Kesselring

"Kesselring"

- outraged by human bandits.

About
Kesselring is one of the eldest and most powerful Dark Lords of the Monster Realm, as well as one of the highest ranking members of its Hierarchy by holding a position as one of the Four Elite Dark Lords. He is a unique case between Dark Lords. During the transformation some creatures may or may not go through some changes, but Kesselring's was the most drastic by far. He used to be a female of the Kalar tribe but upon drinking the Blood of Demon King Ssulal on the year SS0420, it caused his body and Soul to disagree, resulting in the transformation into a Dark Lord to change her into a male as a result. Because he used to be a Kalar he still retains the iconic Crystal of their race on his forehead, which changed color when he lost his virginity. While he was initially shocked at what had happened, Ssulal took a liking for him and asked him to become her personal guardian knight, which he loyaly agreed by kneeling to his new master.

In the year LP0001 during the division between the Dark Lord community that splitted the Monster Realm between two factions, Kesselring decided to join the Kayblis Faction and accepted Kayblis as the most suitable candidate to become the next Demon King. Due to this, he began participating in all-out war against the Dark Lords of the Hornet Faction while also chasing after Kurusu Miki in order to take her life.

In the year LP0004 soon after the events of Rance VI, Kesselring came across an unconscious Nagi su Ragarl, who had fallen off a cliff after being attacked by hordes of Monsters. Without hesitation, Kesselring carried her to his Castle in order to nurse her and protect her until she recovered but upon waking up she noticed that she had lost her memories after the fall. In order to repay him for his help, Nagi assisted Kesselring by becoming a Maid-in-training and shows a surprisingly incredibly aptitude for the job. Kesselring soon grew fond of Nagi and decided to turn her into his Apostle, but she regained her memories and ran away upon remember her burning hatred for her half-sister and left the Monster Realm.

In the year LP0007, the Kayblis Faction finally emerged victorious from the War of the Factions, causing Kayblis to be recognized as the ruler of the Monster Realm in the absence of the Demon King. Immediately following his victory, Kayblis ordered a full scale invasion of the Human Realm, sparking the beginning of the 2nd Dark Lord War. During the war, Kesselring was tasked with invading the Helman Republic alongside the Dark Lord Babolat and the Great Monster General LeMay. It is revealed that he can change genders when he regenerates and can be recruited in his female form.

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.