Within a fortnight, he noticed the land became rougher. The desert became rockier, outcrops jutting from the sands, until at last, nearly three weeks from leaving the oasis, he spied a ripple of darkness in the sands, about a day ahead of him. Unless it was a mirage, he guessed it was a large canyon in the sands.
Pausing for a rest, he drank a little water. A bracelet of pink and blue dangled from the canteen, drawing a little smile from him. No matter how long his quest took, no matter how far he went, the bracelet meant he could always go back, to his friends, to his home. Someday, he swore to himself, he'd return to that shining city a human man, and he'd rejoin his friends and his life. Even more precious was the token buried safely and deeply in his pocket, the token noone knew he carried. The lock of hair had been carefully and quietly snipped from its owner the last night before he'd left his friends. Doubtless, she was furious when she awoke to find him gone, and a lock of her hair cut off. He often wondered which she'd be angrier over, whether she'd cursed him, whether she even realized what it meant.
He'd waited for the sun to set, the darkness sending cool winds across the desert. He walked purposefully across the sands, aiming for the supposed canyon. If nothing else, perhaps he'd find fresh water.
He didn't notice the sand devils at first. The swirling winds caused miniature tornadoes like them all the time. But after a while, the odd prickly feeling of being watched crawled up his neck. He noted that the sand tornadoes seemed to keep pace with him. Strange, but not out of the realm of possibility.
When their numbers began to increase and form a circle around him, like a barrier, he came on guard. Stopping, he drew his sword.
Like it had been a signal, the tornadoes converged on him. Not merely wind driven, Zelgadis discovered quickly that they were mindless minor demons! A dozen charged him, driving the sands so fiercely that he felt the grains stinging his stone skin. He lashed out with his sword, bisecting two, but to no effect.
The demons were little more than spirits of sand, a front line of wind and sand. Any normal person might be scourged to raw bleeding flesh in moments, but Zelgadis's skin protected him. Trying to fight his way out of the storm, he cast "ELMIKA LANCE!" into the gathered devils.
The astral attack ripped a hole in the barrier of spinning sands, and with a burst of speed he escaped their ambush. Whirling, he called more astral power to him. "BRAM BLAZER!"
The burst of astral power shredded the demons. They were too weak to withstand so much astral power, yet that was not even Zelgadis's most powerful spell. As the sands fell to the ground, he decided that they were meant to stop the casual traveller, no more than a fence at best. But their presence confirmed that he neared something interesting.
Now on guard, Zelgadis travelled more slowly. Clearly, not all of Hellmaster's power had been destroyed with him. Zelgadis searched his memory for mention of a demon lord's power lingering after his death. Some servants of demon lords were nearly independant operatives, as Valgaav had evidenced. Others were merely mechanicals, random demonic energy until given form and maintained by the will of the master. Clearly, these rude sand demons were minor enough to not need maintenance by the lord, yet independant enough to continue their duties. He wondered what other tricks had Hellmaster left behind.
The lessened pace kept him from reaching the canyon that night. Holed up next to an outcrop of rock, Zelgadis slept through the heat of the sun, setting a protection barrier around him of a sort he didn't need to be conscious to maintain. It would stop minor demons like the sand devils, but any greater attack would get through. Then again, anything greater would wake him long before a fatal blow. He slept lightly.
In fact, it was no direct attack that did awake him, but a rumble under his ear. Rising, he saw the sun had set. Unusual for him to sleep so long. He scanned the horizon ahead, expecting to see something. Finally, he realized the sound came from behind him.
It rose like a tidal wave, blocking the last dying rays of the sun, blotting out the low western stars. The wall of sand roared towards him.
He immediately turned and fled to the east, pouring on his own demonic speed, but still the wall of sand gained ground. Glancing back, he saw a multitude of demonic faces leering and jabbering in the wall. The sand devils had banded against him. The crest seemed to arch over him, reaching to devour him. Ahead, the edge of the canyon loomed. It was either punge off the cliff or be buried. Though he knew he could slap on a Levitation or Ray Wing in the blink of an eye, he didn't relish the idea that the wall of sand could still reach out after him in the air. He'd rather defeat the thing than run.
Skidding to a stop, he began to chant. "Ye who travel on the astral plane, passing eternally between the nexus. Aid my power and obey my will.........�
The wall was nearly upon him.
"SPIRIT WAVE!" The wide range astral attack tore into the wall. In moments, the majority of the demons were ripped into so much astral dust, the few remaining unable to withstand the power and maintain the attack. A massive shudder when though the wall as the demons maintaining it died. However, there was still several tons of sand to avoid.
In a flash, seeing the danger, Zelgadis switched incantations. "GOZ VU ROW!"
Unfortunately, he'd misjudged the stability of the rock beneath him.
The magical earthquake ripped open the ground beneath the wall of sand, and the tons of sand, no longer held together by the power of the demons, poured down to fill the holes. But also, the whole cliffside began to crumble, and Zelgadis was caught as the combination of collapsing sand and collapsing rock started a landslide down the hundreds of feet to the cavern floor. Even the holes created the hold the sand collapsed, and Zelgadis, helplessly trapped by his own mistake, was buried by rock and sand that swept him off along over the edge and into the abyss.
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