Sonjia raised an eyebrow at her. "A god? What in the world would make you think I'm a god? That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard!"

Lina sighed in relief. "Well, that's good. With all the weird stuff that's been going on, you turning out to be a god would just bury the needle on the weirdness meter."

"I'll say," said Sonjia. "Besides," she added, patting her chest, which had fully healed, "I'm a godDESS. I haven't had an operation or anything. No trips to Sweden for me." Everyone fell over.

"What's in Sweden?" Gourry asked dumbly.

"Same difference!" yelled Lina, ignoring him. "Stop playing stupid with us!"

"There's a huge difference!" said Sonjia, crossing her arms. "It would be like me going around calling you a man." She looked Lina up and down. "On second thought, maybe there isn't much difference with you."

Lina growled and rolled up her sleeve. "If you think that getting a hole blown through your chest was a lot of damage, just wait till I get my hands on you for saying that!"

Sonjia yawned. "That's very nice, but could you save it for later? There's something I need to discuss with you."

"If you're going to tell them about the spell, don't waste your time," said Jadarin. "You know as well as I do that there is absolutely nothing that can be done against it."

"True," said Sonjia. "But it would be a little more sporting if they knew what they were up against, don't you think?"

Jadarin grabbed Sonjia roughly by the arm. "You're not telling them anything! The Inverse girl is the resourceful type, and she could possibly think of an angle that hasn't been considered yet. I'm not taking any chances!" He held his chopstick up to her face. "Time to shut you up."

Sonjia rolled her eyes. "You know, you are really starting to annoy me." And before he could touch her with his chopstick, she brought her arm up and gave him an uppercut to the jaw. And it actually looked like it hurt him. Maybe a physical attack coming from a god.... dess was different than a normal physical attack. Everyone just stared.

"Hello?" said Sonjia, waving her arms. "Stop gawking and get out of here while he's still disoriented!" Lina's group nodded and ran back through the forest, while Xellos stayed behind in the tree. Sonjia realized that regardless of how fast they ran or how far they got, Jadarin would catch up to them no matter what. So, the best option would be to hide. But where do you hide from a Mazoku?

"Hang on, guys! I know where to go!" Sonjia shouted. She clapped her hands, and the scenery around them immediately changed. A teleportation spell. Amelia tried to skid to a halt, but ended up running face-first into a wall. It appeared that they had returned to the dead city from before.

"What are we doing here?!" Lina shouted. "This is the most obvious place to go!"

"Well, it's also the safest," Sonjia reasoned. "We're trying to hide from a Mazoku, and no matter where we go, he can just use divining powers to find us. At least here, he won't be able to do that and would have to search around like everyone else."

"Why can't he do that here?" asked Amelia, rubbing her nose.

Sonjia motioned to one of the houses. "Just come in here, and I'll explain what I can."

Lina eyed her suspiciously as she followed her in. "So what made you suddenly so willing to give us information?"

Sonjia flopped down into a chair. "Dunno. I guess it's because you're the least untrustworthy people I've met so far. Besides, you're all mixed up in something that shouldn't be happening, so you have a right to know what it's all about. Although it probably won't matter one way or another whether I tell or not."

Amelia plopped down on the floor in front of her. "So, you're gonna tell us all about that Mazoku? And are you really a goddess?"

Zelgadis leaned against the far wall and glared coldly in Sonjia's direction. "We have no proof that what she says is the truth."

"I think she'll tell the truth," said Gourry.

"I'd rather have a fictitious explanation than no explanation at all," said Lina. She turned her attention back to Sonjia. "So, for starters, what sort of shield is that Mazoku using? And how did he kill everyone in this town? And what was with that ribbon of yours?"

"The ML," Sonjia said simply.

Lina nodded. "And...?"

"And what? It's responsible for everything you just listed." Sonjia shrugged. "What more can I say?"

Lina sighed. "Well, first of all, you could explain to us exactly what this 'ML' is. How in the world can one spell do so much?"

"That's.... where the complicated explanation comes in," said Sonjia. "I just hope I have time to tell all of it." She took a deep breath. "Okay.... It's like this...

"ML is short for 'Magic Lock', which is what this 'all-purpose' spell is. It was developed by my sister towards the beginning of the Mazoku wars. She saw that humans were getting caught in the middle of battles that they had nothing to do with, and would have meaningless deaths. They had no way of protecting themselves from Mazoku, god, or dragon attacks. So, my sister wanted to help them.

"She wanted to create a shielding spell that was strong enough to withstand any attack from either side, but be simple enough to cast so that any human could use it. But she knew that such a shield would be impossible, because shields only defend against spells of equal or lesser power. And creating a shield to defend against any power in the world would require far too much energy. More than all the gods combined had.

"But then, one night, she had a revelation. The answer was so exceedingly simple! The flaw was in her 'power against power' logic. The spell needed to work on a principle other than raw power. Instead, she based it on what she called 'the drowning principle'. Rather than absorbing power, the spell would absorb energy."

Lina blinked. "What's the difference?" She then elbowed Gourry, who had begun to fall asleep.

"It's based on an analogy she used that gave the idea the name 'the drowning principle'. She said that no matter how strong you are, if you get pulled underwater, you drown. That's because anyone of any strength needs to breathe. And Magic Lock, in essence, makes spells unable to breathe. It drowns them, more or less. Power describes how strong a spell is. Energy is what keeps it going. So, instead of fighting against another spell's power, it just suffocates its energy.

"In more technical terms, the spell is practically zero energy. It acts like an energy vacuum, drawing energy in from the outside, rather than the caster. And since power is no longer a factor, it can absorb absolutely any spell."

Lina nodded. "So, I guess that explains his shield. But what about how he killed everyone in town? It's a defensive spell, right? Defensive spells don't kill people."

Sonjia's shoulders slumped. "This one does. It's not supposed to, but it was a side effect that we hadn't counted on....

"We tested the spell with great success. When cast on a wall or a shield, absolutely no spell could get through it. But then.... Then my sister wanted to help out even more. She wanted it to protect people who were out travelling, and didn't have any walls. And rather than carry extra armor, she thought it would be best to just cast the spell directly on a person....

"But... Magic Lock is an energy vacuum. And it's not particular about what kind of energy it takes. It'll drown spells.... But it'll drown people, too. When energy is taken away, movement is taken away. When a spell is cast on a living thing... it stops their heart, stops their breathing, freezes their blood, and rips their soul from them. The absence of energy freezes things beyond the point of actually feeling cold. Frozen without being cold. Locked, you could say. People in that time termed the spell 'Absolute Zero'. My sister thought the name sounded too evil for a spell that came from a goddess, so just kept the less disturbing name 'Magic Lock'.

"Shortly after this, the Mazoku and Dragons found out about it. A spell that took practically no energy to cast, and could easily kill anything. It was an easy victory for whichever side had it. They tried bargaining with her, but my sister refused both sides."

"Why would she refuse the Dragons?" asked Amelia. "Aren't the gods and Dragons on the same side? They should have worked together to smash the forces of evil!"

"She had a number of reasons, one being that the spell wasn't designed to kill anyone. She didn't want anyone using it for that purpose. The Dragons didn't buy it, and dubbed us 'traitors'. We were fugitives, because we wouldn't give them the spell. So the Dragons decided to try to take it by force. And that's where the ribbon comes in."

Lina looked through her cape and pulled out the blue ribbon. "This isn't it, though, is it? Your ribbon was silver."

Sonjia took it. "Yes, actually, this is the ribbon. Although I really have no idea why the spell isn't on it anymore. There isn't a force in the world that can undo Magic Lock, because it absorbs everything thrown at it."

"Maybe it wore off," Gourry said.

"That could be," said Sonjia, "But I don't know why it would. Maybe it only has a five thousand-year warranty...

"Anyway, the third explanation you asked for was the ribbon. My sister cast Magic Lock on this ribbon so that no one could find her. See, the spell has primary, secondary, and tertiary effects. The primary effect is what happens to what the spell is directly cast on. Namely, it gets all its energy absorbed. The secondary effect is what happens to something that is touching the affected object. The spell is slightly transferred, and the affected person loses their magical abilities. But it also means that they are immune to any spell cast on them. My sister wore the ribbon so that no one could track her magically. And that's why I decided to bring us here, because the spell is on all the buildings.

"After a while, the Dragons got smart and decided to hound me for information about the spell. My sister didn't want me involved, since I didn't have anything to do with the spell..."

"...So she hid you down in that lab and turned you to stone, for your own protection," Lina finished for her. "You were telling the truth all along...."

Sonjia nodded. "I had no idea how much time had passed when I was released. I thought for sure that the Dragons and Mazoku were still after me. And anyone could have been a spy for them. That's why I didn't trust you."

"I don't buy it," said Zelgadis. "If that spell absorbs magic, why didn't it absorb the stone spell while tied to your wrist?"

"Well," said Sonjia, "I wasn't too clear on that part of the explanation when she explained it to me. Something about how the secondary effect causes you to lose magical abilities because it sort of creates a void around you that nothing can get though. Nothing gets in, nothing gets out. Which means nothing wears off. So, I think it will seal spells that require no outside force to maintain. But it will break spells like Levitation, because they require constant input."

"Oh, so that's how you broke Xellos-san's Levitation spell when you first met him!" said Amelia. "He touched the ribbon! Um, but he was holding it before, and it didn't do anything to him..."

"It doesn't work through clothes," Sonjia explained. "He was wearing gloves, so it didn't affect him."

Zelgadis shifted his position on the wall. "Well, you've explained primary and secondary effects. So what's the tertiary?"

"You're blue," Sonjia said flatly.

Zelgadis fell over. "Pardon? So you've finally noticed, huh? But what does that have to do with anything?"

"It has to do with the spell's tertiary effect, which is sort of a side effect of the secondary." She looked around, realizing that she'd completely lost them. "Well, see, if magic doesn't affect you, then you can't sense it. While I was wearing that ribbon, I couldn't see or feel anything that was affected by magic. It sort of distorts perceptions of reality." She smiled and flexed her knuckle, which still had a small bruise on it. "But like I said before, it doesn't work through clothes."

Zelgadis sighed and leaned his head back against the wall. "Distorts reality, huh? Are you expecting me to believe a word of what you.... Good Gods!!!" he shouted, leaping forward.

"Goddess," Sonjia corrected.

Zelgadis shook his head. "Sorry. For a minute, I thought I saw something else...."

"Hmm, you touched the wall," Sonjia said. "The wall has the spell on it. Looks like you got a firsthand look at the tertiary 'reality distortion' effect."

"I.... what?"

"You saw through my human appearance," Sonjia stated bluntly.