Kesselring

"Kesselring"

- preparing to fight against Rance.

About
Kesselring is an Elite Dark Lord affiliated with the Kayblis Faction and a major antagonist in Rance X.

Prior to becoming a Dark Lord, Kesselring was a talented warrior of the all-female Kalar race. In the year SS0420, he was approached by the then-current Demon King Ssulal. Unusually weak for a Demon King, Ssulal desired to create a powerful Dark Lord who would serve as her protector, and requested for Kesselring to fulfill the role. Sympathizing with the Demon King, Kesselring agreed, promising to become a knight who would protect Ssulal at all costs. Upon becoming a Dark Lord, Kesselring’s body became male, seemingly as a result of his strong desire to keep his new master safe.

As a Dark Lord, Kesselring worked closely under Ssulal, swiftly eliminating any and all potential threats to her rule when in battle and serving as a faithful attendant and advisor when outside of it. Kesselring’s devotion to Ssulal, combined with his naturally excellent strength, allowed him to quickly become recognized as one of the Four Elite Dark Lords, the four most powerful servants of the Demon King, earning him a considerable amount of respect from the rest of the Demon King’s followers in the process. With a host of incredible powers at his disposal, Kesselring was able to easily topple all that stood in his way, earning him the epithet of “Lord of the Night” from allies and enemies alike.

Following Ssulal’s death in the year SS0500, Kesselring was thrown into a depressed state. Believing himself to have failed his vow to protect his master no matter what, Kesselring declared that he would become an ally to all women in Ssulal’s honor. From that moment forward, Kesselring devoted himself to protecting the happiness of women everywhere, gallantly taking every unfortunate woman he came across into his care, offering them refuge and hospitality within his castle until they became able to stand on their own. One such woman, the princess of a fallen nation named Sharon, became so grateful for Kesseling’s salvation that she requested to become his servant in order to continue being with him. Interested only in her continued happiness, Kesselring accepted Sharon’s request and, after having her work under him as a maid for some time, eventually made her into his Apostle and lover.

Over time, many other women followed Sharon’s example and chose to abandon their previous lives in order to become Kesselring’s Apostle and be with him forever. By the end of the GI Era, Kesselring had amassed a following of seven devoted Apostle maids, all of whom pledged their eternal and undying love to him. Kesselring enjoyed a peaceful life with his Apostles, all the while continuing to rescue and protect abused women.

In the year GI1015, Demon King Gi named Kurusu Miki, a Human girl from an Alternate Dimension, as his successor, kidnapping her from her home in order to pass on his blood to her. Before Miki was able to fully awaken to the power of the Demon King, however, she was rescued by her boyfriend Ogawa Kentarou, who was able to temporarily stop her transformation through the use of Hirami Lemons. With Gi having allowed himself to be killed by Kentarou, and Miki refusing to accept the position of Demon King, the Monster Realm was left without a leader and thrown into a state of civil war. The war was fought between Hornet, Gi's daughter who desired to follow through with her father’s wishes and embrace Miki as the new leader of Monsterkind, and Kayblis, who desired to become the Demon King himself and wage war against humanity.

Kesselring, believing it to be the duty of monsters to punish humanity for its selfish actions, chose to ally himself with Kayblis despite vastly preferring Hornet over him as an individual. Due to his already high standing within the Monster Realm, Kesselring was made the second-in-command of the Kayblis Faction, leading the group during the majority of its battles against the Hornet Faction due to Kayblis’ refusal to participate in combat unless victory was assured for him.

In the year LP0002, Kesselring was ordered by Kayblis to send his Apostles in pursuit of Miki in order for him to kill her and absorb her powers as Demon King. While Kesselring’s Apostles succeeded in capturing Miki and Kentarou, the two were eventually able to escape from the maids’ clutches and live another day.

Kesselring was briefly mentioned during the events of Rance VI by the Dark Sword Chaos, who listed him alongside the other Four Elite Dark Lords when describing the nature of the group to the ignorant warrior Rance.

Some time following the Collapse of Zeth in the year LP0004, Kesselring came across the former Four Lord of Zeth Nagi su Ragarl at the bottom of a cliff in the Monster Realm. Nagi, who had wandered into the Monster Realm crazed and unstable in a reckless attempt to quickly amass more power for herself, only to be attacked and critically injured by a large group of monsters, had lost all memory of her identity. Recognizing her as a mistreated woman, Kesselring took Nagi into his care, where she began working under him as a maid-in-training. Nagi quickly revealed herself to possess a high aptitude as a maid, prompting Kesselring to begin to consider allowing her to become his Apostle. Before he was able to do so, however, Nagi regained her forgotten memories and immediately fled from his castle, once again in search of a way to grow stronger.

In the year LP0007, the Kayblis Faction was finally able to land a decisive victory over the Hornet Faction, causing Kayblis to be recognized as ruler of all of monsterkind. Immediately after becoming the ruler of the Monster Realm, Kayblis ordered an invasion into the Human Realm using the entirety of the Monster Army’s forces, sparking the beginning of the 2nd Dark Lord War. During the war, Kesselring was tasked with invading the nation of Helman through its border with the Monster Realm to the west. Early on into the invasion, Kesselring came across an abandoned estate known as Bram Castle deep within the Transylvania Forest located along Helman’s border with the Monster Realm, which he immediately assumed temporary residence in alongside his maids. Disinterested in fighting humanity, Kesselring left the vast majority of the war effort in the hands of LeMay, the Great Monster General assigned to assist him in leading the Helman invasion, and only periodically entered the battlefield himself. Despite this, Kesselring continued to exert his authority as second-in-command of the Kayblis Faction over LeMay, firmly rejecting his constant proposals to bomb human settlements as being “barbaric”, keeping the bloodthirsty monster somewhat under control in the process.

Though his appearances in combat were infrequent, Kesselring proved to be an extremely deadly threat to the forces of the Helman Army, launching direct attacks on the Helman capital of Lang Bau in the middle of the night and effortlessly slaughtering all who attempted to oppose him. In addition, Kesselring also began spreading chupacabra, a powerful curse spread from his bite that transforms its victim into a mindless and obedient zombie slave, across key points of the enemy army's defenses, forcing Helman soldiers to turn their weapons towards their own allies. During the day, Kesselring slept inside of a coffin situated in the depths of Bram Castle, leaving the fight against humanity in the hands of his Apostles until he awakened.

During the events of Rance X, the forces of the Human Realm were formally united under Rance to create the United Human Army. Due to possessing Chaos, one of the only weapons capable of penetrating the Invincibility Field that protects Dark Lords from all forms of damage, Rance was able to form as specialized squad made up of humanity’s finest warriors designed to fight against and defeat each of the Dark Lords invading human territories. Titled the Dark Lord Extermination Squad, this group allowed humanity to begin to mount a more effective resistance against the Monster Army, providing hope in a seemingly hopeless situation. Some time after the Dark Lord Extermination Squad’s victory against Babolat, the other Dark Lord charged with invading Helman, Kesselring succeeded in infecting Rolex Gadras, general of the Helman 5th Army and the nation's strongest warrior, with chupacabra while he was asleep in his private quarters. With Rolex removed from the battlefield and placed under quarantine, the Helman army suffered a major loss in terms of both fighting strength and morale. After a month of investigation, Hubert Lipton, the Supreme Commander of the Helman army, was able to uncover the location of Kesselring's castle, allowing the Dark Lord Extermination Squad to begin operations to defeat him.

Upon beginning his pursuit of Kesselring, Rance was warned by Satella, a Dark Lord of the Hornet Faction who had agreed to cooperate with humanity, that the Elite Dark Lord became nearly invincible during the night, and advised to only attempt to fight him during the day. Taking heed of this warning, Rance chose to travel through Transylvania Forest at nighttime, rationalizing that the trip through the dense forest would be long enough that they would reach Kesselring's castle by the dawn of the next day.

As the group trekked closer towards Bram Castle, they were discovered by Kesselring's Apostles, who immediately took action to protect their sleeping master from the approaching threat by sending two senior maids, Barbara and Paleloa, to intercept them. While the pair were defeated, they were rescued at the last moment by Elsill, the head of the Apostle maids, allowing them to regroup and plan out a new method of attack. Cautious of the Dark Lord Extermination Squad's strength, the maids activated several Magical statues that Kesselring had placed throughout the castle which cast an illusionary Curse over the building's interior that prevented intruders from reaching their master's bedchamber, hoping that it would be enough to restrain their enemies until nightfall.

After reaching Bram Castle and discovering the illusion that had been cast upon it, Rance quickly ordered Pastel Kalar, the queen of the kalar and a skilled practitioner of curse magic, to break it. While Pastel claimed that she would be able to deactivate the spell, she noted that the process would likely take several hours, and told the rest of the group to seek out and destroy the statues responsible for it in order to speed up the process. While in the process of destroying the statues, the party fought and defeated against all five of Kesselring's most senior maids, who were forced to withdraw from battle after sustaining heavy wounds. With the assistance of the rest of the party, Pastel eventually succeeded in lifting the curse, allowing them barely over a half hour to find and defeat Kesselring before sunset. Just as the group began to approach the elite Dark Lord's chamber, however, they were attacked by Lilim and Alcarria, Kesselring's two youngest Apostles. Despite being instructed by their seniors to find a safe place to hide, the duo's shared desire to protect their master caused them to attempt to battle against the much stronger intruders. While the younger maids were swiftly defeated, Rance, who had grown agitated over not being able to have sex with any of their seniors, wasted several minutes restraining and raping them, causing the already limited time he had left to reach Kesselring to become even shorter.

Moments after reaching the coffin in which Kesselring slept, Rance was approached by Varen, the youngest of the maids who had been inducted so recently that she had not yet been converted into an Apostle. Too weak to mount any kind of resistance against him, Varen begged Rance not to kill her master, and stated that she would do anything in order to convince him to stop. Never one to pass up the opportunity to have sex with a woman, Rance lied to the young maid and claimed that he would not lay a hand on Kesselring if she gave up her body to him, believing himself to have enough time to kill the sleeping Dark Lord afterwards.

After Rance finished having sex with her, Varen revealed to him that Kesselring actually rose from sleep a half hour before sunset, and that the time they had spent together was enough to give him the time needed to wake up. As if awoken by those very words, Kesselring emerged from his coffin and immediately began staring coldly at Rance. Sensing the Dark Lord's overwhelming power through his gaze alone, Rance ordered his allies to retreat rather than even attempt to fight against him. Kesselring dove at Rance with terrifying speed less than a second after he began his escape, but was narrowly blocked by Amitos Armitage, the general of the Helman 1st Army who had accompanied the group on the mission. Rather than pursue him further, Kesselring allowed Rance and his allies to exit his castle in order to be with Varen, who had been cursed to die upon losing her virginity, during her final moments. As Varen passed on peacefully in his embrace, Kesselring, filled with quiet rage, vowed revenge against Rance.

Upon returning to Lang Bau, Amitos, who had contracted chupacabra as a result of receiving Kesselring's attack, was placed under quarantine, crippling Helman's military even further. Enraged by both his failure and Amitos' zombification, Rance attempted to launch a second raid on Bram Castle a few days later, only to be forced to retreat before even reaching its entrance due to Transylvania Forest having been reinforced with many more monsters. His pride wounded by his repeated losses, Rance began taking out his frustration on his allies, most notably his slaves Sill Plain and Sheila Helman. Rance's abusive behavior towards the two women was covertly observed by Kesselring, who had infiltrated Lang Bau in the form of fog in order to evaluate him. Disgusted, Kesselring revealed himself to the trio and declared Rance to be unworthy of either Sill or Sheila, abducting them both to his castle while leaving Rance alive in order stew in misery over his failures.

With Sheila, the president of Helman, kidnapped, the already dire war situation grew even more bleak as what was left of the country's forces continued to crumble against the monster army. Thrown into a panic by Sill and Sheila's disappearance, Rance attempted to launch a third attack on Bram Castle, but was refused by his comrades, who believed themselves to be lacking the resources necessary to do so. His anger and worry overpowering his sense of reason, Rance attempted to raid the castle by himself, only to be confronted by Kesselring, who had chosen to patrol the castle’s perimeter in the place of the traumatized and exhausted Alcarria, just as he had begun moving through Transylvania Forest.

While Rance fought relentlessly against Kesselring, he found himself to be completely outclassed by the Elite Dark Lord and was quickly and thoroughly defeated. After beating him within an inch of his life, Kesselring granted Rance the opportunity to flee from to safety, believing that allowing him to live with the knowledge of his own weakness would be a greater punishment than killing him. Despite initially disregarding this offer, Rance was eventually pushed into accepting it by Kentou Kanami, who had successfully managed to track down his location just in time to tell him that Sill wouldn't want him to throw his life away. Humiliated, heavily wounded and miserable, Rance returned to Lang Bau to recover.

Upon returning to Lang Bau, Rance was greeted by his daughter Reset Kalar, who was brought from Rance Castle to Helman in order to return him to his senses. Reset slapped Rance on the head, causing him to regain control over his raging emotions through the healing power of her mysterious Hand of Klausen. With his ability to reason restored, Rance spent the following night staring out across a nearby lake in an effort to think of a new plan of attack against Kesselring. Just as he began to give up any hope of defeating his seemingly unbeatable enemy, Rance was approached by Sill and Sheila, who revealed that they were allowed to leave Kesselring’s castle after telling him that they were unhappy there, and had spent the last several nights sneaking through Transylvania Forest to return to him. With the two kidnapped women safely at his side once again, Rance's confidence was restored, allowing him the clarity needed to concoct a new plan.

The next day, Rance revealed to the rest of his allies that Sill and Sheila's escape from Kesselring had exposed the elite Dark Lord's weakness to him. Recognizing Kesselring's desire to bring happiness to all unfortunate women that approached him as an exploitable flaw, Rance devised a plan that involved manipulating it to humanity's advantage. If an unfortunate woman were to infiltrate Bram Castle for long enough to gain the trust of both Kesselring and his Apostles, Rance believed they would be able to incapacitate the maids and disable the illusionary curse before the Dark Lord Extermination Squad arrived in the morning, allowing it more than enough time to defeat Kesselring in his weakened state. With Hubert agreeing to have the Helman army fully back the plan, Rance is left to decide whether to utilize a single female spy or several.

If Rance chooses to send several spies to infiltrate Kesselring's castle, he orders Hubert to gather as many miserable women as he can possibly find and send them en masse into Transylvania Forest. As a result of the countless tragedies that the country experienced under the oppressive rule of Stessel Romanov, the Helman army is able to find an abundant number of women who have experienced great hardship in their lives, allowing each of them refuge into Bram Castle.

After only a few days, Kesselring is approached by Elsill, who reveals that he has taken in 2,317 new maids into his care and that the time and resources needed to manage all of them has rendered his Apostles incapable of deploying onto the battlefield. Elsill voices her suspicion that the castle’s sudden surge in residents was part of a trap set by the Helman army, and asks for her master’s permission to expel them. Without any hesitation, Kesselring admits that he had known from the beginning that several of the women were spies sent by the Helman army, but states plainly that, as many of them genuinely had come from miserable backgrounds, he had no intention of abandoning them. While Elsill initially attempts to argue against these words, she is quickly forced to relent by Sharon, who reminds her that it was the same unbending kindness that their master currently displayed that allowed her and his other Apostles to live the happily at his side. Aware of his folly but refusing to go back on it, Kesselring prepares himself for the coming battle with Rance.

On the morning of the attack, the Dark Lord Extermination Squad arrive at Bram Castle, where they are greeted and allowed entry by several of their spies, who inform them that they had successfully dismantled the castle’s traps and incapacitated the Apostle maids. With no obstacles in their way, the group is able to enter the Kesselring’s bedchamber to find the Dark Lord awake and waiting for them. Eerily calm in spite of his circumstances, Kesselring asks Rance how he feels knowing that he was only able to achieve victory by taking advantage of the misery of thousands of women. Without even a hint of remorse, Rance responds by saying that such knowledge makes him feel powerful, causing Kesselring to descend into a quiet rage and attack him. After an intense battle, Rance succeeds in landing a critical blow on Kesselring in his weakened state. Using the last of his power, Kesselring transforms his body into fog in order to escape from the frey and collect his sleeping Apostles, bringing them to the terrace of Bram Castle in order to say goodbye to them in his final moments. Awakened from sensing their master’s approaching death, the maids immediately surround him, with the tearful Lilim offering to return the blood that he had given her in order to keep him alive. While Kesselring discourages this, saying that his wounds are too grievous for him to have any chance of recovering from, his seven Apostles choose to give their blood to him nonetheless in order to die alongside him. One by one, Kesselring bids farewell to each of his maids before they sacrifice themselves to keep him alive for slightly longer. After all of his Apostles have given their lives for him, Kesselring spends his final moments reflecting on his life, satisfied with how he had chosen to live it, before being reduced to a Demonic Blood Soul.

If Rance chooses to send only one spy, he will deliberate which of the various Helmanian women that he knows to use before deciding rather arbitrarily on Sheila's personal maid Peruelé Kalette. While both Sheila and Peruelé herself object to this decision, believing it to be too dangerous, Rance refuses to change his mind and sends Peruelé into Transylvania Forest alone. Quickly deciding that her own survival is more important to her than her country's, Peruelé attempts to exit from the forest and flee from Helman, but soon finds herself lost among the dense trees. Cold, hungry and with nowhere to go, Peruelé falls asleep muttering to herself about how miserable she is, which inadvertently attracts the attention of Kesselring's Apostles, who happened to have been patrolling nearby. Believing Peruelé to be the perfect candidate to become a new maid, the Apostles transport her sleeping body to Bram Castle, where she is accepted with open arms into Kesselring's care. While initially frightened at being in such close proximity to a Dark Lord, Peruelé quickly grows accustomed to the lavish lifestyle that comes with being one of Kesselring's maids, and happily spends the following few days eating decadent meals while feigning friendships with her new colleagues in order to shirk her responsibilities onto them. After only a handful of weeks, Peruelé asks Kesselring to be made into an Apostle, realizing that doing so would allow her to become much stronger without requiring her to put forth any kind of effort, to which he obliges.

Shortly after becoming an Apostle, Peruelé is covertly approached by Freya Idun, the leader of the Dark Wings, a league of assassins under the employ of the Helman army, who informs her that the Dark Lord Extermination Squad will launch its attack on Bram Castle the next morning and to prepare accordingly. Having completely forgotten about her supposed mission in the time since she was first assigned it, Peruelé is left to choose whether to allow humanity a chance at defeating its monster invaders or to forsake it and continue living extravagantly as one of Kesselring's maids. While initially fully intending to simply abandon humanity for her own interests, reflecting in particular on how much better Kesselring treats her than Rance ever did, Peruelé eventually becomes conflicted after her mind lingers on thoughts of Sheila, who continued to love and support her no matter how selfishly she acted.

If Peruelé chooses to follow through with her mission, she traps Kesselring's other Apostles in a room that she had filled with noxious gasses and disables the various traps laid out across the castle before allowing the Dark Lord Extermination Squad entry into it the following morning, allowing them to move through the building without issue. Upon reaching Kesselring's chamber, the group is shocked to discover that he was awakened by the noise of their entry and ready to fight. Before beginning his attack, Kesselring notices Peruelé's presence among the party and reveals that he had known of her traitorous intentions from the beginning but chose to disregard them due to his belief that she genuinely deserved a better life.

After a difficult battle, Kesselring is eventually fatally stabbed by Rance. In his final moments, he chooses to smile genuinely at Peruelé, telling her that he doesn't care what happens to him so long as she is happy. Following Kesselring's defeat, his Apostles are gathered together and tied up by Rance, who demands that they serve under him in the absence of their master. While the maids initially refuse this request, they are soon pushed into compliance by Peruelé, who reveals that she had collected Kesselring's demonic blood soul after his death and is only willing to give it to them under the condition that they fight for humanity and agree to never hurt her. Upon giving Kesselring's blood soul to his Apostles, Rance tells them that they have permission to resurrect him in one hundred years, after he himself has died and can no longer claim him as his own.

If Peruelé chooses to betray humanity, she will reveal the Dark Lord Extermination Squad's plan to Kesselring, allowing him to prepare a counter against the attack. The next morning, Peruelé allows the Dark Lord Extermination Squad entry into the castle and guides them into a room filled with the same noxious gasses that she was intended to use against Kesselring's Apostles. While the majority of the Dark Lord Extermination Squad is killed while unconscious, both Sheila and Sill are ordered to be kept alive by Kesselring. With Rance dead, humanity quickly falls to the monster forces and any guilt that may have lingered with Peruelé over her actions is eventually forgotten across a eternity of personal bliss. As this outcome leads to a game over, it is considered to be non-canon.

If Rance manages to defeat Kesselring during the battle against him while Sill and Sheila are kidnapped, he will narrowly land a lethal blow on the Dark Lord before being killed himself, reducing Kesselring to a demonic blood soul in the process. Overflowing with rage and adrenaline from the battle, Rance charges through Transylvania Forest and Bram Castle by himself, instantly defeating all that attempts to impede him. After finally finding the room where the two captured women were being kept, Rance returns to his normal state, not remembering anything he had done after defeating Kesselring.

At the beginning of the operation to defeat Kesselring, Rance has the option of beginning the expedition through Transylvania Forest during the daytime, causing his party to arrive at Bram Castle at night. Awake and at his full power, Kesselring challenges the group at the castle’s entrance in the place of his maids, leading to an incredibly intense battle.

If the Dark Lord Extermination Squad succeeds in defeating Kesselring in this state, he will be killed by Rance and reduced to a pile of ashes and a demonic blood soul. Following their master’s unexpected death, Kesselring’s eight maids emerge from the castle in a panic, Unable to pose any kind of threat to the man who defeated Kesselring, the maids are left at Rance’s mercy, who demands that they become his personal harem. Disgusted by this offer, Elsill prepares to lead the other maids in group suicide but is stopped by Sharon, who persuades her to agree to Rance’s demand under the condition that they be allowed to keep Kesselring’s remains. Willing as always to do anything for the opportunity to have sex with more women, Rance accepts, causing all eight maids to begin working at Rance Castle. If all of Kesselring’s maids are recruited into the Dark Lord Extermination Squad, Sharon will ask Rance for permission to perform a ritual to revive their master. While Rance initially refuses, he is eventually persuaded to agree after learning that Kesselring was previously a kalar and had a chance of being resurrected as a woman. Using a special room that they had prepared for the ceremony, the maids slit their wrists over a coffin filled with Kesselring’s ashes and blood soul, causing him to return to life in a female form. Despite being somewhat humiliated at having been resurrected by the very same person who killed her, Kesselring is thankful to Rance for keeping her maids safe and allowing her to live again and agrees to serve under him, though not without first warning him that she would re-assume her male form and betray him the instant that she deemed him to be a menace.

As a member of the Dark Lord Extermination Squad, Kesselring lends her great power to assist in defeating the monster army on the battlefield and enjoys living peacefully with her maids off of it. Still dubious of Rance’s character, Kesselring approaches numerous women inside of Rance Castle to ask them their opinion of him. Kesselring receives a wide range of responses, with some women, such as Calory Mate and Caloria Cricket telling stories of how he rescued them from terrible circumstances and allowed them to live new and happy lives, and others, such as Pastel Kalar and Atago McCart speaking with utter contempt about how he made their lives miserable. From these results, Kesselring determines that, while Rance is a careless person who prioritizes his own pleasure above others, he is not inherently malicious, causing her to declare him to possess “the cruelest form of innocence”.

If the Dark Lord Galtia is also recruited into the Dark Lord Extermination Squad, he and Kesselring will meet in private on the anniversary of Ssulal’s death in order to reminisce about their departed master.

Kesselring does not appear or get mentioned at any point throughout Rance X: Part 2, suggesting that he was canonically not revived. As the circumstances regarding his death are unclear, however, the status of both his demonic blood soul and Apostles are unknown.

During the events of the non-canonical Kichikuou Rance, Kesselring assists the rest of the Kayblis Faction in decisively defeating Hornet and seizing control of the Monster Realm. Throughout the conflict, Kesselring makes multiple efforts to convince Hornet to surrender peacefully, hoping that doing so would spare her from Kayblis’ wrath, but is firmly refused each time, forcing him to continue fighting against her.

After declaring war on the Human Realm, Kayblis orders Kesselring to begin attacking human territories but does not give him any specific direction on how to go about doing so. Rather than follow a conventional warpath, Kesselring chooses to fly directly towards Leazas Castle from the Monster Realm’s border with the Magic Nation of Zeth, stopping sporadically over various cities in order to rescue any women that he happens to observe getting abused within them. When felled in battle, Kesselring’s blood soul will be retrieved by his Apostles, who perform a ritual to resurrect him, allowing him to continue to act no matter how many times he is defeated.

If Rance asks either Satella or Meglass for information on how to permanently defeat Kesselring, they will inform him that the ritual used to revive him requires an enchanted coffin located in the depths of his castle, and that destroying it would prevent him from returning to life. With this knowledge, Rance gains the option of infiltrating Kesselring’s castle while he is away from it attacking human cities. Upon arriving at the castle, Rance will begin searching throughout it for Kesselring's coffin, taking time to rape every maid that he encounters while doing so. Detecting an intruder in his estate, Kesselring hurriedly begins rushing back towards the Monster Realm, but is continually delayed after becoming sidetracked by helping various troubled women.

If Kesselring is a great enough distance from his castle when Rance sneaks inside of it, he will arrive too late to stop the young king from destroying his coffin, causing him to attack him in a blind rage. Upon being permanently defeated, Kesselring’s blood soul will be surrounded by his grieving maids, who despair over not being able to return him to life. Following this, Rance has the option of either allowing Kesselring’s Apostles to remain in the castle with his blood soul or to attempt to forcefully abduct them. If Rance chooses to attempt to abduct the maids, they will each throw themselves off of the castle’s balcony in a dying protest, causing Rance to feel somewhat guilty for his actions. If Rance allows them to remain with their master’s blood soul, they will immediately huddle around it, determined to devote the rest of their lives toward keeping it safe.

If Nagi is not recruited into Leazas’ forces following its conquest of Zeth, she will wander into the Monster Realm and begin fighting through hordes of monsters in order to increase her strength. If Kesselring is not defeated after a certain amount of time passes, a heavily-injured Nagi will eventually stumble upon his castle and fall unconscious at its entrance. Her body is discovered by Varen, who immediately informs Kesselring about it, prompting him to take her into his care. Amnesiac from her severe wounds, Nagi begins working under Kesselring as a maid and living a peaceful existence entirely unlike her previous life, but is refused to be transformed into an Apostle due to his concerns about doing so while a desire to fight still lingered in her heart. Nagi’s memories eventually return to her after reuniting with Rance while he infiltrates Kesselring’s castle, causing her to instantly abandon her life as a maid and return to her quest to grow stronger. If Kesselring is defeated before a certain amount of time passes after humanity enters into war with the Monster Realm, his blood soul will be collected and absorbed by his fellow Elite Dark Lord Silky Littleraisin in order to increase her power for her approaching battle against Kayblis. This event will happen regardless of whether or not Rance allowed Kesselring’s Apostles to continue protecting his blood soul.

Personality and Appearance
An elegant and lean-built man, he's dignified and courtly Dark Lord. In Kichikuou Rance he had a long stylish golden hair coupled with a moustache and thin red eyes, and wore glasses all the time. In terms of attire, he is very similar to a classic vampire from folk stories. He prefers an aristocratic garb and loves to dress formally. His height and weight are 172cm and 61kg respectively and by LP0007 he's at least 3066 years old, making him one of the eldest Dark Lords.

Despite the extremely high level of power he possesses, Kesselring is one of the most noble and merciful Dark Lords. He's an intelligent and serious man that lives a peaceful lifestyle on his Castle with his lovers and tries to avoid taking part in conflicts unless he's required to or if he wishes to. He has been described by many as a benevolent vampire, and although his appearance and customs may resemble the vampires of legends, he's known for being one of the most merciful Dark Lords. He doesn't enjoy bloodshed and only resorts to killing if he sees no other option or if he believes his opponent to be an irredeemably cruel person. He's also known for taking in human and Kalar women that were abused by men and protect them, granting them shelter and an opportunity for recovery. While he doesn't force them against their will to stay with him, they more often than not choose to and some have even decided to dedicate their lives to serve him as Maids in order to repay him and be by his side. When a woman officially becomes one of his maids he turns her into an Apostle. He calls his maid Lovers, and treats them with respect and affection, loving all of them deeply. All of his maid Apostles are given a card with stamp spaces, every time they excel in their work Kesselring will stamp their card. When the stamp card is full, the lucky Apostle gets a week alone with Kesselring at a luxurious resort. Kesselring has the most apostles of all the Dark Lords, getting the impressive number of eight apostles and before parting to a dangerous fight or some other place that will take him some time to return, he spends time with each individually to wave off. His apostles are: Varen, Alcarria, Elsill, Kanayo, Sharon, Barbara, Paleloa and Lilim. They were made to serve, so they aren't particularly impressive for combat, but they might have some ability, since they successfully attacked Kentarou and Miki once. As much as he's kind with the weak and the abused, he has an intense hatred towards those that bring suffering to others and is overcome by an intense anger when witnessing displays of cruelty. Because of the overall selfish and vicious nature of humanity, he sees them as savage and cruel creatures without salvation. If a human is seen robbing or raping in his sight he will immediately rage and attack to protect the defenseless, regardless of who it is. Despite this, Kesselring still maintains a strict mindset that sets Dark Lords as a species inherently superior to humans, and sees them as a barbaric and lowly species with who they couldn't coexist peacefully. It is for this reason that he couldn't accept Gi's last will and joined the Kayblis Faction rather than acceptance of Kayblis. Infact Kesselring despises Kayblis and his ways but chose to put up with him in order to bring what he believes is a natural world were Monsters stand above Humans. He seems to be more attached to his fellow Dark Lords more than others, as he'd rather make peace with the Hornet Faction and prefers to avoid fighting them. During their skirmishes he goes through the effort of trying to explain his point of view, hoping that he will convince them to unify the Monster Realm without fighting, but he sees little success as most of the Dark Lords from the opposing faction are extremely loyal to Hornet and have very firm beliefs as well.

Abilities
As one of the Elite Four Dark Lords Kesselring is one of the most powerful beings in The Continent and even among the Elite Four he's above average. He has a Lv2 in magic and had a level cap of 212, with his current level being 207, which means that only Supreme Dark Lord Hornet and Kayblis are stronger than he is. He generates an oppressive aura of fear and suffocation and he is way beyond above the regular humans, being able to kill a normal human just by staring or yelling at them. This is even more impressive if we take into account that Dark Lords are weakened based on the amount of apostles they have and Kesselring has an absurdly high number of apostles.

He is vampiric in technique, not just appearance. He can survive on human blood, and drinking it strengthens him. He can transform himself into a cloud of dust for a quick escape, or he can use this technique to choke people to death.

The most unique of his abilities is the ability to return from the dead. If he is killed, he does not become a Demonic Blood Soul, instead his body crumbles into ashes. His maid followers collect the dust, place them inside a rose scented coffin and perform a rite known as the "Sacrifice of Blood", this process resurrects Kesselring into an even stronger form, and can be repeated indefinitely. The only counter for this ability is to destroy Kesselring's coffin to prevent his revival. Also, destroying the coffin apparently severely weakens Kesselring. It is unknown up to what extent the maids are necessary to perform this technique since Ho Raga and other Dark Lords recommend destroying his coffin as a counter-strategy, implying that he might be capable of coming back by himself in enough time.

Trivia

 * He's based off the real-life nazi commander from World War II Albert Kesselring.
 * He has the highest number of Apostles, beating even Xavier.
 * The Kalar crystal that remained from his former times as a Kalar is green, rather than blue. The reason for this is unknown but is probably related to his transformation into a Dark Lord.
 * He is the only known Kalar to become a Dark Lord.