Ariel

Ariel is the Origin Taratect, the progenitor of the entire Taratect species, as well as the current Demon Lord. Initially acting as a major antagonist in both the main storyline and prolepsis, trying to kill Kumoko in the former and instigating The Great Human-Demon War in the latter, she later becomes one of the main characters of the main story.

The Queen Taratects and Puppet Taratects are her closest kin, have wills and personalities of their own and are not dominated by her Kin Control skill. They are her family and closest allies in the current world. Due to this she has a important emotional attachment to all of them.

Character File
The oldest Ancient Divine Beast, the Demon Lord, and the Ruler of Gluttony. She is actually the Origin Taratect, the progenitor of the entire taratect spider-monster species. All taratects are her kin and offspring, directly descended from her, and their souls are connected to her. However, one of her offspring turned out to be a reincarnation from another world and rebelled against her. This individual used their mutual connection to launch an unprecedented attack directly on Ariel's soul. Her efforts to resist led to them essentially devouring each other's souls, until they began to merge together.

Appearance
Ariel appears no different than regular human, though she looks like she is in her early-teens. She has short black hair, with a pure white strip on her bangs. Her skin is a light, healthy tone and her eyes are an unnatural red. Despite appearances, she is one of the oldest beings on the planet.

She wears a tube-top and hot-pants outfit, adorned with straps around her waist and legs. Along her back is a stripped cape with a high-fur collar. This cape has eight strips which represent her spider-like nature and which she can control by using her thread Skill.

Personality
Not much is known of Ariel's personality before her soul was attacked by Kumoko's Parallel Mind named Body Brain. During the battle with Earth Dragon Gakia, Ariel's soul melded with the Parallel Mind; in consequence, Ariel ended up retaining the wills and personalities of two individuals blended into one.

Ariel has a strong, independent personality, but also cares deeply for her kin. She was enraged beyond reason when the Queen Taratect of the Great Elroe Labyrinth was killed by Kumoko, leading the the deaths of many Earth Dragons that fought her, including Earth Dragon Gakia, the leader of the dragons in the Great Elroe Labyrinth. Afterwards, she felt that her soul had melded with Kumoko's, resulting in a more easy-going personality and gaining certain principles, such as never leaving leftovers behind. She was still able to retain much of her original sense of self as a mature, serious individual.

During her travels with Kumoko, Sophia, and Merazophis, she is shown to be able to read people with extreme scrutiny, constantly pinpointing the emotional struggles Sophia and Mera are dealing with and offering advice on how to deal with personal or relationship issues they are having, as well as reading their thoughts from nothing but gaze alone. This advice, though, is blunt. Ariel herself is also extremely blunt about her motives: she is not nice for the sake of being nice. Her advice to Sophia and Mera is partly out of sympathy, but also to benefit herself; she states that getting on Kumoko's, now named White, good side is her goal for helping them.

Both Sophia and Merazophis reason that Ariel is truly helping them out of her own heart, though, due to how petty she is with White; constantly goading her due to their complicated relationship and the grudge she has against White for killing so many of her close kin. It can be reasoned that Ariel does not reveal her true motives easily, but is actually a kind and caring individual to those she considers family or friends. She is even willing to be the guardian of these children, comparatively speaking, struggling with their emotions. She has a strong sense of responsibility, clearly stating that an adult is one that is needed to explain to children the correct choices in any given situation and why those choices are the correct ones.

On the other side of the coin, she is absolutely ruthless towards her enemies, offering no sympathy whatsoever, and completely devouring everything that stands in her way. In her battle with Kumoko, before Mother's death, Ariel didn't hesitate to completely obliterate Kumoko once she understood that they where enemies.

Over the course of their travels together, Ariel eventually parts ways with her grudge against White, indicating that she is a rather forgiving person, as well. White often refers to her as a true saint, one who automatically thinks about the wellbeing of others before themselves. This is mentioned when Ariel decides to save Sael from the tank in the hidden underground facility.

Background
Despite having the appearance of a girl in her early teens, Ariel is actually one of the oldest beings on the planet, having lived since before the implementation of the System.

The person who would become known as Ariel was born as the daughter of Potimas Harrifenas. She was not birthed through normal means, though. Rather, she was the result of one of his experiments: a Chimera created by slicing his genes with that of a spider; codenamed "Teratect". Because of this, her body was born with the ability to generate toxins. However, she did not have any resistance, causing her to slowly poison herself. To make matters worse, her poison generation was consuming all her physical energy, leaving her in a constant state of hunger and unable to move her body.

Teratect's life under Potimas was horrible, as he saw her as nothing more than a laboratory animal and regularly experimented on her. However, he at least provided her essentials, such as food and treatment for her condition. One day, though, she was rescued when authorities raided the lab she was held at. Afterward, she and other children Potimas experimented on were taken in by the Sariella Society charitable organization. The organization's founder, Sariel, introduced herself to Teract and asked her for her name. However, unable to answer, she instead tried to utter Sariel's name but could only pronounce "Ariel", which became her new name henceforth.

Prolepsis
Ariel's first appearance is from the perspective of Balto. She is rather nonchalant and disrespectful to the Demon Army Commanders, and forces her work onto Balto, who guides the meeting. When two of the commanders begin to fight, she displays a bit of her power, literally forcing them to sit down with a unique skill application.

Her next appearance is after the conclusion of the Human-Demon Great War, where she picks up the Hero's scarf and shows it to Shiro before enchanting it with magic and leaving it for the humans to find.

Ariel's fourth appearance is on the back of an arch taratect, on the journey to the elf village. She is eager to crush the elves, but says she will act with enough restraint to not hurt the reincarnations.

Main Story
Both of these events occur before her chronological appearance in the story, where she first meets and engages Kumoko after Mother calls for Ariel's aid. Mother's soul is being devoured by Kumoko's Parallel Wills, so Ariel comes to stop her. Due to language difficulties, negotiations break down. Kumoko is obliterated by Ariel's strength. To Ariel's surprise, the attack on the queen taratect's soul does not subside, and she eventually realizes that the Zana Horowa she thought dead is very much alive. She spreads out her puppet taratects to find and engage Kumoko, who is using Spatial Magic to keep Ariel and her forces at a disadvantage. The puppets are defeated through underhanded tactics such as drowning, forcing Ariel to tighten their formation around her so she does not lose any more. Ariel is unable to find and destroy Kumoko before she finishes consuming the queen's soul.

Relationships

 * Kumoko
 * Ariel first learned of Kumoko when "Mother" send an S.O.S. that she was attacking her soul. Upon confronting her, she requested her to cease her actions, which she did not understand due to the language barrier. Her request seemingly denied, and judging her to be too dangerous, Ariel attacked Kumoko and seemingly killed her. However, she survived and Ariel send pursuers. Unfortunately, Kumoko defeated not only them but also "mother" herself, causing Ariel to vow vengeance. At the same time, Kumoko attacked Ariel's soul as well, causing her to learn about her past. Requesting assistance from Güliedistrodiez, Ariel launched a surprise attack on Kumoko by teleporting to her location. However, Kumoko survived once again by transferring her soul into her offspring. Ultimately, with neither able to defeat the other, Ariel proposed a ceasefire, which Kumoko accepted.
 * Ariel initially intended to use their ceasefire to find a way to either control Kumoko or kill her permanently. To this end, she attempted to tame her by giving her a name, Shiro (or White), but this had no effect at all. Also, even after learning the key to her immortality, Ariel was forced to give up on revenge as it would be nigh impossible to destroy all of Shiro's offspring. After this, though, the two finally began to bond as they laid their grievances bare and both ended up saving the others' life during the battle with G-Fleet.
 * Spoilers for Light Novel Volume 7 and beyond
 * Exactly how much Ariel had grown to care for Shiro is on full display in how she protected her following her evolution into Shiraori, rather than taking advantage of her initially weakened state. After finally making it back to the demon country, Shiraori became Ariel's most trusted associate and proved instrumental in turning the tide of the shadow-war against the Elves in her favor. Overall, Ariel concluded that she made the right choice in recruiting Shiraori, as she not only gained a loyal follower but also a granddaughter.


 * Potimas Harrifenas
 * Ariel displays an extremely antagonistic attitude towards Potimas and the elves he rules, so much so that Ariel's kin has instinctual hatred towards elves. She views him as an exceptionally distrustful, cunning and power-hungry individual. To the point that she stationed a Queen Taratect, a legendary S-class monster, near his village to keep him in check. Considering him the worst, most hateful and problematic existence in the world, she wills to eliminate him together with all of the elves once it is the proper time to do so.


 * Dustin LXI
 * Acquaintances. Despite their contradictory philosophies and enmity, Ariel and Dustin share a very respectful relationship with each other, being able to have honest conversations and sometimes even providing assistance between each other despite knowing they are bound to become enemies one day. It is implied they have known each other for a very long time, both being part of the few who were alive since before the creation of the System.


 * Güliedistodiez
 * Acquaintance and occasional allies. It is implied they have known each other for a very long time, this side of their relationship has yet to be elaborated.


 * Sophia Keren
 * Rescued as a baby by Ariel. Sophia looks up to Ariel as a mother and mentor in her life and is currently serving in the 10th army.


 * Balto Phthalo
 * Close aide; Balto is one of the few earnest subordinates Ariel has amongst the demons. However, his loyal does not come from trust or respect but fear, being one of the few people aware of her strength. Despite this, though, Ariel trusts Balto enough to put him in charge of the demon realm in her absence and to any ensure rebellious elements are kept in check.


 * Bloe Phthalo
 * Ariel views Bloe as a childish and annoying individual, who does not hide his disdain and extreme rudeness towards her after she became the Demon Lord out of nowhere instead of his brother Balto. Despite not caring about him in the slightest, she lets his disrespectful behaviour slide as a small favor towards Balto, who has been loyal and cooperative since she took the throne. Ariel is aware that, despite his rebelliousness, he is no real threat to her, and set things up to make him the new 7th army commander in order to make rebels gather around him and deal with all of them easier in case he doesn’t control them.


 * Queen Taratects & Puppet Taratects
 * Ariel is shown to have a very close relationship with the Queen Taratects and the Puppet Taratects due to them being her strongest and oldest subordinates. Ariel in particular has admitted that she feels strong maternal instincts and feelings for them due to them technically being her children and considers them to be her "daughters" and is extremely protective towards them. This is seen where she flew into rage upon realizing that one of her daughters was being "killed" by one of its offspring and immediately went to her side to save her she developed a grudge against the one responsible when it killed some of her Puppet Taratects during their hunt to exterminate it and she felt genuine grief when the Queen was killed and caused her to swear to avenge her. Upon realizing that she couldn't kill the one responsible, Ariel fell into deep grief and silently prayed for forgiveness towards her daughters that she couldn't avenge them and ask that they forgive her shortcomings as their mother.


 * Demons
 * Ariel has currently taken command of the Demon Race to use them to wage war on humanity to have them build up MA energy to help speed up the planets recovery. Due to her having suddenly appeared out of nowhere and claimed the position of Demon Lord and her rapid militarization of the Demon Realm despite the race's issues and dwindling population, Ariel is apparently well hated and disliked by her subjects. And due to Ariel actively hiding her powers, a majority of the Demons are assuming that Ariel herself is not all that powerful, fueling the discontent with her and causing numerous acts of revolt during her rule. Ariel herself is largely unconcerned with the Demons perception with her and is unthreatened by them.


 * Reincarnations
 * Due to Ariel having fused with one of Kumoko's Parallel Minds, she also gained some of her memories as Wakaba Hiiro, which gave her knowledge of the Reincarnations. As seen when finding Julius' scarf after his death, Ariel referred to Schlain by his original name of "Yamada", and casually infused the scarf with her magic as a little gift to him. Ariel pities the reincarnations and the unfortunate situation they were put in, and wants them to live peacefully and strongly if possible. However, she's always been ready to dispose of them if they got in her way, being Shiro's will, who aims to protect them, the reason why she hasn't done anything to them and even ordered her subordinates not to touch them.


 * Sariel
 * Ariel sees Sariel as a motherly figure. After being abandoned by Potimas as a failed experiment and left on the verge of death, Ariel was rescued and brought to Sariel’s orphanage. Sariel was the first person Ariel met after Potimas, and the first one who properly talked and communicated with her. She is also the one who gave Ariel her name.
 * Ariel’s stay in the orphanage and relationship with Sariel and the people in there saved her from her fate of just living awaiting her death as a being without emotions nor will to live, and gave meaning to her life. It also helped her improve a little her physical condition over time.
 * Sariel is the reason why Ariel became the Demon Lord and spearheaded the Great Human-Demon War in an attempt to save her by increasing the energy given to the world with the sacrifices and restoring it to its normal state. She’s also the reason behind Ariel’s deep hatred towards humanity, who sacrified Sariel in order to save the world they themselves had driven to its ruin with their greed and ignorance. Currently, Ariel is willing to do everything in order to free Sariel from her shackles, even if she herself doesn’t want to be saved, or even if more than half of humanity has to be sacrificed to achieve that end.

Powers & Abilities
Ariel is the most powerful being within the confines of the System, surpassed only by Gods. Her strength comes from a combination of her great lifespan and being the progenitor of the taratect species. As a result, all her starts are nearly maxed and she can call on her offspring whenever she pleases, giving her enough firepower to take on the whole of humanity by herself. Kumoko describes Ariel's strength as "genre-breaking", comparing her to characters from "some power-creeper shonen".

Titles & Skills

 * Gluttony: Ariel is the Ruler of Gluttony, a Ruler Skill that allows her to consume anything and turn it into sustenance and power. Gluttony allows her to eat anything, from soil, dirt, metal, even pure energy, and turn it into enhanced stats. Gluttony is the skill that has allowed her to reach near-system limits of ability levels and over-capped HP, SP, and MP.
 * Strength: Despite her youthful and petite appearance, Ariel is one of the oldest living beings on the planet; her long lifespan able her to amass an enormous amount of strength. She is able to hold her own and win against Legendary-status monsters such as Earth Dragon Gakia and their entire flock of dragons
 * Speed: She is able to run fast enough to run on water. When first encountering Kumoko, Ariel moves in front of Kumoko so fast that even with Kumoko's enhanced senses, she could not see Ariel until she was right on top of the Zana Horowa.
 * Kin Domination: As the progenitor of the entire taratect spider-monster species, she is able to mentally exert her influence over any of the taratect species, and calling for reinforcement if needed.
 * Marionette Threads: Through the usage of multiple high-level thread Skills, such as Divine Thread Weaving, Thread Genius, and Thread Control, Ariel can control the bodies of people like puppets.
 * Polyglot:  Ariel is fluent with both the human and demon languages. Ariel is also capable of speaking some languages from Earth like Japanese and some capacity of English.

Trivia

 * Ariel has been a member of the adventurer guild for a long time, but only because of the perks that it provides.
 * Ariel's voice actress Sumire Uesaka previously voiced Kumoko for the light novel's promo videos.
 * According to D, Ariel has the second smallest chest size in the series, smaller than Sue and the only one smaller being Filimøs.