Kraft Viton

Kraft Viton is a veteran Lord, senior figure in the Bartholomew Corporation, and the mentor whom Michael Fang eventually calls his master. Introduced as a discreet escort protecting a strategically valuable young investor, Kraft becomes Michael’s commercial manager, instructor, confidant, and political intermediary. His greatest achievements are institutional rather than personal advancements: he helps turn Michael’s rare powers into sustainable projects, navigates the Tritan Alliance through infiltration and civil war, and builds an economy and training network able to outlast the original crisis.

Biography

Battle Exchange and Interdimensional Flag War

Kraft first appears as the Bartholomew Corporation’s seemingly frail courier and Michael’s unwanted escort to the Battle Exchange. He has already studied Michael’s academy record and warns that suicidal confidence against the Tekur will earn a beating from him, because Michael’s survival matters both personally and to the Agriculture Project. Traveling almost undetectably at Michael’s side, Kraft explains the Zeus family’s commercial rivalry, the broken history of human trade with Berserkers and Warlock Centaurs, and the risk surrounding Piloq. He also begins teaching Whispering Energy, turning surveillance into the first stage of mentorship. (Chapters 310–333)

The Piloq attack pulls Kraft from commercial guardian into alliance intelligence work. His agreement persuades the emergency council to trust Michael’s help, and he uses Psyche Obliteration to break a Dark Heavens prisoner’s mental defenses without triggering implanted suicide measures. Kraft detects and attacks another infiltrator, analyzes the enemy’s layered trap, and argues that Michael must be rewarded for preventing wider economic disaster. He then converts that trust into material support: thousands of blueprints and Artifacts move through his network, Michael receives greater credit and profit leeway, and the requested territorial supplies arrive before the Flag War begins. (Chapters 405–464)

Savannah Alliances and Regional War

After the Flag War, Kraft and Michael design a partnership around Soul Energy techniques, customized techniques, and Soultrait Symbols. Kraft recognizes that mass-market products can strengthen ordinary Awakened while bespoke work attracts High Noble and Supreme Family customers, then negotiates the terms rather than simply accepting Michael’s monopoly. He establishes a Soul Technique Department, organizes a three-race Soultrait auction, stimulates a bidding war without losing professional control, and serves as Michael’s negotiator and shield against powerful clients. The commercial relationship becomes personal when Michael asks to learn from him and Kraft breaks his promise never to teach again after testing whether the young Lord will sacrifice his principles. (Chapters 522–542)

As master, Kraft gives Michael books and Knowledge Wisps covering territory development, warfare, emotional management, and the mistakes of older Lords. He analyzes the interactions among Extraction, Insert, and Michael’s other Soultraits, warns that too many Adventurer Links can burden the soul, and offers the Bartholomew network to screen applicants for the proposed Awakened Agency. His political work continues simultaneously: he lays a trap for High Society members trying to seize Michael, pushes for reinforcement in the Sacred Desert, and grows furious when status-conscious opponents reject aid as an attempted land grab. Mentorship therefore becomes inseparable from teaching Michael how institutions, markets, and threatened elites actually behave. (Chapters 523–640)

Arx, the Sacred Desert, and Bloodline Revelations

Kraft remains the infrastructure behind Michael’s expanding plans even when he is not physically on the battlefield. He procures a valuable Stone of Darkness, maintains the trade cycle that converts Forest Elf goods and Agriculture blueprints into development capital, participates in Tritan Alliance meetings, and prepares another Soultrait auction on short notice. His detailed Sacred Desert reports show that his concern is larger than a single investment: he studies the undead advance because losing the region would remove rare resources and a substantial part of mankind’s wealth, even though the desert has no sentimental claim on him. (Chapters 652–717)

Michael’s contact with the Nest also reveals the limits of Kraft’s instruction. Eren possesses Divine-level knowledge from a more advanced galaxy, and Michael quickly recognizes a gap between that training and what Kraft can provide. Kraft does not respond with wounded authority. He accepts that his student needs a stronger teacher and asks Michael to bring back useful tips and methods, while Michael continues to call him master and praise the relationship. Eren judges Kraft primarily as a good businessman rather than the grand powerhouse he expected, but that outside judgment does not erase Kraft’s practical value or Michael’s trust. (Chapters 748–749)

The Nest and the Supreme Human Alliance

After the Undead Ruler falls, Kraft helps convert a short reprieve into preparation. He keeps Michael’s confidence about the Undead Pharaoh, studies a suspicious leak in High Society, devises a disaster-prevention plan for smaller Lords, and supplies Eren with intelligence locating traitor hubs. When Michael returns to the ruined academy, Kraft embraces him before joining the counteroffensive. He summons four long-trusted subordinates, attacks resisting Orlando elders with lethal force, and helps isolate compromised households and anchors. The old merchant is not neutral in the civil war: once the traitors are identified, he acts as an enforcer for the coalition he has helped preserve. (Chapters 769–856)

Kraft then helps design the political fiction that the Tritan Alliance has been conquered, hoping to discourage the Supreme Human Alliance from deploying stronger forces while the system rebuilds. His commercial expertise shapes that rebuilding. He calculates fees so private corporations can cover the Cosmic Trading Market’s maintenance, studies interstellar prices and demand with Rebecca Zauber, and receives authority over the general store. Michael ultimately leaves the market and much of the Alliance’s economic operation to Kraft, transforming an advisor who once shadowed one student into a steward responsible for several races. (Chapters 857–868)

Trials, Divinities, and the Titan War

Kraft’s support during the Blood Incursion crisis is administrative but personally important. At Michael’s request, he and Rebecca gather recordings, photographs, and school records that can demonstrate the missing histories of Zeke, Kaleb, Lincoln, and Alice. Years later, when Michael returns, Kraft can report that the Alliance has survived the loss of the Sacred Desert, secured two new Beginner Regions, and persuaded Lords to coordinate expansion and defensive forts. His lengthy, excited explanation of the improved economy shows that the emergency market he inherited has become a functioning development strategy rather than a temporary wartime measure. (Chapters 912, 955)

The reunion also shows that Kraft remains Michael’s operational sounding board despite the gulf in their power. He asks what Michael intends to do, jokes that repairing the Torn Firmament would solve his travel problem, and readily discusses a Portal Relic funded through Racial Achievement Points when Michael takes the suggestion seriously. Kraft notices the personal motive behind the project and teases him, but continues working through its public use. He likewise asks whether the Awakened Agency should accept more recruits or close, leaving Michael with the decision while preserving the institution until its founder gives direction. (Chapters 956–960)

God Wars and the Primal Conflict

While the wider wars continue, Kraft measures success through the society left behind. Statistics show the Tritan Alliance flourishing, the Agriculture Project has transformed the Barren Wastelands into the living Verdant Grassland, and the Cosmic Shop has helped fund territorial expansion. Kraft complains about being made responsible for the economy but cannot hide his satisfaction. Even with the workload, he finds time to return to wood sculpture, and Michael’s supply of Ancient Energy Stones suggests that age will not remove him from the work soon. (Chapter 1034)

Kraft also supervises the Awakened Alliance and more than a hundred Training Centers open without regard to age, potential, or ambition. He questions whether testing standards account for rising planetary energy, follows efforts to nourish Star Cores, and monitors both the Supreme Human Alliance and the repair of the Torn Firmament. These institutions extend his older lesson to Michael—that stronger Lords require informed preparation—to populations excluded from elite academies. His satisfaction comes from healthier worlds, broader access to awakening, and a system capable of improving without waiting for Michael to solve every problem personally. (Chapter 1034)

The Unknown Domain and the New Era

At the endpoint, Michael remembers Kraft as the elderly man who changed his life forever. Kraft has consumed a droplet of Origin Liquid and appears more energetic, but he has not retired or altered his basic vocation. Michael describes him as being in full control of the Tritan Alliance, a culmination of the authority gradually entrusted to him through the Cosmic Shop, training network, territorial economy, and postwar administration. The account is retrospective rather than a formal appointment scene, so the precise constitutional title attached to that control remains unstated. (Chapter 1122)

Kraft’s rule is not purely bureaucratic. Michael’s memories show him physically punishing more than a dozen self-important politicians, slapping them and kicking them after deciding they deserved correction. Alice calls him a bully, though she and Michael treat the scenes humorously and distinguish his targets as bad actors. The episode preserves both sides of Kraft’s established style: the patient architect who builds systems across decades and the blunt old powerhouse willing to enforce his judgment directly when political argument becomes contemptible. (Chapter 1122)

Appearance and personality

Kraft is consistently described as a weak-looking old or elderly man, an appearance that conceals the presence and strength of a veteran Awakened. He is seen wearing an old Aztec-style robe, and his eyes are repeatedly described as vibrant or full of vigor when business, teaching, or Michael’s powers excite him. The local corpus does not establish his hair color, height, build, facial hair, or a fixed later wardrobe. Origin Liquid makes him more energetic near the endpoint, but it is not described as visibly restoring youth. (Chapters 310, 326, 522–524, 595, 1122)

His default manner combines dryness, restraint, and relentless curiosity. Kraft can fade into the background for hours, study a battle repeatedly, and negotiate through two hours of fine conditions without losing patience. Surprise exposes a warmer, more animated person: he calls Michael a sly fox, laughs heartily at the young Lord’s contradictions, and looks like a proud grandfather when Michael confronts danger sensibly. That affection does not make him indulgent. He warns, tests, mocks, and threatens punishment whenever he believes talent is becoming recklessness. (Chapters 310–333, 432–435, 522–524, 594–595)

Kraft is pragmatic enough to revise his own role. He once swore never to teach again because former students suffered or became associated with betrayal, yet accepts Michael after the latter refuses to abandon his principles. He later welcomes instruction from Eren rather than defending obsolete expertise. The same flexibility has a ruthless boundary: he uses invasive mental force on terrorists, kills resisting traitors, and beats corrupt politicians. His paternal warmth and commercial civility are genuine, but neither should be mistaken for reluctance to use coercion against people he judges dangerous to the Alliance. (Chapters 449–453, 523–524, 529, 748–749, 854–855, 1122)

Lordship, commerce, and mental techniques

Kraft’s most consequential capabilities are a combination of veteran Lord power, mental and concealment techniques, commercial judgment, instruction, and institutional command. The corpus confirms that he is at least a Tier 4 Awakened when introduced, but later guesses that he may be Tier 5 are Michael’s speculation rather than a formal confirmation. His influence often makes rank secondary: senior figures accept his judgment because he can connect battlefield intelligence, economic consequences, and workable administration.

Lord foundation and the Tower of Defense

Kraft is a long-established Lord whose anchor lies at the Bartholomew headquarters in the Barren Lands. He describes his territory as the Tower of Defense and says he was well known in the past, while his Links still include trusted old subordinates whom he can summon for the civil-war operation. Direct combat is rare but decisive. He is prepared to intercept a murderous Berserker, attacks a hidden infiltrator before the council can react, and later crushes the heads of resisting Orlando elders with a snap of his fingers. The mechanism of that last force and his exact current Tier are not named. (Chapters 312, 325, 449–450, 524, 854–855)

His Lord experience is most visible through judgment rather than displayed force. Kraft understands the dangers of excessive Links of Loyalty, preserves an established territory through political instability, and eventually helps turn the wasteland surrounding it into the Verdant Grassland. He is never shown acquiring a new formal realm or Soultrait, and the endpoint focuses on Origin Liquid, Ancient Energy Stones, health, and longevity without confirming advancement. The supplied corpus therefore supports a veteran baseline and sustained access, not a meaningful chronological power progression. (Chapters 524, 595, 955, 1034, 1122)

Concealment and Whispering Energy

Kraft can suppress his presence so completely that Michael must look back to confirm he is still following and Kaleb notices him only at close range. His footsteps are nearly silent, allowing him to function as an unobtrusive guard and observer in Piloq. The narrative explicitly offers several possible explanations—a camouflage Soultrait, an exceptionally mastered concealment technique, or overwhelming strength—without resolving which is correct. His concealment should therefore be treated as demonstrated capability with unknown mechanism, not as a confirmed named Soultrait. (Chapters 311–324)

Whispering Energy encodes spoken words into a wisp of origin energy that travels to a chosen recipient and releases the message at the ear. Kraft uses it for discreet battlefield and political communication, then teaches the principle to Michael during their journey. Michael initially fails because forming, carrying, and accurately sending the encoded wisp requires fine energy control. The technique has no demonstrated offensive effect; its value is secure coordination, quiet instruction, and sharing information without letting nearby rivals hear a conversation. (Chapters 313, 324, 328, 449–452)

Psyche Obliteration

Psyche Obliteration is Kraft’s named mental interrogation power. Purple fumes gather around his hands and compress into a liquid-like droplet, which he fires into a prisoner’s brow without leaving a conventional wound. Once inside, the power dismantles mental barriers and exposes the victim to Michael’s Mind Reader. Kraft deliberately restrains its output because the Dark Heavens prisoners contain self-destructive safeguards; lower force takes minutes to break the defenses but reduces the risk of killing the source before intelligence is recovered. (Chapters 449–453)

The technique’s clearest applications are coordinated rather than solitary. Kraft repeatedly applies droplets while Michael reads Mihal, and the pair are admitted to a secret prison because both abilities are required. He also erupts with sufficient power to attack a hidden traitor in the emergency hall, although that strike is not explicitly identified as Psyche Obliteration. The corpus does not state whether Psyche Obliteration is Kraft’s Soultrait, a learned Soul Technique, or one function of another power, and it gives no safe range, star rating, or use against a peer prepared for combat. (Chapters 449–453)

Commerce, negotiation, and market design

Kraft understands supply chains, customer psychology, valuation, and the political meaning of market access. He arranges Michael’s blueprints, Artifacts, scrolls, and rare materials through the Bartholomew network; builds a distribution model for neutral and customized Soul Techniques; and warns that an upgrade service must remain scarce enough to be sustainable. At the first Soultrait auction, he delays until major bidders arrive, advertises other products, explains unfamiliar merchandise, and encourages cross-race bids to create competition. His expertise produces both revenue and a controlled public role for powers that could otherwise provoke kidnapping or monopolistic violence. (Chapters 321–435, 459–464, 522–542, 639–640)

The Cosmic Trading Market scales those skills from corporation to civilization. Kraft compares currency and Energy Stone prices, estimates demand, and proposes user fees that place maintenance costs on private corporations instead of the Alliance treasury. Under his administration, the Cosmic Shop contributes to new regions, the revival of the wasteland, and a broader economy for Humans, Berserkers, and Warlock Centaurs. The story attributes the rare products and initial capital substantially to Michael, while assigning Kraft the continuing work of pricing, distribution, oversight, and institutional survival. (Chapters 863–868, 955–957, 1034)

Mentorship, intelligence, and governance

Kraft’s curriculum combines accumulated records with case-based judgment. Books and Knowledge Wisps teach Michael territory management, warfare, emotional discipline, and older Lords’ failures; direct conversations test business plans, Soultrait combinations, recruitment, and the human cost of Lord decisions. He does not pretend omniscience. When Divine instruction surpasses his knowledge, he asks for what can be learned from it, preserving his usefulness as an interpreter of local politics and institutions rather than competing with Eren’s cosmic expertise. (Chapters 523–524, 569–595, 705, 748–749)

As an intelligence and political operator, Kraft reviews battle records, anticipates multi-layered traps, plants emergency measures, locates traitor hubs, and maintains calm when abductions unsettle other leaders. His governance creates support for small Lords, shared defense, the Awakened Agency, inclusive Training Centers, and a research-backed approach to planetary energy. These are collaborative achievements involving Michael, Bartholomew staff, researchers, and Alliance leaders; Kraft’s competency lies in turning their resources into systems with rules, budgets, reporting, and continuity. (Chapters 310, 449–453, 529–532, 640, 769–868, 912–957, 1034)

Relationships

Michael Fang

Michael begins as a valuable Agriculture Project investor whom Kraft is ordered or authorized to escort, but Kraft’s repeated advice quickly becomes grandfatherly concern. He teaches Whispering Energy, protects Michael in Piloq, rewards his intelligence work, and moves extraordinary quantities of supplies on his behalf. Michael in turn demonstrates enough principle and trust for Kraft to resume teaching after a long refusal. Their NDA Soul Pact exposes Kraft to Extraction’s secret and creates one of Michael’s most candid adult relationships, while their commercial negotiations remain genuine bargaining rather than disguised charity. (Chapters 310–333, 405–464, 522–524)

The relationship matures as Michael outgrows Kraft in combat and cosmic knowledge. Kraft accepts Eren as the better advanced teacher, yet remains the master Michael consults about Lordship, markets, territory, recruitment, and political consequences. Michael entrusts him with the Cosmic Shop and Alliance economy, supplies resources that may extend his life, and later remembers him as someone who changed his life forever. Kraft does not merely preserve Michael’s projects; he gives them administrative lives independent of their creator, allowing Michael to leave without abandoning every community that depends on him. (Chapters 569–595, 705, 748–749, 854–868, 955–957, 1034, 1122)

The Bartholomew Corporation

The Bartholomew Corporation is Kraft’s principal commercial base and the location of his Origin Expanse anchor. Although Helen Ascaln is introduced as an executive director, her wary manner and Kraft’s freedom show that he is not an ordinary subordinate; later narration distinguishes Kraft from the corporation’s president without defining his exact office. He uses the organization’s branches, headquarters, staff, accounts, and credibility to distribute Michael’s goods, establish the Soul Technique Department, fund Training Centers, and support the Agriculture Project. The corporation gains unique markets, while Kraft repeatedly ensures the partnership does not consume the young producer who makes that access possible. (Chapters 310–324, 405–464, 522–542, 1034)

Tritan Alliance leaders

Kraft works with Alice Zenovia, Katharina Zenovia, Palika, the War Priestess, and other leaders during Piloq’s interrogation, the Sacred Desert crisis, and the civil war. His authority comes from trust and demonstrated competence rather than a clearly named constitutional office. He can persuade councils, access guarded intelligence, and coordinate with race leaders, but he also clashes with High Society when families value territorial suspicion over collective defense. By the endpoint, Michael’s retrospective description of Kraft as controlling the Alliance indicates the political balance has shifted decisively toward his administration. (Chapters 448–453, 569–570, 698–769, 823, 854–868, 955–956, 1034, 1122)

Rebecca Zauber and the institutional network

Rebecca Zauber becomes an important operational partner linking Michael’s territory, the Bartholomew Corporation, and later the Cosmic Trading Market. She handles agency business and trade, joins Kraft’s price research after the civil war, and helps gather evidence for Blood Incursion victims. Kraft also relies on unnamed attendants, researchers, secretaries, and old Lord subordinates. These relationships emphasize that his later influence is organizational: he delegates specialized work, expects reports, asks precise follow-up questions, and maintains institutions too large for personal supervision alone. (Chapters 630–670, 778, 854–868, 912, 1034)

Eren

Eren becomes a second teacher to Michael whose Divine knowledge exceeds Kraft’s experience. Rather than treat the newcomer as a rival, Kraft meets with him and asks that useful methods be passed back. Eren is disappointed by Kraft’s power and expertise relative to Michael’s praise, but still finds enough of interest to discuss the Sacred Desert problem. Their limited contact clarifies Kraft’s proper niche: he is not Michael’s final authority on cosmic power, but the local master whose business, Lordship, and political knowledge made Michael capable of reaching wider teachers without losing his existing responsibilities. (Chapters 748–749)

Items

Emergency crystal

Kraft gives Michael an emergency crystal that operates on a frequency separate from both the crystal watch and the Runic Gate. When crushed during the attempted abduction in Piloq, it alerts Kraft, who forwards the emergency to the Berserker Chieftain and War Priestess. The device is important less for raw power than for contingency design: Kraft anticipates that normal communications may be watched or blocked and prepares a channel that turns Michael’s apparent vulnerability into a coordinated trap. (Chapter 529)

Secrecy box and Soul Pact

Before Michael explains Extraction, Kraft activates an intricately inscribed metal box that produces a protected dome around their conversation. The box supplements a highly restrictive NDA Soul Pact under which betrayal would surrender Kraft, his territory, and his linked subordinates to Michael. Neither the box’s formal name nor Artifact grade is stated. Together they create the technical and binding privacy Michael requires before trusting his master with Extraction’s origin, products, and battlefield uses. (Chapter 524)

Knowledge Wisps, books, and Memory Crystals

Kraft’s teaching materials include large collections of books and Knowledge Wisps containing theory, practical advice, anecdotes, and records of earlier powerhouses’ mistakes. Michael absorbs them at unusual speed and accidentally destroys some source material, so Kraft requires him to reconstruct the knowledge in writing or copy it into Memory Crystals. These are not combat treasures but the core equipment of his mentorship: stored institutional memory that can teach territory development, warfare, emotional management, and techniques without relying exclusively on Kraft’s presence. (Chapters 569–570)

Origin Liquid and Ancient Energy Stones

In later years, Michael supplies Kraft with Ancient Energy Stones and a droplet of Origin Liquid. The stones may extend the period during which the aging Lord can work, while the consumed liquid explicitly leaves him more energetic at the endpoint. The corpus does not confirm that either resource advances Kraft to a named Tier, restores youth, or grants immortality. Their demonstrated importance is maintenance of vitality for an elderly administrator who expects to keep serving the Tritan Alliance for as long as he is able. (Chapters 1034, 1122)