Characters / Trails Series Sept-Terrions And Holy Beasts

Trails Series Main Character Index
Kingdom of Liberl: Estelle's Party | Liberl Royalty and Military | Liberl Civilians
Crossbell State: Crossbell Government and Influential Groups | Crossbell Police and Military | Special Support Section | Crossbell Civilians
Erebonian Empire: Erebonia Imperial Family and Four Great Houses | The Ironbloods | Erebonia Military | Thors' Staff and Instructors | Thors Class VII (Rean Schwarzer | Original Class VII (Part One, Part Two) | New Class VII) | Main Campus Classes | Branch Campus | Erebonian Civilians and Major Groups | Imperial Liberation Front
Republic of Calvard: Calvard Miscellaneous | Arkride Solutions Office
Other Nations: Remiferia Miscellaneous | Elsaim Miscellaneous
Notable Groups: The Bracer Guild | Ouroboros (The Seven Anguis | Enforcers) | Jaeger Corps | Septian Church
Others: Ancient Zemurian Civilization | The Sept-Terrions and the Holy Beasts | Posthumous Characters

This is page detailing the goddess Aidios' treasures, the beings that watch over them, and other associate entities.

Warning: this page contains MAJOR SPOILERS for the entire Trails Series, all of which will be left unmarked.

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Holy Beasts

The Holy Beasts are 7 beings tasked by Aidios, Goddess of the Sky, to watch over each of the Sept-Terrions.

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Holy Beast of Space

Ragnard

Voiced by: Keiji Hirai (Japanese)

Appearances: SC

A large dragon born before the Great Collapse. It is tasked by the Aidios watch over the Aureole.

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• The Battle Didn't Count: Played with. After you deplete Ragnard's HP in the boss fight, he just continues to stand there, with no defeat animation, and you don't even get victory music on the results screen. In the cutscene following the fight, he doesn't seem affected at all. It's implied that Ragnard is so powerful and ancient that you barely took of 1% of his actual HP. However, Agate does manage to break the Gospel controlling him after the fight, and the fight was just a distraction to give him the opportunity to do so, so in a story sense it did count for something.
• Big Damn Heroes: Catches Estelle and Joshua as they are falling to their deaths at the end of SC.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Weissman installs a Gospel on his head, then has Loewe make him go on a rampage as part of an experiment. Loewe, being Loewe, made sure that the damage done to the city of Bose was kept to a minimum. After a boss fight with the dragon, Agate uses a specially-made heavy-blade to destroy the Gospel and return him to his senses. Now free, he expresses his apologies by giving the party a goldia crystal to be used in helping rebuild Bose.
• Dragons Are Divine: Or directly serve the divine, in this case.
• Evil Knockoff: One of the last bosses in the 3rd is "R-Tycoon," which looks like a red variant of the usually blue Ragnard.
• Flowery Elizabethan English: Speaks like this in the localization.
• Loophole Abuse: He swore to Aidios not to interfere with the people, just watch. After the Aureole vanishes, he decides that the oath had become null and void, which was convenient, as it allowed him to save Estelle and Joshua from falling to their deaths from the collapsing Liber Ark.
• Obstructive Code of Conduct: He is bound by an oath to Aidios not to interfere with human culture, and while he apparently has some knowledge on the subject, he cannot reveal much of what he knows relating to the Sept-Terrions.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: He had a duel of sorts with Cassius back when he was still using swords.
• Talking Animal: In the sense that he can project words into people thoughts to communicate.

Holy Beast of Mirage

See Zeit.

Holy Beast of Earth

Argres

In his true form

As the Nameless One

Appearances: Cold Steel III | Cold Steel IV | Reverie (Replica)

The Holy Beast tasked with protecting the Lost Zem. After absorbing the majority of Erebonia's curse many centuries ago, he became corrupted, losing his name in the process.

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• An Arm and a Leg: Once Rean obtains the Sword of the End, he easily slashes one of his legs off.
• Because Destiny Says So: He forgives Rean for destroying his corrupted body because he believes that fate declared that Argres was going to die by Rean's hand.
• Bootstrapped Leitmotif:
  • The on-foot battle with the Nameless One in Cold Steel III is set to "Accursed Tycoon," previously used by True Zoro-Agruga.
  • The battle against his spirit in Cold Steel IV, meanwhile, uses "Neck or Nothing," which was previously used for the battle against Roselia's Holy Beast form.
• Boss Subtitles: When fighting his replica in Reverie, he's shown to have the title of Golden Unicorn.
• But Now I Must Go: His spirit disappears after Rean gives him the Earthen Prison.
• Chekhov's Gun: The present Argres gives to Rean in Cold Steel IV, the Earthen Prison, allows Rean to eject Ishmelga into the physical realm and confine him so that they have a chance to destroy him without needing for Rean, Crow, and Millium to heroically suicide themselves.
• Clipped-Wing Angel: For his final phase as the Nameless One, he's down an arm and can't even fight back against Rean hacking him to pieces.
• Defeating the Undefeatable: He's the first Divine Beast of the series to die in the game.
• Dual Boss: On the sixth floor of the True Reverie Corridor, you fight copies of both his and Roselia's true forms.
• Easily Forgiven: Easily forgives Rean for slaughtering him, claiming that it was already preordained.
• Evil Knockoff: In Reverie, he has a copy that fights alongside a copy of Roselia's Holy Beast form on the True Reverie Corridor's sixth floor.
• Eye Beams: In his Turns Red form, he's capable of shooting lasers out of his eyes... but due to the fact he has so many eyes, he can bombard the party with dozens upon dozens of them.
• Eyes Do Not Belong There: Its second form after being beaten on foot causes dozens of eyes to cover its body.
• Given Name Reveal: Reveals his name, and sanity, in Cold Steel IV: Argres, the Holy Beast tasked with guarding the Sept-Terrion of Earth, Lost Zem.
• Final Boss: The last opponent fought in Cold Steel III, as the Nameless One.
• Hero Killer: Kills Millium with a single blow.
• Identity Amnesia: He lost his name thanks to the corruption of the curse and if characters attempt to say his name, it ends up being muted. He finally recovers his name in Cold Steel IV after Rean, Toval, and the rest of the party defeat his spirit form.
• Monster Progenitor: Supposedly, the Dark Dragon Zoro-Agruga is a piece of the Nameless One that grew into its own lifeform, and became a terrible cryptid.
• No Name Given: After becoming corrupted, he lost his original name from its time as the Divine Beast watching over the Sept-Terion of Earth. It's finally revealed in Cold Steel IV as Argres.
• Screw Destiny: Argres allows Rean to screw destiny and change his fate by giving him the Earthen Prison.
• Sequential Boss: Not as impressive of one as True Zoro-Agruga was in the previous chapter, but you still have to fight it on foot with Rean, Juna, Kurt, and Musse, before fighting it using Valimar and the Soldats, and finally finishing it off with Valimar solo.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: After killing Millium, the Nameless One ends up on the receiving end of this thanks to a fully-demonized Rean. It's bad enough that he continues tearing the beast's body apart with Valimar long after it's dead.
• Tragic Monster: He was once the Divine Beast of Earth, but was corrupted into a mindless monster after absorbing the Erebonian Curse in an attempt to seal it away.
• Turns Red: Quite literally, his entire body flares red and grows several eyes once he truly awakens and the fight shifts from on-foot to mech battle.
• Zero-Effort Boss: The Nameless One's final phase is pretty much impossible to lose, thanks to a demonized Valimar.

Zoro-Agruga

Appearances: Cold Steel (as an animated skeleton) | Cold Steel III (in its true form) | Reverie (Replica)

Corpse Form

True Form

The Dark Dragon said to be the strongest Cryptid to have existed. Spawned from the Nameless One, it occupied and turned the Imperial capital of Heimdallr into a city of the dead 900 years prior to the start of the series' beginning.

Its skeleton was reanimated to fight against Class VII in Chapter 4 of Cold Steel I, but this would not be the last time it would show up...

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• Bloody Murder: Its blood is cursed; this got Emperor Hector and Testa-Rossa 800 years ago, but thankfully Roselia is able to contain it when it's slain in the present day.
• Climax Boss: True Zoro-Agruga isn't actually the Final Boss of Cold Steel III, but its defeat marks the end to a major point in the game and sets things up for the finale.
• Dark Is Evil: A black, demonic looking dragon that turned invaded and ravaged a city for a whole century.
• Dracolich: First fought in Cold Steel I as a reanimated corpse.
• Leitmotif: "Accursed Tycoon" as True Zoro-Agruga.
• Sequential Boss: In Cold Steel III, you had to use all of the combined Class VII in three separate teams on foot before fighting it with Rean and one of his students using Valimar and their respective Panzer Soldat.
• Taking You with Me: After its defeat 800 years ago, its blood ends up killing Emperor Hector and turning Testa-Rossa into the Vermillion Apocalypse.

Holy Beast of Fire

See Crimson Roselia.

Sept-Terrions

The Sept-Terrions are 7 treasures blessed upon the people of Zemuria by Aidios thousands of years ago. Unfortunately, humanity wasn't ready for them, and their increasingly negative influence led to the Great Collapse.

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Aureole

The Sept-Terrion of Space that blessed the people that would later found Liberl.

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• Big Blackout: Sucks orbal energy into itself, through Gospels when it's not in normal space, resulting in power outages.
• Final Boss: Due to being fused with Weissmann, the Aureole forms one half of the final boss of Sky SC.
• Fusion Dance: At the climax of Sky SC, Weissmann forcibly fuses with it, causing his One-Winged Angel form.
• Lotus-Eater Machine: The reason the Liber Ark inhabitants were forced to abandon it and settle on what became Liberl. In its zeal to protect the mental wellbeing of the Liber Ark inhabitants, it created illusions of their greatest desires that proved so addictive that the birthrate plummeted to catastrophic levels and society began to implode.

Demiourgos

The Sept-Terion of Mirage that blessed the land that would later become Crossbell hundreds of years ago. It no longer exists, but the knowledge to recreate it does.

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• Driven to Suicide: It erased itself from existence long ago out of fear it would come to harm the people it was supposed to protect.
• Living MacGuffin: Unlike the Aureole, Demiourgos was fully sapient and possessed a great deal of empathy for humanity, which eliminated the risk of it turning into a Lotus-Eater Machine, but instead led to its own (literal) undoing.
• Physical God: It's a sentient Sept-Terrion, so it's kind of a given.
• Reality Warper: As Mirage governs causality in addition to perception and cognition, Demiourgos had a degree of control over reality itself.

Azure Demiourgos, the Sept-Terrion of Zero

Appearances: Azure

A recreation of the Sept-Terion of Mirage made by the Crois clan over the course of 1200 years, born from the fusion of KeA with the Azure Tree.

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• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: It will use Pulse of Nihility first to erase your guards right before using its standard Limit Break without losing its turn, so Stealth is the only way to dodge.
• Counter-Attack: Subspace Exile. If it receives enough damage from an attack (usually around 9000 and above), it will trigger and inflict Vanish on the offending party member. This effectively puts the brakes on the players thinking that they can just trap it in Burst indefinitely with Burst Orbs (particularly around the time when it's preparing to unleash Interdimensional Collapse) and mow it down with their strongest attacks, as doing so will just wipe out the party and lose instead due to how Vanish works.^note Vanish works like a status aliment, meaning that it is turn-based. Burst puts your entire party on the top of the turn order while negating delay meaning that the afflicted characters cannot return to the field as their turn never came. If not careful, you will get your own party wiped out even if the enemy's turn never comes due to this attack.
• Counter Spell: Godly Annihilation. Its small area of effect means that it only affects one party member at a time unless they are clustered together for buffs and healing. This will trigger if there is as much as one party member is casting arts and it actually costs delay. So to prevent you from just locking it into this one action, it will summon flunkies that will deal damage and sap your CP instead.
• Dispel Magic: Pulse of Nihility. It will use this on your party if you have one too many buffs placed on them. Also, it costs no delay, meaning that it can simply dispel your Adamant Guards and Zero Field first before dealing massive damage.
• Final Boss: The last opponent fought in Azure.
• Leitmotif: "The Azure Arbitrator."
• Limit Break: It has Super Spacetime Chain Attack, which is a very powerful field attack that's barely survivable. It also has Interdimensional Collapse, which is not survivable.
• Physical God: It's even more powerful than the original, with added powers over Time and Space on top of its innate power of Mirage, and is said to rival even Aidios Herself.
• Reality Warper: The Azure Demiourgos has power over Space, Time, and Mirage, granting it full control over reality.
• Sequential Boss: Once Azure Demiourgos' first form is defeated, it turns back time a little to regain some HP if it manages to absorb even one of it's flunkies. Once that has been depleted, it turns into its final form.
• Superior Successor: Azure Demiourgos has all the powers of Mirage that the original possessed, with some powers from Time and Space thrown in the mix.
• Time-Limit Boss: Around the last third of its health in its second form, it will start the countdown for Interdimensional Collapse which it will unleash on its next turn. You better have your Burst ready if you want to win...
• Time Master: If you don't defeat its first phase properly, it will simply rewind time back to the beginning of the battle, forcing you to try again. Outside of battle, Mariabell intends to use its dominion over time to make retroactive changes to reality.
• Total Party Kill: If you take too long to beat it, it will use Interdimensional Collapse. And that's it, game over. It's not just a super-powerful attack you can block like Grand Cross. If it is used, you restart the fight.
• Worf Had the Flu: Implied. Whether because KeA was weakening it from within or because it simply hadn't reached full power yet, there is little reason to believe an almighty being with power over space, time, and causality could get defeated by just six Badass Normal people without some kind of limit on its power. If the fight drags on for too long, it'll eventually overcome its "flu" and simply erase the party from existence.

Genesial Demiourgos

First Form

^{Final Form}

Appearances: Reverie

A recreation of the Sept-Terion of Mirage found at the end of the True Reverie Corridor.

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• Bootstrapped Leitmotif: The battle with it is set to "The Azure Arbitrator," the theme of Azure Demiourgos.
• Dragon Their Feet: Elysium placed it into the True Reverie Corridor as a backup plan to rewrite causality in their favor, but it didn't have a noticeable effect until after Elysium is deleted and Ishmelga-Rean is defeated.
• Sequential Boss: It has 3 forms fought consecutive by 3 parties with eight members each.
• Tragic Monster: Despite having Boss Banter about how it will destroy the current Zemuria, it expresses relief when the party kills it, showing that it doesn't actually want to serve Ishmelga-Rean's agenda, but was forced to.
• True Final Boss: As the last opponent of the True Reverie Corridor, it's this for Reverie.

Ark Rouge

The Sept-Terrion of Fire, originally located in the land that would be Erebonia. It was followed and worshipped by the Hexen Clan, until it fused with the Lost Zem. Its former body now lies lifeless on Bryonia Island.

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• Posthumous Character: Like Lost Zem, its body became an empty shell long before the start of the story.

Lost Zem

The Sept-Terrion of Earth, originally located in the land that would be Erebonia. It was followed and worshipped by the Gnomes, until it fused with the Ark Rouge. Its former body now lies lifeless in the Nord Highlands.

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• Posthumous Character: Like Ark Rouge, its body became an empty shell long before the start of the story.

The Divine Knights

In General

The Divine Knights^*called the Deus-Excellion in the Japanese script are giant knightly machines created long ago by the Hexen and Gnome clans through the fragments of the Great One, the Sept-Terrion of Steel, born from the fusion of Fire and Earth, which was split into seven pieces as a way to contain its power.

There are seven knights in total, with each knight having a mind of its own and having immense power. However, only through the guidance of an Awakener can their full potential be brought out.

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• Benevolent A.I.: For the most part, Divine Knights are friendly and often give advice to their Awakeners in order to help them grow. The only exception to this is Ishmelga.
• Can't Live Without You: Awakeners who die and are resurrected due to their contract with their Divine Knight are only kept alive by that contract; should their Divine Knight be destroyed, disappear, or otherwise terminate the contract, the Awakener dies again too.
• The Chooser of the One: When it comes to their Awakeners, it's up to the Divine Knights to determine who they will contract with. Usually done through a series of trials; if El-Prado is anything to go by according to Word of God, it's also based on whether or not the candidate has a trait or desire that resonates with the Divine Knight in question.
• Fusion Dance: Can perform this through the Rivalry of the Seven. By pitting Divine Knights against each other under specific situations, the winning Divine Knight will absorb the losing knight and become more powerful as a result. This will repeat until only one is left.
• Has a Type: Platonic version. While little is known about the process of how someone is chosen as an Awakener candidate, it can be noted that both of Valimar's known Awakeners (Dreichels and Rean) are heroes of their time with the ability to gather people to their cause and lead them, Zector's known Awakeners both happened to be jaegers, and Testa-Rossa's known Awakeners were both from the Arnor bloodline. Rufus was chosen by El-Prado because of his greed which may imply its past Awakeners were chosen in a similar fashion.
• Humongous Mecha: Naturally given their size and what they are. Through Schmidt using Ordine as a reference, he was also able to complete the initial designs for the Panzer Soldats that Alisa's father, Franz Reinford, had created.
• Made of Indestructium: The Divine Knights and their weapons are all made of Zemurian Ore, the strongest metal known to the continent of Zemuria. As a result, it makes the Divine Knights incredibly durable and their weapons capable of cutting through just about anything.
• Law of Chromatic Superiority: In Cold Steel IV, Alberich, using their designated colors, ranks the power of each Divine Knight as follows:
  • Valimar, Ordine, and Zector are at the bottom of the barrel.
  • Testa-Rossa would normally be on the same level as the above, but retaining some of the Vermillion Apocalypse's power gives it a notable edge.
  • Argreion and El-Prado are a grade above the previous four.
  • Ishmelga is the strongest Knight of all.
• Leitmotif: "Rivalry of the Seven -Excellion Krieg-" is the true theme for the battle between Divine Knights in Cold Steel IV.
• Only the Chosen May Pilot: Only the chosen Awakeners of each Divine Knight can pilot them, in contrast with the more mundane Panzer Soldats that can be piloted by anyone with enough training.
• Resurrective Immortality: As mentioned in Can't Live Without You, Awakeners are essentially made Immortal the moment they die while contracted to their Divine Knight. Unless the Divine Knight itself is destroyed then the Awakener will keep coming back to life no matter how many wounds they take. Price Cedric was also able to survive severe emaciation due to his contract with Testa-Rossa, suggesting it's more complex than just resurrective immortality.
• Rule of Seven: Seven Divine Knights in total, though in-story history records show surprisingly little information surrounding the seventh.
• Suddenly Voiced: While Valimar and Ordine are relatively talkative as partners to the protagonists, the other Divine Knights are dead-silent for the entirety of Cold Steel III and only suddenly speak lines during their respective Rivalries in Cold Steel IV.
• Super Robot: They are this in contrast to the Panzer Soldats. Their abilities are well above what any normal Soldat can do such as being capable of teleportation and other supernatural abilities like magic.
• Synchronization: Once contracted with the Divine Knight this happens to the Awakener as any damage the former takes the latter will receive as well. This encourages Awakeners to fight with skill rather than just blindly powering through.

Valimar

The Ashen Knight. Once hidden beneath Thors Military Academy, Rean Schwarzer became its Awakener after he led Class VII to complete the trials found within the Old Schoolhouse. It was previously contracted to Dreichels Reise Arnor.

To find out more, see his section here.

Ordine

Voiced by: Ryunosuke Watanuki (Japanese, Reverie), Xander Mobus (English)

The Azure Knight. Once hidden beneath the port city of Ordis, Crow Armbrust became its Awakener after completing the necessary trials. It posses a unique transformation called Boost Mode.

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• Combination Attack: It and Crow share one with Rean and Valimar called Union Slash: Deadly Domination. In Cold Steel II, this replaces the Unite Attack used with secondary contractors. In Cold Steel IV, this is activated when only Valimar and Ordine are in the party, but is replaced by the standard Unite Attacks when another Soldat is added to their team. In the latter case, Deadly Domination can still be activated by landing a finishing blow against a boss with a normal attack or craft.
• Double Weapon: Much like its Awakener, Ordine's primary weapon is a double saber. Like Valimar's tachi, it's also made of Zemurian Ore.
• Post-Final Boss: Serves this role in Cold Steel I, being the very last opponent you face and wrapping up the story while briefly introducing the concept of Divine Knight battles that would become more prominent in the sequel.
• Shout-Out: Its Boost Mode can be considered one to the Destroy Mode from Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn, down to the armor opening up to reveal glowing inner parts.
• Suddenly Voiced: Doesn't speak a line throughout the first two games until the finale of Cold Steel II where it calls out to Crow and tells him that it's recharged enough to take on the Vermillion Apocalypse alongside Rean and Valimar. It also talks more in Cold Steel IV, once it becomes a regular part of the player's arsenal.
• Super Mode: Ordine has a unique transformation called Boost Mode where the armor on its body opens up to reveal glowing parts underneath. As the name implies, using it boosts its already impressive capabilities even more. As a playable machine in Cold Steel IV it cannot use this as a regular buff, but will enter this mode during Union Slash: Deadly Domination.

Testa-Rossa

Vermillion Knight

The Vermillion Apocalypse

Voiced by: Makoto Sahara (Japanese)

The Vermillion Knight. Once contracted to Emperor Hector in the distant past, it was corrupted in a battle against the Dark Dragon, Zoro-Agruga, and as a result became the Vermillion Apocalypse. It was sealed away in the deep underground of Valflame Palace, where eventually it was reawakened by Prince Orthros during the War of the Lions. It would later be defeated and sealed away again by Dreichels Reise Arnor.

It would later reawaken yet again during the Erebonian Civil War by Duke Cayenne using Crown Prince Cedric as a catalyst to unleash it, but it again would face defeat, this time permanently, at the hands of Rean and Crow piloting Valimar and Ordine. Testa-Rossa's remains would later be recovered by the Black Workshop, and after restoring it (now free from the dragon's curse), Cedric became its Awakener.

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• BFS: The Craft Demonic Sword - Propator has it summon a large flaming sword and swings it against enemies in a large arc. After Cedric gets a hold of it, its primary weapon is basically a larger version of the sword he uses.
• Beware My Stinger Tail: As the Vermillion Apocalypse, it has a long tail capable of stabbing its opponents. This is how it killed Crow at the end of Cold Steel II. It loses the tail when it's restored to its original state at the end of III.
• The Corruption: Testa-Rossa was a victim of this 800 years ago after defeating Zoro-Agruga, causing it to lose its mind and turn into the Vermillion Apocalypse.
• Energy Bow: The Craft Demonic Bow - Barbatos has it summon a bow and fire energy based arrows at its enemies.
• Final Boss: Testa-Rossa, as the Vermillion Apocalypse, serves as the final opponent for the main story of Cold Steel II, though there is more content afterward.
• Law of Chromatic Superiority: Played with; Its primary color is red, and it's considered one of the strongest Divine Knights.
• Leitmotif: "E.O.V" for the Vermillion Apocalypse.
• Limit Break: Oblivion Arms, in which it summons numerous spears from the ground to impale its opponents, then leaps up into the air and calls down a Storm of Blades upon them. It uses this both as the Vermillion Apocalypse, and later as Prince Cedric's Divine Knight.
• Powered by a Forsaken Child: How Duke Cayenne managed to awaken it in the first place, by using Prince Cedric as a catalyst and host for its powers. Rean and Crow are later able to rescue him, but not without any side effects.
• Power Gives You Wings: As the Vermillion Apocalypse it has a noticeable pair of glowing wings on its back. Much like its tail, it loses these traits upon being restored to its original form.
• Storm of Blades: Thanks to its Thousand Weapons system, it has the ability to summon weapons on the fly. One of its tactics involves this, and it uses said move against Rean and Crow just before they rescue Cedric.
• Sequential Boss: The battle against the Vermillion Apocalypse is split into 3 parts: Rean goes at it on foot alongside 2 separate teams of Class VII members, before fighting it one last time in Valimar alongside Crow in Ordine.
• The Worf Effect: Despite being easily one of the more powerful Divine Knights, Cedric piloting it is barely capable of defeating Kurt, Juna, and Ash piloting their Soldats against him. Shirley even mocks him for this, noting that it's embarrassing that being her weapon was named after was putting on a poor performance despite being a superior machine.

Zector

The Palatinate Knight. During the War of the Lions, it was piloted by an unnamed jaeger who fought on behalf of Prince Lucius prior to joining to forces with his half-brother Dreichels. It was later destroyed in battle against the Vermillion Apocalypse, but centuries later was restored by members of the Black Workshop and a revived Rutger Claussell became its Awakener.

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• BFS: Its main weapon is a huge glaive made from Zemurian Ore. Like the smaller version Rutger wields, it also has a built-in gun.
• Weak, but Skilled: Zector is one of the weakest Knights alongside Valimar and Ordine with no special blessings or functions. Nonetheless, with Rutger at its controls wielding a mech-sized version of his Buster Glaive with all his skill and experience, it gives Rean and Crow a very hard fight, and they only barely eke out a win, even two-on-one, and are exhausted by the end. In comparison, they decisively defeat Testa-Rossa and a powered up El-Prado in sucession with energy to spare despite being far more powerful on paper than Zector is.
• Wrecked Weapon: Briefly in Cold Steel IV during a fight against Juna and Ash the two manage to crack the sword slightly with their efforts. Rutger, for his part, is impressed and its thanks to this, and the arrival of Fie and others from Class VII, that he decides to spare everyone and leave. When it reappears the crack has been fixed.

Argreion

The Argent Knight. Once hidden within the depths of Lohengrin Castle, it was discovered by Lianne Sandlot under guidance from Crimson Roselia. After completing its trials she became its Awakener, but deeming its power too great, kept it sealed away. It wouldn't be until the War of the Lions that Argreion saw use under command of its Awakener, and two centuries later continues to serve Lianne now known as Arianrhod.

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• Jousting Lance: Much like its Awakener, its main weapon is a large jousting lance.
• Light Is Not Good: Has an angelic knightly appearance, but under the command of Arianrhod, it stands in the way of Rean and Class VII as much as any other foe.
• The Smurfette Principle: Downplayed; Divine Knights are machines and appear to be genderless, but nonetheless Argreion is the only Divine Knight to speak with a feminine voice.

El-Prado

Voiced by: Makoto Sahara (Japanese, Reverie), Edward Bosco (English)

The Auric Knight. Rivaling Argreion as one of the most powerful of the Knights, it was revealed to be hidden deep within the marshlands of Crossbell all this time. After completing its trials, Rufus Albarea became its Awakener.

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• BFS: Its primary weapon is a sword similar in appearance to the Holy Sword of Ishnard that ancestors of the Albarea family wielded in the past.
• Barrier Warrior: Is shown to be capable of projecting a golden energy field to shield itself. First used to tank the attacks of the New Class VII's Soldats, then to shield itself when Roselia fires a spell at it in revenge for Rufus' murder of Lianne.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Gives one in Cold Steel IV to the members of New Class VII who, unlike with Cedric and previously Rutger, are unable to so much as lay a scratch on Rufus and El-Prado.
• Greed: Not El-Prado itself, but it chose Rufus as its Awakener because it sensed his greed and desire to gain power and surpass Osborne.
• Light Is Not Good: Much like Argreion, it has a divine appearance, but it's under the command of Rufus.
• My Master, Right or Wrong: During its brief return in Reverie, El-Prado is suggested to have been less than thrilled with being part of its Awakener's less-savory acts during Cold Steel IV, given how pleased it sounds with how Rufus has changed for the better and is cooperating with Rean and Crow.
• Power Gives You Wings: After El-Prado absorbs Argreion, it gains wings on its back similar to the latter.
• Sword Beam: Capable of it and even uses the attack to nearly defeat New Class VII in a single blow.

Ishmelga

Ebon Knight

L-R: Loge Aura, Ishmelga Loge, and Loge Ogre

Ishmelga's Thoughtform

Appearances: Cold Steel III | Cold Steel IV

The Ebon Knight. Considered to be the strongest of the seven Divine Knights, it is contracted to Giliath Osborne and revealed to be the true source of the Curse of Erebonia. Throughout the centuries it has secretly influenced almost every major conflict in the Erebonian Empire's history, all in an effort to help uplift humanity according to its own design.

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• A God Am I: Rean summarizes that because it's from a different dimension, gave power and knowledge to humans, Ishmelga started acting like some type of God. By wanting to make humanity reach new heights, it started to make conflicts all around the continent.
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: Its two Cognizant Limbs will keep on chucking defense buffs, art defense buffs, craft reflects, and art reflects on the main body even if it's still the player's turn and the player is invoking a Brave Order. No other boss in the entire series much less the Erebonia arc even does this.
• All Your Powers Combined: Its real goal is to absorb the other six Divine Knights and reform the Great One, with itself at the core.
• Big Bad: Ishmelga is not only the true source of the Erebonian Curse, but Giliath Osborne and Black Alberich also work under him though Osborne has other reasons for working with him, making him the main villain of Cold Steel IV.
• Black Knight: Has a dark color scheme and is the most sinister of the Divine Knights.
• Bootstrapped Leitmotif: The battle against Ishmelga-Loge uses the BGM heard during the final sections of the final dungeon of the game, "To The Future".
• Catchphrase: Has one that is frequently said throughout Cold Steel IV.
  Ishmelga: RELINQUISH IT TO ME... IT BELONGS TO ME... YOUR SOUL... YOUR ENTIRE BEING...
• The Chessmaster: It planned everything ever since the War of Lions, the events of Sky up until the point of Cold Steel IV, from Hamel being destroyed, Ash being left alive so he would shoot the Emperor later, to the Brights not being able to enter Erebonia so Joshua wouldn't talk with Ash... it definitely has all the marks of an excellent strategist, if anything.
• Clipped-Wing Angel: When Rean exorcises its AI and corruptive influence out of Valimar, its disembodied astral form is forced to accumulate as much power as it can from the Earthen Prison and manifest itself in physical space; this form is still massive and massively powerful, but Franz notes that it's a mere fraction of the strength it would possess if it had actually succeeded in becoming the Great One.
• Cognizant Limbs: In its astral form, it has two beings—one bird-like and one ogre-like—growing out of its shoulders that serve as additional targets that need to be taken down lest they continue to shield the main body. Unlike most examples of this trope, said targets must be fought with entirely separate teams in concurrent battles.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: To the Aureole, since both are Sept-Terrions or Sept-Terrion-born beings who grant their people's wishes in a twisted way. The Aureole used virtual reality to placate the people of Liber Ark at the cost of turning them into empty shells. In contrast, Ishmelga stokes conflict because it was negatively influenced by its people's malice, claiming that doing so forces them to innovate and become stronger.
• The Corruption: Ishmelga is, in a sense, the Curse of Erebonia; it possesses the ability to spread its influence across the country (defined by its political boundaries, surprisingly) and twist the hearts and minds of people in dark ways, usually to further its goals of becoming the Great One or conquering the continent.
• Curse: The source of it.
• Deal with the Devil: Ishmelga engineered an attack that killed Osborne's wife and mortally wounded his son, giving it an opportunity to step in and offer Osborne one of these to save his son's life. After being defeated by Rean, it attempts to strike a deal with Rean too just to save its own skin, but Rean refuses, cutting it into two.
• Earth-Shattering Kaboom: In its Knight form, its S-Craft completely destroys the planet with the power of darkness. It's likely just an attack animation though, as the world outside the boss fight isn't affected by it.
• Eldritch Abomination: Its base form is a black shadow with multiple eyes. Its final form is a towering monster straight from another dimension, which looks like a horrid amalgamation of a black Animated Armor body, a blue three-eyed bird creature, a red ogre-like humanoid, and three dragon-headed tendrils.
• Evil Is Petty: While its curse usually tries to create as much conflict as possible, it's also disruptive in relatively small ways, such as making the Riviera Court accidentally mail off their permit during the Riviera Runaround sidequest. Later, the party speculates that the curse also made Sister Olfa clumsier than usual.
• Evil Sounds Deep: Speaks in a deep, threatening voice, telling Dreichels/Osborne to relinquish his soul, and later tries the same thing on Rean.
• Eyes Do Not Belong There: Its true form is a large blob with three eyes placed at seemingly random positions.
• Familial Foe: Ishmelga, the curse of Erebonia, has a long-lasting history of trying to manipulate Emperor Dreichels and his descendants, and this includes Dreichels' reincarnation; Giliath Osborne (who becomes its "master"), as well as Osborne's son; Rean Schwarzer. It's revealed in Cold Steel IV that Osborne made a pact with Ishmelga to save his son from a fatal injury, but has been working toward Ishmelga's demise ever since while presenting himself as the villain.
• Greater-Scope Villain: It's ultimately the one behind everything that was wrong throughout the entire Erebonia arc. It isn't even seen or namedropped until the end of Cold Steel III.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Envious towards Valimar, surprisingly, for having Dreichels as an Awakener; Ishmelga wanted Dreichels for itself, and negatively compared Valimar to scrap metal while trying to persuade him.
• Half the Man He Used to Be: Rean cuts its final form into two.
• Hate Plague: One of the effects of the Curse, which Ishmelga is the source of.
• Hate Sink: Played with. When its connection to the Curse is first revealed, it seems like it's responsible for every tragedy and woe that has occured in Erebonia's history, including all the personal pain Class VII has endured; while it's admittedly not too much of an exaggeration, Valimar does caution Class VII that humanity still bears its share of the blame, and if they attribute every misdeed to Ishmelga they won't be able to prevail in the coming trials.
• I Need You Stronger: The Rivalries require the Divine Knights to be fairly matched in order to function properly; Ishmelga is so much more powerful than the other six that it cannot participate in the Rivalries until the rest have all combined into one, giving Ishmelga a worthy opponent.
• Karmic Death: Through the curse, it's the one who manipulated the assault on Osborne's home, leading to Kasia's death and Rean being mortally wounded. Cut to nearly 15 years later however and Ishmelga finally meets its death at the hands of that very same boy.
• Large Ham: Six of the seven Divine Knights are rather taciturn, and plain-spoken when they do talk. Ishmelga is... decidedly different.
  Ishmelga: RAAAAAAAGH! PATHETIC SCUM! BE DAMNED! DAMNED TO THE FURTHEST REACHES OF GEHENNA!
• Like Cannot Cut Like: The reason Ishmelga's sword form was not used to slay the Nameless One is because they're both "children" of Aidios in a sense, and unable to destroy each other; as such, the Black Workshop had to engineer an entirely different weapon of mortal design to kill it.
• Limit Break:
  • In its Divine Knight form, it can use Dirge of Erebos, a rather dramatic attack in which the entire planet is seemingly engulfed in darkness and subsequently explodes.
  • As Ishmelga-Loge, if it still has its other heads, it can use "Bitter Demise, a move that reduces your party's HP to 8. It also bypasses all forms of protection. All the more reason you need to knock out the other heads first with Teams B and C.
• Made of Evil: According to Millium, it is a "thought entity birthed from malice".
• The Man in Front of the Man: As a Divine Knight and Awakener, Ishmelga is ostensibly Osborne's servant, with Osborne even referring to himself as Ishmelga's master when summoning it, but Ishmelga is clearly the mastermind behind Erebonia's fate and has been using Osborne as a mere pawn—at least, so it thinks.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Ishmelga claims that by instigating conflict among the Erebonians, it's helping them become stronger and more innovative. However, like Alberich, it doesn't acknowledge that the Great Twilight plan could end human civilization after Erebonia's war with Calvard and the rest of Zemuria. Additionally, if its curse spreads throughout Zemuria, the population will be in constant conflict with each other, resulting in a Forever War in the best case scenario.
• Oh, Crap!: Ishmelga demonstrates genuine fear when Rean spurns its offer to become his Divine Knight, and lunges at Rean in a panicked last-ditch effort to kill him before he kills it.
• One-Winged Angel: Its final form, Ishmelga-Loge, is a gigantic being that must be defeated with three parties attacking each part with Rean's team attacking the main body.
• Outside-the-Box Tactic: The Ishmelga-Loge boss fight normally consists of its two sub-bosses giving it both Craft and Art Reflect spells that last two times before they're dissolved, and they recast it almost every other turn, forcing players to go for both sub-bosses before finally taking on the main body. However, if players cast Albion Wolf from the Mirage list of arts, Albion Wolf cancels out all the buffs and mirrors before it applies damage, allowing players to skip fighting the other two parts. This, however, also opens you up to its Bitter Demise attack.
• Pitiful Worms: As Rean prepares to purge it from Valimar, it tells him "PATHETHIC MAGGOT...CEASE YOUR POINTLESS STRUGGLE!!!" Rean is not impressed.
• Satanic Archetype: It is the primary source of the Curse of Erebonia, something which causes people to become more aggressive in their way of thinking and succumb to their darkest desires. As Rean would put it, Ishmelga is basically the devil that whispers in one's ear.
• Single-Stroke Battle: Ends up dueling with Rean one final time in a single stroke. It loses and is cut into two.
• Stalker without a Crush: Ishmelga was fascinated with Dreichels' soul and had to have him as its Awakener. It pestered him until the day of his death, but was spurned every time. Even after Dreichels died, Ishmelga waited 200 years until his soul reincarnated as Osborne, and then began anew. This time, it engineered a situation that forced "Dreichels" to accept a contract.
• Stupid Evil: Invoked Trope. Its curse often induces this in other people. Emperor Eugent notes that throughout Erebonia's history, there are people who always make the worst possible decision at the worst time and set off a calamity, even when it is obvious that said decision is a decidedly foolish thing to do. Ironically, this almost works against it when Cedric, under its influence, attacks the Pantagruel, which could've ended up destroying Valimar and Ordine outside of the Rivalries system, along with Zector and Testa-Rossa if Musse's suicide attack had succeeded.
• This Cannot Be!: It says this when defeated, and even follows it up with an adamant "I refuse to accept this!" before fleeing to a different realm.
• True Final Boss: Ishmelga-Loge is only fought in the Golden Ending route. Otherwise, the game ends after the battle with its Divine Knight form.
• Villainous Breakdown: Ishmelga doesn't take being booted out of the combined Divine Knights well at all, hurling obscenities at Class VII, manifesting itself as Ishmelga-Loge so it can destroy everything, and raging even harder when that form's defeated with help from the rest of the Radiant Wings. After being forced to retreat to another realm, it moves from rage to bargaining, and then simply abject terror as Rean finishes it off for good.
• Villains Want Mercy: Once Ishmelga is defeated and cornered by Rean, it immediately goes on a Motive Rant justifying its existence and attempts to tempt Rean with its power, all to save its own hide. Rean, declaring that it's time for humanity to move on, finishes it off for good.
• Villain Has a Point: Rean does agree with Ishmelga's argument that conflict and strife have lead to considerable innovation and advancement over the ages. However, he decides to destroy Ishmelga anyway, saying that it's time for humanity to move on a create a future where they're no longer under its thrall.
• Walking Spoiler: It's responsible for not only almost everything in the Cold Steel tetralogy, but many events in the prior sagas. Even the fact that it's one of the seven Divine Knights and not just some purely abstract curse is, in a sense, a significant detail.
• We Will Meet Again: Tells Dreichels that they will meet again even if his soul reincarnates. Two hundred and thirty years later, they did, with Osborne as the reincarnation.
• Wrecked Weapon: After Rean slices its sword form into two, it loses its power and disappears into nothingness.
• Xanatos Gambit: Ishmelga's plan is to win the Rivalries and absorb the other Knights so it can become the Great One, but even if it loses and gets absorbed itself, its unique power as a malevolent thought-entity allows it to simply take over the winning machine from within and wield the power of the Great One anyway. Its plan only fails because Rean and Valimar either resist long enough to self-destruct (in the normal ending) or use the Earthen Prison to separate Ishmelga's thought form from the combined machine entirely (in the true ending).

The Great One

General Information

The Great One, also known as the Sept-Terrion of Steel, is the fusion of the Ark Rouge and the Lost Zem, created through the conflict of the Hexen Clan and the Gnomes around the time of the Great Collapse. The Divine Knights are said to be its fragments.

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• Curse: Its creation also brought about a curse that messes with the minds of sapient beings, often causing them to act on their deeper, darker emotions, without being impeded by their logic.
• Fusion Dance: The result of the treasures of fire and earth combining. It was later separated into the Divine Knights, but through the Rivalries, they would continue to combine, with the end result being a Divine Knight with the power of the Great One
• Sealed Evil in a Six Pack: The real purpose of the Divine Knights is to act as vessels for the Great One and divide its power.

Loa Erebonius

Appearances: Cold Steel | Cold Steel III

The final opponent lying at the bottom of Thors Military Academy's Old Schoolhouse. It is described as a "shadow of the Great One."

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• Eldritch Abomination: Loa Erebonius is a an enormous, misshapen but vaguely humanoid, clawed and winged monstrosity with parts of its body flickering in and out of existence.
• Final Boss: Of Cold Steel I. It serves as the last boss fought in the Old Schoolhouse and the ultimate test of the player's skill in regular combat, but there are several Divine Knight battles afterward to wrap up the plot and tease the sequel.
• Leitmotif: "Great Power."
• Me's a Crowd: There's cutscenes showing several of them ravaging Heimdallr in the final chapter of Cold Steel III, forcing the Imperial Army's Panzer Soldats to fight back.

Loa Luciferia

Appearances: Cold Steel II | Reverie

The final opponent lying at the end of the Reverie Corridor.

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• Eldritch Abomination: Just like Erebonius.
• Leitmotif: "To a Glimmering Tomorrow" in Cold Steel II.
• Palette Swap: Loa Luciferia looks just like a white recolor of the black Erebonius.
• Post-Final Boss: Loa Luciferia is the actual last opponent fought in Cold Steel II, though it is fought after the main plot has been resolved and mostly serves as the original Class VII's final encore (it even tells the heroes that defeating it doesn't really affect anything in the grand scheme of things).

Loa Phantasma

Appearances: Cold Steel IV

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• Eldritch Abomination: Most likely, given who its counterparts are.
• Optional Boss: An optional encounter in Cold Steel IV that mainly serves to give you the final Lost Art.
• Palette Swap: It's gold in contrast to Erebonius' black and Luciferia's white.

The Eighth Awakener

Ishmelga Rean

Ishmelga Rean

Zoa Gilstein, the Zeroth Knight

^{Zoa Gilstein (wings deployed)}

^{Ishmelga of the End}

Voiced by: Kōki Uchiyama (Japanese), Sean Chiplock (English)

Appearances: Reverie

A man with an uncanny resemblence to Rean Schwarzer who shows up during the second occupation of Crossbell. While simulacra of other persons have been appearing throughout Zemuria, this one has a different atmosphere about him.He reveals himself as the mastermind of the whole conflict and the hijacking of Elysium and turns out to be a simulated existence of the fusion between Rean and Ishmelga.As such, he controls Zoa Gilstein, the Zeroth Knight, which is the combined Great One with Valimar as the base.

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• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: He's a simulated version of what happens if Rean didn't have access to Argres' Earthen Prison. He somehow also manages to corrupt the Elysium system to do its bidding.
• All Your Powers Combined: Zoa Gilstein's primary weapon is a laser blade, though he also has Testa-Rossa's bow and a bigger version of Ordine's double bladed saber.
• The Assimilator: Due to having two Reans in the same reality, reality itself is trying to merge the two with him being the dominant one. The playable Rean is struggling to maintain himself.
• Awesomeness Is a Force: One of Zoa Gilstein's attacks, Zero Roar, has it blasting out a pure force of energy that somehow hits all of his enemies and deals the All Cancel debuff.
• Batman Gambit: He's implied to have set the events of the chapter 3 of Rean's route in a way to make Rean wish for Valimar to still be there and make him unknowingly begin the Assimilation that could allow him to stabilize his existance.
• BFS: He uses the Tachi of the End, which is basically the Sword of the End used by Osborne, only with the blade part changed to better fit Rean's fighting style.
• Big Bad: Of Reverie, being the one who ejected Lapis from Elysium and used Supreme Leader Rufus in an attempt to bring Zemuria under one banner.
• Big Damn Heroes: Normal Ending Rean's final good act at the end of Reverie is to save Lapis from a metal debris falling from the ceiling.
• Black Eyes of Crazy: His eyes have black sclera, just like Rean did when using his ogre power in Cold Steel IV.
• By The Power Of Gray Skull: Alternate Rean or not, he is still Rean at his core with him summoning Zoa-Gilstein while oozing with ham.
• Character Tic: His idle animation is the same as Rean's: having his left hand on his left hip.
• Clipped-Wing Angel: After losing both its connection to Elysium and the Rean half of Ishmelga Rean, Ishmelga controls the severely depowered Zoa Gilstein in one last, desperate bid to destroy the heroes. Compared to the godly power it wielded before, Ishmelga of the End is significantly weaker and able to be taken down by Lloyd and his allies in standard combat, no Soldats or Divine Knights required.
• Curb Stomp Cushion: Every Soldat trying to face Zoa Gilstein can only get a few blows in before being incapacitated. Averted with the empowered Soldats used by Rean, Crow, and Rufus who are able to match him to a greater extent.
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: Ishmelga Rean has a decent chance of outright dodging attacks that are rated four stars, something no other mech boss fights even do from the previous games. It also does multi-hit attacks and each hit deals damage. Finally, it enhances twice, buffing up its already powerful attacks and speed and it is permanent with its enhanced mode lasting nine turns. Justified because Zoa Gilstein is supposed to have the power of all seven Divine Knights.
• Dark Is Evil: Given that he's the Big Bad wearing Rean's black outfit from Cold Steel IV, this is a given. Taken a step further when Zoa Gilstein turns its chest black to become Ishmelga of the End.
• Dark Messiah: Gaining the power of all seven Divine Knights and having Rean's Martyr Without a Cause tendencies exaggerated resulted in the being who believes only he can protect humanity from upcoming Bad Future.
• Death from Above: Uses one of Osborne's Crafts, Atropos Blade, where he jumps up and stabs the ground, creating a shockwave.
• Didn't See That Coming: He didn't know that the Arseille II would show up which is why the mechs didn't target the Arseille II, requiring him to fire the divine lightning. He also didn't think that Lloyd would be the first person to deduce his identity, thinking it was either going to be Rean or the ex-admin Lapis.
• Dual Boss: The first time you fight Ishmelga Rean as the "Masked Swordsman," he has Zoa-Balor as support.
• Dying as Yourself: After Ishmelga is separated from him for real, Rean says goodbye to Lloyd, Jusis, Lapis, Swin, and Nadia as himself.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Near the end of Lloyd's first chapter, Zoa Gilstein shows up for a brief moment as Ishmelga Rean summons a bunch of Helmord mechs blocking the civilians running away.
• Evil Counterpart:
  • He's an obvious example of this to Rean, since he was never able to overcome his self-sacrificial tendencies and had his altruism corrupted into a Knight Templar delusion of uniting the continent.
  • His Character Development from the original Rean goes in the opposite direction of Rufus's development, since he's very ambitious about gaining the power to unite and rule over Zemuria alone, while Rufus gave up on such ambitions and is more accepting of the Power of Friendship.
• Evil Is Hammy: Rean had a few hammy moments but Ishmelga Rean oozes so much ham when he gets going.
• Evil Me Scares Me: Rean is in shock at how horrible he would have been if he wasn't saved by Argres' Earthen Prison.
• Evil Sounds Deep: Whenever he talks, his voice is much lower than Rean's normal voice. He also has a noticeable echo.
• Final Boss: Ishmelga of the End is the last opponent fought during Reverie's main story.
• The Final Temptation: The simulated Rean tells the player character Rean to give in to his self-sacrificing nature by obtaining the powers of Zoa Gilstein and then performing his Heroic Sacrifice to ensure that Ishmelga will not appear in this world ever again, mimicking the normal ending of Cold Steel IV where he'd fulfilled his subconscious fantasy of martyring himself for the greater good. Rean, after having done a lot of soul searching throughout five whole games and witnessing what becomes of him after he does sacrifice himself, refuses the offer.
• Full-Name Basis: Always refers to characters with their full name.
• Fusion Dance: As the name would suggest, he's what happens when Rean and Ishmelga's minds become one; or, at least, he's a robotic simulation of what that would look like.
• Go Out with a Smile: This Rean's final moments, after separating from Ishmelga, has him smiling at the group saving Rufus while giving Lloyd a brofist.
• Humongous Mecha: Zoa Gilstein appears to be around the size of a Goliath Noa, making it taller than the regular Divine Knights.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: If players chose a Love Interest for the playable Rean back at the beginning of Rean's 1st chapter in Reverie, then Jusis apologizes to this Rean in his final moments for not bringing her with them. Rean's response is this trope and that's good enough for him.
• Leitmotif: Ishmelga-Rean's boss fight on foot is "No End, No World Instrumental Version" while "The Perfect Steel of ZERO" plays when Ishmelga Rean pilots Zoa Gilstein.
• Light Is Not Good: Zoa Gilstein is predominately white, but it's used for evil.
• Lightning Bruiser: Zoa Gilstein not only has the ridiculous stats expected of the completed Great One, it also has very high evasion even if the player targets its weak points.
• Limit Break: Ishmelga Rean's S-Craft is Nebulous Zenith, a twisted version of Rean's Luminous Abyss, while Zoa Gilstein's finisher is Ain Soph Aur. Incidentally, Rean's Awakened version of Breaking Dawn whilst in Chained Spirit Unification state is also Nebulous Zenith, reflecting his assimilation.
• Mask of Power: When he first shows up in chapter 4 of Rean's route, he wears a mask but doesn't speak. When Rean breaks the mask, he finally gets to talk.
• Master Swordsman: He did attain the rank of Divine Blade before Normal Ending Rean decided to fly to space and keep Ishmelga at bay for a long time. His S-Craft is Rean's second S-Craft, only more menacing and evil looking.
• Mechanical Abomination: Ishmelga Rean is a Simulacrum with a partially demonic appearance and gains Black Eyes of Crazy when his existence is stabilized. Once Ishmelga takes control of Zoa Gilstein, the mech has veins sprouting from its core.
• Mood-Swinger: He's a... deeply unstable person, to say the least, and in his first appearance alternates between spitefully condemning everyone as his inferiors to warmly addressing the members of Class VII just a few seconds apart. He's more composed by the time of the final battle as his personality has stabilized, but the ensuing fight once again drives his Rean and Ishmelga aspects apart, resulting in further instability.
• More than Mind Control: A complicated example. The Rean portion of the fusion is willingly working with the Ishmelga portion to build the Retributive Tower in the belief that continental unification is necessary to avert a future crisis, but Ishmelga is really use this as an excuse for causing more violence and death. However, the Rean portion seems to be aware of this, since he also wants to assimilate with the real Rean and sacrifice himself to take out Ishmelga again.
• Moveset Clone: He shares Crafts with both Osborne and Rean.
• Mystical White Hair: He has silver hair due to being permanantly stuck in his original Spirit Unification form and fusion with Ishmelga.
• Never the Selves Shall Meet: Simulated by Elysium or not, his very existence is tearing causality apart with the playable Rean feeling like he's about to be assimilated.
• Not So Omniscient After All: For all of the calculation powers that he has, he did not expect the presence of the Arseille II, nor did he expect the Divine Knights would bless the Soldats of Rean, Crow, and Rufus. The latter two lampshade this trope as their Badass Boast.
• One-Man Army: As a result of being Rean on permanant Spirit Unification without the drawback of being berserk from overexposure to the curse, Ishmelga Rean is formidable in a fight and manage to down Rean, Crow, Laura and Fie in a blow at the end of their fight in Mishelam Wonderland. And this isn't even counting on his capabilities as Zoa Gilstein's pilot, who is capable of stomping mere Soldats.
• Paradox Person: His existence is causing a fracture in reality with reality itself trying to merge this Rean and the protagonist Rean together.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Despite having the power you'd expect from the fusion of two Sept-Terrions, Zoa Gilstein isn't that much bigger than a Panzer Soldat, making it tiny compared to Arc Rouge and Lost Zem.
• Physical God: Being the Great One, Zoa Gilstein is able to bring forth the powers of two Sept-Terrions.
• Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: Right before curb stomping the seven Soldats, he only has this to say:
  Ishmelga Rean: There is no future to be had for you. Your existence ends here!
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: He wears a prominent black suit with a red scarf. He's also the Big Bad of Reverie.
• Red Right Hand: Almost literally, his left arm is a dark shade of red and looks like a demonic claw.
• Robot Buddy: Zoa-Balor, the original combat shell used by Black Alberich, obeys him now. In fact, it actually seems to serve as the core of Zoa Gilstein.
• Rock Beats Laser: Averted. As edge-cutting as the Tyrfings and Panzer Soldats are, Zoa-Gilstein fell them easily, and is only slightly matched when the Divine Knights possess them.
• Say My Name: When he's about to be defeated by Rean, Ishmelga Rean screams "REAN SCHWARZER!" as he lunges towards Rean.
• Sealed Evil in a Duel: He reveals this to be the fate of Normal Ending Rean. He send both himself and Ishmelga outside the atmosphere as they wrestle endlessly for the control of their shared undying body.
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Before disappearing for good, Rean tries to warn the party about a mysterious menace coming in 3 years (likely the Nothingness of All mentionned by Grandmaster) before being interrupted by Lloyd, who tells him they will face the threat with everyone like they always does.
• Sequential Boss:
  • A party of 8 (which requires Lloyd and Rean) fight against Ishmelga Rean on foot.
  • Juna in her Drakken II, Kurt in his Spiegel S, and Musse in her Kestral Beta lose to Zoa Gilstein after lowering him down to a certain amount of HP.
  • Ash in his Hector Mk.II, Crow in his Tyrfing X, and Rufus in his Helmord G lose to Zoa Gilstein after lowering him down to a certain amount of HP.
  • Rean in his Tyrfing S loses to Zoa Gilstein after lowering him down to a certain amount of HP.
  • Rean, Crow, and Rufus' machines are enchanted with the power of their pilots' respective Divine Knights to have a showdown with Zoa Gilstein.
  • Finally, Lloyd and 7 other characters (of which Rean, Crow, and Rufus are not among) have one last battle against Ishmelga of the End.
• Sore Loser: After being defeated for the final time, he deliberately relinquishes control of Elysium's Kill Sat to human unconsicousness so it nukes wherever people hold most negative emotions towards. As it is impossible for people to be free of ill will, this means Elysium's Kill Sat will fire until either there is no human left or all septium across the Zemurian continent is depleted. While he claims that he is doing this to see how humanity will overcome the ordeal, it comes across as a spiteful response to humanity rejecting his guidance. When Lloyd and his party go back into the tower to rescue Rufus after his Zero-Approval Gambit, he reappears, having permanently broken free of Ishmelga's influence, and this time he's a lot nicer.
• Split Personality: While he claims to be neither Rean nor Ishmelga, it's fairly obvious that the Rean personality is still present, separate from the Ishmelga part.
• Supernatural Gold Eyes: His irises are gold, fitting given his connection to the Sept-Terrions.
• Superpower Lottery: Zoa Gilstein is the amalgamation of the seven Divine Knights and it shows. In addition to the perks some Divine Knights had, it is able to teleport and summon energy blades who cleaves through cutting edge airships like butter.
• Tainted Veins: His face, neck, left hand, and forearm are all marred with black marks that make his veins glow a burning red color.
• Technicolor Blade: Ishmelga Rean's base tachi is red and black in color.
• The Unreveal: When Rean finally comes back as himself, he was willing to tell Lloyd and Jusis about future events when Lloyd and Jusis stop him from telling them as they reasoned that they already rejected Elysium's guidance. Rean telling them what happens in the future would be hypocritical of them and they assure Rean that they'll be fine.
• This Cannot Be!: He didn't expect that Valimar, Ordine, and El-Prado would possess Rean, Crow, and Rufus' mechs.
• Time Travel: While the game takes place in S.1207, this Rean and Ishmelga spent years in the infinite Rivalry and as such came from a later time, which allows Rean to try to warn his friends about the catastrophe that will happens in less than 3 years.
• Upgrade vs. Prototype Fight: In the final stages of his boss fight, he pilots Zoa Gilstein, forged from the combined form of the original Divine Knights, while facing off against Rean, Crow, and Rufus, who are respectively using the Tyrfings S, Tyrfing X, and modified Hermod, the latest models of Panzer/Zauber Soldats that were derived from using the Divine Knights (mainly Ordine) as a base. He ends up winning until the three manage to gain a power boost from their original Divine Knights.
• Vocal Dissonance: When the Rean half is separated from the Ishmelga half, Ishmelga, in Rean's body, speaks in his usual deep, guttural voice.
• We Need a Distraction: Rean, Crow, and Rufus' final boss fight against Ishmelga Rean piloting Zoa Gilstein is just them distracting Ishmelga Rean so that he doesn't notice that Lapis and half of the party are at the Elysium main terminal to separate Ishmelga Rean from the system. It nearly doesn't work as Ishmelga Rean ends up noticing and nearly wipes out the group until Rufus saves the crew by pulling off a Diving Save.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Zigzagged due to his unstable nature as a simulated fusion of Rean and Ishmelga. The Rean portion genuinely wants to avert a future crisis and he wants to assimilate with the real Rean in order to fully materialize Ishmelga and destroy the latter at the cost of his own life. The Ishmelga portion is even more ill-intentioned than its original counterpart, since it wants to use the Retributive Tower to wipe out humanity and rebuild civilization in its image.
• White Hair, Black Heart: While keeping his white hair from Cold Steel IV, this Rean is what happens if Rean went off the deep end.
• World's Strongest Man: While Ishmelga Rean is fairly powerful on his own, Zoa Gilstein is bar none the strongest being of Zemuria possibly only matched by Holy Beasts and a fully-powered McBurn. ^note While they were unable to be hurt without Alberich creating a Sword of the End, it is unknown if the Great One would be able to. In fact, Rean, Crow, and Rufus' Final Boss battle against Zoa Gilstein was never about beating him because it's beyond their powers, instead distracting him until Ishmelga Rean could be booted off from Elysium. They only manage to get a decisive strike once it is cut from the system.
• Zerg Rush: Deploys a ton of mechs to ward off any invaders trying to get into the Retributive Tower.

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