Mission of the Iron Phoenix Monks:The Iron Phoenix Brotherhood is a secretive organization that, while helping the Catholic church in some of its--shall we say--less diplomatic administrations (i.e. the crusades), has maintained prime directive, which exceeds evangelization: the tailoring of ace warriors for Lord Death. Constantine, Alexander The Great, The Lionheart Richard, and such figures are rumored to be graduates of this program. These, however, are not Phoenix. Once in a generation, there is a warrior prodigy that is taken in shortly after birth, their family sworn to secrecy, and processed into a combatant of monstrous skill, the type which are reserved for Gods and legends of the great myths of the world.
The training lasts for 15 years, and at the end of it the Phoenix is sent out into the wilderness to meditate and consolidate with nature. In his meditation, the Phoenix will search the world to find the soul of Lord Death. Once he finds it, he will approach Death and begin the final part of his training: to serve the Death God and by doing so achieve total enlightenment, and untold power. Illo is the 25th generation Phoenix, and, if his mission is successful, will become the Iron Phoenix: unstoppable force and immovable object.
The only catch here is that this has never been accomplished. The Brotherhood tells no new Phoenix that all the past attempts fail. The ones who have been commissioned in past generations mysteriously vanished. The order maintains that they simply achieve full enlightenment and disperse into the grand background energy of the universe, and that this is the true power that a Phoenix should strive for; to become all. The monks also instil a paradox into the mission. They teach the trainee that death is an illusion, and then commence them to serve Death.
Where to find Illo: Illo is a nomadic person at his core, and as such can be found anywhere at random. Normally he will take long meditations on the tops of roofs or in a quiet alleyway somewhere, but will also be found sweeping the halls of the DWMA. He does this to look as inconspicuous as possible, posing as a janitor in order to keep watch over the school. Illo prefers to let his modest appearance remain his camouflage. This, coupled with the fact that his soul wavelength at rest is that of a normal human’s, makes it all but impossible to pick him out of a crowd. He rarely visits the same place twice. After all, why go to the same local shops everyday when you could warp to the other side of the planet for lunch?
Interacting with the monk: A first conversation with Illo can be confusing, as he often speaks in dualisms. Don’t worry though, Illo is harmless, and can be bought off with a simple nod and smile. His demeanor is of a man on the verge of enlightenment, bringing a calming aura into almost any situation. He is more than happy to help, and this more often than not gets him into quite a bit of trouble. There is a certain pride that Illo carries with him into situations like this, and, more importantly, fights that can be seen as carelessness, or overconfidence. But this is merely the assurance that he gets from his ability, and the trust in strangers that a diligent monk should have.
After the third eye is opened Illo becomes a little… Brash.
Abilities:Combatives: Normal form: In his normal state, Illo is a marital arts expert, specializing in many forms, from Cavat to Tai Chi, and is certainly able to hold his own with pretty much anyone. The only defect here is that he is of mortal limitations in this state, and can do little more than defend against an opponent possessing magic, or supernatural abilities.
For the most part, Illo has trained in the way a Shaolin monk would. This means toughening every inch of his body to deal with every situation, and every impact, possible in a fight. Through rigorous training, Illo has strengthened the structure of his head, vertebral column, various joints, and knuckles. In addition to this, Illo is able to fortify the areas of the body not able to be strengthened through conventional training through the art of Chi Kung. The reason I'm not having this be a separate ability is because Chi Kung is a branch of Shaolin Kung-Fu, and therefor belongs in the combatives section.
To put the powers of Chi Kung into perspective, a regular human has been able to use this technique to strengthen his larynx, an are with no muscles to speak of and completely vulnerable, to a level strong enough to press it against a spear (sharpened) with over 500 lbs of forces. The spear should have only needed 6 lbs to tear through the larynx. That was a normal human, not one blessed with a tremendous soul. Imagine what the monk is capable of when he applies this technique to his freakishly strong chi.
Another pinnacle of Illo's martial arts prowess is the mastering of something called the elusive lead. Illo's moves are incredibly hard to read, and he often uses this to take his momentum from his opponent or more likely dominate the fight from the beginning. Coupled with his extensive knowledge base, Illo has plenty of forms to choose from to keep his opponent guessing. If you are fighting Illo, you are probably going to stay on the defensive, hand to hand that is.
From the elusive lead, Illo has developed his own variation of the technique that he calls the "illusory lead." This is not a new ability, but rather an explanation of Illo's style when using his martial arts in this way. Basically, Illo makes full use of his Phoenix abilities in combination with elusive lead tactics. An example: suppose Illo is coming at you with straight jabs thrown at random intervals and teleports to different angles, say behind and to an unguarded side with little to no warning, that is what Illo's illusory lead looks like. It is possible to dodge or block it, but Illo's offensive becomes so oppressive in this style of fighting that the opponent would have virtually no chance of doing much else. And since Illo fancies a challenge, this would make the fight a little boring for him.
There are other ways to use the illusory lead than just coupling the elusive lead with teleportation. Suppose Illo used his spatial conversion ability. The spatial conversion would allow Illo to essentially create sink-holes in the layout of space around his opponent. Suppose now that Illo was throwing those same jabs at a person's head. If they were able to dodge the normal trajectory of the punches, then it would be a simply matter to have a "sink-hole" set up along the way, which, once passed through by Illo;s fist. Basically, that fists path would be distorted and would no longer land where it "looks" like it's going to.
The last pinnacle of Illo's martial arts is a concept called the intercepting fist. Here the idea is to use offense and defense as one. Illo has become masterful at reading an opponent's moves. Knowing the move the opponent is about to make, Illo assesses and intercepts the move with a move this is either longer in range, faster, or more likely both at once. This is a technique that allows Illo to strike a foe when their defense is down and when they are most vulnerable, when they are attacking.
This video should explain what I mean.Illo has extensive training in the area of
Wing Chun, specifically Chi Sao, and likes to use this form at closer ranges (punch and grapple range). If Illo is given the opportunity to get into Wing Chun range, he will more than likely shut down his opponent with unprecedented speed and efficiency.
The standard
Wing Chun punch is nothing to be trifled with, and is certainly more than just fast. It is also one of the more powerful ways to deliver a punch, or more importantly punches, around. The rapid succession and structure of the punch make it less of a punch and more like a jackhammer. An opponent's defenses can only hold out for so long when faced with such an onslaught, and since the punches come so quickly that breaking point is reached in a very short amount of time.
A product of the hardening of Illo's knuckles is the advent of a punching technique considered by many to be the strongest punch as far as raw destructive power is concerned. I speak, of course, of the
Hakuta Punch. No special abilities other than martial arts.
Phoenix mode: This is characterized by the third eye (blending religious beliefs here, folks) that begins to glow after a chant from Illo. It gives him most of his abilities, and power to fight most enemies one would find in soul eater universe. It starts at 1% output, and goes to 80%. The catch here is that once this is activated his power keeps increasing until Illo is no longer able to control it and bursts out, causing mass destruction.
Pulse: Also referred to as "fortification," it is derived from the Chi Kung practice in Shaolin Kung-Fu. Illo can manipulate the "chi" around him, but a more Soul Eater-esque way to describe this is to say that Illo has a mastery over self resonance.
Iron Phoenix mode: Every so often, and more frequent in the higher reaches of his power frequency, Illo enters a state of unbridled fury, his energy flooding the battlefield. This is almost juggernaut, and does not happen often, and cannot be sustained for very long. It gives him new ways to use his branches of psychic power, depending on the circumstances. Like, a larger than normal blast, or a series of illusions to take the brunt of a spray of bullets, etcetera. This is not an excuse to give unlimited new abilities to Illo, but rather a power augmentor. Sometimes this effect ends up harming Illo. For instance, tries to shoot blast, and energy blows up in his hand or in front of his third eye, like a gun backfiring. Or, tries to teleport, and ends up upside down. Sometimes he is paralyzed by an illusion (a giant hand may appear to seize Illo, or something) and cannot make a move, although he thinks he is in action. (This could be a type of madness, but that is not delineated yet. The third eye could also make him a type of kishin or genie. Also not confirmed.) Either way, facing Illo in this mode is sure to be interesting.
Another downside to this is that when Illo commits to this stage of power he must recharge for six hours after shutting down before the third eye can be opened again. It’s all or nothing.
Increased illusions and hyperbolic increases in his other abilities do not constitute new abilities. This is just pumping up Illo's abilities to their most extreme levels. A balance-breaker, if you will.
ALL ABILITIES ARE NOW FEATS OF STRENGTH TO MAKE THIS CHARACTER FAIR! (thank you for your cooperation)
Here are some branches of psychic ability in what I believe to be their most strict sense; these are where all abilities of Illo's come from that aren't martial arts.
Telekinesis: Manipulation of matter around one, and exertion of physical force from the mind. Appears to be a feat of strength, but clearly cannot be. Is basically impossible to block against, because it ignores simple newtonion laws that should allow an opponent to break free. So, in this case Illo’s Telekinetic ability, from levitation to a darth vader style choke hold, are now feats of strength. This means that they can be blocked by an opponent with a strong will, but also that Illo can ramp up the attack with his own. Like turning simple levitation into supersonic flight by pumping more energy into it.
Here are some things Illo can do with this ability:
fire blast akin to a "force push", ranging in strength. Or a sustained wavelength vibration can be used to disturb an opponent's equilibrium, or vibrate a door open; very versatile. Remember, this is the manipulation of matter... The possibilities are quite extensive. Obviously, there is the caveat that Illo can only do some of the more head-bending tricks with this at higher levels of power, say 40% and up, so please bare that in mind as well.
Temporal Conversion: This gets a little meta… A mystic or psychic is rumored to be able to collapse the space around him, and since time is derived from space it shouldn't be too unreasonable to think one could dispel or otherwise edit facets and "illusions" of time as well. This could include editing the differences of time between him and very distant objects (here to andromeda), different dimensions, or isolating locations in space and converting them to different slots in time. To make this not only feasible but fair, this too will become strength based. This is why a teleport takes the same time no matter how far it is.
Spacial Conversion: The mystic Yogi is rumored to be able to collapse the illusion of space between objects. This includes himself, which is how I derive teleportation. He could also appear to manifest objects by collapsing the space between himself and his targeted object. This is where many of his illusions become more than illusion(allow me to explain). If I take some of the space out of a corridor, a person may keep on running thinking, “Oh well, it’s just an illusion. The real hallway must be longer than this.” Blamo. runs into a wall.
Telepathy: Probably the most commonly mentioned ability of a psychic. It is the ability to tap into the conscious, or subconscious, of another living thing. I can read your mind(be worried), and by logic you can read mine. I have the advantage, because I know what’s going on, and can, in theory, imprint thoughts, ideas, or scenes (illusions) into your brain space. Since this is now strength based, logic would dictate that an adversary with a stronger will would be able to reverse this process. They could put Illo in an illusory predicament!
Perception is reality: This is the justification I will use to make all these things possible. After all, Illo can only edit the facets of space-time by perceiving them to be something different form what normal people would relate as a constant layout of reality, so it makes sense to say that something about Illo's perceptive abilities are inherently different from the conventional ones; Illo can perceive a change in reality so hard that the change becomes, in essence, real. This is the basis for any esper ability that Illo uses as it is the vehicle by which the perceptions of Illo are made tangible. What that means for the people fighting him is that Illo's illusions are tangible to the body but can be overridden by the mind.
I will never use more than one of these branches at a time in Phoenix Mode.(If you want to challenge a category in a post, I will be more than happy to form a friendly debate about it in a PM.) I will rarely use more than one in Iron Phoenix Mode, and will never use all these branches in a fight… That wouldn’t be any fun.
Hopefully that worked... If it did, excuse my terrible drawing. If not, big ol' poopie! 
