Literature / Undefeated Bahamut Chronicle

Airi, Celistia, Lux, Lisesharte, Krulcifer and Philuffy.^note Not pictured: Yoruka.

Lux Arcadia is a prince — or rather, was the seventh Crown Prince of the Old Arcadia Empire, which collapsed five years ago following a catastrophic coup d'état. Now, he is living at the mercy of the New Kingdom Atsimata, the new ruling power of the realm, forced to do multiple odd jobs to pay off a staggering debt worth one-fifth of the national budget, both for his and his sickly younger sister Airi's sake.

On one job, however, he crashes into a bathhouse and falls upon Princess Lisesharte "Lisha" Atsimata, who is naturally nonplussed, challenging him to a duel of Drag-Knights, wielders of Drag-Rides, ancient mechanical combat suits found in ruins around the world. However, their duel is interrupted by an Abyss, enigmatic monsters that wrought havoc to the world. Lux, known as the "Weakest Undefeated" for his passive fighting style, fends off the monster long enough to help Lisha defeat it.

Following his performance, Lux is admitted into a prestigious, all-female Drag-Knight academy Lisha and Airi were studying in, where he meets a lot of friends, enemies, and suitors, even as he and Lisha confide to each other terrible secrets, some of which go all the way back to the Old Empire.

Undefeated Bahamut Chronicle ("最弱無敗の神装機竜" / "Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut" / "Bahamut the Weakest Undefeated") is a light novel series written by Senri Akatsuki and illustrated by Ayumu Kasuga (Gonna Be the Twin-Tail!! and Castle Town Dandelion) which published from August 2013 to August 2020 and concluded with 20 volumes. The series has a manga adaptation that ran for 11 volumes from December 2014 to May 2018 and an anime adaptation from the winter 2016 block, directed by Masaomi Ando for Lerche (Assassination Classroom).

The series has two wikis here and here.

Note that spoilers for the first five volumes (which were covered by the anime) are unmarked.

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Tropes in the series:

A-B

• Abusive Precursors: The Lords, the original owners of the Ruins. They originally created the Abyss, ostensibly as living weapons to suppress dissenters, but actually to harvest the life energy of their citizens to use to create Elixir, a drug which they consumed to gain supernatural powers. A branch of the family rebelled and overthrew the rest, only to found the Old Arcadia Empire and become just as bad. A small number of survivors went into stasis and emerge during the present of the series. Hayes, the first one to appear, is an Axe-Crazy Omnicidal Maniac who seeks to sow chaos and destruction purely for misguided revenge and an overblown sense of entitlement. Her elder sister Listelka appears to be friendly, but this is simply a facade to manipulate others - she believes that the world is rightfully hers and will do anything to achieve this, even sacrificing her own sisters if necessary. The only Lord who isn't abusive is the middle sister Aeril.
• Academy of Adventure: The Royal Knights Academy, in the Fort City Cross Feed, which trains Drag-Knights.
• Action Girl: By definition, every female Drag-Knights are this.
• Ace Pilot: To name a few: Lux Arcadia, Lisesharte Atismata, and Celistia Ralgris.
• All Your Powers Combined:
  • Sacred Eclipse can access the powers of the other seven Ragnarok. It starts with just Poseidon's, but it gains more powers each time it dies and resurrects.
  • Infinity, the special armament of Fugil's Drag-Ride Ouroboros, can create any other Drag-Ride around the user, even Divine Drag-Rides (which are otherwise unique).
• Ambition Is Evil: As mentioned by the In the Blood entry, the Arcadia family is genetically predisposed to doing whatever it takes to achieve their goals.
• Archaeological Arms Race: There are seven known Ruins containing Lost Technology and there is a turf war in investigating them. For Ruins whose locations were vague, there are mock battles between Drag-Rides held once in several months in each country so one could win the right to investigate them.
• Asshole Victim:
  • Although the Emperor of Arcadia was killed by Fugil, it was understandable considering his long list of crimes against humanity.
  • Barzeride Kreutzer spent the entirety of Volume 2 trying to force Krulcifer to marry him, all to use her to claim the technology of the Ruins for himself. He's killed by Hayes in the next volume, via forced Body Horror.
  • Dobar Fest is killed by Yoruka after he orders her and his soldiers to kill Airi for eavesdropping on their plans.
  • Gerdaf, a Sociopathic Soldier from Heiberg, spends much of Volume 8 trying to break Celestia mentally, only to be killed by an unknown Drag-knight (later revealed to be the King of Vices) when he fails.
  • Volume 14 features a short chain of assholes getting killed by another asshole, starting with Zweigbergk Gimle, who lost all sympathy when he tried to slowly kill the Triad for insulting his master. Then he's impaled by Hayes, an Ax-Crazy Lord who fused with Sacred Eclipse. Soon after that, Hayes is forced to kill herself due to her sister, Listelka, who is ambitious and lacks empathy towards everyone except herself and Fugil. Finally, Listelka is killed by Fugil when she outlives her usefulness and proves herself to be a threat to the world's balance.
• Bad People Abuse Animals: During the days of the Holy Arcadia Empire, the oppressed masses would vent their frustrations by assaulting helpless animals, and Fugil was attacked too for trying to save the animals. This serves as one of many reasons for Fugil's misanthropy.
• Balanced Harem: So far, the series has given all the girls in Lux's harem equal prominence to the story, with each girl having a minimum of 1 volume/2 episodes to develop their relationship with Lux. To hammer the point home, episode 10 features Lux going on a date with Celistia, Krulcifer, and Philuffy simultaneously. After that, Lisha tells him she plans to dub him her personal knight. After that, he is introduced to Yoruka, the servant he never knew he had. By Volume 15, Lux himself has come to accept the feelings of his harem... though the plot won't let them settle down just yet.
• Battle Harem: Lux's haremettes are all equipped with Powered Armor.
• Battle of Wits: Due to the sheer variety of Divine Drag-Rides and their Divine Raiments, different kinds of Baptism, and different Ragnarok abilities, victory tends to be achieved through creativity and analyzing the opponents' abilities rather than brute force.
• The Battlestar: The Moon, the only one of the Ruins that can fly. It can unleash a powerful bombardment, produce and control Abyss (even Ragnarok), and camouflage itself.
• Black Mail Is Such An Ugly Word: Played for Laughs in Volume 2/Episode 3, when Krulcifer tells him to pretend to be her boyfriend for a week. He later asks if some other guy wouldn't be better, prompting her to mention that maybe she should reveal that she saw him hiding in the girl's changing room. He then immediately agrees to put up with her charade for a week.
• Blue with Shock: Lux when he realizes he accidentally hid in the girl's changing room.
• Boarding School/One-Gender School: The New Kingdom of Atismata's Royal Knight Academy was an all-girls Drag-Knight school until Lux was enrolled.
• Brick Joke: In the first volume, Lux accidentally sees Lisha in the bath. In the sixteenth volume, he sees her younger sister Alma in the bath, and this helps him realize that Alma is Lisha's sister.

C-E

• Canis Major: Fenrir, one of the seven Ragnarok, is an enormous wolf with ice powers.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Alma Kilzrake, aka Almatea Atismata. She's first mentioned (though not by name) in Volume 1 by her older sister Lisha and believed to be dead. Fifteen volumes later, she makes her first appearance.
• Childhood Friends: A few characters are this in the series.
  • Lux Arcadia and Philuffy Aingram.
  • Triad members: Shalice Baltshift, Tillfur Lilmit, and Noct Leaflet.
• Compressed Adaptation: Really hits this series hard. The entirety of Volume 1 was compressed into two episodes, while this does seriously tone down the fanservice, numerous relevant plot points are omitted as well. Lux's first meeting with the Triad, recruiting Krulcifer to protect the princess Lisesharte, the full story of how he wound up sharing a room with Philuffy, and a significant portion of his backstory are all lost, among other things. It also removes characters that set up future events, such as Greifer and Coral.
• The Coup: Five years before the story, Count Atismata gathered people of The Resistance and staged an uprising against the Arcadia Empire with an army of 12,000 soldiers and 207 Drag-Knights they marched to the Imperial Capital. Even with those numbers, they would have lost if not for the "Black Hero" defeating the Empire's 1,200 Drag-Rides. In the end, the coup was successful but Count Atismata and his younger daughter died leaving his relative Raffi to become the Queen of the New Kingdom and his elder daughter Lisesharte, who was captured by the Empire early in the coup, to become the Princess. Though said younger daughter turned out to not be dead after all.
• Curb Stomp Cushion: Volume 15 features a chapter-long example with Fugil. The Seven Dragon Paladins and Aeril manage to put up a decent fight against him, to the point of making him bleed and forcing him to resummon Bahamut copies. When he brings out Ouroboros and defeats most of the paladins, Singlen manages to stall the huge mecha by freezing its parts from the inside. Despite all that, they are unable to land a decisive blow and eventually fall to his overwhelming power and skill.
• Date Peepers: Lisesharte and Philuffy do this to Lux and Krulcifer during their fake date in Volume 2/Episode 3.
• Does Not Like Men: A number of the senior students at the Academy have this attitude. Ironically, the most prominent of these, Celistia, turns out to be a subversion. She's actually just shy around men, which gets misinterpreted by others as dislike.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: In Volume 1/Episode 2, Velvet Barth pins Lisesharte to the ground and tears off her suit, exposing her belly and her Slave Brand, all the while claiming he is her master, mocking and insulting her. When Lisesharte attempts to fight back, Barth gets more aggressive. All in all, that scene really comes off as rape.
• Dragged into Drag: In the third volume, Lux is made by the Triad to dress as a girl to draw out male perverts who try to sneak into the girl's dormitory.
• Drunk with Power: When Arcadia's traitor branch overthrew the Lord's branch, Fugil states that they originally sought salvation and equality. After centuries of being in power, their empire eventually became tyrannical and misogynistic. Unfortunately, this seems to happen to all of the regimes that Fugil props up, and his only solution is to start another revolution and hope the new regime lasts longer before becoming corrupt.
• Dungeon Crawling: The Ruins are essentially video game dungeons, being abandoned buildings of a lost civilization filled with dangerous monsters but also valuable relics (including Drag-Rides). They are regularly explored in order to obtain these relics. With the return of the Ruins' owners, the Lords, this trope becomes vital to stop Sacred Eclipse. It is necessary to kill the other Ragnarok (the "bosses" of the Ruins), take the Grand Forces (large crystals) that they drop, and put them in altars in the depths of the Ruins to unlock the way to Avalon - The Very Definitely Final Dungeon.
• Ecchi: Some illustrations depict the girls underclothed.
• The Empire: The Old Arcadia Empire was an Androcracy (male-dominated rule), had heavy taxation, and performed human experimentation on their citizens.
• Everyone Has a Special Move: Or rather, every Divine Drag-Ride user has a Divine Raiment.
• Evolving Credits: The anime's ending changes based upon what happened to Lux during the episode. For example, when Lux is Dragged into Drag, a "girl" winds up holding the bouquet at the ends of the credits sequence.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Each Ruin has a one-word descriptive name: Garden contains various biomes, Ark is a ship, Gigas is a Humongous Mecha, and so on.

F-K

• Fake Relationship: In the second volume, Krulcifer had Lux act as her lover for a week in order to escape from a Bureaucratically Arranged Marriage. In the end, she does fall for Lux, her original arranged marriage is canceled after showing that Barzeride Kreutzer was scum, and the lady butler was thoroughly convinced that Lux was Krulcifer's lover and set up an arranged marriage between the two.
• Faux Action Girl: Averted in later volumes. While Lux often saves his harem members during the early volumes, they later get Mid Season Upgrades or additional skills that allow them to fight foes that Lux also struggles with. In some situations, such as Philuffy's battle against the King of Vices, they are actually more suited to fight the opponent than Lux due to the way their Divine Raiments work.
• Flash Back: Used regularly in the anime, largely when Lux is sleeping as a convenient way to reveal more about the coup that happened years earlier, and his role in it.
• For the Evulz: The Arcadia Empire's policies are often needlessly cruel, as shown when they perform deadly and horrific experiments on girls. Several antagonists, such as Fugil and Hayes, are also sadistic towards the protagonists and enjoy pushing their Trauma Buttons.
• Full-Circle Revolution: The Holy Arcadia royals/Lords monopolized Elixir in order to rule the world with an iron fist and oppress those outside their inner circle. The traitor branch used the peoples' resentment in order to overthrow the Lords and later become the Old Arcadia Empire, only to become just as tyrannical. According to Fugil, the traitors and the Lords spent millennia in a cycle of overthrowing each other, taking over, and becoming corrupt, with the occasional third party usurping them and joining the cycle. By the present, the Old Empire was overthrown by the New Kingdom Atismata, but even that isn't without its problems, such as Old Empire loyalists remaining in the government and secretly plotting against Atismata, which leads to Queen Raffi siding with Fugil and assassinating her political enemies.
• Future Spandex: The "dress gear" Drag-Knights wear when they pilot Drag-Rides. They efficiently conducted the energy from the Force Core and protected the equipped parts (of the body) as it also generated a powerful barrier, different from a common barrier, on its surface; it's only optional though since one can pilot one with just the Sword Device though with less protection.
• Gender-Restricted Ability: Females have a higher aptitude for Drag-Rides than males, on average. This means that Red Shirts and Mooks tend to be male while elite Drag-Knights tend to be female, though there are outliers.
• The Good, the Bad, and the Evil: The early volumes of the series mainly feature sympathetic protagonists fighting against corrupt nobles and remnants of both iterations of the evil Arcadia Empire, making it seem like Black-and-White Morality is in effect. Later volumes introduce more morally grey characters or reveal that some of the good or evil characters aren't as good or evil as initially presented. By the time of the New Kingdom Arc, most of the outright Evil factions have been either defeated by Lux's side (Good) or disposed of by Fugil (Bad) for the sake of his morally grey plan to create a utopia.
• "Groundhog Day" Loop: Volume 15 features one of these. Unusually, it doesn't involve time travel. By using Endless, the Divine Raiment of Ouroboros, Fugil rewrites people's memories so they repeat the same festival several times.
• Humongous Mecha:
  • Gigas, which looks like an immense stone golem and dwarfs the capital city of the New Kingdom. Unlike the other examples here, it isn't a Drag-Ride.
  • Installation-type Drag-Rides, of which the main example is Magialca's Divine Drag-Ride Jormungandr. Jormungandr has seven arms equipped with all sorts of weapons as well as a sturdy barrier, giving it incredible offensive and defensive power. However, once installed at a given location, it can't move from that location.
  • Rosa can create one temporarily by merging the wreckage of other Drag-Rides into her Gorynych. In this state, called Devil Machia Mode, Gorynych is capable of overpowering even Ragnarok, but it drains Rosa's stamina quickly.
  • Fugil's Drag-Ride, Ouroboros, is even bigger than the above Jormungandr, being literally the size of a castle. It's considered a Ruin as well as a Drag-Ride.
• In the Blood: Centuries ago, a scientist genetically modified the Arcadia traitor branch family to be ambitious and treacherous, which they believed would drive them to become stronger. This doesn't bode well for the rest of the world, as shown by Fugil and the emperor's actions.
• Instant Allegiance Artifact: The Abyss-summoning horn flute allows whoever wields it to give orders to the Abyss. To date, the only one on the protagonist's side who's shown any competence with it is Airi.
• Kraken and Leviathan: Kraken is a type of Abyss that resembles a giant squid. The Ragnarok Poseidon looks like a Kraken but is far larger and stronger.

L-O

• Lack of Empathy: While the villains have different motivations ranging from For the Evulz to Ambition Is Evil, most of them write off the suffering of their victims as necessary sacrifices or believe that caring about the weak is too much trouble.
• Lady and Knight:
  • Lux qualifies for both sides of the trope. First, he's the White Knight to four different Bright Ladies: Lisha, Celistia, Philuffy, and Krulcifer. He's also the Bright Lord to Yoruka's Black Knight.
  • Fugil used to be this to Arshalia, in a disturbing parallel of Lux's relationship with Lisha.
• La Résistance: From Volume 16 on, one of these forms to oppose the New Kingdom, after Raffi's Face–Heel Turn. It's led by Magialca and has Lux, Aeril, and Alma as prominent members.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Throughout the series, there are repeated hints that Lux doesn't remember some important facts. This is revealed to be due to the memory-altering Divine Raiment of Fugil's Drag-Ride.
• Living MacGuffin: The Xfer are a race of beings with the ability to interact with the technology of the ruins. Krulcifer is one.
• Living Weapon: The Abyss and Ragnarok were created as these, but after considerable neglect due to the Ruins being abandoned after a long-forgotten collapse, they've become indiscriminately hostile to any and all humans they come across unless controlled by an horn flute. The normal Abyss were mainly created to fight rebels, criminals, and external enemies. One type of Abyss, the Angels, were used to devour the Empire's own citizens to steal their life energy. The Ragnarok were created to guard the Ruins.
• Lost Technology: The Ruins contain these such as the Drag-Rides.
• Lotus-Eater Machine: Endless, the Divine Raiment of Ouroboros, can do this by rewriting the memories and perceptions of people on a massive scale. Only people who have both undergone Baptism and have the will to resist can break free. Lux is trapped in this for the majority of Volume 15. Almost everyone else is still trapped.
• Love Confession:
  • Krulcifer has two of these, directed at Lux, at the ends of her respective volumes (2 and 7).
  • Yoruka confesses her love to Lux at the end of Volume 11, which is all the more significant since it shows that she's becoming more human.
  • Volume 15 has Lux eavesdrop on Celistia practicing confessing to him. He later makes his own confession first. Then the Lotus-Eater Machine resets, and in the next loop he ends up confessing to Yoruka instead, having forgotten his confession to Celistia (though he has vague feelings of guilt).
• Low Culture, High Tech: The setting of the series has Medieval culture using Lost Technology from the Ruins.
• Mini-Mecha: The Mechanical Dragons a.k.a. the Drag-Rides.
• Naked First Impression:
  • Lux first meets Lisesharte nude in the academy's communal bathroom when he saves her from the falling debris of the roof he fell through. He immediately recalls something an old man he worked for telling him to compliment girls and says she's cute. This throws her off guard for a moment, though he keeps saying stuff that ends up digging himself deeper, such as mentioning she looks like she's still a child.
  • He later does this again with Alma, Lisha's younger sister. While this wasn't the first time he'd met her, he didn't know that she was a girl before this. Hilariously, the similarity between these two incidents is part of the reason for Lux realizing that she's Lisha's sister.
• Neglectful Precursors: At the start of the series, the creators of the mysterious Ruins are missing. Although archives and documentation exist within the ruins that occasionally explain the purpose of specific rooms, or blueprints and technology left unattended, no documentation, explanation, or signage exists outside the ruins, and exploration teams face extreme danger trying to investigate one due to wandering feral living weapons that attack indiscriminately on sight. Then the Ruins' creators reawaken from stasis, and prove themselves to be Abusive Precursors.
• One-Gender Race: The Xfer are a race of humans who seem to be all-female. Among all the known Xfer (and former Xfer, in the case of the Automata), there aren't any males.
• One-Winged Angel: Several villains use a high dose of Elixir to transform themselves into a monstrous creature called a Nocturnal. Nocturnals have massively increased physical abilities, as well as black skin, white hair, and red eyes. However, their negative emotions are also amplified.
• Our Angels Are Different:
  • Angels are a special type of Abyss only found in Avalon. Being indiscriminately violent like other Abyss, they're a firm example of Light Is Not Good. They were originally created by the Holy Arcadia Empire to devour its own citizens, ostensibly because they were political dissidents, but really to steal their life energy for refining into Elixir.
  • Metatron, one of the seven Ragnarok, has an appearance more faithful to the original depictions of angels. It is a giant sphere covered in eyes and wings, capable of shooting lasers from its eyes and reflecting any attacks.

P-R

• People's Republic of Tyranny: The Heiburg Republic is really a hellhole where the citizens are regularly oppressed by corrupt soldiers For the Evulz. The nation is run not by a body of elected politicians, but by a Shadow Dictator known as the King of Vices.
• Polyamory: So far, Lux's haremettes doesn't seem to have a problem sharing him with each other. In the final episode, they even have a humorous discussion as to why they are entitled to have him: Krulcifer is his bride-to-be, Celistia is his sempai, Philuffy is his childhood friend and Yoruka is his servant. The only exception is Lisha.
• Puppeteer Parasite: The Ragnarok Yggdrasil can implant portions of itself into other Abyss, taking control of them and increasing their power. It is possible to resist the orders, as Philuffy demonstrates, but this has severe consequences for health.
• Red Baron: A few characters have epithets.
  • Lux Arcadia: "Chore Prince", "Weakest Undefeated" and the "Black Hero".
  • Lisesharte Atismata: The "Scarlet War Princess".
  • Barzeride Kreutzer: "Title Holder of the Kingdom".
  • Yoruka Kirihime: "Assassin Blade".
• Required Secondary Powers: Some Divine Drag-rides are so powerful that they can't be operated for long periods of time, but direct Elixir usage or Baptism allows the pilot to extend their operation period.
• Royally Screwed Up: Combined with Big, Screwed-Up Family. Lux's side of the royal family was already shown to be Obviously Evil before the revolution due to their sexist policies and penchant for human experimentation, but later volumes reveal they've been corrupt for centuries due to their betrayal of their relatives, who were the rulers of the preceding Holy Arcadia Empire. Worse yet, they all have a genetic trait that increases their sense of ambitiousness. The Holy Arcadia princesses themselves are no saints either because they have no qualms about hurting unrelated people in their quest to restore their power, and they weren't so different from their usurpers in how they treat their subjects. So far, Lux, Airi, and Aeril are the only members of their family to be portrayed sympathetically.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: A few characters are royalty.
  • Lux, Airi, and Fugil are the only survivors of the royal family of the Old Arcadia Empire. Lux and Fugil are skilled with Drag-Rides, the former being the Black Hero who was instrumental in the defeat of the empire. Airi is unable to fight, but is training to become a civil official and learns how to use a horn flute to control Abyss. Additionally, only those with Arcadia blood (from either branch) can use Grand Forces from Ragnaroks to activate and control ruins.
  • Lisesharte, the princess of the New Kingdom Atismata, is a member of the Knight Squadron, can fight with, is a mechanic and engineer of Drag-Rides.
  • Yoruka is the last survivor of the royal family of Koto and an infamous assassin for the Arcadia Empire.
• Rule of Seven: There are seven major countries, each of which contributes two Drag-Knights to form the Seven Dragon Paladins and their seven aides. There are seven Ruins (excluding Avalon, which is special), seven Automata (excluding Arshalia, Avalon's Automaton), and seven Ragnarok (excluding Sacred Eclipse).

S

• Schmuck Bait: In Volume 2/Episode 3, Lux is given a red order slip by the headmaster, and tells the girls that whoever can grab the paper can order him to do whatever they want for the next week. Lisesharte pulls this on him when she asks him something in the hangar. As he answers, she grabs him with her mecha. He then asks to be freed so he can give her the paper. The moment she does, he runs off.
• Secret-Keeper: A few people know that Lux was the "Black Hero".
  • Before the events of Volume 1: Queen Raffi, his sister Airi, Relie, some officials and nobles of the New Kingdom Atismata.
  • After the events of Volume 1^note after Velvet Barth's army's rebellion attempt: Shalice, Tillfur, Noct, Lisha, Krulcifer.
  • Ambiguous whether if they knew before the events of Volume 1: Philuffy.
• Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: Combined with Virtue Is Weakness. Almost every antagonist is extremely cynical due to being betrayed by society in some way or due to being caught up in aristocratic power struggles, causing them to scoff at Lux's attempts to be an Ideal Hero.
• The Simple Gesture Wins: In Episode 9, Lux goes on back-to-back-to-back dates with three girls from his Unwanted Harem: upperclasswoman Celeste, The Ojou Krulcifer, and his Childhood Friend, Philuffy. For the first two dates, the girls take him out for a romantic walk and a dance, respectively, where they discuss their feelings and goals for the future. For the final date, Lux is confused when Philuffy brings him to a cathedral, but then she tells him to simply lay his head on her lap and go to sleep. She does this because she knows he's exhausted after the first two dates and greatly needs the rest. When the date is over, Lux says that he really needs to thank her for the gesture.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Every girl in Lux's harem fell in love with him because he either saved their lives, helped them overcome a problem they were having or was just nice to them.
• Slave Brand: Lisesharte has the mark of the Empire on her lower abdomen from the time she was captured before the coup d'état.
• Space Master:
  • Hayes' Divine Raiment, Astral Line, allows her to cut space with her sword. The cuts can split any material regardless of its durability, and as a bonus act as indestructible walls.
  • Deus ex Machina is a far more powerful example. It can teleport any object, including itself, and at a long-range. It can also compress space in a given area, crushing anything inside.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: Philuffy does this to Lux in Volume 2/Episode 3 after he manages to escape from Lisesharte. As he hides behind some bushes, she suddenly shows up behind him.
• Super Mode: Over Limit, a mode in which all of the limiters a Drag-Ride normally has (to minimize damage to the user and itself) are removed. It increases the power by several times, but the increased burden on the user can leave them bedridden for a long time.
• Super Serum: Elixir, a liquid that shines in the colors of the rainbow. When injected into the body, it can grant enhanced physical abilities, but if done incorrectly the user will transform into a monstrous being called a Nocturnal. Elixir was originally created as an attempted Immortality Inducer by the Holy Arcadia Empire. Moreover, it is refined from the life energy of living things and is more effective the closer the life energy source is to the user. Consequently, the Elixir shown in the series is refined from the life energy of humans.
• Support Party Member: Drakes are weaker in direct combat than Wyverns and Wyrms, but come with all sorts of functions to support allies, such as radar, camouflage, armor repair, and energy transfer. The last function is useful for supporting the less energy-efficient Divine Drag-Rides. To a lesser extent, there are Drake-type Divine Drag-Rides like Yato-no-Kami that have these functions on top of their unique Divine Raiments and armaments.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: Lisesharte tells Lux that she totally wasn't spying on him and Krulcifer during their fake date. When he tries to point out that she's wearing a disguise, she simply claims it's part of a hobby.

T-U

• Teleportation: This is the Divine Raiment of Celistia's Divine Drag-Ride.
• Thanks for the Mammaries: Lux often accidentally gropes the girls.
• Theme Naming: The Drag-Rides are named for various kinds of dragons. The three general types are called Wyvern, Wyrm, and Drake. The Divine Drag-Rides are named for specific dragons: Tiamat, Fafnir, Typhon, Bahamut, Lindwurm, Nidhogg, Cuelebre, etc.
• This Is a Drill: Lisha is constantly trying to convince Lux to let her add a drill to his Drag-Rides, and complaining about his refusal. She puts a drill on her own to directly demonstrate its value to him.
• Too Dumb to Live: Along with Stupid Evil, we have Diseld Arcadia, the late emperor of the Arcadia Empire. He ignores the unprecedented accomplishments of the youngest and most talented Drag-ride pilot ever, (not to mention the most loyal), and throws the boy out on his ear because said boy, who happens to be his own son, dared commit the crime of warning him about the mounting hatred the populace has for his policies, despite that boy having every reason to want him dead, seeing as said emperor is also indirectly responsible for the death of his mother due to being thrown out of the castle and abandoned. Then, to twist the knife further, has his agents seize that poor boy's childhood friend, the very girl who saved his life and took him in, so his "scientists" can subject her to horrific experiments that she's not likely to survive, and then turns away the girl's mother who runs a very powerful and influential trading company which, if angered, could wreck the Empire's entire economy, and refuses to free the poor girl. Finally, he takes the loyalty of the White Hero, Fugil, for granted despite being everything the latter opposes. Seriously, how did he not see his downfall coming?'
• Top Wife: Once all the principal love interests are established, the women reluctantly resign themselves to the fact that they must share Lux with each other. That doesn't mean they don't want to be his favorite or seek to gain some sort of advantage/claim over the other (such as Lux being their fiance, knight, master, etc.).
• The Unfettered: A philosophy promoted by several characters such as Fugil and the King of Vices, who argue that it is the only way to ultimately come out on top.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: On a national level and leading to Not Your Problem. The Old Empire is the force that unleashed Poseidon in the first place, presumably by accident. Numerous countries were destroyed by it before a multi-national alliance between the Empire and the second strongest military of the world joined forces to defeat it, at horrific cost, but this only temporarily sealed it, and the protagonists have to go face it, unaided. Worse, they also have to worry about being backstabbed by Empire insurrectionists, among others, who are trying to exploit the chaos to usurp the kingdom for their own ends, none of which are good.
  • A larger example of this is Celistia herself. When she revealed the Empire's corruption to Lux's grandfather Wade, he confronted the emperor about it. This got him imprisoned and Lux's side of the family banished. This would lead to a series of events that would later end in the downfall of the Arcadia Empire.
• Unwitting Pawn: The Old Empire loyalists don't know that their backers, Fugil's faction, orchestrated the fall of the Old Empire in the first place.

V-Z

• The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: Avalon. It's only unsealed by placing the Grand Force in each of the other seven Ruins. It is guarded by Angels, a special type of Abyss. It has the means to control Sacred Eclipse and stop it from destroying the world. It has a treasure trove of advanced technology that would allow its possessor to dominate the world. It is the largest and most powerful Drag-Ride yet, with a Divine Raiment that can alter the minds of everyone in the entire world. Despite all this, it's ultimately a subversion: Fugil gets to it first and successfully activates it. There is thus an entire arc after the "clearing" of Avalon.
• Was Once a Man: The Automata were once human, more specifically being part of the Xfer clan. They suffered from an incurable illness and so were made into their current state.
• Wham Episode:
  • The epilogue of Volume 5 drops the bombshell that the "Creators" of the Ruins are actually members of the ancient Holy Arcadia Empire that preceded the recently overthrown Old Arcadia Empire. Worse yet, Hayes is only one of three of their princesses.
  • The epilogue of Volume 15 has Fugil succeed in using Avalon to brainwash the masses. Magialca and Singlen are dead, Aeril's fate is uncertain, and Queen Raffi is chosen to be the center of Fugil's new history, meaning Lux may have to turn the entire New Kingdom into his enemy. The afterword states that the next volumes will make up the New Kingdom arc.
• Wham Line: At the end of episode 8.
  Philuffy: "The Abyss. It's here."
• When Trees Attack: Yggdrasil, one of the seven Ragnarok. It can use its branches to attack and move around using its roots. It has a potent Healing Factor, an Adaptive Ability that makes it even harder to kill, and on top of that can control other living things and consume Drag-Rides to incorporate their weapons into itself.
• The Worf Effect:
  • Singlen's first fight has him effortlessly beat Lux and Noct simultaneously.
  • The revived Ragnarok are on both the giving and receiving end of this trope. They start out decimating an elite army and would have wiped them out without Yoruka's intervention. Then they get defeated by the Seven Dragon Paladins.
• Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: In Volume 15, the Paladins appear to have conquered Avalon and the world seems to be moving towards more peaceful times, which also has the fortunate side effect of giving the girls more time to get closer to Lux. The happy ending is revealed to be the result of mass brainwashing performed by Fugil, and the volume ends with Lux realizing this and confronting his former mentor.

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