Character from Sword Art Online by Reki Kawahara
Subtilizer — a real-world military contractor who views human souls as collectible resources, and entered the Underworld to harvest the most advanced artificial intelligence ever created.
Gabriel is the series' most inhuman human villain. He has been fascinated with the concept of 'souls' since childhood — when he killed an insect as a child and watched its light fade, he wanted to understand where it went. This curiosity never developed empathy as a companion; it developed methodology. He kills to observe the moment of death, to see if he can glimpse the soul departing. He entered the Underworld as a military contractor hired by the NSA to steal Alice's Fluctlight, but his real motivation was personal: he wanted to see what an artificial soul looked like when it died. He is the series' reminder that the scariest monsters don't need a virtual world to be monsters — they just use one as a more convenient hunting ground.
Handsome in a cold, corporate way with blond hair and pale eyes that seem to evaluate everything they see as a potential acquisition. In the Underworld, he appears as Vector, the Dark God — dark armor, dark presence, the kind of figure that makes shadows deeper. His real-world persona is polished and professional; his in-game persona is honest about what he really is.
Also known as: Subtilizer, Vector, Gabriel