Delacroix Family

Counted among the thirteen lineages that constitute the Black Paladins, this noble house is propelled by an ambition to tower over its fellow families, and toward that end it has poured its energy into amassing yokai powers as fuel for war. Its heir Vlad bears the charge of assembling the six curses required to awaken the Fairy-Tale Card's innate power and rise as the Ultimate Yokai, an aim that situates the house among the principal villains of the Ultimate Yokai Saga.

The family's origins reach back to some indeterminate era, perhaps as early as the medieval period, and at some stage it joined twelve other noble lines from around the globe to found the Black Paladins beneath a common doctrine of conquest. Set on surpassing the rest, the Delacroix house gave itself over to gathering yokai powers to reinforce its armies. After settling in Japan, Prince Vlad turned to Saint-Germain, a collector of the paranormal, enlisting his aid to rise into the Ultimate Yokai and so realize the house's long-held aim.

After the count laid claim to the power held in the Fairy-Tale Card, it transferred to Vlad, who also received the abilities stripped from Momo Ayase and Unji Zuma by way of the count's subordinate Shinobi, covering two of the six required curses. In the Six Curses Arc, Red Baron came back to Vlad's lair while the prince conferred with Saint-Germain and surrendered the powers taken from Rin and Koki. Finishing that handover set off Vlad's transformation upon reaching four of the curses, after which Saint-Germain arranged for Red Baron's own power to be claimed as the fifth.

Prince Vlad stands as the house's heir and the linchpin of its plot. In the clan's ancestral artwork, Vlad's forebear bears a close likeness to depictions of Vlad Tepes, also called Vlad III or Vlad the Impaler, the Wallachian prince of what is now Romania whose legend inspired Bram Stoker's Dracula.