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inugamirpg
Player Information
Name/Alias: Mer
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antagoniste
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triggerwarned
Timezone: Eastern
HMD: Here!
Already In-game: n/a
Character Information
Name: Seth Nightroad
Fandom: Trinity Blood
Canonpoint: Chapter 33
Gender: Female
Age: appears 17, but is actually 966 years old
Physical Description: Empress Trollface: a still-life
History:
Seth first appears in Chapter 25, disguised as a tea-seller in Andolu, the Terran side of the Methuselah Empire. She bumps into Esther and Ion while she's searching for her pet squirrel, named 'Abel' (which Esther at first thinks is the real Abel Nightroad). After they buy some tea from her (and after Ion is embarrassed by her teasing), they ask her where Mimal's medicine shop is in order to find out how Ion's grandmother, the Duchess of Moldova, was murdered, and she gladly offers to direct them there "for an extra charge."
Noticing them bickering somewhat over Mimal's true nature, Seth asks if she'd perhaps caused some trouble in paradise by flirting with Ion earlier (as she is under the impression that Esther and Ion are dating)---Ion, embarrassed, scolds her. Seth, annoyed by Ion addressing her as "Girl," formally introduces herself to the both of them. Ion makes a comment on how 'Seth' should be a boy's name and if her parents named her that because they wanted a boy, and Seth responds that she doesn't know----she has two older brothers, anyway.
Upon reaching the shop, Ion detects the smell of blood and rushes off with Esther in tow. Upon noticing his unnatural agility, Seth makes a cryptic comment on how he has grown up to be "quite the prince."
In Chapter 26, Seth, still disguised as a tea-seller, reappears after Esther and Ion are ambushed by Auto Jagers, which results in Esther getting wounded very badly. Seth offers to help, but Ion becomes aggravated and tells her to buzz off. Seth notices Esther going into shock due to blood loss, and quickly gets to treating her with rather shocking proficiency. Ion, unnerved by both her sudden change in attitude and how she seems to know something, asks who she is, and Seth says cheerfully that she's only "a pretty girl."
Sometime later, Seth decides to give the recovering Esther and Ion shelter for the time being at her house. Esther asks if Seth was the one who treated her, and Seth confirms this, claiming that she's actually a student at a prestigious medical school---the tea-selling is just a part-time job. Seth also takes note of how Esther was speaking in Latin and Hungarian in her sleep---proof of how she comes from the outside. She teases them about them being in a 'rare' relationship: a noble (Ion) and a Terran (Esther); as it turns out, Ion made up a lie about having fallen in love with Esther at first sight and eloping with her to Andolu to cover up the fact that Esther is from the Vatican. Seth continues teasing, commenting that love between Terrans and Methuselah is forbidden in the Methuselah capital of Byzantium, but that she will keep their secret. In exchange, Seth says that neither Esther nor Ion can say anything about her part-time job, claiming that she'll be expelled if she's found out.
Ion lectures Seth about moonlighting, but Seth changes the subject by asking if either he or Esther are hungry. She sends him out to buy food, which he refuses to initially, until Seth tells him that instead, he can give Esther a sponge bath and change her clothes----effectively sending him running.
Seth and Esther get to talking, but when Esther calls her 'Miss Seth,' Seth insists that she call her simply 'Seth,' as that's what her brothers and friends call her. When Esther asks her how old she is, she claims to be thirteen, which shocks Esther as Seth is studying in medical school for a Ph.D. Seth explains that people who live in the New Human Empire are better off as there are more opportunities and equality as opposed to the human realm, where everything is decided by money or status. She adds that the reason for this is so Methuselah and Terrans can live in harmony.
When Esther counters that even though it sounds nice, the Terrans will still always be subordinate to the Methuselah, Seth responds that she is wrong in saying that: Methuselah are not the masters of Terrans. Rather, the Empress of the New Human Empire is their master, and because they are her 'wealth,' harming them is not much different from damaging the Empress' property. Meanwhile, the Methuselah nobility serve directly under the Empress, and are regarded as her children. In other words, Seth says, the Empress sees both Terrans and Methuselah as precious, and the Empress is obligated to protect them both. Therefore, the two races are coexisting, Seth adds with a smile. That is equality in the eyes of the Empress, whose existence is absolute.
Esther says that that kind of coexistence is precarious---if the Empress dies, it'll all but fall apart. Seth, impressed by Esther's astuteness, acknowledges this.
Unfortunately, their conversation is cut short but another Auto Jager ambush; Seth is seemingly knocked out. Esther tries to hold them off, but is also knocked out in the process. Upon losing consciousness, however, Esther sees Seth standing before them.
Later, Esther wakes up to find Abel standing over her----and Seth is gone. Baffled, Esther goes to look for her, and notices something sticking out of the closet. When she opens it, there are more Auto Jagers----which quickly dissolve into salt, which alarms Abel. Seth is then shown standing on the rooftop of the building next to her house, looking relatively unharmed.
In Chapter 28, after getting yelled at by Ion for not telling her about Sister Vitez in Asthe's mansion, Esther tries following him, only to spot Seth walking around dressed up as a secret agent. Esther notices that Seth moves very swiftly without getting tired, and winds up losing her. However, when she finds herself standing in front of the Fortuna family grave, she is quickly accosted by Seth herself, who snuck up on her from behind. Esther freaks out, and Seth reveals that in reality, she's a secret agent for a noble---that the tea-seller and medical student story was just a cover-up so that she could get close to both Esther and Ion. Her reason for doing so is because she's investigating a group of 'hardliners.' When Esther is about to ask Seth why she's at the Fortuna family grave, they suddenly spot Auto Jagers and sneak into the tomb in order to avoid them.
Inside the tomb, they discover a trove of dynamite and gas bombs littered about. Seth says that this is the same method the assassins used to set fire to the Duchess of Moldova's mansion, and that it's all part of a plot to blow up both the tomb and the Empress. She directs Esther to warn Asthe, and they are ambushed once again, this time by Suleyman and more Auto Jagers. Telling Esther to run, Seth holds the Jagers off with a pair of twin daggers.
Seth is then confronted by Suleyman, who is impressed by her fighting ability. He asks if she, too, is a Methuselah, and Seth responds that she is not. Suleyman quickly attacks her with what she notices is the 'Heirloom'----the Ring of Solomon, which has the ability to freeze anything in its path. In trying to avoid Suleyman's attacks, Seth is cornered on a cliff, at which point Suleyman blasts her off it, revealing himself to be part of the plot to kill the Empress.
In Chapter 29, Seth is seen at the end, standing up out of the water despite having been blasted off the cliff by the Auto Jagers---again, she seems relatively unharmed.
In Chapter 30, it appears that the plot to kill the Empress has succeeded.
At the beginning of Chapter 32, there is a brief flashback of a young Suleyman traveling across the desert on horseback. His hat is blown off by the wind, only to be caught by Seth, who's running after him dressed up as a flower-seller. Once she catches up, she smiles and asks if he would like to buy some flowers.
In the present day, Asthe and Ion expose Suleyman as a traitor to the rest of the congregation at the Duchess of Moldova's funeral. The latter is about to retaliate, but is interrupted by the Empress, who tells him to stop. Suleyman is shocked to see her alive, and she responds that she was startled by him almost killing her near the Fortuna family tomb. Suleyman is confused, and the Empress clears things up by revealing the other 'Empress' to be none other than the Duchess of Moldova----who was acting as the real Empress' double and was actually alive the entire time.
The real Empress reveals that she had foresaw the conspiracy to assassinate her, and she had been using Ion as bait to draw out the extremists; however, she also expresses her disappointment and sadness at Suleyman's involvement, as he had been the most loyal out of her subjects. Suleyman once again refutes the accusations, asking the Empress why she is taking Ion's side. The Empress insists that he had tried to kill her near the tomb, and reveals herself to be none other than Seth.
Everyone is shocked, but Suleyman only gets angry, accusing Seth of having no hopes for the Methuselah; that she trusts no one. He is about to use the Ring of Solomon on her again, but is fatally shot by Asthe before the attack can connect. However, it turns out he purposefully missed Seth, as she is unharmed. As he is dying, Seth kneels by his side, and he asks her where she is leading the Methuselah, who she is, and who the Methuselah are. Seth admits that she herself does not know the answer to those questions, but that she would be happier if she did.
Once the little bit of tragedy has passed, Seth commends everyone, especially Ion and Esther, for their hard work. A flustered Esther asks if she should refer to her as 'Your Majesty,' but Seth insists that Esther is her friend, and that friends should call her simply 'Seth.' Seth then asks her where Abel is, and when Esther tells her that he went off to pursue Dietrich, who was controlling Radu's body, Seth realizes that he's part of the Rosenkreuz Order, a clandestine organization that seeks to create an all-out war between vampires and humans. She immediately becomes angry.
In Chapter 33, Seth arrives just in time to rescue Abel, whose Crusnik powers suddenly shut down on him in the middle of his fight with Dietrich. Dietrich and Seth immediately recognize each other, and when Seth provokes him and essentially tells him to piss off, Dietrich lashes out at her using Radu's fire-based powers, only to have them deflected right back at him. As it turns out, Seth is also a Crusnik, and has activated her nanomachines.
Dietrich tries attacking once again, but he's paralyzed for some reason----nevermind that Radu's body is starting to disintegrate. Seth's swords are glowing, and Radu's body continues to deteriorate; Seth reveals this to be her own power: the 'Fire of Sound.' She tells him to run while he can, because she will hunt him down relentlessly, and she will have her revenge no matter what----essentially, he must pay for what he did to everyone. As she's raging at him, Radu's body dissolves into dust.
Afterward, as Esther frets over the exhausted Abel, Seth asks her if she can 'borrow' him. Esther leaves the two to talk, and Abel expresses that he's not surprised that Seth actually is the 'Empress who has ruled for 800 years.' Seth laughs, and comments that Abel is the same as ever, choosing a difficult live for himself. She beckons her pet squirrel over, only to have the animal start hissing at her. She comments that she is being hated once again.
Overcome by emotion, she goes to embrace Abel, calling him 'oniisan.'
Personality:
For the most part, Seth is good-natured, cheerful, and mischievous. You can tell she likes to have fun and socialize with people; she's quite friendly and inviting towards Esther, and she enjoys teasing and provoking Ion, as evidenced by her flirting with him and playfully scolding him for not calling her by her name. Seth gets a kick out of being in disguise, only laughing and hamming it up when Esther gets confused by the fact that one minute, she was a tea-seller, the next a medical student, and the next a secret agent. She also displays quite a bit of amusement when everyone flips out over her actually being the Empress. She almost constantly has a cute little grin on her face, and she likes to make a v-sign whenever she enters the scene.
Seth displays glimpses of an enigmatic side---at times, it seems like she knows more than she lets on, making cryptic statements about Ion and displaying awfully intimate knowledge about the Empress before it's revealed the Empress is her. She also seems to know who the enemy Rosenkreuz Order are, as she recognizes Dietrich.
Even so, Seth is not without her serious side. Despite her playfulness and cheery demeanor, she takes her job as Empress very seriously, sounding determined when she tells Esther that her ultimate goal is to protect and provide for both the Methuselah and Terrans to ensure that they can co-exist happily. But at the same time, she becomes cold and rather intimidating, as shown by Ion's unnerved reaction to her icy calm as they get to treating Esther's wound. As idealistic as her wish sounds, Seth remains realistic, saying that although the peace can never last, she will do everything in her power to preserve it so long as she is alive. Seth is also deeply courageous, standing up to the Auto Jagers, and later Suleyman, with no fear, as she knows she must protect everyone.
Seth's darker side is only shown briefly, but it leaves quite an impression. Her playful smile and attitude become rather condescending and menacing----she pretty much flat out tells Dietrich to cut it the hell out when she confronts him. Even when she's enraged, however, she maintains her dignified, icy, graceful Empress side, but you can tell she's not afraid to choke a bitch when provoked----as Dietrich found out the hard way when she overpowered him with her Crusnik abilities. Her promise of revenge is only testament to her devotion to her subjects and friends, and she seems also to have a frightening pride in her powers, displaying a great confidence as she reduces Radu's body to dust----even a slight amusement and gratification, as she's shown smiling menacingly at him the entire time.
To offset what is probably a considerable darkness in her heart, Seth can be caring, sensitive, and even melancholy. She seems genuinely affected when Suleyman dies, smiling sadly after he utters his last words to her, and seems to liken her pet Abel's sudden distrust of her to Suleyman's own hatred of her. It is heavily implied that perhaps, she may have loved Suleyman as much as he loved her despite his resentment. She seems to love Abel quite a bit as her brother, as she suddenly embraces him and refers to him as 'big brother.'
Abilities:
Seth is a Crusnik---a near-godlike super-vampire created as a weapon of mass destruction, the third one out of four test tube babies to be injected with the Crusnik nanomachines discovered on Mars prior to the series' events and created to lead the Mars Colonization Project, which entailed rebuilding human society on Mars after Earth experienced problems with overpopulation. When activating her Crusnik form, she will typically announce, "Nanomachine Crusnik-03, release of restrictions at ____%, approved." Her Crusnik nanomachines give her the ability to manipulate sound waves, just like her brother Cain, the first Crusnik. This technique, called the "Fire of Sound," can instantly disintegrate her opponents, as shown when she eliminates the Auto Jagers who attack her when she is sheltering a wounded Esther, and when she is able to overpower Dietrich's hold over Radu's body, reducing them all to mere "pillars of salt," as Abel himself states.
In her Crusnik form, Seth materializes two large swords created from her blood. They resemble either tridents or, better yet, tuning forks, as her powers are closely correlated to sound. These swords help to serve as a focus for her powers. Her physical appearance radically changes as well---her hair becomes wild, and her eyes turn blood-red. Her fangs become more prominent, and she grows claws.
And mind you, this is when her nanomachines' restrictions are released at only 40%. It has yet to be seen what she's like at 100%...
Unlike most vampires in lore, though, as a Crusnik, Seth does not predate upon humans for blood. Rather, she predates upon other vampires, as regular vampires, referred to as Methuselah, in her world became what they are due to being infected with a virus known as the Kudlak Bacillus---which was artificially created by the Crusnik themselves as a food source. Another thing that sets her apart from traditional vampires is her lack of apparent fangs and the typical corpselike pallor associated with vampires; she can blend in among humans with no impunity whatsoever.
Additionally, she is naturally agile and acrobatic in combat, and is proficient with a pair of daggers that she wields while under the guise of a spy.
Character Information
First Person Sample:
[Seth decides she'll have a little fun with her swanky new flip phone. While she can only understand snippets of what the other students in her classroom are talking about---something about something tall and entrails...which strikes her as unsettling and suspicious, but there isn't much to go on, so she'll be getting creative about getting the word out to anyone else.
After all, spicing things up never hurt anyone (much), right?
So anyone within the close vicinity will get the following message:]
Ooh, did you hear?
Some tall heartthrob is going around breaking girls' hearts, and they're all disappearing! Weird, huh? Sounds like a murder mystery!
[Let it be said that Seth Nightroad is nothing if not a thrillseeker.]
Third Person Sample:
It's so ironic.
Seth Nightlord was a woman of many faces and identities---flower seller, tea seller, spy, Empress, monster---that it would be a wonder to anyone else how exactly she kept them all disparate from one another. She herself wasn't sure; she couldn't even answer Suleyman's question posed to her upon his dying breaths: who are you?
"I don't know." Seth says to her own reflection in the mirror as she washes her face in the girls' bathroom, having just returned from gym class and doing several laps. She watches the droplets cross her face in various twisting, branching directions, as if they're road lines on a map.
800 years' worth of roads she has crossed, as various people. 800 years' worth of roads she has created in her time as Empress Augusta Vradica. And her current predicament is yet one more road to add to the map---but with one very significant, and slightly frightening, difference.
She is human.
The call of the Crusnik no longer whispers to her; her body is filled with silence, save for the rush of blood through her veins and the beating of her now-mortal heart. Seth's brow furrows as she brushes stray hair away from her face; it is indeed ironic how she has now been reduced to the level of the weak, pitiful beings she once hated---the weak, pitiful, stubborn beings she once tried to annihilate in their entirety to exert the dominance of a newfound race to which she didn't even belong.
Yet she finds herself laughing, half-sadly, half-bitterly. Oh, if only Suleyman---nevermind Abel, or even Cain, when he was still Cain, that is---could see her now. If only any of her beloved Methuselah subjects could see her now, completely vulnerable. Completely fragile. Completely finite.
No longer is she a goddess. She has, just like Abel, fallen down back to Earth. And she wonders---
---How will she go about this? This is...entirely new to her, and yet it is not. Once more, she assumes another identity. But, in turn, she is now something else entirely.
Seth takes a deep breath, and dries her face using a piece of paper towel; her face is now free of all the little roads and shortcuts.
She supposes she should look at it like this: she is a blank slate, and despite having more or less lived her life already, there are still yet more stories to create, even after 800 years.
Seth smiles at her reflection.
"I'm just Seth now, I guess. Seth Nightlord, errant human embarking on yet another journey in a new world I've yet to explore fully." She chuckles. "A pretty girl passing by."
Name/Alias: Mer
Player Journal:
antagonisteContact:
Timezone: Eastern
HMD: Here!
Already In-game: n/a
Character Information
Name: Seth Nightroad
Fandom: Trinity Blood
Canonpoint: Chapter 33
Gender: Female
Age: appears 17, but is actually 966 years old
Physical Description: Empress Trollface: a still-life
History:
Seth first appears in Chapter 25, disguised as a tea-seller in Andolu, the Terran side of the Methuselah Empire. She bumps into Esther and Ion while she's searching for her pet squirrel, named 'Abel' (which Esther at first thinks is the real Abel Nightroad). After they buy some tea from her (and after Ion is embarrassed by her teasing), they ask her where Mimal's medicine shop is in order to find out how Ion's grandmother, the Duchess of Moldova, was murdered, and she gladly offers to direct them there "for an extra charge."
Noticing them bickering somewhat over Mimal's true nature, Seth asks if she'd perhaps caused some trouble in paradise by flirting with Ion earlier (as she is under the impression that Esther and Ion are dating)---Ion, embarrassed, scolds her. Seth, annoyed by Ion addressing her as "Girl," formally introduces herself to the both of them. Ion makes a comment on how 'Seth' should be a boy's name and if her parents named her that because they wanted a boy, and Seth responds that she doesn't know----she has two older brothers, anyway.
Upon reaching the shop, Ion detects the smell of blood and rushes off with Esther in tow. Upon noticing his unnatural agility, Seth makes a cryptic comment on how he has grown up to be "quite the prince."
In Chapter 26, Seth, still disguised as a tea-seller, reappears after Esther and Ion are ambushed by Auto Jagers, which results in Esther getting wounded very badly. Seth offers to help, but Ion becomes aggravated and tells her to buzz off. Seth notices Esther going into shock due to blood loss, and quickly gets to treating her with rather shocking proficiency. Ion, unnerved by both her sudden change in attitude and how she seems to know something, asks who she is, and Seth says cheerfully that she's only "a pretty girl."
Sometime later, Seth decides to give the recovering Esther and Ion shelter for the time being at her house. Esther asks if Seth was the one who treated her, and Seth confirms this, claiming that she's actually a student at a prestigious medical school---the tea-selling is just a part-time job. Seth also takes note of how Esther was speaking in Latin and Hungarian in her sleep---proof of how she comes from the outside. She teases them about them being in a 'rare' relationship: a noble (Ion) and a Terran (Esther); as it turns out, Ion made up a lie about having fallen in love with Esther at first sight and eloping with her to Andolu to cover up the fact that Esther is from the Vatican. Seth continues teasing, commenting that love between Terrans and Methuselah is forbidden in the Methuselah capital of Byzantium, but that she will keep their secret. In exchange, Seth says that neither Esther nor Ion can say anything about her part-time job, claiming that she'll be expelled if she's found out.
Ion lectures Seth about moonlighting, but Seth changes the subject by asking if either he or Esther are hungry. She sends him out to buy food, which he refuses to initially, until Seth tells him that instead, he can give Esther a sponge bath and change her clothes----effectively sending him running.
Seth and Esther get to talking, but when Esther calls her 'Miss Seth,' Seth insists that she call her simply 'Seth,' as that's what her brothers and friends call her. When Esther asks her how old she is, she claims to be thirteen, which shocks Esther as Seth is studying in medical school for a Ph.D. Seth explains that people who live in the New Human Empire are better off as there are more opportunities and equality as opposed to the human realm, where everything is decided by money or status. She adds that the reason for this is so Methuselah and Terrans can live in harmony.
When Esther counters that even though it sounds nice, the Terrans will still always be subordinate to the Methuselah, Seth responds that she is wrong in saying that: Methuselah are not the masters of Terrans. Rather, the Empress of the New Human Empire is their master, and because they are her 'wealth,' harming them is not much different from damaging the Empress' property. Meanwhile, the Methuselah nobility serve directly under the Empress, and are regarded as her children. In other words, Seth says, the Empress sees both Terrans and Methuselah as precious, and the Empress is obligated to protect them both. Therefore, the two races are coexisting, Seth adds with a smile. That is equality in the eyes of the Empress, whose existence is absolute.
Esther says that that kind of coexistence is precarious---if the Empress dies, it'll all but fall apart. Seth, impressed by Esther's astuteness, acknowledges this.
Unfortunately, their conversation is cut short but another Auto Jager ambush; Seth is seemingly knocked out. Esther tries to hold them off, but is also knocked out in the process. Upon losing consciousness, however, Esther sees Seth standing before them.
Later, Esther wakes up to find Abel standing over her----and Seth is gone. Baffled, Esther goes to look for her, and notices something sticking out of the closet. When she opens it, there are more Auto Jagers----which quickly dissolve into salt, which alarms Abel. Seth is then shown standing on the rooftop of the building next to her house, looking relatively unharmed.
In Chapter 28, after getting yelled at by Ion for not telling her about Sister Vitez in Asthe's mansion, Esther tries following him, only to spot Seth walking around dressed up as a secret agent. Esther notices that Seth moves very swiftly without getting tired, and winds up losing her. However, when she finds herself standing in front of the Fortuna family grave, she is quickly accosted by Seth herself, who snuck up on her from behind. Esther freaks out, and Seth reveals that in reality, she's a secret agent for a noble---that the tea-seller and medical student story was just a cover-up so that she could get close to both Esther and Ion. Her reason for doing so is because she's investigating a group of 'hardliners.' When Esther is about to ask Seth why she's at the Fortuna family grave, they suddenly spot Auto Jagers and sneak into the tomb in order to avoid them.
Inside the tomb, they discover a trove of dynamite and gas bombs littered about. Seth says that this is the same method the assassins used to set fire to the Duchess of Moldova's mansion, and that it's all part of a plot to blow up both the tomb and the Empress. She directs Esther to warn Asthe, and they are ambushed once again, this time by Suleyman and more Auto Jagers. Telling Esther to run, Seth holds the Jagers off with a pair of twin daggers.
Seth is then confronted by Suleyman, who is impressed by her fighting ability. He asks if she, too, is a Methuselah, and Seth responds that she is not. Suleyman quickly attacks her with what she notices is the 'Heirloom'----the Ring of Solomon, which has the ability to freeze anything in its path. In trying to avoid Suleyman's attacks, Seth is cornered on a cliff, at which point Suleyman blasts her off it, revealing himself to be part of the plot to kill the Empress.
In Chapter 29, Seth is seen at the end, standing up out of the water despite having been blasted off the cliff by the Auto Jagers---again, she seems relatively unharmed.
In Chapter 30, it appears that the plot to kill the Empress has succeeded.
At the beginning of Chapter 32, there is a brief flashback of a young Suleyman traveling across the desert on horseback. His hat is blown off by the wind, only to be caught by Seth, who's running after him dressed up as a flower-seller. Once she catches up, she smiles and asks if he would like to buy some flowers.
In the present day, Asthe and Ion expose Suleyman as a traitor to the rest of the congregation at the Duchess of Moldova's funeral. The latter is about to retaliate, but is interrupted by the Empress, who tells him to stop. Suleyman is shocked to see her alive, and she responds that she was startled by him almost killing her near the Fortuna family tomb. Suleyman is confused, and the Empress clears things up by revealing the other 'Empress' to be none other than the Duchess of Moldova----who was acting as the real Empress' double and was actually alive the entire time.
The real Empress reveals that she had foresaw the conspiracy to assassinate her, and she had been using Ion as bait to draw out the extremists; however, she also expresses her disappointment and sadness at Suleyman's involvement, as he had been the most loyal out of her subjects. Suleyman once again refutes the accusations, asking the Empress why she is taking Ion's side. The Empress insists that he had tried to kill her near the tomb, and reveals herself to be none other than Seth.
Everyone is shocked, but Suleyman only gets angry, accusing Seth of having no hopes for the Methuselah; that she trusts no one. He is about to use the Ring of Solomon on her again, but is fatally shot by Asthe before the attack can connect. However, it turns out he purposefully missed Seth, as she is unharmed. As he is dying, Seth kneels by his side, and he asks her where she is leading the Methuselah, who she is, and who the Methuselah are. Seth admits that she herself does not know the answer to those questions, but that she would be happier if she did.
Once the little bit of tragedy has passed, Seth commends everyone, especially Ion and Esther, for their hard work. A flustered Esther asks if she should refer to her as 'Your Majesty,' but Seth insists that Esther is her friend, and that friends should call her simply 'Seth.' Seth then asks her where Abel is, and when Esther tells her that he went off to pursue Dietrich, who was controlling Radu's body, Seth realizes that he's part of the Rosenkreuz Order, a clandestine organization that seeks to create an all-out war between vampires and humans. She immediately becomes angry.
In Chapter 33, Seth arrives just in time to rescue Abel, whose Crusnik powers suddenly shut down on him in the middle of his fight with Dietrich. Dietrich and Seth immediately recognize each other, and when Seth provokes him and essentially tells him to piss off, Dietrich lashes out at her using Radu's fire-based powers, only to have them deflected right back at him. As it turns out, Seth is also a Crusnik, and has activated her nanomachines.
Dietrich tries attacking once again, but he's paralyzed for some reason----nevermind that Radu's body is starting to disintegrate. Seth's swords are glowing, and Radu's body continues to deteriorate; Seth reveals this to be her own power: the 'Fire of Sound.' She tells him to run while he can, because she will hunt him down relentlessly, and she will have her revenge no matter what----essentially, he must pay for what he did to everyone. As she's raging at him, Radu's body dissolves into dust.
Afterward, as Esther frets over the exhausted Abel, Seth asks her if she can 'borrow' him. Esther leaves the two to talk, and Abel expresses that he's not surprised that Seth actually is the 'Empress who has ruled for 800 years.' Seth laughs, and comments that Abel is the same as ever, choosing a difficult live for himself. She beckons her pet squirrel over, only to have the animal start hissing at her. She comments that she is being hated once again.
Overcome by emotion, she goes to embrace Abel, calling him 'oniisan.'
Personality:
For the most part, Seth is good-natured, cheerful, and mischievous. You can tell she likes to have fun and socialize with people; she's quite friendly and inviting towards Esther, and she enjoys teasing and provoking Ion, as evidenced by her flirting with him and playfully scolding him for not calling her by her name. Seth gets a kick out of being in disguise, only laughing and hamming it up when Esther gets confused by the fact that one minute, she was a tea-seller, the next a medical student, and the next a secret agent. She also displays quite a bit of amusement when everyone flips out over her actually being the Empress. She almost constantly has a cute little grin on her face, and she likes to make a v-sign whenever she enters the scene.
Seth displays glimpses of an enigmatic side---at times, it seems like she knows more than she lets on, making cryptic statements about Ion and displaying awfully intimate knowledge about the Empress before it's revealed the Empress is her. She also seems to know who the enemy Rosenkreuz Order are, as she recognizes Dietrich.
Even so, Seth is not without her serious side. Despite her playfulness and cheery demeanor, she takes her job as Empress very seriously, sounding determined when she tells Esther that her ultimate goal is to protect and provide for both the Methuselah and Terrans to ensure that they can co-exist happily. But at the same time, she becomes cold and rather intimidating, as shown by Ion's unnerved reaction to her icy calm as they get to treating Esther's wound. As idealistic as her wish sounds, Seth remains realistic, saying that although the peace can never last, she will do everything in her power to preserve it so long as she is alive. Seth is also deeply courageous, standing up to the Auto Jagers, and later Suleyman, with no fear, as she knows she must protect everyone.
Seth's darker side is only shown briefly, but it leaves quite an impression. Her playful smile and attitude become rather condescending and menacing----she pretty much flat out tells Dietrich to cut it the hell out when she confronts him. Even when she's enraged, however, she maintains her dignified, icy, graceful Empress side, but you can tell she's not afraid to choke a bitch when provoked----as Dietrich found out the hard way when she overpowered him with her Crusnik abilities. Her promise of revenge is only testament to her devotion to her subjects and friends, and she seems also to have a frightening pride in her powers, displaying a great confidence as she reduces Radu's body to dust----even a slight amusement and gratification, as she's shown smiling menacingly at him the entire time.
To offset what is probably a considerable darkness in her heart, Seth can be caring, sensitive, and even melancholy. She seems genuinely affected when Suleyman dies, smiling sadly after he utters his last words to her, and seems to liken her pet Abel's sudden distrust of her to Suleyman's own hatred of her. It is heavily implied that perhaps, she may have loved Suleyman as much as he loved her despite his resentment. She seems to love Abel quite a bit as her brother, as she suddenly embraces him and refers to him as 'big brother.'
Abilities:
Seth is a Crusnik---a near-godlike super-vampire created as a weapon of mass destruction, the third one out of four test tube babies to be injected with the Crusnik nanomachines discovered on Mars prior to the series' events and created to lead the Mars Colonization Project, which entailed rebuilding human society on Mars after Earth experienced problems with overpopulation. When activating her Crusnik form, she will typically announce, "Nanomachine Crusnik-03, release of restrictions at ____%, approved." Her Crusnik nanomachines give her the ability to manipulate sound waves, just like her brother Cain, the first Crusnik. This technique, called the "Fire of Sound," can instantly disintegrate her opponents, as shown when she eliminates the Auto Jagers who attack her when she is sheltering a wounded Esther, and when she is able to overpower Dietrich's hold over Radu's body, reducing them all to mere "pillars of salt," as Abel himself states.
In her Crusnik form, Seth materializes two large swords created from her blood. They resemble either tridents or, better yet, tuning forks, as her powers are closely correlated to sound. These swords help to serve as a focus for her powers. Her physical appearance radically changes as well---her hair becomes wild, and her eyes turn blood-red. Her fangs become more prominent, and she grows claws.
And mind you, this is when her nanomachines' restrictions are released at only 40%. It has yet to be seen what she's like at 100%...
Unlike most vampires in lore, though, as a Crusnik, Seth does not predate upon humans for blood. Rather, she predates upon other vampires, as regular vampires, referred to as Methuselah, in her world became what they are due to being infected with a virus known as the Kudlak Bacillus---which was artificially created by the Crusnik themselves as a food source. Another thing that sets her apart from traditional vampires is her lack of apparent fangs and the typical corpselike pallor associated with vampires; she can blend in among humans with no impunity whatsoever.
Additionally, she is naturally agile and acrobatic in combat, and is proficient with a pair of daggers that she wields while under the guise of a spy.
Character Information
First Person Sample:
[Seth decides she'll have a little fun with her swanky new flip phone. While she can only understand snippets of what the other students in her classroom are talking about---something about something tall and entrails...which strikes her as unsettling and suspicious, but there isn't much to go on, so she'll be getting creative about getting the word out to anyone else.
After all, spicing things up never hurt anyone (much), right?
So anyone within the close vicinity will get the following message:]
Ooh, did you hear?
Some tall heartthrob is going around breaking girls' hearts, and they're all disappearing! Weird, huh? Sounds like a murder mystery!
[Let it be said that Seth Nightroad is nothing if not a thrillseeker.]
Third Person Sample:
It's so ironic.
Seth Nightlord was a woman of many faces and identities---flower seller, tea seller, spy, Empress, monster---that it would be a wonder to anyone else how exactly she kept them all disparate from one another. She herself wasn't sure; she couldn't even answer Suleyman's question posed to her upon his dying breaths: who are you?
"I don't know." Seth says to her own reflection in the mirror as she washes her face in the girls' bathroom, having just returned from gym class and doing several laps. She watches the droplets cross her face in various twisting, branching directions, as if they're road lines on a map.
800 years' worth of roads she has crossed, as various people. 800 years' worth of roads she has created in her time as Empress Augusta Vradica. And her current predicament is yet one more road to add to the map---but with one very significant, and slightly frightening, difference.
She is human.
The call of the Crusnik no longer whispers to her; her body is filled with silence, save for the rush of blood through her veins and the beating of her now-mortal heart. Seth's brow furrows as she brushes stray hair away from her face; it is indeed ironic how she has now been reduced to the level of the weak, pitiful beings she once hated---the weak, pitiful, stubborn beings she once tried to annihilate in their entirety to exert the dominance of a newfound race to which she didn't even belong.
Yet she finds herself laughing, half-sadly, half-bitterly. Oh, if only Suleyman---nevermind Abel, or even Cain, when he was still Cain, that is---could see her now. If only any of her beloved Methuselah subjects could see her now, completely vulnerable. Completely fragile. Completely finite.
No longer is she a goddess. She has, just like Abel, fallen down back to Earth. And she wonders---
---How will she go about this? This is...entirely new to her, and yet it is not. Once more, she assumes another identity. But, in turn, she is now something else entirely.
Seth takes a deep breath, and dries her face using a piece of paper towel; her face is now free of all the little roads and shortcuts.
She supposes she should look at it like this: she is a blank slate, and despite having more or less lived her life already, there are still yet more stories to create, even after 800 years.
Seth smiles at her reflection.
"I'm just Seth now, I guess. Seth Nightlord, errant human embarking on yet another journey in a new world I've yet to explore fully." She chuckles. "A pretty girl passing by."