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Main Characters
Iska
Voiced by: Yūsuke Kobayashi (Japanese), Jason Liebrecht (English)
A 16-year-old boy prodigy, Iska was known as the youngest Saint Disciple of the Heavenly Empire, holding the eleventh seat. Due to releasing a captive witch girl from captivity due to her age, he was stripped of his rank and imprisoned for life. Circumstances around the war with the Nebulis Sovereignty have led to his release, but his rank hasn't been reinstated. He is the sole wielder of the Astral Swords and is determined to end what he considers a pointless hundred-year war.
- Almighty Janitor: His combat ability is on par with the other Saint Disciples, but since he lost his title, he's just a regular soldier on paper. His reputation faded into obscurity due to his demotion and lack of prior missions, causing most astral mages to underestimate him.
- Anti-Magic: His black sword can cut through and nullify any astral power it touches. Conversely, the white sword releases the absorbed powers from the black sword, effectively allowing Iska to use the power of Astral Mages against them.
- Attack Reflector: Using his two swords in combination gives him this ability against Astral Mages. The black sword can absorb any astral power it touches, while the white sword can send the absorbed power back at the attacker.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: He was on a train that was saved by an Astral Mage (implied to be Alice), causing him to realize they're not inherently evil.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: TONS with Alice.
- Chick Magnet: Astral Mages, specifically, women from the Royal Houses, seem to be instantly drawn to Iska oddly. Just to name a few: Alice, Sisbell, Kissing, and eventually even RIN have some degrees of romantic feelings for Iska, despite the obvious hurdles said relationships would have!
- Crippling Overspecialization: He is a swordsman who can defeat almost any Astral Mage by himself, however when faced with enemies who are not mages, his threat level decreases significantly.
- Empowered Badass Normal: He's a Master Swordsman with no astral power of his own, but wields two astral swords to give himself an edge against astral mages.
- Expy: An obvious one to Kirito, a young and powerful swordsman with a preference for duel-wielding who has a habit for attracting girls despite clearly only having eyes for one (who's a year older than him no less).
- Dual Wielding: He wields two astral blades. One is capable of intercepting astral attacks while the other can copy the intercepted astral attacks.
- Ignore the Fanservice: While he is very level-headed with Alice but prone to her "flirtations", Iska just ignores (kindly & respectfully) Sisbell's flirtations, and is able to resist Elletear's very aggressive offers to sleep with her.
- Oblivious to Love: Refreshingly Averted: Unlike most anime heroes, Iska is pretty much aware of all the girls, particularly Astral Mages, that are very attracted to him; he just doesn't make a big deal about it.
- Only One Name: Enforced on his part.
Word of God confirmed that Iska does have a surname, "but he's deliberately hiding it for a good reason". - Pragmatic Hero: He's willing to let weaker astral mages retreat, but he wants to capture Aliceliese because doing so might increase his standing in the empire and allow him to force negotiations with Nebulis.
- Stock Light-Novel Hero: He's an obvious Kirito expy, and one of (if not the) strongest Saint Disciples in the world. He's got the standard unremarkable and pretty-boy facial features, and while not quite building a "harem", there are multiple women that are implied to have feelings for him, the most bluntly obvious being Alice and Sisbell.
- Underestimating Badassery: The Nebulis Sovereignty sees him as just a normal soldier of the Empire, not knowing that Iska's a former Saint Disciple. Jhin pieces it together that is why the Empire let him out of imprisonment.
Aliceliese Lou Nebulis IX
Voiced by: Sora Amamiya (Japanese), Emily Neves (English)
The 17-year-old Second Princess of the Nebulis Sovereignty, Aliceliese is a powerful astral sorceress of ice, feared as "the Ice Calamity Witch" by the people of the Empire. She wishes to overthrow the Empire to create a world where no one would be oppressed and persecuted. She rarely shows emotion on the battlefield, but she is sensitive and compassionate at heart.
- Bathing Beauty: Alice is often seen having baths and showers to help her think.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: TONS with Iska.
- Big Sister Instinct:
- Despite seeing Sisbel as a rival to the throne, she still feels obligated to save her little sister from an Imperial combat robot.
- This is thrown out the window when she realizes Sisbell is in love with her "rival" Iska, to which Alice goes into full-blown Roaring Rampage of Revenge mode on her!
- Broken Pedestal: She idolized Nebulus as her nation's founder and the one who gave astral mages a place where they could live without fear, but that all dampened after seeing how she was filled with destructive anger and hate towards the Empire and outright states that she's just another witch.
- Cloudcuckoolander: For all her power and charisma, Alice can be quite ditzy.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Alice seems to be willfully ignorant that she views Iska as more than just a "worthy rival". When Iska agrees to become her sister Sisbell's bodyguard and they start walking away arm in arm, she is clearly bothered.
- Combat Stilettos: She's always wearing high heels even into battle. Helps that her fighting style doesn't require much movement.
- Crying a River: When watching a play that is essentially "Romeo & Juliet", Alice is sobbing so much she drenched hers, Rin's, and Iska's handkerchiefs.
- Defecting for Love: Not quite yet, but Rin is fearful that Alice is starting to. As of Volume 12, Alice realizes the truth of her sister's betrayal and accepts Yunmelngen's offer to join him and Iska in the Empire to make a coordinated effort to defeat Elletear.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: She's very wary of Iska at the start but over time she starts to trust her rival with her life and then falls for him.
- Didn't Think This Through: After Rin's attempt to murder Iska at the Hotel in Province 13, Alice insists on being chained to Iska's cuffs. When Iska asks about bathing or using the toilet, Alice's reaction is priceless.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Upon discovering her little sister is in love with Iska, Alice freaking loses it and vows everything from revenge, punishment, and judgment upon her; legal or not, she will make it legal!
- Everyone Can See It: Despite everything going against the idea of her and Iska being a couple, even Rin acknowledges that Alice is falling for Iska.
- Foreign Culture Fetish: Downplayed. She is shown to have an appreciation for art produced in the Empire, and one of her meetings with Iska was at an art exhibition for an artist from the Empire. She also displays several paintings from the Empire in her room. This does not go down well with her mother, who orders Rin to burn all of the paintings when she discovers them.
- Green-Eyed Epiphany: Alice's jealous rants towards Sisbell were one for the Readers to remove any doubt that Alice is indeed in love with Iska.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Alice is clearly annoyed when Iska agrees to be Sisbell's bodyguard, and Sisbell starts walking arm in arm with him.
- Heroic BSoD:
- After the Empire attacks her family, puts her mother in comatose, and "kills" her sister Elletear, Alice abandons her dreams of co-existence and wants all-out war with The Empire and even tearfully tries to throw away her love for Iska to no avail.
- Double, when Elletear reveals she really was the traitor as Alice suspected and faked everything just to mess with her and prove how naive Alice really is, Alice is left completely stunned until Iska, Rin, and Sisbell arrive to reinvigorate her.
- History Repeats: Narrowly averted. Alice nearly makes the same grave mistake Mirabea did with Salinger that left her emotionally stunted with Iska, nearly letting go of her dreams of co-existing with the Empire. The only things that prevent her from becoming her mother are her realizing she's in love with Iska and her servants revealing to her that the Hydra family was responsible for letting the Empire into the Sovereignty.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Believe it or not, she literally slips on her own ice during a monologue which causes her to fall into Iska's arms (in the anime, the small outcropping she's standing on breaks under her feet).
- An Ice Person: Her astral magic specializes in ice.
- I Have You Now, My Pretty: She is having way too much fun with Iska when Rin captures him for her.
- Love Realization: After her mother is comatose and sister Elletear is "killed", Alice goes on a rampage and rejects Iska only for him to passively talk her out of her rage. Alice then admits to herself that she's in love with Iska.
- Most Common Superpower: Alice is a powerful magic user and she's very well-endowed.
- Ms. Fanservice: Like most Witches, Alice is breathtakingly beautiful. Large breasts often matched with a Cleavage Window, very long blonde hair, an exceptional figure, red eyes, and while she usually dresses in conservative, refined, and classical outfits, she gets plenty of bath and shower scenes.
- Not So Above It All: Alice is pretty prone to getting herself into some ridiculous situations especially when Iska is involved.
- Not to mention sparking The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry with her young sister Sisbell since she realized they both have romantic feelings for Iska.
- Things ramp up considerably when Alice and Sisbell begin competing for Iska's affections, with Alice making sure to do everything that Sisbell did to Iska herself to "judge" her. Alice also tells Iska as Second Princess, she can pass judgment off on Princesses lower than her. When Iska calls her bluff, Alice basically declares she'll "make it legal".
- The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: She wants to be the one to defeat Iska and objects if anyone else wants to do so, even if that someone is Nebulis's founder.
- Power Stereotype Flip: Despite being a wielder of ice magic, Alice is kind, soft-hearted, and bubbly, unlike an Ice Queen who is stoic and emotionally detached.
- Parental Favoritism: It's quite obvious she is this compared to her two other sisters, with Mirabea being willing to sneak into Sisbell's room out of suspicion and her cold indifference towards Elletear.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Subverted. She has noticeably bright red eyes and is ruthless in battle. However, she is also a kind girl who wants to bring peace to her nation.
- Ship Tease: Tons with Iska.
- Stock Light-Novel Calamity Princess: She's the second princess of the Nebulis Sovereignty, whose great magical power has given her the nickname "Ice Calamity Witch". She is blond, dresses in elegant white and red gowns, and sports an impressive bust with extremely low necklines. While she turns the archetype on its head by using ice magic, her power is no less destructive and is capable of causing major damage. Her main goal is to Take Over the World for benevolent reasons: to bring peace to the two nations that have been locked in a Forever War. She meets the protagonist, Iska, after he is sent by the enemy nation to kill her, and the two fall in love both out of mutual respect for each other in battle and for their similar goals of ending the war and bringing peace.
- This Means War!: What she says word for word upon seeing Sisbell acting lovey-dovey with Iska while spying on them.
- Thwarted Coup de Grâce: She walks in on Rin trying to kill Iska behind her back and is quick to show her disapproval.
- What Is This Feeling?: Alice at first believes she views Iska as a great rival and desires to defeat him, but she starts to question if this is truly what she wants from him. Seeing her little sister Sisbell make it very clear she harbors romantic feelings for him causes Alice to believe she is actually in love with him.
- Yandere: Downplayed. Her reaction upon seeing Sisbell walking with Iska under a sunset was nearly freezing her own sister on the spot and selling her body to a jeweler. Rin was able to stop her.
- You Are in Command Now: Becomes acting Queen of Nebulis after the assassination attempt on her mother leaves her unable to rule.
Heavenly Empire
The Heavenly Empire, or the Empire for short, is the largest nation in the world. Because of their opposing views about Astral Mages, the Empire is at war with the Nebulis Sovereignty, a safe haven for all astral mages.
In General
- Boomerang Bigot: Played With. The Empire discriminates against Astral Mages, yet their Emperor is an Astral Mage himself, one with a very altered body.
- Fantastic Racism: The Empire discriminates against Astral Mages, and seeks to exterminate them. Yet their own Emperor is an Astral Mage himself. A lot of this however is due to manipulation from the Apostles
- The Magic Versus Technology War: Represents the "Technology" side of the war.
Emperor
Emperor Yunmelngen
Voiced by: Aoi Yūki (Japanese), Katelyn Barr (English)
The Emperor of the Heavenly Empire.
- Adaptational Early Appearance: In the Light Novels, Yunmelngen didn't appear until Volume 9. In the anime, he's first seen as a silhouette at the end of Episode 6 before appearing in Episode 10.
- Ambiguously Human: He has Wolf ears, and a tail, due to becoming a perfect hybrid of a Human & Astral Spirit 100 years ago.
- Big Bad: Surprisingly averted for now. Despite being The Emperor, Yunmelngen is unlike the stereotypical "Evil Emperor" most fans were expecting. In fact, he even helps the other main characters try to figure out the mystery of the Astral Spirits and the Eight Great Apostles.
- Big Good: Amazingly, Yunmelngen breaks barriers by being one of the few Emperors in anime that isn't the Big Bad, but the Big Good! Yunmelngen is the first world leader to finally put the hate aside and try to form a coalition of nations to work together to stop Elletear.
- Duel to the Death: Hilariously averted; Yunmelngen challenges Rin to a duel with numerous board games! If she beats him once, she'll go free, if she gives up once...Rin must reveal her name to him...kinda anti-climatic ain't it?
- Fatal Flaw: Boredom, Yunmelngen has lived for so long at the top of society as a near God-like being with omnipotence, boredom sets in pretty easily for him which allowed the Apostles to run rampant for so long. His desire for things to entertain him can cause him to act out in rather "unique" ways, so much so his subordinates measure his boredom with a chart! The last time he got extremely bored, he broke into Salinger's prison just to talk and mess with him.
- God-Emperor: Yunmelngen has an enhanced lifespan to a currently unknown degree, so he's not losing his seat as The Emperor anytime soon. But uses human body doubles so people don't realize what he actually is.
- Little Bit Beastly: Yunmelngen sports Wolf ears and a fluffy tail since the appearance of Astral Energy turned him into a Human/Astral Spirit hybrid.
- The Omnipotent: According to Riysa, Yunmelngen "sees all". In fact, this plays into his Fatal Flaw, as he's prone to letting things play out to see "what will happen" instead of dealing with a problem right away.
- Shipper on Deck: Ships Iska with Alice because they entertain him so much.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Yunmelngen was aware all along that the Apostles were up to no good, but he considered it "boring" and saw it as too much of a hassle to deal with. Keep in mind that his unwillingness to deal with them allowed them to not only consolidate immense political and magical power but also to persecute the Astral Mages and start a Forever War!
Unit N07
Nene Alkastone
Voiced by: Kaori Ishihara (Japanese), Sarah Roach (English)
The top-notch mechanical engineer of Unit N07 to which Iska belongs to. Highly skilled at handling any kind of weapons and machinery, she's also known as an outstanding researcher. She is cheerful, light-hearted, and winsome. She attaches herself to Iska and calls him "My Bro, Iska."
- Adaptational Curves: Nene seems to be bustier in the anime and light novel than in the manga.
- Genki Girl: Nene can be described as a bundle of explosive positive energy.
- The Glomp: She always takes the chance to grab Iska by the arm as a sign of affection.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Nene is not pleased when Sisbell gets a little too close to Iska.
- Kill Sat: Nene can control a satellite, the Star of Tetrabiblos, to launch a grenade that disrupts astral power.
- Odd Friendship: With Sisbell; she and Mismis are extremely outgoing and they form a friendship with Sisbell who is extremely introverted, helping Sisbell break her out of her shell.
- Secret-Keeper: Knows about Mismis becoming a Star Spirit wielder.
Mismis Klass
Voiced by: Nao Shiraki (Japanese), Lindsay Seidel (English)
The commander of Unit N07 to which Iska belongs to. Though not good enough at firsthand combat, she is a very capable leader who respects the judgment of her squad members and can respond well to their subtle displays of emotions.
- And Then John Was a Zombie: Mismis becomes a Star Spirit Wielder after being kicked into a vortex by Lord Mask.
- Bathing Beauty: She loves hot showers, finding them extremely relaxing, which actually leads to a Shower of Awkward situation when she gets so relaxed she forgets she was showering at the barracks, and walks out of the stall completely naked in front of her subordinates, and her relaxation quickly turns into humiliation. She feels she's Defiled Forever, but Iska comforts her by saying the Censor Steam covered her up.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Mismis loses it when the Witches attempt to kidnap Iska, activating her Astral Mage abilities to try and stop them.
- Blow You Away: After becoming a Star Spirit Wielder, her Power Nullifier abilities are classified as "wind elemental".
- The Captain: She is the captain and commanding officer of Unit N07. While her abilities as a fighter or strategist are mediocre at best, she does make up for it by being the team's emotional center.
- Damsel in Distress: In Volume 2, she's captured by Shanorotte and taken to the Zoa camp near a vortex.
- D-Cup Distress: She has a... notable bust, and while it gets her admirers, it also causes her some problems, such as having balance issues due to her small body.
- Forgotten First Meeting: Mismis is having dinner with the three Lou Nebulis sisters and suddenly remembers Alice and Rin are the ones that kidnapped Iska before, and promptly has a panic attack.
- Girls Love Stuffed Animals: Mismis has a large collection of stuffed animals in her room.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Mismis isn't too pleased when Sisbell starts getting a little too touchy-feely with Iska
- The Heart: Her greatest gift is her empathy for the team, and she is easily able to tell when they (especially Iska) are in emotional distress and to work on alleviating what's bothering them.
- A Mother to Her Men: Despite being their commanding officer, she mostly acts as a Team Mom, often tending to their emotional needs.
- Older Than They Look: She has a small build, has a babyface, and often speaks in a childlike demeanor, but she's actually 22 years old.
- Odd Friendship: With Sisbell; she and Nene are extremely outgoing and they form a friendship with Sisbell who is extremely introverted, helping Sisbell break her out of her shell.
- Power Nullifier: Her astral power is to temporarily cancel an Astral Mage's power, no matter how strong they are. This literally is a game breaking power in the "Kimi-Sen Universe".
- Secret-Keeper: She is aware to some degree that Iska is meeting up with Alice. Unlike Rin, Mismis is more or less positive about it.
- Super Power Lottery: Having the ability to temporarily nullify an Astral Mage's power, no matter how strong they are, comes very handy when most of your rival nation's abilities rely so heavily on Astral Spirits. Even someone as powerful as the Nobles, Royals, or even Alice are useless around Mismis! Keep this in mind, being able to do this essentially makes Mismis the equivalent of a Nuke against the Sovereignty!
- Victoria's Secret Compartment: She hides things in her bra... and absentmindedly forgets she put them there.
Jhin Syulargun
Voiced by: Shun'ichi Toki (Japanese), Alejandro Saab (English)
The trustworthy sniper of Unit N07 to which Iska belongs to. Cool and composed under any circumstances, he trained with Iska under the same tutor as Iska. He is blunt and bad-mouthed but thoughtful of his comrade at heart.
- Brutal Honesty: He doesn't mince words, especially towards Mismis.
- Deadpan Snarker: Especially towards Mismis.
- Friendly Sniper: He's a skilled sniper and is loyal to the unit. Though it's hinted that sniping isn't his only combat skill, since he trained under Crosswell, Iska's sword teacher.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: Jhin is essentially a Shout-Out to 'Hawkeye', in this universe; down to playing golf and "playing 18 holes and only swinging 18 times". He just doesn't miss.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Upon finding Lord Mask, who (accidentally and unknowingly) made Mismis a Star Spirit wielder (effectively ruining her life in the Empire), Jhin shows him a very dark and menacing side of himself to the point Lord Mask is caught off guard.
- Only Sane Man: Jhin is clearly the only one on Unit N07 the level head.
- Secret-Keeper: Knows about Mismis becoming a Star Spirit wielder.
- Situational Hand Switch: When Lord Mask slices his trigger arm, Jhin immediately pulls a pistol in his left hand and then later uses a full-sized rifle one-handed with that same hand making this also Heroic Ambidexterity.
Saint Disciples
Joheim
Voiced by: Jun'ya Enoki
The first seat to the Saint Disciples known as the "Flash" Knight. His full name is Joheim Leo Armadel.
- Birds of a Feather: With Elletear, of all people, as they're both resentful of Nebulis due to suffering prejudice due to their weak astral power.
- Boomerang Bigot: He's actually an Astral Mage, but due to having weak astral power, was rejected from the Nebulis Army. Finding a kindred spirit in Elletear, the two betrayed their nation and joined the Empire, where he climbed the ranks and became a Saint Disciple.
- The Dragon: He works for Elletear as her right-hand man.
- Jerkass Has a Point: While on the surface what he is doing is terrible, Joheim and Elletear have a valid point that for all the hate and discrimination for Astral Mages that the Sovereignty claims they stand against, they're discrimination of weak spirit wielders like him is no better.
- Master Swordsman: His legendary speed as a swordsman is what earned him the title of Flash Knight
- Red Baron: He's nicknamed Flash Knight due to his incredible speed as a fighter.
- Undying Loyalty: He's completely devoted to Elletear's cause.
- Walking Spoiler: For much the same reasons as Elletear.
May
Voiced by: Miyu Tomita
The third seat to the Saint Disciples known as the "Incessant Tempest".
- Child Soldiers: She was born on the battlefield to the sound of gunfire and essentially lived there, surviving off muddy water and cutting away the rot from her festering wounds.
- Fantastic Racism: Like most in the Empire she holds a great deal of hatred towards Astral Mages. This is due to how she grew up on the battlefield and mistakenly believes that all Astral Mages are inherently born strong (which is far from true), believing that they're lucky to be born into privilege with their powers while she and her soldiers struggled to survive on the battlefield.
- Goggles Do Nothing: She has a pair of goggles on her neck.
- The Nicknamer: When addressing others, she often uses nicknames, like "Names" for Nameless and "Jo" for Joheim.
- Odd Friendship: Invoked, May starts a strange friendship/rivalry with Kissing which began when the two stop fighting and work together to defeat a corrupt astral spirit.
- Token Good Teammate: Unlike most of the other Saint Disciples, May doesn't look down on Iska's actions or hold them against him.
Magna Cassa
The fourth seat to the Saint Disciples and director of the Empire's Special Defense for Humankind.
Risya In Empire
Voiced by: Ayana Taketatsu (Japanese), Dani Chambers (English)
The fifth seat to the Saint Disciples and the special counsel to the Defense Council. A singular prodigy in a multitude of diverse fields, she is friendly and approachable, but acutely diligent. She's the sort of leader to order Unit N07 into harm's way with a smile. She's on good terms with Mismis.
- Bad Boss: Downplayed compared to Nameless. While she is friendly to the N07 unit, she did lie to them about their purpose for infiltrating the Sovereignty. She claims they're supposed to rescue Iska, but she really wants the unit to act as a distraction while she helps Salinger escape, not caring that the unit will most likely be in danger once the whole prison spire falls into chaos, though she probably expected them to survive on their own. At the start of Volume 4, an imperial medic states Risya broke regulations by sending the unit out on too many consecutive missions with no break.
- The Dragon: She works directly for the Lord and considers the Eight Great Apostle's orders to merely be optional requests that she can take at her discretion.
- Enemy Mine: She breaks Salinger out of prison to destabilize the Sovereignty.
- The Gadfly: The way she phrases her orders seems to be designed to see how Mismis will react to them. At one point, she uses a broadcast to poke fun at Mismis complaining about having too many things to memorize, indicating that she either knows Mismis really well or is listening in on Mismis.
- Master of All: She is skilled in both intellectual fields and combat.
- Secret Secret-Keeper:
- Invoked, Risya is constantly dropping hints that she knows more than she lets on about Iska and Alice's budding relationship.
- In Volume 10, she reveals that she's known that Mismis was an Astral Mage the whole time.
"Nameless"
Voiced by: Jun Kasama (Japanese), Patrick Seitz (English)
The eighth seat of the Saint Disciples known as the "Invisible Hand of God". Nameless is an assassin draped in optical camouflage and without equal in combat who does not tolerate any obstacles in his way and will execute his mission without heed to friend or foe. There is a cool rationality to everything he does.
- Ambiguous Robots: He has never been seen outside of his suit, which makes it uncertain whether it's Powered Armor or Animated Armor, and while he moves like a human and bleeds when struck, it's not clear if he really is just a man in a suit or a very advanced android.
- Bad Boss: He never gives thorough explanations to the soldiers under his command and doesn't care to save them when they start disappearing. He's also willing to bomb the vortex even if it means sacrificing captured imperial soldiers.
- Genius Bruiser: He's a superhumanly powerful fighter and he's smart enough to realize that Alice's automatic defense doesn't work against her own redirected ice spells.
- Jerkass: Unlike the Faux Affably Evil members of the empire, Nameless never sugarcoats his contempt towards others and his willingness to sacrifice his allies to complete his mission.
- Logical Weakness: Apparently being invisible doesn't mean much when your opponent decides that enough is enough and just nukes the battleground. This was how Alice defeats him.
- Stealth Expert: Thanks to his optical camouflage, he can easily sneak up on his enemies and kill them before they can react.
Stachell
The ninth seat to the Saint Disciples. He is involved with the Empire's Divine Prison.
Sir Colossus Newton
The tenth seat to the Saint Disciples and director of the Empire's Department of Weapons Development.
Garganly
The eleventh seat to the Saint Disciple, known as the "Absent Engineer".
Eight Great Apostles
In General
The Eight Great Apostles are 8 supreme leaders who command the Imperial Senate, effectively serving as the Empire's legislative body.
- Ambiguously Human\Ambiguous Robots: The Eight Great Apostles of the Empire only appear on computer screens with their names and audio-only conferences, to the point that Risya outright wonders if they might be AIs. Even some representatives in the Empire's legislative assembly have asked the same questions. The fact they've been around for 100 years doesn't help.
- Ambition is Evil: It was their ambition that started the whole war! They convinced the Emperor of the time, Yunmelngen's father, to dig for Astral Energy under the pretense that it would greatly advance the Empire. However, they secretly calculated that unearthing the energy would cause an enormous explosion that would kill everyone at the mine and in the surrounding area, including the emperor and the prince so that they could rule the Empire. Instead, the released energy gave birth to Astral Mages. Because the explosion left the Emperor unable to rule, the eight took advantage of this and began running the government. They wanted to eliminate anybody possessed by astral energy but still desired the energy for themselves, so they came up with the derogatory terms "witch" and "sorcerer", and started sending out false reports about the crimes committed by these witches and sorcerers. As a result, the police became extremely vigilant of them, and they became outcasts. Soon, these so-called witches and sorcerers were arrested, often for false reasons, and thus the persecution began.
- Asshole Victim: After everything they've done over the past 100 years, them getting killed by Elletear after they betrayed her is well deserved.
- Big Bad Ensemble: Despite serving Emperor Yunmelngen, they may be the true big bads on the Empire side of the story, given how Yunmelngen is (so far) a Nice Guy and how Crosswell is warier of them instead of the Nebulis Sovereignty. This is confirmed in Volume 11, where it's revealed that it was their actions that started the war.
- Fantastic Racism: The Eight Apostles have shown the radical Imperialist ideology that all witches should be exterminated from the planet.
- It's All About Me: The apostles are very treacherous, selfish, and manipulative, having no loyalties to anyone but themselves.
Other Heavenly Empire Characters
Crosswell Nes Lubigate
Voiced by: Kosuke Toriumi (Japanese), Ivan Jasso (English)
Iska and Jhin's master, the original wielder of the Astral Swords, and a former Saint Disciple.
- Adaptational Early Appearance: In the Light Novel he doesn't make a proper appearance until Volume 10. In the anime and manga, he appears during the events of Volume 1, though only in flashbacks.
- Really 700 Years Old: He looks to be somewhere between his 20s and 30s, but the fact that Nebulis was his older sister raises questions on his actual age.
- Significant Anagram: The "Nes Lubigate" in his name is an anagram for "Nebulis", making his real name Crosswell Gate Nebulis.
- The Stoic: He's usually expressionless and tight-lipped.
- Training from Hell: Iska and Jhin are his only students who didn't run away after five years of training, implying he's a strict teacher.
Kelvina Sofita Elmos
A former researcher of the Heavenly Empire who was responsible for turning test subjects into mutant witches. As a mutant witch herself, she takes the name of Katalisk's Angel.
- Mad Scientist: She was once a promising researcher under the wing of Sir Karosos Newton, but because of her disregard for human life and ethics, she was arrested and imprisoned for crimes against the Empire. However, she was secretly released by the Eight Great Apostles, who acknowledged her talent for their nefarious plans and supported her experiments behind the scenes. She was the one who experimented and enhanced Vichyssoise and Elletear, as well as created artificial astral spirits, the Beasts of Katalisk.
Nebulis Sovereignty
The Nebulis Sovereignty is a country of Astral Mages, founded one hundred years before the start of the series. It was built on the promise of being a paradise for all astral mages.
In General
- False Utopia: The Nebulis Sovereignty was founded on the pretense that all Astral Mages would find equality and safety; that is false as after Alicerose's death, numerous in-fighting, elitism, sexism (the Sovereignty developed into a heavy matriarchal society) have created a caste society built completely on the power levels of one's Astral Spirits.
- Case in point, the Royal Houses have been fighting each other for the throne so much, that there have already been eight Queens (and a King) ruling the Sovereignty by the start of the series, and the Sovereignty is only a century old; with the campaign for Ninth Monarch already underway!
- Fantastic Caste System: The Sovereignty is heavily classist towards its people by both Social and Astral Power levels. This even extends to the Royal Houses, as a weak Astral Mage is barely acknowledged among their ranks.
- Fantastic Racism: Most members of the Sovereignty hate the Empire with a passion.
- Hypocrite: The Sovereignty is at war with the Empire because of the Empire's discrimination against Astral Mages in the past, yet the Sovereignty looks down on those with weak Astral Power, which includes even members of the Royal Families.
- The Magic Versus Technology War: Represents the "Magic" side of the war.
- Succession Crisis: A large part of the "Nebulis Plot" with Alice, is who will succeed Mirabea as Queen. Just to understand, Nebulis politics is pretty cutthroat for a number of reasons.
- One, Nebulis is very matriarchal which makes men trying to attain political positions extremely difficult (it's noted that there has been at least one male Head of State before, but it's very unlikely for men to attain power).
- Two, Nebulis is some form of a Democratic Monarchy; with three Royal Houses (Lou Nebulis, Zoa Nebulis, & Hydra Nebulis) vying for their daughters to become Queen. But how, when, and what it takes to be nominated is unknown.
- Third, simply being a Royal doesn't allow the girls to campaign, as Elletear being the firstborn daughter of House Lou Nebulis didn't help her case.*
- Fourth, Word of God states that no monarch rules for very long in the Sovereignty.
- You Are Number 6: All candidates to the throne are given a Roman numeral in their name to denote which generation of title they are competing for. Word of God explains this is how there could possibly be "Nine Generations" how families of the Nebulis Royal Houses in only one hundred years.
- For example, "Aliceliese Lou Nebulis IX" only has "IX" in her name because she is a candidate for the Ninth Ruling Monarch of the Nebulis Sovereignty.
House of Lou
The current ruling House of Nebulis, having produced powerful Astral Mages. Mirabea Lou Nebulis VIII
Voiced by: Aya Hisakawa (Japanese), Anastasia Muñoz (English)
The current queen of the Nebulis Sovereignty and mother of Elletear, Aliceliese, and Sisbell.
- Abusive Parents: Mirabea isn't winning any "Mother of the Year" awards anytime soon.
- Mirabea sees her eldest daughter as an Inadequate Inheritor and thus all but disowned her alongside Parental Neglect! This causes said daughter to betray the Sovereignty.
- She is extremely hard and critical of Alice because she sees her as a Superior Successor to her throne but finds Alice's attitude towards the Empire as a weakness that must be stamped out, even telling her to burn the art in her room because it was made by an Imperial Citizen.
- While she is worried about Sisbell's reclusiveness, Mirabea is not above invading her privacy which would only fuel these feelings of paranoia.
- Armor-Piercing Question: Johaim delivers a very painful one to her during their fight exposing her for not being as virtuous a leader as she liked to think.Johaim: "For all mages? Is that really true?"
- Big Bad Ensemble: She shares this role with the Empire's Lord as one of the leaders of the warring countries. Her current goal seems to be awakening the Founder to win the war.
- Blow You Away: Her Astral power is wind-based, capable of offense and defense.
- The Chains of Command: She most certainly places her queenly duties before her motherly ones; however, in a rare moment of self-reflection, Mirabea silently apologizes to her daughters for being a neglectful mother and favoring Alice as her successor; admitting she sees all three of her daughters as "fine ladies" nonetheless. This makes the next moment when Elletear reveals her treachery all the more painful to her.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: While Mirabea appears to have her people's best interest at heart, during the "Nebulis arc" when Elletear make her move, a staggering amount of Nebulis citizens (including commonfolk & Nobles) instantly turn on Mirabea, openly admitting they hated her as their queen.
- Hypocrite: Mirabea claims she hates the Heavenly Empire for the prejudice that her people suffer from them; but multiple people, including her own daughters, are quick to point out she's no better with her hatred for anything Imperial related. Worst of all, she has no reservations about discriminating against Astral Mages with weak spirits like her eldest daughter.
- I Have No Daughter!: Jokes aside, this is how she treats her eldest daughter Elletear on a good day! Also, she's made it clear that if Alice & Sisbell don't meet her lofty expectations, they will suffer similar fates.
- It's All About Me: Invoked, while Mirabea cares for her nation, she makes it clear that the happiness of her family is not her priority. She only cares about destroying the Heavenly Empire and if you can't help her with that, then you're no good to her.
- Slightly averted, eventually Mirabea lets it slip that while she prioritizes her duties as Queen, she still cares about her daughters in her own way. But by the time she starts to show it, the damage is done and it's too late for her to make amends.
- Knight Templar Parent: She forbids Alice from keeping Imperial art in her room since these are products of their people's oppressors. It's so bad that Alice admits that if any of her daughters were captured, she'd still refuse to come to the table for peace talks.
- Moral Myopia: She finds more pleasure in the suffering of the Heavenly Empire despite justifying her own actions by saying how the Empire is responsible for the prejudice of her people. Not even her own family is spared in her bigotry as she apparently looks down on those who have weak Astral Spirit magic. She has the gall to act horrified when her eldest daughter betrays her for the Empire after neglecting her for years.
- The Power of Hate: Her hatred of the Heavenly Empire knows no bounds, while she's not dumb enough to invoke an all-out war, she certainly takes great joy at the idea of Imperial Genocide. When she recovers and learns about the Alliance the Princesses of the Three Houses have forged with Iska and the Emperor to save the world, she's incredibly hesitant to help because she wants to keep fighting the Forever War!
- Parents as People: Averted, the series makes it clear that Mirabea is just a hateful individual. As the series goes on, she's given more depth as a victim of the Forever War and the The Chains of Command which fueled her stubborn hatred.
- Pragmatic Villainy: Unlike the House of Zoa, she doesn't want to escalate the war with the empire too much, since it could result in too many casualties for her side. Because of this, however, the extremists in Nebulis view Mirabea as weak and unwilling while the moderates view her as too willing to fan the flames of the cold war.
- Red Baron: Her epitaph is "The Silent Wind"
- Shadow Archetype: She is what Alice would end up as if she were to allow her hatred for the Empire to overtake all reasoning.
- Ship Tease: In her past with Salinger of all men! The two had a rivalry with heavy romantic undertones like Iska and her daughter Alice currently have.
- Shipper on Deck: Believe it or not, due to convenient half-truths being told to her, she absolutely ships Alice with Iska, going so far as to start preparing a marriage venue and inform the journalists until Alice stops her.
- Too Dumb to Live: So apparently complete Parental Neglect and being an Abusive Parent kinda makes your offspring want to murder you, Didn't See That Coming.
- Mirabea is left completely stunned when Elletear reveals her treachery and even wonders why this is happening? This is despite the years of abuse she ignored!
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: She used to be every much of an idealist as Alice and had a friendly rivalry with Salinger to the point of it bordering on romance. Thanks to the manipulations of the Hydra House, she was tricked into believing Salinger attacked the previous queen and became the stone-hearted woman she is today.
- Whatever Happened to the Mouse?: The Father of her children is never mentioned; given that the Nebulis Sovereignty is mainly matriarchal, this probably explains it though.
- According to author Kei Sazane, "He's alive and well, but he just doesn't play a significant role in the story." He lives with the queen and has his own duties and responsibilities, but she generally handles public matters while he's in the background
- What the Hell, Hero?: More like "What the Hell Villainess Mom?", After she recovers and is informed of Elletear's betrayal and how all three Princess Representatives (Alice, Kissing, and Mizerhyby), Sisbell, and many more have joined forces with Iska and the Emperor (who she discovers is a benevolent but flippant ruler) in an effort to stop Elletear and save the world; Mirabea remains incredibly reluctant not because Elletear is her daughter, but because she cannot get over her hatred for the Empire. Needless to say, this was the Rage Breaking Point for a lot of characters.
Rin Vispose
Voiced by: Yumiri Hanamori (Japanese), Hayden Daviau (English)
Aliceliese's aide and maid, she is an earth astral sorceress and an expert fighter who is skilled in all martial arts. She is also very good at assassination techniques as well and can assess any situation accurately. She is committed to and idolizes Aliceliese, but has a hard time coping with Aliceliese's whimsical behaviors, too.
- A-Cup Angst: She has a complex when it comes to her bust size, especially when compared to her more developed master.
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Rin has made it very clear she doesn't like Iska going through numerous attempts to "get rid of him"; but when Salinger escaped from prison and threatened her Princess & Queen, she relented and requested his help.
- Big "NO!": Her reaction when Alice orders her to go with Iska to the Empire.
- Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: Acts as one to Alice, with varying success.
- Dishing Out Dirt: She has the astral power to control earth.
- Hey, You!: She never calls Iska by name and only refers to him as "that Imperial Swordsman" except during the fight against Salinger.
- Golem: She can create golems with her earth astral power and repair them almost immediately when they take damage.
- I Have You Now, My Pretty: Invoked, Rin's answer to Alice's growing affection for Iska, an enemy of the State; drug him and take him home with them! While she convinces Alice that this is merely to capture Iska, this is actually a ruse so she can gain an opportunity to kill Iska herself.
- Inconvenient Attraction: Rin is extremely antagonistic towards Iska, but her continued interactions with him and bearing witness to his heroic exploits and Nebulis-sympathizing actions cause Rin to develop some kind of attraction/admiration for him... and she absolutely hates it!
- Jerkass Has a Point: While she's a jerk towards Iska and tries to kill him without Alice's permission, her apprehension is understandable. Iska already stated his plan to capture Alice and Alice deviated from her initial goals in favor of her rivalry with Iska. Also, the obvious budding romance between them is a massive scandal that pretty much writes itself.
- After she and Alice take him captive, Rin quickly reminds him that it was his own fault he got captured because he took a spiked drink that she, an enemy from an opposing faction, offered him. Iska admits that overlooking the drugged drink was indeed his fault.
- Magic Knight: Unlike many astral mages, she is also well-trained in close combat and assassination.
- Matron Chaperone: A lot younger than most examples, but otherwise she is one of the biggest obstacles between Iska and Alice. She is very, very opposed to any hint of Alice falling for Iska and constantly lectures her on her fixation with him, and even goes so far as to illegally drug him on neutral ground to try and ruin his impressions of Alice in Volume 3.
- Never My Fault: Her default attitude when something concerns Iska.
- Rin refuses to accept responsibility for the problems caused by drugging and kidnapping Iska, which includes a conflict with the neutral cities if the kidnapping in their territory had been discovered.
- Later, she accuses Iska of overlooking Alice getting sick (she was actually turning red for different reasons) and tells him to leave at once. Iska points out that they were the ones who brought him in the first place. Her immediate response was to pull a knife on him, forcing him to run away.
- After Sisbell teases her about her lacking bust sizes and threatens to reveal her bust gain routine through her magic to get her to leave her alone, she quickly takes her wrath out on an unsuspecting Iska as soon as Sisbell's back is turned.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: During her fight with Salinger, she manages to catch him by surprise by imitating one of Iska's skills. However, as she was inexperienced with the technique, she failed to deliver a finishing blow. This allows Salinger to prepare for it, and when Iska attempts the same technique, he is promptly countered. Made even more embarrassing when Salinger practically thanks Rin for displaying the technique earlier. She can only look away in embarrassment when Iska turns to her.
- Ninja Maid: Practically a textbook example of one with the frilly dress, domestic skills, and combat prowess.
- Not So Above It All: While Rin is not exactly a fan of the budding romance between her Lady & Iska and the continued cooperation with him, she's not above having fun with Unit N07 as well.
- Secret-Keeper: Rin is aware of Alice meeting up with Iska, being there for most of their encounters, and she's not happy about it.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Rin is forced to help Iska in defeating Salinger, a criminal astral mage; while he is happy to help, she isn't quite ready to admit she's happy he helped her.
- Victoria's Secret Compartment: She hides numerous knives in the lining of her dress and garter belt.
- Weak, but Skilled: She's not among the strongest tier of Astral Mages, but her martial arts skills and knowledge of assassination make her a tricky opponent. She was able to detect Nameless's sneak attack and intercept him, despite how specialized he is in stealth.
- Weight Woe: She's concerned about her calorie intake, to the point where Alice threatens to feed her cake if she continues trying to kill Iska behind her master's back.
- What Does She See in Him?: Rin is constantly exacerbated by Alice's obsession with Iska.
- What Is This Feeling?: What eventually starts happening to Rin with Iska; over a long time, she starts to admire and respect him and slowly sees him in a more positive/romantic light but Rin refuses to admit it.
Sisbell Lou Nebulis IX
Voiced by: Azumi Waki (Japanese), Emi Lo (English)
The Third Princess of the Nebulis Sovereignty. She can conjure auditory and visual illusions. She is the astral mage Iska released from prison a year earlier.
- All Love Is Unrequited: Sisbell clearly has Rescue Romance feelings for Iska; but Iska, while polite and protective of Sisbell, doesn't seem to be romantically interested in her.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Alice views her as one especially when she takes every opportunity to show off walking arm in arm with Iska right in Alice's face. Invoked, Sisbell does that on purpose just look here!
- Bodyguard Crush: Sisbell manages to get Iska to return to Nebulis as her bodyguard, and it's clear she likes him as way more than a "bodyguard".
- Cuteness Proximity: Sisbell absolutely loses it when she meets Yunmelngen and sees his fox-like features; waiting for him to fall asleep so she can play with his fluffy tail.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Sisbell is not exactly pleased that Iska has some sort of relationship with her sister Alice. At first, Sisbell only slightly suspected Alice of being the "Monster" from her visions and was only a little wary of her. But upon realizing Alice and Iska (her crush) were in some kind of relationship, she begins taking every opportunity to humiliate her older sister in front of Iska, including but not limited to, showing him Alice's "adult" underwear.
- Improperly Paranoid: Her ability as a Seer essentially gives her the ability to look into people and their pasts. However, this ability has also caused her to become extremely paranoid about them. So much so that she refuses to get along with anyone other than her mother, Iska, and her butler. She even treats Alice horribly even after she goes out of her way to help her. This paranoia has been responsible for getting her into trouble several times.
- To be fair, her paranoia of Alice stems from seeing her as a love rival for Iska. Even her butler (the one man aside from Iska she trusts) calls her out on not accepting Alice's help.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Averted; Unlike most series, Sisbell is more than happy to fight her sister Alice and any other girl for Iska's affections, even if she knows she's not the leading lady for his heart.
- Hikikomori: Is currently a bit of a hermit and tends to avoid getting involved with people.
- Master of Illusion: She can project images of the past that look realistic, to the point where it can fool an Imperial combat robot's sensors.
- Not So Above It All: Sisbell sees herself as the only one trying to stop the "monster", but she's just as prone to getting herself into some ridiculous situations like her sister Alice.
- Not to mention sparking The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry with Alice since she realized they both have romantic feelings for Iska.
- Things ramp up considerably when Alice and Sisbell begin competing for Iska's affections. Upon visiting her family's estate, she begins showing Iska Alice's "mature" underwear in an attempt to Slut-Shaming her before Iska, Hilarity Ensues.
- Odd Friendship: When Sisbell convinces Unit N07 to join her, this incredibly introverted girl sparks a very odd friendship with the extroverted and outgoing Mismis & Nene who help break her out of her shell.
- Playing with Fire: Her Astral Spirit "Lamp Light" classifies as this.
- Rescue Romance: One-sided, due to Iska rescuing her from Imperial captivity, Sisbell is clearly infatuated with him yet he appears disinterested but friendly with her.
- Seers: Her astral power allows her to see into the past and spy on others.
- Slut-Shaming: Invoked, Sisbell begins trying to do this to her sister Alice in an attempt to make Iska dislike her.
- Smitten Teenage Girl: Constantly like this to Iska due to her Rescue Romance with him, to everyone else, Sisbell is very standoffish.
- Tomboy: Was a feisty little one in her youth until her clairvoyance showed her a terrible possibility that traumatized her.
Elletear Lou Nebulis IX
Voiced by: Miyuki Sawashiro (Japanese), Anairis Quiñones (English)
The First Princess of the Nebulis Sovereignty.
- Always Second Best: She's such a victim of this trope to not only her mother, both her younger sisters, all of the other Purebloods, but also to the common citizen of Nebulis, that it's comical at this point! To elaborate, all the Purebloods have some sort of incredible power from Elemental Powers or Space-Time. But Elletear doesn't have anything that impressive that she was born with that even the rank and file of the Nebulis army is more impressive than her.
- Ambition is Evil: Played With. At first her ambition to become Queen was fueled by her desire to make the country a more equal place, but once all her honest efforts proved useless, her anguish turned into anger and she became a bitter, hateful woman who sought power for Revenge.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She has a cheerful and easy-going personality, which used to be her real persona, but after years of mistreatment she turned into a hateful woman who only wants Revenge on the people who wronged her, making her cheerful personality merely a facade.
- Birds of a Feather: With Joheim, as they're both resentful of Nebulis due to suffering prejudice due to their weak astral power.
- Blessed with Suck: Her Astral Spirit is one of, if not the weakest in the series, to the point that the average Astral Mage is stronger than her by a good margin. That is, until the Empire experiments on her.
- Cain and Abel: Being the evil older sister to Alice and Sisbell, she's the Cain to her sisters Abel.
- Character Tic: She often places a finger on her cheek or lips, giving her a coy demeanor.
- The Chessmaster: Don't let her beauty and cheerful looks fool you, she's more cutthroat than anyone in the series.
- Curtains Match the Window: One of her eyes is the same emerald color as her hair.
- Deconstructed Character Archetype: For Inadequate Inheritor. Because of her weak Astral Spirit, her sisters don't seem to have any love for her, and her mother practically disowns her. This does not make her happy, and she decides to join the Empire to get revenge.
- The Dog Bites Back: For years, Elletear has lived in her mother & sisters' shadows, being looked down on as an inferior successor and hearing everyone from servants, teachers, and even family quietly berate her behind her back for years saying she was a failure despite never getting a chance to prove herself. Then Elletear betrays her family, kingdom, & country for the Empire, just to watch it burn.
- Even Evil Has Standards: While Elletear wants to destroy the Sovereignty to rebuild it from the ground up, she admits she doesn't want more victims than necessary, "tearing it all down was an entirely different matter from the sacrifice of its people".
- Even the Girls Want Her: While visiting Lord Mask, his maids are let mouth agape as the shadow of her breasts eclipses them.
- False Flag Operation: She helps the House of Hydra and the Empire set up events to assassinate her mother and make it look like she is killed by a Saint Disciple in front of Alice.
- Fur and Loathing: She's a villainous princess whose Pimped-Out Dress has a white fur scarf draped around her arms that is stuffed into her elbow gloves.
- Hard Work Hardly Works: As First Princess, Elletear put in even more work than Alice in becoming her mother's successor and a candidate for Queen studying sciences, politics, warfare, and even lady etiquette so that she could give equality to all the Astral Mages with weak Astral Spirits like herself. However, because she was born with a laughably weak astral spirit, no one gave her a chance to become Queen. So, all her hard work was literally for nothing.
- Healing Factor: Due to experimentation with the Empire as "Subject E", Elletear has regeneration abilities so powerful, she hints that she doesn't need to breathe anymore! Hell, she was erased by Kissing's thorns, and still managed to come back!
- Hilariously Abusive Childhood: None of the Lou Nebulis Daughters had happy childhoods, but Elletear did get the worst of it from their mother. For context, because Elletear was born with a terribly weak Astral Spirit, her mother and the rest of the Royal Houses simply ignored her existence. She wasn't beaten, but the sheer amount of emotional abuse she gained from being abandoned by so many, left her extremely bitter towards her family.
- Inadequate Inheritor: Due to being born with a weak Astral Spirit, she was deemed an inadequate heir to the throne by her own mother, which in turn led to her Hilariously Abusive Childhood which is her primary motivation for her villainy as she now seeks Revenge.
- Inferiority Superiority Complex: The fact she worked the hardest to be queen but is labeled as an Inadequate Inheritor due to her poor Astral Spirit has caused her to hate her magically-gifted sisters.
- I Love You Because I Can't Control You: Whereas Alice and Sisbell have genuine feelings for Iska, Elletear's interest in him largely stems from him being the first to reject her advances.
- Manipulative Bitch: She is incredibly skilled at manipulating people and plotting from behind the scenes.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: The reason she turned on her kingdom is due to the labeled as an Inadequate Inheritor just due to being born with a weak Astral Spirit.
- Ms. Fanservice: Even more so than Alice, if you can believe it. Huge breasts, green hair, an exposed midriff, an astonishingly curvy figure, Sleeps in the Nude, is ok with randomly seducing/sleeping with others, and so forth.
- Big-Breast Pride: Given how provocatively she dresses and how she tends to give people a good view of her cleavage, she fits the trope.
- Buxom Beauty Standard: She's got enormous breasts and frequently uses them to seduce people.
- Femme Fatale: She uses her beauty and feminine wiles to manipulate others. When she's having an audience with Lord Mask, he notices she sits in her chair in a way to expose her cleavage to him, in an attempt to distract him.
- Head-Turning Beauty: She's so beautiful servants usually stop in their task to stare or get Distracted by the Sexy in her presence. Lord Mask notices she even has that effect on his female servants.
- I Have Boobs, You Must Obey!: Exactly what it sounds like, Elletear knows she is smoking hot and uses this to manipulate men & women to her bidding. Hilariously, she attempts to coerce Iska to sleep with her solely to piss her younger sisters off (who genuinely have romantic feelings for Iska), but much to her shock, he rejects her which only increases her interest in him.
- Statuesque Stunner: Often described as being very tall, and exceedingly beautiful.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Elletear acts like a stereotypical Vain Sorceress but she is just as clever if not more deceitful than her sisters and is actually a master at manipulating and creating conspiracies.
- Politically-Active Princess: Out of the three sisters, she's the most politically savvy, having studied strenuously in political manners, and often traveling around the kingdom to meet other nobles.
- The Power of Hate: Years of Always Second Best to everyone has caused Elletear to become a monster.
- Proper Lady: Having taken lessons in lady etiquette when young, she acts as expected of her station as a princess, and usually carries herself with unwavering composure.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: She studied to be a Politically-Active Princess and wanted to change her country for the better but then she ended up as an Inadequate Inheritor due to her weak Astral Spirit. But she still became an evil royal who takes matters into her own hands to achieve her ambitions.
- The Runt at the End:
- Alice and Sisbell are trying to do some good in the world, Elletear on the other hand, joins the Empire, not to bring peace, but because she is against her nation.
- Further, all pure-bloods have powerful Astral Spirits, Elletear on the other hand has a laughably weak Astral Spirit, that even the common citizen of Nebulis is more impressive than hers!
- Shame If Something Happened: She gets Sisbell and Iska's unit under her control by threatening to expose them to the Imperial headquarters. Not that she says the last part as Jhin figures her out quickly.
- Superpower Lottery: Averted Big Time, Elletear was born with such a weak Astral Spirit that the royal houses, including her own mother, essentially disowned her. Later, Elletear reveals she allowed the Heavenly Empire to enhance her giving her a wide array of abilities.
- Tragic Villain: When it comes down to it, Elletear would have never thought of betraying her family and people had her mother, people, and sisters given her the time of day.
- Troll: She only tried to seduce and offered to sleep with Iska solely to piss her younger sisters off because they are genuinely are in love with him. His rejection of her despite how aggressive she was only "upped the game" in her eyes.
- The Unfavorite: The people of Nebulis appear to love Elletear, but the Royalty including her mother and sister are more annoyed by her presence. This is due to possessing a relatively weak Astral Spirit in comparison to the rest of the Nebulis Nobility.
- Villainous Princess: Royalty? Yes. Plotting to escalate the war between the two nations out of spite? Also yes.
- Voice Changeling: Her Astral Spirit allows Elletear to perfectly mimic any voice she's ever heard...and that literally is it. It doesn't even give Compelling Voice, Voice of the Legion, or Sonic Blasts, making it useless in combat or most situations. But with her intelligence, she actually has used it effectively to frame people.
- Walking Spoiler: In case you haven't noticed from the spoiler tags...
- What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: Her Astral Spirit allows her to mimic the voice of anyone she's ever heard. That being said, being Witch royalty and taking her younger sisters' and mother's impressive abilities into account, it's a lame ability and even Elletear admits it sucks.
House of Hydra
A Noble House of Nebulis that has secretly worked with the Empire on numerous occasions to destroy the other Noble Houses. Mizerhyby Hydra Nebulis IX
A member of the House of Hydra, one of the three royal families in the Nebulis Sovereignty.
- Beneath the Mask: Mizerhyby acts like the typical calm and graceful princess around her peers. But against an opponent she is unable to beat easily, like Iska, she drops the niceness and goes all out guns blazing.
- Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Well, bluenette. Mizerhyby has noticeably pale skin compared to other characters.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Has a really nasty one.
- Locked into Strangeness: Her hair used to be blonde, but when her astral powers activated for the first time it turned blue and stayed that way ever since.
- Mind Control: The true nature of her astral power. Anyone she strengthens with Glory becomes a puppet for her to control.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: And unlike Alice, she does not have a quirky side.
- Shadow Archetype: Her battle with Iska is drastically different from his first fight with Alice, another princess from the Nebulis Sovereignty who is just easy on the eyes. Alice treated him as an equal, was very calculating when battling Iska, and was careful with what powers she used, eventually viewing him as her worthy rival and eventual love interest. Mizerhyby, on the other hand, was very condescending and crud towards him, only putting up an air of superiority and using Sovereignty soldiers to do the fighting for her due to the nature of her powers. When it became clear that Iska would not go down easily, she became a raging, raving mass of anger who just wanted Iska to be flat-out D-E-A-D!
- Slasher Smile: Gives Iska a sadistic one before the start of their battle, and it becomes more frightening as it goes on.
- Super-Empowering: Her astral power, Glory, allows her to emit her own astral energy and strengthen others to their highest potential. That's just part one.
- Smug Super: Acts cocky and condescending towards Iska during their battle, but the minute he gets one over her, she stops playing around and chases him down with ruthless abandon.
Vichyssoise Alek Hydra
A distant member of the Hydra family, one of the three royal families in the Nebulis Sovereignty, and inquisitor having the authority to judge criminals.
Talisman
The current head of the House of Hydra and Mizerhyby's uncle.
- Asshole Victim: Is killed by Elletear after he tries to kill her by overdosing her with Star Calamity in Volume 13.
- The Chessmaster: He's very cunning, as he and his family pretend to be loyal followers of the Queen while secretly conspiring against her.
House of Zoa
A Noble House of Nebulis that are fanatical soldiers against the Empire. The House has fallen after Elltear wiped them out with only Kissing remaining. On Zoa Nebulis
Voice by: Hikaru Midorikawa (Japanese), Kellen Goff (English)
The acting head of the Zoa family, a branch of the Nebulis royal family. His astral power lets him teleport. Commonly referred to as Lord Mask.
- Dark Is Evil: Except for his golden-colored mask, everything else about him (clothes, hair, shoes...) is black colored. He's also an extremist willing to go to any extreme to ensure the war against the Empire never stops.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": His true name is never mentioned in the anime, being called instead Lord Mask by anyone who interacts with him. He doesn't seem to take any problem with this and goes with being called Lord Mask.
- Faux Affably Evil: He speaks politely to Alice and Rin despite being from an opposing faction, right after he displayed killing intent towards them. He also keeps evading their questions about the recently found vortex and blatantly lies to their face, all while trying to tempt Alice into becoming more hateful toward the empire.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: He uses a mask to hide the burn marks he received from an imperial firearm.
- In the Back: Since his astral power doesn't have offensive power on his own, he carries a knife so he can teleport behind the enemy and stab their back.
- Malevolent Masked Men: An indication that he's up to no good is the mask that covers his eyes, apparently because of a past wound.
- The Man Behind the Man: He taught Kissing suicidal combat tactics like reforming a missile to explode near her and also programmed her to go berserk when she's asked about her "training."
- Sharp-Dressed Man: Along with his top hat, he also rocks an impeccable, stylish suit to enhance his gentlemanly image.
- Signature Headgear: Fittingly his gentleman aspect, his design presents a top hat that he wears almost all the time.
- The Unreveal: Jhin manages to destroy his mask in the last episode, but what lies behind it isn't revealed.
- Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Both of the times he confronts the main characters he opts for retreating when things turn unfavorable to him, menacing with confronting them at some point yet again.
- Weaponized Teleportation: His astral power allows him to teleport himself and other objects.
Kissing Zoa Nebulis IX
Voice by: Konomi Kohara (Japanese), Bryn Apprill (English)
A purebred of the House of Zoa, who has the ability to deconstruct and reconstruct matter.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: Apparently, this is one of the reasons Kissing decides to form an alliance with Iska and serve under him when they meet again.
- Enemy Mine: After her rematch and second loss to Iska, Kissing decides to form an alliance with him in order to defeat Elletear. Even more shocking, she states she'll be subservient to him!
- Friendless Background: Due to her sheltered and controlled upbringing, Kissing has no friends. In fact, being placed in a cell by herself nearly breaks her as she states she "doesn't want to be alone".
- He Knows Too Much: She becomes unnerved when Iska asks her about her training, which is supposed to be confidential, and then allows her powers to run wild.
- Last of Her Kind: After Elletear wipes out the Zoa Forces, Kissing openly states her House has completely fallen. Amazingly, she admits she has no intention of rebuilding House, but still desires to avenge her House.
- Not in This for Your Revolution: Invoked, Kissing has been trained to battle and destroy the Empire, but after a few real fights on the front lines, she decides she hates fighting. Because of her duty though she continues to battle against Elletear; knowing she must be taken down.
- Odd Friendship: Invoked, May starts a strange friendship/rivalry with Kissing which began when the two stop fighting and work together to defeat a corrupt astral spirit.
- Tyke Bomb: She's a child astral mage, 14 years old, who was indoctrinated by Lord Mask to fight using dangerous techniques, and he states that he plans on tinkering with her more before her next fight with Iska.
- Unskilled, but Strong: She has the astral power to destroy anything and erase it from existence, including explosions. She can also restore that object if needed. While this ability makes her offensively powerful even compared to Alice and Nebulis's Founder, she isn't as experienced and Iska can find opportunities to attack when she focuses too much on offense. Her control over her powers is also lacking, making it hard for her to avoid friendly fire on her allies.
- What Is This Feeling?: On multiple levels; Kissing has had a limited and lonely upbringing, so the numerous people working against and with her as well as her interactions with Iska, lead her to break from her conditionings and form her own feelings.
Volume 2 Mole (Spoilers)
Voiced by: Ami Koshimizu (Japanese), Tia Ballard (English)
Captain Shanorotte Gregory is an Astral Mage who infiltrated the imperial army, acting as the captain of the O04th Unit. During the mission to find the vortex, she captures many imperial soldiers while pretending to be their ally.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She initially seems to be a close friend of Mismis, but she's actually one of several moles for the House of Zoa and she hates Mismis just as much as any imperial.
- Dirty Coward: Upon seeing how much Iska outclasses her in fighting abilities, she takes cover when Kissing appears to confront him and remains hidden through the battle, then escaping after Iska defeats Kissing.
- Karma Houdini: Despite capturing many soldiers from the Empire being indirectly responsible of Mismis turning into an astral mage, she ends up receiving no consequence for her actions and escapes from the vortex safely.
- Magic Knight: Like Rin, she is skilled in both close combat and astral magic.
- The Mole: She has spent years undercover in the Imperial military.
- Professional Buttkisser: While she acts cocky with her enemies, at the time interacting with her superiors she becomes the quintessential Yes-Man, flattering, praising, and fawning over them no matter to what House of the Sovereignty they belong.
- Psycho Electro: She has astral power over lightning and she enjoys using it to torture Imperials.
- Sadist: Takes big pleasure handling Mismis as her captive and pulling on her prisoner collar as if she were a dog.
- Shock and Awe: Her astral power involves the creation and manipulation of electricity.
- Walking Spoiler: As a spy for the House of Zoa, she's hard to talk about without spoilers.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: She's never seen again after the incident of the vortex until later in the Light Novels but with no real substance to her return.
Other Nebulis Characters
Eve Sophi Nebulis
Voiced by: Houko Kuwashima (Japanese), Monica Rial (English)
Eve Sophi Nebulis, more commonly called Nebulis, the Grand Witch, is the strongest Astral Mage to ever be born. After causing a calamity in the Heavenly Empire one hundred years before the events of KimiSen, she founded the Nebulis Sovereignty and went into a deep slumber.
- Adaptational Wimp: In the first LN volume, Nebulis managed to knock out Alice temporarily and reveals that she has a staff to increase her powers further. In the anime, she doesn't use the staff and puts up less of a fight against Iska and Alice.
- Always Identical Twins: Hilariously averted, Eve looks nothing like her younger twin in almost every way. Eve is short, dark-skinned, flat-chested, has dull blonde hair, and has a fiery outgoing personality. Alicerose on the other hand was taller, fair-skinned, well endowed, had bright blonde hair, and was more reserved.
- Black-and-White Insanity: Like most members of the Sovereignty, she believes the Empire is evil. She also sees Alice as a traitor because the latter won't let her kill Iska, despite how Alice intends to fight Iska on her own terms.
- Outdated Hero vs. Improved Society: A century ago, the Empire branded women born with magical power as "witches", hunted them down, and killed them. One of the most powerful of these witches, Nebulis, rebelled and led her fellow witches against the Empire, forming the Sovereignty of Nebulis before she was eventually sealed away. A century later, and both the Empire and Nebulis are still locked in a Forever War that both Alice (a witch and direct descendant of Nebulis) and Iska (an elite swordsman of the Empire and successor of the swordsman who sealed Nebulis) wish to end to stop the senseless bloodshed. After Nebulis is released from her seal, declares her intention to destroy the Empire and everyone in it, and then attacks Alice when she tries to reason with her, both Alice and Iska realize that regardless of her actions a century ago, she's now a threat that needs to be dealt with.
- Revenge Before Reason: She's willing to risk destroying a neutral city just to kill a single imperial soldier and attempts to kill her fellow astral mages if they object to her methods, which is what convinces Alice that she's not worth allying with.
- Then Let Me Be Evil: After the Empire persecuted her and labeled her a witch, she decides to embrace that title and live only to destroy the Empire, everyone else be damned.
- Time Master: Along with Space Master. She can use her astral power to call upon elemental phenomena from different points in time and space, allowing her to use all elements.
- Tranquil Fury: She sounds calm and cold, but she's filled with seething hatred because of the persecution the first astral mages went through.
- Worf Had the Flu: Due to awakening recently, she can't use her powers as well as she used to. Despite that, Iska and Alice are barely able to defeat her.
Alicerose Sophi Nebulis
Alicerose Sophi Nebulis or more commonly called Nebulis I or Nebulis the Founder. The younger twin sister of the Grand Witch Nebulis and a relative of Crosswell's. She is the ancestor of the three royal families of the Nebulis Sovereignty.
- Always Identical Twins: Hilariously averted, Alicerose looks nothing like her older twin in almost every way. Alicerose was taller, fair-skinned, well endowed, had bright blonde hair, and was more reserved; Eve on the other hand was shorter, dark-skinned, flat-chested, had dull blonde hair, and had a fiery outgoing personality.
Salinger the Transcendental
Voiced by: Toshihiko Seki (Japanese), Daman Mills (English)
A powerful astral mage who was imprisoned in the Orelgan prison spire for attempting to steal Queen Nebulis VII's power.
- Actually a Doombot: He uses a clone created with astral power to fake defeat and flee from prison.
- The Brute: One of the strongest opponents Iska has faced.
- The Dreaded: Due to his ability to steal astral power, he's feared even by the purebreds.
- Frame-Up: Volume 8 reveals that he was framed by House Hydra into attacking the last queen.
- I Let You Win: It was revealed that in his fight against Iska, he held back a great deal of power. Claiming that he could have defeated him if he was fighting seriously. The reason being that he knew he had enemies who were able to observe the battle and wanted to keep the full extent of his abilities a secret.
- Jerkass Has a Point: While his desire to steal all the powers and Social Darwinism is indeed extreme, Salinger has a point in his view that the Noble Houses shouldn't be running the Sovereignty given how cut-throat their politics have become and the numerous in-fighting within the Sovereignty.
- Just Toying with Them: He didn't use his element combining technique when fighting the royals when he was first arrested and only starts using this technique when facing Iska and Rin. Even then, he didn't reveal all his abilities.
- Luxury Prison Suite: His cell looks like an aristocrat's room because he intimidates the guards into giving him whatever he wants.
- Master of None: He has a large collection of elemental powers, but he can only steal half the power of his victims, though he seems like a Master of All to weaker astral mages since he already successfully stole powers from the strong purebreds. He gets around this by combining opposite elements.
- Mr. Fanservice: He's hot and knows it, using his good looks and toned figure to whoo women. Also, he's constantly in a state of Walking Shirtless Scene
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Salinger knows a lot more than he lets on. For one, he knew House Hydra were really behind the assassination attempts on the previous Queen that he was accused of, but said nothing. Also, he's well aware House Hydra is again behind the recent treacheries in Nebulis but does nothing about it.
- Older Than They Look: He's at least in his late 40s or early 50s, considering he attacked the previous queen 30 years ago and has been imprisoned ever since.
- Pet the Dog: Downplayed. When a poor girl begs for his food because he seems to have no intention of finishing it, he demands payment from her. When she tries to pay him in onyx stones that she found at a riverbed, he accepts.
- Power Parasite: He has the ability, Water Mirror, to steal other people's astral powers.
- Social Darwinist: Follows the belief that the most powerful should rule.
- Ship Tease: Yes, believe it or not, Salinger had a lot of this with Mirabea of all women, mirroring Iska & Alice's relationship of Rivals with heavy romantic undertones.
- Strong and Skilled: At first he seems to be relying on pure power, but Iska notices that he's actually a clever tactician who can use his powers creatively.
- The Social Darwinist: He believes that power rather than bloodline should decide who rules the Sovereignty.
- This Cannot Be!: In his fight against Iska, he finds it incredibly hard to believe that despite being a swordsman, Iska was able to give him a difficult challenge, though he still held back. In the novels, he displays great shock when Alice steps in to save Rin and is able to freeze his lightning with ease.
- To Be a Master: His goal is to gain enough astral power to reach the same level as the founder and the first queen.
- Villains Out Shopping: In the light novel, he was laughed at by Mirabea for going shopping among ladies.
- Worthy Opponent: What he considers Iska and Alice. After fooling everyone about his capture, he takes some time to contemplate his next move. He starts to break out into laughter, thanking the planet for giving him worthy opponents in the form of Iska and Alice.
