Characters / Sword Art Online - Integrity Knights

Sword Art Online Main Character Index
Main series: Major Characters (Kazuto Kirigaya, Asuna Yuuki, Shino Asada, Eugeo, Alice Zuberg) | Aincrad | Alfheim Online | Gun Gale Online | Underworld (Integrity Knights, Dark Territory) | Unital Ring | Antagonists (Laughing Coffin, Nobuyuki Sugou) | Bosses | Others
Alternative Gun Gale Online Characters: Team LPFM | Team SHINC | Team MMTM | Others
Video Game Continuity | Gameverse Characters (Gameverse Main Characters) | Mobile Game Exclusives

Real world names are in western naming order. Followed by their online name and worlds they played in.^note If only the online name is known, then display as normal.

This page details the main military force of the Axiom Church, known as the Integrity Knights. They first appear in the Alicization arc. For other characters from the Underworld, see the Underworld character page.

Note: Unmarked spoilers ahead.^note Especially from the web novels. If you're starting the anime, do not read this page!

---

Integrity Knights

In General

Serving the Axiom Church, the Integrity Knights are the protectors of the Human Realm and enforcers of the Taboo Index.

---

• The Ageless: Integrity Knights have their ageing halted once they are Synthesized, allowing them to retain the age they were at the time they became Integrity Knights. Bercouli still has the appearance of a man in his forties despite being 200 years old.
• Armored Villains, Unarmored Heroes: While the Integrity Knights aren’t technically evil, they still oppose Kirito and Eugeo as antagonists while they storm the castle and unlike the boys they all wear armour. This trope is lampshaded while the boys are in the Cathedral armory, where Eugeo contemplates putting on some armor like all the Integrity Knights. However Kirito opposes the idea as they have never worn armor and believes it would weigh them down.
• Ascended Extra: Introduced as opponents and obstacles that Kirito and Eugeo must overcome, after Quinella's defeat they become the main supporting cast for War of the Underworld.
• Badass Crew: Composed of the greatest fighters from the Human Realm.
• Church Militant: Integrity Knights serve the Axiom Church, which is the absolute authority of the Human Empire. The Integrity Knights are tasked with defending the Human Empire and enforcing law.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Most of the Integrity Knights have a distinct Color Motif. Bercouli is blue, Fanatio is purple, Deusolbert is red, Eydis is black and light grey, Sheyta is silver and violet, Nergius is dark green, Entokia is teal, Renly is green, the Four Whirling Blades are white, Alice is golden, and Eldrie is indigo.
• A Day in the Limelight: Much of Volume 16 is narrated from the POV of various Integrity Knights, since they're the ones fighting back against the Dark Territory.
• Dragon Rider: The Integrity Knights' main mode of transportation throughout the realm are tamed dragons. Some of them, like Deusolbert with his bow, are even capable of fighting while mounted on them. However, only a select few are shown to ride or even own a dragon, making this an Informed Ability for some of them.
• Dwindling Party: By the time Kirito and Eugeo enter the Central Cathedral, the Integrity Knights had already lost a lot of their forces, having been halved in numbers due to a previous attack from the Dark Territory. There's also a great deal of them that have yet to awaken from stasis due to Chudelkin punishing them for incompetence. Then even more of them die during the War of the Underworld.
• Elemental Powers: Many of the Integrity Knights have Divine Weapons that have elemental powers due to the source it was forged from.
  • Fanatio's "Heaven Piercing Sword" allows her to fire beams of light that were trapped from the sun.
  • Deusolbert's Bow allows him to shoot flaming arrows.
  • Eydis' "Darkness Rending Blade" has Casting a Shadow abilities where she can enshroud an area in darkness.
  • Nergius wields the "Budding Storm Spear". While we haven't seen its capabilities as of yet, its backstory hints that it's capable of summoning storms, potentially mixing Blow You Away with Shock and Awe.
  • Renly's "Twin Edged Wings" were once two birds with the ability to soar higher than all others, with their Divine Object form also allowing them to fly through the air at high speeds.
  • Alice's "Fragrant Olive Sword" was once an Osmanthus Tree and allows her to transform it into a flurry of razor sharp petals that each strike down with the weight of a boulder. Games tend to associate Alice with the earth element.
  • With Eldrie it is more subtle. His Frost Scale Whip was once a two-headed sea serpent that resided in a lake before being turned into a Divine Object. In addition, Eldrie himself is most frequently associated with the "Aqueous Element" Sacred Art he used in his duel against Kirito, which takes on the form of a flock of birds made of water.
• Everyone Can See It:
  • Averted. Apparently no one other than Eydis picked up on Iskahn and Scheta's attraction to each other, and were caught off guard when he proposed to her out of the blue. Though Eydis does admit she wasn't expecting such a blunt proposal. That being said, they're all quite happy for them, as well as how it will bring the Human Realm and Dark Territory closer together.
  Eydis: "Huh? Nobody caught that? I thought it was obvious."
  • Played Straight when they learn that Fanatio's pregnant, with them being quick to figure out that Bercouli's the father.
• Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: Zig-Zagged. While it's hard to call them evil, the Integrity Knights start off as Hero Antagonistsand six of the ones fought, Deousolbert, Fanatio and the Four Whirling Blades, wear helmets. During War of Underworld, Fanatio and Deusolbert decide to enter the battle without their helmets for some reason, while the Four Whirling Blades keep theirs. In contrast, most of the other shown Integrity Knights aren't shown wearing helmets.
• Hero Antagonist: Integrity Knights are not inherently evil, they believe they are fighting for what is right. They also genuinely believe Kirito and Eugeo to be criminals who wish to destroy everything they stand for, which is technically not wrong. It is for this reason Kirito is so reluctant to kill any of them and always shows mercy upon beating one of them. By the time of War of the Underworld they instead become the main supporting cast and are now allies.
• Honor Before Reason: This can apply to how they opted to deal with Kirito and Eugeo. While Deusolbert did start by ambushing as they were leaving the armoury and gave himself a range advantage with his Conflagration Bow, the general strategy between them was seemingly to wait on certain floors for them to arrive before engaging them in a duel, giving them the chance to win and keep on advancing, which seems fairly risky considering how they were able to defeat Eldrie. It's rather telling that Linel and Fizel are able to come the closest to actually killing Kirito and Eugeo by not doing this, instead lulling them into a false sense of security with their young appearances before stabbing them.
• Human Popsicle: Unital Ring reveals that at some point during the Star King's rule, a number of Integrity Knights entered a Deep Freeze state at the top of the Cathedral. This includes Ronye and Tiese, who stand guard at Selka's side, as well as Fanatio and Renly.
• Knight in Shining Armor: All of them are genuine knights clad in armor. They seek to protect the people of the Human World as a knightly duty. It is Administrator who orders them to do evil acts.
• Lawful Stupid: Due to their role as honourable lawmen tasked with enforcing the Taboo Index, and other cultural rules to a lesser degree, there are time where they fall into this, even after Quinella's death.
  • Doesn't apply to just them necessarily and there were a good few exceptions^note  Bercouli, Fanatio, Deusolbert and Eydis who saw the bigger picture and saw what happened as necessary, and Renly and Scheta who weren't there at the time, but despite the reveal of Quinella's true nature and the fact that they had to prepare for an invasion by the Dark Territory when the Human Empire was lacking in any kind of formal military, a number of them wanted to punish Kirito for his breaking of the Taboo Index and murder of the Pontifex out of still existing loyalty to her and the Taboo Index, chief among them being Eldrie and Nergius. This prompted Alice to take Kirito and flee in case anyone tried to kill him while he was vulnerable, which would have lost them one of their best soldiers if she didn't decide to join at the last moment. And that's ignoring the fact that, seeing as he was capable of beating some of them and the Pontifex, him waking up would have been, and was, a major boon to their forces.
  • In Moon Cradle, Deusolbert, Fanatio and Nergius are quick to give Kiritio grief for getting personally involved in tracking down Leazetta's kidnapper, as his position dictates he should leave such tasks to subordinates and that him getting hurt or killed would negatively affect the Human Empire. This ignores the fact that the kidnapper holed up inside a room that not even Scheta could cut her way into, meaning that if it wasn't for his presence, Leazetta would likely be dead or, assuming Iskahn and Scheta got desperate, Kirito would be dead anyway.
• Logic Bomb: Part of the reason why Kirito is reluctant to tell them the truth of the Synthesis Ritual. Since most of them legitimately believe that they're Divine Beings summoned from the heavens, Kirito fears that telling them will put a lot of undue stress on their Fluctlights and cause them to shut down, such as what happened with Raios when he was stuck between ensuring his own survival and following the Taboo Index.
• Long-Lived: Integrity Knights are made effectively immortal due to having their ageing halted. Though while they can't die of natural causes, they are vulnerable to death from injury.
• Loss of Identity: Integrity Knights are created through the Synthesis process whereby the memories of their past lives are removed and they are led to believe the Administrator summoned them from the heavens.
• Magic Knight: In addition to being Master Swordsman, Integrity Knights all possess a Divine Object as a weapon enabling to use an advanced Sacred Art. Many are also well-versed in Sacred Arts, such as Alice and Eydis.
• Master Swordsman: Narration in Volume 16 reveals that every Integrity Knight, even ones who don't have them as a weapon preference them like Duesolbert or Renly, have mastery in the use of swords and can wield them efficiently.
• Non-Uniform Uniform: Downplayed. While most Knight's tend to wear the same armour, there are usually distinct differences in things such as its color or their helmet, assuming the Knight chooses to wear one. Bercouli stands out in particular, donning lighter looking, eastern Empire style armor.
  • Rising Steel confirms that certain parts of Integrity Knight armor are custom made, with Dakira mentioning that she modelled her helmet after Fanatio's.
• Older Than They Look: All but the most recent Integrity Knights like Alice or Eldrie are far far older than they physically appear, due to having their ageing halted and are effectively immortal.
• One-Man Army: Were made by Quinella to be this, being a selection of powerful warriors under her complete control as an alternative to a more formal military that she'd have more difficulty exerting total control over. Even Vixur, The Leader of the Dark Knights and a General in the Dark Territory, notes that should the Human Empire and Dark Territory ever actually go to war, the latter would be forced to sacrifice large droves of their troops just to take out one of them. Ultimately Downplayed however in that, even if all 31 were to gather^note  and that's not possible due a number of them being in stasis that only Chudelkin can undo and at least one hinted to be dead, the lack of a formal military to properly repel the Dark Territory would inevitably lead to the Human Empire being overrun and invaded, prompting Kirito and Eugeo to kill Quinella so one can be formed.
• The Paladin: Integrity Knights are described as Holy Warriors summoned from the heavens to defend the Human Empire. While their backstory is ultimately revealed to be a lie and they unwittingly served a Corrupt Church, their values and purpose still remain the same and are firmly on the side of good.
• Razor Wind: Less "Wind" and more "Incarnate". All Knights are said to be trained to use their Incarnation as impromptu weapons by using it to throw invisible blades at opponents. Like Dragon Rider above however, this ends up a Informed Ability for many since the only one shown to be capable of it is Bercouli.
• Token Super: Played with. In War of the Underworld, each Integrity Knight acts as the General of a platoon of civilian swordsmen. As Integrity Knights are among the only people capable of using Arnament Full Control Art, aside from Kirito, Eugeo, Quinella, and Cardinal this makes them the Token Super to their platoons.
• Trading Bars for Stripes: An unwitting example. It's implied that a number of Knights, such as Alice, were originally people who broke the Taboo Index but just so happened to possess skills that would have been beneficial to the Church, like Alice's skills in Sacred Arts, so they brainwash them into servants instead of executing them.
• You Are Number 6: Downplayed. All Integrity Knights go by the names they had before their Synthesis, but will have the word Synthesis followed by the number indicating the order they join in tacked on at the end, with it outright replacing the last names of nobles or commoners blessed with them. After Quinella's defeat and Kirito's takeover of the Human Empire, the "Synthesis" part is removed entirely for later recruits in favour of just the number at the end of their last name, such as Tiese Shtolienen Thirty-two and Ronye Arabel Thirty-three.

Bercouli

Bercouli (Synthesis One)

Voiced by: Jun'ichi Suwabe (Japanese), Imari Williams (English), Andrés García (Latin American Spanish)

The first Integrity Knight who was the hero of legend who slayed the Guardian Dragon in the End Mountain. He also serves as the Integrity Knight's leader.

---

• Accidental Pervert:
  • Downplayed. When he and Alice are discussing the capabilities of the Pugilists, he asks if she has any issues with stripping. When she gets flustered due to the way he phrased it, he's quick to clarify that their Super-Strength would only make any armor serve as hindrance and she'd be better off removing it for the speed advantage.
  • In "Memories of Bygone Days: Bercouli", she and Fanatio follow some villagers when they see them heading into the mountains for unknown reasons, and discover a hot spring that the villagers were likely visiting. After a minor debate of the benefits of it, Bercouli suggest that they test it out and Fanatio immediately gets the wrong idea, forcing Bercouli to clarify that they'd be doing it separately while the other stands guard.
• The Ace: Used to be the champion of the Imperial Swordsmanship Tournament and UW's greatest hero.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: Not him, but his Time-Splitting Sword. In the original Light Novels, narration and images show that it resembles a plain old sword that most side-characters use, which belies its great power. In the anime onward it gains a much more distinctive appearance, being much larger and bearing more decorative features, making it look more badass than it did originally.
• Amazon Chaser: When he sees Asuna and Alice's impromtu duel, he takes a moment to admire the "two beautiful flowers blooming" before putting a stop to it. Then there's the fact that Fanatio becomes the mother of his only child.
• An Arm and a Leg: Loses his left arm to Vecta during their fight.
• Apologetic Attacker:
  • Apologizes to Eugeo for hitting him with a sword skill that almost killed him.
  • When he resorts to using the Uragiri to knock Vecta out of the sky, he apologizes to the Dark God's dragon.
  • In Rising Steel, an original scene in the Fearless Resistance event has him apologizing to a Dark Knight general he killed. However, this isn't because he killed him but, because he's effectively going to live forever whereas the general is now dying.
• The Atoner: To point where he asked Alice to correct the mistakes of the Integrity Knights.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: Necessary in order to use the Time-Splitting Sword effectively. He has to make sure the enemy's location and his attacks precisely overlap after specific amounts of time have gone by. To date, the "future slashes" he made onscreen have been on point even when used as a makeshift anti-flier screen, and after he was prevented from using the Uragiri at the location he'd been keeping track of for a whole 10 minutes, he quickly retraced Vecta's steps to find the correct location to perform it successfully and end the fight.
• Bathing Beauty: A Male variant,
  • He and Eugeo end up duelling in the Great Baths, where he was having a soak before the younger boy showed up.
  • "Memories of Bygone Days: Bercouli" reveals that he's the reason the Great Baths exist; following a mission where he and Fanatio killed a Phoenix, the both stumbled upon a hot spring on the way back and decided to try it out (separately, of course). Citing it as one of the best baths he ever had, he requested that Quinella create a large bath house that large groups of Knights can gather after missions, though he admits that he'd like it all to himself when he can.
• Battle Couple: With Fanatio, given that the two had a child together.
• Beware of the Nice Ones: Bercouli is a man who never holds grudges against anyone... unless one of his disciples are killed off.
• Big Good: He becomes this by the War of the Underworld half of Alicization, as with Quinella and Chudelkin both gone that leaves him as the highest authority figure in the Axiom Church, and unlike those two, he is a true hero.
• Birds of a Feather: A platonic variant with Kirito in Lycoris. The both of them being laid-back Leaders of their respective groups whose students and Love Interests tend to serve as their Straight Man.
• Blood Knight: Defender of order he may be, Bercouli loves a good fight, often seeking out Worthy Opponents and holding back his power for the sake of a good fight.
• Came Back Wrong: It's revealed in Chapter 4 of the Dark Emperor Saga in Unleash Blading that he was brought back by Carver as one of his mindless Minions, just like Sigurosig.
• Close-Range Combatant: The nature of his fighting style and Divine Object makes him this, to the point where other Knights chose ranged Divine Objects in hopes of getting an edge against him in combat. He later zig-zags this with the The Reveal of the Uragiri technique, which can strike foes from a distance but is essentially him slashing where someone previously was to do so, meaning it's not a true projectile.
  • This actually works against him when he fights Vecta, who can not only inflict brief Laser-Guided Amnesia on him whenever their blades cross, but can also shoot a mist at him that has the same effect.
• Combat Pragmatist: In response to nearly dying against Dark Territory forces due to them using a quicker sword style than his^note  seeing Crippling Overspecialization below, he started wielding the Time-Splitting Sword, which could leave slashes suspended in the air, to get an edge.
• Crazy-Prepared: Anticipating the Dark Mages sending their minions to attack, Bercouli pre-emptively used Hoshigami and his Time-Splitting Sword to leave a plethora of slashes suspended in the air so he can wipe them out when they're deployed.
• Crippling Overspecialisation: Admits to suffering from this, utilizing a traditional Underworld swordsmanship style reliant on making a single, powerful strike, which is naturally disadvantaged against styles that revolve around multiple, fast strikes like the "Aincrad Style". He makes up for this with his Time-Splitting Sword's ability to create suspended slashes in the air.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Before he dies, he manages to kill Gabriel's Vecta account by using Uragiri, a Memory Release technique that can send a slash 10 minutes to the past. Unfortunately, Gabriel comes back with his Subtilizer account from GGO.
• Died Standing Up: Almost. He dies kneeling on his knees. When Alice awakens, due to his posture, she does not realize at first that he has died until after noticing his left arm is missing.
• Dimensional Cutter: His Divine Object Sword, the Time-Piercing Sword is said to cut through time rather than space, capable of slicing the future and the past.
• Disappeared Dad: Ends up becoming this for his and Fanatio's unborn child after his death.
• Don't Call Me "Sir": He dismisses people addressing him as "Sir Integrity Knight" and asks to be referred to simply by name.
• Dragon Rider: His dragon is named Hoshigami. He ends up making a Heroic Sacrifice in order to give Bercouli an opening to use the Uragiri on Vecta despite previously ordering him to fall back, which is apparently the first time he ever actually disobeyed him.
• The Dreaded: He's this to Dark Knights in the Dark Territory, as well as anyone else over there familiar with the Integrity Knights, with them seeing him as more monster than man.
• Dying as Yourself: After Fanatio pierces his minion body with her Heaven Piercing Blade, he's able to regain his senses and spend some last moments with her before his body turns to dust.
• Dying Moment of Awesome: Not only does it take what's essentially a Physical God to finally do him in after hundreds of years of fighting, but he takes that God down with him.
• Fatal Flaw: His overconfidence, which prompts him to hold back against and even explain the powers of his Time-Splitting Sword to Eugeo, allowing Eugeo to formulize a strategy to beat him and nearly kill him.
• A Father to His Men: He's noticeably relieved that his disciple Fanatio survived her fight with Kirito, saying that he'd have to avenge her if she'd fallen in battle.
• Feeling Their Age: Subverted. In nearly all aspects, Bercouli is stronger and more experienced than Eugeo. In a straight up contest of raw power, Eugeo is certain he would lose. However the one thing that Eugeo figures he outclasses Bercouli in, is the amount of Life they possess. While Integrity Knights have their ageing halted, they still possess the same amount of life that someone average of their age possesses, which at around 49, is a great deal less than Eugeo. So Eugeo's plan was to pull a Taking You with Me and freezing them both, gambling that Bercouli would be the first to have his Life drop.
• Godzilla Threshold: The Uragiri. He delivers a One-Hit KO to his target by slashing the space they occupied 10 minutes prior. Aside from not giving him a chance to make that slash, there is no defense against it, as it outright reduces the Life of anything affected to zero no matter how high that value is. Which is why Bercoulli hates using it; using a technique with no practical way to fight back against doesn't sit right with him. He ends up banking his whole fight against Vecta on performing it, as it's the only chance he has at beating him and saving Alice.
• Good Counterpart: To Heathcliff, which is lampshaded in Rising Steel. Both are commanders of a Badass Crew and Frontline Generals who partake in battle with their armies, both are confident and charming, and both are contenders for the World's Best Warrior. The contrast of course is while Heathcliff was a false guise created by Kayaba and protected by admin privileges, Bercouli is a true hero who risks his life on the battlefield. In addition, while Heathcliff is generally quite kind and polite he hides a Lack of Empathy, in contrast, Bercouli is a Father to His Men and cares deeply for all the lives of his Integrity Knights.
• Good Is Not Soft: As the pugilists and dark knights use ropes to cross the chasm Asuna made, he sternly reminds Asuna and the others that mercy has no place in war. He then proceeds to sever the ropes and cut down anyone who crosses, killing many Dark Territory fighters in a way that enrages the bloodthirsty but honorable Iskahn.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Has a lot of these as a result of continuous fighting in the Dark Territory. He himself sees them as badges of honor.
• Go Out with a Smile: After killing Vecta, he dies with a smile on his face, content that he was able to protect Alice.
• Hair Color Dissonance: He has blue hair.
• Heel Realization:
  • Fighting and talking with Eugeo allowed him to see the boy's valor and honor, and turns against Prime Senator Chudelkin who he sees as the one who is really rotten.
  • He also is made aware of the Pontifex's plans to convert half the empire into Sword Golems and no longer holds allegiance to her.
• Heroic Sacrifice: He makes sure to continue fight Gabriel to his very last breath, fully prepared for it to cost him his life.
• Heroic Willpower: Part of what makes him the Underworld's Best Warrior.
  • He was able resist the effects of Chudelkin's freezing technique for a short time just to encourage Alice and Kirito.
  • He's one of the only Knights shown to be capable of using his Incarnation as a weapon, as shown when he sends a "Incarnate Dagger" at a despondent Kirito as a test to see if he could reflect it and to test his character.
  • When Vixur was still an apprentice, Bercouli got into a duel with the Dark Knight Commander, Vixur's mentor, and end up taking his arm without his sword even touching him, as the Commander described it. This caused the Dark Knight Commander to completely reconsider everything taught to him by his predecessor and what he taught to Vixur, encouraging the latter to utilize Heroic Willpower himself.
• Honorary Uncle: Alice calls him "Uncle".
• Human Popsicle: Was frozen solid for Quinella's further experimentations and after Eugeo pulls a Taking You with Me tactic on him.
• Humble Hero: Aside from Quinella, he is likely the Underworld's Best Warrior due to his centuries worth of experience in sword combat and all of his time fighting in the Dark Territory. He tends to downplay this however, making claims that Alice has a good chance of surpassing him and being the one to suggest that Quinella create the Integrity Knights due to believing he can't take on the whole Dark Territory on his own.
  • When he and Fanatio are reminiscing about when they started working together in Rising Steel, he tells her that there are things she's better than him at, such as being a mentor and commanding others.
• Identity Amnesia: He could barely remember about wanting to acquire the Blue Rose Sword until Eugeo told him.
• Killed Off for Real: At the hands of Gabriel.
• The Leader: Commander of the Integrity Knights. After Quinella and Chudelkin perish, he is left in charge of the entire Axiom Church.
• Living Legend: Is the hero of legend who slayed the Guardian Dragon in the End Mountain.
• Love Confession: With the Invasion of the Dark Territory fast approaching, Bercouli visits Fanatio to talk and tells her that he loves her. The fact that Fanatio is a Pregnant Badass during the war Implies that coitus ensued shortly after.
• Mildly Military: He isn't particular about saluting and other discipline, as he explains to Alice.
  Bercouli: I decided all that tedious saluting and protocol was a waste of time for this army. Fortunately, the Taboo Index doesn't have a rule that says "Normal folks must ensure that a knight is properly mollified before they speak to them."
  • In "Memories of the Abyss Part 1", he tries to get Fanatio to ease up on Eydis's own informal attitude by mentioning that he doesn't exactly speak respectfully himself, even flustering Fanatio by suggesting that she be a bit more crass herself.
• Mr. Fanservice: Bercouli is muscular Hunk of a man who typically goes around in a loose-fitting kimono that shows some of his bare chest, and the scene in which we first meet him has him naked in the Great Baths when Eugeo arrives, and many spin-off appearances he has give him more bath scenes.
• Mundane Utility: His Time-Splitting Power gives him an impeccable sense of time, whereas everyone else has to tell the time based on bells that ring in set intervals.
• Nice Guy: If you look past his intimidating stature and the fact that he's quite possibly the strongest swordsman around, Bercouli is a pretty decent and laid back guy, being a Reasonable Authority Figure who doesn't get too bothered by his subordinates' various quirks even if they can come off as disrespectful towards him, and he's very polite and civil towards Eugeo in their duel, engaging in casual conversation at first, giving him adequate warning and explaining how his attacks work, and also being an Apologetic Attacker.
  • When the Great Bath was created, as per his request when Quinella decided to reward him for his services, he held off on using it himself and wanted Fanatio to go in first, wanting to make up for spending the most time in the hot spring they discovered on the way back from slaying the Phoenix, whereas she was only in for about a minute.
• Occidental Otaku: The closest you can be to one in the Underworld. Despite most of the Knights having western style armor and having western style swords, even Bercouli himself, he seems to have a liking for things from the Eastern Empire, which is heavily hinted to have Japanese inspirations. This includes wearing a kimono and sandals as casual wear, drinking sake and smoking a kiseru, having Eastern Empire armor as opposed to the other Knights, and having Japanese-named techniques. Then there's the fact that Fanatio, his lover, is hinted to be from the Eastern Empire.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: "Memories of Bygone Days: Bercouli" kicks off as he and Fanatio are coming back from killing a Phoenix, with him having only received minor burns.
• One Head Taller. Than Fanatio. Then again, he basically towers over everybody.
• One-Man Army: As the most powerful Integrity Knight for the majority of the series, it goes without saying he can lay waste to swarms of opponents with ease. One such example is when he was able to destroy all 800 of the Dark Mage Guild's Minions without moving from his spot, having placed a bunch of suspended slashes in the air space beforehand.
• One-Handed Zweihänder: Despite the sheer size of the Time-Splitting Sword, he's perfectly capable of swinging it and using Sword Arts with it using only one hand. This proves useful when Vecta cuts off his left arm.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Bercouli often presents himself as rather laid-back and seems only a Perpetual Frown away from being The Stoic, so it's very notable in the Eternal Longing event in Rising Steel when he blushes slightly upon seeing Fanatio wearing a sweater-dress with a Cleavage Window, and acts somewhat awkward around when they start talking.
• Opposites Attract: In contrast to Fanatio's more stern and dutiful demeanour, Bercouli is more laid-back, lax with rules, and his Blood Knight streak is more obvious.
• Papa Wolf: When Alice gets kidnapped by Vecta, Bercouli endlessly pursues him to exact revenge.
• Parental Substitute: Acts as one to Alice. As he fights Vecta to the death, he expresses regret that he couldn't be more of one, but he could at least fulfil every parent's duty to die for their child.
• Pet the Dog: He told Kirito to take care of Alice before being frozen again. Fortunately, he's finally freed from the ice after Quinella is killed off.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Well... technically it's a Post-Mortem One-Liner.
  The Time-Splitting Sword Uragiri is "the sword that slashes time". I just slashed your past.
• Really Royalty Reveal: Before his Synthesis, Bercouli was former son of the Herlentz family who decided to become an adventurer. The family died out some time in 100 HE due to a lack of heirs, but was later revived by Bercouli's son Berche after he ascended to Integrity Knight Commander under the name Berche Herlentz 40.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: He generally doesn't come off as too bothered by the other Knight's various quirks, such as Eydis' upbeat nature or Scheta's preference to for not speaking, and he hardly ever gets mad if these quirks can come off as disrespectful towards him, even telling other Knights like Fanatio that he doesn't mind when they move to scold them.
  • In "Hometown Waterfront", when Amayori gets injured in battle and her healing process is hindred due to the recent death of her mother, Bercouli allows Alice and Eydis to head to the dragon's home for an indefinite amount of time so Amayori can heal up and recover.
• Required Secondary Powers: Since his Time-Splitting Sword requires careful timing to properly utilize, it also gives its wielder a greater sense of time than other Underworld residents.
• Secret-Keeper: He is the only one of the Integrity Knights other than Alice who is made aware of the truth about the Knights being puppets to Quinella, as well as Kirito and Eugeo's true intent. However he does not divulge the truth to the others due to anticipating the mass panic that would result on top of the grief from the Administrator's passing. In addition, most of the Human Empire are made unaware of the true scope of Quinella's Evil Plan.
• Super Prototype: He's the first of Quinella's Integrity Knights, the strongest of them, and easily in the running for the World's Best Warrior of the Underworld.
• Sword Beam: His Time-Splitting Sword is capable of doing one called the Air Slash, where enemies will be cut up from a long distance away.
• Taken for Granite: Turned to stone by Chudelkin's Deep Freeze Sacred Art.
• Taking You with Me: After being mortally wounded by Gabriel/Vecta, he uses the last of his strength to kill the Vecta account with Uragiri. Gabriel survives due to being from the real world, but he does have one less account to work with.
• Time Master: A very minor example as instances of this trope goes.
  • His Time-Splitting Sword, allows him to "slash the future". Due to being a Divine Object formed from the Underworld's official System Clock, it is able to trick the system so that a slash he performs will be registered as damage to an opponent a few seconds after it was performed. However, it requires careful timing of the seconds to hit an opponent.
  • This also works in reverse, where he can slash 10 minutes into the past, which is what he uses to kill Gabriel's Vecta account.
  • It's also revealed that wielding the Time-Splitting Sword gives him an impeccable sense of time. Not all that impressive sounding compared to to previous two, but considering that the Underworld has no clocks and everyone uses the rings of bells to tell the time, and the fact that wielding the previous two techniques requires very careful timing, it's very much Boring, but Practical.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
  • Not believing he can defend the human realm from the Dark Territory all by himself, he suggested that Quinella summon more Integrity Knights from the heavens to aid him, not knowing that he's actually a brainwashed resident of the Underworld himself. This leads to her basically kidnapping people from their families, whether it be through her Taboo Index or Swordsmanship Tournaments, and repeating the process to various others.
  • During the War of Underworld when the Dark Territory set up tightropes to cross the gorge, he ended up killing Sylvie's parents after they crossed while the young girl watched helplessly from across the gorge. This fueled Sylvie's current resentment towards the Integrity Knights and Human Realm. Double Subverted later when Sylvie seems to start letting go of her grudge and begins to move on, only for his killing of them to give Carver an opportunity to coerce Sylvie into joining Tolgash's army by reviving her parents as minions and threatening to turn them back into clay if she doesn't become a turncoat.
• Weak, but Skilled: Of a sort. Bercouli himself, having large defined muscles to go with his hundreds of years of experience, is far from this. This however does apply to his Time-Splitting Sword; while it's no doubt a very high priority item, it's special ability to leave suspended slashes in the air and send slashes into the past is comparatively less destructive than those of his allies' Divine Objects if used on the fly(see Crazy-Prepared above), such as Fanatio's Heaven Piercing Blade or Deusolbert's Conflagration Bow. However, such an ability requires the wielder the have a good sense of timing to effectively use, and it allows Bercouli to be lorded as the strongest Integrity Knight.
• The Worf Effect:
  • Downplayed. In "Memories of the Abyss - Part 2", Eydis, after losing control of her Dark Slash Sword and turning into a Berserker Knight Templar Big Sis, ends up attacking him and putting up a tough fight, not helped by the Fog of Doom Memory Release she used before she lost her mind. It's to the point that he appears to consider using the Uragiri against her until Cardinal is able to calm her down.
  • In his fight against Vecta, Bercouli finds himself on the receiving end of a near Curb-Stomp Battle due to the latter's Physical God stats and ability to cause him to suffer brief lapses of amnesia, as well as nullifying most of his Incarnation based moves. In the end, he loses an arm and gets Impaled with Extreme Prejudice, but manages to use the Uragiri to kill Vecta before dying.
• World's Best Warrior: The first and strongest of the Integrity Knights, who themselves are considered the greatest warriors of the realm. Not only does he have literal centuries worth of experience, but he possesses a strong Incarnation and his mastery of the Time-Splitting Sword gives him a near impregnable defense against most melee fighters and he can even send a slash into the past to kill enemies. He's even capable of going toe-to-toe with Vecta and winning, albeit at the cost of his life.
• Worthy Opponent:
  • Sees Eugeo as this for surpassing his expectations.
  • He sees General Shasta as both a rival in combat and one of the few noble members of the Dark Territory. He is saddened when, after not hearing any reports of Shasta's presence on the front lines, he can only conclude Shasta has been killed.
  • In Alicization Lycoris after they're forced to engage in a duel, he starts to see Kirito as this when he nearly defeats him, especially since Kirito is one of few people that able to fight him relying on his own experience and power instead taking advantage of their surroundings.
• You Are in Command Now: At the conclusion of the first half of Alicization, with both Quinella and Chudelkin gone, he takes charge of the Central Cathedral.
• You Are Already Dead: The Uragiri is a technique for his Time-Splitting Sword that can send a slash 10 minutes into the past, meaning if the target was at where the slash is, or was, 10 minutes ago then a possibly fatal cut will suddenly appear on their body. He uses this to kill Vecta at the cost of his own life.
  The Time-Splitting Sword Uragiri is "the sword that slashes time". I just slashed your past.
• You Monster!: Combined with Oh, Crap!, this seems to be his response to the Dark Mages, under Vecta's orders, sacrificing parts of their army for a powerful Sacred Art to use against them.
  "Those bastards... What have they done?!"
• You Shall Not Pass!: When Vassago and some Dark Knights sneak past the Human Army to attack the supply convoy, he orders the forces waiting to ambush the Pugilists led by Renly to fall back while he stays behind to hold off them off instead. Thankfully, Asuna's arrival as Stacia and subsequent creation of chasms separating the two armies means he doesn't have to do this.

Fanatio

Fanatio (Synthesis Two)

Voiced by: Hitomi Nabatame (Japanese), Laila Berzins (English), Gabriela Ortiz (Latin American Spanish)

^{Click here to see Fanatio after her duel with Kirito}

The Vice Commander of the Integrity Knights and leader of the Four Whirling Blades.

---

• 24-Hour Armor: Fanatio wears her armor and helmet almost constantly, except when bathing or sleeping.
• Action Girl: A female Integrity Knight, who's often irritated when her opponents go easy on her due to her gender.
• Action Mom: By the time of Moon Cradle, she's juggling between her duties as an Integrity Knight, as well as their new leader, and the only parent of her and Bercouli's child, Berche.
• All Amazons Want Hercules: Downplayed. There are certainly hints that she admires Bercouli for his strength, as shown by their first meeting in the Eternal Longing event in Rising Steel, but it's clear that her feelings for him stem more from their years of fighting together.
• Animal Motif: Downplayed. The helmet she used to hide her gender bears some resemblance to an owl's head.
• Aren't You Going to Ravish Me?: Downplayed as it doesn't quite reach that level, but after getting over her complex about being a female warrior, Fanatio jokes that she is a little miffed that Kirito had absolutely no reaction to her appearance, and wanted to see him again to try and bait one. Alice isn't too happy about hearing this and it leads to the Passive-Aggressive Kombat entry explained below.
• All Love Is Unrequited: Towards Bercouli, her boss. Subverted with the The Reveal that she's pregnant with his child during the War of the Underworld.
• Babies Ever After: She and Bercouli conceived a child before he dies in the War, and she's raising him when we meet her again in Moon Cradle.
• Battle Couple: With Bercouli, given that the two had a child together.
• Berserk Button: Her opponents, or at least the male ones, learning her true gender. When Kirito manages to counter her Heaven Piercing Blade and destroy her helmet, she goes from dutiful to outright murderous in her attempts to kill Kirito out of belief that he's not willing to take her seriously now that he knows she's a woman. Thankfully, Kirito defies her expectations and fights her full force, allowing her to grow out of this and embrace her femininity a bit more.
• Cold Sniper: When the war starts, she's holding her Heaven-Piercing Sword blade at level with her shoulder with her right hand while her left hand is propping up the rifle by the flat of her blade, aiming for the advancing giant's leader. The narration points out that, if Gabriel or Vassago were to see her, they would have compared her to a sniper steadying her rifle.
• Cool Sword: She wields the "Heaven Piercing Sword", a straight sword made out of pure light that is able to generate and fire beams as hot as the sun, meaning they can pierce pretty much anything.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: A possible explanation for why she disliked Alice, and Eydis in Rising Steel. It's established that Bercouli, who she's been in love with for quite possibly hundreds of years, is a bit of an Amazon Chaser and Alice and Eydis are both extremely powerful Knights, possibly on par with her. Combine that with their own beauty and the fact that the both of them are close with Bercouli as is, and it's little wonder she never exactly got along with them. Thankfully, she seems to grow out of this by the time of the war along with her gender issues.
• Determinator: Fanatio would not back down in a fight, even if she's about to be frozen by Eugeo's Blue Rose Sword or suffering from serious injuries.
• Dragon Rider: In "Memories of Bygone Days: Bercouli", she's shown riding a dragon for the first time.
• Drill Sergeant Nasty: Rising Steel shows she was very harsh while training the Four Whirling Blades, constantly belittling them and pushing them to do better as to prepare them for the real life or death combat.
• Due to the Dead: At the conclusion of Unleash Blading's Dark Emperor Saga, Fanatio takes Berche to where she killed Bercouli's minion form.
• Expy: While people mostly argue this for Alice, Fanatio also shares some similarities with Saber. Both are Stoic Ladies Of War in charge of a small group of Knights^note  Fanatio led the Four Whirling Blades while Saber led the Knights of the Round Table who hid their gender due to not getting respect as a result of it^note  For Saber it was a bit more serious since she was the ruler of a Middle-aged Kingdom whereas Fanatio had personal issues with her gender due to almost none of her male opponents taking her seriously. Fanatio also uses her Heaven Piercing Blade in a manner similar to Saber's Signature Move to kill Sigurosig.
• Foil:
  • To Alice. Both are female Integrity Knights associated with Light, but while Fanatio initially attempts to hide the fact that she is a woman, Alice does not. Because of this disagreement, Alice has trouble getting along with Fanatio.
  • To Asuna as well, both are badass sub-commanders of an order of knights made up of some of the respective world's best Warriors, however, Asuna retired when the role was no longer needed, while Fanatio, stayed on as an Integrity Knight even when the role for which the order was created was revealed to be a lie, on top of that while Fanatio initially has issues with her gender and men not taking her seriously while Asuna is proudly a Girly Bruiser whose femininity does not in anyway made her less effective a leader or intimidating an opponent.
• The Gadfly: In Alicization Lycoris, she seems to enjoy teasing Kirito and getting him in trouble with his Unwanted Harem.
• Girliness Upgrade: During War of Underworld, Alice is shocked to see her wearing make-up and speaking in a more feminine manner.
• Hidden Buxom: Due to the heavy armor she usually wears, one can't tell she's actually well-endowed.
• Hidden Depths: She learns consecutive hit techniques to conceal her true gender before other people would find out about it.
• Honor Before Reason: After meeting Sylvie learning of how Bercouli killed her parents in the war, Fanatio offers to duel her in Bercouli's stead as the current Commander and his former lover. This is in spite of the fact that this would orphan Berche, with her even offering to make sure the circumstances of her death are kept a secret so he wouldn't try to seek revenge on Sylvie when he's older.
• Insecure Love Interest: While she herself is plenty beautiful and powerful, Fanatio worries that Bercouli will end up falling for one of the other female Knights whose beauty and skill rival her own, which is what spawns her animosity towards such Knights like Alice.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Implied in Rising Steel. Initially, Fanatio was rather vitriolic with any Knight who wasn't Bercouli or the Four Whirling Blades, being rather dismissive of other Knights, making snide jabs at perceived acts of failure or cowardice, and proving to be a Stern Teacher with new recruits, such as when she saw Alice's first spar with Eydis and bluntly stated that she'd be dead if sent into battle as she was. Despite this most of the other Knights note that she's a nice person deep down, even Eydis, who's usually the quickest to call her out on her behavior.
• Kill the Ones You Love: Is forced to fight and kill Bercouli when he's revived as a minion serving the Emperors in their attempted rebellion. And as if to rub salt on the wound, he only regains his senses just as she resolves to kill him and hits him with a beam from her Heaven Piercing Blade.
• Lady of War: While not obvious at first, Fanatio becomes increasingly feminine in later fights.
• Light 'em Up: Her sword, a Divine Object created from mirrors, possesses the ability to reflect light.
• Like an Old Married Couple: Some scenes show her getting into scenarios like this with Bercouli.
  • When Bercouli decides to lead a decoy force to divert the Dark Territory Army's, and Vecta's, attention, Fanatio is adamant about going despite Bercouli's insistence that she stay, arguing that he can't even fold his own clothes without her help, much to everyone's amusement. He's eventually able to convince her using the fact that she's pregnant.
  • When they assess Scheta's skills and she abruptly leaves after, Bercouli reins Fanatio in when she tries scolding her, telling her that Scheta is still new and would need time to adjust. Fanatio's response is to mention how Chudelkin would complain about her behavior and that'll she'll just leave dealing with him to Bercouli. When Bercouli pleads with her not to since it's... well, Chudelkin, she's quick to shoot him down and Bercouli just calmly accepts his fate.
• Lost in Translation: When Alice meets Fanatio again at camp, she notices that Fanatio is using a more feminine style of speech, such as using "wa" to soften her statements.
• Love Makes You Dumb: Downplayed, but in her earlier days of Knighthood, it's shown that her desire to impress Bercouli gave her a tendency to not think things through.
  • In "Memories of Bygone Days: Bercouli" when they're both investagating some three villagers who were seen at a mountain for unknown reasons, she offers to be the advance party as they go to investigate, only for Bercouli to remind her that as Integrity Knights, they can't afford to be seen by the villagers.
• Mentor Archetype: To the Four Whirling Blades, who she took under her wing after she saw how disgruntled they were by their individual weakness compared to other Knights, teaching them how to fight as a team make up for it.
  • Despite their rocky relationship, she's apparently the one who advised Eydis on how to wield a Divine Object, and went as far as to teach her Perfect Control and Memory Release. Eydis' only complaint was that she was really strict about it, though Bercouli notes that that's simply because she cared about her growth.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: "Memories of Bygone Days: Bercouli" kicks off as she and Bercouli are coming back from killing a Phoenix, though she berates herself for Bercouli suffering a burn during the fight.
• Outliving One's Offspring: The Eternal Longing event in Rising Steel^note  or more accurately, a unique cutscene that was added when the event was re-issued that one of the reasons she was reluctant to fully pursue Bercouli was her fear of having to go through this should they have a child, since they wouldn't share their immortality. However, after encountering Kirito and Eugeo and seeing how hard they fought and lived despite their mortality, she starts becoming more open to the idea.
• Passive-Aggressive Kombat: When Alice refuses Fanatio's request to see Kirito, Fanatio needles her about not needing Alice's permission to see Bercouli. While the two women are outwardly polite, Bercouli quickly backs off.
• Person of Mass Destruction: During the uprising of the Four Empire Rulers, Fanatio apparently used Perfect Weapon Control to completely destroy the Western Imperial Palace along with the Western Emperor, Akdares Wasdarath V. Due to the fact that they Never Found the Body, rumors spread mostly by his followers speculate that he somehow survived, but his age at the time makes that highly unlikely.
• Pet the Dog:
  • Despite the implication that she doesn't get along with most other Knights, especially the female ones, Rising Steel reveals that she was rather cordial and even warm to Dakira when they first met, smiling at her and commending her for being up to early to do her duties, which Dakira flusteredly corrects as just her being unable to sleep and just wandering around. She also appeared to be rather invested in Dakira's growth, throwing in words of encouragement amongst her Drill Sergeant Nasty comments and even forming the Four Whirling Blades in hopes of helping her reach her full potential.
  • In "Hometown Water", it's Implied that part of the reason she sent Eldrie to check on Eydis and Alice is because she recognized that Takiguri, Eldrie's riding dragon, was concerned for Amayori, Alice's dragon and his sister.
• Pregnant Badass: Revealed to have been fighting in the War of the Underworld while carrying her and Bercouli's child. She cites this as the reason why she can't head the Human Unification Council as Nergius suggests in opposition to Kirito getting the position.
  • She also took part in suppressing the Uprising of the Four Empires while pregnant, and destroyed the entire Western Imperial Palace during her attack.
• Put on the Bus: Despite her protests, Bercouli has her sit out the rest of the War of the Underworld along with Deusolbert. Unlike with Duesolbert though, who's forced to sit due to running out of arrows, Fanatio agreed to sit out because she and Bercouli didn't want to put their unborn child at risk.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: While she does scold Ronye and Tiese for not calling for back-up when they discover Cruiga's survival and his plot to create Hybrid Minions, she does recognize their contributions to stopping him and deems it enough for them to be promoted from Apprentice Integrity Knights to Lower Integrity Knights.
• Revenge by Proxy: After learning of Sylvie's grudge against the already deceased Bercouli, she offers as the current Commander and his former lover to duel Sylvie in his stead. She evens offers to make Kirito keep the circumstances of her possible death a secret from Berche so he wouldn't seek vengeance once he grew up. Sylvie herself, recognizing the hypocrisy of killing someone else's parent, is reluctant to accept the offer, and refuses on the grounds of not being strong in a tone that suggests that she's still uncertain.
• Royal Rapier: Her appearances in mobile games like Memory Defrag and Rising Steel have her as a rapier user, fitting with her Lady of War status.
• Samus Is a Girl: She's fully armored in her introduction until Kirito breaks her helmet and reveals she's a woman.
• She Is the King: In the Crunchyroll subtitles, Alice calls her "Sir Fanatio," despite it later being made clear that Alice has known Fanatio's gender for some time. (In the original Japanese, Alice uses the extremely respectful gender-neutral honorific "-dono").
• She's Back: After Kirito pulls a Big Damn Heroes to stop Agumar's missiles and prevents Alice from destroying the Osmanthus Blade trying to stop them, he states his intention to go help Eolyne but states that he brought someone to help her. Cue a recently awakened Fanatio appearing up above and shooting through the ships hologram projector with her Heaven Piercing Blade.
• Skyward Scream: Her response to sensing Bercouli's passing.
• Sleeps in the Nude: She's shown to sleep in the buff in the "Alicization: War of Underworld" OP. If you look closely, Bercouli's sword is above the bed, which implies that it's his room. This implies she had sex with Bercouli, making it Foreshadowing for her giving birth to Bercouli's child.
• Someone to Remember Him By: She and Bercouli concieved a child before the war started, and Bercouli's death at the hands of Vecta leaves her to raise him alone.
• Stay in the Kitchen: This is her main problem with men and their Old-School Chivalry. She notices that they fight differently when they find out she's a woman.
• The Strategist: It was her who came up with the risky strategy to have Alice drain the valley of Spatial resources to charge a powerful Sacred Art attack, which not only prevents the Dark Mages from using theirs at the expense of the Human Army suffering the same handicap, but also gives them a powerful weapon to decimate most of the Dark Territory forces.
• Supernatural Gold Eyes: Her eyes have a golden tint, as befits someone whose main element is light.
• Sword Beam: Her Heaven-Piercing Blade is capable of firing lasers allegedly as hot as the sun, allowing them to pierce essentially anything.
• Team Dad: While Bercouli officially outranks her, Fanatio is the one typically in charge of directly training and mentoring the other Integrity Knights and often plays a Drill Sergeant Nasty in order to prepare them for real battle.
• Tears of Joy: When Bercouli confesses to her.
• Took a Level in Cheerfulness: Kirito being willing to go all out against her causes her to loosen up a good deal. Not only is she much less bothered by going around without her helmet, has no problems acting more feminine and even smiles a lot more, but she proves herself to be much more playful and even teasing, suggesting to Alice that she could try and stir Kirito from his Angst Coma with her feminine charms^note  she's started using more make-up and claims to have been annoyed that he wasn't struck still by her looks.
  • This gets further shown in Alicization Lycoris where she shown messing with Kirito and his Chick Magnet status multiple times and even admits to enjoy messing with him.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Rising Steel reveals that she used to be much kinder and openly compassionate, having been eager to serve under Bercouli and crying at the sight of a village's hardships after suffering a Goblin Attack. When we first meet her however, which would be hundred of years after that point, she's noticeably much colder and more stoic, likely as a result of being hardened from the years of fighting and now dealing with the issues with her gender.
• Took a Level in Kindness: When first met, she's established as a stern and relentless Knight who can become outright homicidal if her gender is revealed, and Rising Steel shows that she was somewhat vitriolic towards most of the other Knights as well. After her duel with Kirito helps her work through her gender issues, she starts to come off as much warmer and kinder, telling the Four Whirling Blades how proud she is of them and even apologizing to Linel and Fizel for acting condescending to them due to their status as apprentice Knights. Shes also treats Alice more kindly when they meet again, only really getting into an argument with her when Alice takes her light teasing too seriously and retaliates. By Moon Cradle, she's also comfortable at the idea of being a mother, being affectionate to her son Berche in a manner you'd hardly expect from her.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: Fanatio is the first of the Integrity Knights to seriously challenge Kirito, managing to actually hurt him, and for the most is evenly matched with him in their fight that necessitates both of them going all out. In all fights against the previous Integrity Knights, Kirito and Eugeo manage to cleanly win with the use of team work and barely get hurt at all.
• Worthy Opponent: To Kirito, who told her that he'll not hold back against any enemy, even if they're a woman.
• Would Hit a Girl: Is the recipient of this and seems pleased at Kirito's intention of fighting the likes of her.
• You Are in Command Now: With Bercouli having died in the war, Fanatio became the new Commander of the Integrity Knights.

Deusolbert

Deusolbert (Synthesis Seven)

Voiced by: Hikaru Hanada (Japanese), Armen Taylor (English), Jorge Palafox (Latin American Spanish)

The Integrity Knight whom Kirito, Alice, and Eugeo saw fight a black knight. Was also the Integrity Knight who took Alice away.

---

• Abnormal Ammo: After running out of arrows in the war, he uses his sword as ammunition for his bow.
• Arrows on Fire: This seems to be the base ability of the Conflagration Bow, making all arrows fired by it burn at varying intensities.
• Better to Die than Be Killed: Deusolbert asks for a Mercy Kill from Kirito and Eugeo, preferring that over the humiliation of being frozen for failing his mission. It doesn't come to pass though.
• Bottomless Magazines: Downplayed. In normal circumstances, he's able to handle running out of arrows since he can just make more using Sacred Arts, but he's incapable of this when low on spacial resources, meaning he couldn't do it during the War of Underworld due to Alice absorbing all of it for a powerful Energy Beam. It's this tendency that gives Ronye the idea that the culprit in Yazan's murder used Sacred Arts to create a fake Goblin Dagger to frame Oroi with.
• Bow and Sword in Accord: He switches between a bow and a sword.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: When Eugeo expresses his outrage that Deusolbert would talk about honor after arresting Alice, Deusolbert claims that he doesn't remember doing so. Justified when Kirito points out that Deusolbert's memory of the action was removed.
• Combat Pragmatist: When he first encounters Kirito and Eugeo after their fight with Eldrie, he attempts to shoot them down with his Conflagration Bow while on the back of his dragon where they can't reach him. The second time, while he's forced to forgo the dragon due to being indoors, he ambushes them just as they're retrieving their swords from the armoury and took full of advantage of his bow's range and destructive potential.
• Dragon Rider: Both times we're introduced to him, he's riding atop his dragon in combat. Strangely enough however, he's the only Integrity Knight whose dragon's name is never revealed.
• Emergency Weapon: If Deusolbert runs out of arrows, he has a sword he can draw. He ends up using said sword in place of an arrow.
• Face Death with Dignity: After his defeat, he calmly waits for Eugeo to strike him down. He even requests a Mercy Kill because otherwise he would be sealed away for his failure, which would be a Fate Worse than Death. Thankfully, Kirito is able to talk Eugeo out of killing him by convincing him that his memory of the incident was removed from his memory.
• Faux Affably Evil: He communicates in a calm and affable tone, but at the same time has no problem addressing both Kirito and Eugeo condescendingly. He mellows out somewhat after his defeat at Eugeo's hands.
• Friend to All Children: Eydis describes him as being kind to children, and an event in Alicization Lycoris shows him trying to act as some manner of Mentor to Linel and Fizel in spite of their difficult personalities. Justified as he may have had some or was planning on having them with his wife before his Synthesis.
  • When Shirley comes to the Human Empire as an exchange student, he tells her upon meeting her to ask for help if she has trouble adjusting.
• Friend to All Living Things: Implied. In "Memories of the Abyss Part 1", he mentions that he was planning to check up on the dragons after sparring with Eydis, stating that the young ones need extra care.
• Horse Archer: Well, Dragon Archer to be more precise. While only seen a few times, he's shown to be fully capable of wielding his bow while riding on his dragon's back with stunning accuracy.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Not really a jerk, but he's rather no-nonsense, is a Stern Teacher, and he can be fairly ruthless towards criminals. Despite this, he's a dutiful and dedicated Knight, and Eydis, hinted to have been his protégé when she was starting out, describes him as Nice Guy who was Friend to All Children despite his general demeanor.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: After he arrested Alice and was granted his red armor, his memory of arresting her was wiped so that there'd be no confusions about why the girl he arrested was instated as an Integrity Knight.
• The Mentor:
  • One of her Social Modes in Rising Steel reveals that Deusolbert was something of this to Eydis when she was starting out as a Knight, with her describing him as pretty nice despite his general sternness. "Memories of the Abyss" Implies that this relationship came about when Deusolbert was sent to assist with Eydis' first mission.
• Mighty Glacier: He's this as an archer. Compared to Sinon, who in ALO is shown to incorporate a lot of acrobatic into her fighting style in conjunction with her archery, Deusolbert in both his fights is shown to stand firmly in one place and let loose arrows at his opponents. And since his Conflagration Bow is basically a fiery nuke launcher, he can easily take out droves of enemies with ease this way.
• No Social Skills: Alicization Lycoris has Kirito pointing out that, after an argument with Linel and Fizel, he has a tendency to come off as overly intense. An example is when Asuna and the others talked to about having a tea party after a meeting, only for him to suddenly berate them out of nowhere. They end up nervously apologetic for not taking the situation seriously, which is what they think angered him, when in actuality he was saying that they were about to have lunch anyway, which Fanatio clarifies when he awkwardly fails to to correct them.
• One-Man Army: During the war against the goblins, Deusolbert is able to use his fire arrow Sacred Art to incinerate large masses of advancing goblins before they even reach him.
• Only Sane Man: Seems to act as this to Kirito after the War of the Underworld, demanding he keep any collateral damage he causes with his attempts to build a mechanical dragon to a minimum and scolding him whenever it does anyway.
  • In "Reconciliation and Engagement" in Rising Steel, when Eydis attempts to tease Asuna when she gets a little jealous of Liena's relationship with Kirito, he's quick to clear his throat to get everyone back on track.
• Out of Focus: He's forced to sit out the remainder of the war of the Underworld because he ran out of arrows in the first battle, which are presumably specially made for his bow.
• Playing with Fire: His abilities are largely fire-based.
• Promoted to Playable: Two years after the games initial release and a name change, Deusolbert is finally introduced in Unleash Blading as [Fierce Integrity Knight] Duesolbert, a Fire(obviously)-element Break Unit with an Enhance Mode, with all but his Incarnate Attack increasing his ATK and Critical Damage by 7% per use, with a total 30% buff to both, while his Incarnate Skill is a multi-hitting attack that deals increased damage if the targets suffer a resistance debuff and if the Fire Recollection Field is at 3 or higher.
• Secret-Keeper: He's one of the few Knights with suspicions about the true nature of the Synthesis Ritual, but he keeps it to himself out of consideration towards the younger Knights.
• Stern Teacher: He was Eydis and Dakira's original instructor, the former describing as such, and after the war he's tasked with the teaching of Apprentice Knights like Ronye and Tiese.
• What the Hell, Hero?: After Kirito's failed dragoncraft experiment nearly destroys the top of the Central Cathedral, a fate averted thanks to Asuna's Stacia abilities, he lays into Kirito like a scolding teacher while Kirito acts as if he's a student in trouble.
• Worthy Opponent: At first, he believes Eugeo and Kirito resort to dirty tactics, but after trading blows with them and being defeated by their expertise swordsmanship, he comes to respect them. He praises the boys, asking what their techniques were and their names, and warned them that several Integrity Knight awaited the two on the 50th floor of the Cathedral.
• Wouldn't Hurt a Child: He finds it preposterous that he would arrest a child. Even if, in some extraordinary case, he definitely wouldn't chain one to his dragon and fly off with them dangling, as Eugeo insists he did. It turns out that his memory of that event was wiped from his mind.

Eydis

See this page

Scheta

Scheta (Synthesis Twelve)

Voiced by: Lynn (Japanese), Justine Huxley (English), Ileana Escalante (Latin American Spanish)

A female Integrity Knight introduced in Volume 16. She is a stoic woman of few words and wields the Black Lily Sword,a razor-thin blade with immense cutting power.

---

• Absurdly Sharp Blade: Her Black Lily Sword is almost as thin as a thread, and capable of cutting through just about anything.
• Action Mom: As shown by her explanation that she bested the new leader of the Dark Knights with a scabbard in place of a sword, having an assortment of apprentices that she's teaching her swordsmanship style to, and her swift and brutal assault of the kidnapper, giving birth to and raising Leazetta has done nothing to dull her skill.
• Adaptational Curves: In the Light Novel, an illustration of her post-Clothing Damage during her fight with Iskahn displays her as rather petite. Subsequent adaptations of the scene give an increase to her bust size, the anime making an admittedly subtle increase while the mobile games seem to give her a case of Hidden Buxom^note  then against, this could be Fridge Brilliance since this is displayed with [The Trio' Future] Scheta, whose become a Pregnant Badass by that point in the story.
• Affectionate Nickname: Fizel has taken to calling her "Shey-Shey".
• All Amazons Want Hercules: Zig-Zagged. There are multiple hints that her feelings for Iskahn kicked off because of their fight, where she bared witness to his incredible power, fighting capabilities and ability to resist slashes from even her. However, the reason she realizes her feelings is because despite all of the above, he's the first person she doesn't actually want to cut.
• Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: Invoked. In the year she spent in the Knights before going into Deep Freeze, she largely kept to herself and avoided interacting with other Knights as much as possible, walking off when Eydis tried introducing herself and spending most of her time alone on Floor 75, "The Night Corridor", due to her fear of giving into her desires and cutting someone.
• Ambadassador: After the war and her marriage to Iskahn, her official title is "Ambassador Plenipotentiary", and while she no longer has the Black Lily Sword, she's still a capable fighter and her Implausible Fencing Powers only makes this an issue for extremely high priority items, such as the lock to Vecta's Throne Room.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: Part of her Implausible Fencing Powers. For as long Scheta could remember, she's always been able to pinpoint areas where she could cleanly cut through something, not unlike Ryougi Shiki's Mystic Eyes of Death Perception.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: Downplayed. While she's a Master Swordswoman, she can still use her Implausible Fencing Powers unarmed to cut through things with ease, which she demonstrates to Bercouli and Fanatio when they're gauging her abilities.
  • Her Incarnate Skill as [The Trio's Future] Scheta, has her using her Incarnation to effectively give herself a Blade Below the Shoulder, allowing her to karate chop the enemy to death.
• The Berserker: As she watches her tear through the Pugilists, Alice can only describe the way Scheta fights as "Savage", which makes the lack of any actual hostility she senses from her all the more strange.
• Birds of a Feather: She shares a Blood Knight personality with her opponent and later husband, Iskahn.
• Blood Knight: Well, more like a Cutting Knight. Partially due to her obsession and some light encouragement from Quinella, Scheta has always had an instinctive desire to cut anything, the harder the better. This impulse is so great that she thought about cutting the Central Cathedral, which is made of the hardest material in the world, only to be stopped by the Seal of the Right Eye, and she breaks her vow of silence and vocally volunteers to fight off the Pugilists after hearing that they train themselves to be immune to swords.
• Brought Down to Badass: Despite losing the Black Lily Sword, her cutting ability still intact, with her taking part in suppressing the Uprising of the Four Empires and, after moving to the Dark Territory, she was able to best the new leader of the Dark Knights in a duel.
• Clothing Damage: Suffers this in her duel with Iskahn, her armour being almost completely destroyed, and her shirt being reduced to enough shreds to expose her midriffs. Neither she nor Iskahn seem too bothered by this though.
• Companion Cube: She clearly feels a bond with the Black Lily Sword, thanking it for how it's helped her after it's destroyed, and Moon Cradle hinting that she deeply misses it despite it having served its purpose, not finding a new blade and sometimes reminiscing about it.
• Dragon Rider: Her dragon is named Yoiyobi.
• The Dreaded: To her own side no less. Scheta has a fearsome reputation among the Knights due to her insane cutting ability and the fact she accidentally killed a fellow Knight in a duel. Notably, Bercouli admits to being scared of her skill, Alice's response to her being unfrozen was shock based on the stories she's heard of her, and Linel and Fizel treat her with a lot more respect than they do the other Knights, which is likely a combination of them Taking A Level In Kindness and being afraid of angering her.
• Hand on Womb: When she reveals her pregnancy to Iskahn in "Journey to the Future", she places a hand on her stomach.
• Implausible Fencing Powers: Sheyta was extremely proficient at cutting things even before getting the Black Lily Sword, to the point where^note  according to Rising Steel that she could cut through three training dummies at the same time, without a weapon!
• Love at First Punch: Implied to have been a mutual case with Ishkahn.
• Love Confession: Gives one to Iskahn after she realizes her feelings for him, proclaiming him as the first thing she doesn't want to cut.
• Magically Inept Fighter: By Scheta's own admission, she's not heavily reliant on or even skilled at Sacred Arts, largely settling fights with her Black Lily Sword.
  • When Kirito and Ronye visit Obsidia to meet with them on the murder that took place in the Human Empire, Scheta and Iskahn explain that after Dee Eye Ell's death, the Dark Mages were taken over by a mage named Kay Yu Vee, who lacked the ability to keep the guild's providence intact. To illustrate the point, Scheta claims that even her Sacred Art capabilities are greater than hers.
• Mama Bear: When they find Leazetta's kidnapper, she's quick to cut off his arm to get rid of his poisoned dagger, and goes for another swing at the arm holding her baby only for the kidnapper to use a blowdart on her.
• Master Swordswoman: All of the Integrity Knights are skilled with the sword, but she's able to cut through the skin of the Dark Territory pugilists, who trained their bodies specifically to resist blades. Even Bercouli was a bit scared when she was unfrozen.
• Mentor Archetype:
  • After marrying Iskahn and moving to the Dark Territory, Scheta found herself being a guest instructor for the Dark Knights after their commander haughtily challenged her to a duel and she soundly beat him with nothing but a scabbard. She currently has ten pupils, who she notes have great potential.
  • In the If You Wish It timeline, she's put in charge of mentoring Kirito and Eugeo in a similar manner to how Alice mentors Eldrie.
• Mysterious Past: The most we know about Scheta's past before her Synthesis is that she was a swordsman with Implausible Fencing Powers. Even "The Knight's Recollection" Event she shared with Renly only detailed the latter's past before his Synthesis, while detailing how she got the Black Lily Sword after joining the Knights.
• Not So Stoic:
  • In "The Knights' Recollection", she's shown to be disturbed by the barren state of the Dark Territory.
  • In the "Peace Treaty" Event in Rising Steel, Scheta is shown to be rather sad at the prospect of not marrying Iskahn due to the giant's rebellion, and later after it's stamped out, actually blushes and smiles at the thought of marrying Iskahn when Eydis congratulates her.
• The Quiet One: She rarely says a word to the other knights. Even when giving permission to Linel and Fizel to check on Kirito in the light novel, she only uses gestures.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: As stated above, Sheyta became known as "The Silent" due to the fact that she never spoke and mainly communicated through sign language and gestures. Which is why it came as a surprise to Bercouli and Alice that she verbally offers to hold off the Pugilists.
  • The rest of the Knights, who weren't there when she did the above, are similarly surprised when she first speaks during the peace talks to explain Iskahn's Backhanded Compliment to Kirito. And that's before she accepts Iskahn's marriage proposal.
• Pet the Dog: On their way to fight Emperor Southacroith, she and Renly encounter a ransacked village. When Renly is reluctantly opted to ignore it due to their mission, Scheta insists they help, citing "the swordsman delegate would do the same" with a smile. She's also just as disgusted as Renly upon hearing of Emperor Southacroith's actions, and vows to help return the village's food.
• Reluctant Psycho: She has an unhealthy urge to cut things to the point where she killed a lot of her opponents in friendly duels, but she doesn't like that side of herself, to the point where she intentionally distances herself from her fellow knights and by her own request, was put into a long sleep.
• Shameless Fanservice Girl: When Iskahn manages to strike her with a Megaton Punch, her armor is destroyed and her clothes are torn. Despite, she continues the fight largely unbothered.
  • After Leazetta is kidnapped, she's quick to change out of her nightclothes into something else so she and Iskahn can go interrogate the Dark Mages. Strangely enough, only Ronye is embarrassed by this.
• Simple, yet Awesome: Other than its surprising thinness, nothing in particular seems to stand out about the Black Lily Sword, as unlike other Divine Objects it doesn't appear to possess any unique qualities like the Time-Splitting Sword's ability to cut through time or the Osmanthus Blade's ability to summon a swarm of razor sharp flower petals. That being said, it is quite possibly the sharpest blade in the Underworld, being able to slice through Dark Territory Pugilists like a hot knife through butter, and they literally train themselves to be immune to all kinds of blades.
  • This can also apply to her Sword Style. Whereas most other swordsman in the series make use of powerful Sword Skills, Scheta seems to rely on none. However, considering that her Implausible Fencing Powers makes even her most basic slashes a potential One-Hit Kill, she doesn't really need any flashy techniques.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: Downplayed. They don't enter a relationship until after the war ends, but she and Ishkahn are forced to deal with the Giant's rebelling in opposition of their marriage and the peace treaty.
• The Stoic: Likely due to her desire to distant herself from the other Knights, Sheyta isn't very expressive. She even gives Alice a run for her money in this department.
• Technical Pacifist: After the war and the destruction of the Black Lily Sword, she started going as "Scheta the Unarmed", and apparently has never wielded a sword since. That being said, she still acts as an instructor and is willing to spar with people, albeit with a scabbard instead of a proper blade. She's also willing to fight if it means saving her daughter.
• These Hands Have Killed: She was one of the Integrity Knights to have been Synthesized after winning the Four Empire's Unity Tournament, in which all of her matches ended with her cleanly cutting through her opposition... literally. The entire tournament had to be covered up due to how bloody it was. She dreads how easily she is able to kill and cut through everyone in her path and practices distancing herself as to not hurt anyone else.
• Those Two Guys: Likely due to their Foil status, Rising Steel depicts her as this with Renly. They first appeared as playable in the same banner, and the both of them were charged were taking down Emperor Southacroith.
• Took a Level in Cheerfulness: Downplayed. Getting together with Ishkahn has certainly changed her, while she's still very much The Stoic, she's become a bit more talkative by the time of Moon Cradle and her emotions, albeit very slight, are a bit more visible in her expressions, with her smiling more.
  • This gets Lampshaded by Linel and Fizel in "Journey to the Future", who point out how she used to never say a word but now they're able to have a nice conversation in the Great Baths.
• The Unfought: She was frozen during Kirito and Eugeo's climb up the Central Cathedral, which is fortunate considering her swordplay scares even Bercouli.
• What You Are in the Dark: "The Knights' Recollection" reveals that she intially went out of her way to avoid the other Knight's, but Quinella tempted her with a "sword that could cut through anything", to which she gave in and collected the object asked for the make it. That being said, she immediately asked to be put in Deep Freeze after accidentally killing a Knight who harassed her endlessly.
• When She Smiles: When Iskahn asks- well, more like orders her to marry him next time they meet in the "Reconciliation and Engagement" event in Rising Steel, Scheta responds with a joyful smile and a casual "Sure".
• Women Are Wiser: In the "Founding of the Human Unification Council" Event in Rising Steel, she's surprisingly quick to pick up on the fact that Fanatio's pregnant, which the latter cites as it being because they're both women.
• Worthy Opponent: She considers the pugilist leader Iskahn an interesting opponent, since he can resist her slashes to some extent. She also compares his dedication to punching to her dedication to slicing.
• Wrecked Weapon: The Black Lily Sword ends up being destroyed after she fights off the American Players alongside the Pugilists.

Nergius Spoiler

Nergius (Synthesis Sixteen)

Voiced By Shinnosuke Tachibana

An Integrity Knight posted at the Cathdral during the War who often works with Entokia.

---

• Anger Born of Worry: In line with how he Took a Level in Kindness and as suggested by Entokia, his anger at Kirito getting involved in Leazetta's kidnapping was likely out of worry that he'd get himself killed.
• Badass Boast: Has one as the homescreen character in Rising Steel
  Nergius: My Budding Storm Spear never falls, and neither shall I.
• Beware the Quiet Ones: Despite being reserved, the first time we meet him involves him loudly berating Kirito for taking a direct role in resolving Leazetta's kidnapping, saying that he should be careful since he's the effective ruler of the Underworld at the time. Even Fanatio feels the need to try calming him down.
• Big Sister Worship: He was taught swordsmanship by his older sister Paulie, highly revering her and doubting his ability to surpass her. Paulie even states that he puts her on a pedestal.
• Dragon Rider: His dragon is named Shionade.
• Dramatic Irony: An Integrity Knight whose Undying Loyalty to Quinella affects his view on Kirito, and in Rising Steel he's introduced as a Wind-Element Unit at the same time as War of Underworld Vol. 14, where Quinella appears as a Earth-Element Boss that would be weak against Wind Units.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Some of the other Knights, namely Fanatio have taken to calling him "Little Negi" since his name has some correlation with the name of an Onion in his Divine Object's past, where a father grew an onion to such a height that it affected the other crops and any attempts to remove it created a storm, forcing Quinella to turn it into a Divine Object to resolve the issue.
• Everyone Has Standards: While he was a noble, and possessed their general haughtiness, he saw Nobles bragging about their land and women to be distasteful, likely due to his sister's influence.
• Foil: The "The Knights' Yearning" Event, he's painted as one to Entokia. Both are Integrity Knights whose induction into the Order were due to a loved one, Nergius' older sister and Entokia's Mentor respectively, being an Unwitting Instigator of Doom by encouraging their skills. However, as noted under Odd Friendship below, that's where the similarities end.
• Force and Finesse: Implied to be the finesse to Entokia's force, being a trained nobleman wielding a spear compared to the latter's unwieldly BFS and experience as a miner.
• The Gift: Why Paulie, his elder sister, saw him as her better in swordsmanship. Whereas she feels that she's hit her peak in how much she can improve, she saw that he still had much more room to grow, which would let him surpass her.
• Height Angst: Downplayed. Nergius isn't exactly short, but he seems to take issue with assumptions that Entokia is taller than him, insisting that they're the same height^note  granted, it's a close difference, but Entokia appears slightly taller.
• Hero of Another Story: The reason for his absence until the second half of Moon Cradle is due to having duties elsewhere.
  • During Kirito and Eugeo's rebellion, he and Entokia were guarding the End Mountains.
  • During the war, he was among the Knights charged with protecting the Cathedral, likely in part due to him leading a faction of Knights who were calling for Kirito's head and Bercouli likely suspecting Alice would bring him with her.
  • During the time of Yazen's death and Kirito and Ronye forage to Obsidia, he and Entokia were doing a crucial mission in the south to see if a hole in the mountains seperating the Human Empire and Dark Territory could be re-opened.
• Jerkass: He was apparently the most vocal of the Knights who argued that Kirito should have been executed for killing Quinella despite him being in the middle of his Angst Coma, something that didn't endear him to Ronye. He was also quick to oppose him being made head of the Human Unification Council due to his insistent grudge.
• Jerkass Has a Point: He's undeniably an asshole about it, but he's not entirely wrong to oppose Kirito being made the effective ruler of the Underworld; He is the man who killed Quinella, who was seen as a Benevolent Mage Ruler by most, and while her death was covered up, there'd likely be a huge public outcry against him if truth somehow was leaked to the public, something Kirito himself expresses concern about in Moon Cradle.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He has however mellowed out a bit since then. While his first appearance has him heavily berating Kirito, it's hinted to be out of concern for his safety, and he has largely let go of his grudge towards Kirito due to the positive impact he's had on the Human Empire.
• Mundane Utility: Due to its origins, his Budding Storm Spear has the ability to stand perfectly upright when placed on the ground, which only really serves as convenient way for him to place it down when he's not carrying it.
• Odd Friendship: He and Entokia are opposites in almost every possible way. Nergius is a rigid Jerk with a Heart of Gold, Entokia is a casual Nice Guy. , Nergius wields a more traditional spear and has formal training, Entokia is Unskilled, but Strong and wields a "spear" with a large blade. Nergius was a high-class noble who became a Knight by winning the Four Empires Unity Tournament, Entokia was a common miner who become after getting arrested. Despite this, and Nergius' occasional annoyance with Entokia and his Affectionate Nicknames, the two are close and often get missions together.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: It was he and Entokia who defeated the Hozaika Eastaverith, the Emperor of East Centoria.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: With Entokia. While Nergius is more passionate, harsher and openly critical, Entokia is more friendly and laid-back.
• Religious Bruiser: Many of the Knights could be seen as this, but Nergius in particular stands out. He was opposed to dismantling the Church when the others opted to create a Human Unification Council, whereas Entokia was mainly focusing on the logistical issues and the fact that the others seemed to want to have Kirito lead them because of his power over any apparent administrative ability, and when he's finally convinced, he's quick to agree with Asuna being made Kirito's right hand women upon hearing of how she's "Stacia Incarnate"^note  after calling out Renly on his supposed blasphemy before he explains what he means, even quipping that she should lead them instead.
  • Among the Council, he's one of the Knights who's against allowing any works of art to be released without Church approval^note  during Quinella's reign, all artwork and written stories had to be reviewed and approved by the Church before being released to the public in case any of it came off as sacrilegious..
• Reluctant Warrior: Averted. Whereas the other Knights are reluctant to use force, Nergius is the first to suggest using it against the Four Emperors when they refuse to comply with the Human Unfication Council's reforms, and is quick to complain when Kirito suggests a more peaceful approach for the time being.
• Remember the New Guy?: He and Entokia don't appears until the second volume of Moon Cradle, being off-screen during both Kirito and Eugeo's rebellion, the War of Underworld, and Yazen's murder and Kirito and Ronye's subsequent journey to Obsidia.
• Self-Deprecation: Before he became an Integrity Knight, he often compared his own skills to his Big Sister Mentor, with the first scene in "A Knights' Yearning" being him practicing and destroying some training dummies, only to berate himself for not doing it as quickly as she could. He doesn't even feel that he should enter the Four Empires Unity Tournament due to this, only relenting when Paulie gives him a pep talk about how much stronger he can get, as well as stating that she's content if it means bettering the name of their family.
• Shock and Awe: Implied. His Divine Object is called the "Budding Storm Spear" and in its backstory as a towering onion, it summoned a storm that destroyed all other crops when its farmer tried uprooting it.
• Summon to Hand: His Incarnate Skill as [Dark Green Spearman] Nergius appears to have him warping his Budding Storm Spear to him for his attack before warping it away when he's done. It's unknown if he can canonically do this.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: To Eldrie, who died during War of Underworld. In terms of attitude he's a dead-ringer, being Comically Serious and one of the few Integrity Knights who is dismissive towards Kirito. His backstory in Rising Steel also reveals he had a similar relationship with his sister as Eldrie does to Alice, being highly respectful towards the female mentor they look up to.
• Tsundere: Implied. Entokia hints that his scolding of Kirito after the business with Leazetta was that he was concerned and upset at the possibility that Kirito didn't trust them, prompting Nergius to deny it.
  • In the "The Knights' Yearning" Event in Rising Steel, Entokia has this to say when trying to fish some praise for Kirito out of him.
  Entokia: Wow, you really have a hard time admitting you like someone Negio. This'll take some time...
  • As the homescreen character in Rising Steel, he seems to alternate between insulting and snarking at the player and giving them genuine praise and compliments^note  like most characters, he's Implied to see them as Kirito.
  Nergius: Do you honestly take pride in your mediocre sword skills? You cannot be serious.
  Also Nergius: You are indeed skilled. I have to admit that your skills qualify you to be our Swordsman Delegate.
• Took a Level in Kindness: While initially calling for Kirito's head for his murder of Quinella, he's apparently mellowed out by the time of Moon Cradle and, while expressing discomfort whenever her death comes up, he recognizes the positive impact he's making and actually displays concern for him when he ends up in situations that put his life at risk.
• Undying Loyalty: While this is often a given for Integrity Knights, Nergius stands out as the most passionate about Kirito being punished for his murder of Quinella.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: His strong arguments that Kirito should be executed led to a small faction of Knights who argued the same being formed. These Knights were tasked with guarding the Central Cathedral during the war, hinting they were forced to stay behind in case they tried killing Kirito on the off chance Alice joined with him in tow, potentially weakening the Human Army in the process.

Entokia Spoilers

Entokia (Synthesis Eighteen)

Voiced By Takuma Terashima

An Integrity Knight was posted at the Cathedral during the War. Often works with Nergius.

---

• BFS: His Divine Object is a massive sword that looks more like a giant slab of metal, and is stated to be something he can't exactly casually walk around with unlike the other Knight's weapons. Subverted somewhat in that, despite appearances, it's considered a spear.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Like Eydis from Rising Steel, Entokia comes off as more informal than his fellow Knights, encouraging Kirito to use nicknames for him and Nergius to stop him from coming off as too formal. Despite this, he's still a senior Knight and is frequently partnered with Nergius.
• Chekhov's Gunman: As it turns out, his lingering memories of metal and ores from his time as a miner helps in the creation of the Dragoncraft, as he's able to suggest adamant and other materials that could possibly withstand the heat elements.
• Dragon Rider: His dragon is named Iwahaku.
• Draw Aggro: In Rising Steel, his Assault Skill focuses the enemy's attacks on him. Combine this with his naturally high HP and DEF, and his self-buff skill that both further increases it allows him to Counter-Attack any attacks that hit him, and he's quite the effective tank.
• Dumbass Has a Point: It'd be a stretch to call him dumb, just rather laid back for an Integrity Knight, but when the other Knights opt to appoint Kirito as head of the Human Unification Council, he' quick to point that their stated reasons, namely that he defeated Vecta, don't seem all that different from the Dark Territory's Might Makes Right views. This compels Duesolbert to bring up Kirito's other qualifications to put him at ease.
• Dumb Muscle: Was this as a miner. He was strong enough and had enough stamina to dig all the way to the Dark Territory's side of the End Mountains, but didn't realize that doing so, along with taking back a gemstone from them, was breaking the Taboo Index, which every child is taught from birth, until Nergius is landing his dragon in front of him to arrest him.
• Fatal Flaw: As Aleo, his boss when he was a miner points out, he has a bad habit of losing track of the time and other things when he's fixated on something. Doesn't sound too bad, but it leads to him mining too close to the Dark Territory and getting arrested, then it ends up being this...
• Foil: The "The Knights' Yearning" Event, he's painted as one to Entokia. Both are Integrity Knights whose induction into the Order were due to a loved one, Entokia's Mentor and Nergius' older sister respectively, being an Unwitting Instigator of Doom by encouraging their skills. However, as noted under Odd Friendship below, that's where the similarities end.
• Force and Finesse: Implied to be the Force to Nergius' finesse, being a strong and well-built miner who wields a unwieldy BFS compared to the latter's spear and more formal training.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: As the homescreen character in Rising Steel, he often hints that the size of his Roaring Thunder Spear makes it rather unwieldy, making him Unskilled, but Strong. In gameplay however, he has the same Sword Skill animations as other sword-wielding characters.
• Hero of Another Story: The reason for his absence until the second half of Moon Cradle is due to having duties elsewhere.
  • During Kirito and Eugeo's rebellion, he and Nergius were tasked with guarding the End Mountains.
  • During the War of Underworld, he was posted in the Southern Empire.
  • During the time of Yazen's death and Kirito and Ronye forage to Obsidia, he and Nergius were doing a crucial mission in the south to see if a hole in the mountains separating the Human Empire and Dark Territory could be re-opened.
• Irony: His Best Friend in the Knights, Nergius, is the guy who arrested him when he broke the Taboo Index.
• Keet: In stark contrast to most of the Integrity Knights, Entokia is enthusiastic and upbeat.
• Loophole Abuse: He tries invoking this in regards to Kirito killing Quinella, saying there's nothing in the Taboo Index saying you can't fight the Pontifex. However, the act of fighting her would fall under the law prohibiting rebellion against the Church, which would defy the Taboo Index.
• Mighty Glacier: If his playable appearance in Rising Steel is anything to go by, the dude is tough, having among the highest HP and DEF stats in the game, his leadership/membership skills increasing the team's defence, and he has a self-buff that not only both his ATK and DEF further, but also allows him to counter any attacks that hit him. This is further enforced with his featured weapon, which is the first to grant a boost to its wielder's DEF, and by a whole 24% at that.
• Mildly Military: Integrity Knight he may be, but Entokia largely acts informal and casual towards others even if they're commoners, even encouraging Kirito to call him by a nickname.
• Motor Mouth: Despite being a senior Knight, Entokia generally presents himself as very talkative and friendly.
• Nice Guy: He generally comes off as pretty friendly and sociable despite being a senior Knight, trying to mediate between Nergius and Kirito when the former snaps at him. He even suggested summoning back all the priests and priestesses they fired for corruption when the issue of the Sacred Artificers Brigade's low numbers came up, when even Ronye wasn't exactly keen on them coming back.
  • In "Uprising in the Four Empires - Part 2", he enthusiastically complimented a citizen repairman on the work he did in rebuilding the flowerbeds after they were destroyed in the uprising, commending him for his role as a repairman and reassuring him that he doesn't need to be so formal with him. His positive, motivational attitude is noted to have made him popular with the more elderly workers.
• The Nicknamer: Calls Nergius "Negio", something the latter has seemingly resigned himself to, and offers Kirito to call him Enki, feeling he's being too formal.
• Odd Friendship: He and Nergius are opposites in almost every possible way. Entokia is a casual Nice Guy, Nergius is a rigid Jerk with a Heart of Gold. Entokia is Unskilled, but Strong and wields a "spear" with a large blade, Nergius wields a more traditional spear and has formal training. Entokia was a common miner, Nergius was a high-class noble. Despite this, and Nergius' occasional annoyance with him and his Affectionate Nicknames, the two are close and often get missions together.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: It was he and Nergius who defeated the Hozaika Eastaverith, the Emperor of East Centoria.
• One-Handed Zweihänder: His idle animation as [Brawny Knight] Entokia in Rising Steel has him holding his Roaring Thunder Spear, which is stated to be so heavy that he's the only one who can properly wield it, in one hand.
• One-Man Army: According to Eydis, he's better than her in regards to crowd control, especially when acting in a group.
• Prospector: Before his arrest and Synthesis, Entokia worked as a miner.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Blue to Nergius' Red, trying to calm the latter down when he berates Kirito for his reckless response to Leazetta's kidnapping and generally coming off as laid back friendlier.
  • In "Seal of the Right Eye", this is shown with the statements of their respective interactions with the denizens of the Dark Territory. Whereas Entokia is stated to get along with them easier, Nergius is stated to be having some trouble in that regard.
• Remember the New Guy?: He and Nergius don't appears until the second volume of Moon Cradle, being off-screen during both Kirito and Eugeo's rebellion, the War of Underworld, and Yazen's murder and Kirito and Ronye's subsequent journey to Obsidia.
• Secret-Keeper: After hearing of Kirito planning with Sadore and Airy to build the Dragoncraft, he offers his help and promises to keep it a secret. Though he's also quick to suggest that Kirito comes clean to Asuna after she shows up upon hearing their experiment explode.
• Skewed Priorities: While everyone, especially Nergius, are concerned with Kirito being reckless despite his status as head of the Human Unification Council, he seems more bothered with Kirito being too formal with them.
• Stealthy Colossus: He ends up overhearing Kirito telling Sadore and Airy about his Dragoncraft idea and remains undetected until he announces himself to offer his assistance.
• Super-Strength: His Divine Object, the Roaring Thunder Spear (yes, that is what it's called despite appearances), is stated to be incredibly heavy, to the point that Entokia is apparently the only one who can actually lift it, let alone properly wield it.
• Sword Beam: His Incarnate Attack as [Brawny Knight] Entokia in Rising Steel has him start by sending one of these at his target, Implied to be an ability of his "Roaring Thunder Spear".
• Unskilled, but Strong: Enforced by his weapon. He hints often that his Roaring Thunder Spear's size and weight makes it rather unwieldy and difficult to swing properly. However, his Super-Strength makes him the only Knight capable of properly lifting and swinging it which, combined with said size and weight, means he hits hard.

Four Whirling Blades

Four Whirling Blades (Dakira Synthesis Twenty-Two, Jayce Synthesis Twenty-Three, Geero Synthesis Twenty-Four, Hoveren Synthesis Twenty-Six)

The Four Whirling Blades surrounding Fanatio

Four Integrity Knights that serve under Fanatio as her apprentices.

---

• The Apprentice: To Fanatio, who taught them to fight as a group to make up for their individual weakness compared to other Knights.
• Classical Elements Ensemble: In Rising Steel, they are each associated with the four elements, Dakira using fire, Jayce water, Geero earth, and Hoveren wind.
• The Dividual: They might as well be the same character as they aren't given any characterizations to tell them apart. With the exception of Dakira who gets some individual characterization in her Dying Moment of Awesome.
• The Faceless: They never remove their helms so we never see what they look like. Finally subverted with Dakira when her helm breaks to protect Fanatio.
• Flat Character: None of these Knights get any characterization outside of being the apprentices of Fanatio who fight Kirito. For the most they are The Faceless, The Nameless, and The Voiceless, only serving as an obstacle Kirito needs to overcome. The only exception is Dakira, and it's only during her death that we learn more about her.
• Ignored Enamored Underling: Alice believes that they are this to Fanatio, since Fanatio must have some idea of their devotion to her, but refuses to even let them see her face. This is part of the reason why Alice dislikes Fanatio.
• The One Guy: Implied. During Dakira's event in Rising Steel, the other three members of the Four Whirling Blades are heard speaking, Jayce and Geero having feminine sounding voices while Hoveren has a high, but more masculine sounding one, implying the latter is the only male member in the group.
• The Nameless: The anime never refers to them by name with the exception of Dakira Synthesis Twenty Two. The other three are only given a passing mention to their names in the lightnovels.
• The Quiet One: For some time it seemed like they were The Voiceless. However starting with Dakira they finally speak in Alicization Exploding.
• Weak, but Skilled: Individually speaking, the four of them are simply not as powerful as most other Integrity Knights, being noted to not be very strong and none of them possessing a Divine Object. However, they're all fairly skilled fighters in their own right and seem to have a gift for synchronizing their movements with each other, which Fanatio suggested they use to make up for said weakness and thus lead to their forming.

---

Dakira (Synthesis Twenty-Two)

Voiced by: Kanako Sakuragi (Japanese), Jennie Kwan (English)

The unofficial second-in-command and eldest of the Four Whirling Blades, having been the first to be Synthesized. Deeply admires Fanatio.

---

• All Love Is Unrequited: Dakira is strongly implied to harbor a crush on Fanatio, but Fanatio is in love with Bercouli and eventually became pregnant with his child. While Dakira ends up being killed in the war and never got to express her feelings.
• Ascended Extra: Originally just another Faceless member of the Four Whirling Blades, she gets some characterization during her death and thereafter gains more prominence in side content, appearing as a 3-Star Unit in Rising Steel and later getting a special 4-Star Unit along with an Event dedicated to her relationship with Fanatio.
• The Atoner: Her Event in Rising Steel implies that her Heroic Sacrifice to save Fanatio was motivated by guilt over failing to protect her from Kirito.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: Downplayed. Bercouli note that she's very perceptive when she noticed that Jayce's foot was injured, and Fanatio follows up by mentioned that's she's good at matching her opponents moves.
• Butch Lesbian: Downplayed. Dakira is a girl with a Tomboyish Voice and Super-Strength who helped with her family's fishing business, something that made her considered The Lad-ette in her village. Additionally, the crime she "committed" to be arrested and become synthesized was falling in love with another girl in her village, which she accidentally confessed to the Axiom Church's senators because she prayed to Stacia for forgiveness at an alter that linked to their automated organ.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: She's all but crushed to death by Sigurosig during her Heroic Sacrifice, with the bones in her arm and legs breaking and large amounts of blood spurting out of her.
• A Day in the Limelight: She gets her own special event in Rising Steel which showcases her first awakening as an Integrity Knight, meeting Fanatio, and becoming one of the Four Whirling Blades.
• Death in the Limelight: Dakira gets some characterisation and backstory in the moments before her death.
• Dying Declaration of Love: As she lays dying, she confesses to Fanatio that she always pined for her.
• Dying Moment of Awesome: Dakira intercepts an attack meant for Fanatio from a giant and even propels him back before she dies from the wounds she got as a result.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Dakira sacrifices her life to block a fatal blow from a giant that was aimed at Fanatio.
• The Lad-ette: Implied. Along with her masculine sounding voice, Dakira was apparently considered in her village to be One of the Guys before she was synthesized, having helped with the fishing every day. This often resulted in her getting teased by the boys.
• Love at First Sight: Played With. Rising Steel reveals that Dakira was enamored by Fanatio's looks, but that's partially because that she reminded her of the girl she knew before her Synthesis.
• Playing with Fire: Rising Steel depicts her as a wielder of fire Sacred Arts.
• Super-Strength: She's noted to be very strong despite her small frame, with the boys from her village describing her as being "as strong as an Ox". This is best shown in her Dying Moment of Awesome, where she stops a giant's attack and sending him flying back!
• We Hardly Knew Ye: We only learn about how she became a Knight and her devotion to Fanatio shortly before she sacrifices herself for her in the Light Novel. In Rising Steel, Eydis even Lampshades this by saying she didn't know her very well but wish she still had the chance to.
• You Remind Me of X: Her infatuation with Fanatio is because she resembles the girl from her village she fell in love with.
• Youthful Freckles: She possesses a pair of freckles, which make her look younger and cuter compared to Fanatio.

Renly

Renly (Synthesis Twenty-Seven)

Voiced by: Mutsumi Tamura (Japanese), Morgan Berry (English), Iván Bastidas (Latin American Spanish)

A cowardly Integrity Knight introduced in Volume 16.

---

• Accidental Murder: He accidentally killed his best friend in a tournament duel. As a result, he became afraid of both dying and killing others.
• The Ace: Renly is a Master Swordsman and winner of the tournament like many other Integrity Knights.
• All-Loving Hero: In ''Uprising of the Four Empires - Part 2", Asuna describes Renly as "mindful of the needs of others, like the sick, elderly or wounded." The event also shows him as very caring for the people, being reluctant to not investigate a ransacked village despite their orders and expressing increasing outrage at Emperor Southacroith's callousness towards his subjects.
• Always Someone Better: Implied in "The Knights' Recollection" to have been this to his Best Friend, who wasn't afraid to admit it.
• Animal Motif: Mixed with Mythical Motifs. Renly's backstory correlates with that of the two legendary birds that were turned into the Twin-Edged Wings, his Divine Object. In the legend, two birds lost their left and right wings respectively and, unable to fly with only one wing, decided to join together to fly again, and ended up soaring higher than they ever could have on their own. This sums up Renly's situation when we first meet him quite well; Similarly to Eugeo in the form of Kirito, he had a Best Friend who he was inseparable with and with whom he aimed to become an Integrity Knight alongside. However, during the final round of the Four Empires Unity Tournament, Renly ended up cutting through his friend's sword and killing him, and the trauma affected him well into his Knighthood, with him unable to function as competently as he could before and made him incapable of mastering the Twin-Edged Wings that were granted to him. It was only after being inspired by Kirito, who bears a remarkable amount of resemblance to his deceased friend, that he was able fight despite his fears and truly become a competent Knight. To simplify, he lost his wing^note  his Best Friend and couldn't fly as well as he used to^note  underperformed as a Knight and lost much of his edge as a warrior, but was able to improve and achieve greater heights with the help of another bird who lost his wing^note  Kirito, who was in an Angst Coma in part due to losing Eugeo.
  • Rising Steel adds to the motif, giving him the moniker of "Winged Knight".
• Battle Boomerang: His weapon is the Double-Winged Blades, which act as a pair of thin boomerangs that he can control the trajectory of. Though in its Enhanced form is more like a Fuuma Shuriken.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Before he and his friend had their duel in the Four Empires Unity Tournament, the two engaged in some banter where Renly boasted that he would win. He does, but not the way he imagined...
  Renly: (With a Thousand-Yard Stare) I... did it...
• Big Damn Heroes: Kirito and Asuna see him arriving back at the Cathedral to help deal with Southacroith and his forces as this.
• Broken Ace: He's a very skilled fighter, but his trauma over accidentally killing his friend kept him from mastering Perfect Weapon Control, causing him to stagnate as an Integrity Knight and lose all confidence.
• Child Soldiers: Renly is among the youngest of the Integrity Knights, barring Fizel and Linel who are trainee Integrity Knights. He is at the age of 15 at the time of his Synthesis, which is younger than Alice who is 19.
• Cowardly Lion: He starts off abandoning the Second Regiment and cowering in a tent. When Linel tells him he still has some form of strength and when he sees Kirito still has the will to protect the trainees, Renly fights back against the goblins and slowly regains his confidence. He eventually uses Perfect Weapon Control and Release Recollection to cut down Kosogi, a goblin leader.
• Crush Blush: In "Uprisng in the Four Empires - Part 2", he blushes when Tiese compliments him for his kind nature.
• Declaration of Protection: His reason for going with the Decoy Force is because he vowed to protect Tiese, Ronye and Kirito.
• Dragon Rider: His dragon is named Kazenui.
• Flowers of Romance: His profile for [For Your Ears Only] Renly has him attempting to buy flowers for Tiese, and kicking himself for never asking her which were her favourites and bemoaning how he's never gotten a girl a gift before.
• Foil:
  • To Eugeo. Renly's backstory shows that the dynamic he had with his best friend mirrors that of Eugeo and Kirito, especially in Rising Steel. Much like Eugeo and Kirito, Renly has a Red Oni, Blue Oni dynamic with his friend, with Renly taking the more mature blue oni role and often talking sense into his friend. Also like Eugeo and Kirito, these two boys tried to compete in the Unification Tournament to become Integrity Knights. The foil side is, Renly succeeds in going through with the plan and fights his friend in the tournament. Furthermore, it is Renly as the Eugeo figure who ends up living while his friend as the Kirito figure dies, burdening Renly with Survivor Guilt and a failure to save his friend. Finally, while both Renly and Eugeo started off as cowards, Eugeo was able to overcome this with the help of Kirito, while it is Renly losing his friend that made him even more of a coward than before and it takes him far longer to man up (ironically also through help from Kirito).
  • To Sheyta. Both are Integrity Knights who got frozen and both are haunted by being murderers. However while Sheyta chooses to be The Stoic and distances herself from everyone else, Renly copes by being a Cowardly Lion who is too scared to even fight. While Sheyta is one of the most powerful Integrity Knights in terms of swordsmanship and seeks a challenge, Renly is an incompetent Integrity Knight who could not even master his own Divine Weapon.
• Fragile Speedster: Downplayed. His Twin-Edged Wings are a pair of fast-moving, razor Battle Boomerangs that he can remotely command and move faster than most people can react to and, similarly to Linel and Fizel, he stands out among the Knights as having had his aging halted when he was still young instead of when his maximum life reached it's peak. However, he had his aging halted at an older age than Linel and Fizel, suggesting that he's a bit sturdier than they are.
• Fuuma Shuriken: The Twin-Edged Wings are this under Perfect Weapon Control, becoming a large, propeller-shaped knife that he can control telepathically.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: A rather dark twist on this trope. In Rising Steel as [Winged Knight] Renly, his Assault Skill is Avalanche, a powerful overhead swing, that applies a Physical Resistance debuff to a targeted unit, which harkens back to how he accidentally killed his Best Friend, where his overhead swing broke his friend's sword and slashed him.
• Hair Color Dissonance: He has green hair, which is pretty rare even in the Underworld.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: Due to his cowardice and Quinella labeling him as a failure, Renly doesn't have a very high opinion of himself, even trying to make Heroic Sacrifice to take out some American Players before Sinon logs in as Solus and wipes them all out before he can.
  • If selected as the home screen character in Rising Steel, he'll sometimes make some self-deprecating comments about himself.
• Humble Hero: While he largely expresses this through Heroic Self-Deprecation, Renly is ultimately a humble individual. When Tiese and Ronye congratulate him on defeating Emperor Southacroith, he states that Kirito and Asuna helped and that all he did was deal the final blow.
• Informed Ability: Renly is among the few known Knights to have joined the order via the Four Empires Unity Tournament, meaning that he's an extremely powerful swordsman. However, we never actually see his skill with a sword since he's spends the entire war using the Twin-Edged Wings. In the anime however, we do see a brief flashback of the tragic final duel between him and his Best Friend, which displays some of his skill.
• Lovable Coward: When we're first introduced to Renly, he's very frightened by the prospect of fighting and even abandons his regiment to cower in the supply tents as a result. That being said, he has very sympathetic motives for this, having accidentally killed his Best Friend before becoming an Integrity Knight, instilling in him a fear of killing and dying.
• My Greatest Failure: Haunted over the Accidental Murder of his best friend, leading him to be a coward on the battlefield.
• Nice Guy: After Taking a Level in Badass, Renly shows himself to be rather kind and humble, and every bit a noble Knight.
  • In "Uprising of the Four Empires - Part 2", he offers to help a commoner repairman carry some wood for the Cathedral repairs.
  • When Tiese shows hesitance in accepting his marriage proposal due to not being completely over Eugeo, he's incredibly understanding and allows her time to consider it.
• Older Than They Look: Renly is quite possibly the youngest looking Integrity Knight outside of Linel and Fizel, as his life was also halted at an early age. This would go on to cause some issues in his marriage with Tiese as she aged and began to appear physically older, prompting her to have her life frozen and later enter Deep Freeze to prevent him from outliving her.
• Precision-Guided Boomerang: As shown when he fought Kosogi's Goblin horde, he can throw his Twin-Edged Wings to slash his enemies in a number of crazy maneuvers, and they'll return to his hands each time.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gives a progressive one to Emperor Southacroith during "Uprising in the Four Empires - Part 2", starting based on his claim that the Integrity Knights lack honor despite the fact he ransacked one of his own villages, and getting further incensed in response to his cruel retorts and claims.
  "Honor, my foot! Was sacking your own people's village an act of honor?! Was stealing food from your unarmed citizens honorable for a knight... no, for an emperor?! [...] You call them... "property"?! Your citizens are humans, just like you! It's immoral to treat them like property! [...] Tolgash Southacroith, prepare yourself! An emperor who doesn't care for his people? The world is better off without you! All humans are created equal!"
• Reluctant Warrior: Due to his Dark and Troubled Past, Renly is frightened to fight and kill other people and risk being killed himself. Even after conquering his fears and becoming willing to fight, he still takes no pride in having to kill his opponents, even feeling guilty over killing the Emperor Southacroith, hoping his death was at least painless.
• Replacement Goldfish: He becomes one to Tiese for Eugeo, given just how similar the boys are. However it's not Renly, but Tiese who's bothered by this, feeling guilty that it could be the only reason she likes him.
• Second Love: Is this for Tiese in Moon Cradle, the two of them being in an Implied relationship that's serious enough for him to propose to her. Deconstructed in that Tiese's feelings for him are partially because of his resemblances to Eugeo, which she recognizes and feels incredibly guilty over making her reluctant to accept his proposal.
• Ship Tease: With Tiese. Over the course of the war, Renly finds himself growing closer to her and Ronye after he saves them and Kirito from Goblins, with him defending Tiese from foreign players and the two are holding hands when Kirito turns the sky to night during his fight with Gabriel. They seem to have to gotten a Relationship Upgrade between then and Moon Cradle, to the point that Ronye is hardly surprised that Renly proposed to Tiese, with more of her concern being on Tiese's guilt over thinking Renly's a Replacement Goldfish for Eugeo.
  • Despite Eugeo's survival and Tiese' apparently becoming a member of the Unwanted Harem, Renly still gets some with her in Alicization Lycoris. During an event after he, Tiese and Kirito defeat a monster, he lets slip that he thought Tiese was beautiful during the fight, something that leaves the both of them blushing and prompting Kirito to tease him.
• Spanner in the Works: Kosogi's plan to sneak past the Human Army and destroy their supply lines probably would have worked if Renly didn't flee back there to hide only to suddenly gain the will to fight after being inspired by Kirito's strength.
• Support Party Member: His first unit in Rising Steel, [Winged Knight] Renly, has a below average ATK stat compared to other, more offensive Wind units, but compensates with his Skills; a Break and Incarnate Skill that inflicts Continuous Damage to compliment units who deal extra damage to units afflicted with it, such as [Wind of the Ice Field] Eugeo, an Assault Skill that applies 20% defence debuff, and an ATK buff skill that increases the party's ATK by 15%, and allows him to have his turn next sooner to either use aforementioned skills, or apply the buff again to give everyone 30% extra attack. His next playable unit, [For Your Ears Only] Renly, while more offensively oriented with a higher ATK stat and his Charge and Incarnate Attacks encouraging players to buff his ATK further, retains elements of this, with his Assault Skill buffing him and his allies ATK and Crit Damage by 10%, going up to 30%, while his Break Skill adds 1 to the recollection field.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: To Eugeo, being a young sword prodigy who aimed to enter the Unification Tournament with his friend, mirroring the journey of Kirito and Eugeo, but with the opposite scenario happening since Renly as the Eugeo figure ended up living while his friend as the Kirito figure ended up dying. This seems to be driven home when he and Tiese grow a mutual interest in each other, but she feels guilty because part of the reason for her feelings for him is that he reminds her of Eugeo.
• Spell My Name With An S: Depending on translations his name is either spelled as Renly or Renri.
• These Hands Have Killed: The Accidental Murder of his best friend haunts Renly to this very day and has left him a nervous wreck. Even after gaining the will to fight, he's not proud of any of the killing he does, not even Emperor Southacroith, expressing regret over it and clarifying to Ronye and Tiese that his happiness isn't from killing him, but from being able to help the people he abused with his authority.
• Those Two Guys: Likely due to their Foil status, Rising Steel depicts him as this with Scheta. They first appeared as playable in the same banner, and the both of them were charged were taking down Emperor Southacroith.
• Took a Level in Badass: He goes from cowering in front of real combat to taking out the smartest goblin, and later uses his blades to deadly effect by cutting the Dark Territory's rope bridges.
  • The fact that he did this is a plot point of "Uprising in the Four Empires - Part 2", where he's the one to take out Emperor Southacroith with his Twin-Edged Wings.
• The Unfought: He was frozen by Chudelkin for underperforming as a knight and was unfrozen to be sent to battle against Kirito and Eugeo, but by then, Quinella was already dead.
• What the Hell, Hero?: He expresses bewilderment that Fanatio would offer Sylvie a potential Revenge by Proxy in front of a blissfully ignorant Berche, questioning why she did such a thing after Slyvie runs off.
• You Are a Credit to Your Race: Actually rather sympathetic Example. Since he spent the last few hours fighting American Players who prove to be, or at least act like, sadistic and gleeful about all the killing they do, he's understandably worried that most real worlders are like that and that Asuna is just an exception. Thankfully when Asuna's friends from the real world come to help and prove to be just as kind and noble, these worries start to alleviate.
• You Are in Command Now: With Alice captured by Vecta, Bercouli pursuing them, and Scheta holding the line with Pugilists, Renly ends up the highest ranked Integrity Knight in the Decoy Force, and is thus in charge of them alongside Asuna.

Linel and Fizel

Linel and Fizel (Synthesis Twenty-Eight and Twenty-Nine)

Linel Voiced by: Hina Kino (Japanese), Brianna Knickerbocker (English)

Fizel Voiced by: Konomi Kohara (Japanese), Michelle Marie (English)

Fizel

Linel

Two young girls who claim to be trainees, but are actually designated as Integrity Knights.

---

• A-Cup Angst: In a Rising Steel skit during the "Overflowing Eternal Affection" Scout, Linel bemoans her childlike figure and wishes to have a body like Quinella, to the chagrin of Eydis who was bathing with them and assumed they were envious of her.
• Adaptational Jerkass: Whereas in the Light Novels where they respectfully ask Scheta if they can go back to the Supply Tents to check on Kirito, the anime depicts them doing it of their own volition without permission.
• A Day in the Limelight: Thus far in Unleash Blading, there have been two events with Linel and Fizel as the main focus.
  • "Wanting to know True Strength" details how they were recruited to take part in the War of Underworld, with them displaying hesitance due to their lack of experience before eventually deciding to take part, and even delves into how they became Integrity Knights.
  • "Shadow of an Integrity Knight", the fourth part of the Dark Emperor Sage, details how their investigation of the Western Imperial Guard and their collaboration with the merchants there reveals Bercouli's revival as a mindless minion by Carver, who attacks them to help a the head of the Western Imperial Guards escape.
• Affectionate Nickname: They call each other "Nel" and "Zel."
  • They also seem to give these to other Knights, such as calling Renly "Renlicchi".
• Ambition Is Evil: Their desire to receive recognition led them to stoop to lows of poisoning Kirito and Eugeo so they could kill them in front of the other Integrity Knights. Such dishonorable behavior is not seen in other Integrity Knights.
• Annoying Younger Siblings: The general impression they give off, being mischievous, at times disrespectful, and snarky. This appears to be how Eydis sees them, displaying annoyance at their presence yet begrudgingly indulging them and admitting that they do have their cute moments.
• Asshole Victim: They seem to have seen the original Twenty-Eigth and Twenty-Ninth Integrity Knights, who they killed to take their position, as this, with Fizel describing them as "Cocky." How accurate this is is up to interpretation considering their initial bias against Integrity Knights.
• Back from the Dead: Due to taking part in Quinella's twisted resurrection experiment, the two of them had killed each other multiple times before being revived. They had both devised ways to kill each other as quickly and painlessly as possible, while maximizing the chance of resurrection. They ended up being the only survivors of the experiment and were made Integrity Knights for their trouble.
• Big Damn Heroes: They save Ronye and Tiese from Kosogi's goblin horde.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: They pretended to be innocent sisters-in-training of the Axion Church so that they could get close enough to Eugeo and Kirito to stab them with poisoned daggers. Kirito sees right through the act and manages to counter the poison.
• Blood Knight: Likely in part due to their past and eagerness to be treated like real Integrity Knights, the both of them are very eager to fight the forces of the Dark Territory.
  • In Rising Steel during the Peace Talks between the Human Empire and Dark Territory, they find it all very surreal since they were previously fighting, with Linel even wondering why they aren't dismembering each other.
  • They're also annoyed when, during the Uprising of the Four Empires, Kirito has them stay at the Cathedral since their geographical knowledge of it would help in repelling the invading forces.
• Boyish Short Hair: In contrast to Linel's long braided hair, Fizel has a shorter style.
  • In Rising Steel as the homescreen character, she'll mention she keeps it this way since it's easier to manage, but admits that she's somewhat envious of Linel's longer hair.
• Bratty Half-Pint: In their introduction they are shown to be very disrespectful towards their superior Integrity Knights and in general are known to be very mischievous.
• Casual Danger Dialogue: In "Shadow of an Integrity Knight", they stop to discuss how fancy the room they're in is and possibly getting some time off in the middle of arresting some Western Imperial Guards.
• Child Soldiers: Although they are only considered Apprentice Integrity Knights due to their young age and lack of experience, they also partake in the battle against the Dark Territory and prove themselves surprisingly effective with their small size and knowledge of vital areas. Rising Steel reveals they were hesitant to partake at first due to their inexperience but eventually decided to participate anyway.
• Combat Pragmatist: Unlike the other Integrity Knights, who instead opted to challenge them to duels that they have a chance on winning, Linel and Fizel instead used their young appearance to put Kirito and Eugeo into a false sense of security before poisoning them with their daggers. This plan would have worked if their resentment of the Knights didn't prompt them to drag the two to Fanatio, so they could kill them in front of her so that she can't deny them the credit for taking down the rebels, instead of just killing them immediately.
• Cute and Psycho: Adorable looking? Yes. Have a Dark and Troubled Past that contributed to turning them into a pair of ruthless assassins that treat killing far more casually than any child should. Yes.
  • When Kirito explains the difficulties in getting the four Emperors to comply with the Nobility reforms, they offer to just assassinate them. They're disappointed when Kirito opts to remain peaceful, calling him a sissy.
• Devious Daggers: The both of them wield daggers made of Ruberyl Steel, which afflicts whoever they cut with a paralysis poison that can render them immobile, and they're not above using their young appearances to mislead their targets.
• Don't Call Me "Sir": In Moon Cradle, Fizel gets annoyed with Ronye calling her "Lady Fizel" when they meet in the Great Baths, saying that Ronye doesn't have to be so formal since she's older than her, while Ronye replies that unlike her, Fizel is a proper Knight at that point. Fizel gripes how it feels like they've had the same conversation hundreds of times.
• Dragon Rider: Being promoted to official Integrity Knights, the both of them have gotten specially made armor to fit their child-like frames and their own riding dragons. Fizel has named hers Himawari while Linel's is called Hinageshi.
• Easily Forgiven: Kirito treats them more like misbehaving children than enemy combatants and calls them "knuckleheads" after the fact in a way that sounds endearing.
  • The other Knights, despite largely being condescending to them due to their age, also don't seem too bothered by the fact that they killed the original Twenty-Eight and Twenty-Nine.
• Energetic and Soft-Spoken Duo: Fizel comes off as more Tomboyish and excitable, while Linel appears more soft-spoken and calm.
• Fragile Speedster: Due to having had their age halted while they were still young instead of when their maximum life reached their peaks, like other Knight, the two of them have quite possibly the lowest maximum life of any Integrity Knight. However, they make up for this with their small sizes and use of daggers as weapons allowing them to quickly dart around the battlefield, with their knowledge of the vital areas of humanoid creatures allowing them to quickly kill their opponents.
• Fille Fatale: They take advantage of their young-looking appearances to draw Kirito and Eugeo into a false sense of security so they can poison them and bring them Fanatio. Fortunately, Kirito is able to see through their trick unlike Eugeo.
• Hero of Another Story: During "Mood Cradle: Epilogue", the both of them miss Ronye and Tiese's inauguration ceremony and the following banquet due to dealing with what's Implied to be a small uprising in the Western Empire by the Imperial Guard. Asuna says that she'll make them something for when they get back.
• Hidden Depths: Alicization Lycoris shows that, for all their sadistic behaviour, they're actually pretty traumatized for their past as a guinea pigs for Quinella, especially Linel. Linel's Character Quest shows that she's actually pretty mature and had some shades of Cool Big Sister for Fizel and the other kids she befriended. her sadistic tendencies is actually a coping mechanism for the both of them and she knew how damaging said tendencies are, yet she cannot stop herself and is shown to consider herself a murderer who doesn't deserve to live and constantly suffers from nightmares from every people she murdered. Kirito is shown to not care about this and gives a word of encouragement for her to not let the past get over her, with him deciding to help her and Fizel get over the trauma due to Kirito understanding how it feels to be a murderer in order to survive despite their different way of coping with the guilt.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Zig-zagged seeing as they were undergoing their Heel–Face Turn at the time, but in their event in Rising Steel, they show reluctance in wanting to take part in the upcoming battle to repel the Dark Territory forces. When Eldrie calls them out on wanting to opt out in spite of their constant demands to be treated as Knights, they are quick to point out that despite officially being Knights, they were largely treated as trainees and were never actually given any formal training outside of studying, meaning that they're realistically not the most ideal people to be leading soldiers and fighting in battles. Fanatio, who was shown treating them as such when they brought Kirito and Eugeo to her, concedes that they have a point and even apologies for her previous behavior towards them.
• Master Poisoner: Their weapons are daggers made from Ruberyl Steel, which secretes an especially potent poison that requires high priority wood just to make the scabbards. Alicization Lycoris also show them, particularly Fizel, to be experts on chemical poisons, being able to make them as well as antivenoms.
• Never Grew Up: While they weren't put through the Synthesis Ritual like the other Knights, Quinella did halt their aging when they became Apprentice Knights as was customary at the time, meaning they haven't aged a day since, as shown when Ronye meets Fizel in the Great Baths in Moon Cradle, and the both of them will likely retain their child-like appearances by the time they reach adulthood unless it's reversed somehow.
• No-Respect Guy: They feel that they're this. Since most of the Knights treat them as Just Kids and not as fellow Knights, they're rather resentful of them and their sense of Honor Before Reason. When they mention this when they're being asked to participate in the war, Fanatio acknowledges that she treated them this way and apologizes.
• Off with His Head!: During their time as test subjects for Quinella's Revival Sacred Art, they concluded that beheading someone is the cleanest and least painful way to kill them, and so they tend to opt towards it.
• One-Man Army:
  • The War of Underworld sees them handily tear through swathes of goblin soldiers on their way to the supply tents.
  • In an Offscreen Moment of Awesome in the "Shadow of an Integrity Knight" event, they fight through an entire group of Western Imperial Guards, the leader of which is baffled by their strength and chooses to flee.
• Pet the Dog:
  • While bathing with Ronye in the Great Baths the day before her and Kirito's departure to Obsidia, Fizel warns the Apprentice Knight to be careful while there due to how their laws have more loopholes to them than the Taboo Index, and afterwards apologizes for potentially scaring her and offers to have a small party between them, Tiese and Linel when she gets back.
  • Upon hearing that the Elavator Operator, later dubbed Airy, will need a new Calling with the lift becoming automated, they pay her a visit to help her brainstorm ideas.
  • In "Shadow of an Integrity Knight", they're reluctant to tell Fanatio about Bercouli's possible revival as an enemy knight, and wanted to tell Kirito about it in hopes that he'd break it to her better.
• Pragmatic Villainy: If acting as the homescreen character in Rising Steel, Linel will state that the reason she and Fizel use paralysis poison instead of lethal poison is that it made it impossible to revive victims in Quinella's resurrection experiments.
• Psycho Knife Nut: A pair of young dagger users who, due to a Dark and Troubled Past, are very much Cute and Psycho.
• Saying Too Much: They mention that all the other nuns and non-Integrity Knights had been ordered to stay in their rooms. Kirito realizes that they aren't out in the hallway because they disobeyed the order, but because it doesn't apply to them.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Invoked. When Kirito becomes head of the Human Unification Council, they're quick to ask him to make them Integrity Knights.
• Stronger Than They Look: In the Anime. When they arrive at Fiftieth Floor where Fanatio is waiting, they're able to chuck both Kirito and Eugeo, two 20 year old men with Divine Objects, inside with relative ease.
• These Hands Have Killed: Despite their usual behavior, Alicization Lycoris shows that they are haunted by their pasts as test subjects and feel guilty for killing their friends from the experiment. Fizel does a better job of hiding it, at most finding her being poisoned and being unable to cure it on her as a Karmic Death (that's fortunately Averted), but Linel has a harder time hiding it, as she Hates Being Touched and sneak-attacked, to which she reflexly pulls out her dagger, and she'll occasionally remember them when she either sees other children or literally gets blood on her hands.
• Those Two Girls: Thus far, they are always seen together.
• Token Evil Teammate: The only Integrity Knights who display sadistic tendencies and attempt to use deception. However, this is played with as their Hidden Depths reveal this to be a coping mechanism for the horrific trauma Quinella put them through and that deep down they really are a pair of good kids.
• Token Mini-Moe: By far the youngest Integrity Knights at the meager age of 10.
• Took a Level in Kindness: When they're introduced, they're dismissive towards even the higher-ranking Integrity Knights and sees honor as foolish. After losing to Kirito and witnessing his fight against Fanatio, they become more respectful towards the other knights. Though they still remain cheeky and mischievous.
• Toxic Friend Influence: On the receiving end, albeit Played for Laughs. When they arrive late to a Human Unification Council and say they "made it", they say that it's the phrase Kirito often uses when he does the same.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Once their true natures are revealed, Fizel and Linel are able to talk very casually and cheerfully about killing, while holding sweet smiles on their faces. This whole demonstration thoroughly disturbs Eugeo.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: While they generally don't show it in favour of acting their age, albeit with a Cute and Psycho twist, Linel and Fizel are still capable warriors, are well-versed in making poisons and antidotes, and possess a surprising amount of tactical acumen. Moon Cradle also shows Fizel, and possibly Linel, to be rather dedicated "Senpai" to Ronye and Tiese, giving the former advice to be careful in Obsidia due to the Law of Power being more exploitable, and she offers for her and Linel to have small celebration with both girls once their respective missions are done.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: While both are very Creepy Children due to how casually they treat death and how the reason they're Integrity Knights in the first place is because they killed the people who were originally their numbers, it's hard to blame them seeing as Quinella used them as guinea pigs in a Revival Sacred Art experiment where they were forced to kill each other daily and witnessed their fellow test subjects either suffer from gruesome Body Horror or ended up literally becoming different people when revived. Ronye just wants to give to give them both a hug after hearing of their circumstances, but opts out of it due to their seniority over her as Knights and because of their fearsome reputation.

Alice

See this page.

Eldrie

Eldrie (Synthesis Thirty-One)

Voiced by: Takeaki Masuyama (Japanese), Ezra Weisz (English), Cuautémoc Miranda (Latin American Spanish)

The newest Integrity Knight as of Kirito and Eugeo's imprisonment in Centoria Cathedral, as well as Alice's disciple.

---

• Abhorrent Admirer: Alice is Implied to see him as one to a degree. While Rising Steel shows that she often tries defending him when Eydis disparages him, she's not above getting annoyed with him, as shown in War of Underworld where, after he happens upon her cabin and visits, he responds to his praise of her beauty by stating that she wished his personality changed slightly while she was gone, even stating that his way of speaking reminded her of Chudelkin. Though granted, she was probably aggravated by the possibility that the Church found her and would come for Kirito.
  • In "Memories of Bygone Days: Alice", Alice seems more cautious than pleased about him inviting her to enjoy some wine with him.
• Adapted Out: Some inner dialogue concerning the more platonic nature of his Undying Loyalty to Alice is cut from the anime, making his devotion to her seem like the result of a genuine, romantic affection.
• The Ace: He was the winner of the Unity Tournament, having bested Sortiliena in combat.
• A Day in the Limelight: He has two events dedicated to him in Rising Steel, both about his time before and after becoming an Integrity Knight.
• Animal Motif: Minor one in regards to his Frostscale Whip, which was created from a serpent residing in a lake and can turn into said serpent under Memory Release.
• The Apprentice: He chose Alice to be his mentor, despite the fact she was somewhat of a newcomer. He explains that it was because he was amazed by her mastery of the Sacred Arts and wanted to learn everything he could from her. It was also motivated by a desire to protect her, something he kept to himself.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: He wanted to become an Integrity Knight to help his ill mother, believing that the monsters in the Dark Territoy are responsible. Too bad he wasn't aware of the Laser-Guided Amnesia part of the deal.
• By-the-Book Cop: The only Integrity Knight who still remains bitter towards Kirito and sees him as nothing but a criminal who committed treason. Even when his superiors like Fanatio and Alice have all experienced Heel Realizations thanks to Kirito and had their eyes opened to the truth, Eldrie remains stubborn and unforgiving towards the boy who defeated the Pontifex. To be fair though, he's not the only one to have felt this way.
• Character Exaggeration: Originally, while certainly dedicated to Alice, it's stated that his dedication was entirely platonic, being more about his respect towards her as his mentor and out of a sense of chivalry. Subsequent adaptations tend to exaggerate this dedication, to the point that he comes off more as a jealous admirer and even drops some hints that he might be into her.
• Dragon Rider: His dragon is named Takiguri, who's actually Amayori's brother. After Eldrie's death, he acts as Alice's second dragon alongside his sibling.
• Entitled to Have You: After the below-mentioned Humiliation Conga, he self-deprecatingly begins to think that this was his attitude towards Alice.
• Fire-Forged Friendship: The best way to describe his initial relationship with Alice. Eldrie originally disliked his soon-to-be mentor due to a combination of her Stoic demeanor making her appear arrogant and his pride as a Noble from before his Synthesis making him feel insulted from the fact that a young woman was considered a more powerful and experienced Knight than him and that she was Bercouli's personal student. This changed however when he happened upon her weeping at a grave she made for the mother of Amayori and Takiguri, their respective dragons. The sight invoked a great deal of sympathy in him due to remembering an instance when his mother cried and he began to see Alice as a young woman breaking under the pressures of Knighthood. As a result, he seeked to protect her, becoming her Apprentice under the realization that she was the more skilled Knight and figured learning everything he could from her was the next best thing.
• Flower Motif: Not as prominent as Eugeo, but Eldrie also has some association with roses. He's dubbed "The Rose Garden Knight" in Rising Steel, and he duels Kirito and Eugeo in the Cathedral's Rose Garden, where he's Implied to spend most of his time.
• Green-Eyed Monster:
  • Part of the reason he initially disliked Alice was his pride as a noble, which carried over from before his Synthesis, causing him to be angry at the notion that a young woman was considered his better and senior. He does grow out of this however.
  • Along with the above-mentioned By-the-Book Cop tendencies, this is why he dislikes Kirito. While Eldrie spent a good deal of time trying to break through Alice's stoic demeanor, he's incensed by the fact that he was seemingly able to do it overnight.
• Half the Man He Used to Be: His Heroic Sacrifice caused the deathworms to dissolve half of his body, leaving only his upper torso left.
• Heroic BSoD: Suffers one after he's outsmarted by Goblins and his mess is cleaned up by Renly, who was widely regarded as a failure of a Knight before he suddenly Took a Level in Badass. This incident made him feel unworthy to be Alice's Apprentice
• Heroic Sacrifice: When Dee Eye Ell summons a horde of unstoppable deathworms after Alice's squad, Eldrie draws their aggro to ensure he's the only one to be killed by the worms.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: After he's outsmarted by Kosogi and his mess is cleaned up by Renly, Eldrie enters a Heroic BSoD where he calls himself unworthy of being Alice's pupil and even claims he should have died in the initial battle.
• Heroic Willpower: During his Heroic Sacrifice, he's able to keep remain alive to draw the Death Worms attention despite his life hitting 0, even going into the negatives, through sheer determination and a desire to save his mentor, along with some Implied help from Eugeo.
• Humiliation Conga: Suffers one of these during the War of Underworld. He tries and fails to convince Alice to not let herself get weighed down by Kirito, who she insists on protecting from the other Knights' desire to execute him, gets outsmarted by the Goblins, leading to massive injuries and casualties in his regiment, and then his mess is cleaned up by Renly, who was widely seen as a failure of a Knight at the time. This does a major blow to his self-esteem and arguably prompts his Heroic Sacrifice.
• Irony: After besting someone who wielded a whip in the Four Empires Unity Tournament and being turned into an Integrity Knight, he ends up being granted a Divine Object that takes the form of the whip, which the person he beat probably could have gotten more mileage out of.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: He desired to win over Alice's heart, but he eventually made peace with the fact that many others needed Alice and it was selfish of him to have her all to himself.
• Informed Ability: Eldrie is among the few known Knights to have joined the order via the Four Empires Unity Tournament, meaning that he's an extremely powerful swordsman. However, we never actually see his skill with a sword since he exclusively uses his Frostscale Whip in his fight with Kirito and Eugeo in response to them using the chains binding their wrists while the few times he's implied to use his sword during the war are entirely off-screen. This is even further enforced in Rising Steel, where both his physical attack skills are just him using the Frostscale Whip, with not a Sword Skill in sight.
• Jerkass Has a Point: When Alice arrives to the Human Army camp with an Angst Coma Kirito in tow and states that she will fight with him on her back if she has to, Eldrie immediately disparages the idea by stating that doing such a thing will affect her combat ability, and she can't do such a thing if she's going to lead troops. Alice knows he's right, but doesn't want to admit it.
• Momma's Boy: Eldrie was particularly close to his mother before becoming an Integrity Knight, to the point that she was the memory that Quinella sealed off to Synthesize him. Even his last words are him telling his mother, actually Alice, not to cry. In comparison, he doesn't seem close to his father.
• Murder Is the Best Solution: When he happens upon Alice in Rulid and she refuses to come back to the Church, he immediately assumes it's because of her caring for Kirito and seems ready to cut him down to "severe the root of her uncertainty". Alice is quick to stop him with just a simple Death Glare.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: As noted by Alice when he was her Apprentice, Eldrie practically worshipped her and never argued with anything she said. This makes his forwardness in convincing her to not be weighed down by Kirito, to the point of trying to argue with Bercouli on the subject, all the more surprising to her, and something she suspects is the result of his encounter with Kirito and Eugeo.
• Our Hydras Are Different: His Divine Object, the Frost Scale Whip, was once a giant two-headed sea serpent that lived in a lake.
• Platonic Life-Partners: Eldrie has an Undying Loyalty to Alice and it could be argued that he was one of the few actual friends Alice had among the Knights, with them spending most of their free time together eating meals and talking. However, the Light Novel's narration explicitly states that his feelings for her is not a romantic love like what Dakira felt for Fanatio, being more akin to a desire to serve and protect her. Played With in the anime where the narration explaining this is cut out, making his feelings appear more romantic in nature.
• Snake Whip: He was granted the Frost Scale Whip, a Divine Object made from a large two-headed snake. Eldrie can extend its length, split the whip itself into eight sections and, with Release Recollection, can turn into an actual snake that will strike foes automatically.
• Stalker without a Crush: Rising Steel shows that his dedication to Alice can make him come off as this to a degree. Though considering his characterization in the game, it could very well be the other kind.
  • Subverted in the beginning of War of Underworld. While Alice is staying in Rulid and hiding from the Church with Kirito, she happens to receive a visit from Eldrie. While he would like to say that he was brought there by "the bond between their souls", he reassures her that it was a coincidence; he was sent to check if the Dark Territory forces were trying to dig through the caves through the End Mountains, which the order collapsed upon hearing reports of the goblins and orcs being active.
  • In "Hometown Waterfront", he appears very suddenly during Eydis and Alice's trip to the Dragons' homelands during their trip to help Amayori recover from a wound she received in battle, as well as comfort her over her mother's death. Eydis outright accuses him of being one, which he denies by stating that he was there under Fanatio's orders.
• Took a Level in Kindness: While he wasn't nearly as cruel, being genuinely dedicated to Knighthood and protecting the Human Empire, Eldrie originally possessed the general haughtiness you'd find in most Nobles, having an instant disliking for Alice out of envy for her being considered his superior despite her young age and gender, and merely viewing the Knight's dragons, including his own mount Takiguri, as simply mindless beasts there to serve them. However, after discovering Alice breaking her Stoic facade and weeping over the death of Amayori and Takiguri's mother, causing him to remember an instant when he saw his mother cry, his perspective of her did a complete 180, instilling in him a desire to protect that prompted him to suck up his Pride and become The Apprentice to her, recognizing that she truly was his superior. He's also hinted to get along well with Takiguri in the present, which is shown in "Hometown Waterfront", when he notes that part of the reason he came to check on Eydis and Alice is that he realized that Takiguri was concerned for Amayori. And when he's briefly brought Back from the Dead for Eydis' Two Year Anniversary party, he inquires if he's doing well after his death.
• Undying Loyalty: To Alice. Even after her betrayal of the Pontifex, aiding the traitors, and degrading of her abilities, he still refers to her as Alice-sama and holds her in the highest respect.
• Warm-Up Boss: He's the first Integrity Knight Kirito and Eugeo face. While not necessarily a pushover, they're able to get the upper hand and escape before even getting their swords back.
• Upper-Class Twit: Averted. He's the son of the Norlangarth North Empire's greatest military Commander and a first class noble, the highest noble class, and aside from some occasional haughtiness like his initial feelings towards Alice, he's truly dedicated to Knighthood and is fairly friendly if you're in his good graces.
• Worthy Opponent: Rising Steel revealed that he saw Sortiliena as this, regarding his fight with her in the tournament as the most challenging despite it being the first round, and believing the succeeding opponents and even those Four Empire Unity Tournament not matching her skill. He also felt that he owed it to her to win the tournament as a result.
• You Remind Me of X: His Undying Loyalty to Alice partially stems from her reminding him of his mother, namely him walking in on her openly weeping for their dragon's mother reminding him of an incident where his mother was crying, instilling in him a desire to protect her. As he lays dying after his Heroic Sacrifice, he sees Alice as his mother and his last words are him telling her not to cry.

Eugeo

See this page

SPOILER CHARACTERS

See this page for Tiese Shtolienen Thirty-two and Ronye Arabel Thirty-three

Other/Unnamed Integrity Knights

Young Integrity Knight

An unnamed Integrity Knight, presumably the 11th, who was presumably Scheta's senior, and was killed by her in a duel.

---

• Adaptational Expansion: To a passing mention in the Light Novel to a minor antagonist in the "The Knight's Recollection" event in Rising Steel.
• Asshole Victim: He was a Jerkass Bully to Scheta for what was Implied to be a whole year, and forces a duel on her against her will, so no tears are shed when he gets himself killed. The only one who seems remotely troubled is Scheta, and that's more because killing him reinforced her fear that she could hurt others.
• The Bully: Rising Steel shows that he was quick to be this to Scheta, using her reluctance to speak as grounds to berate her heavily, muttering insults towards her under his breath, and forcibly picking a fight with her, the last of which really bit him in the ass.
• Dying Declaration of Hate: After he's fatally wounded, he starts calling Scheta "cursed..", but dies before he can finish his sentence.
• Green-Eyed Monster: It's evident that behind all his bluster, he's just envious of Scheta's skill and the special treatment she seems to get from Bercouli and Quinella, which is compounded further when she's granted a Divine Object by Quinella, prompting him to pick a fight with her when Quinella offers him one.
• Hypocrite: He heavily berates Scheta for her perceived rudeness towards Bercouli, but he's just as quick to disrespectfully disagree with Bercouli when he tells him and Fanatio to ease up on her. Eydis is quick to call him out on this.
• The Faceless: In Rising Steel he, like Fanatio and Duesolbert, seems to opt towards wearing his helmet, meaning we never see his face.
• Jerkass: While Fanatio at least has the excuse of being her superior officer and wanting Bercouli to receive proper respect, this guy just comes off as using Scheta's supposed disrespect as an excuse to bully her.
• No Name Given: He's never given a name.
• Stalker without a Crush: He states that he's observing Scheta for her entire first year as a Knight, but it's evident that it's out of spite and envy over any romantic feelings.
• Too Dumb to Live: Seeing as he observed her for a whole year, he must have had some idea of Scheta's power, but not only does he challenge her to a duel, but he does so after she got her hands on a Divine Object. This goes about as well as you'd expect.
• A Tragedy of Impulsiveness: Out of resentment towards her and Quinella offering him his own Divine Object, he's quick to challenge Scheta in duel, leading to his death.
• Unwitting Pawn: After granting Scheta the Black Lily, Quinella promised him his own Divine Object if he could best her in a duel, which was clearly just her way of testing Scheta's capabilities with it.

---

Riding Dragons

General

The mounts of the Integrity Knights, which allow them to traverse the realm, either to the End Mountains to defend against the Dark Territory or any area where one has broken the Taboo Index.

---

• Breath Weapon: As expected of dragons, they are capable of breathing concentrated beams of fire at their enemies. However, it's Cast From Hitpoints so they can't do it continuously without injuring themselves.
• Cast from Hit Points: Their fire breath.
• Undying Loyalty: Invoked. It's stated that all dragons have a Binding Art placed on them to ensure their loyalty to their rider. Moon Cradle also Implies that the Knights raise them while they're still young for added affect, which Ronye and Tiese are in the process of doing.

---

Hoshigami

Hoshigami

Bercouli's dragon.

---

• Heroic Sacrifice: Attacks Vecta to give Bercouli an opening to use the Uragiri, even biting into the Dark God's leg in an attempt to hold him back only to be decapitated.
• Undying Loyalty: To Bercouli. Binding Art notwithstanding, he's never once disobeyed any of Bercouli's orders, and the one time he did was to give him an opening to kill Vecta.
• Together in Death: His master rides him into the afterlife.

---

Kirimai

See this page

Amayori

Amayori

Alice's female riding dragon.

---

• Beast of Battle: During the Goblin Attack on Rulid, Amayori joins the fray under Alice's command by breathing fire on the invading forces.
• Big Eater: After Alice flees to Rulid village with Kirito, she noted that Amayori was eating a lot of fish from the river and was putting on weight.
• Heartbroken Badass: In "Hometown Waterfront", Amayori gets injured in battle and all attempts to heal her prove fruitless. Alice, Eydis and Bercouli speculate it's because of the recent passing of her mother, which is affecting her physically due to the Incarnate system.
• Undying Loyalty: While this applies to all of the dragons, Amayori stands out since she stays with Alice even after the binding art that kept her bound to Alice was dispelled. She even pursues her alongside Bercouli, Hoshigami and Takiguri when she's captured by Vecta, and attempts to attack Subtilizer when he catches up.

---

Takiguri

Takiguri

Eldrie's dragon, and the brother of Amayori.

---

• Undying Loyalty: Like Amayori to Alice, he appears to have this to Eldrie. After his death, he's quick to swear allegiance to Alice alongside Amayori, likely knowing of his old master's dedication to her.

---

SPOILERS

Tsukikage

Ronye's dragon, who she's in the process of raising.

---

• Guile Hero: While not as powerful as more grown up dragons, obviously, Tsukikage proves to be very clever. Upon encountering four coati, wolf-like nocturnal omnivore creatures, she's able to kill all but one of them with a combination of stealth, use of the enviroment, and some good old fire breath.
• Light Is Good: Possesses bright gold fur and red eyes.
• Not Quite Flight: At her age, Tsukikage is incapable of proper flight. At most, she's able to hover briefly and glide.
• Picky Eater: At one point in Moon Cradle, Ronye notices that Tsukikage would sometimes not finish her dinners. Hainig, the stablemaster who often cared for the dragons, note that this usually happens for growing dragons, and that the best cure is to force them to hunt for their own food, prompting Ronye and Tiese to take her and Shimosaki to Lake Norkia to do some fishing.

---

SPOILERS

Shimosaki

Tiese's dragon, who she's in the process of raising. Tsukigage's sister.

---

• Blue Is Heroic: Has a blue coat, not unlike Pina.
• Meaningful Name: The first character in her name stands for "Frost", likely in memory of Eugeo. Though she seems to take this a bit too seriously, since the profile for [Bath After Dusk] Tiese has her fearing that she might dizzy in the Greath Baths because of this.