| Heracles | |
|---|---|
| |
| Name | |
| Japanese | ヘラクレス |
| Romanized | Herakuresu |
| English | Heracles |
| Aliases | Horse King ( Continent's Monarch (大陸の王者 Tairiku no Ōja); Nightmare Heracles (Viz) |
| Profile | |
| Race | Herac |
| Gender |  Female
|
| Age | Unknown (Tens of thousand years old) |
| Capture Level | 6200 |
| Status | Alive |
| Height | 22,000m |
| Weight | 2,000,000,000,000t |
| Professional Status | |
| Affiliation | Hex Food World |
| Occupation | Ruler of Area 8 |
| Personal Status | |
| Relatives | One known descendant or offspring, One foal |
| Debut Appearance | |
| Manga | Chapter 283 |
| Voices | |
| [v · t · e] | |
Heracles (ヘラクレス Herakuresu), also known by the title of "Horse King" (
Heracles is the ancestor or mother of a young Herac foal, and currently the mother of a newborn foal that is destined to become the next "Horse King".
Appearance[]
Heracles' face upclose
Heracles has the same overall appearance as all adult Heracs, but has a very powerful presence emanating from her body which gives her an ethereal glow. Her skin tone is shown as a dark brownish green color with her mane colored as bright orange. Heracles is incredibly vast, dwarfing even an adult Daruma Horse in size. She is also covered in numerous scars, likely from past battles with similarly titanic and powerful foes.
After giving birth, Heracles' expression became less ferocious and her skin and mane became brighter and lighter in color.
Personality[]
Heracles in her usual resting ground on Nightmare Hill.
Heracles is normally a calm being that does not take action unless provoked. She spends her life resting on Horse King Hill with her fellow Phantom Heracs, feeding on the air from the Air Trees. The reason for her inactive lifestyle is mainly due to the Blue Nitros' interference in Area 8's ecosystem; she requires a large amount of air in order to perform major activities, but since the Blue Nitros have been taking the largest source of air in Area 8--the "Food King" AIR--the amount left is insufficient for her needs. If she were to perform any major activities, she would not only "starve" herself more quickly, but she would also deprive all the inhabitants of Area 8 and her unborn child, effectively destroying the ecosystem of the entire continent. Thus, to preserve her kingdom, she normally remains as inactive as possible. This demonstrates that Heracles is a fair and understanding ruler, a trait that is made possible due to her highly keen senses. It is also shown that Heracles is actually highly intelligent and capable of complex thoughts, as shown when she immediately noticed AIR's fall and mentally commented on the importance of the occurrence; with her many centuries of life and her advanced biology, it seems only fitting that a being recognized as a monarch among beasts would have great intelligence and understanding.
Heracles is also one to acknowledge people who have done her a great deed even if they are the very same people who may have threatened her in the beginning as Heracles understands the different circumstances that come and go within her territory. An example of her acknowledgement is when she originally meets Toriko, she showed great hostility towards him as Toriko (or more likely Toriko's Blue Demon) threatened her unborn child, however she would later feel indebted to Toriko as well as others due to the fact that if it had not been for Toriko's actions as well as Komatsu and the others, then Heracles would not have gained the opportunity to finally give birth to her foal. Heracles would later pay her debt to Toriko and the others by clearing out the Steel Clouds which blocked the path of the Gold Swamp, showing that despite former hostilities, she is not one to hold grudges but she will not show it in full as when Toriko thanked her, she simply looked away.
Relationships[]
Foal[]
Like a true mother, Heracles cared deeply about her unborn foal's safety and was willing to consume more air than usual to finish a battle as quickly as possible and thus ensuring her foal's safety. When it was finally born she was visibly peaceful and content at the sight of her first healthy foal in centuries.
Hex Food World[]
Heracles' relationship with the residents of Hex Food World is like the relationship between a guardian deity and her worshippers. The people of Hex Food World revere Heracles as an important part of their life and essential to the stability of Area 8 and all its life. Because of this they are willing to go to great lengths to ensure Heracles's survival, such as planting countless Air Trees and even sacrificing themselves to become fertilizer for said trees that will feed her the air she needs to survive. When speaking with Heracles, Mappy showed clear respect for the mighty being and humbly asked for her permission to capture AIR in exchange for his life, showing that Heracles can be spoken to and reasoned with. However, she may disregard dealings if she feels threatened, such as when witnessing Komatsu's Derous Knife. The people of Hex Food World dream to one day taste AIR and see a new healthy Horse King be born into the world.
Herac Race[]
The Phantom Beast Heracs are known to be small in numbers, being deemed rare within Gourmet World. Being one of the strongest Heracs in Gourmet World, Heracles stands as the representative of the Phantom Beast Herac's race, with her newborn foal being the secondary representative. Because of Heracles' might and power, she stands as the current Horse King and holding the position as one of the Eight Kings, however with her newborn taking on its adventure of the Herac Response, Heracles' time as the representative of the Herac race will eventually be passed down to the next generation.
Powers and Abilities[]
She has a capture level of 6200, which is the sixth highest among the Eight Kings. Her presence and life-cycle influences the very ecosystem of Area 8. By simply breathing, she is inadvertently responsible for Area 8's ecosystem of dangerous and bizarre torrential rains. As such she is undoubtedly one of the most powerful beings in the world. Her power was so great that Toriko thought that her Capture Level could not be measured, even with the Riddle Chapter. A further testament of her power is that she was able to tear the body of the powerful Heavenly King Toriko in half just by exhaling a powerful blast of air from her nose with almost no effort, and a full breath was able to obliterate a piece of Neo, drill through the globe, and blow out in Area 7.[1] Heracles' powerful lungs not only allow her to release air with incredible force, but she can also inhale all of the air within her surrounding which not only deprives potential foes from air but can even create a powerful airless vacuum, making it so that in a world full of creatures that thrive on air, very few can survive against a being like Heracles. This was powerful enough to disable the Blue Oni in Toriko.
A footprint left by Heracles leaves such an incredible aura that it could still be felt even over a thousand years after she walked there. The sheer force of this ferocious aura made it so that not even plants could grow there. However, when Heracles is in a good mood, her footprints can become fertile oases capable of sustaining an abundance of life.[2]
Being a Herac, Heracles is immortal, capable of living countless centuries and regenerating from damage. Nevertheless, she is covered in numerous unhealed scars, suggestive of devastating wounds which damaged her Gourmet Cells themselves and thus overrode her healing ability.
Much like the rest of the Eight Kings, Heracles has a strong sense of awareness, capable of sensing even the smallest changes in the world. During the Cooking Festival, the conclusion to Toriko and Starjun's duel signaled the awareness of the Eight Kings, telling them of the potential rise within Toriko's power. Despite being such a small change, Heracles, along with the other Eight Kings, reacted to the change. It was also capable of sensing the changes on an individual Air Tree which Komatsu managed to prepare despite the minimal effort.
Techniques[]
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| Herac Kick (ヘラクキック Heraku Kikku): Heracles swings her rear leg and hits her opponents with her hoof. This kick is powerful enough, that upon collision with an attack of equal power, the shock is visible from outer space. Toriko's Blue Appetite Demon claims that if the the kick had struck him, it would've been strong enough to launch him into space. | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Destroy Breathe ( | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Herac Breath ( | |||||||||||||||||||
History[]
Past[]
Tens of thousands of years ago, the Herac that would become known as Heracles was born from a previous Horse King in the last recorded occurrence of the natural fall of an AIR fruit. When AIR ripened and fell, it provided enough air for a healthy Herac infant to be born, which immediately migrated across the newly formed rainbow bridges to other continents. Heracles' first step on the rainbow bridges began on an island that is known as the Island of the Future which bridges itself to the continent of Area 7, the island would become a legendary spot for travelers to begin their journey from Area 8 as they step on the same bridge which carried Heracles herself to start her own journey. Traveling across the continents, the young Herac established a reputation for her terrifying strength which would spread all across the Gourmet World, whose residents came to know and fear her as 'Heracles'. At some point, it seems that Heracles returned to its ancestral breeding ground in Area 8, cementing itself as the mightiest creature on the continent and thus taking a place among the legendary Eight Kings of Gourmet World, styled the "Horse King".
During Heracles reign, the Blue Nitro discovered the technology and techniques necessary to harvest a ripened AIR fruit before it fell from its massive tree. By doing so they disrupted a critical part of the Herac breeding cycle and thus preventing Heracles from having a potential heir, as the vast amount of air released by the bursting of a ripened AIR fruit is needed by the Herac to produce a healthy child. As a result, only very small and premature Herac infants have been born in the thousands of years since the Blue Nitro began the practice. Heracles herself cannot go after AIR as it may rot in an instant due to its delicate nature. The desperate inhabitants of Area 8 planted numerous Air Trees in Heracles' nesting area to provide her with supplementary fresh air, even to the extent of sacrificing themselves to provide fertilizer for the trees. It remains nowhere near enough for Heracles to properly reproduce however as her children are still born too weak, and the Daruma Hermit fears the eventual end of the Horse King line, signifying the eventual end of Area 8 itself.
Cooking Festival Arc[]
Heracles, along with the rest of the Eight Kings sensed Toriko's tremendous growth after his battle with Starjun, sensing that someday the Heavenly King might surpass her and the other kings.
AIR Arc[]
When the Four Heavenly Kings and Komatsu were guided through Yutou Island by Mappy and his Croakswagon, they passed by one of Heracles's footprints from several thousand years ago, the footprint's extreme aura was felt by everyone, causing all but Mappy to be unnerved.
Heavenly King and Horse King clash
Heracles made her first appearance when Toriko, Mappy and Komatsu reached her nest, where she was seen laying in the grass of Nightmare Hill, who then approached her. Toriko felt that he didn't need to measure Heracles's power with the Riddle Chapter as her aura was more than enough to show just how strong Heracles is. Mappy asked the Horse King if his life would be enough as a sacrifice to letting them pass and capture AIR, though Toriko felt that Mappy shouldn't sacrifice himself, stating that he may need to fight Heracles. However, the Horse King seems to become enraged when Komatsu pulls out his knife, claiming he can hear the voice of AIR.
Heracles, enraged by the unsheathing of Komatsu's knife, unleashes a burst of its strength by simply showing a glint from her eye, blowing them all back. With the Horse King, threatened by the reaction of Komatsu to the voice; Toriko, Mappy and Komatsu threatened by the Horse King's sudden outburst, a clash between Toriko and Heracles begins as Mappy and Komatsu escape. Heracles attempts to stop Mappy's Croakswagon by having one of its subjects, a Daruma Horse, attack it but it was too fast. Toriko intercepts the Horse King as well as her subjects from going after Komatsu and Mappy and the battle between the Heavenly King and the Horse King commences.
With Toriko unleashing an intense intimidation, he anticipated to last for as long as he could against he Horse King. However, there is an unfortunate and extremely noticeable gap between their powers, as Toriko was anticipating Heracles' attack, Heracles, without even attempting, simply exhaled a gust of air from her nose. By the simple act of exhaling, Heracles had already defeated Toriko. Toriko notices a sudden difference in his vision, losing eye sight on his right side and realizing the sudden crater that formed beside him. With intense awe, Toriko stares towards the Horse King and falls defeated with the right side of his upper body erased. Heracles shows a disappointed expression towards the Heavenly King after she had expected a more interesting fight, Heracles then heads toward Slow Rain Hills to stop Komatsu and his group.
However Heracles becomes distracted as she notices a subtle change occurring around one of the Air Trees that was planted within the area. As the Air Fruit from tree dropped, Heracles quickly realized that Komatsu must have prepared the fruit in that instant he pulled out his knife. Heracles also failed to realize that in her attacking Toriko, she shattered the Cure Water that Toriko was carrying, which luckily was spilled on Toriko's wounds and activated the healing of Toriko's Gourmet Cells. Toriko then quickly consumed the Air Fruit, which activated his Gourmet Cells, allowing his blue Appetite Devil to emerge, who instantly prepared to attack the Horse King. Heracles quickly shot out another "air missile", however, the Blue Demon punched through the attack and lands a powerful hit against the Horse King.
Two might forces clash as an Emperor Ring marks their battle ground
As the Horse King quickly recovers from the hit by Toriko's Blue Devil, the new opponent attempts to follow its attack with a powerful Devil Fork. However Heracles counters the attack with a powerful Herac Kick. Toriko's Blue Devil manages to avoid taking on the full force of the kick and even states that if it had taken the full force of the kick then it would be sent to outer space. An immense shockwave spreads out, as numerous beasts around the whole continent begin to retreat upon sensing the intensity of the fight. Even the people of the Hex Food World could feel it, as the ground begins to shake. An Emperor Ring then takes form in the skies above Heracles and Toriko fight, with the Horse King now facing a worthy opponent. The Blue Devil then realizes that Heracles is in fact with child and proceeds to mock the Horse King, however all this does is anger her, making her even more determined to protect her unborn child. She then begins to inhale all the air surrounding her and Toriko which causes a vacuum to form which not even the blue devil can survive. This forces it to return to Toriko who is also become weaker due to the loss of oxygen. With this sudden turn of battle, Heracles menacingly looms over her dying opponent. With Destroy Breathe unleashed, Heracles stood mightily against her opponent, as plants withered and died around her and the area was completely deprived of air. However, as Heracles stood she looked into her opponents eyes seemingly surprised at his resilience.
A peaceful Heracles with her newborn foal.
With her opponent weakened, Heracles proceeded to stomp Toriko and end his life as her opponent showed no intention of dying nor any intention of surrender despite the situation, but just then Heracles was alerted by none other than the fall of the "Food King", AIR which had successfully been prepared by Komatsu and his group. With the fall of the fruit Heracles catches a familiar scent from tens of thousands of years, Fresh Air. With the opportunity to give birth fast approaching, Heracles quickly ended the battle and began inhaling all the precious air that rushes across the continent, produced by the ripened Food King. With Heracles fully revitalized, she was able to finally give birth to a healthy newborn foal. Heracles peacefully laid upon her hill as her newborn proudly stood on its own, ready to leave Area 8 on the Rainbow Bridges and begin its own legend as its mother contently looked on. As Heracles' Foal acts the long forgotten Herac Response, Toriko attempted to invite Heracles to eat AIR along with everyone just before leaving their former battlefield. However, Heracles refused the offer and did not come along in order to rest, as well as to watch her child's legend begin.
PAIR Arc[]
After the preparation of AIR had been completed and the Heavenly Kings, Komatsu and the Hex Food Beast Knights prepare to depart on their separate journeys, Heracles would once again show herself, this time in the presence of the people of Hex Food World, the very people that she watches over as well as the very people who are related to those sacrificed themselves to keep her life preserved. Despite not showing a form of positive emotion, keeping to her calm appearance, Heracles came to actually help Toriko and the others by clearing the Steel Clouds which obstructed the path of the Gold Swamp. Because of this, Toriko thanks Heracles for her assistance however Heracles simple looked for a short time and walks away, leaving a grateful Toriko with the very Rainbow Bridge she crossed many years ago.
ANOTHER Arc[]
Heracles VS Neo
After the Blue Nitro fail to keep Acacia's Appetite Demon, Neo, docile and inactive, Neo sends seven parts of itself across Gourmet World. One part lands on Area 8 and Heracles quickly meets her new adversary with her horse companions by her side.
As the part of Neo which was sent to Area 8 continued to grow, Heracles simply watched as her opponent grew more disadvantaged. Due to the size of her opponent as well as the threat it held, Heracles decided to end her battle quickly. With just one full breath, the Horse King quickly blows her opponent apart and secures victory. Her powerful breath reached across the lands of Area 7 where the Monkey King, Bambina, meets the Horse King's breath after having defeated his own opponent.[1]
GOD Arc[]
During the fight between Acacia and GOD, all of a sudden the fight is interrupted by a huge attack. Heracles herself showed up to take part in the final battle. She carries the monkey king Bambina on her head, who also doesn't hestitate to attack Acacia. After Neo is revived Heracles along with the other kings continue to attack Neo but Neo simply counters Heracles' attack and as a result the Horse King's neck is blasted away completely and her head is torn off. After Toriko ate his appetite he noticed that the still alive Heracles used most of her stamina when giving birth so her regeneration speed is slowed down but she will recover.
As the final battle ends, CENTER emerges from the ground and heals the injuries of everybody presents, with Heracles regenerating its body completely and is last seen standing watch with the remaining Eight Kings as a defeated Neo vomits everything it had ever eaten. However as Heracles and the remaining Eight Kings lost to Neo and Acacia, they decided to retire from their positions. The power vacuum causes a struggle for power in the Gourmet World to fill the vacant positions.
Trivia[]
- The Horse King's name comes from the Greek mythological hero Heracles (Hēraklēs), also known by his later Roman name Hercules. Heracles was a son of the mighty god Zeus and the mortal woman Alcmene, making him a demigod particularly renowned for his unparalleled physical strength.
- There are many great horses mentioned throughout ancient history and legends, and Heracles could be based on any one of them.
- The "Grey of Macha" from Irish legends was referred to as the the king of all horses which bears similarities to Heracles holding the title of "Horse King"
- In Greek mythology, the horse Arion is known to be a divine-bred immortal horse which reflects the same characteristics as Heracles who is also known to be a legendary horse endowed with immortality.
- In Asian mythology, the Qilin is a mythological creature with the body of a horse and the features of an eastern dragon, of which Heracles resembles design-wise.
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Gourmet 353
- ↑ Gourmet 228 - Elg confesses to having the lower half of a child Herac.
[]
| Eight Kings | |
|---|---|
| Dragon King • Guinness • Crow King • Snake King • Deer King • Moon • Bambina • Heracles | |