Akira and Amelia decide to adopt the not-so-0fierce demon kitty. Amelia heals him, and Akira names him Night. Akira and Night form a new pact as master and servant, which will allow the demon king to still be able to see everything with the link inherent between demon king and all demons, but will give Akira and Night special abilities. Night reveals that there are three other dungeons in the world, and each dungeon challenges a different aspect of the character's skills. A portal opens at the end of the labyrinth, and Akira decides to travel to the next labyrinth in the forest of the Elven people, where Amelia is being hunted by her twin sister.  With Akira caught right in the middle of the power struggle in the Elven kingdom, will he ever make it to the labyrinth to continue his development?

Rayearth is one of those interesting series broken up into parts. While this is volume four if this series, it's labeled as "Part Two: Book One." In the 25th Anniversary Edition, Part Two is in a different boxed set than Part One.

Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu are still reeling from their major battle that closed out Part One. The three try to adjust back to normal life, but the weight of what happened in Cefiro weighs heavy on them. The three meet up in Tokyo Tower again to try to come to terms with what has happened when suddenly, they are transported again! This time, the world they enter is in shambles. The ocean is gone, the sky is black, and the only thing they can see is a castle standing tall above a jagged, rocky island. The three are taken to the castle, where they reunite with what’s left of the old cast, and they are told what grim fate has befallen Cefiro. They also discover that there are several invading forces from other worlds desperately clawing at Cefiro’s borders, all vying for the chance to install themselves as a new ruler. Our Magic Knights pick up the mantle once again in defense of this once-beautiful world.

Hot off of her successful acquisition of her first Stella, the Folger family is on the way to get a dog for Anya. They have no success at a pet store (completely stocked with agency dogs and run by the agency), so Yor and Anya try a pet expo while Loid gets feigns a bathroom emergency in order to slip away to his handler. Loid finds out that a foreign minister is in the country for peace talks, and there is a terrorist plot to blow up the meeting using highly trained — what else? — dogs! Anya, with her telepathic ability, accidentally discovers one of the terrorists’ lairs, but one of the highly trained dogs comes to her rescue. Anya sees brief glimpses inside the dog’s mind, and she realizes that this dog has a special ability! In their own separate ways, Yor, Loid with the agency, and Anya with the dog work against them terrorists in the name of World Peace.

Alex continues her search for her sister, and only a select few people can remember her.  She gets help from a few other students who decide to recreate the gate spell, but this will be painstaking and take a lot of effort.  Meanwhile, Teacher ferrets out the one who betrayed the hunters, and he moves his group into a safe house with Mr. Roi, the eccentric teacher who has also been giving extra lessons to Alex.  We also learn about Nereshai, an ancient race of extremely powerful magic users, and the Sohrem, a group of powerful magical beings who have begun searching for new hosts within the school building.  Centuries ago, the Nereshai sealed the Sohrem, but that seal has been broken, and it's up to the students and teachers to put everything right and bring home those who have been forgotten.

Adapted and colored by John Ira Jennings, illustrated by David Brame, lettered by Damian Duffy
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Chioma is a Chicago cop visiting her grandmother and grand aunt in Nigeria. It rains for three days, and a little boy with his scull bashed in stands on the doorstep. Chioma opens the door, and the little boy touches her hand, sizzling her flesh, and declares, “tag, you’re it!” She is it, indeed. The elders all become fearful for Chioma; lizards start stalking her everywhere she goes; shadows eerily creep behind her, just out of sight. Then, one night, Chioma is attacked by supernatural forces and undergoes a transformation unlike anything she could have imagined.

Illustrations by Hikaru Miyoshi
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Older brother Albert uncovers a plot to distribute opium to the masses, and proves his worth in discreetly taking out the organization without embarrassing any of the nobles who may be involved.  He is rewarded with an appointment to the head of a secret military organization, MI6.  William decides that the way they have been going about things has been too slow to affect change in the country, so he stages scene with a terrible noble in order to erode confidence in the nobility as a ruling class.  While on the ship setting the stage, William meets a curious individual whose power of deduction could prove useful in his plans.  The strange young man is none other than Sherlock Holmes.  The last third of this volume follows Sherlock in his quest to find a new flatmate, and we are introduced to the famous Dr. Watson.

Illustrated by Posuka Demizu
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Emma, Ray, Don, Gilda, and two kids from Goldy Pond begin a search for the Seven Walls, something that Mr. Minerva told them to find in order to rework The Promise and potentially close down all of the factories. There are some significant time jumps as the group has to travel around the demon territory chasing down leads, but just shy of two years after the escape, the group finally cracks the code and discovers the entrance they were searching for. This has given plenty of time for the enemy to find them as well, as the Ratri clan has sought out every shelter and supporter to track down the wayward “food”.

Illustrated by Hiroyuki Aigamo

Akira has retreated back to the labyrinth his class went to in volume one, determined to gain maximum levels in as much as he can. He’s been in the labyrinth a month before he finds Amelia trapped inside a slime monster. She’s an elven warrior who has come to the labyrinth for the same reason, and the two decide to team up to defeat the most challenging monsters at the end of the labyrinth. Back in the castle, Kyosuke, another classmate whose class is samurai, wakes to find himself in the princess’s chamber, having just cut through six black crystals. He has no idea what he’s doing or what the crystals are until the next day when hero Tsukasa announces he’s going off to fight the demon king. The rest of the class ridicules him, all except six classmates, Kyosuke among them.

Vol 4: A Frenchman on Mars

Seraphin and his aethership make it to Mars and find a world teeming with strange life forms and weird versions of aetherite that solidify after you walk through a seeming puddle. Searching for the previous Prussian expedition turns up no survivors, including Seraphin’s father. But Gubbard reveals the true nastiness of his plan to get Seraphin and the others to agree to go to Mars in the first place, and it is steeped in deception! Seraphin is wounded and wakes up abandoned by his fellows. He stumbles upon what he thinks is a winged beast, badly injured, but still he feels the need to save the creature from being a feast to other beasts. The creature ends up being a prominent figure in a fractured Martian society, one half dying out, the other exiled to the desert.

The beginning of this wraps up the storylines that happen around Christmas time, then launches into a new story arc - Takane’s grandfather is frustrated that Takane won’t give him details about how his relationship is going with Hana. He decides he’s spoiled the kid too much, so he takes away all his stuff: freezes his accounts, sets him up in a shoebox of an apartment, gives him two cheap suits, and around $91 to live on for the month. He says Takane must climb back up to the top from the bottom to prove himself. Takane is so embarrassed by his new situation that he refuses to see Hana. But, based on the advice of her friend Okamon, Hana takes a page from Takane’s book and decides to pester him for a change.