Knight Leader

Knight Leader (騎士団長 (ナイトリーダー) )is a character introduced in Toaru Majutsu no Index. He is the captain and leader of the Knights of England, one of the three organizations in charge of Britain's magical affairs along with the Royal Family and Necessarius. He and the knights are allied with the forces of Britain's second princess Carissa during the English Magic Civil War and thus they were pitted against her sister, the third princess Villian; whom he would normally be bound by his fierce loyalty to protect her. He is also a British noble whose real name hasn't been revealed so far.

Background
He once tried to ask Kanzaki Kaori to a dance, but was told by the Amakusa's Tatemiya Saiji that she likes younger men. Though later it is revealed he is a good friend with Kaori and helped her to deal with the various nobles when she first came to England, and does not see Kaori in a romantic light.

He tried various times to recruit Kaori into the Knights of England to try and set a precedent to allow women to join the Knights, saying the sexist views of the past should be abolished. However, he might also have the hidden motive of removing a powerful piece from Necessarius and adding it to the Knights of England.

The Knight Leader is also a good friend with William Orwell, even though he himself is a Knight and William is a mercenary. He sees William as a friendly rival in terms of fighting ability, and as a drinking buddy as they often drink together after dealing with incidents before William left England.

Anglican Church–Russian Orthodox Church Prewar Conference
According to Orsola Aquinas, the Knight Leader went to the residence of the Amakusa Christians in Japantown in order to woo Kanzaki Kaori, but is shooed away by Tatemiya Saiji, who said that Kaori preferred younger men, and she has someone she loves in Academy City. Upon hearing this, Kaori denies the rumor that she likes younger men and has someone she loves in Academy City that has been spread by the Amakusa Christians.

Magic God Othinus Arc
Despite being one of the key players of the British Halloween, the Knight Leader was not sent in to prison or seem to be willing to go into one, like William Orwell and Carissa. Instead, he has his own circumstances to deal with, though they are unaddressed. During the conference of major powers in New York, he is dismayed that Queen Elizard didn't take him to the meeting as a bodyguard, and instead is stationed at the northernmost part of Scotland to being an Anti-GREMLIN Alliance operation.

As they prepared to leave to attack Sargasso from a naval port on the northernmost edge of Scotland, they had a brief discussion as to the readiness of the group before setting out in one of their Mobile Fortresses (the Queen Mermaid and the Hotel Ariel) for the alliance's operation. The Knight Leader then got the permission to leave and begin the assault.

On route Carissa receives word that America and Russia will be a little delayed, and though the other two can enter as the second wave of attack, they determined that they will take all glory for themselves. William asks when Touma will get there, to which Carissa states that he should arrive by the second wave, and notes that due to Academy City's Supersonic Passenger Plane he may arrive before the American and Russian forces. As the island became visible, it is bombed by several Grape Jelly bombs and the Mont Blanc bombs. As the attack took place, William notes on how Carissa's methods never change, and warn her that due to the incident she caused in England, the British Halloween, and GREMLIN may have analyzed her methods. Carissa replies that if one removes all the waste and search for the optimal usage of one's weapons, everyone will ultimately arrive at the same place. She states that a military run by a nation needs an attack method that is impossible to avoid even if one knows it is coming. As they begin to land on the island, Carissa isn't optimistic enough to think that the bombing was enough to kill all the members of GREMLIN, but believed that since they still have the physical body of a human, then they can be killed.

Landing on the island, they are informed that there is no need for gas masks for there were no toxic substances detected after the bombing. Thus, they and the British forces begin their search for GREMLIN. Then, they hear a voice up on a wrecked tanker in the island welcoming them and introducing himself as Loki. He comments that "Lady Othinus" gave him the task of protecting the Sargasso of the North Sea with his life. His explanation is cut short however, after he is shot through the throat with an arrow fired via the Robin Hood spell. Loki then fell from the tip of the tanker he was standing on and slammed to the ground. Carissa then ordered all of her men to continue moving forward. He then suddenly rises, explaining that he is just an illusion and the real Loki is nowhere near the area. He further explains that he was suspicious of his teammates and worried about a spy, so he created an artificial sky over the true Sargasso and altered Marian Slingeneyer's notes. Reports from the landed forces state that the teams have found no trace of the magic god or the production of the lance in the island: it is completely empty. Carrisa and the others then realize they had indeed been led to a false Sargasso on the other side of the world. The illusion bids them farewell and disappears, just as the place is bombed.

VS The World
Surviving the explosion in Sargasso, Princess Carissa, Knight Leader, and William Orwell are mobilized on the Hotel Ariel to go to Denmark following the sudden changing of sides of Kamijou Touma with Magic God Othinus. They are later joined by Kanzaki Kaori. They later knock Touma after his fight with Vasilisa and Sasha Kreutzev, taking him into the mobile fortress. They later prepare to use the Curtana's shard to attack Othinus. As Touma comes to, William tells him not to get up, adding that they don't particularly care about him and that it would be best for him if he simply watched as they bring the situation to an end. Carissa also comments on Touma waking up, saying that letting him freeze on the deck would have been decent punishment for causing so much trouble around the world. The Knight Leader then asks why they had to abduct Touma as they have all that they needed to handle Othinus and that they don't have any real reason to bring Touma along. Kaori responds that they don't know what the other GREMLIN members are doing so doing so would prevent the possibility of them meeting with him. She then tells Touma where he is. After hearing of Carissa's intention to use the Curtana's shard against Othinus, Touma slams his fist into the floor, destroying it with the Imagine Breaker and causing them all to fall down to a lower level. Seeing this as a hostile action, the four move to attack him.

To her surprise, Touma moves himself into the path of her attack, such that it would kill him if it connected. Moving to avoid it, Kaori tries to incapacitate him without killing him, realizing that he was using her own trait of not killing against her. However Touma curls himself up, forcing her to jump over him and ends up colliding with the Knight Leader.

Touma once again slams his fist on the mobile fortress, causing them to all fall down again. As they land to safety on the lower levels of fortress, Carissa comments on the queerness of Touma's actions as he can't escape the fortress from 1500 meters. William comments on Touma's plan on using Kaori against them. Both Carissa and Knight Leader find out that Kaori is gone. Carissa comments that they could try searching every room in the fortress and that Touma will be cornered eventually. However, William says they don't have time for that as he already realized Touma's plan, though says that it relies on others too much to call it a proper plan. And that plan is for him to use Kaori's character and trait of saving people to help him survive and escape.

Carissa later uses her Curtana shard to attack them and Othinus from afar, though Kaori later manages to divert the power being relayed to the Curtana's shard and destroy Hotel Ariel. Touma's gamble continues even after Touma left Kaori's side, as she fights Carissa, William, and the Knight Leader on her own. They later listen to the speech by Roberto Katze and Queen Elizard regarding the need to not give in to fear and hatred against Othinus, while Kaori continues to fight the other while coughing up blood from the attacks she had received.

Abilities
As a knight, he is a skilled swordsman who fights wielding his sword. When he had the blessing of Archangel Michael that was given by Curtana Original, the Knight Leader had shown great skills and was capable of defeating Kanzaki Kaori with absurd ease, not even needing to draw his own sword: he was capable of moving at speeds even the Saint can't match; managed to capture the 'Nanasen' (Seven Flash) steel wires with one hand, scrunch it up into a steel ball then thrown it back as an attack against Kanzaki; and managed to stop Kanzaki's 'Yuisen' (Single Flash) attack that was said to be capable of even harming Christian Archangels with only the other hand. He himself stated that, with the Archangel's blessing, the only one in England at that time that could have matched him was the leader of the other factions, such as the Archbishop Laura Stuart, and even though Queen Elizard has great skill, she doesn't possess the same destructive power as he does.


 * Hrunting (フルンティング) ("The Fauce of the Dragon King"): It's a dark-red sword of about 3.9 meters and its weight is unknown, but it probably doesn't weighs much more than the longsword used at its base. The spiritual item holds the same name as the magical sword used in the legend of Beowulf. Apparently, the sword became tougher and sharper from the blood of slain enemies that blocked ones path, but Knight Leader had most likely had Telesma act as the blood so that the large amount could be compressed into it in order to give it a tremendous amount of destructive power. Already, the ordinary laws of physics did not apply to the steel of the sword. It felt lighter than its original mass should, it was tough enough to not have received a single scratch from the strikes it had received from Ascalon, and so sharp that it would kill William instantly were a single strike to hit him. Knight Leader had reanalyzed the laws behind the Norse Gungnir and Mjölnir, the Celtic Fragarach and Brionac, and other weapons, combined them, and then condensed them. His evolution had constructed completely new spells much like a black hole being created from the death of a star that grew too large which it's simply called Pattern Magic (パターン魔術). During his fight against William Orwell he showed the next patterns of his weapon, though only one precedence of them can be used at a time:


 * 1) Attack Range (射程距離) : cutting attacks that can rush from all directions no matter where the enemy is.
 * 2) Slicing Power (切断威力) : can cut through anything.
 * 3) Weapon Weight (武具重量) : creates tremendous destructive force.
 * 4) Movement Speed (移動速度) : makes no one able to catch up to him.
 * 5) Enduring Solidity (耐久硬度) : makes the sword indestructible.
 * 6) Special Use (専門用途) : rare pattern necessary to slay particular monsters.
 * 7) Precise Accuracy (的確精度) : automatically has him move toward the vital points.

In addition, he has shown he is capable of using these spells:


 * Thororm's Defense Formula: (ソーロルムの術式) Its a defensive spell, which regardless it's magical or scientific as long as the caster can identify it then the offensive value of the weapon can be "Set to zero". This effects lasts around 10mins. In the case of projectiles like bullet or arrows they would lose all momentum and becomes useless. Explosives would need other interferences to explode after the effect expires. The bunker cluster missile launched against him during the civil war basically ceased all functions and fell out of the sky after having been "Set to zero". One thing worth noting is that the missile bounced around on the pavement and caused no damage at all. He also mentioned that in theory it can affect nukes. If the caster can't see the weapon then the spell can't be casted. Also if the attacker is a royalty it won't be affected by it. This spell has its flaws, as shown when Carissa decided to launch many difference types of missiles during the final battle, which the Knight Leader can't block them all at once due to the possibility of mistaking one kind of missile for another. This spell can only affect something that uses a weapon/medium, so anything that's purely magical/power related won't be affected by it. In addition, he mentioned it cannot stop Archangel Gabriel/Misha's wings in Volume 21, stating it is more like a body part than a weapon.

The Knight Leader has stated himself that his pattern magic is largely unusable without the Telesma that he gets from the Curtana, to the point where by himself he can only do a support spell for high speed movement and his Hrunting sword becomes a common 80 cm sword. His Thororm's Formula, however, is not dependent of Curtana's influence.

Design evolution
Knight Leader's design remains static throughout the series, since his introduction in the SS volume.

Trivia

 * In mythology, the sword Hrunting was given to Beowulf in order to aid him in slaying Grendel's Mother. However, though the sword was said to never have failed anyone who previously used it, it proved ineffectual against Grendel's Mother and he was forced to discard it.
 * Thororm comes from the Icelandic Saga of Gunnlaugr Serpent-Tongue, where the eponymous Gunnlaugr duels a berserk named Thororm, whose eyes are able to dull any weapon they see. Gunnlaugr defeats him by killing him with another sword than the one he showed him before the battle began. The entire translated saga can be read here.

Quotes

 * (During Volume 20) : "Connect me to Queen Elizard! Hurry!! I need to get permission to spank Lady Carissa!!" -- As Carissa was using strange methods to motivate the troops.