinary expense on Greken's part.

'Actually, now that I think about it... the gauntlet was almost identical to... Kais! That mage's left hand!' Doppler's brow furrowed as he thought further on it. 'The mage Kais said something about pieces of himself missing... entire limbs, apparently. If the gauntlet still preserved in the Vault was his left hand, then it makes sense that Saotome currently possesses his right.'

One of Doppler's hands began to stroke his chin. "But what does that mean? What is the purpose of the gauntlet? And what other pieces are out there?"

Doppler's musings rapidly snowballed into possible theories, but within seconds he was frustrated by his utter lack of data.

'Taking what few educated assumptions I have as facts, all I know is that Saotome possesses an item previously possessed by a nigh-indestructible magi who dearly wants it back. Useless.' The demon mage smirked. 'Well, if I lack data, then there's only one thing to do: experiment.'

Reaching one of his four hands past his computer, he hit a button on a transmitter near the back of his desk.

"Tio, can you check if Demetrius is available? I think I finally found him a target to savage..."

The next day saw K and Kaze sitting around a campfire alongside a dirt road, the former in his human form and prodding the hoverbikes, and the latter rummaging through a large sack of gold and jewels that had been liberated from Greken's palace.

The hoverbikes laid at the side of the camp, one of them still laden with treasures looted from the fallen fortress. The other contained the party's food supplies which, to Kaze's discomfort, had been quickly and steadily shrinking as they hadn't managed to restock on their way out of Greken's former kingdom.

"Really, Master Saotome and Shikodan are the survivalists; they should be working on replenishing our supplies, not exhausting themselves to help deplete them quicker," Kaze grumbled as he finished making a neat wall comprised of a dozen stacks of gold coins. "Of course, we could easily supply ourselves if there was anything akin to civilization out here. Why are there so few settlements in Mongolia?"

"I hear there used to be a lot," K mumbled around a mouthful of dagger, having found one of the weapon caches on Ranma's bike. "Ranma says the lucky towns and cities were ransacked and reduced to ruins. The unlucky ones were completely leveled. You can tell because in those places there's still metal pipes and rebar sticking up from the wasteland."

The priest raised an eyebrow as he started on the next stack of coins. "Are there really such signs left over?"

"There were before I got there," K said, snapping up the hilt of the dagger and chewing happily. "Properly aged rebar is an acquired taste, but it grows on you."

"I doubt that," Kaze said dryly as he dumped out several jewels onto the ground. "Aren't those two finished yet? They've been gone a few hours now."

"Dunno. Ranma said they were gonna get some serious training done, so they might not be finished until night. Something about a new technique he wanted to try out."

Kaze nodded. "I suppose it can't be helped, then. The breadth of Master Saotome's arsenal is his greatest advantage, so learning anything new is a good idea."

"This is a really stupid idea," Rayden deadpanned.

Looking over his training apparatus, Ranma had a hard time disagreeing. He was currently suspended about three meters off the ground by a rope tied around his waist and one arm, and his other arm, while free, had his hand bandaged to the point that only his index finger was sticking out.

Across a small gap between the trees hung a boulder roughly twice his size, also suspended by rope to one of the sturdier trees. Rayden was standing behind the boulder in preparation to throw it forward, but the demonic knight seemed extremely skeptical of the entire exercise.

"Look, I didn't design the training regimen, okay? This is how it's done," Ranma snapped, focusing his will on the boulder. 'See the structure within the structure... the breaking point must be there somewhere!'

"Back in the citadel, sometimes the Dread Knight captains would pick out some of the most ambitious berserkers and neophytes and then give them stupid, self-destructive training projects, like cleaning their skin with scalding steam, ingesting poison with meals, and keeping their sleeping quarters at sub-zero temperatures."

"As expected of a demon temple; the training sounds pretty hardcore," Ranma mumbled as he kept concentrating.

"That wasn't training, it was hazing. Most of those recruits died from it and most of the rest were too crippled to fight. And then they died too. Cripples don't last long in a warrior temple."

Ranma glanced down at his demonic companion. "But the rest of them overcame the hardships and became the best of the best, right?"

"No, they went into battle without any useful skills or techniques and THEN died. Well, except for me," Rayden admitted.

"You went through a lot of hazing as a trainee?" Ranma asked, shifting in his harness. "Hard to picture you being bullied."

"Yeah, well it's hard to picture YOU shattering rocks with your finger," the Dread Knight countered. "Do you even know that this thing works?"

"Look, would you stop arguing with me and just swing the boulder? I think I'm ready to do this."

Rayden rolled his eyes and raised a hand up to the bottom of the massive rock before shoving it back as if he was tossing it over his shoulder. "All right, but don't complain to me when you get smash-"

Wham!

Ranma winced, not from the rock impacting him, but rather from it slamming into the back of Rayden's head and sending the dark paladin sprawling onto the ground. "Ray, if you want to join in too then you should at least face the right way. You're never going to learn the breaking point like that."

"Ha ha," the larger man groused as he pushed himself up off the ground. "Here. Your turn!" With an irritated grunt, Rayden shoved the boulder forward, straight toward Ranma.

The pigtailed man promptly flipped about in the air to catch the swinging rock against his feet, and then grit his teeth as he was pushed backward through the air. "There!"

Rayden frowned as he watched Ranma dig his free finger into the surface of the rock, and this time the demon knight made sure to step out of the way as the boulder swung back toward him. "Fail."

"Tch! I guess it was too much to hope that I'd get it on first try," Ranma mused as he swung back and forth behind the rock, their motions now synced.

"That aside, are you sure you're supposed to brace yourself like that to avoid an impact?" Rayden asked, crossing his arms. "It just seems to me that this exercise goes through an awful lot of trouble to restrict your movements... almost seems like cheating."

"Cheating? What?" Ranma asked, looking offended by the statement. "If I didn't do that, then I'd get smashed in the face every time I failed. If I didn't manage to perfect it quickly, then I'd be crushed to a pulp before long. What kind of stupid training exercise is that?"

"Despite a nagging feeling that I'm missing something here, your logic is sound," Rayden admitted as he stopped the boulder. "Ready for another go?"

"Yeah..." Ranma waited until Rayden had tossed the boulder back away from them, and then he gasped. "Wait! I've got it!"

Rayden immediately turned around. "Eh? Got wha-" Wham!

Ranma snickered as the Dread Knight skidded across the dirt. "You know, you could treat this as a training exercise too. You should learn to be more aware of your surroundings."

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up," Rayden growled as he got back to his feet.

"Actually, I'm serious," Ranma continued, spinning about lazily in the air as he spoke. "For example, I notice that every time the boulder hits you in the head, despite being in full swing at the time, it almost stops dead on impact. Knowing that your skull can absorb that level of force and shrug it off in a few seconds would be really important in a fight."

"Eh? Why would we be fighting?" Rayden asked, scratching his skull where the rock had impacted.

"It's just an example," Ranma said, shrugging. "You're the type that rushes into battle without a clue, and half the time being nigh indestructible just isn't enough if you can't even judge your opponent that much."

Rayden frowned and started rubbing his chin.

"But hey, enough of that. This is my training exercise!" Ranma said suddenly, stopping his slow spinning motion and steeling himself. "Lemme have it!"

"Alright, then!" Rayden said, pushing the rock back and turning out of the way as it swung back a moment later.

'See it with your mind's eye,' Ranma thought to himself as time seemed to slow down, the boulder looming larger in his vision. 'Like the aura sight, that can sense death a moment before a bullet strikes or an invisible blade falls, look for the seam in the rock's existence, and focus your energy onto that point!'

"Found it!" Ranma shouted as he once again braced himself against the rock with his feet, letting the boulder carry him up into the air as his bare finger flared a furious red. "HYAH!"

Almost immediately, the entire rock shook violently as it was encompassed with flames, and dark red seams flooded through the boulder as the ropes holding it suspended vanished into a cloud of ash.

Bwoom! After a brief moment, a relatively small explosion from around Ranma's hand propelled the boulder forward, flames trailing it like a comet as it blasted across the training grounds.

"Why?" Rayden managed to mumble before the flaming projectile slammed into him, exploding in a burst of fire and hot shrapnel.


Ranma was silent as he swung back and forth in the air, frowning as he stared at the burning ropes that used to hold the boulder and the fiery crater that currently held his training partner.

"Huh. That wasn't supposed to happen," Ranma admitted awkwardly.

"Gugh..." the smoking core of the boulder, still mostly intact after the explosion, shifted as Rayden shoved it aside, freeing his legs and allowing him to crawl out of the shallow flames. "Ow... burns... combined with... internal bleeding... hurts... hurts a lot..."

"Oi, are you okay? It looks like you took that boulder right in the chest," Ranma asked. "Also... you know... with the fire and everything..."

Rayden spent a moment panting as he collapsed outside the impact zone, and then stood up shakily before looking down at his burnt and tattered coat. "You know, I really have to invest in a fire-proof trench coat. Maybe something enchanted. I'm running through these things way too fast."

"Well, if you're not injured, can you find another boulder? I don't think that one's good anymore," Ranma requested as he swayed back and forth in the air.

"You wanna keep going?" Rayden asked as he cracked one of his shoulders back into place. "Didn't you just master the technique?"

"No, that was the wrong thing. It didn't split the entire boulder, it just lit it on fire and sent it flying," Ranma explained.

"That seems like a much better technique than the other thing," offered the Dread Knight. "Why don't you just use that?"

"BECAUSE, idiot, if I come up against something like a stone golem, all that technique is going to do is set one of its limbs aflame. This technique is for destroying walls and boulders, not hurling them at people like meteors."

Rayden looked unconvinced. "That still sounds like a step down to me."

"And that's why 'thinking' isn't among the tasks I ever ask you to do," Ranma noted. "Now shut up and do what I say."

"You got it, boss."

"By Thajal's unshaven hippie beard, what happened to you?" Kaze asked in alarm as Ranma and Rayden trudged back to camp.

Although both of the fighters were arriving, it was quite obvious that the question was being directed at Rayden, as the dark paladin was dirty, burnt, severely bruised, and had several patches of dried blood around his face and chest.

"It was just some training," Ranma answered as if nothing was wrong, turning to rummage through the luggage attached to his hoverbike. "I learned a new technique! Well, two techniques, actually."

"Did Rayden learn anything?" K asked morbidly as he stared at the mutilated demon.

"I learned that after the third exploding boulder impact, the world goes fuzzy and I can no longer feel pain," Rayden said in a monotone before collapsing into a sitting position.

"That's pretty hardcore," K mused.

"Yes... there were many hard cores," the Dread Knight mumbled. "Some of them actually burned hotter than the flying shrapnel bits." Kaze promptly sat down next to him and started his healing spells, sighing wearily at the extent of the damage.

Ranma chugged the contents of a water skin before he placed the empty vessel back into the hoverbike's side compartment. "All right, everybody get a good rest. Tomorrow we're making the long haul toward the capital."

"What's at the capital?" K asked curiously.

"Hopefully the last scraps of what used to be a real civilization. And preferably the kind of scraps that are doing well enough to find gold more valuable than food," the pigtailed man admitted. "I've never been around these parts before, but the old capitals tend to be the first places that people build up into settlements, so we're going to go check it out."

"Sounds like a plan," Rayden said, sounding noticeably more lucid. "OW! Hey, could you heal the internal damage BEFORE you heal the nerve endings?"

"What do you know about healing magic?" Kaze snapped, tactfully avoiding the question. "Just be glad there's someone proficient in our group."

"True, if it weren't for you this would take all night to heal," Rayden admitted, causing the others to give him annoyed stares.

"Well, just make sure you're in fighting shape for-" Ranma suddenly stopped his lecture as his eyes widened, and he suddenly whirled around.

K blinked as an image flickered into being in front of Ranma, smiling amiably at them as it opened its mouth to speak. "Hey it's that Rakkyo gu-"

Blam! Blam! Blam! Blam! Blam! Blam! Blam! Blam! Click! Click!

Ranma's eye twitched as he continued pulling the trigger on his nighthawk pistol, growling as if its depleted ammunition were a nasty twist of fate rather than an expected result of him shooting as fast as he could into Rakkyo's head.

"I expected that reaction," Rakkyo sighed, his face noticeably free of bullet holes. "As you may have figured out by now, this is an illusion spell used to communicate with others over a distance; my body is nowhere nearby."

"I see," Ranma mumbled, frowning as he lowered the gun. "Ray, Koz, do either of you know any ways to kill someone through an illusion spell?"

"That is patently ridiculous," Kaze said bluntly.

"Believe me, I've tried," Rayden offered.

Ranma grumbled incoherently for a few moments, and then gestured sharply with his hand. Kaze and Rayden glanced at each other and then walked off, leaving K and Ranma alone with the illusory image.


"Are you feeling a bit less homicidal now?" Rakkyo asked as he ran a hand through his blond hair.

"No, but I've accepted that I can't hurt you right now, so let's do this; how can I get you to leave me alone forever?" Ranma asked, his voice icy.

Rakkyo shook his head. "I see you still hold to the grudge you bore against me since your training. Ranma, what happened was a misunderstanding-"

"Yeah, you 'misunderstood' me to be a pushover," Ranma growled. "Don't try and pass off your trying to murder me as some kind of accident!"

"You were young and impatient at the time, so it's not unusual that you didn't understand," Rakkyo offered. "I had intended to get right to the business at hand, but this is a rare opportunity to make amends. You don't understand what happened at the end of your training."

"My teacher turned into a dragon, tried to fry me with an aura beam, and then pinned me down under his claws while he tore up my soul. It's not that hard to get," Ranma said.

Rakkyo shook his head. "That was to be your final test, the last training exercise before you were granted full mastery of the school of the dragon's flame. Instead, in your confusion, you fled before I could finish modifying your aura. It was my fault, I suppose. Throughout all your training, I never bothered to explain much beforehand."

Ranma grit his teeth. "Cut out the bullshit, old man! There IS no school of the dragon's flame beyond what I've managed to do on my own!"

"Hmph!" the illusion snorted before Rakkyo's eyes narrowed. "Tell me Ranma, do you really think the human body is that resilient? That you can gain the heat resistance of a salamander simply by working around ovens for days at a time? Do you think so much of yourself that all you need to accomplish the impossible is to make the impossible necessary?"

Ranma scratched his head. "Well, that's pretty much how things've worked so far..."

"Your arrogance is to be expected. And again, I bear some responsibility for giving you no reason to trust me," Rakkyo said sadly. "It was necessary, however. Had you thought that such improvement were the result of a few aura manipulations rather than the fruits of your own efforts and endurance, you wouldn't have driven yourself nearly as hard as you did and might have come to rely on me."

"Wait, whoa, hold on," Ranma said, scrubbing his hair with his hand. "Are you saying that the dragon's flame aura is from your work, and not mine?" He seemed quite offended by the suggestion, and understandably so.

"Hardly, but without my aura treatments, administered at night while you slept deeply in the throes of exhaustion, there's no possible way you would have adapted so quickly or completely to your training conditions."

Before Ranma could offer a retort, K cut in. "That sounds about right to me. Humans can't just align their bodies' energies to withstand extreme heat. But aura magic can probably change your elemental affinity to do so."

"Hey! Why're you on his side?" Ranma demanded, turning on the silver-haired boy.

K flinched and held up his hands. "Whoa, whoa! I'm not taking sides, here! I'm an impartial observer to these circumstances!" Coughing into a fist, he continued. "All I'm saying is that his story sounds plausible. I'm pretty sure aura dragons can do that, and it's a better explanation for your fire affinity than just suffering around the furnaces."

"He's a selfish, manipulative liar!" Ranma growled.

"I'm not saying you're wrong, but do you have any proof that he's lied to you? When you say that all his training was just a scam, are you saying that because of what you went through yourself, which he just explained, or was this something you heard all around the town?" K asked.

Ranma grit his teeth and turned back toward the illusion. "Assuming all that crap you just fed me is true, what about all the times you tried to kill me during training? What about being locked in the furnace room?"

"It was necessary to maximize your heat resistance. Just spending several hours at a time would have only led to a partial adaptation," Rakkyo explained.

"And the sudden cave-ins and weakening spells?"

"Heavy lifting on its own is hardly any sort of training for someone of your caliber. Adding obstacles to an otherwise mundane exercise improves the results."

"And what about the poison?"

"Poison? Oh, your food! That wasn't poison at all; they were unique medicines that induce an improved regenerative state in the body! They were intended to help increase the pace of your training. I can only offer my apologies for the horrible taste."

Ranma clenched his teeth as Rakkyo stared down at him, his expression perfectly calm. "There's no way... this is all just a little too convenient..."

"I understand your doubt, Ranma, and I can only beg your forgiveness for my mistakes. You're right in that what I put you through benefited me a great deal, and you're right in that a lesser man would have surely died under the conditions I imposed upon you."

"Was he right about the sleeping around?" K asked suddenly.

"Oh, was he ever!" Rakkyo agreed, nodding rapidly. "But I did all of it - except the sleeping around part - to make you into the greatest warrior possible, Ranma. I wanted you to succeed where so many others had failed... and even considering how things turned out that day in the forest, looking at you now..." Ranma flinched as a lone tear actually crawled down the illusory Rakkyo's cheek. "I feel no sorrow, no regret, no frustration... only pride."

There was a long silence as Ranma stared at Rakkyo's wistful expression, and then finally, after almost twenty seconds, the pigtailed man tossed the nighthawk aside.

"All right, old man. I don't know if I believe your story, but I'll admit that maybe, MAYBE, you weren't as big a slime ball as I thought," Ranma muttered. "So for old time's sake, I'll hear you out. Just this once."

Rakkyo immediately clapped his hands together, obviously delighted. "Oh, thank you! I knew you'd listen to reason! This really is very important!"

"Yeah, speaking of which, shouldn't Rayden and Kaze be here for this?" K asked, glancing around the camp site. "Where'd they go?"

As if in answer to his question, Rayden's form suddenly flickered into being behind Rakkyo's illusory body, a savage grin on his face.

"Huh? Where'd you come from?" K asked immediately before stopping to consider why the dark paladin's body would appear like that. "He's... not here, is he?"

Rakkyo blinked. "Not there? What do you-" the aura dragon's expression darkened as a hand fell onto his shoulder, and he slowly turned his head around to look at who was behind him.

A moment later, an illusory image of Kaze appeared next to Rakkyo, smiling as he faced Ranma and Kaze. "Master Saotome! We found him! Sorry it took so long; the counter-scry doesn't cast quickly."

"THIS time we should kill him right away, before he convinces you to let him live," Rayden said as he drew his sword from its sheathe with his free hand.

"Too late," Ranma said, shrugging.

"Damn it!" Rayden growled, tightening his grip on the aura dragon's shoulder as Kaze sighed. "Can I at least beat him up like last time?"

"Wait a minute; he's about to give us a job," Ranma insisted. "So? What is it you want us to do?"

"Well, first, I want you to call your men back to you," Rakkyo said nervously.

"No," Ranma said simply. "There's a good reason why Kaze's there. He's a psychic, so he'll be able to tell if you're lying. So he's going to stay right there while you tell us what happened and what you want us to do, and you're going to drop all your mental defenses or whatever so that he can get a clear read on you. All right?"

"But I-" the aura dragon started to protest, and then squeaked nervously as Rayden's hand started squeezing his shoulder with enough force to crush stone.

"Don't get the wrong idea, lizard," the demon knight snapped, "Ranma may not want you dead anymore, but if you want his help, you play by his rules."

'So this is what having a henchman thug is like,' Ranma mused to himself as Rakkyo's expression faltered. 'It's kinda nice. I can see why the bad guys keep them around.' "We're waiting, Rakkyo."

The aura dragon straightened and steeled his expression. "I have nothing to hide. A few weeks ago, my home was infiltrated by a demonic creature of some sort that drove me from it; I believe it was a sentient weapon, a blade or ax or something that managed to gain free will and substantial power through a combination of powerful enchantment and equally powerful short-sightedness."

"And this thing managed to throw you out on your tail?" Ranma asked, crossing his arms over his chest. "I know aura dragons aren't the beefiest lizards in the realms, but you should at least have your pride."

Rakkyo sighed. "There were... circumstances."

"It took a female form?" Kaze guessed, picking up on Rakkyo's thought patterns as he scoured the dragon's mind.

"A sexy female form," Rakkyo confirmed. "It tricked me in order to get into my home, and then attacked as soon as my guard was down! And then she actually SOLD me! Me! Sold me to Greken like a heifer where I've suffered under his blasted mind control!"

Whack! the serpent king flinched as Rayden slammed a fist into the top of his head. "It's your own fault, idiot! Why should we clean up your mess?"

"Keep in mind that we're asking seriously, here," Kaze cut in. "We need proper incentive to take on tasks such as this."

"You don't understand!" Rakkyo groused. "This isn't just my problem! The entire town next to my lair has fallen under the sway of the demon weapon! It presents itself as a goddess, and exacts bloody retribution upon those that don't obey! This isn't about liberating my home, it's about liberating an entire settlement!"

"I'm sorry, but all I'm hearing at this point is 'if you want me to pay you, you're going to have to hit me more'!" Rayden said, raising his fist again.

"Ranma! Talk some sense into these fools!" Rakkyo cried as he covered his head pitifully.

"Rayden, hold on a sec," Ranma said, crossing his arms over his chest. "Koz, is he making this up?"

The evon shook his head. "He's being completely honest. Though I still wish to be paid."

Ranma nodded. "Rakkyo, don't get me wrong, I do wanna help. But this is mostly your home at stake, and it's your mistake that caused this. I'm sure you can come up with something to offer us."

"How about a training session?" the aura dragon asked.

Ranma's eye twitched. "Ray."

Crack! "Gyeeeee!" Rakkyo cried out as the demon knight behind him dislocated his shoulder.

"Thanks Ray," Ranma said. "Okay, look. If you really can't offer us a lousy reward off the bat, we'll talk about it after the job is over. This doesn't sound too horrible, so I won't ask for anything up front."

"How noble of you," Rakkyo spat, glaring over his shoulder at Rayden.

"Don't give me that. Even if you're not the selfish, murdering bastard I thought you were, you still haven't done anything to deserve my help," Ranma snapped. "So Nantika needs to be liberated from an evil demon sword, eh? Fine. Are you gonna send us there, or do you want us to walk, too?"

"I can teleport us all to the village; I have a portal anchor set there, so we can leave immediately," Rakkyo grumbled.

"All right then..." Ranma hesitated for a moment, and then his eyes narrowed. "One last thing, Rakkyo. Say once more that the hell you put me through was for my sake. Tell me again that you never meant to kill me, and that your sick training was real."

"Yes, sure, all that," the aura dragon mumbled impatiently. At seeing Ranma's glare, he sighed. "Everything was for your own good, Ranma. The training - which was real - was to strengthen you, not kill you. This I swear on my life."

Kaze nodded with a smile. "His thoughts are pure... well, pure-ish. He's telling the truth."

"Good. As soon as Ray finishes, you guys come meet us at the camp and we'll leave immediately," Ranma said as he turned around to start packing.

Rakkyo blinked. "Finishes? Finishes with wha-" before he could even finish that sentence, the Dread Knight's knee slammed into his stomach, knocking the air out of him before Darkrune's hilt smashed into the top of his head, knocking him to the ground.

"What's the matter, dragon? Aren't you gonna fight back?" Rayden punctuated the taunt by stomping on Rakkyo's back, eliciting a pained yelp from the serpent king.

"Shikodan, make haste with your senseless bullying. We have a job to get to," Kaze admonished as he waved his staff in the air, dispelling the communication ritual.


K sweatdropped as the illusions of Rakkyo and their companions vanished, and then turned toward Ranma. "That was a little cold... didn't he prove that all the bad blood between you was a misunderstanding?"

"More or less," Ranma muttered. "But he's still an idiot, a selfish jerk, and a lecher. And what petty evils he does he almost always gets away with, so I'm sure he deserves a good beating." After he finished packing away the treasure that Kaze had been counting, he added, "Besides, I told Rayden I'd let him beat Rakkyo, remember?"

"I'm just saying, you're kind of setting a bad precedent, and you're usually pretty insistent on 'good guy' behavior..."

"Yeah, and look where that got me," Ranma deadpanned as kicked dirt over the campfire. "Look, don't worry about Rakkyo, all right? I know he's the first of your scaly brethren that we're actually going to be traveling with, but just because he passed a psychic lie detector test doesn't mean he's trustworthy."

"Really? What does, then?" K asked.

"People are redeemed through actions, not words," Ranma said sagely as he finished packing up the last of the camping gear and tying it to the hoverbikes. "Saying the right thing can buy a second chance, but it doesn't prove you're a good person." Then he snorted. "If it did, then Koz would be a saint."

K winced. "Point taken. Still, I didn't expect you to be so... philosophical about it."

"Rakkyo brings out the worst in me, it's true," Ranma mumbled, snapping on the activation key and watching as the hoverbike immediately jumped several inches and remained there.


A few minutes later the sound of dry leaves and brush being trampled alerted Ranma and K that someone was approaching, and Kaze waved happily as he stepped through the surrounding foliage. "We've returned! And we've brought along our method of transportation!"

Rayden stepped up behind the white priest and tossed Rakkyo haphazardly onto the ground. The aura dragon's face was bruised and swollen, and the rest of him was dirty besides, but all in all the blond man wasn't badly injured.

"That was cruel and unnecessary," Rakkyo complained as he shakily pushed himself up from the dirt.

"Fun, too," Rayden responded. "Now make with the magic, scumbag." Rakkyo sighed and started mumbling the appropriate words of power as his hands glowed with arcane light.

"You know Ray, you don't have to keep treating him like an enemy," Ranma said as he brought the hoverbikes closer to the rest of the group.

Rayden considered this. "Do I have to NOT keep treating him like an enemy?"

Ranma sweatdropped. "Uh... no, I guess not."

Whack! Rakkyo yelped as Rayden suddenly kicked him in the leg, and the aura dragon glared behind him as the demon knight grinned.

"Keeping a rather loose leash on him this time, eh?" Kaze ventured.

Ranma rolled his eyes. "At least he's acting like this to someone I don't like. Let him vent."

Rakkyo's teeth clenched upon hearing the nearby conversation, but the aura dragon dutifully continued casting as motes of light began to appear and settle into a ring of arcane symbols on the ground. "We'll be departing in a few seconds. The teleportation can be jarring, so make sure to steady yourself."

"Thanks, Mom," Rayden snapped sarcastically as the energy around the group slowly built greater and greater.

A moment later, Kaze's head snapped up, and his eyes narrowed as he stared toward the treetops.

"Koz? What's wrong?" Ranma asked, noticing the evon's distraction.

"I'm not sure," the priest mumbled uncertainly, "I think I sense-"

And before he could complete that sentence, the group vanished in a flare of light, leaving behind only the ashen remains of their camp fire.


THWOOOOOM! A second later those ashen remains were obliterated as a screaming missile of psionic energy slammed into the spent teleportation circle, consuming everything in a five-meter radius in a searing bath of pure, destructive energy.

Above the smoldering crater, a glowing figure with an aura like blue wildfire floated in the sky, his featureless face staring down at the pointless destruction.

"A moment sooner..." Demetrius Yaermon seethed as he descended to the ground, stopping once he was barely an inch above the dirt and then hovering there.

After looking around briefly, the demon lord snarled as energy burst all around him. "Damnation! I am a leader of armies and destroyer of civilizations! Why do I hunt for humans like a lowly hound?"

With no one to answer his questions, the demon lord shot up into the sky, his blood lust building as the hunt began anew. "Doppler will pay for this insult! But at least I can vent my rage on that human, first!"

"Well, here we are," Rakkyo said as the party crested a hill overlooking a small settlement below. "My home town, Nantika. Former nationality: Vietnamese, with some Chinese refugees mixed in. Population: 800-something. Major industries: fishing and coal. Notes of interest: a merfolk colony a little ways up the coast, a rather gentle and talkative old swamp troll living in the forest and, of course, an aura dragon lair on the western periphery."

"We should probably start by killing the swamp troll," Rayden said immediately as he looked over the settlement below.

"How would that help?" Ranma asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

Rayden shrugged. "Well, my first choice was killing Rakkyo, but he's paying us."

"Putting aside, for the moment, any senseless bloodshed, how are we to go about the sensible bloodshed?" Kaze asked. "This enemy turned aside a dragon. Regardless of that particular dragon's combat strength, this is not an enemy we can take too lightly."

"I don't see what the big deal is," Rayden answered. "She's a weapon, right? Sword or ax or whatever?"

Rakkyo nodded hesitantly.

"So send in K. Five minutes later the weapon's gone, K is fed, and this town is out a messiah or a prophet or whatever," the demon knight explained. K made a squeamish noise while Kaze and Rakkyo winced.

Ranma raised his eyebrow. "Huh... as plans go, that's actually not as bad as I expected from you. But no. We need to get a better read on the situation before we decide whether to kill our target and how. We also need to see exactly how fanatical her worshipers are; I'd like to avoid killing any townsfolk."

"Always trying to do things the hard way," Rayden sighed. "So what do we do, then?"

Rakkyo cleared his throat, momentarily securing everyone's attention. "Whatever your plans, I'm afraid I won't be able to accompany you into the town."

Ranma rolled his eyes. "I figured as much, but please, let's hear your excuse."

"After the demon took control of the town, I was branded a heretic and exiled from my home. If they see me, the townsfolk will attack on sight," the aura dragon sighed.

"What, with all your magic and 'aura' crap, you can't even disguise yourself from a bunch of backwater humans?" Rayden sneered.

"I could, but even then I would only be a burden to you if I couldn't even use my abilities," Rakkyo reasoned. "Not to mention the considerable chance I would be discovered regardless of a disguise. I'm fairly well-known. Especially among the women."

A vein throbbed briefly over Ranma's head, but he let the topic go. "So there's nothing you can do to help us. Fine. You go meditate on whatever reward you'll give us after we've got your home back."

"Now I didn't say I couldn't help," Rakkyo said, wagging a finger, "just that I couldn't wander about. Tell me Ranma, do you recall my study room?"

"Yeah..." the pigtailed man said suspiciously.

"Within my study, there's a pedestal that acts as a teleport gate. I can link it to any one of a number of locations around the world, some of them wonderfully isolated. If you can distract the demon so that I can approach my lair without it noticing, and then lure it onto the pedestal, then I can teleport it far, far away."

"Thus avoiding a bloody battle to the death and any local anger over the murder of their idol," Kaze said agreeably. "A fine idea."

"I guess it could work," Ranma said. "But for now, we camp out. Tomorrow it's go time."

"Roger!" his subordinates barked before scattering toward the hoverbikes to make camp a second time.

Rakkyo, meanwhile, turned away from his hired hands silently, his expression carefully muted as he wandered away into the woods beyond.

The next day saw Rayden stalking purposefully toward the town, his head held high and a fierce smile on his face.

The plan had been hashed out the previous night, and although the Dread Knight was quite disappointed that he wouldn't be doing any real fighting, his job was still somewhat enjoyable.

(The previous night, after dinner)

"Listen Ray; this isn't going to be a normal assault," Ranma explained closely as he and his fellow adventurers clustered around a dying camp fire. "We're not facing an actual army here, but a bunch of ignorant townspeople manipulated by a magical creature. And like I said, I don't want to see any of them killed."

"So what you're saying is... maiming only?" the demonic warrior asked.

Ranma rapped the larger man on the head, but quickly got back to the point. "No. What I've decided to do is avoid a mass defense of the demon by using a two-pronged assault. What I want YOU to do is go into town and cause a ruckus."

Rayden raised an eyebrow, his interest piquing. "Define 'ruckus', please."

"Just do what you do second-best after murder: piss people off. Mock their religion, kick sand in their eyes, whatever. Do everything short of hurting the townsfolk to get the entire town ready to lynch you, and that way nobody's going to pay much attention to a few outsiders infiltrating the lair of the prophet or whatever this freak is calling herself. When you've got a good mob after you, fire one of those dark fireballs into the air to signal that the coast is clear."

Rayden grinned as he passed through the gate of the palisade that protected the village from wild creatures, and he cracked his knuckles in anticipation as a young man approached him.

"Hello and welcome to Nanti-" the man started to say in English before Rayden suddenly jabbed a finger into his chest.

"YOU!" Rayden shouted. "Your goddess is a pathetic fraud, and your religion is rubbish!"

The man blinked, startled, and several people nearby suddenly stopped at the sudden shout. "Huh?"

"You heard me!" the Dread Knight snarled, looming over the shorter man. "You all must be idiots to worship a second-rate shape-shifting whore! Everything you thought you knew is a lie!"

There was absolute silence surrounding the town gates as several of the citizens glanced at each other in astonishment, broken only by a few citizens translating for others that only spoke their native languages.

"You know, the guy's got a point," an older man said suddenly, scratching his head. "I know we're only doing it to preserve peace and all, but it's a pretty stupid concept."

"Yeah, who ever heard of worshiping a sword, even if it can talk?" a girl mumbled. "I'd be better off praying to the town well. At least it's good for something."

"You know, I heard Buddhism is popular now," a guard said as he walked away from the encounter, "maybe I'll convert."

Rayden remained silent as he took in all the very reasonable replies to his angry vitriol, and then once again stared down at the young man that had greeted him. "You don't seem very offended by the truth. You must not be very religious."

"I'm not, to be honest," the greeter admitted. "But, well, do you have any alternative faiths to offer?"

"Er..." Rayden scratched the back of his head for a moment, not expecting this sort of question. "Well, I'm a part of the Dark Brotherhood of Kharak. It's not for everyone, but I like it."

"I see. It does seem rather edgy, but I have an open mind," the young Vietnamese man offered. "What sort of things does this 'Kharak' offer?"

"Mostly power," Rayden said, shrugging. "It's one of those souls-for-strength deals. You basically give up your life to become a total killing machine, and Kharak rewards the devoted by making them resistant to injury, able to conjure dark magic, inuring them against fear, and other stuff like that."

"Do you have a pamphlet or something?" a younger girl asked as she happened upon the conversation while carrying a basket full of bread. "My brother is trying to make a living as a mercenary, and he's been looking for some sort of edge to pull ahead of the competition."

"Oh, well in that case, Kharak is perfect for him!" Rayden said happily, withdrawing a thick book with the crest of the Third Brotherhood on it. He opened the tome and promptly started thumbing through it. "I don't have a pamphlet - I honestly don't do much recruiting myself - but I can offer a few key passages that might pique his interest."

"Ooh! Does Kharak have anything to offer protectors like guards, or is he more of a 'offense' war god?" the guard who was considering Buddhism asked.

"Well, generally Kharak prefers the glory-seeking, battle-crazed type, it's true, but for any aspect of warfare, there's-"

Suddenly, Rayden slammed his book closed as his eyes narrowed. "This... is not why I'm here."

"Huh? What's wrong?" the gathered civilians watched curiously as Rayden glanced around, frowning, and then turned on his heel before walking right out of the gates he had entered through.

"Was it something I said?" the guard asked as the other residents looked on in confusion. After several seconds, however, they pushed the incident from their minds and went back to their daily business.

(Two hours later)

"Hey! He's back!" one of the guards shouted out to his fellows as sighted a trench coat-clad individual stalking toward the village. "Huh. Wonder what he left for?"

"Maybe he forgot to bring some gear or something? Look, he's got a sack with him this time," the greeter pointed out as Rayden reached the gates.


The demon knight stepped through the front gate of the palisade for the second time that day, his face set in a grim frown as he hauled a large sack over his shoulder. 'Different villages need different approaches, after all. If yelling at people and shouting uncomfortable truths won't stir the hornets, I'm just not pressing the right buttons.'

"Hey there stranger!" the greeter from before said as he once again approached the Dread Knight amiably. "How are you feeling? You left in quite a hurry!"

Rayden smirked. "I feel much better, thanks! Killing something always cheers me up!"

The young man blinked, noting that, like before, the newcomer was causing people to stop in their normal routines and stop to watch. "Is that so? What is it you killed?"

"Swamp troll," Rayden said simply, reaching into his sack and pulling the boulder-sized head out by its greasy hair to show the assembled townsfolk.

Thump! One woman's basket of vegetables fell to the dirt from her numb fingers, her face paling as she stared at the decapitated head.

"The hell? Grimna! You killed Grimna!" the guard shouted, his eyes wide as his hand tightened around his halberd.

"Uncle Grim! No!" a little girl shouted before she started to cry, burying her face in her father's leg.

"Wh-Why would you kill Grimna?" the greeter gasped. "He was kind, gentle and intelligent! What possible reason would you have for committing violence upon such a pure, harmless soul?"

Rayden stopped to think about the questions for a moment. "He was ugly and he smelled bad," he said finally, grinning as he tossed the head up into the air in front of him.

Thwud! A meaty kick from the dark paladin sent the troll's algae-covered face flying over the village streets, spinning around in the air before finally plummeting back down toward the ground.

Crash! Whump! People gasped in horror as the decapitated head landed right on top of the town's main well, smashing through the wooden roof of the structure and sticking itself into the stone ring like a cork.

"Whaddya think of that?" Rayden said jovially even as several townsfolk glared murderously at him and started reaching for weapons and farm implements. "Makes a nice centerpiece for your sleepy little village, eh? Don't worry, no charge."

"Oh, no," the greeter said through clenched teeth as the guard tossed him a short sword. "On the contrary, we're going to be paying you back in full."

Rayden's grin got wider as he raised a hand into the air, his palm crackling with dark lightning. 'I KNEW killing the swamp troll was the right way to start this thing! Mission accomplished!'

"Is that the signal?" Ranma asked as he saw a sphere of darkness fly up above the village and then burst into a small cloud of crackling energy. "Yeesh, took him long enough."

"I was beginning to fear that he had actually failed," Kaze mumbled, "it is possible that the townsfolk would be too intimidated to attempt anything against Shikodan directly."

"Well, should we go then?" K asked as his body glowed brightly before collapsing into its dragon form. "If we wait too long, the demon might end up checking things out herself."

"Yeah..." Ranma mumbled as he stared down at the town's palisade, watching as armed men dashed from other parts of the palisade to the gates. "Let's go."

Rakkyo's "lair" was as inappropriate a title as any could give to his place of residence, referred to as such only for the sake of irony and to keep fresh in Ranma's mind the fact that his former teacher and tormentor was, no matter how human his mannerisms or tastes, an inhuman magical beast.

Rakkyo lived - or rather, used to live - in a great mansion on a hill off of the edge of town. Constructed from marble and fine woods, it could only be described as a small palace, boasting a grand, well-trimmed yard, a reinforced balcony, and an attached observatory on the eastern wing. At the bottom of the hill surrounding the mansion were several fields belonging to nearby farmers, surrounding the bastion of class and wealth with rural charm and an ample supply of cheap food. Although the house lay outside the protective palisade that guarded the town, only the very powerful or the nearly powerless dared to approach the residence, for everything in-between could sense the kind of beast that slept within its confines, as well as their chances of surviving an attack.

At present, the aura dragon's home wasn't any worse off, despite its new occupant, although there were some changes. The aura of natural magic that permeated the grounds and made the plant life flourish had long waned, replaced by a subtle, malevolent energy, like a spider awaiting its prey. The garden plant life was still trimmed, but the gardening seemed haphazard and experimental, carving bushes into strange shapes and twisting vines into bizarre symbols.

Most of all, however, there were banners and guards where previously there were none. Great red tapestries emblazoned with a claymore pointing downward fluttered in the wind as men armed with AK-47s and wearing chain mail decorated with the same symbol stood watch at the mansion's entrance.

High above the gardens where the sentries waited, a single lithe figure laid back in a plush lounge chair with a glass of fruit juice at her side.

The woman was tall and curvaceous, with plump, full breasts that seemingly defied gravity beneath the thin white fabric of her simple sun dress, and her hair - boasting an unnatural shade of red that almost seemed to glow like a flame - was kept long such that it spilled out over the confines of her seat and pooled on the tile floor to resemble a shimmering lava flow.

At her back was a single elven man in a butler's uniform standing ramrod straight with a tray of drinks upon his fingers. Although his form was immaculately professional, his eyes wandered greedily over the redhead's body as she lazed about in the sun, either unaware of uncaring of the man's gaze.


The redheaded woman raised an eyebrow as she saw and explosion of some sort of black energy burst in the air over the town, and she sat up in her chair to gaze down at the settlement below.

"Diegon, is the town under attack? What was that?" she asked as she scanned the rooftops, her voice betraying very little in the way of excitement or concern.

"Hard to say, Lady Gehenna," the elf mumbled as he stepped up to the stone railing that surrounded the balcony. "If it is an attack, it's a small force. There's no indication of a full assault, and there are no organized groups of raiders in this area."

"Hmph. Still, something's going on down there," Gehenna said as she rested her chin on her fist. "Perhaps I should pay the township a visit?"

"If the incident is worth your attention, I'm sure that the town will send someone with word of the incident," Diegon droned, taking a drink from the tray and offering it to his mistress. "A goddess who constantly showers her followers with gifts and attention will make them dependent upon her."

Gehenna snorted and laid back in her chair. "I suppose. Not that I'm particularly worried about resolving any problems, but I am rather bored."

"Is there anything I can... do to help?" the elven butler asked, slyly, his lip curling into a smirk.

Suddenly, the redhead sat up once more. "Oh! Look, they did send a runner after all!"

With a disappointed frown, Diegon turned back toward the road leading up to the mansion and saw that there was a single man riding up the road on an army motorcycle; a rare piece of equipment, and one rarely used without great urgency.

After a few seconds the vehicle was slowing itself on approach to the mansion gate, and the guards stationed at the door promptly moved to intercept the rider, both of them overjoyed to have a break from the quiet monotony of their job.

Gehenna frowned as the rider barked something in Vietnamese, and the guards began a rather heated discussion with him. "What are they saying now? Blasted humans, did they really have to form a different language for every one of their different backwater hellholes?"

The elf chuckled as he closed his eyes, calming his thoughts in order to better pick up the conversation below. "Hmm. It seems Grimna has been murdered."

Gehenna raised an eyebrow. "Grimna? That filthy troll that the townsfolk haven't seen fit to kill off? That's what all the fuss is about?"

Diegon shrugged. "It would seem so. As you well know, he's a popular figure among the people."

"And they want ME to do something about it?" the redhead asked, sighing.

"Well... no, not really," Diegon admitted as he watched the two guards at the front get onto the motorcycle and head off toward the town. "They were just gathering more gunmen to help hunt down the killer, it would seem. They just made off with our guards."

"Ah. I see," Gehenna mumbled. After a few more seconds, she laid back down again. "You know, it might be interesting to watch a firefight again. It's been a while since I've seen true combat."

"Might I suggest inducting the murderer into your cult? Killing a troll isn't a simple feat. The one that accomplished it may be a worthwhile combatant," Diegon noted.

"Meh. Grimna was pacifistic, lazy, and naive," the redhead noted as she stood up from her chair. "Also, I hardly think I need a new thug badly enough to upset the townspeople. Let's let them be for now, but keep an eye out Diegon," she commanded as she sauntered into the mansion, "they may send another messenger if they decide they need my help."

"It is as you wish, Lady Gehenna," Diegon droned, bowing deeply to the redhead before he turned his gaze back toward the garden.

His eyes narrowed toward a momentary flash of light on the edge of the garden, and the butler frowned briefly before turning on his heel and following the redhead.

"Dammit K, I told you to get down!" Ranma whispered harshly as he held the metadragon close to his chest. "You reflect light way too easily! It's impossible to sneak with you around!" They were currently huddled behind one of the stone columns that separated the sections of fence that surrounded the front garden.

"I was just trying to get a better look at the bab-erm, our target!" K quickly corrected himself as Ranma glared at him.

"And? Did you?" Kaze asked eagerly.

"Nah. Just some elf dork," K said, clearly disappointed in his failure. "On the other hand, the guards're gone, so at least Rayden did his job right."

"Amen to that. Koz, you're up!" Ranma said as K hopped from his arms onto the evon's shoulder.

"I won't fail you, Master Saotome!" the priest of Malakai said firmly as he stood up and promptly marched toward the front gates, opening them with a sharp gesture of his hand and a burst of psionic energy.


"Just so you know," K said as he and Kaze marched through the garden, "me and Rayden have a bet going on how you're going to screw this up. He's betting that you'll let your guard down trying to get with the demon, while I'm guessing that someone's going to figure out your intentions and beat you senseless."

Kaze's face darkened as he walked up the steps toward the main entrance. "And why, pray tell, are you telling me about this wager?"

"To tilt it in my favor by keeping you on task long enough to get the tar beaten out of you," K said bluntly. "I already lost the bet with you that Rayden would screw up, so this is my only chance to break even."

"Do you ever think that perhaps our profiteer's approach to adventuring and camaraderie may be hurting our chances of success and potential as a fighting force?" Kaze asked bitterly as he stopped at the front doors and rapped on the thick wooden surface.

"Not any more than Rayden's constant, psychotic urge to kill sentient creatures just to watch them bleed," K reasoned. "Although in the long run, yeah, we kind of do make these jobs harder than they have to be."

The pair fell silent as the heavy doors creaked open, and Kaze's smile brightened considerably once he got a look at who was on the other side.

"Ah! They said that the prophetess was quite the beauty, but now that I see for myself, they don't begin to do you justice! With a face that would make angels drop from the sky, dumbfounded, it's no wonder so many have come to worship you!"

K sweatdropped as he stared down at the young Vietnamese girl at the entrance, who was dressed in a fine maid's outfit and had one eyebrow raised in confusion.

Frowning, the girl said something that Kaze had no chance of understanding, and K turned toward his current perch. "She wants you to know that if you're selling anything, they don't want any."

A tear slowly crept from the corner of Kaze's eye. "I, uh... I don't suppose you'd be willing to repeat my earlier-"

"No, I wouldn't," K snapped. "Also? Isn't that a little heavy-handed to spout at the bloody MAID?"

'That was such a great line, too.' Kaze sighed. "Very well. Tell the girl that I have business with the prophetess."

"Oh, so once your chance of bagging me is out the window, I'm not the beautiful prophetess anymore, huh? Men," the maid said in accented but fluent English before she turned around and entered the mansion. "Follow me, please."

Kaze's eyebrow twitched as he reluctantly followed the girl. "Damn cheeky little so-and-so... are people around here always this rude to men of the cloth?"

"You're not a man of any cloth that matters to me," the maid snapped, "and your mannerisms are more befitting the town lecher rather than the town priest."

"The trickery was quite unnecessary, nonetheless," the evon complained.

K brought his beak in close to whisper into Kaze's ear quietly enough that the girl couldn't hear. "Aren't you psychic? You should have been able to te-GWAH!" he shouted in surprise as Kaze bumped him off of his shoulder with his staff, and barely managed to land properly by madly flapping his wings.

"What's all the ruckus, now? Make sure to keep an eye on your pet; I work alone around here, and it's a big enough job without hair or scales or... whatever that thing might shed," the maid mumbled as she led Kaze and K through the antechamber and into a large sitting room.

"I'll... be careful," Kaze said dryly as K once again flapped his way back onto his shoulder.

"Oi, cheeky was right," K mumbled under his breath.

The maid stopped in the middle of the sitting room and gestured to a fine velvet couch next to a perpetually burning fireplace. "You may wait here for Lady Gehenna. What is your name and your reason for summoning her?"

"My name is Kaze Toren, the avatar of the Order of Malakai," Kaze said, drawing himself up in an effort to look impressive. "And the creature on my shoulder goes by the name of K. As for why we're here, I wish to discuss the possibility of opening up a temple within the town."

The maid raised an eyebrow, and then shrugged. "I'm not sure you're at the right place, but I'll alert the prophetess. Wait here."


Kaze waited until the girl walked out of the room before taking a seat on the couch, his body promptly sinking into the exquisitely comfortable furniture. "Master Saotome was right not to charge headlong into this matter. This situation is not so simple as our 'employer' made it out to be."

"Eh? Whatcha mean?" K asked as he morphed into human form to slump back in a chair opposite Kaze. "I mean, we haven't been here very long, and it's not like we've gathered much information."

"Look around you, K," the evon insisted. "These are not the trappings of a fanatical blood cult. The people here seem prosperous and at peace, and the cult itself operates openly without fear of persecution."

K raised an eyebrow as he put his feet up on the fine hardwood coffee table. "You saying that this religion is legit?"

"Not at all," Kaze reassured the dragon, "I'm merely saying that we're in no position to immediately resort to violence; Master Saotome was wise to send Shikodan to the town." His head turned sharply as his eyes narrowed. "Ah, they come."


Kaze tried to look relaxed and cool as the flame-haired beauty that he assumed to be the prophetess entered the room, herself looking quite bored as she approached. Still, the evon promptly found his eyes wandering to the demonic being's cleavage even as he cleared his throat and prepared a greeting in his head.

"And so the heart of this cult comes forth at once. I'm actually somewhat disappointed," Kaze murmured as he sighed, his eyes running up and down the exposed thighs of the woman. "I was expecting blood-crazed cultists guarding a burning altar with helpless sacrifices chained within rotting pits, or some such horrid thing. You seem like you'd be hard pressed to assemble a Sunday gathering for a sermon."

The woman silently looked Kaze up and down, her eyes hesitating at the mark of Malakai that decorated the priest's robes. "A priest of the Order, hm? You don't seem like you're here on a crusade, and you won't find too much injustice around here. Save maybe that fellow in the village slaughtering innocent forest life."

Kaze flinched ever so slightly. "I'm not here on official business. I simply wish to talk and discuss... matters of faith with you. My name is Kaze Toren, avatar of the Order of Malakai."

The redhead flinched back at hearing Kaze's title, and all traces of boredom and sloth fled her expression. "I see... I am Gehenna, prophetess of this shrine and a... local deity. What does an avatar wish of me?"

"Demons and things of shadow interest me, Gehenna," Kaze said simply, smiling as he leaned forward on the couch. "To that end, I heard of a demon weapon that had assembled a flock of followers in this sleepy, out of the way township. Tell me: what does a follower of the demon blade do to show his allegiance to his goddess?"

"The people here obey and worship me of their own free will," Gehenna said as she took a seat in a chair overlooking both Kaze and K (who had spent most of the conversation undressing Gehenna with his eyes). "I have harmed no one."

"You're lying," Kaze said, sighing wearily as he sat back. "Come now, there's no need for such feeble deceit; I do not intend to judge you. My interest in your cult is purely academic."

Gehenna scowled. "Forgive me for being unwilling to confess my sins to one of the infamous White Judges," she spat, invoking a less common name for the Malakai priests. "Your people are not known for overlooking sin."

"Well now," Kaze said smoothly as he grinned and steepled his fingers, "it depends on which sin."

Gehenna raised an eyebrow as K facepalmed. 'Damn it! No! I can't lose to Rayden too!' the metadragon thought.

"You hardly seem the vile dictator type," Kaze admitted, his expression looking insufferably smug, "so I imagine you simply use your powers to impress your magical abilities upon the townsfolk and demand tribute from them. In return you insist you'll protect them and may perform the occasional small miracle. Quite often there's a group that resist and are promptly put into use as living sacrifices, but as I noted before, yours seems quite a bit more laid-back."

Gehenna seemed to relax at Kaze's speech, and a small smile crossed her lips. "You are correct, of course. I have no need for sacrifices, and those townspeople that don't wish to pay homage to me are quite easily bullied or frightened into doing so; besides that, I do not take much from them. I have no aspirations aside from a quiet, peaceful existence surrounded by loyal servants. As for my 'religion', the cult is exactly what you say: a paper-thin front for my own satisfaction."

Gehenna laughed pleasantly, her breasts jiggling in such a way at to make Kaze forget what they were talking about and K forget that he needed to distract Kaze from their target long enough to get ambushed.

"These countryside peasants are so simple," the demoness gloated, crossing her arms under her chest and smirking at the effect it had on the men before her, "all I did was carve up a few wandering bandits and hack down a field of wheat, and before I knew it I was being praised as a gift from the heavens! It would be absurd not to take advantage of their idiocy!"

Kaze nodded absently, not really listening anymore.

"Ah, but it does get lonely sometimes," Gehenna said, suddenly sounding wistful as she cast a smoky gaze at the evon. "At night especially, sometimes I desire... intelligent... company."

Kaze gulped noisily as he straightened in his seat. "You don't say. Surely you're not suggesting-"

"That you join my cult? Well, I would hardly think to draw an AVATAR from his chosen faith for the promise of petty pleasures," she said with a smile in a voice that Kaze found almost haunting, "but simply keeping your 'research' into my activities to yourself and keeping me company would..." she trailed off, still smiling, "well, I would be happy to show you my appreciation... in private."

K promptly started shaking his head and mouthing 'no' toward the priest, but Kaze's leering grin betrayed his intentions as he stood up, his staff still lying on the couch. "I'm sure we can form some sort of... arrangement."

The reaction was instantaneous. The moment his all-important weapon was outside of arm's reach, Kaze felt a heavy blow to the small of his back that sent him staggering forward onto the floor, stunned.

"Yes! I win!" K shouted briefly - much to the confusion of Gehenna - before he leap over the back of his seat and hid.

As Kaze's nascent combat instincts finally awakened, the priest quickly turned onto his back, one arm outstretched and his mind stretching through the air to grab hold of his staff.

Yet it was too late, he discovered, his telekinesis failing as he noted a razor-tipped sword point at his neck. His gaze slowly traveling up the length of the blade, he was only slightly surprised to see that rather than a hilt, the sword ended at Gehenna's elbow, the flesh having turned to steel at some point during the surprise attack.

"Hmph. This is the quality of avatars nowadays? Pitiful," Diegon sneered as he tightened the gloves on his hands, his gaze flitting over toward the silver-haired boy. "Either this man is a liar, or the Order has truly and deeply declined in recent centuries."

"While neither of those assumptions are COMPLETELY wrong," K mumbled nervously as he poked his head out and stared at the blade held at Kaze's throat, "he actually is an avatar. That aside, though, we really aren't here to fight. Couldn't you just let us go?"

"Let you go? Why should your trespass be forgiven so easily?" Gehenna asked, a smile on her lips. "By all means, feel free to bargain for your life. You'll find I'm a most reasonable businesswoman when I have the upper hand."

Kaze frowned. "Bargain for my life? I'm afraid you do not grasp the situation you're in, milady."

Gehenna snorted. "And what have you to threaten me, evon? What magic is at your beck and call that can prevent me from making you a new breathing hole?"

"I have no such magic," Kaze admitted uncomfortably, "at least not without my staff. But you're not the only one with allies in the shadows."


Thwack! Gehenna blinked in surprise as Diegon went flying past her, and looked up to see a young man she'd never seen before standing where her attendant had been a moment before.

Her eyes narrowed. "It's no small feat to sneak up on Diegon. Well done. But if you are this man's ally, you'd best stop where you-"

Clang! Her threat was cut short as a pigtailed man identical to the first one kicked her sword-arm away from Kaze's neck, having appeared right next to her without warning.

"What in the-" with a flash of light, Gehenna's other hand quickly morphed into a sickle and lashed out toward the new attacker, but she was hardly able to match his speed when taken by a surprise. An open-palm strike sent her spinning across the room before slamming painfully into a bookshelf and rolling onto the floor.

"Kaze, you all right?" Ranma asked as his copy standing behind the couch flickered out of existence. "You sure didn't waste any time in letting your guard down."

The evon smirked as he picked himself up off the floor and dusted off his robes. "It's only thanks to you that I can afford to do so, Master Saotome. Having you for an ally would put anyone at ease." He promptly retrieved his staff from the couch as K crawled about and stood up next to him, huddling behind the taller men.

Ranma sweatdropped as Gehenna and Diegon picked themselves up off the floor, each of them eying the pigtailed man warily. "Okay, thanks for the vote of confidence, but you could still at least TRY not to get separated from your staff."

"And who might you be, scoundrel?" demanded Diegon, the elf's lip curling up in a sneer. "You invade the lair of the prophetess without a care. Plunderer? Assassin?"

"Wandering do-gooder," Ranma said simply, snapping up his magic katana in his right hand and letting the sheathed weapon spin about in his hand before grasping it tight. "Kaze, make with the magic. I'll deal with these two."

"Of course, Master Saotome!" Kaze said immediately, vanishing from sight and appearing in the doorway to the next room, safely out of lunging range of Diegon before rushing into the next room and out of sight.


Ranma's eyes flickered between Diegon and Gehenna, his mind working furiously to size up his opponents.

'The elf was really surprised to be attacked, but still managed to control his fall pretty well; obviously a pretty nimble guy. Might be a magic-user, too; I'm getting a weird vibe from him. As for the weapon...'

As Ranma's focus shifted from the elf to the demon, he couldn't help but blink at the redhead's expression. It looked pained and sympathetic, almost like... pity.

"Is THAT your weapon?" Gehenna asked, staring at the katana with undisguised contempt.

A vein throbbed on the side of Ranma's head. "Yeah. This is it. So how-"

"Do you want another one? We have others you can use if you want," Gehenna offered, seemingly unaware of Ranma's growing annoyance.

"Shut up! This rusty hunk of iron is more than enough to deal with the likes of you!" the pigtailed warrior declared, shifting into a combat stance. He noticed Diegon do the same, although the elf's was even looser and more idle-looking than Ranma's.

"Enough of this. I have decided," Gehenna said suddenly, her voice firm with determination. "You, young warrior. Your name is Saotome, correct?"

"Ranma Saotome. What of it?" Ranma asked suspiciously as K wandered up behind him.

"I, Gehenna of the hellforge Nahrun, razor talon of Kerakul, do submit myself to your service, Ranma Saotome," the redhead said seriously, falling to one knee in front of him.

"L-Lady Gehenna!" Diegon shouted, his eyes widening.

"Hold your tongue, Diegon!" Gehenna demanded, staring up at Ranma with eyes that shimmered with an unearthly green glow. "For many centuries I have searched for a warrior such as you. I can feel the inner might waiting to be unleashed; the martial supremacy simmering beneath the surface! I can see it, now! Take me, mighty Saotome, and allow me to be the key to unlock your full potential!"

"S-Seriously?" Ranma asked, rubbing the back of his head in confusion as Diegon scowled angrily. "But, well, I kind of already have plenty of weapons..."

"Such rubbish is hardly fit for a prodigy of the arts of war!" Gehenna insisted, her arms reverting to smooth, silky skin as she stretched her left hand toward Ranma. "Take my hand, Saotome, and let us be bound forevermore in blood and fire!"

K's eyes cringed nervously as Ranma stepped forward. "Wh-Whoa, Ranma. Wait a sec, this might be-"

"Don't worry about it K, I got this," Ranma said happily as he grasped Gehenna's outstretched arm, his left hand closing firmly around her wrist. "I've been looking for something to replace this old hunk of rust anyway. Let's see what she's got."

Almost immediately, Gehenna's body turned into pure magical light, and the woman's body seeped into Ranma's hand before extending outward in the shape of a sword blade.

Further it lengthened, the blade curving upward as it passed the normal length of a katana, and then after a few more moments the energy burst apart to reveal gleaming steel.

Gehenna had taken the form of a nodachi, its four-foot blade shining brilliantly in the late morning light. The sword was elegant, yet unadorned, with no hilt guard and a simple handle wrapped tightly in leather binding.

"It would seem... the prophetess has indeed chosen you," Diegon said, resentment punctuating every syllable.

"Yeah, how about that?" Ranma asked conversationally as he swung the sword around haphazardly with one hand, his strokes short and clumsy due to the sword's length and weight. After a few seconds of testing, Ranma held the sword straight forward in front of him, staring down the length of the blade.

K's eyes widened as he sensed a magical surge. "Ranma! Look out!"

Clingk! K's warning was shouted at nearly the exact same time as the handle of the blade suddenly lengthened to a needle point that thrust toward Ranma's throat, the metal twisting viciously so as to better pierce flesh and inflict a mortal wound.

Instead, however, the needle point smashed into a sheathe of black material harder even than its enchanted metal, stopping the deadly spike in place.

"Wh-What?" Gehenna's voice emanated from the sword despite the lack of a mouth and managed to contain confusion obvious enough to make up for her not having a face to express it visually. Ranma's right hand, sheathed in its mysterious black gauntlet, had protected his neck from the treacherous protrusion, and even now held the spike firm.

"Don't think I'm as easy to fool as Kaze," Ranma deadpanned, his eyes betraying neither surprise nor anger at the attempt at murder, "didn't you even stop to wonder why I would take you with the left hand?"

Gehenna didn't bother to answer, and didn't need to. Ranma barely backed out of the way as Diegon blew past, knocking K over onto his back as he avoided the elf's skillful kick.

"Ow! Watch it!" the metadragon complained as he tried to crawl away.

"If you wanna stay out of the way, go to dragon form!" Ranma shouted as his grip on Gehenna shifted and he stepped forward, slicing at Diegon from far outside of the elf's reach.

To Ranma's surprise, his opponent deliberately grabbed hold of the tip of the nodachi, and was rewarded as the metal seemed to melt into his hands rather than cutting them apart.

"Shoot!" Ranma cursed as the blade in his hands began to shift entirely, fighting against the pressure of his grasp, and he let go of his end just as the entire weapon swelled into that of a great spear... with the pointy end facing him.

"You're the worst weapon ever!" Ranma complained as Gehenna suddenly lengthened in a crude attempt to skewer him, forcing him to dodge to the side. "I'll take my rusty old Ninja blade any day!"

"Then by all means, draw your wretched tool, imbecile!" Gehenna intoned as she shrunk back to normal length and allowed Diegon time to adjust his combat stance properly to account for the weapon. "I'll put you both out of your misery!"

"Get back here, you wretch!"

"Kill the bastard!"

"Shoot him! Shoot him now!"


Budda-budda-budda-budda! Rayden leapt from the top of the wooden palisade as 7.62 mm bullets sailed all around him, a few digging through his trench coat and sinking into his flesh but most scattering to the wind as twisted, leaden testament to the townsfolks' lack of proper training with the few firearms they had.

Rayden landed heavily on the ground outside the town, and the demon knight stopped to crack his back for a moment as the shouting on the other side of the barricade got louder.

"Damn. Think one of them got in a soft spot," he grumbled as he scratched his back with a hand, causing a few flattened bullets to tumble onto the ground along with a few specks of blood. "Oh well, time to go."

Still regretting that he hadn't had the opportunity to do more than stir up trouble, the Dread Knight jogged toward the forest at a leisurely pace, the sounds of angry civilians becoming more and more distant.


Before long, he was within the dark forest canopy that surrounded the town with no indication of pursuit.

"Well, that wasn't hard," Rayden said as he glanced around. "Now I have to find myself something to do until Rakkyo does his thing." He scratched his chin as he continued forward, blindly pushing through the underbrush of the dense woods. "Well, I guess I could stop and get the rest of the bullets out of my body," he said to himself, idly scratching a few of the blood-rimmed holes that were scattered over his trench coat, "or I could go fishing."

After a few more seconds of thought, the prospect of a good dinner won out over first aid. "I think we could all use some fresh food for once, and Rakkyo is sure to have a good kitchen. Fishing it is."

"I'm afraid your fishing trip has been canceled on account of rain," a voice boomed suddenly from above, startling the demon knight.

"What? Rain?" Rayden asked, staring upward at the forest canopy, "I don't see any ra-"

Bwoom! Bwoom! Bwoom! Almost immediately, great beams of blue light lanced into the ground from the sky above the forest, detonating upon the ground with terrific force that promptly knocked Rayden off his feet.

Bwoom! Bwoom! Bwoom! Bwoom! Bwoom! The Dread Knight grit his teeth as magical detonations rang out all around him in rapid sequence, the ground shaking and trees sent flying as their roots and much of their trunks were vaporized in clouds of searing blue and crackling white.

"Hey! Knock it off!" Rayden screamed, unsheathing Darkrune and pushing himself to his feet as he caught a glimpse of another light beam descending straight down onto him from above.

Bwam! A muted explosion broke the horrific cacophony of detonations as Rayden cleaved upward through the magic missile, slicing the beam in half and causing the entire thing to collapse into a burst of energy more akin to a firecracker than a missile.

Keeping his blade at the ready, Rayden glared up through the forest canopy, now thoroughly perforated due to the beams of scorching magic and the collapse of several trees.

"Ah, prey that fights back. My favorite kind," the voice from above cackled as its owner lowered itself into view.

Perfectly white eyes shining with power gazed down at the Dread Knight within an otherwise featureless face of pure, crackling energy, and arcs of iridescent lightning surged around limbs that literally boiled with power.

"My name is Demetrius Yaermon, little swordsman," the demon lord boomed, a clawed hand pointing toward Rayden. "Tell me where your companions are, and your death will be swift."

Rayden blinked as he recognized the name. "Demetrius Yaermon? Of the Three Legions? Seriously?"

Demetrius halted in his descent. "Yes, it is I. Naturally, you've heard of me. Then surely you're aware that your death is nigh."

"Of course I've heard of you! Man, you kicked ass back in Russia!" Rayden said, sticking Darkrune in the ground and resting his arms on it. "I was actually part of the mercenary unit that demolished the Kremlin! Name's Rayden Shikodan!"

The psilor had no eyelids with which to blink, but nonetheless gave the distinct impression of being confused and uncomfortable at the amiable admiration coming from his victim. "Ah, yes. At the time the humans had whittled my legions down to almost nothing, so it was necessary to rely on mercenaries."

"Yeah, that's how it goes. Hey, I thought you'd died, though!"

Demetrius barked out a laugh as he descended all the way to the ground, his arms crossed over his chest. "These feeble humans could not destroy me even while I was bound and powerless! The weakling race of men is nothing before my might!" he boasted, raising one hand which was promptly consumed in black fire. "Ah... seriously, though... where is the human Ranma Saotome?"

"Eh? I dunno," Rayden said simply.

It was true, too. While Ranma had laid out all the details of his plan to infiltrate Rakkyo's mansion before they had set out, Rayden had stopped listening as soon as his role had been decided.

The flames vanished as Demetrius slumped. "Truly? Damnation, this is a tiresome task. Assassination is truly a grueling art."

"I know, right? We warriors have it easy," Rayden agreed, nodding sagely. "Hey, don't you have a daughter in the Third Brotherhood?"

Demetrius straightened immediately. "Sonia? What of her?" At that moment, the demon lord finally took a careful look at his (former) victim. "Ah! So you are of the flock of Kharak! Tell me, how is my darling Sonia?"

"She's doing pretty good. Back when I last saw her she was extorting money from innocent villages by threatening to burn them to the ground."

"Just like her father at that age," Demetrius said, the note of parental pride unmistakable in his booming voice. "It's good to know she is still well. I had some concerns about her position in your order after the Third fell from power."

"Yeah, well, we still get by," Rayden said, shrugging as he picked up Darkrune and sheathed the weapon. "Hey, I was going to head down to the coast and scope out a fishing spot. You wanna come?"

"Certainly!"

"Perish, interloper!" Diegon shouted as he swung the great spear in a wide arc, forcing Ranma back out of its considerable reach.

The elf immediately swung his weapon back along the same arc of attack as Gehenna morphed the head of the spear into a curving scythe blade that seemed to reach out for its target's body like a beast's talon.

Ranma hissed as he dove to one side, the edge of the scythe blade slicing easily through his leather armor and nicking the flesh beneath.

In a blur of motion he launched a kunai at his elven foe, and was reasonably surprised when Diegon snapped it up out of the air without trouble, leaving one arm to heft his living weapon.

The elf quickly tossed it back at its owner, but Ranma was prepared. Dashing toward Diegon, Ranma almost casually avoided the quick and panicked toss of the throwing knife and then grabbed hold of Gehenna's haft with his gauntleted hand, using the extra leverage to add strength to a punishing blow straight into the elf's chest.

Gehenna seemed to melt out of his grip as Diegon went flying back, knocking over a plush chair and breaking apart the arm before he managed to bounce to his feet once more.

"Okay, I think I've got a good measure of what you're capable of," Ranma said as he once again brought his hand to the katana at his hip. "Last chance to give up, by the way."

"If you're still willing to draw that shabby fish knife you call a weapon," Gehenna said as she morphed from scythe to a silvery rapier, "then you have no idea what I'm capable of."

"Talk is cheap," Ranma said as he drew his rusted and shortened katana.

The pigtailed man hadn't been expecting or hoping for an extended sword fight, but even he was honestly shocked by how short it really was.

With blinding speed Ranma dashed forward, aiming to cut into the shoulder of his opponent, and well aware that rapiers were thrusting weapons, almost useless for defense.

It was certainly that knowledge that assured his surprise when Diegon slashed at the incoming blade, although there was no way Ranma could have been prepared for what happened next.

The thin, flexible blade of Gehenna's rapier form bent sharply upon contact with the katana, and then the blade curled and wrapped around the rusted weapon it had struck, binding it tightly.

As surprised as he was, Ranma quickly noted that his enemy was open, and a swift kick sent Diegon sprawling once again, Gehenna finally leaving his hand as he was doubled over by the blow.

For her part, Gehenna wrapped further and further around Ranma's magic blade, her form seemingly melting around the blade edge and seeping down toward the hilt.

"The hell? What is this?" Ranma shouted, tossing his weapon onto the ground as the liquid metal form of Gehenna consumed it completely.

After a few seconds, Gehenna's form shifted to that of a bastard sword, and Diegon did his best to look smug as he staggered over to the demonic weapon and picked it up.

"Wait. Wait, wait, wait," Ranma demanded, pointing to Gehenna angrily. "Where's my sword? What happened to it?"

"It is a part of me, now," Gehenna said smugly, "its metal consumed, its magic stolen, and its form..." the disembodied voice trailed off, "well, the less said about its form, the better."

"You're saying you ATE my sword?" Ranma asked, slapping a hand over his face.

"If it's any consolation, it tasted awful," Gehenna offered.

"Amen, sister," K mumbled in agreement.

Diegon cleared his throat as he approached Ranma with Gehenna in his grasp. "Now then, since you're unarmed, would you like to surrender, or-"

Before the elf could complete that sentence, Ranma threw his arm to once side, causing a sheathed katana to slide out of his sleeve into his waiting hand.

As Diegon's words died in his mouth, the pigtailed boy glared at Gehenna. "So, you going to eat this one, too?"

"I only consume magical we-" Gehenna began to explain before she cut herself off. "No, wait, forget that, where the hell did that thing come from? There's no way you were hiding that in your sleeve!"

"Ancient Chinese secret," Ranma said simply. "Now then, I think it's about time we ended this."

Diegon snorted as he slid into a new combat stance appropriate for Gehenna's current form. "Don't get ahead of yourself, young one. Without so much as a magic blade, you really think to defeat the demon blade Gehenna and the blademaster Diegon?"

"Not really, no," Ranma admitted as he lowered his own weapon. "Rakkyo gave me a great idea so that I don't have to. He has this teleportation circle in his study, and he suggested that I lure you to it in order to simply warp you away to someplace where you can't do any harm."

Diegon and Gehenna were silent for several seconds.

"We're in the sitting room," Diegon noted.

"And you just revealed the extent of your clever strategy," Gehenna deadpanned.

Ranma smirked as magical runes started appearing across the walls, lines of magic seeping into the building itself as he stepped back. "Yeah, well, when you know a half-decent magic user, sometimes you can work around all the annoying little conditions like certain magical portals being located in certain places." He lowered his sword and waved to the startled elf as eldritch light filled the room. "Bye bye now!"

"Wait! Master Saotome! Something's wrong!" Kaze shouted, promptly killing the smug smile on Ranma's face. "I'm not-"

And then, in a flash of magical light, Ranma, Kaze, K, Diegon, and Gehenna all vanished as they were swept across the continent.

Rakkyo sighed in relief as he stopped channeling magical power into the teleportation matrix Kaze had set up, glad that his plan had worked.

As usual, Ranma had managed to surprise him, simply having his personal wizard modify the existing teleportation spell rather than drawing the enemy to the established gate. To say nothing of him actually approaching the unwanted occupier and learning about her rather than simply attacking and driving her out. And they actually had the nerve to expect a reward!

"Well, that's all over and done with," the aura dragon said, planting his fists on his hips. "Ah! I should go find those hover... things that Ranma had! I'm sure the townsfolk could find some proper use for them for the right price!"


Rakkyo practically skipped as he made his way back down from his mansion, overjoyed that he had once again managed to throw one enemy into the jaws of another and saved himself a lot of personal grief. It was an age-old talent of his that more often than not handily made up for his poor combat abilities. Some called it cowardice, but Rakkyo tended to consider such people idiots who didn't know any better.

"Speaking of idiots that don't know any better..." Rakkyo mumbled as he halted his progress toward the forest, sweat beading upon his brow as he saw who approached. It was Rayden Shikodan, a net full of giant fish tails over his shoulder as he pushed the hoverbikes along over the ground, one on each hand.

"Oi! Dragon! They done in there, yet?" Rayden called as he caught sight of Ranma's old master, immediately picking up the pace.

Rakkyo's eyes wandered for several seconds as the demonic paladin approached, and finally he cleared his throat and spoke.

"Ah! There you are! I've been looking all over for you!" Rakkyo said, planting his hands on his hips as he glared at the Dread Knight. "Everyone else has already left!"

Rayden blinked. "What? Left? Left for where?"

"Mongolia, of course! Didn't you hear that you were going back immediately?" Rakkyo said, clicking his tongue as he turned and gestured for Rayden to follow. "It's a lucky thing I found you! You were almost left behind!"

Rayden raised an eyebrow as he followed the aura dragon up the slope surrounding the mansion. "Really? They left without me?" He thought about it for a moment, frowning. "Okay, I guess I can believe that they'd leave me behind if they needed to, but why would they leave all our stuff? These bikes are supposed to be expensive."

"They were in quite a hurry," Rakkyo said as he opened the gate to his garden, rushing toward the front doors to his newly liberated home. "You'd best follow at once without giving any critical thought to what I'm telling you."

"Can do!" Rayden said as he followed Rakkyo up to the main doorway.

Rakkyo swung open the door, but halted as a young girl in a maid outfit barred his way.

Looking up at him, the maid grimaced. "You're back?"

"I am," Rakkyo answered proudly.

"I quit," the maid responded, tossing her beret onto the floor as she walked into the garden, past Rayden and then out the gates.


"What was THAT all about?" Rayden asked as he followed Rakkyo into the mansion, carefully maneuvering the floating vehicles one by one through the entryway.

"Oh, you know how human are. Fickle to the extreme," Rakkyo answered without actually answering. "So! I assume you're ready to go at once, yes? Simply stand right there and wait for me to power the telepor-"

"Hold it!" Rayden shouted, his face grim. "There is one thing I have to do first before I leave!"

"What's that?" Rakkyo said, clearly impatient to get rid of the dark paladin.

Whump! The aura dragon doubled over in agony as Rayden slammed a fist into his stomach.

"Wh... Why?" Rakkyo asked weakly, tears squeezing from the corners of his eyes.

"Because I hate you," Rayden said simply as he backed away, holding the hover bikes and their packs full of supplies close to his sides. "Now make with the magic, loser. I don't have all day."

"Son of BITCH!" Ranma shouted to the heavens as he looked out at barren plains of Mongolia, a small group of wild herd animals starting and dashing away at the sudden noise.

Kaze cringed away from his leader and instructor before scrubbing his head with his hand. "I do apologize Master Saotome, but it would seem that Rakkyo has taken extensive precautions to prevent errant magic users from accessing his home from afar. There's no way I can decipher the portal from this end without his help.

"I knew it! I knew it was a mistake to trust him!" Ranma said almost rabidly as he stomped the ground. "He was scheming that the whole time! I knew he was lying the whole time!"

"Whoa, let's not go nuts, here," K said gently. "I mean, sure, he did teleport us out to the middle of nowhere, leaving us stranded with the enemy with no supplies and one of our group missing..."

K hesitated for a few seconds as he stopped to recall what his point was. "But... well, that doesn't mean that he was lying. Kaze said he was clean, remember?"

Kaze nodded in agreement. "Indeed. And I regardless of our own fate, we did successfully drive out an unlawful invader," he said sagely, trying desperately to contain his own tormented emotions over the loss of potential gain.

A sudden snort came from behind the three men. "Unlawful invader? Is that what he told you?"

Gehenna rested lazily on a rock in her human form, Diegon standing by her side at attention while he glared murderously at the people responsible for their sudden departure from the mansion.

"I am no invader. Rakkyo gave that property to me fairly," Gehenna insisted, her arms crossed under her breasts.

"Eh? Why would he give you anything?" K asked, looking suspicious even while the redhead held Ranma's undivided attention.

"It was a simple bargain;" the demon weapon said in bitter remembrance. "As a demonic weapon, my existence is a series of contracts. For one to wield me, I demand one's soul." Then she snorted. "But the aura dragon had no use for a weapon. No, he wished for... 'other favors'. And I provided them, in exchange for my freedom and his home rather than his life and immortal spirit."

"I don't think it needs to be said that this does not mesh with what he told us about you," Kaze said dryly. "Although I wouldn't mind hearing about more of these other fa-" a swift kick to the shins from Ranma quickly silenced the evon as he fought to endure the pain.

"No doubt," Gehenna spat. "After I... completed my part of the bargain, Rakkyo proved extremely reluctant to relinquish his control over me, much less surrender any of his own assets. With our contract broken, I was able to bring my full power to bear, and he in turn transformed into his true form, intent on teaching me my place," she explained, running a hand through her long, lustrous hair. "It didn't take long to pummel the lizard into submission, honestly. Since defeating him actually granted that which I wanted and completed the contract, and with nothing better to do with him, I had him sold to a slaver caravan rather than killing him."

Kaze looked quite disturbed as he mulled this over, and Ranma shook his head. "Nice try, lady. I may not trust Rakkyo, but I do trust Kaze's psychic abilities, and he said that the old lecher was telling the truth about you infiltrating his home and tricking him."

"Psychic abilities?" Gehenna asked, snorting, "against that aura dragon? You may as well ask him to swear on a Christian bible. Both are meaningless to one such as him."

Ranma blinked. "What? What do you mean?"

"Aura dragons have iron wills that can block most psychic effects to a great degree," Diegon said reluctantly, shaking his head at the stupidity of the adventurers. "A skilled liar, on the other hand, can stretch these abilities further to fool them outright. I've no doubt that Rakkyo has had to combat the sensibilities of skilled psions on many an occasion."

Ranma's eyes locked onto Kaze as the priest gulped, beads of sweat crawling down his forehead. "Kaze? Is that actually possible? Are they telling the truth right now?"

"Ah... well... it's hard for me to say," the evon blustered, fidgeting nervously. "I mean, there are certainly instances of certain individuals who can fool the probing mental energies of the psychics, but these tend to be the exception rather than the rule, and... although I don't detect any dishonesty from them at the moment, by their own admission, it's entirely possible that..."

Kaze trailed off as fire started to build all around Ranma's body, curling around the young warrior's arms and legs as his eyes hardened with a hatred darker and sharper than anything he had seen come from Rayden. "Uh... I would like to point out that I was unaware of this ability and interpreted Rakkyo's intentions in good faith."

"And I would like to point out that this means you probably did gain your amazing abilities entirely through your own effort and bloody-minded willpower, which is really cool!" K said desperately, trying to calm Ranma down as flaming wrath encompassed the pigtailed man.

Gehenna and Diegon shrunk back from the sight of the flames encompassing the young man. "Uh... is he okay?" the redheaded woman asked.

"Okay? Okay! Why wouldn't I be okay?" Ranma said, his voice taking a manic edge as his eyes locked onto the living weapon. "I mean, all I did was trust the sob story of my worst enemy, attack a relatively innocent person, and then enact a cunning plan only to get double-crossed and thrown halfway across the continent without my gear! Do you really think a little thing like that would upset me?" he demanded, the flames flaring around him and pushing the demoness and her attendant back.

Gehenna was at a loss for words, but Diegon promptly stood between the two, his gaze as cold as Ranma's was furious. "You have every right to regret your stupidity," the elf said haughtily, "but take care not to direct your rage at Lady Gehenna. I will not allow her to come to harm as a result of your folly."

Ranma glared up at the elf. "Can I take it out on YOU, then?"

Kaze was about to make another attempt to soothe Ranma's anger when he sensed another surge of magic. "Master Saotome! Someone else is coming!"


Everyone turned as a flash of light appeared at the edge of the gathering, and Ranma's hand promptly filled with daggers as he grasped the possibility that it could be Rakkyo.

In the end, however, it was merely Rayden, the demon knight waving happily as he hauled the party's hovering cargo carriers behind him.

"Hey guys! Why'd you take off so quickly?" Rayden asked as he approached. "The townspeople weren't THAT mad, were they?"

"Our equipment! Fantastic!" Kaze said, brightening considerably as he saw the hoverbikes. "I feared they were lost for good!"

"Yeah, speaking of which, I know you guys are eager to get to the next great adventure and whatnot, but you shouldn't just leave your stuff behind when you do so," the Dread Knight chided, stopping next to the group. It was about at this time that he noticed that Ranma seemed to be on fire. "Am I interrupting a fight here, or is Ranma just really angry?"

"Ray," Ranma said suddenly, his voice laced with icy fury, "tell me that you hit Rakkyo before you left."

Rayden blinked. "Of course I did."

The flames around the pigtailed man immediately flickered away. "Did you hit him hard?"

"I'm pretty sure I crushed a minor organ or two, yeah."

The dark paladin started as Ranma suddenly surged forward and grabbed him into a crushing hug. "Wh-What? What's-"

"I'm sorry! I should have listened to you! You were right all along!" Ranma cried, holding the larger man tightly. "Thank you! You're the best friend a guy could ever have!"

"Did... something happen?" Rayden asked slowly, scratching his head.

"I'd rather not speak further on the topic," Kaze mumbled.


"If that's the case, I have a different topic to discuss," Diegon said suddenly as he gained everyone else's attention. "I would like you to take responsibility for your actions today."

Ranma released his subordinate and took a moment to gather his dignity before responding. "Oh really? How's that, exactly?"

"You have deprived us of a home, and left us stranded in the middle of nowhere," Gehenna said as she stood up, "it's only fair that you serve me from this point on to make up for your actions."

Rayden promptly glanced toward Ranma. "Who are they, and how bad would you feel if I broke them into little pieces?"

"They're idiots, and I would feel a little guilty, so no," Ranma explained with a wave of his hand.

Diegon's teeth clenched. "Idiots? Says the fool who was tricked into working for that lecherous dragon."

Ranma's eye twitched. "Okay, I think I wouldn't mind if the elf was maimed a little."

"Tch! Such idiocy will not go unpunished," Diegon said as he reached a hand back toward Gehenna. "Lady Gehenna, let us slay these fools and simply take their..." he trailed off as he noticed that the warm, silk-soft touch of his weapon and mistress was still absent from his fingers, and he turned to regard the redhead in question. "Lady Gehenna?"

The demon weapon had an expression of abject horror on her face as she stared at Rayden, who was drawing Darkrune from the ornate sheath on his back. "That... this is... h-how did you..."

"Lady Gehenna, we must defend ourselves!" Diegon said firmly, still standing tall as he offered her his hand. "With my skill combined with your might, we are invincible! No matter what manner of weapon the opponent brings to bear, I will serve it to you as mere feed!"

Rather than encouraging the redhead, this prospect seemed to terrify her even more, and she shrunk back as the dark paladin approached.

"So," Rayden said conversationally as he came within arm's reach of the elven blademaster, reaching out for the man's shoulder with his free hand, "what was that about slaying us all?"

In response to his question, Diegon drew a hidden knife and turned toward the approaching demon, plunging the blade upward underneath Rayden's ribcage and slicing through the dark paladin's tough flesh to pierce his lung.

It was entirely understandable, given the severe wound he had just inflicted, that Diegon was quite surprised when Rayden simply used the elf's proximity to grab hold of the top of his head, ignoring the burning agony that was coming from his chest.

Crack! Kaze and K winced as Rayden twisted the elf's head sharply, snapping Diegon's neck like a bread stick. The blademaster's corpse collapsed to the ground a second later.

With a pained grunt, Rayden slowly drew the fine elven dagger out of his body, inwardly marveling at the elf's skill to have struck a normally mortal blow so quickly and easily within his guard. "Oof. That's gonna hurt a lot until it heals," the Dread Knight mumbled before tossing the weapon onto the ground and turning back to his friends. "So! Who's hungry?"


Ranma's eyes were drawn not to the sack of fish meat that had been tied to his hoverbike, but rather to Gehenna, who was suddenly encompassed by a flare of light as her form shrunk and finally coalesced into that of a short sword. "Why's she turning into a weapon NOW?"

Rayden blinked, and then glanced back at the blade lying on the ground. "Demon weapon, right? That guy must've been her wielder. He dies, she absorbs his soul, their contract is fulfilled, she's back to waiting for another poor schmuck to latch on to."

"Ah, is that how it works?" Kaze said, rubbing his chin. "So she absorbs souls as well as magical weapons, does she?"

"Actually, that reminds me," Rayden said, stooping down over the dead elf's body. "Shakal del fauh gonoh hoon. Those that fall in battle be released from mortal concerns, their balance restored as they forge their final path unto oblivion. Depart, fallen warrior," he intoned grimly as he pressed a hand against the elf's still chest, his hand glowing with a dark, yet somehow gentle energy.

The others watched with undisguised interest as a gray mist began to rise from Diegon's rapidly cooling body before a single mote of shimmering light escaped upward into the air.

"Kharak approves of those who die in combat, and thinks it a waste for those souls to be entrapped in the mortal world rather than moving on to the release of death," Rayden explained as he stood up. "This is one soul that got lucky."

Ranma stared morbidly at Diegon's body, lying mangled on the ground, and his gaze wandered over to the demon sword Gehenna, the late blademaster's weapon and yet also his master, a prison that had empowered him and yet, at the elf's final moments, had forsaken him out of fear of its own existence.

He turned toward Rayden. "So, you said something about food?"

"You're kidding? All that stuff was a lie?" Rayden asked as he served the others great steaks of marinated fish. "Man, if I'd known that, I would've at least broken a limb or two before I made him teleport me after you guys."

"Well, technically we just know that he can lie to us," K admitted as he cleaned off Diegon's long knife, making sure it was free of Rayden's dark, oily blood before he bit off the tip.

"Don't even start, K," Ranma growled as he bit off a chunk of fish. "As far as I'm concerned Rakkyo is a dead man. If he doesn't worship a god yet, he'd better find one to pray to that I never find myself within a hundred miles of his home again. I'll burn it to the ground with him in it."

"Still, what's to be done about Gehenna?" Kaze asked between mouthfuls. "Do we really intend to leave her there on the ground?"

"Leave 'it' there on the ground," Ranma corrected. "Don't let those breasts fool you-"

"Again," K quickly piped up before he started chewing on the knife's handle.

"-that... thing over there is not humanoid. It takes that shape purely to confuse people and put them at ease," Ranma said, waving a fork at Kaze as his knife cut off another hunk of meat. "As for what we're going to do with it, I haven't decided yet. I'm not keen on bargaining my soul away, but Gehenna did eat my magic sword."

"Good riddance to that thing, I say," K mumbled as he finished off the knife. "She was doing you a favor."

"Oh, shut up! That thing was a gift!" Ranma protested as the metadragon stuck out his tongue at him.

Kaze sighed as he finished his steak and took a drink of water from a small canteen. "It's a shame we couldn't stay in the village longer; we still haven't had any opportunity to replenish our supplies, and I rather wanted to see those merfolk Rakkyo spoke of."

"Assuming he wasn't lying about those, too," Ranma grumbled.

"You know, I heard that if you eat the flesh of mermaids, it grants immortality," K said, his voice grim and serious.

Rayden snorted. "That's not true. I don't even know how a silly story like that came about."

"Oh, come now," Kaze said, patting the Dread Knight on the shoulder, "not that I'm advocating the murder and consumption of merfolk, but don't you think that, with all the strange and impossible things that have turned up in the realms, something like that is hardly far-fetched?"

The demonic paladin rolled his eyes. "Well, do any of you feel immortal?"

All eating halted immediately.

Ranma stared down at his third steak of the night, his fork trembling over the tender, juicy meat. "Ray... why would you ask that?" He glanced over at the net that still held a fair bit of uncooked fish meat. "Those aren't mermaids, right? They don't look like mermaids at all." They looked like the bodies of large tuna, actually, although Ranma noticed with considerable discomfort that the net only contained the rear half of the creatures.

"Well, you have to cut off the top halves; that meat's no good, and can even be poisonous in certain tribes," Rayden explained. "And don't get me wrong; merfolk are lean and full of vitamins, and as I'm sure you've noticed, the subtle sweetness is far superior to mere fish. But I hardly think any of you are gonna get an extra year of life out of this meal."

Kaze held a hand over his mouth as he pushed away his plate, his face paling. Ranma's fingers shook as he calmly set down his food.

"I've lost my appetite," Ranma said simply, standing up and walking away from the camp site.

"I must go at once and meditate on this matter," Kaze mumbled as he staggered to his feet. "I am not sure to what degree cannibalism is treated as an injustice in the eyes of Malakai."

"What are you talking about? It's not cannibalism, merfolk are a different species!" Rayden insisted as the two men wandered off, both of them looking slightly ill.

"Geez, what a waste," the Dread Knight sighed as he pulled a steak of his own from the spit and bit into it. "That was some of the best merfolk fishing I've had in a good long while, too."

"I'm damn glad I'm a lithovore," K mumbled as he popped a penny in his mouth, looking plenty disturbed by the turn of events but apparently maintaining his appetite.

"Bah, everyone's a critic."

End Chapter 17