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character

Akuma

the War Mage · leader of the War Mage Rebellion

The war-mage rebel leader, interrogated at last, who reveals the dungeon's modular truth and his plan to reclaim the Pineapple Cabaret.

Story so far

Akuma is the elf-like leader of the War Mage Rebellion — a being of magic made flesh, spawned when a flesher is resleeved enough times, whose head explodes ten minutes after death and who can be killed by an anti-magic shield. Cornered in the Chicken and Waffles and Upgrades storeroom (having murdered its upgrade imp to summon Carl), he is muted, ball-shattered by Elle, and shielded to bleed health while he answers. He spills the endgame's shape: crawler numbers grew so large the AI must draw NPCs and mercenaries from depleted 'emergency backup,' and awakened mobs are now 'a disease' poisoning the crawl — everything and everyone inside the dungeon will be binned this season regardless of who regains control.

He explains the dungeon is modular: a physical, reusable 'framework' shell (stored mobs, reusable locations, indentured workers) moved planet to planet, into which showrunners feed each season's plans. He reveals the astonishing exploit: two forgotten former crawlers, the skink Herot (16th-edition cookbook author) and Menerva, were given the never-visited seventeenth floor to build, and secretly attached to it a pocket-dimension oasis — the Pineapple Cabaret — where mobs and NPCs can permanently escape. Akuma left it to hunt the Scavenger's Daughter; in his absence Agatha's forces and old monsters ('remnants,' shadow mimics, Ogre Imperium leftovers) infested it, and only five war mages survive.

He needs Carl's crew to retake it and maybe open an exit to the surface, entry barred to god-worshippers. He admits he wanted Carl to kill two teams precisely to force a friend-versus-friend heat and leave Carl no choice but to help — earning a shattered nose from Carl.

Appearance

An older elf-like figure with mottled, sun-damaged skin; a war mage — the personification of magical energy in flesh — here bloodied, muted, and doubled over in agony.

Role

The war-mage rebel who reveals the dungeon's modular framework and the Cabaret exploit, coercing Carl into his cause.

Relationships

Carl — Coerces him into helping retake the Cabaret by forcing a friend-vs-friend heat; Carl shatters his nose in return.
Herot — The skink former crawler and cookbook author who taught him the dungeon's true nature and built the Cabaret.
Elle — Shatters his testicle and dictates the terms of his interrogation.
Scavenger's Daughter — The entity he abandoned the Cabaret to hunt, calling her crucial to keeping its denizens safe.
Agatha — His enemy, whose forces infested the Cabaret the moment his protection spells lapsed.
Pineapple Cabaret — The oasis dimension he must retake with Carl's help, now overrun in his absence.

Earlier in this series

Also appears in books you've already read — spoiler-safe to their endings:

Sources — 2 recorded facts, by chapter
Chapter 25
  • The War Mage Rebellion leader from Faction Wars, now covertly recruiting Carl via a hidden note.
Chapter 40
  • The war-mage rebel leader, interrogated at last, who reveals the dungeon's modular truth and his plan to reclaim the Pineapple Cabaret.
Character sheet
LitRPG stats — unique to this series. Other books surface a different panel here.
War mage (magic made flesh) LVL unknown
Skills & spells
  • magic manipulation
  • shadow/darkness concealment
Notable gear
  • disintegration traps
  • the stolen broken Gate of the Feral Gods
Character portrait