Darth Wiki / Blissrune

A fictional Fighting Game by Wax, under rework.

---

In a far future, mankind has discovered magical items and used them to expand society greatly.
Though, in their attempt to create their Grail, the "Gate Halo", a religious organization, organized a secret gathering in Europe to channel holy magic's very essence into a vessel, a simple stone which became the Blissrune. With its creation, they discovered that it was not exploitable: very soon, it started modifying the land around and channeling its power into everything around it. The Gate Halo lost an invaluable part of its staff this day. Two similar incidents were reported in completely opposite locations (America and Japan to contrast the Blissrune's creation in Western Europe), with much more evil-looking powers infesting the land instead, which were referred to as the Bloodrune and Blackrune. Due to the power of the runes, mankind lost its hold on Earth progressively when several attempts to hold back the corruptions only resulted in their power dwindling.
After these failures, the "Gate Halo" was overtaken by a part of it and renamed to "New Gate Halo", with the new aim to govern humanity's new settlements. Their rule quickly became tyrannical though, and they attempted to monopolize all the existent Magitek weapons for their personnel's use. The country of Japan rebelled against the New Gate Halo's behavior, but at the end of the year, the country surrendered, forced by their country's Blackrune corruption to ask their enemies for help. The New Gate Halo answered negatively, letting Japan progressively hang themselves. They proceeded to fell Japan in one swoop, resulting in a near-genocide.
Months only after Japan fell, another organization proposes an alternative to the Halo: the R System, created after the Replica Mine Riot which saw the New Gate Halo lose a part of its power, promises a more peaceful world, luring people away from the New Gate Halo and causing a cold war. The R System is acting up and has its sights set on the New Gate Halo's second-biggest stronghold, Kanmuri City.

---

This is a series divided in 5 games, each with an expansion:

• The Kanmuri City Siege
  • Crystal's Hatching
• Strife in Seki City
  • The R
• Tate City Waning
  • Enter the Dark Age
• Pegasus's Descent
  • Desire of the Sanctum
• Harbinger's Awakening
  • The Rune Wars

---

Tropes associated with the story:

• Aerith and Bob: There are very few Bobs though, to the point that, not counting some Japanese names, Johnny D. Flash and Ken Shepard count as the bobbiest of the Bobs.
• Anti-Human Alliance: To a degree, the Guild of the Night, whose goal is to help victims of Fantastic Racism. (Though it does accept some humans, those shunned for using Black Magic.) This aspect of the Guild comes more to the picture with Merilith, since she is the leader of the group and it was formerly the New Gate Halo Night Branch, all fired in one shot by Soujirou after his induction as the Halo's Guru; count her history as the Monster Lord during the Monster Wars and it's clear that the Guild bears some resentment towards humanity.
• Apocalypse How: When the Blissrune was created, its two evil counterparts came into being and the three started infesting the world. Needless to say, infested zones also corrupt everything within, including humanity. Which means this brought three Focused-scope Societal Disruptions.
• Artifact of Doom: The Blissrune. But Wait, There's More! It has two Evil Counterpart runes in the Bloodrune and Blackrune.
• Artifact Title: "Guru" for the New Gate Halo's leader. The New Gate Halo ceased to be a religious group long ago to redirect itself towards governing the remains of humanity.
  • Insistent Terminology: Soujirou refers to himself as "Grandmaster" and insists everyone should refer to him as such, but remains opposed by the Halo aristocracy who thinks the Halo should keep knowledge of its roots and thinks Soujirou has more important matters to worry about.
• Bloody Bowels of Hell: Bloodrune-infested zones. And, as seen when the plot goes to Tate City, the entire North American continent is one such area.
• Card-Carrying Villain: The New Gate Halo's Fright Branch has it in the name. It helps that it's also directed by Norou, who is himself an example of the trope.
• Crapsack World: Three runes corrupting the world, an oppressive government and amoral opposition.
• Evil Versus Evil: The Halo vs. the Runes. The Halo vs. the R System. The Halo vs. the Fright Branch (it only exists on the surface).
• Evil Versus Oblivion: A Mêlée à Trois version, adding the Crystals N and M to the mix. Crystal-M being the Oblivion to the Halo's Evil (The Halo wants to rule mankind, Crystal-M wants to Kill All Humans.), but the Evil to Crystal-N's Oblivion (Crystal-M only targets humans. Crystal-N's aim is to destroy the entire planet.).
• Fantasy Kitchen Sink: There are all sorts of fantastic species, all of which being as sentient as humans. In fact, half the cast is made of non-humans, and/or half-breeds.
• Fantasy Metals: Even normal metals count as such to a degree since all metals block any rune's corruption.
  • Mint's weapons are made of Mithril, Ken's of Meteoric Iron.
  • The straighter examples are Halo-iron and Life-iron. There are also some stones that count, such as Celestone.
• Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke: The Crystals. Though genetic engineering is but one of their many difference with humanity.
• Gone Horribly Right: The creation of the Blissrune. The Gate Halo wanted the embodiment of holiness, they got it, but Holy Is Not Safe and it has two Evil Counterpart elements that are just as unforgiving.
• Gone Horribly Wrong: Sealing the Blissrune via Crystal-A. Crystal-A instantly shut down and went comatose. Adding to that, two years later, in the Rune Wars, she awakens as the vessel of the very thing she was created to fight.
• The Good, the Bad, and the Evil: Loads of comparisons can be made this way, but this is the primary visual motif between the Blissrune, the Bloodrune and the Blackrune.
• Government Conspiracy: The New Gate Halo is full of it within. Especially obvious with Soujirou who attempts to manipulate the corruption to maintain his hold on the government.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Lots of them, since we're in a Fantasy Kitchen Sink. The unpredictable, though, is that Crystals fit the bill, being half-girls, half-mineral embodiments, half-robots.
• Holy Is Not Safe: The Blissrune is made of this. When it was created, all life in a mile-wide radius died.
• Infinity +1 Sword: Halo-iron is the strongest metal known in this setting, and it is extremely hard to forge, requiring magiforging. Soujirou sought Jin Ikazuchi for being the only person alive able to reliably create Halo-iron.
• Japanese Spirit: Averted. The Japanese having no specific "talent" were just on par with the average New Gate Halo staff, in a 3-on-1 war where the Halo also brought Crystals. Needless to say, 10 months later, Japan was on the brink of utter annihilation.
• Ki Manipulation: A factor of Japanese ascendance that is highly-valued as almost nobody can do anything close to magic by themselves. Those who used to teach magic were corrupted by the runes and/or killed.
• Made of Evil: The Bloodrune and the Blackrune. Literally. When the holy magic was concentrated into the Blissrune, natural balance condensed black magic and blood magic into two other stones.
• Magic Genetics: The Crystals have magically-modified genes.
• Magitek: Very present as humans cannot perform magic naturally, having to perform it with the help of enchanted weapons. Every single human in the series who wields magic carries a weapon for this reason. Crystals are the logical conclusion: artificial humans being their own enchanted weapons.
• Natural Weapon: The Crystals have automatic Wolverine Claws, Breath Weapon, Flight, and are innately able to cast magic unlike average humans.
• Person of Mass Destruction: The Crystals. Crystal-M destroys a city and kills (or nearly kills) almost every human present, Crystal-N has the potential for disintegrating anything and everything. Crystal-A subverts it, while she can destroy, she prefers corrupting and thus is much less destructive than her sisters.
• Science Is Bad: Averted. While science does have drawbacks, magic has even worse if misused.
• Shout-Out: A lot, even without counting expies.
  • The R System is a Fairy Tail shout-out in general.
  • The faction Z-One is named after a villain in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds. Johnny and Zero essentially have a relationship like Sol and Ky.
  • Several characters (Maju, Reiei, Zee [with Mint being originally a What If? and the same person], Johnny, etc...) were at first original characters for BlazBlue Play By Post Game. Adding to that, the Crystals are named with letters like the Murakumo Units are named with numerals.
• Sliding Scale of Villain Threat: Global Threat for everyone, since they want to either Take Over the World (each in their own way) or destroy it.
• Take Over the World: The New Gate Halo did this immediately following its creation. The R System are trying to do this by supplanting the Halo.
• Theme Naming: Every character's moves. Maju's have girl names, Mint's are wind-themed, the RJs' refer to Christian religion, and so on...
• Title Drop: The Blissrune is one Artifact of Doom out of the three that are infesting the world, making this an Antagonist Title.
  • Subtitle Drop:
    • The Kanmuri City Siege, Strife in Seki City, Tate City Waning and Pegasus's Descent all namedrop the location for the game.
    • Crystal's Hatching refers to an even that occurs during the game: the reawakening of Crystal-M.
    • The R naturally refers to the R System's takeover of Seki City.
    • Enter the Dark Age refers to the Guild of the Night taking over Tate City.
    • The Rune Wars naturally refers to the runes.

---

Tropes associated with the gameplay elements:

• Anti-Frustration Features: Lose against someone and you can get a battle boost. These are much stronger against the bosses, allowing for a dose of Pay Evil unto Evil on the SNK Bosses.
• Attack Reflector: Very common.
• Awesome, but Impractical: The Mythical Arcane. It can finish off an enemy below 50% health and is very accessible, aside from its cost of 3 mana meters, and you can only use it in the round that wins you the match. It's possible to attempt to make it practical: it's easier to use in a way depending on your rune pick, making it awesome yet still practical.
• Boss Bonanza: Every time, with those in the boss sequence getting some differences to avoid a Mirror Match.
  • The Kanmuri City Siege has Herz, Akihiko, Gouta and Norou.
    • Crystal's Hatching has the same, but Norou can be replaced by Crystal-M.
  • Strife in Seki City has Rei, Nami, Loke, and Zack.
    • The R takes out Loke, and adds Ronda, fought after Zack.
  • Tate City Waning has Koizumi, Gouta and Homura.
    • Enter the Dark Age has an entirely different rush made with Akihiko, Gunnar, Miree and Merilith.
  • Pegasus's Descent has Nami-V, Regulus and Crystal-N.
    • Desire of the Sanctum takes out everyone but Crystal-N out of the guaranteed boss rush. When Crystal-N is beaten, there is a True Final Boss: Soujirou.
  • Harbinger's Awakening has no fixed boss rush but Final Boss Crystal-A.
    • The Rune Wars features a Boss Rush with Zack, Akihiko and Crystal-A in a row.
      However, the Soujirou fight can actually part into different boss rushes, with four options. The three first, Loke > Zack > Crimeida, Miree > Akihiko > Ebonsela and Cristina > Crystal-A > Pearelei, are character-dependent. However, the fourth option is granted only on a perfect run, and features Crimeida, Ebonsela and Pearelei, fought in this order.
• Character Roster Global Warming: Averted. The series spews a constant stream of big guys, more or less fitting to the trope, and more or less hidden.
• Charge Attack: The Knockdown Attack, with its specific button, can be charged. Only the offense rune enhances the attack's power, though: charging it with the defense rune gives Life Drain, charging it with the speed rune puts the opponent into slow-motion, and charging it with the mana rune increases your Mana Meter gain.
• Combos: Enforced with very little scaling ratios and Runedrive. Especially speed Runedrive, which allows any attack to be cancelled on contact into any other attack.
• Counter-Attack: None are universal, but several characters possess one.
• Dash Attack: Loads of them, prevalent even in non Fragile Speedster-type characters.
• Double Jump: Even the Mighty Glacier characters have access to it.
• Elemental Crafting: Magiforging, an art known by few people across the world. It's also the reason Z-One and the R System hasn't been razed by the Halo, as they are not far behind (or behind at all in Z-One's case) in terms of technology.
• Finishing Move: The Mythical Arcane can only be used on opponents below half health (except if you're using the offense rune, which allows to use it on a full-health enemy) and instantly kills the opponent on hit.
• Fixed Damage Attack: Each character's Mythical Arcane always deals 1000 damage (unaffected by combo scaling or enemy defense boosts), which makes it a One-Hit Kill since 1000 is a full lifebar's worth of damage.
• Grapple Move: There are several grapple specialists, though many non-grapplers still have command grabs.
• Knockback Evasion: Called Stonebreak. It has two offensive and two defensive variations. The offensive Stonebreaks strike the opponent while the defensive Stonebreaks are escape dashes.
• Life Drain: Several attacks have this effect. Hitting charged Knockdown Attacks with a defense rune gives them lifesteal. Some characters have life-stealing attacks naturally. Continuing can give this to everyone.
• Limit Break: Spellbreaks, which require two mana meters. To a larger scale, we have the Mythical Arcanes, that require three mana meters plus a full rune gauge.
• Shockwave Stomp: Present for several characters.
• Shoryuken: Many characters have one such attack, except most don't fill as Invulnerable Attacks.
• Slide Attack: Many of those, especially for Fragile Speedsters.
• SNK Boss: At the end of the boss sequences, you get a pair or two every game.
  • The Kanmuri City Siege starts with Gouta. It's enough that he naturally has the biggest range in the game (barring the rare true projectiles) on his sword attacks, and deals big damage with it or his grabs. But he also has an extra, the first time you KO him each round, he doesn't stay dead, instead having a second wind and near-instantly recovering (even mid-combo) with 30% of his life. Though, Gouta retains his weakness: he has only a few slow reversals to snap out of pressure.
  • He is of course topped by Norou, the Final Boss. Norou is great at enforcing dangerous situations for his opponent and is almost constantly safe. Plus he gains extra health whenever he damages you from hits, though this extra health decays over time. If you manage to not crumple under the pressure however, he has no way to escape at all.
  • The expansion Crystal's Hatching features True Final Boss Crystal-M, who tops Norou. In her normal form, she's already as fast as Mint and as safe as Norou, but she doesn't deal much damage and has short range, giving you chances to get in and knock her down to get her into her sore spot. However, the boss version of her deals increased damage based on her mana, and with 3 mana bars she deals nearly double damage. Count that she also gains mana quicker the less mana she has, and she very often ends up dealing far more damage than her playable counterpart, especially if she gets to spam Pursuit combos to abuse the Mana Vacuum. When you get her at 30% life for the first time each round, she instantly generates health based on her mana.
• Spam Attack: Light attacks can be rapid-fired, and several characters have this as special moves.
• Spin Attack: Akihiko and Gouta have one as supers. They are not the only ones.
• Super Mode: Runedrive, which buffs your own character depending on your rune pick.
• Unblockable Attack: Several specials are unblockable, not to mention many characters' Mythical Arcanes.
• Unstable Equilibrium: Using any move that requires Mana gives a Mana Vacuum buff that doubles your mana generation for a while, effectively helping you gain more mana to use.

---

---

Characters:

Introduced in The Kanmuri City Siege:

Maju Akai

A Japanese Z-One agent, scarred during the War of Japan. She's sent in Kanmuri City to report the latest developments, but she wants more.

Tropes associated with Maju:

• Anti-Hero: Bordering on Nominal Hero due to her borderline-nihilistic view of people. She regains empathy later on, but remains firmly Good Is Not Nice.
• Everyone Has Standards: When Zero basically nukes Seki City, even she calls him a douchebag.
• Eyepatch of Power: Subverted: the piece covering her eye sports an optical implant.
• Fiery Redhead: Pink-haired, but the personality is on the mark.
• Handicapped Badass: She's been this for a while, fighting the New Gate Halo on her own for a year with one arm and one eye.
  • I Am Not Left-Handed: She still mostly plays handicapped and refuses to use her mechanical assets.
• It Gets Easier: After murdering her friends, she has no problem at the idea of murdering even likeable figures from anywhere — unless they're young girls or Z-One.
• My God, What Have I Done?: After murdering all the girls in her dorm in cold blood, she immediately was shocked and appalled by what she did, and this is why she won't kill young girls again.
• Nominal Hero: While she does try to redeem herself, she's still socially inept because she still hates almost everybody, fights the Halo out of gut feeling and for revenge, and gives no value to friendship.
• Nothing Up My Sleeve: She hides her mechanical arm in her sleeve.
• Oh, Crap!: In Strike in Seki City, she's creeped out at the giddiness in Sakura's voice when she's talking about torturing her.
• Older Than They Look: Due to her short size and her hiding most of herself, everybody mistakes her for a runaway 14-year-old during The Kanmuri City Siege. It's only once she meets Sakura later that she realizes that this was a hint at her being alive.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: She's 5'3", and is the smallest character introduced in the Kanmuri City Siege (smaller than Zee). Even in the entire series, only four characters smaller than her are introduced.
• Revenge Before Reason: Attacked Loke and Gouta on-sight. Both didn't end well.
• Sociopathic Hero: She has trouble seeing value in relationships after she murdered her best friends for the sake of her goal, and she has no problem murdering Halo staff with psychopathic glee.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Her use of non-ki magic. Due to her great tuning with her mechanical sword, she can use its fire powers with more power than Ken's own. Her skill with magic, however, is nonexistent, so she fails to do anything elaborate with it.
• Weak, but Skilled: Her small size belies her skill with her sword and her innate ability with ki and magic.

Reiei

A Halo-affiliated intelligence worker in the Fright Branch, he is in fact a mole working for the Guild of the Night, formed by the vampires and werewolves victims of Fantastic Racism by the Halo. He is the son of a werewolf and a Gate Halo priestess, but his Star-Crossed Lovers parents chose their affiliation over love. He was raised by his mother, and so he tried to get revenge on his father for his actions, but after being defeated by Merilith herself he renounced the meaninglessness of it as it wouldn't bring his life back.

Tropes associated with Reiei:

• Agent Peacock: He takes care of his appearance a lot, wears a tiara and likes primarily feminine clothing.
• Ambiguous Gender: Played with, what with his bishieness, mid-length hair and overall lack of manly attributes. But he firmly identifies as male.
• Apologetic Attacker: Not exactly while attacking, but when winning he'll voice his qualms about having to beat someone up.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: When he is seen in the Guild.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: His "weapon" is his tiara, and his only reason it's called a weapon is because it gives him the ability to move and float intangibly.
• Battle Butler: Serves Merilith as one of such.
• Bodyguarding a Badass: In Tate City Waning, he is assigned by Merilith herself to guard her. He isn't part of the boss sequence in Enter the Dark Age.
• Can't Have Sex, Ever: Reiei "renounced his earthly life" and ripped away his own genitals to concentrate on his pursuit of the greater good.
• Code Name: His real name is unknown to all the playable characters, and he himself does not mention it.
• Cultured Badass: Very cultured and well-educated despite his cynicism towards books.
• Dating Catwoman: With Miree until Enter the Dark Age, though it doesn't end well at all.
• Foil: To Maju. Both have a revenge-driven backstory to the Halo, renounced at least a part of themselves, stand on opposite sides of Romanticism Versus Enlightenment while also having come from the other side, and blur the line between genders since both cannot breed anymore (for largely different reasons) and have a Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy vibe.
• Former Teen Rebel: A short variation where he started an assassination attempt on Merilith in his mother's name.
• Friendless Background: He's been a victim of Fantastic Racism, even by his mother who tried to suppress his nature. Which, while not stopping the racism from humanity, added some extra dose of it from werewolves until he no longer frequented any. Even in the Guild, he's disliked by the average guild member.
• Good Is Not Nice: While he preaches tolerance, he's not above snarking at people's moral failings.
• Gratuitous German: His attack names, some of which are even incorrect. He is born in Germany and was raised in Kanmuri City, based in Germany.
• Heroic Bastard: Though not perfectly nice, see Good Is Not Nice.
• Humble Hero: With the "humble" aspect being exaggerating with how self-effacing and unassuming he normally acts.
• Purely Aesthetic Glasses
• Real Men Wear Pink: He may wear a tiara and nailpaint and have a hobby for drawing girlish outfits, but he firmly identifies as a man, thank you.
• Revenge Before Reason: Went gunning straight for Merilith at the ripe age of 16.
• The Sneaky Guy: The Smart Guy variant.
• Undying Loyalty: To Merilith, not to the Guild, as he points out to Asterius and Gunnar on occasion.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: His inability to transform into a full-blown wolf is a major factor in his low self-esteem.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: Or maybe because he looks younger than he is, but he definitely looks the part.
• Wolverine Claws: On fire, which is a case of innate magic due to his paranormal lineage.

Yaki

A field agent and scientist in Z-One. Maju idolizes him for his cool-headed nature.

Tropes associated with Yaki:

• Amazing Technicolor Population: He has orange-reddish skin, owing to his demonic species.
• Badass Normal: He doesn't use his demon magic or mechanical enhancements to their full abilities. He may not be 100% normal anymore, but he fights like one.
• Berserk Button: He becomes a bit less calm when seeing a comrade hurt.
• Big Red Devil: Comes from a species of them, though he's far from being evil.
• Brains and Brawn: Brains to Maju's brawn. While he's far from weak, it's easy to see which is which.
• The Comically Serious: Remains serious under most circumstances, including playful times.
• Dark Is Not Evil: A genuine demon, yet one of the persons with the most self-control of all.
• A Father to His Men: Despite not being Z-One's Field Commander by any stretch, he is this.
• Genius Bruiser: He has both field agent and scientist functions in Z-One.
• Gentle Giant: Mostly because he fears humanity would go up in arms and exterminate his kind if he steps out of line and dishes unnecessary violence.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Compared to squadmate Maju. He's the tallest character in the entire series at 7' while she's 5'4".
• In a Single Bound: Is capable of massive jumps. That's how he escapes the vicinity in the Kanmuri City Siege when Crystal-M gets out of the Halo branch.
• Megaton Punch: Onigashima Destroyer
• Only Known by Their Nickname: "Yaki" is a nickname.
• We Can Rebuild Him: It has been done once.

Johnny D. Flash / Jin Ikazuchi

A robot guy who is on the lookout for a certain person on intuition, erring in the city. The current leader of Z-One. He used to be part of the old Gate Halo but left to create Z-One after defecting from the New Gate Halo.

Tropes associated with Johnny:

• Brain in a Jar: His brain is still human, but controls his robotic body.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Just a façade.
• The Corruption: His human body fell to Bloodrune corruption when it came into existence right in front of him. That explains his "I'm accustomed to killing myself" line, when he faces RJs.
• Hidden Heart of Gold: He doesn't take kindly to being interrupted on his missions.
• Iaijutsu Practitioner: His sheath only seems to exist for a few of his attacks to invoke this.
• Infinity +1 Sword: Despite not being the strongest person in the setting, he has the strongest weapon in this setting until Soujirou crystallizes himself, which makes Soujirou himself the strongest weapon.
• Made of Iron: He survives Zero's NLC explosion from 5 meters away. Half-subverted as the bomb mostly affects stone and does nearly no damage to organic material, but a normal would've died under the rubble. Johnny's reaction?
  [["Oh, father... ***That*** was reckless."]]
• Swiss-Army Weapon: His body. It hides weapons as diverse as his imagination.
  • Playing with Fire: There's a flamethrower inside his chest.
  • Shock and Awe: One of his hands hides a tazer.
• Teen Genius: Has been one. He made the RJs at age 23, and was at this point the leader of his research team, even over Zero.
• Ultimate Blacksmith: He is Jin Ikazuchi, but Soujirou spent the entire story in Tate City Waning trying to retrieve him in vain, unknowing that he was already an enemy. There's also the fact that his sword is made of Halo-iron, and was created before Soujirou coined it.
• Walking Spoiler

Engel

A mobster from the docks of Kanmuri City. He hates the Halo since the War of Japan, and is planning a terrorist assault on Kanmuri City. He is hiding the fact that he was there before the Halo, and the fact that Kanmuri City was built over his home city, as the Halo plundered the Celestone the city was partially made of. As he was a heir to the leading family that was living here, his real family name is Himmelstein.

Tropes associated with Engel:

• Badass Normal: He even learned how to use Ki Manipulation.
• Germanic Depressives
• Gratuitous Ninja: His idea was that he had to become a Ninja to exact his revenge.
• McNinja: German ninja.
• Monument of Humiliation and Defeat: He bears a trinket holding the last chunk of Celestone that the Halo didn't pillage befre building Kanmuri City.
  • Humiliation Conga: He is sent in a Heroic BSoD upon witnessing the birth of Crystal-N, as she wields said Celestone.
• Nominal Hero: Considered good, but he always attempts to blow up whichever city it is the game happens in. In Pegasus's Descent, he succeeds at taking down the sky fortress.
• Revenge Before Reason: He will not consider dying, but killing any number of punch clock villains is fine by him.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: A mob war veteran at age 24. It's all a lie that he cultivates. He didn't fight mob wars for very long, he fought the Halo.
• Too Many Belts: Some of them are so loose that the buckles hit.

Kouma Sougou

Cristina's right-hand man, he's a boar-man. His family is bound to the Greengale House by a mutual agreement, and he himself feels very entitled towards his duties with the clan. He acts for them in Kanmuri City in hopes to make them good publicity and counter the Halo's current trend of putting all non-God clans down.

Tropes associated with Kouma:

• Berserk Button: Fantastic Racism, and to a lesser degree anti-heroes, especially the Jerk with a Heart of Gold kind.
• Bodyguard Crush: But he doesn't act on it.
• Bruiser with a Soft Center: Musclebound bruiser, textbook Mc Coy.
• Chained by Fashion: His coat is attached by crossed chains.
• Full-Boar Action: He's a boar-man.
• Mercy Kill: In the ending of Desire of the Sanctum, Cristina ends up corrupted by the Blissrune, thus giving her a Downer Ending as Norou was taken by Soujirou just before. Kouma pursues her in the Rune Wars with this aim in mind.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Once Cristina is gone, he settles for this, and forgoes Norou entirely to take revenge directly on Soujirou.
• Servile Snarker: Mostly about Cristina's tendency for grandiose speeches.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: In contrast to Cristina, he's quite the potty-mouth.

Ken Shepard

A first-class soldier in the R System. He is tasked with assuring Mint completes her mission and collecting the Crystal egg, but he's wary of his mission, Mint herself, and the R System in general.

Tropes associated with Ken:

• Big Brother Instinct: Mint notes in the Kanmuri City Siege that he acts a bit of both, as he won't let her fight ever.
• Defector from Decadence: When he understands the truth about the Crystals being artificial humans used as weapons of mass destruction and Mint being a clone of them, he immediately calls it quits with the R System no matter Mint's own reaction.
• Fantastic Racism: Has it big, considering he fought quite a while in the Monster Wars. He's not acting on it, except for the occasional disgruntled sigh that he has to deal with one of them.
• Knight in Sour Armor: He's lost everything he could save, but not his ideal of peace.
• Lightning Bruiser: Can have extreme bursts of speed equalling Mint's while still being normal (and also much bigger than her), and he hits hard.
• Megaton Punch: How he puts Crystal-M to rest for enough time for Mint and him to leave.
• The Neidermeyer: Seen as such by Mint during the Kanmuri City Siege as he supervises her mission and doesn't give her any kindness.
• Passive-Aggressive Kombat: With the R System. Ken's objective regarding them is to expose R's lies to his own forces. The pillaging done by him and Mint in Pegasus's Descent was motivated by Mint's need to upgrade herself for incoming fights against the Halo and Crystal-M.
• Sociopathic Soldier: The Broken Soldier subtype, though he never goes off the deep end.
• Super-Speed: In brief bursts during some of his attacks.

Rita Murakumo / Zee

The R System's princess, charged with defeating Gouta Terakami and anyone who could come to his rescue. Also, she's a Crystal clone, and their ace weapon.

Tropes associated with Rita:

• A-Cup Angst: Despite being just So Okay, It's Average.
• Big Little Sister: She calls Mint hers, which Mint confuses as a simple display of affection. Which is why she gets upset when Mint snaps, but she just decides Screw This, I'm Outta Here. Even after her Face–Heel Turn, she stays affectionate towards her.
• Boyish Short Hair: Averted; she has short hair but she's anything but boyish.
• Depraved Bisexual: She's had affairs with R System agents of both genders, even though her heart solely belongs to R'.
• Living with the Villain: Mint and Ken were this with her. She was even hiding her true nature, though she could've told them.
• Non-Indicative Name: Her true name is "Zee", but Rita wasn't cloned from Crystal-Z (since even Crystal-N didn't exist by then); rather, she's cloned from Crystal-F.
• Sickly Green Glow: Averted but still evoked, with many things she makes glowing a strong blue.

Herz Weißschild

A young Halo soldier and a disciple of the Halo. A dubious prospect of Soujirou, he is shown to have a distorted vision of justice and great zeal to match. He's hiding Blissrune corruption from his Halo superiors, hoping that they overlook it when he proves himself.

Tropes associated with Herz:

• Apologetic Attacker: When fighting Halo people. Except Gouta (due to envy) or Akihiko (because he simply considers him the slimiest of all slimeballs).
• Battle in the Center of the Mind: His story modes always feature a Mirror Match against the Blissrune corruption within himself.
• Black-and-White Insanity: Big time.
• Boomerang Bigot: Hunts down corrupted people like Yuzuki and Loke for Soujirou, but he just has a different corruption to them, the Blissrune's.
• Green-Eyed Monster: He's very jealous of Gouta's status and jumps at every chance to one-up him.
• Humiliation Conga: His entire story, later echoed by Zack and Yuzuki's own. From his favored position in society, he goes to have nothing left but visions that drive him crazy.
• Iaijutsu Practitioner: He even rubs it in the face of anyone Japanese, especially Akihiko.
• Jerkass: Extremely self-righteous. He considers anyone not Halo-aligned as absolute trash and he says it.
  • Jerkass Has a Point: While he is a self-righteous asshole, he was right about Akihiko betraying the Halo.
• Justice Will Prevail: Keeps saying this, though his idea of justice is centered on the Halo.
• Knight Templar: He is made of the trope and remains this under all circumstances. His definition of good changes progressively, but constantly remains twisted.
• Light Is Not Good
• Tautological Templar: He considers the Halo to be right, and gives himself the right to kill any trespassers — even though, in The Kanmuri City Siege, he fights in front of the Halo's building, which is not a restricted area.

Akihiko Egami

A Halo officer and strategist. He became Gouta's lieutenant after betraying the Japanese rebellion and ending the Japan War.

Tropes associated with Akihiko:

• The Ace: In Japan, he was regarded as abnormally-competent for his age. Of course, that reputation goes up in smoke when he turns to the Halo.
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: Subtly at the beginning (he only gets arrogant when he actually wins), but incredibly obvious at the end.
• Badass Back: He always turns his back on his foe after winning.
• Black Knight: Has the look, but lacks the physical stature and attitude.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Turned on the Japanese after the war. He turns on Gouta and puts him out of action for Strife in Seki City, and then tops that in Enter the Dark Age by turning on Merilith and Norou simultaneously.
• Cowardly Lion: Proven in the Japan War, when he defected to the Halo because Japan was fighting a losing war.
• Deceptive Disciple: He was on the Japanese side in the War, but betrayed them which quickly led to its end.
• Despotism Justifies the Means
• Doppelgänger Attack
• The Dreaded: In Harbinger's Awakening, he is this even in comparison to the other two Rune Holders. While nobody knows that Zack took hold of the Bloodrune, and Crystal-A is still asleep, Akihiko is a constant threat waiting for the first moment of weakness in anybody to strike, as he proved with Miree in the previous game. The menace of corruption effectively invalidates a good half of the cast.
• Enigmatic Minion: To Gouta in The Kanmuri City Siege.
• Face–Heel Turn: He betrayed Japan for the Halo at the tail end of the war.
  • Hazy-Feel Turn: Then he turns on the Halo for the Guild of the Night but his true "allegiance" was to the Fright Branch and he was a mole in the Guild. Despite the ambiguousness of some of his affiliations, he remains a permanent villain.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: In The Kanmuri City Siege, he is treated as a cowardly underling of Gouta, meaning he is nothing more than a conniving Smug Snake. He progressively gains power with the sequels until he becomes one of the most feared figures in the Rune Wars.
• It's Personal: Unfortunately, his ending the Japan War has put him square in the crosshairs of many.
• Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: After he accidentally murdered his father.
• Keeping the Enemy Close: Why he stayed with the Fright Branch: he needed Miree to serve as a punching bag.
• Manipulative Bastard: He first gets political power by joining the Halo, then using his privilege for training. He later betrays them for the Fright Branch and the Guild of the Night to then get an idea of the Blackrune's whereabouts, only to obtain it and then sucker-punch Miree and Merilith, in theory both his superiors, by injuring and corrupting a defeated Miree to use as his servant right under Merilith's nose. Despite being corrupted as a side-effect of his victory, he becomes a big player in the finale, facing off against the other rune holders, Zack and Crystal-A.
• Monument of Humiliation and Defeat: Miree becomes a living tribute to his sucker-punching Merilith and Norou.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: In The Kanmuri City Siege, he is presented as Gouta's weak lieutenant, but he later proves himself capable of taking Gouta on solo, being actually the one who incapacitated him for the entire Seki City incident.
• Opportunistic Bastard: The epitome of it, with a long-term objective that gives him some hints of The Chessmaster.
• Sanity Slippage: First killed his father, which already did a number on his sanity. The Japan War had him completely snap.
• Self-Made Orphan: Mentions this as retaliation against Gijou's You Killed My Father, in what is a rare example of him losing his cool.
• Smug Snake -> Smug Super: He goes from an absolute slimeball to one of the most threatening characters over the course of the story.
• Weak, but Skilled: Doesn't start off physically strong, as he fights using tactics and speed, and then learned dark magic to back those aspects of his style.
• You Are Already Dead: His Mythical Arcane.
• 0% Approval Rating: The end result of his machinations. As he finally becomes a sort of Evil Overlord as the Blackrune's holder in the Rune Wars, he is intensely disliked by everybody. Especially Miree, who only follows his orders because she's so Brainwashed and Crazy that her actual self barely even exists at this point.

Gouta Terakami

The main figurehead for the Halo after he spearheaded the squad that ended the Japanese War 2 years before. The Halo overblew his reputation following the crushing victory he led to.

Tropes associated with Gouta:

• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Got where he was because he handed a Curb-Stomp Battle at the last Japanese fortress.
• Badass Boast: Often refers to the New Gate Halo lore which writes him as responsible for the success all by himself, even though he knows it's false.
• Blood Knight: He likes a good fight.
• Heroic Build: He's actually a villain, but the Halo exploits his image for propaganda.
• Miles Gloriosus: Passes off as this given that he only played a minor part in the Halo's victory in Japan since Loke, Akihiko and Crystal-M each did at least as much damage as him to the Japanese faction. This leads to much Underestimating Badassery and asskicking not in the suspected direction.
• My Master, Right or Wrong: More out of political incentive than on loyalty, but he never questions Soujirou. He does question Homura. A lot.
• Noble Bigot with a Badge: Subverts it. He never puts the Halo in question, proven when Hikari reaches to him and he still sides with Soujirou.
• One-Handed Zweihänder: Some of his sword attacks have him wield his sword like this.
• Overranked Soldier: Just out of the Academy, he went from Private straight up to General.
• Training from Hell: His reputation was so overblown he essentially became his own Ascended Fanboy by imposing this to himself.
• Underestimating Badassery: Gouta's reputation is exaggerated, but he is very strong, whereas most people expect him to be a joke. While canon-wise he does get run over, he defeats a bunch of opponents and it takes Zee to beat him after he had forced Mint and Ken to run from him.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Par for the Halo (barring Michael's anti-Halo raves), but Gouta's reputation is the good publicity to end all good publicity.
• Wake-Up Call Boss

Norou Munabuchi

Leader of the Halo's Fright Branch. He's an expert in weaponry, alchemy, and torture. He is called to defend Kanmuri City, as the Halo fears there might be actual threats to it.

Tropes associated with Norou:

• Abusive Parents: He killed his own son.
• Ambition Is Evil: He has juggled business partners and allegiance several times before the story.
• Arms Dealer: Weapons manufacturer, to be more precise.
• BFG: Shoots his enemies with one to finish Genocide City.
• The Casanova: A brief mention.
• Clasp Your Hands If You Deceive: Appears mostly like this when he's not fighting.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: He has Arms Dealer activities outside the Fright Branch.
• Crazy-Prepared: He knew Miree would use Reiei to strike him in the back. So he made sure that the moment he was vulnerable, Merilith was too. Knowing Miree would go after Merilith and Reiei would rush to save her, thus removing the threats to him and retaining control over his Fright Branch and exposing their plots, firing both.
• I Did What I Had to Do: His mindset regarding everything. From the imperial disbanding of the Light Branch to the pile of bodies he's responsible for.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: Miree never knew her blood relationship to Norou until he tells her shortly after learning it from Merilith.
• Playful Hacker: He announces his arrival before he's there by hacking the background screen in The Kanmuri City Siege.
• Powered Armor: His weapon. He briefly summons it on and off of him when attacking or blocking attacks.
• Scary Shiny Glasses
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: He had the Light Branch removed by imperial order, because he paid them. It helps that he is an ally to Soujirou, who had no qualms about taking the bribe.
• Shout-Out: His Mythical Arcane is named Genocide City after a Dummied Out level from Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: His on-and-off relationship with Merilith created Miree's issues, primarily racism against human from her Norou's abandonment of her. Those tendencies caused her to be a human hunter, who singlehandedly caused the Monster Wars. Said Monster Wars were the primary cause the Gate Halo's gathering to create the Blissrune. In short, Norou is indirectly responsible for the borderline-extinction of humanity and the current state of the world.
• Weaponized Exhaust: Serves as the second-to-last part of Genocide City.
• Wild Card: Norou has many acquaintances, but he is always out for personal interest.

Introduced in Crystal's Hatching

Natsuo Mito

A warrior from the Japanese War, he defected after he was put on trial for his failure to protect his superior from the Blackrune corruption during a battle with the Halo. He fled to Kanmuri City and laid low to escape the eyes of the enemy.

Tropes associated with Natsuo:

• Beneath the Mask: He acts like he's unoffended by his having been dumped by Japan for high treason, but he actually is infuriated at the system and not having his chance at fighting to the end for his country.
• Cool Sword: A silver gunblade.
• Deadpan Snarker: He's an extremely caustic guy.
• Hates Small Talk: This also gets him angry, and more often than not leads to fights.
• Heroic Neutral: Mostly driven to survive, but will jump at the chance to defend innocents and attack the Halo if possible.
• Katanas Are Just Better: The blade of his weapon is still curved like a katana.
• Knight in Sour Armor: Hides a Hidden Heart of Gold.
• Shout-Out: To contrast with Cloud having a few things taken from another Cloud, he takes a few cues from Squall.
• Tall, Dark, and Snarky

Arneth

A monster who arose from the seas. He enters Kanmuri City during the battles, to watch over civilization.

Tropes associated with Arneth:

• BFS: His weapon, along with being a serrated blade.
  • Cool Sword
• Bystander Syndrome: In Crystal's Hatching, while present on-site, he does nothing but observe.
• Cast from Hit Points / Life Drain: The crux of his gameplay his managing his lifebar with his special moves that cost or restore his health.
• Improbable Age: Despite his appearance and rippedness, he's only 15 years old.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When he comes face-to-face with Crystal-M. She doesn't attack him, as he is non-human, but her being out there causes Arneth to write the city off as a lost cause soon to be destroyed. He then runs away.
• Use Your Head: He has a hammerhead-shark-like head.

Mint Viridia

Ken and Zee's fellow R System agent charged with investigating Kanmuri City, and destroy the Halo's presence in the city.

Tropes associated with Mint:

• 11th-Hour Superpower: This is how she wins her face-off against Crystal-N: she upgrades herself with data retrieved from her battle with Crystal-M, and fusing herself with the life-iron from the R System reserve they seized recently.
• The Empath: This is limited to other Crystals, but she ends up turning Crystal-M good, or at least she turns her away from her genocidal rampages.
• Face–Heel Turn: Subverted. She discovers Crystal-M and given how the latter identified her as an unknown code, she realizes she's a Crystal clone. She spends one brief chapter attacking Ken before he snaps her out of it by revealing he was played too.
• The Fashionista: Her hobby is dressing up.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: With time, she gets more intelligent, but never shows.
• Older Than They Look: By saying she's 16, she meets this trope since she looks younger than that. Actually inverted, she's around 16 months old at the start of the series.
• Tomato in the Mirror: As she discovers upon meeting Crystal-M.
• Took a Level in Badass: To fight Crystal-N, she upgrades herself into the Life-iron Crystal.
• Wind Is Green: Most of her attacks are theme-named around wind, as she herself is entirely named after shades of green.

Lily P. Bloode

The youngest "daughter" of Noctus Bloode, one of Z-One's head researchers. Since she is out without orders from HQ, Maju is pulled from the mission to track her down.

Tropes associated with Lily:

• Break the Cutie: Her entire design is based on this. The reason she's such a Blank Slate is that the Stormfront Engine that powers her magic was grafted to her while she was conscious, and she went insane from the pain. The fact that she was sold for less savory tasks too only drove the nail home.
• Cute Mute: She doesn't speak very often, aside from her sometimes mindless ramblings.
• Elegant Gothic Lolita: Though you'll forget the elegant part pretty soon.
• Giggling Villain: Though she's on a morally ambiguous side of things.
• Psycho for Hire: Literally branded as this.
• Stepford Smiler: Almost always smiling, sometimes giggling, but she's completely broken.

RJ# 41

A robot that is affiliated to the Fright Branch. Originally designed to destroy the Blissrune, but the project turned in failure. This one specimen is particularly buggy.

Tropes associated with #41:

• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: He was built to fight the corruptions. He turned into a Lawful Stupid vigilante extremely prone to attack.
• All Crimes Are Equal: #41 attacks people for using cuss words. This goes away with time.
• Ax-Crazy: After being fired, he attacks Halo staff on sight, and attacks at the slightest hint of something that displeases him. Which includes every single other character. Even in the Rune Wars, he finds the other characters more annoying than the freaking corruptions!
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Double Subverted: RJs' uniforms were supposed to represent Jin Ikazuchi, who was at his time a symbol of absolute righteousness. #41 is an asshole but his outfit is black.
• Determinator: He doesn't stop until receiving critical damage.
• For Great Justice: Failed attempt. He's completely law-bound, and only gets worse as time goes by and it degenerates.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: It has flashlights in the place of eyes.
• Jerkass: Near the end, #41's purpose is essentially being a douche to everybody and attacking them, either for being part of "that corrupt Halo" or merely his bad memories of being defeated.
• Knight Templar: He's Moral Sociopathy personified.
• Nominal Hero: After being fired, #41 sets his sights on the "corrupt" Halo, making him this.
• Robot Me: The RJs all are this to Johnny. Though #41 represents more what Johnny considers wrong with his old self, at least earlier on.
• Starter Villain: In the stories of the more neutral characters, #41 attacking people starts their attack against the Halo.
• Unnecessarily Creepy Robot: His odd buggy mannerisms are a far cry from his original mission as an enforcer.

Koizumi Takigami

A God Clans native, Koizumi has grown up loving the Halo for its nobility. She has insanely high standards for everyone and herself, and as such strives to enter the Halo's Council, still represented by the old Gate Halo's purist caste even after the God Clans took over. An unfavourite within the powers in place, Koizumi only stays alive because the Halo must not show its internal dissent in these times.

Tropes associated with Koizumi:

• Antiquated Linguistics: As the cast representative of the Halo's purist caste.
• Foil: To Herz. Despite her being born in the God Clans and him not, she is within the Halo's old aristocratic council, while he's a prospect of Soujirou, meaning that they represent the side of the Halo the other was born in. Each has nothing but contempt for the other.
• Royal Rapier: Halo nobility, and she uses a rapier, plus a little dagger intended for defense.
• Shock and Awe: Supplements some of her attacks with lightning, which also accentuates her quick movements.
• The Un-Favourite: Within her family, for calling the God Clans' takeover dishonorable.

Crystal-M

The 13th product of Project Crystal. She's responsible for the Japan War's end, unknown to all. Discovering she was a tool, she turned on her creators, but was defeated and re-sealed into her egg.

Tropes associated with Crystal-M:

• Brainwashed and Crazy: Broke out of it and became even more crazy.
• Dark Action Girl
• Emotionless Girl: She was this and then she discovered that she was to be killed off. Unlike the 12 before herself, she got pissed.
• Fantastic Racism: Inverted. She has less ire towards mixed races and androids than with humanity.
• Humans Are Bastards: Because Humans Are the Real Monsters.
• Kill All Humans: Artificial Human and other alike species are exempted from this treatment.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Against humanity for using her as a tool and then attempting to kill her once she had served her purpose.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: She was sealed inside her own egg following her initial Character Development and the ensuing rampage.
• You Are Number Thirteen
• We Can Rule Together: After identifying Mint as a Crystal, she proposes that they join forces against the humans who use them as tools. Mint temporarily contemplates, but ends up refusing after a fight with Ken.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds

Introduced in Strife in Seki City:

Shibi Sekisei (previously Yoshimura Yatsugashira)

A victim of the Fright Branch, she was revived by her Soul Jar scythe and joined the Guild of the Night to get revenge.

Tropes associated with Shibi:

• Back from the Dead: She was murdered by the New Gate Halo in the aftermath of the war because of a mental breakdown. She was resurrected by one of their experiments.
• Berserk Button: As revealed in Enter the Dark Age, Miree is hers, as the one who killed her.
• Break the Cutie: During the Japanese War, she was forced to set her own house on fire as an act of loyalty, with her parents trapped inside.
• Creepy Good: While Reiei just has a few offputting vibes, her dialogues about death and the way she casually ignores opponents and sometimes her own objectives because I See Dead People is far more seriously creepy.
• Death by Origin Story: She revived though.
• Defector from Decadence: Born Japanese, she was coerced into serving the New Gate Halo in the War, and she was offed by the Fright Branch after her breakdown following her setting her home on fire. When she resurrected due to her scythe, she defected and used a fake name.
• Dissonant Serenity: She almost constantly talks serenely, and far too often talks about death.
• Don't Fear the Reaper: She adopts the imagery and encourages the rumors about her being The Grim Reaper, but she's a good-natured person.
• Empathic Weapon: Shibi actually is the scythe, controlling her body with it.
• Hunter of Monsters: Her targets are any and all Halo staff.
• Revenge: Her motives. She's out for the Halo that has made the end of her life pure torture.
• Soul Jar: Her scythe.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Mass murder is okay to her, as long as the Halo pays for its treatment of people as Human Resources.

Sakura Hoshimoto

One of the girls Maju met at the Halo training camp. While she had been supposedly murdered, she survived her grievous injuries. While she's out for revenge against Maju for the murder of her comrades, she doesn't wish to kill her.

Tropes associated with Sakura:

• Anti-Hero: While she would be heroic in any normal situation, her reason for showing up here is nothing but revenge, and as a result she is grim and gloomy under her smile.
• Badass Adorable: Small? Yes. Meek? Yes. None of that stops her from fighting, sometimes to the death.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Maju learns it when Sakura enjoys every ounce of regret and every tear Maju lets out like a bonafide sadist.
• Break the Cutie: She didn't take Maju's mass-murder attempt very well — in fact, she was paralyzed from fear and watched Maju kill 6 or 7 other girls before blind rage took over and she finally attacked her.
• Cherry Blossom Girl: By name. Her ki even looks like a wave of cherry blossoms.
• Combat Medic: Trained to become one. She's already good at healing people.
• Combat Geta: She wears 5-inch single-tooth geta into battle.
• Hidden Weapons: Her sword is hidden in her umbrella.
• I Just Want to Be Badass: Her reason for joining a combat training camp is so that she could defend others rather than just be a healer. One day in, her reason for training would change.
• Nice Girl: Kind towards anyone not named Maju — barring the Complete Monsters.
• Parasol of Prettiness: Not used as a Parasol of Pain.
• Shrinking Violet: Sakura not only isn't proactive, she struggles holding conversations in general.
• Silk Hiding Steel: Nice and polite to a fault to outsiders, but when pushed she reveals a strong determined mind.
  • To wit, Orin's Flashback Nightmares in Enter the Dark Age show that Sakura woke up and escaped the training camp before Orin herself did.
• Stepford Smiler: Her kind smile hides that she has been scarred by the mass-murder event.
• Suddenly Shouting: It's rare for her to shout, but during her more powerful attacks, she downright yells at opponents.
• Sweet Tooth: Maju's habit was picked up from her.
• Sword Cane: Sword umbrella.

Ace Trickle

A fortune-teller by trade, Ace is a mysterious man. His purposes in heading to Seki City are completely unknown.

Tropes associated with Ace:

• Death Dealer: Considering his cards are at least enchanted in some fashion...
• Empowered Badass Normal: He learned magic from eavesdropping on his masters' teachings back when he was a slave in the original Gate Halo.
• Everyone Is Related: He worked in the same place as R', but escaped before the first R System uprising. He then entered Norou's private service for a short while, only to betray him when he learned of Norou's reputation. These two relations give Ace a surprising amount of knowledge compared to the random hobo everyone thinks him to be.
• Fortune Teller: What he does for a living. Knowing that he's a Consummate Liar though...
• Meaningful Rename: He renounced his real name for a new one that definitely is a Paper-Thin Disguise for "ace tricker". Considering his real name, Tacito Peders, he probably thinks it's way cooler to be known as "Ace".

Gijou Seigen

A Z-One High Executive who has a beef with the God Clans, especially Akihiko Egami who orphaned him.

Tropes associated with Gijou:

• Arch-Enemy: Akihiko, for killing his father, and gravely injuring him, causing Japan to be shamed losers of the Japan War.
• Arms Dealer: Deals the weapons Z-One disposes of. He sends Maju to deal with Engel in The Kanmuri City Siege, deals with him himself in the second, and meets up with the R System several times.
• The Cavalry: Intervenes to bail Maju out of a losing fight against Gouta in The Kanmuri City Siege. Afterwards, add him fighting.
• Cynicism Catalyst: The defeat of Japan, specifically the Back Stab act from Akihiko.
• The Faceless: Is permanently masked due to the grievous injuries he sustained in the Japan War.
• Insistent Terminology: Not "Ninja", "field commander".
• Knight in Sour Armor: And sometimes going to Unscrupulous Hero on the scale of Antiheroes.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Probably the only one who remains reasonable in Z-One.
• Supporting Leader: Technically he leads Z-One's military actions, but Johnny and Zero won't take orders.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: He is totally not a Ninja.
• You Killed My Father: Akihiko killed his father.

Asterius

An old Guild of the Night agent from Merilith's closed circle, this minotaur is sent to watch over the younger agents.

Tropes associated with Asterius:

• Good Old Fisticuffs: He fights weaponless.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: He really doesn't like "hotheads who can't take advice", as he says about Reiei.
• Our Minotaurs Are Different: He's a minotaur.
• Super-Strength: Though his massive muscle mass makes it kind of obvious.

Rei Rokugawa

An R System operative, infiltrated in Seki City's hierarchy for a long time enough to serve as Zack's personal secretary. She's sent by R' to spy on rebels, but fails horribly at being unnoticed.

Tropes associated with Rei:

• Character Development: Starts out depressive and timid, eventually becomes passionate and heart-strong.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: To Hiyoru, which is why she gets noticed too easily by him and eventually joins Ken's group to be with him.
• Consolation Backfire: In the R, she tries to console Zack, now serving under her, saying that while Seki City is no longer under his rule, they are still working together and they can make it greater. By the end of the game, the city is in ruins.
• Friendless Background: Due to her gloominess and excessive shyness.
• Heel–Face Turn: The end result of The Power of Friendship and The Power of Love. Her desire to do something for Zack (even a Mercy Kill) and her love for Hiyoru drove her away from the R System (who wants nothing to do with either of them) right to Ken's group (who have the only thing she still cares for).
• Parasol of Prettiness: Doubles as Parasol of Pain since it's her weapon.

Nami Munabuchi

Norou's daughter, who also doubles as his private underling. She doesn't rival the Crystals, but far surpasses the average human ability. She's also his attempt to replicate Project Crystal after being deprived from materials. While she lacks the material infusion and the ability to do so, she sports all the other traits of the Crystals.

Tropes associated with Nami:

• Anti-Hero: Later on, she maintains no attachment to nearly anyone and acts somewhat childlike despite looking adult.
• The Berserker: In her initial appearance, she's sent to charge at things first hand, ready to die. Johnny saves her from a would-be Suicide Attack.
• Blunt "Yes": Machine-guns them out in a dialogue with Reiei, when he hears she's been ordered to rush the Saints without backup and asks her if she's really gonna go Leeroy Jenkins.
  Reiei: You're going immediately?
  Nami: Yes.
  Reiei: Alone?
  Nami: Yes.
  Reiei: Unarmed?
  Nami: Yes.
  Reiei: Do you know how many they are?
  Nami: Yes.
  Reiei: This is suicide!
  Nami: Yes.
• The Comically Serious
• Emotionless Girl: She is much less emotional than anyone, but she works around it.
• Empty Shell: In Tate City Waning. That's because she is restarting from scratch after judging him as untrustworthy.
• Extreme Doormat: Starts out as this. This is exploited by Reiei, mole that he is, into actually betraying the Fright Branch when pointing the duplicity of Norou and his various ventures. This does wear out after such a Logic Bomb, even when Johnny rescues her.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Subverted since Crystals are artificial humans. So she's fully human.
• Homosexual Reproduction: Her genes are a mix of the original Nami's and Cristina's.]]
• No Social Skills: She was just conceived as an experiment to test on.
• The Quiet One: She almost never speaks.
• Replacement Goldfish: The original Nami died long ago.
• Rescue Romance: With Johnny.
• Uncanny Clone Resemblance: Only to her eyes: She mistakes all the Crystals for Cristina. Even though Crystal-M has a visibly lighter hair color.
• Unkempt Beauty: Eventually becomes this.
• What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?
• Workaholic: Her hobby is accomplishing her missions.

Loke Yagami

A God Clans adoptee who grew to oppose their politics. He is very discontented with his assassination of the Japanese leader being thrown into Gouta's list of awesome feats, and himself being almost erased from history as a result. He was sent to Seki City to serve under Zack.

Tropes associated with Loke:

• The Ace: He was one, but promptly had his status and historical feats removed.
• Ax-Crazy: Has a lot of such moments, though he's not permanently like that.
• Blood Knight: Especially when he has lapses of awareness due to his mind being corrupted. Quite literally with his weapon, which lets him perform Blood Magic.
• Blood Magic
• Brainwashed and Crazy: He has brief moments of madness due to his mind being corrupted. He has more and more of these moments and spends the Rune Wars fully in this state.
• Cool Sword: But it's an Evil Weapon.
  • Soul-Cutting Blade: It hurts minds as well when it hits.
• Dangerous Deserter: After Seki City is captured.
• Determinator: He actually manages to fight off most of his opponents canon-wise in Strife in Seki City, by sheer guts and determination, doing better than Herz, Akihiko and Gouta combined.
• Dismotivation: He is a very neglectful aide-administrator in Seki City because he doesn't give jack about paperwork, so he goes off on his own.
• Fire-Forged Friends: All the screwing the world has done to Loke and Zack is such that they end up becoming friends under Bloodrune corruption.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Loke's personality can be considered dead the moment Bloodrune corruption takes him over. Oddly enough, Loke, who hurts others' minds with his weapon, "died" to mind ailment.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Loke -> Loki. Yagami means night god, much like Light Yagami.
• One-Man Army: He's the sole actual Halo-affiliated workforce of Seki City's Halo Headquarters. Plus Seki City never replaced the Halo staff that Shibi murdered.
• Psychotic Smirk: Very often.
• Reassigned to Antarctica: He was sent to serve in Seki City after his murder of his clan because He Knows Too Much. Seki City was the place where nothing happens.
  • Reassignment Backfire: Subverted: even though he manages to fight off many people, he still falls, allowing the R System to take over the city. Homura tries to kill him over failing to be a hero later.
• Self-Made Orphan: When he heard of the God Clans' machinations and what was to be done of him after the Japan War, he slaughtered his whole family.
• Straw Nihilist: At times, especially regarding the New Gate Halo.
• Super-Speed: Not really in his movement, but his attacks are really fast.
• Tall, Dark, and Snarky
• Un-person: In-universe. His assassinations during the Japan War all were remembered as Gouta's doings, while he was forgotten.
• Would Hit a Girl

Zack Reed

The townsmayor of Seki City, he defends it after Kanmuri City was destroyed by Crystal-M.

Tropes associated with Zack:

• Being Good Sucks: Constantly Knight Templar instead of good, but his condition isn't one he enjoys.
• Combat Stilettos: Short-heels, but still spiky and they make stabby sound effects when some of his kicks connect.
• Enigmatic Minion: To all the Halo. He really only cares about his turf. Naturally it only applies until the end of Strife in Seki City. After that, he's one to the R System, and then he disappears.
• Fallen Hero: To the New Gate Halo, starting in the R because he surrendered to the R System.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: In Pegasus's Descent, he has absolutely nothing left. In the Rune Wars, this is subverted, while he is thought dead, his comeback is a Mass "Oh, Crap!".
• Humiliation Conga: His whole schtick. Ends with him becoming a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds and ultimately being killed.
• Light Is Not Good: Natch. And as he devolves, it becomes red.
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy
• Shout-Out: One of his attacks is named Joker after Ash Crimson's theme music in The King of Fighters XI.
• Smug Snake: Though it flies out the window when the R System succeeds.
• The Sociopath: He never was a people person, but as time passes by he devolves into this, full force.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Or several.
• Tragic Monster: By the Rune Wars.
  • Villain Override: Bloodrune corruption gets completely over him. By the end, he's barely even able to form sentences anymore.
• You Are What You Hate: After he failed to defend his city and emerged from the ruins, he grew to despise fighters and the like. Even though he was retrieved by R System, he still gets attacked and defeated, causing him to hate fighters even more. His form of retribution? Get corrupted by the Bloodrune and cause as much havoc on the world as possible by beating the shit out of everyone.

Introduced in The R:

Michael Hearn

A rock artist and slam writer, he's known worldwide for siding against both the Halo and the R System since the latter seized his city. On constant protestation-against-the-order travels, he looks for a way to gather enough people to start an actual rebellion.

Tropes associated with Michael:

• Agent Peacock: Long slick blond hair and nailpaint definitely don't get in his way when kicking ass.
• Dance Battler: A few moves here and there are inspired by dance, mostly breakdance and disco.
• Hell-Bent for Leather
• Jail Bait Wait: Thinks of this for Lux, since he's 23 and she's 12.
• Overlord Jr.: Subverted, as while he's the son of Siegward Hearn, he had disinherited him before his death and therefore died with no heir.
• The Power of Rock
• Real Men Wear Pink: His undershirt that can be seen under his vest is pink, he has long blonde hair and wears nailpaint.
• Rebellious Spirit: He's noted to despise all organizations.
• Red Is Heroic: And he has no morally-ambiguous affiliation either.
• Sins of Our Fathers: Since Siegward Hearn can't be further punished for all the stuff he's done, people tend to take it all out on Michael and hate him through no fault of his own, ignoring the fact that he hates his own dad.

Lux F. Bloode

Michael's traveling partner since he found her on her lonesome. Despite that, she is, like Lily, a daughter of Noctus, and frequently receives orders into her brain that conflict with Michael and herself...

Tropes associated with Lux:

• Anti-Hero: She recognizes her role as one of Noctus's creations and tries to do what he asks her, which often means she's doing something villainous. She still doesn't like beating up people, and on her own terms, she generally tends to do more heroics.
• Broken Bird: A bit of one, considering the conflict of interests between her orders and her heart.
• BFS: Hers is not quite as big as Cloud's.
• Child Soldiers: She's 12.
• Muscles Are Meaningless: She has a much more physical style than what would be expected from her frame.

Hiyoru Kansechi

A R System defector, he joins Mint's rebellion to bring them down.

Tropes associated with Hiyoru:

• An Ice Person
• Blood Knight: He's most comfortable when fighting.
• Half-Human Hybrid: His innate ice magic comes from Yeti ancestry.
• Misery Builds Character: It happened to him, and it's also his opinion on life.
• Multi-Melee Master: He forms diverse ice weapons to attack with.
• Parental Abandonment: And he promptly followed by abandoning his sister.
• Sour Outside, Sad Inside: He hates his parents for refusing him a normal childhood, but will never get to see them.
• Spontaneous Weapon Creation: Though they shatter just as quickly when they hit.

Wales

One of Arneth's companions, she is the tracker and markswoman of the group. She wears a tattered and old Halo uniform. With her comes Arneth, and who knows what they will do?

Tropes associated with Wales:

• Bling of War: She uses a crossbow in battle, for physical attacks as well as shots, and it's made of gold.
• Combat Pragmatist
• Custom Uniform: Her uniform is a modified version of old Halo light fighter garb.
• Hypercompetent Sidekick: To Mack.
• Not Quite Flight: Her Custom Uniform has a function that allows her to glide.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Her real name is Mae Cornsworth, but she's spent 3 years living with guys who just didn't bother prononcing her real name correctly and nicknaming her by her country of origin.
• Scarily Competent Tracker: She finds out a lot of information (such as R's absence and Ronda's position) faster than most others.

Renji Sakazuki

A Japanese reject, and Natsuo and Ace's last partner-in-crime. He is a broken psychopath, after seeing he could not trust the Japanese authorities after he found out about an attempt of theirs at replicating Project Crystal to fight back. He was exiled for high treason the next day.

Tropes associated with Renji:

• Broken Ace: He has a variety of talents, but his curiosity caused him to nose in on an attempt at replicating Project Crystal; the next day, he was wanted dead for high treason.
• Cold Sniper: His role in the Runaways' planned assassinations is to snipe the target, and he's extremely distant from even his companions.
• The Comically Serious: He stays serious despite his air of detachment.
• Deadpan Snarker
• Dissonant Serenity: Permanent.
• Evil Genius: Referred to as such by Natsuo, as he remembers being a grade-A student.
• Evil Is Petty: He steals his uniforms from clothing shops.
• The Faceless: He defaced himself in rage when he was cast out, and permanently wears some semblance of mask to hide his disfigurement.
• Hypocrite: He panics when in danger, saying his life is very important, while he most often plans to take someone else's life.
• Irrational Hatred: Towards MUGI in Harbinger's Awakening. finding out the project that created her is the incident that caused him to be outcast.
• Ki Manipulation: Even his gun shoots bullets made of nothing but his ki.
• Kick the Dog: He is prone to verbally abusing foes in his win quotes.
• Lean and Mean
• Malevolent Masked Man: Not malevolent in the grand scheme of things, but on focused scope and to his target, he's this.
• Never My Fault: Blames the government of Japan for his situation despite having sneaked into an area that was forbidden to public.
• Omnicidal Maniac: He wants to kill nearly everyone, and it takes heavy amounts of talking from Natsuo and Ace to keep him down from killing people on-sight.
• The Perfectionist
• Pure Is Not Good: He considers himself pure despite the fact that he's gone far off the edge.
• Tragic Monster: He constantly reflects on his life, angsting the whole time about his loss of normality.

Melody "Ronda" Hearn

A R System high-ranker, she is directly below R' and his two direct subordinates. She was recruited shortly before R' even created the R System, when her hometown was taken over as the first R System base.

Tropes associated with Ronda:

• Dance Battler: A little bit here and there. It's in the family, apparently.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Her R System mates and her brother Michael note that she was much more serious before joining the R System.
• The Empath: She's able to feel others' emotions via synchronization.
• Headphones Equal Isolation: Subverted, over her time in R System, she's become the most social person of the group.
• Heart Beat-Down: Her power uses emotion as primal force. Which means her mask of carelessness hides much emotions since she does pack a punch.
• Make Some Noise: She has some sound attacks.
• Opposites Attract: Her personality contrasts with that of her fellow adviser Rain and yet they're definite friends.
• Psychic Powers: One side-effect of her heart magic.
• Rose-Haired Sweetie: She's a friendly and laid-back person to all but Halo staff, and even to them she's not that nasty. Even to the Walkers, who she even affectionately calls "R-negades".
• Synchronization: Her attacks affect emotions and she can impart her mindset on the opponent.

Introduced in Tate City Waning:

Hikari Terakami

One of the very rare Kanmuri City survivors, she was rescued from the rubble and sent back to Tate City. She's forced to serve in the Halo because she was found with stolen battle armor.

Tropes associated with Hikari:

• Child Soldiers: She's 14, which makes her the youngest non-artificial person in the game.
• Cute Witch: Though she doesn't look like an archetypal one, what with the futuristic battle armor.
• Light Is Not Good: She's more positively neutral than the average Halo soldier though. Then it's revealed she's actually a Punch-Clock Villain. And after Pegasus's Descent she's done with the Halo altogether.
• Long-Lost Relative: She's Gouta's sister, but he left the family to train at age 13. It's been seven years.
• Punch-Clock Villain: And she gets punched from both sides to the point that even when she does meet Gouta, she is incredibly disappointed with what she sees and turns coat on the Halo.
• Stepford Smiler: Abandoned by her parents to Gate Halo paramilitary training at age 10, three years after losing her brother Gouta to this same procedure. She faces Crystal-M after her awakening and sees her friends get killed and only gets away with her life because Crystal-M doesn't recognize buried under a house from dead. Then she's forced back to the Halo's forces by Homura who is constantly behind her, using Gouta's presence as leverage to force her to join the Halo's forces for free. Eventually, Hikari finds Gouta and is so disappointed she leaves the Halo with no further notice.
• Wave-Motion Gun: Her Mythical Arcane.

Kyo Uemura

A Tate City school dropout and Murakami Clan renegade, he was a friend and rival to Loke before the invasion of Japan. Loke cut off his right arm and went on to be sent to Seki City. Kyo always was wary of the God Clans and investigated their machinations, but he knows far too much to stand staying with the God Clans. He renounced the name Murakami and left his family in an attempt to rebel against the ones in charge of the Halo.

Tropes associated with Kyo:

• Extremity Extremist: Downplayed as a few of his light attacks are punches, but most are kicks because he only has one arm.
• Fiery Redhead: His hair is a dark red.
• For Great Justice: While he doesn't like to spit out the line, this is his underlying motive.
• Friendly Rivalry: Used to have one with Loke. Since Loke cut off his arm It's Personal.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's rebellious and conceited, but he really stands for human morality and absolutely loathes treachery.
• Martial Pacifist: While he likes his dose of fighting, he prefers to do it without a reason underlying.
• The Slacker: Used to be this, and then he found something to fight for.
• We Used to Be Friends: With Loke.

White Jack

Another of the Saints, he's known in Tate City for having wiped out street crime in a large district by himself. When Seki City is seen under control of the R System, Cristina tries to put his combat skills to use.

Tropes associated with White Jack:

• The Ace: Described as this by Merilith.
• Carry a Big Stick: His weapon is a long-hilted club.
• The Faceless: He wears a full helmet and his face is never seen.
• Full-Contact Magic: His fighting style.
• Humanoid Abomination: The reason he hides behind his all holy-looking armor.
• Martial Pacifist: Refused to fight in the Monster Wars due to this and his desire not to change the outcome of the war, as well as to avoid being targeted by humans for centuries to come. It worked for him as he was able to join the Saints.
• Smug Super: He does tell his opponents not to feel bad after he defeats them, but that's cause "he's just too good".

Yuzuki Yukinari

A former Halo staff, she is fired when a Blackrune-corrupted patch of skin is seen on her.

• An Ice Person
• Broken Bird: She tries hard to persevere and see the good in people, but the Halo and their enemies all despise her. She struggles not to give up her philanthropic views.
• Kick the Dog: The first on-screen victim of Homura's cold-blooded bitchiness.
• Tragic Hero: No surprise, in the Rune Wars, she is fully corrupted.

RJ# 38

One of the few RJs that actually turned right. While responsible for the first breach in what would be Z-One's shelter, he realized there was more to goodness than law.

Tropes associated with #38:

• All of the Other Reindeer: He is despised by Z-One, despite being good.
• Character Development: Done off-screen, but he mentions having been a law-stuck Leeroy Jenkins, but he noticed how wrong this was and then became a more "good" Spock, eventually even that is mellowing out due to his Tin Man tendencies.
• For Great Justice
• In the Name of the Moon: Has a tendency to make up speeches.
• Justice Will Prevail
• Knight in Shining Armor
• Pick Your Human Half: Looks robotic, acts human.
• Religious Robot: Even though religion disappeared and was all but shunned following the Blissrune incident, #38 still believes in God and a concept of goodness.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: He's out to force the re-creation of the New Gate Halo Branches that were shut down.
• The Stoic
• To Be Lawful or Good: The source of his Character Development was seeing the law oppress the people and deeming it "unjust".

Muti Weißschild

A lone wanderer girl, and Herz's estranged sister. She's corrupted by the Bloodrune ever since her brother dumped her.

Tropes associated with Muti:

• The Berserker: As with any Bloodrune-corrupted person. Muti, lacking the preciseness and finesse of Loke and Zack, is just more obvious about it.
• Brainwashed and Crazy
• Red Right Hand: Her right arm has been deformed by Bloodrune corruption.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: She fears abandonment, and is near-constantly crying in rage at the world.

Homura Mikami

A Halo enforcer and a special-status person with the highest level except the Grandmaster. She's part-dragon. She's afflicted with a split personality complex between her socially awkward calm persona and her actual violently sociopathic self.

Tropes associated with Homura:

• Attack! Attack! Attack!
• Chekhov's Gun: Her species' innate iron infusion is actually one of the component pieces of Project Crystal, proving she was also there from its very beginning.
• Draconic Humanoid
• The Dragon: To Soujirou, literally considering she's part-dragon.
• Hot-Blooded
• Incendiary Exponent
• Kick the Dog
  • She tries to execute Loke when he attacks the R System to take Seki City back in the R. Here's the kicker: they're supposedly on the same side, and she attacks him only because he cooperated with Mint and Ken (who actually provided help and tried to kick the R System off the city) rather than the Halo (who made no move at all).
  • She also has a history of more-or-less forcing Hikari under the Halo's thrall using Gouta as leverage, and she attacks on the spot when Hikari says this won't work anymore.
• Made of Iron: A bit literally. She's an iron dragon, a dragon subspecies who lives in the mountains and is naturally imbued with iron essence (which also makes her naturally immune to corruption).
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: With Soujirou, though Soujirou has only his long hair and cool-headed attitude in regards to being feminine.
• The Millstone: Gouta flags her as this, and her temper is more often than not a liability to Soujirou, but it's actually inverted: Gouta would otherwise have to do all the dirty work, and Soujirou can't have Gouta doing anything unheroic-looking.
• Opposites Attract: With Soujirou. He actually values her more than Gouta and gave her a second-to-him-only special rank because they're married.
• Psychoactive Powers: She gets on fire when she's angry.
• Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: Since she's second only to Soujirou, she can do whatever she pleases and get away with it. Her tendency to abuse this is the reason even Gouta dislikes her.
• Split Personality: On one side, calm and stoic, on the other side, an angry beast.
• Technicolor Fire: Black fire. She can also make normal fire, and often both are mixed.
• Tomboyish Ponytail
• With Us or Against Us

Introduced in Enter the Dark Age:

Rin "Orin" Mihoshi

A lonely samurai girl looking for revenge.

Tropes associated with Orin:

• Badass Adorable: Has a cute look about her, what with being the single smallest character in the game. Nonetheless, she's a trained swordswoman.
• Best Friends-in-Law: Was about to become this to Sakura — but then Akihiko killed her fiancé.
• Brutal Honesty: She never minces her words.
• Disappeared Dad: He died in the Japan War, which she regards as honorable.
• Enemy Mine: The affront to her by Maju was personal, but there's one thing she hates more: the Halo, a common enemy.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: She wears only one stocking — when she meets Sakura, she says the other was burned.
• Girly Bruiser
• Hot-Blooded
• Innocently Insensitive: She's got no idea of how people can be hurt by her bluntness.
• Katanas Are Just Better
• Martyrdom Culture: She used to think like this, but changed her mind after the dorm murder incident.
• My Greatest Failure: Her dad was one thing — but failing to protect her fiancé was another. Then she failed to protect Sakura from Maju, though at least Sakura stayed alive like she did.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Visibly the smallest character of the entire cast at 4'11.5", but Maju doesn't enjoy the prospect of fighting her; in fact, she mentions the reason she was let on the battlefield is so that would allow Orin to fight.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: She's the Tomboy to Sakura's Girly Girl.
• Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Her girly streak is pretty big, with how much she cares about her physical appearance. Nonetheless, she acts boyish and headstrong.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Early on, she always appears serious and grim, even seething at the very idea of Maju.
• Trademark Favourite Food: She'll eat anything that doesn't have much taste.
• Walking the Earth: She starts out roaming the civilized world in search of Sakura or Maju.

Miree Schwarzseele

A Fright Branch Major, serving under Norou. Despite being Merilith's daughter, she isn't a full-blooded vampire. She still has high battle ability, which causes her to be sent to shut down any threat to the Fright Branch. She attempts to overthrow Norou and solve her family issues with her mother, by stealing their powers away from both and killing them.

Tropes associated with Miree:

• The Baroness: More oriented towards the Sexpot type.
• Broken Bird: Was this before becoming the bitch she is, because abandonment issues.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Miree doesn't remember having executed Shibi, not that she cares once reminded of it.
• Calling The Old Hag Out: Subverted since she was resentful of Merilith for being a full vampire while she was only half, and also for never telling her about her father. Secretly played straight as she's a bastard child born from a one-night stand between Merilith and none other than Norou, plus the abandonment.
• Chekhov M.I.A.: She supervises Nami from the latter's first appearance. She only becomes playable when Nami-V is sent behind her back while she is sent to retrieve the original.
• Colonel Badass: Lieutenant-Colonel, but she aims to overthrow Norou.
• Deceptive Disciple: To Norou.
• Fantastic Racism: Since she preyed on people (enough to cause diplomatic incidents and the Monster Wars), she tends to get a lot of flak from humanity in general. This includes but is not limited to Ken, Gouta, Zack, Engel and Cristina.
• Green-Eyed Monster: To her mother for being naturally stronger.
• Half-Human Hybrid
• Hot-Blooded
• Irony: She's a selfish bitch and falls to the hands of Akihiko, no less a selfish bastard.
• Kill the Ones You Love: She has a fancy for Reiei. Though, given as she wants to kill Norou and Merilith, the latter one Reiei serves to the bottom of his heart, she will have to kill him to accomplish her objectives. But she's fully ready to do this.
• The Lad-ette: More feminine than other representative ladette Maju, though.
• No Social Skills: She lived a lot of her early life as a primitive predator.
• Old Maid: She's 38 and single. She hates this trait of hers because by her age, Merilith already had her, and this only adds to her inferiority complex.
• The Strategist
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: By causing the Monster Wars, she also indirectly caused the Gate Halo to increase its following and its presence, thus changing the world.
• Unwitting Pawn: To Norou.
• Wild Card: While Norou himself is one to the Halo (who only keep him because of the Fright Branch thing), Miree is one to him as her objective in life involves killing him.

Cloud N. Bloode

The Mission Control of Orbis World Labs, and Noctus's only male creation. Extremely intelligent and tactical-oriented.

Tropes associated with Cloud:

• BFS: Despite mostly being a non-fighter, he has this for a weapon.
• Ditzy Genius: Despite his competence at his job, he's socially awkward due to never having any face-to-face meeting with anyone but his father.
• Mission Control: From the Kanmuri City Siege to the Rune Wars, he supervises his sisters and transmits Noctus's orders. While also going on missions and being his own Mission Control.
• Only Sane Man: To Lily and Lorna. Leads to him being an occasional Deadpan Snarker.
• The Quiet One: Unlike other characters, he doesn't speak too much and rarely responds when provoked. He keeps a lot to himself.

Noah

A wooden golem, he's also the ship on which Arneth, Wales and Mack travel the seas.

Tropes associated with Noah:

• The Big Guy
• Dumb Is Good
• Spaceship Girl: Or rather, "boat guy".

Gunnar Bergstrand

A renowned warrior working with the Guild of the Night, he was a legendary figure in the Monster Wars decades ago. He was the best on the human side, but Merilith resurrected him after his death, leaving him to fight as a zombie, on her side.

Tropes associated with Gunnar:

• One-Man Army: He's known in the Guild for having no problem roughing up Halo staff no matter the numbers.
• Wacky Fratboy Hijinx: What he usually indulges in.

Merilith Schwarzseele

Leader of the Guild of the Night. She protects all nightwalkers including vampires, werewolves, zombies and liches, and any other. She formed the Guild of the Night after the New Gate Halo Night Branch's short life ended.

Tropes associated with Merilith:

• Anti-Villain: The Guild of the Night isn't exactly villainous, but they have no problems fighting Blissrune corruption with Blackrune corruption.
• Cross-Melting Aura: Despite being at least part-vampire, she resists direct sunlight.
• Cute Monster Girl
• Elegant Gothic Lolita
• Fallen Hero: For the New Gate Halo. Her "Guild of the Night" used to be the Halo's Night Branch. It got dissolved because it wasn't fitting to their image. Subverted when taking into account that she was the original Gate Halo's sworn enemy as a Monster Lord and had only been collaborating with them for around 2 years.
• Friendly Neighborhood Vampire
• Monster Lord
• Older Than They Look: She's 66 years old, yet looks 16.
• Shout-Out: Her name resembles Marilis.
• Super-Speed
• Super-Strength
• Our Vampires Are Different
• Vampires Own Night Clubs: Complete with Vampire Dance. It's her way of communicating under the radar since nightclubs are her hideouts.
• Vegetarian Vampire
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Into a more bat-like form.
• Wolverine Claws
• Younger Than They Look: She looks in her late teens while being the oldest character in the game at over 60 years old.

Introduced in Pegasus's Descent:

Kali Mithral

The third Saint to drop in the action. Cristina sends her in after she decides to try her luck at going aboard Pegasus clandestinely.

Tropes associated with Kali:

• Combat Medic: She can bail Kouma and Jack out of trouble and heal them in story, and is capable of fighting herself.
• Martial Pacifist
• Warrior Monk: Behaves like one.

Mack Vague

Arneth, Wales and Noah's leader, he was an Old Halo sea-faring messenger (and more). When the Blissrune appeared, he took to the seas and focused on surviving while evading corruption.

Tropes associated with Mack:

• Badass Normal
• BFS: Uses a giant cutlass.
• Defeat Means Friendship: Averted. People suspect he's done this to Arneth, but he actually talked him out of attacking them.
• Eyepatch of Power
• A Father to His Men
• Handicapped Badass: Gouta took out his left eye.
• A Pupil of Mine Until He Turned to Evil: Gouta. He was Gouta's combat instructor until Gouta took out his eye during an intense training session.

Zero Ashsol / Shuji Akai

Johnny's adoptive father, mentor, and rival. He was supposed dead after founding Z-One, but returned as an unofficial leader.

Tropes associated with Zero:

• BFS
• Brilliant, but Lazy: He changed his own body from scratch, while being slowly corrupted by the Bloodrune. When Homura confronts him about killing her kin, he answers that he was more bothered by the fact he actually had to work to save his hide.
• Cursed with Awesome
• Custom Uniform: Only his labcoat proves that he's in Z-One.
• Deus ex Nukina: His Early-Bird Cameo in Seki City in a nutshell. He was already there, packed with his remote-controlled body carrying around his latest achievement, the Negative Leveler Core bomb. Which he did end up detonating: it destroyed the entire Seki City.
• Draconic Humanoid: Morphs into this for some attacks, notably his Mythical Arcane.
• Genius Bruiser
• Good Is Not Nice
• Jerkass: He makes no effort to hide how much of a dick he is.
• Person of Mass Destruction: His destructive power is one of the highest of all characters, including Crystals. In fact, his ability to destroy them.
• Playing with Fire
• Reverse Grip
• That Man Is Dead: Don't call him by his real name. Even Johnny is not safe.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: He's able to create wings or appendages on the fly for some of his moves.
• You Killed My Father: He gets this reaction from Homura, as he saved himself from Bloodrune corruption by using the Blood Magic to kill an iron dragon, and eventually he infused his body with the dragon's iron, thus purging the corruption off of him.

Nami-V

Norou's replacement Nami after the original has gone missing. Unlike the original, she's almost completely incapable of emotion, and has much more in common with the Crystals in demeanor.

Tropes associated with Nami-V:

• Emotionless Girl
• Green-Eyed Monster: Towards Nami herself.
• How Do I Shot Web?: While her body is innately able of material infusion like the Crystals, she doesn't know how to do it.
• Machine Monotone: Despite not being machine at all.
• Pick Your Human Half: Despite being fully human, she has very robotic mannerisms.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning
• Replacement Goldfish: To Nami, herself a Replacement Goldfish.
• Spock Speak
• White Hair, No Heart

Regulus Camus

A member of the Halo's Council. He seeks to take over the Halo when he notices that Soujirou is getting far out of hand and starts disobeying the Council or not even convoking them.

Tropes associates with Regulus:

• Affably Evil: But not less evil for his politeness.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: He disdains artificial intelligence, and considers all androids beneath him.
• Antiquated Linguistics: Shared with Koizumi, a blatant proof that he belongs the the Halo's older purist caste.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: Considers himself (and the late Siegward) this to Soujirou.
• Artificial Limbs: One of his arms is metallic. It's actually imperfectly infused.
• Colonel Badass: He rarely gets to show on his Colonel part, simply because Gouta was made General and enforces Soujirou's control on the Might Branch strictly.
• Dissonant Serenity
• I Let You Win: While he is the sub-boss to Crystal-N, he only follows through with the assignment to find a chance to stab Soujirou in the back, so he blatantly throws most of his fights.
• Lack of Empathy: Koizumi may be arrogant, but he is downright cruel.
• The Starscream: It's obvious by the time he shows up that he's itching to kill Soujirou.
• The Stoic: But rather than being a Perpetual Frowner, he has a permanent smirk on his face.
• Villain Respect: While he respects the qualities of people, he doesn't exactly respect people themselves.
• We Used to Be Friends: With Norou. They were friends because of their similar personalities and interests, but after Norou hit it off with Merilith and made a friend of Noctus, Regulus cut ties with him.

Crystal-N

The brand-new Crystal, barely born. Created by Soujirou to purify the world, reasoning and her own inability to erase corruptions without disintegrating everything lead her to her new solution: destroy the world.

Tropes associated with Crystal-N:

• Anti-Magic: Except her form of such is hard to channel, making it unusable mid-fighting, and involves utter disintegration rather than actual cleansing.
• Barrier Warrior
• BFS
• Death Seeker: Her conclusion to the simple equation as to how she could "save" the world from corruption. But she's not dying without taking the world with her.
• Glass Cannon
• Heel–Face Turn: When the rune holders center around the same place, she sees an opportunity to destroy the three at the same time and therefore stops trying to destroy the world, instead waiting to create an opportunity.
• Laser Blade: Whips one out for some of her heavy normal attacks.
• The Power of Hate: And she Hates Everyone Equally, though more because she is forcing herself to hate, so she can destroy the world without remorse. She still has residue of this when she has a chance to not need to destroy the world.
• Straw Nihilist: Though Crystal-M's Kill All Humans modus operandi was wrong? This Crystal wants to destroy the world, so she's even worse of an Omnicidal Maniac.
• You Are Number Fourteen

Introduced in Desire of the Sanctum:

Cristina Greengale

Leader of the Defender association known as "the Saints". A member of old Gate Halo nobility, she resides aboard Pegasus, but created the Saints as she's been signed off of the Halo's army, and she doesn't have any reasonable source of income.

Tropes associated with Cristina:

• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Formed the Saints by herself, taking down several assassins sent on her way.
• Decoy Protagonist: Of her own arc. After a victory against Norou, Cristina is brought down by Soujirou and Homura while they take Norou for themselves. And at this point, Occult Blue Eyes show up. She's brought to tears and the Cristina we've known until then leaves the screen forever as Kouma takes center stage.
• Deflector Shields
• For Great Justice: The underlying purpose of the Saints, and not just a placeholder for "in the name of the law".
• In the Hood: Until she takes it off and starts reciting you your rights.
• Irony: She's of royalty and a very refined person, yet her fighting style is just cutting the opponent with her whip-blade and using flat-out power from her battle suit.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Her Mythical Arcane, Purging of the Unholy.
• Occult Blue Eyes: Once her green eyes turn into occult blue eyes, it's too late for her.
• Rebellious Princess: She investigates the New Gate Halo because the Greengale House's social status is getting ignored more and more as time passes.
• Vigilante Woman: As a Saint. She's of the good kind, though the Halo isn't that much for trying to contradict her in this regard.
• Wind Is Green: It's in her name. Though, despite some of her attacks having a wind Theme Naming, she uses Pure Energy.

Ruu "Rain" Kansechi

R's right-hand woman, and The Strategist of R System. She is Hiyoru's estranged sister, and wants revenge for his leaving her when she was a kid.

Tropes associated with Ruu:

• Aloof Dark-Haired Girl
• An Ice Person
• Badass Cape: As befits her position.
• Berserk Button: Hiyoru.
• Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: Constant.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette
• Lady of War
• Long-Lost Relative: To Hiyoru. Even through their common stint in the R System, they never saw each other, per her own request.
• Meaningful Name: Ruu has the Kanji for rain in it.
• Odd Friendship: With Ronda. They're each other's foil and best friend.
• Parental Abandonment: Her and Hiyoru were left alone at her birth. She chose her name.
• Stepford Snarker
• Younger Than They Look: Her looks and her motherly attitude to Ronda are deceiving. She's 17, younger than Ronda herself.

Lorna T. Bloode

Lily's narcissistic older sister. She's sent by Noctus in the city on intent to wipe out the Halo.

Tropes associated with Lorna:

• Combat Pragmatist: She fights with guns.
• Combat Stilettos
• Daddy's Little Villain: In contrast to Lily's faultiness and Lux's reluctance, she happily obliges whenever Noctus asks anything.
• Dark Action Girl
• Elegant Gothic Lolita
• Fille Fatale: Acts seductively on occasion.
• Lack of Empathy: She revels in the pain of others.
• Put the "Laughter" in "Slaughter": Which only emphasizes her sadist attitude.
• Super-Speed
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Says this to the Halo, as Noctus considers partnership with the halo "too risky".

Soujirou Mikami

The New Gate Halo's Guru. He took over secretly in the aftermath of the Japan War by assassinating the former Guru, and maintains his firm grasp over the world via manipulation and force. He is researching a mass-produceable means of counteracting the corruptions.

Tropes associated with Soujirou:

• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Killed his predecessor with a guided drone kamikaze attack.
• Bling of War
• Brilliant, but Lazy
• The Chessmaster: Manipulates almost everyone related to the New Gate Halo to meet his end and affirm his control over the world, mostly via Homura.
• The Emperor
• Four-Star Badass
• Klingon Promotion: Which allowed him to ascend from a mere Flight Branch captain into being the king of the world.
• Insistent Terminology: He insists on being called Grandmaster rather than Guru.
• Overranked Soldier: He one-upped his own teammates by assassinating the New Gate Halo's previous Guru before taking the place and the new title of Grandmaster.
• To Hell and Back: He has been sent on suicide missions around the Blissrune, but he's kept himself safe from corruption every single time.
• Trans Human: Eventually changes himself into the Halo-iron Crystal.
• We Used to Be Friends He originally planned a massive coup with himself from the Flight Branch, Cristina's father from the Light Branch, Merilith from the Night Branch, Gouta from the Might Branch, Zack from the Sight Branch and Norou from the Fright Branch. When the coup went wrong (due to Cristina's father going turncoat on Soujirou and the Might Branch being mobilized by the Japanese War), he went for a solo plan. And since he took all the reward for himself - and subsequently proceeded to ignore everyone else - he is justifiably disliked by a number of persons. Chief among them Cristina (since he killed her father for attempted cop-out before deeming the plan a failure), Merilith (he fired the whole Night Branch as one of his first orders and was one short step off of enforcing Fantastic Racism against her), and Zack (for the Reassigned to Antarctica treatment).
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: It's almost his entire modus operandi since his induction as Grandmaster.

Introduced in The Rune Wars:

R'

The R System's leader, and a former Gate Halo slave, which is his excuse for plotting revenge.

Tropes associated with R':

• Badass Boast: He claims to be able to take on Akihiko, Gouta, and Norou 3-on-one. While it's not too far-fetched, it still takes into account a gross underestimation of all parties involved.
• Bad Liar
• Bad Powers, Bad People: Though R' still manages to make his power not so bad since his Imagine Drive has no effect on the environment. That's because it does not function with nuclear energy like it was planned.
• Create Your Own Enemy: Both ways. The Gate Halo made an enemy of him by using him as a slave. He in turn lied to his own subordinates and ended up making enemies of Hiyoru, Ken, Mint and Rei.
• Dark Messiah
• Delayed Explosion: His Mythical Arcane Rebellion Punch.
• The Engineer / Mr. Fixit: He's a great mechanic, being able to craft the magical motor he called the Imagine Drive, only by buying blueprints from Z-One. More? He grafted it into himself. He also changed its alimentation sources from nuclear power to his magically-crafted Spiralstone's magical power. He also managed to replicate Project Crystal, and though he didn't do all the work from the ground up it's still a thing Z-One hasn't done.
• Fallen Hero: He intended at first to solve his problems with the Halo solo like heroes usually do, but eventually mounted the R System and turned villainous.
• Full-Contact Magic: The bulk of his fighting style.
• Godzilla Threshold: When foiled by Crystal-N and left to see a Crystallized Soujirou, he resolves to put a "last resort" plan in motion. It involved creating new magically-enchanted stones and infusing himself, Rain, Ronda and Zee with them, making the four borderline-Crystals (barring Zee herself, since by then she's a complete Crystal).
• The Kirk: As the R System's leader, and his two advisors being Rain and Ronda.
• Ki Manipulation: Subverted: he's mistaken as using Ki but it's Non-Elemental magic.
• Knight Templar: His revenge against the Halo who exploited him as a slave? Take Over the World by using methods almost as bad as theirs.
• Orcus on His Throne: He is too often content with letting his minions do the work, though it's more out of trust in them than out of laziness.
• Pragmatic Villainy: R' does not force anybody to follow him. He accepts Ken's departure and barely even gives a reaction to the massive desertion wave the R System faces when it's in charge of Seki City, but he still fights off the people who attempt to destroy it.
• Slouch of Villainy: Only stops in the game he's introduced in.
• Super-Speed
• Utopia Justifies the Means

Adelbert

A hero of the Monster Wars, and formerly humanity's main asset. He was transformed into a powerful living armor as his body was too damaged in the war.

Tropes associated with Adelbert:

• Animated Armor: His human body was transformed into an armor as reconsctruction by Norou and Regulus.
• Boring, but Practical: He uses little in the way of tricks, instead winning by raw power.
• Disappeared Dad: He's this to Loke.
• Fights Like a Normal: And he damn near forces his opponents to.
• No-Nonsense Nemesis: He beats everyone to chasing MUGI, and takes none of her Nice Girl antics.
• Pragmatic Hero: He talks little with the other characters, and clashes with damn near everybody.
• Smug Super: He's very strong, very confident, and very proud of it.
• World's Strongest Man: He's stronger than just about anybody.

Noctus Bloode

Co-founder of Orbis World Labs along with Norou after the Monster Wars ended, his official work place is Z-One. He has a lot of contacts around the world.

Tropes associated with Noctus:

• Pragmatic Villainy: Mostly acts to help people that did or will help him in return or save his own hide. Also calls the Halo incredibly stupid for discarding the Crystals after their first use.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: And lots of them, he works in Z-One, as well as occasionally in the Guild of the Night, all while being Norou's business partner.

MUGI Shimanaka

A mysterious girl who came from a pod hidden inside a meteor.

Tropes associated with MUGI:

• Artificial Human: She designates herself as an "organic magitech cyborg".
• Drop Pod: How she arrives, her pod crashes into the remains of Pegasus.
• Goggles Do Nothing: Because she never wears them.
• Human Aliens: Billed from outer space, looks quite human. She's actually an artificial human, and subverts the trope since she comes from a space colony where the Japanese have emigrated.
• I Come in Peace: Drops the line straight, or rather says "I came in peace.", considering the first thing she did was escape from her landing site.
  • We Come in Peace — Shoot to Kill: She's really out to destroy the New Gate Halo... even though by this point it's all but destroyed.
• Kaleidoscope Hair: Her hair is usually green, but when powered up her hair becomes a shining light blue.
• Mysterious Waif: The mysteries surrounding her are actually what has everyone chase her.
• Sidequest Sidestory: The beginning of the Rune Wars has the rest of the living trying to figure out who she is, how she exists, and also trying to enlist her help against the runes.
• Tron Lines: Run across her skin when she powers up.

Crystal-A

The original Crystal, who finally awoke again after her failed attempt at sealing the Blissrune. It is hidden inside her body.

Tropes associated with Crystal-A:

• The Corruption: She's able to spread Blissrune corruption, since she holds the Blissrune itself.
• Empty Shell: Once cleansed. Crystal-M and Mint are left trying to wake her up in the end.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: She was an attempt to do this to the Blissrune. It didn't work.
• Super Prototype: Subverted. She's certainly thought to be so, especially with her power surpassing the other Crystals, but the truth is that her power isn't her own and she was the only Crystal to be vulnerable to corruption due to being hybrided with simple stone.

Crimeida, Ebonsela and Pearelei

The three runes, they take conscious human forms when threatened.

Tropes associated with the three:

• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: After they're defeated, the three make a last desperate wish to be allowed to stay alive. They agree to stop corrupting people and let humanity be. This got to the point that Crimeida talked, Ebonsela stopped being a bitch and Pearelei stepped down her high horse.
• Anthropomorphic Personification
• As Long as There Is Evil: An odd variation. The reason the runes cannot be destroyed one-by-one is because the others exist, meaning that if you destroy one, it will be reconstituted in response to the other two's presence.
• Character Alignment: The three are evil despite the appearances. Pearelei being the Lawful Evil, Ebonsela the Neutral Evil and Crimeida the Chaotic Evil.
• The Corruption: Durr. They stop spreading their influence after their defeat.
• Elemental Embodiment: To Blood Magic, Casting a Shadow and Light 'em Up.
• Fanservice: Why would the runes take on female golem forms otherwise? Can quickly turn into Fan Disservice for Ebonsela and Crimeida whose "skin" is much less smooth than Pearelei, and count that Crimeida looks like she's constantly covered in blood.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: All three can have them, with Crimeida's eyes glowing yellow, Ebonsela's glowing purple and Pearelei's glowing cyan.
• Good Colors, Evil Colors: All stuck to their evil interpretations. Crimeida's the crimson red Ax-Crazy Omnicidal Maniac, Ebonsela's the purple and black comic-ish card-carrying villainess, and the white Pearelei is the holy magical zealot.
• More than Mind Control: The fact that they're the sources of corruption meant that the three were pulling this off on various people. It stops after they're defeated.
• Obviously Evil: Except Pearelei (though even she is eerie, and a Knight Templar).
• Physical God
• Rasputinian Death: It took very long to bring them down, but after they fought each other to a point where they were starting to wear down, thgey were ganged upon by a large portion of the cast, then ate Zero's NLC bomb to the face, and Crystal-N overpowered them and was ready to disintegrate them all.
• Theme Naming: All of their names have 8 letters.

Crimeida

The Bloodrune incarnate. She materializes upon the runes meeting each other.

Tropes associated with Crimeida:

• Ax-Crazy
• Blood Knight
• Hair-Trigger Temper: And since her Berserk Button is the other two runes, she's constantly in a fit of Unstoppable Rage.
• Mood Whiplash: She's almost proning this. There's also one second from Loke and Zack's friendship scenes to their trying to murder everybody else in sight.
• Obliviously Evil: She exists and corrupts things simply for the other two not to do this.
• Omnicidal Maniac: Everybody becomes this under her influence.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Combined with Glowing Eyes of Doom.
• Red Filter of Doom: As a Gory Discretion Shot for her Major Influence. Also used when she first appears and instantly kills Akihiko and Crystal-A.
• Terse Talker: In contrast to Pearelei's constant preaching and Ebonsela's constant Evil Gloating, Crimeida is barely capable of speech.

Ebonsela

The Blackrune incarnate. She materializes upon the runes meeting each other.

Tropes associated with Ebonsela:

• Bad Powers, Bad People: It's no surprise with her elusive dark powers that she's Faux Affably Evil.
• Black Screen of Death: Her variant of Major Influence.
• Dark Is Evil: She's black, she looks like she's constantly wearing a skull, her eyes glow purple, and of course she revels in her corruption.
• Evil Laugh: So often.
• Evil IS Black
• For the Evulz
• Purple Is the New Black: Everything about her that is not black is not black is purple. It's also the color of her Glowing Eyes of Doom.

Pearelei

The Blissrune incarnate. She materializes upon the runes meeting each other.

Tropes associated with Pearelei:

• Being Good Sucks: Pearelei rants about "having to enlighten the no-good dimwits". Except those no-good dimwits are everybody who she didn't corrupt yet.
• A Fate Worse Than Death: While the end result of the other runes' influence will inevitably end with everybody dead, hers will leave everybody as an extension of her will.
• Heavenly Blue: Some bits of her.
• Holy Is Not Safe: She doesn't forget to underline why she "rebelled" on the Gate Halo religious figures. They thought she would not turn back on them because they looked good, but she can see any and all of their sins. Their attempt to manipulate her being a sin in and of itself for her.
• Knight Templar: Views her corruption as purification? Check. All her followers constantly ranting about making the world better? Check. Light colors? Check. Still evil? Check.
• One-Winged Angel: Her liberated form can be seen as this to Crystal-A.
• Pillar of Light: Her Major Influence is portrayed as one so large it takes the whole screen in length.
• Silk Hiding Steel: Very literate and polite but she's not what she looks like.

NPCs:

WARNING! Spoilers ahead, they will not be marked.

Siegward Hearn

Tropes associated with Siegward:

• Ax-Crazy: Took this approach to politics after the incidents with Japan.
• Bad Boss: Generally didn't care about his subordinates.
• Death by Origin Story
• General Failure: Left the military handling to none. His strategy in the Japan War amounted to just fight the Japanese on equal ground, then send assassins and the Crystal that's currently alive to cause massive damage at night.
• General Ripper
• Jerkass: The New Gate Halo's initial popularity got to his head, and he thought he could get away with everything... including the genocide of the Japanese.
• Kick the Dog: The Japanese ask for help from the Halo against The Corruption? Weak-minded pansies, where's their Japanese Spirit?
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Merilith. Since, as the leader of the Night Branch, she was under his direct orders, she took the brunt of the punishment for her branch's every failures. This is why she joined Soujirou, whom she didn't suspect of pulling Fantastic Racism to keep her away from power.
• 0% Approval Rating: Well, one percent, seeing that Noel Greengale preferred his tyrannical rule over Soujirou taking over the world.

Noel Greengale

Cristina's father, deceased before Soujirou Mikami took control over the New Gate Halo.

Tropes associated with Noel:

• Death by Origin Story
• To Be Lawful or Good: The major source of his internal conflicts in his last days. Whether it was to assist the God Clans in their world takeover or keeping Siegward on top of the world. When he discovered Soujirou didn't have good intentions regarding the world takeover, he turned his back on The Plan.
• Token Good Teammate: Was this to Soujirou's team, which had Norou, Zack, Gouta, Merilith, himself and Soujirou as the main actors.
• Turn Coat: On Soujirou. This ended as well as you would expect.