of fun even when he is not ordered to do so, seeming somewhat fond of Lina, to the point of looking somewhat regretful when she was seemingly absorbed by the Lord of Nightmares. Lina also has comically beaten him when he gets them into trouble. In the novels, Xellos is more distant around her, somewhat troubled by the fact that Lina, unlike other humans he has dealt with, is able to see the bigger picture and is not easily manipulated. Zelgadis holds a powerful hatred towards the Mazoku because in the second episode of NEXT, Xellos destroys a Claire Bible manuscript, which the chimera thought might have contained the cure to his state. This does not bother Xellos, even though he is the only one who does not tease Zelgadis about his appearance. When Amelia makes one of her heroic speeches, Xellos often listens with amusement and mild curiosity, although they disturb him at times. When she expounds at length about how beautiful and wondrous the world and life are, Xellos becomes extremely weakened, even cringing at her minor comments. So great is the effect of these speeches on Xellos that, when they are forced to fight him, the group uses one of them as a weapon to render him helpless. Even though Xellos tries to be polite to Filia, she continues to insult him and call him names like "raw garbage" (namagomi). Xellos likes to tease Filia because she is part of the dragon race. Her hatred towards him originates from the fact that he killed many dragons during the War of the Monsters' Fall 1000 years in the Slayers universe's past. By the end of the series, they learn to tolerate each other and are capable of having at least one conversation. Due to his overpowered status, Xellos did not appear directly in any of Slayers video games besides a China-only crossover collaboration event in Ragnarok M in 2021. However, Reid Hershel from Tales of Eternia can be dressed as him in Tales of the Rays: Last Cradle. Reception While Xellos started off as a single-arc character in the original novel series, his enormous popularity among readers (ranked first in at least one of the popularity polls, surpassing even the main character Lina Inverse) allowed him to be included in the last novel and in all anime seasons following his introduction. Xellos placed fourth in Anime Grand Prix