That afternoon on horseback was a slow one for the Slayers and Conan. For the most part, the only thing to do was to listen to Amelia yell at Conan for dragging them into his thievery.

"Honestly Mr. Conan! Stealing is wrong! Why didn't you tell us the truth in the beginning? Why?!"

"You didn't ask."

"Doesn't honesty mean anything to you?! You should've felt obligated to tell us your true goals!"

"Amelia, Xellos wouldn't let us in on the fact that he was a monster till it was too late," reminded Lina. "What makes you think Conan here would?"

"Mr. Conan isn't a monster! Mr. Xellos was or rather is!"

"Well I would've given it back to them after I was done with it, but they simply didn't leave me any other choice."

"You should've just asked them for it politely!"

"Is she always like this?"

"24 hours a day, 7 days a week," answered Lina.

"It's not too late, Mr. Conan! Renounce your evil thieving ways! Remember, life is wonderful!"

"Okay, I'm gonna have to bonk you now. You mind?"

"Go ahead."

Conan raised his hand and was about to bonk Amelia, but when he brought his hand down, he hit instead what felt like wire on top of rock. It hurt.

"That hurtÉ" Conan groaned clenching his fist.

"That hurt me too," replied Zelgadis flatly.

"Thank you, but what did you do that for Mr. Zelgadis?"

Zel thought for a second, then shrugged. "I have no idea."

"So where's this kingdom you're heading for?"

"Shadizar. I've got a wizard friend there who might be able to help me out."

"Hey, I was thinkingÉ"

"You were thinking again Gourry? I'm impressed." Lina really wasn't, but she enjoyed playfully patronizing him every once in a while. Well, what were you thinking about?"

"Well, I saw a sign back there that said to beware of quicksand pits. Where do you think those would be anyway?"

Before Lina could answer, she and everyone else felt themselves sinking into the sand along with their horses. The next thing they knew, they were falling. Falling forever, until they hit a sandy floor.

When they looked around, the place was clearly Egyptian, judging by the symbols on the wall and statue pillars. There were snakes coming out of the wall.

"SnakesÉ" Conan grumbled. "Why did it have to be snakes?" (remember Conan The Barbarian, 1982)

"Maybe they couldn't find any spiders."

Lina surveyed the size of the room and their width of their surroundings. "Leave this to me." Lina cracked her knuckles and took aim. "Flare Arrow!"

In a matter of minutes, the snakes were no more, except for those that were still coming out of the walls. That problem was easily solved though. "Freeze Arrow! There! No more snakes! Yeah, I'm so cool! Go me!"

They had to give Lina a few minutes to revel in herself. "That girl has way too much time on her hands," said Conan.

"Alright, let's get out of here! Levitation!"

The gang, horses and all, was swept up by a gust of wind and floated up to the sandy ceiling, Lina was so kind to blow away with a fireball. Back up on the Earth, the sun felt so good on their faces. "Well that was fun. Let's go."

"Hey wait, someone's missing!" pointed out Amelia.

Lina looked around for a second, almost got nervous, but controlled it. "Yeah, you're right. Okay, survey. I know I'm here, so there's no need to ask for a beautiful, gifted, charismatic and sexy sorceress supreme with red hair and a winning smile. So anyway, if you're a bouncy, happy, hyper active princess who loves justice more than life itself, raise your hand."

Amelia raised hers.

"Okay, if you're a big burly barbarian man of gigantic mirth and melancholies, raise your hand."

Conan raised his, but only patronizingly.

"Alright, now if you're an overly serious chimera who doesn't care about anyone but his cure, raise your hand."

"I resent that."

"Okay, you're obviously still here. Now the lightning round: if you're a big blonde haired guy with the brawn of a troll, the IQ of yogurt and the Sword of Light, raise your hand."

Nobody raised their hand.

"Oh no. I must've left Gourry back down in the snake pit!"

"Actually, I think I saw him wander off by himself while you were blowing up the snakes."

"What?! Why didn't you say that in the first place, Conan!?"

"We had to give you time to get over yourself after blowing up the snakes."

"Why youÉ I'll get back to you. For right now, Gourry's all that matters. Elmekia Lance!" Lina blew away the sinking sand and flew back down with the crew to search for Gourry.

"Okay, now if I was Gourry and I was in a snake pit, where would I go?"

"Why don't we just follow the footprints Miss Lina?" Amelia pointed to the size 13s shapes in the ground that could be none other than Gourry's.

"Well obviously, Amelia!"

"I hate when she does this," moaned Zelgadis.

It took them a while, but through a labyrinth skeletons, giant bowling balls, bottomless pits, and a door holding back blood thirsty Mongols, they tracked Gourry's footprints to a room where their under-educated associate was engulfed by a gold light.

"Gourry!"

Gourry looked over his shoulder with that innocently blank look of his and smiled. "Hey you guys, where've you been?"

"Where've we been? Where've YOU'VE been? We're trying to finish a quest and you just up and wander off on your own for no good reason?! And you know what else?! YOU KNOW WHAT ELSE?!"

"What else?"

Lina was about to yell at him some more, but she couldn't find the voice. "I can't believe it, I just ran out of steam."

"I hate when that happens. But hey, check out what I've just found!" Gourry pointed to the big gold box case, which had golden god like aura surrounding it, captivating in every sense of the word. Gourry pulled a note off of it and read it aloud.

"Congratulations, you have found the lost Ark of the Covenant. Please do not disturb until either 1936 AD or 1981 AD, which ever comes first, no before, in between or after. Thank you, Moses."

"Well that explains the snakes. The guys who stashed the Ark here never wanted anybody to find it," summed Zel.

"That makes sense. But now that we know it exists for real, I wonder why they hid it at all."

"There are more things in Heaven and Earth Amelia than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

"Gourry, I can't believe I'm about to say this, but put the cover back on and let's go."

Gourry did as Lina requested, then he had to ask, "Uh Lina, who was Moses?"

"Moses was a very big religious leader back in the old days. Now Gourry, please don't ever wander off on me again, okay? I hate it when you do that. Makes me worry some monster's after us."

"Okay."

"WowÉ"

"Wow what Amelia?"

"You're not bitch-smacking Mr. Gourry upside the head for not being familiar with Moses. You must've been REALLY worried about him."

Lina head-locked Amelia, and intoned "Shut up, AmeliaÉ"

"Would you all stop acting like idiots? Let's go."