| Slayers Series | Spin-Off |
Zelgadiss' Story Under the Hazy Moon (first published in 1998 August issue of the monthly Dragon Magazine) | |
| Characters | Zelgadiss, Mac, Rangus | ||
|
Zelgadiss sat alone in the woods on a hill. Looking up the hazy moon, he remembered his friends, and their memories ease his strong desire for his cure. Then Zelgadiss realized that someone came to attack him. It was a creature, not a human. It cut off Zelgadiss' mask from his face with its weapon, but when the moonlight revealed the face of a chimera, that creature turned back and left. Zelgadiss walked away, but before he found another place to rest in the woods, a young mercenary stopped him. The mercenary seemed to have chased someone in the woods and misunderstood Zelgadiss as his target. Zelgadiss became curious about the situation, and went down the hill to the village lay on the foot of the hill. In the villager, Zelgadiss learned that the mercenarie's name was Mac, and there was a monster that had killed villagers one by one. Mac had chased the monster and found Zelgadiss in the woods, and he had took chimera swordsman to the village as his game. Zelgadiss showed his magic to the villagers and said, "I could burn down all of this village in a few minutes. But I don't. Why? Because I don't want to harm anybody here." Villagers apologized to Zelgadiss, and then they asked him to stop the monster. Zelgadiss hesitated to accept their request, but he remembered that he had experienced the similar situation (*), and finally he answered "yes, I do." On the next night, Mac was picking a quarrel with Zelgadiss in the bar, but the chimera swordsman heard a far away cry. He dashed away for the scene, and Mac followed Zelgadiss. There, they were told that a boy had been killed by the monster, but no one knew where had it gone. Zelgadiss found the monster was on the roof of one house, and he casted an Icicle Lance at the killer, but the monster intercepted the lance of ice with the magical lance of fire. Zelgadiss knew that the monster was the creature that had attacked him in the woods on the night before. The creature jumped down from the roof and ran away from the village into the hill. Zelgadiss and Mac followed it, but as Mac was a greenhorn, the creature and Zelgadiss ran faster and left the young mercenaryb behind. Finally Mac stoped to run and began to walk in the woods. Suddenly, the creature appeared before Mac. Mac managed to dodge the critical hit of enemy's weapon, but got injured and fell down on the ground. The creature created arrows of fire and shot them toward Mac. At that time, Zelgadiss interrupted and he knocked the arrows of fire with his sword which he had charged his magical power. Mac begged to Zelgadiss for help, but Zelgadiss said calmly. "I don't know why you became a mercenary, but anyway, as long as you can't live your life without pretending to be a man, it's apparent that this job isn't fit for you." When Zelgadiss pointed that Mac was a girl, the creature spoke for the first time before them. The creature, Rangus, talked about himself, since he had been a human before, and one day his lord had made him into a chimera. Rangus hated people because they watched Rangus with the eyes of fear, and thus he wanted to kill all of the people in the village. Rangas proposed Zelgadiss to kill Miranda MacStar together, and to destroy the village. But Zelgadiss weren't interested. He said, "I can't be satisfied with venting my hatred on the people." Saying to Rangus, Zelgadiss mocked himself in the past, but Rangus couldn't understand. Rangus challenged Zelgadiss, and Zelgadiss was too strong. Rangus summoned a shadow dragon in his obscure shadow with Disfang, but Zelgadiss' sword with his magical power killed the shadow dragon. And then Zelgadiss gave a critical blow to Rangus. Rangus laughed at Zelgadiss in his dying, left the words, "I am you. --- You are me. --- You killed yourself." Zelgadiss replied, "yes, you are exactly what I was in the past." Rangus continued. "I'll die and will be free from this body. You keep living and keep despairing." Zelgadiss replied again. "I live, but I won't despair." Some years later, Mirand MacStar was a landlady of an inn. She got a feeling that someday a man in white happened to come in her inn.
| |||
| Top Page | Slayers Page |