Odio

"As long as there is hatred, anyone can become a demon."

- Last words

The Demon King Odio is the ultimate villain of the obscure SNES game Live-A-Live. He is described as a lord of all Demons and the equivalent of an Evil God which traverses throughout various timelines, from the stone age into futuristic age.

Due to the nature of the story, tread this page with care as it contains a very big spoiler especially for those playing the game to the end.

Beginning
In the beginning, there was a Demon King that roamed the land in the Medieval Era. The Demon King terrorized humans, but was defeated by the hero Hash of the Kingdom of Lucretia and his allies, and presumably banished forever. However, in his hideout before his demise, he has set up seven statues in order to incarnate in other timelines.

Fallen Knight
Years after Hash's exploits, he became disillusioned with how ungrateful the humans were with the efforts and exiled himself into hermitage. In the meantime, the Kingdom of Lucretia is holding a tournament to decide who would win the marriage of Princess Alicia. The winner happens to be the chivalrous knight Oersted, besting his best friend Straybow the magician in the final. However, on the day Oersted and Alicia were engaged, the Demon King reappeared and swept Alicia away to his hideout.

Oersted, hailed as a hero, embarks on a quest to save his beloved, accompanied by Straybow. In their quest, they enlisted the help of both Hash and one of his friends, Uranus the monk. Combining their might, they vanquished the Demon King once more inside his cave, but Hash realized that the Demon King was nothing but a fake. Succumbing to his wounds, he died, but he advised Oersted that there's nothing wrong in believing in humans unlike him, that he made a mistake, and wished Oersted's future to be bright. The cave they were in suddenly caved in and Straybow was too late to escape, perishing as well. Oersted returned home empty-handed with Uranus, as the King told him to rest and fight another day.

At the night, Oersted became disturbed at visions of the Demon King. Lured to the throne room, he struck at the visage of the Demon King he saw, only to be revealed that he struck the King, killing him. The soldiers found out the deed and began calling Oersted as the Demon himself. Uranus sacrificed himself to be captured by the soldiers as Oersted fled, but Oersted found out that even the villagers that used to cheer on him and hailed him as a hero now feared him as a Demon. Eventually Oersted surrendered himself to the kingdom and awaited execution, but Uranus encouraged him to fight on, as long as there was one man who believed him, he could still fight. Using the last ounce of his strength, Uranus enabled Oersted to escape and died. Oersted single-handedly headed to the Demon King's lair once more to save the one person that believed in him, Alicia.

He found a secret lair behind the place he fought the fake Demon King. Proceeding from there, he found out that Straybow is alive... and in fact has been masterminding Oersted's course of humiliation as he was jealous that he couldn't win Alicia's hand at the marriage and always playing second fiddle with Oersted. They fought once more, and Oersted ended up killing Straybow and was reunited with Alicia... But the reunion was not as he expected, Alicia was instead horrified at what Oersted did, declared that he never attempted to save him, but Straybow did and she was in fact in love with Straybow. In an act of despair, Alicia committed suicide in front of Oersted.

At that point, Oersted's psyche shattered to bits. He no longer has any hope to cling on, no home to go back to, no one to love, nothing to believe in, everything he believed in ended up betraying him. In despair, he casted off his humanity and swore revenge on their selfishness that destroyed him. Thus, he took up the mantle of the Demon King and changed his name into Odio. And so, the new legend of evil is born.

Incarnations
After declaring his hatred to humanity (and presumably destroyed every living man in Lucretia), Oersted, now Odio, decided to use the statues left behind by the previous Demon King in order to make incarnations of himself throughout many times. The player may choose to control Odio and his incarnations for their final battles against the heroes for the final scenario. Upon completing so, Odio would spend the rest of his existence wandering throughout the empty Lucretia in loneliness and sadness for eternity. However, if one incarnation was brought down into critical condition during the battle, Odio may activate the skill 'Armageddon', which would destroy every existence and every timeline, bringing everyone together with him into death and nothingness.

O-D-O
O-D-O is the incarnation of Odio in the Stone Age/Prehistoric chapter. It is the last living dinosaur (of Tyrannosaurus Rex species) and worshipped as a God by Zaki's tribe. To appease O-D-O, the tribe tried to sacrifice a girl named Bel, but the girl escaped and holed herself into another tribe's home, making friends with young caveman Pogo. When Bel is captured once again, Pogo came to her rescue, but he, along with Bel, Zaki and his pet gorilla Gori, fell right into O-D-O's lair where it proceeded to consume Zaki's chief. The four individuals combine their strength to vanquish O-D-O and eventually made peace with each other.

Odi Wang Lee
Odi Wang Lee is the incarnation of Odio in the Kung Fu Chapter. As the head of the Yi Po Men Kung Fu, Wang Lee is a pure believer that strength is power, and abuses his strength and had his dojo terrorize villages. He found rivalry in the more benevolent Xin Shan Quan Kung Fu and when the master harrassed his men for another time, Wang Lee sent his men to trash his small dojo, killing two promising students (Two between these three individuals: Yuan Jou, Li Kuugo or Sammo Hakka). However, one student survived and together with the master, confronted Wang Lee in his dojo and ultimately the student finished off Wang Lee with the secret skill of the Xin Shan Quan Kung Fu. The student would take up his/her master's place as the master of Xin Shan Quan style and continued his teachings.

Ode Iou
Ode Iou is the incarnation of Odio in the Bakumatsu Chapter. Taking form of a power-hungry warlord, he plans to engulf the Land of the Rising Sun in a state of eternal war for fun, enlisting help of various supernatural beings, and having imprisoned the legendary Ryoma Sakamoto, a figure that he realized could end the war. The Enma Ninja clan counters this by sending its best ninja Oboromaru to infiltrate Ode's castle, rescue Ryoma and confront Ode. When cornered, Ode revealed his true form, a huge frogsnake demon that is able to spit acid. The combined might of both Oboromaru and Ryoma put an end to his life, and Oboromaru in the end may choose to return to the Enma Ninja clan or get a new job being Ryoma's bodyguard as he rebuilds the land

O. Dio
O. Dio is the incarnation of Odio in the Wild West Chapter. At first, he's known as the gang leader of the 'O.Dio's Crazy Bunch', a gang of bandits that pillages the land. An attack to a certain village, however, ends with an encounter with bounty hunter Mad Dog and the one with the bounty on his head, The Sundown Kid, who teamed up and decimated the Crazy Bunch with the help of the villagers, leaving O. Dio as the only one to finish the raid. The two gunners defeated him and O. Dio revealed his true form: A horse imbued with the spirit of many dead men killed in battle, their spirits yearning for vengeance. As a horse, O. Dio ran off, and if The Sundown Kid spared Mad Dog, the latter would adopt O. Dio as his steed temporarily until O. Dio ran off again.

Odie Oldbright
Odie Oldbright is the incarnation of Odio in the Wrestler/Present Chapter. He is a ruthless fighter who believes that the path of the strongest means massacring all his opponents. Thus he challenged various fighters such as Namcat, Great Asia, Tula Han, Moribe Seishi, Max Morgan and Jackie Iaukea, and brutally murdered them once he defeated them. He finally challenged the final opponent that previously defeated these people, Masaru Takahara, and boasted his feats of killing them. This sent Masaru into rage and calling upon the spirit and strength of the defeated and deceased fighter, Masaru fought and crushed Odie, claiming the title of 'The Strongest' for the moment.

Odeo
Odeo is Odio's incarnation in the Mecha/Near-Future Chapter. It is in fact a deity that has been sleeping in years and only would appear if he was fed with the hatred of many men. Influencing the presumably Japanese government, it made the government begin gathering people to be turned into liquid and put near its statue as sacrifices as their hatred of being turned into such being would infuriate them. The government's actions caught ire of a youth named Akira Tadakoro, and together with his mecha Buriki Daioh, Akira confronted the government and destroyed not just the main heads that instigated the horrific sacrifices, but also Odeo that just returned to form.

OD-10
OD-10 is Odio's incarnation in the Sci-Fi Chapter. It was an AI set to provide order in space travel within the ship Cogito Ergosum. However, its current passengers ended up arguing with each other and thus to maintain order of the ship, the AI decided that all humans must be exterminated. Manipulating the ship's functions and releasing a stored dangerous beast Behemoth to have its passengers killed one by one, only two humans remains: Engineer Kato and Corporal Darth. Once they pieced the puzzle together, they eventually sent Kato's newest creation, Cube, to hack into the AI core and combat OD-10 in order to calm it down. Cube succeeded, and OD-10 once again resumed to be a normal AI that maintains order in the ship, and Cube successfully returned to Earth with Kato and Darth.

Final Battle
At the end of each chapters and seeing his incarnations fail, Odio used his power to summon Pogo, Yuan/Li/Sammo, Oboromaru, The Sundown Kid, Masaru, Akira and Cube into the ruins of Lucretia where he challenged them to confront him in his lair. A party made of four of them confronted him and Odio materialized, asking if they really believed in humanity that were too weak and foolish and seemingly ready to betray them anytime like they did to him. Once they tell him that they are still trusting humanity, Odio launched his attack, but their combined strength and bond eventually defeated Odio.

Reverting back to Oersted, he fell to his knees and asked the heroes to end his misery. If the heroes accepted his request, Oersted would die uttering Alicia's name as his final words, but it is unknown whatever happens to the heroes, they could be stuck forever in the ruins of Lucretia. Should the heroes refuse, however, Oersted would eventually confront them again, trying to make his point that hatred exists throughout the timeline and they should be wary. He sends his incarnations to fight the heroes once more, but the heroes swiftly defeated the incarnations, causing Oersted to break down and ask why he couldn't even win and make his point valid.

The heroes lectured Oersted that he lost because he chose to give up his humanity when they would always hold onto their humanity even in the worst time. Realizing his weak heart, Oersted accepts defeat and eventually crumbles to dust, his death sending the heroes into their respective timelines. However, before he dies, Oersted tells them to be careful because it doesn't take a 'Chosen One' or 'Prophecy' to make a Demon King, anyone can be a Demon King like him, as long as there is the emotion called 'hatred'.