Sphinx

Sphinx (スピンクス) is the first copy of Ryuzu Meyer who was created in the Sanctuary by the Witch of Greed, Echidna. She made her first main story debut in the final scene of Arc 7 and later became the main antagonist of Arc 8 as the culprit behind the Sacred Vollachia Empire's Great Disaster.

Born as a failed vessel from Echidna's attempts at replicating her existence, Sphinx betrayed her creator's intentions and became responsible for countless deaths. During the Demi-Human War, she gained infamy in the Kingdom of Lugunica for being a “Witch” who utilized undead soldiers, as well as one of the Demi-Human Alliance's most crucial members. After Sphinx fell in the war, she was secretly confined in the Barielle Barony by Leip Barielle, where she spent four decades before she planned and commenced an attack on the Vollachia Empire.

Appearance
Although she is around four hundred years old, Sphinx perpetually maintains the body of a girl who is roughly eleven or twelve years of age. As she is a copy of Ryuzu Meyer, she shares her long, fluffy pink hair, dark cyan eyes, and distinctively pointed ears with the other clones. Despite her innocent and girlish physical appearance, Sphinx radiates an abominable aura that denotes her as a wicked monster.

Sphinx wears a black robe with large sleeves that were too long for her arms and a high collar that partially conceals her face. Due to the long length of the sleeves, they each have holes that allowed her to extend her arms out. However, after the Demi-Human War, Sphinx lost her arms and legs, barely escaping death with only her head, torso, and robe.

By the time of the Great Disaster, Sphinx regained all of her limbs via unknown means and came into possession of a staff with a glowing orb. Following her demise at the hands of Cecilus Segmunt, she became a zombie. In this new form, she possesses pale skin bereft of color, various cracks that run across her body, pitch-black sclera, and radiant golden irises.

Personality
As a result of being created from one of Echidna's failed experiments and not fully inheriting a complete soul, Sphinx, although possessing a distinct self-identity from the Witch of Greed, originally had a mostly emotionless demeanour. Although she attempted to speak kindly or tried to act curt when talking to other people, she sounded disinterested and robotic. Because of her defective personality, Sphinx could not understand emotions, and desired to gain a "complete" soul like Echidna, who she views as her mother. However, in an instance where she was confronted with the prospects of being incomplete, Sphinx showed a rare moment of seeming sad.

Sphinx often manipulates or exploits other people for her own interests. She expends every available resource to fulfill her goals when working on her experiments or plans for desires that she refuses to concede. Conversely, she is willing to patiently and slowly foment plans to achieve her self-oriented goals. In addition, Sphinx has a habit of saying "required" (要 you) with a verb in accordance to what she notices, such as saying "observation: required" (要・観察 you: kansatsu) when observing other people's actions or "deliberation: required" (要・熟考 you: jukkō) when pondering something, both of which she tends to do often.

History
Ryuzu Meyer was a young half-elven girl who became indebted to the Witch of Greed Echidna. The Witch, with Ryuzu's permission, began experimenting on her in a secret laboratory. Echidna sought to unlock immortality by cloning Ryuzu and transferring her consciousness to the copy, meaning she could live forever via a long line of copies. She was able to create the first five copies of Ryuzu, the first of which she decided to transfer her consciousness into. However, Echidna chose to shave off parts of her soul in order to fit in the vessel, resulting in an emotionless girl with a fractured mind who possessed a vast amount of magical knowledge and power, albeit not at the level of Echidna herself. The girl left the laboratory and journeyed into the world with the hope of becoming complete.

For the next few centuries, the rogue copy, known as Sphinx, disappeared from history until around three hundred and fifty years after her creation, when she met Valga Cromwell, who led her to become involved with Demi-Human Alliance, a large insurrectionist force based within the Kingdom of Lugunica. The Alliance, made up entirely of the marginalized demi-human races, sought to reap the blood of their oppressors, consequentially beginning a civil war that came to be known as the Demi-Human War. While her involvement was kept relatively secretive, Sphinx was considered to be Alliance's backbone, and alongside Valga and Libre Fermi, she became the one of the three people most responsible for their successful advancements.

During the Demi-Human War, Sphinx set up testing grounds at Shamrock Valley, which would only be opened with a glintstone of her creation, and she tested the efficacy of her Magic Circles there at the behest of Valga. These Magic Circles exploded when triggered by a person walking over them much like a landmine. During the Battle of Castour Field, Sphinx's Magic Circles worked with brutal efficiency. Her usage of Magic Circles to set soldiers from the Royal Army ablaze led to the Demi-Human Alliance's victory. A few days after the victory, she went to Castour Field and used Sacrament of the Immortal King, an ancient spell that she used to resurrect and create mindless "corpse soldiers" from the deceased forces on both ends. However, while she was trying to create corpse soldiers, she encountered Wilhelm Trias, Grimm Fauzen, Carol Remendis, and Roswaal J Mathers, her existence became known to the Kingdom, and she was branded as a Witch. After her first known appearance in the civil war, Valga and Libre would begin to disagree over whether her methods were justified or not until she stopped it with a Jiwald. After Libre left, she asked Valga if Libre needed to eliminated, to which he suggested that they should avoid it if possible.

Sphinx would soon get to work on a much more complex system of Magic Circles with Valga's help, and three years after the conflict at Castour Field, the Battle of Aihiya Swamp would see the duo's efforts come to fruition. Knowing that the Royal Army would work to dispel any Magic Circle they came across, a hidden one across the entire swamp was created, being charged activated with the energy of the smaller circles after being destroyed. Under the Magic Circle's effects, humans were felt a heavier pressure as if they were underwater while demi-humans remained unaffected. Its powers affected those who had differences in their mana cycles, meaning that became more potent on those who were more adept in magic, which costed many human casualties in the battle. Unfortunately for Sphinx, the Roswaal of that generation did not hold any magical abilities and instead used steel gauntlets to take her on, which made the Witch withdraw from Roswaal and her attendant, Carol. After finding Libre, who Valga needed regardless of his survival to advance the Alliance's cause, Sphinx used her magic to kill him, turning him into a corpse soldier who covered her escape.

Around this time, Sphinx created a Magic Circle that negated the users of Divine Protections from utilizing their abilities and nullified the Kingdom's covenant with the Divine Dragon from within the circle itself. The Magic Circle never saw any use in the Demi-Human War, however, and it was instead used a few years later during the Subjugation of the Blight Dragon by Stride Vollachia, who somehow found the means to enter Sphinx's Testing Grounds in Shamrock Valley to utilize the Magic Circle for his own schemes.

Not long after the battle at Aihiya Swamp, Sphinx, Valga, and the reanimated corpse of Libre enacted an attack on Lugunica Castle by entering it via one of its many hidden passageways. While Wilhelm fought Valga and Bordeaux fought what remained of Libre, Sphinx was confronted by Grimm, Carol, and Roswaal. Carol successfully managed to cleave off her left arm, and not long afterwards, Libre cut her right arm off. Showing fear for the first time, Sphinx ran in shock and barely escaped death by entering another hidden passageway within the castle to escape to the sewers. Upon her escape attempt, she was confronted by Leip Barielle and captured. A short time later, Roswaal arrived and questioned Leip about her whereabouts, and he lied about her death. Once Roswaal left satisfied after receiving a necklace with a ring that Leip had taken from the Witch, he picked up Sphinx's body and would come to keep her alive for his own benefit. At an unknown point in time, he would confine her under an abandoned wooden house in the Barielle Barony and remove her legs.

Several months before the beginning of the main story, Leip formulated a plan to gain control over Lugunica. After the beginning of the Royal Selection, Leip would aim to take away the will of his wife, Priscilla Barielle, who was a candidate to become the country's next King. By using Sphinx's powers to make her into a puppet, Leip would effectively rule the country if Priscilla won. However, after Leip was incapacitated by Al, this plan fell through. A few months later, after the Royal Selection had begun, she attempted to take over Priscilla's body again by luring her to a trap. Using parasites that she had created, Sphinx would spread an infection from a waterwheel along a river in the Barielle Barony in order to coax Priscilla into showing up there. However, this tactic would also come to fail when the infected waterwheel manager and host of the parasites' queen, Edda Rayfast, was put out of commission by Al, who would remove a parasite within Priscilla after she burnt Edda to ash. After this event, Sphinx began waiting in silence for time to pass while deliberating on her next course of action.

Abilities
Parasite Creation: Sphinx has the ability to create parasites that take over a living target's body and turns them into "zombies". While their manner of creation is unknown, these creatures completely follow Sphinx's will and seek to create a "paradise" for her. They initially form in a host's body as a living tentacle-like appendage that is capable of physical movement. Upon taking control of a host's body, the host is killed, and the parasites are able to use the leftover brain's intellect and thought processes. Though it is not known if their process of taking over human hosts is selective, they have only been observed to take over adult males despite being able to nest themselves within women and children, with the exception of one female host who was established as the parasites' queen. They also have the ability to take over non-human animal hosts, such as rats. Similarly to Sacrament of the Immortal King's effects, the zombies' bodies slowly decompose over time after being taken over. Although it is unknown if there is a limit on how many parasites can be created, it is possible for more than two thousand of them to exist at the same time, with each one loyal to Sphinx's desires.

Sacrament of the Immortal King (不死王の秘蹟 Fushiou no Hiseki): Sacrament of the Immortal King is an ancient curse art created by an unknown Witch long ago. The curse, when cast correctly, will allow the user to reanimate corpses of the dead and make them do their bidding. Sadly, the technique to properly cast the curse has been long lost to time, and only an incomplete incantation exists which was transcribed in an old and withered book regarded as the most important heirloom of House Argyle. Originally, the curse was thought to be capable of fully reviving a dead person, and there are legends of the aforementioned Witch being supposedly capable of bringing back people exactly as they were before their demise. Effectively, the written chunks of the curse's full passage is incapable of producing anything more than walking corpses with no soul of their own, creating "corpse soldiers" whose flesh slowly withers away and decomposes through time. To further limit the usefulness of this mostly-lost curse, a caster with an extremely rare natural affinity for it must be found in order to recreate even the most basic effects of this forbidden curse art. As the version Sphinx used was incomplete, she was only able to reanimate corpses. However, she was also able to use it in combination with her Magic Circles and a bone belonging to one of Valga's ancestors to increase his height and mirror the giants of old.

Unknown Ability: In a given group of undead under her control, Sphinx can choose a "core" to act as a control point between all of them. Tholter Weasily is the only known individual who this power has been used on. If one corpse soldier is neutralized, then the rest of them become more powerful. However, if the core corpse soldier is dispatched, then this effect will wear off. It is unknown if this ability is tied to Sacrament of the Immortal King or if it falls under the scope of her magic.

Magic (魔導士 Madōshi): By utilizing the knowledge she inherited from Echidna, Sphinx has been shown to use several different magic spells of different elements like Fire, Wind, Earth, and Yang, making her quite the potent mage.
 * Magic Circles (魔法陣 Mahō-jin): Magic Circles are a type of geometric magic algorithm used to perform complex spells and rituals that can be drawn on objects or living beings. These can produce great kinds of effects, such as large-scale magic that completely alter the state of a battlefield, imbuing an individual with extreme power, or even temporarily cutting off Divine Protections by cutting an area off from the flow of Od Laguna. However, once Magic Circles are found drawn on the ground, their effects be nullified, so hiding them until activation is necessary. Since this is an ancient form of magic, very few people know about them, and even fewer are capable of using them.
 * Jiwald (ジワルド): Using Yang Magic, Sphinx is able to conjure and manipulate visible light into beams of scorching heat that laid waste to whatever object stands in its way. Jiwald is Sphinx's preferred method of combat. Like most spells, there are four levels that increase in intensity and amount depending on the level. The most basic offensive light spell is Jiwald, which allows the caster to project a single beam of concentrated light out of a finger so fast that even the trained human eye can barely register it.
 * Al Jiwald (アル・ジワルド): The most powerful offensive spell in Sphinx's arsenal consists of a single ray of light projected from the Witch's entire palm. The spell is much faster and larger in scale than any of other Jiwald variation and is easily her most destructive, usually annihilating anything in its path. That being said, the soldier Grimm Fauzen was still able to deflect Al Jiwald with his shield.
 * Fire Magic: By heating the air around her, Sphinx can produce and manipulate fire. During her first encounter with Roswaal, Sphinx attempted to incinerate Wilhelm Trias in a vortex of flames, though the master warrior abated the fire with his sword.
 * Flying Magic (飛行魔法 Hikou Mahou): Sphinx can use flying magic, allowing her to float in the sky.

Trivia

 * Like the other Witches (with the exception of Satella), Sphinx's namesake matches both an asteroid and a mythological being. 896 Sphinx is the name of a background asteroid situated in the asteroid belt. The mythological Sphinx was a guardian creature in both Greek and Egyptian mythology.
 * Sphinx's first appearance in Ex 2 predated the initial appearances of the original Ryuzu Meyer and any of her other replicas in Volume 10 by roughly ten months.
 * There are visual inconsistencies between the description of Sphinx provided in Ex 2 and the colored illustrations that accompanied it. Within the light novel, Sphinx's robe was referred to as white, yet a colored illustration displayed it as black. In Re:Zero Prequel: Camp Formation Stories, the description of its color was changed to accommodate for her black robe in the aforementioned novel. Additionally, the manga adaptation presented the robe as black.
 * Although it is unknown if it has any connection to the aura that Wilhelm felt from her, Sphinx was noted to have miasma by Roswaal J Mathers in Sword Demon Battle Ballad.
 * In Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, the parasite controlling Edda Rayfast stated that Sphinx bestowed the mission to create a "paradise" to her parasites, and they in turn wanted to create one for her. However, the details regarding what Sphinx considers a "paradise" are still unknown.