Lareo

Lareo is half a phantom demon and half human, with a very complex back story. Lareo was born in a era long ago, nearly 700 years ago. Lareo was orphaned as a baby, and never knew anything about his parents. He grew up In an orphanage until he was around twelve years old, until it was attacked by  Twilore the void demon. Most of the children were killed in this attack, but the target, Lareo, lived. After the destruction of nearly everyone he knew, Lareo hid out in a nearby town, trying to carve out a life for himself. He ended up working for a blacksmith, mining up ores and metals in exchange for money and food. He lived in old abandoned ruins that he minded in, and he lived like this for a few years. As he worked, he horded away any Mythril, a powerful rare metal, that he happened to find. When he had enough of this metal, he had the same blacksmith forge him a powerful sword made out of the mythril. A sword with a blade sharper and stronger then any other. Lareo then set out to fight in the war that effected his home, and killed nearly everyone he knew.

After a number of years, he met Mary, a time demon, and a group of friends that were all working against the forces of the villain that plagued the land. Zalendor. Along with Mary, the other warriors were Raylo the lunar demon, Ruleta the cat demon. Raven a darkness human and future sage of darkness, his step brother Magneus, a light human and the future sage of light. Nightshade, a shadow wielder and the future sage of shadow, Shadla, who was Ravens sister, also a darkness human, Sapphra, a water human. The last being a human named Eric Norad, a powerful swordsman, and well renowned adventurer and hero.

This group, who some look at as the first group of World Savers on terra 002, worked together to bring the downfall of Zalendor about. At some point afterwards, Twilore survived  the battles, and tried to return to destroy this group. He failed, but was able to infect Raylo and Ruleta, messing up their minds. This mad them turn on Lareo, by bringing him near death, and changing him into a phantom demon. They then ditched his body in the phantom demon realm.

When Lareo awoke, he was taken in by two phantom demons, Vain and Grandor, and found he had no memory. They called him Runic, as that was what was engraved on his sword, and he lived like this, having no idea of his past. He found a deep rooted hatred for cat and lunar demons due to the trauma of his attack that cost him his memory. After many years of trying to find out who he was, he never learned anything about himself. But he worked hard on his skills, and was one day chosen to be the king of the phantom demon realm.

He ruled justly over the realm, until one day a strange visitor from another land appeared and informed Lareo that the lunar and cat demons would soon work together to take down the kingdom of the phantom demons. Lareo did not need much convening to believe this, and prepared his forces. Though the cat and lunar demons were prepared for this, as it seemed to be a trap. Lareo’s forces were out numbered by these forces, and he and his top demons were nearly all killed. But Lareo enacted a plan, and these demons were turned into orbs, and sent to other worlds to avoid capture, other then Vain. After the war ended, the cat and lunar demons returned home, having no desire to wipe out the phantom demons, but merely defend themselves. Vain was left to try and keep order over the fallen realm.

Lareo spent many years trapped in his orb, until he was found by Zane. Zane promised him a body for him to possess, in exchange for his aid. Lareo agreed, and soon possessed the body of Eric Nightngale, ironically the future vessel of Zalendor, his former enemy. Lareo worked along side Zane, until Eric and his brother Chain Nightngale defeated them both. Lareo was sealed into the temple of light, and was stuck there for many years. Over time, he somehow was able to gain control over a large number of the sages, and used them as well as others like Zuika and Vain to do his bidding from his imprisoned temple. He had visions of people who would one day seek to destroy him, and using means such as X.A.N.A. to try and destroy them before they rose to power, which failed at every turn. So he gave that up, and prepared himself for this future battle.

When Lareo made moves to come back to power, being known at this time as Runic the Ruins Master, he made allies with Skylos Pantech and Draco through elaborate events. With these powerful allies, he led a powerful force against the world. He was able to free himself from the ruins, and using to force of his phantom demon army brought to him by Vain, and his allies on earth, he had a powerful force. He used a sol orb, and led an assault on the Lunar demon realm, and took that realm over. It’s not entirely sure how Lareo got ahold of this orb, but it’s believed that he somehow met with the Sol Demon himself, and somehow got it. The actual events are not fully known.

After this invasion of the lunar realm, Lareo brought forth a massive tower from the sea, back from when Zane was ruling, and commanded things from there. Rem was a prisoner there for a short while, where he was actually infected with the Apai virus, but it’s unknown how Lareo got this. It is likely Zuika did inform him on what it was though. Lareo used the tower as a safe house to bring his demons from his realm, then send them out into the world from the tower. But Lareo’s invasion was short lived though, as the Sages began to turn on Lareo once he was free, leaving only Vain, Grandor, Ignus, Skylos, and Draco fighting with him. Most of them were actually captured by the sages, while the group led an attack on Lareo’s tower. He was defeated, and strangely his tower went down with him.

After this, Lareo was indeed dead. But not for good. Later he was revived by Izerion, as well as a number of other villains. Lareo detested Izerion, but because he was bound to him, he could not disobey. But during this mission, Lareo was attacked by a corrupted version of Neon, and he used a lunar orb on him, changing him human. This broke his connection with Izerion, but more importantly, his memories started to return to him. Skylos was able to aid Lareo, or his Phantom Master, as he called him, and was able to restore his memories. Lareo was confused, and wasn’t sure if he was good or evil anymore, as he now had the memories of both his lives. Skylos pledged to follow him, no matter what path he chose.

After this, Lareo began to aid the group when possible, and became their ally. One day, he returned to some ruins that housed a relic, once used to kill Zalendor, called the Grand Blade. But in these ruins, he was attacked by his old demons. Raylo and Ruleta, who still happened to be under the corruption of Twilore. They attacked him, but with Mire the Slime Demons help, they fought them off.

When Zalendor was revived, Lareo was attacked and captured by Twilore. They knew if he had the chance, he would go fetch the Grand Blade, the only weapon that had the power to match Zalendor’s Dark Force, or his chaos darkness. At a point he got free, and went to fetch the weapon from the ruins, but was once again attacked by Raylo and Ruleta. But this time, he learned they were effected by Twilore, and used his power to free them from their spell that plagued them for over 500 years. Being able to return with the weapon, he aided the group in their battle against Zalendor, and helped free Eric. But Zalendor actually didn’t die, as he hid in Lareo’s mind for a long time, until he was able to leave him.

Since then, Lareo has served to aid the group many times. Sometimes minor, sometimes more. He helped try to stop Zalendor when he returned with Zane, though being captured. He also helped battle Krystallos at Skylos’ request, due to his strength and ability to use the sol orb. Currently he was asked by Eric to join a small group to hunt down the powerful spirit human Ragoul, the Master Mage. When he isn’t helping the group, he seems to spend time visiting the phantom realm, or spending time with Mary, his girlfriend who lives in the banishment realm. Lareo was serious about Mary before he was attacked and sent to the phantom realm, so it seems likely they may tie the knot in the future.

In battle, Lareo is a tough foe to read. He is half human, and half king ranked phantom demon. Although he still is king ranked, this is only in terms of power, as Vain is the current king of the realm. Lareo, being a powerful phantom demon, has many ghost like abilities and powers. He has absorbed many powers in his time, making him able to use whatever powers he’s absorbed, as chaos ranked phantom demons can do. He also carries a few tools. He always has his Mythril Sword, which is stronger then any other blade forged by mere man. He also carries a mirror shield, a relic that is a shield that’s fitted with a magic mirror that can reflect and store powered attacks. And lastly he carries the Sol Orb. It’s a powerful demon orb that has a portion of the great Sol Demon’s power inside it, granting it’s holder massive power and the use of sol. Weak minded people get drunk off the power that is holds, showing that just being around the orb is dangerous.

It’s a well known fact that Skylos and Lareo share a very close connection. It’s not entirely sure how they clicked the way they did, but it was back when Lareo was still Runic, and Skylos seemed to be either going through a phase, or looking for someone to truly accept him. Lareo did, and that may be why they are still as close as they are today. Despite Lareo being equals with the group now, and no longer a king or evil master, Skylos still refers to him as his ‘Phantom Master’, more then likely due to a sign of respect. Lareo secretly looks at Skylos as like a son, or feels like he is an uncle to him, but they are close friends no doubt. [Feel free to edit any of the details of skylos and lareo caleb lol]