Author's Note: I do not own Slayers or anything related to it, so please don't sue me. Anyway, I normally would have not done this fic, but after visiting phibrizo.com, I have become intrigued with the character that gives the site name. We assume that Hellmaster Phibrizo was killed by the Lord of Nightmares. What if it was only temporary, something just to show him who's boss? This is not a self-insertion fic, before anyone says. It's just written in 1st person because I got tired of trying to think of a name for the narrator. Anyway, on with the fic. Oh, and please review! No flames though, or I'll tell Lina you made fun of her chest!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Okay, something is wrong here.
I wake up and look around the room. This looks absolutely nothing like the room I fell asleep in. The ceiling is cracked, instead of the bad popcorn job it used to feature. Gone is the navy-blue shag carpet. It has been replaced by bare wooden planks. My old corner desk is gone, and so is it's computer, and the rest of my stuff. The sheets on this bed seem to be hand-sewn. You take a moment to look at yourself. I was so tired last night that you I never even undressed. I are still wearing my favorite black t-shirt, jeans, and black high-tops that I've been meaning to replace ever since the air cushions popped.
I stand and walk to the window. Looking outside, I see that the yard, bushes, and other houses I am accustomed to seeing are gone. Replacing them is a view of a city back in medieval days. Instead of the occasional passing car, the street below (I am on the second floor of this building, apparently) is well populated by horse-drawn carts and people in weird clothes.
It is at this time that a strange smell finds its way to my nostrils. It smells like bacon frying. I think that I'll try to figure this out AFTER breakfast. The mind works better when the body is fed, anyway. I open the door and step out, remembering to close it behind me so that it doesn't look like I was born in a barn or something.
I am at the end of a fairly long hallway. There are other doors all along the hallway that look like 'mine.' At the end of the hallway, there is a staircase leading downward. The delicious bacon aroma is coming from the bottom of those stairs. I follow it as if I were a piece of metal placed in close proximity to a magnet.
When I reach the bottom of the stairs, I find myself in one corner of a large room. The room is full of tables, like a restaurant. I assume this building is an old-fashioned inn. The bacon smell is coming from the other side of a door a few feet from the staircase, which I assume is the kitchen. The place is fairly crowded, but the people that stand out the most are at a table in the corner. A diminutive, red-headed girl is fighting with a big, blonde, dumb-looking guy in blue armor over a plate of sausages. There is also a girl in pink and white clothes, and another guy in a weird, blue mask.
My eyes widen. These are the Slayers, all of them. Lina, Gourry, Amelia, Zelgadis, they're all here! Impossible! Unless...somehow I've entered their world in my sleep. I promptly run over to their table and, with total disregard for my pride, ask Lina for an autograph, pulling out my trusty blue notepad and black pen.
Lina gives me a befuddled look for a moment, but only for a moment. She smiles and signs the cover of my notepad, and I breathe a sigh of relief that she doesn't try to charge me for it. I won't put it past her. "Wow, Lina-san, you're really famous," Amelia chirps. She returns my notepad and smiles at Amelia. "Of course I am!" Her good mood is destroyed, however, when Gourry uses the moment to snatch a few strips of bacon from her plate. He was Fireballed in short order.
My eyes widen even more. This is the Slayers world. And that means...I can learn to do all those really cool spells! So I ask Lina to teach me to use magic. She gives me another confused look. "You want to learn magic from me? Hmm....well, I suppose it makes sense that a prospective mage would seek out the world's most powerful sorceress!"
"But...but Lina-san, you don't know anything about this person! What if he's," Amelia shivers, "unjust?" Zelgadis flatly adds, "Do you even know HOW to teach?"
Lina turns to them. "How hard could it be? And no, Amelia, he couldn't be a bad guy. No faithful fan of mine could possibly be evil!" She looks back to me and begins rubbing her hands together greedily. "Now, let's discuss payment for these lessons. I hope you weren't expecting charity work..."
I simply pull out whatever I have in my jeans pockets and hand them over. Not much. A few bits of loose change from yesterday's lunch, and a pog of Ranma in his female form that my friend gave me. Lina takes the items and looked them over, pockets the change, and begins to scrutinize the pog. "What the hell is this," she finally states.
As if on cue, Xellos teleports into the room, right behind Lina. "Ohayo, Lina-chan," he says with his usual fruity voice, and equally fruity smile fixed to his countenance. Lina's puts a "get away from me before I pound you" look on her face and replies, "What do you want, Xellos." Xellos plucks the pog from her fingers and looks it over. "Interesting little toy, Lina-chan!"
Then he looks at me, or as much as anyone can look at someone with their eyes closed into happy little arches. "And who's your new friend?" Lina sighed. "I don't know who this guy is. He just comes over and begs me to teach him magic, and gives me that thing as part of the payment."
Xellos steps closer to me. I don't know whether to be ecstatic at finally meeting the mazoku behind the screen, or terrified that he's taking such interest in me...or that he's opened his eyes. He holds up the pog. "Tell me, do you know who Scherra is?" I nod, and claim that I am a mazoku as well. I'm not, and I have no damn clue who Scherra is, but I'm curious as to how Xellos will react.
Amelia's eyes bugged out. "Lina-san! You were about to teach magic to a mazoku?!" Zelgadis looks at me incredulously. "If you really are a mazoku, shouldn't know already know magic?" Lina grimaced. I am slowly running out of ideas, so I pull the one stupid trick I can think of. "Darkness beyond twilight," I begin. Gourry is running out the door, screaming "WE BELIEVE YOU! WE BELIEVE YOU!!!"
Lina stands up. "Hey, if you don't know magic, how in the hell can you use the Dragon Slave?!" Uh oh. She's got me there. My mind races for an excuse. "Um...it's the only spell I know?" Xellos giggles. "Oh my, how strange! The only spell you know how to cast is the most powerful spell in all of black magic! Tell me, how did such a thing come to be?"
Oh man, I'm running out of ideas...so I decide on the last resort response. I grin at Xellos and reply, "Sore wa himitsu desu." Xellos gives me a hurt look. "But...but that's MY line!" Amelia chimes in, "Stealing someone else's line..." "Is very unjust," I interrupt. "Now you've stolen my line," Amelia bawls.
Xellos laughs again and puts an arm over my shoulder. "I like the way you think! I think I'll teach you magic instead!" He teleported, taking me with him, to the middle of a desert area. If this is the Slayers world, I surmise that we are somewhere in the Desert of Destruction. "All right, my young apprentice, show me just how powerful that Dragon Slave of yours is," Xellos tells me.
Gulp. I hope this works, otherwise Xellos might not be happy with finding out he's been lied to. I begin..."Darkness beyond twilight, crimson beyond blood that flows..." I'm surprised that I can remember the words this easily. Must be all that time on the 'Net.
What's even more surprising though, is that I think it's WORKING. I can feel the wind picking up, and a very strong force building up. "Buried in the flow of time," I continue,"in thy great name, I pledge myself to darkness! Let the fools that stand before us be destroyed by the power that you and I possess! DRAGON SLAVE!"
WOAH!!! Man, this is hard to control! It seems even bigger than the one Lina casts somehow, or maybe that's just me. The Dragon Slave smacks into a nearby mountain, obliterating it. Xellos laughs and puts his arm over my shoulder again. "Oh my, that was very nice to watch!"
Over the next few days, Xellos teaches me spells of many different types. Finally, he teleports us to the inside of an active volcano. "Next test, my apprentice. This volcano is about to blow. The lava is already rising. How do you save yourself?"
My first two ideas were to Raywing out and away from the volcano, but the top is far from the ledge we are on, and I'm not very good with Raywing, so that's out. My second idea is to stop the lava with an ice spell. "Freeze Arrow," I shout. It works, but only for a little while before the ascending magma melts the ice. My mind races, and I finally decide I need a stronger spell. "DEMONA CRYSTAL," I scream, clenching my eyes shut.
An eternity later, Xellos puts his hand on my shoulder again. "You can open your eyes now." As I do, I find myself in a cavern of ice. Not only have I frozen the lava, but the volcano itself. "I wasn't sure about you," Xellos begins, "but now I know it to be true." Much to my surprise, he falls to one knee. "Welcome back to the lands of the living, Lord Hellmaster Phibrizo."
I ask him what he's talking about, and he points to the iced-over lava below. In the reflection of the ice, I no longer see my own face. My persona is replaced by that of a small boy, possibly 10 or 12, wearing mostly blue. My hair, in the reflection, is no longer its normal brownish-blonde, but has turned jet black. I look at myself to find that I am the same as I was this morning. How?
"My only guess about your appearance, Lord Hellmaster, is that you have not fully reawakened from your death, and that L-sama decided to put your mazoku spirit into this body." Still not fully understanding what's going on, I look back down to the ice. I can't be the Hellmaster! I just can't! But the ice, and my inner self, reveal it to be true. Soon, I may totally lose myself and become Phibrizo completely. I suppose I'll just cross that bridge when I come to it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Okay, something is wrong here.
I wake up and look around the room. This looks absolutely nothing like the room I fell asleep in. The ceiling is cracked, instead of the bad popcorn job it used to feature. Gone is the navy-blue shag carpet. It has been replaced by bare wooden planks. My old corner desk is gone, and so is it's computer, and the rest of my stuff. The sheets on this bed seem to be hand-sewn. You take a moment to look at yourself. I was so tired last night that you I never even undressed. I are still wearing my favorite black t-shirt, jeans, and black high-tops that I've been meaning to replace ever since the air cushions popped.
I stand and walk to the window. Looking outside, I see that the yard, bushes, and other houses I am accustomed to seeing are gone. Replacing them is a view of a city back in medieval days. Instead of the occasional passing car, the street below (I am on the second floor of this building, apparently) is well populated by horse-drawn carts and people in weird clothes.
It is at this time that a strange smell finds its way to my nostrils. It smells like bacon frying. I think that I'll try to figure this out AFTER breakfast. The mind works better when the body is fed, anyway. I open the door and step out, remembering to close it behind me so that it doesn't look like I was born in a barn or something.
I am at the end of a fairly long hallway. There are other doors all along the hallway that look like 'mine.' At the end of the hallway, there is a staircase leading downward. The delicious bacon aroma is coming from the bottom of those stairs. I follow it as if I were a piece of metal placed in close proximity to a magnet.
When I reach the bottom of the stairs, I find myself in one corner of a large room. The room is full of tables, like a restaurant. I assume this building is an old-fashioned inn. The bacon smell is coming from the other side of a door a few feet from the staircase, which I assume is the kitchen. The place is fairly crowded, but the people that stand out the most are at a table in the corner. A diminutive, red-headed girl is fighting with a big, blonde, dumb-looking guy in blue armor over a plate of sausages. There is also a girl in pink and white clothes, and another guy in a weird, blue mask.
My eyes widen. These are the Slayers, all of them. Lina, Gourry, Amelia, Zelgadis, they're all here! Impossible! Unless...somehow I've entered their world in my sleep. I promptly run over to their table and, with total disregard for my pride, ask Lina for an autograph, pulling out my trusty blue notepad and black pen.
Lina gives me a befuddled look for a moment, but only for a moment. She smiles and signs the cover of my notepad, and I breathe a sigh of relief that she doesn't try to charge me for it. I won't put it past her. "Wow, Lina-san, you're really famous," Amelia chirps. She returns my notepad and smiles at Amelia. "Of course I am!" Her good mood is destroyed, however, when Gourry uses the moment to snatch a few strips of bacon from her plate. He was Fireballed in short order.
My eyes widen even more. This is the Slayers world. And that means...I can learn to do all those really cool spells! So I ask Lina to teach me to use magic. She gives me another confused look. "You want to learn magic from me? Hmm....well, I suppose it makes sense that a prospective mage would seek out the world's most powerful sorceress!"
"But...but Lina-san, you don't know anything about this person! What if he's," Amelia shivers, "unjust?" Zelgadis flatly adds, "Do you even know HOW to teach?"
Lina turns to them. "How hard could it be? And no, Amelia, he couldn't be a bad guy. No faithful fan of mine could possibly be evil!" She looks back to me and begins rubbing her hands together greedily. "Now, let's discuss payment for these lessons. I hope you weren't expecting charity work..."
I simply pull out whatever I have in my jeans pockets and hand them over. Not much. A few bits of loose change from yesterday's lunch, and a pog of Ranma in his female form that my friend gave me. Lina takes the items and looked them over, pockets the change, and begins to scrutinize the pog. "What the hell is this," she finally states.
As if on cue, Xellos teleports into the room, right behind Lina. "Ohayo, Lina-chan," he says with his usual fruity voice, and equally fruity smile fixed to his countenance. Lina's puts a "get away from me before I pound you" look on her face and replies, "What do you want, Xellos." Xellos plucks the pog from her fingers and looks it over. "Interesting little toy, Lina-chan!"
Then he looks at me, or as much as anyone can look at someone with their eyes closed into happy little arches. "And who's your new friend?" Lina sighed. "I don't know who this guy is. He just comes over and begs me to teach him magic, and gives me that thing as part of the payment."
Xellos steps closer to me. I don't know whether to be ecstatic at finally meeting the mazoku behind the screen, or terrified that he's taking such interest in me...or that he's opened his eyes. He holds up the pog. "Tell me, do you know who Scherra is?" I nod, and claim that I am a mazoku as well. I'm not, and I have no damn clue who Scherra is, but I'm curious as to how Xellos will react.
Amelia's eyes bugged out. "Lina-san! You were about to teach magic to a mazoku?!" Zelgadis looks at me incredulously. "If you really are a mazoku, shouldn't know already know magic?" Lina grimaced. I am slowly running out of ideas, so I pull the one stupid trick I can think of. "Darkness beyond twilight," I begin. Gourry is running out the door, screaming "WE BELIEVE YOU! WE BELIEVE YOU!!!"
Lina stands up. "Hey, if you don't know magic, how in the hell can you use the Dragon Slave?!" Uh oh. She's got me there. My mind races for an excuse. "Um...it's the only spell I know?" Xellos giggles. "Oh my, how strange! The only spell you know how to cast is the most powerful spell in all of black magic! Tell me, how did such a thing come to be?"
Oh man, I'm running out of ideas...so I decide on the last resort response. I grin at Xellos and reply, "Sore wa himitsu desu." Xellos gives me a hurt look. "But...but that's MY line!" Amelia chimes in, "Stealing someone else's line..." "Is very unjust," I interrupt. "Now you've stolen my line," Amelia bawls.
Xellos laughs again and puts an arm over my shoulder. "I like the way you think! I think I'll teach you magic instead!" He teleported, taking me with him, to the middle of a desert area. If this is the Slayers world, I surmise that we are somewhere in the Desert of Destruction. "All right, my young apprentice, show me just how powerful that Dragon Slave of yours is," Xellos tells me.
Gulp. I hope this works, otherwise Xellos might not be happy with finding out he's been lied to. I begin..."Darkness beyond twilight, crimson beyond blood that flows..." I'm surprised that I can remember the words this easily. Must be all that time on the 'Net.
What's even more surprising though, is that I think it's WORKING. I can feel the wind picking up, and a very strong force building up. "Buried in the flow of time," I continue,"in thy great name, I pledge myself to darkness! Let the fools that stand before us be destroyed by the power that you and I possess! DRAGON SLAVE!"
WOAH!!! Man, this is hard to control! It seems even bigger than the one Lina casts somehow, or maybe that's just me. The Dragon Slave smacks into a nearby mountain, obliterating it. Xellos laughs and puts his arm over my shoulder again. "Oh my, that was very nice to watch!"
Over the next few days, Xellos teaches me spells of many different types. Finally, he teleports us to the inside of an active volcano. "Next test, my apprentice. This volcano is about to blow. The lava is already rising. How do you save yourself?"
My first two ideas were to Raywing out and away from the volcano, but the top is far from the ledge we are on, and I'm not very good with Raywing, so that's out. My second idea is to stop the lava with an ice spell. "Freeze Arrow," I shout. It works, but only for a little while before the ascending magma melts the ice. My mind races, and I finally decide I need a stronger spell. "DEMONA CRYSTAL," I scream, clenching my eyes shut.
An eternity later, Xellos puts his hand on my shoulder again. "You can open your eyes now." As I do, I find myself in a cavern of ice. Not only have I frozen the lava, but the volcano itself. "I wasn't sure about you," Xellos begins, "but now I know it to be true." Much to my surprise, he falls to one knee. "Welcome back to the lands of the living, Lord Hellmaster Phibrizo."
I ask him what he's talking about, and he points to the iced-over lava below. In the reflection of the ice, I no longer see my own face. My persona is replaced by that of a small boy, possibly 10 or 12, wearing mostly blue. My hair, in the reflection, is no longer its normal brownish-blonde, but has turned jet black. I look at myself to find that I am the same as I was this morning. How?
"My only guess about your appearance, Lord Hellmaster, is that you have not fully reawakened from your death, and that L-sama decided to put your mazoku spirit into this body." Still not fully understanding what's going on, I look back down to the ice. I can't be the Hellmaster! I just can't! But the ice, and my inner self, reveal it to be true. Soon, I may totally lose myself and become Phibrizo completely. I suppose I'll just cross that bridge when I come to it.