Born in a remote mountainous area as a full blooded human, Jacob never knew his parents. Before he was even three years old, they were killed while out for a walk by a local gang. The reasons why are still uncertain, but it is speculated that Jacob’s parents were targeted by someone for their money. Jacob was left to die next to his parents’ bodies, a two-year-old infant not even aware that his parents were no more. However, to his great fortune, the murders were witnessed by a monk who lived nearby, who had also been out on a walk. He saved Jacob from the wilderness and took him back to his dojo, where Jacob grew up as his apprentice, among many others. Jacob was a prodigy to the martial arts, as well as nearly every weapon he laid his hands on. He was also taught basic magic by local wizards, and trained under the famous Vivi Orunitia in Black Magic, as well, when the mage stopped by the dojo for a few months. As soon as he was old enough to understand, Jacob was told the truth of his tutelage in the dojo, and why he was there. Jacob took it well outwardly, but he swore that he would have his revenge one day.
Eventually, Jacob came of age, and his master, Tai Shu, accepted him as a master of all the arts he could be taught. Jacob was given two swords that day, a katana named Kokuou Kotonashi and a ninjato named Kumori. Jacob took the swords and thanked his master for everything, then went to his room. Later that night, Tai Shu told him that he knew Jacob’s plan. He warned him of the danger in it, but didn’t stop him. Jacob left that night unknowing of how drastically his life was about to change…
For nearly a month, Jacob tracked the trail of the local gang, finding their hideouts, which were always vacated before he got there, and tracking down people who knew where they went next. He always found a way to force the truth out, and if that didn’t work, he moved on to the next supplier of information, conveniently disposing of the previous one beforehand. When the trail went cold by informants, he learned ways to track the gang like a wilderness explorer, picking up on their distinct scents and tracks, stalking them through the wilds and towns they passed through on their trek. Jacob focused so much on the trail, that he never noticed where the trail was heading, how it slowly turned around, and led him right back to where he had started. That is, until he burst through the brush one day to behold his old dojo, with the guards hung by the front gate.
Terrified, Jacob entered the dojo, looking around at the carnage that the gang had unleashed on his family. Men and women alike were dead or dying, beyond his ability to help, if he had even thought to help them. All he thought about was getting to the top floor, finding the gang before they killed any more. He threw open the top floor doors only in time to see the gang leader shove a sword straight through Tai Shu’s heart. His master, his mentor, father, and friend killed before his helpless eyes. With that, Jacob lost any thought processes left in him. He slaughtered them all. A full gang of more than fifty people butchered like livestock before one single man. When he was done, he took his two swords and licked the blade’s clean of blood, savoring the metallic taste as the dojo burned down around him.
He left then, heading nowhere. For only a day he walked before he was visited by his campfire by a demon lord. The demon had been watching him since that first night he left bent on revenge, watching as the man who used to be Jacob changed and was twisted by his desire to kill his parent’s killers. He had been there when that final blow was struck on Jacob’s shattered mind, his master’s death, which ground the shards of his consciousness into nothing. The demon lord ravished in Jacob’s bloodlust and offered him powers to allow him to be an even more merciless killing machine. For a price. No caring either way what happened, Jacob accepted the demon’s powers. And thus, Jacob Shu, the human, was turned into Jacob the Shade, shadow demon.
For exactly one whole year, Jacob was to go and kill for the demon lord, his own personal assassin. Jacob killed everyone from royalty to beggars, excluding no one that was on the contract. Sometimes, whole cities burned for one man’s mistake. Jacob never cared. It was his job. Through these killings, Jacob gained his impressive arsenal of shadows, growing more and more in tune with his new powers and slowly becoming more powerful. At the last minute of the year, the demon lord ordered Jacob to sign a new contract, binding the Shade into the lord’s servitude for life. Jacob just looked at the demon and skewered him where he stood, grinning as he did. It was then that Jacob took Te Kage, the Akuma Yaiba from the lord, and made it his own.
Since then, Jacob has wandered the worlds, killing only those who challenged him or did him wrong. He keeps to himself mostly, speaking to those that interest him, passing by those who don’t. No longer does he have a purpose beyond finding the best fighter he can, and beating him/her. Slowly, though, his behavior was changed by those he interacted with, and eventually he found himself making what the civilized called “friends” and even developing romantic interests. The most notable of his romances was Ramisha, a vampire-demon mix that had been in multiple failed relationships before him. Taking pity on her, he sought to simply befriend her and keep her from the suicide that might soon follow her depression. His interest in her soon changed into something more than friendship and before either of them knew it, Ramisha was pregnant.
After the normal nine months, she gave birth to twins Lydia and Lynk, each three-quarters demon and a quarter vampire. Having a son changed Jacob, and he knew that he now had an heir to his unholy powers. After a few years of training Lynk separately from Lydia, Jacob was satisfied that his son would be able to survive the coming of age that shadow demons supposedly went through. He knew his son would be more powerful than him since he was born a demon, unlike his father. Having that sliver of vampire in him didn’t change much. Knowing this, he made sure Lynk knew everything that he would be and already was. He was blunt, sugar-coating nothing. Lynk however, is another story entirely.
When the twins were merely six years of age, Jacob found himself in the company of another pure blooded demoness, named Colette. She was a master of seduction and had the body of a goddess, and Jacob found himself tempted. Trying to get his mind off of it, he challenged her to a spar, since she was obviously capable of putting up a fight. She accepted and they sparred. Jacob found himself acceptably challenged and was even more tempted so he began to fight as if he would kill her. He let himself fall into bloodlust. However, after a certain tempting move by Colette, he found he couldn’t control himself any longer and the two made love in the wilderness. Being demons, the two found themselves bonded in a way that was more physical than emotional, and they both sought the aid of the Demon King himself, Satan. Colette had a record with Lucifer and Jacob had to use his own wiles and strength to outmaneuver the Devil and get what they wanted from him.
Now, Jacob was faced with the problem of Ramisha. He still loved her, but now he had a tangible bond with another. Killing himself inside as it did, he faced her and his children together and told Ramisha that he had cheated on her and was leaving. With that, he did leave, and not long after, broke the bond with Colette and left it all behind. Lynk and Lydia were too young to understand it at that time, so later, Jacob returned to them, who had gone their own ways by then, and explained to each of them what had happened. Lydia didn’t take it well, but Lynk took it worse. Broken-hearted at the thought that the man he had idolized had been nothing but a whore and a liar, Lynk took it upon himself to challenge his father to a duel to the death. Jacob easily beat his son, but did not take his life, unable to do so when he had no reason for it, and obviously still loved him. Fleeing, Jacob resumed his wanderings. However, before he left completely, Jacob tore his own soul from his body and turned it into a shadow, giving it to his son as the first shadow Lynk would possess.
After a few more years, Jacob returned to the twins, the two having called him to them. They pleaded with him to return to Ramisha so that they could be a family again, mostly for Lydia’s sake. Ramisha still loved Jacob, and Lydia was feeling worse and worse about the tear that was forming between their family. Jacob refused, saying that some wounds never healed, and were never meant to. They pushed him, and eventually, Jacob broke, having been thinking a bit too much when he was alone in the wilderness. Taking Lynk’s girlfriend hostage, Jacob proceeded to draw his son into a trap. Using the rest of his shadows, Jacob linked himself to his son’s shadows and started to single out one in particular, his own soul that his son still had as a shadow. Using his mastery over the shadows, he made it seem like he tore his own soul apart, and extinguished his own life as he faded away before their eyes. In reality, though, he took the soul back to himself and vacated his physical body and returned to his demonic self that resided in another reality accessible only by demons in particular. Lynk, however, figured out what he had done and followed his father with Lydia again, again pleading with him to return. Regardless, the Shade stayed where he was and sent the twins home empty-handed again. After a few more months, he grew bored with his solitude and returned to the world in his original body, exploring the endless lands at his fingertips.
Recently, Jacob found himself reaching out to Ramisha again. He had found that he did still love her and they got back together again. Now they live together with Lydia, Lynk and his girlfriend Nila and Lynk's twin children, though Jacob still goes out on his travels when life in a house gets too suffocating. That is how Jacob found out about the Arena. Interest piqued, he entered, hoping to test his skills again after so long.
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