Azrael (BlazBlue)

"Entertain me more! These fangs will satisfy my thirst... this is the best feeding ground, isn't it?!"

- Azrael

Azrael is one of the new characters introduced in BlazBlue: Chronophantasma. A muscular man nicknamed 'The Emperor' who enjoys fighting to an obsessive degree, he is addicted to finding strong opponents and committing a battle between life and death. Due to his superhuman strength, he likes to impose limiters on himself to enjoy the battle. He has no distinction of friends or foe, and will attack anyone on sight.

Azrael in fact belonged to Sector Seven. However, his destructive tendencies along with his friendly fire rates caused him to be locked away in prison. After Takamagahara's destruction, someone from Sector Seven saw it fit to release Azrael to the battlefield once more. Despite being under Sector Seven, a group opposing the Novus Orbis Librarium, the game already branded Azrael as one of the villains of Chronophantasma.

Information
Azrael is a member of Sector Seven who spends most of his time moving from one battlefield to the next in search of a strong opponent. He is entirely obsessed with using his own raw power to fight, and has never used a weapon. However, due to his super-human strength, he can't go all out in battle; thus, he has imposed a limiter on himself. He also wanted to search for Azure Grimore from Ragna the Bloodedge.

Chronophantasma
After an anonymous phone call to Sector Seven by Relius Clover, Azrael is released from his prison by Sector Seven's higher-ups to take Ragna the Bloodedge's Azure Grimoire, although they placed a limiter on him that makes it so he cannot fight those without a fighting will, the sole exceptions being Ragna, Kokonoe and Iron Tager. After being told that he has been frozen for roughly two years, Azrael becomes extremely agitated and attempts an attack on the staff who released him, but fails as his finds out the extent of his limiter; after accepting his fate, he is debriefed on his missions. As well as his mission to take the Azure, Azrael was commanded to take out Kokonoe and Tager after a suspected treason, something that he accepts with glee. Despite his limiter, Enchant: Dragunov, and the fact he was kept in stasis for so long, Azrael easily shatters a Sector Seven soldier's arm with what he described as 'a gentle pat', merely minutes after his release. Immediately following his mission, Azrael begins his hunt for Kokonoe. Soon, he arrives at her recently locked down laboratory and easily breaks in; after a brief battle between the two, Kokonoe launches her Assaulting Broken Bunker towards Azrael and uses the time bought to activate an emergency teleport away from him. Subsequently, Azrael continues his hunt for the scientist and TR-0009.

During his search for the traitors and the Azure, Azrael encounters Bullet and recognizes the emblem on Bullet's clothing, stating that he remembers it from a long time ago. Bullet immediately asks where he last saw the emblem, but Azrael responds coldly, saying that he cannot give any answers, since he never remembers anyone he has "eaten". Azrael then reveals that he has heard that Bullet is also searching for Kokonoe, and asks her where she might be. Refusing to give up the information anyway and hoping for answers about her squad, Bullet engages Azrael in combat, something he gladly accepts. After realizing that she could never win this fight and that battling him was practically suicide, Bullet pulls out a smoke grenade and uses the smokescreen as a cover for her to escape from the Mad Dog. Azrael begins his hunt once again, this time a little more entertained after his battle.

Traveling through Downtown in the 6th Hierarchical City of Yabiko, Azrael encounters Tager and Litchi Faye-Ling, and asks Tager how nostalgic the place is. Tager, knowing that he doesn't stand a chance in combat against Azrael, runs with Litchi. However, they are cut short by a surprise appearance of Nu-13, who was sent there to capture Litchi and bring her back to Relius Clover. Knowing that she can't teleport Tager and Litchi in such short notice, Kokonoe teleports Kagura Mutsuki to their location in a bid to buy time. With Tager setting up teleports for multiple people, Azrael and Nu begin to battle Kagura and Litchi. After a weary battle where both Kagura and Litchi were close to losing, Tager finishes the set up and Kokonoe teleports them out of Downtown. Being alone, and not really knowing each other, Azrael and Nu have a stand off, until Hazama arrives and mocks them, begging to know if either one is going to propose.

Sometime later near the Lakeside Port, Azrael comes across Celica A. Mercury and Hakumen; in an attempt to protect Celica, Hakumen engages Azrael in combat, but after a stalemate, Celica sets up a Light Screen and runs away with Hakumen.

Kagura starts a tournament called "Battle of Ragna the Bloodedge" in order to lure Azrael into a trap so that Kokonoe may finally deal with him. The tournament goes according to the plan, until Bullet is to be pitted against Bob. Azrael, having defeated all other entries, including Bob, and making them into what is described as "one lump", entered the tournament to have as much entertainment as possible as well as to fight Bullet, since she was about to steal his 'targets'. Bullet responds to his suggestion, saying that she will fight him and give him the enjoyment he so desperately desires. Bullet further asks if Azrael knows her, trying to get questions out of him once again. This time, however, Azrael responds, saying that not only does he recognize her unit's emblem, but also that he was once asked to help them in the past; when he turned against them in combat, he found them a challenge and accidentally let one of them slip away from his wrath. Bullet further pushes him to when this was, and Azrael replies saying it was several years before he was captured by Kokonoe and thrown into the "Dog House". Finally getting all the answers she desired, Bullet rises up against Azrael's challenge and loses severely, but Azrael refuses to stop. With Tager and Ragna watching as Bullet becomes inches closer to the end of her life, Tager constantly tries to activate a forced teleport to save her but it falls short each time. Ragna, feeling that she will die, jumps into the arena and fights Azrael as the teleport finally works and Bullet is transported to safety.

After the fight, Azrael begins to get extremely furious towards the fact that Ragna refuses to unleash his Grimoire. However, after realizing that Celica is in the arena, and recognizing her from their earlier encounter, Azrael begins to launch threats of murdering her in cold blood if Ragna does not activate the Azure. With no response to his threat, Azrael launches an attack at Celica, but Rachel Alucard throws Gii directly in front of the attack, saving Celica from a potentially mortal wound. Ragna finally loses his calm and begins using the Grimoire; however, as he does so, he begins to get flashbacks of the potential consequences of Azrael's full power due to their previous meeting (in Azrael's Arcade ending) and decides in the last minute to not use it, since he comes to the realization that he wants power to "not lose things" rather than to "steal". Azrael unleashes a barrage of anger-filled abuse at Ragna for not unleashing his full power, since he thought Ragna would understand the pain of not being able to use the true power one possesses. Having had enough, Kagura enters the arena and fights with Azrael, but during the fight, Kagura lost consciousness for a second. During said second, Azrael is unable to resume his relentless assault due to his limiter imposed on him by Sector Seven; Kagura, coming to the conclusion that Azrael cannot fight those who do not want to fight, stopped fighting. Azrael becomes even more annoyed, but before his able to unleash his anger, Kokonoe suddenly teleports him to Tager for a mere 2 seconds so that Tager was able to punch him as a stress reliever; immediately after the punch, Kokonoe then again teleports Azrael, but this time, into a 'Dimensional Prison', which he can never escape from.

Personality
Azrael obsesses over strength and treats the battlefield as a "feeding ground" in his lust for power. He seems to be entertained by strong opposition. In battle he can not contain himself, and he will attack anyone, friend or foe. For him the battle is not about victory or defeat, but rather life and death.

Appearance
Azrael is a large, powerfully built man with long blue hair, a goatee and red eyes. He wears a white coat over his shoulders and white pants, with two belts and a black covering over his left leg. His boots are white as well, with golden steel toes. Much of his visible body is tattooed.

As a child, his appearance is almost identical, only lacking his goatee.

Powers & Abilities
Azrael possesses immense natural strength which he uses to combat opponents instead of weapons or mystical advantages. Azrael also possesses equally immense durability to complement his drive to battle powerful opponents. His raw physical power is so great he must wear multiple limiters to limit himself from quickly killing his foes. In his Arcade ending, it is revealed that the power limiters he uses are in fact the tattoos that adorn his body, which are actually a seal known as Enchant: Dragunov.

Azrael's drive is The Terror. Drive attacks reveal weak points on his opponent.

His Over-Drive, Mind Colosseo, makes his drive attacks reveal weak points even on block.

Azrael has been shown to be one of the most powerful beings in the BlazBlue universe. Even with Enchant: Dragunov limiting his power, he easily defeats Jin Kisaragi, Iron Tager, and Valkenhayn R. Hellsing. He also overpowers Rachel Alucard and is strong enough to force Ragna into activating the Azure Grimoire to fight him.

Trivia

 * Azrael is the name of the Archangel of Death in some traditions.
 * In battle, Azrael can best be described as a berserker in both mannerisms and unquenchable bloodlust.
 * He can also be considered as the essential Blood Knight of the BlazBlue series.
 * Azrael's birthday, October 10th, is derived from the original date for the Japanese Health and Sports Day, representing Azrael's physique.
 * Azrael's move names are all themed on missiles:
 * Gustaf Buster: Carl Gustav recoilless rifle, a missile launcher, or a bunker buster.
 * Tiger Magnum: Tigercat missile, or a Magnum, a large firearm cartridge.
 * Growler Field: Growler missile.
 * Sentinel Dump: Possible reference to the Sentinel program, a scrapped American missile defense system.
 * Valiant Crush/Valiant Charge: Project Valiant, a scrapped Indian project to create an intercontinental missile.
 * Hornet Bunker: Hornet missile, or a bunker buster.
 * Blackhawk Stinger: Stinger missile/Black Hawk-model helicopter.
 * Scud Punishment: Scud missile.
 * Patriot Apocalypse: Patriot missile.