Recuria Lofilardo

Head Priestess Recuria Lofilardo (レクリア・ローフィラルド Rekuria Rōfirarudo) is a powerful hieromancer of the Geldwood Church based in the Kingdom of Nyanild. She ultimately places her loyalty in Shagrua Lugrid over Geldwood when Shagrua defects, and consequently earns the ire of Geldwood's upper echelon.

Appearance
Recuria is a young woman with pinned-back light-hued hair, a long lock of which frames the left side of her face. She wears the religious robes of a Geldwood priestess.

Personality
Despite Recuria's magical mastery and respected status within the Church, she appears to be comfortable in a 'supporting role' prior to the vanquishing of Corpse God—faithfully Shagrua Lugrid's kind and reliable right hand both on and off the battlefield. However, following Shagrua's exile, Recuria becomes a 'different person'; rather, her cleverness, courage, and determination shine as she steps into the role of leader, rallying allies while knowing she risks Geldwood's wrath.

Her care for her comrades, her skill, and her mettle are exemplified during her combat with Lord Domdaal, in which she protects her fallen allies with a force field as the last person standing, and still manages to put up an offensive front. Proving ferocious in the face of Geldwood's injustices, Recuria has come into her own as a formidable, proactive leader whom many in Geldwood's upper echolons fear as a legitimate threat.

Background
In years prior to the Corpse God encounter, Recuria serves the Geldwood Church as a faithful, powerful hieromancer whose mastery of select holy arts will earn her a position as a Head Priestess within the institution. Her skill is such that she frequently accompanies Sir Shagrua Lugrid—a renowned knight belonging to one of the Church's main subjugation units—on his more dangerous missions, offering him valuable assistance on the battlefield. These experiences not only see Recuria dabbling in fresh magical territory outside of Geldwood's arts, they allow Recuria and Shagrua to grow close enough for mutual romantic interest to spark, though neither act on this interest.

During these years, the Corpse God—a peerless necromancer actively hostile to Geldwood—continues to amass power in his ever-expanding labyrinth of the Undead.

The Corpse God Encounter
The Corpse God's vendetta against the Church, his necromancer status, and his dark power render him a potential world-ending disaster in Geldwood's eyes, and so the Church plots a massive operation to vanquish the Corpse God once and for all. When the day of execution arrives, Recuria and Shagrua are among the obvious participants on account of their power, though if Shagrua joins the initial invasion he is not present when the subjugation units first reach the Corpse God deep within the labyrinth.

These units attack Corpse God as best they can without Shagrua while Recuria and her priestess provide support—support spells, healing, weapon fortification—but the attack shifts from defense to offense as they incur damage without inflicting it on Corpse God in kind. Still, they manage to hold out until Shagrua arrives to challenge Corpse God personally; Recuria, stood next to one priest and a second priest maintaining a support spell, assures them that Shagrua will succeed.

Toward the end of Shagrua and Corpse God's battle, after Corpse God's true form has been exposed, Corpse God exerts an array of spells with strange patterns via a massive amount of magic. Shagrua immediately charges forward to thwart the unfamiliar spell; Recuria immediately steps forward to provide Shagrua with magical assistance. A blinding flash of light engulfs the cavern; when it clears, the Corpse God is nowhere to be seen.

In the aftermath, while the injured are attended to, Recuria and her priestesses receive word from the Church's observation unit via a remote speech spell that all traces of the Corpse God's soul have vanished from their world. Recuria finds Shagrua somberly contemplating the shattered, splattered remains of Corpse God's true form, and, upon approaching him, asks what is the matter. Shagrua admits he fears he did not complete his task; at Recuria's confusion, he explains that the spell felt like teleportation when it activated—and, though he saw Corpse God's soul vanish with his Evil Eye, the disappearance felt too abrupt. Recuria shares the news relayed by the church's observation unit, insisting Shagrua saved the world..

Shagrua remains unconvinced—even more so after he and Recuria search Corpse God's library-cum-laboratory, though as far as Recuria can tell the majority of Corpse God's books are blank. Upon their return to a Geldwood cathedral in the Kingdom of Nyanild, he holes himself inside the cathedral library for the next several days. Worried over how little rest he seeks during this time, Recuria eventually enters the library to directly inquire into his activities. Shagrua claims he is investigating the Corpse God but is struggling to find much information; so saying, he asks if she knows what country he was from.

Recuria dutifully recounts what she knows: that Corpse God was the second-highest-ranked necromancer and the fourth-most-capable sorcerer for an empire that fell a century prior, an empire Shagrua immediately deduces must be the one from Byandy (now known as the Abandoned) Peninsula. When Recuria jokes his dark circles and pallor give him the look of someone possessed, Shagrua pauses; then, he decides, "Let's make that the story." A story in which Shagrua has died, the Corpse God having switched their souls in the moment before Shagrua's blade struck. A story in which the Church was unaware that they welcomed back the Corpse God, who possessed and still possesses Shagrua's body.

Chilled, Recuria protests that such soul-switching is impossible. Shagrua replies that Corpse God 'must have' discovered a way, only to relent and tell her the truth: the Corpse God had a journal in which—using ink only those with the Evil Eye can see—he wrote numerous essays exposing the corruption of the Geldwood Church; in reading that journal, and in spending the past several days conducting research to verify the essays' truth and locating hidden vaults, Shagrua can no longer devote himself to the Geldwood faith.

As he casts a sleeping spell on Recuria, he requests she act unaware of the institution's underbelly and to impart the story he has fabricated so that she will not be branded a traitor alongside him. Catching her when she faints, he leaves her in a chair and then leaves the Kingdom of Nyanild for good, thrashing a number of the church's highest-ranking leaders and taking with him several pieces of evidence for good measure.

When Recuria wakes, she commits to the story as requested: Shagrua's corpse, she says, is possessed by the Corpse God. Nevertheless, as news of Shagrua's defection spreads throughout the Church—but not to Nyanild's populace—so too do rumors speculating on what happened. For every truthful rumor (e.g. of the officials' thrashing) there is a wild fiction, but all ultimately lead to the same conclusion: Shagrua must be put down. For all that a majority of priest soldiers and clergymen consider Shagrua a hero, the most pious followers and manipulative higher-ups are successful in rebranding Shagrua as 'Calamity' from 'Calamity Crusher'.

In the meantime, ever since the moment she awoke post-faint, Recuria acts as Shagrua's successor and a worthy leader in her own right. Seeking out like-minded comrades and 'bewildered' clergymen, she gathers allies and rallies them under a metaphorical banner different to Geldwood's own. Her winning over the hearts of the people does not escape the notice of the Church's upper echelons nor their resentment, and soon enough, they give her orders to investigate the borderlands between Nyanild and Byandy Peninsula and root out Shagrua "in pursuit of bringing [him] to justice."

Though she suspects this mission is a trap, she selects approximately ten trustworthy allies to accompany her to the borderlands. There, in an abandoned village, Recuria's group is ambushed by one hundred soldiers and their leader Lord Domdaal, a Nyanild aristocrat and Geldwood enforcer. With no opportunity to properly counteract, Recuria's subordinates are swiftly wounded and fallen one by one until only she remains; Recuria erects a force field with holy runes to protect them, herself kneeling but defiant in front of Lord Domdaal, and demands to know on whose authority Domdaal is acting.

Domdaal instead focuses on the 'why' of the ambush: although Recuria's recent efforts have won her additional achievements, the Church's upper echelons cannot have someone who distrusts them—and who was 'too close' to Shagrua—wielding as much influence as she does. He complains that Recuria ought to have remained a 'weapon' just like Shagrua was pre-enlightenment: a weapon who does not question, who lacks both the knowledge and chivalrous spirit Recuria has since acquired.

Recuria objects at Shagrua been dismissed as a 'weapon', but Domdaal's amendment that Shagrua is a monstrous 'divine enemy' serves to further incense her—both for Domdaal daring to claim to speak the words of God, and for the accusation. Though at her limit, she manages to stand by magically fortifying her legs—and uses that boost of physical strength to launch herself at Domdaal, pouring all her remaining magic into the tip of her stick—which she plunges into the exposed skin of his neck.

The ensuing blast blows away Domdaal's helmet and propels Domdaal into several of his soldiers, which are subsequently pinned between him and the wall of an abandoned house. Again, Recuria collapses to her knees—but immediately readies what remnants of magic she possesses with the intent of hopefully knocking the remaining army unconscious like Domdaal—only to see Domdaal standing, tossing aside the unconscious soldiers, retrieving his giant battle-ax. As he approaches Recuria, he declares he will tell everyone the Corpse God-as-Shagrua killed her while she was pursuing him.

Domdaal swings the ax. Recuria holds her hand over her heart in a bid to convert her life force into a final magical attack, but in the next second a muddy stream of water gushes from the sky to sweep through the abandoned village, tearing off houses from their foundations and carrying away Domdaal's hundred soldiers off the mountain and into the valley below. Recuria's force field holds, protecting her allies, but otherwise she and Domdaal are the only ones left in the village.

Or so they think. A disembodied voice demands that Domdaal refrain from disparaging its friend Corpse God so, before explaining to Recuria it was planning on staying out of the fight until it heard Domdaal slander its good friend's name. Furthermore, the voice says it has business with Recuria and had been searching for her accordingly. As it compliments her abilities and credits her with victory, Domdaal swings his axe and howls for the speaker to show itself.

The speaker appears behind him: an androgynous beautiful human boy with facial tattoos, though Recuria can tell at a glance at his aura he has deviated from ordinary humans. The 'youth' calls for Domdaal to die as he steps away toward Recuria, and so Domdaal does: a black pit manifests mid-air and causes Domdaal's organs to shoot through his skin out of his body, killing the Lord instantly.

Recuria remains on guard as the boy approaches her, but he says not to worry since 'Pani' told him not to "mess up any innocent third parties"—though he supposes any soldiers who survived the fall into the valley might find themselves eaten by "Radiall's pet" regardless. Cautiously, Recuria introduces herself with her full name and asks for the boy's own. The boy introduces himself as Shula Zoozolozo Cramplamp Lampton, ally of Pani the alchemist sent to be Recuria's 'special envoy'—but he adds he is probably better known as Utsurojuza, the former third-ranking Imperial Court Sorcerer of Byandy Empire.

Abilities
Recuria is a master of Geldwood's branch of holy arts that cover physical healing, fortifying weapons, and revitalization. Although her power befits the status of Head Priestess, it is her mastery of technique and skill that make her top of the class within the church. She has moreover dabbled in fresh magical territory such as tactics for tackling 'divine enemies' through her experience accompanying Shagrua's dangerous missions.

With regard to conceptualizing the amount of power Recuria possesses, and her handle over her magic, it may be noted that Shagrua's immediate reaction to realizing Romelka Rimelka 'is' an entire forest is to conclude Romelka's "handle on magic must be on par" with Recuria's own.