Gaap

Gaap El Nash is a veteran Halfling necromancer who hides extraordinary command over the dead behind the formal rank of Grade-A Apostle. He takes Lux as his sole disciple, passes on Hereswith’s necromantic legacy, and spends his remaining life pursuing revenge against the Divine Army of Light. His mentorship changes Lux’s battlefield discipline, while Lux gives Gaap a family bond and future beyond vengeance that the old necromancer had stopped expecting.

Biography

The Dragon kingdoms and the Abyss

Gaap meets Lux in ruined Zangrila after years of waiting there for a successor. He first presents himself as a harmless, three-foot-tall old traveler, yet secretly reanimates a dead Deimos-Ranked Octopath and lets Lux struggle against its enhanced undead form to test the younger necromancer’s instincts. Lux’s inexperienced but compassionate practice interests him. Gaap offers instruction on the condition that Lux never join Memento Mori, then accepts the Half-Elf as the disciple who can carry Hereswith’s unfinished legacy. His lessons replace indiscriminate summoning with coordinated formations, careful target selection, preservation of useful troops, and control of an army as if it were one body. (Chapters 664–674)

That mentorship quickly becomes protective rather than merely technical. Gaap brings Antero into the Gate of Famine to stop a battle that could overwhelm Lux, publicly identifies himself as the Half-Elf’s master to deter hostile powers, raises tens of thousands of dead monsters, and later extracts the Abyssal Duke Zelken’s soul from Aur before imprisoning it. He then guides Lux to the Necromancers’ Ancestral Grounds, fights when Dracul and the Divine Army threaten his disciple, and receives part of Lux’s World Blessing. The gift restores several years of Gaap’s dwindling life, but it does not remove the deeper price he pays whenever Antero manifests. (Chapters 698–711, 753–777)

Gaap finally tells Lux why the Divine Army governs so much of his life. Hereswith had been hunted after pursuing a righteous form of necromancy; when Gaap was captured while buying her a birthday gift, her enemies used him as leverage, wounded her during the rescue, and killed her soon afterward. He has carried guilt for surviving ever since. Rather than let the same organization isolate Lux, Gaap helps move Heaven’s Gate’s floating island through the Earth Turtle and urges his disciple to build alliances with powers the Divine Army cannot casually bully. These choices turn an old trauma into practical protection, even though revenge remains his intended end. (Chapters 781–782)

When Lux’s companions are taken into the Abyss, Gaap interrogates Zelken’s captured soul, judges that ordinary Saints would be vulnerable to Queen Rhiannon’s charm, and leads the rescue force himself. He relies on partial manifestations of Antero to conserve his life and uses the Golem’s body to carry allies past the Domain’s restrictions. In the Abyss, Antero can draw power from the environment and act with greater independence, creating a danger Gaap cannot fully control. Even so, Gaap’s planning helps recover the captives, and the campaign confirms that his loyalty to Lux has become stronger than his old preference to meet death alone. (Chapters 851, 877–900)

The Divine Army reckoning

After the Abyss expedition, Gaap gives Lux Hereswith’s Memento Mori ring and says that his disciple’s training is complete. He claims he wants to see Elysium, but his real aim is a final attack on the Divine Army. He destroys Lunaria and another allied kingdom while seeking the High King and Oracle, then deliberately allows enemy forces to capture him so they will carry him into the Divine Empire’s otherwise inaccessible center. This is neither a failed escape nor a rescue he expects Lux to complete: Gaap has chosen the empire as his grave and intends to turn his remaining soul and lifespan into Hereswith’s revenge. (Chapters 917, 954–976)

Lux refuses Gaap’s command to leave. Master and disciple raise their armies together, while the returned Hereswith joins them as a Heaven’s Necromancer. Gaap admits that Hana is the only Covenant member originally contracted to him; Baal and the other senior servants had belonged to Hereswith and protected him in her memory. His final campaign therefore reunites all three generations of their necromantic lineage. Gaap spends what remains of his life against the Oracle and the city that branded both his master and disciple heretics, accepting the cost because Lux has already surpassed the future he hoped to create. (Chapters 976–982)

The Oracle’s attack destroys Gaap’s heart, and the corruption spreading through his body makes clear that Blackfire cannot preserve him. Hereswith explains that Antero has been consuming Gaap’s soul as the power source for each manifestation; without a soul, Gaap could neither advance beyond Grade-A Apostle nor enter ordinary reincarnation. Gaap frees his Covenant, entrusts Hana with protecting Lux, asks his disciple not to continue the vendetta, and dies after telling him to live a great life and die a great death. His end fulfills the teaching Hereswith once gave him, but leaves Lux and Hereswith grieving someone their own command of death cannot restore. (Chapters 982–983)

Abyssal invasion and broken memories

Lux and Hereswith bury Gaap’s ashes at the highest peak of the Mountain of Edea and keep a seven-day vigil with Hana. Hana’s memories reveal that time with Lux had made Gaap laugh and enjoy life again, rather than devote every remaining thought to vengeance. The tomb names him the greatest master and disciple in Elysium, fixing both sides of his identity: he preserved Hereswith’s legacy, but he also became the mentor whose care shaped Lux’s future. The absence of Gaap’s soul makes this mourning final in a way death usually is not for the two surviving Necromancers of Heaven. (Chapters 985, 1004)

During the later Abyssal crisis, Gaap remains present through Lux’s habits and memories rather than as a recoverable undead. Lux recalls meeting him in Zangrila when considering routes into the Abyss, and later confesses to Iris that he still blames his own carelessness for the fatal opening the Oracle exploited. Iris recognizes that the guilt survives despite Gaap having planned to sacrifice everything regardless. Gaap’s effort to free Lux from inherited revenge therefore remains incomplete: the disciple accepts the master’s lessons, but continues to carry responsibility for a death he could not reverse. (Chapters 1048, 1089, 1134)

The rescue from the Abyss and the final war

The heirlooms Gaap leaves behind still give Lux practical access to their shared past. During the effort to recover Aurora, Hereswith’s Memento Mori ring takes Lux back to Zangrila and can also open the way to the Necromancers’ Ancestral Lands. Lux later asks Antero directly whether his master is truly dead and receives an immediate confirmation. The answer reinforces the specific cruelty of Gaap’s bargain: his body died, but the consumed soul had seemed to leave no whole self that Lux could call back. (Chapters 1144, 1149)

At the climax of the war against Daniel, Gaap appears among the souls gathered around a despairing Lux. He does not claim that his own power could defeat the enemy; instead, he reminds Lux that the Half-Elf possesses something Gaap lacked and gestures toward his heart. The intervention completes Gaap’s work as a teacher. His final help is neither an undead army nor Antero’s strength, but a correction to Lux’s belief that he must win through isolated power. Gaap and the other departed companions restore the relationships and resolve on which Lux’s victory depends. (Chapter 1216)

Open Heaven’s Gate

Two years after the war, the apparent finality of Gaap’s death is overturned. Eriol, Max, and Antero recover what remains of his extremely weak soul, then place it inside a seed of the World Tree. Hereswith guards the seed while it nourishes him, and Gaap is reborn as a white-haired Elf. His reunion with Lux at his own tomb turns a monument of loss into the place where master and disciple can finally meet again; he also holds Lux’s daughter Dia, who already knows him as her godfather through the stories Lux has told at the grave. (Chapter 1233)

Gaap’s restored life changes the meaning of his long devotion to Hereswith. The narrative had presented her as rescuer, master, adopted mother, and sole family, while the after-story reveals that he also loved her from the day she saved him as a child. After rebirth, he stands with Lux as best man and marries Hereswith in the joint wedding Lux arranges. The man who once planned to spend every remnant of himself on vengeance thus ends the supplied story beginning a shared future with the person whose death had defined his old life. (Chapter 1234)

Appearance and personality

When Gaap first meets Lux, he is a Halfling only a little over three feet tall, leaning on a cane, with gray eyes, a decrepit body, and three remaining teeth. His deliberately harmless appearance conceals a necromancer who can frighten Saints. Lux’s World Blessing briefly removes many wrinkles and turns his white hair gray, but repeated summons of Antero age him again. After the World Tree rebirth, Gaap has an Elven body, long white hair tied with a black hairpin, and the long ears that first make Lux mistake him for an unfamiliar visitor. (Chapters 664, 699, 777, 976, 1233)

Gaap is teasing, proud of his craft, tactically cautious, and unsentimental about using corpses in battle. He tells students to retreat when survival demands it, studies enemies before committing allies, and hides exhaustion behind jokes or displays of confidence. His ruthlessness reaches its worst expression in the annihilation of kingdoms connected to the Divine Army, a choice the narrative presents without excusing its victims. At the same time, he is tender toward Lux, Hana, and Hereswith, and his greatest personal growth comes from allowing those relationships to make life valuable again rather than treating death as his only remaining gift. (Chapters 667–669, 699–700, 877, 956, 976–983, 1004)

Necromancy and abilities

Gaap’s formal rank is only Grade-A Apostle, but it is a misleading measure of his combat reach. His soul-powered contract with Antero prevents normal advancement, while his accumulated necromantic knowledge, Covenant, and inherited servants let him contend with forces far above an Apostle. His strength therefore depends on preparation and contracted beings, and its most powerful expression consumes the very soul that would otherwise support his cultivation and reincarnation. (Chapters 665–668, 698–700, 983)

Animation and undead command

Gaap can animate powerful corpses without the rank degradation Lux expects. The Deimos-Ranked Octopath he raises gains Unholy Aura, which raises its physical attack, magical attack, and defense by 300 percent while producing a mana-fed black barrier that automatically blocks physical and magical attacks. The monster can manually control the barrier to prioritize the greatest threats. Lux cannot overwrite Gaap’s control with Tame Undead because the original necromancer is stronger. Gaap later raises tens of thousands of fallen monsters with one gesture and directs them as a growing army, but the resurrected force still depends on its commander; targeting the necromancer remains the conventional counter to an expanding host. (Chapters 665–666, 698–700)

His expertise is as much command doctrine as raw summoning. Gaap teaches flanking based on an enemy’s anatomy, reserves veterans for emergencies, distinguishes a useful withdrawal from cowardice, and trains Lux to move many units through a single mental command. He is willing to use undead as expendable troops, yet insists that carelessly wasting replaceable summons prevents them from becoming genuinely frightening. This approach lets Gaap coordinate his own army with Lux’s forces in the Divine Empire, where their combined dead spread through the city while both masters remain the crucial vulnerabilities behind the host. (Chapters 669–671, 977–979)

Soul magic, marks, and necromantic knowledge

Gaap senses, restrains, and extracts disembodied souls. After anticipating Zelken’s attempt to destroy Aur’s soul, he expels the Abyssal Duke, follows him through a dimensional rift with shadowy tentacles anchored by a prior mark, subdues him with the cane, and stores him in a crystal ball. The captured soul becomes an intelligence source Gaap can summon and interrogate about the Abyss. These scenes demonstrate reliable control over a marked soul and storage through an item; they do not establish unrestricted capture of every spirit regardless of preparation or power. (Chapters 709, 877)

His ritual knowledge includes opening routes from Zangrila, traveling to the Necromancers’ Ancestral Lands, and using Antero’s partial body as temporary storage for living passengers. He also understands spirit erosion, the conditions of the Ancestral Grounds, Covenant anchoring, and the inheritance practices of necromancers well enough to guide Lux through a Ranker trial and later pass on Hereswith’s ring. Several transports require a prepared circle, inherited medium, or Antero rather than being free combat teleportation, and spatial locks can still prevent escape. (Chapters 673, 681, 753–754, 877, 917, 956–977)

Covenant and inherited servants

Gaap fights through a Covenant of named beings with distinct specialties. Hana provides spatial movement, formations, enchantments, and disruption; Carol offers support and can amplify his voice; the other servants contribute direct combat and protection. Their continued manifestation depends on an anchor. When Hana breaks her bond after Gaap’s capture, her remaining power begins to fade until she forms a temporary Covenant with Lux. Gaap later clarifies that Hana alone was originally his contracted member, while Baal and the senior servants belonged to Hereswith and stayed with him out of loyalty to her memory. (Chapters 699, 770, 877, 890, 954–956, 976, 983)

The Covenant provides versatility, but it is neither inexhaustible nor perfectly secure. Gaap’s unconsciousness can forcibly dismiss members, enemies can overwhelm their formation through numbers and higher rank, and releasing the contract ends his authority. At death he deliberately frees every member and directs Hana to protect Lux, placing their autonomy and his disciple’s survival above retaining command. This final act shows that Gaap treats the Covenant as a family obligation as well as a necromantic mechanism. (Chapters 956, 976, 983)

Contract with Antero

Antero, the indestructible Golem of Destruction, is Gaap’s decisive trump card. The contract descends through necromantic ownership from Hereswith, and Gaap can call the full gigantic body, selected limbs, or even a smaller head for transport. Antero can crush Dreadnaught-Ranked monsters, reflect dangerous attacks after a cooldown, contain creatures or passengers, and fight beings near the peak of the setting. Partial summoning lowers the immediate expenditure, while the full presence is reserved for threats ordinary undead cannot answer. (Chapters 698–700, 765, 770, 877, 976–977)

That power has an absolute personal cost. Gaap lacks the rank and magic to sustain Antero directly, so the Golem consumes his soul and lifespan to appear; each major manifestation ages him, leaves him exhausted, and moves him closer to irreversible death. In the Abyss, Antero can draw nourishment from the environment and materialize with less drain, but can also act more autonomously and resist Gaap’s immediate intent. By the final battle, the soul has been consumed so extensively that Gaap cannot advance, be stored by Blackfire, or enter normal reincarnation. (Chapters 699–700, 769–777, 877, 890, 976–983)

Teaching, planning, and resistance

Gaap’s most durable ability is judgment developed over a long necromantic career. He appraises Lux’s army, identifies gaps in command and senses, screens a rescue party for resistance to charm, interrogates an enemy before entering unfamiliar territory, and engineers his own capture when direct infiltration is impossible. Hereswith’s influence gives him some resistance to charm, but he does not claim immunity to every mental effect. His plans also have moral and tactical failure points: the campaign against the Divine Army kills entire populations, and his deliberate capture exposes Hana and Lux to consequences he tries, unsuccessfully, to keep them from sharing. (Chapters 665–671, 781–782, 877, 917, 954–977)

Notable encounters and deeds

Relationships

• Lux: Gaap’s only disciple becomes the successor he waited for in Zangrila and the person who restores joy to his final years. Gaap protects, trains, and challenges Lux, while Lux extends his life, preserves Hereswith, and refuses to abandon him at the Divine Empire. Their bond survives Gaap’s death and culminates in reunion after his rebirth. (Chapters 664–700, 753–791, 917, 976–983, 1216, 1233–1234)
• Hereswith: Hereswith rescues the orphaned Gaap, raises him as family, and teaches him necromancy. Her death produces the guilt and revenge that govern most of his adult life. They reunite for his final battle; after the World Tree restores him, their lifelong love becomes a marriage. (Chapters 678, 751–781, 976–983, 1233–1234)
• Antero: Antero is the overwhelming power Gaap inherits from Hereswith and the being whose manifestations consume his soul. Their contract permits command in Elysium, but Antero retains personality and greater autonomy in the Abyss. Antero later helps recover the remnants needed for Gaap’s rebirth. (Chapters 698–700, 765, 877–890, 976–983, 1233)
• Hana: Hana is Gaap’s sole original Covenant member and remains loyal enough to break her contract and nearly erase herself in order to seek help after his capture. Gaap treats her affectionately, entrusts her to Lux, and frees her before death. (Chapters 890, 954–956, 976, 983)
• Asmodeus: Asmodeus debates Gaap over whether compassion weakens necromancy. Their arguments help Gaap recognize that Lux’s cleaner practice continues Hereswith’s dream rather than invalidating the discipline he knows. (Chapters 665–674, 976)
• The Divine Army of Light: The organization hunts Hereswith, uses Gaap as leverage in her death, brands Lux a heretic, and becomes the focus of Gaap’s revenge. His final attack destroys much of its center but also consumes him and perpetuates the violence he asks Lux to end. (Chapters 751, 769–782, 917, 954–984)

Items

• Gaap’s Skull Ring: A skull-set ring Gaap gives Lux as a protective link. It lets Gaap teleport directly to Lux once per month within Elysium, allowing him to enter the Gate of Famine and reveal himself when hostile powers are watching his disciple. (Chapters 698–699)