Lyserg Diethel

Lyserg Diethel (リゼルグ・ダイゼル, Rizerugu Daizeru) is a fictional character from the manga and anime series of Shaman King. He is orphaned from a young age, when Asakura Hao killed his parents for refusing to join him. This makes him seeks revenge, and eventually made him participate in the Shaman Fights to kill Hao. He would eventually join the extremist group known as the X-Laws, believing they would help him gain his revenge.

Appearance
Lyserg has a very androgynous appearance, at first meeting being mistaken for a girl by Umemiya Ryunosuke. He has light green hair and green eyes, which he inherited from his late father.

He dresses in a similar fashion as his late father, and in both cases their outfits were probably a homage to Sherlock Holmes. He wears green cloak with a yellow lining, a white shirt with a white folded cravat and black pants and black leather shoes.

After Lyserg joined the X-Laws, Marco began training him and after swearing loyalty he was given a classical white uniform similar to the others. The main difference between his uniform and the others is that his skirt is completely open with nothing beneath but a pair of white short shorts and black boots, with bare legs. When not in his X-Laws uniform he wears a white dress shirt, with rolled up sleeves, a tie and suspenders, and a pair of short shorts, with his gun holster on the left side.

After training in hell, he discards his X-Laws uniform, and begins wearing clothes similar to his original ones except that he now wears a black cloak with a dark green lining, dark green short shorts. He wears a white dress shirt with rolled up sleeves, a white folded cravat and long dark green sea boots.

Personality
Asakura Hao killed Lyserg's parents when he was young and since then he has sought out for revenge on Hao.

At first Lyserg teams up with Asakura Yoh and the others, but later joins the X-Laws, a group dedicated to destroying Hao. When Lyserg joins them, he is unsure about the ways the X-Laws try to eliminate Hao. Though Lyserg holds great hatred for Hao, Yoh's own philosophies and personalities keep him from crossing the line.

He has a generally kind heart, although he has the qualities of an antihero. his goals are to take revenge on Hao and to become a great detective, much like his late father. He has a very deep-seated and passionate hatred for Hao, and will snap at the sight or even the mention of him. He also loves reading detective and mystery stories.

Abilities and Powers
Lyserg is a dowser, a person who is able to find a person or persons using his special abilities. Lyserg uses his Crystal Pendulum for dowsing and even for spirit control. While fighting his way through the Plants, Kyōyama Anna looked through the Furyoku values of Chocolove and the others. There it is revealed that his Furyoku is about 115,000, thus giving him the third highest Furyoku reserve of the Five Elemental Warriors.

Spirits

 * See More: Morphine | Zelel | Spirit of Fire

His guardian ghost is known as Morphine (Chloe in the English anime; Morphea in the English manga). Morphine is the spirit that has been passed down from generation to generation in the Diethel family. It is known that she is the spirit of a poppy flower, which to Lyserg is like Horohoro's spirit; a spirit of the Earth. When Lyserg was six, he was given a test for his dowsing skills. He had to find the key to a cage, which was holding Morphine inside. In order for Morphine to be Lyserg's spirit, he had to unlock her from the cage. Although the task of finding the key was difficult, he managed to find it within Big Ben, the famous English clock.

Lyserg's second spirit is Archangel Zelel (アークエンジェル・ゼルエル) or Zeruel. Zeruel is a mechanical Archangel that runs on the Angel Engine. The Archangels were modeled after sports cars, Zeruel being a Lotus Elise. One day, Marco began wondering where Lyserg's loyalties lay and decided it was time for his new weapon. Marco entrusted him with Zeruel, wanting him to deliver justice with him. Lyserg's first use of this spirit was when he saved Usui Horokeu from Hao's followers.

In the manga Lyserg fuses Morphine and Zeruel together to form his armor oversoul, O.S. Mastema Dolkeem (Flame of Hostility) and attoning his Furyoku to that of the element of Fire. According to Lyserg, Mastema Dolkeem was created to prevent his grudge from taking over his life, and not to fight Hao.

"My Mastema Dolkeem wasn't created for you. The reason behind this O.S.... Yes! I just wanted to prevent the fire of my grudge from burning my soul!" -Lyserg Diethel to Asakura Hao about his new Over Soul.

Lyserg is also one of the 5 warriors chosen by Lady Sati. He went through hell training which in turn, gave him the power necessary for conquering Hao. After Hao began uniting with the Great Spirit he sent the spirit of Redseb Munzer, with the Spirit of Fire, to Lyserg and his friends, thus finally giving Lyserg the Spirit of Fire. He is called the cleverest of the 5 warriors by Pascal Avaf and is the second strongest among the 5.

Past
He was born on May 17, 1986.

Lyserg comes from London, England and was raised by his father Liam Diethel to become a dowser. Lyserg was trained from the age of four to be a dowser. Lyserg eventually used his powers to find the key to Morphine's cage. Morphine became his to control. Lyserg came home to tell his father that he has succeeded in releasing morphine. He returns home only to find Hao standing over the burning corpses of his parents. Hao turns to leave but Lyserg stops him. Lyserg tries Morphine but can not do anything due to his inexperience. Just before Hao knocks out Lyserg he grabs his father's pendulum. Lyserg eventually is rescued by the local firefighters and grows up with his maternal grandfather.

His grandfather eventually died and Lyserg was taken in by the wealthy Oknox where he lived together with a boy named Wat Hudson. Oknox was however revealed to be dealing with human traffiking and after killing Wat attempted to kill Lyserg, though Lyserg survived the shooting while Oknox was killed by Hao. Lyserg then traveled throughout England to find who burned down his house and killed his parents.

Lyserg was Qualified by Bron of the Ten Patch Officiants, and the fight took place in the rooftops of Tokyo. It took some doing on Lyserg's part since he could not track Bron, but eventually Morphine tracked him down and hitting him allowing Lyserg to enter the Shaman Fights.

Lyserg's time in the first round is unknown but he did win two matches and got to the second round. Lyserg got on the Patch Plane and was dumped somewhere in the American west

Travel Through America
Lyserg first appears dowsing for others who also sought out to find Patch Village. This had made his Pendulum point to the place, where Asakura Yoh and his friends where staying, for two days. When the group prepares to leave the next day, he appears and calls them to wait. Thinking he is a girl Umemiya Ryunosuke is immediately smitten with him.

Lyserg then gives a full introduction about himself and asks to join the group, to which Yoh politely greets him, much to the shock of the Horohoro and Tao Ren. After a brief debate about him by Horohoro and Ren, Ryu shockingly notes that Ren addresses Lyserg with "he" and asks if Lyserg is a guy to which Lyserg pulls down his pants and shows them proof, scaring Yoh and the gang. Lyserg then goes on to explain his dowsing abilities and reveals his spirit, Morphine.

After a scuffle between him and Horohoro, Horohoro prepares his snowboard for an attack against Lyserg, to which he shows off his oversoul and strikes Horohoro, who dodges. Suddenly appearing in front of Lyserg, Horohoro reveals his own Over Soul, but the Pendulum Over Soul appears next to him and the pendulum tip is right in his face. Ren prepares to cut the wire with his own fully charged Over Soul, but Lyserg easily incapacitates both Ren and Horohoro by cutting them with the wire and crushing their mediums. Yoh quickly steps in and says that he wants to take his friends to the hospital, while stating that he will show no mercy if Lyserg stands in his way. Loosing his calm demeanor, remembering how he came home to find his parents killed by Hao, he quckly strikes Yoh, only to have his pendulum stopped by the tip of Harusame, and later destroyed by a fully Over Souled Amidamaru.

Yoh and Ryu then leave to get Horohoro and Ren to the hospital, but Lyserg, in his anger, reveals a Crystal Pendulum and attacks at full force. Attaching his pendulum to a nearby billboard sign, Lyserg jumps above Yoh and creates the Big Ben Wire Frame, threatening to completely tear through Yoh.

However seeing Yoh's face being so similar to that of Hao so many years ago Lyserg loses himself and allows Yoh to cut down the attack. Yoh end the fight by punching Lyserg in the face but still allows him to join the group.

The group finally arrives at what is supposed to be the Patch village and encounter Team "Tsuki Gumi" and Team "Kaze-Gumi". Hearing that they are part of Hao's followers, Lyserg moves in to kill them, but Yoh holds him back. After a small bickering with Boris Tepes Dracula, that involves Boris killing his own teammate, Boris appears behind Lyserg and bites him, turning him into a vampire. It is later revealed by Amidamaru that he is possessed by Boris' guardian ghost Blamuro the Vampire Hunter.

Eventually they manage to free Boris' ghost and free Lyserg. Ryu defeats Boris and he faints. Lyserg saves Ryu from falling. The X-Laws kill Boris leaving Lyserg in awe of their power. When the X-laws leave, Lyserg thinks about how incredible they were. As a thanks to Yoh for saving him, Bill Burton leads the group through the underground caves, until the presence of the Great Spirit makes them all faint from high amounts of spiritual energy.

Lyserg is seen in an empty Room, recovering from the Great Spirit. He finds his way outside still crying and runs into Marco Lasso. The X-Laws get Lyserg to join them and together with Marco and Iron Maiden Jeanne, Lyserg forms Team "X-I". The next two months pass uneventfully with Lyserg learning about the X-Laws rules and requirements.

Shaman Fights Second Round
Two months later Team "X-I" is put up against Team "Niles". The fight starts with Lyserg destroying the Nile's mediums and crippling the leader of the opposing team. The Nile's leader uses the Wings of Death and Lyserg fires off a killing attack but stops before it finishes for an unknown reason. Jeanne gets in to the fight by knocking Lyserg aside an asks Marco to unlock her which he obliges. Lyserg then watches Jeanne slaughter the Niles.

Later that night Yoh visits the X-Laws ship and talks to Lyserg. After a short violent confrontation with the remaining X-Laws, Yoh is invited to join the X-Laws by Jeanne herself. He refuses however. This in turn causes Jeanne cry and angers Marco. During the same night Lyserg hears the plan of Team "X-III" and how they want to sacrifice themselves to kill Hao. As he pleads them to not do it, he is punished by Marco. He is seen the next day watching the fight with Team "Hoshi-Gumi". There he, while crying, watched in horror as Team "X-III" is all brutally slaughtered by Hao.

When Yoh arrives to the X-laws' ship, Lyserg watches Yoh fight the X-laws excluding Jeanne. He then sees Luchist taking three archangels at the same time with his own archangel: Lucifier. Marco reveals that Luchist formed the X-laws and left them for Hao. When it is clear that Luchist is stronger than Marco and that his plan is to kill the Iron Maiden. Lyserg is distraught but Yoh reveals his plan to take down Luchist. Lyserg then creates an oversoul of himself and runs to convince Jeanne to help in their plan. Luchist then cuts down the oversoul of Lyserg and realities that he was tricked. Lyserg's Zeruel then destroys Lucifier and Luchist faints from the destruction.

When Anahol surprises Marco, Jeanne, Lyserg, Tamao and Manta, killing Marco with his whip and forcing Lyserg to retreat using Zeruel. Then the car explodes killing him and Jeanne. He then finds himself in London near the Big Ben (his version of Hell) and even Pascal Avaf is surprised to see him here, concluding that he must have had a terrible darkness in his heart. Lyserg is then pummeled by the Devil Mastema. He then realises that if he can think of something it can appear in this world. Lyserg imagines himself as an angel and believes that it will be destroyed but is again crushed. Pascal tells him to relax and stop thinking so much or he will really die. Pascal then congratulates him for thinking of a strategy so quickly and rewards him with Morphia and Zeruel. Telling him that only those with the strongest souls can be happy when they are under attack.

Lyserg is then revived and uses his new oversoul to break through the force-field and stop Team Ren and Funbari Hot Springs' battle. He then shows them his new oversoul: Masteema Dolkeem.

Invading the Plants
Lyserg is shown pushing the Iron Maiden (with wheels on it) with the group after Marco saved them from Luchist Lasso. He mourns his loss, believing that Marco will be killed, but is reminded that they have no time to be grieve. Opacho then comes up from behind to comfort him. Lyserg keeps Marco's glasses in his honor.

In the Plant of the Valley, Lyserg faces the next officiant, Bron (who was his mentor in the preliminary rounds), finding out that both of them had gotten stronger since they last fought. Lyserg begins losing his temper a bit and begins to strike. However, he was unable to hit him and was shot in the chest. Bron goes to finish off the others, but they are protected by Iron Maiden Jeanne. Lyserg suddenly regains consciousness and stops Bron's attack using his hand. He later faces Jeanne and plead with her not to use her Furyoku. Yoh and the others assumed he was dead, but Lyserg explained that Marco's glasses were bulletproof and that they kept him safe from the blow.

With Bron's anger rising, Lyserg began examining him and thinking about when he could attack. The fight then ends with Lyserg explaining how mind over body works and him performing a move called "Cremation" severely burning and killing Bron.

He stand back and watch as Ren kills Magna and does nothing during their battle against Radim. When the group encounter Kalim they let Horohoro fight him and when they are unable to find Renim Lyserg suggests to torch the entire forest to smoke him out and allows Ren to fight Nichrom on his own. After seeing Thalim fight of Ren's lightning and Horohoro's ice with his plants he stands back realizing that Thalim was also prepared to face his fire, though he fails in the face of Chocolove's power of emotion.

As the group finally arrives at the 10th and final "Plant of the Universe" they realize that there is no oxygen and no gravity and begin to wonder how they are supposed to fight in there. At first Lyserg suggest that they all protect themself with their own personal O.S. but Ryu suddenly interrupts and suggest that they all use the heads of his O.S. Yamato No Orochi so that the rest can fight at full strength. As Ren questions the responsibility he would suddenly have he says that he wants to be useful too as the seven is currently his best place. Even though they are able to fight at their full strength they are still beaten by Rutherfor until Yoh nullify her Over Soul.

When Hao finally awakens he sends a message to the Oracle Bells that reads "'so small" He arrives at the final plant and effortlessly kills everyone with a simple glance, excluding Rutherfor, Opacho and Yoh. After Hao attempts to banish Yoh from his area in the Great Spirit Ren, Lyserg, Chocolove and Horohoro appear within it, with the Five Grand Elemental Spirits. A fierce battle between the 5 Elemental Warriors and the Shaman King begins.

In the end Hao reveals that he was merely preparing for their end and use the Great Spirit to destroy a sun and create a black hole that almost sucks in the Five Warriors until the Soul Train arrives and anchors everyone. Hao is eventually discouraged from his plan of destroying humanity when his mother arrives and everyone is send back..

Funbari no Uta
In the seven years after the Shaman Fights, Lyserg attends and graduate Oxford University. He became a policeman and used his shamanic abilities and combat skills learned in the X-Laws to capture criminals. Because of his high arrest rate he was promoted to the British Secret Intelligence Agency.

He has gotten noticeably taller and his hair is no longer messy. He no longer wears his patched shawl. Instead he now sports a black detective trench coat and black hat. In the Visionz images Lyserg is shown wearing a dress suit and green tie and it would seem that he wears Marco's glasses at random.

Before his arrival he helped Chocolove out of jail and also despite the difficulty managed to get him a permission to travel outside the country and the two of them arrive together at the meeting place where they reprimented Horohoro for scarring Asakura Hana. He like the others is shocked to see Ren arrive in a Horse Carriage and later Lyserg hint to Horohoro who the mother Ren's son Tao Men might be. After welcoming Yoh and Anna home he participates in the party at the in.

Anime/Manga Difference
Due to the fact the anime ended a lot earlier than the manga, different things happen. For example, order of events changed and locations of manga fights changed. Yoh and the others fought Boris in a theater in the anime. while in the manga Yoh and the others fight Boris outside the Patch Village.

For his attitude, Lyserg appeared to be aggressive and friendly when he first met Yoh, horo horo, Ren and Ryu in the manga. He even mentioned that he is smart, rich, fashionable and strong. His attitude is more "open" compared to his anime counterpart, where in he is emotional and too serious.

His name is a drug reference to lysergic acid diethylamide. The name of his spirit, Morphine, is obviously a drug reference as well and thus was changed to Chloe and Morphea for the English anime and manga. respectively.

Trivia

 * The appearance of Lyserg's father and Lyserg's own appearance in Funbari no Uta is based on the stereotypical look of Sherlock Holmes