Sheila

Sheila (シーラ Shira) is the Demon Queen who personally wiped out half of humanity and subjugated all the monsters. After experiencing the loss of her beloved dragon at a young age, she decided to kill as many humans as she could so as to create a world for monsters and monsters only. Upon meeting the Hero, Sheila decided she would approach him so as to get close to him, and kill him when the opportunity came; however, she finds herself to have accidentally developed romantic feelings for Exa. And so, putting up the façade of a meek monster, Sheila joins him in his journey.

Overview
Although a monster, Sheila resembles a human girl in all aspects except for her ears, which have a triangular shape and folds that make them look like gills.

Personality
At the beginning of the series, Sheila has an arrogant, spoiled, and reckless personality (being used to the fact that everything always went according to her wishes because of her status as Demon Queen), as well as being unable to be considerate to any other living creature: because of the lack of love and consideration in her thoughts for others, she was able to kill (be it human or monster) without hesitation since a very small age. "Strong eats weak", "If it's weak, you eat it", "I'm strong, therefore I have the right to live and kill others" and "If I don't like it, be it human or monster, I just kill it" among others were her characteristic phrases and way of thinking.

However, upon meeting Exa, her views changed drastically: while she remained spoiled, reckless and slightly arrogant, thanks to the Hero she was able to learn about emotions, about the pain that comes after the death of a loved one, and the happiness of having friends that trust and care for each other. Ignorant of the meaning of such emotions, she knew no other way of imposing her authority other than through fear, rather than friendship and trust; and because of this, both humans and monsters would always look at her with disrespect, a fact that saddened Sheila because of the consequence that it brought: that she had always been alone because of her power and the fear that it caused to others.

Her "late" meeting with Exa is the things she regrets the most, often saying that if she had known about the true meaning of death and its painful outcome, her love for Exa and a life without loneliness would not be impossible; and she might not have become the Demon Queen at all.

Demon Queen
When Sheila was young she had a crimson dragon whom she loved very much and would play often with. One day, when arriving to their meeting place as usual, her dragon was gone, and what was left were only signs of humans chasing her dragon around.

The loss of her dragon made her "forget" any sort of emotion (such as love and care) she had felt before; and drastically changed her point of view of humans, making her reach the conclusion that the only way peace could be obtained was through the complete extermination of one race or the other. And so, at a young age, she decided to kill as many humans as she could, so as to achieve a world in which those who killed monsters would not exist.

Upon witnessing what may have been her first assault on a village, Kagami remarked on Sheila's tremendous power, and asked her to become the Demon Queen, who would guide all monsters in the war between the two races. Sheila, with the goal of wanting to avenge her dragon and create a world for only monsters, accepted.

Since then, with his loyal adviser Kagami by her side and with the help of several armies of monsters, Sheila would go from one village to another, slaying all the humans in her sight until no survivors were left.

For many years, the destruction of human villages occurred nonstop to the point that less than half of the human population remained.

However, upon meeting Exa, she temporarily deserted her post as Demon Queen to join his group, and made Copy her successor, until the day Sheila would return after having killed Exa.

Abilities
Because she hides her abilities from Exa, it is difficult to gauge the extent of her abilities. As the Demon Queen, Sheila is known for having astonishing power. Her extensive abilities range from being able to cast small black energy balls that have an immense destructive power; to easily trespass a barrier created by Exa or to create powerful protective barriers herself; and by just using soil and a part of her essence, to create a copy of herself with similar appearance and powers; to withstand poison strong enough to kill a dragon, among others. She is able to stop and push back groups of enemies with just her aura.

After meeting Exa, Sheila has learned to modify the level of power in her attacks so that she can knock most monsters unconscious in one hit without damaging the surrounding area. Her senses are also top-notch, able to sense disguised enemies faster than anyone else in the group.

In Superior Cross, she also learned restoration magic.

History
Other than the fact that she became the Demon Queen at a very young age, not much has been revealed of Sheila's past.

Although never mentioned or implied, it is possible that Sheila became an orphan at some point; which would explain the reason why matters such as love, friendship, pain or the concept the death were alien to her until she met Exa; although she was vaguely aware of them prior her dragon's loss.

Unbeknownst to both Sheila and Exa for the moment, however, the two met each other many years before their encounter in the Baron's Castle; during that time, Exa was a normal child who lived with his parents in a peaceful village, while Sheila was the newly appointed Demon Queen, who killed any human that crossed her path along with any incompetent or weak monster that did not do as she commanded. Exa, who had casually left the village the moment Sheila and an army of monsters came to destroy it, came back to find the city and ruins, and rushed back to help any survivors.

While trying to take her mortally wounded mother to safety, Exa encounters Sheila, with whom he has a brief chat after she nonchalantly points out that his mother was already dead. While talking to Exa, Sheila is tried to be taught for the first time about the concepts of death, consideration, pain, and others; however, unable to understand them, Sheila keeps insisting oh her point of view of "strong eats weak" and tries to kill Exa. Before he can be killed, however, the First Hero appears and saves Exa, while Sheila and Kagami retreat from battle. However, because of the smoke that came from the burning village, neither of them saw each other's faces, so they were not able to recognize each other years later in the Baron's castle.

Superior
After many years, the series starts with the first chapter, in which Sheila and Kagami go visit the Castle of a Baron to the kill the latter, and by coincidence they spot the Hero from afar. At the sight of him, Sheila wanted to kill him immediately, but not before playing with him a little: she would put up the façade of a weak monster and approach him, and wait for the opportunity to kill him. However, due to a series of unforeseen circumstances, she finds herself to have fallen in love with him, as well as understanding a little about the concepts that Exa tried to explain to her when they were children. And so, curious of his principles of not killing any monsters or humans, she joins his journey while keeping her identity of Demon Queen a secret.

While on their journey, they reach an oasis town in the middle of the desert. Before arriving, however, they encounter a half-breed child, Xion, that had been exiled from his town because of this. After a monster attack to the town (which Sheila was able to stop because of her status as Demon Queen), the villagers, at first hostile towards any kind of monster, changed their way of thinking thanks to the Hero's influence and Xion's actions (who saved a villager from Sheila's rage and later spoke up his thoughts, encouraged by Sheila), and accepted the latter to stay in their town. Although reluctant at first, Sheila came to know about forgiveness through Xion (whom she regards as "his second favorite after Hero") for the first time.

Later on their journey, when Sheila met Lakshri for the first time, she found her beloved dragon alive and well. The dragon had nested in the middle of the road; and because she was obstructing traffic, some royal guards had destroyed the eggs and were on her way to kill her. After a fight between the guards and Lakshri, Sheila, who almost killed one of the guards in her anger, approached the dragon and gave her the will to live again, for the dragon had refused to leave the nest in the hope she might die together with her eggs. In this situation, Sheila was once again reminded of the pain that comes after the death of a loved one.

Through a series of awkward circumstances, Sheila met Angelica; and although she despised her at first for a confusion that had happened prior their proper introduction, after she learned that Angelica was a quarter she was able to sympathize with her and started to get along with her. Sheila couldn't help notice how happy she was with Exa and his companions; but her status of Demon Queen would come back to torment her, since that same night Kagami appeared, complaining about Sheila's long absence, and the subsequent lack of activity from part of the Demon Lord.

Sheila, knowing that unless she wanted the Hero to find out her true identity, she would have to do something about the Demon Queen's absence, and so created a copy that would fill in her place; and although she was more trouble than she was worth (mere moments after being born, Copy openly declared how she would destroy Sheila and become the "original") she let her live, stating that another one might even cause more trouble. It was also through Copy that Sheila learned that, as a leader, she had never been respected by her fellow monsters; and learned, through her friends, that fear is not the only way to "control" people.

Following this events, Sheila played a minor role during the Castle's invasion, as she was just a by-stander during the whole battle, and only assisting in the destruction of a group of monsters. However, when the King was in the verge of death, he was somehow able to enter Sheila's memories, and realized that because of his actions the Demon Queen existed.

No long after Juno had been appointed as the new king, Sheila and Exa set on a journey to find the legendary sword, Mirage, to replace Exa's former (broken) one. During their short journey they met with Okina Megumi, and on their way of trying to escape the guardians of the tower they switched bodies several times because of a spell of the guardians. After having acquired the sword they escaped by embedding Mirage on the surface of the tower and sliding all the way down.

Not long after they leave the castle to continue their quest, and one night on a forest they were ambushed by a monster under Kagami's order who took a piece of everybody's mind, save for Sheila. During the time that Exa lost his mind of rectitude he confessed to Sheila that he liked her.

Afterwards, Copy creates a shadow of her own; and although Sheila is unaware of this she senses that something bad is going to happen; and certainly, after her village had been massacred, Sophia met by chance with Exa's group, and begged them to save her village and the survivors, if there were any. Sensing that the incident had something to do with her previous hunch, she offered to stay with Sophia and take care of her while the rest would go after the monster who had destroyed the village. As soon as they left, however, Sheila cast a magic tree that would protect Sophia from harm and called her crimson dragon to take her to the scene of the crime before the others did.

There she found Copy, a destroyed village and Shadow, who by this time had a grotesque appearance. She fights them both, but at one point in battle Shadows comes to realize the sins she has committed, and kills herself. Sheila, enraged at Copy's for what she did to Shadow, leaves the battlefield to avoid running into Exa, but not before warning her that the next time she saw her would be the last for sure. Pitying Shadow, Sheila brings her back to life, but removes her guilt and memories, and leaves her in Xion's town so that she could the live a life of happiness she deserved.

After this incident, Sheila disappeared for a non-specified amount of time, during which Exa grew wary about the suspicions that Sheila might be the Demon Lord. However, after returning just in time to save Exa from Maya, all his doubts disappeared. Up to this point, Sheila has learned about compassion, and the pain of the loss of a loved one, as she expressed anger at the thought that a monster might want to hurt the villagers, such as Julie. She battled alongside Exa in the sewers against Maya, and although victorious, she was poisoned. Before Exa could bring Sheila to safety Athens and Rossi had already restored the water, flooding the sewers as a result. Amidst the confusion Athens was separated from Rossi and was about to enter a whirlpool from which she wouldn't be able to come out; but Sheila sacrificed herself so Athens could be safe. However, Exa saved her before she could fall into the whirlpool.

After they managed to come out, although still affected by the venom's symptoms, Rossi announced she would survive, most likely because she was a monster; and for good measure gave her an antidote she had made from Rossi's own blood. Unbeknownst to everyone else, however, Rossi gave her the antidote despite knowing that Sheila's body might reject it like a disease, probably dying as a result.

Superior Cross
In the sequel, Sheila continues to be torn between her duties as the Demon Queen and her love for Exa. She understands that she must kill him before he kills her but she is still unable to bring herself to do it. She continues to save and defend Exa behind the scenes and act as immature as she has done in the past. When she saved him from Kagami, however, Kagami declared that he had enough and would chose to join the Copy's side rather than deal with what she was turning into. Sheila becomes saddened by the loss of her old companion as well as the fact that she had to hurt humans in order to save Exa. Now that she is not the Demon Queen anymore, she questions her decisions and whether or not she should follow Hero anymore.

After Exa attempted to teach Sheila healing magic, she accidentally turned into a dog. Exa did not realize "Poochie" was her and revealed his emotional turmoil in a moment of weakness (echoing Sheila's earlier wish to learn more about his "ugly side"). In turn, she learned to sympathize with others and notes that she is happy where she is now and that her decisions cannot be wrong. In a more somber tone, she also realized that she doesn't truly belong there and that she can't stay in such a "comfortable place" forever.

They find the Demon Queen's castle, and Exa accuses Sheila of being the the Demon Queen. She lies and says, "I am not the Demon Lord." Kagami attacks, and Sheila reveals the truth, that she "was" the Demon Queen. While Lakshiri and Angelica are still wanting to be with Sheila, Exa decides that no matter if he must kill Lakshiri and Angelica (if they stand in his way), he will kill Sheila. At the last moment he rushes at Sheila with his sword.

Exa’s party intervenes and help him realize his true goal. The power to protect those he cares about and his love for Sheila. As Hero is about to fall to his death, Sheila intervenes and allows herself to fall in order to not fight Exa. However, Exa no longer desiring revenge, saves Sheila and both have an intimate moment together and kiss. After another confrontation with Kagami, Exa and the party realize that Sheila and her clones are copies of the original demon lord. During the fights that happened, the original demon lords personality awoke inside Sheila’s first copy and kills the copy. Then the original demon lord begins to go on a killing spree and is on the verge of causing all monster kind to attack humanity at once. With this knowledge in mind, Exa and the party depart to stop the original.

The original demon lord proves to be too strong and takes everyone into her realm. The original threatens killing Exa to force Sheila into cooperating with her and merging with her along with the third copy. Exa sacrifices himself to weaken the original’s hold on Sheila. Seeing this, Sheila no longer cooperates and realizes that she too has control over the original’s realm as unlike the other copies who were made from dirt, she is an identical copy made from the original’s blood. With this power she is able to revive Exa and creates a portal for Exa and his party to escape. However, Sheila remains in order to stop the original and protect everyone.

4 years have passed since Sheila sacrifice herself. Exa is seen living peacefully and awaits Sheila’s return. Through a chance encounter, Exa meets Sheila’s third copy who wishes to save Sheila as a sign of gratitude for the happiness that Sheila gave her. She explains that Sheila is alive and well and that she has been conversing with her. To bring her back, the copy explains she will serve as a vessel for Sheila and opens the portal to the original demon lord’s realm. Exa has second thoughts and realizes that this may be a trick by the original, who can shapeshift and alter her appearance. At the last second, he slashes the copy with his sword to prevent Sheila’s sacrifice from being in vain. However, Sheila appears from the portal before it closes. Still unsure if it is the original or not, after hearing her whine about not being fed he realizes it is Sheila. She reveals that she defeated the original and that the third copy did not lose her individuality because Exa severed her connection with Sheila through his sword. Teasing him about being down and doing nothing to improve human-monster relations for the last 4 years, she states she has no choice but to accompany him and help him see his ideals come true. Together, they lead a life of peace between humanity and monster kind with the prince.

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