Skeith

"Riding the Wave is Skeith, the Shadow of Death, to drown all that stands."

- Epitaph of Twilight

Skeith (スケィス, Sukeisu) is the 1st Phase of the Cursed Wave and was referred to as "The Terror of Death".

Epitaph of Twilight
In the Epitaph of Twilight, Skeith is the first harbinger of the Cursed Wave to appear. Riding into battle from the Chosen Land beyond the Dividing Forest, he carries the Shadow of Death, which drowns all that stands.

.hack//SIGN


Skeith appears at the very end of SIGN when he is summoned by Morganna. His first action is to Data Drain Sora, as punishment for betraying Morganna and allowing Tsukasa and the awakened Aura to escape. He follows them to Net Slum but before he can do anything, Helba deletes the area, allowing everybody, except Aura, to log out and escape.

.hack//ZERO
Realizing that Skeith would draw too much attention, Morganna sealed him inside Sora. Disguised as a player, Skeith continued his hunt for Aura. It was in this form that he would encounter Carl.

.hack//Liminality
Skeith, sealed inside of Sora, encounters Tomonari Kasumi and his girlfriend Mai Minase while they explore a field. Not wanting them to get in the way of his hunt for Aura, Skeith assumes his normal form and attacks both of them. As a result, Tomonari falls comatose, but Mai is able to escape and begins searching for answers about the attack in the real world. Skeith later tries to attack Junichiro Tokuoka when he follows Tomonari's footsteps, however Mai recognizes the tone that plays when he appears, and is able to escape with Tokuoka before Skeith can complete his attack.

.hack//Games
Skeith is first seen by Orca and Kite in the dungeon of Δ Bursting Passed Over Aqua Field. He is busy chasing Aura and ignores them at first, but when Aura tries to give the Book of Twilight Skeith appears and challenges the two. Orca tries to fight against him, but as a normal player, his attacks are useless. Skeith data drains Orca and places him into a coma, but before he can attack Kite, Helba appears and drives him away.

Over the course of Infection, Skeith continues chasing Aura, attacking any players that get in his way, including Alph, Sieg, and Mai Minase. Eventually he manages to catch up with Aura at the field Θ Chosen Hopeless Nothingness. Kite and BlackRose arrive just as he begins to data drain Aura, segmenting her data into three parts and sending them to various places inside the system. Skeith attacks Kite and his party but is eventually data drained himself and defeated. Though he is destroyed, his death results in the birth of Cubia, the shadow of Kite's bracelet. Cubia then defeats Kite with one blast.

Later, a message in the BBS about a "Red Wand" and a "Twin Blade" call Kite's attention, and he goes to Λ Stalking Betrayed Nothingess, finding the Skeith's wand alone. When Kite tries to approach, the Wand turns into Sora, releasing him, and dessapears, and Kite obtains the Sora's blades.

.hack//Another Birth
Skeith is shown to BlackRose in a vision created by Mia at Δ Bursting Passed Over Aqua Field. In the vision, she watches as Skeith defeats Orca and attacks Kite, but is driven away by Helba. Later BlackRose travels with Kite and Mistral to Θ Chosen Hopeless Nothingness where she battles with, and eventually defeats Skeith.

.hack//XXXX
Skeith appears before Orca and Kite shortly after Orca receives the Twilight Bracelet from Aura. Orca attempts to fight Skeith, but Skeith renders all of his attacks useless and destroys him with his Data Drain attack. Before he can finish off Kite, Helba appears and drives the Phase off. Much later, a stronger Kite encounters Skeith while in a field with BlackRose and Mistral. After a hard and mostly unsuccessful battle, Kite manages to unleash the power of the Bracelet, destroying Skeith.

.hack Conglomerate

 * See Avatar Skeith

.hack//Link

 * See Skeith (LINK)

Before Data Drain

 * Level: 99
 * HP:Infinite
 * SP:Infinite
 * Element: None
 * Weakness: None
 * Tolerance: None

Attacks

 * Data Drain: Skeith pins a target up against its wand and Data Drains the target. This inflicts all status ailments upon the target and halves his or her HP.
 * Judgement: An inescapable water element attack. Skeith freezes all targets in massive columns of ice, Dealing about 35% of their HP in Damage.
 * Earthquake: Skeith stabs his wand into the ground and heavily damages all targets in range.
 * Cross Swing: A simple strike from Skeith's wand that damages the target severely. He'll use it up to two times in a row. There are two versions of this attack&mdash;one acts like a normal attack and can be easily avoided; the other freezes a target in place as Skeith performs an inescapable strike.
 * Dek Do: Decreases the speed of a single target.

After Data Drain

 * Level: 99
 * HP: 4500
 * SP: Infinite
 * Element: None
 * Weakness: none
 * Tolerance: none

Attacks

 * Earthquake: Skeith slams into the ground creating a shockwave and damaging anyone in range.
 * Repth: Recovers 150 HP.
 * Dek Do: Reduces the movement speed of a single target.
 * Suvi Lei: Paralyzes a single target.
 * Mumyn Lei: Puts a single target to sleep.

Data Drained Item

 * Virus Core F

Trivia

 * According to .hack//Another Birth, .hack//XXXX, and a concept art in CyberConnect2's website, the party that defeated Skeith was Kite, BlackRose, and Mistral.
 * According to the Liminality Easter Eggs, as well as information from Archives 03 Skeith was originally program designed to collect data on human emotions and reactions to death for the ultimate AI.
 * Skeith's Red Wand is the item where Sora was sealed into for betraying Morganna during the end of SIGN, causing Sora's player to fall into a coma.
 * In the original Japanese version of Infection, Skeith's wand, which appears in the English version as a large, red staff with a "Q" shape at the tip, is actually represented by a Celtic cross. This was censored for the American release in favor of the Q-shaped version from .hack//SIGN, though it is still seen as the cross in some American media.
 * "Skeith" means "Shadow" in Old Scottish. The spelling of Skeith seems to have changed through the ages, being found as Skeith, Skuth, Skeycht and Skyith.
 * Skeith may owe its name to the Skeith Stone, an artifact found in Kilrenny, Scottland. Inscribed in the stone is a circular cross, outlined by eight leaf or eye shapes and a squigle that identifies it as a Chi Rho Cross (the one that looks like a P and a X combined, those being the Greek letters used to spell Christ).
 * Skeith is physically the smallest of all phases, and the only one with a weapon (during .hack// Project).
 * In .hack//G.U. Vol 4//Reconnection, Skeith gets another new form.