Stride Vollachia

Stride Vollachia (ストライド・ヴォラキア) was a former prince of the Sacred Vollachia Empire and a Sin Archbishop of the Witch Cult, representing Pride. He was a younger Wilhelm van Astrea's mortal enemy. He was the main antagonist of Sword Demon Love Story and Sword Demon Battle Ballad.

Born a sickly prince who was expected to die under the harsh tutelage of Eight Arms Kurgan, he was a man who came to find disgust in the Observers and their Stargazers. Following his failure to become the emperor, he obtained a Witch Factor and become one of the Witch Cult's Sin Archbishops, and with his wife, Kurgan, and shinobi subordinates, he began generating strife within the Kingdom of Lugunica.

In his final campaign against the Kingdom, in an event that has come to be remembered as the Subjugation of the Blight Dragon, Stride assaulted the Commercial City of Picoutatte, summoning and manipulating the Blight Dragon Valgren with his Authority. However, in the end, he, alongside his wife, were devoured by that very Dragon.

Appearance

From a mere glance, Stride Vollachia could easily be recognized as a man of status around thirty years of age. His features, which helped distinguished his importance, were uncommonly sharp and noble. He had grey eyes and long, rich deep-purple hair that had a silky look to it and reached past his shoulders. His slim body had, ever since his youth, been riddled by illness that made even the simplest of physical activities grueling for him. His voice betrayed his imperialism and thus also his connection to the meritocratic Sacred Vollachia Empire.

In reflection of his physical appearance and noble carriage, Stride wore clothing of princely refinement. His outfit, that was primarily black, consisted of black trousers, black shoes, a light grey shirt, a black cravat, a white waistcoat over the shirt, and a black long coat over the waistcoat that had notched lapels and rolled cuffs. Some of his clothing had purple lining that matched the color of Stride's hair. On his left shoulder, similarly to what future emperor Vincent Vollachia would come to bear, Stride had many large feathers with purple tips, denoting his remaining connections to the Imperial Family. On each of his ten fingers, Stride wore his rings, the Hubristic Ten Commandments, that he could use to afflict curse-like effects on his enemies.

Personality

As the Sin Archbishop of Pride, Stride was vain and prideful, disliking being told what to do by others, as shown when he rebuked Yaktol Suwen for trying to restrict his actions or doing the same to Kurgan for talking back to him. He was openly rude to those he viewed to be lower than himself, and Theresia noted that he fluently insulted others. He seemed to underestimate fighters that aren't well known, as when Wilhelm and Kurgan first fought, he didn't think the former would stand a chance. Despite this, he was a quick thinker and praised things he found to be satisfactory. He was willing to ignore formalities to stop Wilhelm and Kurgan's first duel in order to prevent himself from potentially losing a valuable pawn. He plotted against the Kingdom of Lugunica knowing full well the power of Volcanica's protection, earning him his alias.

Stride bears a powerful hatred of the Observers, as he has written in his journal. Likewise, many of his actions were done in accordance with this hatred.

Stride spoke in a very archaic, regal and scornful manner. He favored using the pronoun mine venerable self (余, yo) when speaking, which is a pronoun used only by kings or emperors. He also referred to people using thou (貴様, kisama) with it having connotations of Stride treating everyone he spoke to as an inferior.

History

Early Life

Stride Vollachia was born as one of the sons of the emperor. However, he was born sick, and his family quickly proposed to offer the renunciation of his inheritance rights to another family, exchanging him for a suitable recompense. On the surface, Stride was sent to train under the strongest warrior in Vollachia, Kurgan, in order to improve his strength in mind and body, however, he was fully expected to die under Kurgan's harsh training regime. Luckily for Stride, though, Kurgan grew strangely attached to the bottomless darkness that was cultivating inside of the young boy's eyes, quickly taking a liking to Stride. After reaching adulthood under Kurgan's supervision, Stride participated in the Imperial Selection Ceremony, killing his siblings and getting closer and closer to the throne. Shortly after, an unknown culprit poisoned Stride with a powerful poison, which caused Stride to drift between life and death for three arduous and agonizing months. The illness utterly destroyed him, to the point he more resembled a walking corpse, than a man. However, his eyes shone with newly-found determination–as he had found the very truth of the world, in the midst of his battle for life. On that day, Stride relayed to Kurgan what he saw: that there were entities called "Observers" who sit in the heavens, toying with everyone as if they were mere pieces upon a board.

With Kurgan at Stride's side, wanting to support his "son", the Destruction Wish began carving his path forward. He met and recruited the runaway shinobi Shasuke and Raizo, the Twin Shura, appointing them as his "Generals". Not long after, he encountered his future wife, the Ashen Bride, Melinda, a survivor of the Evil Eye Tribe, a people nearly erased from existence due to their Evil Eye abilities. At some point in this timeframe, he acquired a Witch Factor, joined the Witch Cult, and received his Gospel from a diligent knave who introduced himself as a Sin Archbishop and assisted Stride with the handling of his Hubristic Ten Commandments.^[1] At an unknown time, he hid his journal within the Crystal Palace.

Sword Demon Love Story

Approximately forty years prior to the start of the story, aiming for Sword Saint, Stride used the gift of Veltol Astrea as an excuse to meet with him in the Suwen Company in Picoutatte, where he openly insulted him and his daughter. With Veltol challenging him to a duel, he claimed to be unable to fight due to his illness, which Theresia had noticed, and he decided to have Kurgan act as his champion. Further antagonizing the two with insults to them and Theresia's husband, Veltol struck him, leading to his brutal beating by Kurgan and being cursed by Stride. Leaving Yaktol Suwen with a message that he would be waiting at a great bridge in the city's west district with the source of the curse, he left. The next morning, he met with Theresia and Wilhelm, who challenged him to a duel. Despite being irritated that the rumors he heard regarding her award ceremony were true and that Wilhelm had equivalent battle aura to Kurgan, the duel ensued. Despite this, both sides took great damage, and seeing that he was in danger of losing his pawn, he stopped the duel and claimed it their loss, tossing his ring to them, and using another to turn the bridge beneath them into sand, allowing him and Kurgan to escape.

Sword Demon Battle Ballad

In the following months, he conducted a series of attacks, targeting seemingly random locations across the Kingdom, such as the Astrea Manor, where he had his wife Melinda ensnare Wilhelm with her Evil Eye of Vainglory through a Conversation Mirror and bound Carol Remendis to the curse of the Amethyst Thumb on his left hand. During this period, he went to Sphinx's refuge in Shamrock Valley to retrieve a forbidden art of hers that disabled people's Divine Protections and nullified the covenant between the Kingdom and the Divine Dragon. Roughly eight months into Theresia's pregnancy, Stride delivered a swift blow to the Kingdom by invading the Royal Lugunica Castle and killing Veltol by forcing Carol, who he had cursed before, into doing his every bidding with the Amethyst Thumb. Carol kidnapped Theresia and Stride, after cursing the surviving Tishua Astrea with his remaining Scarlet Pinky Finger, took the both of them back to Picoutatte, where he would begin an incident that later became known as the Subjugation of the Blight Dragon.

There, Stride set the forbidden art he previously retrieved across Picoutatte, situated himself in the city's main tower, and began collecting sacrifices, including a great deal of demi-humans with a grudge against Lugunica who volunteered their lives in an attempt to aid Stride in bringing the nation's ruin. Using the skull of a deceased dragonkin, which drunk the blood of the sacrificed people he forced Carol to slay, he was able to summon the dragonkin's parent, the Black Dragon Valgren, through its survival instincts, binding its will to his with the Jade Index Finger, Amber Middle Finger, and Azure Ring Finger on his left hand. He ordered Melinda to use her Evil Eye of Vainglory on the city's guards, sending them to the Subjugation Force and pinning them down, allowing Kurgan to attack the knights. Shasuke then brought forth Roswaal J. Mathers and Grimm Fauzen, the latter of whom arrived by error. Grimm had an arduous battle with Carol, who was still under Stride's curse, and Shasuke, one of Stride's Shinobi. Roswaal, at the cost of her life, sacrificed herself to save the pair of Grimm and Carol from Shasuke.

After attempting to defend himself from Grimm's attack by summoning the Yang Sword Vollachia, it rejected him and began the process of burning his body, but he was quickly saved by Shasuke, who cut off his left arm, to stop the spread of the sword's flames. With the rings on his left hand reduced to ash, terminating their effects and leaving him with only the four rings on his right hand, Stride revealed yet another secret to his foes: his affiliation with the abhorrent Witch Cult, as the Sin Archbishop charged with Pride. Due to his left arm being scorched to nothingness and five of his nine remaining rings being destroyed, however, Valgren regained its senses and promptly attacked the four people on the top of the tower. Barely being saved by Shasuke, Stride jumped in the air while being carried by his "General" but was intercepted by Carol. A duel between her and the Shinobi followed, resulting in Carol bisecting Shasuke, leaving Stride unprotected. Realizing he had lost, Stride fell off of the Dragon's back, towards the streets of the city below. Before he could hit the ground, the Black Dragon sprung towards him. Just before it could swallow Stride, Melinda, utterly burnt due to being scorched by one of Valgren's previous attacks, lunged towards her husband, embracing him. Seconds later, Valgren's heads chewed their two bodies into chunks and swallowed the pair.

However, even after his body was devoured, Stride's rings continued to influence Valgren. The Dragon was confronted by Wilhelm and Grimm, who both dealt a great deal of damage to the Dragon. During combat, Grimm and Wilhelm were both seriously wounded and could barely continue the fight. Just as the battle was about to close on a disastrous end, the fortieth King of the Dragon Kingdom of Lugunica, Gionis Lugunica, appeared in the city, and with him, the Divine Dragon descended from the skies above. In a couple of minutes, Volcanica scorched Valgren's body away, effectively marking the end of Stride Vollachia's influence over the world. After this, Vollachia erased him from their history, with his sole remaining physical legacy, the journal he concealed in the Crystal Palace's library, being discovered by Vincent Abellux as a child.

Abilities

Authority of Pride (傲慢の権能, Gōman no Ken'nō): Stride seemed to possess the Authority of Pride, as he claimed to have “obtained a Witch Factor and the manifestation of an Authority” despite proclaiming himself a “sham” and there being no recognizable inheritor to the Witch Factor of Pride after his death.^[2] He was assisted in handling his self-proclaimed Authority, the Hubristic Ten Commandments, by the same diligent knave who provided him with his Gospel.^[1]

• Hubristic Ten Commandments (傲れし十戒, Anadoreshi Jikkai): Stride's declared Authority was the Hubristic Ten Commandments, a set of ten rings on each of his hands that could “curse” any targets of Stride’s choosing. There were five unique rings, each corresponding to the five fingers on Stride's hand and having their own color assigned to them, as well as two copies of each unique ring for use on both hands. The rings shared the curse of binding a target's soul to adhere to Stride’s will, effectively turning them into a puppet that abode by his every whim. The eyes of a target changed change to the color corresponding with the ring Stride cursed them with. Furthermore, the rings had a last-resort technique that allowed Stride to manipulate a target’s body in such a way that their maximum potential was drawn out, but the burden this placed on their body was so immense, it could destroy the target if it was not terminated as soon as possible. It is unknown if Stride had a means to manufacture more rings or if the Authority could only manifest a total of ten rings.
  • The Scarlet Pinky Finger (朱色の小指, Akeiro no Koyubi), the ring variety on Stride's pinky fingers, had the secondary effect of casting a limb-rotting curse on its target. It exhausted the gate and rotted the limbs of the target it was placed on, and eventually led to death.^[3][4] Its curses were cast on Veltol and Tishua Astrea. The Scarlet Pinky Finger on his right hand was sliced in half by Wilhelm at the conclusion of the Silver Flower Dance of Picoutatte, leaving Stride with a total of nine remaining rings.
  • The Amethyst Thumb (紫紺の親指, Shikon no Oyayubi), the ring variety on Stride's thumbs, had the secondary effect of casting an asphyxiation curse on its target. This curse activated when the cursed target touched a loved one, at which moment a dark red bruise left on their chest would begin to strangle them, hindering their capacity to breathe. Its curses were cast on Carol Remendis and an unborn Heinkel Astrea.
  • The Jade Index Finger (翡翠の真指, Hisui no Mayubi), the Amber Middle Finger (琥珀の中指, Kohaku no Nakayubi), and the Azure Ring Finger (空色の環指, Sorairo no Kanyubi), each corresponding to their respective fingers, were not observed to have any secondary effects. The three rings on Stride's left hand were used to bind the Black Dragon Valgren, which required three rings for its three souls, to his will. Its curses were also cast on the Twin Shura, Shasuke and Raizo, and assumedly on an unnamed member of the Safeguarding Chamber.

Equipment

• Yang Sword Vollachia (陽剣ヴォラキア, Youken Vorakia): As a member of the Imperial Family of Vollachia, Stride was capable of summoning and using the Yang Sword Vollachia, otherwise known as the Yang Sword, an ornate crimson sword with light that shines like the sun. However, Stride was unworthy of summoning the Yang Sword, and shortly after materializing the blade, Stride's left arm began to burn, incinerating his left hand and all five rings on it, prompting Shasuke to cut it off in order to save his life.
• Gospel (福音): As a member of the Witch Cult, Stride was the owner of a copy of a Gospel. Each Gospel was a replica of the Book of Wisdom, a book that had been in the possession of the Witch of Greed, Echidna. The Book of Wisdom would provide exact details of future events concerning the Witch of Greed, essentially bestowing Echidna with a form of precognition. Unlike the original Book of Wisdom, the Gospels of the Witch Cult were imperfect replicas, meaning that, although they detailed the future of its owner, the events conveyed were subject to change and the information provided was often up for interpretation. The Gospels took the form of small black books that could only be read by their owners.
• Conversation Mirror (対話鏡, Taiwa-kyō): A meteor that allows its user to communicate with others over a long distance by connecting with a separate Conversation Mirror, similar to a cell phone. Stride used a pair of Conversation Mirrors with his wife, Melinda, to have her ensnare Wilhelm with her Evil Eye of Vainglory over a long distance.

Trivia

• In Sword Demon Love Story, Stride Vollachia referred to his rings, which bore the ability to curse their targets, as curse tools, claiming that they would be referred to as meteors in Lugunica.^[5] In future content, however, curse tools were not only differentiated from meteors, but the status of Stride's rings as curse tools was contradicted in Sword Demon Battle Ballad, with them becoming the manifestation of his Authority, the Hubristic Ten Commandments.
  • Furthermore, in the Comic Alive version of Sword Demon Battle Ballad, in order to harness the power of the curse tools and unrestrainedly cast curses, he was forced to pay compensation in the form of offering a part of his body to them, causing a part of his body to sustain everlasting damage.^[6] In his years of owning the ten ring curse tools and casting curses with them, Stride's body was rendered to a near corpse-like state.
• Much of Stride's history from his depiction in the Comic Alive version of Sword Demon Battle Ballad was expanded on and altered between Volume 33 and the Ex version of the aforementioned story.
  • According to Vincent Vollachia in Volume 33, Stride was likely a Stargazer, was expelled from the Imperial Family, and erased from Vollachia's historical records. The only trace left of him was a journal found by Vincent in the Crystal Palace's library. Vincent also states the journal contained delusions of the Observers and future information about the Great Disaster, knowledge only privy to Stargazers.
  • To compensate for the particulars of the Imperial Selection Ceremony in Stride's original backstory in Comic Alive differing from the aspects of it introduced in The Tale of the Scarlet Princess, his father, the emperor, was no longer the culprit behind his poisoning, and the identity of the perpetrator was made unknown. His infertility and connection to an unidentified “criminal” with whom he made an oath were cut from the story altogether. Moreover, he voiced that the Observers were averse to a gazer deviating from their commandment,^[7] implying that he was not adhering to his own commandment.
• Aside from the Witch of Envy and Clind, Stride is the only individual to possess a Witch Factor who isn't named after a celestial body.
• Throughout real-world history, many societies and cultures revered the color purple as something that denoted royalty and refinement. In fact, in some societies, it was forbidden for ordinary citizens to wear the color. The use of the color purple in Stride's design may therefore be used to highlight him as someone of nobility and high standing.

References

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