Zelik Lindemann

Zelik Lindemann (ぜリク, Zeriku) is the boss of the Cocytus and a good friend of Graham Gregson.

Back Stories
In the back stories, Zelik appears without burns on his face and body. He has short red hair and grey eyes. For most of the back stories, he appears in a blue and white jumpsuit with no shirt underneath, heavy work boots, with his forearms bandaged and wearing black fingerless gloves. While visiting Silas's arena, he appears in a pin stripe suit with a lizard necklace round his neck.

Present
In the main story, Zelik has scars on the right side of his face, neck, chest, and what remains of his right arm, which was cut off above the elbow. He has a bald spot where the acid hit his hair and his prosthetic (right) eye is slightly more golden than his original eye colour. He a ponytail which is just longer than shoulder length. He wears a green-yellow vest top, dark green carge trousers, a bag belt and a single dog tag. His forearm is bandaged and he wears a black glove over it, with a work glove over that. He later appears in a jumpsuit for the final fight. Zelik is always shown with a brace round his head and wears a brace around his torso to cover his missing arm up until he gets a prosthetic one.

Personality
Zelik can act rather harsh and isn't the type to give things away for free. He is fine with the trafficking of humans and sells people himself, coming off as heartless. He is actually very protective of everyone he knows. When the Cocytus was attacked, Zelik was willing to fight himself to save everyone else. He later does this again during a fight with Syal, sending them back inside as he knows she will kill them and fighting her himself. When Syal is caught in an explosion, Zelik helps her out from under the rubble and checks to make sure she's all right.

Background
Zelik grew up in the slums and made the Cocytus. Zelik had to deal with Syal when she was stopping some of the slavers from taking the orphans her and Elsa were looking after. Zelik instead decided to make a deal with her, that if he could sell her, he'd protect the area, as no one would go near anyone under Zelik's protection. He promised her that if he let slavers take anyone from that area, Syal would be allowed to kill him. He sold her to Silas to become a fighter in the arena, despite the fact Zelik very loudly voiced his hatred of Silas's arena. When the arena was raided and Allen killed, Silas believed Zelik was the one to sell them out, as he had warned them the police were on to them. Following Silas's release from jail, Silas had Zelik kidnapped and tortured, burning half of Zelik's face off with sulphuric acid. When Zelik tried to fight back, his arm was cut off and Silas gave the order for him to be killed. Graham saved Zelik and took him to the hospital. Zelik said he would be shutting down the Cocytus to make sure Silas couldn't hurt anyone working there, but changed his mind after the staff started crying and begging for him to come back. Zelik found out about Silas's death a month later and knew it had been Graham that killed him, but Graham denied knowing anything about the murder.

Graham Gregson
Graham and Zelik have known each other since Graham first came to the slums. Graham had hoped to use Zelik's trust to make the slums do as he needed. The two ended up being very friendly and Zelik offered Graham a discount at the Cocytus, despite how he made sure to get as much money out of Silas as he could. When Zelik was kidnapped and tortured by Silas, Graham was the one to save him moments before he would have been killed. Graham later killed Silas for torturing and attempting to kill Zelik, but denied any knowledge of Silas's death when asked.

Graham and Zelik are still close friends in the main story of Mother Keeper. Graham had Zelik deliver the chip to Ricalna to let him know where to meet him. Zelik seems to have a lot more knowledge of Graham than anyone else and actually seems to have an idea about Graham's plans. Graham asks Zelik to help out during the final battle against Eden by being in charge of the missile and protecting that area. He also makes Zelik finally get his sight and hearing fixed and gets him a prosthetic arm for the final battle. Zelik destroyed the arm in a fight not long after.

Silas Andovaldo
Silas use to be a customer at the Cocytus, who bought slaves to fight in a death arena so he could make money. Silas was very particular about the slaves he bought, looking for strong fighters who he found beautiful. He was interested in buying Zelik himself but Zelik refused to sell himself to Silas. Silas bought Syal from Zelik on his recommendation as she was almost as strong as Zelik but not quite. When the arena was raided, Silas believed Zelik had been the one to sell them out and had him kidnapped and tortured. He burned Zelik with sulphuric acid though complained that it would be a pity that Zelik wouldn't be beautiful enough to fight for him with the burns.

Ricalna Forde
Zelik is very attached to Ricalna, having watched him grow up. He's willing to let Ricalna off the hook easily and affectionately refers to him as "kiddo".

Syal Fineded
Zelik made a deal with Syal that he would protect Syal's adopted family if he could sell her to Silas, promising she could kill him if he went against his word. When Elsa appeared in the arena, Syal believed Zelik had gone back on his word and believed she had all right to kill him. Zelik and Syal fight at the Cocytus, with Zelik managing to beat Syal but when Syal went into berserk mode she managed to fight back and had a better chance to kill Zelik. However, she was stopped by Lint forcing her into sleep mode, and Ricalna convinced Zelik to let her go. They later fight again during the final battle and Zelik pulls her from under the rubble when a bomb goes off to check she's all right.

Allen
Zelik hated Allen from the moment they met and refuses to be in the same room as him for more than five minutes, claiming he physically can't stand Allen's presence.

Cocytus
All the staff in the Cocytus are extremely fond of Zelik and are always trying to help him. They risked their lives trying to protect him from Silas. In the 4komas, a few members are shown being rather over protective and too helpful, causing Zelik to get angry at them for looking down on him and getting at him about his height.

Quotes

 * "I physically can not stand your presence, you bastard."- Chapter 30

Trivia

 * Zelik is the only named character to appear in an official 4koma
 * Zelik is the only character to be given a full character profile
 * Zelik and Turkes are the only two characters with confirmed ages
 * The thing Zelik wears on his head is to muffle the distortion noise from when the inside and outside of his right ear was burned by acid
 * Zelik's laugh is described as a giggle
 * In his character profile, Zelik is shown to have two matching earrings with Graham on his left ear
 * Graham and Zelik both only wear one dog tag and have the same bag belt
 * Zelik is the shortest male character in Mother Keeper and ties with Lennard for second shortest adult character
 * Zelik is mentioned to be uncomfortable with people standing directly behind him, possible due to once being tazered and knocked unconscious from behind so that he could be kidnapped and tortured