artwork by Rui Araizumi. The chapters were then published as light novels under the Fujimi Fantasia Bunko imprint across 15 volumes from January 17, 1990 to May 10, 2000. Although the original story ended with the 15th volume in 2000, Kanzaka began a new arc 18 years later in the May 2018 issue of Dragon Magazine, which was published in March 2018, to celebrate the magazine and Fujimi Fantasia Bunko's 30th anniversary. He described it as "kind of a reunion" and said he had not decided to relaunch the series yet. Volume 16 was published on October 20, 2018. A third story arc began in the November 2019 issue of the magazine, released in September 2019. The author described this as "Rather than an official history, the third arc is going to be more like one of the possibilities, a parallel existence to the TRY TV anime and the Water Dragon King manga, I guess." Volume 17 was published on October 19, 2019. On September 7, 2004, Tokyopop began publishing the novels in English, ending with the release of volume 8 on January 2, 2008. On July 3, 2020, J-Novel Club announced their rescue license of the series at Anime Expo Lite. They first release the novels digitally, with the first chapter uploaded to their website that day. Their physical release of Slayers began in July 2021 and is a 3-1 hardcover omnibus edition based on Japan's 2008 revised edition that featured new illustrations and covers. is a spin-off prequel series of 30 novels published from 1991 to 2008. Each consisting of one-shot stories (sometimes, two-chapter stories) chronicling the exploits of Lina Inverse and Naga the Serpent before the events in Slayers. Five additional volumes were released under a new series title, between July 2008 and November 2011. , a four volume prequel featuring Lina and Naga, was released between 1997 and 1999. These four stories were originally published separately by Fujimi Fantasia in mini-bunko format, and later they were included in different Special novels. A one volume crossover between Slayers and the series Sorcerous Stabber Orphen was published in 2005 under the title Slayers VS Orphen and was later reprinted in 2013. is a best-of compilation of Slayers Special. Its five volumes were published in August 2008, September 2008, June 2009, February 2010, and March 2010. Slayers Anthology was released to mark the 25th anniversary of Slayers novels in