Disclaimer: Zatch Bell is copyrighted to Makoto Raiku (characters, series, and concepts). The only things I own that are currently revealed in the story are E, Nylon, Shine, Angelica Tsukoro, Curtis Herrakoro, Gretchen, Harumi Kisamaru. Izo Uramori, Myriam, Mystrael, Metallix, Professor Linda, Orion, Jade, Shine, and Zale Schwazden.

Chapter 7: The Diamond-Hearted Mamodo

"So, you two are next, huh?" Kiyo said, locking eyes with the duo before them, as he opened up the red spellbook.

"If by "next," you mean "next to be defeated," you are sorely mistaken." Shine said as he crossed his arms, "You better drop that state of mind if you know what's good for you."

"But we will defeat you!" Zatch yelled, getting ready to fight the Millennium Mamodo and his partner before him, "We must get to Zofis! We must get to the Stone of Moonlight!" The red spellbook glowed as Kiyo starting inputting heart energy into it, "That's right! We'll take on whoever gets in the way, and we will win! Zakeruga!"

Zatch's golden-orange eyes rolled to the back of his heads as he unleashed a concentrated beam of electricity toward Shine and Zale. "Quite the characters, they are." Zale remarked tonelessly as he opened up the left side of his jacket. "We're not supposed to be concerned about that." Shine stated crisply as Zale removed a blizzard blue spellbook from the inside pocket located on that side of his jacket.

Shine uncrossed his arms and extended his right hand, palm facing, to the oncoming Zakeruga. The arm that held the blizzard blue spellbook by its spine lazily dropped the side. It gave off a small white glow as Zale said, "Diamzu." From Shine's hand a medium-size shard of diamond was shot for the Zakeruga. The two spells clashed momentarily before Zakeruga disappeared and Diamzu continued for Zatch and Kiyo.

"That shard of diamond broke through Zakeruga?" Zatch exclaimed in shock. Kiyo gritted his teeth, "No time to think about that, Zatch! Rashield!" Again, Zatch's eyes rolled to the back of his head as he summoned a rectangular yellow shield from the ground before him. Diamzu made contact with Rashield; the offensive spell and the defensive spell struggled for supremacy for a little bit before they both collapsed.

"That was awfully rude of you guys to attack without introducing yourselves." Zale said emotionlessly. Kiyo narrowed his eyes but nonetheless decided it was at least the polite thing to do now that their enemies brought it up, "My name is Kiyo Takamine, and my Mamodo is Zatch Bell."

Tucking some of his parted black bangs away, Zale responded, "And we are Zale Schwazden and Shine." Shine grinned, showing off his serrated teeth, as he added, "You would be wise to remember those names."

Kiyo decided to shrug off that last statement of Shine's."It took both Zakeruga and Rashield to take care of that one spell…" Kiyo thought pensively, "And I have a bad feeling that that was just their most basic spell."

"Hmph. Zale," Shine spoke, not taking his emerald green eyes off the blonde Mamodo or the intelligent middle school student, "It seems spells of our lowest tier in power are good enough." Zale nodded curtly, "I think so, but I'm going to wait until they strike before I cast a spell."

"Zatch," Kiyo spoke strategically, "We're going to take a more careful approach with these two. What I want you to do is get in closer range. We're gonna try and draw out more of their spells and see if we can nail them ourselves." Zatch nodded readily as he dashed for Shine.

"Take a seat, Zale. I'll make this quick." Shine commanded as he started walking forward. "Sure, whatever." Zale responded as he walked off to a large slab of rocky rubble and sat down, crossing his legs and placing the spellbook in his lap.

"Zaker!" Kiyo shouted. Zatch's eyes rolled to the back of his head and unleashed a powerful spray of lightning toward the sauntering Shine. "Diamonruk." Zale murmured, resting his chin on his interlaced fingers while his elbows touched the spellbook in his lap. Shine's whole right arm crystallized into a diamond cutlass. He then raised it up and swung vertically as it came in contact with Zaker. Due to this, Shine was surrounded on both sides by lightning, but was left unaffected because he had sliced through it.

"What?" Kiyo exclaimed, eyes widening, "He cut through Zaker?"

"Kiyo!" Zatch shouted, snapping the fourteen-year-old out of his shocked stupor. The infamous Lightning Blonde was positioned close to Shine after that transpired. "Alright, Zatch!" Kiyo grinned as he then recited the next spell, "Zakeruga!" Unperturbed and still sitting in the same position, Zale muttered the same spell, "Diamonruk."

Nothing but lightning surrounded Shine as Zatch unleashed powerful lightning around from his mouth. Kiyo grinned triumphantly, but when he noticed how untroubled Zale was, his grin faded. Zatch's golden-orange eyes returned but they widened when he saw what was before him.

"Your lightning does indeed have power behind it…" Shine was standing in the same position, but most of his body was covered in a layer of diamonds that crackled with residual electricity. "However, I'm still unconvinced of your strength, Zatch Bell." Before Zatch could do anything else, he was punched in the gut by one of those diamond-enhanced fists of Shine and went rolling back instantly.

"Zatch!" Kiyo exclaimed as he ran to go attend to his fallen partner. Around this time, the white glow disappear from the spellbook in-between Zale's elbows and his lap, and the layer of diamonds on Shine disappeared instantly. "Zatch, are you okay?" Kiyo asked, kneeling beside the blonde boy. Zatch wiped the blood off his mouth and stood right back up, "Yeah, Kiyo. I'm fine."

"Heh. What now?" Shine spoke raspingly and cockily to the two, "There isn't a single scratch on me yet."

"Kiyo, are we still sticking to the plan?" Zatch whispered to him. "Yeah," Kiyo responded, "It seems his power lies in crystallizing parts of his body, or discharging those crystals as shards."

"They're not crystals." Zale suddenly spoke, his toneless voice loud enough to be heard in the empty room. Kiyo and Zatch were put on full-alert again when the ebony-haired male said that. "They're diamonds." The blizzard blue spellbook's white glow was a bit more luminescent this time, reflecting off those red eyes of Zale as he drawled, "Ganzu Diamzu."

This time, Shine extended both of his hands and released multiple shards of diamond for Zatch and Kiyo. "Rashield!" Kiyo yelled as Zatch created another rectangular shield before them, "Needs to be a bit bigger. Rashield!" Because of Kiyo repeating the spell, the shield enlarged and allowed enough coverage to block all of the oncoming shards. "Alright. Let's see what happens now!" Kiyo said.

"I'm not waiting until then."

Kiyo's head quickly looked behind him to see Shine right there, and he was subsequently knocked away with a kick from the anthropomorphic porcupine. Zatch, sensing Kiyo in danger, lost his concentration and Ganzu Diamzu broke through Rashield in a matter of seconds. The shards of diamonds hit the floor, causing Zatch to fall over, as Shine quickly moved out of the way himself.

Kiyo grunted as he slowly got back up, picking up the red spellbook he dropped. Zatch managed to get back onto his feet as well. "Still getting up, eh?" Shine said, watching them carefully. "We told you," Zatch responded resolutely, "We'll defeat any opponent that comes our way until we defeat Zofis! Even you! I'll keep standing up and keep moving on!"

"Rauzaruk!" Out of nowhere, a rainbow-colored lightning bolt struck Zatch and bestowed upon him a rainbow-colored aura. Then, the blond boy darted straight for Shine. "He got quicker from that spell." Shine thought as he got ready, "But it seems Zale doesn't think it's that big of a deal." When Zatch got close enough, he started attempting to punch Shine; however, the porcupine either shifted left or right to avoid the punches.

"You call those punches?" Shine remarked coldly as he kept dodging, "A cockroach has more style than that!" To prove his point, Shine ducked underneath another one of Zatch's punches and then delivered a harsh kick to his gut. Kiyo gritted his teeth as Zatch went skidding back, "He can handle Rauzaruk without using a spell of his own? Just who is this guy?"

"That spell would have been a lot more useful if you had proper training," Shine commented as he crossed his arms, "You're better off without using it against me. Using it just makes it look plain weak." Zatch gritted his teeth as he defiantly rose back to his feet, "I'll show you!" Shine arched a curious brow as a feral grin etched across his face, "Oh really? Then I'm waiting."

"Rauzaruk!" Kiyo shouted and the same rainbow-colored lightning bolt struck Zatch again to amplify his speed and power. "Again? Hmph. You're rather persistent." Shine said as he prepared himself; Zatch was going headfirst toward him. "GOT YOU!" Shine shouted as he attempted to punch the Rauzaruk-induced Zatch when he got close enough. "Now, Zatch!" Kiyo alerted. On that signal, Zatch jumped over Shine as the latter punched the floor, cracking it.

"What?" Shine exclaimed and then thought, "Shoot, I'm vulnerable!"

"Now time to switch spells!" Kiyo stated as Rauzaruk deactivated, "Zakeruga!" Shine expected the spell to be directed toward him, but to his surprise, an impact never came. The white porcupine looked over his shoulder to see that the Zakeruga was aimed toward his partner, Zale. "It's headed toward Zale!" Shine mentally exclaimed as he sprinted for his partner.

Meanwhile, Zale continued to stay rooted in his position, glaring at the approaching Zakeruga. "What an insult. This tactic is especially for bookkeepers who are defenseless without his or her Mamodo around." Zale commented icily as the book in his lap glowed white, "But I guess it has its benefits. I'd be a fool to sit here and take it. Diamzu Shield."

Shine managed to outrun the Zakeruga and protectively get in front of his bookkeeper. Extending his glowing hands out, a dark blue, diamond hexagram materialized from them. The large shield blocked Zakeruga and canceled it out without any strain. "In addition to good attack spells, their defenses are no different…" Kiyo mused, "And to think…Shine told his bookkeeper to just use spells of the lowest tier in power."

As Diamzu Shield dispelled, Shine whipped around to glare at Zale, "Honestly, Zale…You can't just sit there; you're cutting it pretty close." Instead of verbally responding, Zale simply returned the look—bright crimson met emerald green in an identical tense glare. This odd but interesting optical exchange stopped when Shine said, "…Fine, Zale. You're right; I'll just take that as a compliment." The black-haired male nodded back, "Don't worry. I'll let you know if I see something out of my power."

Being analytical, Kiyo took full notice of this and couldn't help but think about it, "Those two just glared at each other and reached a sort of agreement…Just who the heck are these two?"

"Zatch Bell and Kiyo Takamine!" Shine shouted, now directing his attention to the heroic duo, "I'm slowly losing interest in both of you. You now have only so many chances to prove how strong you are." Zale finished this thought for him, "And if you do not…well, we'll dispose of you just how we do all the other weaklings we've faced."

Kiyo gritted his teeth outrageously. "Kiyo." Zatch said sternly, "If they want us to show our true power, then let's do it! We must defeat them!" The middle school student nodded in agreement, "That's right, Zatch. Nobody will stand in our way between Zofis!"

"You know the drill, Shine." Zale said, tonelessly still, as he placed his hands in his lap along with the spellbook. The two Mamodo then charged at each other to resume the rest of the fight.

Nylon and Ponygon were knocked to the floor once again by the controlled Orion. The strain of the battle was taking a toll on them. Sorudo Shigeru and Go Shudoruk were proving to become useless against the guy. To make matters worse, they still have yet to break the dark chains.

"This is bad…" Izo said forebodingly, finding no choice but to stop using heart energy to keep Sorudo Shigeru active. "If it wasn't for those blasted chains…" Sunbeam said, eyeing the spell that was named Chanigras Maborose.

Myriam, seeing enough, announced to Mystrael, "If that's all you need me for, Mystrael, I'll be leaving." The teenage Mamodo female looked at her red-eyed partner and smiled, "Of course, Myriam. Your brother is waiting for you." Nodding, the twenty two-year-old woman turned around and started walking again.

"LIGAR!"

Myriam stopped dead in her tracks as a crescent-shaped, black projectile whizzed by her and hit the wall some feet away. Everyone—including Mystrael and Jade—gasped in shock at the sudden occurrence. "That spell…" Izo mused, the name of the spell fresh in his mind. "Could it be?" Sunbeam conjectured.

"That is correct."

"Sorry, we didn't keep you guys waitin' too long, did we?"

Much to Izo, Sunbeam, Nylon, and Ponygon's relief and happiness, standing at the entrance to the battlefield was Curtis and Gretchen, alive and well. Though, their current appearances definitely showed that Jizuro and his bookkeeper put them through hell.

Gretchen continued to stand tall despite lines of blood running down her face and out of the corners of her mouth. Her clothing, specifically her jacket, were tattered and sliced. It was stark contrast to her scythe which remained pristine and deadly as ever. Curtis still had his trademark wide grin on his face, even as he leaned tiredly against the stone lining of the entrance and held his side. He too had blood down his face, and his clothing was rather disheveled. His free arm grasped that battleship grey spellbook, the only element of his person that was clean.

"Whoa, you guys look terrible." Nylon commented while smiling, grateful that help had come. "So do you, Nylon, Ponygon." Gretchen replied, smiling back.

The reunion was cut short when Orion cut in. "Heh. So, Jizuro couldn't take care of you guys? Well, looks like I'll have to take that honor!" Curtis and Gretchen quickly examined the conditions of the battle. "So we got a big guy wrapped in chain, and a small girl beside him. Has to be her doing." Gretchen inferred, resting her scythe on her shoulder. "Yeah, that's why I had you do Ligar to keep that girl's bookkeeper from walking away."

Mystrael cleared her throat irritably, "Ahem! A "girl" is not the proper classification for me." Gretchen rolled her celestial blue eyes as she responded sarcastically, "Oh, excuse me, ma'am."

"Enough talk, let the battle continue!" Orion demanded impatiently. "Rogganruno!" Jade recited. This time, Orion pointed the bazooka-like cannon where Gretchen and Curtis were. "Ponygon!" Sunbeam yelled. Using his lightning speed, the Go Shudoruk-induced Ponygon dashed straight over to the two and swooped them up right before Orion could fire.

Izo, Sunbeam, and Nylon exhaled in relief as Ponygon made his way to them. "Thank you, Ponygon." Gretchen said, getting off Ponygon after giving him a thankful pet. Curtis slowly got off too with the help of Izo. "Man…these Millennium Mamodo don't play." Curtis said, now using Izo as a support. "Looks like you took too many hits." Sunbeam remarked.

"Seems like you did too, Gretchen." Nylon pointed out, now noticing that Gretchen's ponytail was gone. "If you're referring to my hair, it was either that or my hand." Gretchen replied, running her fingers through the tresses of her now short, burnt umber hair, "Personally, I look better with short hair. I hate long hair."

"And Jizuro didn't like to play fair either. I had to take a couple hits…At least I'm still okay, but I'm havin' trouble standing." Curtis said as he gave his companions a reassuring grin, "But we took that bastard down because Gretchen here got a new spell in that battle."

"Well, now that there's three of us, things might go smoother." Sunbeam stated, now casting his gaze over to their opponents, "Orion is pretty tough now that Mystrael casted Chanigras Maborose on him. At the same time, we don't know what she and her bookkeeper are going to do now."

"If she's the problem, I'll take her down." Gretchen said boldly, "She looks like she needs to be roughed up a bit."

"Okay, we'll leave her to you, Gretchen." Nylon said and then looked at Izo seriously, "We'll have to up the ante if we want to win." Izo nodded back in response. "Alright, Ponygon, keep up the good work! It starts for real this time." Sunbeam encouraged. "Meru!" Ponygon responded readily.

Mystrael sighed disappointedly, "Myriam, if it's not too much trouble. Please stick around a little longer." Myriam grumbled under her breath before saying aloud, "Sure…"

"Izo, time to summon my guillotine!" Izo started flipping pages in the dark brown spellbook until he found the right page, "Ah, here it is! Garudo Shigeru!" Extending his arm outward, a large, black, double-headed battle axe with rounded blades—which had silver cutting edges and one was slightly higher than the other. "This should be enough for the likes of him. All who reflect upon his guillotine seen imminent justice!" Nylon said valiantly before charging for Orion. "Support him, Ponygon!" Sunbeam said, and Ponygon dashed expeditiously beside Nylon.

"The results will be the same. Jade?" Orion said. Jade nodded, "No problem, Orion. Kurigras Roggan!" Orion summoned cannon openings along the lining of his sides. They start unleashing blasts for the changing Ponygon and Nylon. Taking initiative, Ponygon swooped up Nylon onto his back and veered right to avoid all the shots and hopefully buy Gretchen time to close in on Mystrael.

"There you go, Ponygon!" Sunbeam cheered on, "That's how you do it!"

"Little horsey is faster than before…" Jade commented pensively. "It matters not. Give me another spell, please!"

It was this point that Mystrael finally noticed something: where was that girl that just accompanied these four? "Wait a minute…" Mystrael thought and then her white eyes widened, "They're distracting—"

"Garuligar!" Curtis shouted. Suddenly, from around Orion, a black spinning drill-like attack came full-speed for Mystrael and Myriam. "Myriam!" The black-haired Mamodo cried out as she grabbed her bookkeeper and barely jumped out of Garuligar's way.

"Damn. Missed." Gretchen said after stopping. It was then she noticed something on the floor and grinned widely, "Never mind. I nicked you." Mystrael blinked in confusion until Gretchen picked something up—a rather decent amount of black hair. Myriam's eyes widened slightly, and it was then she looked at her Mamodo partner's own hair—it was no longer hip-length but roughly halfway down her back. Mystrael's eyes twitched as she ran her hand/arm through her now shorter hair, some residual stands that were cut off falling to the ground.

Gretchen threw the pack of hair aside as she said, "Anyway. You will no longer be hindrance to my friends. I'm here to make sure you do nothing else." Mystrael gritted her teeth as she charged at Gretchen, and the two proceeded to duke it out via hand-to-hand combat.

"WHOO! CATFIGHT!" Curtis hollered lecherously. Izo sighed in annoyance while Sunbeam shook his head.

"Rogganruno!" As Orion summoned another bazooka-like cannon, Nylon suddenly jumped off and gripped the shaft of his large weapon. "Leave this to me." He said bravely as he got ready for the attack. Rogganruno was unleashed and sent that concentrated beam of energy for Nylon. At the right time, Nylon swung Garudo Shigeru, leaving behind a streak of silver, as it clashed with Rogganruno.

"HA! You really think you can stop that?" Orion laughed pityingly. "Even I have to admit, it's a farfetched goal." Jade added in.

A couple more seconds of clashing and Nylon finally completed his swing, sending that blast of energy straight to the sky and out of everyone's lives. "And not a scratch on it." Nylon boasted while smirking, the blades of Garudo Shigeru glinting pristinely and on cue.

"Why you—" Out of nowhere, Ponygon, still in his Go Shudoruk state, rammed his into Orion right where the lock that connected the chains were. The cannon-manipulating behemoth fell thunderously on his back from the impact. At this point, Sunbeam noticed the dark chains were gaining cracks because of Ponygon's attack. "So that's it!" Sunbeam exclaimed insightfully, "If we attack that lock a number of times, those chains will break eventually!"

Gretchen charged at Mystrael and swung her scythe horizontally. The black-haired Mamodo managed to duck underneath, shoot straight back up, and deliver a swift kick to Gretchen's gut that sent her skidding back a considerable distance.

She then turned to her bookkeeper, "Myriam, if you please. I didn't want to waste one of our tests on these people…but there is no choice. I need to get you to your brother." Myriam took a notable pause before nodding understandably, "As you wish, Mystrael…" The lavender-grey spellbook in her arms behind her back glowed brightly as then recited, "Ganjasu Maborose."

"Hold it!" Gretchen charged and Curtis was about to utter another spell until the ground everyone stood on suddenly turned black, as if a veil of darkness coated it. "What the?" Curtis exclaimed, instantly looking down at the floor. "What's going on?" Sunbeam mused, eyeing the floor suspiciously.

"With two tests active, I need something to happen before Myriam gets drained of her heart energy." Mystrael thought before speaking aloud, "Another one of my "tests." Chanigras Maborose tests one's willpower. Ganjasu Maborose tests one's strength."

"Oh please. We have plenty of strength." Gretchen retorted, feeling somewhat insulted. "Don't underestimate this shit, Gretchen!" Curtis yelled to her, "I've seen mess like this in video games, some just like it! That may sound crazy, but bear with me!" Gretchen decided to take heed to her bookkeeper's words but was still wondering what the nature of this spell was.

"Hey! What did you do?" Orion questioned, turning to face Mystrael, "This…won't affect me, will it?" He soon got his answer. That small moment of hesitation Orion showed, because he even the slightest bit scared, caused dark spikes to uproot from his part of the floor and stab him. Curtis, Izo, Sunbeam, Ponygon, Nylon, and Gretchen were utterly appalled to see this happen—Mystrael really wasn't on anyone's side.

"Ganjasu Maborose is relatively harmless," Myriam spoke as she began walking away with Mystrael, "That is…unless you show even the slightest bit of fear or apprehension in the face of it. That is why it's called the Test of Strength: to see how truly strong you are in the face of peril."

Gretchen gritted her teeth as she tried charging at Mystrael, "That's a rotten trick, you little—" A small spike came out of the floor and nicked Gretchen's on her leg, immediately leaving a tear in her pant leg. Shocked, Gretchen stopped dead in her tracks. "Farewell, lady and gentlemen. I have an endeavor I must get to." Myriam said as she and her Mamodo moved on to the next floor.

They had certainly left Curtis, Izo, Sunbeam, Ponygon, Nylon, and Gretchen one hell of a mess to clean up.

For the umpteenth time, a Rauzaruk-empowered Zatch charged at Shine. This time, Shine pulled his head back to dodge a swing from Zatch. Then, his hand shot up and grabbed the blonde boy's face, subsequently slamming the boy to the ground.

As Kiyo shouted out Zatch's name in concern, Zale covered his mouth and released a bored yawn, "Shine…this is boring." He said tonelessly. "You're telling me, Zale." Shine replied agreeing with his partner. Zatch tried to sit back up, but Shine stamped onto his sternum and slowly added pressure to it, "You hear that, Zatch Bell? My partner and I have lost interest in you…and that means, concerning us, we have denounced you as a spineless, sniveling weakling."

Defiantly, Zatch gripped Shine's ankle as he stated, "Ngh…I…told you, Shine! No matter what happens…I will keep going until I defeat Zofis…and save all those poor souls that have been manipulated by him! I will not people like you…get in my way!"

Shine sneered as he snatched his foot away from Zatch, grabbed him by his golden hair, and kicked him back over to Kiyo. "Zatch!" Kiyo ran over and caught Zatch in his arms. "I don't give a rat's ass about Zofis!" Shine said heatedly, shocking both Zatch and Kiyo, "He is the biggest, most spineless loser of them all. He was only good for getting me out of that accursed solitude. I was never on his side; Zale and I only acted like that."

"As per my suggestion," Zale added in, "Shine wanted to rebel, but I kindly reminded him he was better off committing suicide than taking on more seventy Mamodo that were actually loyal to Zofis."

As the anthropomorphic porcupine shot his black-haired bookkeeper a glare, Kiyo questioned, "Then…why? why are you here and now fighting us?"

Shine turned back to the two and grinned, showing off his sharp teeth, "Because I wanted to see how powerful this resistance to Zofis and other Mamodo from a thousand years ago was. I assume you two to be the leader of them all…quite frankly I'm disappointed." Shine then looked at Zale from over his shoulder and directed, "Zale, let's show them true power. Up the ante a little."

"Hmph. Don't expect me to cast a spell that's overkill, Shine," Zale responded as he leafed through pages of the blizzard blue spellbook, "This one…is perfect." With that said, a powerful white glow was emitted from the spellbook. Zatch and Kiyo could do nothing but watch warily for whatever this next spell was.

"Go Diamonruk."