Stride Vollachia

Stride Vollachia (ストライド・ヴォラキア) was Wilhelm's mortal enemy when he was younger. He later revealed that he was the Sin Archbishop of Pride.

Appearance
Stride is a tall man with glossy dark purple hair. He is described to be handsome and intelligent looking but has a sickly complexion, and as such he cannot do any strenuous exercise. He wears clothes befitting that of nobility and acts like one as well.

Personality
As the Sin Archbishop of Pride, Stride was vain and prideful, disliking being told what to do by others, as shown when he rebuked Yaktol Suwen for trying to restrict his actions, and later did the same to Kurgan for talking back to him. He was openly rude to those he viewed to be lower than himself and Theresia noted that he fluently insulted others. He seemed to underestimate fighters that aren't well known, as when Wilhelm and Kurgan first fought, he didn't think the former would stand a chance.

Despite this, he was a quick thinker, and praised things he found to be satisfactory. He was willing to ignore formalities to stop Wilhelm and Kurgan's first duel in order to prevent himself from potentially losing a valuable pawn. He plotted against the Kingdom of Lugnica knowing full well the power of Volcanica's protection, earning him his alias.

He was also of high status to be able to have Kurgan as his bodyguard, however the Vollachia Empire claimed that he didn't exist. He was later revealed to be the Sin Archbishop of Pride, though he didn't have any faith in The Witch of Envy.

Stride spoke in a very archaic, regal and scornful manner. He favored using the pronoun mine venerable self (余 yo) when speaking, which is a pronoun used only by kings or emperors. He also referred to people using thou (貴様, kisama) with it having connotations of Stride treating everyone he spoke to as an inferior.

History
Stride was born during the Emperor Selection Ceremony as one of the sons of the Emperor. However, he was born sick, and his family sent him to train under Kurgan. He was fully expected to die under Kurgan's harsh training regime, nevertheless Kurgan took care of him and he grew stronger under him. After growing up under Kurgan, they approached the throne as part of the Imperial Selection. It's presumed he won the Selection, and was the rightful next Emperor. However, Stride was poisoned by his father, the former emperor, as Stride was unable to have children which was a duty expected of an Emperor. However, Stride survived the poison. Stride self-proclaims that he has the seen the truth by being on the boundary of life and death, and believes that there is an outside entity called viewers in this world.

Years later, he joined Witch Cult and received his gospel.

Years before the story, Stride summoned the the evil dragon Valgren and attacked Picoutatte with his wife Melinda. Stride conducted a series of attacks on the Astrea House and later had Melinda attack the citizens of Picoutatte with the power of her Evil Eye. In the end, Valgren ate Stride and his wife.

Abilities
Authority of Pride (傲慢の権能 Gouman no Ken'nō): Stride may possibly have been able to use the Authority of Pride, though no concrete examples of him doing so exist.

Yang Sword Vollachia (陽剣ヴォラキア Youken Vorakia): As a member of the royal family, Stride was able to create an ornate crimson sword from light just like Vincent Vollachia. However, shortly after materialising the blade, Stride's left arm began to burn, prompting him to cut it off in order to save his life.

Shinobi: Stride has hired two skilled assassins known as shinobi from a Shinobi village in Vollachia, Shasuke and Raizo.

Equipment: Stride wore Ten Curse Rings, five on each hand, which he used to cast curses on people and control their actions, rendering them his puppets who would carry out his biddings. Some examples of the curses effects include targets obeying each of his commands, being able to asphyxiate someone from a distance when their loved one touches them, shatter their personality rendering them completely unable to interract with other people, and hold their lives hostage. If Stride deemed it necessary, he would resort to a special technique–with the rings, he would draw out the very limits of his puppet's potential. Naturally, that proved to be an immense toll to the body, usually resulting in their deaths. The rings were so powerful that they even allowed Stride to bind a dragon to his will, despite the creatures being among the most prideful beings that have ever lived. However, in order for Stride to use the rings' power, he had to pay a toll, in form of offering a part of his body to the rings. By doing that, he was able to harness the power and unrestrainedly cast curses, however, a part of his body would be utterly destroyed. In his years of owning the Ten Curse Rings and casting curses with them, Stride's body was rendere to a near corpse-like state.
 * The ring on his little finger was red and was known as the Scarlet Little Finger (朱色の小指 Akeiro no Koyubi), which was capable of casting a curse that rotted the target's limbs, eventually leading to death. He used the ring to hold Veltol's life hostage.