Jay Valentine

General Description
Jay Valentine is a reincarnated angel, and a primary focus in the Black Crown series, originally being a villain, but later going through a redemption arc and joining Black Crown alongside his former enemies.

Appearance
Jay is said to have semi-spiky, lightning yellow hair with electric yellow eyes. Typically, he wears white clothing, along with a heavenly-white robe.

Abilities
As a powerful mage, Jay has a couple of abilities that he can use fairly well.


 * Lightning Magic: Allows Jay to conjure up blue lightning, shooting it from his body or bending it to his will; additionally, he can use it become an intangible bolt of lightning.
 * Lightning Devil-Slaying Magic: Allows Jay to absorb Lightning Magic, and shoot white lightning — originally black in color — from his body; additionally, through Inverse Principle, he can use it to harm devils more effectively
 * Light Magic: Is used by Jay to release a flash of light that can blind his opponents; additionally, it can be used to conjure and shoot light from his body
 * Weapon Summoning

Personality
At first, Jay was extremely close-minded and violent, telling Zane that he would slaughter him and all of his friends, which he did eventually get around to doing — much to his future regret.

During the events of Books 2 and 3, Jay learns that he was brainwashed by the church into believing that all devils were worth nothing and deserved to be killing, no matter what. After realizing that, he assists Black Crown and eventually joins up with them after gaining their acceptance.

After Book 3, Zane notes his true personality as being loud and also very sarcastic.

Background
When he was only seven-years-old, Jay watched as his mother was slaughtered by a devil in cold blood, which is what sparked his hatred for the entire devil race, associating them all with that first devil.

Two years later, another devil came and killed his father, leaving him and his younger sister alone. Three years after that, a third devil came and ate his sister right before him, but leaving him alone.

With his whole family having been killed, Jay was taken in by the church and was bestowed Lightning Devil-Slaying Magic, having been taught that all devils were like the ones he encountered, and were to be killed.

Relationships

 * Zane Euphoria: throughout the first book, before the war, Jay is portrayed as the only person who Zane could actually consider as someone he dislikes. Having declared that he would be the one to slay Zane, Jay made it clear that one day they would fight it out, which ends up happening during the war, when Zane confronts him as being part of the reason Summer was killed. Zane, accompanied by Kristina and Melanie, fight with Jay in an intense battle, which results in their defeat and the death of Melanie, which triggers Zane enough to finish the battle. After having calmed down, Zane stands over Jay's unmoving, but still-conscious, body, telling him not to discriminate an entire race of beings off the actions of a small amount of them. Enraged at his comment, Jay summons the last bit of his power and takes down Zane, moving into mercilessly killing him, but being stopped by Divinos, who suddenly makes his appearance on the battlefield and knocks out Jay.   During the second book, Jay is seen for the first time when he jumps in to defend Mio and Zane from a surprise attack from Dragon Claw, and successfully helping them fight them off. Afterwards, Zane questions Jay on why he helped, to which he gets the response "I felt like I owed it to you." Reminded of the war, Zane lashes out at Jay, but is stopped by Mio, who is confused at the relationship between the two.   Jay explains that after getting beaten by Zane, and made a fool of by Divinos, he went around talking to different angels and getting help on the status of his mental condition. Blinded by the past, Zane refuses to admit that Jay has become a different person, and momentarily activates his Gold Dragon-Slayer Mode, nearly knocking out Jay in one attack.   Amber and the rest of Black Crown attempt to persuade Zane into admitting that Jay has changed, but it isn't until the third book and the mental battle with Afeus that he begins to realize that he person he once considered a mortal enemy truly has become a different person. In a confrontation with Afeus Clover, Zane and Jay preform Fusion through Merge Magic, which combines the two into one entity that makes quick work of the God-Slayer, but not being able to finish him before the link between holding the fusion breaks — Zane was doubting the fusion too much.   At the end of The Path to Tartarus, Zane finally tells Amber that he wouldn't mind Jay becoming apart of Black Crown, which is the very moment that Jay is inaugurated as a member. From that point on, while Zane never truly accepts Jay as a friend, he learns to live with him around and work with him as members of the same guild
 * Amber Lucifer / Black Crown: though he was the person who killed Melanie, Amber eventually accepts his apology after she realizes that he's changed, inviting him to join Black Crown — though that only happens when Zane finally agrees that he's changed.
 * Lagann / Kieron Bernard: As mages of equal power and with similar backstories, Jay and Kieron see each other as rivals, usually getting into arguments over the littlest things; however, at the end of the day, they know how to cooperate and work with each other in a fight

Trivia

 * Jay was originally going to be a one-time villain for Book 1, and was not suppose to have a redemption arc
 * Jay's Lightning Magic was originally yellow in color, but was then changed to being black in Books 1, blue in Books 2 and 3, and white in Books 4 and after
 * As noted by Zane, Jay is excellent at integrating his feet and legs into his fighting style
 * In the second draft, Jay and Kieron didn't have a very special relationship, which was then exchanged for their rivalry
 * Despite being much weaker than Divinos, he is stated to be better at using Lightning Magic than him
 * It wasn't until the wiring of Book 2 that Jay was capable of using Light Magic
 * Jay's redemption arc is inspired by Vegeta, a character from the popular anime franchise Dragon Ball Z
 * The ability to temporarily blind his opponents with a flash of light that comes from the palm of his hands, is a technique inspired by the Solar Flare, which also comes from Dragon Ball Z