King Alder

**King Alder** is a deer who used to be king of Thicket, being also the overlord of the Enchanted Forest, after Falancia was taken over by the Lord of Chaos, before his son, King Aspen.

## Personality

King Alder is a calm and seemingly level-headed deer.

He cared greatly for the inhabitants of his kingdom, as he made it a personal responsibility to subdue the Eight-Tails whenever he would go on a rampage.

## Skills

Alder was undoubtedly an immensely powerful deer and is recognised as Thicket's greatest king. He was able to combat not only an army of ten thousand, but also a tailed beast on his own; the Eight-Tails itself lauded Alder as a strong and resilient deer. Alder had enormous energy reserves, enough to seal the Eight-Tails inside the Sealing Urn after its numerous rampages. His high stamina allowed him to fight non-stop for three consecutive days and nights before finally collapsing.

He has the skills of a deer. Like any deer, his antlers can be use to form a pownder that can be used to revitalize the forest. He could also link himself to the Heart of the Forest to get some of its dust so he and his kind can continue to counter the increasing anomalies in the Enchanted Forest.

He also had enormous speed and strength, being able to dodge Star's extremely fast Spiraling Star and hit a rubber ball several metres away. Alder's most impressive and renowned trait was his extremely durable body, earning the name, the "impenetrable shield". With it, Alder could withstand nearly any type of attack, and easily brush off attacks that actually damaged him, as even wind spells could only cause very light damage. Ultimately, the only attack strong enough to seriously injure him was his own, resulting in the scar on his chest.

Alder was proficient in the nature transformation of light. Like his son, Alder can utilise the light nature to further augment his already renowned physical prowess. According to Oak, only powerful, long-range wind nature attacks could break through this defence.

Alder can focus his light energy into his hooves, creating a strong piercing effect. He can make it even more powerful by focusing it. The spell's sharpness was such that he could penetrate and slash through rubber despite its resistance to electricity. Oak states that it is his strongest attack, referring to it as the "strongest spear". With this power, Alder could cut off all of Eight-Tais' tails at once, and even pierce his own extremely durable body.

He seems to have some skills in sealing magic, as he was able to seal the Eight-Tails inside the sealing urn after his numerous rampages.

## Description in the Saga

### Background

Alder's rule was punctuated by the berserk attacks of the Eight-Tails but as Thicket couldn't afford to dispose of such a valuable war deterrent, he was forced to look for a suitable jinchuriki in quick succession, after the conclusion of each rampage. During one of these attacks, Alder fought the Eight-Tails alone, allowing his comrades to escape. Their battle resulted in Alder receiving a self-inflicted wound to the chest after he collapsed upon his own hand, which became his life's shame.

When the former jinchuriki of Eight-Tails lost control of the beast, he went on a rampage. Alder made a special team tasked with subduing the rampaging Eight-Tails, with his older son being part of that team. He instructed his son and the others to restrain the beast while he prepared to use the sealing spell. With enough preparation, Alder sealed the beast away temporarily, resulting in his nephew's death, hoping that someone else would have more success in controlling it. Ultimately, when Hawthorn was made the jinchūriki, the Eight-Tails' rampages were at long last brought to an end.

He eventually died at a battle against a dangerous kingdom, facing an opposing force of ten thousand warriors that he single-handeded for three consecutive days and nights, in order to allow his comrades to escape to safety, and, with his death, the position of king was passed onto his son, Aspen.

### "Star Knight and the Nine-Tailed Fox"

In "The War Begins", King Alder, along with the other reincarnated beings, is summoned by Gentle Light.

In "The Brilliant Strategit", when King Platinum, despite his camouflage, was detected approaching the Fourth Unit, Gentle Light had him to summon three other regents to provide support. Amongst their numbers was a bemused King Alder, who questions the others about his present location, before seemingly recognising the Chief Sandstorm.

In "The General of Chaos' Surprise Attack", when the night falls, he is called back by Gentle Light.

In "A Father's Hope, A Mother's Love", Alder and the other regents were confronted by an enormous wave of sand that is halted by Sandstorm. The group except for Platinum soon found themselves to be caught by Strongpaw's sand, leading to the fourth to save them with his Gold Dust and afterwards, was confronted by Hard Stone. As the battle resumed, the regents attended to launch an attack but he and Gusty Blizzard were caught again by Strongpaw's sand.

In "The King of Mirages", his light nature activates involuntarily to the threat of being sealed and destroyed the sealing tag. Freed from their bonds, the two stormed the approaching unit, before beginning to divulge the particulars of their abilities. Identifying himself as a light nature user, Alder instructed the opposition to have their earth nature users construct defences, while those with wind nature attacked him relentlessly.

In "Paradox", as numerous guards converged on him, a team of wind nature users appeared to successfully cut Alder into several pieces using their power, before directing the Sealing Team to bind him immediately. However, their efforts proved to ultimately be ineffective, as Alder was able to regenerate before the Sealing Team could take action. While the opposition reformulated their strategy, Alder spotted Oak amongst them, and called out to him. Oak proceeded to inform the guards that more powerful wind nature spells were required in order to to contest Alder's legendary durability. As the nature of his death was disclosed, Gentle Light erased Alder's personality to buy himself more time, just as Star's clone made his appearance on the battlefield. Despite utilising the sun to obscure his attack, Star's first few attempts failed to connect with Alder, due to his enhanced reflexes and speed which allowed him to evade the attack twice. However, on the third attempt, he was unable to avoid the attack and was instead caught at the very centre of the sphere, but even the damage inflicted by this proved to be minimal and Alder once again, quickly recovered before he could be bound. Advancing upon the stunned opposition whilst activating his Piercing Stab, the allied forces hastily constructed several reinforced defences in response, yet the attack penetrates both with considerable ease. Emerging from the other side only to be ambushed by a onslaught of guards, who presumed that the element of surprise would be enough, Alder proceeds to quickly defeat them before engaging the rest of the unit. Destroying the cliff where Oak and Star had sought refuge, Alder folded his hoof in preparation to incapacitate the falling Star with a punch but thanks to Oak's intervention, he punched a rubber ball instead. Believing that Star had been encased within the ball, which had been sent bouncing away by his prior strike, Alder gave chase to it. However, after he caught up with, and slicing the ball in two, he realised that it was empty and so, changed direction in order to pursue Star. Increasing the power used in his Piercing Stab as he advanced, Alder's attack is dodged by Star using the enhanced reflexes and sensory abilities granted by Sage Mode and parried with a Spiraling Sphere, aimed at Alder's left foreleg. The force of the blow caused Alder to impale himself with his own attack and as his body began to crumble, the Sealing Team took immediate action and completed his imprisonment.

In "The Fall of the Centaur", with the release of the Reincarnation Curse, a light of sorts encased Alder's sealed body as the curse was dispelled and his soul was returned to the afterlife.

## Appearances

Legends:

* Y - Appears and have an active role
* N - Do not appears and is not mentioned directly by the characters.
* B - Appears, but have a passive role or his or her appearance is implicit
* M - Mentioned directly by the characters.