| “ | Your own graveyard. | „ |
| ~ Hellmaster Fibrizo (answering the question "Where are we?"). |
Hellmaster Fibrizo (King of the Underworld in the original Japanese, incorrectly romanized as Phibrizzo) is the primary villain of the third story arc of the Slayers franchise. He is the leader of the Demon Lords created by Ruby Eye Shabranigdo, who manipulates the main heroine Lina Inverse and the Demon Lord Garv, in a plot to destroy the world. He almost succeeds, only to meet his demise by the hand of the Supreme Deity, the Lord of Nightmares.
Fibrizo is arguably the darkest villain of the entire series, to the point that it took a literal Deus Ex Machina to end his threat, albeit a plot-coherent one.
He was voiced by Kazue Ikura in the Japanese version, and by Wayne Grayson in the English dubbed version.
Appearance[]
| “ | Taking a child's form is so convenient. With this form, you never suspected me even for a second! | „ |
| ~ Hellmaster Fibrizo |
Demons in the Slayers universe are evil spirits dwelling the Astral Plane, who manifest on the Physical Plane through a projection of themselves. As a Demon Lord, Fibrizo can shape-shift his projection to copy any life-form.
He is only seen taking the form of a child, specifically to gain his victims' trust. He looks like a boy around ten years old, with pale green eyes, long eyelashes and shoulder-length jet-black hair. He wears an indigo medieval suit with dark-blue, metallic ornaments around his neck, chest and waist, as well as a sash belt, and bangles on his wrists.
His true form is a gigantic, cloud-like mass of conjoined darkness spheres, filled with ever-changing glowing white blobs and pulsating with lightning, whose size and shape is constantly changing.
Personality[]
| “ | I was thinking I could tear the human part out of you. But it seems you can never be a pure demon again. Which leaves me one choice ... To kill you outright! | „ |
| ~ Hellmaster Fibrizo (to the former Demon Lord Garv). |
Hellmaster Fibrizo is doubtless the worst villain of the franchise, far beyond the quite standard Evil Overlord characteristics of his fellow Demon Lords. He is very cruel, relentless, remorseless, devious, malicious, and gleefully sadistic. He revels in his victims' suffering and despair, as shown when he takes his sweet time to kill all of Lina Inverse's friends one by one.
An awful sadist.
He has a very disturbing fascination with destruction, death and suffering. To him, killing or tormenting people, even a fellow Demon Lord, and more importantly watching them squirm helplessly, trying and failing to resist, is a game he enjoys to no end. Said Demon Lord might have betrayed the others, but he spent too much time twisting the knife for it to be mere duty.
Like most powerful villains, he is collected, poised, and displays courteous manners, albeit generally sarcastic and insincere ones. Yet, he recognizes his enemies' merits and praises them when they exceed his expectations. He is overly proud and smug, but despite his love for gloating, he does not exaggerate, backing up his every boast about his might and smarts.
Fibrizo's personality somehow fits his child-like appearance, as he likes to entertain himself when bored (meaning often), he teases his victims and displays child-like dark humour. He regards all life-forms as toys which he can push and break as he pleases, and most often acts in a playful way.
Fibrizo likes to relax... anywhere.
He is very patient, waiting centuries for an opportunity and never making a move before devising a plan. But when he does, he cannot suffer mishaps. He adapts well to setbacks, but painfully erases the cause. While every demon is meant to destroy the world, Fibrizo's is by far the most eager.
The mightier the demon, the more bound they are to their liege's will, and as the mightiest it motivates his every action. He grows more jubilant the closer he gets to his goal, and is fully willing to forfeit his life to succeed.
Moreover, Fibrizo is extremely intelligent, cunning, crafty and manipulative. He orchestrates the situation from the shadows to lead his targets where he wants without them knowing, through careful planting of evidence and false tracks. He easily figures situations and devises backup plans when needed. He has an excellent grasp of human nature, accurately guessing people's action and adapting even to nutcases like Martina. Finally, he flawlessly plays the role of the innocent orphan boy.
Powers and Abilities[]
| “ | The controller of death, that's who I am. Human lives are my toys. | „ |
| ~ Hellmaster Fibrizo |
As the mightiest demon in the Slayers universe, Hellmaster Fibrizo is extremely powerful; second only to the deities themselves. With no-one alive and well in the world able to match his power, he is never seen fighting for real.
He has all the demonic powers, albeit mightier. He can access, see and talk in, and influence everywhere from the Astral Plane; shift Planes at will; teleport and levitate his earthly projection or turn it invisible or intangible; sense auras and suppress his own; create or restore things, from small objects to cities, and add them to his projection to control them; transform, twist, corrupt, or levitate things and people; cover the sky with clouds; or create a pocket dimension. (While demons can attack people from the Astral Plane, they find it way to cowardly to bother.)
He can as well teleport many people, brainwash victims, transform things and people or boost their power beyond their maximum, open gates between dimensions, and to leave an afterimage when shifting planes or teleporting. Moreover, he rarely shows it, preferring to use his power from afar, but he is tremendously strong, fast and spry.
In Slayers, magic draws power from supernatural beings and natural forces. Like all demons, Fibrizo controls the dark powers basis of Black Magic to perform all manners of spell-like feats. (Whether he can cast spells drawing the other Demon Lords' power is unknown.) Two spells use his own: the Laguna Blast (a pentagram of dark energy erasing all caught inside) and the Laguna Drive (raising undeads identical to their mortals selves, retaining their sentience and traits). The Hell Blast (dark energy spear draining all types of energy) evokes him but is unrelated.
Fibrizo's Death Orbs.
As per his title, Fibrizo holds full dominion over Death and the Underworld. He can take, store and control departed souls, drain life-sustaining forces, and create Death Orbs: marbles figuring lives. When he breaks one, his designed target instantly drops dead, with no protection or escape. Worse, he can kill people's soul without harming their body, and vice-verse.
He can raise thousands of dead people as sentient undeads, perfectly alike to the people they were in aspect and personality, but bound to his service, whom he can reduce to mindless puppets. Finally, he can conjure and control lime-green crystals of all sizes, storing souls in a giant one, and building his underground lair from it. He can seal people in floating ones, which slowly kills them and dooms them if they get broken.
Demons can only be killed by targeting their astral self. Slaying their earthly avatar is useless, and they can regenerate wounds. As a Demon Lord, Fibrizo is only vulnerable to powers rivalling or surpassing his own. He attacks with black energy he can shape and expand at will, shifting from one move to another at will: beams and blasts of any size; tentacles to seize or crush targets; beachcomber waves or pillars from the ground. A gigantic sphere of darkness and lightning engulfing a region is even envisioned.
He can fire yellow energy balls of variable size from his fingertips, surround himself with a defensive pillar of blue energy, and disintegrate his victim in a blaze of dark fire. Finally, he can use the souls of the dead in a devastating, unavoidable attack, conjuring countless red rays everywhere from the ground, rushing at his target to overwhelm them.
When unleashing his full power, he surrounds himself with a manifestation of his astral form, who can fire way mightier explosive spheres or blasts of the lightning-infused darkness he is made of, of variable shape and scope.
Background[]
Creation[]
At the beginning was the Sea of Chaos and its personification, the Lord of Nightmares (referred to as a female despite her masculine title). Through her dreams, she created four Worlds, each with a Dragon God, embodiment of Good, fighting a Demon God, embodiment of Evil. In the Slayers World, the War of the Gods and Demons lasted for millennia and wrecked the world, until the Dragon God Flare Dragon Ceifeed died, scattering his essence throughout the world, to divide the Demon God Ruby Eye Shabranigdo in seven parts, sealed into human souls.
Shortly before, around five thousand years before the series, Shabranigdo spawned five Demon Lords (Hellmaster Fibrizo being his right-hand), while from Ceifeed remains sprang four Dragon Lords, each mastering one element. They established themselves in the world and created subordinates.
Each Demon Lords created two powerful enforcers, one Priest and one General. Except Zelas Metallium who spawned one to fulfil both roles – making him the mightiest demon below the Demon Lords themselves – and Dynast Grausherra, who created two Priests and two Generals, one after the other across the centuries.
The War of the Dark Lord's Resurrection[]
Fibrizo took over the Desert of Destruction. A thousand years before the story, he engineered a global war, before swarming the lands with demons, aiming to make the archmage Lei Magnus succumb to despair to awake the fragment of his liege he found sealed in him. He succeeded and the newly titled Demon King of the North ignited the worldwide War of the Dark Lord's Resurrection opposing demons and dragons, the worst conflict in history.
The war killed countless demons, monsters, dragons, elves, dwarves, humans and other beings, including Fibrizo's Priest and General. The Demon Lords almost entirely erased all knowledge of Holy Magic (the most useful weapon against them), by destroying many of Ceifeed's temples. After that, Fibrizo enlisted Dynast, Zelas and Deep Sea Dolphin to raise the Demon Barrier: a force-field separating a huge portion of the world from the other continents, and drastically weakening the dragons trapped inside, by preventing them from casting Holy Magic.
The war ended with no defined winner after Aqualord Ragradia's demise. Garv was fused with a human soul and Lei Magnus-Shabranigdo was sealed forever in the everlasting ices of the Kataart Mountains. Garv's new human soul made him desire to take over the world instead of destroying it, thus making him a traitor to demons, and he went into hiding. As for the remaining Demon Lords, they kept the Demon Barrier active and started their own plots.
Role in the Series[]
Garv's threat[]
During the first half of the story arc, the main heroine, the powerful sorceress Lina Inverse and her friends are harassed by demons seeking to kill them. Also, they are pestered by Martina Zoana Navratilova: the spoiled and borderline schizophrenic princess of Zoana, who follows Lina wherever she goes hoping to get revenge on her. (Lina destroyed her hometown because she captured her friend, Princess Amelia of Saillune.)
They soon meet Xellos, the "trickster priest", a mischievous and fun loving, but mysterious and very knowledgeable man who seems much more powerful than he makes it appear. Xellos tells them about the Claire Bible, the source of all knowledge in the world. Hoping to find a way to get rid of the demons, the heroes resolve to find it, but Xellos "accidentally" destroys every copy they find.
Xellos, who is never far behind, guides them and provides them with clues (which often prove false, because he led them to a dead-end for the sake of fun). He even protects them when demons prove too much of a hassle on some occasions, but always without them knowing it.
After saving Sailune from powerful demons backing a plot to usurp the throne, Lina learns that Chaos Dragon Garv, a renegade Demon Lord bent on world domination, wants her dead at all costs. Garv cannot act directly because he is hiding from his "siblings", so he sends his best servants to do the work. To end this Lina must defeat Garv, who is too powerful even for her. The only spell that could work is the Giga Slave: a very dangerous spell drawing power from none other than the Lord of Nightmares that Lina used in the past. However, she can only cast an incomplete, unreliable Giga Slave and must learn it in full to stand a chance: another reason to find the Claire Bible.
After many dead-ends and absurd situations, Xellos leads the gang to the Temple of Sand: an endless desert in another dimension, where the entire Claire Bible is written on countless huge lithographs. There, they meet Auntie Aqua, the keeper of the Claire Bible, who leads them towards the lithograph they are looking for. Aqua shows Lina a lithograph where she learns everything about the Lord of Nightmares and the risks of the Complete Giga Slave. Indeed, it is so powerful that it could obliterate the entire world when not fully controlled.
The heroes are attacked by Chaos Dragon Garv himself, who is hidden from the Demon Lords in this dimension. Garv reveals Xellos's true nature as a high-ranking demon, and asks him about a plan hatched by another Demon Lord called the Hellmaster. It turns out that said Hellmaster plots to use Lina against Garv, explaining why he wants her dead so badly. They are saved by Auntie Aqua, in fact Aqualord Ragradia's remnant, and flee the temple. Now, the only solution is to reach the Dragon's Peak where they could find the True Claire Bible, instead of a copy.
Finding the Claire Bible[]
The heroes find themselves in a desert city, where they meet an orphaned child who tries to steal Lina's wallet ... An error he shall regret very soon. As Lina's friends hurriedly advise him to flee for dear life, an enraged Lina rises with a feral growl. (This is much less comedic in the manga, in which the city was destroyed and everyone here killed, including Erina, a little girl the heroes befriended, who gets possessed by Fibrizo.)
However, upon learning that the boy knows the way to the Dragon's Peak, Lina accepts not to punish him (and even pays him a hefty sum of gold) in exchange for a map. Soon after, the bewildered boy meets Martina, who throws a tantrum and begs him for another map. The boy takes pity on the crazed princess and agrees to lead her to the peak for free.
The heroes reach Dragon's Peak, where Lina finds the Claire Bible and learns the Complete Giga Slave a last. Meanwhile, Garv comes out of hiding and critically wounds Xellos, who is forced to retreat. With their best protector gone, the heroes (joined by Martina and the boy, who cannot fight and remain out of sight) must fight a desperate battle against the Demon Lord. Lina, who fears the power of the Giga Slave, manages to strike down Garv with the Ragna Blade: another, less dangerous spell that uses the Lord of Nightmare's power. However, Garv is only wounded and prepares to land the finishing blow on the exhausted sorceress.
Then, to anyone's surprise, someone strikes Garv from behind with a dark energy blast. None other than the little boy who guided them, or to call him by his name: Hellmaster Fibrizo, leader of the Demons Lords!
Truth Revealed[]
| “ | So at last, the puppet master appears ... is what I would like to say. | „ |
| ~ Hellmaster Fibrizo |
Fibrizo explains that he wanted to revert Garv to a pure demon, but noting that to be impossible, he remorselessly incinerates him with a just a finger snap. He then turns to the bewildered heroes, and reveals his plot. Upon learning that Lina could cast an imperfect Giga Slave, Fibrizo recognized an opportunity to fulfil what he describes as the goal of all demons, to destroy the world and return it to the Sea of Chaos. So he devised a complex scheme:
- First, he let Garv's spies learn that he was planning something involving Lina (carefully hiding what), knowing that Garv would target Lina to deprive him of an asset.
- Then he ordered Xellos to escort Lina and her friends, protecting them against Garv's underlings and guiding them to the True Claire Bible, the only way for Lina to learn the Complete Giga Slave she now needs to survive. While using the demons' threat and false tracks to suppress every possible alternative.
- Fibrizo would appear posing as an innocent child, and would gain Lina's trust in order to follow her, so that he would be able to strike when Garv would show up.
- Lina (and Xellos if needed) being too powerful for his demon underlings would force Garv to take care of Lina himself. Xellos would then retreat, leaving Lina with no other choice than to cast the Giga Slave.
- Finally, Fibrizo would kill Lina by surprise when she casts the spell, causing the chaotic energy to run wild and obliterate the entire world.
Fibrizo did not expect that Lina would learn more than he wanted her to, therefore refusing to cast the Giga Slave, but he does not care. If Lina could avoid casting the spell against Garv, it will not be that easy against him. Fibrizo abducts Lina's friend, the master swordsman Gourry Gabriev. Having understood Lina's feelings for him better than Lina herself, he tells her to come to the city of Sairaag if she wants to save him. Sairaag having been destroyed by the villain of the previous story arc, Fibrizo built himself a temple there to use the thousands of dead souls. Worse, his presence alone withered the gigantic Holy Tree Flagoon to nothing, depriving the city of its purifying power.
On their way to Sairaag, the heroes meet Gourry's childhood friend Sylphiel: a priestess from the city they befriended in the previous arc, who was looking for them. She tells them that the city has suddenly reappeared as good as new, with every victim, including Sylphiel's father the High Priest, having risen from the grave. This can only be Fibrizo's doing.
They also meet Zangulus: an elite mercenary and master swordsman wielding a highly powerful magic sword, who is a rival of Gourry and wants a rematch. The heroes are later attacked by an immensely powerful armoured warrior. They manage to break his helmet and realize to their horror that it is Gourry himself. Fibrizo got bored, so he brainwashed him and staged this fight just to liven up things a little. The battle is very long and gruelling, because Fibrizo increased both Gourry's skills and the power of his Sword of Light, way over their already huge normal level. Finally, Fibrizo takes Gourry away once again, and Lina explains the situation to the two newcomers.
In Sairaag, Sylphiel's father welcomes the heroes, explaining that the revived people are in fact undeads raised by Fibrizo as his servants. They try to enter Fibrizo's temple, but it is a part of the Demon Lord's earthly avatar, keeping them from entering or blasting open an entrance in the walls.
Later this night, Lina tries to sneak out on her own, but is joined by Zangulus and Sylphiel. They are attacked by the entire undead population, reduced to mindless killing machines, and hordes of demons. They escape and Lina enters the temple using the Ragna Blade spell. There, they levitate down a chasm where Fibrizo is waiting for them, near a monumental green crystal holding the souls of everyone in Sairaag, and confront their enemy at last.
The Final Showdown[]
| “ | Allow me to show you why they call me Hellmaster. | „ |
| ~ Hellmaster Fibrizo |
Fibrizo explains that he encased Gourry in another one of his green crystals, which is slowly draining his life-force, and that the only way to free him is to kill Fibrizo himself. Meanwhile, Lina's remaining friends Princess Amelia, the mage warrior Zelgadis and Martina are also attacked by the undead population. They try to escape through the underground tunnels but not to avail. In the novels, Fibrizo reveals that Gourry's Sword of Light is in fact an entity from another of the Four Worlds and sends it back to where it belongs. In the anime, he keeps it and returns it to a denizen of its world at the end of the following season.
While they fend off endless waves of attackers, Lina's group unleashes their most powerful attacks against Fibrizo, who is not even scratched. The Demon Lord effortlessly withstands Lina's Dragon Slave, a spell able to level a city. As she tries again, Sylphiel cast another one to everyone's surprise, and the two spells make him disappear in an anguished cry ... Or so they think. In fact, Fibrizo left part of his earthly projection behind and retreated into the Underworld, avoiding the attack.
He congratulates Lina and Sylphiel, stating that this double Drag Slave could have been dangerous for him. He then teleports Zelgadis, Amelia and Martina into his temple and creates five golden marbles. Fibrizo breaks one of them and Amelia suddenly drops dead. Gloating, Fibrizo explains that breaking one of these Death Orb instantly kills someone; and that unless Lina finally accepts to cast the Complete Giga Slave, he will kill her friends one by one. The horrified remaining heroes are forced to watch Sylphiel die, shortly followed by Zelgadis, without being able to do anything.
Zangulus says he surrenders, and kneels down before Fibrizo, begging him to spare his life... one second before jumping for a surprise attack. But Fibrizo saw through his acting, and he breaks his Death Orb with a smile, before sending him flying with a mere punch. Zangulus dies in Martina's arm and the distraught princess, who has fallen in love with him, is the last one to die. With her last breath, Martina encourages Lina, telling her to stop denying her love for Gourry and do what she needs.
Horrified and thoroughly broken, Lina can only watch, as Fibrizo is not done with her. Revelling in her distress, he then encases her friends' corpses in green crystals, explaining that while his friends are dead, their souls remain… for the moment. It is only when he threatens to shatter Gourry's crystal, which would destroy the swordsman-in-distress physically and spiritually, that Lina finally casts the Complete Giga Slave.
Delighted, Fibrizo seemingly destroys Lina, and the out-of-control chaotic power engulfs the temple, the recreated Sairaag, and its undead population. Back in the temple, Fibrizo is exhilarated by his apparent success, but the chaotic power suddenly retreats and Lina reappears, now surrounded with a golden aura, with her cloak and hair floating and her voice magnified. For the first time, the complete Giga Slave is correctly cast, and it appears that instead of just drawing power from the Lord of Nightmares, it summons her in person, possessing the caster.
Hellmaster Fibrizo goes crazy.
Bewildered, Fibrizo throws a hissy fit, desperately asking why the Lord of Nightmares created demons to destroy their world if she does not want it. But the Golden Goddess is in fact neutral and she cares nothing about a conflict between demons and dragons she did not consciously create.
Now completely mad, Fibrizo delusionally concludes that Lina's body is too small for she whom he calls "mother". He resolves to destroy it and set her power free, clinging to the demented hope that it will destroy the world, not caring if he dies in the process. He unleashes his full power and hurls a huge, dark energy blast at the Lord of Nightmares.
Irked by his attack in the novel, and his incessant rambling about destruction in the anime, she grants him the destruction he craves…. By destroying him alone. In a sweet bout of karmic irony, she puts him in the place of the hapless victim tortured by a much mightier entity he put so many people through. She painfully tears him apart, making him writhe in agony, before engulfing him in a wave of chaotic energy. The Lord of Nightmare resurrects Lina's friends, who witness Fibrizo's end, as he is vainly trying to escape.
Fibrizo's excruciating but well-deserved demise.
Xellos, who has witnessed the entire battle, appears, kneels down before the Lord of Nightmares and explains what happened. Then, the Golden Goddess tells them that those who cast the Giga Slave have their wish granted at the cost of their life. With Lina wanting them resurrected.
She then returns to the Sea of Chaos but Gourry chases after her, wanting Lina back. Witnessing his devotion, the Lord of Nightmares grants his wish and frees Lina… who beats Gourry down; furious that he has touched a "weak young girl" like her. Everything is back to normal…
Trivia[]
Like his fellow Demon Lords, Hellmaster Fibrizo is based on an Arch Demon described in the Ars Goetia, the first chapter of the grimoire The Lesser Key of Salomon, describing seventy-two demons who according to Biblical Lore, were trapped and enslaved by King Salomon.
Fibrizo is based on Astaroth, the twenty-ninth demon and a Grand Duke of Hell, arguably the most infamous, who tries in vain to escape from Limbo and can guide mortals to hidden treasures. Like him, Fibrizo is associated with the Underworld and leads Lina to find the Claire Bible.
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| Slayers Villains | ||
|
Deities Shabranigdo's Generals Greater Demons and Major Villains Demon-worshiping cult | ||