Talisman

Talisman’s full name is Talisman Hydra Nebulis.

He belongs to the Nebulis royal line and leads the Hydra house, one of the three central royal families.

He is a mature man with a striking physique, deep‑set features, and neatly kept dull silver hair.

When dressed in an impeccably tailored, high‑class suit, he carries the air of a refined, aristocratic gentleman.

Publicly, he behaves as a loyal vassal of the queen from the Lou house and presents himself as politically neutral between the Lou and Zoa houses.

In reality, he is a duplicitous schemer who uses the downfall of the Zoa house as a stepping stone to pressure the Lou house from the shadows.

Within the story of Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World, he stands out as one of the most cunning tacticians, on par with Elletear Lou Nebulis IX.

He cooperates not only with Elletear but also with the Eight Apostles of the Empire, making him a key conspirator bridging both sides of the conflict.

His voice actor in the anime adaptation is Ryotaro Okiayu.

On the surface, Talisman is a calm, elegant, and soft‑spoken nobleman.

He projects warmth, composure, and a certain unhurried grace, always maintaining an air of relaxed superiority.

During the succession struggle for the crown between the current Lou queen line and the radical Zoa line, he claims a position of moderation and neutrality.

Even when there is an attempted assassination of the queen and suspicion falls on the Zoa house, he personally volunteers to handle the inquiry, sending Vichyssoise Alek Hydra—an inquisitor of the Hydra house—to investigate.

To the public and the royal court, these actions look like loyal, responsible service to the reigning regime.

He appears flexible, reasonable, and dutiful, which helps him win trust and lower the guard of allies and enemies alike.

However, this composed exterior is a carefully constructed façade.

Beneath it lies the true Talisman: an ambitious, seething predator driven by a relentless pursuit of strength and supremacy.

He is described as possessing a spirit as blazing as the sun—befitting the Hydra name in his lineage.

He is ruthless when it comes to his goals, yet his cruelty is never impulsive; it is cold, calculated, and meticulously planned.

Talisman views the Nebulis Sovereignty as an outdated nation stuck in a stagnant war.

He is openly disdainful, in private, of the Lou house for clinging to a deadlocked stalemate with the Empire and of the Zoa house for endlessly screaming vengeance.

His strategic style is to smile, converse lightly, and keep his tone friendly, even while setting up lethal traps.

Iska goes so far as to describe him as a “con artist,” because Talisman’s casual, almost playful conversation masks deadly, precise attacks.

Although he bears the second epithet “Brutality,” he personally considers it a vulgar and inaccurate nickname.

He prefers to present his violent acts as a kind of “purification” or “catharsis,” claiming they serve to cleanse the soul of the world.

Talisman is the current head of the Hydra house, one of the three royal houses at the core of the Nebulis Sovereignty’s ruling structure.

The three houses are Lou, Zoa, and Hydra, with Hydra traditionally taking a moderate, balancing position between the other two.

During the sacred royal selection ritual for the next queen, known as the Conclave, the Lou and Zoa houses fiercely compete for dominance.

In line with Hydra tradition, Talisman officially opts for centrism and neutrality, acting as a stabilizing third pillar between the two rival camps.

When Queen Millavair Lou Nebulis VIII survives an assassination attempt, suspicion immediately focuses on the extremist Zoa house.

Talisman steps forward as a seemingly responsible and impartial mediator, offering the Hydra house’s resources to assist in investigating the crime.

He dispatches Vichyssoise Alek Hydra, a distant relative and Hydra inquisitor, to track the perpetrator.

This move reinforces his image as a dutiful noble, loyal to the queen and committed to justice.

All the while, he continues to speak with deference, often saying things like:

He insists that the queen should first take care of her own health, sounding considerate and gentle.

To the royal court, Talisman seems like the ideal moderate: loyal to the queen, cooperative with official investigations, and dedicated to maintaining order.

This cultivated persona allows him to operate in the political center without drawing suspicion to his deeper ambitions.

In truth, Talisman and the Hydra house are the mastermind and actual perpetrators behind the queen’s attempted assassination.

They are also secret collaborators with the Empire, acting as internal traitors within Nebulis.

His polite demeanor and loyalty are deliberate misdirection.

The real Talisman is a fiercely ambitious warlord concealed behind a gentleman’s mask.

He is in close conspiracy with Elletear Lou Nebulis IX, a key figure of the Lou house.

Together, they orchestrate a plan to invite their supposed enemy, the Empire, directly into the royal seat of Nebulis.

Their shared objective is to eliminate both the Lou and Zoa houses as current power blocs.

By exploiting Imperial power and internal division, they aim to reshape control of the Nebulis core and seize the future of the nation.

Talisman also forms a covert alliance with the Eight Apostles of the Empire, the group that effectively rules the Empire behind the scenes.

He identifies that reaching the Core of the Star—the central, hidden power of this world—cannot be achieved by Nebulis alone, and that the Empire’s strength is indispensable for that goal.

He supports a project that uses astral spirits and the phenomenon of great astral calamities to artificially achieve the integration of humans and astral spirits.

This is a radical, taboo‑level experiment intended to push the limits of what astral power and humanity can become.

Vichyssoise Alek Hydra, the inquisitor he sent out under the pretense of a loyal investigation, is in fact used as a test subject in these integration experiments.

To Talisman, blood ties mean little compared to the pursuit of greater power and the evolution of the star itself.

He also takes interest in the Empire’s secret research into the process known as “witchification”—the transformation that leads people to become beings akin to astral “witches.”

Seeing a perfect overlap of interests, he allies with the Eight Apostles to advance this forbidden science.

The mysterious “Test Subject F,” who attacked the former Nebulis queen 30 years prior, is revealed to be the prototype of these experiments.

This means Talisman’s conspiracy has roots going back decades, long before his own generation fully came into power.

In fact, the plan spans roughly three generations of the Hydra family.

It began around the time of the Hydra head three generations before Talisman, making this a scheme nearly half a century in the making.

To Talisman, this grand design is not mere treason but a “purification” of the world.

He frames the destruction and chaos as a necessary cleansing, a catharsis that will refine both the star and its people.

Talisman is the bearer of the astral spirit of “Wave.”

This power allows him to emit invisible mechanical energy as waves and manipulate objects by striking them with that energy.

From an outside perspective, it resembles telekinesis or a psychic ability.

Crosswell Nes Lubigate compares it to an opponent having invisible robotic arms attached to their body that can push, pull, or crush at will.

Using this “Wave” astral power, he can create massive, unseen force that strikes like a huge wall of glass collapsing in a domino effect.

These techniques can generate wave attacks with the destructive impact of towering surges, giving rise to his formal epithet: “Wave Surge” Talisman.

He can launch invisible shockwaves that shove, topple, or pulverize targets as easily as if he were moving pieces on a board.

This makes him extremely dangerous even at range, as his attacks cannot be directly seen or easily predicted.

However, his true terror does not lie in these conventional wave blasts alone.

His signature combat style fuses his astral wave power with exceptionally honed martial arts.

Unlike many astral mages who rely primarily on spellcasting and ranged astral arts, Talisman is also a master of physical combat.

He is a veteran practitioner of hand‑to‑hand techniques, conditioned by decades of brutal training.

The core of his “true” technique is his unique application of the “Wave” astral power.

He converts his invisible mechanical energy not just into pushing or pulling force, but directly into physical acceleration.

By channeling that acceleration into his own body and strikes, he drastically multiplies the speed and impact of his movements.

A mere graze from his fist is enough to shatter ribs and tear internal organs into pieces.

When he accelerates himself with wave power, his movement speed reaches a level that even Iska, a top‑class swordsman, cannot visually track.

To an observer, his steps feel like the aftermath of a passing train—violent winds and explosive force follow in his wake.

Iska, known for his extraordinary mobility and swordsmanship, cannot shake Talisman off when Talisman fully commits to his accelerated combat style.

This makes Talisman an especially lethal predator when facing astral mages: he does not just out‑magic them, he outright overwhelms them physically.

This fusion of high‑level martial arts with wave‑powered acceleration makes Talisman a natural nemesis of astral spirit users.

His timing, feints, and deceptive conversations during combat are all geared toward baiting reactions and punishing them with invisible, high‑speed strikes.

His approach to fighting mirrors his personality: outwardly relaxed and talkative, inwardly calculating and merciless.

He often keeps up a light, meandering chat in battle, all while preparing precise, lethal attacks that strike when his opponent’s guard is down.

There is also an important aspect of discipline behind his terrifying ability.

Talisman is not just gifted—he is a relentless, methodical hard worker.

Designing the core structure of his wave‑acceleration technique alone took him six years.

It then took him another eight years to successfully learn and implement it in practice.

Even after that, he spent an additional thirteen years refining the technique to its current monstrous level.

In total, he dedicated nearly thirty years of focused training to reach his present peak.

Because of his brutal fighting methods and uncompromising drive for strength, he has acquired another epithet: “Brutality” Talisman.

He dislikes this name and considers it a crude label, but it nevertheless reflects how terrifying he appears to those who face him in combat.

Talisman’s tactical mindset is as dangerous as his raw power.

He blends deception, psychological warfare, and high‑speed violence into a seamless whole.

For example, when attacking the Lou family’s villa, he carefully avoids using astral arts at first.

He does this to frame the attack as an operation by the Empire, which is known for using technology and conventional means rather than astral magic.

After his enemies are lulled into assuming no astral arts are in play, he abruptly unleashes his wave‑based astral techniques.

This sudden shift catches his opponents off guard and allows him to deliver devastating surprise attacks.

Throughout such engagements, Talisman maintains a nonchalant, almost idle conversational tone.

He appears unbothered, even friendly, as if he were simply discussing politics over tea rather than trying to kill someone.

Behind that calm voice, he constantly evaluates distance, timing, and openings.

Whenever the enemy’s attention wavers—often in reaction to his misleading remarks—he strikes with invisible, accelerated force.

Iska’s assessment of Talisman as a “con artist” stems from this contrast.

He looks like a courteous diplomat, but his words are bait, his smile a mask, and his every movement a setup for the next lethal blow.

In Talisman’s own philosophy, he does not see himself as a mere brute or slaughterer.

He frames his actions as “catharsis,” a cleansing storm that will purify the world and guide it toward a new phase—no matter how many lives it costs.