Krul Tepes

Krul Tepes「クルル・ツェペシ, Kururu Tsuepeshi」 is a third progenitor among the vampires and the vampire queen of Japan. She is responsible for turning Mikaela Hyakuya into a vampire.

Appearance
Krul has the appearance of a young girl. She has red eyes, pointed ears, and long pink hair with a headband that resembles bat wings. She wears a short black gothic lolita style dress with detached sleeves. She also wears a white detached collar on her neck with a red ribbon through it. She wears black boots that reach up to her thighs.

Personality
Just like all other vampires, she views the humans as nothing more than livestock. She originally has a distaste for Seventh Progenitor Ferid Bathory, who claims to love her, but this develops into a hatred over the next four years and she comes to want him dead. Their fighting and disputes appear somewhat like a divorcing couple's, and they even appear to cling to possession of Mika.

She is very proud like most vampires. When Third Progenitor Lest Karr challenges her position as the ruler of Japan, they have a verbal spat. She claims she never fails, ever. She is tempermental when challenged and does not hesitate to remind her challenger of his/her place. Ferid restrains this trait by blackmailing her.

She likes Mikaela and claims to like Yūichirō as well. She saves Mika's life by turning him into a vampire after Ferid fatally wounds him, even though Mika states he would rather die than become a vampire. When she first tries to convince Mika to drink human blood, he refuses. Understanding his pain, she lets him drink her blood instead for the next four years. She tells him that from now on he can't leave her side and thus he is her dog and loyal servant. Despite this, she is gentle toward him. She hugs Mika when she gets the chance. She turns Mika into a vampire by kissing him and blushes when Mika bites her, which suggests she likes Mika more than as a friend. She turns him into her favorite pet over the next four years, and she appears to summon him to her chambers frequently; their relationship does not appear to be a secret, although she has not confirmed that she is Mika's direct master to the public. She reminds Mika that he is her property, but she also spoils him, going as far as to whisper her true goals in his ear. She even convinces Mika to reclaim Yū to help her with her plans.

She has been dabbling in the "seraph of the end" for reasons only known to her and to Mika. She is deceitful toward the Progenitor Council about her criminal activities.

History
Krul Tepes's past is unknown, but when the virus started killing the humans she appeared and announced the situations to surviving children. Later, when the children tried to escape, before Ferid and the vampires could kill a dying Mika, Krul sends them away and turns Mika into a vampire.

Story
Krul Tepes first appears in chapter 1. In 2012, the Apocalypse Virus afflicts the adults of Tokyo, and she invades Tokyo with her army the moment that happens. The Progenitor Council gives her orders to exterminate the Hyakuya Sect and all of their orphans with the seraph gene, but she disobeys and lies about it. She takes the orphans from the Hyakuya Orphanage in Tokyo to Kyoto and into her the underground vampire Third Capital, Sanguinem. She raises them there as livestock, including two seraph children called Yūichirō and Mikaela.

The children attempt to escape in 2016 when they obtain a map from Ferid Bathory. Thanks to this, Yuichiro escapes. However, Ferid fatally harms Mikaela. She is unconcerned about the non-seraph children he murders. She arrives to the scene of carnage in time to prevent the other vampires who arrived from finishing of Mika, and she tells them that he belongs to her. She takes a sample of his blood. She asks Ferid Bathory what happened and accuses him of nonsense when he claims a human child shot him in the head. Considering the immense speed of progenitors, which is revealed later, it is possible he let Yu shoot him on purpose. She accuses him of deliberately letting her seraphs escape. He claims she should explain herself, pointing out that meddling with the curse of the seraphs is against vampire law, and he threatens to take the issue to the Progenitor Council. She responds by beating the hell out of him, ripping off his right arm, and stomping her boot onto his chest. He apologizes. She sends him away, but he promises to return.

Mika is dying. She offers eternal life to him, and he refuses. She smirks, biting her lip to make it bleed, and kisses him. He screams with pain and horror as his human life ends and his vampire life begins.

Later, Mika wears clean livestock clothes, and his right arm has been reattached. They are in her chambers while she sits on her throne. Someone brings in an unconscious human child and drops him on the floor between them. Mika is in pain from his thirst, feverish while sweating and gasping. She tells him to drink the blood of that human and become a true vampire. Drinking blood directly from a human is against the law within the vampire city, but Krul ignores this for this instance. Mika refuses, saying he would rather die than become a vampire. She sympathizes with him, warning him that he will become a senseless, raving demon without the blood. As he refuses again, she splits open her own wrist, offering her nonhuman blood to Mika, saying that he can drink that instead. Overcome by his thirst, he cries while drinking her blood. She says he will never be able to leave her and will be her dog for all time. When he finishes, she hugs him.

Over the next four years, she informs Mika that the humans running that orphanage were using the children as guinea pigs in their experiments, and these experiments would destroy the world. She teaches him that she saved the orphans from that fate and does not mention that she was actually ordered to kill them. She and Ferid tell Mika that the humans are once again experimenting on Yu and using him.

In 2020, she and Mika have a close relationship. When Mika arrives at an announcement for the vampires in Sanguinem, Krul smiles when she sees him and replaces her speaker to present the rest of the information herself. They announce war against the Japanese Imperial Demon Army in order to save their world. The cruel and greedy humans have committed the crimes of killing vampires, stealing vampire territory, and delving into forbidden magics.

She sends Ferid to command the attack on Shinjuku, and she sends Mika as well. After the battle, Mika requires curse detoxification from his injuries thanks to now-Special Private Yūichirō Hyakuya's monstrous transformation. After he recovers and gets dressed, she summons him to the Royal Audience Chamber. He meets with her, promising to save Yu.

In chapter 22, she attends a meeting of the Progenitor Council. As the commander of the battle at Shinjuku, Ferid gives a report on it and drags Mika to it as well. Under normal circumstances, Ferid would not be allowed since he has a ranking lower than a sixth progenitor. Ferid relishes the attention and reveals a video he took in secret of Yu's monstrous transformation, which the progenitors quickly recognize with alarm as one of the "seraph of the end." Ferid confirms their fears. A fourth progenitor points out that Krul foiled that plan by exterminating Japan's Hyakuya Sect eight years ago, killing them and all of their seraph guinea pigs. This is the first time Mika hears about these orders. Ferid pretends he has no idea about these orders.

Third Progenitor Lest Karr threatens Krul with a heavy burden of responsibility for her failure and the mismanagement of Japan. She orders him to be quiet and asks if he is picking a fight with her. He claims he would be happy to rule Japan in her place. She calls him a child, and he states he is only 200 years younger than her and even points out he is stronger than her as well. Ferid makes them quit it. She states they will kill all the humans of the JIDA, and the Progenitor Council gives her the go-ahead. At the end of the meeting, one of the progenitors asks who the child behind Ferid is, which makes Krul uncomfortable. Ferid calls him his most favorite servant, whom he cannot bear to be apart from. One progenitor begins to yell at him, but another states that Ferid has always been eccentric.

After the meeting, she asks Ferid what he thinks he is doing and if he is trying to dethrone her. She swings her arm at him, leaving a deep fissure in the floor nearby. She threatens to kill him, and he hides behind Mika. He insists she can no longer kill him because of the blackmail about the "seraph of the end" that will be sent to the Progenitor Council on his death. She glares at him, which he says is adorable and makes his heart flutter. Since he would be in more trouble than her for letting Yu escape, he suggests they are partners before patting Mika's butt and taking his leave.

Later on, she fills a test tube with her blood for Mika. Already crazed with thirst, he attacks her, lifting her up and biting her neck to drink her blood. The tube shatters on the ground, spilling the blood she just filled it with. He blushes, consumed in his drinking. She hugs him, calling him a handful but indulging him anyway. Once Mika returns to his senses, he pushes her away from him. Embarrassed, he apologizes and asks for a slightly bigger stock of her blood. She teases him for already breaking a vial and orders him to report on Shinjuku. In return, he asks her for an explanation of what happened during the Progenitor Council meeting first.

He asks her why she let the orphans live at such risk to herself. At first, she tells him he does not need to know. He gets upset, and they argue, which may be what Ferid intended by bringing Mika to that meeting. She reminds him of his place and asks him if he will abandon Yu to his fate. She says she likes both him and Yu, reminding Mika that she is his savior, surrogate parent, and owner. After piercing his hand with her claws and making him bow to her, she whispers her plan in Mika's ear, surprising him. She gives Mika orders to get lost during the war, hide from both vampires and humans, and find Yu. He agrees to obey.

She orders Mika to deploy to Nagoya along with other vampires, and he helps collect surviving humans on the surface of Kansai as a gift to them. She also sends a missive to the vampires in Nagoya, ordering them to take part in destroying the JIDA in Tokyo. Presumably, her "pets," which are what the members of her faction are referred to as, agree to obey. She also plans to visit Nagoya in person.

Natural Abilities
Being a vampire, she is far stronger than a human. Also, by being a third progenitor of the vampires, she is stronger than those of a lower station, which is apparent when she easily defeats Ferid, who is a seventh progenitor. However, she is weaker than Third Progenitor Lest Karr, even though she is older than him by two centuries. The swing of her arm can easily destroy a room.

As a vampire and a noble, she also has the ability and permission to turn a human into a vampire. She is the only vampire shown so far who uses this ability. Vampires typically detest increasing their numbers.

Trivia

 * Her surname comes from Vlad Tepes, who is more commonly known as Vlad the Impaler, the real life inspiration for the character Count Dracula.
 * Mika is commonly known as her favorite among the vampires from Sanguinem.
 * She was originally supposed to appear in the first chapter, but the chapter would have run over 100 pages, which was deemed too long.

Quotes

 * "Why thank you. I see you haven't lost your detestable smirk either."--Krul to Ferid Bathory, Chapter 5, "Vampire Mikaela"
 * "Ha ha. I see. You don't wish to live? However, you have no choice. You will drink my blood... and cease being human."--Krul to Mikaela Hyakuya, Chapter 5, "Vampire Mikaela"
 * "And so, we have resolved to destroy the Japanese Imperial Demon Army. This is War! Waged for the sake of the world's stability. To protect our world, we must kill them! We will wipe out all the greedy humans!"--Krul's speech to many vampires, Chapter 5, "Vampire Mikaela"
 * "Mika. Drink the blood of this human. Then, the last of your mortal biology will cease working. You will gain an ageless body and more power than a human could ever know. You will become a true vampire. You will be one of us."--Krul to Mika, Chapter 11, "Queen's Contract"
 * "Aha ha. So you say. But can you resist. Your entire body must ache right now. You must thirst so badly you can barely stand it. Don't deny it. Let your desire take control."--Krul to Mika, Chapter 11, "Queen's Contract"
 * "Then... you could drink my blood. Mine is not human. Ha ha... Yes... Drink my blood. Drink it, and you will never be able to leave me. You will be my dog for all time. Mikaela Hyakuya."--Krul to Mika, Chapter 11, "Queen's Contract"
 * "Aah... I see. You were that thirsty? Sheesh. You are such a handful, aren't you?"--Krul to Mika when he attacks her, Chapter 22, "Taboo Krul"
 * "Eight years ago, I eliminated the entire Hyakuya Sect. Every last one of the guinea pigs in the Hyakuya Orphanage who bore the 'seraph' gene... I killed with my own hands."--Krul to the Progenitor Council, Chapter 22, "Taboo Krul"
 * "I do not fail. Ever."--Krul to the Progenitor Council, Chapter 22, "Taboo Krul"
 * "Then what? What could you possibly do to defy me? I can easily extinguish a life as puny as yours. Beyond that, you are dependent on my blood. How could you possibly defy me? Are you going to say you'd rather die than be my tool? What would happen to Yu, who's being used by those foul humans? Will you abandon him? The countries who've experimented with the seraph of the end are one thing... but human foulness is not limited to any locale or group. Will you abandon Yu to his fate?"--Krul to the Progenitor Council, Chapter 22, "Taboo Krul"