Record of Lodoss War 2: The Fire Demon (novel)

Record of Lodoss War 2:The Fire Demon
Author	Ryo Mizuno
Illustrations	Yutaka Izubuchi
Japanese title	ロードス島戦記２ 炎の魔神
Romanized title	rōdosu-tō senki 2 honō no majin
Publication information
Original release	7 February 1989
Chapters	Prologue (プロローグ) In the Desert Kingdom (砂漠の王国で) The Battle of Hilt (ヒルトの戦い) Rescue! (救出！) The Sage of Alania (アラニアの賢けん者じや) The Tower of Dust Storms (砂さ塵じんの塔とう) The Long-awaited Liberation (そして、解放されるもの)
Pages	352 (original) 356 (re-release)
ISBN-13	978-4044604028 (1989) 978-4041011140 (2013)
Novels
← Previous	The Grey Witch
Next →	Demon Dragon of Fire Dragon Mountain

Record of Lodoss War 2: The Fire Demon is a Japanese light novel written by Ryo Mizuno and illustrated by Yutaka Izubuchi. The Fire Demon is the second novel in the Record of Lodoss War light novel series and the first to not be based on an RPG Replay. It follows the adventures of Parn and Deedlit in Flaim, attempting to reconcile the conflict between the Fire tribe and the Wind tribe, the latter of which King Kashue belongs to.

It was adapted into a manga and an audio drama with the same voice actors as the OVA, but has never received an anime adaptation.

Synopsis

　Somewhere in the Wind and Fire Desert, a slender cloaked man has entered the Temple of Fire and succeeds in releasing Ifrit, the king spirit of fire. Upon recognizing the man as a descendant of Azzard, Ifrit accepts the man's authority.

　In Blade, the capital city of Flaim, Parn and Deedlit have arrived to meet with King Kashue. Following the War of Heroes two years ago, they have been in search for their friend Woodchuck, who lost his body to Karla after their encounter with her in her mansion. In the free city of Raiden they learned from a mercenary that a sorcerer, fitting Woodchuck's description, was stirring up war in Flaim, thus Parn and Deedlit set out to look for the sorcerer.

　Before this, civil war in Flaim had intensified. When Kashue was fighting in the War of Heroes, his second-in-command Shadam, had killed the Fire tribe chieftain Dulles. His daughter had since inherited her father's possession and had recently acquired mysterious magic, inflicting severe blows against Flaim.

　When reunited with King Kashue, the mercenary king arranges a welcoming feast. At the feast, Parn and Deedlit meet with Flaim's second-in-command Shadam and the chieftain of the Wind tribe, Muhald. Kashue and the two men inform Parn and Deedlit of the civil war between the Fire tribe and Wind tribe that has controlled Flaim for five centuries. The tribes enjoyed protection from their two guardian deities—Jinn, the king spirit of the wind, and Ifrit, the king spirit of fire—against the sorcerers of the ancient kingdom of Kastuul. According to Muhald, the Fire tribe betrayed the Wind tribe by sealing away Jinn. The tribe lost Jinn's protection and was defeated by the Kastuulians. Not much later, Ifrit was sealed away as well and the Fire tribe was also defeated. Ever since, the tribes have been at war with each other.

　Some years ago, Kashue travelled to Jinn's shrine—the Tower of Dust Storms—and freed Jinn from his seal, but nobody was able to control it. Deedlit wonders if the Tribe of Fire could've done the same with Ifrit. Parn suggests to Deedlit to summon the fire spirit salamander to learn more about all this, but Deedlit declines as she dislikes the destructive spirit. Kashue supports Parn's idea and Deedlit changes her mind and summons salamander. The low-level spirit suddenly begins to change into a giant fire creature, which Deedlit recognizes as Ifrit. The king spirit attacks her, before disappearing. Reports come in that the city of Hilt is under attack and Kashue orders his troops to mobilize. Parn offers his help, and Kashue accepts.

　During a war council, Flaim learns that Hilt has fallen to the Fire tribe. Parn meets some of the mercenaries of Flaim's mercenary army, a large man named Marsh, nicknamed the "Axe Wielder", a handsome man named Pseudo, nicknamed "The Grace", and small man named Deni. When Flaim takes the attack to the Fire tribe near Hilt, they succesfully encircle the enemy forces, but then Ifrit and several salamanders appear, immediately shifting the tides of battle and forcing Flaim's forces to retreat to Blade. While attempting to escape, Parn encounters the Fire tribe chieftain Nardia and engages in a duel with her. Though he initially gets the upper hand, he ultimately loses the fight and is taken prisoner. In Blade, Parn is believed to be dead, but when Kashue learns that Parn was seen being taken into Hilt, he sends Deedlit, Marsh, Pseudo and Deni to investigate. Meanwhile, Parn wakes up in a room in Hilt and meets with Nardia. She has mistaken him for a Valisian knight and wants to send him to Valis to deliver a message to Princess Fianna, but Parn declines and explains he currently is a mercenary. Parn calls Nardia's tribe treacherous, but Nardia counters by saying that the Wind tribe is the treacherous tribe, because it was the Wind tribe who sealed away both guardian deities.

　When Nardia leaves, a slender cloaked man comes in who introduces himself as Azumo. Parn deduces this must be the tribe's magic-user that they've been hearing about, but he is not Karla in Woodchuck's body. Azumo offers Parn his freedom, but in turn he has to lie about Nardia sleeping with him, to make her look bad. Parn senses Azumo is after Nardia's position as chieftain, and refuses. Because of this, Azumo prepares to sacrifice Parn to Ifrit.

　Deedlit, Marsh, Pseudo and Deni sneak into Hilt via a canal and interrogate a sentry to learn about Parn's whereabouts—an old merchant's manor. Pseudo's thief skills get the party inside the manor, and, after defeating some Fire tribe soldiers, they rescue Parn. When Parn returns to Blade with his comrades, he explains what he has learned while being held captive to King Kashue. They deduce Karla, the Grey Witch, may know more about the civil war in Flaim and they know someone in Alania who can help them uncover more about Karla's knowledge. With his new party—Deedlit, Marsh, Deni and Pseudo—Parn decides to travel Zaxon in Alania, using Flaim's sailing ship the “Sea Hawk”.

　When the party arrives in Alania and continues on foot towards Zaxon, they encounter a group of people led by a slender, long-haired man, and engage in battle with them. Parn deduces the long-haired man must be a sorcerer, but not a very good one, as his spells don't have much effect. After beating the long-haired man, his soldiers run away. Suddenly, Slayn appears and he introduces the long-haired man as Cecil, his disciple. Parn and Deedlit explain their reasons for visiting Zaxon, and Slayn introduces them to Leylia, Karla's former host and now wife of Slayn.

　Being Karla's former host, Leylia has inherited some of Karla's memories. Using those, she reveals to Parn and the others what truly happened between the Fire and Wind tribes: it were the Kastuulians who sealed the guardian deities in urns and made sure the tribes would suspect each other, rather than the Kastuulians. Before the War of Heroes, Karla informed Azumo, who had been oblivous of his inheritence until then, about Ifrit, and helped him obtain the king spirit's services. To deal with Azumo and Ifrit, the party decides they have to go after the boundless king spirit Jinn in the Tower of Dust Storms. The party, now with Slayn and Leylia, uses the Sea Hawk to travel back to the Wind and Fire Desert. Once they come ashore, they travel to the Tower of Dust Storms on foot. At night, the party is attacked by a sandrunner and have difficulty dealing with the sturdy creature. Pseudo injures his leg and is about to be attacked by the sandrunner, but at the last moment Deni jumps between them and is caught by the sandrunner's fangs. The sandrunner begins devouring Deni, but Parn, Marsh and the others rush to his aid. They manage to free Deni and best the sandrunner, but Deni has already lost his life. Pseudo then reveals that he and Deni are actually called Fourth and Sardi and they are orphans who grew up in Raiden’s Thieves’ Guild. They used aliases to hide themselves from the murderer of their former master. After Fourth's explanation, the party continues their journey to the Tower of Dust Storms.

　Once inside, the party move upwards the tower, encountering some wraiths along the way. They come to an armoury from the time of the Ancient Kingdom and pick up magical weapons for Parn, Marsh and Fourth. From the armoury, the party climb a spiral stairs to the top of the tower where they find the door to the spirit world of the wind. Deedlit enters the world alone. Once inside, she finds herself surrounded by Sylphs, spirits of the wind, and eventually she finds Jinn, the king spirit of the wind. Deedlit tries to argue that Azzard's covenant has long since served its purpose; both Azzard and his enemies are no more. But Jinn insists the covenant should remain, and asks Deedlit how she would feel if her spirits did the same to her. Jinn adds that only the spell of liberation can undo the covenant, but those words have long since been lost. He then offers another method: Deedlit has to show she is superior to Azzard. Deedlit accepts, and she engages in a trial. If she loses, she'll become a mere spirit, but if she passes she'll obtain Jinn's services. Thanks to memories of Parn, Deedlit passed the trial.

　The armies of Flaim and the Fire tribe were preparing for a final encounter when Parn, Deedlit, Slayn, Leylia, Marsh and Fourth returned to Blade. The next morning, the armies of Kashue and Nardia clash. Nardia immediately has Azumo deploy salamanders among her units. The majority of Flaim's army struggle against the fire spirits, but Parn, Marsh and Fourth, with the magic weapons from the tower, are able to fight them. Azumo summons Ifrit and sends him into battle. Deedlit rushes forward and summons Jinn, leaving the two king spirits in a stalemate. Nardia, noticing Azumo is losing his grip on Ifrit, the key to their successes thus far, marches towards the enemy forces, followed by some of her troops. Kashue and Parn meet with Nardia, who by then has lost most of the troops that charged with her. Nardia challenges Kashue to a duel, but Kashue declines and offers Nardia to let the two tribes live together in peace and forget the grudges of the past.

　Elsewhere on the battlefield, Leylia meets with Azumo. The priest recognizes Leylia and believes her to be Karla, as Karla was still in Leylia's body when she helped Azumo obtain Ifrit's services. He tries to attack her, but fails and Leylia kills him.

　Meanwhile, Jinn and Ifrit have accepted the new covenant with Deedlit, and disappear. Ifrit leaves behind lingering flames. Nardia accepts defeat. She tells her followers that she will meet their guardian deity and have him protect all of Flaim. She then throws herself into Ifrit's lingering flames. When Parn and Deedlit ride their horse away from the scene, they see Phoenix, the king spirit of fire, rise from the flames were Nardia died.

Characters appearing

In order of appearance.

• Azumo
• Ifrit
• Parn
• Deedlit
• King Kashue
• Shadam
• Muhald
• Marsh
• Nardia
• Pseudo
• Deni
• Cecil
• Slayn
• Leylia
• Jinn

Gallery

Artwork from the novel.

Cover artwork without text (by Izubuchi) Cover artwork for 2013 release without text (by Dong-hyuk) Character card from the novel Intertitle Map of Lodoss Map of Flaim Ifrit by Yutaka Izubuchi Parn vs Nardia by Yutaka Izubuchi Deedlit and Tribe of Fire warrior by Yutaka Izubuchi The Sea Hawk by Yutaka Izubuchi Slayn and Leylia by Yutaka Izubuchi Fourth attacked by a sandrunner by Yutaka Izubuchi Nardia and Azumo by Yutaka Izubuchi Nardia by Yutaka Izubuchi