Bael

Bael is the first-ranked Grim Reaper and the guardian whom Hades assigns to protect both Earth's World Core and Neo Hargraves. His centuries-long absence from public view does not mean that he deserted the Underworld: he remains inside Hades's palace because even a moment away from the World Core could expose it to destruction. That immovable duty makes him a powerful but conspicuously imperfect guardian to Neo. (Chapters 360 and 364)

Biography

The missing first Grim Reaper

When Neo enters the Underworld, Bael is already a legend. Veldora identifies the All-Seeing Eye suspended in its sky as Bael's ability and names him Grand Duke, Sword of Night, and Bastard Grim Reaper. No one has seen him for centuries, but his strength is so widely trusted that the absence is treated as voluntary laziness rather than defeat. The truth is more restrictive: Hades left Bael guarding the World Core from threats capable of arriving without warning. (Chapters 360 and 364)

Neo finally meets Bael after revealing Velkaria, an Angel of an Outer, during a return to the ruined Earth. Bael's suspicion becomes a brutal test in which he pierces an Intent clone, crushes space around the others, and relies on an apparently impregnable barrier. Neo cannot injure him, but does place a line of dirt on his clothing. Bael then restores the hall, carries Neo carefully to bed, praises his survival of the Shadow Trial, and explains that encouragement is one of his duties as Neo's guardian. (Chapters 362–364)

Nameless Death and the Voraka intervention

At the Voraka Site, Bael initially joins Barbatos, Zagreus, and Berserker in stopping Nameless Death. He reaches across the battlefield and temporarily takes Barbatos's chained sword, whose stored energy has accumulated for fifteen thousand years. Bael burns that reserve and wields the weapon for one attack because Nameless Death is building an Independent Space whose purpose they do not understand. The sword remains Barbatos's property; this is emergency wielding, not a transfer of ownership. (Chapter 661)

Once Neo's identity and memories return, Bael does not blindly continue the assault. He watches, recognizes the change, and cooperates as Zagreus and Barbatos are removed from a scene where their presence could worsen temporal contradictions. Soon afterward, he challenges Kevin over the Alliance's torture of Neo and demands the person responsible. He abandons retaliation only when Neo asks to settle his own grievance, then tells him to summon Bael through the Grim Reaper Badge if danger returns. (Chapters 662–667)

Gatekeeper of the Golden Domain

Back in Hades's palace, Bael possesses a route beyond the Golden Domain but refuses to give it to Neo. The Shattered Horizon would destroy someone without defenses comparable to a Grade 3 Stage 6 God, and Bael requires Neo both to reach that threshold and to survive one of his attacks. His refusal is not an attempt to keep Neo dependent: it is a guardian's survival condition, strengthened by the disclosure that Bael can fight peak Stage 6 Gods despite remaining Stage 5 himself. (Chapters 712–713)

Bael applies the same restraint when Neo asks to fuse his Path with Earth's World Core, requiring approval from Earth's current leaders instead of treating Hades's old authority as permanent consent. When ancient dragons threaten the planet, he provides information about their loved ones and important places so Neo can build leverage without immediate war. He also creates a pocket universe for Neo's dangerous breakthrough, holds it stable, and contains the resulting explosion before examining the evolution of Neo's body. (Chapters 713, 721–722, and 726)

Powerlessness, reunion, and retirement

During Neo's final crisis, Bael is trapped on the other side of guardianship. The Heavenly Library refuses to open Neo's Cosmos, even when Bael repeatedly insists that he must leave because he is Neo's guardian. Its correction—Bael is a Stage 5 Realm Divinity God, but still insufficient against the forces surrounding Neo—strips away his usual confidence. He loses his temper because the helplessness recalls learning about Hades's earlier defeat only after it had already occurred. (Chapter 761)

After the conflict and the reunion with Hades, Bael spends years rebuking his former king for leaving him with the protection of Neo and Earth, then announces his retirement. Quiet life on a beach lasts only weeks before boredom wins. Bael searches for the Deathbounds, the original eighty-one commanders and former Grim Reapers, wakes them from deep slumber, and draws them into noisy gatherings across Neo's Cosmos. The sequence keeps the identities exact: Bael retires, but the Deathbounds are a separate ancient group he subsequently seeks. (Chapter 826)

Appearance and personality

Bael is a large, muscular man who commonly fights with a massive greatsword. His body language is relaxed even in situations that overwhelm other Gods: he grins during Neo's attacks, rests his sword against the wall while waiting by Neo's bed, and later receives visitors while seated on Hades's throne. The ease is supported by actual strength rather than ceremonial authority. (Chapters 362–363 and 712)

He is mocking, impatient, and deliberately informal. Bael calls Neo “princess,” refuses to flatter him as the Underworld's heir, and admits that his own defeat in youth is the reason Hades became Monarch instead of him. The same irreverence gives him the title Bastard Grim Reaper and eventually turns retirement into an excuse to wake ancient commanders who would prefer to sleep. (Chapters 360, 363–364, and 826)

The mockery coexists with careful loyalty. Bael places the unconscious Neo in bed gently, praises him after learning what the Shadow Trial cost, confronts Kevin over his torture, and becomes furious when he cannot intervene in the final crisis. His protection is neither constant nor perfectly successful because the World Core duty kept him confined, a failure the ending openly acknowledges rather than erasing. (Chapters 363–364, 665–667, 761, and 826)

Powers and limitations

Realm Divinity and physical force

Bael is first presented as a Stage 5 God and later specified as a Realm Divinity God, a rare state that lets him contend with peak Stage 6 Gods. His pressure can tear apart Neo's clones, his greatsword slash devastates the surrounding battlefield, and a fist can compress space around attacks and bodies. His effortless erasure of the ruined Earth's remaining land later serves Neo as a benchmark for otherwise implausible strength. These feats do not establish any unshown Stage 6 advancement. (Chapters 362, 439, 666, and 713)

All-Seeing Eye, Intent, and barriers

The All-Seeing Eye hanging over the Underworld is Bael's ability, and Neo recognizes him because its Intent matches Bael's. In direct combat, a barrier prevents Neo's elemental, mental, and sword attacks from touching him until an underestimated final strike marks his clothing. Bael can also form barriers quickly enough to contain the explosion of Neo's pocket-universe breakthrough. The source demonstrates surveillance, Intent recognition, and defense, but does not provide a complete rule set or unconditional range for the Eye. (Chapters 360, 362, and 726)

Space and pocket universes

Bael crushes Neo's clones by warping the space around them and can restore a destroyed palace hall with a snap. He creates a pocket universe suitable for Neo's breakthrough and stabilizes its vortex while the transformation proceeds. These applications show control over enclosed worlds and local reality, but Bael still treats the Shattered Horizon as a meaningful survival test rather than claiming that spatial skill negates its hostile environment. (Chapters 362–363, 713, and 722–726)

Guardian constraints and temporal memory

Hades's assignment makes the World Core Bael's limiting responsibility. Bael says he cannot leave the palace because negligence for even a moment could let Outer Gods, cultists, monsters, or other enemies destroy it. He can perceive previous timelines only as rare, fragmented dreams, not as complete or controllable recollection. Later, the Heavenly Library shows a more direct limit: even his Realm Divinity power cannot guarantee useful intervention against the final enemy. (Chapters 363–364 and 761)

Power progression

Relationships

Neo Hargraves

Hades assigns Bael to protect Neo, but guarding the World Core prevents him from accompanying his ward. Their first fight therefore begins with mutual suspicion and develops into a relationship built on provocation, tests, and blunt care. Bael will challenge Neo's requests when survival or consent is at issue, yet also defends his autonomy by relenting when Neo chooses to confront his own torturers and enemies. (Chapters 362–364, 665–667, 713, and 761)

Hades

Bael says that he rivaled Hades when they were young and became the first Grim Reaper because Hades won their contest for leadership. That old equality colors his service: he obeys the assignment to defend the World Core and conceal Hades's disappearance, but never becomes deferential. After their eventual reunion, he berates Hades for years over the burden before retiring from regular duty. (Chapters 363–364 and 826)

Barbatos and the ranked Grim Reapers

Bael stands above Barbatos in the current Grim Reaper hierarchy, but the Voraka battle shows cooperation rather than ownership. He temporarily summons and wields Barbatos's chained sword for a single stored-energy attack. When Bael is absent, other ranked Reapers protect or administer the Underworld; those roles do not make Barbatos, Agares, or Bael interchangeable holders of the same rank. (Chapters 661 and 696–705)

The Deathbounds

The Deathbounds are retired former Grim Reapers and the original eighty-one commanders who served Hades in ancient times. Bael knows they can answer an ancient-dragon invasion, and after his own retirement he seeks them out, wakes them, and pulls them into social gatherings. The parallel retirement history creates companionship, not identity: the text continues to name Bael separately from the Deathbounds. (Chapters 721–722 and 826)

Items

Bael's massive greatsword is his recurring weapon, but it is not separately catalogued. During the Voraka confrontation he briefly wields Barbatos's chain-wrapped sword and burns the energy stored in it; the scene does not transfer ownership to Bael. The Grim Reaper Badge remains Neo's carried means of summoning Bael and traveling through the Underworld rather than Bael's personal badge in these scenes. (Chapters 362–363, 661, and 666–667)