Zera

Zera de Beaufort is an Earth-born Witch, a Void Dragon, and the leader of Tartarus's Void Dragon Clan. She joins the Grand Expedition, exposes the Abyss of Nightmares as a prison built from false progress, and becomes a mentor and companion to Neo Hargraves and Elizabeth. Her search for Julie de Beaufort brought her to Tartarus; her final shown act is sacrificing her body so Neo can escape and defeat that World.

Zera's incarnations and copies are distinct. She has reincarnated through multiple lives as a Witch, but no post-Tartarus incarnation appears within the novel. Aphrodite is a clone Zera created, not Zera's reincarnation or alias. A second Zera seen in a nightmare meeting in Chapter 505 is a construct made by Tartarus and disappears when its false existence is exposed. Later chapters identify Aphrodite as the clone of the Witch of Lust, confirming Zera's Witch title without transferring the clone's personal history to her. (Chapters 435, 505, 686–687, and 739)

Biography

The Void Dragon Clan's expedition leader

Zera first meets Neo's party as an Outer God whose name they cannot safely hear. Her presence bewitches several members before Kane Williams identifies her as an ally and the Void Dragon Clan Leader. She helps gather the Grand Expedition, teleports its forces to the Abyss's entrance, and checks that the newcomers understand the Zones and Protectors. Her playful treatment of Tyr exists beside the command authority of a leader who obtained her seat through strength. (Chapters 419–421 and 439)

The expedition's premise collapses when Zera wakes outside the collective nightmare. She realizes that earlier expeditions did not truly clear Zones: they remained trapped in a dream while Tartarus killed the few leaders strong enough to escape and understand the deception. Zera's badly wounded body and deployed Void World show the cost of that discovery. Even so, she retracts her corruption when Neo approaches and explains the mechanism rather than treating another unexpected survivor as a rival. (Chapters 426–427)

Zera follows Neo toward Elizabeth despite believing the rescue nearly impossible. She accepts Elizabeth as part of the expedition and therefore someone under her protection, deploys a World large enough to dominate the surrounding battlefield, and tears Elizabeth free while vines batter her body. Zera then removes the Void corruption and weakens Elizabeth's mental defenses so Neo can reach her consciousness, turning Clan leadership into immediate responsibility for a newcomer she did not know before entering the Abyss. (Chapters 428–430)

A Witch, teacher, and companion

While Elizabeth recovers, Zera explains that she came from Earth and had powers long before the Apocalypse. She is a Witch who disappears completely at death and later reincarnates without passing through the Underworld. Her knowledge remains incomplete because she considers herself a newer Witch and found only ancient books and one hostile encounter with King Morgan. She also reveals that she created an Aphrodite clone to test claims about Witches' possessive love, keeping that experiment distinct from her own incarnations. (Chapters 434–435)

Zera teaches Neo the elemental path from Comprehension through Interpretation and Implementation, then forces him to apply it under pressure. Her Void corrupts his body and soul until he abandons borrowed methods and creates Death Sword, a strike capable of cutting her Sanctuary. The result exceeds her expectations, but so does the harm. She recognizes that reliance on Tartarus's revival could have left Neo permanently crippled, apologizes, and continues the relationship as a trainer who has been confronted with the danger of her own severity. (Chapters 434–436)

Over the following year, Zera travels with Neo and Elizabeth, carries them in her immense dragon form, and trains both in Void. The arrangement becomes domestic as well as strategic: she enjoys Neo's cooking, teases Elizabeth, advises both companions, and learns enough about Neo to recognize when frustration after a breakthrough has driven him to drink. She is not merely their guide through unfamiliar terrain; prolonged cooperation turns them into friends capable of sharing weaknesses as well as techniques. (Chapters 437–441 and 449)

Zera also insists on finding Ava before Kane enters the Abyss. With Neo and Elizabeth controlling attacks and time, she reaches the Nightmare Tree, shields Ava with her own body, and brings her to safety. Zera harshly tests the younger dragon afterward, but the rescue prevents Kane from encountering his daughter as a captive without explanation and gives the group Ava's Nightmare expertise for locating Tartarus's Core. (Chapters 437–442)

The fight against Tartarus and Zera's sacrifice

Inside Tyr's subconscious nightmare, Zera helps translate his conflict over the Weapon Dragon championship into a plan Neo can act on. Once the Shadow Core manifestation of Tartarus attacks, she becomes one member of a four-person defense across repeated attempts. Elizabeth contests the River of Time, Neo targets the manifestation, and Zera deploys her World; the battle's reversals preserve knowledge unevenly, so later memories include outcomes that the active timeline has overwritten. (Chapters 442–446 and 463–464)

In one attempt, Zera prepares to self-destruct her World to break the Nightmare and send Neo out before Tartarus can stop them. In the decisive version, Tartarus fuses Death with her Void to create Chaos and uses it to erase Elizabeth. Zera then detonates her World, burns her Core, and tears open the damaged Nightmare. Rather than use the escape herself, she transforms an arm into a massive limb and throws Neo through the breach. (Chapters 464–465 and 472)

Zera's last message tells Neo not to worry about her or Elizabeth because Witches reincarnate. Tartarus consumes half her body, while the remainder becomes a reality-warping mass of flesh after death. Her promise establishes the possibility of another life, not a completed return shown in the narrative. Neo later tells Tyr that Zera died protecting him, and Tyr understands that sacrifice as the intuition that preserved the person able to defeat Tartarus. (Chapters 465 and 532)

Clones, reincarnation, and the Witch of Lust

Tartarus creates copies by using nightmare inhabitants and memories, producing a Zera who meets a copied Neo and Vlad in a false expedition scene. When Vlad tells them that the real Neo exists elsewhere, this Zera flickers and vanishes. The scene belongs to a manufactured nightmare consciousness rather than a hidden survival of Zera's original body, and it should not be read as the reincarnation she promised before death. (Chapter 505)

Later cosmological history clarifies Zera's office. Gluttony permanently killed an earlier Witch of Lust, after which a new Witch was chosen. Neo remembers Zera as a “new” Witch whose clone became Aphrodite, and subsequent narration explicitly calls Aphrodite the clone of the Witch of Lust. The chain identifies Zera as the successor while preserving the previous Witch, Zera herself, and Aphrodite as separate people or manifestations with different lives. (Chapters 686–687 and 739)

Aphrodite later receives credit for technology that lets Seraphs reincarnate toward chosen eras and locations. That deed belongs to the clone, not automatically to Zera. Likewise, Zera's own history of reincarnating before the Apocalypse establishes continuity of the Witch across lives without identifying any named earlier body in the corpus. The article therefore ends her direct biography at Tartarus while recording reincarnation as an expected mechanism rather than inventing a return. (Chapters 435 and 739)

Appearance and personality

In human form, Zera has an innocent face, a curving figure, and a seductive presence compared to a succubus. Her voice and scent can feel soothing or hypnotic, reinforcing the danger of her bewitchment. Her true dragon form is thousands of miles long, with wings of deformed flesh, visible purple veins, and mangled limbs across its surface. She can also transform individual arms or hands into enormous masses of dragon flesh without changing her entire body. (Chapters 419, 427, 437, and 465)

Zera is mischievous, flirtatious, and openly fond of unsettling younger companions, but the humor masks neither her judgment nor her responsibility. She cares for subordinates, reads strategic deception quickly, and risks herself for Elizabeth, Ava, and Neo. Her training can cross into cruelty, as Neo's corruption demonstrates, yet she is capable of admitting fault. Loneliness and her search for Julie add a quieter motive beneath the confident Clan Leader who appears settled in Tartarus. (Chapters 426–438, 441, and 532)

Powers and limitations

Void World and corruption

Zera's World fills a vast domain with Void Elementals capable of corrupting bodies, souls, other elements, and physical attacks. She can corrupt Darkness into White Holes, mutate Neo into a mass of uncontrolled flesh, remove Void corruption from Elizabeth, and combine corrupted wind with flight. Deploying the World consumes significant energy, however, and severe injury makes it flicker. Tartarus can also combine Death with her Void to make Chaos, turning her own element into part of an attack she cannot simply undo. (Chapters 426–429, 436, 463, and 465)

Dragon body, transformation, and senses

Zera can assume a true dragon body thousands of miles in scale, fly, carry companions, and withstand wounds that would immediately end weaker combatants. She can transform only a hand or arm when a full transformation would consume too many resources. Her senses let her hear warnings across a battlefield and react to distant presences, but dragon durability is not invulnerability: Nightmare Tree projectiles pierce her skull in an overwritten timeline, and Elizabeth must reverse time to prevent that death. (Chapters 427–428 and 437–438)

Witch immortality and reincarnation

Zera explains that Witches do not enter the Underworld when killed. Their bodies, souls, and Seeds of Existence vanish, after which they reincarnate. She relies on that rule when sacrificing herself to save Neo. The protection is not ordinary regeneration, does not preserve the present body, and does not demonstrate an immediate return. Later history also establishes that Gluttony can permanently kill Witches, so their immortality has a specific exception. (Chapters 435, 465, and 686–687)

Elemental knowledge and bewitchment

Zera can explain the mastery path through Apprentice, Adept, Expert, Savant, and Supreme and applies that knowledge as a demanding teacher. Her presence also bewitches multiple high-ranked visitors when they first meet, and she uses a Sanctuary to isolate conversations from Tartarus. The text does not state a formal mastery label for Zera's Void or other affinities, so her technical expertise and combat superiority should not be converted into an invented Supreme or higher mastery row. (Chapters 419 and 434–436)

Power progression

Relationships

Neo Hargraves

Zera begins by testing and teasing Neo, then recognizes him as the rare survivor who can help overturn Tartarus's prison. She rescues Elizabeth with him, teaches him elemental implementation, and pushes him into creating Death Sword. Friendship grows during their year of travel, and her final decision makes that bond decisive: Zera gives up her current life to send Neo out because she believes he can finish what the Grand Expedition could not. (Chapters 419 and 426–465)

Elizabeth

Zera accepts Elizabeth as an expedition member, tears her from the Nightmare Tree, removes her corruption, and helps stabilize the uncontrolled growth produced by the Everwitch Flower. Their later relationship mixes rivalry, teasing, and instruction as Elizabeth trains the affinities Zera understands. When Tartarus erases Elizabeth with Chaos, Zera's answer is not withdrawal but a sacrifice made for the same escape, trusting that both Witches can eventually reincarnate. (Chapters 428–438 and 465)

Julie de Beaufort

Julie is the person Zera came to Tartarus to find. Zera adopts the de Beaufort name, repeatedly asks for information about Julie, and avoids fully explaining their history. Tyr interprets Zera's silence toward his own affection as evidence that her feelings belong to Julie. The corpus confirms the search and closeness but does not establish a formal partnership or reunion, leaving Zera's most personal goal unresolved when she dies. (Chapters 438 and 532)

Ava and Kane Williams

Zera sees Ava as a younger dragon under her discipline and risks severe injury to pull her from the Nightmare Tree. Her urgency comes partly from Kane: if he enters the Abyss and sees his daughter captive, his past as the Great Disaster could destabilize the expedition. Zera's methods with Ava are harsh, including a physical test after the rescue, but her actions keep Ava alive and add her Nightmare knowledge to the group. (Chapters 425 and 437–442)

Tyr

Zera treats Tyr with teasing pride and expects him to marry her younger sister, while he privately loves Zera. He never formally confesses, and Zera's lack of response functions as a quiet rejection. After her death, Tyr does not resent Neo for surviving. He credits Zera's intuition with saving the one person able to defeat Tartarus, then preserves part of his own legacy through Neo in the same farewell period. (Chapters 420 and 532)

Aphrodite

Aphrodite is a clone Zera created to investigate the possessive love attributed to Witches. She remains on Earth after Zera leaves and becomes known as the goddess of love. Later sources call her the clone of the Witch of Lust and credit her with reincarnation technology. The origin makes the two closely related, but Aphrodite's inventions, choices, and subsequent history remain her own rather than direct acts by Zera. (Chapters 435, 686, and 739)