Heraklios

Heraklios is a major supporting antagonist during the main series. He is one of the 7 disciples under the third archbishop's (Sagitarius Rylaek) command. He first appears in Arc 1 along with his twin brother Malek. He plays a very minor role during the first Arc but becomes a major threat to the slayers later in the series.

Appearance
Heraklios is a tall young Kashini with pale white skin and short black hair. Despite being chronologically 28 years old he has the features of a typical 16 year old human boy, including very young facial features. His cat like eyes are colored a dark purple due to his Yinkari affinity. Heraklios appears to be quite thin but is actually fairly muscular with more of a lean body shape. He typically wears a black cloak with various purple desings branded onto the fabric which covers most of his body except for his legs which usually are showing due to him keeping the lower part of his cloak open, underneath the cloak he wears a black undershirt and brown pants. His cloak has a hood large enough to cover his face on it but he chooses not to wear it.

Later during Arc 3 Heraklios gets various dark green lines and the Leviathan mark of war branded onto his chest after he inherits Scorpos, the Leviathan of war.

Personality
Heraklios has a very laid back personality, he never worries about anything until something actually goes wrong. He doesn't take orders from his superiors very seriously, but still goes trouh with them none the less. On the field he usually lazes around until something substantial enough to warrant his attention happens. During fights he usually takes on a casual approach with opponents weaker than him, but when a clearly stronger or more confident opponent appears he can get quite serious and puts his all into the battle, for example how Heraklios's demeanor changed in Arc 1 after he realized Thesis's true strength.

Heraklios only truly cares about one thing, keeping his brother out of danger. During missions he usually orders Malek to do the least dangerous thing possible, like guarding the captured Fox while Heraklios faced off against Thesis and Reaver alone.

After the apparent death of his brother in Arc 2 Heraklios undergoes a massive personality shift. His laid back side completely dissapears, replaced with a more serious and vengeful mindset. Any order he recieves from Sagitarius or other superiors he makes sure is completed with utmost efficiency and speed. After he is given the Leviathan soul of Scorpos by Azarah his personality stadily declines. He morphs into a shadow of his former self, a creature hellbent on vengeance alone. Heraklios becomes a complete psychopath. He places complete trust and overconfidence in his new parademon abilities, which eventually leads to his downfall at the hands of Thesis Duvarak in Arc 3.

History
Heraklios, along with his twin brother Malek, were born into a presumably Vortumian family. There isn't much known of where they were born and to whom, but it is known that they were abandoned roughly at the age of 7 by their parents after they began to show signs of having a Yinkari affinity. Heraklios and his brother became homeless drifters in their hometown for two weeks before they were chased out due to being Yinkari. They were thrown into the desert where they had to survive alone. Luckily Heraklios had an amazingly fast mental development speed which had matured him quite a bit at such a young age, which helped him make more thoughtful decision to help him and his brother stay alive. Heraklios also began to experiment with his Yinkari affinity, he had no books or refernece to help him, so he only did what felt right. This led him to accidentally learning a couple of basic spells and even developing his own unique spell, "platform" which he was able to utilize in his efforts to survive.

At the age of 9 Heraklios and his brother were discovered in a desert cave by Sagitarius Rylaek, who at that point had become a Yinkari himself. The brothers were in a malnurished state as they had just gone through a week without much food and only a little water. Sagitarius took the boys under his wing, them becoming the first of seven Yinkari children that Sagitarius would save and foster in his care.

Under Sagitarius's care Heraklios started to learn more about his affinity, he began to train with various spells as well as refine his own unique spell, Sagitarius was also extremily surprised by the latter and spent a lot of time with Heraklios researching how the spell had come to manifest within him. Later on at the age of 14 Heraklios, with the help of Sagitarius, came into contact with a master swordsman from the Yinkari nation of Urynval, by the name of Draedus Yuleria. Draedus was the legendary level swordmaster in the Yinkari combat style Evening Blade, a combat style drawing its powers from the setting of the sun. Wishing to become stronger in order to protect his brother, Heraklios took up master Yuleria's offer to become his student and began training under him.

At the age of 20, after having become an advanced level swordsman in Evening Blade, Heraklios underwent a great change in his lifestyle. Having noticed the power Sagitarius and the children in his care posessed, Azarah and the Disciples of Nog attempted to recruit them under their ranks. After initially refusing Sagitarius was eventually convinced after Azarah threatened the lives of his children, this forced Heraklios to join the Disciples as well. Heraklios's life became quite hard as he needed to now preform various tasks for the Disciples, and if he displayed weakness he would be punished. Heraklios did eventually grow accustomed to his new life, even getting quite into the strength based hierarchy. While he was never strong enough to make it into the ranks of the archbishops, he was quite strong amongst the underlings and powerful enough to have a substantial amount of respect amongst the disciples, even the first archbishop (Orchane), a devout believer in the survival of the fittest hierarchy, commended Heraklios for his strength and even attempted to coerse Sagitarius, who had already risen to become the third archbishop, into giving Heraklios to him as a subordinate.

Physical abilities
Greater strength: As a Kashini Heraklios has greater physical strength than the avarage human, he is nowhere near the strongest character in the series but his physical strength is still commendable.

Quick reflexes: His many years of swordsman training have granted Heraklios incredible reflexes and reaction speed. Even though he seems relaxed and unprepared outwards he can move to dodge or block an incoming strike within a split second.

Vortex abilities
Basic Vortex abilities: As a Vortex user Heraklios can preform the common Vortex spells shared between all affinities.


 * Object manipulation: An ability shared amongst all Vortex affinities, it allows Heraklios to lift objects utilizing the Vortex.
 * Object manipulation - Combat focused: Heraklios has a rare ability to utilize his object manipulation skill for combat, he can launch small objects at incredible speeds utilizing them as projectiles. For example: In Arc 1 when pinned to the wall by Thesis's manipulation skill, he used his free hand to lift a piece of scrap metal of the ground and launched it at Thesis, wounding him in the neck.


 * Weapon manifestation: Heraklios can utilize Vortex energy to create a physical weapon of his choosing, this tends to usually be a type of long swrod which he needs in order to use his combat style: Evening Blade.

Yinkari: Heraklios posesses the Yinkari affinity, an affinity greatly despised by vortumians which led him to be abandoned by his parents. Over the years Heraklios has become quite a powerful Yinkari user, while he can't use too many powerful spells he has mastered the few that he can and even created his own unique spell.


 * Dark needle: A Novice level spell. Heraklios extends his hand forward and unleashes a small bit of Vortex energy which forms into the shape of a bullet or needle which he can then launch at a target like a projectile, he has become quite deadly and accurate with this spell.
 * Dark needle - Twofold: Heraklios summons two needles instead of one.
 * Dark needle - Threefold: Heraklios summons three needles instead of one, this is as much as he is able to manifest.
 * Dark needle - Threefold - Scatter: Heraklios can make the three needles he summons scatter in a cone like a shotgun blast, this skill is not very useful however as the scatter version of a dark needle spell is best utilized by those who have the ability to summon five or more needles.
 * Dark shield: A Novice level spell. Heraklios claps his hands together, manifesting energy infront of him into a small shield large enough to cover his face and upper body, it is able to withstand most attacks.
 * Violet burst: Heraklios punches the air in front of him, releasing Vortex energy which lashes forwards, extending his strike's range.
 * Wave of dying light: An advanced level spell requiring a lot of focus. Heraklios slashes the air in front of him unleashing a large amount of Vortex energy into a wave which then shoots forward, dealing a great amount of damage to anything caught in its path. He can only use this spell a few times in succession though, as it puts great strain onto his body and mind.
 * Somnium: A rare advanced level spell allowing Heraklios to put a target to sleep, he rarely uses this however as it is quite heavy in requirements and he cannot perfectly control it yet.
 * Dawn Severity: A master level spell and Heraklios's most powerful spell, When he shouts the incantation a great amount of energy unleashes from his body in a sphere around him with a range of around 20 meters, it has great destructive potential but pretty much places Heraklios out of comission for a few hours afterwards due to the large amount of energy required.
 * Unique spell - Platform: Heraklios can channel Vortex energy in a location of his choosing with a range of around two meter to create a platform stronenough for him to stand on, this is useful in many situations. This spell is actually a Yinkari spell that Heraklios was able to manifest himself, and eventhough it is only a basic or novice level spell at best he is currently the only one capable of using it.

Combat style
Yinkari combat style - Evening Blade: Heraklios uses the Evening Blade combat style, a rare and powerful style taught to him by Master Yuleria. This style draws its power from the setting of the sun, it is most powerful during early evening but can be used whenever just as any other combat style. Heraklios is on an advanced level in the combat style, out of a total of 11 forms he can prefrom forms 1-5 as well as 7, he is unable to preform form 6 due to not being able to completely clear his mind.


 * 1st form - Evening breeze: Heraklios gracefully delivers two consequtive slices with his longsword, the first slice is powerful enough to stagger the defences of the opponent, giving way for the second slice to deal damage.
 * 2nd form - Striking Horizon: Heraklios delivers a powerful forward thrust, his advanced level Striking Horizon is powerful enough to pierce medium strength armor.
 * 3rd form - Setting sun: Heraklios delivers a powerful overhead strike downwards, during Arc 2 this move was poweful enough to shatter Yimida Lutous's sword, nearly killing her if it wasn't for Thesis Duvarak saving her.
 * 3rd form - Midair Setting sun: Heraklios can preform the 3rd form midair, harnessing enough energy to create a shockwave upon landing.
 * 4th form - Rising moon: Heraklios delivers a strike upwards, this form can completely throw off an opponents defence or deal massive damage if the strike connects with flesh.
 * 5th form - Silhoutte of a new moon: Heraklios spins his body and sword in a complete 360 degree circular motion. This form is good for crowd control and can also throw off opponents.
 * 7th form - Flickers of last light: Heraklios's most powerful form, he delivers 5 strikes forward in quick succsession, to novice swordsmen with developing reflexes this move is devastating as the strikes are too quick in succsession for a regular opponent to properly block.

Parademon
Leviathan of war: Scorpos: In Arc 3 Heraklios is granted the Leviathan of war by Azarah, this allows him to summon the Leviathan into battle. It is a large 25 meter long ten legged scorpion with various devastating abilities. Heraklios is able to completely wipe out three villages before the Slayers and their allies arrive to stop him

Fights
Arc 1


 * Reaver and John Fox vs Heraklios and Malek
 * Thesis Duvarak vs Heraklios

Arc 2


 * Heraklios vs Kudo Serbigus (Strength test)
 * Heraklios and Malek vs Duvarak Vortex Academy


 * Heraklios and Malek vs Slayers

Arc 3


 * Leviathan of war vs Slayers
 * Thesis Duvarak vs Heraklios

Trivia

 * Heraklios is named after the greek city of Heraklion (Also spelled Iraklion) on the island of Crete.
 * Heraklios was both the first Disciple to be created as well as the first to be introduced along with Malek
 * Heraklios was originally thought up by the creator before the Disciples were created.
 * Originally Heraklios had a different name every week because the creator couldn't remember the previous name, the name Heraklios came to him after the creator had a small facination with the island of Crete.
 * Heraklios and Malek don't have a last name due to them getting rid of it after their parents abandoned them, their full legal names are simply Heraklios and Malek, however it is believed that their original surname was Liyue
 * Heraklios is the only Disciple that uses the Evening Blade combat style, he is often the strongest in combat due to the sheer power of his style. He often gets challenged by other disciples in strength test battles, like in Arc 2 where Kudo Serbigus, a user of the Lunar Wind style, challenged Heraklios to one of these duals.