Nero Stone

The main Hero of the story, he acts as the leader of the mostly-female group of immortals. It's well understood throughout the group that it is ultimately Nero's leadership that keeps them all together. In a sense he acts as the patriarch of the immortal "family".

Appearance
Nero is a rather feminine “young” man who appears to be about 18 years old. He has golden blond hair that falls to his mid-back and deep green eyes. At his height of 5’9” (175 cm) he would make a somewhat intimidating “girl”, though he has a habit of crossdressing anyway.

However, Nero has a couple of rather un-feminine traits. On his right arm near the shoulder he has the letters “ABD” tattooed in gothic lettering. One would assume these letters came from a mistake by someone who didn’t know their alphabet, but they’re actually the initials of three people that he lost to death – a source of guilt plaguing his immortal life. He also has Mavis's mark just below that tattoo, permanently etched into his skin with magic.

As well, centering on his mid back, he has a large scar that is shaped like a sun.

Nero is known to have many outfits, though recurring ones include a black cloak that has special magic defense capabilities, under which he wears a pair of black pants held by a pair of suspenders (one strap of which is usually loose and hanging over his left leg) and combat boots. He likes to wear a plethora of dresses, usually in styles that fit the situation he's in. He also painted his nails with magic magenta nail polish before becomming immortal, the polish sinking into his nails and keeping the color permanently, even regenerating along with his body.

Personality
Nero has a rather odd personality. Often he’s somewhat distant to strangers, though potential friends and allies get a warmer reception. However, this can sometimes belie a tranquil fury, as during his time in Fiore he was quick to counterattack Sting using the “Mirror Void” spell. He also seems to be quite sarcastic at times.

However, at times, he will turn around and defend the same people he just attacked if the situation warrants it. He’s not afraid to give them their punishment, but he isn’t a cruel person. As a matter of fact, there have been times when he's immediately healed the ones who just recieved a beating from him. And to his friends and allies, he’s a rather warm and friendly person and rarely raises his voice unless it’s necessary to get his point across; though if you have personally wronged him or his friends to a high degree, you will get no mercy. One of the only times he will speak curtly is when he addresses these people. In casual situations when speaking in Japanese, Nero uses the feminine pronoun “Atashi” instead of more neutral or masculine pronouns, even when he's not dressed like a girl.

Nero can be quite the pragmatist, and he has no problem fighting dirty if it helps his point. And since developing the proper spells and skills, he has used them often to cheat while gambling (mostly via marking the pieces or cards he's touched with invisible magic, so that he can read their locations later) and it is an effective way for him to make a profit whenever they get to a new world. However he has learned from experience to be careful with how much he wins and loses. Just because his cheating can't be detected by normal means doesn't mean always winning isn't suspicious.

Nero also seems to have a love of poetry and literature, as well as a slight flair for the dramatic. Every now and then he will spout a line from a poem no one has heard of to accentuate his point. He also owns what he calls a "festival costume" that looks like a mix between a flamingo dancer's outfit and a jester costume. One can assume his many personality quirks stem from having a long life to fill.

However there are also hidden depths to him; he harbors a deep guilt for leaving three very important people behind in becomming immortal, and that has plagued his immortal life ever since. He rarely cries, and until the "Characters Chapter" never did so in front of anyone but his brother and - later - Mio.

Personal Traits
Nero is a very smart person. He’s taken his many experiences and compiled them into a veritable library of archives in his memories. At times he has stated that he “(knows) very well how to injure a heart” and has memorized many tactics and strategies.

Since birth, Nero has also been an Empath. Everywhere he goes, unless he consciously suppresses them, he will feel the emotions of everything around him (in large colluseums, for example, being compared by him to listening to static at a high volume). Though he cannot force himself into the minds of others, he can touch their minds and communicate telepathically if they choose to respond to his mental “poke”. His abilities even extend to animals, insects, and (to a small degree) even plants.(Though he has noted that plants don’t have much in the way of direct thoughts or feelings.)

Something that often surprises people about Nero is how deep his voice actually is. Since he is used to talking with his "female" voice, when he lowers it to its natural pitch most people are thuroughly shocked. He actually has a light baritone voice.

Due to his immortality, Nero has built up a high tolerance to pain as well as a body described as being the “height of human durability”. In other words, his physical condition is perhaps the best a natural human being can have, but that’s it. His only other passive augmentation to this was the small amount of power he received from Dante that further increased his endurance. He is still fully capable of being harmed but his body will always heal itself perfectly and at a fair rate which he has learned to increase at the expense of a lot of extra energy being expended. His tattoo and sun-shaped scar were obtained before he became immortal, and will never fade and always be restored along with the rest of his body.

Hobbies
Nero has an appreciation for the arts. Often he will spend his free time reading stories, poems, and the like. He also enjoys music, and even began seriously practicing singing and dancing once he met Nagihiko. Since then, learning new types of song and dance have been his favorite hobbies. Crystal really seems to enjoy him having these hobbies as well, as they help her expand her modelling jobs into idol jobs.

Equipment
Nero’s Black Cloak (which he learned to craft in the "Hearts Chapter") has been noted as having defensive properties against magic. It also shields his heart and mind, preventing detection.

Nero has a set of Magic Armor that he obtained in the "Hearts Chapter". Its defenses are much better than the Black Cloak, but it is also a lot more conspicuous. However he was never able to learn how they crafted this armor. Nero's armor has elements of samurai-like armor and is various shades of white and blue.

Nero is capable of calling on the special Spiritual Katana he obtained in the "Souls Chapter" for battle at any time. As it is part of his heart and soul he is quite adept at its use and its abilities. He has named it Kurayuki which means "Snow Black". Notably with enough force it can be broken which shows it isn't actually made of metal, as metal bends rather than breaks.

Like everyone in the group, Nero owns a Xtransceiver which he uses to keep in contact. He got his original Xtransceiver in Unova, not long after he began his Pokemon journey. Ling modified his original model to create the base for everyone else's. His is decorated with his signature magenta color.

Physical Abilities
Martial Arts Practitioner: Jackie has taught Nero the basics of hand to hand combat.

Expert Swordsman: Nero has proven a very capable sword wielder, though his only weapon is his katana so he's specialized in its use only. Nero usually takes a kendo-like stance when using it.

Nimbility: Nero is rather light on his feet. Without magical augmentation, he’s a capable mover, being both nimble and flexible.

Fast Reflexes: Nero can move very fast in response to threats, even more so thanks to his empathy letting him sense the intents of people around him.

Enhanced Durability: Due to his immortality, his body condition is at the physical peak for his particular build. It can take much more physical punishment than most average people’s bodies.

Magical Abilities
Empathy: Nero's innate and most-displayed ability is his natural Empathy. He can sense the feelings of everything around him, from people to animals and even in a limited sense to plants. Though originally he became mute from "feeling all of the world's lies", Nero's condition improved after high school and he began speaking again. This ability has also led him to becoming mostly vegetarian, as he can hold conversations with animals (in a direct or indirect sense, depending on their intelligence level) which dissuades him from eating them on most occasions. It also gives him limited telepathy, though others must let him in first. Certain circumstances hamper its use, such as when he's fully concentrated on something immediate, rather than the world around him.

Vast Magical Power: Nero has a truly enormous amount of magical power. He can use high-class spells with noticeably less strain than other magic users, one of the main reasons behind his use of “Mirror Void” – a tricky spell that can easily rebound on the caster. Nero has also displayed a great “pressure” from his magic aura that is powerful enough to start freezing the surrounding area. (However he didn't have as much control as he does now, so this doesn't happen anymore unless he directly does so.)

High Magical Defense: Nero has a high resistance to magical abilities, a great asset to have in the worlds filled with magic. His defenses reduce a lot of the magical damage from attacks, but cannot cancel their other attributes. (Fire will still burn his skin, for example.)

Great Magical Knowledge: Nero often works with Lolita, Zeref, and Mavis in developing new spells. He's not as well-versed as they are but he knows quite a fair deal.

Elemental Alignment "Fire": Nero is aligned to the Fire element, and he has shown great skill in using fire elemental spells. However it is eventually revealed that this alignment is not truly his, but comes from his brother's spirit (that is aligned to Fire) resting within his soul.

Elemental Alignment "Ice": Nero's true elemental alignment is the Ice element. This is first seen with his skill in Ice magic, but wasn't really picked up on until Mavis noted his skill in both Ice and Fire magic (which can only be used to the extent he does by one aligned to the element).

Extreme Weather Resistance: Due to his brand of Fire and Ice magics, Nero has a good deal of resistance to both extreme heat and extreme cold. (Enough so to take a nap in a tree and not wake up even when covered with snow.)

Magic Color "Magenta": Nero's personal magic color is the same as his nail polish.

Magic
Thanks to his extremely high level of magical power, Nero can use very high-level spells in succession. Though he specializes in his Fire and Ice magic, he also knows a number of other spells.

Basic Magic
Over the course of their lives, Nero and co. have created a set of "basic magics" to be learned by all who become immortal. They are all utility spells.
 * Storage: Nero has a high storage capacity due to his high magical power.
 * Familiar Contract: Nero has a fair number of familiars. For more information see Nero's Familiars.
 * Invincible Item: Using a sort of psuedo-familiar contract spell, inanimate objects can be bound to an immortal's soul. Even if these items should ever be broken, they will repair themselves just like an immortal's body would over time.
 * Air Step: By gathering magic at the soles of the feet, Nero can stand on the air or walk on water with ease.
 * The Speed: Nero's spell used to emulate Flash Steps. By first using the Air Step spell to gather magic at his feet, he can move and ride that magic at incredible speeds.

Fire Magic
Nero is very proficient in the use of Fire magic - being his signature specialty before learning that his true element is Ice.
 * Fire is the most basic form of Fire magic, simply launching a concentrated fireball of elemental magic.
 * Flame Cannon is a spell Nero replicated from Shinigami kidou, by viewing a destructive spell. Nero will focus his Fire magic in the palms of his outstretched hands until it is white-hot and fire a concentrated ball of Fire element magic.
 * Phoenix Lance: A powerful Fire spell in which Nero concentrates several streams of fire together and launches them at a target. The flames spread out as the central stream pierces the target. He gave it this name when Crystal compared its look to "a phoenix's tail feathers".
 * Flare is one of the highest tier Fire magic spells. It costs a lot of magic to cast but it can utterly decimate anything in its path, including melting the earth that it engulfs. This spell requires an aria.
 * Living Flame Body: The height of Nero’s fire manipulation magic can, at the cost of constant magic drain, temporarily turn his body into what he calls "living flames". This form is telegraphed by long tendrils of flame coming from his body, though as they are burning his magical power there is no smoke. While he is in this state his healing abilities speed up and most damage is instantly restored by the flames. The flames have the special property of being imbued with Nero’s Empathy powers, and can reach out to the hearts of whoever is within them and connect them. This connection proved powerful enough to help Bambietta recall once lost memories from her childhood. Nero has described the feeling of these flames as being different than his usual ones, though when he was asked to elaborate he only says that they feel "warm" and that when he activates them a vision of a flaming phoenix flashes in his mind. This is because the true form of this spell is the latent spirit of Nero’s brother, Alex, who was aligned to the Fire element.

Ice Magic
Nero is a very capable Ice mage, being able to incorporate the element in a variety of ways.
 * Ice is the most basic form of Ice magic, simply being a crystal of Ice that is launched to deal damage.
 * Ice Arrows is a basic Ice element spell. Creating a multitude of thin ice needles that can then be launched at a target. They don't deal much damage on their own but can cover a wide area.
 * Ice Trident is an Ice element spell that produces a trident-shaped forming of ice. It can be thrown or used for close-quarters combat.
 * Crystal Dragon Scales is a spell Nero replicated with Ice magic after watching Gajeel use his Iron Dragon's Scales spell. Though not really a dragon magic, the spell produces "scales" of ice on Nero's body for defense. An extention of this spell would be to create claws on his hands for hand-to-hand combat.
 * Living Ice Body is the parallel to Nero's Living Flame Body spell. Working on the same principle, Nero's ice magic abilities are boosted while his body's healing rate increases using the ice as a medium. However it does not have the same Empathetic capabilities as Living Flame Body, as Alex's spirit does not aid in a connection. This technique is telegraphed by a chilling mist forming around Nero's body.
 * Snow Dragon Magic: In the "Fairy Chapter" Nero raised the dragon chick Nevena, and she taught him Snow Dragon magic. Snow generated with Dragon Magic immediately begins to freeze the area it touches.
 * Dragon's Roar: The common ability among those with Dragon Magic is their own personal "Dragon's Roar". By gathering compressed magical power in his lungs, Nero can send it through his throat and out his mouth. The magical power will turn into a whirling mass of snow crystals after leaving his mouth.
 * Snow Flame Mode: When he absorbed Nevena's Dragon Crystal, Nero's fire magic gained dragon properties. Though he cannot directly use Fire Dragon style, he can combine his fire magic with his Snow Dragon magic to create blue flames that have the same freezing properties as his snow.

Air Magic
Nero is capable of using Air magic spells. Interestingly, the color produced by the swirling magic in the spells is green when Nero uses this magic.
 * Tornado Shot: By waving his hand, Nero can send a quick-moving blast of swirling Air magic that has a slight tearing effect.

Light Magic
Nero knows a few powerful Light magic spells, though they aren't his specialty.
 * Phantom Chain is a spell Nero developed after watching advance binding spells in the "Souls Chapter". Using Light magic Nero replicates the effects of the "Winding Binding Chains" kidou spell.
 * Seven Sword Light Prison is another spell Nero developed after viewing Shinigami kidou. Using the "Six Rods Prison of Light" binding spell as a base, Nero forms Light magic into seven sword-shapes, impaling them into one or multiple targets to bind them in place. The more swords there are in a single target the less mobility they have, but the swords do not actually deal damage themselves.
 * Luminesence is a high-tier Light element spell. Using a combination of magic circles several streams of light are directed at the target to deal damage. He developed this spell with Lolita and Jackie's help. This spell requires an aria.

Dark Magic
Nero knows a couple of Dark-type spells, being taught a little by Lolita. They can deal damage quickly but have insanely high magic costs.
 * Dark Arrow is a basic Dark-type spell, gathering a bit of heavy magic and then launching it. It has piercing properties as well.
 * Comet is a spell Nero devised after using Arceus's Judgement move on Ghetsis during the "Pokemon Chapter". After launching a large magical blast into the air it will break apart and rain down on a wide area for heavy damage.

Unclassified Magic
Nero knows a handful of spells that don't fall into any elemental category.


 * Mirror Void is a powerful spell that can be very dangerous to the user. Mirror Void blocks an incoming attack and analyzes it before reflecting the image of the attacker and shattering while dealing back damage equal to the strength of the blocked attack. The danger comes in the form of the counterattack, which draws its energy from the caster and -NOT- the attacker. If attempting to defend against an attack that exceeds their magical power, this spell will draw every last drop it can to ensure equal force in the counterattack even if it injures or kills the caster.
 * Block: Nero is capable of using a one-side barrier to block attacks. The barrier cannot be seen until contact is made, when it will flash slightly. It is a bit weak, but is nearly immediate to cast.
 * Barrier Lv.5: A large-area barrier spell that covers 360 degrees on all axiis. Nero can also combine this spell with Mirror Void for a 360 degree guard and counterattack strategy.
 * Healing Arts: Basic healing magic, it can restore energy and revitalize a body. It isn't Nero's specialty, however.
 * Self Splitting Item Enchantment: A very powerful magic known only by a few within the group that allows the user to split off a part of their "self" (both Heart and Soul) and seal it within an item. That item will then become a literal extention of the person. Nero used this spell on his Spiritual Katana: Fuyuzakura.
 * Persona: Nero is capable of calling forth a total of six Personae, which awakened at different times in his life. Normally he will summon Arthur Prime, but also has access to the powerful Kokuel, Helel, and his Ultimate Persona King Avalon.

Combination Spells

 * Frost Flames are a product of Nero's experimentation into Fire and Ice. He can infuse the maliable element of Fire with the chilling core of Ice to create a source of cold that can flow and spread easily.

Power of Darkness
Very early on, in the "Hearts Chapter", Nero learned to control the Darkness in his heart. He is - along with Lolita - one of the very few people known to have gained true control over the Darkness. Most would fall prey to the Darkness's enticing power and be driven to insanity, but the strength of Nero's bonds with everyone acts as a grounding force that allows him to use the Darkness with now ill effects.
 * Black Flare: Nero is capable of using a very painful "black" fire by infusing his regular flames with Darkness.
 * Black Iceage: Another powered up spell, Nero can create "black" ice with the Power of Darkness.
 * Dark Shot: By focusing Darkness through either his hands or a weapon, Nero can fire blasts of Darkness energy in rapid succession.
 * Dark Overdrive: The ultimate technique of Nero's will actually cloak him in his Darkness, forming a kind of light armoring. His upper torso, forearms, hands, lower legs, and feet are all armored, along with some light skirt armor on his waist. His outfit becomes something akin to a tattered cloak, slit twice to form three sections (two of which are under the skirt armor). The armor somewhat resembles bones, though are much harder. His sclerae also turn black. In this form all of Nero's Darkness abilities are boosted to their maximum.

Trivia

 * Nero's theme is "Light My Fire" by KOTOKO and Supercell.
 * After the events surrounding the world of Shugo Chara!, Nero's secondary theme would be Fiesta by +Plus.
 * Nero's favorite song is "Oración" which he heard in the "Pokemon Chapter". Meaning "Prayer" in Spanish, Nero says that it calms his very soul.
 * Nero's DFM spell comes from the Persona series' "Alice" persona. Her signature ability is called "Die For Me!" ("Shinde kuru?" in the Japanese versions.) In the games this ability calls down card soldiers from the sky to attack with a high chance of instant-kill.
 * Nero seems to be a fan of Disney movies, and his favorite quote is "Family means no one gets left behind or forgotten" from Lilo & Stitch.
 * Mavis once described Nero's magical power in relation to Team Sabertooth - the five strongest mages under the guild master - as "like comparing the strength of five candles to a raging wildfire."
 * Nero's shoulders are apparently very comfortable, as several beings including his Pikachu, Pichu, and Snow Dragon Nevena all like to stay on them. As well, several times people have fallen asleep and used them as makeshift pillows.