Drel (also spelled Drel) is the general of Boelate who invades Hiden after its capital falls. He is the man who killed Margo Glenfall, the father of Alicia, and the first commander to bring wizards onto the battlefield.
Appearance
Drel is a large man with long hair, a thick beard and a scarred face. As his body is altered by magic crystals and Devil Blood, extra eyes open on his forehead (up to five), his body sprouts crystals and demonic wings, and the head of a dead dragon grows from his arm.
History
Margo’s master
Twenty-five years before the story, Drel was an assistant instructor at a sword school in Eslinn and the teacher of the young Margo. Both competed in the tournament at Esleberg for the ultimate treasure the King of Hiden had just finished. Margo won, was named Sword Master and took the sword. Drel joined him anyway on an expedition to the Dragon Snowfields to slay a dragon serving Vordin, the King of the North.
The dragon bit off Margo’s leg, ending his career. Drel picked up the treasure and killed the dragon, which made the sword absorb the dragon’s soul and become the Black Dragon. Moments later a vast presence appeared and remarked that he was “carrying it”. From that day on Drel heard a whispering voice inside him, and his doubts about the heroic legend turned to conviction: the legend was a lie used to manipulate people, and its truth was hidden by the kings of Hiden.
Wizards and Boelate
After a decade of wandering Drel cut his way into the throne room of Emperor Beis Werz and swore allegiance to Boelate in exchange for freedom to research magic. He promised to find and raise “the great sage of the fairy tale”. He introduced Princess Milea to the voice in the mirror, helped found the magic department of the Solsein Seminary and recruited its best students. His research into crystallized magic ore implanted in the body used human infants and young devil beasts as test subjects, bought through bandits such as the Crows.
Two years before the story he attacked Sogo Village and killed Margo, his former friend, to prove that “the age of sword and dark arts” had come.
The invasion of Hiden
With fifty thousand soldiers Drel crossed into Hiden, defeated Rhode Royes at the Murrell River and sealed Clevatess inside his ultimate secret art, the Devil Blood Prison, made from his own flesh and blood. Reaching the capital, he fought Alicia and T’ala’s forces and flew to the Royal Furnace, meaning to drag out its contents and destroy the world. He told the heroes that all five races of Edthea are inferior remnants of a vanished “true human race”.
Alicia, Rhode and Naie wore him down, and the King’s Hammer broke the Black Dragon. With the sword gone the Devil Blood poured out of him. Dying, he saw Margo calling him “Master” once more. Nine magic crystals had been implanted in his body.
Abilities
- Swordsmanship: Drel taught Margo the Rising Dragon technique and fights with a “Kamaitachi True Dragonfly”.
- Black Dragon: His treasure can cut huge gashes in the earth, teleport him to where it lands and summon the skeletal Dead Dragon through necromancy.
- Devil Blood Prison: Seals even a Devil Beast King in a sphere of his blood.
Trivia
- He believed that “with just a sword there is a wall you cannot pass”.
- Clevatess’s realization that the Devil Beast Kings exist to serve a dead legend mirrors Drel’s own despair.