Mephisto Pheles

**Angels*** Haniel
* Jophiel
* Kamael
* Metatron
* Phanuel
* Raguel
* Raziel
* Sandalphon
* Zadkiel
* Zaphkiel

**Fallen Angels*** Arakiel
* Armaros
* Azazel
* Baraqiel
* Bezaliel
* Chazaqiel
* Kokabiel
* Penemue
* Sariel
* Satanael
* Shamsiel
* Shemhazai

**Demons*** Asmodeus
* Beelzebub
* Belphegor
* Leviathan
* Mammon
* Lucifuge
* Satan

**Humans*** Adam
* Eve

* Abrahamic Underworld
* Anti-Satan Faction

**Mephisto Pheles** is the head of the Mephisto Clan and unofficial leader of the Extra Demons Faction. He is most famous as the contracted demon of John Faustus and has taken over as chairman of the Magician organization, Grauzauberer, after his death.

Under the alias **Lokke Corbray**, he is known both in the mundane and the supernatural worlds as the headmaster of the prestigious True Cross Academy.

## Overview

Mephistopheles (whose name means "Not Loving Light"), also known as Mephistophilus, Mephistophilis, Mephistopholes, Mephostopheles, Mephisto and many other variants, is one of the seven princes of Hell. Originally appearing in literature as the name of the demon in the Faust legend, he has since appeared in other works as a stock character version of the devil himself.

Mephistopheles is the demon associated with the Faust legend, where the German magician Johann Georg Faust summoned Mephistopheles at a crossroads for everything he wanted. Due to this and his connection with the devil himself, some picture him as king of the crossroads, which means he is the ruler of the demons that can be summoned at crossroads. The crossroad demons are even believed to be the "children" of Mephistopheles.

Although Mephistopheles is a worker for Lucifer, some claim that he does not search for men to corrupt, but comes to serve and ultimately collect the souls of those who are already damned. He appears because he senses in Faustus' magical summons that Faust is already corrupt, that indeed he is already in danger to be damned. Mephistopheles is already trapped in his own Hell by serving the devil. He warns Faustus of the choice he is making by selling his soul to the devil.

He was especially prominent in the versions by Marlowe and Goethe. His name was also mentioned in passing in Shakespeare's "Merry Wives of Windsor."

## Appearance

Mephisto is a tall, middle-aged man with pale skin, pointed ears, and a small goatee. He has gelled dark-purple hair and glowing forest-green eyes. He is also described as having a strange aura around him, which makes him seem elegant and friendly-looking, yet mysterious at the same time.

He is usually seen in an elegant white outfit consisting of a white top hat with pink-and-purple ribbon wrapped around the base, purple gloves, a pink-and-white spotted tie, a white suit with a magenta undershirt, and black dress shoes, which overall gives him the nickname of "The Clown". According to Azazel, back in the medieval era, he actually went full-on jester mode, complete with bell-tipped hat and clown makeup.

During the Siege of Scholomance, he was shown wearing a white military uniform, with a golden brooch pinned over his lapel and an off-shoulder cape embroidered with the Mephisto Clan's emblem of three ravens surrounding a red-and-blue rose.

Like most demons, he retained his wings when he was banished. He has a total of six large and feathered wings, each with a wingspan of roughly 4-meters in length. They are dark-purple in color, similar to the color of his hair, but the tips of his feathers faded into different colors on each side, with the tips of the feathers on his right wings red, while the ones on his left wings blue. There are numerous glowing serpent-like eyes scattered across his wings, though unlike most demons, he doesn't hide them away with magic.

He is also one of the demons whose true form has been shown. His true form, in particular, resembles that of a monstrous beast with a goat-like head above a flayed upper body with four arms and connects to his lower half, which is that of a giant spider formed of chains and blades, with a giant spine. He has a massive pair of curved horns and glowing blue flames for eyes, and his voice is "as loud as thunder and rock" and is dangerous for mortals to hear.

## Personality

Shrouded in mystery, many quickly learn of Mephisto's innate ability to act as if he knows more than what he is letting on. Careful and meticulous, he is like a chess player, always ahead of the game.

He enjoys chaos, even describing himself as a hell-raiser, and that Earth is his playground. He frequently observes the conflicts and troubles around Rin and his friends with delight, though he does not wish to see his son or any of his friends get killed.

He is a firm believer of Liberalism, so he didn't get along with the original Four Great Satans or their successors, even outright admitting to despising them due to their extremely domineering nature of ordering him around, which was more-or-less the original reason why he fought against Heaven. He also isn't interested in the Rating Game, so he didn't give that many orders to Tannin and allows him to roam freely as he pleases, as long as he doesn't bring trouble to him or his house.

He is prone to eccentric moments nestled in between serious ones, making light of a heavy mood and is often portrayed as a clown or trickster in the eyes of his peers. Although being one of the richest people in the Netherworld, whose wealth can only be dwarfed by the Mammon Clan, he is extremely cheap when it comes to spending on others. In addition, he is known for being deeply interested in Japanese pop culture, even proudly stating that he is an *otaku* (that is, loves computers, anime/manga, and/or pop culture to the point that it negatively affects his social life).

Although he is one of the most influential demons to ever live, being the "King of the Crossroad" and the unofficial leader of the Extra Demons, he holds a great disdain to all things political in nature, to the point where he forbids any talks about politics within True Cross Academy. In fact, the only known time that he actively engaged in politics was in the Devil Civil War, when he rallied support for the Anti-Satan Faction purely because of his own hatred toward the second-generation Satans.

Despite these eccentric traits, like most demons, Mephisto is greatly feared because of his ruthlessness, cruelty, and simply diabolical nature. According to Thor, he is the main reason behind why Germania was known as a godless land, as he had once nearly slaughtered all the native gods and those who managed to escape vowed to never return in fear of his psychotic wrath.

It is said that he is most adept at pitting people against each other, especially his fellow demons, which have resulted in countless wars and major conflicts throughout the millennia. He has stated that his greatest hobby is to pit entire societies against each other, to turn brother against brother, to sow discord and distrust wherever he could, whenever he could. In fact, the falls of many great empires were attributed to him, such as the Roman empire, the Golden Horde khanate, or the Yuan dynasty.

As the Demon of Hatred, he views hatred as a useful tool, though one to be wielded with precision. That said, his hatred has a miasmic effect on wherever he goes or onto whoever his hatred is directed upon. He especially loathes the pagan gods and their followers, whose suffering is his delight, as he considers their existence to be blasphemy against God, and therefore, himself as one of His creations. He himself is responsible for many persecutions of paganism throughout the centuries and was responsible for the end of hundreds of ancient religions, to the point where the gods themselves have to pray for the angels to have him restrained.

He once shunned companionship, considering it "a comfort of the wretched", though this part of him had changed throughout the millennia, particularly after the Great War, to the point where he even 'loves' humans nowadays.

## History

Mephisto Pheles is one of the oldest demons still present in the Netherworld and a legendary figure from German folklore, most known through his contract with the magician John Faustus, or Johann Georg Faust. He is the head and progenitor of the Mephisto Clan, one of the highest-ranking houses among the Extra Demons and almost has the same amount of influence as the two former ruling houses of Mammon and Belphegor.

Before his descent as a demon, however, he was an angel in Heaven who held the rank of domination and served in the choir of the seraph Haniel. However, he quickly turned to the side of Lucifer during the Heavenly War, partly because of his incapability to accept the rigid hierarchy in Heaven, and mainly because of his own admiration and adoration toward the Morning Star. And like all the surviving members of Lucifer's army, he was banished into the void of the Outside where the Underworld would later be formed.

During the creation of the Stygian Council, he chose the title of Prince of Hell for himself and created his own territory in the Circle of Greed, west to the capital city of Marlon, which he named "Odium". Later on, he and the demon Baphomet created the first Bargainers here in Odium, whose primary duty was to lure mortals into signing their souls away with demonic bargains, and it was because of their creation that Mephisto alone was crowned the King of the Crossroad to Baphomet's dismay. When asked about why only he was crowned, Mephisto gleefully revealed that he had hidden Baphomet's name away from official paper on purpose, which led to the infamous feud between the two demons.

During the Great War, he was one of the demons sent out by Asmodeus to be ambassadors of Hell to the pagan pantheons and other supernatural factions, much to his dismay. During his trip to the Germanic Pantheon, he met and fell in love with a young girl named Vasilisa, and he formed a contract with her and made her his first witch, much to other demons' surprise because of his well-known distaste for companionship.

However, this was a short-lived happiness, as while he was away for a business trip, Vasilisa was raped by an unnamed Germanic god and later hanged as sacrifice by his followers. When he found out about it, he slaughtered his way through the pantheon, having his minions tortured and raped and killed as many Germanic gods as they possibly could, and was only stopped when Raziel himself appeared to banish him back to the Underworld after receiving prayers from Odin for help. Vasilisa's body was retrieved by Mephisto afterward and through the use of his demonic magic, she was revived as a Heretic Goddess, at the cost of her virtues and purity. Even though she had returned to him, he couldn't help but mourn the loss of his true love and she was sent away to live in the mortal world, where she was later known as the infamous witch Baba Yaga in Slavic folklore.

In the 5th-century, while fighting against a troop of angels in the outskirt of Rapiu, he noticed how the troop they were fighting against seemed to be "unenthusiastic" before retreating to Heaven. Intrigued by this unusual thing, he began to dig into recent battle records and realized the Heavenly Host's strange pattern in the recent years, as they seemed to be more focused on stalling and making sure the demons stayed in the Underworld more than they cared about the saving humans' lives like before and a feeling of dread started to settle in. However, for unknown reasons, he decided not to tell other demons about it, and instead resigned from his position as commander to focus on mourning Vasalisa' death.

Later on, while hopelessly wandered across the Four Worlds and bemoaning his loss, he was trapped outside of the Ouroboros Barrier and was thus sealed outside of the Underworld. Because of this, he and the remaining demons used their demonic power to create a rift through space, tapping straight into the forbidden energy of Ataraxia, and created a new realm of their own adjacent to the Realm of the Dead known as the Netherworld.

There he and the last demons would take their remaining devil servants and settle down, building up the foundation of their society again now that they had lost everything after the Great War. When the children of the original Four Great Satans - Tsufaame Tereaku Leviathan, Bidleid Bashalun Beelzebub, and Damaidosu Zereikel Asmodeus - decided that they wanted to restart the Great War and claim the Earth for their own, Mephisto became one of the first to object. According to him, the only thing that protected the three of them from being tortured and quartered then was because of the demons' respect for their parents, something that gradually faded away with every idiotic ideas they made.

Eventually, when news of a rebellion was brewing by the Bael Clan, Mephisto quickly joined in as the rebellion's main sponsor. And with his support, in addition to the already massive amount of fortune donated by the leaders' own houses (Gremory, Sitri, Astaroth, Glasya-Labolas), the Anti-Satan Faction quickly rose up and defeated the Anti-Satan Faction, whose only support was from the houses whose demon progenitors were sealed away in the Underworld and were thus unable to see how idiotic the second-generation Satans truly were.

His commitment to the rebellion later paid off with the victory of the Anti-Satan Faction, which led to the next great dilemma of reforming the devil government, something that absolutely abhorred him. Because of this, he and several other houses, including the Belphegor Clan and the Mammon Clan, whose positions as ruling houses were lost as all their surviving members were bastards and half-devils. Together, they settled down in the furthest north of the Netherworld and founded the Extra Demons Faction, where they live a secluded life away from the current Devil government, thus allowing them to retain most of their traditions dated back since their time in the Underworld.

Sometimes in the 16th-century, he met and became the contracted demon of Johann Georg Faust, a legendary German itinerant alchemist, astrologer and magician. He helped him found the Magician organization Grauzauberer and became the guardian of the Faust Clan, which later stories left out as not many knew of Mephisto and Faust's strange friendship.

After his death, he took over the position of the chairman of the Grauzauberer and leader of the Magician Council, as well as taking in his son Heinrich, who later became one of Mephisto's lovers.

At some point in time, he met and rescued Tannin from a group of Canaanite gods who Mephisto slaughtered to destress, and reincarnated him as the Queen of his peerage. When Tannin reached Ultimate-class and gained his own independent set of Evil Pieces, to celebrate this event, Mephisto "bought" him the entire mountain range that act as the natural border between the territories of the Gremory Clan and the Buné Clan as a gift for his promotion.

During the 1850s, through a combination of cunningness and trickery, he became the headmaster of True Cross Academy, one of the greatest exorcist-training schools owned by the Vatican, under the permission of Raguel after he outdrunk him in a drinking contest. He then took on the alias of the Miracle Child **Lokke Corbray** and took over the school, using his Miracle Child identity to cover for his immortality.

Sometimes in the 1970s, during a trip to Germany to visit Vasilisa' former grave, he met Yuri Egin, a young exorcist from the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the two formed a secret and unusual friendship. Before she died, she named him the godfather of her sons, Rin and Yukio. Upon hearing about his friend's death and the status of his godsons, he came to her place to check in and met Shiro Fujimoto who came to investigate the twins due to a report of them being either half-devils/warlocks. However, upon seeing the twin, Mephisto realized that they are cambions, born from the supposedly deceased Satan himself.

Because of this revelation, Mephisto and Shiro decided to hide this information away and raise the two children together to prevent them from being exploited by anyone. At some point in time, the two married, originally for better tax-benefits, but later came to love each other as husbands.

## Trivia

* In legends, his name is considered as one word: Mephistopheles.
* His name may be derived from the Hebrew words *mephis* (מפיץ, "distributor") and *tophel* (תפל, "falsehood"), which makes the name Mephistopheles possibly means "distributor of superstitions".
	+ In Greek, however, his name means "not loving light".
* His territory's name, *Odium*, refers to "intense hatred or dislike", usually directed toward a single individual.
	+ Odium theologicum is a related term that applies to hatred generated by disputes over theology.
* In his human form, his height is 195 cm (6'5"), and while in his true form, albeit shrunken down, he is 6.1 m (20') tall.
* He much prefers the current Four Great Satans than the original ones and especially the previous ones.
* According to him, he doesn't like sunlight because he has sensitive skin.
* He likes to gamble and make bets with whoever possible.
* He is very talented at party games, claw crane machines and chess.
* He has a major sweet tooth and his favorite food is junk food in general (mostly candy).
* He considers hope to be "the only virtue with purpose".
* His favorite type of women are those who are temptresses, "devilish", or elegant/beautiful. He mentions also fancying "pretty girls with a sad past", as well as charismatic women,
	+ Despite being married, it appears that his marriage with Shiro is an open one, or at least, not monogamous, as both have been shown to flirt with many other people, even offering to have a threesome with some of them.
* He has met five-generations of Gremory in total, starting from the original Gremory down to Rias.