Seraph Experiments

Angels (天使) are terms for a group of powerful beings that exist within human hosts, whom are being secured and used as living weapons of the Japanese Imperial Demon Army. Kureto Hīragi has them prepared for transport during the Nagoya Arc as part of his plan to imprison the vampires in Nagoya.

Many known human hosts have been secured by the JIDA and are either active officers who managed to access seraph along with Cursed Gear, or live subjects who have been heavily medicated in order to force both seraph and host into submission. According to Kureto, they are vital to humanity's survival.

Seraph
The Seraph of the End is a magical curse created by human experimentation and then grown inside a person.

Some seraph were experimented on by the Hyakuya Sect prior to the Apocalypse. The term "seraph" refers to a type of angel. Guren Ichinose has been experimenting on them as well. So far, all of those tested are capable of handling the Black Demon Series weapons. Other surviving human organizations around the world have experimented on the Seraph of the End, but even their cruelty pales in comparison to the that of the Demon Army. Both the Hyakuya Sect and Demon Army erased the memories of the experimentation from their test subjects. Mikaela Hyakuya has been on missions overseas to destroy the surviving cult groups. The test subjects often scream or even beg for death prior to their transformations.

Like the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the seraph strive to kill all humans and display absolutely no interest in vampires if they transform properly. They speak in archaic language and have no recollection of their human identities. Kureto Hiragi succeeds in controlling the 5th trumpet for a period of time by making many sacrifices and using the demon Abaddon to possess her. Some of the angels have abilities loosely related to those listed in Revelation chapters 8 through 9 in the New Testament of the Bible and are referred to by their trumpets.

In the Catastrophe light novels, Mahiru Hīragi brings Guren some documents listing the Seraph of the End subjects. He collects at least four of them before betraying them during the Nagoya Airport experiment in the Vampire Reign manga series. He has been involved in the transformation of at least two of them thus far.

In the 6th Trumpet's transformation being reversed by the demon power boosting drug, a cross shaped dagger flew out of his chest, his wings dissolve, and the black liquid stops flowing from his eye. As for the cross shaped dagger, Saitō is shown having two of the exact cross dagger objects in his possession, but it does not state whether these two were also from seraphs that turned back into humans like the 6th Trumpet or not, and it is unknown on what exact purpose they serve. The only clue is Guren saying that the object is being taken to Tokyo for humanity to fight against millennia old monsters.

Taboo
According to Ferid Bathory, the experiment "Seraph of the End" is actually an experiment to revive the dead. According to vampire belief, the humans committed a taboo, currently believed to be reviving the dead, which triggers the appearance of an angel of destruction. This is the reason the vampires conquered the world from underground and crushed any organizations working on that experiment. However, the Demon Army has since learned how to control these angels for themselves.

According to Ferid, Guren Ichinose completed the experiment and triggered the Apocalypse when he revived his dead friends, Shinya Hīragi, Mito Jūjō, Norito Goshi, Shigure Yukimi, and Sayuri Hanayori without their knowledge. This experiment caused the virus that killed off most of the adult population. The five revived individuals appear to have no knowledge of dying and have continued to age and grow since then. At first it was uncertain whether Ferid was telling the truth or not, until he confirms Guren's act.

Abilities
So far, three full Seraphs have made an appearance in the story. According to the manga, the abilities of each Seraph is different as they are based on the number of their Trumpet. Yu is shown to have heightened physical abilities and the power to turn his enemies into salt, while the unnamed 6th Trumpet is able to summon Horsemen (Mirai is shown to summon the Horsemen as well ).

Seraphs are shown to be able to heal their hosts and keep them alive despite fatal wounds, such as Mirai being cured of the Apocalypse Virus, and Yu being kept alive after he took three pills, despite all of his internal organs being ruptured already.

Appearance
The appearances of the seraphs in their transformed states vary tremendously, but they all appear to have a wing or wings so far. It is unclear if this is related to their suitability to the experimentation, what proportion of their body is considered seraph, or which type of experimentation has been performed on them.

So far, the only completely awakened seraphs that have appeared in the story are Mirai Kimizuki and Yūichirō Amane. Mirai, the 5th trumpet, has two giant pairs of feathered wings from her back with a giant trumpet floating beneath her. The curse marks on her skin from the Apocalypse Virus disappear as well. In the anime, the opposite happens and the number of markings increase despite the fact the virus has no reason to effect an angel. When Abaddon possess her, the demon manifests in a giant dark figure with many wings behind her and is partially formless. Yu, the 2nd trumpet, has dark sclera and a single pair of irregular black wings once he completely transforms. Although Mirai's wings are bird-like and have feathers, Yu's wings are not bird-like and do not have feathers, as his demon is apparently wrestling control with the angel.

In a flashback, Mika recalls an undernourished seraph child held in a fluid-filled tank with a mask on the face to supply air. The child had feathered wings for arms.

1st Trumpet
No information.

2nd Trumpet
By using a certain drug, Guren unleashes the seraph characteristics within Yūichirō Hyakuya for a few minutes during the battle at Shinjuku. When the drug takes affect, Yu screams and loses his mind as he undergoes a painful transformation. His left eye turns dark and bleeds while a massive black wing-like structure sprouts from his upper right shoulder. Although extremely powerful, he goes berserk and attempts to kill any human nearby. He displays no interest in vampires and recognizes no one.

After ingesting three of the standard Japanese Imperial Demon Army supplements, Yu's internal organs rupture, including his heart. However, the power of the angels prevents Yu from dying. Asuramaru advises him that angels can be far nastier than demons. After this event, Yu loses more of his humanity and is implied to become proportionally more seraph in the process.

During the battle at the airport in Nagoya, Yu becomes desperate after Guren becomes possessed and Mirai transforms into the fifth trumpet to purge humanity. After fainting mid-sentence from his severe injuries Guren gives him, Yu take the trumpet within his mind and disregards Asuramaru's warning that this will erase the remainder of his humanity. Screaming, he becomes surrounded by a pillar of fire upon his transformation, where he sprouts two irregular black wings, and his sclera become dark. He flies freely in this form while cursing the tainted humans and threatening to turn them into "pillars of salt." He easily summons and manipulates vast quantities of salt at will; for example, in the anime he was seen transforming a large volume salt into a spear. After appearing, he attacks the demon Abaddon and disrupts its manifestation.

One Demon Army soldier refers to the second trumpet as the "King of Salt." Once the angel turns his attention to the humans, Asuramaru convinces Yu to become a full demon while Guren encourages the action from below. Horns appear, and Yu uses Asuramaru's blade to stab himself through the chest after he screams about saving his family.

For the past three months, Yu's transformation into a demon gets halted by a drug administered by Ferid Bathory, and it won’t be until later, when Guren trains Yu to control his seraph by making the seraph within Yu go berserk repeatedly. Three days later, When fighting Ky Luc, Yu becomes a seraph again, but now has fangs due to Asuramaru's influence. Following the fight, Yu is seen in his mind kneeling as the drugs make their way out of his system. Commenting on Yu's clawed hand holding the angel's trumpet, Asuramaru revealed it being the result of the drugs needed to keep the seraph under control. He also states that Yu's body is still being taken over by a demon. It is shown he had seraph genes ever since the dark ages of Greece.

3rd Trumpet
No information.

4th Trumpet
No information.

5th Trumpet
On the way to Nagoya, Kureto Hīragi has Mirai Kimizuki injected with drugs to force her to transform. She screams and begs for death until two pairs of white feathered wings sprout from her back.

As the story progresses on, it is revealed that Kureto is planning to control an angel, which no one has ever successfully done before. According to Mahiru (who's possessing Guren at the moment), "blood is needed to control the angel." During the Nagoya Airport experiment, Kureto and Guren/Mahiru use the blood of humans, vampires, and demons to bind her and sacrifice many humans and vampires to control her after using Abaddon to possess her. This appears to be successful, but the 2nd trumpet awakens and destroys Abaddon's manifestation.

Three months later, Mirai is still under Kureto's control as she is used to destroy Sanguinem, and then has her attack Shibuya and aid him with Abaddon in defeating Tenri Hīragi. Mirai then ends up with a single pair of wings after the appearance of Shikama Dōji.

6th Trumpet
The unnamed 6th trumpet is introduced imprisoned inside a magical barrier within the underground laboratory of Guren's former mansion in Aichi Prefecture. Guren claims that the 6th Trumpet is one of Yu's comrades, and is identified as male.

Like the 5th Trumpet, the 6th Trumpet has two pairs of white feathered wings, and he has the power to summon Horsemen of the Apocalypse, as Guren reveals to Yu and Mika that he has been summoning them onto this world for the past eight years.

When questioned by Yu if he has been crying for all these years, the 6th Trumpet avoids the subject and asks Yu, "Why won't you destroy this world?" in which he concludes that Yu is not fit to be an angel and attempts to kill him so that a new King of Salt shall be born. He summons Horsemen to attack Yu and everyone, before taking the fight to the sky as Yu has gone into his seraph form. In an exchange between Yu and Asuramaru during the fight, it is revealed that the 6th Trumpet has a demon inside of him. Eventually, the 6th Trumpet gets pinned down by Yu for Kimizuki to inject him with a drug that causes him to float into the air for a cross shaped dagger to fly out of his chest. He then plummets to the ground as his wings dissolve before being caught by Kimizuki now appearing as a normal human. This also puts an end to the Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

7th Trumpet
No information

People known to possess the seraph gene

 * Yūichirō Amane (2nd Trumpet, King of Salt, Namanari)
 * Awakens in an incomplete form for a few minutes after taking a special drug created by Guren. Shinoa's embrace returns him to his human form, but he remains in a coma for a week afterward and does not recall the transformation.
 * Asuramaru informs Yu that he is even less human than before after he fatally overdoses on the Demon Army drugs and has his life maintained by the power of angels.
 * Completely awakens as the 2nd trumpet and King of Salt after erasing the rest of his humanity. He becomes a full demon in order to suppress the angel's power.
 * Later, Yu trains under Guren to get the seraph under control by injecting himself with a drug that turns him into it until Yu gets calmed down. Three days later Yu, with Asuramaru's help, is able to control himself as a seraph when fighting Fifth Progenitor Ky Luc.
 * Yu becomes the King of Salt again in order to fight the 6th Trumpet and lasts after injecting the 6th with the drug.
 * Mikaela Shindō (Vampire, inactive)
 * Shihō Kimizuki (Human, inactive)
 * Mirai Kimizuki (5th Trumpet, Angel of Destruction, possessed by Abaddon)
 * During the battle in Nagoya, the Demon Army injects drugs into Mirai that causes her great agony until she sprouts two pairs of white wings.
 * The Demon Army releases her onto the battlefield and then uses the demon Abaddon and their curses to bind and possess her.
 * The 2nd trumpet fully awakens and disrupts Abaddon's manifestation.
 * Three months later, the 5th trumpet aids the Demon Army in attacking Sanguinem.
 * Kureto Hīragi has the seraph attack Shibuya as part of his coup against his father, Tenri Hīragi. Destroys Tenri's lower half with Abaddon.
 * With the appearance of Shikama Dōji, the 5th trumpet is seen with two wings when preparing to attack him with Abaddon only for Shikama to stop it with a simple command.
 * Yoichi Saotome (Human, inactive)
 * Tomoe Saotome (Human, deceased, inactive)