Menelaus

Menelaus, crowned Menelaus the Wise, is the third and final leader of the Astrals. He helps establish the race's signature consciousness techniques, recognizes the stagnation threatening Astral society, and commands Gloom City's final defense. His last weapons combine collective consciousness, sacrificial conversion, and illusion Method Power, but his attempt to destroy Su Chen instead enables Su Chen's final human cultivation breakthrough.

Biography

Inheriting an ageless race

Menelaus is first identified through the Astrals' naming hierarchy: their ruler alone may bear a four-part name and crown title. Because Astrals do not age naturally, only Achilles the Immortal and Kapius the Eternal precede him across tens of thousands of years. Menelaus later works with Kapius, building on research into making illusions tangible to lay the foundation for Consciousness Enslavement, one of the race's defining and most feared arts. (Chapters 438, 505, and 547)

His rule is associated with the Menelaus Consciousness Network, a realm sustained by melding the consciousness energy of the Astral race rather than relying on one mind alone. The corpus does not show its construction or a full direct use by Menelaus, but Su Chen treats the network's scale as comparable in principle to the Dreamrealm and as proof of the enormous processing power available to a consciousness master supported by an entire species. (Chapter 717)

Directing Gloom City's defense

When the allied human, Ravager, and Harpy forces invade Astral territory, Menelaus gathers the surviving Astrals and appoints commanders to contain the advance. As Gloom City begins to fall, he projects himself across dozens of kilometers to negotiate with Su Chen, Danba, and Lonely Skyleap. His proposal is effectively an ultimatum rather than a surrender, backed by intervention from the Lord of the Dreamrealm. Inside the Dreamrealm, Menelaus attacks Lonely Skyleap with a pure-consciousness claw, blocks Su Chen and Danba with his staff and crown, and withers Lonely Skyleap's real arm before the Mother Goddess interrupts. (Chapters 1011–1012 and 1034–1036)

Menelaus understands before the end that the Astrals' isolation and refusal to share knowledge have made their culture stagnant. He had previously attempted reform, but too few Astrals followed him. Even while acknowledging that their defeat is the consequence of that failure, he refuses to let the invaders win without cost and turns the race's conversion apparatus into a weapon fueled by willing Astral sacrifices. (Chapter 1040)

Conversion gambit and final fusion

Menelaus targets Su Chen with the Consciousness Converter Instrument, widening its normally tiny field through mass sacrifice. The instrument strips Su Chen's consciousness from his body, and Menelaus initially believes that he has killed the human leader and created a new Immortal's Soul. Instead, the separation completes the life-and-death step Su Chen needs to enter the Ultimate Emperor Realm, while a Lifesource Candle preserves his body. Menelaus's Withering Ray and other follow-up attacks cannot reverse that breakthrough. (Chapters 1040–1042)

In the final confrontation, Su Chen shatters Menelaus's tricolor staff. Menelaus then releases the remnants of Achilles and Kapius stored in his crown and merges with them, becoming a three-hundred-foot Astral able to create a true illusion realm. He manifests an endless army of substantial illusions, each comparable to a Light Shaking cultivator, but Su Chen's God-Sealing Method Power gives those creations independent life and turns them against their maker. The reversal worsens the already fatal burden of the three-way fusion. (Chapter 1043)

Knowing that he is about to die permanently, Menelaus removes his crown and asks Su Chen to spare the innocent Dark Astrals. Su Chen confirms an earlier promise to protect them. Menelaus then dissolves into motes of light, and the remaining Astrals voluntarily follow him into extinction, leaving him as the final ruler of their race. (Chapter 1044)

Appearance and personality

Menelaus's projected form wears a purple or amethyst-studded gold crown and carries a staff topped by a tricolored gem. In the Dreamrealm he appears as an exceptionally tall, hazy, shadowlike Astral, partly human and partly ghostlike. His final fusion expands him to roughly three hundred feet and distorts his face beyond recognition. The corpus does not state his ordinary height, age, clothing beyond these regalia, or any stable facial features. (Chapters 1034–1035 and 1043)

He is intelligent, restrained, proud, and deeply identified with his race. He recognizes the structural cause of Astral decline and once attempts cultural reform, yet his own isolationist society prevents meaningful change. When extinction becomes unavoidable, calm regret and ruthless resolve coexist: he is willing to sacrifice himself and thousands of Astrals to kill Su Chen, but at death he accepts responsibility and uses his last words to secure mercy for Dark Astrals. (Chapters 1040–1044)

Abilities and cultivation

Menelaus is one of the strongest consciousness users in the corpus, but no conventional realm or Arcana ring is assigned to him. Comparisons place the Menelaus Consciousness Network among race-supported consciousness realms and describe resisting power on that scale as difficult even for emperor-level beings; these comparisons do not establish that Menelaus personally possesses an Ultimate Emperor cultivation realm. (Chapters 717 and 780)

Consciousness research and network

Menelaus's cooperation with Kapius helps turn research into tangible illusions into the foundation of Consciousness Enslavement. The technique's exact division of labor, development period, and Menelaus's personal casting limits are not given. The later Menelaus Consciousness Network joins the consciousness energy of many Astrals into a massive realm, distributing an otherwise prohibitive mental burden across the species. Its complete range, everyday functions, and fate before Gloom City's fall remain unstated. (Chapters 547 and 717)

Projection and Dreamrealm combat

Menelaus can transmit consciousness and form a visible light projection across dozens of kilometers. Within the Dreamrealm, he manifests a tangible claw of pure consciousness whose damage carries over to a target's real body. His staff projects tricolored power strong enough to intercept Su Chen's consciousness fist, while his crown produces a barrier that stops Danba's concentrated attack. Divine protection wounds his claw but does not prevent him from withering Lonely Skyleap's arm. (Chapters 1034–1035)

This sequence also shows a situational limit: the Lord of the Dreamrealm first pulls the targets into his domain, and divine intervention ends the confrontation. The corpus does not demonstrate that Menelaus can independently transport unwilling enemies into the Dreamrealm or duplicate the same bodily damage outside a consciousness realm. (Chapter 1035)

Tricolor staff and crown

The tricolor gem staff amplifies three elements and can raise a Tenth-Ring Arcana Technique into the legendary tier, or bring a legendary technique close to Method Power. Menelaus uses it to cast fire, a lethal Withering Ray, and other destructive projections. Su Chen withstands its strongest late attacks after reaching Ultimate Emperor, then breaks the staff by force. (Chapters 1035 and 1041–1043)

The crown is a pseudo-Divine Tool holding the surviving consciousness remnants of Achilles and Kapius. It provides defensive power and ultimately permits Menelaus to merge with both predecessors and access illusion Method Power. The fusion grants a drastic but terminal increase: Menelaus becomes enormous and can make illusions substantial, but the merged Astrals are already on the brink of permanent death. The source contains one inconsistent sentence naming one emerging spirit as Menelaus, but immediately and repeatedly identifies the fusion as Achilles, Kapius, and Menelaus. (Chapters 1035 and 1043–1044)

Consciousness conversion weapon

The consciousness converter ordinarily turns Dark Astrals with physical bodies into Astrals and affects only one target at close range. Menelaus discovers that sacrificing Astrals can temporarily enlarge its field, then channels his energy through his staff to accelerate conversion and focus it on Su Chen. The process immobilizes the target, removes consciousness from the body, and drains vitality; against most species it should cause death without leaving a stable Astral body. (Chapters 1040–1041)

The weapon successfully separates Su Chen's consciousness but fails strategically. Su Chen's exceptional consciousness remains coherent, his Lifesource Candle preserves the body, and the forced transition supplies the Withered Body step of Ultimate Emperor cultivation. Menelaus cannot reclaim control of the resulting consciousness or destroy the instrument before Su Chen returns. Its use therefore demonstrates enormous lethality alongside slow activation, dependence on sacrifices, a narrow normal field, and vulnerability to an exceptional survival mechanism. (Chapters 1041–1042)

Illusion Method Power and latest state

After merging with his predecessors, Menelaus creates a true illusion realm and populates it with an effectively endless succession of substantial creatures. He can replace destroyed manifestations as long as he sustains the realm, but doing so is mentally exhausting, and Su Chen's God-Sealing Method Power severs the creations from Menelaus's control. Their rebellion transfers the strain and attacks back onto the realm's creator. (Chapter 1043)

The fusion's cost is irreversible death, not exhaustion from which Menelaus could recover. By his final scene he cannot use even basic techniques, removes the crown, and dissolves completely. No later survival, remnant, reincarnation, or restored network is described. (Chapter 1044)

Relationships

• Su Chen: Menelaus treats Su Chen as the decisive threat to the Astrals. His conversion gambit accidentally enables Su Chen's Ultimate Emperor breakthrough, and his illusion realm is defeated by Su Chen's newly chosen Method Power. In their last exchange, Su Chen promises to protect the Dark Astrals. (Chapters 1034–1044)
• Danba: Menelaus attempts to negotiate with the Ravager chieftain and later faces his concentrated consciousness attack in the Dreamrealm. Danba rejects the threat behind Menelaus's offer and participates in the campaign that destroys Gloom City. (Chapters 1034–1035)
• Lonely Skyleap: Lonely Skyleap mocks Menelaus's ultimatum and challenges the Lord of the Dreamrealm. Menelaus uses that opening to attack him directly, damaging his real arm through consciousness combat. (Chapters 1034–1036)

Items

The finalized item inventory for Menelaus contains no entries. His crown and tricolor gem staff are central to his final battles, and he directs the consciousness converter, but none is assigned to his finalized persistent-item inventory; after his death the Ravagers take the staff and the humans retain the crown.