Duke

Duke is a General at the second military base and the administrator responsible for its second-year students. He protects favoured bullies, helps Jack identify promising ability users for exploitation, and becomes one of the officials whose abuses drive Quinn's opposition to the military system. He is ultimately killed by Hilston during the demon-tier expedition. (Chapters 47, 151–199, 381, 777, and 796–797)

Biography

Patronage and ability recruitment at the academy

Duke first appears assuring the second-year student Momo that he will vouch for him despite violence against weaker first years. His protection reflects how rank and personal favour distort discipline at the base: students under his patronage expect institutional consequences to disappear, while low-level students receive little protection. Duke also handles day-to-day school matters with Nathan when higher commanders are absent. (Chapters 47–48 and 137)

His more systematic role is scouting students with unusual growth. Duke offers higher-level ability books to low-ranked candidates and watches whether they can learn them, satisfying the base's recruitment quota while identifying valuable powers. Those students can then be delivered to Jack Truedream, who steals abilities for his family. When Peter appears able to use several powers, Duke pursues and eventually captures him, believing he has found an especially important target. (Chapters 151, 178–199, and 285)

Nathan disapproves of these methods but lacks the authority to stop them, while Leo's presence sometimes persuades Duke and the other officers to choose a different course. Duke's administration therefore becomes a central example of how the academy's hierarchy enables abuse even when individual officers recognise it. (Chapters 151 and 359)

Defeat by the Night Demon

Quinn eventually confronts Duke while disguised as the Night Demon. Duke activates his rock-armour soul weapon and earth ability, filling the battlefield with mobile stone snakes and relying on king-tier armour beneath the stone shell. His confidence collapses when Quinn combines blood power and Qi in a hammer strike that destroys Duke's enlarged stone fist and takes off his arm. The defeat exposes both Duke's power and the vulnerability beneath his claims of invincibility. (Chapters 375–382)

The military does not immediately remove him. Duke continues to share school administration with Nathan and later accompanies Oscar to the new world-leaders' gathering and demon-tier hunt. By then he has a robotic replacement for the arm lost to the Night Demon, and seeing Quinn's mask and attack style allows him to identify Quinn as the fighter who crippled him. (Chapters 526, 760, and 776)

Attempt on Quinn and death during the expedition

During the demon-tier crab battle, Duke's earth power is disadvantaged by the planet's composition, forcing him to remain near material Oscar has already manipulated. When the beast splits the ground and the exhausted group flees, Duke turns on Quinn: he strikes him with an earth pillar and knocks him into the fissure, smiling as he falls. Duke later claims he was moving Quinn away from an emperor-tier crab, but Quinn rejects the explanation because of their history and what he saw. (Chapters 777–779 and 793)

Quinn survives, and his familiar attacks Duke upon their reunion. Oscar protects the injured General, and the dispute is suspended when the demon-tier beast returns; Duke is patched up and again becomes fit to fight. This cooperation is tactical rather than reconciliation, and the accusation remains unresolved by any formal hearing. (Chapters 793–794)

Soon afterward Duke insults Hilston during an argument over ownership of the demon-tier crystal. Hilston crosses the distance before anyone can react and snaps Duke's neck; Quinn's inspection confirms the death. Later references to Duke recount the Night Demon fight or compare other officials to him, not later appearances by a surviving Duke. (Chapters 796–797, 1145, 1439, and 1986)

Appearance and personality

Duke is introduced as a large, muscular man whose forearms are described as being the size of thighs. He wears a General's rank on his shoulder. After losing his arm to the Night Demon, he receives a robotic replacement, but the corpus does not provide a stable description of his hair, eyes, or age. (Chapters 47, 381, and 776)

He is arrogant, status-conscious, and protective of the military when it serves his authority. Duke can act courageously against the Dalki and demon-tier beast, but that institutional loyalty coexists with patronage, coercive recruitment, and personal revenge. His impulsive defence of Oscar against Hilston is sincere, yet his contemptuous wording causes the confrontation that kills him. (Chapters 47, 137, 777, and 796–797)

Powers and abilities

Earth ability

Duke controls earth and rock, raising columns from the ground and shaping them into two large, flexible snakes. The snakes can slither across the battlefield, strike directly, burrow, and fire volleys of slab-like projectiles from their mouths. He can also gather stone around a fist and propel the mass with his ability, moving a heavy blow at the speed of an ordinary punch. (Chapter 381)

His earth pillar is precise and forceful enough to knock an exhausted Quinn backward into the demon-tier fissure. The power depends on usable material: on the expedition's unusual planet, Duke has to remain close to earth already manipulated by Oscar because the surrounding substance does not respond normally to his ability. (Chapters 777 and 793)

Rock-armour soul weapon

Duke's soul weapon encloses him from head to toe in a rock-like shell and nearly doubles his size, leaving only his eyes visible. The armour regenerates ordinary cracks and, combined with king-tier armour underneath, withstands Quinn's normal kicks. It takes Quinn's blood-and-Qi-enhanced hammer strike to destroy the enlarged fist and tear through his defence. (Chapter 381)

The soul weapon requires activation time: Duke hides within an earth ball long enough to equip it, and after his familiar-inflicted back wound he believes summoning the shell would be too slow to stop the next strike. Its protection is therefore substantial but not automatic, and it offers no defence when Hilston kills him before he can react. (Chapters 381, 793, and 796)

Military combat experience

Duke is trusted to join Oscar's frontline group against a demon-tier beast and can coordinate school security, troops, and ability users. His strength remains far below the expedition's greatest fighters: Quinn defeats him as the Night Demon, the Boneclaw badly wounds him from behind, and Hilston kills him instantly. The corpus does not establish Qi training or another ability beyond earth manipulation and his soul weapon. (Chapters 315, 381, 775, 793, and 796)

Relationships

• Quinn: Duke helps create the abusive academy environment Quinn resists. Quinn defeats and cripples him as the Night Demon; Duke later recognises him and knocks him into a fissure during the demon-tier battle.
• Jack: Duke scouts promising students and supplies targets for Jack's ability-stealing operation.
• Nathan: Nathan shares administrative responsibility with Duke but disapproves of his recruitment methods and feels unable to oppose him directly.
• Oscar: Duke is loyal to Oscar, serves as his aide at the leaders' gathering, and joins his demon-tier expedition. Oscar repeatedly protects him even after Quinn accuses Duke of attempted murder.
• Hilston: Duke challenges Hilston for insulting Oscar and the military. Hilston kills him immediately, demonstrating the enormous gap between them.

Items

No manifest-configured inventory item is assigned to Duke. His king-tier armour and robotic replacement arm are unnamed equipment rather than catalogued items. (Chapters 381 and 776)