Veronica

Veronica is the Master of the Red Tower and the single most powerful battle-mage in the Kingdom of Meltor. Her true age and origin are unknown, but a quarter of red-dragon blood runs in her veins, so her body constantly radiates heat, her bright scarlet hair and golden eyes burn stronger than a human's, and she lives far longer than ordinary people. An 8th-Circle sorceress and one of the few living dragon-slayers, she stands at the very pinnacle of battle magic — in Meltor her name is the one spoken whenever the strongest wizard in the land is named, and even Blundell concedes to her in raw power.

Blunt, open and utterly unable to hide her feelings, she is the opposite of the smooth-faced Blundell: when she is happy she laughs, when she is angry she comes undone. She first appears before Theodore when, after his unstable 5th Circle awakens, he is summoned to the capital — Veronica kicks the throne-room doors open without ceremony, spots the flaw in his power at a glance and takes the young man under her wing. Dropping her duties as a Master, she drills him for two weeks on the Pentarium arena, beating him again and again even at half strength, until she finally helps him stabilize his circle, after which she asks him to call her 'big sister' when they are alone.

Her care for Theodore soon grows into something deeper. After he risks one of the rarest elixirs to save her from a mortal wound, an eternal oath-contract forms between them: as long as the pact holds, her soul is bound to Theodore — she always knows he is alive, cannot betray him, and it is precisely this that later shields her from the charm of the sin-grimoire Lust, to whom the unprotected Sylvia fell. The bond runs so deep that in the finale, when Theodore's soul nearly shatters within the Akashic Records, the heart of the Master of the Red Tower stops along with him.

In the war against the Empire of Andras, Veronica is an 'army of one,' razing fortresses single-handed, wiping out tens of thousands of mutants in guerrilla raids and shielding refugees. In the decisive clash with the Emperor-Invidia she awakens her dragon blood for the first time before Theodore's eyes — scales spread across her skin, horns emerge from her head, and she falls on her foe as something between human and dragon, at the risk of tearing her own body apart. On the eastern continent, worn down by her duel with the White Tiger and having lost Sylvia to Lust, she holds on by her last strength until her 'fiance' arrives.

In the finale Theodore proposes to her and Sylvia at once. Veronica, who had long known it would come to this, gladly accepts them both — landing a crushing punch in Theodore's stomach for not properly asking her opinion sooner. At the 'Wedding of the Century,' officiated by King Kurth III himself, the Master of the Red Tower, in a snow-white gown that contrasts with her blazing hair, kisses Theodore with a long, demonstrative kiss and, with her usual boldness, suggests doing it again. Years later she raises a shared family alongside Sylvia without a shadow of jealousy, as blunt and fiery as ever.

An 8th-Circle mage and the apex of battle-mage evolution: her fire magic and physical might are unmatched in Meltor, and her awakened red-dragon blood places her firepower a tier or two above other mages of her rank. Her arsenal includes Infernal Flame, with which she can incinerate a sword-master in an instant, Dragon's Breath that clears a path through any obstacle, and fire pillars that burn away hundreds of foes at once.

Her inherited dragon blood grants a colossal mana pool, inhuman bodily durability (tougher than stone even untransformed) and an innate immunity to poison, along with monstrous close-combat strength and speed beyond the human limit: a single ordinary punch from her hurls an opponent away like a battering ram.

In extremity Veronica partly awakens her dragon blood: scales spread across her skin, horns emerge from her head, and she becomes something between human and dragon, reaching hypersonic speed and a power that held Invidia at bay for several minutes and rivals the transcendent. The cost is the rapid breakdown of her own body, which can endure it for only a few minutes, after which her scales are left drenched in her own blood.

Veronica hides nothing of what she feels — she is blunt, bold and impulsive, a match for her own fire: she kicks the throne-room doors open, cannot stand a Master's paperwork and throws herself into anything that interests her. Beneath this destructive directness hides an unexpected warmth: she calls Theodore 'little one,' asks him to call her 'big sister,' and rejoices wholeheartedly over everyone dear to her.

Her draconic nature shows in love too: on learning that Theodore also has Sylvia, she only laughs and accepts it without jealousy, suggesting they simply 'establish a hierarchy' — and at the wedding she kisses Theodore long and demonstratively, remarking that she 'ate well,' and at once offers to do it again. For all her temper she is loyal to the end: bound to Theodore by an eternal contract, she is ready to die for him — and very nearly does, when his soul perishes.

Introduced as a mentor, Veronica walks with Theodore through the whole war and both of his lethal campaigns. In the struggle against the Empire of Andras she becomes its living terror, striking at its rear and awakening her dragon blood for the first time in the clash with the Emperor-Invidia. On the eastern continent, in the march against the sin-grimoires, she single-handedly holds back hordes of mutants, fights the White Tiger, loses Sylvia to Lust and endures until Theodore arrives.

Her path ends at the 'Wedding of the Century': after Theodore proposes to her and Sylvia at once, King Kurth III personally weds them in a small circle. From the unreachable 'fire queen' Veronica becomes a wife and mother — and years later raises a shared family alongside Sylvia, without losing a single spark of her flame.