Nerville Hammer

Nerville Hammer is a character who appears in Guilty Gear Strive: Dual Rulers, and is the central antagonist of the show. He is a U.S. Senator, and was the one who raised Unika.

Design

This section is empty or needs to be expanded. You can help the Guilty Gear Wiki by expanding it.

Personality

This section is empty or needs to be expanded. You can help the Guilty Gear Wiki by expanding it.

He views Gears as nothing more than man-made weapons of destruction.

Story

Background

During the Crusades, Nerville was saved by the Sacred Order of Holy Knights, whose power 'captivated' him. He later worked as a researcher in military facilities, seeking a way to eradicate Gears. As a reasearcher, he created a virus that could infect all Gears, but this work was rejected by his higher-ups. Following the end of the Crusades, chiefly at the hands of a relatively small number of skilled magic-users, he began to detest said magic-users, viewing them as no better than Gears. He then became a politician, focusing on the possible threat presented by surviving Gears, but was ignored by many. As his fervor grew, he gained support, eventually becoming a U.S. Senator, but his calls for the eradication of Gears were still dismissed. His views on magic-users were further cemented when Ky Kiske became a king of the United Kingdoms of Illyria and advocated for co-existence with Gears.

In Unika's future, an incomplete version of the Gear-eradication virus, which infected Dizzy, caused Gears to go berserk, leading to a 'second Crusade'. Nerville adopted Unika, Dizzy's daughter, who had hatched from an egg she laid prior to her death and never knew her birth parents. Despite adopting her, Nerville never saw Unika as a person, and began to use her Gear cells to modify himself. At some point, Nerville and Unika found Axl Low after he had found himself in their future, and Nerville explained the state of their future to him before taking control of him and using his power to send Unika back in time.

Nerville's future counterpart then sent Unika back in time to his present self with a version of the Gear-eradication virus. Unika explained the circumstances of the future, and that Nerville's future self sent her back in time so that his present self could become the 'world's savior'. Using both his own intellectual capabilities and Unika's knowledge of the future, Nerville amassed large sums of wealth to perfect the virus.

Guilty Gear Strive: Dual Rulers

Nerville attends Ky and Dizzy's wedding, where he comments negatively on Ky marrying a Gear in comparison to his actions during the Crusades. He makes further disparaging comments towards Dizzy, insisting that she is nothing but a 'defective' weapon, who is likely to lose control over her powers in the future. After the crowd at the wedding applauds Ky and Dizzy's counterarguments, he declares Ky worthy of being his enemy and shakes Dizzy's hand, infecting her with the Gear-eradication virus.

Nerville later congratulates Unika on having, according to his plans, infiltrated President Vernon's End-of-War Commemeration Festival speech held at the site of a former anti-Gear weapon and having created a copy of the access key to the weapon. The weapon is then used to destroy a facility in which the virus was developed, which Elphelt Valentine was present in during its destruction (although she survived), and Unika declares a direct assault on Illyria. As this happens, Nerville intercepts Sol Badguy and Sin Kiske, who were travelling to find Unika, and takes them into his aircraft, where Nerville explains to Sin that he decided to talk to him as a way of assessing whether Sin, as a Gear, is dangerous. Once they land, Nerville shakes Sin's hand, infecting him with the virus.

Once Unika returns to Nerville's estate, after having fought Sin and talked to Bridget, she expresses hesitation over whether Illyria has to be destroyed for them to achieve their goal. Nerville replies that the threat to destroy Illyria was merely a distraction to 'buy time' for his actual goal. Sol and Sin then break in and begin to fight Nerville's guards. Jack-O', Johnny and Baiken also arrive shortly after to assist them. Sin and Unika then begin to fight, and Nerville attempts to shoot Sin with an accelerator for the virus, which Sol deflects. Despite the accelerator being deflected, the virus still affects Sin, as he was already inefected with it, and he issues a command for all Gears to die. This affects Unika, leading Nerville to tell her that she is a Gear and that she should die 'for the sake of humanity'. Sin then tells Unika not to die, and she, as another Command-type Gear, and to Nerville's surprise, issues a command for all Gears to live. These conflicting commands cause the virus to go 'haywire', and all Gears begin to go berserk.

Nerville's future counterpart then arrives through Axl's power and absorbs his present self, explaining that two versions of the same being cannot exist within the same timeline. Nerville goes on to explain that his true goal was for all Gears to go berserk so that both humans and Gears would be eradicated for the world to be 'reborn', with him as its ruler. Sin and Unika's conflicting commands also affect themselves, causing them to begin rampaging. Sin attacks Unika, then attacks the others. Sin then begins to regain control of himself, and the formerly rampaging Gears around the world begin to deactivate. Sol then shoots Sin with a gun that had been made as a failsafe for Dizzy and, by extension, Sin, which eradicates the virus. Nerville attempts to kill Unika, but is intercepted by Sin before he becomes fully unconcious. Nerville then reveals his true form as an 'immortal' being and begins to create clones of himself. As Nerville and his seemingly immortal clones fight everyone, Sin regains conciousness and fights two Nerville clones that were attacking Jack-O', and Johnny finds that the Nerville clones can be killed by attacking their hearts. As they seemingly gain the upper hand, tentacles emerge from the sky, accompanied by Nerville's laughter, and more copies of Nerville drop from them.

As the Nerville copies drop from the tentacles, Jack-O' states that the tentacles are behind a multidimensional distortion barrier, preventing them from stopping the clones at their source. Nerville clones appear at various locations across the world, including the ruined Illyria Castle in which Ky and Dizzy are sealed. Ramlethal and Elphelt attack the barrier with a laser, causing the tentacles to retreat behind the clouds. Later, a Nervile clone attacks Bridget, severely injuring her. After seeing Bridget, Unika flies to the entity to which the tentacles belong and tells Vernon to fire the anti-Gear weapon at her so that she can amplify it to damage the barrier and buy everyone some time. While Unika manages to pierce the barrier, the tentacles grab her as she falls and drag her through the rift before closing it again to heal. The tentacles are then attacked by the military, and more Nerville clones drop from them, targeting magic relay stations. In response to this, Sin commands all Gears to fight the Nerville clones. The anti-Gear weapon is then fired, piercing the barrier and allowing the Gullinkambi Dark to reach the core, and Sin and the others begin to fight masses of Nerville clones. As Sin is grabbed by some of the tentacles, Axl appears and cuts through them, joining the fight. As they struggle to break the barrier to the core, Ky and Dizzy lend Sin their power, allowing him to break the barrier, and Sol throws Sin into the core.

While Sin enters the cores, the others continue to attack the tentacles on its outside. Once he reaches the core, Sin finds Unika, and begins to fight off the tentacles trapping her. The two of them both begin to charge attacks, which collide, creating a magic resonance and freeing her. When Sin shows her the electromagnetic wave tracker that he used to find her, Unika notices another electromagnetic wave, and they begin to travel towards its source. As they do this, two are attacked by more tentacles, which they fight off. Noticing their struggle, Dizzy commands all Gears to lend their strength to Sin and Unika, and others do the same. As this happens, a purple figure sends more tentacles to attack them, which they destroy. Unika and Sin then find themselves in an amorphous environment in which Nerville speaks to them, belittling their efforts and restating his view that he is the world's true savior. While sinking into sludge, they argue against this, stating that Nerville only sought power in response to his own loneliness. As Nerville begins to devour them, they join hands and fire a bullet infused with the anti-Gear virus at Nerville's body in the core of the entity, finally killing him, as well of all of the Nerville clones.

Abilities

Nerville describes himself as highly intelligent, and was able to develop a virus to kill all Gears. His future counterpart's true form is that of a variant of a Gear, a near-immortal being which he describes as 'beyond Gears' and 'divine'. In this state, he can create a seemingly endless amount of clones of himself, and is capable of shapeshifting. Due to his use of Unika's Gear cells in his self-modification, Nerville's magic emits unique electromagnetic waves.

Gallery

• 

  Promotional Image
• 

  Promotional image for episode 3.
• 

  Promotional image for episode 5.
• 

  Promotional image for episode 6.