Mythee: Hewwo! This is my first fanfic, so please enjoy. 3 I'm sorry if the begginning is slow. XD Comments are appreciated, and I have NO idea what I should in general use this space for. Maybe I'll do short bits of Xellos interviews and stuff. So, Xellos, umm... what do you do in your free time?

Xellos: Wha- Nani? An interview?

Mythee: Yup. Now answer the question.

Xellos:...Sore wa himitsu desu. waggles finger

Mythee: Oookay. I think that interviews won't work out. Any suggestions? waves to non-existent audience

Credentials: Slayers and all of the Slayers characters belong to Hajime Kanzaka, although I want Xellos to be mine...

TwT All other characters (and the plot of this fanfic) are mine, so no steal!

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Gallance & Monstrosity

Chap 1

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Introductory Subsequence

Good and Evil are solely symbols, but they have been in constant opposition since the begginning of time. Good may correspond to positive things, happiness, righteousness, kindness, while doing the "correct" thing oft causes pain. Evil is even harder to define. Is it selfishness? Ambitions, anger, hatred? Perhaps it exemplifies following your desires freely, without looking out for others- freedom from guilt, regret, caution. But then, wouldn't "evil" cause happiness, and then become "good"? The higher mazoku knew the true substance of this. The spawn of the golden mother of all perceived themselves as pandemonium, a balance of chaos- without this, disrupting the empty silence of non-existence would never have occured, and nothing would be. The mazoku were chaos, the "holy" beings were order. And they equally initiated both pain and joy.

"Why," greater beastmaster Zelas asked, seated on her velvet couch, a crimson hand holding a cigarette that realeased poisonous smoke in the dark room's air, "do people insist on having a right and a wrong? Do they believe order will be found when the mazoku are purged?"

Xellos crouched besides her, grinning as usual, and answered cheerfully: "Why, no! It is only for they need the chaos of confrontation."

Zelas smiled. "Yes. There will always be two sides, because life desires it. You are, as always, gifted with a sense of humor, Xellos, and I trust you will rule well in my place... Although I admit that you will be missed as my subordinate."

She gave Xellos her thanks, and so he phased out of the room, dissapearing from the ominous area atop Wolf Pack Island. He was Xellos Metallium. Destined from birth to succeed to Zelas Metallium's position as Greater Beastmaster. And now was time...

-----Re-Rebirth-----

Valiant's cries filled the room, as Filia Ul Copt, former priestess of the fire dragon king, shouted for Gravos to go fetch a bottle of milk. The tiny ancient dragon wasn't really ancient anymore, he was newborn- to be precise, reborn for the second time. Val Agare was his original name, and then Valgaav in his other life, where he had almost destroyed the world (only to be stopped by Lina Inverse and her group) and could be identified as a mazoku by a black horn sprouting out of his head. Now, a mysterious circle found it's place on his small forehead where that demonic sign has vanished from. His light teal hair was already grown, and his powers hadn't yet returned enough so that he may hide his small, ebony wings that appeared to be mostly composed of slender and flexible thorns. Gravos, a blue skinned half-troll, returned to take care of the baby boy. "Filia, I don't think this is what he wants. See, he's still crying."

Filia growled and seperated herself from a splendid ceramic pot she was rubbing, and stomped towards Gravos.

"When will you ever learn? You need to hold the bottle for him. See?"

Filia took the bottle, and held Val with precaution, making sure she wouldn't drop him... then, agape, she did drop him, as she froze when a familiar sensation emerged as an ominous figure walked past the windows of her antique shop. Completely forgetting about the baby, that Jillas had caught before he hit the ground just in time, Filia muttered:

"No... I can't believe that this kind of trash- this TRASH is here!"

Val had stopped crying. Although Filia's attention was focused on the unexpected presence, she wondered why.

-----Jellyfish-----

People around the aquarium were bustling around noisily, while Gourry and Lina stared through the giant glass walls of the aquatic zoo. Gourry, staring calmly at the jellyfish, mumbled softly to Lina:

"Look, they're so soothing..."

But she was too busy looming intently before a delicious looking crustacean to hear her companion speak to her. Suddenly very hungry, which was never surprising in her case, Lina stood up, grabbing the blonde-haired swordsman by the arm and dragging him down the corridor.

"Hey! where are we going?" He looked unhappy about leaving his fellow jellyfish brains behind until Lina answered him indifferently.

"Food."

Gourry repeated, now walking on his own: "Food."

After they spotted a decent seafood store where a large, moving sign upon which was written the very original message "Seafood" was mounted, Lina and Gourry entered the restaurant, and a waiter came to assign them to their tables. As he observed Lina, he suddenly seemed transfixed, and asked her and the tall man behind her to wait. He came back a minute later with a white paper and his chef, a short, sturdy man with a large red beard and a huge, puffy mustache.

"You are Lina Inverse, and Gourry Gabriev, am I correct?"

Lina smiled, changing to her boasting pose.

"Of course I am! Is my reputation as the great sorcere-"

She was cut short as the waiter presented the piece of paper five inches from her face. Upon it were rough sketches of both Lina and Gourry, and written beneath these was an official warning.

"Lina Inverse and Gourry Gabriev, possessing a history of eat-and-runs, must hereby pay their orders before serving themselves in all self-respecting food-related establishments."

Lina gaped, and stared at Gourry, who only asked:

"Huh? Is anything wrong, Lina?"

Rewarding him with a swift punch on the head. Lina then vented out her anger at him, scolding him with her incredulous voice:

"Because you eat too much, now we need to do pay before eating!"

Gourry then lifted a hand in front of himself, saying defensively:

"Hey, you eat a lot too! Don't blame it on me if you order more than you can pay for!"

The waiter tapped on Lina's shoulder, asking:

"If you can't pay the meal, exit the shop."

But the angered sorceress brutally pushed the waiter onto the floor, determined to continue her dispute with Gourry, who was trying as much as he could to look menacing as he yelled:

"Oh yeah! Well you're the one who's supposed to carry money around here anyways! It's your fault you buy things so easily!"

People in the store started getting scared as the two strange people who stood out so much bickered loudly, but they were blocking the exit, so nobody dared approach them. Just in time before Lina cast her fireball, Amelia, suddenly dashed in and grabbed Lina's shoulder, and when the sorceress swung around to face this new disturbance- she jumped.

"LINA! GOURRY! What do you think you're doing!"

Seeing her opportunity, Lina seized Amelia, and shouted into her face:

"Amelia! Are you hungry? Have lunch with us!"

Amelia ignored the request and grabbed Lina's arm, dragging her quickly out of the place, yelling:

"I need your help! Something terrible has happenned with Filia! We must go to "

Lina mumbled, while Gourry ran out of the shop to follow them,

"Not another cheesy prophecy. PLEASE don't be another cheesy dark lord problem."

The famous sorceress begged.

-----Still hasn't given up-----

Gazing over the horizon, a slight smirk of satisfaction came over the solitary chimera's face. As his suspect torn-up map indicated, a large, black monument shot to the sky from the emerald forest. The map identified it as an abandoned mazoku temple containing ancient texts, and Zelgadis Greywords expected to uncover something related to the Claire Bible within. He started to descend the cliff he was standing on, when the hush of several nearby beings were percieved by Zel's slender, pointed ears. He rapidly swallowed up his surprise and approached a tree, jumping up onto a branch with his strength reinforced to many times that of a human. "Wasn't this place supposed to be uninhabited?" He thought. As the footsteps got nearer, the voices gradually became clearer, and the sorcerer swordsman's blood froze as he could distinguish their exact conversation.

"...human, golem and brass demon."

"Are you sure that's possible?"

"Yes, our master sensed him, and she knows."

"Then he might be harder to capture than we thought..."

"Hah! Have you forgotten? We're mazoku now, we can overcome almost anything!"

The monster then lifted his rod, and red light seared from it, hitting the blue stone-skinned chimera down from his tree.

"OWW!"

He said, hitting the ground with an unceremonious thud, then quickly regained himself and unsheathed his sword.

"Who are you people?"

One of the three mazoku smirked, and said:

"That's what we'd like to ask you," another added:

"Hey, he really IS golem material! I don't think our magic would affect him much..."

The third one, who was silent up until now, giggled and held up her hand, an enormous rock then appearing in the air, then connecting with Zelgadis's head with another loud thunk. Incredulous, he gaped, and fell unconscious before the three smiling mazoku.

Zelgadis woke up with a throbbing headache. Not that stunning, because he DID receive a one-ton rock on his head. He tried to get up, failing miserably; he then tried a second time, managing to get into a kneeling position. Although he truly doubted that he wanted to, the chimera opened his eyes, only to recoil in terror and astonishment as slitted, crimson eyes that pierced him right in front of his face. The figure smiled, her form bending over that of the shocked Zelgadis, and then the mazoku stood up straight.

"Who are you? WHERE AM I!" He exclaimed.

"Now, now, Mr Greywords, you were trespassing on our grounds, remember? This is the temple you were headed for."

Zel glanced around the room, a dark, windowless place. His only source of light was the eerily reddish light coming from beneath the closed door.

"I wasn't trespassing, filth. This place was supposed to be uninhabited."

The mazoku blinked, and giggled again. It was the one who had dropped that stone on his head.

"I'm not filth. If mazoku were filth, then you'd be flith too, right?"

Indignified, Zelgadis exclaimed: "I'm NOT one of you! I was born a human!"

"So are most of the monsters here. This temple is used as a recruiting area for the souls who desire to become mazoku, did you know? I was human once too!"

Zelgadis facefaulted, and her annoying giggles were starting to get unnerving.

This situation will be hard to get out of...

"Oh, no, it won't. We're here to help you!"

Zelgadis nearly fell over as he was startled again.

"Wha-WHY? Didn't you hit me earlier?"

"Oh, yes. But that was then, because you were trespassing. But our orders were changed."

"But why!" Zelgadis was now standing, and noticed unconsciously that the mazoku girl was much taller than him.

"Because Lord Xellos asked of it." She grinned.

Zelgadis stared at the girl, agape.

-End Chap 1-

-Mythee