It took five additional decades for the monster Xelloss to settle on his favorite human form. He most often appeared as a male and so Zelas took to thinking of him as such. For a time he sported very short hair, then very long hair for a decade or so, and it was always some bright, obnoxious color. Sometimes he was dark-skinned as the islanders, and sometimes golden-skinned like his master, and sometimes light-skinned like the mainlanders. For a long time he refused to lose the wolf eyes he adored so much.
And for three whole decades, after seeing Zelas in one of her lesser taken forms—that of a long-haired, winged human male with the ears and eyes of a wolf, which she had taken in order to appear to a certain oracle who knew her as such—he insisted on sporting wings. At first they were feathery white wings, as hers had been, and grossly oversized so that he kept knocking over tables and candelabras every time he entered a room. After paging through a book in the library called 'The Lore of Lesser Demons' he had taken bat's wings as the demons in the book often did. And then for three weeks he had had furry wings. Yes, large wings covered in gray fuzz. There had been something so inherently wrong about that that after three weeks of enduring it, Zelas had insisted he lose the wings by the next time she saw him. He had obeyed, albeit sullenly, and from then on, he'd never appeared with wings again.
And then, at last, one day he appeared before the court in an unfamiliar form. The court was now of a reasonable size as Zelas had accepted the human's offerings of children and made them into her slaves, slowing rebuilding her collection of servants and grunts. She had also discovered that the pool of "tears", from which Xelloss had emerged and which, miraculously, had not been absorbed by the earth, had the ability to create mazoku out of humans and lesser magical beings. Zelas had orderd a fountain built on the spot, and all those who drank of it were corrupted, and eventually transformed, by the pure hatred and malice of which its waters consisted. This made creating new servants much easier and quicker than it had been before. And yet, to prevent any more significant betrayals, she refrained from giving any human or lesser demon significant power. Instead, all the important jobs went to Xelloss, while she herself handled affairs which required her to leave the island. Why she knew Xelloss would not betray she couldn't say, but she was sure of it. He was almost like a part of her, and their wills were entwined. She could feel how she owned his soul, how he was bound to her by an invisible chain which he neither could nor wanted to break.
On this day he phased in from the Astral Plane where he had been taking several lesser demons to task and approached the throne. If she hadn't felt his unique signature, she wouldn't have known it was him, as his appearance was quite different from usual. He was completely naked and she could see that the body was male, although it was slim and rather feminine. His skin was flawless and smooth and of a pale color and his hair, falling to his shoulders, was of a violet hue, shaped in the bowl-style hair cut sometimes sported by the boys of Gaia. Only the face was familiar. For some time now he had chosen this placid, narrow face. But even the wolf eyes had now become human, though they retained a vague demonic/animalistic quality. The pupils were of a violet matching his hair. There was something about the simplicity and androgyny of his appearance strongly reminiscent of the form he had first appeared in on that fateful day in the garden.
"Like the color purple much?" Zelas queried as she puffed on her cigarette, enjoying the shocked reaction of a human at her feet who had been begging her for mercy on behalf of a village upon which she had set loose a gigantic demon in the shape of a wild boar, and who was now staring openly at the strange man who so insolently approached the throne.
"It's my favorite color." Xelloss replied happily. "The color of pain."
"How so? Isn't black usually considered the color of evil?" Zelas raised an eyebrow at her servant.
"Black is the color of people who are trying to be evil," he responded cryptically.
"That still doesn't explain why purple is the true color of evil."
"Well, I'd explain it to you," Xelloss scratched the back of his head distractedly, "but, I'm afraid that that is a secret!" A wide, stupid grin spread across his face and he waggled one finger at her. Zelas blinked while the human messenger face-faulted.
"How do you dare to address the King of Beasts with such lack of respect?" the human choked out.
"Who's he?" Xelloss asked, jerking a thumb at the human and ignoring his question.
"I don't know," Zelas shrugged. "Some human who's come to beg for my mercy."
"Oh...If I was you, I'd kill him." Xelloss smiled. The human gasped and curled up into a little miserable ball as if this would make Xelloss forget his presence. "Anyway, I've found my form."
"You know, you don't have to look completely human," Zelas said, amused. Her own golden skin and pointed ears testified on behalf of this point.
"I know. But I like it." Xelloss shrugged and reached for the wine glass Zelas had set on the table next to her throne.
"Typical," Zelas nodded. Xelloss' fascination with humans had not waned over the decades. Indeed, it had only grown stronger over time. But if that was what the imp wanted to spend his time on, it wasn't a problem for Zelas, so long as he didn't shirk his chores. And if Xelloss liked to sneak off to the mainland and conduct "anatomical experiments" with the whores in the seedier port cities, well, that didn't really bother Zelas either. She had even suggested that he bring the girls to the island with him, so that they might recline in greater comfort, but Xelloss said that the filthy alleyways and damp attic rooms added to the atmosphere of degradation and hopelessness. Hell, even his constant interference in the affairs of the villagers didn't bother her, so long as he didn't make he presence known to any other monsters than her own underlings. She had even forgiven him for the time his "magical experimentation" blew up an entire wing of her palace. Well, after she had put him through seven months of extraordinary torture. But, in the end, she had forgiven him.
Zelas waved a hand dismissively, although she was secretly pleased that he had thought to come and announce the decision to her personally. It showed how much value he gave to her opinion. "All right then. Your form is up to you. If you want it, that's fine."
"Oh sure, but that's not what you said about the furry wings….." Xelloss muttered as he took a sip of wine. The glass instantly exploded in his hand, causing him to jump back in surprise.
"Look what you've made me do, clumsy. Go fetch me another one."
Xelloss bowed and made to leave, but Zelas held up a hand. "One more thing. Why aren't you clothed?" It didn't matter to her really, as nakedness means nothing to mazoku who are all, in natural form, unclothed, and who lack human self-consciousness where the body is concerned. All the same, she really hoped that Xelloss didn't mean to choose a naked human male as his permanent form. It might not matter in the palace, but it was just a bad idea in general if he intended to ever blend in in the human world.
"Oh, that. Well, Master, I felt I wasn't sure what sort of attire to choose for my form. After all, I feel some uncertainty as to what my position here is exactly."
"Oh, oh, of course," Zelas leaned forward. She had forgotten in her excitement over her child of sorts that she had had a reason for wanting a servant in the first place. And yet, she had contemplated it every now and then, going out in the garden under the stars and sitting next to the pool from which Xelloss had been "born", and she felt she had come to a decision. "You, my servant, will be everything to me. You will defend my honor and you will command my servants. Organizer of my affairs, controller of the Islanders, warrior in my name, I grant you the title of both Commanding General and High Priest together with the power that goes with them. Come here."
Startled by the sudden officiality of the affair, Xelloss bowed hastily and came to kneel at his mistress' feet. Taking a deep breath, Zelas reached out her hands and cupped the empty air in front of her. Slowly she focused all of power in that one spot. Carefully, with utmost precision, she took part of herself, much as she had in her earlier failed attempts at creating a servant, and began to form it into a shape. On the Astral Plane it had no distinct shape, but on the Material Plane, she fashioned it in the form of a gigantic ruby. She let her strength, her intelligence, power, knowledge, and skill flow into the throbbing gem until she felt she could give no more without losing control of the transformation.
"Take this ruby, Xelloss, and you bind yourself to me forever," she addressed her servant gravely. "In it is all the power I bestow unto you and that shall be yours to do with as you please. But remember that you are mine, and always shall be until we are all returned to chaos. I offer you the choice to decide your own fate. Will you serve me?"
She did not tell him that, should he refuse her, she would destroy him right then and there. She did not have to tell him, because he did not ask.
"I would serve you gladly, Master. My life is yours." Without hesitation, he reached out and laid his hand on the glowing ruby. Great jolts of power ran through his body, making him feel as though he were on fire. For a moment the pain of it caused him to lose his grip on the physical body he had projected and he appeared as cone hovering before the Beastmaster. But as he felt her power and strength course through his proverbial veins, he found the vigor to reassemble the image. On the Astral Plane, the thing that was Zelas' gift to Xelloss joined his form and became one with it. He buckled and gasped as his body absorbed the ruby until finally Zelas let the jewel, now a part of him, fall into his hands and his hands alone. And there he stood, calm and placid once again, holding the symbol of his bondage in his hands. As she watched, the ruby started to sprout strange growths. The growths slowly met and formed into a receptacle of sorts for the ruby, and then this grew out into a long, crooked staff. Xelloss let go the jewel and grabbed the staff with his right hand.
Almost instantly his body covered itself in the garb of a simple priest. "If you don't mind then, Master, I think I'll wear this for now," he said cheerfully. Mischievously he cocked his head and closed his eyes in an imitation of supreme innocence. With a 'pop' the human messenger, who had been watching the whole affair with eyes like saucers, suddenly caught on fire. Within seconds his body had been reduced to ashes and nothing remained of him but the lingering echoes of his screams bouncing off the walls of the throneroom.
The small cluster of humans at the back of the room who had been waiting their turn to present their pleas to the Beastmaster suddenly decided that they weren't that interested in begging for mercy and exited the room hastily, preferring to throw themselves to whatever fate they had been trying to avoid.
"Xelloss! That was my human!" Zelas cried, knocking him off his feet with a mere wave of her hand. Unfazed, he stood again, rubbing his rump, but still grinning like an idiot.
"Aww, you don't really miss him, do you?" he said in a sugary voice.
Zelas raised her fist to cause further pain to her insolent servant, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. He was so delightfully vicious. How could she complain if his eagerness for destruction was so great he couldn't always keep it under control. "Fine," she huffed with mock annoyance, "Go test your new powers if you will. I think you are finally ready to be presented to the world. I shall think up an excuse to visit my siblings as soon as I can."
"As you wish, Master." Xelloss bowed several times as he walked, backwards, down the steps. "Oh, and don't worry," He disappeared for a moment, then reappeared with a bottle of her finest wine and a full glass. "I didn't forget."
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A/N: I got the image of Beastmaster's winged Inuyasha impression from two separate doujinshi which featured her in that form. No idea where they came up with it as I've never found that particular form described in any other place during my research, but I guess if two totally unrelated doujinshi both feature it, it can't be that off. (Btw, in one of the doujinshi, she really does look like Inuyasha, that's why I say that.)
