Issei Gremory (A Demon's Reality)

"'''As long as my loved ones are alive, I will gladly transform into this...being that I truly am.'

- Issei Gremory ''"

""

Issei Gremory is the main protagonist of the story "A Demon's Reality". He is a well known low-class Devil (official Ranking). His power-level on the otherhand, is on par of Sirzechs Gremory, a Super Devil. His goal, as mentioned in Chapter 3, is to become Maou, and change the Underworld by giving rights to the Extra Demons and low-class Devils.

He first appears collapsed in the Garden of Lucifaad, with Sirzechs Gremory and his troops raiding the City of Lucifaad, massacring the Old Satan citizens. Later on in the story, Lucina Lucifuge and Satan are usually talking about his "transformation" into another being that is completely different than his current self.

Appearance
Issei Gremory is about 5 feet 10 inches. His hair was originally black, when he was first found by Oscurare Valefor in Chapter 1, but he dyed it silver a few years later. His eye color was naturally black, matching the color of his hair, but he used magic to change it to silver. The reason for both his hair and eye color change was simply because he liked the color of silver more than black.

Whenever Issei uses his Flames, his skin grows paler, and his ears turned pointed, much like an elf. His eyes also change from silver to red.

After his rampage in Chapter 6, his eyes stayed permanently red, outlined with silver. This is the first hint at some part of his transformation.

After the Devil Civil War, he is most commonly seen with a black leather coat that was highlighted with gray.

Personality
Issei is mostly an empty person, rarely ever showing his emotions, due to the physical and social abuse he had gotten when he was younger, when he was still living with the Gremory Family.

Later on in the story, he was shown to have a slight teasing side, which Serafall calls "difficult". He is however, very well known for being stoic. He hides his true emotions underneath a mask, as observed by Serafall in Chapter 3. Issei almost broke the mask in public when he smiled for the first time genuinely.

He also turns more chaotic and more violent during a battle, as displayed in Chapter 5.

Background
Nothing is known about Issei's past, as his memories have been sealed by a high-level spell. The only thing that Issei remembers from his past were blue flames clouding his vision, and "Save Yourself" being spoken by the unseen person hugging him from behind.

For an unknown reason, Satan bears an interest in Issei, and seems to know all about Issei, including his origins and powers. All Old Maou Faction leaders also seem to know a small bit about Issei, with only Lucina openly saying that she knew about his origins.

Arc 0
Issei was found by Oscurare Valefor in the Garden of Lucifaad, where he was quickly rescued, but not before Sirzechs Gremory searched his memories, in case that he was a real Old-Maou Faction member. When it turned out to be fruitless, Sirzechs reluctantly brings Issei home with him. There, he was given the name "Issei Gremory" by Venelana Gremory.

1 year later, Issei had heard that Oscurare was going to be publicly executed by Arima Tsuchimikado. He did not wish to go, but the Gremory family forced him to watch his Father figure get killed in public, with only Venelana shedding unseen tears.

Once Oscurare was executed, Shalba Beelzebub arrived with three other Old-Maou Faction Leaders. Shalba then tells Arima that Issei Gremory is to be "unharmed, or else." Arima smirks it off. Later on, the nobles of the 72 Pillars call the five strong youth Devils, Sirzechs Gremory, Serafall Sitri, Ajuka Astaroth, Falbium Glasya-Labolas, and Issei Gremory.

With yet another time skip, this time of about 8 years, Issei, Serafall, Venelana, and Arima were all training. Issei loses the spar against Arima, who still hasn't broken a sweat. Issei and Serafall then proceed to talk about going on a date while washing off their sweat in the shower together. During their date, they arrive at a restaurant where they meet Dani Thompson, who turned out to be a Dhamphir, a vampire and human hybrid.

Arc 1: Achieve X Fail: To Reach a Dream
He wakes up in the Sitri Manor, to Serafall, who slept nude. They proceed to talk, and soon after, promises to protect her. After he leaves their room, he talks with Zegrana Sitri, Serafall's father. They talk about how he and the other four youth Devils, Sirzechs, Ajuka, Falbium, and Serafall, had gotten so powerful at such a young age. He proceeds to answer "The Great War was a wake up call to all youth Devils.

After he leaves Zegrana to his own thoughts, Issei started to feel light-headed, by proceeded to train. This is where he first displayed his sword techniques. When Serafall arrives, Issei collapses for an unknown reason. After Issei wakes up, Serafall explains that he was unconscious for about an hour, and that he has somehow caught a human sickness. She asks him if he is a hybrid of some sort, but even Issei doesn't know his race.

The next day, Issei has a dream about the King of Demons, Satan, and the Seraph of the Heavens, Gabriel meeting each other in the City of Lucifaad. When he wakes up, Serafall is taking care of him. Serafall then proceeds to tell him to just rest, but Issei miraculously recovered from the unidentified sickness. He then trains, but when Serafall calls him just after he finishes training, he has trouble teleporting to her.

He then proceeds to fight Lucina Lucifuge, one of the most powerful Devils in the Old Maou Faction. When Lucina proceeds to attempt to convince him to join the Old Maou Faction, and to break off from Serafall, who she called weak, Issei then starts to go for the killing blows, saying that he previously just wanted to run away with Serafall once weakening her, but that he will kill her. He loses control over his emotions, and his flames go out of control.

One swing away from bisecting Lucina, Satan appears before them, but not before freezing time.

After an unknown amount of time skipped, Issei was seen drinking beer, getting himself drunk, if it was even possible. Serafall walks out to get him to come back in, saying that it was cold. He then wonders aloud if his swords were finished. He convinces Serafall that he can go alone, and proceeds to do just that.

When he arrives at the blacksmith's place, he mishears the blacksmith, think that his swords will require two more hours, but in reality, it was his second sword taking two more hours, and his first sword was finished. He compliments the blacksmith on his work, and asks for his name, but the smith refused to give his name, saying that his name shouldn't waste a smudge of his Lord's memory. The smith names Issei's first sword, Oblivion, and his second sword, Ma-Soukon. After Issei leaves, he wishes for something to happen. A few moments after he wished for some action, commotion rose at the front of the village, and a retreating bystander said that the Old Maou Faction were raiding the village. Issei fights off the army, aiming to fight Lucina in one last match, but Lucina wanted to test Issei's swordsmanship. After slaughtering the soldiers, Issei starts the transformation into the being that Satan and Lucina constantly talk about.

While undergoing the transformation, he remembers Oscurare Valefor, a figure that he viewed as his father.

He fights off Lucina's attempt to stab his heart (Satan had told Lucina that the stabbing of Issei's heart is required to stop the transformation), moving faster than her, even with Satan assisting Lucina by altering time. When he completely destroys Lucina in a one-sided match, he attempts to kill her in an enraged state, only for Katerea Leviathan to arrive.

After Katerea arrived, she called for Creuserey Asmodeus to hold off Issei.

The two swordsman then fight to the death, but the fight ended with Issei stabbing Creuserey, and slicing off his left arm at once. Creuserey, however, planned to get stabbed by Issei, knowing that it was the only way to get in close to stab Issei's heart.

Issei reverts back into his normal state, but not without changes to his body, such as his eye changing color permanently.

Swords

 * Oblivion: Oblivion is a black one-handed long sword with a black hilt that is connected to a hand guard that drops down to the right side, with part of said sword's blade attached. The entire sword is black, outlined by light gray. It is forged by unknown metals, and by an blacksmith that had never given his name.


 * Ma-Soukon: Ma-Soukon is an aqua color. Its grip is a darker color than the rest of the blade and is completely straight. It leads up to a crossguard that is exactly perpendicular to the grip and is designed to look like a pair of conjoined dagger blades. At the center of the guard is a large aquamarine gem. The blade itself is a deep aqua color, the base of the blade has a light-aqua attachment that causes the blade to have a natural indentation when one traces its length due to the angle that the attachment bends at. For some apparent reason, Issei's flames are easier to control when he uses Ma-Soukon in combat. It is forged by unknown metals, and by a blacksmith that had never given his name.

Soul-Devouring Flames
These blue flames were mentioned by Sirzechs Gremory in the first Chapter. They were first used in Chapter 2, when Sirzechs came back from the Valefor Manor.

Flames of Nightmare
These flames were only used once so far in the series, which was when Issei was training with Arima Tsuchimikado. Issei had said that he did not wish to devour Arima's Soul, and Nightmares were good enough. It is rumored that these flames cause the victim to gain unbearable Nightmares for an unknown amount of time due to Issei hinting on its abilities, as well as the name of the Flames.

Master Hand-To-Hand Combat
He is skilled in hand-to-hand combat, as displayed in chapter 3.

Sword Skills

 * Starburst Stream: A sword technique that Issei displayed while training.
 * The first hit is a horizontal swing from left to right with the right sword, immediately followed by an uppercut with the left sword. The user then jumps up and slashes the target with both swords from left to right while spinning, twice. The user lands facing the target and slashes an X from top to bottom, before inversely slashing the X again from bottom to top. The user then leaps at the target and makes two diagonal slashes from the same starting point, with the left sword heading from top to bottom to the left, while the right sword heads from bottom to top toward the right.Starburst Stream.gif
 * Afterwards, the user reverses his grip on the two swords and slashes another X with both swords from top to bottom. The user then does a barrel-roll like maneuver while slashing at the target, like a corkscrew. The user then slashes another two X's at the target, first from top to bottom and then bottom to top. The user then makes a diagonal slash with the right sword, top-right to bottom-left, then spins left and uses this momentum to deal a horizontal, right to left slash with the left sword. The user then, at a very high speed, makes an uppercut with the right sword; then another with the left sword, a downward slash with the right sword, then a downward diagonal slash towards the right with the left sword, spins and repeats the previous attack, and thrusts the right-handed sword out. The final slash is a forceful downward lunge with the left sword
 * Sonic Leap: Issei leaps forward, before swinging his right sword downwards.
 * Double Circular: Issei swings both swords in a large circular motion, which leaves behind traces of his flames, before switching his left sword to a reverse grip, and spinning like a corkscrew.
 * Deadly Sins: This technique that Issei uses requires lots of movement. Issei first swings his sword downwards, before spinning around, and swinging in a slanted motion horizontally, from left to right. He then swings to the upperleft, before bringing it back down to the right. He then swings upwards, doing a backflip with the sword. He then spins around, before lifting up the flat of his blade.
 * Rage Spike: Issei dashes forward with his sword parallel to the ground. Issei usually use his Soul-Devouring Flames with this to increase the power of it.
 * Sharp Nail: This technique begins with a diagonal slash from the bottom-right to top left, followed by a horizontal slash from left to right. Finally, the technique is ended with another diagonal slash from top-right to bottom-left.
 * Vertical Square: The first strike of this Sword Skill is a vertical slash without a backward motion. This slash is followed by a left to right swing from below and then a vertical slash down. Finally, the skill is concluded with a full-power overhead slash (uppercut).

Quotes

 * "I will become Maou" -Issei talking to Serafall Sitri
 * "I don't need to know my heritage to become powerful." -Issei when fighting Lucina Lucifuge.

Major Battles

 * 1) Issei vs Arima: Lost
 * 2) Issei vs Zegrana Sitri (off-screen): Won
 * 3) Issei vs Lucina Lucifuge: Won
 * 4) Issei vs 1,000 Old Maou Soldiers: Won
 * 5) Enraged Issei vs Lucina Lucifuge: Won
 * 6) Enraged Issei vs Katerea Leviathan: Tied
 * 7) Enraged Issei vs Creuserey Asmodeus: Lost

Trivia

 * His appearance is inspired by a mixture of Kirito and Vali Lucifer's appearances.


 * His form when he uses his Demonic Flames is inspired by Rin Okumura from the Anime Ao No Exorcist
 * His sword skills are inspired by Kirigaya Kazuto in Sword Art Online.
 * His birthday is unknown, so he counts the first of day of a New Year as his birthday.
 * Unlike many other male protagonist in anime and manga, he does not seem to attract as many women.