Lei

"Lei"

- reflecting on his relationship with Mary Ann.

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

Prior to becoming a Dark Lord, Lei was a Human man known as Lei Gatthon (レイ・ガットホン, Rei Gattohon). Born during the GL Era, a time remembered as the most horrific in the history of The Continent, Lei was one of the few humans in possession of the raw power necessary to survive during the period without fear. Through a combination of a naturally exceptional talent for combat and a staggering level of tenacity, he was able to successfully fend off every group of Monsters that attempted to attack him, eventually growing strong enough to take on several hundred at once.

Over time, Lei’s outstanding strength caused him to gain a reputation as a legendary warrior among the small pockets of human civilization that existed. Despite this, however, he deliberately avoided associating with other people, believing that he was only able to become as strong as he had by living exclusively for himself, and that others merely sought to exploit his power for their own personal benefit. This belief caused him to continue fighting solely for his own survival where other powerful humans, such as the Legendary Five, rose up as heroes in order to free humanity from the oppressive grasp of Demon King Gele.

Eventually, Lei’s actions caught the attention of Gele, who, interested in his strength, authorized a large scale hunt for him. While Lei managed to ward off the massive monster armies that pursued him for a very long time, he was eventually defeated and captured. Following his defeat, Lei was brought to the Demon King’s castle, where he was imprisoned and scheduled to be executed in front of Gele. Lei continued to tirelessly struggle for his life even in captivity, which caused Gele, immensely amused by his stubbornness, to decide to transform him into a Dark Lord to serve under her. Upon becoming a Dark Lord, Lei’s great strength increased significantly, and his body began to emit a powerful electrical current throughout itself, allowing him to instantly become recognized as one of the strongest beings in all of monsterkind.

Lei adjusted to life as a Dark Lord extremely quickly. Having already spent his previous life constantly fighting, and having formed no real emotional connections with any other person, he had no qualms with devoting himself to slaughtering countless humans as opposed to monsters as he had previously. In addition, serving under Gele, who both recognized and praised him for his strength, filled him with a sense of purpose for the first time in his existence. This newfound sense of fulfillment caused Lei to wholeheartedly devote himself to assisting Gele in achieving her ambitions in spreading chaos and suffering across the world, believing that she truly valued him as both a servant and as a person.

Lei’s brief period of joy serving under Gele swiftly ended following the transformation of Gi, another incredible human warrior who impressed Gele with his strength, into a Dark Lord. Gele quickly began to fall in love with Gi, taking him in as her concubine and favoring him above all other Dark Lords as her most trusted servant. At the same time, Gele began to lose interest in Lei, dismissing him as a foolish and troublesome man and largely choosing to ignore him entirely. Gele’s rejection shattered Lei, who came to realize that the person who he had believed genuinely valued him was merely exploiting him as a source of temporary amusement.

Filled with anger and loneliness, Lei chose to shut himself off from the rest of the world completely. Having never experienced emotional loss before, he attempted to cope with the inner emptiness that ate away at him in the only way he knew how, and began to indiscriminately pick fights and create conflicts with both humans and monsters alike to distract himself from his sadness. Lei’s existence became an entirely miserable one as he aimlessly brought carnage and ruin to wherever he went in a futile effort to feel complete again.

Lei was aggravated even further following Gele’s defeat at the hands Gi, who betrayed her in order to become the Demon King himself. Having already resented Gi for stealing Gele’s attention away from him, Lei was deeply bothered by the other man’s general passivity towards humans. In the year GI0024, Gi made an agreement with Silky Littleraisin, a powerful human warrior who was able to travel to his castle and speak with him directly, to divide the world’s territory in half between humans and monsters in exchange for her servitude as a Dark Lord. As a side effect of this agreement, the Dark Lords were forbidden from interfering with humanity’s affairs, causing Lei to quickly grow restless over being unable to fight as often as he had during Gele’s reign. To curb his boredom, he began attacking monster and even other Dark Lords more frequently, causing him to be scorned even further by those around him.

In the year GI0420, Gi, at the pressuring of his subordinates, declared war on the Holy Magic Sect, the most powerful and prominent human civilization in existence at the time. Harnessing powerful Magic, the Holy Magic Sect constructed Toushin, mechanical warriors of unbelievable power, to fight against the forces of the Monster Realm. During the conflict, known as the Dark Lord War, Lei fought against one such warrior, Toushin Sigma, a number of times. While Lei was initially vastly superior to Sigma in terms of strength, the Toushin continuously modified his body following each of their fights to more effectively counter him. Over time, Sigma grew to become a more and more formidable opponent in his battles against Lei, leading to the two developing a mutual respect for one another.

Throughout his encounters with Sigma, Lei was able to satiate his irrepressible desire to fight against strong opponents, allowing him to feel fulfilled for the first time since the GL Era. After several months of fighting, Lei's rivalry with Sigma ended abruptly after the latter’s Toushin Toshi was destroyed by the Dark Lord Lexington, incapacitating his body in the process. Lei was left somewhat saddened by the loss of Sigma, causing him to once again experience intense feelings of loneliness.

Following the collapse of the Holy Magic Sect in the year GI0452 and the end of the Dark Lord War with it, Lei returned to his empty and agitated life under Gi. In the year GI0981, he recklessly challenged Kayblis, the oldest and most powerful Dark Lord, to a battle out of boredom. Despite his great strength, Lei was thoroughly outclassed by Kayblis, and was defeated with relative ease. Left both angered and severely injured by his loss, Lei developed a strong grudge against Kayblis, vowing to challenge and defeat him again one day.

In the year GI1015, Gi named Kurusu Miki, a human girl from an Alternate Dimension, as his successor as Demon King, 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. Despite his hatred of Kayblis, Lei chose to side with him against Hornet due to believing her plan to continue upholding Gi’s legacy and allow humanity to live free to be “boring”, along with being promised by Kayblis to be able to fight as much as he wanted after the end of the war.

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, Lei was tasked with invading the Free Cities Alliance from the Northeast alongside his fellow Dark Lord Pi-R and the Great Monster General Pizarro.

While eager to continue fighting, Lei was entirely uninterested in following Pizarro’s orders, and instead chose to simply wander around the region as he pleased, fighting against anyone that stood in his way. While Lei expressed a complete disregard for his commands, Pizarro was still able to make great use of the lightning Dark Lord’s potent powers to destroy large sections of the opposing human armies, allowing him to quickly conquer a substantial portion of the Free Cities’ territory and throw the region into a critical condition.

During the events of Rance X, the forces of the Human Realm were, through various circumstances, formally united under the warrior Rance to create the United Human Army. Due to possessing the Dark Sword 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 a 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.

Early on into the United Human Army’s effort to liberate the Free Cities from its monster invaders, Lei crossed paths with a large group of mercenaries under the command of Cecil Carna, a formidable female warrior who had been named the acting general of the Free Cities Army after the death of its previous leader near the beginning of the war. Lei succeeded in killing the majority of soldiers under Cecil’s command before she herself engaged him to buy her remaining troops time to escape. While Lei defeated Cecil with ease, he was pleasantly surprised by her strength and skill, and commended her for being able to momentarily entertain him. Following his victory, Lei captured and raped Cecil before allowing her to return to her soldiers, encouraging the humiliated warrior to try and fight him again at any time.

Some time after his skirmish with Cecil, Lei wandered into the Free City of Goa. While walking through the backstreets of the large city, Lei was bumped into by a young pickpocket, who stole an empty coin satchel, a forgotten remnant of his former life as a human, from his person. Though Lei did not notice the item being stolen from him, the thief was nonetheless apprehended by Mary Ann, a streetwise young girl, who immediately returned it to him. Upon having his possession returned to him, Lei attempted to silently continue on his way, but was stopped by Mary, who, mistaking him for a vagrant due to his scruffy appearance and empty satchel, offered to share half of an Uppi sandwich that she had made for herself with him. Unable to shake off the energetic girl, the annoyed Lei agreed to eat the sandwich, but quickly spat it out after finding its taste to be too strange.

During the meal, Mary was approached by the pickpocket, who had brought his father with him to have her beaten in retribution for stopping him. Before the boy’s father was able to carry out the beating, however, he was swiftly kicked by an agitated Lei, causing him to be launched several meters into the air and knocked unconscious. The inhuman strength of Lei’s kick caused him to be recognized as a Dark Lord by the pickpocket, throwing Goa into a state of panic and forcing him to flee the city in order to avoid drawing attention to himself, abandoning Mary in the process.

Following his excursion through Goa, Lei returned to the frontlines of the war, positioning himself along the outskirts of the Hyper Building. While near the Hyper Building, he was informed by one of his subordinates that Rance was approaching his location, with the intention of fighting and killing him. Intrigued by Rance after hearing stories of his exploits during the 7th Leazas-Helman War, wherein he succeeded in defeating Noce, a former Elite Dark Lord of considerable power, Lei ordered his troops to allow Rance and his allies to pass through to his location. Eager to witness the wielder of Chaos’ strength firsthand, Lei challenged the brutal warrior to a duel, but was turned down, with Rance claiming that he was not worth fighting one-on-one and instead choosing to attack with the aid of his comrades.

While Rance’s group had a considerable numerical advantage, they were nonetheless unable to defeat Lei, whose immense power and flawless instincts allowed him to counter every attack made at him. Lei succeeded in beating Rance to the verge of death, but stopped himself from delivering a fatal blow at the last moment when Rance made the excuse of needing to leave the fight due to experiencing a sudden bout of diarrhea. Desiring to fight Rance in peak condition, Lei agreed to postpone their fight until after the supposed stomach illness subsided, allowing the brutal warrior to escape with his life at the cost of his pride.

Lei was later called alongside three Monster Generals to attend a secret late night meeting that was being held in Goa between Rance and the Monster Army. The meeting had been organized by Convert Tax, a human criminal who had sworn loyalty to the monsters in exchange for his guaranteed survival at the conclusion of the war, and Katyusha Bosch, the head of the criminal organization known as the DX Association who similarly sought to profit from humanity’s destruction, and was intended to persuade Rance to abandon the war in exchange for status and power following the monsters’ victory. Lei was extremely disinterested in the meeting, describing it as dull and barely participating in it, and showed disappointment at Rance’s apparent willingness to cooperate with the monsters so easily. Rance’s compliance proved to merely be a front, however, as he had arranged for his head maid Biscuitta Burns to covertly deliver Chaos to him partway into the meeting in order to attack Lei while he was off guard. Rance succeeded in hitting Lei directly with a full-powered Rance Attack, severely injuring the Dark Lord before he was able to react. Weakened significantly by his injury, Lei was forced to flee from the encounter to survive, causing Rance to order a citywide search for him.

Upon fleeing from the failed meeting, Lei hid himself within the back alleys of Goa to evade his pursuers. By sheer coincidence, he was found once again by Mary. Though Lei attempted to brush Mary away, the girl remained at his side, concerned about the large wound that he had sustained moments before. Against Lei’s own wishes, Mary treated his injury, not caring about the own damage she received when directly touching the Dark Lord’s electrified skin.

While treating his wound, Mary asked Lei if he was lonely, noting that he was by himself and seemed to be depressed both times she encountered him. Lei dismissed Mary’s question by stating bluntly that, as a Dark Lord, his life was inherently a lonely one, and that he had no need for anyone but himself. Lei’s claim angered Mary, who insisted that everyone, regardless of who or what they were, needed friends. Revealing herself to also come from a lonely background, Mary offered to become Lei’s friend, noting that she knew that he was a good person due to the way that he had saved her during their first meeting. While bothered by Mary’s offer, Lei found himself unable to dismiss it outright, as he had not been directly confronted about his loneliness at any point during his thousand years of existence and was unused to thinking about it. Before being able to muster a response, however, Lei’s location was approached by soldiers of the United Human Army, forcing him to once again exit from Goa and leave Mary.

Days after the incident in Goa, Lei took part in the Battle of Sekigahara, a pivotal battle in the United Human Army’s effort to retake the Free Cities. During the battle, Lei once again crossed paths with Cecil, who had taken command of a large unit designed with the sole purpose of restraining him. Composed of 1,000 guards and 1,000 healers, each fully equipped with lightning-resistant items, the unit surrounded Lei in order to keep him at bay for the remainder of the fight. While the unit had no way of damaging Lei, he steadily began to become exhausted while fighting against it as a result of the strain caused by the injury that Rance had earlier given to him.

As the forces of the Free Cities began to overpower the Monster Army, Pizarro ordered his remaining troops to exit the battlefield, deliberately abandoning Lei to buy time for the rest of the army to escape. Lei was then surrounded by the entirety of the Free Cities Army and directly confronted by Rance. Already weakened by both his lingering injury and tired body, Lei was crippled even further by the arrival of the Tulip 3 piloted by Maria Custard, which had been outfitted with a lightning rod to absorb the electricity from his attacks. Rance and his allies succeeded in beating Lei to the point of near death, but the Dark Lord managed to escape at the last second by charging at the Tulip 3 and ripping the lightning rod from it, allowing him to create an enormous bolt of lightning to momentarily blind the enemy army and grant him time to flee. Enraged, Rance ordered the army to search the surrounding area to find Lei’s location.

Barely alive, Lei fled to Goa, which bordered the hill range where the battle had taken place. Realizing that his death was imminent, Lei decided to cease running in favor of fighting to the very end, convincing himself that finding an opponent powerful enough to end his miserable existence was what he had always wanted. Shortly after making this declaration, Lei was once again approached by Mary, who, having overheard of the widespread search for him, offered to shelter him until the forces of the Free Cities had passed through Goa. Lei refused Mary’s offer, coldly telling her that she had no reason to be concerned for him. Mary responded by shouting that Lei would likely die if she did nothing to assist him. Having never before been told so directly that his life was valued by another, Lei was shaken by Mary’s answer, but was cornered by Rance, who had managed to track down his location, before he had an opportunity to properly ponder it.

Mary made an attempt at protecting Lei from Rance by offering herself to the perverted adventurer in exchange for her friend’s safety, but was immediately rejected due to being, in Rance’s words, an “ugly brat”. Resolving to follow through with his desire to die fighting a strong opponent, Lei told Rance to ignore Mary and challenged him to a one-on-one battle, provoking the other man by asking if he was too cowardly to attempt to fight a dying Dark Lord on his own. Rance nearly gave in to Lei’s taunt, but was persuaded by Chaos to not take any unnecessary risks, and instead chose to fight him with the assistance of his allies. While Lei continued to fight ferociously till the bitter end, he was unable to stand against Rance’s team in his weakened state, leading to his defeat.

Collapsed on the ground, Lei braced himself for death as Rance approached him to deliver a finishing blow. Before Rance was able to carry out the attack, however, he was blocked by Mary, who refused to allow him to kill Lei. While Rance attempted to convince Mary to step aside, her refusal to do so eventually prompted him to decide to kill her as well. Finally accepting Mary’s affection for him, Lei spoke out against Rance to protect her, stating plainly that she had done nothing to deserve death, and that he was the one who Rance wanted to kill. Rance immediately recognized Lei’s concern for Mary through his protest and, seeing a prime opportunity to gain a powerful ally, demanded that the Dark Lord become his servant in exchange for Mary’s life. While Lei was surprised by Rance’s words, he agreed after considering them for a moment, deciding that protecting Mary was enough to continue living for. Following this, both Lei and Mary were taken into Rance’s custody and conscripted as members of the Dark Lord Extermination Squad.

As a member of the Dark Lord Extermination Squad, Lei lent his immense strength toward fighting against the remaining forces of the Monster Army. Outside of battle, Lei was assigned the position of chore boy by Rance, and was ordered to perform various mundane tasks around Rance Castle, such as sweeping the courtyard and preparing meals. Due to their overlapping duties, Rance declared Lei to be the junior of Rocky Bank, who he instructed to mentor the Dark Lord in performing household tasks. Throughout this time, Lei also watched over Mary, who made efforts to assist him in growing out of his violent tendencies by teaching him other, more peaceful ways of resolving squabbles with others, such as through games of hanafuda. After initially struggling to adapt to his new life, Lei began to earnestly devote himself to developing skills and interests outside of fighting, much to the surprise of everyone around him.

At the conclusion of the 2nd Dark Lord War, Lei, alongside the other remaining Dark Lords, pledged servitude to Rance after he assumed the position of Demon King. Lei remained loyal to Rance even as other prominent members of the Monster Realm chose to rise up against him, earning him a position among the Demon King’s inner circle in the process. Despite this, however, Lei would frequently go off on his own for extended periods of time without permission in order to spend time with Mary, who had relocated her residence to the desert nation of Shangri-La. After centuries living for nothing, Lei was able to finally find happiness and fulfillment for himself by living a modest life alongside Mary.

As time passed, Lei’s relationship with Mary continued to deepen. After Mary reached adulthood, the pair discussed the possibility of transforming her into Lei’s Apostle to allow them to continue living together forever. The two deliberated the idea for some time before reaching the mutual agreement that it was better for Mary to remain a human in order for their relationship to continue being one between equals.

While serving under Rance, Lei learned of the existence of the Toushin Tournament, a fighting competition between the strongest warriors in all of the Continent. Still eager to fight against strong opponents, Lei attempted to enter the tournament for countless years, but was forbidden from entering each time due to being unable to fulfill the entrance requirement of having a beautiful female partner. Unwilling to acknowledge anyone other than Mary, who was not considered beautiful enough to qualify, as his partner, Lei refused to so much as consider looking for another woman to enter the competition with, preventing him from ever successfully enrolling.

During the events of Rance X: Part 2, Lei and Mary were briefly encountered by the adventuring party of El Mofus during their attempt to qualify for the 22nd Toushin Tournament. Lei once again attempted to enter the tournament with Mary as his partner, inevitably causing him to be denied entry. Somewhat frustrated, the duo left Toushin City shortly afterwards.

Lei was later called to Amazing Castle, Demon King Rance’s base located at the peak of Rising Dragon Mountain, to intercept the El Party, which had begun climbing the mountain to challenge and defeat Rance. Lei approached the group following their victory over the Dark Lord twins La Hawzel and La Seizel, where, worn out from their previous fights, they struggled to fight against him. In order to allow her younger companions to conserve their energy for the approaching fight with Rance, Arms Arc, the most powerful adventurer in the world, volunteered to hold off Lei by herself. Through a combination of her high strength and possession of countless legendary artifacts, Arms was able to momentarily hold off Lei, impressing the Dark Lord with her skill in the process. While Lei eventually succeeded in defeating Arms, he chose to spare her life out of respect for her abilities, allowing her to return to her allies.

Lei encountered the El Party again during their second attempt at defeating Rance, where he once again attempted to halt their progress as they climbed Rising Dragon Mountain. As the group of young warriors had grown substantially in power after an intense period of training, they were able to fight Rance’s Dark Lord servants with considerably less difficulty than during their first encounter with them, allowing them to defeat Lei. Upon being defeated, Lei expressed excitement at having several new opponents that could provide him with a challenging fight.

Lei later gathered with the rest of Rance’s entourage to meet with Rance’s children after they succeeded in momentarily freeing their father from the corrupting influence of the Demonic Blood Pool to discuss finding a more permanent means of keeping him under control. Before a solution to Rance’s problem could be conceived, however, the meeting was interrupted by the sudden reappearance of Quelplan, the 1st Class Goddess who through a series of tragic circumstances had become transformed into a mindless rampaging beast of unbelievable power. Joining forces with his children, Rance and his servants set out to defeat the fallen goddess.

During the battle against Quelplan, Lei, along with his other Dark Lord allies, had his Demonic Blood Soul forcibly ripped from his body and absorbed by the trans-dimensional abomination, removing his invincibility field and effectively reverting him to his original human form. Following Quelplan’s defeat, the destruction of the Demonic Blood Pool and, with it, the termination of the entire Demon King system, the former Dark Lords were freed from their eternity of servitude and allowed to live their lives however they desired to. While Lei was not shown discussing his future with the other former Dark Lords during the aftermath of the battle, it can be assumed that he chose to continue living peacefully alongside Mary.

If Lei is defeated during his first encounter with Rance and his party on the battlefield, he will be critically injured and fall to his knees in pain. While his subordinates immediately rush to his side in an effort to treat his wounds, Lei rejects their help, claiming to be satisfied with the fight's outcome. In his final moments, the lonely Dark Lord perishes content that he had experienced a truly thrilling battle before being reduced to a demonic blood soul. Similarly, if Rance chooses to give in to Lei’s taunt and fight him one-on-one during their final battle with each other, he will lethally injure Lei before Mary has a chance to intervene, causing the Dark Lord to pass on with a smile on his face. If Rance succeeds in defeating Lei after attacking him by surprise during the failed negotiation in Goa, the Dark Lord will die instantly, unable to experience the satisfying final battle that he desired. As Lei appears alive and with Mary during part 2, however, none of these outcomes are considered to be canon.

In the non-canonical Kichikuou Rance, Lei is commissioned alongside La Seizel by Kayblis to serve under Camilla in a specialized unit designed to find and capture Little Princess. Upon learning that Little Princess is being sheltered within Leazas Castle on the orders of its newly-appointed king Rance, the group will begin attacking Leazas territory.

In a notable deviation from his canonical portrayal, Lei is shown to have already met and fallen in love with Mary Ann prior to the events of the story, and she is stated to have been the one to have assisted him in recovering from the injuries he received during his ill-fated fight with Kayblis in the year GI0981. Despite Mary having now aged into an elderly woman, Lei’s love for her has not changed and the two remain incredibly committed to each other. Lei is portrayed as having largely overcome his addiction to fighting, and is instead said to have allied himself with Kayblis due to the elder Dark Lord threatening to have Mary killed if he did not.

While levying the city of Rich after fighting against Lei for some time, Rance is able to learn of the Dark Lord’s frequent visits with Mary, one of the town’s residents. Using this information, Rance is able to order the Leazas Army to surround Mary’s house to draw Lei out for an ambush. Rance is then given the choice between holding Mary hostage, killing her or challenging Lei to a conventional fight.

If Rance holds Mary hostage, Lei will allow Rance to kill him without putting up a fight in order to ensure her safety. After Lei's death, Mary, who pleaded him not to throw his life away for her sake, is left dejected and contracts an unknown illness out of grief. Eventually abandoned even by the doctor treating her, the old woman spends the remainder of her days bedridden and mourning her lost love, keeping his demonic blood soul and gloves close by her at all times.

If Rance chooses to kill Mary, Lei will attack him in a blind rage, forcing Rance to fight and lethally injure him. In his dying moments, Lei limps over to the lifeless body of his lover and embraces her hand, giving out a peaceful smile at finally being able to feel her skin against his own before passing on. In recognition of Mary's sacrifice, Rance orders his advisor Maris Amaryllis to hold a funeral in the old woman's honor.

If Rance chooses to challenge Lei to a fair fight, he will succeed in lethally injuring him, after which Mary runs to his side and embraces his body. Not willing to live in a world without him, Mary allows herself to be electrocuted to kiss Lei for the first and last time and the two die together. Rance is left slightly saddened by the sight, and orders Maris to bury Mary's body with Lei's clothing to honor the couple.

Personality and Appearance
Lei has the appearance of a tall young man with a muscular build, slouching posture, jagged teeth and long, shaggy lavender hair that falls messily across his face and obscures his eyes. He possesses multiple piercings in his ears, nose, knuckles and chest, as well as one on each of his temples, and frequently carries a small cigarette in his mouth. Lei’s clothing consists of an orange-colored fleece shirt with a large fur collar worn under a simple brown jacket and beige pants. When in battle, Lei uses a comb attached to his belt to style his hair into several large spikes, in the process also revealing his eyes, which are a piercing red color, and his eyebrows, which curve upward into sharp points that resemble lightning bolts, transforming his disheveled appearance into a savage one.

Upon becoming a Dark Lord, Lei’s body became surrounded by an electrical current. While he has no way of disabling this current, he is capable of regulating it somewhat in relation to his mood, with it being small to the point of being virtually unnoticeable when he is calm and a raging storm of lightning when he is angry. Lei’s appearance as a Dark Lord is mostly identical to what it was while he was a human, allowing him to freely move through areas populated by humans without drawing attention to himself so long as he keeps his emotions in check.

Lei’s appearance is largely the same in Kichikuou Rance, though his hair is always spiked upwards and he lacks any kind of facial piercings, overall giving him a softer, cleaner look. Additionally, the electrical current surrounding his body appears to uniformly take the form of large bolts of lightning, causing him to wear a pair of insulating gloves in order to suppress it slightly. He is also considerably taller than he is in canon, at an imposing 197cm.

Born during a time when humans were forced to constantly fight for their survival and where strength meant everything, Lei is naturally violent, rude and distrustful of others. His experiences as a human were as such that he has a great amount of difficulty expressing himself through any means other than physical confrontation. When forced to not fight for more than a short while, Lei becomes restless and agitated, and will actively seek out chaos and conflict to alleviate these feelings, even instigating it himself when necessary. This rebellious spirit also causes him to greatly despise rules and restrictions, making him generally very defiant toward all forms of authority.

Because of his violent tendencies, Lei is a very antisocial person who, prior to meeting Mary, had formed no meaningful relationships at any point across his thousand year life. When not in battle, he largely avoids interacting with others, and acts curt and dismissive when spoken to, making him difficult to hold a conversation with. This difficulty is further exacerbated by the fact that his eyes are generally always covered, making his expression close to impossible to read most of the time. Lei is viewed as something of an enigma even by his fellow Dark Lords, with Satella admitting that she knew next to nothing about him when asked.

Beneath his abrasive exterior, Lei is actually a very lonely and depressed soul. Having lived in an era when humans were viewed as little more than livestock, he steadily came to believe that he held no worth as an individual outside of his strength. These feelings were further cemented into his mind after Demon King Gele, the one person who he believed saw value in him, effectively abandoned him upon meeting Gi. Because of this, Lei possesses a strong subconscious desire for companionship, which he attempts to suppress by distracting himself with constant fighting. This hidden desire for the company of others shines through whenever he is pitted against a skilled opponent, where he displays an uncharacteristic amount of energy and excitement.

Lei’s character began to drastically change after meeting Mary Ann, an urchin girl from the Free City of Goa and the first person since Gele to take any interest in him as a person. While initially annoyed by Mary’s persistent attempts at befriending him, Lei was eventually forced to confront his feelings of loneliness and desire for companionship as a result of them. Lei was finally pushed to accept Mary’s friendship after her life was threatened by Rance, where he proclaimed her to be a “good kid” and allowed himself to become Rance’s servant in order to protect her. After officially becoming Mary’s friend, Lei remained generally quiet and aloof, but made genuine efforts to follow her advice on how to become a more sociable person, to the point of agreeing to her suggestion of settling arguments through card games rather than fighting. Lei expressed a slight amount of agitation after being told by Freya Idun that being around Mary had begun to change him, but went on to privately admit to himself that he did not mind it.

By the time of RA0015, Lei and Mary have become much closer, going so far as to refer to each other as “partners”. While it is left ambiguous as to whether their relationship has become romantic in nature or not, their affection for each other is undeniable, with Lei regularly sneaking away from Rising Dragon Mountain to be with her and refusing to proclaim any other woman to be his partner in the Toushin Tournament. Despite being vastly more powerful than her, Lei considers Mary to be his equal in every way, to the point of deciding against making her his Apostle in order to avoid exerting any kind of control over her. Through Mary’s influence, Lei has become considerably more social and less violent, but retains his quiet nature and love for fighting against strong people.

Lei has a somewhat mixed but overall positive opinion of Rance. Prior to their first encounter, Lei expressed an interest in fighting Rance after hearing rumors of his strength, and showed excitement when the brutal warrior appeared to be able to back up the claims. Lei seems to particularly appreciate Rance’s chaotic, unpredictable and aggressive nature, claiming that he always makes things more interesting whenever he is around. Lei also finds Rance’s tendency toward using dirty tactics to defeat his opponents to be cowardly, however, and was extremely upset when Rance attempted to kill him in an ambush rather than a conventional battle. Rance is generally indifferent to Lei, but recognizes his strength enough to consider him to be worth making into an ally, and does not seem to be particularly bothered by his presence. Like many of his male allies, Rance rarely addresses Lei by name, and instead primarily refers to him as "Sparky".

Lei’s relationship with the Kichikuou Rance version of Mary is much more overtly romantic, with Lei stating several times that he values Mary far more than he does his own life. As Lei is incapable of touching Mary without harming her, the two have been incapable of embracing one another throughout their long relationship, which has brought a considerable amount of grief to both. While Lei continues to love Mary even as she moves into old age, he dreads the day when she passes on and leaves him for good. Lei has made multiple attempts at convincing Mary to agree to become an Apostle in an effort to prevent this, but has been firmly refused each time due to Mary’s desire to remain a human. If Rance defeats Lei in a fair duel, Mary chooses to embrace him as he succumbs to his injuries, killing herself in the process. During the couple’s final moments, both only show happiness at being able to pass on into the next life together.

Abilities
Lei is a ferocious warrior who combines excellent physical strength with a natural fighting instinct. Already blessed with an outstanding amount of talent as a human, his power skyrocketed upon being transformed into a Dark Lord, where he gained enhanced strength, durability and stamina. Possessing a Level Cap of 197 and a current Level of 111, he is considered to be one of the most powerful Dark Lords, and is said to be comparable to one of the Four Elite Dark Lords when at his peak. Lei proved his top class strength during the Battle of Sekigahara, where he single-handedly destroyed 40% of the Free Cities Army while in the process of recovering from a severe wound.

A master of unarmed fighting, Lei possesses the Brawling Lv2 Skill Level, granting him an innate gift for street fighting that he has tempered across over a thousand years. Lei differs from other unarmed fighters, such as his fellow Dark Lord Kite, due to his fighting style relying entirely on improvisation rather than any kind of formal technique. His attacks are wild, relentless and unrestrained combinations of punches, kicks, headbutts and knee strikes that prioritize damaging his opponent as much as possible over all else. Lei also relies heavily on his surroundings while fighting, and will use whatever means he can in order to get an edge over his opponent, such as using loose objects as makeshift weapons. While Lei’s street fighting skills are equally effective in both single combat and against multiple foes, he has a preference for one-on-one duels against particularly strong enemies, as they allow him to go all out with every ounce of his power.

After becoming a Dark Lord, Lei’s body became permanently surrounded by an electrical current. While he has no way of disabling the current, he is able to alter its strength and intensity with his mood. When Lei is calm, the current is only capable of harming those who touch him directly, and can be mostly nullified by any kind of insulating clothing. When Lei is sufficiently angered, the current transforms into a raging storm of lightning that is capable of incinerating anything that comes near it.

Lei’s electrical current naturally works extremely well together with his fighting style, strengthening his attacks even further and allowing them to paralyze any opponent strong enough to withstand being hit by them. Additionally, the electrical current instantly reflects a portion of the damage done to Lei back at his attacker if it was dealt from a close range, meaning that he remains an extremely dangerous opponent to fight up close even if his enemy has some way of disabling his invincibility field. When Lei’s lightning is at its most intense, he is capable of firing bolts from his hands as ranged attacks, making him only comparatively less deadly when fought from a distance. As a last resort, Lei can create a bolt of lightning so large and bright that it blinds everyone within a wide radius around him, allowing him to make a hasty retreat when in danger.

Despite the power of Lei’s electricity, as it functions identically to natural lightning, it can be drawn away from him when in the presence of a conductor, preventing him from utilizing it in battle. As Lei is still a very deadly combatant even without the aid of his lightning, however, this is generally a fairly negligible weakness.

Outside of combat, Lei possesses the Soccer Lv2 skill level, suggesting that he has a naturally remarkable aptitude for the sport. As he is never shown playing soccer at any point, however, it is unknown if he has utilized this talent at all.

In Kichikuou Rance, Lei is described as possessing the ability to fly. As he does not fly at any point during Rance X, however, it can be assumed that he does not have this ability in canon.

Trivia

 * Lei came in 6th place in the "Males" category of the Rance X Popularity Poll.
 * Lei is the only male Dark Lord to participate in the 2nd Dark Lord War who is confirmed to have not been killed during it.
 * The distinct chain of circular shapes that Lei's electricity makes behind his body while in battle is likely a reference to Raijin, a god of lightning from Japanese mythology who is often depicted being surrounded in a similar fashion by a chain of taiko drums, which he beats to create the sound of thunder.
 * According to Orion, the Rance Series' primary character designer, Lei's modified appearance in Rance X was influenced by the characters of Nihirudo Yō from the manga series High School! Kimengumi and Yasutora "Chad" Sado from the manga series Bleach.
 * Lei is given the nickname of "The Lightning-clad Lone Wolf" (稲光る弧狼) in the opening sequence of Rance X.
 * While designing the Z Guardian enemy during the development of Rance VI, Orion came up with an idea to drastically reimagine Lei as a quadrupedal animal rather than a humanoid. Despite Orion sincerely believing in its potential, the redesign was immediately shot down by Tori, one of the Rance series' main writers, upon being presented to her.
 * Lei shares the English translation of his name with the Chinese character for thunder. His name can be alternately romanized as "Ray", likely in reference to a ray of light.