The little group stood at the doorway hidden in the wall at the foot of the natural stone steps. Lina and Zelgadis, of course weren’t surprised to see it. They had spoken at length about what was behind that door, and while Lina felt a certain unease at opening the door, she also knew that they’d come too far to just turn back now.
        Cracking her knuckles, she looked to Zelgadis. “Okay, Zel. So how do we open the door? An Unlock spell? A good old-fashioned Fireball?”
        Zelgadis looked at her for a moment, and then reached out and turned the handle on the door, opening it. “No. We just open the door and walk in.”
        When the group recovered, Lina cast a lighting spell and they entered the room beyond.

        The room was silent and the air was deathly still. They walked through, aided by Lina’s spell, reaching the other door and passing through it without any difficulties.
        As they filed into the new larger room, Zelgadis warned them all. “Don’t get too far apart. This is one of Rezo’s old labs… and we can’t know what is in here.”
        As if in answer to Zelgadis’ warnings, a low growl could be heard in the not too far distance. Amelia grabbed at the nearest person, who happened to be Lina. “What… was that?”
        Lina pulled her arm away from Amelia, looking over at Zelgadis pointedly while answering the princess. “It sounded like some sort of growling to me, Amelia.” When the princess shifted her grip so that she still held onto Lina, the sorceress looked at the girl in exasperation. “Amelia, will you get off? It’s probably no uglier than we’ve seen before.” Her eyes drifted past Zelgadis and she blinked. “Actually… we’ve seen it before.”
        Zelgadis turned around, eyes widening as the shape came out of the shadows. Dark green of skin, with the face and shape of a werewolf, the creature was wearing leather armor that had seen better days. “Dilgear…”
        “You had to come back sooner or later, Zelgadis. And now that you’re back, I can finally finish the job that Lord Rezo gave me.” Dilgear grinned with an evil glint in his eyes.
        Lina brought her hands together. “One wrong move, troll-brain, and you’ll get to join Rezo, permanently.”
        Amelia and Sylphiel looked at the creature, then to Lina and Zelgadis.
        Gourry scratched his head, and then stepped forwards with his finger pointed upwards. “Hey! I remember you! You’re that guy that I had to fight with the other guy! Now what was his name…?” All eyes swung disbelievingly to Gourry as he frowned in thought, scratching his chin. “Ramidus? Ramesis?”
        “Rodimus,” Zelgadis said quietly, looking back at Dilgear.
        Gourry nodded. “Yeah! Him!” There was a pause as the light in Gourry’s intelligence went out. “Whatever happened to him, anyway…”
        Zelgadis cringed, and Lina leapt up to hit Gourry on the top of his head with her fist. “You idiot! Have you forgotten everything?” When she landed, she turned to Dilgear, cracking her knuckles. “Hey, Zel… let me have him? I still owe you one from that, after all…”
        Almost everyone looked at Lina in surprise. Amelia’s lower lip trembled as she had to ask the delicate question. “You owe him one, Miss Lina…?”

        Zelgadis’ blush didn’t help the princess’ concern any.
        Dilgear took the opportunity to leap for Zelgadis, blade drawn, as Zelgadis turned to see the incoming attack.
        Lina reached out and caught Amelia by the collar as the justice-loving princess started to move towards Zelgadis. “Wait, Amelia,” she hissed. “He can’t hurt Zel like that.”
        Sure enough, as Lina spoke, Amelia, Sylphiel, and Gourry watched Dilgear’s blade shatter against the stone skin of the chimera.
        As Zelgadis stepped away from Dilgear, Lina moved forwards, her blade drawn. “It’s my turn, Dilgear.”
        Dilgear sneered at her. “You haven’t grown any since we met last. In fact… you still have no chest!”
        Amelia and Gourry had the sense to cringe. Zelgadis sighed and hung his head while Sylphiel frowned. “For the sake of all under-endowed females in the world, let him have it, Miss Lina!”
        The statement, coming from Sylphiel, was enough to bring Lina to a screeching halt as she looked back at the cleric. Zelgadis, Amelia, and Gourry all facefaulted in unison. Dilgear banked on that distraction, launching himself at Lina. The sorceress saw him out of the corner of her eye, thinned her lips in preparation, and as Dilgear landed on her, her blade slipped out of her hand, clattering on the floor. A Raywing spell snapped into place in a sphere around the two, and lifted them into the air.
        Suddenly, the interior of the Raywing sphere lit in a brilliant reddish-orange that was unmistakably a fireball of impressive magnitude.
        But where was Lina?