Albus

Albus is a rogue agent of Ecclesia who possesses the magical gun Agartha and, eventually, the all-powerful glyph Dominus, which is said to have the power to defeat Dracula. In Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, Ecclesia's founder Barlowe sends Shanoa on a mission to find him and retrieve the glyph.

Official background: Albus is Ecclesia's Chief Researcher and, like Shanoa, was trained from a young age to harness Dominus. Dedicated to research, he became Barlowe's trusted assistant. Using Agartha, a charmed firearm, Albus is able to channel glyph energy into bullets, which become magical projectiles.

Character History
Albus is later found by Shanoa and he gives up 2 pieces of Dominus. Albus steals the last part of Dominus, Dominus Agony, after testing and analyzing Shanoa's reactions to the other two glyphs and seeks to retrieve them. But because Dominus draws its power from Dracula, Albus nearly succumbs to Dracula's will and makes a retreat to the Mystery Manor, where a final showdown between him and Shanoa takes place when he falls under Dracula's influence. To receive the bad ending, he must be killed without rescuing all 13 villagers. To continue, you must rescue all the villagers and then fight Albus. When Albus is killed, Shanoa absorbs the Dominus glyph, and Albus's spirit tells Shanoa never to use it. After completing the game, Albus is unlocked as a playable character.

Albus refers to himself as Shanoa's big brother, and knowing the fate awaiting the wielder of Dominus, stole the glyph so he could learn to use it himself. He hopes of not only to overcome his weakness, but to also protect Shanoa from the Dominus itself, as deep down he cares for her a lot, even plotting to give his life up for Shanoa's.

Quotes
If Shanoa talks to Albus without leaving during the prologue, he says nothing. However, he says to Shanoa if she does not absorb the glyph:
 * "That's what you came for, isn't it? No time to waste."
 * "You know you haven't got a choice, Shanoa. Let's not play games."

Strategy
Albus appears in this game as the boss of the Mystery Manor area, being the game's 8th boss. Because he has the power of Dominus Agony absorbed into his body, he has descended into madness, as he is deluded enough to believe that he himself is the reincarnated Count Dracula. Unlike over half the enemies in the game, he is actually weak to Dark-attribute attacks, so take full advantage of the Vol Umbra glyph if you acquire it just before the battle.

He uses a number of attacks during the fight, mainly all the fighting abilities that you can use in Albus Mode. The first is a regular bullet attack, which does medium damage. The second is the Optical Shot/Vertical Shot attack from Albus Mode, charging up Light and Dark energy to be used in one spiraling shot. The third attack is where he jumps into the air and drops Torpor crystals upon you as an aerial assault attack. The fourth is the Quad Ignis kick attack from Albus Mode, where he leaps upwards and spirals through the air, dealing a lot of fire damage upon impact. His fifth attack is his Glyph Attack, namely the Max Shot/Glyph in Bullet attack in Albus Mode, where he summons the Acerbatus glyph to make the attack. This is the only time where this Glyph can be obtained. In Hard Mode, he has three additional attacks, the standard Ignis, Fulgur and Grando glyphs.

No matter which ending you try to get, your reward for defeating Albus is the Dominus Agony glyph, but if you're trying to get the good ending, you don't get to keep it until all the villagers have been rescued.

Feats

 * Marksmanship: Albus is an expert marksman with his single barreled Agartha. He can sacrifice MP for rapid fire of Agartha to until it runs out.
 * Martial Arts: Albus also mastered close combat abilities, and excels in aerial flame kicks.
 * Glyph Mastery: Albus can fire a variety of Glyphs from Agartha the same way as Shanoa fires her Glyph from her arms, though Albus prefers Acerbatus, Torpor, and other types of shots suitable for Agartha.
 * Magic Regeneration: Due to Ecclesia's research, Albus's MP regenerates at an astounding speed, allowing him to fire Agartha successively.
 * Researcher: Albus was the chief researcher of Ecclesia. And his critical thinking led Shanoa to the truth of Dominus, and learned to absorb the Dominus Agony Glyph within two observations of Shanoa absorbing Dominus Anger and Dominus Hatred. Unfortunately, even with research of the Wygol Villagers' blood, he did not have enough time to anticipate the dangers of absorbing Dominus without absorbing slight essence of the villagers, like Shanoa did, which were madness and delusions of being Count Dracula. Nobody knows for sure, if it was just delusions or if Count Dracula really controlled him for that short period of time.

Abilities

 * Shot: Agartha can fire a magic bullet that pierces magical creatures. It does not require physical bullets to reload as it functions the same way as Julius Belmont's Sub-weapons do with MP.
 * Rapid Fire: Agartha can also fire in infinite rapid succession as long as it has enough MP to empower it.
 * Torpor: Agartha can fire a Torpor Glyph that incapacitates its victim in a crystal cage. It has the longest cooldown in Albus's arsenal. It is an Ice based Glyph.
 * Optical Shot: Agartha can also fire a magic wave of black and white. The light wave will spiral into where Agartha marks before released as an outward spiral in an opposite direction. The black and white light waves do either light or dark damage, depending on the opponent. Along with Max Shot, it has the second longest cooldown. It is also called Vertical Shot.
 * Max Shot: A powerful Glyph. Agartha can fire an Acerbatus Glyph that curses the victim, shocks with electrical damage, and consumes the enemy in darkness. Albus inserts the Acerbatus Glyph into Agartha's barrel, and fires Agartha, launching a large black ball of darkness with yellowish skulls. Along with Optical Shot, it has the second longest cooldown. It is also called Casper Shot. While battling him, he says " Glyph in Bullet!"
 * Quadruple Ignis: Albus also masters a spinning flame kick and uses Hearts instead of MP.
 * High Jump: Albus can high jump into taller areas faster than Shanoa with her Volaticus wing Glyph.
 * Slide: Albus can perform a weak slide.
 * Backdash: Like Shanoa, Albus can backdash, and he is invincible when he does so.
 * Warp: Possibly his best ability in the game, Albus can warp to wherever he chooses in an area and however many times he desires, as long as he has the MP to do so. He cannot do this when he is possessed by Dominus though.
 * Torpor Rain: Albus rains down Torpor on Shanoa.
 * Ignis: In Hard Mode (Lv 50 or LV1), Albus can fire a triple fireball Ignis like Shanoa.
 * Grando: In Hard Mode (Lv 50 or LV1), Albus can fire an Icicle Grando like Shanoa.
 * Fulgur: In Hard Mode (Lv 50 or LV1), Albus can fire a Thunderball Fulgur like Shanoa.
 * Dominus: In Albus Mode, Albus finds a way to master Dominus and uses it to enhance his powers to effectively counter Count Dracula without becoming insane from Dominus. He then goes in a mission to permanently destroy Count Dracula in place of Shanoa.

Trivia

 * In Castlevania: Judgment, at the end of Shanoa's story, it is said that Albus is a traitor who betrayed Ecclesia for an unknown reason and that Shanoa must continue her adventure to stop him.
 * As with many Castlevania characters, Albus's name is significant in that it's a considerable hint that he is not as villainous as he tries to come off; his name means 'white' or 'bright' in Latin.
 * Some fans have noticed that he shares a striking resemblance to Ffamran "Balthier" mied Bunansa from Final Fantasy XII. Interestingly enough, they have the same weapon preference.
 * Due to the nature of the boss fight, he, along with a certain leader of Ecclesia, are the only bosses that cannot hurt the player by simply touching them.
 * The Quad Ignis Kick he uses may be a direct reference to Fei Long, from Street Fighter II, who uses the same kind of kick.
 * Keith Silverstein, Albus's English voice actor, also did the voice of Simon Belmont in Castlevania: Judgment.