"Xelloss," Zelas announced with certainty. "Your name shall be Xelloss, for that is my name, and yet it is not. And you are me, and yet you are not." For ages she had wondered what to call the creature. Wondered as it grew, learning to transfer its influence to the Material Plane and then relinquish its hold, becoming familiar with the human mind and how to feed off its pain, developing its own power, and discovering the joys of placing magical detonation spells in random areas and watching the unsuspecting humans set them off. And then, one day, the idea had come to her that she need look no further than her own name for inspiration.
"Sounds good to me," the imp shrugged. It was too busy frying ants with its eyes to be paying much attention.
"Servant!" Zelas cried sharply, wondering if it was even listening at all. "What did I say your name was?"
"Xelloss," it responded immediately. "For I am that which comes from inside you, and yet I am myself, ne?" It returned to barbecuing bugs. It was currently in the shape of a wolf pup and it sat with Zelas on the stone steps of an island temple in one of the little villages near the volcano. It was a village which, miraculously, had remained untouched by the lava flow, and the humans were currently occupied with making several sacrificial offers to Zelas which, ever since the eruption, were always made on this day of the year. This amused the Beastmaster as she had not intentionally saved the people, but she accepted their offer anyway. It was a human sacrifice--the best kind. At the moment, the unlucky man was in the process of being pierced by 2000 needles. Those needles would later be enchanted with an enlargement spell, causing them each, while still embedded in the man's body, to become about three inches in diameter, effectively tearing his entire body into shreds. Oh, how Zelas loved the island.
Of course, if the villagers had known their "mistress" sat in their midst, they might have made the torture worse, but Zelas had taken an inconspicuous and unfamilar form to avoid calling attention to herself. "Now, Xelloss," she was saying. "I want you to reach out and sense the pain of that man over there."
"You mean that acupuncture nut?" Xelloss asked in a bored tone. "His anguish isn't very great. Each needle causes but an instant of surprised pain."
"Yes, but...now pay attention, this is an important lesson....remember that small amounts of pain in great numbers can do just as much damage--and bring just as much pleasure--as one large amount of pain. Do you understand?"
"Naturally, Master. I shall never forget it." Xelloss looked up as an old man walked past carrying a bucket of water. His back was bent with the weight of his burden and his face wrinkled with age. Xelloss stared after him a moment, then suddenly its sharp snout and long, glistening teeth melted into a semblance of the man. Its hind legs lengthened and straightened as the hair fell away and in moments Zelas found before her a complete replica of the man, bucket and all. Only the eyes remained those of a wolf.
"Excellent, but mark your eyes. Even such a small detail will give away your facade to the humans." Zelas commented.
"But I prefer wolves' eyes," the old man sniffed.
As he spoke, another human walked past, this one a young girl in her prime, soot-colored hair swaying gently to her waist, her full figure filling out her blouse quite attractively. She started to approach the temple, humming slightly to herself when she noticed the strange pair. Xelloss was eyeing the girl as curiously as it had the man and Zelas wondered if she shouldn't warn it not to shift shapes here in front of her. But it wasn't necessary. The girl had become equally aware of Xelloss gaze, and before either mazoku could move she began to fume, approached Xelloss, and slapped it hard across the cheek. "Pervert!" she exclaimed and ran back towards the village center, crying, "Mother, that filthy old Garyvirn was looking down my blouse again!"
As soon as the girl was out of hearing range, Zelas burst out laughing. "Nice job, servant." she said, jabbing Xelloss in the ribs with her elbow. Xelloss just blinked. Without warning it changed again, this time into the girl. It giggled as it looked itself up and down.
"This form is much more fun!" it announced.
"Well, whatever suits you," Zelas sighed. "But seriously, in a moment that man I spoke of before will suddenly be in a lot more pain. I want you to focus on the central point of his pain and practice drinking it in. It is easy enough to feel people's pain and be gladdened by it, but it is quite another to become skilled at using the pain to increase your strength and power. You will have to focus the pain, concentrate on filling your body with it...are you listening? Xelloss?... Xelloss?" Zelas looked up. Xelloss was busy jumping up and down on the steps and watching as its generous endowments responded.
"I appreciate that you're working so hard on your human anatomy studies...." Zelas sighed.
"I'm *listening*, Master," the young mazoku insisted. "But if I don't experiment, I'll never master the exact ways in which human bodies respond to stimuli, and without that knowledge, I will never be able to create a truly convincing human body."
Before Zelas could continue with her lesson, the man from before returned; having emptied his bucket, he was returning to the well for more. However he had become rather distracted by the sight before him, and this fact had not escaped Xelloss. "Watch this," the imp said boastfully and, without waiting to be reprimanded, bounced down the temple steps and up to the man. "Hello, Garyvirn," it cooed. "I trust you're enjoying your...trip... to the well." It batted its eyelashes at the old man shamelessly.
Zelas had to avert her eyes to avoid laughing as Xelloss used its considerable feminine charms on the man. It had only been 10 years since the thing's birth and already it was a handful. Unpredictable, curious, and playful, it approached its studies with a ruthless passion. Nothing could stand in the way of its self-improvement and, although its pranks quite often went awry and got it in hot water with its mistress, Zelas could not quite condemn the little brat. It seemed to have nothing on its mind except chaos and destruction. That and pleasure. For the first time, Zelas had a companion who truly understood her love for pleasure. And while its tastes ran in different areas--it was not all that fond, for instance, of smoking, and it had a strange affinity for human contact--it understood the desire. And that was all that mattered. Naturally, she had not spoken of the event to her siblings. Xelloss was her secret weapon. And their surprised shock and disbelief would be a delicious revenge for the pain they had caused her.
Suddenly Zelas heard the old man give a yelp. She looked around to see him shaking in fear and pointing to Xelloss with a trembling finger. "What...what are you?" he gasped and suddenly turned tail and fled, abandoning his bucket at Xelloss' feet. Xelloss turned dejectedly back to its master and she stifled a sigh. Its eyes were ever those of a wolf.
"What did I tell you?" she waggled a finger at it in remonstration.
Xelloss shrugged. "I didn't think he'd be looking at my *eyes*."
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A/N: Since I don't have anything else to talk about I might as well make this note, all that stuff about the King of this or that world I've made up myself. I thought it was odd how the mazoku seemed to have developed their personal niches totally haphazardly, and while I realize that mazoku are beings of chaos, I thought there should be a little more logic to it. Therefore I have developed a little chart which I think also answers questions about why certain mazoku act as they do. The worlds I've assigned each lord are based off of their official title as well as their personalities, etc. (Unfortunately it doesn't explain why, if Hellmaster is the most powerful, Dynast's title translates to "Supreme King" and what that has to do with controlling ice...^_^;;) It goes as follows:
Phibrizzo -- Spiritual World (souls, life, death, the afterlife)
Dynast -- Elemental World (the elements, weather, non-living parts of nature with emphasis on ice)
Gaav -- Supernatural World (supernatural beings, magic)
Dolphin -- Psychological World (the mind, memory, all mental states, mental/telepathic powers, intelligence, emotions)
Zelas -- Physical World (pleasure, instinct, animals/beasts, living parts of nature, the body, the senses)
