Maxium

Maxium is the undead Emperor's Knight known as the Cruel Commander. A special event brings him and a skeleton corps to Earth, where the Heart of the Hell Monarch causes him to recognize Randalph Brigsiel as his returned emperor. His loyalty gives Randalph the Emperor's Sword, access to the Underground World's imperial legacy, and an experienced commander for the wars against the other demon factions.

Biography

The Cruel Commander answers the Saviour

Maxium arrives on Earth through a special-event summoning with an undead corps and immediately hears the imperial heart within Randalph. He does not care that the heart now resides in a demon or that his supposed emperor has incomplete memories; after guarding the old ruler's treasure for tens of thousands of years, recognition gives him a purpose more important than the freedom he could claim. He kneels, calls Randalph “Your Majesty,” and promises that the “new Maxium” will sweep away the demons and creatures opposing him. (Chapters 98–99)

That choice changes Randalph's confrontation with Okullos. Maxium directs skeletons into formations even after their limbs are cut away, uses his golden sword to devastate the enemy line, and protects creatures he dislikes because they belong to his emperor. Although he cannot enter the tightly confined duel between Randalph and the demon nobles, his corps prevents the surrounding army from deciding the fight. When Okullos offers Randalph safe passage in exchange for abandoning Maxium, Randalph refuses, preserving the knight who knows how the imperial heart and legacy fit together. (Chapters 98–99)

Returning the Emperor's Sword

After the battle, Maxium returns the Emperor's Sword entrusted to him before the old emperor's “eternal rest.” He has only been permitted to touch it and does not know the full awakening process, but he believes its ego may recognize and complete its proper master. Randalph subdues the sword's resistance through Divine Sword Unity, and merely holding it stimulates the Heart of the Hell Monarch. Maxium treats that acceptance as proof that his emperor has returned and asks Randalph to rebuild the empire with him. (Chapter 100)

The special-event force cannot remain indefinitely: its magic is dispersing, and Maxium and his soldiers will be returned to their warehouse after exactly ninety days. Randalph therefore redirects them from hunting humans to striking Upa Bullenon's Chinese dungeons. Maxium obeys without reservation, expends most of his army in the campaign, and leaves Earth with only a few thousand soldiers. His sadness at parting contrasts with his title, but his service has already damaged Upa, won Randalph a dungeon, and placed the sword that opens the imperial legacy in Randalph's hands. (Chapter 100)

Reunion in the Underground World

When Randalph later enters the Underground World, Maxium initially remains neutral because he suspects that rumors of the Hell Monarch's return may be a trap. The evidence of Randalph's conquests resolves that caution. Maxium kneels again, explains that he has been preserving his strength and trying to correct the other commanders' corrupted loyalty, and brings three hundred thousand soldiers into Randalph's campaign. His arrival doubles the faction's power and turns an uncertain claim to the treasure trove into a credible imperial coalition. (Chapters 131–139)

Maxium favors attacking the enemy commanders before they finish assembling, but accepts Randalph's plan to draw them into one decisive war. He and Oswen train and direct the army while Randalph targets the commanders, allowing a force of roughly five hundred thousand to overcome a somewhat larger but poorly coordinated alliance. Maxium then supplies the ritual knowledge needed to open the treasure trove: the commanders' souls, his and Oswen's contact with the door, and the Emperor's Sword as its key. He follows Randalph through the resulting crack to Earth and helps reclaim the invaded Korean dungeon, firmly transferring his allegiance from a memory of the old emperor to Randalph's active cause. (Chapters 139–142)

The South American diversion

Randalph next uses Maxium as an independent strategic weapon. With thousands of skeletons and lich support, the commander crosses the Pacific by an inconspicuous route and attacks South America, the center of Upa's power. Maxium kills creatures and humans alike to create corpses and confusion, forcing attention away from Randalph's preparations while Upa is already occupied with Ariel Diablo. Together with the public activity of Roy, Rose, and Chrisley, his violence buys Randalph time to reorganize the dungeon and pursue other plans. (Chapters 166–175)

The assignment becomes a long guerrilla campaign rather than a single assault. Maxium avoids Upa's main forces, establishes temporary bases, and fights other high-level enemies, including a gorgon, while the angelic sacred zone repeatedly changes the broader war. His devotion makes retreat emotionally difficult, but not tactically impossible: he treats survival and rebuilding his force as duties because Randalph entrusted him with the mission. That distinction between cruelty and recklessness keeps him active after weaker summoned troops would have been exhausted. (Chapters 175–193)

Arend and the magician of the moon

By the time Randalph resupplies him, Maxium's five thousand skeletons have fallen to roughly two thousand. The undead do not need food, but replacing them is slow: two liches must sort usable bones from human, animal, and creature remains, and poor material limits production to thirty soldiers a day. Maxium considers taking a weak dungeon to restore his army, but Arend and an unknown magician conceal an ambush from every warning he established. Maxium spends his force buying activation time for a prepared movement circle and survives, gravely injured, only because Randalph finds the commander through the response of Maxium's lost sword. (Chapters 193–195)

After recovering, Maxium identifies the attacker's ability to turn the area into night and helps devise a counteroperation. Mounted on a bone dragon, he raids Arend's troops dozens of times, deliberately stays within pursuit range, and spends a week drawing out the fastest enemies. At the chosen point he signals a hidden second dragon and chaos soldier, reversing the local numbers and separating the magician—later identified as Gustarte—from Arend. Maxium cannot defeat the magician himself, but his deception creates the isolated encounter Randalph needs; afterward he crushes Arend's mouth to interfere with further commands and continues the dungeon offensive. (Chapters 195–199)

Upa's dungeons and Camael's descent

During the final melee, Randalph changes Maxium's mission from hindering Upa to occupying as many dungeons as possible. He reinforces the commander with Mago, bone dragons, skeleton soldiers, and other high-class creatures not needed for the Gustarte operation. Maxium takes two dungeons early, later sweeps through Upa's holdings beside Randalph, and ultimately captures half of the dead grand duke's dungeons. His army and skill make him extraordinarily effective while the rival factions are unable to disengage from one another. (Chapters 199, 220, and 226–229)

That success ends when Pandemonium, cornered by Randalph's coalition, sacrifices angelic blood to open the Celestial Door. The descended Camael and 1.14 million angels destroy Maxium's army and return the undead commander to the earth; Randalph's companions explicitly report that Maxium is dead. His final operation nevertheless leaves Randalph with extensive dungeon gains. Later, Randalph invokes Maxium's recognition and custody of the Emperor's Sword as proof against the returned Death Bringer, so the knight's decisive legacy is the transfer of the old Hell Monarch's army, territory, and symbols to a new emperor. (Chapters 229, 236, and 238)

Appearance and personality

Maxium is an undead death knight whose body is already dead, though the corpus does not give a detailed facial portrait. He wears armor and a helmet brought from the Underground World; by the campaign against Arend, both are rusty, pierced, and poor protection despite retaining useful properties. His personal sword ordinarily looks plain, but shines with brilliant golden light when he fights. His eyes can flash with emotion, and he habitually kneels or bows low before the ruler he accepts. (Chapters 98–100 and 193–199)

The “Cruel Commander” is ruthless toward enemies and civilians, yet reverent, emotional, and eager for approval around Randalph. He can interpret a reassignment as evidence of personal failure and begs for another chance, but his loyalty does not erase military judgment: he preserves his troops for the emperor's return, questions uncertain claims, advises preemptive action, constructs escape routes, and uses prolonged deception against Arend. His deepest belief is that service to the recognized emperor gives meaning to his long undead existence. (Chapters 100, 139–140, 166, and 193–199)

Abilities and powers

Undead knight and completed potential

Maxium is an Emperor's Knight and high-class undead whose observed statistics have already reached their listed potential. His titles—No Decay, Steadfast, and Undead Commander—raise strength, stamina, agility, and intelligence, while his named epic skills are Lustrous Golden Sword and Cruel Leadership. As a death knight his body is already dead, so ordinary physical recovery is not the relevant concern after injury; nevertheless, extreme magical damage can incapacitate him, and Camael's descent ultimately destroys him along with the force he commands. (Chapters 98–100, 193–195, and 229)

Golden swordsmanship

Lustrous Golden Sword is demonstrated through Maxium's personal blade. When activated, the otherwise plain weapon emits a brilliant gold light, and its sweeps erase multiple creatures around him. Maxium combines that power with high-class physical ability and enough battlefield experience to pressure a demon earl, defend an evacuation against thousands, and signal concealed reinforcements with a beam into the sky. The source establishes the effects but does not give a separate activation cost, range measurement, or cooldown. (Chapters 98–99 and 193–195)

The weapon has accompanied Maxium for more than a thousand years and develops a partial ego-like bond: when separated from him, it reacts to magic and indicates the direction of its master. That response lets Randalph locate Maxium after Gustarte's concealed ambush. The blade is not the Emperor's Sword, and Maxium's later damaged armor and helmet also come from the Underground World without canonical names; Randalph recognizes that this aging equipment has become a defensive liability and brings Maxium home for replacement. (Chapters 194–199)

Undead command and army mechanics

Cruel Leadership and the Undead Commander title support Maxium's principal specialty: directing large undead formations. In his first battle, regular skeletons are intermediate grade and skeleton knights advanced grade; they maintain formation, sever enemies, and keep advancing after losing limbs. In the Underground World he commands three hundred thousand soldiers and helps coordinate roughly half a million, while on Earth he uses smaller forces for concealment and repeated raids. The corpus demonstrates precise command and morale effects, but does not define a numerical radius or direct resource cost for Cruel Leadership. (Chapters 98–100, 139–142, and 193–195)

His field army is constrained by bodies, skilled labor, time, and troop quality. Liches extract and combine usable bones, but not every corpse can become a soldier; two liches working with poor remains make only about thirty a day. Prepared movement magic also requires substantial materials, cannot be moved, and takes time to activate. Maxium compensates with hidden bases, escape circles, guerrilla attacks, bone-dragon mobility, and external reinforcements from Randalph. These methods delay stronger factions, but weak skeletons are steadily depleted and a transcendent ambush can bypass their warnings entirely. (Chapters 193–196 and 220)

Tactical command and counters

Maxium is explicitly a better strategist than Randalph in army warfare. His signature approach is to avoid a superior main force, destroy small detachments repeatedly, and remain just visible enough to control an enemy's pursuit. Against Arend, he splits two bone dragons, conceals half his high-class force, and uses his own apparent vulnerability to separate the magician from the earl. His ability to improvise has limits: Gustarte's moving domain of night defeats Maxium's detection and enables a devastating surprise attack, while Camael's mass descent overwhelms the reinforced army outright. (Chapters 193–199 and 229)

Summoning and the imperial army

Maxium does not demonstrate a personal summoning spell. His first appearance is a special-event summoning that forcibly moves him and part of his skeleton corps from their warehouse; the event affects the seal around Earth, and the summoned group's magic disperses until all survivors return after exactly ninety days. His later arrival from the Underground World occurs when he follows Randalph through the treasure-trove crack, not through a repeatable Maxium ability. (Chapters 98–100, 140, 147, 153, and 168)

The Emperor's Army belongs to the Emperor's Sword, which Maxium preserves but cannot fully use. Its wielder may summon more than one hundred thousand fleshless phantom cavalry from the underground warehouse once every ten years; they remain for ninety days and obey commands before returning. Separate phantom cavalry encountered inside the Underground World respond to the imperial heart and sword through a blood-and-command ritual. Maxium's importance is custodial and political: by returning the sword and recognizing Randalph, he transfers access to this army, but the corpus does not show Maxium activating either cavalry force himself. (Chapters 100, 138, 236, and 238)

Relationships

• Randalph Brigsiel: Maxium's recognized emperor, commander, and object of absolute loyalty. Maxium gives him the Emperor's Sword, supplies the army and ritual knowledge needed to claim the Underground World, and continues serving even though Randalph is not literally the original Hell Monarch.
• Hell Monarch: Maxium's original sovereign, later known as Death Bringer. The old emperor entrusted him with the sword and treasure legacy; Maxium's acceptance of Randalph ultimately becomes evidence that the returned original has lost that inheritance.
• Oswen: A fellow Underground World commander and Randalph retainer. They train armies, open the treasure trove, cross to Earth, and clear the Korean dungeon together, although Oswen's loyalty is conditional where Maxium's is devotional.
• Upa Bullenon: The grand duke whose South American faction Maxium spends much of his Earth campaign disrupting and whose dungeons he later occupies.
• Arend: Maxium's persistent pursuer and the target of his longest demonstrated deception campaign.
• Gustarte: The magician whose night conceals Arend's first successful ambush. Maxium cannot defeat or reliably detect him, but later helps isolate him for Randalph.
• Camael: The seraphim whose descent destroys Maxium and his final army.

Items

• The Emperor's Sword: The old emperor entrusts this ego sword to Maxium for safekeeping. Maxium returns it to Randalph, enabling access to the treasure trove and the Emperor's Army; it is not Maxium's personal combat blade.
• Personal golden sword: An unnamed sword used for more than a thousand years. It shines gold during combat and develops enough awareness to point Randalph toward its injured master.
• Armor and helmet: Unnamed Underground World equipment with useful properties, but badly rusted and pierced by the time of the Arend campaign.