Darkness Devil

Overview

Image Gallery

Darkness Devil
Name
Japanese	闇 (やみ) の悪 (あく) 魔 (ま)
Romaji	Yami no Akuma
Biological Information
Species	Devil
Gender	Unknown
Age	Unknown
Birthplace	Hell
Status	Alive
Professional Information
Occupation	Primal Fear Wild Devil Contract Devil
Contracted Humans	Santa Claus
First Appearance
Manga Debut	Chapter 64

The Darkness Devil (闇 (やみ) の悪 (あく) 魔 (ま) , Yami no Akuma^?) is a Devil that bares the title and status of “Primal Fear” and embodies the concept of darkness and to an extent, the unknown.

It serves as the overarching antagonist of the International Assassins arc.

Appearance

The Darkness Devil's body is made up of many emaciated human bodies, with two bodies acting as its legs and four other human bodies acting as its torso, each having a unique face: the one immediately below the neck has no eyes, nose and a vertical mouth, the second head has open eyes and a stitched mouth, the third one has no nose, an open mouth and stitched eyes, and the fourth one has no eyes and a somber expression. Its head is akin to that of a pteranodon with curved horns. The first human body has its arms stretching outwards holding what seems to be a cape of darkness.

Personality

Nothing is currently known about the Darkness Devil's personality, except that it will attack anything it perceives as a threat. Even though it is almost entirely silent, it is shown to be intelligent and capable of reasoning, as a human can make a contract with it. Like other Devils, it displays high animosity towards Chainsaw Man because of the threat he poses.

Plot

International Assassins arc

The Darkness Devil appears shortly after Denji along with several other Devil Hunters and assassins are transported to Hell by the Hell Devil. It emerges out of a door in the sky and immediately attacks, removing all of the group's arms. The Doll Devil, through Tolka, offers the Chainsaw Devil's heart in order to gain the power to kill Makima. The Darkness Devil fulfills its end of the request by feeding a piece of its flesh to Santa Clause on Earth.

With the contract complete, the Darkness Devil picks up Tolka and decapitates him. Kusakabe tries to use the Stone Devil against the Darkness Devil, but is killed with the Stone Devil when the former seizes and destroys it. Beam successfully revives Denji by giving him his blood and pulling his chainsaw cord, but is sliced into pieces by the Darkness Devil.

Quanxi and Tamaoki charge at the Darkness Devil simultaneously and try to kick it but the Darkness Devil swiftly scythes through them both, catching Long, Pingtsi and Power in the aftermath of its attack as well. The Violence Fiend, who has had his mask removed by Kobeni Higashiyama, leaps in from above to try and kick the Darkness Devil but is pierced multiple times. Denji leaps in and unsuccessfully attacks the Devil with a chainsaw arm.

Denji attacks Darkness Devil while enigmatic figures in the darkness are shown.

The Darkness Devil clasps its hands together and Denji's body contorts painfully, disabling him. The Violence Fiend leaps in once more desperately with his severed arm held in his mouth, but the Darkness Devil summons a black blade which pierces the Violence Fiend and completely destroys his body. It then kneels down over Aki Hayakawa and looks at him.

The Darkness Devil looks at the Angel Devil and causes both him and Aki to start bleeding severely. Just as it reaches down to grab Aki, Princi emerges from the ground nearby and unsuccessfully attacks the Darkness Devil, losing several of her limbs in the process. Makima instructs Princi to summon her to Hell and she faces off against the Darkness Devil.

The two of them point at each other; Makima's finger breaks and the Darkness Devil begins to bleed and stoops over. As Makima's arm contorts and breaks, she offers Tolka's body to Hell Devil in return for bringing them back to Earth. The Darkness Devil conjures its black blade once more and pierces Makima with it just as everyone is transported back to the department store.

Abilities

The Darkness Devil is described as a transcendent being — one of the "Primal Fear" Devils that have never experienced death due to being so powerful; embodying such a concept, it can be assumed that the Darkness Devil is almost as old as humanity itself. Indeed, the Darkness Devil's power is such that ordinary Devils and humans will supposedly die the very moment they draw its hostility.

Naturally, it possesses all of the standard Devil abilities such as blood consumption, contract creation, etc. The only contract with the Darkness Devil seen so far was made by Santa Claus: in exchange for delivering the heart of Denji to Hell, Santa Claus gained a small piece of the Darkness Devil's flesh that allowed the assassin to manipulate their body in darkness and amplified their total power vastly.

Physical Abilities

• Immense Speed: The Darkness Devil can travel and attack at high speeds. It was able to appear in the midst of several Devil hunters, including Quanxi, without any of them being able to perceive its movements. By using its multiple arms it could slice through several fighters before they could react, and dodged or otherwise counteracted attacks with ease.
• Immense Strength: The Darkness Devil has shown to be able to lift its targets with great ease and damage them easily by swinging its arms around.

Devil Powers

• Nigh-Absolute Immortality: Devils of Primal Fear status are considered unkillable due to their power, hence why they never undergo reincarnation. The Falling Devil affirmed that, at present, humanity has no means of attack that could kill a Primal Fear.
  • Immense Healing Factor: While in the dark, the Darkness Devil can rapidly regenerate from any injury, easily healing from a powerful attack from Makima.

Darkness Devil summoning the dark blade.

• Darkness Manipulation: As the embodiment of fear of darkness, the Darkness Devil has the ability to manipulate darkness. It can transform into a mass of darkness and envelop the surrounding area in darkness, manifesting the bodies of 11 bisected astronauts as it does so.
  • Blade of Darkness: The Darkness Devil can also conjure a large blade with bells attached to its hilt that can be telekinetically controlled to attack its enemies. Once it makes contact, any being will hemorrhage violently once the bells ring.

• Force Manipulation: The Darkness Devil has been shown to offensively manipulate an unseen force in various ways similar to the Control Devil. With this ability, the Darkness Devil can sever the arms of various humans, fiends and devils, cut them into pieces just by pointing at them or through movements of its many arms, or brutally obliterating their body after uttering an unreadable word. It can also induce violent hemorrhages on those it watches. However, Makima is shown to be stronger in this ability, as she can heavily damage the Darkness Devil only by pointing her finger at it. It seems that the power of this ability can be increased by switching gestures, as the Darkness Devil completely twisted Makima's arm in the second attempt while praying with two of its hands despite the Control Devil trying to block the attack with all five fingers.
  • Regeneration Nullification: Those who are dismembered by the Darkness Devil appear to have their regeneration nullified. The extent of this ability is unclear, as Kobeni and Power were able to return to normal, only one of Aki's arms was reattached, and Angel's arms were permanently lost, with him stating that he is unable to regenerate them and can no longer be a Devil hunter.

• Devil Manifestation: The Darkness Devil appears to be able to forcefully manifest other Devils and kill them instantly. In the case of the Stone Devil, this also resulted in the death of the human they contracted with, Kusakabe.

Weaknesses

• Light: Because Denji was able to overpower and damage a Darkness-empowered Santa Claus by lighting himself on fire (thus producing light and weakening the powers given to her by the Devil), it can be inferred that the Darkness Devil's powers can be counteracted with light. However, as a Primal Devil, it would likely be insufficient to kill them.

Chapter Appearances

International Assassins arc
53. In a Dream	Absent
54. To Go to Enoshima	Absent
55. Let's Go	Absent
56. A Curse and A Fist	Absent
57. Suddenly	Absent
58. Yutaro Kurose	Absent
59. Mess	Absent
60. Quanxi and Fiends' 49-Person Massacre	Absent
61. News Reporter	Absent
62. Super Mess	Absent
63. Trip To Hell	Absent
64. Welcome To Hell	Debut
65. The Darkness Devil	Appears
66. Woof!	Appears
67. The First Devil Hunter	Absent
68. Dark Power	Mentioned
69. Shining Power	Mentioned
70. Pinch	Mentioned

Gun Devil arc
71. Bath	Mentioned
72. All Together	Mentioned
73. Everyday Life No More	Mentioned
74. What the Waves Say	Absent
75. 9,12	Absent
76. Don't Open It	Absent
77. Ring Ring Ring	Absent
78. Snowball Fight	Absent
79. Play Catch	Absent

Control Devil arc
80. A Dog's Feelings	Absent
81. Paw	Absent
82. Always Eat A Hearty Breakfast	Absent
83. Death, Resurrection, Chainsaw	Absent
84. Hero Of Hell	Absent
85. Bloody Good Gut Feeling	Absent
86. Date Chainsaw	Absent
87. Chainsaw Man vs. the Horrifying Weapon Humans	Absent
88. Star Chainsaw	Absent
89. Go Get 'Em, Chainsaw Man	Absent
90. Super Power	Absent
91. Power, Power, Power	Absent
92. Vanilla Sky	Absent
93. You & Crappy Movies	Flashback
94. Chainsaw Man vs. the Weapon Humans	Absent
95. Chainsaw Man vs. Control Devil	Absent
96. This Kind of Taste	Absent
97. I, Love, Chainsaw	Absent

Trivia

• The Darkness Devil's rankings in the Popularity Polls are as follows:
  • The Darkness Devil ranked 27th in the Second Popularity Poll with 1,575 votes.
  • The Darkness Devil ranked 35th in the Third Popularity Poll with 1,889 votes.
• The Darkness Devil derives its power from the fear of the dark, sometimes called nyctophobia, scotophobia (from Greek σκότος: "darkness") or lygophobia (from Greek λυγή: "twilight").
• The astronauts manifested by the Darkness Devil could be a nod to the humans who died in the darkest "realm" of the Darkness Devil: Space. They pray in fear and represent the utter powerlessness of humanity in the infinite dark void of the universe. While frog symbolism is tied to the fear of the unknown and the dangers lurking in the dark. The frog's croak could be a reference to Kek - the Egyptian God of Darkness who had a head of a frog. It's also because frogs are synonymous in the dark, due to croaking most at that time which many considered to be malevolence.
• Despite Santa Claus being accused of killing the people in the battle in Hell, even if she would not care if they were alive or not, it was the Darkness Devil who truly was responsible for their deaths as Santa Claus was only indirectly responsible.