Mordred

Mordred (モードレッド) was the 9th seated Knight of Rounds and the leader of the Cult of Diablos' faction operating in the Oriana Kingdom. When his underling's blunder resulted in the Cult's activities being exposed, he attempted to destroy the Kingdom as a cover-up, only to be thwarted and killed by Shadow.

Appearance
Mordred was a tall knight-type man, with red hair, light gray eyes, with the appearance of someone in his 40s, good face, who wears good armor with a long cape up to the metal boots, which he carried with him, the weapon; the Elven Invisible Sword.

Personality
Mordred is shown to be a charismatic individual who is highly arrogant and megalomaniac in possessing a superiority complex with violently domineering, regularly displaying a lack of conscience and empathy.

Mordred also has no tolerance for his subordinates who failed him or the Cult as he is willing to kill his useless subordinates, when he had killed Perv Asshat for his failures of taking over the Oriana Kingdom. His cold nature is widely feared by those who are aware of him.

Like many high-ranking members of the Cult, Mordred is a delusional psychopath. Completely convinced of his own invincibility, he views fighting as being beneath him and instead prefers to just casually chat with his opponents, during which he was a tendency to even give away vital information. When he was pushed into a corner, however, Mordred underwent a villainous breakdown, slipping into denial and absorbing Ragnarok's power by eating its flesh in a desperate attempt to get out of the situation.

Overall, as described by the Shadow, Mordred is nothing more than "a mook who's all bark and no bite", adding that the only thing that he absorbed from Ragnarok was its stupidity.

Background
Mordred was a 9th Seat Knight of Rounds from the Cult of Diablos, also named himself as the Knight Beyond Man and The Transcendent Spellsword. Every year, he takes a drop of "Tears of Diablos" to maintain his strength and immortality. At some point, Mordred managed to acquire the Invisible Magic Sword from the elven capital through unknown means. Mordred and his faction operate in the Oriana Kingdom.

Learning about the Oriana Kingdom's current king's treason for cutting his ties with the Cult and building a force to rebel against the Cult by forging an alliance with the Midgar Kingdom also sending his daughter to attend their academy in secret with hope to protect her from harm, they decide to brainwash him to become their puppet king by ordering Perv Asshat to drug the king considering his actions with the help from Queen Reina.

Mordred was persuaded by Perv to make him a candidate for occupying the Rounds 12th seat, if his faction can help him succeed in his mission given by the Cult. Mordred agreed and promised on helping Perv, in exchange for his backing support in the Cult’s upcoming internal power struggle.

Before the king became the Cult's puppet, he did one final act; he took possession of the "Ring of Succession", which was actually the key to the "Black Rose", then he recorded his last will and testament in the Ring along with all evidence of Perv and Cult's crimes. Also, he altered the Ring to transfer control over his daughter and by marrying her is the only way to gain dominion over the Ring. After that, the king hid the Ring from the Cult.

While Perv Asshat was visiting the Midgar's Royal Capital with the objective to retrieve Rose Oriana under the pretense of their engagement, Mordred searched the Ring's hiding place.

Bushin Festival Tournament
In the anime, Mordred then heard about the report of Perv's failed mission in securing Rose Oriana, due to Shadow's interference during the Bushin Festival tournament and conveyed his disappointment, to the point where he was forced to beg his superior’s forgiveness for his failure. Perv also told his superiors that as long as the Cult holds the royal family, Rose won't be able to stay hidden for long. Plus Oriana's situation is already in chaos and turmoil with the loss of their king, Perv is sure that Rose can't ignore it and will definitely come back.

Mordred tells Perv to take care of Oriana Kingdom's business first, while waiting for the news about the "Ring's" hiding place and postponing search for Rose Oriana for the time being. Also, Mordred hoped for Perv not to disappoint him too much, before he goes to the meeting with his fellow Rounds, finally deciding to get serious about crushing Shadow Garden considering the destruction of the Sanctuary at Lindwurm.

Mordred finds the "Ring's" hiding place, which is the Saisho Stronghold after being captured two days ago. Then, he orders Perv to retrieve the Ring first by bringing Queen Reina along with 40 First Children, led by 4 Named Children, among them is Kouadoi.

Oriana's "Black Rose" Civil War Wedding Incident
After hearing the news that Perv has obtained the "Ring of Succession" and Princess Rose, Mordred immediately prepares to pull all the necessary strings for his 12th seat position, which he promised to Perv. Before the wedding, he telepathically contacts Perv and congratulates him by telling him that the preparations have been completed and expects great things from him and not to let him down, to which he replied yes, unbeknownst that the "Ring of Succession" has gone missing.

During the wedding after Rose activates the Ring and then a recording of the king's projection appeares with the information that exposes the Cults' crimes and defeates Perv, Mordred decides to reveal himself after killing Perv Asshat and Queen Reina for just a little cleanup, also opens the now unlocked "Black Rose", letting loose hordes of Magical Beasts upon the capital in order to kill everyone in Oriana so that the Cult can take control of what's left of the kingdom. Shadow Garden then make their move to suppress the outbreak and two "Seven Shadows" Epsilon and Beta confront Mordred to check "their answers on a few things" before they kill him.

Mordred didn not seem to care about their response because he did not want to waste his time on them as he pulls something from his pocket and hurls it into the Black Rose to summon Ragnarok, Grand Ruler of the Fourth Realm. Suddenly, Shadow appears and cuts one of Ragnarok’s wings. Mordred begins to praise him for his sudden strike and mocks him that he has angered Ragnarok, before Shadow cuts him off and mocks him back and he begins fighting against Ragnarok to the death outside the capital.

While Shadow fights Ragnarok, Mordred fights against Beta and Epsilon in the triangle position. Then, in the blink of an eye, Mordred decides to strike at both of them before they leap backward at the same time, only able to wound the cheek of the legendary Faithful, Epsilon. Mordred compliments them for dodging his strike until Beta reveals his secret, which is the Invisible Sword from the long-lost Elven Artifacts and Beta accuses him of stealing the sword that was supposed to be kept in the Elven Capital and tells him to return the sword he stole, which makes Mordred mock them for trying to take the sword away from him before Epsilon suddenly strikes him down by throwing her attack filled with magic, much to his shock.

Despite his efforts, Mordred feels a twist in humiliation after fighting the two Seven Shadows, only for him to struggle. After that, Mordred decides to end the fight and have a conversation with them to check their answers about the "Black Rose", the Magical Beasts and Diablos at his confidence that Ragnarok will defeat Shadow. Mordred tells them there are countless other worlds beyond their own in entire other dimensions, which he calls Realms. With the worlds orbiting around and spinning as the years go by until they collide, the impact sends rifts across the worlds, with two different worlds becoming linked and each exerting influence on the other.

Even Mordred says that this world has no magic and humans are not the original inhabitants, because this world is making contact with the Realm in another world and the Cult is doing research for their working theory that this world and the Realms interact with each other on a cyclical basis and exert influence over each other. Beta questions him whether Diablos also came from one of these other worlds. However, he claims that her assumption is false and that Diablos was a genuine inhabitant of their world and tells her that the demon isn’t the true, original Diablos, which is the organism that became the basis for Diablos and theorize that Diablos called the original in from the First Realm which is higher than the Fourth Realm. Then, Mordred checks both the Seven Shadows' last answer about the "Black Rose" which Beta confirms that it’s a gate that can connect to this world to Realms.

Mordred praises them for their correct assumption about the "Black Rose" and tells the real story of the "Black Rose" when accidently opened also poured magical beasts over Oriana Kingdom during the siege of Velgalta Empire, which was a stroke of misfortune for both nations. Even with the Velgaltan soldiers dead, the gate still kept summoning magical beasts and began to consume Oriana, and the Kingdom would have been quite literally obliterated, if someone or something did not appear, to intervene and close the door. Due to this, it was back then, Beta said that the Cult of Diablos decided to make the Kingdom of Oriana their puppet; Mordred replies that the Cult was the one who closed the door and saved the kingdom with the administration of the Black Rose to make sure that the kingdom would survive in perpetuity if the kingdom gives the Cult a sufficient compensation, which is the Royal Blood.

Mordred tells Rose Oriana that it was her blood that the Cult wanted, which even for a royal was blessed with incredible amounts of magic and as per their agreement, the kingdom would turn her over to the Cult when she was still a baby. But her father, the King, foolishly refused them. Beta also added that the Cult's compensation is not just royal blood from the Kingdom. The other compensation is that Oriana were to give a majority of their tax revenue to the Cult, resulting in the kingdom to heavily invest on the arts so it could entertain them. On top of that, the Cult was manipulating the Church to persecute the Dark Knights as a way for the Cult to prevent Oriana from gaining the strength and manpower to rebel against the Cult, which basically became a puppet kingdom. Beta tells Rose that the King wanted to break the cycle by forging an alliance with the Midgar Kingdom, in order to fix his twisted nation from within, and tried to secede from the Cult, but they killed him and confirmed the reason Rose was allowed to study at Midgar Academy was to get her somewhere safe from harm.

Mordred calls Rose's father, the King as a fool and tells her that with the gates of the "Black Rose" still open despite its unstable state, the Cult will take direct control of the Oriana Kingdom. However, Rose Oriana, who hates the Cult, says that she will not let that happen and will continue her father's cause by rebuilding the kingdom with her own hands. He laughs at her statement and wishes that Oriana Kingdom will burn to the ground by Ragnarok until suddenly Ragnarok's right arm falls at the place Mordred fought against Beta and Epsilon, hitting his left arm.

Despite noticing the arm, Mordred still believes Shadow can't bring down Ragnarok when Ragnarok's body parts flying one after the other have been gathered at the same place, much to his surprise. Beta calls him a fool because Shadow had him dancing in the palm of his hand this whole time, and adds every piece of clue about the many Shadow Garden forces being gathered here, the "Black Rose" reaction and how did Rose Oriana have the "Ring of Succession" which is the key of Black Rose.

Mordred now realizes that Shadow knew everything from the very start and wanted to observe the Cult's movement until he planned on destroying the Black Rose in its entirety. He also sees Ragnarok's remains fall right in front of his eyes along with Shadow. Mordred becomes disillusioned about the power of the Shadow Garden being so much stronger than the Fourth Realm itself. Then, Mordred's hollow laugh escapes from his throat because of the outcome and decides to consume Ragnarok’s flesh, absorbing its power until his body begins to change and strikes Shadow with his upgraded power form.

Shadow sees Mordred's state and calls him a failed experiment and taunts him that Ragnarok was stronger than him also mocks him about merging with too much power without intellect, much to his rage. While Shadow was still looking at the sky with his back Mordred says the darkened sky heralds the end and hears the nascent monarch’s cry to Mordred, Shadow's powerful magic began to gather in his right hand.

His magic finally gathers in his obsidian sword, spiraling through the air and drawing an elaborate pattern over the weapon’s blade. Mordred could only be shocked by his magic, which no human could have possibly possessed this much massive power before Shadow kills him with his Atomic attack.

Return to Earth
Following his death, Mordred's severed head is teleported to Earth where it is found by Akira Nishino. The scientist intended to use it in his experiments but he was assassinated by Yuuka before he could do so. It is unknown what became of Mordred's head afterward; whether Beta took it back with her or left it when she was forced to drop much of her loot.

Powers & Abilities
Being the 9th Seat Round Knight, Mordred was considered the strongest Cultist and also one of the Cult of Diablos executive leader. However, he stood no chance against Epsilon and Beta, two Seven Shadows of Shadow Garden who forced him to summon Ragnarok. Despite his desperate actions, he was still not able to best Shadow even when he gets power by eating Ragnarok's flesh which is still a pathetically measly power.

In the Web Novel, he was able to heavily injure Epsilon in one-to-one combat; although he caught her off-guard by surprise and beat 664 and 665 to near death. Mordred's endurance is strong enough that he could survive Shadow's attack "I Am Atomic" even though his right arm was severed.

Swordsmanship
Mordred was a skilled swordsman as he could easily kill normal people with a single swing of his sword.

Weapons and Equipment

 * Invisible Blade: When using a legendary Elven artifact, the Invisible Magic Sword, Mordred could resist and fight for a short time in combat against Epsilon and Beta, two Seven Shadows of Shadow Garden, but then was overwhelmed by their abilities and powers.

Perv Asshat
One of his subordinates. Mordred trusted Perv with the responsibility of becoming the cult's puppet ruler within the Oriana Kingdom through an arranged marriage to Rose Oriana, which would have promoted the latter to the 12th seat of the Knights of Rounds. However, after Perv's incompetence led to the cult's entire conspiracy within Oriana being exposed, Mordred saw him as a loose end and killed him to begin covering up the truth.

Reina Oriana
The former queen of the Oriana Kingdom and an collaborator of the Cult of Diablos. Despite the woman willingly betraying her country and family for Perv's cause, Mordred seems to have viewed Reina as nothing but a useful pawn and killed her once the cult's conspiracy within the kingdom had been exposed to cover up the truth.

Gettan
In the Web Novel, Mordred met Gettan when the cult was trying to capture the Spirit Foxes and the Great Wolves tribe for the experiment and forced him to join.

Shadow
Like so many of his cult members before him, Mordred underestimated Shadow, thinking Ragnarok would easily defeat the leader of the Shadow Garden. Shadow insulted Mordred by calling him a mook. He was then horrified that Shadow was not only able to defeat Ragnarok but also kill it. Mordred's hatred for Shadow looking down on him only grew when Shadow continued to mock him even when Mordred absorbed Ragnarok's power into him. Mordred could only watch in horror as Shadow killed him with his "I Am Atomic!" attack.

Beta
Beta alongside with Epsilon fought Mordred who did not think highly of them during the climax of the crashed wedding until the two managed to wound him. When Shadow and Beta went to Earth under the aliases "Minoru" and "Natsume", Akira Nishino attempted to experiment on Natsume using Mordred's severed head before Yuuka mortally wounded him.

Epsilon
Mordred did not think Epsilon would pose a threat and arrogantly fought her and Beta. He became frustrated with fighting them till Epsilon fired a magic attack that wounded him much to his surprise.

Trivia

 * His name is based on the real knight Mordred from Arthurian legend.
 * Mordred's name, as such, is his alias, both in the manga and in the light novel, since as such, that is what those who know him call him, therefore his real name is not known.
 * In the novel, Mordred's fate and abilities are different.
 * In the Light Novels, Mordred's skills are weak as he was nearly overwhelmed against Epsilon and Beta, two of the Seven Shadows using only an artifact sword as his special weapon and he increased his strength by eating Ragnarok's flesh, but his fate was sealed as he was killed by Shadow.
 * Meanwhile in the Web Novel, Mordred is still alive and his powers are much stronger than his Light Novel counterpart, where he has beaten 664, 665 to near death, and even gave a surprise attack to Epsilon until she is barely injured.
 * Mordred is the only one of "the 12 knights of the round table", of the Cult of Diablos, who consumed the flesh of the Demon King Ragnarok, also managing to be the only one capable of controlling all his magical power without losing control over it, in part, and not going crazy with magical power, for the most part, except in his frenzy of wild rage.
 * Mordred has also become the only member of the cult, and person in the world, to consume two types of demon blood, of the demon king class, that of the demon king Ragnarok, and that of the demon king Diablos, gaining even greater power, possibly even greater than that of the seats of the gentlemen of the table, from 8 to 6 of the cult.
 * Mordred also became the only member of the cult, who was able to maintain enough sanity by consuming the flesh of a very powerful demon, without any scientific study and analysis having been done about it.