Akuma

Akuma was first supposed to be my Persona but she became an independent character faster than expected so don't be confused, because my name is Akuma, too.

Little note to 2 ref pics:
1. The one where you can see her together with Shiori... well, this one is on a later point of the story when the two are forced to fight together but it's not normal. They usually fight AGAINST each other xD
2. The pic with Sanzoku that's an AU where my friends Characters live in my world so that's also really uncommon c:

Her abilities:
She has a Demonic aura - it is like a force field 10 Metres wide in every direction, inside are some red lighting and black particles, the stronger she uses her ability, the more. She is also able to decrease the range of this field. It has an effect on the brain of her enemy. They will have the illusion to suffer in pain or hallucinate to be living their greatest fear. Akuma isn't able to control what exactly they'll see. She is able to spare her friends from this ability, basically she can control who is affected.
Also she can change her form. Her original form is with metallic skin, claw hands, horns and a tail - i don't have a reference now. But she doesn’t use this form very often, most times the only demonic things on her are her ears, teeth and wings^^
Maybe it's a surprise, but she is an Ice devil. NO FIRE. PLEASE. She can control snow storms, create Ice sculptures... (maybe a weapon) etc. Whatever comes to mind. But she hates fire, so be careful and not judge by her color^^
Also a part of her body is a shadow - not the regular shadow everyone owns, it's a species that appears on the outer ring of Eltara, where it's always night. They'd die as soon as the sunlight hits their bodys. Nevertheless Akuma can live with that problem because she is a devil which makes her body much more stable - still sun is not pleasant (Like fire in general) at least she wouldn't get burned.

By becoming a shadow she also got some more abilities.
She is now able to control blood, like every Shadow. Normal Shadows don't have own blood, so they can just control the blood of others but Akuma have blood inside of her so she can also control herself better or in case she's wounded she could use her own blood for creating something to fight with.
The other Shadow ability is, that she can control her own regularShadow... Transform it into whatever she wants. Like a shield or Claw or simply hands, when her 2 hands are not enough.

Story:
One time, long ago a god called Rena created Ryleath. A world that is basically a big flying island. It's separated into over and underworld. It's two dimensions that have the same form but the environment is completely different. While in the overworld is a normal cycle of night and day, in the underworld it's always night to name just one example. Then Rena created the Manisa. A species that lives in the overworld. They have animal ears/tails or just look like normal humans. And they aren't really special except the fact that they live on Ryleath.
But they were really boring to watch, since she just created them randomly - so they wouldn't fight each other or do anything else interesting except organizing their society. So she decided to create the devils. She spent much time on every single one of them to make them as interesting as possible.

Also Akuma got created. She was the first devil that came to existence. She was born in Renas home. The source demon spring. Once she stepped out of it she wasn't able to come back anymore. The first thing she did was looking for a place where she can have her base to live. She found a region with big black rugged mountains that are made out of stone. Inside there are many red crystals to be found. Also some are outside. She found a hole and started making it a base. After a while other devils were created by Rena. They started fighting over territory. Akuma never lost a fight. She had so much fun fighting, that she killed Bonten, another devil one time. The others tried to become stronger to secure themselves. So Tsukishiro was the first devil who discovered her ability to create a demon spring.

A demon spring is a crystal that is set on an specific place once it's created. Every devil can use that ability just one time. With the help of this springDevils are able to create demons. There are two ways. Either they create a demon out of stone/plants/whatever they have in their hands or the demon gets created randomly when an animal steps too close to a demon spring. Even if it's unintentional they'll become demons and follow the orders of their devil. (Animal demons have their original and a demon form that is created randomly) Every demon have a master, which is the devil that created the demon spring they were born at. They have to obey orders of their devil.
Also Akuma created one, the first demon she made was Yui, most of the others are random animal demons or some small creations.

That demon springs were a whole new opportunity for the devils to fight. Almost everyone created one. The war was on a whole new level than. But still, Akuma had loads of fun. But meanwhile on the overworld, some Manisa were born with special abilities. They're known as priests. Shiori was one of the first children with spiritual energy inside of her. The upper world got also stronger and after a while portals came to existence. They appear randomly on the under/overworld and demons/Manisa can change Dimension by stepping through them. At first it was strange for the demons but they did what they were always doing. They tried to kill the Manisa to get their territory. That's when the priests came to action. The fought the demons and protected the people. Akuma thought she should do something about that, so she decided to infiltrate the priests.

She sealed away a great amount of her power in her staff, that's why she doesn't have the demon form all day long. so for a priest it would look like she got normal life and spiritual energy inside her body (Because since she sealed away enough she's now able to split her demon energy into those two) So nobody would recognize her as a Devil if she let her wings disappear and turn her ears into normal.
Everything went well. She became a priest - and also a well known because she killed some demons. Of course the ones that follow other devils since she didn't allow her fellows to leave the underworld, as long as she's not with them. She thought she could defeat Shiori easily like anyone else but Shiori was maybe as strong as her or even stronger. Maybe also Akuma was a little stronger. They didn't fight because the plan would have been for nothing. And Shiori (Who's the only one who found out about Akumas Identity) thought it'd be the best not to tell anyone what's going on because that'd be the best opportunity to find out about the movement of the demons. So it was like a silent contract of both of them. They hate each other but they'd wait because they just have advantages of that.

One day a girl called Aynua showed up in the overworld. She was special because nobody knows what her species is. She isn't a Manisa or a Demon and she doesn't really have special abilities. She became friends with Shiori pretty fast and also with Akuma after some time, since Shiori allowed her to live in the temple after she found her. Aynua can easily tell when someone lies so she soon found out about Akumas identity and she tried to help her and Shiori to understand each other and always tells them not to fight but she wasn't really successful. Well... At least they pretended to be friends when she was around. But still, Aynua didn't give up on making them real friends.

After a time the priests discovered how to create Shikigami. They're made out of paper from the trees of a specific place in Ryleath. This is the only place that exists in the overworld but not in the underworld. A Shikigami is normally created by putting spiritual energy into one of those papers. That is not always successful, since there's a high amount of spiritual energy needed so just the strongest priests can create them. (The stronger the energy the better control they'll have about what kind of Shikigami will be born) Once the Energy is released into the paper it transform into a figure like shape and can change into the form of a living being. Shikigami usually don't have a own personality since priests suppress them naturally and use them just as servants in fights, but once a priest lets its Shikigami be they'll have their own personality. Shikigami usually don't have live energy and just spiritual energy.
The Paper is really sensitive, so a demon can't fool it, shikigami can just be created by spiritual energy. But Akuma didn't care about that, she thought about a plan and got an Idea. She brought some paper into the underworld to experiment with it there. She thought she could probably make it less sensitive by 'hurting' it in the moment it receives the energy so it wouldn't mention, that it's demon energy. And it worked. The first Shikigami she created was Kite. But he was different from a priests creation. Akuma isn't able to suppress his personality, since Demon energy is like a combination of Life and spiritual energy, not just spiritual. Also he got a curse mark on him. Also he got some scars from the fire that Akuma used to hurt the paper before. So Akumas fellows came up with another species name "Noroi Shikigami" - because they are (in their opinion) much more amazing than the usual Priest Shikigami and don't deserve that normal name. Akuma was really proud of creating Kite. He was an amazing subordinate and had a nice personality too.
He acted as a bodyguard and was suspicious of everything and everyone. He also showed up in the human world as her Shikgami sometimes. She explained his scars/mark by telling them, he got hurt while fighting a strong demon.
After a short period of time she created another Shikigami, Synphonix. In her case she pierced the paper with a stick to create her. So she got a hole at her chest. After she got created, a demon attacked Akuma. Instinktive Synphonix protected her but since she was really inexperienced, she got hurt and Kite managed to protect his "sister". By killing the attacking demon. Both of them became really close after that.
Some time passed and Akuma created her third shikigami Komori without any interruptions or problems. Also the forth, Scarlet was created without problems. Than she stopped because even Shiori can't control more than four Shikigami at a time and it would be really suspicious if Akuma would have more than her. Well, since they have another nature than Priests Shikigami and there's no need for her to control them it would have been no problem.

Some years passed and the life in Ryleath was not really different than usual. Nothing interesting happened for Akuma. But than a guy showed up in the underworld. Astaroth. He was with his subordinate Syon. Both of them were Airys. Usually there's no need for Airys to reveal themselves to anyone, that's also why nobody knows about their existence. But once the voice of the universe tells them there's something to do, they step in. He tells Akuma that there was an incident in this world and that Rena became asleep by something like a curse. So there was no god in this world currently but someone needs to manage it. Akuma told him, she would be the right person. But he explained, that that isn't his decision but the one of the universe. And that decision says that two people should have the god role. Akuma and also Shiori. Aynua mentioned that because she listened when Syon explained that to Shiori. Astaroth created a small new dimension that just Akuma, Shiori and Aynua can enter, to talk about the future of the world and how to avoid its destruction. Also Astaroth and Syon joined all the meetings to make sure that there aren't any fights. But for some reason Astaroth really was at Akumas side, while nobody listened to Syon... So the one to keep the peace was Aynua. Still Akuma and Shiori often almost started fighting. And when Aynua told them to stop and suggested to settle that by a game, they started playing games. And those games usually ended in draws. At least they didn't fight as much anymore.
Akuma and Astaroth spent much time together so she found out that he was the master of all Airys. That's also the reason why he had to go back to the Airy world often. But she didn't care and over the time they got closer and closer until Akuma asked him to be her boyfriend. He said yes and so they became a couple. And some years later Sazoru, their first children was born. He was always calm and didn't really care about others but he was really close to his parents. He also had fun fighting for Akuma, but he is the type who finishes things up fast and doesn't watch his enemies suffer like Akuma does. The life was absolutely perfect for Akuma and her friends. She started visiting Shimaki (Another devil) often and made friends with him. She herself didn't mention that but she became soft. Her life wasn't just about killing anymore.

One day Akuma and Shiori made an agreement that the priests would leave Shimaki alone, since he's the only devil without demon spring and really doesn't have any bad intentions. He is the one, the demons can visit to get their wounds healed. He got a strong barrier around him that is made by himself and other demons. It's strong enough that it can't disappear anymore. So no priest would meet him forever. But once there was a portal to the underworld exactly inside this barrier. Shiori sent out Yoruko, a young priest who loves fighting to kill a devil called Shimaki, what is totally against the agreement. Later she tried to explain she didn't know where the portal went, but Akuma didn't believed her. Shimaki had to fight Yoruko, but he didn't killed him because he's to soft. And Yoruko changed sides. But still, Shiori acted against the agreement. So the next meeting was a real pain for Aynua. But at least she didn't broke any other agreements after that. Still, Akumas hatred grew.

Some years after that incident Akuma got her second child, her daughter Verena. Verena was soft, naive and much too friendly for this world. So Akuma tried to act like the world was really nice in front of the girl. Sazoru wasn't aware of that but he kind of envied her sister for getting so much attention. He felt more and more uncomfortable and tried more and more things on his own. His parents were a little worried but they didn't thought he had a serious problem, until he disappeared one day. Both of them were really worried and Astaroth searched everywhere also outside Ryleath for him but he didn't find him.

So they tried to accept that they lost him, even if it was really difficult and they are still thinking about him and hoping that he'd show off again one day. But another thing happened that got their attention. Astaroth got a big headache and he couldn't really do anything for some days. After that he told Akuma, that the voice of the universe was acting super strange, so many things were happening wich also caused his headache. He told Syon to tell everyone in the Airy world and to handle the problems. He himself said he would stay and handle the problems in this world. Well it wasn't really problems. Rena awakened. The god of Ryleath. She got information about what happened from Astaroth, Akuma and Shiori by joining the next meeting. And she was afraid it could have been boring for them but they told her it wasn't. Because Rena wanted to experience the meetings, she said she'd like to continue that in the future.

But soon after she awakens she got an request from Llyr (Another god) to help him out fighting Loki (Again another god). She wasn't able to leave Ryleath because when she fell asleep she sealed the way inside, so just Airys are able to leave it. And Astaroth tried to bring Akuma with him. They both wanted to help Llyr since Akuma was really curious what is outside Ryleath and Astaroth wanted to protect her. She also brought her Shikigami and Ayakashira with her but the demons were still in Ryleath. Also she asked Syon if she could protect her place when she's gone. Rena gave her a cube for a master game - which allows Akuma to use one of Renas abilities one time. Than they went into the world between the worlds. (Which is basically a big space with nothing inside but starts and 6 Portals that lead to the other worlds. Also if he wants to show off, there's Universe's room. But he didn't reveal himself most times. - Universe is the creator of the whole Universe, in case you don't know.)
They just wanted to go to the world Ilirea when Scarlet (one of Akumas Shikigami) showed off and asked her why they had to leave. Akuma just explained that they have to and that she wants to. And Scarlet got really angry, Akuma was a little confused since she didn't really got what's wrong, Scarlet was the most loyal Shikigami and she acted as a maid for Akuma and helped her always even if she didn't ask for help. So she thought it wasn't serious and just told her to go back into her paper form and help her. But Scarlet didn't do that, in fact she did the opposite, she started attacking Akuma. Since both she and Astaroth were caught by surprise, there wasn't any defence and Scarlet hurt Akuma really bad. She managed to seal Scarlet in the Paper form but still she was injured. Nevertheless she tried to stay up and go to one of the world portals. But on her way she fainted and she mistakenly fell into the portal to Eltara, not to Ilirea where she wanted to go.

In Eltara she woke up and found herself in a really dark environment, so she couldn't really see anything. Her wound really hurts but she mentioned that someone took care of it. So it was getting better. Still she couldn't move for some time and after a few hours someone showed up. It was a Shadow. As explained in Akumas abilities, they are a species. First he didn't want to talk to her but than he explained that he was the one who helped her. But he wasn't sure if Akuma was nice, so he was careful before. He told her that his name is Karma and that he's from a clan of Shadows, also about their abilities to control shadows + the ability to control blood which helped him healing her so she didn't lose too much blood. Akuma also told him that she mistakenly came to the world, so she really has no Idea what to do than waiting. He asked about other worlds and she told him a lot but he was really sad, that he couldn't see the sun bc he would burn. He didn't really showed his feelings but in the talk it became clear that he hates his being as a Shadow.

So Akuma got an Idea. She had the master game from Rena (You can read more about that in her description) And in a master game you can get anything you want to even if it wouldn't be physically possible. So also the ability of someone. Akuma told him, she would bring him to Ryleath and let him touch the demon spring to get rid of his unstable body, to become a demon, if he would play a master game with her. She wanted his abilities, he wanted to get her body (Because if he would get her body, he wouldn't have any problems with the sunlight at all) and the game was set. They played and Akuma won it. So she got Karmas Abilities. He is still able to control his own shadow but the he lost the ability to control blood completely. Instead Akuma got it.
Than after some time he needed to explain himself to his leader, she wanted to kill Akuma but since she was now able to control her own blood she could prevent the leader from making too much trouble. Also she had her other abilities, so she won. She didn't kill the leader because Karma asked her not to do that. Than Astaroth joined them. He was looking for Akuma and finally found her. She asked him to bring Karma to her demon spring, he didn't want to at first, but than he did it. So Karma became a demon and he doesn't die by sunlight anymore. Astaroth came back and they continued with their original Plan to help out Llyr. Scarlet didn't talk at the time.

When they finally came to Ilirea, Akuma joined Llyrs Army. They had much time left until they wanted to attack Aldonah (Lokis world) so she had time to talk to Scarlet. She found out, that Scarlet was in love with a Manisa and she didn't want to leave her and she apologized for overreacting. Akuma accepted since she got another ability because of that. She had a nice time traveling around in Ilirea, seeing other places and also preparing to fight. Than the first day of the war finally came. This day, also Shiori joined them. She said, she don't believe Akuma could be able to do that alone. So they joined forces... Kind of. They still hate each other. But they have to fight together now.

For Akuma everything went well for the first days, she did a pretty good job against Lokis Bot army but than the Deadly sins stepped in. And Astra (Pride) killed her Shikigami Kite. She wasn't really able to realize it. She couldn't believe that he's dead. She just got insane. Even Astaroth couldn't stop her. She did kill a really big number of enemies as well as allies, since she couldn't really control what she was doing. Astaroth couldn't help her. He had not that of a strong connection to Kite but still he was a really good friend of him. The one who had the worst experience was probably Synphonix. She just couldn't fight anymore. Astaroth knew Akuma would be a danger to anyone, so he teleported away with her back to Ilirea. There he somehow managed to calm her down. She lost Sazoru but there was still hope that he isn't dead. Kite was dead now. And she couldn't bring him back. So when she was alone with Astaroth, he sent away her other Shikigami, and told them to leave her alone. Scarlet and Komori didn't talk this day, they just both sayed their Arms around Synphonix back and left them. (It was really hard for all of them considering that both Synphonix and Komori normally tease Scarlet and she don't like everyone else) They also needed some time alone. And when there wasn't anyone except Astaroth watching anymore, she could finally cry. And it took her some time to calm down again. Astaroth hugging her helped a lot. But still. She lost a little of her softness she got before.

So she rest a little in Ilirea until the fight was over. Shiori and her than went back to Ryleath together. Both had other stuff in mind than their hatred. They never experienced a war like this before. Since Akuma never lost anyone important before she kept thinking about Kite and Shiori, who saw all the despair thought that all the wars between Priests and demons were never really serious before. They just played around. And it was much better this way. She never thought, a real war would be that much pain. Not for her, for those who lost their loved ones.

And when they finally came back to Ryleath another surprise was waiting for them. Syon had the whole Priests and Demons under her control. She had a double Identity like Akuma. She ruined the names of Akuma and Shiori. Than Akuma found out that she was in love with Astaroth all the time, which is why she hated Akuma. And she hated Shiori because Astaroth doesn't like her. And Akuma and Shiori thought the same. That was so childish. Just unnecessary. There was enough stuff going on and she couldn't ruin the world Ryleath, where they had so much fun just fighting like rivals and not like dead enemies. So they both defeated Syon together and Astaroth asked her, just to go back to the Airy world. Akuma and Shiori both needed some time to build up their strength again. Also Karma is doing well and they got back to their old lives. But they had a new attitude, now that they know what real fights are about. They realized, they are more like rivals than like enemies.