Hallow

**Hallow** (ハロゥ, *Harō*?) is the main protagonist of *Versus*. He's the 11th Hero, who fought the 11th Demon King Jachi but was defeated.

## Appearance

Hallow is a young man of average height with indigo hair. His hero suit consists of a yellow and red gambeson, a scabbard and some armor pieces in his shoulder and the left side of his chest.

After his fight against Jachi, his hair grew white patches. This is possibly because of stress he accumulated in that battle.

## Personality

Hallow is a confident, loyal and dedicated individual. When it came to fighting each of the Demon Kings, he wasn't nervous about the demons, but because he was holding a massive responsibility over his shoulders. Hallow's also extremely courageous to the point of being fearless as he was his own willing to go on a suicide mission and, even after realizing many of his comrades were defeated, chose to stand his ground and march on into battle despite the odds of victory being almost zero; this is also shown when he saved Kayla and Freen from being hit by a vehicle.

However, despite it being one of his greatest strengths, Hallow's courage has also proven to be his biggest weakness as well. Whenever his sense of justice is overcome or a mission fails, it causes Hallow to lose hope and become so terrified he's unable to fight. He also has a tendency to blame himself whenever he's unable to save everyone, regardless of how responsible he actually is or the amount of good he might've done. Another flaw of Hallow's character is his pessimism; whenever the situation looks grim, he tends to lose hope and give up, such as when he said they couldn't defeat the Demons. On top of that, he also has a low opinion of himself and believes his own existence has no value, this plays into his almost suicidal willingness to sacrifice himself for others as he believes they're more important then himself.

## Plot

### Background

Nine years prior to the series's events, Zaybi was teaching Hallow the basics of summoning spells.

At some point, Hallow was selected to train to become one of the 47 Heroes.

### Introduction Arc

As Ario is sure they'll win, he asks Hallow for confirmation but the latter is decipted as super-nervous, while Panepane is offering him water to calm down. He then explains he was super nervous because after hearing the king's explanation, he felt the heaviness of the responsibility he was shouldering. Panepane then teases Hallow, making him frustrated, but he's then complimented by Ario, who says the true strength of a hero is the strength of their own hearts. They make a promise to congratulate each other after they take out the Great Demon King, and this motivates Hallow.

Half a year later, Hallow receives a letter from the kingdom in which he reads that Bolst, Fecaccio, Alicia, Liwan, Abyss and Macbuk had been defeated by their Demon Kings. He is worried after reading Ario went missing, but this does not stop him from his mission because after Panepane states that nobody would be as dumb as to face a hopeless battle, he says he is only one who needs to be dumb and will face the Demon King alone. After hearing this and seeing the Sword of Courage shine indicating Hallow's will has not been broken yet, his party decides to follow him. This increases the hero's morale to give it all in the coming battle. As they enter the Demon King Jachi's room, Hallow witnesses his party being killed by Jachi. He angrily aims for Jachi with his sword, but only deals a slight cut. He then aims for consecutive blows to the Demon's vitals, but the latter dodges them all. He tries to deal a blow from above, but only gets his arm cut by the Demon. After Jachi mocks him, the hero angrily makes his final blow, only to get the Sword of Courage cut in half. Jachi finally throws Hallow out of his castle while Panepane follows him.

Hallow falls to a river while he dreams of his childhood, when his older brother Zaybi teaches him the basics of summoning spells by summoning an apple from another world which looks strange. But this only makes Hallow confused as he doesn't understand how summoning works. Panepane wakes Hallow up as the fairy explains he was saved by strangers, who were coming in that moment to see them, only to realize it was Zaybi and his disciples who were there. The hero asks why his brother is here, and stresses out because he's too weak to even face a Demon King. Zaybi comforts him by explaining the mage squad's plan to summon another timespace while the heroes were gaining time. However, when they try to summon another world into theirs, some demons notice this and attack Zaybi and the others, while Hallow says it's all hopeless and there's no way of winning against the demons. Zaybi tells him they wouldn't be the only ones fighting, and shortly afterwards a gun-armed squad led by Kayla appears, but after they defeat the demons they beg Zaybi, Hallow and the others to save them.

In a state of confusion, Hallow tries to recapitulate everything that happened until then. Kayla explains to them about how they also wanted to summon other humans, to which Hallow asks if they also had an enemy, to which Kayla affirms. After some robots attack them and fail thanks to Zaybi's magic unbeknownst to them, Hallow compliments his brother by thinking that he brings light to hopeless situations. Some demons approach them as well, so Hallow prepares to attack but Zaybi tells him to act only in emergencies. As more of them fall, Hallow starts to see the situation as hopeless. After Jyuu dies, Hallow saves Kayla and Freen from being killed too with his Sword of Courage, which still had some power left. He tries to deal more attacks but it deactivates because of his fear to demons. Kiva uses this as a chance to attack him, but then sees as he throws his sword toward Dekuno-Bot as a way to lure the enemies toward him. Kiva sees behind Hallow's strategy and tries to kill him from behind, but Dekuno-Bot indirectly saves him by attacking Kiva, who had a large source of energy. They use this chance to run toward Freen and Wally's magic circle that is **Multi-Target Flying Magic: Flyaway** back to the fortress. However, Kiva tries to capture Hallow but to no avail because Dekuno-Bot again indirectly saves him.

As they get to the fortress, Hallow falls unconscious to wake up in the fortress with Zaybi to his side. He asks his brother where are the other comrades, and he tells him about Wally's condition and the unfortunate loss of some of the gun-armed humans. To this, Hallow states he couldn't save anybody because he was weak. He then asks him what should they do from there, since they have to fight both the demons and the robots. Zaybi however recalls the situation is more dire than ever, and takes him out to see what's going on. To the hero's surprise, there are more than one world connected to theirs and those people outside are refugees from other worlds. Zaybi plans the rescue the survivors scattered in the world. At first, Zaybi prepares to leave with only Kayla and the remaining squad members, but Hallow asks him to help them, to which both his brother and Panepane try to convince him against it. But, because he sees himself as a warrior, Hallow believes he has to save people. Zaybi accepts Hallow's request and orders Panepane to come along. Kayla agrees and also compliments the hero's strength despite his injury.

Hallow and the rest get ambushed by mole-looking beasts who leave in fear of a mountain-looking monster. Later on, Hallow spots somebody running through the buildings, but when they approach it's a giant humanoid eating a human leg. Kayla tries to use a grenade against it, but Hallow stops her when he spots a human family in the distance. The monster tries to crush Hallow with his punch, but the latter stops it with his bare hands and tells his brother to help the family while he deals with the monster. Instead, Zaybi uses Fog Magic against the monster, which gives them time to flee and rescue the survivors. The monster clears the fog by simply blowing at it, but the party already has saved the survivors. They reach a dead end, but Kayla uses a zip line to get out of there. The monster jumps across the plant root, reaching them within seconds, but the mole beasts from before attack it. Before fleeing away, Hallow observes that both species are fighting each other. When they finally reach safety, the child survivor spots more people in the distance, to which Hallow rushes to save them alongside Zaybi, Panepane and Kayla. With more survivors rescued, a tired party goes back to the fortress. While remembering the dangers that came across their journey that day, something strikes inside Hallow's mind.

When the humans finish explaining, Zaybi asks them if they have any ideas to getting past their hopeless situation. When there's only silence, Hallow suggests they should make the natural enemies fight each other, in retrospect to what he saw back when rescuing the survivors. The human from the Cursed Devil world calls his idea worthless, and he is being a kid who shares fantasies. The hero defends himself by saying he saw this with his own eyes, despite being coincidential. Zaybi considers this as he also witnessed this twice, with the Robots against the Demons and the Giants against the Untamed Wilderness. Meanwhile, the human from the Cursed Devil World keeps criticizing his idea, saying that he cannot just control the Aliens and does not take them seriously. Other humans from other worlds join in to criticize Hallow's idea, and the hero asks Zaybi what he should do. Zaybi decides to make them fight each other by saying his natural enemy is the strongest, thus creating a chain reaction that mimics Hallow's suggestion. While they fight, Hallow begs them to stop until Zaybi reveals his intentions and his support to Hallow's suggestion.

When Zaybi disappoints everyone telling them he doesn't actually have a plan, Pakka grabs his shirt. In response, Hallow intervenes by asking Pakka to let go of his brother, while also grabbing his arm tightly. His strength surprises Pakka, which is complimented too by Samoun. Zaybi, wanting to avoid any further tension, asks Hallow to let go first, and he does. Pakka keeps criticizing the hero's idea but Hallow responds by telling him he never saw a demon. Pakka criticizes the time Hallow saw two natural enemies fighting each other and the hero agrees with him. However, Hallow adds that robots and demons were able to fight equally, and describes this as 'Unbelievably amazing'. Masayoshi proposes to hide from the natural enemies and wait for them to kill each other, but Hallow thinks they will still get chased by demons. However, Garasp agrees with Masayoshi's idea and the others agree on it. Zaybi says they need an absurd amount of bravery to put their life on the line, and uses Hallow as an example. Shortly after saying that, Ario makes an unexpected comeback, which makes Hallow feel excited.

### Giants vs. New Humanity Arc

Hallow approaches Ario after he tried to chat up with Kayla, asking him why he woke up so early after such a long journey. He tells Ario he could not sleep well because of the plan concerning natural enemies fighting each other. Ario then asks the hero about his arm and broken sword, and explains how he lost against Jachi. Curious about Ario, he asks him about his battle but the latter stutters. Nonetheless, Hallow cheers Ario, and in response Ario tells him he has not changed a bit. In another meeting to discuss their course of action, Ario reveals that the giants are approaching the fortress and they have two days left. He gives them advice on how to act and Hallow admires Ario's words. Garasp then reveals the "Hallow Plan", to which Hallow complains, thinking that he will fight in the frontlines, but the others tell him it is the plan to make the natural enemies fight each other. The plan consists in somebody acting as a slave for the Giants and luring them to the New Humanity area. Hallow insists in going on his own but Kayla criticizes Hallow's recklessness and immaturity. The hero defends himself, saying that he wants to be useful to everyone. In response, Ario punches him to show him that he is not fit for the plan, but himself.

As Ario is leaving to fulfill Operation Hallow with his team, Hallow wishes him good luck. When Kira comes back to report the result, Hallow asks about Ario and leaves the room in anger knowing his friend is in confinement. He feels some serenity seeing kids from different worlds play together and when asked about his arm, tries to look strong but accidentally scares them away. He thanks Ario and notices something is coming.

## Abilities

**Overall Capabilities**: As one of the 47 Heroes, Hallow is a very powerful human. According to what ONE wrote about Hallow in his Concept Design, he's described as having "*unparalleled strength in the human world*". However, in spite of his remarkable strength, Hallow is still hopelessly outclassed by the upper-level Demons, unable to so much as land a single damaging blow on the 11th Demon King, Jachi. However, in his battle with Kiva, he was capable of outmatching the 11th Division Leader even when the former was in his more powerful transformed state.

### Physical Abilities

* **Superhuman Strength**: Hallow, like the rest of the Heroes, has incredible physical strength. He could slice an armored vehicle in half and even deal fatal damage on Kiva with his sword attacks.
* **Superhuman Durability**: Hallow, like the rest of the Heroes, has a immensely high resistance to damage. An example of this can be seen when he stopped the fist of a Giant.
* **Superhuman Speed**: Hallow, like the rest of the Heroes, has great mobility. This was best shown when he saved Kayla and Freen from a vehicle rolling towards them at a high speed.

### Miscellaneous Abilities

* **Expert Swordsman**: Hallow is an incredibly skilled swordsman. During his fight with Jachi, the Demon King noted that all of Hallow's continuous attacks were aimed at his vitals and he could only have acquired such skill through years of intense training. Even with the loss of his dominant arm, not only is he capable of fighting unhindered, but Hallow's skill with the blade show no visible signs of weakening at all.
* **Courage**: It's been implied throughout the story that Hallow's courage is what gives him power over his sword. However, at times the sword may lose it's strength because Hallow(although not showing) is actually scared of Demons. Nonetheless, he's brave enough to willing fight Jachi head-on despite the huge, noticeable gap in their power as well as put himself in harms way in order to save both Kayla and Freen.

## Trivia

* In ONE's character design, he proposed to make Hallow have piercings on his ears, but this does not appear in the main series.

## References

1. ↑ https://twitter.com/versus\_\_info/status/1597153332946247685/photo/1
2. ↑ Versus Manga: Chapter 1, Page 56
3. ↑ Versus Manga: Chapter 1, Page 12
4. ↑ Versus Manga: Chapter 1, Page 28
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Versus Manga: Chapter 2, Page 50
6. ↑ Versus Manga: Chapter 2, Page 71
7. ↑ Versus Manga: Chapter 1, Page 64
8. ↑ https://twitter.com/versus\_\_info/status/1597153332946247685/photo/1
9. ↑ Versus Manga: Chapter 1, Page 49
10. ↑ Versus Manga: Chapter 1, Page 15
11. ↑ Versus Manga: Chapter 1, Page 48
12. ↑ Versus Manga: Chapter 1, Page 74
13. ↑ Versus Manga: Chapter 4, Page 19
14. ↑ Versus Manga: Chapter 5, Page 15
15. ↑ Versus Manga: Chapter 5, Page 21
16. ↑ Versus Manga: Chapter 6, Page 27
17. ↑ Versus Manga: Chapter 7, Page 27
18. ↑ Versus Manga: Chapter 9, Pages 15-22
19. ↑ https://twitter.com/versus\_\_info/status/1597153332946247685/photo/1
20. ↑ Versus Manga: Chapter 3, Page 16