Gourry looked at the book and handed it to Lina.  Lina opened the book
and found that it was a spell book, containing shamanistic spells from
the world of Death Fog.  Even getting new spells to learn didn't cheer
her up.

 Gourry asked, "What's wrong Lina?"

 "I freed a Dark Lord and you ask what's wrong?  He's going to destroy
that world.  Everyone is going to die because I did that."

 Gourry shrugged.  "Maybe.  Maybe not.  One of the people I freed, said
that the Robors were breeding humans to extend their life and keep the
numbers under control.  I have no idea what that means, but what I did
pick up was that they wanted a change.  Maybe freeing that Dark Lord was
the best thing that could have happened to that world."

 Lina thought, 'Somehow he did it again.  He spotted the benefits of
freeing Death Fog.  And, that world was a bit to orderly.'

 Lina took a few steadying breaths and said, "Gourry, hand me your
sword.  It's time for the compass spell."

 'It has to be Nezzard.  Ragud Mezegis is the weapon of Darkstar's
world.'

 Getting the sword, Lina cast the spell.  This time, the spell pointed
East.  Lina got the impression that it was about a three day journey and
it was in a dark place.  The pair started on their journey. They had
several close calls with quicksand and the creatures infesting the
swamp.  At the end of each day, Lina went through the spell book and
learned some more shamanistic spells.  At the end of the third day, Lina
felt her heart drop.  Sitting in front of her was a graveyard with
several walk in crypts.  Gourry handed Lina the sword silently.  Lina
reluctantly cast her spell.  The blade lit up when it pointed towards
one of the larger crypts.

 "Great," Lina whispered.  "We have to become grave robbers.  I'm a
bandit killer."

  'It's not so much robbing tombs that bothers me.  It's the dead
bodies'

 "I don't see we have much choice," Gourry replied.  "We are trying to
save our world, aren't we?"

 Lina sighed and nodded.  "But, we wait until morning.  I'm not entering
a tomb at night."

 After getting a good night's sleep, Gourry and Lina woke at sunrise.
The two of them carefully made their way to the crypt.  Gourry took the
lead and pushed open the door.  Lina winced at the loud squeal of
metal.  As they entered, Lina cast a Lighting spell.  She was a little
dismayed that it was only glowing at a fraction of its power.  She
dispersed it and used the talismans to boost her next spell.  This time,
the light spell came out at full strength.

 'Not good.  I'm going to have to use the talismans to fight at my
standard level.  Hopefully, it'll be a quick snatch and run.'

 As the pair walked through the crypt, the Lighting spell rapidly dimmed
and faded out, plunging the room into darkness.

 "What is with this place?" Lina demanded.  "That spell should last at
least an hour.  It only lasted a few minutes."

 "Um, Lina?"

 With an exasperated groan, Lina asked, "What is it, Gourry?"

 "Why are you bothering with a light spell?  We could use our weapons to
light place up.  You can use that weapon you just picked up one handed."

 Lina slapped her forehead and shook her head.  'He did it again.'

 Lina and Gourry pulled out their respective weapons and activated
them.  The light from the axe and sword lit the place up better than the
Lighting spell.  Lina looked around and saw that there were several
sarcophaguses in the crypt.  There were six rows by eight columns of
stone coffins.

 "We're going to have to open each one of these."

 "Why don't you just use that spell you did before."

 "I could, but we would be at half light and there is something draining
the effectiveness of my spells."

 "Then we split up and search from each side of the room and meet in the
middle."

 Lina stared at Gourry.  "Do you know what the weapon looks like?"

 "Well, no.  But I'm sure if you told be what it is, I could find it."

 Lina shook her head.  "Never mind.  It's one of the more exotic
weapons.  But, we'll take part of the idea.  Instead of searching, we
open the tombs and move to the next, without disturbing the bodies."

 "Well, okay."

 The two of them did so, by sliding the tops around to form a cross, and
soon had all forty-eight sarcophaguses open.  After doing so, Lina
started from one corner of the room and checked inside each grave.  With
great effort, she restrained herself from touching any gems or jewelry
on the corpses.  On the twenty-third corpse, Lina spotted what she was
hunting for.

 "Gourry, close up all the others up."

 Lina waited until Gourry had completed what she had sent him to do.
After he had returned, Lina took a deep breath and grabbed Nezzard, the
Claw of Light, and slid it out of the corpse's hands.  As soon as she
did so, she spun the lid back over the tomb and made a dash for the
exit.  As she ran, she lit up the claw to get better light.  Gourry
quickly followed her.  Lina dashed out of the tomb and stopped just as
she left the graveyard.

 Panting heavily, she said, "Any minute now, there should be zombies
chasing after us."

 She almost jumped out of her skin when she heard a loud squeal.

 "Lina, are you all right?  You look pale,"  Gourry said, as he came up
next to her and sheathed his sword.

 Lina glanced back at the crypts and saw that nothing was moving in the
graveyard.

 "No traps.  Nothing is chasing us.  Something must be up."

 "By the way, I closed the door after I left."

 'I'm not going to hit him for scaring me like that.  I just want to get
out of here.'

 She quickly started her spell and saw blue light start to swirl around
them, but it quickly faded leaving them in place.  Lina gritted her
teeth, activated the talismans and stone, and tried again.  The swirling
blue energies started glowing brighter than before, but also quickly
faded.

 "A magic suppression field," Lina spat out.  "Not good."

 Dousing the weapons, Lina stowed them away and thought, 'I need to know
what caused this and find some way to stop it.  Otherwise, we can't
leave.  Build up spells and duration spells lose power fast, but
something like fireball might stay the same.  I think the only reason
the compass spell worked properly was because the Darkstar weapons
aren't affected by the field.'

 Lina looked around. "We need to find a town to find out what's going
on."

 Scratching his head, Gourry replied, "Well, there's one in that
direction.  I saw it when I came out."

 Lina focused her gaze to where Gourry was looking and saw a decrepit
village.  A crumbling castle stood at the center. She sighed and
motioned for Gourry to follow her.

 'We have to start somewhere.'

 The two of them entered the town and found them the center of scrutiny
by the many green skinned people walking around.  The two of them
noticed that everyone was very thin and looked sick. Lina shook her head
and walked towards the castle, ignoring the stares.  Gourry just
followed along.  As soon as they made it to the castle gates, they were
stopped by a pair of guards.


 "H-H-Halt," the guards stuttered in unison, while trying to move thin
spears to block the way.  "Wh-who g-goes there?"

 One of the guards dropped his spear and the other sank to his knees.
Gourry knelt down beside the one and looked at Lina.

 "Can't you do something for them?"

 "No.  Recovery won't help them and I don't know Resurrection."

 The guard that remained standing took rapid breaths and gasped out,
"F-forget it.  There is no way we can stop you.  Go on."

 Lina nodded and headed to meet the ruler of this village.  Taking a
sympathetic glance at the two guards, Gourry quickly followed her.  Lina
pushed in on the door and was surprised at it came crashing down with a
dull boom and shattered into many splinters.  The two glanced at each
other and proceeded inside.  They soon found the throne room and saw a
very frail looking man sitting on the throne.  On the ground in front of
him was a crown.  The man was staring at the crown with tears in his
eyes.

 "Your Majesty?"  Lina asked dubiously.

 The man looked up and was taken aback by Lina and Gourry's appearances.

 "Wh-who are you?"

 "I'm Lina Inverse,"  Lina replied in a soft tone.

 "And I'm her guardian: Gourry Gabriev."

 The man looked at the crown and back at the two.  "Yes. I am the king
here.  A king of a decaying land."

 "What happened?" Lina asked. "We're from the world of Cephied and
Shabranigdo."

 The king gave a short chuckle and started coughing.  As soon as the
coughing fit subsided, he answered.

 "Some cult got into their head that magic was evil and needed to be
eliminated.  They set up something that would suppress magic.  It worked
a bit too well.  This land is being forced downward into the sea
slowly.  That's why everything is a swamp and the life is being drained
out of my people."

 Gourry asked, "Can't you stop it?"

 Shaking his head sadly, the king replied, "No.  It would take powerful
energy to break the field.  There hasn't been a magician who can even
cast Light for three generations.  Everyone is too weak."

 "I'm not going to let some idiot cultists stop me," Lina stated.  "Tell
me where to go and I'll put a stop to the field."

 The king stared at Lina.  "Are you a person who can work magic?"

 "Yes.  Yes, I am.  I also have other options available to me," Lina
answered.  "Gourry and I are probably going to need food and since I'm
here, I'd like a book on the shamanistic magic of this world as my
payment."

 "What's to stop you from just taking the book and not doing anything
about the field?"

Lina leveled a gaze at the king.  "I am the daughter of a merchant.  I
do not go back on my deals."

 Gourry piped up.  "Plus, she has to take the barrier down in order for
us to leave."

 "Shut up, Gourry."

 The king contained his laughter and pointed to his left.  "In there,
you'll find the court magician's library.  Take what books you want."

 "I'll do that after I hear where I have to go," Lina said.  "Gourry,
while I'm doing that, go into the village and pick up food supplies."

 The king pulled our a piece of paper and wrote on it.  "This voucher
will get you the supplies you need."

 Gourry took the voucher and nodded.  As soon as he left, the king told
Lina exactly where she had to go and the description of how the
anti-magic field was set up.  Lina went into the library and searched
the books once she had that information from the king.  She soon found
what she was hunting for and stowed it away with the book she received
from Death Fog.  While waiting for Gourry, she hunted through the books
for any other useful information.  She found some books that had
schematics for magic items and other useful rituals.  She stowed three
more books away and was about to hunt some more when she heard Gourry
arrive.

 'Oh well.  At least I got a good deal out of this.  It's time to go.'

 Lina went back into the throne room and bowed before the king.

  "We'll have the field down, your Majesty.  Hopefully, when it does
come down, your subjects will gain strength from the sudden influx of
magic."

 "I hope so to," the king said. "I wish you the best of luck."

 Gourry and Lina took their leave of the castle and headed North.  As
before, they were careful to avoid falling into bogs and dodging the
local wildlife.  They kept moving North for five days, and Lina learned
more spells during the trip.  As they journeyed, the wildlife and plant
life started thinning out.  On the sixth day, they came to the edge of
the swamp and saw an open area with dead trees lying every which way.

 "This is horrible," Gourry said.  "Everything is dying."

 "So will we, if we don't keep moving," Lina retorted.  "But, I think
we'd better rest first."

 The two of them got a good night's sleep and stared travelling North
once more.  After a couple more days, they spotted a large post stuck in
the ground emanating rays of orange and blue from its top.

 Lina pointed at it with Bodigar. "There it is.  The central post that
holds magic back.  Once we take it down, we should be able to leave."

 Gourry panted a bit.  "I don't think we can get any closer to it,
Lina.  My strength is fading."

 Lina said nothing as she switched Bodigar for Galvayra.  She held the
bow in front of her as she stared at the post.

 "Light come forth."

 Galvayra lit up and Lina pulled back on the energy string.  She tilted
the bow so she was aiming at the base of the post.

 "This is as close as we need to be, Gourry," Lina said, as she released
an energy arrow.

 The arrow flew straight and true towards the post.  Lina could see that
the energy of the arrow faded as it approached the post.  However,
Galvayra's arrows had more than enough power to make it to the post and
detonate.  The explosion rocked the energy draining post and it fell
like a deadfall tree.  As soon as it did, Lina felt her magic
strengthen.  Gourry took deep breaths as his strength returned.  Lina
stowed Galvayra away and headed up to the post.  Now that it was down,
Lina could see the crystal sphere that used to be sitting on top of it.
Grabbing the sphere, Lina looked through it.

 "A magic amplifier used to suppress magic.  It's been damaged from the
attack.  I'd say it only has a few more uses before it shatters
completely.  I'll probably use it to create some major magic items,"
Lina said, as she put the sphere away into the same pocket with Galvayra
and Nezzard.

 "How do you do that?"  Gourry asked.

 "Do what?" Lina asked. "Oh. You mean store things like this.  I have a
couple dimensional pockets that can hold things.  At first, I thought
the suppression field worked on all magic, save the Darkstar weapons.
But, it appears that magic items are immune.  My guess is that if worked
on magic items, the field itself would fall apart and set the cultists
back to the beginning."

 "Why would making magic items immune set the cultists back?"

Lina explained in an exasperated tone, "Because the suppression field
itself was created by a magic item.  If it worked on magic items, after
a while the field would neutralize itself.  At any rate, I'd better take
care of something first."

 Lina quickly slapped on the protections spells she had cast when she
first made the mega-booster talisman on all her items.  She sighed in
relief as soon as it was done.

 "It's time to go, Gourry."

 Before Lina could cast her spell, the ground started shaking.  The two
of them quickly fell to their stomachs to avoid being injured by the
earthquake.  They watched as a waterspout shot up from the quagmire
infested kingdom.  Soon, the water from the swamp had drained away and
the water spout continued to spin.  Lina watched in alarm as it headed
their way.  She quickly stood up and dragged Gourry to his feet.

 "We have to get out of here," Lina said in a shaky voice.

 The spiraling water suddenly took the shape of a very large dragon made
out of water and spoke.

 "I thank you of the Flare Dragon's world.  I am the Typhoon Dragon.  I
am the god of this world.  The spikes of magic death were created by the
followers of Chaotic Blue to kill this world and imprison me.  They
would continue to drain the life out of this world.  When you destroyed
the central spike, you freed me and saved this world from a slow and
painful death."

 'Well, this makes up for freeing Death Fog.  But still...'

 Lina asked, "Um?  Typhoon Dragon?  I am on a quest to save my  world.
I need to know if Ragud Mezegis is on my world or on the Night
Dragon's.  Without it, I can't save my world from destruction."

 "It is still on the world of the Dark Star and the Night Dragon," the
Typhoon Dragon replied.  "I will send the two of you to it as thanks."



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