Darth Wiki / Absolute Sword Strata

A collaboration fic by Wax and Keitaro Hirochi, inspired by Sword Art Online.
Absolute Sword STRATA is the first-ever immersive virtual reality game. One year later, knowing the game's popularity is waning, game developing team and in-game guild leaders Daystar and Rockwald gear up for a challenge: taking on their new Harder Than Hard Challenge Mode, with teams of 6 players each. The challenge is set to unfold during spring break, so that the teams may include school-aged players. Daystar scouts his guild, the Order of Sol, and creates a sub-guild with his six best elements for the challenge, dubbing them the Zenith Knights. Rockwald aligns skillful players from his own guild, the Sleeping Forest, and recruits long-time player Dragun to join his team.

Tropes used in Absolute Sword STRATA:

• Jump Physics: The Dual Jumping skill allows characters to jump in mid-air.
• Taking the Bullet: Pets can take a hit meant for their owner. With the Beast Bond skill, they can even block, though Blocking Stops All Damage is completely averted, the pets just don't die in one hit.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Only players with Weapon Throw can even throw their swords (and other main weapons), but when they do the system helps guarantee the best hits.
• Zerg Rush: The Crew's Challenge Mode clear relies on their insane number of players.

Tropes associated with characters:

Zenith Knights

Jesus-kun

The Hero. Jesus-kun is known to be among STRATA's top players, having been part of the initial clearing rush. He has since then turned his attention to making his own show within the game: "Jesus-kun Saves The Day", where he saves (usually female) players from threats. Behind this is an egotistical, theatrical braggart.

Tropes associated with Jesus-kun:

• Bifurcated Weapon: His Angel Bless can divide into two swords.
• Chick Magnet: Jesus-kun attracts fangirls by the dozen, even though he inevitably drives them away in a minute, even when Sunny doesn't.
• Glass Cannon: His optimized DPS is incredibly high due to his weapon, Dual Wielding skill and speed. He focuses so much on damage, however, that his only form of defense is blocking, which isn't very effective, especially when the Angel Bless is in its combined form.
  • Crippling Overspecialization: Daystar has to organize the challenge clear around the fact that Jesus-kun will die in a single hit to any single boss in the challenge and a vast majority of the players wishing to stop his guild's advance; unless he starts blocking, at which point he is essentially useless.
• A God Am I: Downplayed. He doesn't think of himself as God, but he named his character Jesus-kun for a reason: he thinks he's the next best thing.
• Insufferable Genius: He's great at the game, he knows it, and he won't let anyone else forget about it.
• Shout-Out:
  • Jesus-kun is a nod to a derogatory fan nickname for Kirito from Sword Art Online. He shares many traits with his Sword Art Online Abridged incarnation.

Sunnyspark

Jesus-kun's girlfriend. They met in-game after Jesus-kun joined the Order of Sol after losing to Daystar. Jesus-kun and her have been a subject of controversy in the Order early on, leading to Sunnyspark being punted from commanding positions.

Tropes associated with Sunnyspark:

• Counter-Attack: Her fighting style is based on defending (or dodging) and then riposting to the opponent's attacks.
• Fiery Redhead: While she has light brown hair, it is slightly orange-ish. In-game, she uses a fiery dye item to make her hair look fiery.
• Genki Girl: It's a façade that can come off pretty easily if any girl gets too close to Jesus-kun. Except AI, who she doesn't perceive as a romantic threat.
• Kicked Upstairs: Her being in the Zenith Knights means she has lost all pretense of political power within the Order of Sol.
• Lady of War: In appearance, with her dress and fencing-based fighting style that favors speed and grace over raw power.

• Non-Indicative Name: The only reason her sword is named Kusanagi no Tsurugi is because it was made by Tifanie, her real-life friend, who would know her actual family name. It has nothing to do with Japanese mythos at all.
• Royal Rapier
• Shout-Out:
  • She's named in similar fashion to Youtuber Sunnysplosion.
  • Her RL family name and use of "Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi" (despite it being similar to the Regalia in name only) are shout-outs to Kyo Kusanagi from The King of Fighters.
• Stalker with a Crush: She's Yandere for Jesus-kun.
• Tranquil Fury: She's never obviously furious. She just gets cold and loses her sunny disposition.

Tifanie

The game's most-renowned blacksmith. Her prowess is taken from her apprenticeship in real-life blacksmithing, that she applies in-game rather than using game mechanics. She forged Daystar's Lightbringer by herself.

Tropes associated with Tifanie:

• The Blacksmith: She personally forged or reforged all the Zenith Knights' weapons. Starting with Daystar's Tower Sword, the Lightbringer.
• Deadpan Snarker: She's the only one to have enough attitude to talk back to Jesus-kun, Sunnyspark, or even Daystar.

• Glacier Waif: She's not a big girl, but her heavy equipment and possession of the strongest single blunt hit in the game sets her as this.
• Likes Older Men / Precocious Crush: Her first crush was her blacksmith mentor Black, a friend of her father's. Her second is Daystar, who is a mere 4 years younger. During the challenge, Daystar is 26, she is 14.

AI#16v8. 4

A skilled player who is known for being as young as she looks, being a top player at a mere 8 years old.

Tropes associated with AI:

• Artificial Intelligence: Averted. She only plays the part for her own amusement.
• Badass Adorable: She's a cute little button, but she's a top player for a reason.
• BFS: Her trademark weapon when going on the offense is the single most powerful sword in the game barring STRATA itself. Sadly, when she's holding it, she can't equip anything else. As a result, she isn't as powerful as the top power players.
• Master of None: Her main flaw is that she has no specialization, and due to the variety of weapons she can equip, she is not as skilled as specialists.
• Mysterious Waif: One would wonder why any player would venture anywhere near top players with no equipment. It turns out she's a top player like the others, and her Unique Skill Gear Shift allows her to change equipment in a second.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Her reliance on her Bigger Stick seems to set her as this, but she has mechanical skill befitting of a top player and her Unique Skill grants her great adaptability, making her style actually Difficult, but Awesome.

Caitlyn

A famous healer, due to being one of the few players actually dedicated to being a healer first and foremost.

Tropes associated with Caitlyn:

• A Girl And Her Dragon
• Badass Adorable: She's cute, yet she's also one of the strongest players in the game due to how hard she is to defeat at all.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Her focus on self-defense and being undefeatable means that she has comparatively little attack power, so anybody with good defense can ignore her damage output, often better than she gets to ignore theirs.
• Healing Factor: The bulk of her defense is not that she doesn't take damage, but her pet will keep on healing her.
• Lighter and Softer: To nearly everyone else. She's the only healer (until L.M.A.O., where she doesn't show up), as sweet as they come until the hard-to-reach breaking point, and she named her pet dragon Happy because that's what she wanted it to be.
• Stone Wall: She's insanely hard to take down because of the aforementioned Healing Factor and the fact that her pet will sometimes take hits for her when it's not healing her, and her top-tier speed will allow her to avoid attacks too.
• Support Party Member: She's one of the only healers in the game, due to her being the only one to tame a white dragon.

Daystar

A developer of the game, and leader of the Order of Sol until the challenge, where he dedicates himself to the Zenith Knights to the point of handing leadership to another player. He is also a pioneer of the Tower Sword weapon class in the game, with his Lightbringer being known as the best weapon in the game, barring the event-only STRATA.

Tropes associated with Daystar:

• BFS: His Tower Sword weapon class. It was added to the game after people where impressed at the size of his sword, even when he couldn't actually fight using it.
• Big Good: He mostly sidelines himself and lets the rest do the work, reserving himself for clutch saves.
• Bigger Stick: The Tower Sword is the single biggest weapon class in the game. The Lightbringer is also the biggest of them, and it deals the single strongest hit in the game, barring weapon throws.
• Crippling Overspecialization: He is a total juggernaut, dealing massive damage and taking it in kind, but he's the slowest character in the challenge and is easy pickings for faster characters that can bypass his guard and dodge his extremely-punishing attacks. During the challenge, his slowness proves to be his team's undoing as assassins who want to interrupt the challenge simply dodge him.
• Large Ham: He speaks loudly and bombastically.
• Mighty Glacier: He has an extremely specialized build based on this. The Lightbringer is the biggest, most damaging weapon in the game. With Divine Block, he can use it for blocking as well. His heavy armor in addition to that makes his defensive power the best in the game along with Rockwald, himself a renowned Stone Wall.
• Squat's in a Name: Despite his name being a moniker of Lucifer's, he never betrays his guild. He even makes a point of his team knowing that he will not help defeat the bosses because he helped make them.

Sleeping Forest

Dragun

The latest recruit of the Sleeping Forest, chosen for the challenge. Dragun is a star player on his own right — going solo for most of his game career, he displayed quick immersion to the game's physics as well as his flavor, and was one of the first players to achieve his Unique Skill when he showed Dual Jumping to the public during the initial clearing rush. He has had an on-and-off working relationship with various members of the Sleeping Forest at several points before the challenge.

Tropes associated with Dragun:

• Ax-Crazy: Dragun goes ballistic when even in-game death gets involved.
• Badass Longcoat: His trademark black longcoat.

• Cute and Psycho: He's a Bishōnen, but he gets mad really easily.

• Hidden Heart of Gold: He's still a jackass underneath, just less colossal than on the outside.
• Ineffectual Loner: He's not exactly alone, but he's not social.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He doesn't like people in general, but he loathes player-killers. Additionally, he's extremely scared of death, and he lets go of a bit of his jerkassery with people he's seen die in-game (such as MICHIKA).

• The Rival: An acquaintance of Jesus-kun? Check. On the same level as him in-game? Check. On the opposing team? Check.
  • Fire-Forged Friends: With Jesus-kun. Working together on an investigation brought them to recognize each other's existence as real-life classmates, but the rivalry during the challenge and the L.M.A.O. develops it into a full-blown friendship.
• The Sociopath
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: To those he's seen die, he remains cold and distant on the surface, despite deeply caring for them.
• Surrounded by Idiots: His initial belief. In fact, this causes the Sleeping Forest to be on a slow start.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: To a pretty ridiculous level. Even the in-game death of others affects him enough that he's less of a jackass to them. This causes an Epic Fail on his part when he's sent to assassinate the Zenith Knights: he leaves Caitlyn on low health without doing a thing to her pet before going for Jesus-kun, leaving ample time for the Zenith Knights to collapse on him. He is subsequently forced to turn back, barely making it out with his life.
• Weak, but Skilled: His combat stats are generally low, with light armor and a sword not known for its damaging ability. He has relied on his speed and mechanical skill to juggle aggro correctly and survive for years, and this became easier when he acquired his Unique Skill. He became top 12 simply by forcing his strengths to the forefront and hiding his weaknesses.

MICHIKA

A player who was there during the initial clearing rush despite being a completely new player to the game back then. She's the daughter of the CEO of the company who developed the game. Despite her status, she is a dedicated player who quickly was recruited in the Sleeping Forest.

Tropes associated with MICHIKA:

• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She acts nice and approachable, but more to fit in out of a sense of duty than anything else.
• Deadpan Snarker: Most of her vitriol comes in the form of not humoring anyone, ever.
• Hopeless with Tech: Clumsiness with the interface early on is what caused her name to be written in capslock.
• Peer Pressure Makes You Evil: Discussed. As her relationship with Dragun moves on, she confesses to him that trying to act approachable when she's not that type unnerves her and those closest to her end up suffering her stressed self.
• Real Name as an Alias: As a novice on game launch, she wrote her name for her avatar.
• Royal Rapier: She wields a court sword named Piercing Light.
• Stone Wall: Subverted. While she does play defensively to use Guard Impact, her defense isn't even above-average, and she leans closer to a Fragile Speedster.
• Tsundere: For Dragun. Even while berating him she's contantly forcing herself on him.

Lucina

A Sleeping Forest member, Lucina is an expert blacksmith... as in "she has developed a propensity for doing the forging minigame flawlessly".

Tropes associated with Lucina:

• Foil: To Tifanie. While Tifanie is loud and brash, Lucina is quiet and reserved. Where Tifanie also uses a huge blunt weapon to be a DPS threat, Lucina throws slashing weapons for massive burst.
• Genius Bruiser: She was already brainy, but the game made her a bruiser.
• Hikikomori: IRL. Even in-game she doesn't get out much, resulting in her being less known at large than the rest.
• Only Friend: IRL, Tifanie is hers. Her gaming-wise Only Friend is MICHIKA.
• Perpetual Frowner: She usually only smiles when she's alone.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: She's very much inarticulate usually, and speaks with no slang, instead using obscure winded words.
• Shout-Out: Her throwing-axe style is based on Draven from League of Legends.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: She's very shy, but loves to dote on her guildmates.

Musashi

A player who got famous for peace-making, and leading a guild full of tanks to stall litigious situations.

Tropes associated with Musashi:

• The Berserker: Due to his Stone Wall-type stat and gear build, he often rushes straight ahead.
• Boisterous Bruiser: A melee-based strong asset of the Sleeping Forest.
• Emotional Bruiser: He's very open with his emotions.
• Katanas Are Just Better: To go with his Iaijutsu Practitioner gimmick.
• Nice Guy: He always tries his damnedest to ensure people around him survive. Rockwald recruited his entire guild in one go because none of them died in-game by that time.
• Only Sane Man: Doesn't have much outlandish about him other than his love of samurai movies, and often reacts with bafflements at the others' antics.
• Stone Wall: His heavy armor already alludes to this, but his true strongest defense asset is his Unique Skill Super Armor, that negates all blowback from enemy attacks, even when he gets hit clean.

Leila

A widely-unknown player. That's because she's a Punisher — a Sleeping Forest assassin sent to stop player-killers by killing them.

Tropes associated with Leila:

• Black Swords Are Better: Her Paranoia is a black dagger.
• Extreme Doormat: She always does whatever she's asked without question.
• Ninja: Her role as a Punisher is to spy on suspect players, and assassinate griefers when she catches them.
• Shrinking Violet: She's socially awkward, and very self-conscious about it, so she stands aside in fear of making herself look dumb.
• The Silent Bob: She lets her facial expressions and gestures do most of her talking.
• Speed Blitz: Can pull it off by dashing through opponents, with her weapons dealing damage right before she's done.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: She's very friendly to her guildmates. When they do get close, that is.

Rockwald

The main developer of STRATA, along with Daystar. He is the leader of the Sleeping Forest, a dev-guild he formed to keep knightly principles within the game by discouraging griefing and Player Killing.

Tropes associated with Rockwald:

• Big Bad: The primary antagonist of STRATA's Challenge Arc.
  • Non-Action Big Bad: He spends most his time on the background stopping opponents from stopping his guild's advance, while letting the other players do most of the fighting.
• Non-Indicative Name: Divine Blade enables shield attacks, nothing related to the actual blade he carries.
• No-Sell: With his Tower Shield The Cliff and his heavy armor, Rockwald is a juggernaut that is very hard to damage at all.
• Shields Are Useless: Inverted: His sword is the secondary asset since he can use his shield for powerful blunt hits.
• Shout-Out: He references Heathcliff with his sword and shield: The Heath and The Cliff.
• The Stoic: Rockwald is calm and collected, to an almost unnatural degree according to Michika. He doesn't even flinch when the Zenith Knights' challenge starts out almost three times as fast as the Sleeping Forest's, and remains calm through the entirety of Lear's death-threatening takeover, despite the threat of death for him and thousands other players.
• Stone Wall: Rockwald's build is incredibly defensive. He doesn't pack as much of a punch as Daystar, but he isn't as limited by his own speed.
• The Strategist: While he does not take any physical part in the challenge, he does formulate most of the plans.

Other:

The Aces & Eights

PoP

The head of the Aces & Eights. A deranged madman who hears Jesus speak to him even in VR.

Tropes associated with PoP:

• Gratuitous French: PoP stands for "Prince of Pelle". He fittingly named his shovel The Pelle, insisting for it to be named in French.
• Hearing Voices: Suffers from this on top of his OCD and hallucinations, even in VR.
• Improbable Weapon User: A shovel. He uses it to bludgeon, slash and literally bury his targets.
• Puppet King: Somewhat, to JeJe. While he is the leader of the guild per se, he sometimes takes JeJe's words as orders from Jesus.

Bloodshot JeJe

The straight man of the Aces & Eights. Don't be fooled by his relatively sane outlook — he's just as murderous as the rest of them.

Tropes associated with JeJe:

• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: In the real world, Jesus is deeply ill. As JeJe, he shows no mercy to enemies showing concern.
• Malevolent Masked Man: He wears a mask to make others think it's the mask that makes his voice so raspy.
• Only Sane Man: He's the serious one of the Aces and Eights' founding three (PoP, Jacky and himself).
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: In the game, he has an accessory that gives him red Glowing Eyes of Doom that has become his trademark.
• Shout-Out: His real name being Jesus is taken after an Episode 2 cameo from Sword Art Online Abridged.
• Worthy Opponent: Regarded as such by Jesus-kun, as he's the only one that's matched his Dual Wielding.

Jacky Blohnn

The Aces & Eights'... ace. A crazy serial-killer-esque assassin whose mention sends shivers down the spine of any non-top-tier player.

Tropes associated with Jacky:

• Ax-Crazy: He breaks whatever little restraints he has in the real world when he's playing.
• Hero Killer: While the Aces and Eights as a whole are this, his name is the most recognizable one. His reputation as this goes wild after Lear's assassination.
• Master Poisoner: He maxed out his poison-making skills and is the guild's most consummate user of those.
• Shout-Out: His name is a partially-swapped version of Johnny Black from Sword Art Online.

Crowe

A former member of the Order of Sol, Crowe was cast out after ousting herself as having joined the Aces & Eights, killing Benvolia and sabotaging the mission she had set up.

Tropes associated with Crowe:

• Ascended Fangirl: She loved PoP's pamphlets and joined his guild in secret early.
• Black Knight: What she looks like now she has discarded the Knight in Shining Armor image required by the Order of Sol.
• Black Swords Are Better: Her Blood Ombre sword is partially black, though the blade is colored in a gradient that gets to red at the tip.
• Hidden Depths: She actually enjoys theater. Enough to kill Benvolia for trivializing Shakespearian prose.
• It's Personal: She interferes with the challenge not always on order of the Aces and Eights, because she has really bad blood with Jesus-kun.
• Revenge Before Reason: Sure, killing Jesus-kun during the challenge would take him down a peg, but doing that 1v6 while not level 100 is not exactly in the realm of the possible.
• Theme Naming: It was obvious she wasn't a fit for the Order of Sol when everything about her says black. Kurohane means "black feather", Crowe alludes to crows, and her sword is named the Blood Ombre (ombre being French for shadow).
• Villain Forgot to Level Grind: Averted. She went hard on Level Grinding to get back at Jesus-kun.

L.N.

A mysterious assassin working for the Aces & Eights.

Tropes associated with L.N.:

• Creepy Child / Emotionless Girl: Her dispassionate tone of voice sets her in the middle of these.
• Evil Counterpart: To AI, being another Child Prodigy that's unchildlike despite being below 10 years old. However, she has extremely negative reactions to the expectations placed on her and bad influences from Jacky Blohnn which makes the difference between AI's mock-mechanical playful Challenge Gamer to L.N.'s emotionless anti-social player-killer-for-hire.
• Implacable Man: Her penchant for simply walking to her targets and her ability to shrug off knockback with her Unique Skill make her look like that.
• Lack of Empathy: Her callous disregard for people's lives is jarring for a 9-year-old.
• Meaningful Name: Kuchinashi means "no mouth". She barely ever speaks.
• Put Them All Out of My Misery: She feels miserable in her real life, and vents her frustration by killing other people.
• Shout-Out:
  • Her Dark Messenger is named after the soundtrack for the battle against Trance Kuja in Final Fantasy IX.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: When she does speak, she holds conversations like you'd expect an adult to.

The S-Kill Club

exXElL

The leader of the S-Kill Club, as far as STRATA is concerned. exXElL himself is an infamous gamer and hacker.

Tropes associated with exXElL:

• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: He's a beast even when he's not cheating. And he knows it full well.
• The Dreaded: Lear tracked his ID and made sure not to reroute him to L.M.A.O. out of fear that he could hack the game to pieces even from within. This bites Lear in the ass even more as a cherry on top of the cake, as exXElL then sues him for using confidential data.
• Everyone Has Standards: He regrets his attempt at forcing Catherine to play tank. So much that he started using a shield and picking Life Link as his Unique Skill.
• Glory Seeker: His goal is to be the best and to get everyone to know it. He is a lot more mature than Jesus-kun about it.
• Insufferable Genius: He's cocky, but he did beat the game on his own, before he even started cheating his stats and items.
• The Leader: To the S-Kill Club clear. He's trying to take over the challenge.
• Lightning Bruiser: He's an all-arounder type, and at his level it means this.
  • Stone Wall: Against other high-level opponent, his only stand-out trait is his defense and regeneration via Life Link.

Zi-tan

exXElL's girlfriend, who specializes in exploits rather than downright hacks.

Tropes associated with Zi-tan:

• Cowardly Lion: Her response to triggering the death trap that got Catherine killed was "teleport out and leave everyone else to die". She is actually good at the game, she just dislikes the effort involved in trying to save others.
• Insufferable Genius: So insufferable even fellow Insufferable Genius Jesus-kun hates her for being more insufferable than he is. Also intelligent enough to have gotten rich from finding out and exploiting stealing-related glitches.
• Min-Maxing: Very guilty of this: her build is obviously skewed in favor of speed.
• Nepotism: Hanging out with exXElL has gotten her into the position of second-in-command.
• Shout-Out:
  • Zi-tan sounds like Zidane, The Protagonist of Final Fantasy IX. Similarly, the Rune Tooth is one of Zidane's weapons (even though Zi-tan uses a single-ended version of the weapon), and Soul Blade is named after one of his skills.

Morningtide and Eventide

A relative unknown, Morningtide and Eventide are real-life twins, a fact they used to confuse players to no end.

Tropes associated with both:

• Coordinated Clothes: Eventide wears the same clothes as Morningtide to make it easier to disguise as her.
• The Dividual: They're mostly defined by what they do together, and always act simultaneously.
• For the Lulz: Their main reason for interfering with the challenge.
• Identical Twin ID Tag: Without dyes, the color of their hair is this, with Morningtide having very dark hair while Eventide's is white. With dyes, they are incredibly hard to distinguish as they act as each other; the difference being Morningtide's far more lighthearted disposition contrasting with Eventide's spiteful attitude.
  • Exaggerated with their real-life names — they're written with the same kanji.
• Shout-Out: They're named after Magic: The Gathering expansion sets.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Even in real life, the distinction is made by the color of their hair.
• Theme Twin Naming: Their real names are written with the same kanji, and their game names are Morningtide and Eventide.
• Trickster Twins: They weird out the Sleeping Forest and the Zenith Knights with conversations in the middle of their challenge.
• Twin Switch: In fact, with the same hair dye on, they look exactly alike. Their main schtick is confusing people so much they don't even know if they're doing this or not.

Tropes associated with Morningtide:

• Token Good Teammate: Double Subverted. Morningtide is the only one of the S-Kill Club to have a great reputation. However, that's because she and Eventide are fooling people so that most backlash would fall on Eventide. Nonetheless, she remains the nicer one of the two and one of the few agreeable persons in the S-Kill Club.

Tropes associated with Eventide:

• Because You Were Nice to Me: The reason she cares about IKARI so much.
• Evil Twin: Plays herself up as this to Morningtide.
  • Evil Brunette Twin: Inverted: she's white-haired to Morningtide's brunette. She uses the same hair dye as her sister to pose as her in front of the Sleeping Forest and Zenith Knights.
• Hyde Plays Jekyll: She is able to pose as Morningtide perfectly down to her mannerisms.
• Mega Manning: Her two main builds mimic IKARI's and Morningtide's.

IKARI

The self-proclaimed best fighter in the game, IKARI made his way to the S-Kill Club and to level 100 by hacking a superpowered steroid item into his inventory. In contrast to most of the S-Kill Club, IKARI frontlines for the S-Kill Club's clear rush and shows his prowess as a true fighter.

Tropes associated with IKARI:

• The Berserker: His fighting style is to rush at the competition, and hit it until it dies. Heavy Arms allows him to be a lot faster than anyone with a Tower Sword is expected to be.
• BFS: His Darkbringer is a Tower Sword.
• Blood Knight: In contrast to the rest of the S-Kill Club who mostly favor smarts, he's a pure fighter.
• Bully Hunter: Despite his belief that life is best lived at others' expense, he does not suffer strong people who hunt weaker people who want nothing to do with them.
• The Corrupter: Downplayed, but his attitude has slightly rubbed off on Eventide.
• Glory Seeker: In the vein of exXElL, except he only claims to be the best fighter.
• One-Handed Zweihänder: His use of Heavy Arms is to use his BFS as though it were one-handed.
• Pet the Dog: He cares a lot about Eventide, but noone else.
• Screaming Warrior: He shouts very loud when he gets going.

The Crew

Toshi

The leader of the Crew, he took over following a shaky start for what now is the widest guild in the game.

Tropes associated with Toshi:

• Badass Bookworm: The strongest member of the Crew, and this is noted to be due to his intelligence.
• Foil: To the entirety of the guild, being a lucid and competent leader.
• Katanas Are Just Better: He goes for the daisho aesthetic with his Dual Wielding, with his best weapon being the katana.
• Universally Beloved Leader: He's clearly the most skilled player in the guild, and nobody has anything bad to say about him.

Vorecats

The Crew's general. A hot-blooded man who speaks with a Spanish accent.

Tropes associated with Vorecats:

• Badass Cape: He's definitely stronger during the challenge than Dragun remembers.
• Frontline General: He always goes first. He justifies this as it gives a morale boost to the players under his command.
• Kindhearted Cat Lover: He just loves cats, as evidenced by his game name.

Hathaway

The former leader of the Crew. He is a trusting, but ultimately foolhardy man. After an incident during the initial boss clear, he was punted from command due to losing all credibility when he was trapped in a dungeon.

Tropes associated with Hathaway:

• Mundane Utility: Uses his spear, pet and parkour skills to mimic dual jumps.
• Nice Guy: Too much for his own good. He lost his position as leader of the Crew when he got trapped in a bonus dungeon by his second-in-command. The rumor that he died to a level 1 dungeon, despite being false, killed his credibility.
• Non-Action Guy: Sure, he's got a spear, but he remains underequipped for combat situations and mostly uses it for defense and mobility as opposed to actually defeating anyone or anything.
• Sickeningly Sweethearts: With Ormecia.

Ormecia

A knightess who's known as one of the most powerful players of the Crew... in the frontlines.

Tropes associated with Ormecia:

• Berserk Button: Saying anything remotely bad about Hathaway.
• Love Makes You Stupid: Infinitely in love with Hathaway, which screws with her fighting and leading prowess.
• Not So Stoic: She has a quiet personality, but the moment something trips her, she bursts into a rage.
• Silk Hiding Steel: Is a gentle and demure wife, yet she is one of the most powerful fighters the Crew has.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: She's the most powerful of the two in battle, in fact, surely because he's mostly a Non-Action Guy.

Benvolia

A roleplayer who likes to quote the Bard at every possible occasion.

Tropes associated with Benvolia:

• A Mother To Her Men: She tries to behave like one.
• Big Fun: She's noticeably larger than most other girls (and most of the guys too), and she has an amiable personality.
• Go and Sin No More: Deconstructed: Crowe has proven that Benvolia is far too forgiving for her own good. Endangering Jesus-kun in fact caused him to dislike her, and also caused Sunny to fire Benvolia from the Order of Sol for the blatant oversight.
• Large Ham
• No Indoor Voice
• Shout-Out
  • She's named after Benvolio from Romeo and Juliet.
• Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: She likes theater. Contrarily to Crowe, though, she goes about with it non-stop, which annoys the latter to no end.

Jugg

A streamer who uses her assets to attract masses to help with the Group's clear.

Tropes associated with Jugg:

• Alliterative Name: Her real-life name.
• Big-Breast Pride: Obviously.
• I Have Boobs, You Must Obey!: She certainly abuses her valuable assets to lead her parties.
• Stone Wall: She used to play as this when she was flagged for death.

---

The sequel, "Lear's Magic Archive — Origin", deals with a more dire menace: one of Daystar and Rockwald's rival developers, known as Lear, hijacked the STRATA servers, locking many players inside the game as he reroutes incoming players to his game, an Obvious Beta. This results in a high alert the following day, as he is hunted down inside of his game.

Tropes used in Lear's Magic Archive — Origin:

• Beat Them at Their Own Game: During the post-challenge break, Jesus-kun and Dragun fight Myuu and Genesis respectively, and get outmatched at using their Unique Skills.
• Call-Back: Jesus-kun and Dragun having to partner with their sisters give them an idea of how annoying they were.
• Cerebus Syndrome: This part is significantly Darker and Edgier then the challenge.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Dragun and Jesus-kun learn it the hard way in their fights against Genesis and Myuu — learning how to fight as part of a team against usually oversized bosses made them bad at fighting 1v1 battles against another person just like them.
• Flight: One of the new features of Lear's Magic Archive.
• Foil: To the original arc of STRATA, mostly due to there being a true villain and thus morality is firmly established.
• Hard Work Hardly Works: In the end, the victories in this arc don't really depend on in-game skill.
• Lord British Postulate: Nearly invoked: the vast majority of the opposition has immortal status on them. In the end, the protagonists have to kill a moderator and an admin, that would otherwise be unkillable — victory is only achieved when the actual pain makes the opposing party leave. Draco and Lear even have a pain nullifier negating that weakness. Draco logs out and trolls Jesus-kun and Dragun, and Lear has the pain nullifier and admin privileges hacked away.
• Mood Whiplash: From the end of the Challenge's stress, to relief after it's over, to instant panic when MICHIKA is kidnapped and the STRATA servers are locked.
• The Most Dangerous Video Game: It's not the video game itself that is dangerous, but Lear's abuse and his locking of STRATA.
• Player Killing: Not a strong aspect here, even though Lear sends Goneril, Regan and Darkstar to PK the protagonists once they get into his game in an effort to get them to quit.
  • Kirito ran straight into the wall because he didn't accelerate as fast in real life as he did in STRATA, and focused on his speed rather than his position.
  • Mitaro gets screwed by his muscle memory from playing STRATA because his real body can't move as fast as he can in the virtual world, so he trips over his first step.
• Unwinnable by Design: Lear's Magic Archive (the location, not the game) doesn't exist. Jesus-kun and Dragun can only get in Lear's personal map (the closest thing to any magic archive he might have) when they are teleported inside by the hackers on their side.

Tropes associated with the new characters:

Order of Sol:

Flora

Jesus-kun's sister. Sadly for most, she's just as annoying as he was.

Tropes associated with Flora:

• Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: After getting Jesus-kun with a surprise Divine Blade smack to the face, Flora gloats about it in front of him despite being terribly underleveled. It doesn't end well for her, as he effortlessly puts her to very low health, then concedes the fight.
• Flower Motifs: Everything related to her in-game. Her sword is named Black Lotus and her armguard Sakura Premium.
• The Gadfly: She likes annoying other people.
• Katanas Are Just Better: Averted. Despite being a kendo champion in real life, her in-game self packs a shortsword and arm protector combo.
• Kick Them While They Are Down: Highly enjoys this pre-Character Development. She even steps on Jesus-kun as she pokes him in the head with her bokken at their kendo practice.
• Lightning Bruiser: She has a very quick-footed style with her fighting skills from real life granting her combat ability among the greatest.
• Shout-Out: Her sword is named Black Lotus after the Magic: The Gathering card.
• A Sinister Clue: While not exactly a villainess, she does antagonize Jesus-kun whenever given a chance and does wield her sword left-handed. However, just like Jesus-kun, she's ambidextrous, see below.
• Unsportsmanlike Gloating: Very guilty of this.
• Villainous Breakdown: When Jesus-kun forfeits their duel after decimating her after the Divine Blade smack. She stares in shock at her level up screen, unable to speak for 10 seconds until she starts ranting about how this is not a true victory.
• Weak, but Skilled: She says she got to level 65 so fast because she destroyed people 20 levels higher than her simply by being more skilled, reactive and adaptive.

Genesis

An expert duelist who only accepts strong challengers. Her current streak is at 21 victories.

Tropes associated with Genesis:

• Blood Knight: She lives for good fights. She built herself a reputation as one of the Colosseum's top duelists by making mincemeat of her first opponents, and makes a big deal of every fight she gets into.
• Combat Pragmatist: She does not hesitate to use dirty tactics. Aiming for the head, kicking weapons, anything's good to win.
• Commuting on a Bus: Her policy in the Colosseum. Her first half-dozen fights were regular, and then she simply dismissed unworthy opponents.
• Only in It for the Money: Averted. While she does make a big deal of her fights and asks for a lot of money to show up, she's in it for the fight and doesn't actually take the money.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: She's smaller than Caitlyn. It doesn't hold her back a lot.
• Slasher Smile: She enjoys fighting a little too much.
• That One Player: She's widely considered this. Contrary to the usual assumption, she's far from being a munchkin, instead enjoying how strong she can become in-game and how huge a deal she can make out of it, while in real life, she can't leave her hospital room.

Catherine

A player who partied once with Jesus-kun, but she's the player who started his path to being a better person.

Tropes associated with Catherine:

• The Big Guy: The party she formed with Jesus-kun and a few other guys had a fatal flaw: all of them were damage-dealers, so they tried to force the girl into becoming their tank. It didn't work... at first.
• Forgiveness: She does not resent exXElL at all for forcing her to play tank.
• Graceful Loser: She's way too late when she finds Jesus-kun again, as he's with Sunny, who would never allow any romantic advance she might make. She remains a very close and helpful friend to him.
• Heel Realization: The implosion of the party she was on with caused Jesus-kun and exXElL to have one.
• Morality Pet: Downplayed: Jesus-kun isn't anywhere near turning evil, but her mere presence does keep his ego in check.
• Never My Fault: The reason the party she was in with Jesus-kun split is that members kept throwing the blame on one another, most notably Jesus-kun for his condescending attitude and Catherine herself for her unwillingness to frontline.

Black

Tifanie's mentor in real-life blacksmithing, and the one who introduced her to STRATA. He got in only to test how real-life smithing worked in STRATA, but ended up helping the initial clearing group.

Tropes associated with Black:

• Ascended Extra: He only appeared previously to keep Tifanie's shop up while she was gone on the challenge. He is the one to get hooked into L.M.A.O. while Tifanie is trapped in STRATA, filling her role this go around.
• Big Brother Mentor: To Tifanie. Originally, he didn't care all that much about the game, with his main goal being to see how blacksmithing works in VR. He ended up being hooked to the game and supporting the first ever boss clear.
• Brown Axes Are Better
• Genius Bruiser: He's Tifanie's mentor in blacksmithing, and he takes this knowledge to the game to create the best weapons.
• I Have Many Names: Not him, but his axe. It's been given various names by bystanders, such as Thunder Lion and the Chocolate Axe. Each time, Black took care to incorporate the new nickname of his weapon into it in some form.
• Older and Wiser: Being 30 years old makes him this to the rest of the Order of Sol's cast.
• Only Sane Man: Among the first ever boss clear in the game, he says that Devli was the only one who was remotely competent at party strategy, with people like Dragun and Jesus-kun in the party who relied on their own skill to carry the crew.
• Scary Black Man
• Sink or Swim Mentor: To Tifanie.

Devli

A famous player, who was the one who lead the first ever boss fight party.

Tropes associated with Devli:

• Challenge Gamer: Instead of going on with the clearing rush, he power-leveled himself to be the first one to solo-clear the first boss.
• The Leader: He leads Jesus-kun's party during L.M.A.O., he takes this role due to his experience and level head.
• Non-Indicative Name: Swap the last two letters of his name. He's all but that.
• Pick-Up Group: He directed the first ever boss clear with this.
• Shout-Out: His self-appointed title of "Duke" alludes to Duke Devlin from Yu-Gi-Oh!.
• Stone Wall: His playstyle is very defensive.
• Stupid Sexy Flanders: Even Jesus-kun agrees that he's incredibly handsome.

Barretta

A player who clings to Devli as of the L.M.A.O. incident.

Tropes associated with Barretta:

• Cold Sniper: She has a cold exterior and fights by throwing discs from the longest possible range.
• Does Not Like Men: She knows her mother died, but can't explain how her father left. She grew major distrust for men, though she does make exception for those she recognizes as having good morals (Devli), or those she can find at least some good in (Jesus-kun).
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Her dagger is named Kusun after its blade length of 9 sun (approximately 27.3 cm).
• Fragile Speedster: She even defied picking weapon throw to have more damaging attacks because the most important stat to her was speed and she was going for Master Walk from the start.
• Happily Adopted
• Hates Being Touched: She even admits to picking her Unique Skill so that she could phase through people who would attempt to touch her.
• Long-Range Fighter: As long-range as STRATA gets, but she usually skirts around midrange of her enemies throwing edged discs at them, with her Unique Skill only getting useful when her path is blocked by people.
• Ms. Fanservice: Invoked with her tacky outfit; time people spend looking at her body is time they don't spend looking into her mentality.
• The Stoic: She maintains an unflappable cold exterior, mainly due to her shyness.
• Tsundere: Non-romantically, towards Jesus-kun, which inverts the usual character development related to him. Other girls usually start out trying to get with Jesus-kun, with his attitude (or Sunny) eventually making them think twice about it. Barretta starts out hostile to Jesus-kun, but recognizes his good traits and becomes his friend.

Sleeping Forest

Gunicorn

Dragun's sister. Sadly for others, her attitude is just as bad as his, if not worse.

Tropes associated with Gunicorn:

• Character Development: Dragun took it upon himself to teach her that no matter how good you think you are or even how good you really are, being abrasive or condescending for the sake of looking cool will neither make you cool or get you anywhere.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She's standoffish, condescending, overly competitive and she's got quite a bad temper. However, the easiest ways to get her to gun for you are sadism and bullying.
• Lightning Bruiser: She's got extremely quick reflexes, and the experience she brings from real life puts her head and shoulders above most players in every respect. This is only complemented by her stats and her Unique Skill, that she specifically grinded towards to patch her weaker defense with her good attack. When she does get overwhelmed though, she becomes more of a Fragile Speedster.
• Tranquil Fury: When she's pissed, she goes completely silent, as she's entirely focused on dismantling her target as fast as possible.

Myuu

A frequent sight at colosseums, Myuu spends most of her time fighting. Unbeknownst to most, she's actually in the Sleeping Forest — not that she acts any part of it...

Tropes associated with Myuu:

• The Ace: Not only does she dual-wield like Jesus-kun, she defeats him clean. Her win streak only proves her expertise in one-on-one duels, which widely surpasses Jesus-kun's.
• Attack! Attack! Attack!: Her fighting style is to force pressure on the opponent and not leaving them with any time to think. Due to her superior reflexes and damage output, she can avoid and deal more damage than her opponent.
• Badass Adorable: She's a hyperactive kid with pink hair, but she beat Jesus-kun one-on-one.
• Defeating the Undefeatable: Beating her in one-versus-one is considered this. Considering her massive winning streak that even Jesus-kun failed to break, this has some grounds.
• Genki Girl: This is actually an effect of her excess adrenaline.
• Glass Cannon: Subverted: Dragun expects her to go down easily to Jesus-kun due to her Dual Wielding just like him. Unlike Jesus-kun, her stat spread isn't as specialized and not only does she manage to block some of Jesus-kun's offense, but his defense doesn't keep up to her offense.
• Hidden Depths: Few people get to meet Myuu outside fighting-related situations. Outside of battle, she is constantly seeking for fights not out of her love for thrills but out of fear this life may end at any moment. She also has mutism attacks out of this very same fear.
• In Harm's Way: She's described as an adrenaline junkie by guildmates, due to her massively enjoying the thrill of danger in dueling.
• The Nicknamer: She calls Rockwald "Rocky" and finds similar diminutives to address just about everyone.
  • Embarrassing Nickname: Dragun doesn't enjoy being called "Draggy".
• Purple Is Powerful: While coincidential, her purple wear sets her as this.
• Rebellious Spirit: She isn't a stickler for rules, and mostly obeys Rockwald because he's a nice person.
• Shout-Out: She was named after the Pokémon, Mew.

Mirai

A short-time guildmate of Dragun's from very old days. She had retired for a long time due to her friends, but has found the strength to see beyond what was her friends' Rage Quit. During the challenge, she tracked down the Sleeping Forest to find him again.

Tropes associated with Mirai:

• Failed a Spot Check: At level 50, she was proposed to learn a Unique Skill and picked Gear Shift without a second thought as it was the only one she could learn at the time (because she spent half her time switching between spear and shield on the whims of her old guild), unknowing that she could fulfill the requirements for learning another Unique Skill later.
• Graceful Loser: By the time she gets back to Dragun, he's with MICHIKA. Mirai only wishes them the best and forfeits her romantic advances, but still preserves a genuine friendship.
• Nice Girl: One of the reasons Dragun got nicer is because of how nice she was to him even though he tried his hardest to be the biggest douchebag he could be. For this reason and the time they lost due to her leave from the game, he refuses to get angry at her.
• Plucky Girl: Early in Dragun's STRATA runs, when he dropped off the initial floor-clearing rush, he joined the guild she was a part of. However, following a party wipe, her friends ragequitted the game and dragged her along. It took her a while to build herself up to this, but when she was back to playing STRATA, she resolved to find Dragun to at least apologize. She spent around a year seeking him out, and during the challenge, she was looking for a way to join the Sleeping Forest.
• Shrinking Violet
• 10-Minute Retirement: Averted; she was gone from playing STRATA for a full year, and then had to desperately look for Dragun.
• Theme Naming: Her motif is the future. Her name "Mirai", means "future", "Mayonaka" translates to midnight (the exact minute where a new calendar day starts), and Asahina is a family name meaning "morning field" (the morning being the moment where a person's day starts).

Seth

Head of the Sleeping Forest's Punishers, Seth is a man of a few words. He remains a constant voice of reason, reminding the party of the objective at hand.

Tropes associated with Seth:

• Ascended Extra: An offscreen figure during the challenge, seen in Leila's introduction and in short communications with Rockwald. In L.M.A.O., he is The Leader.
• Guile Hero: Not only is he the acting party leader and tactician, he puts a hit on Lear to attract the Aces & Eights. This is the reason Achroma joins his party.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: His weapon is a lance, and he does impale his Punished victims if he gets his lance out.
• Implacable Man: When he doesn't set himself up to do the kill, Seth approaches Punisher duty by endlessly walking towards his target, shrugging off most attacks and relying on the scare factor to let whatever other Punisher is on the job do his/her work.
• Knight in Sour Armor: He's not an optimist by any stretch, but he still tries his best to be as agreeable as he can, unless he's on the job.
• Neck Snap: His go-to method of punishing is hiding in a place and doing this on the griefer who's unfortunate enough to have met him.
• Orcus on His Throne: As Head Punisher, he doesn't do much Punishing himself, more often supervising other Punishers.
• The Reliable One: His seriousness and drive got him recognized as such to the point he's on Rockwald's council.
• The Stoic: It's in the blood.
• The Strategist: He acts as a party leader for the Sleeping Forest.

Annie

A dragon tamer, Annie is also one of the youngest players in the game — but she is a Punisher for a reason.

Tropes associated with Annie:

• The Baby of the Bunch: She's noticeably more childish than the other top members of the Sleeping Forest, even though she's only Dragun's junior by a couple years.
• Badass Adorable: Contrary to Caitlyn, though, her threat comes from how fast she can kill you.
• Glass Cannon: Even with Beast Bond, Annie remains fragile due to being entirely geared towards offense.
• Shout-Out: Her pyromancy, young age, temper, and even her name: everything points to Annie from League of Legends.
• Taking the Bullet: Much like Caitlyn, she has a pet that can take hits for her.

Deadeye

A Punisher. She approaches her appointed jobs very seriously.

Tropes associated with Deadeye:

• Handicapped Badass: Averted. She's one-eyed in real life, but only a badass in-game.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: She spends most of her time acting as a Bully Hunter in-game because she's victim of bullying in real life.

Others:

M. I-Za-Shi

A player of the S-Kill Club who finds himself trapped in L.M.A.O. He streams his experience until he meets with the Order of Sol party.

Tropes associated with M. I-Za-Shi:

• Genius Bruiser: He figures Goneril and Regan have capped stats merely from seeing them in combat for a few seconds, and lives through most fights with them.
• Heel–Face Turn: His presence is one for the S-Kill Club. From tricksters trying to leech fame off of Daystar and Rockwald's challenge, their presence goes to basically doing the same thing as the heroes and adding solid strategic support to the group.
• Perpetual Smiler: He always has a stoic, confident smile plastered on his face.
• The Stoic: He always keeps a cool head despite the tense situation, even when directly attacked by Goneril and Regan.

Achroma

A player aligned with the Aces & Eights, she has a hit on Lear.

Tropes associated with Achroma:

• Heel–Face Turn: Her presence is one for the Aces&Eights. From player-killers set on making money off of disturbing Daystar and Rockwald's challenge, their presence goes to basically doing the same thing as the heroes, with a much friendlier face, to boot.
• Shout-Out: Besides her game name meaning "colorless", it also is a reference to Magic: The Gathering angel Akroma.
• Token Evil Teammate: Sort of, but she's the one that's willing to murder every player looking to stop the progression.

Alysia & Freya

Two players asked to advertise the game. They appear in the starting cities.

Tropes associated with both:

• Badass in Distress: Despite being trapped in their respective cities, they are quite strong at fighting. Though they can't ever break out and are thus unable to contribute.
• Friendly Enemy: They're only here to advertise the game, and have no personal bone to pick with anyone — only fighting because Dragun and Jesus-kun are out to take down Lear (who they know nothing really bad about), which would take down the game.

Tropes associated with Alysia:

• BFS: Her nodachi is extremely long.
• Lady of War: Exhibits an air of elegance, yet she is very skilled at fighting.

Tropes associated with Freya:

• Cat Girl
• Cute Little Fangs: Appear on occasion.
• Fragile Speedster
• Kindhearted Cat Lover: She's a jolly person, and it's obvious she likes cats considering everything about her alludes to cats and how she coddles her pet in this game.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Her pet Nyu is a cat dragon.
• Puppet Fighter: She attacks in tandem with her pet cat, which, constrasting Caitlyn's healing pet and Annie's magic attack pet, is a DPS physical attack pet.
• Theme Naming: Everything about her is related to cats. Freya is a norse goddess who was related to cats, Mau is the Ancient Egyptian name for cats and Nyu is a slightly changed "nya", Japan's equivalent of "meow".

Darkstar

Another player aligned with Lear. He always appears to strike a conversation only to start a fight over the flimsiest of reasons.

Tropes associated with Darkstar:

• Anti-Villain: He's coerced into the situation by Lear who's using his love for Cordelia to pressure him into doing his bidding. Even though he'd rather not protect him, he has a tendency to attack the protagonists anyway because of his really snappy temper.
• Awesome, but Impractical: His build itself combines Jack of All Stats with this. His stat lineup is built with speed while the Luminario's size and Divine Block cover offense and defense. However, the weight of the Luminario makes him unable to Flash Step and his attack speed is slower than his movement, not to mention he effectively only has one asset for offense and defense.
• Black Swords Are Better: The Luminario is black with a white edge.
• Cute and Psycho: His little size and mood make him look like a little kid, yet slips into psychotic rage as he's fighting.
• Darker and Edgier: His only source of ego is playing himself as some dark variation on Daystar. He's also this to the similarly-clad Dragun.
• Emo Teen
• Evil Wears Black: Subverted. He starts out on Lear's side, but he turns on him as soon as he thinks he can afford to.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Due to his massive inferiority complex and the pressure Lear puts on him.
• Hey, You!: Addresses everyone this way in the game, with varying degrees of disrespect depending on Japanese Pronouns.
• Japanese Honorifics: Symbolizing how Goneril and Lear think of him as a kid, they address him as Masumi-kun and Masumi-chan respectively.
• Lightning Bruiser: Despite the lackings of his build, he still has high power, defense and speed, even despite Lear not bothering to cap his stats like Regan's or Goneril's.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: He insists on it, as he doesn't like his real name. Sadly for him, he has to answer to Lear, who makes it a point to call him by his real name, with various diminutives.
• The Power of Love: Not always a good thing; he notes that his association with Lear is only due to Cordelia being Lear's RL sister. However, it also causes his Heel–Face Turn when he leaks all his knowledge of The Very Definitely Final Dungeon (including boss stats, spawn point and The Maze) to Dragun and Jesus-kun so that they can save her, since he can't.
• Redemption Promotion: It mostly has to do with the opposition's mettle, but he is faster than Dragun and Jesus-kun at clearing the final dungeon's creeps.
• Sixth Ranger: Is this to whatever group he's in.
  • Sixth Ranger Traitor: To Lear, though Goneril and Regan had already betrayed Lear before he did.
• Unskilled, but Strong: He looks like so early on, mostly due to fighting like The Berserker. Post-Heel–Face Turn, he doesn't let rage overcome his reason and thus his actual skill shines on the Elite Mooks.

Goneril & Regan

Two of Lear's sisters, sent to antagonize the players attempting to get at him.

Tropes associated with both:

• Meaningful Name: The sisters' game names hit very close to home. It alludes to their closeness to Lear, and their nature: Goneril as a manipulator, and Regan as a force of violence.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Goneril and Regan [1] when Goneril sees an opening to leave with no threat to Lear paying her or her sisters back.
• Theme Naming: Lear forced his sisters to choose between the name of the original King Lear's three daughters.

Tropes associated with Goneril:

• Affably Evil: She's polite to her enemies more so than to her allies, but makes it clear she comes to halt their progress. Still, she is appalled at Lear's entrapment of Cordelia.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She surprisingly inverts GIFT, acting professionally and amiably to Freya and Alysia, but more disdainful to those she knows.
• The Chessmaster: She prefers manipulating people rather than getting her hands dirty, even turning to picking on Darkstar much like her brother would, except she just annoys him into doing what she asks him just so she'll leave him alone.
• Fish out of Water: She isn't a gamer at all, and doesn't behave like you'd expect an MMORPG player to, due to her complete lack of immersion. She never adresses people by their character name, instead calling them by their real name.
• Flaming Sword
• The Ojou: While much less rich than MICHIKA, she behaves the part just as much.
• One-Handed Zweihänder
• Pet the Dog: While distant, she behaves amiably to characters who aren't related to her.
• Pragmatic Villain: She turns coat when she notices that Lear has trapped Cordelia for no apparent reason and stands no chance against the opposing party.

Tropes associated with Regan:

• The Berserker: Between her Super Armor skill, fits of loud, reckless rage, capped stats everywhere, and general lack of reaction to attacks coming her way due to the previous three factors, Regan has all the attributes of one.
• Blood Knight: She has quite the propensity for violence.
• Extreme Doormat: Chiyo is very passive, and mercilessly exploited by her older siblings. Despite being a lot more threatening in-game, Regan is still this, though a less extreme case that mostly applies to Goneril.
• Fish out of Water: While not as bad as Goneril, Dragun and M. I-Za-Shi quickly realize in their parties' respective first fights against her that she is just a novice player given capped stats due to her lack of technique.
• Kick the Dog: She most often acts as Goneril's beatstick. This includes beating up Darkstar if he doesn't obey her.
• Middle Child Syndrome: As Goneril is the older sister and Cordelia is the youngest and Lear's favourite, Regan feels like she can't stand out on her own.
• The Sociopath: As Regan, Chiyo allows herself to vent her frustrations, and doesn't care about anyone but herself.
• Unskilled, but Strong

Draco

The apparent Final Boss of the World Tree. He's also the one responsible for acting out the hacking plan.

Tropes associated with Draco:

• The GM Is a Cheating Bastard: His mod status gives him access to all skills in the game (including Unique Magic and even Unique Skills) and maxed-out stats.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: His overpowered spells are not limited to him, and Dragun and Jesus-kun use the ones they got to defeat him.
• The Law of Diminishing Defensive Effort: Exploited by Darkstar. When he tells Jesus-kun and Dragun about how to beat him, he asks them to go for a huge burst of damage as Draco won't even defend himself due to how invincible he thinks he is. Doesn't stick, as Draco still is immortal, but this does cause him to play his "fake death" card very early.
• No Cure for Evil: Draco doesn't think of using the overpowered healing spell he has access to to heal himself.
• One-Handed Zweihänder: His sword is a two-handed sword, as made obvious by its length.
• Playing with Fire
• Shout-Out: Named after Draco Malfoy, as in the Trope Namer for Draco in Leather Pants.
  • His real name is taken after General Eugene from Sword Art Online.
  • His shield is named Dragon's Crest after a skill from Final Fantasy IX.
  • His secondary sword is named Night Terror after the boss from Soul Calibur III, and even looks like the sword it uses.
• Troll: See below.
• Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: When defeated, he fakes a glitched-out message as he disconnects.

Cordelia

Lear's sister, she was kidnapped by him and put into the place he intended for Michika.

Tropes associated with Cordelia:

• Attempted Rape: Possibly falls victim to this.
• Badass in Distress: She's stuck in Lear's admin room for a good portion of the incident, but she uses the capped stats Lear gave him and Divine Blade to help bring him to justice.
• Damsel in Distress: She's held captive by Lear where he used to have MICHIKA.
• Defiant Captive: When Jesus-kun and Dragun get to Lear, she cheers the rescuers on the entire time, and turns on Lear as soon as he's no longer an immediate threat to her.
• Identical Stranger: Downplayed. She looks like a younger MICHIKA at first glance despite being completely unrelated.
• Uptown Girl: She's from a substantially richer social status than her boyfriend Darkstar.

Lear

The Big Bad, responsible for the entire plot of that season.

Tropes associated with Lear:

• Always Someone Better: Despite his gorgeous artwork, Nachirou is not competent at game design — a major point of his jealousy of Daystar and Rockwald.
• Arc Villain: This time around, he takes center stage.
• Attention Whore: He wants everyone's adoration. He starts to do Rockwald and Daystar's challenge on his own using maxed-out stats to steal their thunder. He has a massive inferiority complex to Daystar and Rockwald, who are very respected for their work and conduct in-game or out.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Lear appears as a competent businessman in real life enough to get into the good graces of MICHIKA's parents (even though he's working to betray them).
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist:
  • The fact that there's a true Villain Antagonist is the biggest contrast.
  • But compared to Rockwald, Lear is not a Worthy Opponent: he locks the log-out button for STRATA players, hacks the servers so log-ins get redirected to his own game, locks MICHIKA in his admin-only room to take over her parents' company, and when that fails, does the same to Cordelia and uses her to pressure Darkstar into doing his bidding. Also, he's obviously incompetent at game design, with his only talent being his gorgeous art, and finally, unlike Rockwald, he needs to abuse his admin tools to be a threat.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: He's trying to take over the company he's working at.
• Dirty Coward: When the tables are turned on him, he throws a hissy fit and tries to get out of here but fails as Dragun and Jesus-kun carry out his punishment.
• Faux Affably Evil: He is this to everyone, but turns extreme with Darkstar. He speaks formally and politely while essentially blackmailing and psychologically abusing him.
• The GM Is a Cheating Bastard: The entirety of his threat level comes from this. He disables magic in his admin room and blinks his avatar as fast as his perceptions allow him to. He also uses STRATA, a game-breaker of a sword not meant for normal gameplay.
• Half the Man He Used to Be: In the game, Jesus-kun ends up bisecting him with the Lightbringer.
• Hate Sink: There's not a second where he appears to be anything but an asshole (or worse).
• Humiliation Conga: He suffers two.
  • In the Challenge Arc, his own challenge that he was doing solo gets laughed at because of his obvious cheated stats. His fight with Zi-tan leads to him getting angry that he can't just brush her off, and she even poisons him before he kills her, leading to Lear finding out he can't make himself immune to status effects. As he reaches the Zenith Knights' challengers, he is ambushed by the Aces & Eights hired by Seth on order of Rockwald, and the Aces & Eights beat him through his mod tools, because Jacky Blohnn used paralysing poison, leaving Lear powerless as Bloodshot JeJe cuts his feet off and PoP drags him off and buries Lear alive.
  • The L.M.A.O. equivalent starts when Goneril and Regan both turn on him, with Regan beats up Darkstar, preventing him from interfering for a good while. Then by his next fight with the heroes Darkstar himself finds an opportunity to turn on him and helps his opponents rush through the endgame. At this point, he can't turn to Alysia or Freya because he kept them in the dark and they are locked to their towns, and his only defense left is Draco who is himself put out of the picture in short order. Then Daystar (from outside the game) teleports Jesus-kun and Dragun in his private admin room, with Jesus-kun being on Daystar's account. Even though his admin tools allow him to dominate Dragun and Jesus-kun, nearly killing the former off in the process, his luck turns as Cordelia turns on him to help Jesus-kun protect Dragun, who relogs in as Rockwald, complete with admin tools, which gives the two time to remove his admin powers from his own game and punish him. When he logs out of the game, he awakes to the sight of the cops. He ends up thrown to court and executed for the variety of crimes he has committed.
• I Have You Now, My Pretty: He tried on MICHIKA, but it failed as she was quickly pulled out of the game. So he put his own sister in her place.
• Inelegant Blubbering: When he gets hit in the face by Divine Blade, his initial reaction is this. Then Dragun nulls the Pain Absorber and he Screams Like a Little Girl.
• Kick the Dog: In copious amounts, mostly towards Darkstar.
• Kick Them While They Are Down: How he tries to kill Dragun after killing his avatar. He freezes Dragun's death animation, leaving him vulnerable to another hit that would kill him again and lock him in a bugged death state, leaving Dragun unable to shut down his console and sticking him in a coma until the console is forcibly powered off or he dies.
• Killer Game Master: His primary method of dealing with the parties to get him is to send his stat-capped unkillable sisters and Darkstar at them.
• Moral Myopia: He complains about everything that happens to him while he's guilty of far worse crimes.
• No Sense of Personal Space: He gets far too close to every girl he has on hand at any moment.
• Orcus on His Throne: He spends most of the L.M.A.O. arc making creepy advances at his female captives as his subordinates do all his dirty work.
• Promotion to Parent: He ran away from his home and took away his sisters from their neglecting parents when he got his job. He hasn't been much better to them.
• Psychopathic Manchild: He uses admin powers for the Catharsis Factor of getting away with being the absolute worst, and throws a tantrum when things start not going his way.
• Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: He has Attempted Rape on both MICHIKA and Cordelia. This doesn't help his case when he is ultimaely brought to court for his various crimes.
• Stalker without a Crush: To MICHIKA. His attempt at marrying her only carries the purpose of helping him get higher up the social ladder.
• Villainous Breakdown: As things start going wrong for him, he effectively rages at everyone and everything for getting in his way.