Archdevil Arms

Overview
'''Archdevil Arms are the evolved forms regular Devil Arms take. They are vastly superior to their original forms, and command powers that make them go toe to toe with the most powerful of DPUs, which are beings whose full powers are capable of either transforming or outright levelling Planets. They have been lost to the annuls of history until Nico evolves some of his Devil Arms into these forms during the end of the Leanbox Arc, something that garners him begrudging respect from the antagonist, Mundus.

Origins
The Origins of the Archdevil Arms are based around the DPU era, back when the war between Sparda and Mundus, the two strongest DPUs of their time, was being waged. A Devil Arm wielding human fought in single combat against a powerful Demon Prince after his whole military regiment was wiped out by the Demon Prince’s armies. Enraged, this human took up their Devil Arm and fought the Demon Prince, emerging as a stalemate between them.

The malice, desire for vengeance, combined with every negative emotion that the human had poured into the Devil Arm during that battle caused it to mutate drastically, changing it’s form and caused it to overwhelm the human with it’s power. It ended up taking over his soul and turning him into a demon that was the reincarnation of what the Devil Arm had once been as a Demon itself. However, because of its wielder’s past emotions, it had been strengthened to a new degree compared too it’s previous form, making this power it had enough for it to devour the Demon Prince’s soul to permanently stop it from reviving ever again.

While the former human’s vengeance was served, the human lost all semblance of humanity and began rampaging across the lands, tearing apart both demon and human alike with the new powers gained from it’s rebirth, devouring their souls and adding them to it’s swelling powers. That is, until a group of 5 DPUs teamed up to take it down.

Relationships and feeding habits
The Archdevil Arms are a powerful force, capable of destroying planets with their powers if the user so desired it. However, they work in a similar manner to their original forms. They have similar feeding habits, and if the user does not have an immortal soul, or a powerful enough will to resist the change and re-subdue the Archdevil Arm then they are transformed into demonic beings that can handle their power. These beings hunger for souls, either monster, human, demon, Goddess or Demon God there is no difference. These creatures are considerably more of a threat than Abnormals, Biko notes, and lose all traces of their humanity.

Like Devil Arms, the Archdevil Arms feed off their hosts energies, but unlike their counterparts these weapons don’t have to worry about incompatible energy types. This is because they will already have had a preferred energy source to feed on prior to their transformations. After Their transformations, they will feed on their users energies to stay alive, however the difference is that one they feast on energy, that energy is immensely intensified into a violent, chaotic energy that the Archdevil Arm commands. It is considerably harder to command for the wielder, it is like trying to make a super storm work the way one wants it to which is nigh impossible without the powers of prediction. The violent energies of a Devil Arm cannot even compare.

Conditions for awakening
Awakening an Archdevil Arm is a…. complex procedure. The wielder has to pump into it excessive amounts of power, which starts the beginning of the process. The process takes a varied time frame depending on the Devil Arm in question, how much it is used and how much power is pumped into it.

Not only power, but it must have a significant source of negative emotion though whatever emotion is poured in the Archdevil Arm will always radiate two things: Malice, and death. Demons are usually filled with negative emotions, and Devil Arms are no different. Negative emotions influence their power, thus an abundance of it will trigger the mutation.

When the transformation begins, the Archdevil Arm’s power explodes like a thousand nuclear bombs, overwhelming the soul and turning it into that of a Demon. Unless the soul is strong enough and that the soul is immortal, then they will transform into demonic beings that hunger only for souls. The awakening also changes not just the body, but it also changes the mind by influencing their deepest, darkest desires. It is what allows them to transform their wielders into powerful demons that are on par with the Demon Princes and DPUs.

Should the user have either a powerful will to resist the change or an immortal soul, then they gain an Archdevil Arm in all it’s splendour.

There are aftereffects of an awakening however. These effects include a greater hold on the hosts’ souls, as well as stronger fragments of demonic conscience. These effects result in not only increased power, but also increased strain on the user’s soul. Unless the host learns to co-exist with that burden, then they will find using this Archdevil Arm much harder to handle than normal. In addition, they lead to a swell in the user’s energy reserves, and if those wielders have multiple energy reserves then they all have the same effect.

Powers
Once a Devil Arm evolves into this state, they gain unimaginable power. Power that makes the powers of their predecessors look like bugs in comparison. Their destructive power gets skyrocketed, to the point were continents up to entire planets can be effected if used carelessly. Wiping out an entire town or city nom matter how large it would be significantly easy for them, and if they hit the right areas then an entire Planet can combust and explode seconds later, destroying it. This would normally kill the wielder; however, the Archdevil Arms also grant them the ability to breathe in any atmosphere, which allows them to survive even if in space.

Another difference between the Archdevil Arms and their lesser evolved forms is that they can consume souls regardless of their type. Originally, Devil Arms couldn’t do this because they only had fragments of their original conscience. However, an Archdevil Arm has stronger versions of these, allowing them to devour and absorb souls.

Note: Nico’s Soul Edge is an exception to this as it is a part of Nico’s Soul, and not containing just fragments.

In addition, Archdevil Arms can freely manipulate their respective elements, as well as sub elements connected to them. For example, if a Lightning Devil Arm achieved this form, then they could not only manipulate Lightning, but it could do the same with thunder, shockwaves, create lightning constructs that vary in size and power depending on the energy put into them, negate electric attacks on their wielder and freely manipulate any and all forms of electricity. With these abilities, it comes to reason that their reserves swell as well, making an Archdevil Arm VASTLY superior to their counterparts.

When they attain these forms, these Archdevil arms also grant specific ‘boons’ of a demonic nature that activate the moment that they are drawn. For example, if a Devil Arm that specialises in sword skills is drawn, it could grant a boon that enhances the potency of sword techniques, and as Archdevil Arms consume more souls, they gain additional boons to install upon their wielder. These powers make them insanely powerful, dangerous and desirable.

Lastly, with this transformation, they gain new appearances as well, appearances befitting of their new status.