It really had its roots in Lina's past. She had shown a propensity for magic at a young age, and also was highly motivated by the fact that her older sister, Luna, had been revealed to be one of only five Knights of Ceiphied in the world. Lina was bound and determined not to be left behind. She had busted her butt studying, and had, by the tender age of thirteen, made herself just about the most powerful sorceress anyone had ever seen. This had lead to all sorts of unexpected madness in her life, everything from upsetting her big sister to the point where she even took a stick to Lina and showed the younger girl why it was not wise to make a foe of a magical knight, to Lina leaving home at age thirteen to make her own way in the world. It had even influenced her choice of companions, or, in some cases, lack of choice. And of course, it had culminated in her teenage years with the important defeats she dealt to several important overlords of the evil race of beings known as mazoku.
And yet, now it seemed the mazoku had won. That too had its roots in the past, when Lina had, in her wandering years, encountered a mazoku named Xellos, who was both general and priest to an important mazoku overlord named the Beastmaster, also called by the name Zellas-Metallium. To say Lina was friends with Xellos would have been wrong, but perhaps it could be said they had an "understanding" of sorts, they could use each other as long as it was mutually benificial, otherwise Lina would make trouble. Big trouble. And now big trouble had been made for Lina.
It had started simply enough, Lina was at work in her underground laboratory. She had had had enough of the close calls in her youth and by her early twenties she had realised that she had had some very narrow escapes based strictly on luck, nothing more. This wasn't good enough for her, she had wanted to be even stronger, more powerful, more able to defend herself at a moment's notice. After all, you didn't bring about the ruin of mazoku lords, and many evil men, as she had done, without making enemies. In the end it was perhaps fear, not outright cowardice as such, but a nagging doubt about how long her luck might really last, that drove her to settle down and study her arts more intently. To this end she had done what many magicians before her had done, she dug a big complex underground in a secluded part of the country and settled down to do some really serious experimenting. In this case the country she chose was Elemikia, but it was the rocky hills she hid in that had appealed to her, not the geopolitics of where they were located.
At first it had been good, Gourry had helped so well, his big muscles and broad shoulders seemed to never tire with all the digging and work that was needed to build the lab to Lina's needs. But alas, Gourry had had needs too, and Lina hadn't seen them. One day he had asked her to marry him. Lina was so intent on what she was doing she didn't think before replying that there was work to do. This had been the falling stone that turned into an avalanche and eventually, some time later, lead to the big fight she had had with Gourry. The yelling and screaming reached an intensity that not even Lina had realised she could reach, and it had ended with a bang, litterally, as she had hit Gourry with an especially powerful fireball then screamed at him that if he couldn't understand her needs then he was a useless guardian to her and he should get out. Afterwards, she had never forgotten the look that had come over Gourry's face. They had been through so much together, and he had really taken a lot of abuse from Lina without complaining, but this was a stab to his very soul. It was as if something very fragile and very beautiful deep inside had suddenly shattered. Without a word he had done just what Lina had said, and left. She had never seen him again.
Lina had thought he'd come back at first, then she wanted to go look for him, but they had come so far, she couldn't leave until the building was done enough for her to feel satisifed with it. And she persuaded herself they both needed time to cool off as well. So, the delay was a long one and though she did look for Gourry it had ended in a cold trail. Lina had made her way home afterwards, feeling hollow. She knew she had cared for him, but in all truth, she hadn't realised how much she had really cared for that, that, "jellyfish!" until it was too late, of course. To distract herself from the pain and guilt she had thrown herself into her work, and as a result began to make many important discoveries and become even more powerful. She also became so absorbed in her work she became a recluse and paid little mind to the outside world. And so time had passed.
Then had come the fateful day, shortly after her fourty fourth birthday. Xellos had been her steadiest visitor, and even he had only dropped by from time to time, her old friends seemed to have lost all touch with her. By now Lina was truly a force to be reconned with, magically speaking, and was on her way to becoming perhaps the sixth great sage, possibly the successor to Rezo himself! Though without his evil. One day, she was deep in study of a new and complicated design of a magic circle when Xellos appeared before her. Unlike his other visits he was in what could be described as a mazoku equivalent to a panic, and had immediately thrown himself on the ground in supplication before Lina. After Lina had overcome her surprise at this, Xellos had never, so far as she knew, begged for help from anyone before in all the long eons of his life, she asked what was going on. "They are going to kill each other I know it! This time it's really going to happen!" "Calm down!" replied Lina, a bit sharply. "Explain what you mean."
Xellos took a deep breath, a dramatic enough gesture considering that mazoku didn't actually need to breath, and said "Since their creation, the Lady Deep Sea Dolphin, and my Mistress, my Mother, and my Goddess, Beastmaster Zellas-metallium, have had an intense feud about which one was more powerful and where the boundaries of their various realms should lie. My Mistress did pull Wolf Pack Island up out of the sea against Lady Dolphin's wishes, and it has been a sore point between them ever since. Oh sure they've had their civil moments too, but every now and again they blow up at each other and have a set-to battle and go at it like, like, sisters, and I know you know what I mean Lina." Lina nodded nervously, even after all these decades she still was fearful of her big sister. "This time, things have gotten more intense than I have ever seen, and Lady Dolphin is winning. Bad enough, but she is attacking my Mistress so strongly I believe she means to kill her. Please Lina, I can't lose my mother without trying to help, but I'm not able to do anything against Lady Dolphin! Please, I don't know where else to go. Help me! You are that stong!"
Lina was stunned. She knew the mazoku lords didn't, as a rule, get along that well with each other, and she knew it was possible for them to kill each other, after all she had personally witnessed when Hellmaster Phibrizzo had murdered Demon Dragon King Gaav. But she didn't realise what an effect it had on their underlings. Xellos had never begged before, for anything, at least not where he had really meant it. Lina shook her head. If she did nothing the world would be less one more mazoku overlord, which was good, wasn't it? But the winner would be all the more powerful and arrogant for that, and that didn't bode well either. Finally she decided. "Okay Xellos, something tells me I shouldn't, but for you I will attempt to make them stop fighting each other to the death. This once, and this once only, got that?" Xellos nodded, and with a sudden move grabbed Lina into a slight embrace and transported her to Wolf Pack Island!
After they arrived Lina bopped him on the head and said "Warn me next time!" Suddenly a loud scream of rage, followed by several hard explosions interupted her. As she picked herself up from the ground she turned to Xellos and said "You want me to stop that? Are you crazy? No, I must be for agreeing to help in the first place!" With that she Ray winged herself into the air and flew towards the battle. On the ground she could see a large armour wearing bipedal wolf. It was obviously wounded and in pain. It was backed up against a rock wall, obviously trying to defend itself against the indescribable horror of what Lina assumed had to be some sort of sea creature it was facing. Lina understood quickly enough. These were the battle forms of Beastmaster and Dolphin respectively. The creatures were screaming at each other as Dolphin prepared to strike at Beastmaster again. Suddenly Xellos appeared in between them. "Where the hell have you been?" snarled the wolf. "Ha, two with one shot! I shall end this now!" yelled the other monster. "I got help..." said Xellos simply.
"Help?" asked a perplex Beastmaster. "Ehh?" asked Dolphin, pausing for a second. Her answer came immediately as a human woman, from somewhere in the sky yelled out "Instant Dragon Slave!". Dolphin had only enough time to look up in shock before the pink ball of energy slammed into her and detonated. The monster tried to squirm and run, but Lina's power had increased with age, as had her control and accuracy. She tossed dragon slaves at the sea creature like she used to toss fireballs at bandits, and with the same deadly accuracy. Soon Dolphin was on the defence and made a run for the sea. Lina placed herself between the mazoku lord and safety. The creature stopped, fear and anger obvious in it's voice.
"What do you want, you human bitch? Let me go! This isn't your fight!" Lina replied "I didn't quite hear that Deep Sea Dolphin. I hope for your sake that that word started with a "w". You can go after I've talked to you. Now take your human form." "You heard me well enough Lina Inverse! Who do you think you are, using my father's power against me? And you dare to order me around? I don't think so!" With that Dolphin began to summon her power into a massive strike of her own and an immense watery wall sprang up around her as if it would become a tsunami and engulf the sorceress. But Lina was ready, and quickly chanted her own spell. An immense, raged, blade of black energy sprang into her hands, then, with a quick focus of her mind she moulded it into a more practical blade shape. Ah, to have been able to do THAT in her youth... "Look at me Dolphin." she ordered. "You don't want me using your father's magic against you? Fine, This is the power of our Mother, Dolphin, this is the Raguna Blade, the Giga Slave controlled! You still want to attack me, do you?"
The wall of water quivered and with a shriek of despaire it collapsed as Deep Sea Dolphin gave up her attack. The monster glowed with a bluish light and suddenly it transformed into a tall, thin woman in a full length blue dress. She actually looked pretty, with her long blue-black hair done up at each side of her head into a round knot from which a long free tail of hair hung down. But there was nothing beautiful about the look on her face. Hatred, and naked fear. Lina knew she had made yet another enemy. "This is my business with the Beastmaster, Lina Inverse. How dare you interfere!" she hisses at the sorceress. "Nothing personal Lady Dolphin, and really, I mean that, it's just I sort of owed Xellos a favour, sorry. Anyway, I'm not here to end your dispute, only your fight."
Dolphin turned away from Lina and faced Xellos, who cowered into the injured Beastmaster he had been helping. "Xellos" said Dolphin very quietly, and very, very dangerously. "There will come a day, Xellos, and I will remember this..." She then turned her glare at Beastmaster. "It seems you have strange friends in strange places, Zellas-metallium. Very well, I cannot defeat the Raguna blade anymore than you can. But this is only put off till later." She turned back to Lina. "Later means when you are dead, you interfereing little girl. When you are dead, and I can teach you the true meaning of fear!" "Dolphin! NO!" shouted Beastmaster in horror. "I will say no more, let the, the, witch figure it out herself! Now LET ME GO!" she ended in a shriek of pure malice at Lina. "No more fighting?" asked Lina, who was disturbed by what Deep Sea Dolphin had said, but she would not show it, not to Dolphin. "I will not fight Beastmaster again, not for now at any rate." replied Dolphin. "And that's all the promise you are getting!" Lina sighed. "I guess I'll take it." she said and stepped aside, blade ready against any last second treachery from Dolphin. But the Mazoku lord did nothing except walk into the sea and keep going, steam rising from the water as she entered.
Lina had naturally gone over to Beastmaster Zellas-metallium after this. The wolf like creature stared at Lina and Lina could see that, disturbingly, the right eye was white as snow, blank with no pupil, and the left eye was black as night, again with no pupil. "One holy and one evil eye, eh? I don't mind admitting I wouldn't want to meet you alone Zellas." she said. "I'll take that as a complement, for my sake...' replied the wolf with a low growl. Then the wolf began to glow with a faint golden glow and Beastmaster moulded herself into her human form, a tall, slender yet curvey blond with long legs and piercing blue eyes, dressed in a rather revealing blouse and skirt, and, of all things, holding a long slender cigarette holder, complete with lit cigarette! She looked at Lina with a mix of hate and fear, and, could it be gratitued on her face? "I suppose this makes me beholden to you somehow, Lina Inverse. I don't like that, but I do appreciate still being alive. So I thank you for your help. How may I reward you?" she said. Lina paused for a minute then said "There are many things I can think of, but for some reason my spirit itself is screaming that I need to understand Lady Dolphin's last remark, the one you tried to stop her from making." Beastmaster was silent for a minute "I suspected this would be your question Lina Inverse." she said finally. "It's a secret." "Well, now I know where Xellos gets it from." replied Lina as Zellas-metallium replied with the famous phrase that Xellos had often used on Lina.
"I always wondered if you weren't a momma's boy at heart, Xelly-poo" Lina said to the trickster priest. Xellos gave a pained smile and replied "Oh well, as for that, as long as it isn't a piece of garbage I suppose..." "No" responded Lina, "I'm not Filia. Oh well, but I do want an explanation, Beastmaster." "I can't give it." the Mazoku overlord replied. She then did something unusual, and dropped her eyes and said "I'm sorry..." Lina sighed and said "Very well, just take me home Xellos, please." Zellas spoke to her priest "Hurry back Xellos, that's an order." "Yes Mistress!" the trickster priest said with a low bow. "Lina, may I?" he asked as he came up to embrace her again. Lina nodded, and suddenly she was back in her room. As they materialised Xellos grabbed her and pulled her ear close to her mouth. "Listen!" he whispered urgently. "I have no time, but you deserve an answer. They will kill me if they find out I have said anything Lina, but the truth is, it has something to do with the words of the magic spells people use and what they mean, and the fact the Mazoku don't give something for nothing! Now I have to go!" With that he disappeared, leaving Lina very confused. "Oh well, another puzzle." she thought.
Lina waved her hands and her golem servants, inanimate objects given the power of acting life like by magic, prepared her a large meal, and brought her a tall glass of her favourite wine. She summoned her reading table and bade it bring her her dictionary. She was going to puzzle this out. For a long time she sat there reading and thinking over all that had been said. Finally she fell asleep, and in her sleep she began to dream. In her dream she kept casting the dragon slave over and over again, and every time she fired the shot off Xellos would yell "The mazoku don't give something for nothing!" As this went on and on her frusrtration grew, what was she missing? Finally, she paid attention to the words, like Xellos had said. "Thou who art darker than twilight, more crimson than the blood which flows, buried in the sands of time is where thy power grows!" Okay so far that was a poetic reference to the great lord of the mazoku, Ruby eyed Shabradnigdo himself. She went on "I pledge myself to darkness, give into my unworthy hand thy power that together we may slay the fools that stand against us." Even in her sleep Lina had to take a few more runs at this, but finally in her sleep she started to explain it to herself. The darkness is Shabradnigdo and what you want when you chant the spell is his power to attack your enemies with. And you ask and he gives, but Xellos said the mazoku don't give anything for free. So, what am I giving to the mazoku for the power?" Once more it took another few runs in the dream to get it, but finally Lina asked the question again, but instead of asking "What am I giving to the mazoku?" she said "What am I promising to the mazoku?" There was a flash, a connection was made, and Lina sat bolt upright awake, in panic. "No, no, no!" she begged of the silence. She turned to the dictionary, black fear itself pulling her both in the direction to look and not to look, but her need to know won out. She looked up the word promise, and there, embeded in the definition was the phrase "to pledge..."
Her screams of fear and terror rent the very air itself. "MYSELF!" she screamed over and over again. "I PLEDGE MYSELF!" For that indeed was what the spell had said, Lina promised herself to the dark lord in exchange for some power. And Dolphin's words "when you are dead, and I can teach you the true meaning of fear..." put the final piece in place. In death, humans crossed over into the astral plain, and the mazoku were masters of the astral energy. The mazoku waited for anyone who promised themselves to the mazoku with the magic spells, which were most human beings, and when you died, they collected on that debt. The meaning was now clear. Lina Inverse was, by her own promises, along with anyone else who used dark magic, going to go to hell.
After a long time it occured to Lina that she would die sooner than later if she stayed in the chair, so finally, she willed herself to get up. She couldn't stop crying, but she knew what she had to do. No more magic, and whatever time was left her was to be spent looking for a way to anull her pledges. She used her magic one last time and had her golems gather anything and everything into a pile in the house, even rare objects and bulky machines that had to be brought up below. Nothing was to be left that might survive. Finally all was gathered to her satisfaction. She released the magic and the golems fell silent. She took off her magical power amplifiers and threw them on the pile. She gathered some clothes, and some food and money for a trip, and went outside. Continuing to use her power one last time she flew into the air and when she was high enough, she gulped and bravely chanted the dragon slave one last time. There was an immense explosion, and when it was over all that was left of her house, and her lab, was a large smoking crater. She carefully scanned the area but could find no obvious surviving magical artifacts. She landed and fell to the earth weeping. All that time from her life, all that money, all she had done, wasted. No friends, no love, no life, all for naught, and now all gone. Finally she got up on her feet and, with one last look at the hole she said "I pledge myself to never use magic again, and to spend the rest of my time on earth looking for a way to release everyone from the pledge!" With that she turned away from the past, and, still half blinded by tears stumbled away to her new life.