"Okay guys, here's the plan," she explained to Gourry and Amelia. "Amelia, you're strictly magic. Whenever you see Jadarin try to use a spell, hit him with a spell of your own, since his shield would be down. Gourry, if he's on the ground and not using magic, use your sword. Your regular sword, not the Sword of Light." Lina drew her dagger. "And I'll improvise." Amelia and Gourry nodded, understanding their respective tasks.

Jadarin was waiting. He wanted the pesky Inverse girl out of his way for good. He realized that they had probably come up with a plan of attack while he was busy recovering. What Sonjia had said was true. He truly wasn't very powerful except for his knowledge of the ML. Better not get too cocky about that.

Of course, the ML could also just take all three of them out in one shot before they even got the chance to attack. And Jadarin wasn't afraid to use it.

He hovered above them, letting the wind catch his wings before he dropped the levitation spell to cast the ML. He snapped his fingers in anticipation… and nothing happened.

Jadarin sighed and looked at his empty hand. "Oh great. Not again…"

Meanwhile, Sonjia was busy being very artistic with Xellos's hair, braiding in leaves and flowers. She stopped for a moment and thought, "You know, by touching Xellos, I bet it keeps Jadarin from casting his spell." She shrugged and got back to her mindless tinkerings.

Looked like he'd have to fight Lina's group after all. It wasn't like he was worried or anything. It would just be slightly more difficult and take a little more time. Jadarin put his shield back up and waited for Lina's group to make the first move.

Gourry stopped and looked at the Mazoku floating overhead. "Um, okay, so is his shield up or down right now?" he asked. "And even if it's up, I can't reach him."

Lina's reply was simply, "Raywing!" She lifted Gourry into the air, then hurled him at the floating Mazoku.

"Yaaaaahhh!! Lina, what are you doing?!" he shouted as he sailed through the air right at Jadarin. Jadarin easily moved out of the way as Gourry went flying past, who eventually ended up crashing into the ground on his head.

"Okay, slight change in plans here," said Lina, scratching her head. "Gourry, Amelia and I will get him from the air. If we hit him with magic and he falls, hit him with the Sword of Light. If we hit him physically and he falls, hit him with your normal sword. Got that?"

"Uuuuhhhh…" was Gourry's response.

Lina and Amelia levitated up to face Jadarin face-to-face. Lina pulled out her dagger while Amelia readied a spell.

"My my, so this is your strategy? Pathetic!" he exclaimed. He put his arms behind his back and said, "Okay, here's the question you need to ask yourself: Is my shield up or down?" He hovered close to the two, and they honestly couldn't tell whether he was using his wings or a spell to keep himself aloft.

Amelia didn't even think and threw the spell she had been preparing at him. It evaporated on contact.

"Okay, his shield is up!" shouted Lina, rushing forward and plunging her dagger into his chest. Except it just phased through without leaving a mark.

"You know," said Jadarin, "I'm quite nimble with this shield. Take it down and put it up at a moment's notice." He pulled Lina's dagger out of his chest and hurled it away with tremendous force. "And now that neither of you have a physical weapon, what are you going to do, little girl?"

Lina raised her arm and chanted, "Lighting!" A brilliant flash of light erupted from her palm right in Jadarin's face. With that, she made her move in his momentary blindness.

Jadarin rubbed his eyes and re-adjusted his vision. "What a cheap shot! Blinding me to give yourself time to retreat? Of all the…" Wham.

Lina dropped down from above and gave him a solid kick to the back of the head. The next thing he knew, Jadarin's face was planted in the ground below. The first thing that came to mind was, "Now this seems familiar…"

Sonjia was still sitting with Xellos, putting the finishing touches on his flower necklace. She had to admit, she was having quite a bit of fun doing ridiculous things to the senseless Mazoku. Honestly, she was curious to figure out just what had caused the spell to lose effect, but she could always work on that later.

She reached to pull another flower, but at that moment, Lina's dagger came flying through the air and neatly embedded itself in her outstretched arm.

Sonjia blinked in surprise, her first thought being, "Where did that dagger come from?" But this thought was quickly replaced by another: "OOOOOWWWWW!!!!"

She gingerly pulled the dagger out of her arm, wincing at the pain. "Jeez, I'm not even part of the battle, and I still get beat up." She looked at her injured arm and sighed. "Why the heck do I always have to get injured only when I'm actually susceptible to injury in the first place?" She placed the bloodied blade in one of Xellos's hands. "Here, hold this a sec," she said as she began to heal up her arm.

Once she finished, she retrieved the dagger, but accidentally cut Xellos's hand when she picked it up. "Oh, oops. Sorry about that," she said, looking the dagger over. "Sharp little thing, isn't it?"

Xellos's hand twitched in reply.

Sonjia blinked and cautiously reached out and poked his palm. Xellos's fingers flexed slightly on their own in response. "What the heck…?" Sonjia wondered out loud. She poked his hand again. "You can feel that, can't you?" She shook her head and smiled. "I'll be damned. He's still alive."

Gourry swung his sword down, and Jadarin barely had time to move out of the way before his head got chopped off. This was getting rather annoying. The Inverse girl truly was the resourceful type. Even he couldn't predict her next move. Which is why he had to eliminate her as soon as possible.

He hovered back into the air and snapped his fingers. This time he was pleased to discover that the Magic Lock spell was operational once again. Which meant goodbye Lina.

Jadarin flicked the silver string down towards Lina. Its movements were erratic, like a thread caught by the wind. Very little way of dodging it once a target was selected.

Lina saw it coming and immediately threw a rock at it, which intercepted the spell in midair. The thread wove its way into the rock, turning it silver before it dropped to the ground below.

"Oh, just stop doing that already!" Jadarin growled in frustration. He snapped his fingers again and arced his arm around his head, producing a very long silver string. He then snapped the fingers on his other hand, producing a similar long string. He then manipulated the strings, weaving them together until he had a giant web of silver fibers.

"Let's see you dodge this one!" he shouted, throwing the web down. It was a new trick, one which he'd never really tried before, so wasn't exactly sure what the effect would be.

It wasn't what he expected, and not quite what he wanted, but it was enough. The web formed a dome over Lina, Amelia, and Gourry's heads. It was like a giant, webbed shield that encircled them. And if they touched it at all, they would obviously die.

"Well," said Jadarin, "I may not have killed you with that, but my only goal was to keep you out of my business. And I suppose that will do." He floated to the ground and looked over his handiwork. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I must go claim a spell which is rightfully mine."

Lina wanted to reach out and throttle him, but knew that she couldn't risk touching one of the threads that encircled her. There was no way out.

As an afterthought, Jadarin pulled out his chopstick and said tauntingly, "Look, shield's up! Just in case you wanted to know." He began laughing and turned to walk away.

"Thanks for the info!" came a voice from behind him. Jadarin turned just in time to see Zelgadis come flying in, sword raised for attack. Jadarin dodged, but not quite quickly enough, as Zel's sword sliced through his side.

Jadarin roared and knocked Zelgadis aside. "Damn you! You had backup in hiding the whole time! Cheaters! The whole lot of you!" He raised his chopstick, ready to put up or drop his shield at a moment's notice, but was faced with a dilemma. Zelgadis held his sword in one hand, an Elmekia Lance in the other.

"Zelgadis-san! You came back!" Amelia shouted. "I knew you'd come and aid us in a fight for Justice!"

Zelgadis sweatdropped. "No, I came back because I have a score to settle with this particular Mazoku. And I had a feeling the three of you couldn't handle him on your own."

"And I suppose you think you can?" said Jadarin, letting go of his chopstick for just a moment to begin healing himself. "I am interested to see what you think you can do."

Sonjia began piecing together all the times the ML had lost effect on something. "Okay, there was my ribbon, Jadarin's chopstick, and Xellos's cape and hand. What's the connection between those?" She tapped the dagger against her cheek, thinking. "Seems like I was injured every single time it happened. So, does that mean the spell's health is connected to my health?" She looked at Xellos. "I guess it's a possibility, but it doesn't explain why the spell lost effect on certain things, but not others."

She lazily flaked some drying blood off the dagger. "Yeah, I guess when I'm injured, I'm bleeding, too. But what would that have to do with anything?" She thought back to all the items that lost the spell. "Yeah, I think I got my blood on all of those. But why would that do anything?" She leaned backwards, but ended up hitting her head on a tree. "Oww…" she said, rubbing her head. She suddenly stopped, then smacked herself in the forehead, which did little to help with the pain. "Duh! I'm thinking like a human!"

Sonjia looked at the blood on the dagger. "It's not blood. Well, not really. It's more of my life force spilling out when I'm too injured to keep it in. And it just takes the appearance of blood. Yes!" she exclaimed, proud of herself for figuring something out. "It's like big sis always taught me when I was training with my magic. 'A spell is an extension of yourself.' So, it doesn't work on me because my life force absorbs it! And since the blood is actually a part of my life force, it absorbs the spell, too!

"Hm, just one more question, though," she said, scratching her head and examining Xellos. "Why the heck aren't you dead?" She shrugged and picked up the dagger. "Well, time to put this theory to the test, guinea pig. If it works, you just got a second chance at life. But if anyone asks, I didn't give it to you."

With that, she snapped her fingers and Locked the blade. Then, she held her breath and made a deep cut across the palm of her hand. She pulled Xellos's glove off and deepened the small cut that already was on his hand.

Her bleeding hand hovered over his. This would be the best and fastest way to get a little bit of her life energy all throughout his body, and, hopefully, fully wash the spell away. "Let's just hope we have compatible blood types," she commented as she pressed her hand to his.

She had expected it to sting, considering Mazoku and gods were opposite ends of the spectrum. It didn't. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that gods and Mazoku were actually almost exactly the same, except for their energy output. If you strip away all the outer showy stuff, you probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the two.

"Come on, Xellos, wake up!" she found herself saying. She wanted to be right about one thing in her life, and hoped this would be it. Besides, bringing the dead back to life was something that neither god nor Mazoku had ever achieved. And this was the closest she could get to that accomplishment.

Sonjia continued to hold Xellos's hand, and used her other hand to shake his shoulder. "Wake up, Xellos. Wake up!" There was no response. Sonjia fell back and sighed. Yet another failure to go on the long, sad list of things gone wrong with this spell. Gods, this was the spell from hell.

She buried her face in her hand and shook her head. She clenched her teeth in anger, more at herself for being wrong again. Finally, frustrated beyond anything, she said one last time. "Xellos… wake up…" Still no response.

"Figures," she said, getting up and preparing to walk away and just leave the Mazoku there.

Xellos yawned in reply. "Just five more minutes, ma…" he finally said.

Sonjia stopped dead in her tracks. She whirled around, not knowing whether to hit him or hug him. She decided on a compromise and mentally patted herself on the back for the first and only victory against the Magic Lock. She looked up to see Xellos sitting up and scratching his head, and none the worse for wear.

Well, almost. "Um, do I dare ask what the heck is in my hair?" he ventured. Sonjia stifled a laugh, having forgotten about the flowers. Xellos was lost. He hated not knowing what was going on, as he was always in control of situations. But the entire ordeal concerning Jadarin was quite difficult to handle. Speaking of that lowly piece of trash, where was he, anyway? The last thing Xellos remembered was getting ready to attack him, then blacking out.

"You should be dead right now, you know," Sonjia explained to him. "You're lucky I decided to experiment on you."

Xellos was busy pulling the flowers out of his hair, which was a complete mess. "I don't know what you're talking about. I just feel a little drained, like I haven't gotten a good dose of negative energy in a while."

Sonjia began wandering in the direction of the battle. "I'm getting dead sick of this spell. I'm gonna go out there, find Jadarin, and give him a good smack for putting me through all this."

Xellos trotted after her. "Ah, I could use a snack. Mind if I tag along to witness this little 'cat fight'?"

The next thing he knew, Xellos was punted into the stratosphere. "If this is the thanks I get for clearing that spell out of your system, you can forget ever showing your face in front of me again!" Sonjia shouted after him as she watched him sail away through the air. With a huff, she turned back and stalked towards the battle.

Zelgadis wasn't faring very well. Jadarin just moved too quickly. Zel had only been able to get two shots to hit in the past ten minutes, and both had been absorbed. Plus, he had to worry about being thrown into the webbed shield whenever Jadarin countered.

Lina was shouting commands at him through the shield. Of course, this did little to help, as Jadarin heard the commands clearly as well, and could easily dodge Zelgadis's moves. Even when Zel tried to be sneaky and not follow Lina's commands, his movements were far too easy to read.

"What are you aiming at?" Jadarin taunted. "You'll never hit anything like that!" This was, actually, quite a useful strategy, as the taunts only made Zel angrier, which decreased his accuracy even more.

"Ah, the sweet taste of anger. Such a delicacy." Xellos appeared hovering overhead, wearing a little bib. "Please continue, gentlemen. It's getting rather interesting."

"Xellos-san!" Amelia shouted. "You're not dead anymore!"

"You!" Jadarin exclaimed, surprised at his rival's sudden appearance. "How did you get here? I killed you, there was no question of it!"

"You killed him huh?" said Zelgadis. "I really wouldn't mind if you did so again."

"Zelgadis-kun, must you always be so cruel?" said Xellos. "I'm just here to observe, and you decide to pick on me again."

"Xellos!" Lina shouted to him. "Don't just float there! Help out a little! He's your enemy too, right?"

"I would," said Xellos, stretching, "but I don't feel up to it right now. You two can continue your business. Pretend I'm not here."

"You shouldn't be here!" Sonjia shouted from a distance. "Didn't I tell you to go away?"

"I did go away!" Xellos called back to her. "You just happened to show up in the same place I decided to go."

Sonjia fumed and stalked up to Jadarin. "And as for you… Just stop this, okay? Stop. Right now. Halt. Desist. Discontinue. Got that?"

Jadarin smirked. "Just who I wanted to see! Are you ready to hand over the spell?"

Sonjia grabbed him by the neck and yanked his face down right in front of hers. "Are you even listening to a word I'm saying? KNOCK IT OFF!!"

"My, how violent of you," said Jadarin, oblivious to her anger. "And I thought you said you would never use your powers for destructive purposes."

"Yeah?" Sonjia countered. "Well, maybe I'm not… but I'm willing to bet they are," she said, motioning to Lina's group, most of which was still trapped behind the shield. She stepped back, walking backwards until her back was right on the edge of the shield. "Come and get me," she challenged, backing up some more. Her body phased right through the web, as if she was passing through strands of water. It shimmered as she walked right through it, then reformed once she reached the other side.

However, the added area of her body, plus the wings, made the inside of the shield quite cramped, leaving Lina, Amelia, and Gourry little room to move without touching it. Before anyone could ask what the heck she was doing, Sonjia grabbed one of the lower threads and lifted it up, consequently lifting up an entire side of the shield.

"There you go, guys," she said as she herded the three out. "Have a blast beating the stuffing out of him."

"Whoa, wait a sec!" said Lina, just as Sonjia dropped the web back into place. "Aren't you going to help?"

Sonjia just sat down behind the shield and pulled out a cup of tea. "Nope," she stated flatly. "If I helped out any more, people might start mistaking me for a helpful goddess, which I'm not."

"Yeah. I can see that," said Lina as she turned away to join the others.

Of course, this simply put her in the same position she was in earlier. There was no way of knowing whether Jadarin's shield was up or down, and considering that state could change at any second, it really didn't matter. It was impossible to know what to hit him with.

Even so, Lina and Amelia flanked him on the left and right, while Gourry stood in front of him, Zelgadis behind. Two powerful swordsmen and two powerful sorceresses. But all the power in the world doesn't really mean that much if you don't know when and where to use it.

Xellos, in the meantime, was still floating overhead. He had a bag of popcorn in one hand, a little pennant with a super-deformed Lina head in the other. Being mostly dead for a while obviously hadn't left any lasting marks.

Zel made the first move. He swung his sword at Jadarin's back, but the blade passed straight through. A second later, Amelia fired a Flare Arrow at him, but his shield was already up. Gourry stayed put, unsure whether to use his regular sword or his light sword.

Zelgadis and Amelia continued their respective attacks, but the shield changed states far too quickly for them to do any damage. Zelgadis alternated between his sword and magic, but it was no use. This guy was good at reading moves.

Gourry, on the other hand, was still trying to figure out which sword to use.

And where the heck did Lina go?

"Let's even the odds a little, then!" shouted Amelia. "Dark Mist!" A cloud of black fog descended upon them, preventing anyone from seeing anything. Including Zelgadis and Gourry.

"Amelia!" Zel shouted. "What did you do that for? Now we can't see him!"

"Um, but he can't see us either, right?" said Amelia, trying to explain herself.

There was a chuckle through the fog. "Nice try. But I'm afraid you've forgotten one important thing: Cats can see in the dark. Besides, with my shield up, I can see through it anyway. If anything, you've just set the odds in my favor!"

"Oops," was all Amelia had to say for that little mistake. She decided to make a run for it. She levitated above the fog to see if she could get a better look at things. Zelgadis did the same.

Gourry, who couldn't fly, decided on the Sword of Light to help him see. As soon as it lit, he saw Jadarin standing in front of him with a look that said, "Hello. I'm going to kill you now" plastered across his face.

Gourry decided that the logical thing to do would be to slice the Mazoku in half. So he did. Or at least tried to, but the sword had no effect.

"Go away," Jadarin said simply, grabbing the Sword of Light by the blade and yanking it from Gourry's hands. He then knocked Gourry across the head with the hilt, knocking him out. "This is getting a little dull." He looked up through the mist and saw Zelgadis and Amelia hovering overhead. Time to take those two out too.

Amelia looked down through the mist. "Ne, Zelgadis-san, do you see anything?" He was about to reply that he couldn't see a thing, when a pair of fireballs shot up from the ground, one at him, one at Amelia. They didn't see them in time and got caught in the fire, both losing their levitation spells and crashing to the ground.

"Now that just leaves the Inverse girl," said Jadarin. "Come out of hiding, little girl!" he commanded. "If you don't, I'll kill these three right here."

"I really wish you wouldn't" came Lina's voice through the mist. "Besides, I've figured out a way to defeat you."

"By yourself?" Jadarin asked, trying to locate her. "I'm quite interested to see what you have in mind," he said.

"Well, not quite by myself. Something you did a while ago will have a hand in it. Want me to show you?"

Jadarin looked around him, still not seeing any sign of the Inverse girl. "Thanks for the warning. I'm ready for anything." He held his chopstick out, ready to manipulate the shield however necessary.

He heard a rush of air, and whipped around to see a very large rock, propelled by a Raywing bubble, flying at him. "She's throwing a rock at me," he said to himself, almost laughing. "What is this supposed to do? Crush me?" He dropped his shield to keep the rock from actually hurting him, even though no matter what, it would hit him.

The flying boulder hit him with enough force to propel him off his feet. No matter. It wouldn't do anything to him when he landed. And then he would find Lina and finally finish her off.

"Oh Jadarin!" Lina called. "I'd look behind you, if I were you!"

Jadarin nonchalantly turned his head and noted he was being thrown right at his shield. So? …Wait a minute.

In a panic, Jadarin tried to dislodge himself from the rock, but the force of inertia was too much. Both he and the rock collided with the shield, which immediately warped and wove itself around him as the rock crashed to the ground on top of him. The shield collapsed, completely woven into his body, Locking him. As the dust cleared, there was silence.

And then, "LIIINAAAA!!" The rock had smashed right through the shield, and, consequently, right on top of Sonjia as well. She poked her head out from under the rock and sighed. "What the heck did I ever do to deserve this?"

Xellos hung in the air, heartily applauding Lina's victory. "Well done, well done!" he congratulated. "An excellent use of your resources, Lina-san!"

Lina floated beside him, wiping sweat off her brow. "Well, controlling a Raywing spell with something that heavy is no walk in the park!" she admitted. "But I finally beat that guy!"

"Well that's just great!" yelled Sonjia, trying to pull herself out from under the rock. "Now if you don't mind, I could use a little help here!"

Lina crossed her arms and looked down. "If I helped you any more, people might mistake me for a helpful sorceress, which I'm not," she reasoned.

And, for once, Sonjia had absolutely nothing to reply to that with.

Gourry, Amelia, and Zelgadis had revived, and Sonjia had finally gotten herself and Jadarin out from under the rock.

"Finally," Sonjia breathed a sigh of relief. "No more ML. That awful spell has been beaten back. Too bad it's too late to really do anything about it."

"Why not?" asked Amelia. "You fixed Xellos-san, so there must be something you can do."

Sonjia sighed. "This is different. I'm talking about my world. It's just a dead, barren place because of principles like the one that governed that spell. And there's nothing that can be done about it."

Amelia shrugged. "I still don't see why not."

"Urgh, don't you remember anything?" Sonjia said. "Remember the rocks and the circle? You need both gods and Mazoku to run a world. And I'm afraid my world is fresh out of those."

"Well, why don't you go back?" Gourry suggested. "You can go back and fix it."

Sonjia shook her head. "Yeah, but I'm just a goddess. Where am I going to get a Mazoku?"

Lina held Jadarin up by his shirt collar. "What about him? You took the spell off Xellos, so I'm assuming you can do the same for him."

There was silence as Sonjia thought. Her first thought was that if she removed the spell, he'd just try to kill her for control again. And yet… maybe he wouldn't. Maybe all he needed was a trip home to cool off. From the beginning, there was always a mention of his home world in his plans. Perhaps that's where he was trying to get.

"I… suppose that could work," she said slowly. "But a world ruled by one god and one Mazoku? Is such a scenario even possible?"

Lina handed him over to her. "You don't know until you try. What have you got to lose?"

"Hmm… I guess you're right," said Sonjia. "When you've lost everything, you can't really lose much more." She shrugged. "And who's he going to use the spell on, anyway? Maybe he'll have a change of heart after going back home."

Sonjia draped Jadarin's limp body over her back. "Sorry to be so much trouble for you guys. But hopefully, you'll never have to worry about dealing with the ML again. Once I'm gone, it won't be able to be cast in this world."

"So, how are you going to get back, anyway?" asked Amelia.

"Oh, I have my ways," said Sonjia, winking and spreading her wings to take off. "In other words, it's a secret," she added before leaving.

Lina stretched her arms over her head and yawned. "Who would've guessed that one spell could cause so much trouble?"

Zelgadis turned his back on the departing figures, just a speck in the sky now. "Hmph. I still don't believe a word of what she said. I for one am glad she's gone."

Amelia nodded. "You must've really doubted her abilities, Zelgadis-san. I'm surprised."

Zelgadis raised an eyebrow. "How so?"

"Well," said Amelia, "she's a five thousand year-old goddess who specializes in healing, and you never even once asked her to use her abilities to try and turn you from a chimera into a normal human." She nodded again. "You must've really doubted her."

Of all the treachery, deceit, and other such happenings that Zelgadis was sure that Sonjia could have brought about…

…That one had never crossed his mind.

And so, a rather frustrated scream could be heard for miles around.

Lina, completely oblivious to this, decided on a more important course of action. "All this battling has really worked up an appetite. And now that that Mazoku isn't around anymore to mess up my dinner plans, let's find someplace to eat!"

And so Lina did finally get to eat an uninterrupted meal. And there was much rejoicing.

Meanwhile, Xellos sat in a tree, pondering why everyone insisted that he had been dead for a while. He sure didn't remember anything to that extent. But he also had no memory of how the flowers got into his hair, or how the cut got on his hand.

"Oh, no matter," he said, dismissing it. "Might as well go find out what Lina and the others are up to now," he decided, snapping his fingers.

He paused a moment before jumping out of the tree. Looking at his hand, he noticed that he had somehow produced a tiny silver thread. It promptly vanished after a few seconds, having just enough spark to light it, but not enough to keep it going very long.

Xellos squinted and looked his hand over. "Hm, wonder what that was?" he said casually. He shrugged and jumped down from the tree, focusing his attention back on meeting up with Lina for whatever strange adventure happened to be coming next.