Ariel

The Origin Taratect, Ancient Divine Beast, Ruler of Gluttony and current Demon Lord. She is the progenitor of all Taratects in the System, and thus all spiders can be considered her kin.

The Queen Taratects and Puppet Taratects are her closest kin, having wills and personalities of their own, and she does not dominate their personalities with Kin Control. They have served as her closest allies and family for a long time, and she cares deeply for them.

Appearance
Ariel appears no different than regular human, albeit looks like she is in her early-teens despite her great age. 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.

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 four strips, and combined with her arms and legs, represents her spider-like nature by giving her eight limbs by using her thread Skill to control her cape.

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.

Synopsis
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.

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.

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.

Relationships

 * Kumoko
 * Ariel first learned of Kumoko when "Mother" send an S.O.S. that she was eating away at her soul. Upon confronting her, Ariel kindly requested she cease her actions, which the former did not understand due to the language barrier. Although considering recruiting her upon seeing she was a Ruler, Ariel judged her to be too dangerous and attacked her, seemingly killing her. However, she soon learned that she had survived and send Puppet Taratects to finish the job. Unfortunately, Kumoko not only defeated her pursuers but also "mother" herself, causing Ariel to vow vengeance. At the same time, Kumoko launched an attack on Ariel's soul as well, causing the latter to learn about the former's 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. With neither party was able to defeat the other, Ariel proposed a ceasefire, which Kumoko, now understanding the language, accepted.
 * Ariel initially only intended to use their ceasefire to find a way to either control Kumoko or learn the secret to her seeming immortality and kill her. To this end, she attempted to bind her to herself by giving her a name, Shiro (or White), but this had no effect at all. In fact, Shiro actually managed to bond with and win over Ariel's own forces. Even after learning the key to Shiro's immortality, she was forced to give up on revenge as it would be nigh impossible to destroy all her offspring. After this, though, the two finally began to bond as they discussed their grievances over some alchohol and both ended up saving each others' life during the battle with G-Fleet.
 * Spoilers for Light Novel Volume 7 and beyond
 * How much Ariel had grown to care for Shiro is on full display in how she took care of her following her evolution into Shiraori. Rather than taking advantage of her initially weakened state, she instead protected her and even took special measures to ensure her survival. 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 made the right choice in recruiting Shiraori, as she not only gained a loyal follower but also a granddaugther.


 * Potimas Harrifenas
 * Ariel's biological father. Due to their long and complicated history, Ariel is displays an antagonistic attitude towards Potimas and the elves he rules. She went as far positioning a Queen Taratect, a legendary S-class monster near his village to keep him in check. They have on rare occasions place their enmity aside and worked together, only for Potimas to betrayed her once he has accomplished his goals.


 * Dustin LXI
 * Acquaintance, occasional allies and current Pope of Word of God religion. Despite their contradictory philosophies and enmity, Ariel and Dustin shares a very respectful relationship with each other, often providing assistance with the other parties. despite knowing they will become enemies one day. It is implied they have known each other for a very long time, this side of their relationship has yet to be elaborated.


 * 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 aid, looked after the Demons in Ariel's absence. Balto is one of Ariel's earnest subordinate in her faction, this is not due to loyal but fear. Balto is one of the few people in the world who is aware of Ariel's terrifying and overwhelming strength. Ariel also trust Balto to ensure rebellious elements in her factions are kept under control due to her unpopular policy to push the country into rapid militarisation.


 * Bloe Phthalo
 * Balto's younger brother and commander of Ariel's seventh demon army. While extremely loyal to his brother, he doesn't see eye to eye with her. Often lamenting that his brother should have taken over Ariel as the new demon lord. This has lead to passive aggressive behaviours toward Ariel, and Ariel has tried test Bloe's loyalty before.


 * Sariel
 * Ariel views Sariel as a motherly figure, as she saved Ariel when she badly injured by Potimas's actions.

Character File
The oldest 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.

Abilities
Ariel is one of the strongest and oldest beings on the planet, many of her skills have reached to their highest levels.


 * 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.
 * English Language: For an unexplained reason, Ariel can speak 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.