Ezel

Ezel (エゼル Ezeru) was an Etherious of the Dark Guild Tartaros and a member of the Nine Demon Gates.

Appearance
Both the tallest and the largest member of the Nine Demon Gates, Ezel is a muscular Etherious with pale blue skin noted for his many demonic features, the most evident ones being his limbs: he possesses no less than four arms, with the additional pair, complete with shoulders, being located in correspondence to his toned abdominals, and his lower body consists of six massive, segmented tentacles, colored the same as the rest of his body, becoming smaller near the tips. A number of spiky protrusions is located both on his upper shoulders and where his hair and ears are supposed to be, replacing them completely; three smaller, less defined and rounded protrusions sit horizontally at each side of his angular face, which, save from his sharp, pointed chin, is rather undistinguished from his massive neck. His yellowish eyes are outlined, he lacks eyebrows, and his mouth is full of sharp, triangular fang-like teeth. In stark contrast to his skin tone, Ezel sports a number of crimson-colored tattoos on his upper body: he has two dark stripes running down each side of his torso, with the inner one outlining a series of rhombuses, and the outer one horizontal triangles pointing sideways, flanked by yet another line of colored triangles positioned the same; these stripes go down to yet another tattoo, occupying the lower part of his abdomen, sporting a rounded pyramid shape, which is colored in the bottom part, and is topped by lines containing yet another row of triangles, this time pointing upwards, with smaller, less numerous versions of the same shape being located on the sides. Ezel's four arms sport tattoos as well, each having its bicep circled by a thick stripe containing triangles pointed downwards, with an additional, thin line being located below the shoulder. The Etherious bears his guild's mark too, sitting on the outer part of his lower right forearm.

Ezel wears little to no clothing, the only visible garment on him being a torn grey cloth hanging over the upper section of his tentacles, secured around his waist by a thick light brown section. He does, however, don a massive, light grey chain, crossing his chest diagonally and going up his left shoulder; this is linked on both sides to a large medallion with a dark central section, located in correspondence to Ezel's uppermost left abdominal.

Much like his fellow Etherious, Ezel has access to a second, transformed form, which he can enter at his wish. While in such state, his outfit seems to be the one subjected to the most notable changes: the top part of his previously exposed torso becomes covered by a dark garment, sporting light edges and a series of wing-shaped protrusions pointing upwards at his head's sides and on the right part of his back, with his ornamental chain going above it; he also gains added layers of cloth around his waist, worn over his torn garment, with a central dark section, topped by a light one going up the sides of Ezel's torso, which has four light, rectangular clothes hanging from it over the Etherious' tentacles. Ezel also sports a kabuto, a Japanese helmet, with a dark hachi (the dome-like top section) adorned by a light, curved front crest with blade-like arms, complete with a shikoro (a lighter, wide segmented neck guard) and a dark, rounded hanbō (chin guard); there is also wavy light hair (or decorative plumage) appearing from below it on the Etherious' nape. In addition, he dons a dark mask, covering the top part of his face, yet again reminiscent of halved Japanese facial armor, with light jagged sections circling his eyes. The only physical traits which seemingly change during the transformation are Ezel's teeth, which become larger and sharper, and, most notably, his arms: all four of them are now replaced from the elbow down by actual blades, extending his upper limbs' effective length considerably; these have dark central sections flanked by light edges, each jutting outwards in two spiked protrusions close to the elbows, and sharp tips.

Personality
Ezel is loud and vulgar, showing little respect for anybody else, including members of his own guild such as Kyôka. Unlike Torafuzar, who believes Demons to possess dignity and insists for them to uphold it, he thinks the only thing an Etherious should be interested in is massacring humans, showing great disdain for them, as well as great cruelty. Most notable is his habit of treating others like mere food, commenting that someone as small as Wendy won't sate his appetite, and unhesitatingly attempting to eat Carla when the Exceed tried to save her friend. He relishes battle, sneering as Wendy bombarded him with spells to no effect and as he was delivering attacks of his own, and showing greater enjoyment after she struck him in her Dragon Force mode, having become a more worthy opponent. He is also extremely short tempered when things don't go his way.

Tartaros arc
Ezel gathers with his fellow Nine Demon Gates members at the Tartaros headquarters under their Guild Master's request. As they convene, the group is joined by Kyôka and Silver, both of whom were off on "special missions". Hearing that two of their other members, Jackal and Tempester, are also out, the group move to put their plans against the Magic World into action.

After hearing about Jackal's successful mission involving the destruction of the entire Magic Council, Ezel listens as some of the other Nine Demon Gates members argue over their lack of participation in the plan so far and shouts out that, as a Demon, he has no dignity and that he wants to go massacre humans. During Fairy Tail's assault on Tartaros' HQ, The Magic Pulse Bomb Face was activated by Ezel, earning praise from Franmalth for his swift efforts. Later, as Wendy Marvell arrives to the location of Face in order to stop the weapon from activating, Ezel, unbeknownst to the Dragon Slayer, uses his tentacles to sneak up on her from behind.

Disappointed with his target, Ezel curses Kyôka for assigning him such a task, angry that Wendy will not satiate him. Jumping down at the young girl from the ceiling, Ezel attacks her and as he sees her cast spells on herself, asks if she is an enchanter. Despite her enchantments, Ezel easily withstands her Sky Dragon's Roar and blocks her next attempt. Activating a move of his own, Ezel easily blows the young girl away and goes on the offensive, knocking her around with ease. Pinning her to the ground, Ezel gestures her to look Face as it readies to activate, explaining that it will release Magic-damaging particles known as Ethernano to eliminate Magic around the continent, thus allowing Tartaros' Curses to reign supreme as all Mages are rendered powerless. As he threatens to kill Wendy immediately, Ezel is then jumped by Carla, who attempts to fight him off. Agitated, Ezel grabs the Exceed and proceeds to eat her but before he is able to do so, is blown to the roof of the cave much to his shock as it is revealed that Wendy mixed the air and the Ethernano near Face, thus enabling her to enter Dragon Force.

Shocked to see Wendy enter Dragon Force, Ezel is quickly assaulted with a number of swift blows from the Dragon Slayer, who uses her newly increased speed to her advantage. Being struck upwards into the cave ceiling, Ezel quickly recovers and launches himself at Wendy, but is caught up in a flurry of wind as Wendy casts Shattering Light: Sky Drill. Hurriedly switching into his Slash Attack Mode, Ezel manages to cut his way out of the spell and just avoid receiving any damage, though a persistent Wendy continues to force him back, creating thick streams of air currents that she continuously wraps around Ezel's body. Trying and failing to cut through once more, Ezel is sent flying backwards into Face, smashing through the device and landing unconscious under its fallen form. As he lays unconscious amongst the rubble, Ezel is unable to escape the explosive destruction of Face and is caught in its mighty blast.

Later, Ezel's body begins to reform within Hell's Core. Enraged by his own defeat at the hands of Wendy, he demands that Seilah should revive him. Unable to help him due to her battle with Mirajane Strauss, Ezel's rebirth is stopped when the nearby Fairy Tail Mage destroys the lab.

Curses and Abilities
Tenga Goken (天下五剣 Tenga Goken): Ezel's Curse, according to his own words, involves the use of "demonic swords which can cut through anything". This ability of his, however, isn't manifested through physical weapons: instead, the Etherious harnesses it by giving all of his four upper limbs the properties of blades, allowing him to slice through things by merely swiping his arms. The cutting power Tenga Goken grants Ezel, supporting his words, is tremendous, letting him cut cleanly through objects which are meters away from his limbs' physical reach by generating flying energy slashes of both immense length and width, which are powerful enough to easily bisect buildings and generate huge linear craters in rock; he was even shown capable of slicing through Wendy Marvell's Shattering Light: Sky Drill, one of her most powerful spells, while the latter was in Dragon Force.
 * Onimaru (鬼丸 Onimaru): Ezel gathers all four arms in front of his chest, with their palms open, before swinging them outwards in a cross-like motion, generating an enormous "x"-shaped slash, whose arms get larger as they get farther from its rather undefined, large center, which is aimed at the spell's target. The sheer width of this attack causes it to severely damage the surrounding area, be it effective in striking the victim or not (the latter being the case when Ezel employed it against Wendy, who dodged it by a close margin). The technique is powerful enough to cleanly slice through the stone wall of a cave (in stark contrast to its rather undefined borders, which make it resemble a burst attack rather than a cutting one), leaving a deep, cross-shaped mark in it.


 * Juzumaru (数珠丸 Juzumaru): This technique greatly resembles Onimaru in both execution, with Ezel swinging all of his upper limbs forward at the same time, and effects, consisting in a "x"-shaped slash which can easily slice through rock. The generated cut, however, is notably much more defined, taking the form of a cross with a clean center and linear arms which, this time, are bigger the closer they are to it. Ezel performed it after knocking Wendy into a wall, making sure the technique would land. Juzumaru sent the young Dragon Slayer flying away into a burst of debris, leaving her injured and exhausted, but strangely enough not cut (possibly due to the defensive spells the girl had previously cast on herself, despite her remarking on their relative uselessness moments before the attack).


 * Mikazuki (三日月 Mikazuki): Ezel rapidly swings his four arms around individually, targeting different directions, to generate a number of crescent-shaped slashes, travelling away from him to slice everything they come into contact with in the surrounding area. As damaging as this technique is, it can also be employed as an effective defence, being shown capable of slicing through Magical attacks, and thus preventing them from coming into contact with the Etherious; indeed, its great power was shown when Ezel used it to negate Sky Drill, quite possibly Wendy's most powerful offensive spell, while the Dragon Slayer had Dragon Force mode active, using the multitude of slashes it produced to tear apart the massive whirlwind and sending the opponent crashing back at the same time.

Demon Physiognomy: Among his guildmates, Ezel appears to be the one sporting the most demonic characteristics, as well as one of those making the most out of them.
 * Tentacles: The lower appendages of Ezel's body act as a set of additional, fully functional limbs, granting him a grand total of ten. The Etherious is sometimes shown maneuvering around on all such limbs, using both his arms and tentacles to move faster. Thanks to their considerable physical might, he can employ the latter ones in battle as well, inflicting great blunt damage upon foes (quite possibly in tandem with his arms-based Curse), as well as to immobilize his victims, holding them still while retaining the use of several limbs himself. In addition, Ezel was shown remaining suspended upside down from the ceiling by having his tentacles adhere to it, without the seeming need to directly grab onto something, hinting at adhesive properties.

Slash Attack Mode (斬撃モード Zangeki Mōdo): Instead of an Etherious Form, Ezel instead employs this form, which he dubs Slash Attack Mode, to increase his already explosive power.
 * Enhanced Tenga Goken: Ezel described this form as increasing the sharpness of his Curse's blades to the point where there is nothing he can't cut. Indeed, while employing actual swords as appendages, the Etherious was shown capable of completely bisecting the gusts of wind generated by Wendy, claiming them to be useless before him. It was only by continuously surrounding the Etherious with new gusts, generating them faster than he could slice them up, that the Dragon Slayer was able to defeat Ezel.

Enhanced Strength: The largest member of the Nine Demon Gates, Ezel possesses a remarkable amount of brutish strength, supported by his numerous limbs. He generated a large burst upon contacting the ground by jumping off the cave's ceiling to assault Wendy, and was subsequently shown generating smaller ones by repeatedly slamming down his limbs, cracking the rock floor in the process; the flick of one of his lower tentacles was enough to send Wendy flying meters away, crashing into the cave's wall, and his pinning her hands and feet down with four of them caused the ground to shatter.

Immense Durability: Ezel is immensely durable, withstanding Wendy's Sky Dragon's Roar and Sky Dragon's Claw, both performed at close range and enhanced by her Ile Arms, with no sign of physical injury whatsoever, acting as if he hadn't been struck in the first place. Even the first Dragon Force-enhanced attacks which struck left him with nothing more than scratches, instead boosting his battle-thirst.

Flight: During his battle with Wendy, Ezel was shown remaining suspended in the air for an extended amount of time, hovering in it while confronting the Dragon Force-empowered Dragon Slayer both in his normal and in his Slash Attack Mode form.

Quotes

 * (In response to Torafuzar reprimanding Franmalth for lack of dignity) "As if Demons have things like dignity! Let me go next, Kyôka! Let's hurry up and massacre the humans already!"
 * (To himself, in regards to Carla) "What an annoying cat. I wonder if it's edible."
 * (To himself, in regards to Wendy Marvell) "The hell is this? She's basically a midget. You've got to be fucking kidding me, Kyôka. She won't even be enough to whet my appetite... How dare she dump the toilet duty shit on me?!"

Battles & Events

 * Wendy Marvell & Carla vs. Ezel

Trivia

 * Ezel's title, Dôjigiri, refers to the Japanese sword of the same name: Dôjigiri Yasutsuna; which was used in legend to kill the oni leader Shuten-Dôji on the summit of Mt. Ōe. To this day, the sword remains a Japanese national treasure.