Nia

Biodata

Power Progression

Background / History

Creation and Life in the Magic Empire

Nia was the first weapon Li Lin created with self-awareness and the one who spent the longest time beside him. They traveled, studied, and fought together; he taught her not only magic but also emotions and ways of behaving. Her measured speech and temperament consequently came to resemble his. Li Lin privately regarded her more as family than as a tool 50 279.

During the imperial era, Nia concentrated on studying magic and collecting knowledge. Although she and Li Lin were nearly inseparable, neither initially understood their attachment as romantic love 160.

The Thousand-Year Search

When the Magic Empire fell, Nia was carrying out Li Lin’s orders to remove magical restrictions at Wensains. She felt their life connection break and immediately returned to the capital, but arrived after the fighting had ended. The Undead Barrier surrounding the city prevented even her from entering 49.

Convinced that Li Lin would have left himself a means of survival, she settled near the ruins and continued searching. Her investigations took her across the continent, into the Underdark, and through the Nine Levels of Hell, where she sought information from dead souls and long-lived races. She also gathered intelligence on the five nations responsible for the empire’s destruction 49.

After rescuing migrants from bandits, Nia helped them establish Yinkalan. She chose the name in the hope that Li Lin would recognize it and seek her there. When she could not personally investigate the ruined capital, she hired mercenaries to monitor it 49.

Assumed Identities and Political Allies

Nia acquired several identities to support her investigations. She entered the Mages’ Association disguised as an inexperienced apprentice and spent ten years earning full mage status through its ordinary procedures. She also infiltrated the Temple of the God of Justice, rose to a high position, and became known as the Radiant Saintess. Unable to obtain the information she wanted, she staged her death during a confrontation with a lich and left the Temple 57.

Decades before Li Lin’s return, Nia helped organize a covert coup in Warsaw, the City of a Thousand Towers. Its mixed-blood inhabitants secured autonomy without alerting the Five-Nation Alliance. She declined an offer to become chief executive because finding Li Lin remained her priority 60.

Her support for the city also served a long-term political purpose. She considered its magically talented, god-rejecting mixed-blood population a potential foundation for the Magic Empire’s revival, rather than merely allies united by a temporary common enemy 61.

Reunion and Imperial Restoration

Nia finally reunited with Li Lin after a thousand years and revealed her identity as the Eternal Library to his companions. She reported that the God of Justice had died 1,352 years earlier, raising questions about the identity of the god currently bearing that title. With her reserves nearly exhausted, she returned to book form to recover through Li Lin 49 50.

She became the group’s principal guide to the contemporary continent. In the City of a Thousand Towers, she used her retained authority to repeal the prohibition on selling undead materials and invalidate the trial against Li Lin’s companions 50 62.

Her knowledge of the Underdark helped Li Lin select Kasos City as a target. While remaining there with Angela, she investigated historical records for clues to another Ring Spirit Envoy and the restoration of Li Lin’s power 96 115 120.

After Ringwraith City’s revival, Nia briefed its returned mages on a thousand years of political change and delegated part of the work to assistants. She subsequently supervised the city during Li Lin’s absences, reviewed intelligence, monitored weapons research, and coordinated preparations for war 177 210 225 279.

Relationship with Li Lin

Nia’s reunion with Li Lin gradually brought feelings she could no longer explain solely as a weapon’s loyalty. She struggled to act on them, particularly because her reserve mirrored his own 156 160 352.

A serious conflict arose when Li Lin slapped her during a discussion about her fears and the power she held. Nia withdrew into book form, refused to answer him, and displayed blank pages instead of her collected contents. Angela then encouraged her to use this silence to make Li Lin recognize her importance 154 156 160.

Nia later sought Catherine’s advice because she feared that intimacy meant abandoning reason and self-control. Catherine’s explanation—that her trust in Li Lin allowed her to surrender control without losing herself—helped Nia reconsider those fears 354.

With Angela’s assistance, Nia finally confessed her love and asked Li Lin to accept her. He reciprocated, and they became lovers. Before his departure for the Astral Plane, she kissed him openly in front of the other Ring Spirit Envoys and assured him that they would manage Ringwraith City in his absence 378.

Appearance

• Human form: A slender woman with long, soft golden hair, fair skin, pale cherry-colored lips, and a notably beautiful face 59 73.
• Usual clothing: A black robe trimmed with gold; its lowered hood conceals her hair and eyes, leaving her chin and lips visible 59.
• Demeanor: Her gentle, dignified bearing gives her an almost divine appearance and makes her former saintess persona especially convincing 144.
• Alternative clothing: Wears a thin white dress when confessing to Li Lin 378.
• Original form: The Eternal Library, a grimoire that she resumes when conserving or recovering magic 50 160 308.

Personality

Nia is soft-spoken, composed, scholarly, and cautious about unverified conclusions. Like Li Lin, she enjoys reading, rarely displays anger, and prefers to establish evidence before committing to an interpretation. Her attachment to books also leads her to consider their preservation before military operations 50 120 150.

Her gentleness does not prevent ruthlessness. Nia defines herself as a weapon whose purpose is to support Li Lin and destroy his enemies. She offers strategically cruel proposals without treating human sympathy as a binding restriction, and she kills witnesses during their infiltration of Korte City 62 211 232.

She nevertheless accepts that judgments and laws can become outdated. When challenged over revising her own legislation, she argues that admitting mistakes is courageous rather than disgraceful 62.

Her emotional reserve conceals deep attachment, regret, and pride. She initially claims that she cannot understand human emotions, yet her separation from Li Lin changes her inner life. Her later anger, romantic hesitation, confession, and openly pleased response to questions about their relationship contrast with that earlier self-description 62 154 160 354 378 397.

Abilities & Skills

Eternal Library

Nia records and preserves knowledge as the Eternal Library, including restricted histories of previous Arcane Mages 252.

• Restricted access: Knowing her alias grants permission to enter the library and consult its contents; some sections are reserved for Arcane Mages 252.
• Arcane instruction: Explains the nature of Arcane Mages, their connection to the source of magic, and the danger their deaths pose in helping bring the God of Magic into existence 252.
• Broad expertise: Possesses knowledge inherited from Li Lin alongside information gathered through centuries of travel 50 65.
• Limits: Her knowledge does not eliminate the need for research. She cannot initially establish Catherine’s connection to the holy scripture and remains uncertain about important events surrounding the gods and the empire’s fall 49 120 354 377.

Versatile Spellcasting

Nia can use spells from every school and specializes in harmonizing and combining them. Despite her exceptional power, she is explicitly not an Arcane Mage 252 321 347.

• Rapid spell combinations: Kills a high-level mage with Silence, a quickened Greater Dispel Magic, and five attack spells beginning with Finger of Death 71.
• Metamagic: Her unusually large number of spell slots allows extensive use of Maximize Spell and Quicken Spell 71.
• Offensive magic: Uses lightning, Cloudkill, death magic, and powerful summoning spells 71 213 346.
• Mobility: Uses flight and rapid spatial relocation to evade attacks 210 319.
• Large-scale support: Helps Li Lin and Nisi reinforce the Prime Material Plane against the effects of the gods’ battle 413.

Barriers and Battlefield Control

Nia uses layered defenses, spell restrictions, and spatial barriers to control engagements 232 266 346.

• Temporary Mythal: Restricts spellcasting by mages below legendary level during the Korte City tower infiltration 232.
• Layered defenses: Blocks Nisi’s conventional attacks with a multiple-spell defensive framework, then repairs and strengthens it after Nisi begins using her Magic Tattoo 266 273.
• Space Isolation: Seals an entire town and prevents escape during the confrontation with Mobius and Nalu 346 347.
• Stasis and binding: Attempts to slow Angela and restrain her scythe; the scythe breaks through both effects 319.
• Limits against divinity: Unlike Li Lin, she cannot temporarily suppress divine power outright 347.

Divine-Arts Knowledge and Countermeasures

Nia understands divine surveillance and can evade it well enough to infiltrate the God of Justice’s Temple 211.

• Concealment: Avoids discovery despite being both a magical weapon and a mage 211.
• Substitution: Earlier explains that she cannot cast genuine divine arts but can replace some with spells 211.
• Later demonstrations: Uses a divine barrier and holy light against Nalu; the narration subsequently describes her as capable of controlling and using divine arts. She does not disclose the mechanism 347.
• Counterspelling: Neutralizes Nalu’s divine arts with opposing forces or dispels them, and removes Mobius’s blessing 346.

Intelligence, Infiltration, and Administration

Nia combines firsthand geographical knowledge with experience in religious infiltration and covert political organization 49 57 60.

• Surveillance: Projects a remote view of a target and cuts the connection before it can be detected 69.
• Disguise: Alters her appearance magically, including during her saintess impersonation 57.
• Strategic planning: Identifies enemy vulnerabilities and helps select political and military targets 96 192 211.
• Institutional management: Supervises Ringwraith City, addresses academy students’ problems, and helps redirect tensions between elves and mixed-blood students toward their common enemy 210 240.
• Weapons coordination: Controls Yi Aier’s siege discharge, although managing its enormous energy flow is less suited to her precision-focused specialty 321.

Weapon Spirit Traits and Weaknesses

• Human transformation: Can take a complete human form, unlike simpler spirit-transformed weapons that cannot develop to that degree 66.
• Conditional longevity: Has an unlimited natural lifespan, but requires magic to sustain her existence and cannot independently restore her reserves 49 50 57.
• Valuable construction: The materials composing the Eternal Library are valuable enough to buy a city, making capture or dismantling a serious danger during her independent travels 96.
• Magic Controller vulnerability: Can lose control of her body without losing her awareness or will. Angela demonstrates this by seizing the Eternal Library and casting through it 308.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Staff — Her usual spellcasting implement; its tip bears three crystals that shine when she reveals the Eternal Library to Nisi 252.
• Mages’ Association badge — Proof of her legitimately earned full-mage identity, useful for avoiding interference during her activities 57.
• Golden leaf — A credential that changes the Warsaw gate guards’ attitude and allows her party to pass with little inspection 58.

Relationships

• Li Lin / Luoxia — Creator, master, longtime companion, and eventual lover. Nia waited a thousand years for his return; Li Lin regards her as family and privately gives her first place in his affections among his seven weapons 49 279 378.
• Angela — Trusted companion and romantic adviser. Angela respects Nia’s long vigil, helps her approach Li Lin, and later exposes her vulnerability to Magic Controller-like control during a test 49 156 160 308 378.
• Mina and Fina — Companions who seek her advice and become closer to her than to the other Ring Spirit Envoys. Her approachable manner earns their affection and respect 59 62 223.
• Nisi — Longtime acquaintance and later pupil. Nia teaches her the responsibilities of an Arcane Mage and forces her to master Magic Tattoos through demanding combat training 252 266 273.
• Suoxiate — Fellow Ring Spirit Envoy. Nia initially blames her for failing to summon the others during Li Lin’s final battle, before learning that Li Lin himself ordered their exclusion to protect them from Magic Controllers 154 172.
• Yi Aier — Fellow envoy and research collaborator. Nia supervises her experiments and operates her siege-mode controls 210 321.
• Miu’erkasi — Fellow envoy and battlefield partner; fights Mobius while Nia counters Nalu’s divine arts 346.
• Catherine — Research subject, acquaintance, and confidante whose explanation of trust helps Nia overcome her hesitation about pursuing Li Lin 352 354.

Notable Quotes

“I would keep waiting until my Magic Power was exhausted and could no longer sustain my existence.” 49

“Admitting mistakes is not a disgrace, but an act of courage.” 62

“But Miss Angela, I am not human. I am a weapon, a weapon created by Li Lin. I have a duty to consider the best strategy for my master, don’t I?” 211

Trivia

• The Temple still displays a statue of the Radiant Saintess, depicting the altered appearance Nia used during her infiltration. Mina and Fina had revered that saintess before learning the truth 57.
• Her knowledge of Arcane Mage records is connected to a further alias that she refuses to reveal to Nisi, saying Nisi is not yet qualified to know it 252.
• Nia’s public kiss with Li Lin unsettles the other Ring Spirit Envoys, especially Yi Aier, who begins wondering whether he might pursue her as well 378 397.