Ouroboros

**Ouroboros** - real name **Hebirou Haruma** - is a talented botanist and a master of forbidden arts.

## Story

### Maou, the Sovereign

Hebirou was born in the Golden Age, suffering of the Blight from birth. Against all odds, he survived, albeit with his body strongly weakened and him living several near-death experiences. This, alongside his sickly parents' early death, caused him to become a healer, with the aim of eventually fighting the very concept of 'death' which he both hated and feared.

Taking on the name Maou and experimenting with the Blight to corrupt other people and create his own army, Hebirou became feared amongst men during the Golden Age as a legendary demon king. Obsessed with immortality, Maou sought to take Paradise for himself, attempting to conquer it by strength and meticulous planning in quick succession.

### The Snake is Born

Eventually, Hebirou managed to infiltrate Paradiso in order to seize the essence of the Seven Pillars for himself, using them to free himself from the cycle of mortality and mastering the concept of Soul manipulation to sever himself from the notions of life and death. He then used his talents to create several reinforced bodies using remedies and herbs in order to act as his reincarnations whenever needed.

They would be known as the Haruma, among which Erunie Haruma would later become Ruine Harumageddon, progenitor of the Harumageddon Bloodline. In the same time, taking on the name Ouroboros, the man created the power of the Forever Serpent that allowed his chosen Haruma to manipulate the flow of life, while allowing himself to constantly reincarnate between various bearers of the mark.

### Intrigue and Safeguard

In the body of Aemilius Haruma Yggdramillenia, Ouroboros participated in a Magus War, manipulating Kai Antasia and Christina Luka into neutralizing Akamanah, fearing her for her ability to wound the Akasha. Upon seeing that she was neutralized, he quickly retreated, abandoning his servants Iscariot and Tohkatsu Daigotsu and taunting Zenodora Horenheim, somewhat of an arch-rival to her.

In another Timeline, while Ouroboros's circle of reincarnation was disrupted by the actions of Josue, Tohkata Miyagawa came to Hebirou and helped him with obtaining Paradiso's flowers in order to complete his existence. Ouroboros used said flowers in order to retrieve the memories and consciousness of the "future" Ouroboros and help Tohkata - revealing that he was the one who tied her reincarnation to Kali's in order to grant her power.

### Scheming for Eternity

In that same Timeline, Ouroboros gathered his own pawns to stop Josue, using Julius Caesar's Amesha, Lyricus Kresnik and Attila, as well as his enemies Kyrie Haruma and Cleopatra's unwitting help in order to neutralize Josue's army, while counting on Tohkata as the perfect weapon to end Josue's actions and stabilize the Timeline. His plans went perfectly as expected, and he then quickly disappeared again to avoid retribution for tricking the group into obeying him.

Soon hunted by the specter of END's presence, Ouroboros eventually attempted to create a powerful weapon-like being in order to counter her influence. With his Soul-altering abilities, he managed to grasp part of Endymion's Soul, and inject it into a distant Timeline's newborn Kieran Tuule, hoping to create a being of pure creation and rebellion that would oppose END, thus creating Enki.

Ouroboros also made an appearance during Svanhvit's return to Babelia, due to the former interfering with the timeline Ouroboros intended. This however submitted him to the influence of Einna, who prevented him from reincarnating and escaping his body. A frustrated Ouroboros joined Japan's delegation in order to quickly escape this place, which he ultimately did due to his daughter Erunie Haruma's success.

### The Snake's Return

Under his guise of "Maou" and as a Divine Servant, Ouroboros was summoned in a Divine Servant war as a show of strength from the Academia's House Demeter. Disliking the inherent danger, he quickly went into hiding, but was found by MItsuki Tenkuro, who became fascinated with him. Ouroboros and Mitsuki teamed up to defeat the war's main culprit, Dorian, before Ouroboros wished for him to be purged of the Blight as the war's ultimate wish.

## Appearance

Ouroboros often changes appearances, but his original body is that of a sickly, pale man with long black hair and dull blue eyes, covered in white bandages. Half of his skin, including part of his face, has rotten away due to the Blight's influence, replaced with black putrefaction.

## Personality

Ouroboros's most defining trait is his obsessive thanatophobia - the fear of dying and being erased from existence. After losing everyone around him and slowly dying due to the Blight, he resolved to heal himself from this corruption by any means available. This eventually turned Ouroboros into a conceptual existence, driven by the single-minded aim of surviving just a little longer.

Ouroboros is a curious individual, a genius and a master analyst who is quite capable of tricking others in order to obtain what he desires. He also is known for his cowardliness - and would rather stay in the sidelines and run away whenever threatened rather than actively participate in any battle. He has no interest in power, only in eternity. This behavior and his tendency to use others'life whenever needed makes him quite disliked.

At a young age, as "Maou", Ouroboros was much more impulsive and aggressive than before, lacking the philosophical viewpoint and patience of his perfected adult self. Without a failsafe for his approaching demise, Maou acted as a cornered, desperate individual, lashing out at others quickly at the mention of death and sacrificing ruthlessly others to advance his own objectives.

## Powers

* **Keen Intellect:** As it could be expected of one who rose from mere human to quasi-Deity through mere study and mastery of chemistry, Ouroboros's intellect is tremendous.
* **Master Herbalist:** Ouroboros can quickly mix plants and various ingredients into concoctions that allow him to replicate supernatural abilities despite possessing no actual powers. Using ingredients from the Seven Pillars, he can even mimic spells of superior power.
* **Blight Manipulation:** Ouroboros's experiments on himself allow him to use the Blight in order to reinforce his own body, modify and control others' bodies as well, although such efforts are ultimately always destructive due to the Blight's nature.
* **Divine Servant Abilities:** As Maou of Gemini, his physical abilities are even fulther bolstered, as well as his ability to manipulate the Blight.

## Storylines

* Magus Wars : Control features him controlling Aemilius.
* Wishes of Arubboth shows an alternate tale to his rising.
* Magus Wars : Willpower features him as Maou of Gemini.
* Babelia : Feast of Lords features him.

## Trivia

* Hebirou means 'son of the snake' in Japanese. Ouroboros is the name of a legendary self-devouring snake representing immortality. 'Maou' means "evil king" and is a traditional japanese name for the figure of the "dark overlord".