Ryan Polive

Ryan Polive is a child prodigy recruited by Ren Dover to become one of Caïssa's behind-the-scenes operators. Although his personal combat ability remains low, Ryan develops from a cautious twelve-year-old hacker into an artifact engineer capable of blocking communications, reproducing tracking technology, constructing interplanetary portals, coordinating Alliance intelligence, and escaping the Pillar of Greed through layered deception. His closest partnership is with Smallsnake, whose mentorship and apparent death shape Ryan's later sense of responsibility.

Biography

Recruitment and the test of Caïssa

Ryan lives with his single mother in a worn one-bedroom apartment when the gold-ranked Luxious guild begins coercing her into surrendering the twelve-year-old recruit. Ren interrupts their agents and leaves an unusually generous Caïssa contract, including housing, salary, and limited hours. Ryan does not accept out of gratitude. He reconstructs Ren's manipulation of three rival guilds, devises alternatives of his own, and recognizes that his lack of strength and concern for his mother are what prevent him from acting independently. The encounter interests him, but also confirms why he cannot trust an unknown employer immediately. (Chapters 90–96)

Rather than sign at once, Ryan deliberately probes Caïssa's systems. His conspicuous hacking attempt tells Ren and Smallsnake that he is watching them and evaluating whether their results match their claims. This cautious exchange establishes the terms of Ryan's eventual loyalty: Ren provides protection, resources, and a place where intelligence matters, while Ryan offers technical work after verifying that the organization is more than a paper mercenary group. Even at twelve, he treats recruitment as a reciprocal risk rather than an adult's decision made for him. (Chapters 134, 152–153)

Caïssa fieldwork and the journey to Henlour

By the time Caïssa leaves the human domain, Ryan has joined its core group and has come to regard Ren as reliable. When his mother refuses to let her thirteen-year-old undertake an unknown and dangerous journey, Ryan insists that he wants to go, reassures her that his leader will protect him, and drops the childish facade she knows he maintains for her sake. The decision is not reckless enthusiasm: he sees the expedition as an opportunity to develop abilities that ordinary institutions dismiss because his physical rank is low. (Chapters 283–289)

During the journey, Ryan monitors the Monolith chip in Ren's head, detects incoming connections, and uses drones and communications interference to support the group's ambushes. He cannot fight the pursuing agents directly, so Leopold guards him and Smallsnake while they blind enemy communications and relay movement data. At Henlour, Ryan's aerial search finds the dwarven capital without exposing the party at ground level. His competence changes how the fighters judge him: what first looks like a child who needs protection becomes the source of navigation, advance warning, and information denial that makes their victories possible. (Chapters 289–300)

Dwarven apprenticeship and operational maturity

The dwarves initially dismiss Ryan and Smallsnake as low-ranked utility users, but their analysis impresses the defenders enough that they remain with the technical teams during the siege. Ryan trains under Jomnuk Dramegrip, learning artifact construction and portal systems rather than attempting to imitate the frontline fighters. His calculations are precise enough that a five-minute error in predicting Ren's battle bothers him, yet the apprenticeship also teaches him to apply imperfect information instead of waiting for certainty. (Chapters 304–339)

Ryan later reproduces the tracking function of Ren's implanted Monolith chip with near-perfect accuracy and installs the copy in Aaron as part of Ren's attempt to redirect the enemy's search. He also operates surveillance feeds and communications devices for the wider team. These uses show the causal result of Jomnuk's teaching: Ryan moves from hacking existing networks to understanding enough hardware, runic logic, and signal behavior to reproduce a dangerous component. The copy is limited to the tracking function and is not presented as a complete duplicate of every capability in Ren's implant. (Chapters 377–379, 416–419, 476)

The scattered world and losing Smallsnake

When Akashic interference scatters Caïssa across another world, Ryan appears with Angelica. His drone reconnaissance locates Leopold, Hein, and Ava, while Angelica von Droix protects and physically carries him through threats he cannot survive. The group repeatedly describes Ryan as one of its weakest combatants—approximately F rank—and his technology cannot replace a strong escort. Nonetheless, his ability to find allies and assess routes makes him operationally valuable even when mana and physical force would leave him helpless alone. (Chapters 567–577)

Smallsnake is nearly killed while protecting the group, and Ryan's composure collapses. He clings to him, begs him not to die, and weeps when the treatment works, making explicit that Smallsnake has become the father or older brother Ryan lacked. During the escape, Ryan and Smallsnake reject Ren's plan to send the weakest members away first because their portal training can shorten the evacuation. Ryan crosses only after helping establish the route and warns Smallsnake not to remain behind. When Smallsnake does not return, Ryan first denies the loss and then mourns him as the family figure who taught him how to belong. (Chapters 580–605)

Portals, surveillance, and Alliance logistics

After the funeral, Ryan inherits much of the technical and administrative work Smallsnake once shared. On Immorra he builds a large portal from control panels, wires, a core, and a constructed frame, reads its data in real time, establishes the connection, and supplies the key that can reactivate it. He also explains Jomnuk's improvements to the orc defenses and acts as a liaison between technical production and the fighters. The work makes him indispensable, but not independent of infrastructure: portals require coordinates, hardware, mana-rich cores, time, and trained operators. (Chapters 623–653)

In the human domain Ryan watches dozens of feeds simultaneously, tracks Monolith activity, monitors mana compressors, and later serves the Human-Demon Alliance as an intelligence, inventory, and logistics specialist. Ren's reliance on him expands his workload from a mercenary team to armies and cities. Ryan sorts captured treasuries, relays coordinates, guides returning forces, and supplies calculations that let the Alliance move humanity to Immorra in roughly a week. His complaints about exhaustion are comic, but they identify a real limit: exceptional processing ability does not make the volume of work physically sustainable without help and rest. (Chapters 673–692, 753–798)

Pillar of Greed escape

Inside the Pillar of Greed, conventional reconnaissance first fails Ryan. The mist blocks light, heat readings, electromagnetic waves, and sound, forcing him to use a small anti-illusion flag at close range. After capture, mana-suppressing restraints remove even his limited rank advantage and his main dimensional space is confiscated. Ryan calms himself, breaks out a false tooth containing an emergency dimensional storage mechanism, disables the restraint without triggering its alarm, and spends hours reverse-engineering the bracelet before leaving the cell. Preparation and curiosity, rather than a sudden combat increase, create his escape route. (Chapters 829, 835)

Ryan then uses one of Leopold Ray's guns with disposable demon cores, a silent cutting device, a body-scanning pen, a holographic demon disguise, and released demonic energy to reach Leopold. He knows the disguise is flawed and deliberately allows the demons to discover and recapture them after planting explosives. His frightened tears are part of the deception: by appearing predictable, he narrows the guards' response, lets them carry the pair away from the blast zones, and triggers the traps before escaping. He then turns the operation from personal rescue into a prison break by opening other cells. (Chapters 835–838)

After freeing Emma Roshfield, Ryan supplies her with a sword and potions, then uses a modified Monolith control serum on captured demons to make them guide the group through the tunnels. The disguise reaches the mana-extraction chamber but cannot conceal them from the strongest enemies there. Leopold is gravely wounded and Emma collapses; Ryan nevertheless carries Emma, reaches Leopold, and raises a prepared barrier during the Pillar's destruction. In the final battle he returns to his natural role, scattering small drones to relay safe-zone instructions across the battlefield. (Chapters 839–842, 854)

Postwar life

After the war eliminates the conditions that sustained mercenary guilds, Ryan resists the dissolution of Caïssa and proposes following other organizations into interdimensional trade. Angelica instead turns the group toward operating a bar, an idea Ryan rapidly praises once he notices her glare. The scene shows that he remains intelligent, overworked, and irreverent rather than becoming a solemn administrator. With Smallsnake restored, Ryan can tease his old partner again, though the others note how much hardship changed him during Smallsnake's absence. (Chapter 859; Epilogue 1)

The gathering also reunites Ryan with the surviving field team outside the command structures that once defined their lives. He no longer needs drones to locate Ava or a portal to bring Leopold home; their new problem is making an ordinary business work. Ryan's reluctance to let the mercenary identity disappear reflects both nostalgia and the security Caïssa gave him as a child, while his eventual participation shows an ability to accept that loyalty can outlast the organization built for war. (Chapter 859; Epilogue 1)

Appearance and personality

Ryan is introduced at twelve as a small boy with black hair and an outwardly childish expression. By sixteen he is still short enough that Ren looks down at him, and his repeated technical workload later leaves conspicuous dark circles under his eyes. His size causes others to underestimate him and makes direct combat particularly dangerous, but it also supports his deliberate ability to switch between the harmless child adults expect and the composed analyst observing them. (Chapters 90, 96, 283, 624, 788)

He is wary, analytical, proud of his intelligence, and fiercely protective of the few people he trusts. Ryan refuses an excellent contract until he has tested its authors, becomes upset by small errors in his predictions, and takes visible pleasure in solving mechanisms others cannot understand. At the same time, he still responds to praise like a child, plays games while adults argue, complains about walking and workloads, and panics when a loved one is hurt. These traits coexist rather than marking separate personalities. (Chapters 96, 152, 283–307, 581, 633)

Experience teaches Ryan how to work while afraid. He bites his nails, pales before overwhelming forces, and openly admits when a situation may be hopeless, but he can slow his breathing and construct a plan once immediate panic passes. His Pillar escape is the clearest expression of this maturity: curiosity almost makes him study a restraint too long, yet preparation, performance, and calculated predictability let him defeat opponents far stronger than he is. (Chapters 604–605, 639, 829, 835–840)

Powers and abilities

Ryan's primary power is technical intelligence rather than mana combat. He is explicitly unranked when introduced and is only described as approximately F rank years later. The modest improvement gives him enough mana for devices but not the physical resilience to accompany frontline fighters safely. Strong companions, concealment, prepared tools, and expendable cores remain essential whenever his work brings him into combat. (Chapters 90, 96, 304, 567, 835–840)

Hacking and communications control

Ryan can penetrate protected systems, trace network behavior, block outgoing communications, and operate many feeds at once. His early probe of Caïssa is intentionally detectable, whereas later field work suppresses enemy transmissions over a chosen radius so Monolith agents cannot report Ren's allies. As his responsibilities grow, he simultaneously cycles through dozens of city cameras, records anomalies, monitors compressors, and relays operational data. The skill is powerful against connected systems but cannot produce information where no usable signal exists. (Chapters 152, 289–295, 476, 673–692)

The Pillar's mist illustrates that boundary directly: it blocks sunlight, electromagnetic waves, sound, and heat-sensor readings, making Ryan's normal drone suite ineffective. Networks can also be disrupted, equipment seized, or data falsified, so he cross-checks reports and retains low-tech alternatives. His work is consequently a combination of software intrusion, signal analysis, surveillance design, and human inference rather than an unrestricted ability to know everything happening around him. (Chapters 829, 835–840)

Artifact engineering and reverse engineering

Jomnuk's apprenticeship develops Ryan into an artifact engineer. He can analyze circuits and runic functions, reproduce the tracking section of Ren's implanted chip, disable mana-suppressing restraints without activating their alarms, and construct emergency storage that opens mechanically even when mana is sealed. He studies captured devices until he understands their components and adapts scanners, cutting tools, disguises, and concealment equipment to a mission. His practice is empirical: observe a working system, isolate its function, reproduce or bypass it, and prepare redundancies for the likely failure points. (Chapters 312–339, 377–419, 633, 771, 835–840)

This expertise still requires materials and time. The copied implant reproduces tracking rather than the entire Monolith chip, the disguise only overlays Ryan's shape and must be supplemented with a crushed demon core's aura, and suppressor analysis consumes hours in an active prison. His emergency tooth store works because it was built and stocked beforehand. Ryan's talent compresses the time needed to understand a mechanism; it does not create hardware or energy from nothing. (Chapters 418, 633, 771, 835–837)

Drones, reconnaissance, and coordination

Ryan's Drones are miniature platforms for visual reconnaissance, navigation, tracking, and message relay. They help locate Henlour, watch pursuit routes, find scattered allies, and carry warnings to civilians during the final battle. Ryan controls them through tablets or other linked devices and can integrate their feeds with jamming and tactical calculations. Their small size lets them scout without exposing a human operator, making them the most persistent extension of his intelligence role. (Chapters 289, 295, 298, 570, 854)

The drones are sensors, not infallible witnesses. High altitude reduces image detail, barriers and unusual environments can block their channels, and the Pillar fog defeats light, heat, sound, and electromagnetic detection at once. Ryan must also deploy them physically and remain within a viable communications structure. They are therefore most effective in ordinary terrain or as part of a prepared network, and least effective against phenomena designed to erase every signal they use. (Chapters 298, 570, 829, 854)

Portal construction and logistics

Ryan understands the coordinate logic, control systems, and mana requirements of interplanetary portals. He and Smallsnake can fine-tune a formation faster than untrained operators, while Ryan later constructs and activates a portal on Immorra by coding the connection, feeding it a large core, and directing released mana into the frame. He retains a key capable of reactivating the secured gate. These scenes establish skilled portal engineering, not spontaneous teleportation: a viable frame, destination coordinates, power, and setup time are all necessary. (Chapters 598–599, 630–638)

The same systems thinking makes Ryan an effective logistician. He inventories thousands of captured objects, assigns categories, routes forces by coordinates, models the duration of a civilization-scale migration, and supports the Alliance's war administration. His processing speed lets him absorb rapidly changing data, but fatigue and workload remain real constraints. Ren's habit of assigning him more work produces dark circles and resentment precisely because administrative capability is not limitless endurance. (Chapters 753–798)

Improvised combat and deception

Ryan is not a trained frontline fighter, but he can convert stored energy into limited firepower. Leopold's shotgun-like artifact is too demanding for Ryan's own mana, so he loads a sizeable demon core before each shot. The delay makes him slower than Leopold and consumes a core for every use, but it lets him destroy demons who would otherwise overwhelm him. He supplements the weapon with silent cutters, knives, barriers, potions, concealment tools, and traps rather than attempting sustained close combat. (Chapters 835–842)

His more important combat skill is deception. Ryan creates an intentionally imperfect holographic disguise, predicts that the demons will observe before arresting him, lets himself be carried to a safe distance from planted charges, and uses feigned terror to prevent closer questioning. Later he modifies Monolith supersoldier serum with Melissa's help; several doses are normally needed for complete control, but direct injection into restrained demons leaves them responsive to simple commands long enough to guide an escape. Neither method works indefinitely or against every target. (Chapters 771, 835–840)

Power progression

Relationships

• Ren Dover: Ren protects Ryan and his mother from Luxious, recruits him into Caïssa, finances his development, and relies on him for technical work that direct strength cannot replace. Ryan tests Ren before trusting him and later accepts him as a reliable leader, though Ren's relentless assignments make their relationship resemble an overworked younger specialist arguing with an older brother or employer. (Chapters 90–153, 283–339, 418, 604–633, 753–798)
• Smallsnake: Smallsnake is Ryan's technical partner, daily guardian, and eventual father or older-brother figure. They learn and operate together, compensate for each other's weak combat ability, and jointly keep portals and intelligence systems running. Smallsnake's apparent death devastates Ryan; his postwar restoration gives Ryan back the person whose nagging had become part of his sense of family. (Chapters 152–153, 283–339, 476–605; Epilogue 1)
• Ryan's mother: His mother protects him from predatory recruiters and wants him to retain a normal childhood. Ryan's concern for her initially prevents him from acting on plans that would provoke stronger guilds, while Caïssa's housing and protection make his work possible. He performs childishness partly to reassure her, but she understands his intelligence and ultimately respects his decision to travel. (Chapters 90–96, 283)
• Jomnuk Dramegrip: Jomnuk is Ryan's dwarven mentor in artifact systems. Ryan's later tracking-chip replica, portal competence, and understanding of improved siege devices follow this apprenticeship, and Ryan openly credits his master when explaining the dwarves' work. (Chapters 312–339, 418, 598–639)
• Angelica von Droix: Angelica acts as Ryan's recurring bodyguard after the scattered-world incident and during later Immorra operations. She protects him from enemies and debris, while his reconnaissance gives her the information needed to find and defend the others. After the war, her authority still makes him revise his complaints with comic speed. (Chapters 570–577, 598–653; Epilogue 1)
• Leopold Ray: Leopold is Ryan's field protector and partner in the Pillar of Greed. Ryan borrows and adapts his firearm design, rescues him from captivity, and uses Leopold's superior combat speed to cover the prison break. When Leopold is struck down, Ryan treats the apparent loss as a second family bereavement and refuses to abandon his body during the collapse. (Chapters 289–300, 570–587, 646, 829–842)
• Emma Roshfield: Ryan recognizes and frees Emma in the Pillar, supplies her with medicine and a borrowed sword, and makes her strength the center of his revised escape plan. She in turn captures demons and protects the group in direct combat. Ryan carries her after she collapses and shelters her with Leopold under his barrier. (Chapters 839–842)

Items

• Ryan's Drones: Ryan's recurring miniature surveillance and communication platforms locate Henlour, watch enemies, find dispersed companions, and relay safe-zone instructions during the final battle. Their feeds can be blocked by barriers or signal-denying environments. (Chapters 289, 295, 298, 570, 829, 854)
• Emergency tooth storage: A false tooth hides a mechanically accessible dimensional space that remains usable when Ryan's mana is sealed and his ordinary possessions are confiscated. It contains the tools that allow his Pillar escape and is a redundancy he also builds for companions. (Chapters 771, 835)
• Leopold-pattern firearm: Ryan uses a spare shotgun-like artifact based on Leopold's weapon. Because his own mana is insufficient, each shot requires a sizeable demon core, limiting rate of fire and ammunition but giving him a way to kill stronger demons. (Chapters 835–837)
• Modified control serum: With Melissa's help, Ryan analyzes and alters the Monolith's supersoldier serum. It can impose limited obedience after one dose and works on demons and other races, while full control normally requires repeated doses. Ryan retains it and later injects restrained demons to stage the Pillar escape. (Chapters 771, 839–840)