A small crowd had risen from their sleep and assembled in the street near the restaurant. The onlookers were curious as to what the incredible disturbance could have been that late at night. The sound of furniture being smashed and dishes breaking could be clearly heard from the streets.

"Do you think bandits have entered?" one man asked his companion.

"Bandits? I should hope not!" the second man replied, "Although it wouldn't be too surprising considering how common thieves are these days and how useless the town guard tends to be."

"Should we call the guard?" a woman asked another one of the onlookers.

"No, if the bandits ever find out that we called the guards our lives will be on the line. It's probably best to just play stupid and hope the whole thing will blow over,"

"What the hell could they hope to gain by looting a little restaurant? It's not like there's a huge cache of gold there. . ."

Before any more could be said between the onlookers one of the restaurant's windows smashed as the figure of a person flew out the window and slammed against a building on the opposite side of the street.

"Hey, are you okay?" one woman asked as she ran over to the person who now lay in a crumpled position on the ground. With a great deal of effort the person stood up and brushed a bloody lock of long blue hair out of her face.

The woman picked up the a scythe from the ground next to where she landed, but discovered that she could only move her right arm to grab hold of the weapon. After a few moments of frustration at not being able to move her other arm, she decided to attempt to use the weapon in one hand.

"Damn, it must be broken," she muttered, referring to her arm.

"Are you alright?" the onlooker asked again.

"Shut up!" the bloodied woman shouted, "Get away from here! Now!"

As if to emphasize the woman's command, the front of the restaurant exploded in shards of wood as Elayne walked slowly into the street. Apparently both she and Sierra had taken quite a beating as evidenced by her slowed pace and by the numerous slashes on her body and a few daggers sticking out here and there. Elayne look from side to side at her new audience and smirked.

"Have you all come to watch the death of the granddaughter of the Swordsman of Light?" Elayne confidently questioned.

"What? Granddaughter of the Swordsman of Light?" one onlooker questioned.

"That's ridiculous!" another speculated, "He's only a legend!"

"Who gives a damn about that now? Whoever these two are, they look serious! We need to get our asses out of the fire and away from here!" a third whispered to the others.

"Sierra Gabriev. . .descendant of Gourry Gabriev. I shall offer you one last time. . .will you join us?"

Sierra didn't answer the question, but she did spit at the ground in front of Elayne.

"How unfortunate. I guess this is where the Gabriev bloodline ends. . ." Elayne responded nonchalantly.

Sierra shouted out a war cry and charged her Mazoku foe. Not being able to effective wield a scythe with one hand, Sierra's attack was easily evaded. Before Sierra could recover and attempt to defend herself, Elayne's clawed hand grabbed Sierra's forearm in a tight grasp.

"Too easy. I'm disappointed. I was expecting more of a challenge from someone like you," Elayne tauntingly commented.

"You're not feeling that well yourself. I know that you're in incredible pain from the holy water, you just don' t want to admit weakness in the face of you foe,"

"Really?" Elayne simply asked as she quickly jerked her hand in a screw-like twist. A sickening snapping noise seemed to echo off the buildings followed by Sierra's scream of pain. Without even waiting for moment, Elayne whipped her tentacled arm across Sierra's chest sending her flying against a building wall again. Sierra fell to the ground in a heap, but this time she discovered that with two broken limbs she couldn't regain enough balance to stand again.

Elayne slowly walked to where Sierra lay on the ground looking up at her opponent. Elayne shook her head back and forth while making a mocking "tsk-tsk" noise with her tongue.

"This is the end of you and with you out of the way I shall have my revenge on Toshi. He made me the way I am now. If you want to blame anyone for your death, blame him," Elayne stated as she raised her tentacled arm for the final blow.

"Is. . .is this really the end?" Sierra whispered to herself, "Funny, I always thought I would die in a bed with my children and grandchildren keeping me company in my final minutes."

"Are those you final words?" the Mazoku asked perplexed, "Not as dramatic as I would've hoped. Oh well, I suppose you can't ask for everything, can you? Now be a good girl and die quietly."

The sound of something moving incredibly quickly through the air interrupted Elayne. The Mazoku stood silently for a moment, her only open eye twitching oddly.

"What?" Sierra asked, not comprehending.

Suddenly, Elayne's tentacled arm detached at the elbow and dropped to the ground harmlessly. Elayne turned her head to stare at her arm lying on the ground before spinning around to discover another foe with a katana at even elevation with her neck.

"Toshi!" Sierra called happily to see an ally. Sierra's joy was wiped away as she noticed the changes in him. His hair and eyes were silver and his facial expression seemed cold and cruel.

"Toshi Yokutsu. . .the one who made me the way I am. . .I will kill you. . ." Elayne whispered hoarsely.

"You are wrong," the silver-haired Toshi informed her, "Your current state of being is not the fault of Toshi Yokutsu. It is the fault of the Ryuzoku named Rekos. And I am not Toshi, I am Rekos,"

"Oh?" Elayne replied hoping her bravado would help her, "Even if what you say is true, you are the one who made me this way and I must kill you to achieve my vengeance."

"Then come at me! Kill me! Let's see you try! I know how injured you are. Even for a Mazoku as powerful as Xellos made you, you cannot stand up to me,"

Elayne paused for a moment. She silently calculated her chance at victory against this new opponent. Deciding that it wasn't very good, she scowled and grabbed her robes with her clawed hand. She pulled the robes tighter around herself and dissipated into the air.

Even after she was gone, Rekos heard a vile whisper in his ear, it said: "Just wait until I regenerate. . .I will kill you Rekos. . ."

Rekos smirked and scoffed at the declaration. He then turned his head to Sierra who again attempted to stand. She managed to get about half way up before she slipped on her own blood and fell to the ground again.

"Dammit. . .am. . .I going to die?" she asked.

"Be quiet," Rekos commanded, "You're not going to die, but you are seriously injured."

"Toshi. . .I'm sorry for all the things I said to you. . .I. . .I was just so angry at the world. . .forgive me, Toshi,"

"I'm not Toshi," Rekos said coldly, "He is not here, and now that I know where the Ruby-Eye is, he will never be in this world again."

Sierra's eyes seemed more sorrowful than normal. She remained silent and Rekos lifted her into his arms and began walking into the street. Sierra's thoughts were divided between sorrow that she would not again see Toshi and sorrow that this person apparently knew about Terra, but decided to kill her rather than wait until she expelled the Mazoku Lord from her body.

After a few minutes, Rekos and Sierra reached the town gates. The single night guard held up his hand and ordered Rekos to stop, but then backed away as the sight of the cruel man with silver hair holding a battered and bloodied woman in his arms made him lose his nerve.

"Is. . .is she okay?" the guard asked with concern.

"She'll be fine," Rekos muttered.

"We should get a healer!" the guard announced with sudden inspiration.

"I said she'll be fine," Rekos muttered again, but this time a dangerous venom in his voice made the guard back off.

After the two had left the city limits and were on the moonlit road heading east, Sierra managed ask a question in her semi-conscious state. "Who are you?"

"I am he who you respect as a martyr and the man whom your people respect above all other mortals,"

"Re. . .Rekos. . ." Sierra muttered, "How. . .how are you alive?"

"I'm not," Rekos simply replied, "What you see before you is my soul inhabiting the body of the one you call Toshi."

Sierra looked as if she was about to ask another question, but she closed her eyes and fell unconscious. Rekos looked down at her as he continued to walk along the path east.

"How pitiful. . .you must be in agony. Pain, sorrow, anger. . .those are the most common emotions you've experienced in your lifetime," Rekos looked away from her to stare at the moon, "Now I must kill the closest thing to family you have in this world. It is unfortunate, but if I am to save this world it must be done."

After about a half hour more of trekking across the plains, Rekos decided to stop next to a small stream nearby the path. He lay Sierra on the ground face up beside the stream's bank and moved her arms in a position so they crossed her chest. He then moved over to the water and cupped his hands to collect the liquid in his palms.

Rekos sprinkled the water over Sierra's arms, chest, and face while whispering a chant. Upon contact with her skin, the water flashed a brilliant white and evaporated, seemingly taking the numerous wounds with it. After a few repetitions of the process Sierra seemed to be more or less totally healed.

"There. That should do it," Rekos commented to himself.

He stood up and backed up a few paces to admire the artistic quality of his healing. . .but it was nowhere near his enjoyment of destruction. . .or at least that's what he thought to himself.

"You truly are beautiful," he commented to the unconscious Sierra, "Perhaps it is understandable why that pathetic puppet has fallen in love with you."

Rekos admired her for a moment longer. The hardness of his facial expression slowly melted away and he looked admiringly at the woman before him. He suddenly shook his head violently regained his cold expression. He chuckled to himself in amusement.

"My, my, Rekos," he told himself, "What a creature of contradictions you are. You are a servant of the gods and yet you take pleasure in destruction. You sometimes act out of kindness and good and help those around you and sometimes you cause and delight in the misery of others. You are a Ryuzoku and now you find yourself desiring a human. I wonder. . ."

He paused and thoughtfully scratched his chin.

"I wonder if I'll ever prove myself truly worthy of the title of the Gods' servant. The only reason why I haven't been banished from their community is because the Earth Dragon King cares more about results than the path taken to get there,"

He turned away from Sierra and sat upon a stone not far away.

"The time approaches. The final confrontation between god and demon. It will happen at the shrine the humans have named after me. I wonder what the outcome will be. What will happen to that stupid illusion of mine and me after it is over? What will happen to the Ryuzoku and the Mazoku after it is over? What will happen to the world after it is over?"