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, 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 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 her 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, they reached the cave where they spawned. Upon hearing of Asuna and Kirito's discussion over video game terms, Kizmel remarked on the divided language of humans, as had been prior to the Great Separation. and asserted they had to investigate the cave to learn more concrete evidence on the spiders. As the party searched each room in the first level of the dark dungeon, Kizmel's elven night vision proved valuable in warning of incoming enemies and preparing for combat. When they had explored most of the floor, they heard the approaching sounds of another party. Desiring to avoid contact with them, Kizmel had their torches extinguished and used her cloak to conceal them against the wall as the other party, revealed to be led by Kibaou, passed by on their progression on the guild formation questline. Kizmel wondered at Kirito and Asuna's apprehension with them, to which Kirito briefly explained the tensions between their groups, whereupon she compared their relationship to that among the elven knight brigades. When Asuna declared she would join with Kizmel's faction, the Pagoda Knights, 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 observed it had been a while since she had 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, they found a silver leaf brooch which Kizmel identified as the insignia of the Pagoda Knights, belonging to an apparently decreased scout, which advanced their quest progress. As they moved to return to the Dark Elf Base and report back to the commander, they heard Kibaou's panicked party rushing back to the cave entrance, chased by what was apparently 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 and fight her there after Kibaou's group had passed, which they accepted. After they successfully drew the monster's attention away from the other party and onto them, Kizmel and Asuna followed Kirito's instructions and warnings of its attacks, defeating the boss in three minutes. While waiting for Kibaou's group to return to the cave's second level to continue the guild quest, Asuna wondered how long it would take for the boss to respawn, Kizmel revealed it would be at least three hours. Asuna complained on how that and their actions would have inadvertently helped Kibaou and his companions, though Kizmel assured her that their deeds would be rewarded. Ten minutes later, after Kirito collected the Queen Spider's Poison Fang that Nephilia Regina 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, they returned to the camp just before dawn, where 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, they visited her to verify a question they had on the dark elven blacksmith after he had crafted Asuna's overpowered Chivalric Rapier. As Kizmel was preparing breakfast, Asuna punched Kirito for staring at Kizmel's relatively exposed form, which the NPC misinterpreted as friendly interaction. As they ate oatmeal, Kizmel answered their query by describing the blacksmith as talented but fickle, sometimes creating masterworks but often refusing to craft misguided or pushy orders. After they finished their meal, Kizmel graciously accepted their thanks on the quality of the food and offered to teleport them close to Zumfut with an elven charm upon hearing of their plans to return to human civilization, but the players declined.

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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