Author's note: You know, these are pretty easy to do when I just sit down and do them.

Queen faces Queen. Knight draws the Sword of Light, but its blade and the blade of the foreign Queen's double sword start flickering, then pulsing in time with each other. No one moves.

Well, if he'd wanted to destroy us, he would have started already.

"My name is Alumace. I come from the Overworld."

Lina briefly explains that he comes from another world, and I remember the glimpse I got just after Lord Hellmaster was obliterated. The Sword of Light was created during a period when Lord Dark Star and his opposite were working together. Alumace bears a double-bladed sword made the same way, and the bow taken from the foreign Lord and sealed by the Ancient Dragons was the same. Thus, Alumace must be the third of these Lords – presuming the pattern of five Lords per god holds for the other worlds, we may have to deal with two more of him.

The dragonkin demand the foreign Lord's reasons for coming here, and are told that he is seeking the weapons that were lost here so long ago. Well, I could have told them that. They try to smooth things over, offering Alumace the Sword of Light if he'll just leave, and then ask what he's going to use it for.

"What I desire is to summon the Dark Lord Dark Star to this world."

Oh, hell no! We have enough problems with the fragments of Lord Ruby Eye!

No one is pleased to hear this. Lina demands to know why, Amelia assumes his goal is world domination, and the dragonkin – predictably – ask why he can't just do it somewhere else. Again, they try to bribe the foreign Lord with the sword he seeks if he'll just go make his messes elsewhere, and even Filia is shocked by the disgustingly self-centered suggestion. Alumace agrees to the terms, however, and the Supreme Elder is obviously not afraid to take the sword by force. Typical. The dragonkin are losing major points with Lina, Zelgadis, Amelia, Gourry, and even Filia.

And then, of course, the abomination-Knight crashes the party. Hmm, friction in the ranks of the enemy – Alumace is desperate, was desperate to use Valgaav as his Knight. Something's not right. But with that mismatched aura unbound and so close to me, it's suddenly clear.

Alumace's aura is also tainted.

Knight attacks his own Queen, and the seed of foreign substance in him means that Alumace actually has to block the blasts. But that's all he does. My little friends take the opportunity to run, and the foreign Lord follows them, offering to spare this world if they hand over the sword. Lina would rather go down fighting than sentence another world to the fate this one would have escaped, and surprisingly, Filia joins our side of the chess board. I smirk a little; her Superior Elder isn't happy about that. I pop out to applaud her, and the older dragon about has a fit. The slightest show of support further alienates her from her elders, but I'm not here for that. Not really. Not with the Chaos Dragon's abomination offspring poised on part of the temple, watching. My little friends realize that the chessboard has three sides just as Alumace launches a purely physical attack. The Supreme Elder keeps his dragonkin out of my way – a wise move, because I'd sacrifice whole countries to protect Lina. Abomination-Knight attacks my Queen; Knight blocks Knight. Lina leaves me to my job and focuses with the others on Alumace. I might have worried about them, but he's limiting himself to physical attacks and defensive magic only. It's a stalemate, and I have my hands full with the wretched half-mazoku who should have been dealt with years ago. It's almost no contest; he's not good enough on the astral plane to really be a threat, but I can't get in close enough or deep enough to rip out the seed of power Alumace gave him. Both fights continue fruitlessly for a while, and then I feel the words of the Ragna Blade being spoken. My domination of the fight slips as I split my attention between Valgaav and Lina; the double-bladed sword manages to withstand the Nightmare blade, but Lina succeeds in getting a hit in before the power of the spell is too much for her and she releases it.

The panic of his Queen overwhelms the abomination-Knight, and he invokes the power of his natural form – the Ancient Dragon. Filia's superior shamelessly explains that the dragonkin slaughtered them all long ago, but my mind isn't on that. Valgaav is focused on one thing, and the two halves of his aura aren't fighting each other. He knocks me out of the way and strikes his own Queen, doing more damage than the Ragna Blade did, and takes the double-bladed sword. This is what the Golden Lord was trying to show me when Lina summoned Her and She obliterated Lord Hellmaster – dragonkin and mazoku working together are a hundred times more powerful than either of them alone. She wouldn't have made things this way unless She had intended for the two races to work together. My Lord Beastmaster was right, but it doesn't help us. Not when the thing which is both dragon and mazoku has armed itself with the equal to the Sword of Light and is threatening Lina. Luckily, his hatred quite overwhelms his dragon part, and the mazoku aura attacks the dragon body. A bit of bluffing on my part, and he retreats. Alumace has retreated, as well, and very possibly for the same reason.

Well, this hasn't been a disaster after all. The dragonkin accept Lina to be their Queen, and Filia joins our side of the board. In effect, the dragonkin are bowing out of the game. They only had two pieces, and My Lord Beastmaster has control over both of them now. On top of that, we've learned quite a bit about the other side of the board. Perhaps, with Valgaav wounded, I can sneak around and have a chat with the other Queen…