Deep Purple

The council of Mazoku gathered in a loose circle and counted their losses.

"Shabranigdo is dead," said one in a deceptively small voice, masking his true power under a veil of innocence.

"Cephied killed him, and broke him into bits," agreed another; resonating a low, inhuman growl, she pet the yellow-eyed wolf that stood to her right.

"The pieces are all scattered," added one in a voice like deep water, keeping her face in shadow.

"Seven pieces - and each is bound," a fourth amended with a breath so cold it hurt.

"So the gods think to spare themselves destruction," boomed the fifth, lighting the air around him with supernatural fire.

And with all due gravity, the sixth produced a party favor from somewhere on his person and blew on it as hard as he could.

He seemed to notice the angry glares burning in his direction. "Oh, sorry, did that bother you?" asked Xellos, smiling cheerfully at them; then, apparently sensing that his store of mercy had been used up, tripped off to bother somebody else.

Gaav sighed; the mood had been broken. "Zellas..."

"Yes, I know," Zellas Beastmaster Metallium replied, smiling coyly as she recrossed her legs. Despite her assent, she showed no desire at all to rein in her priest-general.

Gaav scowled. "This does NOT solve our problem."

"But it certainly opens it up," Dynast Grauscherra posed, "for a solution."

"A solution," repeated Deep Sea Dolphin, and considered her surroundings. All the Mazoku ever created had filled this place; the whole lying, stealing, murderous lot of them socialized in various guises around the room, awaiting commands of some kind from their leaders in the wake of their lord's destruction. Suddenly, she frowned. "I do not see my general."

"Can't control what you created, Dolphin?" Hellmaster Phibrizzo remarked, then chuckled to himself. "You'd think we'd be smart enough to create beings we COULD control - that is the point of a priest and general."

"Except that some of us never seem to bother," Gaav sniped, still glaring at Zellas.

Zellas shrugged and recrossed her legs. "I make no excuse," she announced, lofty to the last, and Gaav made as if to lunge at her.

"No," Phibbrizo said evenly; and that was enough. Gaav quieted down again, his smoldering glare the only sign of his rebellion. "Your general was killed in the battle - remember, Dolphin?" Phibbrizzo added, cutting in his sweetness.

"Yes," Dolphin said, and flinched. Phibbrizo eyed her critically, cruelly.

"We each created our generals and priests by dividing our own power," he announced carefully. "When they are defeated, we are defeated. It is...a pititful display of usefulness," he added as if in afterthought, and Dolphin scowled.

Grauscherra deigned to speak again. "Perhaps we should all have done as Beastmaster did and created two in one." They all looked toward Xellos, who was currently entertaining himself by effortlessly squashing a huge, one-eyed demon he'd aggravated into chasing after him.

"No,"said Phibbrizzo again, and that was the end of that. "What shall we do about our lord and master Shabranigdo?"

They all thought in silence. Screams, cries and guffaws filled the air in their silence, giving more testimony to the restlessness of their troops than even Xellos' play had. Finally, Gaav sighed.

"I suppose we have to continue his work," Gaav suggested at last, sounding none too pleased. His tone, more than his words, caught the eye of his comrades.

"You 'suppose?'" Zelas cooed. "You have a better plan? Something you'd rather do, perhaps?"

"Of course not!" Gaav roared once more; cool, Phibbrizzo studied him.

"I wonder sometimes where your loyalties lie, fire dragon king," he said, pensive and unthreatening; Gaav was not fool enough to continue. Satisfied, Phibbrizzo nodded. "Then that is what we shall do," he announced, continuing the previous thread. "And as for the rest of these...." He turned to face the crowd of monstrosities. "Go," he said. "Fill the world; terrify, villify, cause wars, love plauges, ruin people - and above all, live to curse those beings whom the gods have destined to work on the side of the light!"

And immediately, all bloody hell broke loose.

The creatures who'd been sharing toys abandoned their games and ripped their living victims in half to end the round, then vanished happily to the earth to find new ones. Looming dark things, hidden in the depths of corners, left their posts here to find similar ones down below; and all the mischief makers, truth twisters, soul stealers and remaining terrorists of life exploded in a cacophany of unclean joy, fleeing to mine the earth of all its misery and prime the inhabitants to create more.

In less than twenty seconds, all of them were gone - except for Xellos, who had waited for the express purpose of waving good-bye at his reigning lords with a polka-dotted hankerchief before disappearing himself.

"Zelas..." Gaav threatened, and Zelas chuckled once more.

"I know, I know," she said, and did absolutely nothing about it.

5,000 years later

Ah, the world was so beautiful. Blue sky, green grass, pink people - very pink, in fact, because as of right now they were all completely naked.

"Aaaaah!" screamed somebody, and everyone else followed suit. Panicking wildly, all the members of Seiyruun's Royal Birthday Picnic Party scattered as one into the bushes, trying to cover themselves with napkins, picnic baskets, and anything else they could get their hands on in transit.

And in the oldest tree at the edge of the clearing, Xellos looked down at them all and laughed.

Naturally unaware of his humor, the victims hid the best they could, occasionally screaming to ward others off and to keep track of one another's positions. Now ignoring them all, Xellos hopped down from his tree and skipped with alacrity back into the clearing. Humming some lively tune, he bent at the waist and scooped up the oddly cut jewel that the Seiyruun prince had used so foolishly and thus rendered his party unclothed.

"Such a SILLY thing to wish for," Xellos scolded the prince in absentia, and tucked the jewel away someplace on his person. Well, this was simply marevelous; mission completed, and he had a whole day and a half to go before he was required to turn the jewel over to his boss.

A day and a half? Much fun could be had with that.

Cheerfully ignoring the still-screaming nudes in the bushes at his back, Xellos beamed happily and disappeared from his spot as though he'd never been.

The Seiyruun prince never did figure out what happened.

There was never any way to know when an adventure was going to happen.

Hungry and looking for a little bit of a snack, Xellos poofed directly into Seiyruun and took a seat at a local cafe.

"Water, please!" he said cheerfully to the waitress who asked, so very innocently, how she could serve him. Because he was in a silly mood, he smiled at her, all the charm at full wattage; and blushing, she retreated to the kitchen.

Heh. So easy. He wondered how many times he'd ask for water before she finally realized he was playing with her and grew angry. One never knew, really; he'd encoutered one waitress in the Kataart mountains who had calmly taken three hours of serving water before her left eye began to twitch -

An explosion rocked the south end of the city.

It was bad enough that even the customers of the cafe felt it - a low rumbling, subtle and frightening, under their feet and making ice clink in their glasses. A few people panicked; most of them paled and looked toward the source of the chaos, some standing as if they half-planned to race across the city and help.

Xellos was still for a only a moment. Interest crossed his face, tinting his expression with a flavor

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