Lyger Zephronic

Dinendal 'Lyger' Zephronic is the oldest of the four Zephronic children. He is not very intelligent and he often acts without thinking. In spite of this Lyger has the largest heart of the four siblings. While he will not admit it, he cannot leave someone alone if they're in trouble, especially members of his family.

Early Life
Lyger was the first born son of Mortis and Anya Zephronic. He was even visited by Shadow for a time before he turned one year old, at which point Mortis forbade Shadow from contacting the Zephronics again. When his brothers and sister were born, Lyger took on the "big brother" role, trying to look out for them. Lyger was trained to be a weapon by his father, whose extreme techniques made Lyger strong but resentful of Mortis.

When Lyger was 12, Khran was approached by RACE troops at home. Despite Lyger's best efforts, Khran was kidnapped. After learning Mortis orchestrated the kidnapping to make Khran stronger, Lyger tried to kill his father. He was unsuccessful, and as punishment, his hands were burned in a boiler. The scars and the pain would last a long time, to the point he stopped using his hands in combat, and had trouble with daily tasks.

A few years later, Khran returned home, now possessed by Skreel, assaulting Mortis and Anya, whom Khran believed responsible for his torture. After Khran feld, Lyger, Raike and Naya all went their separate ways. Lyger, filled with anger over what happened, got into a fight in a small village, where he allowed Chaos Corruption to overtake him. This Corruption lead him to create a blast that damaged a good portion of the village, injuring or killing several people. All of these failures created a massive guilt complex in Lyger, who blamed himself for not being able to save Khran or control his emotions. Lyger then took on the disguise of an elf, trying to start his life over, eventually building a museum dedicated to video games with his friend, Mikau.

Return of Darth Kryon Arc
When Tails attempted to ambush Lyger and Mikau, they locked Tails in a room in the museum. Raike, dead at this point after being killed by Shadow, possessed Tails and escaped, confronting Lyger and accusing him of wasting his talent. Later, Khran arrived at the museum and convinced Lyger to fight their brother. Lyger abandoned his disguise as an elf and took on the appearance of a hedgehog.

Lyger wandered off by himself, recalling Raike's words to him just before they separated following Khran's attack. He found his way to the Mana Tree, where he, Khran and the Ministry were blessed by Empyrea to fight against Raike. It was here that Lyger revealed his reluctance to fight was because he briefly lost himself to Chaos Corruption, blowing up some buildings in a small town, killing several people. Khran and Shadow talked Lyger again into fighting, and they made for Kryon's castle.

Lyger and Khran found Darth Kryon/Raike in a castle, and began to fight to stop Raike's plans. During the fight, Lyger let it slip that he knew one of his brothers was a clone. He mistakenly assumed it was Raike (since Raike is younger than Khran), causing Raike to snap and become Corrupted. Lyger was knocked out, but healed by Ream. Lyger distracted Raike while Khran ran off, and Raike bragged that he was going to kill Naya after killing Lyger and Khran. Believing Raike to be too far gone to save, Lyger flew towards Raike and shoved his hand through Raike's chest, killing him.

Raike Androids Arc
Lyger and Khran found their own apartment, trying to live out their lives peacefully. That was put to a halt when Lyger and Khran were assaulted by RACE forces, which Khran had to use Chaos Corruption to defeat.

Mortis Arc
Upon the return of Raike, Ream and Tails from the space station, Lyger learned his mother was still alive. He and Raike immediately wanted to set out to find her, but Khran refused, still believing Anya sold him to RACE. A short time later, Mortis arrived at their house, telling his children to come with him to conquer the world. When they refused, Mortis assaulted Lyger, Khran, Naya and Raike. Lyger let it slip that Anya was still alive, leaving Shadow to fend off Mortis long enough for the four children to escape.

Lyger and Raike managed to locate Anya in Hook Coast, but Mortis found them as well. Lyger and Khran fought Mortis to get him to stop his assault. During the battle, Mortis broke Lyger's hand, taking him out of the fight. After seeing Khran unleash his demonic power, Mortis attacked Naya in order to get them to back offm and get them all in one place the next day.

The following day, Lyger, Khran and Raike confronted Mortis on the waterfall bridge. When they still refused to join Mortis, he attacked them. Anya finally found the courage to enter the fray, knowing she was the only one who could stop him, killing Mortis with a stab of her dragon claws.

Jurai History Arc
Raike and Ream returned from Bevelle with Jurai crystals.

Khran's Inner Demon Arc
Lyger, Raike and Naya went to the old and abandoned Zephronic household, hoping to find evidence that Anya had treated Khran well.

Phantom Arc
Attempting to find something to cheer up Khran, Lyger went into town to buy a video game. During his approach, he spotted RACE ships invading the city. He went to intercept the ground forces, citing it as a good chance to show off how "awesome" he was.

The first soldier Lyger came across was Phantom, one of the four RACE Generals. Lyger surprised Phantom with a kick to the face, but Phantom got back up quickly. A fight broke out between the two, with Phantom having the clear upper hand throughout the battle, dodging almost every attack Lyger threw at him. Meanwhile, Phantom cut Lyger across the arm and forehead, and finally hit him with a poisoned kunai that restricted his movement. While the poison took effect, Phantom ran down a long list of Lyger's failures, calling him weak, selfish, and hypocritical. The speech deeply affected Lyger, causing him to hesitate just long enough for Phantom to viciously cut a large slice into Lyger's chest.

Just when it looked like Lyger was going to die by Phantom's hands, Epsilon flew in and rescued Lyger. Eps took Lyger to an alleyway, healing his wounds, but Eps's healing was unable to remove the poison. Eps got Lyger to his feet to take him to a hospital, but Phantom found them, enraged at their attempted escape. Phantom cut off Eps's leg and almost inflicted the final blow, but Lyger cried out for Phantom to stop. In that moment, a piece of shoulder armor suddenly appeared on Lyger, and a blinding flash filled the area. The burst of energy made Lyger faint, but it blinded Phantom long enough for Eps to get them both to safety.

At the hospital, a doctor told Lyger the extent of the poison's effects: he was physically weaker, and his muscles wouldn't respond to Chaos Energy anymore. As such, any attempt to use Chaos Energy could result in instant death. Lyger returned home, saddened at his loss to Phantom, realizing that most of what Phantom said about him was true. Lyger resolved himself to becoming a better man than he was before, vowing that he would not lose again.

Personality
Lyger's outward appearance is incredibly boastful, often praising himself for the most minor of things, and finding any opportunity to relay how "awesome" he is. In reality, he harbors a deep-rooted guilt complex about his history. Lyger used to blame himself for just about everything that went wrong with the Zephronic family as him not being strong or fast enough. However, Lyger has been slowly getting over his guilt, and has been improving himself. Due to his past failures, Lyger has a somewhat heroic side to him, in that he will go out of his way to help someone in need.

He is a rather slow thinker, frequently missing the point of conversations or grasping things only after they have been "dumbed down" for him. But, some of his ideas do ocassionally work, like putting an ice-based crystal in a freezer.

Lyger is apparently a bad driver, as noted by an incident with his father's car that he shouts loudly about whenever someone brings it up.

Strengths
Lyger is a Light Mana user, capable of using magic based on light and/or holy power. He has been shown to use this power to create light beams similar to a flashlight, as well as use projectiles, create explosions and form weapons. This element also makes him resistant to the effects of Darkness Mana.

He is physically the strongest of the four Zephronic siblings, capable of lifting a small car by himself, and is the fourth strongest overall (behind Kryon, Mortis and Amy).

Weaknesses
Lyger's hands are in poor condition. While he can use them for everyday tasks, he avoids using his hands in a fight because of the chance for injury, such as when Mortis broke Lyger's hand at Hook Coast.

Lyger is the least intelligent of the four Zephronic siblings, and the slowest flyer. Lyger is also weak against fire magic, and is slightly pyrophobic, being uncomfortable near open flames, no matter how small. This stems from his hands being burned in a boiler when he was young.

During his fight with Phantom, Lyger suffered nearly fatal injuries, and was simultaneously poisoned with a nerve agent that nearly paralyzed him. Thanks to Eps, Lyger recovered from his wounds, but the poison left him physically weaker, as well as unable to use Chaos Energy without the possibility of instant death. This has made him avoidant to Chaos Energy, as a large spike could kill him.

Khran
Khran and Lyger consider one another their best friend, and the two of them are very close. Khran still remembered Lyger trying to save him from RACE when he was young, which he has always been grateful for, even when Skreel had poisoned Khran's mind. This mutual respect has even been used to talk Khran out of a murderous rage before. The two brothers also share a few common interests, like video games.

Raike
Lyger shares a sibling rivalry with Raike. The two turn almost everything they do into some sort of competition, and while there is a respect for one another, it's buried. Raike has also been known to threaten Lyger whenever Raike believes Lyger's done something stupid.

Trivia

 * Lyger's first appearance was strip five. He laments how Knuckles has already broken the fourth wall.
 * Lyger has the most appearance changes of any character in the comic, with three. He first appeared as an elf in strip five, then changed to a hedgehog form in #269. His red and black appearance first showed up in #475, and his current outfit first showed up in #964.
 * "King Lyger," the author avatar of the comic creator of the same name, uses the same sprites as Lyger does, except that King Lyger will have a crown on his head.
 * Lyger is homosexual. This has been brought up twice in the comic: first in #720 where Mortis called Lyger a 'faggot,' then in #739 where Lyger doesn't wear a shirt to the icy Hook Coast in order to "show off (his) chiseled features to all the guys who'd be interested."