YMMV / The Kindness of Devils

• Complete Monster: See here.
• Iron Woobie: The misery Hardestadt Delac has had to live through is astounding. Hardestadt's lived through centuries of misfortune, including a bloody war which saw his mother seemingly killed and his father emotionally ripped from him, and centuries more trying to live up to his mother's wishes on Earth where he was constantly bombarded with loss, the failure to save innocent lives, and emotional agony every year he wandered the Earth, even briefly becoming a villain. It speaks volumes to his level of control that he's mostly able to manage it — and the "woobie" part shines forth in the few times he does let his inner grief slip out, like in the end of Nights in Lonesome Arkham'.
• Magnificent Bastard:
  • Lucifer himself, formerly Samael, was one of God's most powerful and brilliant children, before falling from grace as he became disillusioned with his Father's silence and resolved to give all beings the choice to define their own destinies free from the divine plan. Lucifer wins over innumerable angels not through deceit or trickery but by genuinely encouraging them to embrace their best traits and staged a successful attack on Heaven's own gates, barging into the throne room of Heaven itself and deriding his equally powerful brother, Michael, for only being able to "obey." Lucifer deliberately forfeits his battle with Michael when he realizes it's risking all creation, and forever immortalizes himself as the charismatic and steadfast Lord of Hell shortly after.
  • Satannus, the Sin of Wrath, is Hell's most distinguished and powerful warrior and one of the most loyal, capable assets Lucifer could ask for. Having turned to Hell in disgust for Heaven using her and her own soldiers as disposable chess pieces, Satannus' magnificence comes to shine in The Kiss of Wrath where she takes her nephew Daemon (the future Hardestadt Delac) as her apprentice, putting him through hellish training that eventually serves to refine him into a warrior as capable as Satannus herself. Satannus, also ostensibly working in a conspiracy in Hell led by Karadas Baal, demonstrates her own skill in Hell's "Grand Dance" by spending years derailing the entire conspiracy from the inside-out, tricking their own followers into slaughtering themselves and only revealing her betrayal when the conspiracy itself has already been completely dismantled.
  • Aleviel, Hardestadt's mother, graduates to this status in Give Us Forever, alongside her compatriot Malachor Archayus. Together, the two orchestrate a complex gambit to utterly remake the Teraverse, setting up Baba Yaga and Koschei's schemes to begin with to test Hardestadt's resolve, and continuing to ruthlessly manipulate him and his friends. Aleviel even orders Hardestadt to "see the ones he loves dies"—only for it to be revealed as a case of Exact Words Malachor pulls off through an illusion of Erin dying. With all her manipulations for the purpose of breaking the seals on Hardestadt's power, Aleviel finally reveals her goal was to save the Teraverse, not destroy it, using his power to save the life of his sister Alineia when she forces Amatsu-Mikaboshi, the primordial embodiment of nothingness, out of the Teraverse.