Princess Sakura is the last survivor of Adarl, desperate to restore her country. With the help of her bodyguard and brother-in-law Gray, she summons a marebito, a guardian from another world.
Enter Kai, a perfectly ordinary human from Japan. As a human, he is uniquely capable of being blessed with Sakura's god-curse and fighting anyone who stands in her way. However, it quickly becomes apparent that his broad understanding of technology is far more valuable. In this new world, which is slowly industrializing, he knows enough to help leap technology forward.
Also, Kai gets his power by sucking Sakura's breast. Oh, yeah, forgot to mention: this is from the creators of The Qwaser of Stigmata.
This manga provides examples of:
- Accidental Pervert: Kai occasionally sees the girls in various states of undress by accident. The reaction depends on the girl in question.
- Amazon Brigade: With Kai and Shiera missing at the Labyrinth, the rest of Kai's Battle Harem (composed by Ligia, Doronea, Nia and Sakura) go looking for them.
- Animorphism: Nia can transform into a leopard. Ligia mentions the transformation is thanks to her pure-blood and it's quiet rare.
- Aristocrats Are Evil: Duke Gazuro is an Ax-Crazy Fat Bastard who sees everyone besides him as "Savages".
- Bathing Beauty: The mangaka loves to illustrate the girls of Kai's Battle Harem bathing every chance he gets, especially Sakura.
- Beach Episode: Chapter 18, which occurs before the Garandoa arc, involves the Lemurian company visiting the beach, with predictable results.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: Nia actually chose to help Kai save Sakura after the latter used most of her jewels to buy her freedom.
- Bedmate Reveal: While not in a bed, when Kai wakes up in the Labyrinth, he finds a naked Shiera laying next to him.
- The Berserker: Using drugs, the Empire can make their soldiers ignore all pain and fear, fighting to the death.
- Big Brother Instinct: Havol is very protective of Doronea, and refuses to marry (which is a very important Dwarven tradition) until she has found a worthy man.
- Black-and-White Morality: In the beginning part of the story, Albion is portrayed as a far more benevolent power than Dhala which exemplifies some of the worst aspects of Colonialism. When the story gets to the actual Albion Kingdom, that no longer holds true. In the past, the king was a warmonger who made up lies to justify conquests, even against their ancestral allies, and even in the present where most of the royals are trying to move past that sore spot in history, there are elements within the kingdom that want to go back to those days.
- Blow You Away: Nordri Ambrosia gives Kai power over wind, as well as flight.
- The Cavalry: In chapter 20 just as Regan is about to order his troops to destroy the Labyrinth, Albion warships arrive just in time to destroy their remaining cannons.
- Cool Mask: Kai wears an elaborate mask to hide that he is not Gray.
- Cursed with Awesome: Kai is specifically called a God-cursed, and taking the power of the Ambrosia gives him great power at the temporary cost of his sanity.
- Dead Person Impersonation: After Gray dies, Kai pretends to be him in order to make use of a military company that is planning to assault the castle where Sakura is being held for unrelated reasons. He mostly gets by on luck, judicious application of dynamite, and some half-remembered sales lessons. Afterwards, the prince decides that his punishment should be that he must continue pretending to be Gray.
- Determinator: Ren, Kai's steward, manages to deliver an important message to Sakura despite having been pushed off a train and breaking an arm.
- Does Not Like Magic: The dwarves find magic, with its inconsistent rules and restrictions, to be annoying at best.
- Elemental Powers: Utilizing the Ambrosia, Kai can enter Cursed-God mode and use an elemental power depending on the form.
- The Empire: The Dhala empire is an expansionistic, dark-elf country that destroys or enslaves those it conquers.
- Energy Weapon: The world is on the beginning of an Industrial Revolution to the point of having trains, revolver guns, and chain guns. Cue the surprise when Bred Regan pulls out a futuristic LASER GUN out of nowhere to everyone's shock, in-universe characters and audience alike.
- Evil Colonialist: The Dhala Empire doesn't care if they destroy or enslave the local populations of the territories they conquer if it means ushering an "age of science".
- Expy: Some characters are visually almost identical to those from the author's previous work The Qwaser of Stigmata: Ligia is almost identical to Mafuyu Oribe, Luca has the same design as Sasha, Doronea is a dead ringer for Tomo Yamanobe, and Suzuri is Ekaterina "Katja" Kurae.
- Fallen Princess: Sakura is the only surviving member of the Adarl royal family after her nation was destroyed by the Dhala empire.
- False Flag Operation: An unusual variant plays out at the end of the Sinchar arc. In order to unite the warring factions, Kai and Shiera raise an armada of unmanned ships to create the illusion of an invading force led by Grey Enfield. Faced with a common enemy, Aldia of the Desert Nomads and Shah Yamlika both put their support behind Kai, who uses the power of Aldia's Ambrosia to drive off the "invaders".
- Fantastic Drug: Mermaid's Blood is made by synthesizing nereid's blood, and is so strong the addicts are capable of tearing each other apart to get more.
- Fantastic Racism: Dwarves in general do not have much love for Elves referring to them as Long Ears (Albion) or Black Ears (Dhala). The Devils of Yashimano consider the other tribes in the East to be inferior, especially the Beast peoples who they considered until recently to be little better than livestock.
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Dr Velanto wears Scary Shiny Glasses, and has no problem using Sarin gas on his own troops if it means damaging the enemy as well.
- Giant Enemy Crab: There's a horde of giant spider crabs guarding the eighth floor of the Labyrinth. Luckily Shiera knows the trick to disorient and kill them.
- Gilligan Cut: Just as Prince Luca says there won't be a problem in Neraia Isle if Kai doesn't confront Bred Regan, cut to Kai confronting Bred Regan for his crimes against the nereids.
- Giving Radio to the Romans: In the most literal sense of the trope, too. The Hasas managed to held fast against the Yashimano Empire because a marebito summoned by the Yashimano gave them both radio units.
- Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: Bred Regan always has a cigarette, and is a ruthless man who wants to destroy all magic.
- The Good Kingdom: The elven kingdom of Albion, which Grey used to serve, directly opposes the Dhala Empire and the way they treat their colonies is far less severe. Prince Luca mentions there's a lot scheming to get the throne, but so far hasn't directly involved Kai and Sakura.
- An Ice Person: Shizuna is an ice-folk (Yuki Onna) and can cast very powerful ice spells.
- Ignored Expert: Shiera refuses to guide any more adventurers into the Labyrinth because every time they went, they ignored her warnings and got killed by monsters.
- Innocent Fanservice Girl: Doronea doesn't mind being seen naked by Kai, and would've danced naked when asked to had Nia and Ligia not stopped her. However, this all seems to be due to lack of understanding social graces.
- Intimate Healing: After falling in the ocean, Shiera strips down naked and shares her body heat with Kai to save him from having a hypothermia.
- Jack of All Trades: Kai has worked at basically every job in Japan, from salesman to miner. Due to his habit of reading up on the background of every job he had, he knows enough about modern technology to teach the basics to the locals. For example, they already had nitroglycerine, but couldn't figure out how to stabilize it. He taught them how to turn it into dynamite.
- Kiss of Life: Kai feeds Shiera the true Blood of the Mermaid through the mouth so she can recover from the wounds given by the land-shark, and later she gives Kai this underwater, right as her newly awakened Ambrosia manifests
- Large and in Charge: King Havol is huge for a dwarf, and is the ruler of a very powerful country.
- Loophole Abuse: This is how Kai convinces the Hasas to work with him; if the Lemurian Company hires the Hasas and the Yashimano attack the latter, then the Kingdom of Albion can proclaim being the wronged party and turn on the treacherous Yashimano.
- MacGuffin Super-Person: Sakura has the Ambrosia, one of the last pieces of magic left in the world. It can be used to give any human temporary superpowers, but there are implied to be other uses, which is why The Empire wants it.
- The Magic Goes Away: The gods-given magic has been slowly disappearing from the world, with the Ambrosia being some of the last of it. The world has been industrializing to compensate for the loss of magic.
- Magic Versus Science:
- The world is industrializing and turning away from the magic of the gods. While magic is more powerful than technology (at least current technology), science is vastly more reliable. Magic tends to curse its users, only work for specific people, or just do weird things based on obscure rules. The Dwarves even go as far as to say their lives have been better since magic left.
- Dr Valento, the bloodsucker chemist, sees science as a direct defiance of magic, and wants nothing more than to use his science to face magic and win.
- Bred Regan also believes all magic is unfair or too limited, and wants all of it to be destroyed, even when his superiors would prefer to capture the Ambrosia wielders alive. Cue Bred pulling out a LASER GUN and defeating a Cursed-God Mode Kai which was, up until that point, thought to be unbeatable.
- Averted in that, Kai uses magic to channel his knowledge of science showing his fighting style to be a harmonious blend of the two.
- Making a Splash: Oceanos Ambrosia gives control over the water with enough pressure it can cut through reinforced steel.
- Majorly Awesome: Grey was a major in the Lemurian company and Kai inherits the position. And they're both skilled enough to earn it.
- Molotov Cocktail: Kai basically introduces the concept by using one to distract some Dhala guards from the entrance of a plant.
- More Dakka: Gatling guns have just recently been invented, so The Empire has chainguns capable of firing forty rounds every ten seconds. Note that in the real world, our best machine guns can fire anywhere from three hundred to a thousand rounds every ten seconds.
- More Deadly Than the Male: Dwarven men are elite warriors and war-engineers who craft and use the finest weapons in the world. Dwarven women are the ones who keep their society running smoothly through careful use of assassination.
- Mundane Utility: Kai often uses the magic he gains form the Cursed-God Mode to channel scientific uses. Shakuntala herself can't tell whether this annoys her or amazes her. In example, Kai used Indra's Lightning to create Sonic-Welding and Arc-Welding.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: The Yashimano higher-ups decide to try and kill Kai during an avalanche because previous rebellions were led by a God-Cursed, so they don't want to take any risks. This puts Kai in a perfect position to negotiate with the Hasas so he can fight for them against the treacherous Yashimano.
- Older Than They Look: Unsurprising for a halfling, Celia looks like a child despite being older. Suzuri looks like a child, but she wouldn't be called High Mother if she didn't had the age to back it up-
- Our Elves Are Different: Elves are the dominant species of the world, breaking down into the usual subraces. Despite that they tick off all the needed tropes for elves being beautiful, fair, and intelligent.
- High Elves: The main heroic faction of the Kingdom of Albion. Currently at war with Dhala.
- Dark Elves: The longtime rivals of Albion and primary antagonist of the series with a ruthless expansionist empire, currently at war with Albion.
- Sea Elves: Descendants of Mermaids, and are referred as Nereids.
- Our Dwarves Are Different: They zig-zag this trope. Males are fairly typical, being bearded, proud, stubborn, upfront and excellent warriors. On the other hand, females are far more reserved and prefer to act from the shadows.
- Our Ghouls Are Different: They're shape-shifting, alien-like creatures that feed on corpses and live in sewers.
- Our Mermaids Are Different: They are called Nereids and while they lack a fish tail, they're descendants of true merpeople, and once their empire controlled a large part of the Teraide sea. Shiera becomes a true mermaid when she's given Oceanos Ambrosia that was kept within the Labyrinth.
- One-Man Army: In God-Cursed mode, Kai can easily decimate an army, and he instinctively knows how to use its powers to deadly effect.
- Playing with Fire: Efreet Ambrosia gives Kai control over fire and magma.
- Power at a Price: The Ambrosia can turn any human into a nigh-unstoppable elemental killing machine, but they will be in a berserk rage for the duration of the transformation. It's even called "the blessing of the gods' curse."
- Pretty Princess Powerhouse: Doronea shows she's a true Dwarf Princess by going into battle and saving her brother.
- Red Baron: Eventually Kai gets called "Grey the War God" by both the kingdom of Albion and the Dhala Empire.
- Reluctant Fanservice Girl: Ligia isn't enthusiastic about wearing a revealing belly dancer outfit like the other girls or being forced to wear a skimpy swimsuit.
- Required Secondary Powers: As expected from a descendant of Merfolk, Shiera shows herself capable of holding her breath far longer than a human and can withstand the cold water temperatures and pressure without issue.
- Schizo Tech: Thanks to the influence of Humans summoned from various time periods, the natural advancement of science has been twisted in random directions. The setting is roughly equivalent to the late 19th century with steam powered tanks, Sarin gas, futuristic laser guns, etc, thrown in for good measure. It's pointed out that this has both good and terrible consequences on the world.
- Science Hero: Kai alternates between using scientific knowledge from his previous works to best his enemies, and the godly power granted to him by the Ambrosia.
- Science Fantasy: There are various races expected of a fantasy setting like elves and dwarves, and yet the setting is more advanced than medieval times with guns and cannons being commonplace and one laser gun being shown used.
- Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: The Higher-ups at Yashimano try to get rid of Kai because previous rebellions were led by a God-Cursed like him. Kai survives and now he's in a perfect position to work with the Hasas to fight back against the Yashimano in rebellion.
- Sexy Secretary: Reyu is Prince Luca's secretary, and quite lovely as well.
- Shameless Fanservice Girl: Shakuntala, unlike Sakura, doesn't mind flashing her boobs in public to give Kai the Ambrosia. She also seems to enjoy putting all the other ladies into positions that force them to flaunt their goods.
- Shock and Awe: Indra Ambrosia gives Kai the power to control lightning and electricity.
- Shown Their Work: The knowledge Kai has from his previous jobs are all well researched, among them that sharks can hunt using the ampule of Lorenzini, which allows them to sense the electric impulses of their prey, even in total darkness.
- The Social Darwinist: Bred Regan believes he and the empire have every right to abuse and destroy those who are conquered by virtue of being stronger than them.
- Split Personality: Sakura's Ambrosia has its own personality, which calls itself Shakuntala. She acts far older and wiser than Sakura, as well as with more cruelty, but seems to have Sakura's best interests at heart.
- Storming the Castle: Kai, along with the Lemurian Company, storm Duke Gazuro's fortress to save Sakura.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: It turns out that the actions Kai took to end the civil war in Sinchar (namely, framing Grey Enfield as a warmongering invader to give the warring factions a common enemy to rally against) is a good way to get arrested for treason.
- Threatening Shark: The monster guarding the ninth floor of the Labyrinth is a giant land-dwelling shark, that killed every adventuring party Shiera led until Kai managed to kill it.
- Token Human: Humans, or Marebito as the populace calls them, are rare. Kai is the only human among Albion's forces. It's later revealed that the Hasas have a Marebito of their own, an American radio operator named Clark.
- Token Mini-Moe: Celia, by virtue of being a halfling.
- Unwanted Harem: Kai gets a princess of a fallen kingdom, a pureblood werecat, an army captain, an alchemist, and a princess of a prospering kingdom all lusting after him. Kai is well aware that the situation makes his life much more complicated... but can't help but privately admit that it has its perks.
- We Have Reserves: Valento convinces the dark elf generals to shell their own men because ordering a retreat order first would warn the enemy. Then when the battle turns, he casually escapes and leaves them behind.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Bred Regan believes that science is morally superior to magic, since it is fair and works for all instead of being subject to the whims of gods. To that end, he wants to destroy all magic, despite the orders of his superiors. Of course, there's more than a little hypocrisy here, as his "fair world" involves him torturing people to create a drug that he uses to enslave the survivors.
