Cattleya

"Someday my lover will come to kill you."

- Cattleya to Hajime

Cattleya (カトレア) was an antagonist from the "Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest" series.

She was a demon under the command of Freid Bagwa, assigned with conquering the Great Orcus Labyrinth and to either recruit or kill the hero and his party, but was killed by Hajime Nagumo.

Appearance
Cattleya was a young demon woman with fiery red hair, crimson eyes and a curvaceous figure. Like all members of her race, she had swarthy red skin and pointed ears.

Personality
Cattleya is a ruthless, calm and collected woman with a strong warrior spirit. She also has a realistic understanding when it came to war: knowing not to show mercy or an opening towards her enemies while not expecting them to do it in return. She berates Kouki for stopping himself from killing her when he has the chance, reminding him they are at war. When Hajime defeats her and her army of Monster, she didn't beg for her life and was ready to be killed by him as a warrior. But warned him of her lover will come to avenge her to which Hajime scoffed at for he doesn't care.

During her time attempting to convince the "Hero Party" to join the Demon's side, Cattleya showed a considerable level of tactical thinking, intelligence, and insight when negotiating and battling the "Heroes". As seen where she showed enough skill in psychological manipulation and warfare to manipulate the heroes into taking her offer using duress and intimidation. She effectively analyzed the true command structure of the Hero Party and saw that Kouki was not the true leader, but Shizuku. As Shizuku was the true voice of reason and intelligence of the Party and later managed to notice and dissect Kouki's true personality as a naïve & childish wildcard and a threat to the overall scheme of the war due to his unpredictable and naïve outlook on death and war. And that Kouki's immense power would lead him to be a problematic/unreliable factor even if he did become an ally to her side.

Cattleya is also capable of respecting other warriors when they surprised her, such as Meld Loggins. According to her lover, Mikhail, Cattleya is kind, wise, and loyal. Despite her low opinion of Kouki and the rest of the hero party, she still follows her orders by trying to invite them to the demon's side twice.

Biography
Cattleya ambushed Kouki Amanogawa and the rest of his party in the 90th floor of the Great Orcus Labyrinth with an army of Monster that were given to her by her commander. She explained to them that her objective was to kill Kouki and recruit the rest of the students to the demons's side. Kouki blatantly rejected her offer and attacked her. The students attempted to stop her and her Monster, but they were outmatched and forced to retreat to the 89th floor. They held off her forces long enough for Kousuke Endou to retreat to the surface to get help. Unfortunately, she and her Monster managed to catch up to him and killed most of the knights that were guarding the teleport circle that was used to get to the 70th floor.

Cattleya broke through to the 89th floor and continued her attack. As Kouki was prepared to resume their battle, he saw that her Monster were holding Knight Commander Meld Loggins as a human shield. This distracted him long enough for him to be knocked out by Cattleya's most powerful monster Ahatod. She renewed her offer to the students with the hopes that putting Kouki out of action would give them a better opportunity to consider it. While they were debating the choice, the injured Meld told them to prioritize their survival first and tried to kill Cattleya by sacrificing himself, but was thwarted after the energy from his attack was absorbed by one of her Monster, Absod. The demon then stabbed Meld through the torso and sent him falling to the ground. Kouki attempted one last effort to kill Cattleya by using his most powerful skill "Overload". He managed to overpower her, but hesitated to kill her when he heard her saying goodbye to her lover, and realized that his enemy was not just a mindless monster. Cattleya criticized Kouki for his simplemindedness and ordered Ahatod and her other Monster to kill everyone.

As Ahatod was about to kill Kaori and Shizuku, he was suddenly struck by a large metal stake that jetted through the ceiling and died instantly. To everyone's surprise, they were saved by Hajime Nagumo after Kousuke convinced him to rescue them. Hajime offered Cattleya one chance to escape, but in a fit of rage for the loss of her most powerful monster, she immediately ordered the rest of them to kill him. Hajime effortlessly dispatched her Monster and thwarted her attempt to escape. Despite the realization that she was practically good as dead, Cattleya refused Hajime's request to explain her plan and was shot in the legs as a result. Hajime followed up by correctly guessing that she intended to clear the true labyrinth and obtain the Ancient Magic that resided at the end. Cattleya was surprised by Hajime's guess and realized that he also must have been in possession of one of the Ancient Magics. She was prepared to die a warrior's death at his hands, but not before warning him that her lover would avenge her one day. As Hajime was about to kill her, Kouki tried to convince him to spare her life, but his plea fell on deaf ears as Hajime mercilessly shot her through the head.

After Hajime and the others left the labyrinth, other demons arrived to retrieve Cattleya's body. As they arrived, her body came under the possession of Eri Nakamura through her necromancy magic. Eri used Cattleya's body as a way to communicate to the demons without getting discovered by anyone and offered to betray her comrades in exchange for her life and Kouki's.

Allies

 * Mikhail - Her fiancé. The two of them loved each other very much. Both of them spend their last moments thinking about the other before being killed.
 * Freid Bagwa - Her commander. She respects him and obeys his orders without question, as well as admiring his strength. Freid bestowed to her an army of Monsters which he enhanced with his Ancient Magic so she could clear the Great Orcus Labyrinth and defeat the Hero Party, should they choose to side against the demons.

Enemies

 * Kouki Amanogawa - The Hero. Cattleya is ordered to try and bring Kouki and his party to the demon's side before trying to conquer the Great Orcus Labyrinth. While she considers Kouki to be an immature brat with a lot of power, she still tries to carry out her orders twice, both times failing because of Kouki's sense of justice. Though Kouki came close to killing her after seeing Meld get fatally wounded, he isn't able to do so when he realizes demons are people too, something Cattleya mocks Kouki for doing when they are at war. When Cattleya is about to die by Hajime's hands, Kouki tried to convince Hajime to spare her life, despite being enemies. However it is evident that this was done primarily due to Kouki's childish mindset and not because he cared about her personally.
 * Shizuku Yaegashi - One of the heroes. Cattleya considers Shizuku to be the brains of the hero's party and views her as more of a threat than Kouki, who acts without thinking and let's his emotions dictate his actions.
 * Meld Loggins - The knight commander of Heiligh Kingdom. After killing the rest of the knights, Cattleya uses Meld as a human shield to defeat Kouki. Despite his serious injuries, Meld was able to make one last stand and tries to kill Cattleya by sacrificing himself, but fails do so. Meld's display of strength did earn him Cattleya's respect.
 * Hajime Nagumo - Cattleya's killer. Thanks to Kousuke making it to the surface and convincing Hajime to come save the hero's party, Hajime arrives in time to stop Cattleya's monster Ahatod from killing Kaori and Shizuku. While Hajime offers Cattleya one chance to retreat, she chose to fight in a fit of anger. She quickly comes to regret her rash decision as Hajime easily kills all of her Monster army and prevents her escape. She asks Hajime if he is human, only for him to tell her that he used to be, but not anymore. In response, Cattleya calls him a monster. She realizes in her final moments that Hajime has also conquered a Labyrinth, like Freid did, and understands that if Hajime's monstrous appearance and inhuman strength is anything like them (Monsters on the much lower levels and individuals who successfully conquered a Labyrinth, like Freid) to which Hajime responded by stating that that answers all his questions about the Ancient Magic that was used to create a Monster and how Cattleya got ahold of all the monster that made up her army. Cattleya accepts her fate and is content to die at Hajime's hands as a warrior, but warns him that her lover will avenge her. To which Hajime responds that he doesn't care who his enemies would be, demon or god, as he will kill them all, and killed her as he shot her through the head.

Skills

 * Earth Magic Affinity - It allows the user to use earth magic at a capable rate.

Spells/Attacks

 * Dark Gaol - A high-ranked earth spell that spreads a cloud of smoke that petrifies anything it touches. As long as any part of someone is hit by the petrification, it would slowly spread until they are completely frozen. The only way to stop it is to put up a barrier strong enough to repel it, or blow the smoke away before it touches anyone. However, only a high rank barrier would be able to hold it off. Furthermore, it requires an extremely powerful wind spell to be dislodged. “O great golden-eyed drake, slumbering deep beneath the earth, lord of all creation, your curse pierces through even the blackest darkness. Bring forth an everlasting seal of darkness, from which nothing escapes. Fear, despair, anguish, swallow it all and leave emptiness in your wake. All will fall before your stern visage. Destroy your enemies and return them to the earth — Dark Gaol!”

Quotes

 * (To Kouki Amanogawa): "You still don't get it, do you? We're at war, kid! An immature brat like you having so much power is a threat! That's why I have to kill you all. You better go save your friends or they'll all die!"
 * (To Hajime Nagumo): "My high-level magic meant nothing for you. Are you sure you're human?"
 * (To Hajime Nagumo): "I see. If you're anything like them, then your monstrous appearance and inhuman strength checks out."

Trivia

 * "" is the name for a genus of orchids.