The series begins with a raid on a group of bandits at the hands of the 15-year-old sorceress Lina Inverse. On her way to Atlas City, she is surrounded by bandits. Just as Lina prepares to attack, a mercenary swordsman, Gourry Gabriev, appears and defeats the bandits. Lina and Gourry befriend each other. Soon after, Lina and Gourry are asked to exterminate the dragon threatening a small village. Having no reason to refuse, Lina takes on the job despite Gourry's dissuasion. Being intimidated by the dragon, Lina is outraged. Lina uses the Dragu Slave technique on the dragon, killing it and destroying most of the village. Lina and Gourry eventually run away from the villagers after the village's destruction.

Lina and Gourry go to a magic shop in town to sell the treasures that Lina snatched from the bandits. However an item from the booty, a knife, is cursed and it turns the shopkeeper violent and a hullabaloo starts. Lina and Gourry fight a hard battle but the chaos is brought to a sudden stop by a single bark of the shopkeeper's wife. While they are relieved, a mummy called Zolf, attacks our heroes with the evil trolls. He is looking for one of the items Lina possesses. Lina and Gourry are fighting their way out. However, on the same evening, Zolf shows up to their room again with a mysterious person.

The mysterious person says that his name is Zelgadis Greywords. He is a mixture of human, golem and demon; a creation of utter evil. He offers to buy Lina's booty, but Lina asks for an outrageous price which drives him away. Not giving up, Zelgadis comes back to take Lina's booty by force. Lina is hurt and thrown into a pinch. Luckily she is saved by the legendary great sage, Rezo the Red Priest. Rezo warns Lina that Zelgadis wants to resurrect the mazoku Shabranigdo, the demon king, then Rezo mysteriously disappears after performing some unknown spell...

Lina and Gourry start investigating a way to stop Shabranigdo's resurrection, however they are plagued with a question. Why is Zelgadis trying to revive the Demon Lord? On the other hand, Rezo cannot easily be trusted. The situation becomes more complicated when Zelgadis and Zolf realize that they are no longer able to scry for the as yet unknown item that is in Lina's possession. While our heroes are traveling through a forest, Lina informs Gourry that she will not be able use her sorcery effectively for a few days. This makes her vulnerable to any villains that may challenge her. As fate would have it, Zelgadis and his men come to attack. During the exchange, one of Zelgadis's men, Dilgear the Werewolf/Troll, lets slip that it is, in fact, the Orihalcon statue that has them chasing Lina across the countryside. Lina narrowly escapes the initial attack and is separated from Gourry. However, she is quickly ambushed, knocked unconscious with a spell, and captured by Zelgadis.

Lina awakens to find that she is held captive in Zelgadis' hideout. After Lina is questioned about the Orihalcon statue, she lies about why Zolf is unable to locate it magically. She is then asked why she didn't fight back harder in the previous skirmish. Zelgadis determines that she should be kept alive until they retrieve the statue in any case and she is then subjected to threats of torture by Zolf and repercussions for her previous treatment of him, much of it ineffective, to his dismay.

Rezo suddenly appears during Lina's escape of and calls Zelgadis a traitor. Lina is surprised to discover the relationship between the two. Zelgadis' grudge against Rezo makes him revolt against him. Lina and Zelgadis barely make it out virtually unharmed, with Zelgadis using Lina as a distraction against Rezo, with quite a bit of protest from Lina. Rezo's men discover the escape, as well as the cooked Noonsa, and subsequently eat him, all while swearing vengeance for his death. Soon after escaping Rezo, Lina and Zelgadis take a break to rest and Lina, being quite confused after find out about Rezo and Zelgadis's relationship, asks Zelgadis to explain to her just what, exactly, is going on.