Greater Beast Zelas Metallium (Beast Queen in the original Japanese) is a major yet unseen villainess of the Slayers franchise; She is one of the two female Demon Lords created by Ruby Eye Shabranigdo. Like Deep Sea Dolphin, she is almost never seen and acts through her enforcer Xellos, who is one of the main characters in the anime.
However, she is the main villainess of the non-canon Super Nes video-game, in which she plots to use the power of the heroine Lina Inverse for herself.
Appearance[]
Zelas Metallium's human aspect differs following the media. The only time she appears in person in the novels, she is described as a young woman of about twenty years, with short, shining blond hair, clad in amazon-like travelling attire.
Zelas is never fully seen in the anime. What little is shown depicts a tall, slender and regal woman with tan skin and long white-blond hair, wearing a lavish white gown and jewellery, smoking a cigarette holder.
She has also been depicted with a stern face, piercing blue eyes, fair, wavy hair, pale skin, and a magenta dress.
Her true, demonic form is depicted as a gigantic, anthropomorphic she-wolf, easily over twenty metres tall, with short straight horns, clawed fingers, glowing red eyes, greyish-beige fur, a reddish-white tail and mohawk-like hair comb, and large, white feathered wings. She wears a yellow robe and a blue breast-plate with padded shoulders, and sports two enormous swords (even in proportion to her giant size).
Personality[]
Since she remains mostly unseen, little is known about Zelas. The only time she shows herself, she presents a very poised and polite but no-nonsense personality, calling the heroes "Lady" and "Sir" and disdaining trivial actions. Still, she is certainly as ruthless, cruel, sadistic and hateful as her siblings, sharing their goal of global destruction.
Zelas only involves herself when she must, mainly acting through her right-hand Xellos, who she apparently treats better than her fellow Demon Lords do with their vassals. She also seems very driven, spending centuries cutting threats in the bud, for instance destroying the Claire Bible, the source of all knowledge, to keep it away from mortals. She also appears stern, prideful, dignified, clever and calculating. She refuses to let the world be destroyed by anyone but her kind, and carefully places her pawns step by step, remaining under the radar until her goal is reached.
In the game, she is bombastic, haughty, scornful, controlling, violent and vengeful, demeaning her foes, taking outrage at defiance, mostly from her creatures, and swearing gruesome retribution.
Powers and Abilities[]
In Slayers, demons are evil spirits dwelling in the Astral Plane, who can manifest onto the Earthly Plane through a projection of themselves. As a Demon Lady, Zelas Metallium can access everywhere from the Astral Plane; shape-shift his projection to mimic any life-form; create objects of all sorts and size as part of it; absorb places in it to control them; teleport, levitate, or even turn it invisible. Only magic able to target their astral self can harm demons, but they can regenerate.
Zelas is immensely powerful. She can spawn (or reabsorb) demons from her essence; brainwash or empower anyone; corrupt, twist, transform, teleport and levitate things and people; sense auras; alter the landscape; open pocket dimensions; and use the dark powers basis of Black Magic to perform all manners of spell-like feats.
Fitting her title of Greater Beast, Zelas likely rules beast-like monsters and demons, perhaps feral beasts as well. She can probably fire energy blasts of variable intensity, or control demonic energy, given that the spells drawing her power fire magic shots: the Zelas Brid (a devastating red energy beam that can be redirected) and the Zelas Phalanx (many similar beams at once). She also displays tremendous strength and high-level swordsmanship. In the game, she can blast the heroes with demonic plasma and lightning, and perform sword techniques.
History[]
Creation[]
Greater Bast Zelas Metallium is the Demon Lady ruling over Wolf Pack Island. She was created with the other four around five thousand years before the story, sometime before his liege, the Demon God Ruby Eye Shabranigdo and the Dragon God, Flare Dragon Ceifeed defeated one another: Ceifeed's spirit being scattered throughout the world and Shabranigdo being divided in seven fragments sealed in human souls.
The War of the Dark Lord's Resurrection[]
Over a thousand years before the story, Hellmaster Fibrizo staged a war he spread throughout the word before swarming the lands with demons. His goal was to make the great archmage Lei Magnus fall into despair, to awake the fragment of his liege he discovered sealed in his soul. The newly titled Demon King of the North took command of the demons to start the War of the Dark Lord's Resurrection against the dragons, the worst conflict in history.
The Demon Lords destroyed most of Ceifeed's temples to eradicate nearly all knowledge of Holy Magic (the best weapon against them). After that, they created the Demon Barrier: a gigantic force-field cutting the world in two and cancelling Holy Magic, drastically weakening dragons. The war ended without real winner, after Dragon Lord Ragradia's demise, who had fused Chaos Dragon Garv with a human soul and sealed Lei Magnus in the glaciers of the Kataart Mountains.
Xellos
The demons and dragons kept a low-scale conflict, and each Demon Lord spawned two high-ranking demons, one Priest and one General, as their vassals. Except Zelas who created one demon named Xellos to fulfil both roles, making him the mightiest demon below the Lords themselves.
Role in the Novels[]
Zelas Metallium is first mentioned in the novels when Hellmaster Fibrizo borrow Xellos from her, although whether she complied willingly or not is not known. (Since she shares the goal of her sibling, she likely accepted. But Xellos' resentment of Fibrizo in the novels hints otherwise.)
Zelas Metallium (right) and Deep Sea Dolphin (left)
Zelas only briefly appears herself alongside Deep Sea Dolphin, sometime after Dynast Grausherra awakes the fragment of Ruby Eye Shabranigdo in a young mercenary named Luke. Luke-Shabranigdo orders Dolphin and Zelas to lead the heroes, the powerful sorceress Lina Inverse and the master swordsman Gourry Gabriev, to the pocket dimension where he is waiting for them, to challenge them to a fair fight for the fate of the world.
The Demon Ladies greet the heroes without malice, but Zelas saying that nothing will happen to their allies if they comply hints a subtle threat, which Lina understands. Not yet fully corrupted, Luke lets himself be slain, as his true wish was to die.
Role in the Anime[]
Zelas never appears in the anime, but Xellos' popularity promoted him as one of the main characters. As such, he is never far behind whenever the heroes, Lina, Gourry, the powerful mage swordsman Zelgadis Graywords and Princess Amelia of Sailune start a quest.
As such, Zelas is mentioned when Xellos explains his motivations, for she always sends him there. At first and as in the novels, Zelas lends Xellos to Fibrizo's service until he is destroyed. However, the following seasons are anime exclusive.
Zelas' only appearance onscreen.
In the third season, Zelas sends him outside Demon Barrier, that collapsed after Fibrizo's demise, in search for Chaos Dragon Garv's renegade right-hand Valgarv, to bring him back to their side or kill him if he refuses.
However, it turns out that Dark Star Dugranigdo, the Demon God of one of the three other worlds was brought to the Slayers world by denizens of his planet, in a desperate bid to destroy him, with all five Weapons of Light, in fact his creations that were dispersed to other worlds.
Dugranigdo killed and absorbed his rival, the Dragon Goddess Night Dragon Vorfeed, only to lose all reason and sentience and nearly wipe out life. Since Zelas and her siblings want to destroy the world themselves, and since Dugranigdo threatens everyone, demons included, she orders Xellos to assist the heroes in slaying him for good.
In the end, the heroes combine the might of the Weapons of Light and Vorfeed's last vassals, the divine power of the Golden Dragon Priestess Filia Ul Copt and Xellos' demonic power, in a tremendous attack of Fusion Magic, obliterating Dugranigdo, and Valgarv, who had fused with him. At the very end of the season, Xellos is seen reporting everything to his Lady but Zelas' reaction is not displayed.
the fourth season, Xellos is sent to assist the warmongering country of Ruvinagald, and Marquise Gioconda's experiments to build armies of anti-magic tanks and create a perfect Zanaffar Armour: an artifact able to summon a titanic and immensely powerful beast of light acting as a guardian entity, and cancel magic by severing links to the Astral Plane.
But what Xellos really is after is the Hellmaster's Jar built by the late archmage Rezo the Red Priest, to house his soul after his demise. Rezo hosting a fragment of Shabranigdo, Zelas wants to know if it subsisted as well and release it again if it did. And it did, corrupting Gioconda, the assassin Zuuma, and the beast warrior Duclis.
In the fifth season, the direct continuation of the fourth, Zelas orders to join the heroes once more, as they gain the Hellmaster's Jar. Long before, Rezo put the population of Taforashia Kingdom in crystals of suspended animation, to save them from being decimated by the Durum plague. He extracted the soul of Prince Posel Colba Taforashia (shortened into Pokota) and sealed it in a stuffed toy, for him to survive and restore his people once a cure is found.
Rezo's soul possesses Pokota's human body, for only he can free the Taforashians, and helps curing them all. But Xellos battles him to a standstill, to re-awake Shabranigdo's fragment. Rezo cannot contain it and the Demon God reappears in a ghostly form, laying waste on the kingdom. However, this is but an incomplete, mindless remnant that cannot be fully restored and threatens everyone, demons included. As such Xellos helps the heroes destroy it.
Role in the Video Game[]
Greater Beast Zelas Metallium is the main villainess of this story, which the author Hajime Kanzaka has explained to be part of an alternate continuity taking elements from the novels, the movies and the anime. It plays as in Final Fantasy, with a party made of heroes of the franchise, who level-up and fight in turn-by-turn battles.
The game starts when Lina is found amnesiac by villagers. In her quest to find out what happened to her and regain her memories, she teams up with various characters she met but does not remember, who tell her of her past and help her save towns from monsters. They battle the evil sorcerer Garewood, who mistakes Lina for a copy and mentions the demon Valham. Helped by Xellos, Lina starts investigating. It turns out that clones of Lina are wreaking havoc, leaving her mis-blamed, and that demons are trying to replace rulers by clones under their control.
Lina reunites with Gourry, Amelia and Zelgadis, and confronts Valham, who is creating clones for Zelas Metallium. The powerful demon reveals that she is a clone of the real Lina, who never had her memories to begin with, with Xellos in fact directing her back to her creator. Zelas is holding the real Lina captive to make an army of clones of her, both removing the biggest thorn in the demons' side and using her power for her own gain to destroy the world.
The heroes defeat Xellos, who first attempts to dissuade them out of respect, then a perfect clone of Lina, before facing Zelas Metallium at last. The Livid Demon Lady swears to recalibrate Lina's clone and torment the rest in Hell forever, but they beat her and free the real Lina. The clone receives a name and chooses the last name "Truehart", starting a life of her own. Still, finishing the game unlocks a bonus quest against Lei Magnus-Shabranigdo himself.
Boss Battles[]
Xellos can be tough, so the party must be well-prepared, at least at level 44. He has 38700 life-points, resists magic, and deals around 4000 damage, so it is best to heal often. He uses the weakening Infinite Night, strikes with Black Cut or Thick Fog, and hits all targets with the very powerful Ice spell Demona Crystal, so powerful moves like the Ra Tilt spell are recommended.
Copy Lina is just as tough as Xellos, she has 31600 life-points, and deals over 3000 damage. Again, the party must be well-prepared, heal pretty often, and spam their best attacks. She hits with Punch, casts the powerful La Tilt, and strikes hard all targets with Demona Crystal or the Fire spell Burst Flare.
Zelas' true form serving as the final boss.
Zelas Metallium can be very challenging, so having the party at least at level 45 is advised to avoid trouble. She has 54400 life-points, is highly resistant to magic, and deals from 3000 to 5000 damage.
She prevents targets from spell-casting with Silent Voice, hits with Sky Fang, rains lightning with Dark Breath, and hits hard all targets with Black Plasma. It is best to weaken her, boost the heroes, heal or revive at every turn, and spam their best attacks.
Trivia[]
- Like her fellow Demon Lords, Zelas Metallium 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. Zelas is based on Ipos, also known as Ayporos, the twenty-second demon and a Prince of Hell (Duke in some recordings), who is depicted as a chimera-like mix of beasts, just as Zelas' demon form looks like a mix of wolf, human and bird.
- A persistent fan-theory claims that Zelas Metallium and Deep Sea Dolphin loathe each other, to the point that Zelas drove Dolphin to madness. Hajime Kanzaka himself has debunked it, and the only time Zelas appears in person in the novels, it is with Dolphin, with nothing more than a slight chiding.
- Another debunked theory claims that Zelas is best friend with Lina's older sister Luna Inverse, due to a picture showing Luna with an anthropomorphic wolf who looks enamoured. Not only Luna is the Knight of Ceifeed, and as such an enemy to all demons even mightier than Xellos himself, but Kanzaka has explained that the wolf is Dilgear: a werewolf and former minor villain who willingly became Luna's "pet" of sorts and renamed "Spot".
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| Slayers Villains | ||
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Deities Shabranigdo's Generals Greater Demons and Major Villains Demon-worshiping cult | ||