Breathless seconds passed as they watched, waiting for the fire inside the sphere to fade. As the sphere drifted down, they saw Lina standing on top of the outside of it, looking down into the destruction. “Now that’s a little trick that I borrowed from Zelgadis.” The Raywing faded, allowing Dilgear to tumble out, and stand as Lina addressed him from mid-air. “So I’ll make you a deal, Dilgear. You go away and leave us alone, or I finish the job right here and now.”
        The extremely roasted Dilgear looked up at Lina. “I’ll give. I’ll give! But you don’t want to be down here. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!” He turned and ran from the room, headed out to the network of caverns beyond.
        Lina cracked her knuckles and reached down to pick up her sword. “What an idiot. Anyway, we’re even now, okay, Zel?”
        Amelia looked at Lina in exasperation. “What happened that you owed Mister Zelgadis something, Miss Lina?” Spotting Zelgadis’ blush, she wavered slightly before striking a pose, fist held high in the air. “A young woman’s virtue should be kept clean! Mister Zelgadis, you must have defended Miss Lina’s virtue, and kept her safe from harm!” Fireworks in the shapes of hearts exploded behind her.
        Lina took a deep breath and Zelgadis’ blush only deepened with every word Lina said. “Actually, Amelia, Zelgadis kneed me in the stomach during that time of the month, tied me up in the tower of his lair, and let me be tortured by that wolf-thing.”
        Zelgadis, blushing violently, interrupted with a “Hey now,” but Lina continued, watching the blue eyes of the princess widen to almost impossible proportions.
        “And then, out of the blue, he rescued me, put up with me talking all the time, and even defended me against Dilgear. And all of this happened before I met you,” Lina finished. “So I owed Zelgadis a lot. But what I chose to give him was defense when he needed it.”
        Gourry looked at Zelgadis with wide eyes. “Gosh, Zel. Even I know not to knee a girl in the stomach. Especially during that time of the month.”
        Zelgadis shot Gourry a dirty look through his blush. “How was I supposed to know? It’s not like you can just walk up to a girl and ask her that!”
        Gourry blinked, turned and walked over to a blushing Sylphiel, and asked her point-blank. “Is it that time of the month?”
        Before Sylphiel could answer, Lina landed on Gourry, fists first, pummeling him into the floor. “Get a clue, jellyfish brain!”
        As Lina stalked towards the next door, Gourry whimpered, putting up his hands. “I still don’t know what makes ‘that time of the month’ any different from the rest of the month…”
        Lina collapsed before she got to the door, and when Gourry got to his feet, he was the only one standing. Everyone else had fallen over.

        It was a few rooms later before Gourry ventured yet another question that was burning at the top of what could passably be called his brain. “Are we there yet?”
        Lina looked over at Gourry. “It depends on your definition of there. Somehow I think we’ll know when we get there, okay?”
        Gourry struggled with this. “So we don’t know where ‘there’ is?”
        Lina groaned, seeing where this was headed. Gourry had no sense of abstract thought. Put a sword in his hand and point him to someone and say ‘that’s the enemy, go kill it’ and Gourry was your man. Anything else, and you may as well expect Xellos to pop out of the woodwork and rescue you without wanting your soul in return.
        Before Lina could answer, Zelgadis pushed open a heavy door, and they followed him into the room. The only problem with this fact was that Zelgadis had stopped short just inside the room, and Lina ran into his back. Then Amelia and Gourry ran into Lina. The only one who didn’t join the sudden people-pile was Sylphiel, and that was because she was quick enough to side-step into the room and see what had caused Zelgadis to stop so suddenly.
        In the center of the room was a large crystal with a figure held suspended within it. Sylphiel ventured forward as the others untangled themselves, and Lina’s irritated remarks were lost to the cleric as she put her hands on the crystal and looked at the figure trapped inside it.
        Suspended like a jewel in the crystal was a woman with shoulder-length black hair, garbed in what looked like long white flowing robes. An almost ethereal look was about her, but the reminder of her affiliation with the sinister Rezo countered it.
        Zelgadis breathed the woman’s name as he approached the crystalline structure. “Eris…”