Israfel

Introduced in the second installment of the MERCE Series, Spirare, Israfel is a demi-god created by the goddess Hecate to look after the souls of her followers. Forbidden to take human form, Israfel fluctuates between physical appearances, taking shape as either a massive black wolf, a crow, or a combination thereof. Her primary purpose in the Underworld is to seek out the souls of those that worshiped Hecate in life and either cleanse them of their sins to be reborn or train them as warriors to then be reincarnated as Spirare, depending on their capacity to accept being a vessel for the energy of Spirit. Because of her inability to take human shape, however, the warriors in her charge become Hellhounds, training as animals to hunt and fight as ruthlessly as their canine counterparts in the physical plane. As a result, the Spiare that are created from one of her Hellhounds are gifted with the deeply rooted instincts of a predator. This allows them to not only defend their territory ruthlessly, it also facilitates the urge to create packs and bond with one another for strength and survival.

Twenty-three years before the events of M.E.R.C.E., however, Israfel vanished from the Underworld, taking the Spirit Artifact and the knowledge of where she'd hidden the souls of her warriors with her. As a result, both Hecate and the angels have been on a manhunt for her with the intent of torturing the knowledge out of her if necessary. Only one being in the Underworld knows where she is, the angel Lucifer, who worked alongside her in the Underworld, cleansing the Darkness from restless souls so that they could be balanced and reborn in the physical plane.