Orsted

Orsted is the Dragon God, heir to the secret art of the First Dragon God, forged to guarantee victory over the Man-God. He bears several curses, including one that makes everyone around him hate and fear him; it is because of this curse that the Man-God himself hates him.

He is counted among the World's Seven Strongest as the second strongest, but by the Man-God's words he is in fact the strongest: Orsted commands every technique and art that exists in this world, and on top of that the unique magic of the Dragon God.

Orsted is a tall, fearsome man with white hair; he gives off the sternness of one who has been through countless battles. Those around him instinctively freeze and fall into fear and hatred at a single glance at him — a consequence of the curse laid upon him.

He himself hardly ever smiles; Rudeus notes more than once that his boss ought to work on his smile.

Cold, taciturn, and calculating, Orsted acts with the conviction of one who has seen the outcome of events hundreds of times. Behind the frightening impassivity hides a man of honor: he acknowledges that one is right by deeds, not words, and, having convinced himself of Rudeus's loyalty, openly apologizes for having lied to him and kept him under watch.

Because of the curse of universal hatred, it is all but impossible for him to form normal relationships, and this largely determines his solitude and reserve.

His paths first cross with Rudeus's terribly: prompted by the Man-God, Rudeus gives his name, and Orsted attacks instantly, single-handedly besting Ruijerd in hand-to-hand combat and effortlessly immobilizing Eris and Rudeus. He drops Rudeus's health to exactly zero — but then heals him. For a long time Rudeus sees in him a deadly threat.

Later, after the clash "Quagmire versus the Dragon God," an alliance forms between them against a common enemy — the Man-God. Orsted reveals his secret to Rudeus: he does not see the future, as he had claimed before, but lives within a time loop. When he dies (or once every two hundred years), he returns to the winter of year 330 of the Dragon's Claw, to a nameless forest in the north of the Central Continent, retaining all his memory. Thus he has repeated the cycle more than a hundred times — over twenty thousand years — trying to kill the Man-God, who, unlike him, does not carry memory between loops. The price for this is slowed recovery of his mana.

Rudeus becomes his subordinate in the struggle against the Man-God. Orsted acts through him and other allies (Ariel, Perugius), staying in the shadows because of his curse. In the finale he closes with the Man-God and his pawns; he seals the God of Battle Badigadi rather than killing him (at Kishirika's request) and offers the defeated the chance to swear fealty to him. By his own conclusion, this loop has at last brought the Man-God a feeling of defeat.

Orsted is the strongest fighter of this world. He commands every martial art and technique in existence, can create his own "clones" that surround the foe, and wields the unique magic of the Dragon God. By the Man-God's words, if he set to it in earnest he could destroy the entire world.

His chief strength is the secret art of the First Dragon God: upon death he returns to the past with his full memory, which makes him, in essence, invincible in the long war with the Man-God. The side effect is extremely slow recovery of mana, but in exchange he is shielded from the Man-God's direct interference.