Kizmel

Kizmel (キズメル) is a Pagoda Knight, and an elite quest Non-Player Character (NPC) for the Elf War campaign. She partied with Kirito and Asuna as they completed chapters of the Elf War campaign.

Appearance
Kizmel is a dark skinned Dark Elf, with lilac hair and violet eyes. Kizmel wears a dark cloak which has a high level charm on it which allows her to turn fully invisible during the night. She wears purple coloured light armor under her cloak.

Personality
Kizmel had a high level of intelligence that would make people question whether she is just an artificial intelligence.

Concerto of Black and White
When first encountered by Kirito and Asuna on December 14, 2022, Kizmel was locked in combat against a Forest Elf in the Forest of Wavering Mists. Both elves ordered them to leave, but the players ignored them and assaulted the Forest Elf, thus siding with the Dark Elves. To everyone but Asuna's surprise, they managed to defeat the Forest Elf without losing half their hit points. After several seconds of motionless silence, Kizmel retrieved the bag of leaves holding the Jade Key from where the Forest Elf's body had vanished and thanked Kirito and Asuna for their help. She then invited them to accompany her to the Dark Elf Base, where they could deliver the Jade Key to the Dark Elf Commander and receive a reward for their assistance. As Asuna agreed in a still-stunned Kirito's place, the Dark Elven Royal Guard led them through the misty woods, dispatching any monsters they encountered, and quickly arriving at the camp, hidden by a Forest-Sinking charm. When Asuna wondered at the presence of charms in a world without magic, Kizmel clarified that the charms were but an echo of the magic the elves possessed before her people, the Dark Elves of Lyusula, were separated from the earth.

After Kirito and Asuna were debriefed and remunerated by the commander, Kizmel thanked them once again, and asked for their names. After Kirito and Asuna clarified the pronunciation of their names, Kizmel offered to share her tent with them, as no spares remained, before leaving for the dining tent. About an hour later, Kizmel entered her tent while Kirito and Asuna were inside, and offered the services of the dining and bathing tents, as well as her own assistance, then disrobed for resting, prompting Asuna to drag Kirito out of the tent.

After sleeping for several hours, Kizmel visited the graveyard behind the commander's tent. When Kirito awoke and found her there, she advised him to fully rest himself but, at his query, explained that the gravestone she was surveying belonged to her sister Tilnel, who had perished the previous month during an ambush by the Forest Elves. Kizmel confessed her willingness to die when she had accepted the Jade Key mission and attributed Kirito and Asuna's intervention to the act of the gods she had lost faith in. When Kirito declared that they had arrived and helped her of their own volition, and that they would accompany her to the end, Kizmel promised to defend them for as long as they were together.

At three in the morning on December 15, as the trio left the camp for the next quest, Kizmel quietly observed Asuna's look of wonder at the beauty of their surroundings covered in the pale blue moonlight, softly remarking that it reminded her of Tilnel's similar love for the night forest. While they were talking about antidote items on their search for the spider cave, Kizmel described the purifying properties of her ring and its limitations. Immediately after, she sensed two monsters, revealed to be Thicket Spiders, approaching their position from the front and the right, and moved to engage the one on the right, leaving the other to be dealt with by the players. At the end of the battle, Kirito requested a high five with Asuna, and Kizmel later enquired on the meaning of the gesture they performed. Once Asuna explained and demonstrated it, the Dark Eleven Knight remarked that she did not find it unpleasant, despite the elves' general aversion to body contact, and repeated the feat with Kirito. After Kirito recovered from a moment of recollection, the group began proceeding towards the origin of the spiders.

After several more battles with the spiders, the trio reached the spider cave. Hearing Asuna struggling with game terms, Kizmel remarked that the human language had yet to be unified, attributing it to the existence of nine different human nations before the Great Separation. Kizmel asserted that they had to investigate the cave to learn more concrete evidence on the spiders, thus the party began searching each room on the first level of the dark dungeon. Kizmel's elven night vision proved valuable in warning of incoming enemies and preparing for combat throughout this search.

When the group had explored most of the floor, they heard another party approaching. As Kizmel and her companions desired to avoid contact with the players, Kizmel had their torches extinguished and used her cloak to conceal them against the wall while the party of players, revealed to be led by Kibaou, passed by on route to find an item for the guild formation questline. Having averted contact with the players, Kizmel inquired about Kirito and Asuna's relationship with them. After Kirito briefly explained the tensions between their groups, Kizmel compared their relationship to that among the elven knight brigades. When Asuna declared she would join Kizmel's faction, the Pagoda Knights, if she was given the opportunity, Kizmel revealed no human had ever been knighted by the Lyusulan queen, though their accomplishment could grant her an audience. As Kirito checked the map to see where they had yet to chart, Kizmel remarked that it had been long since she had last seen the usage of the Mystic Scribing charm, which allowed humans to store knowledge and physical items within a small space.

In one of the last rooms, the trio found a silver leaf brooch, which Kizmel identified as the insignia of the Pagoda Knights, belonging to an apparently decreased scout. Before the group could begin their journey to return to the Dark Elf Base and report to the commander to continue the quest, they heard Kibaou's panicked party rushing back to the cave entrance, seemingly chased by the dungeon boss. Kizmel and Asuna quickly left the group decision to Kirito, who eventually decided to draw the queen spider into the room where they had found the scout's emblem once Kibaou's group had passed and fight it there.

With the monster's attention successfully drawn away from the other party, Kizmel and Asuna followed Kirito's instructions and warnings about its attacks, defeating the boss in three minutes. When Asuna complained how their actions would have inadvertently helped Kibaou and his companions, Kizmel assured her that their deeds would be rewarded. Ten minutes later, after Kirito had collected the Queen Spider's Poison Fang that the dungeon boss had dropped, they resumed their journey back to the base camp.

Avoiding further contact with Kibaou's party and evading combat with monsters as much as possible, the trio returned to the camp just before dawn. There, Kizmel left Kirito and Asuna to make their report to the commander and departed from the party to rest in her tent. A short while later, she was visited by Kirito and Asuna, who wished to ask about the camp's blacksmith. While preparing breakfast, Kizmel saw Asuna punching Kirito for staring at the elf, and misinterpreted this as friendly interaction. During their meal, Kizmel answered the query about the blacksmith and graciously accepted their gratitude for the breakfast. Upon hearing of their plans to return to a human town, Kizmel offered to teleport them close to Zumfut with an elven charm, but the players declined.

Several hours later, Kizmel teleported to an area near Zumfut to check on Kirito and Asuna's condition. Having successfully snuck past the NPC guards by using her Mistmoon Cloak, Kizmel located her companions in the meeting place at the center of the town. Seeing Kirito hesitating on his answer to Asuna's question, Kizmel whispered to him to speak his mind while he still could, and praised him when he followed her encouragement. After Kirito and Asuna left the town, Kizmel was called by the former to reveal herself. When asked for her reasons to risk her life by coming into the city, the Dark Elf declared it was her duty to serve and protect them, and boasted of the capabilities of her Mistmoon Cloak in response to their worries. Accepting their request to live with her for the next week, Kizmel accompanied them on their return to the Dark Elf Base, effortlessly defeating any monsters they encountered with the help of Asuna. Along the way, she observed Kirito's unusual silence and, when he claimed he was wondering which of the girls he would like to marry, replied that marrying her would require the permission of the queen of Lyusula.

Over the next three days, Kizmel assisted the players with the Elf War campaign and other tasks, earning a level in the process. After tracking a Forest Elf infiltrator to the Forest Elf Camp on December 18, Kirito and Asuna paused the questline in order to participate in the Field Boss battle. That same day, Kizmel relayed to Kirito the legend of the Great Separation, when a hundred circular plots of land were cut from the earth to form the floating castle of Aincrad, dividing the elven kingdoms and the other civilizations in the process. That night, Kizmel accidentally encountered Kirito while the latter was finishing his bath. Surprised at his presence, Kizmel offered to join him, and undressed at the washing station when he announced he was getting out. Applying soap over her body, she asked Kirito to wash her back for her, as no one had done so ever since Tilnel died.

As Kirito scrubbed her back, Kizmel admitted she had been experiencing unusual dreams, wherein she and Kirito were fighting the Forest Elf again. However, in the dreams Kirito was dressed differently and working with several unfamiliar men instead of Asuna. Additionally, Kizmel and the others were unable to stand against the Forest Elf, beginning to fall one after the other. In order to save them, Kizmel would unleash the power of the Holy Tree to defeat their opponent, sacrificing herself in the process. As she fell to the ground, Kirito would sadly look upon her. His face was remained the same each time she had the dream, though his equipment and companions were always different. After Kirito managed to turn away an impatiently waiting Asuna before she could enter the tent, Kizmel teased him on humans bathing together, and revealed elves could not afford the luxury of gender segregated bathing quarters on the battlefield. She agreed to elaborate on the dreams at a later time, wondering to herself on their meaning.

Gallery

 * See Kizmel/Image Gallery

Trivia

 * In all reported cases of the quest during the SAO beta, Kizmel would sacrifice herself to defeat Forest Elf, instead of staying to help the quest takers. After Kirito and Asuna managed to keep Kizmel from dying in the official version, another dark elf took the place of Kizmel as the quest starter for the dark elf side of the campaign quest for any other player attempting the quest.
 * Kizmel has revealed that she has had several dreams of her encounters with Kirito during the beta test.

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Kizmel