The Angst Team

Intro 1: Dark Storms Rising

Disclaimer: I don't own Slayers, although I may someday work up the courage to write the people that do, try to get them to let me publish a Slayers novel, and be rejected unceremoniously.

Please Note: Superscripts, assuming they hold their formatting, denote author's notes, such as explanations of what may appear to be arbitrary divergence from the 'normal' Slayers continuity, located at the end of the chapter.

As the wind blew across the bleak landscape they would pick up dust and swirl it in random patterns. There was nothing of any real note about the brown, dry, and almost lifeless desert, except for the single character walking purposefully through the wasteland. The figure was clothed in a much lighter brown than the surrounding earth, the pants, shirt, and hooded cloak looked to have seen their share of travel but upon closer inspection they were in good condition. Aside from the garments and a functional looking sword the traveler carried very little, all he had he carried in a rather small bag and several pockets.

The individual in question looked human enough from a distance but, upon closer inspection, one would find that he was defiantly not normal. First off his skin was a dark blue color, almost black, one would say, and it was actually tougher than leather. Secondly, his skin was flawed with what resembled grey-green stones in both texture and strength, although their appearance was much too regular and symmetrical to be any sort of disease or other type of blemish. Lastly, his hair, most of which was hidden under his hood, was silver with a blue-amethyst undertone and had a stiff, wire like appearance.1

Zelgadiss, sometimes called Zel by the few friends he did have, was a chimera… a hideous combining of equal parts of human, stone golem, and brow demon, these were what gave Zelgadiss his appearance, he considered it to be the bane of his existence and was constantly, well-nigh obsessively, in search of a cure to his condition, a condition that his grandfather/great-grandfather was responsible for.

That was definitely something unusual, the Red-Priest Rezo was his great-grandfather on his father's side and grandfather on his mother's. The blind priest had always been in search of a cure to his blindness but had never found it. That had been one of several almost ironic similarities and parallels that Zelgadiss was beginning to see in his life as compared to the priest's. They had both shown a great talent for magic at a young age, both had been cursed with something they found unbearable, and neither of them had found a cure.

Although Rezo had somehow lost his sight and his memory of sight early in his life, he'd adapted by using magic and creating new, previously unimagined, spells to cope with the loss of his sight, such as a spell that allowed him to 'read' books, signs and the like. Zelgadiss had created several spells of his own, and he was extremely talented in shamanistic magic, one of which allowed him to project the illusion that he was a normal human for a short time.

Zel looked single-mindedly at his target in the distance, by taking this route instead of going around the unlivable desert he'd cut the travel time down to three weeks from the original six months it would have taken him otherwise. He never would have made it in a truly human body but he'd gotten used to this one's capabilities and used them to the utmost advantage, he didn't realize that he was doing 'the humanly impossible' on a regular basis, his hatred of his form blinded him to the benefits almost all the time. The lead he was following was not far now, only a day's journey in Zelgadiss's estimation. He resisted the urge to pull out his sextant and shoot another azimuth to determine his position again. While it was rather easy to get lost in the desert a quick glance behind him showed that he was following a reasonably straight path.

Zelgadiss replayed the scenes back in the old town where he'd encountered this new hope for a cure.

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Zelgadiss spoke clearly yet softly and the spell calling on the power of Fire and Air took shape and pressed against his flesh. The spell wouldn't last long and could be disrupted rather easily, but it should afford him the opportunity to move about the town below freely. Zelgadiss looked at his hands to make sure the spell was working and was greeted with a pale flesh color, like that of someone who had been indoors for the majority of their lives. Nodding with satisfaction Zelgadiss started down the game trail that led down to the awaiting town.

Zelgadiss was greeted by several of the folk, they didn't see many travelers except for those in the merchant trains that ran between the northern and southern kingdoms. Here in the midlands the 'kingdoms' tended to be rather loosely knit, mostly to stave off the occasional mid- or high-level monster, most villages and towns not even knowing which kingdoms they belonged to existed primarily to protect themselves, and by extension their kingdoms, from the raids of low-level monsters.

Zelgadiss's eye was drawn to a small shop that seemed to have some old, and possibly ancient, books. Zelgadiss's hand unconsciously tightened its grip on his sword, there were some ancient knowledge that had been lost, or sealed away, that could help him to regain his human anatomy. Zelgadiss checked the weight of the coins in a pouch in one of his pockets, it should be enough to purchase whatever he found of interest in the little shop, if anything.

There was an elderly man tending the counter when he came in, and judging by the man's movement to rub the sleep from his eyes, had probably linked the door to a spell to wake him up. The man was tall, thin, and probably a retired wizard of middle rank. "Ah, how can I help you son?" The man asked with the genuine twinkle of a humanitarian. "Eh, what's this…" the man gestured, muttered a few words that made Zelgadiss's eyes go wide, "Flow Break!" The old man had finished before Zelgadiss could tell him to discontinue his casting. "Oh my." The old man exclaimed as he pushed his glasses up his noes.

"I see." The old man said after a moment of awkward silence. "Either monsters have taken to casting illusions or you're one of those poor souls some overblown sorcerer used for his chimera experiments before they were banned, oh, forty years ago." The man offered a friendly smile, surprising Zelgadiss.

"Yes, the latter." Zelgadiss said as he pulled his mask up to cover everything under his eyes out of habit. It wouldn't do to have strangers see him as most thought him to be some sort of monster. 'Although this has been my form for less than ten years.'

The old man sighed hearing that, "I'm sorry I can't do anything for you..." The man sounded genuinely disappointed. "Wait, there's a small clearing just north-east of town... my master, Galvanaas was one of the pioneers of chimera research, had a laboratory there, you may find something in there. Be careful though, he left that place with more traps than the Diraker treasury."

Zelgadiss nodded, pausing to address the shop-keeper with a "Thank you" as he exited the small shop. He made his way out of the small town quickly, though not so quickly as to arouse notice and when he'd finally broken into the forest he began searching for the laboratory.

After several hours of searching the chimera began to think that the old man had lied to him , but his eyes didn't show anything in the way of deceit. 'Well,' Zelgadiss sighed, 'I wonder…'

"Levitation!" Zelgadiss cried, causing the spell to carry his two-hundred seventy-six pounds into the air defying gravity.2 Zelgadiss closed his eyes for a moment, almost as if he were listening to imperviable sounds, then opened them suddenly and began casting another spell, still in midair.

"Rune Flare!" Zelgadiss gestured as multiple rockets of light flared into existence at his hand and flew in lazy arcs to impact the general area where he'd indicated with the gesture. Moments before the majority of them would have hit the ground they winked out of existence, or rather seemed to, as the sound of their self-containing explosions reached his ears Zelgadiss smiled. 'That's no trifle illusion with the area it's covering, and rather skillfully laid if I can't detect the spell.'

Slowly releasing the levitation spell Zelgadiss drifted back toward the earth all the while marking the area that marked the border of the magical illusion. Settling on the ground without a sound Zelgadiss brought his hand up to his chin as he contemplated the best solution to the problem. Using a common dispel would likely trigger other spell activations. He knew from experience the danger and difficulty of chained spells, the truly complex had kept even his grandfather from penetrating several wards in his quest for sight. Luckily for Zelgadiss all the great mages that could leave such complex spells were long dead and this could only be one of the simpler ones.

Zelgadiss settled on Obfueria Koraka after he noticed the twinges of Fire and Earth in the illusion. While illusions could be built of other Elements Fire and Air were the most commonly used. Obfueria Koraka was a spell of his own creation which could best be described as a combination of Demona Crystal and Astral Break and its use of Water and Spirit would counter the Fire and Earth he felt in the illusion. Reading his stance, Zelgadiss began his chant, gesturing to the region that hosted the illusion.

There was a bright flare as the Spirit and Water energies encountered the illusion and tore it to shreds revealing a clearing with what looked like a rotting cellar door in the middle being guarded by two Ashlar golems, mid-level golems related to the Stone golem.

The two golems eyes seemed to flash as gathered a red light and began to move. Zelgadiss was about to cast Dug Break, a specialized version of Flow Break for golems, when he realized that the golem spells were chained to a Blast Ash spell which would cause a black void appear where the golems stood and anything alive or possessing a spirit in the void's radius would be turned to ash. Zelgadis guessed that the radius of the Blast Ash would be quite large in this case… after all if he had designed the golem's defenses he would have done something similar.

Zelgadiss quickly changed tactics, drawing his sword, he quickly cast Astral Vine to increase its effectiveness on the magical creatures before him, though in all honestly he had to dodge while finishing the spell as one of the golems rushed at him producing a sizable stone in it's hand and throwing it at him.

Zelgadiss jumped high into the air, flipping up into the branches of the trees behind him, though shortly after landing he heard a cracking sound, his substantial weight being too much for the branch, and thought, 'Oh, Bloody Chaos!' as he fell.

The golems closed in on his position, one advancing, while one hung back throwing the large earthen projectiles. From his research on golem construction, and he had done a lot of it, intelligence was one of the more difficult aspects of developing a golem, a self-sufficient autonomous one anyway. He needed to revise his approach, again.

Zelgadiss reached behind his back and pulled out a dagger with his left hand, smiling in a determined way as he drew back and released it just as he finished the spell. "Shadow Snap!"

The dagger protruded from the earth where the golem who was using ranged attacks fell, pinning it and preventing most movement, all Zelgadiss would have to do to remove himself from the golem's fire would be to simply move out of its current range. The other golem had other ideas though, sensing it's partner's predicament it rushed at Zelgadiss to crush him with a powerful double-handed downward blow.

Zelgadiss barley managed to evade with what would be considered mild acrobatic skill. Despite the Ashlar golem's stonelike appearance they moved quite fast, almost as fast as Zelgadiss himself. Zelgadiss doged a backhanded swing as another large stone came hurtling his way, hoping to buy a little time, Zelgadiss flipped in midair and kicked the nearer golem into its partner's fire.

Gaining a split second as the golem stumbled before regaining its balance Zelgadiss started the rather unorthodox spell he'd learned from his apprentice swordsman a few month ago, before he'd been summoned by mysterious superiors. The Makushirue3 Riposte was truly an ingenious work of shamanistic magic, the gestures were few and its rather simple words, in the common tongue no less, made it perhaps the most unique spell he'd heard or learnt.

"Fire of Spirit, I beckon you to my hand; Spirit of earth, return to your rest; Barrier of Fire sever these bonds that bind…!" Zelgadiss spake with the mental tug at the golem's pseudo-soul and a push at its physical body as he finished the spell, "Makushirue Riposte!"

The golem shuddered and its body ceased to have an animated look as its 'soul', or rather what passed for one In a pure golem, it's motivation was drained out and its body slowly started to crumble to the ground as if it had been a dry old statue once made of mud that was now parched and cracking.

Zelgadiss blinked as he realized how much the spell had taken out of him, not in the way of magical power, but in mental. He felt like he'd been awake nearly a day longer than he had not sixty seconds ago.

The remaining golem flung yet another projectile at him. Dodging out of the way, Zelgadiss, ran as he dodged a flying stone yet again. Zelgadis didn't dare use the Makushirue Riposte again, it would have taken a lot out of him, too much to risk when he didn't know what other traps were within the laboratory. Now that he didn't have to dodge two golems, Zelgadiss was free to move about the clearing trying to get out of the golem's arc of fire.

A few moments later Zelgadiss was behind the golem's back and preparing a couple spells to take care of it. Gathering the Earth magic Zelgadiss cast a Dug Haut, causing a slight earthquake as stalagmites shot out of the ground at roughly even points encircling the Ashlar golem. Zelgadiss quickly followed up with Ly Briem, encasing the golem and its earthen prison in a chunk of solid ice, thus effectively neutralizing the golem.

Zelgadis let out a breath as he scanned the area with his eyes for enemies, and then again for any magical traps. Finding nothing of note he went over to where he'd fallen from the tree, picked up the branch, and made his way down the stairs.

Just before reaching the limits of the outside light Zelgadiss used a simple fire spell to light the branch. He'd forgotten to get torches while he was in the town, and while he didn't particularly need them with magic at his disposal, he'd rather use magic for something important. He was a magic using swordsman, not a sword using mage.

As Zelgadiss's eyes adjusted to the sudden increase in the light Zelgadiss was surprised to see the passage in front of him filled with a fog or mist that suddenly stopped a few feet from where he was standing. He couldn't sense any magic holding the fog back, but he could see it's effects. Zelgadiss briefly wondered if he should cast a fireball down the passage to see what would happen, then decided against it, he could very well destroy what he was looking for. Besides, he didn't want his name to be synonymous with terror like his friend, Lina Inverse's was.

Bracing himself, either to jump up or back or drop to the floor, Zelgadiss stepped through the boundary of the mist. Nothing happened for a few seconds, so, he pushed on, until his makeshift torch snapped as the fire reached some particularly wet portion of the wood and he dropped it jumping back.

He hadn't realized it but the mist was definitely starting to get to him, he couldn't see any reason for its presence and that grated at his mind however he tried to ignore it. He had heard of something like it, but years ago, and he hadn't actually been paying attention at the time.

Zelgadiss decided that it would be prudent should he expedite his search. Quickening his pace to something less than a jog but more than a power-walk Zelgadiss almost missed the sealed doorway. It was mechanically sealed and not magically, which surprised Zelgadiss, he hadn't seen anything about the lab to suggest the monetary resources required to install physical security like this.

Zelgadiss simply pulled out a small padded package from one of his pockets, unrolled the contents, and looked through the picks with the eye of a professional. Selecting one, he slipped it into the keyhole as he grabbed another and put it in at an angle to the first. After several false starts the key unlocked and opened revealing a small round dial embedded into the door. Zelgadiss had to smile at that as he grabbed his makeshift stethoscope, two pure mechanical locks, whoever owned this lab was paranoid of other magic users.

The door finally opened to a short almost antechamber-like passage that was filled with bookshelves on the walls. The books looked like they might be interesting, though Zelgadiss doubted that he would find anything among them now.

The main room of the laboratory was quite cluttered, various chemicals and mixtures were in seemingly random locations, and the benches were littered with notes of all types, subjects, and ages. There was one reminding the writer that there was a town meeting he wanted to attend, another stated that the results from a test were favorable, yet another seemed to contain a half finished spell that was hastily written. The last one Zelgadiss had picked up was actually a sheaf of notes held together with a bit of wire that had been twisted into an elongated spiral and flattened.

Flipping the half-writen spell back revealed a map, and the n there were notes on an Obelisk at the far edge of the desert through a pass in the mountains just south-east of his position. There also seemed to be several pages of notes in an unintelligible shorthand. Though the last two were quite readable, one gave specific conditions for a certain summoning, and the other was a fairly detailed plan for a chimera with something scribbled about two bodies needed in the corner.

Zelgadiss put the entire set of documents in his pack and left the laboratory. The hallway was no longer filled with the foggy mist. The walls were dripping wet and the floor had almost enough water to splash, Zelgadiss guessed that was all that remained of the fog, but this somehow didn't feel right, and not just because it was cold enough for him to see his breath.

Making his way purposefully back aboveground, Zelgadiss noticed that the water level seemed to be getting higher, as his boots splashed little droplets of water with each hurried step, until finally the water was up to the soles of his boots and audibly splashing the legs of his pants with icy-cold water.

Zelgadiss was relived to see that the golem's prision had melted almost minimally, but what had melted was draining down the stairs and into the underground passage. Zelgadiss almost laughed in his relief, the reason everything had seemed wrong down there was because the golem was linked to the laboratory by a strong magical link. The magic imprisoning the golem had 'bled' into the area that the golem had been tied to.

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Now, as he made his way through the desert, he hoped that he would be there in time to investigate this obelisk. He looked to his right as he thought he heard chanting, not the singular intonation of s single voice, but the polyphony of a crowd of voices, coming from a giant dust cloud.

Ten minutes later he was sure of it. The chant was musical but still a chant, in a language he'd never heard before, and was punctuated by the sounds producing some complex rhythm. Curious as to what might be going on Zelgadiss began walking toward the dust cloud.

As he got nearer to the dust cloud he could see that the dust was being stirred up by a vaguely human shapes engaged in a complex ritual. They each held a long spear or staff-like object and mirrored each other's moves so perfectly that Zelgadiss could almost have sworn that they were all puppets tied to the same strings.

When he finally could see the gathering clearly, despite the dust being stirred up, he was surprised at what he saw. They were Ophidians, relatives of the snake-men, who were known for their willingness to help mages, for a price. They were considered to be the mercenaries of the magic world as they sold their services freely to any who would pay and seemed to have no inherent loyalty. Which made seeing two of the reptilian creatures working together extremely rare… much less the five-to-eight hundred that were here now.

All of them had an alpenstock tipped with a ruby set in Orihalcon and intricately worked with a gold pattern in what appeared to be a redwood shaft. It was with these instruments that they were scratching a pattern into the ground with their ritual, creating a sound like a thousand feet being dragged across the dry earth at the same time. There was an eerie rhythm to the practice as the Orphidians simultaneously thrust their alpenstocks into the ground and continued the ritual without pause.

Zelgadiss almost jumped when he saw that they were fashioning a Magic Arc, not that Ophidians didn't construct Magic Arcs, Circles, and Squares, but the sheer size of it… it was huge. And the patterns were definitely unique compared to any he'd seen, except for those on his grandfather's giant Magic Circle.

"Ah! Hello there!" Zelgadiss whirled at the voice. "You've made it just in time. I was wondering if you would make it… but then the prophesies did say you would be here." An old man in long black and red, or were they red and black, robes with a long grey beard and a pair of glasses perched on his nose looking very much like the caricature of a wizard.

"Prophecies." Zelgadiss wasn't sure if he wanted to know what prophecies this old man was trying to link him to, so hi simply didn't make it a question.

"Yes. You are the Dark Warrior, and the prophecies said you would be here to see your companions summoned." The old man grinned, gesturing at Zelgadiss's near black skin, as he offered his hand. "I am Galvanaas, Mage Extroplier."

Zelgadiss's eyebrow reached upwards, Mage Extroplier was one of the top ranks in the Rankin Guild. As far as he knew only two others besides his grandfather had received the title which meant that he would be quite formidable if he were to turn out to be an enemy.

"Zelgadiss Greywords." Zelgadiss introduced himself.

"Come," Galvanaas smiled and gestured for Zelgadiss to follow him as he led away. Toward the Magic Arc's focal point. "Things are about to begin."

Galvanaas and Zelgadiss reached a slightly elevated obsidian pedestal nearly eighty feet in diameter and as Galvanaas led Zelgadiss to the side opposite the Magic Arc Zelgadiss noticed that everything had become quiet, the Orphidians had stopped their chant and the dance-like moves with the that stirred up dust with their alpenstocks. Galvanaas gestured overhead, to the sun. Zelgadiss looked up and saw that the moon was about to cross the sun's face resulting in a solar eclipse.

As he stood there, the sky slowly began to darken, and the Orphidians began to hum a short five note musical phrase which the repeated until they suddenly stopped. After a pause of exactly two and a half heartbeats they began chanting a single spell.

Zelgadiss suppressed the involuntary shiver as the air suddenly turned icy and the Orphidians finished their spell binding the air itself to their Magic Arc. The air had almost darkened to it's full extent, and Galvanaas began a single spell of summoning. The Magic Arc was gathering both the power of shadows and the power of light that fell into this large area of the desert, the area that it covered was glowing red and giant bolts of blue-white energy crackled along as it redirected them into the Magic Circle inscribed into the obsidian pedestal which was beginning to glow with a soft green light that reached up a foot from the surface of the dark surface.

Zelgadiss couldn't imagine how all this power was being pushed into a single summoning spell, this much power could easily kill every living thing on the plain of Ganthar and here it was being used for a single summoning!?

Things were almost finished when a growling voice yelled "You've meddled enough old man! You will not be allowed to challenge the resurrection of our lord Shabrandigo."

Zelgadiss watched in shock as a high level Mozoku seemed to step out of thin air, threw it's hand forward, and launched a silver ray at the old man as he finished the spell, or rather ended it, instead of a full summoning that would pull the summoned beings through it was as if a door had been opened to be stepped through.

The Orphidians massed around the Mazoku and attacked all at once with an Elemenkia Lance, and while that high level of a Mazoku could stand up to a single Elemenkia Lance nearly eight-hundred was a different matter as the creature died a sudden and yet painful death.

One of the Orphidians stepped up to Galvanaas and practically begged Zelgadiss to heal him. "Massster sssaved tribe! Massster wasss good to usss, never treated usss badly like our cousssinsss. Massster mussst sssurvive to inssstruct companionsss. I would try to heal massster, but Massster'sss Orphidiansss only know ssspirit ssshamanisssm." The creature nervously flicked out a tongue.

Zelgadiss was somehow touched by the loyalty the Orphidians showed to the old magician, he wasn't greatly skilled with healing magics as he almost never needed to use them himself. Zelgadiss decided to do what he could as the Orphidians watched in an almost tangible concern for their master. They never saw the two figures emerge from the summoning.


Author's Note #1: Zel's skin is a dark blue in the novels, almost black, I've only seen the anime, but I thought it'd be better to go with a dark-blue Zel for this fic rather than the pale-blue of the anime. I also wanted some leeway in case of inconsistency with the anime and other resources as it's a somewhat different universe. This also gives me a little play-room with Zel's back-story, and Rezo's as well, something that I feel will prove indisposable in the future of this story. (Besides, it'll be fun!)

Author's Note #2: I didn't chose 276 lbs arbitrarily. I took 138 pounds, a reasonable weight estimate for Zelgadiss who is an inch or two within my height, and he's a little more muscular than I (I weigh about 130). Anyway, I divided his weight into two halves and multiplied one half by three as stone's density is thrice that of water, giving my 207 lbs, to which I added the unmodified half, resulting in a grand total of 276 lbs.

Author's Note #3: Makushireu is supposed to be the 'Japanization' of the name Maxwell, if anyone has the actual syllabary spelling of it please drop me a line.

Misc. Notes: I'm thinking of italicizing spell names, both spoken and otherwise. I think that it may help readability, but then again it could be distracting, what do you think?

Comments & Criticisms are not only welcome but encouraged as I don't do much serious writing. Also even there are three intros up I would like reviews on each separately, that way I can find out what I'm doing right and what I'm not. Thank you.

efish@cs.nmsu.edu