Lay Grandsley

"Before my end, I want to show you the beauty of mankind: the peace that you desired."

- Lay to Anos Voldigoad in "Hero of Legend"

Lay Grandsley (レイ・グランズドリィ) is a member of the Cohort of Chaos, commonly known as Demon Swordmaster (錬魔の剣聖) and a transfer student at the Demon King Academy. He is the reincarnation of the Hero Kanon, who assumed the identity of the fictional Demon King Avos Dilhevia with the intention of dying in order to appease humanity's hatred towards demons.

Appearance
Lay is a young man with shoulder-length white hair and blue eyes. Lay wears a long-coat version of the Demon King Academy uniform, as his uniform consists of black and red tones like most uniforms for pureblood students. His attire consists of his uniform (which has a black belt surrounding it, as well as his badge on his left shoulder), black pants, and shoes.

Personality
Lay is a mellow, friendly, and easy-going person. Despite being a powerful pureblood demon prodigy known as the "Demon Swordmaster", he is shown to lack the arrogance shown by other royals as he is very kind and friendly to everyone, including hybrid demons. He is shown to be disinterested in the royalist doctrine, but at the same time, he is shown to be unwilling to join Unitary. Despite sympathizing with their goals and being friendly with several members, he considers such things troublesome and merely wants to enjoy living peacefully. Misa states that Ray might be the ideal person for the vision of the unificationists, as he looks at people as individuals and doesn't discriminate against anyone.

Lay has a strong love for swordplay, as ever since he was a child, he was fascinated by the sword. However, his natural talent allowed him to win every fight, causing him to progressively grow more bored with battles, as he couldn't go all out and fight a strong opponent. But this changed when he met Anos, who defeated him, as he grew excited for the first time about fighting an opponent.

As the reincarnation of the Hero Kanon, he still carries the desire to bring a permanent end to the Great War between humans and demons, as he was willing to sacrifice himself to put an end to the hatred between the two races and protect the peace that Anos created, as well as Anos from being targeted by humans for revenge.

History
Lay Grandsley was born into a renowned family of magic users, the Yvesta family, but he wasn't able to inherit their magic and was cast out. This occurred because inheriting magic is a type of source magic, and there was already a stronger source magic influencing Lay's source, Syrica. This is because Lay is the reincarnation of the legendary Hero Kanon, who lived 2000 years prior to the current timeline of the series.

When Lay was 5 years old and all his family expected him to die, a half-demon-half-spirit woman named Sheila took him to her home and started taking care of him, becoming his adoptive mother. This incurred the rage of the Yesla family, so the two moved far away to where they couldn't reach them.

After Sheila enrolled him in the city's biggest sword dojo, he quit 3 days after because he defeated his master. After that, he started participating in different competitions, but he hardly lost. Due to this, he received the name of "Demon Swordmaster" and was recommended to the Demon King Academy. During this time, his adoptive mother began to suffer from spirit disease and was admitted to the Lognorth Magic Hospital. While visiting her one day, Lay told her about Anos Voldigoad, the first person who was able to make him feel defeated.

Abilities

 * Immense Magic Power: According to Anos, Lay has an immense amount of magical power due to the fact that he was able to perceive Anos' magic power and remain unafraid in spite of it. Lay was able to continuously supply the Fan Union with his magic power to create a giant golem through the use of Guineth, which he was able to maintain indefinitely until the Fan Union was defeated.
 * Immense Physical Strength: Lay has an incredible amount of physical strength compared to other demons. Though it is stated that his physical strength is inferior to that of Anos.
 * Immense Speed: Lay's movements are so fast that Anos stated that he could barely track his movements with his Magic Eyes. He was able to slash Anos' cheek with such speed that it couldn't be seen by looking, as he and Anos moved so fast that people couldn't see their match. Lay was able to slash the necks of two Elder Demon Emperors before they even noticed him.
 * Master Source Magic User: Due to being Kanon's reincarnation, he maintains his great mastery of source magic, such as his unique ability to possess seven sources. He was able to completely inherit all his former powers in a body that doesn't even share a single drop of his old blood. Lay was even able to separate six of his seven sources and fuse them with the Seven Elder Demon Emperors. His mastery of source magic allowed him to completely hide his true identity from Anos and his Magic Eyes.
 * Resurrection: After his remaining sources returned to him, he regained the ability to resurrect. Due to having seven sources, he can resurrect himself and/or the other 6 sources as long as one remains.
 * Master Swordsman: Lay's swordsmanship skills are what made him recognized as a prodigy of the highest order. He can skillfully wield any sword, even holy swords which can't normally be touched by demons. He has demonstrated the ability to pick up multiple demon swords despite them only being able to be wielded if they accept their owner. He also demonstrated his great expertise in using holy swords as he was able to wield Heine's Zeleo and Zere far more adeptly then Heine could and was able to utilize the swords to use abilities that Heine didn't know that they possessed. Lay demonstrated the ability to dual wield both a Holy Sword and a Demon Sword at the same time and strengthen them by combining their auras.
 * Enhanced Precision: In his fight against Ydol, Lay controlled his power, angle, and aim to a hairsbreadth in order to hit the exact same spot in Ydol's Demon Sword, destroying it. Lay also demonstrated the ability to deflect Ydol's sword strikes just by using the pressure of his own sword strikes.
 * Growth and Skill Absorption: According to Anos, Lay's swordsmanship skill grows rapidly during battle, as he quickly improved his technique during their clash, such as neutralizing the shockwaves of Anos' blows and adapting mid-battle. He also showed the ability to assimilate the sword techniques of other swordsmen while fighting against them.

Magic
See: Magic


 * Asura
 * Aske
 * Teo Aske
 * Teo Triath
 * Cyphio
 * Viguol
 * Teo Trearos

Equipment
See: Equipment


 * Demon Sword Initio
 * Spirit Sword Sheila
 * '''Siegsesta, the Sword of Intent
 * Evansmana, Spirit God Human Sword
 * Everlasting Sword Gielia

Trivia

 * When introduced, Lay mentioned that he was bad with spells and that's why he mastered the sword.
 * It was later revealed that Lay could use magic quite well but was pretending to be bad with spells so he could hide his holy power, which would give out his real identity.
 * Lay Grandsley is Kanon's first incarnation as a pure-blood demon.
 * Anos noted the irony in the fact that he was reincarnated in an almost human body, while Kanon reincarnated as pure-blood demon that completely drew upon Anos' bloodline.
 * Lay is stated to be a good liar, as he was able to deceive Anos about his true identity for a long time until the latter noticed him knowing about the Azesion seashell necklaces, which he shouldn't have been able to do if he didn't remember his past, thus giving Anos a hint to his real identity.
 * Initially, Lay found it difficult to use Sword's Secret despite mastering the method to use it, due to the fact that he has seven sources, which made completely eliminating magic difficult as he would start using them in battle after his sources got reduced to one. He would later learn to use them even when he had multiple sources inside of him.