Nel Zelpher

Nel Zelpher (ネル・ゼルファー, Neru Zerufā) is one of the main characters of Star Ocean: Till the End of Time; she sometimes goes by the alias Crimson Blade when in Airyglyph territory such as the town of Kirlsa. She is a highly skilled covert operations agent of the Kingdom of Aquaria on Elicoor II and the leader of the Secret Legion, a special detachment of the Queen of Aquaria's personal guard that reports directly to her and is responsible for intelligence gathering. Her loyalty to her queen and country motivates her every move and action. Nel is a skilled fighter who uses short swords and Runology interchangeably.

Nel's father, Nevelle Zelpher, was the chief intelligence officer of Aquaria before, and passed the position down to his daughter. He was killed in action and Nel fully expects the possibility of a similar fate. She is prepared to sacrifice herself and others for the sake of her mission, but she doesn't like it, as attested to by when she went to rescue two of her subordinates alone when Fayt and Cliff were sleeping.

Story

Nel Zelpher is the leader of the Secret Legion, a special detachment of the Queen of Aquaria's Personal guard that reports directly to her and is responsible for intelligence gathering. Her loyalty to her queen and country motivates her every move and action. Nel is a skilled fighter who uses short swords and Runology interchangebly.
― Official Strategy Guide.

In the events of the game, she learns of the crash of the mysterious ship and infiltrates the Airyglyph prison where Fayt and Cliff are held. She aids Fayt and Cliff in their escape under the condition that they assist the Aquarians in the completion of a superweapon; should they refuse, she'll kill them. This way, if the Aquarians cannot have this expertise, at least Airyglyph will not either. After their escape, Nel, Cliff, and Fayt travel slowly towards Aquios as they stop to free Nel's friends and aid people in danger, such as Ameena. Nel succeeds in so much as Fayt and Cliff agree to help make the weapon (though more out of friendship than threatening), though the weapon ends up as more use against the Vendeeni than Airyglyph. Along one point in the game, Nel heads for the Kirlsa Training Facility to rescue Tynave and Farleen from being executed. Together, Fayt and Cliff infiltrate the grounds and saves Nel, along with Tynave and Farleen, before going up against Shelby.

Nel is also one of the three characters from Elicoor II who can aid Fayt at the Kirlsa Training Facility and accompany the party to Moonbase and beyond. She can be recurited if you do not recruit Albel or Roger. If Nel is not recruited then, she can be reacquired in the Sacred City of Aquios if Peppita did not join the party. When presented with two dialog choices, choose not to stay to convince her to join. Note that if you choose to stay, she loses interest in joining and you cannot attempt to recruit her a second time. Also if you do not go to Elicoor II when you get the chance you will later in the game and you still have to choose the second choice.

Battle

Nel is a combination of thief/ninja and symbologist with daggers being her weapon of choice. Her normal attacks consist of small slashes with some acrobatics thrown in. She initially learns damaging mid-range skills with some simple attack symbols. As she levels up, her attacks become more magical in nature and are primarily focused on wind and lightning, along with a few symbologically enhanced physical attacks. She also learns all wind and lightning based symbols.

Battle Skills

Skill Name	Description	Level Acq	HP/MP Useage	Fury%	CP
Shockwave	Fires a small wave of energy at enemies.	Default	12/5% HP	20/47	2
Aerial		6	10/5% HP	20/42	3
Shadow Wave	Nel generates a large crescent shockwave on the ground in front of her that knocks over enemies.	10	12/6% HP	20/47	3
Ice Daggers	Nel throws a series of frozen daggers at enemies that have a chance of freezing them.	15	30/6% HP	40/62	4
Charge		19	20/5% HP	20/42	4
Poison Cloud	Nel creates a small, green cloud of poison that damages and also has the chance of poisoning enemies.	20	12/5% HP	10/35	2
Whirlwind	Nel surrounds herself in a whirl of slicing wind for a short while, which damages any enemies that come in contact with her.	25	80/8% HP	30/72	3
Flying Guillotine	Nel flings her daggers at enemies in the form of an enourmous flying disk, which behaves like a boomerang.	30	60/7% HP	30/67	5
Lightning Chain	Nel releases of stream of lightning from her daggers that flies all over the field and homes in on enemies.	40	40/8% HP	30/62	4
Mirror Slice	Nel performs a series of symbologically enhanced slashes before leaping into the air, firing a stream of lightning at her target, and then slashing through them.	52	100/10% HP	30/62	8
Divine Wrath	Nel perfoms a very long, symbologically enhanced series of slashes before finishing with a giant pink tornado.	Has to be found in the Maze of Tribulations B5F	250/15% HP	25/50	7
Splitting Sky	Nel performs a series of ninja hand signs, leaps into the air, and becomes encircled in a sphere of lightning. She then fires a continuous stream of lightning at the target.	Has to be found in the Sphere 211 169th level	160/12% HP	30/60	6