Lios

"I will delete you now..."

- Lios

Lios (リョース) is the head system administrator for the Japanese version of The World. His administrator abilities allow him to appear as a shop keeper from any of the five servers.

Appearance
Lios normally looks like a NPC shop character from the Delta Server, though he is able to assume any form that is legal within The World due to his Administrator privileges.

Personality
Lios is a stubborn grouch. He blames everything that's going wrong in The World on hackers, with special hatred towards Helba and the Twilight Bracelet that Kite possesses. His attitude gradually changes as the story progresses.

Basic Info
In the real world, Lios is a system administrator working for CC Corp.

.hack//Games
As a system administrator, Lios saw the illegal player Kite as a grave threat to the security of The World and tried numerous times to delete him. Every time he was foiled by the high amount of protection surrounding Kite's character data. He eventually tricked Kite into entering a sealed-off area, where he planned on deleting him personally. However, Helba, the legendary hacker, appeared and spoke on Kite's behalf. Realizing that Kite could prove useful, Lios decided to hire him as an assistant. Kite soon grew tired of Lios' overbearing nature and continued investigating on his own, creating several incidents when he ran into the Phase Innis and Cubia. Angry, Lios followed Kite to Net Slum where he would attempt to delete him one last time. The sudden arrival of Magus ruined Lios' plan, and also exposed him to the real enemy that had been corrupting The World.

Realizing that he would need Lios' help in his fight Kite sought him out, and proved himself to Lios by completing a special trial that Lios had created. Lios agreed to join up with Kite, and helped him by using his administrator powers to search for pieces of Morganna in The World's system. Though his work was mostly behind the scenes, Lios became a crucial member of the .hackers. Their victory over Morganna could never have been accomplished without his aid.

.hack//Another Birth
Lios's role is much the same as in the games; he is a system administrator that first reveals himself by baiting BlackRose and Kite into a trap area by sending them e-mails promising information on the coma victims. BlackRose instantly dislikes Lios for his tactics: covering up the link between The World and the coma victims and trying to put a stop to Kite and BlackRose's investigations. She also grows increasingly frustrated by the way Lios treats the two like his tools. However, BlackRose tolerates Lios because Kite insists that their own investigation will be able to move forward from the information Lios

As the virus infection of The World spreads, BlackRose takes action and, with Kite's help, gets Lios to form an alliance with Helba. Together, their combined forces would eventually triumph over the enemy.

In appreciation for the efforts of the other .hackers in restoring the system to normalcy, Lios reserves a café where a number of them meet offline.

.hack//Kamui
In Kamui's recollection of the Twilight Incident in .hack//Kamui, it is revealed that after Albireo's collapse, the Cobalt Knights were placed directly under the command of Lios.

.hack//XXXX
After the defeat of Skeith, Lios becomes aware of Kite's existence. Recognizing Kite's power as the same ability that is responsible for the coma victims, Lios concludes that Kite has been attacking players. He swears to delete him and hires Balmung to go and destroy him. Later, he watches as Cubia destroys Innis, and mistakes him for a hacker as well. It soon becomes obvious that he is more concerned with deleting Kite and Cubia than with helping the coma victims. This attitude eventually drives Balmung away from him.

When the network and The World suffer from even more deterioration, Lios concludes that it is due to Cubia and Kite defeating the Phases and personally confronts them to delete them, but is unable to; Cubia is damaged but can't be deleted, and Kite is protected by Aura's power. Kite escapes Lios, vowing that he'll use his bracelet as he sees fit, and Helba explains to Lios that the damage done likely would have occurred even without Cubia and Kite's actions. After Aura's appearance in Mac Anu, Lios is eventually convinced into siding with the .hackers.

During the fight with Morganna, Lios aids the party by raising the players' statistical parameters to their max and constantly raising their HP values. Morganna eventually blocks Lios's support and Data Drains him in the fight.

.hack//Unison
In Unison, Lios was invited to the party located at Net Slum. In a chat with Helba, Lios offered to make Net Slum an official root town. Helba declined the suggestion with great courtesy because she wanted to keep Net Slum as a peaceful, non-disturbed home for Vagrant AIs and lost data, which Lios accepted.

Trivia

 * Lios is the word for the Kingdom of Light used in the Epitaph of Twilight. This is where the codename for the server administrator of The World comes from, though Lios himself was completely oblivious to this fact.
 * The word "Apeiron" is a theory of something eternal and ageless and that encompasses all the world. Light is such a thing.
 * In the Japanese version of the Epitaph of the Twilight, Apeiron is the king of Lios (Light) and Helba is the queen of Dakk (Dark). Both words come from Northern Germanic mythology.
 * Lios' character design is based on the Mad Hatter.