Dr. Lazarov

Dr. Lazarov (ラザロフ博士, Razarofu hakase) or simply known as a Lazarov, is a secondary antagonist in Final Fantasy Brave Exvius

Appearance
Lazarov is a middle aged man with short blond hair. He wears very stereotypical scientist attire, consisting of black pants, brown shows and a lab coat. He wears some technological lens on his right eye.

Personality
Lazarov is the very definition of a mad scientist being a twisted, amoral, unethical, inhuman, lunatic individual with a depraved personality and a sociopathic disregard for human life. No matter the collateral damage or the boundaries to cross, Lazarov will do everything he needs to do in order to achieve his goal of immortality. Having null sympathy, neither the value of human life nor ethical codes matter to him and he will violate both to conduct his experiments, no matter how horrifying, the world being nothing more than a testing ground.

Completely insane, he will dispose even of subordinates who oppose him and make them test subjects if needed. He goes as far as deeming himself a "sane scientist" for being able to devise a scheme that would let him collect as many "samples" as he wanted, which often meant genocide, both present and future, and believing it a perfectly logical choice for a scientist in need of materials.

He further gloats and marvels himself on the successes of his experiments, regardless of how degenerated they are. He gives little importance to the suffering he spreads and even show sadistic glee in toying with people specialize those he brainwashes and those close to them.

Story
Not much is known about Lazarov's previous life except that he has been a renowned scientist. He at some point encountered "monsters who have lived seven centuries" which ultimately drove him to his obsessive goal of Eternal Life and discarding any ounce of his humanity in the process.

Rain, Lasswell and Fina while venturing in the Kobolos Isles in pursuit of the Sworn Six of Paladia encounter a little girl called Emma who is looking for her mother, finding her alone and in need of protection, the party volunteers to help her find her mother. She's told by citizens that her mother is dead but she refuses to believe it. Knowing that she worked under Dr. Lazarov the party travels to his laboratory for clues.

On the entrance they eavesdrop a conversation between Lazarov and his subordinates on the success of some of his "weapons" and how the quality of the materials changes the result, but that mass production remained an issue due to lack of materials. Lazarov proposed that if they lacked corpses, that they should just make them and departs with the scientists, leaving the party disturbed. Emma recognizes Lazarov as a man that her mother called "the professor". Before they can infer what they were talking about the party is assaulted by zombies and has to fight their way through. During their way Emma reveals perturbing details, such as people who'd oppose Lazarov "disappear" the next day, or rumors of a man in Dark Armor. This surprises the party who believe Lazarov is working with Veritas of the Dark.

The party reaches the deepest level of the lab and encounter Lazarov who presents himself, overjoyed at the chance to gather more valuable data now that the party can fight his experiments. Lazarov reveals how "acquainted" he was with Rain's former men. He further elaborates that his assistant robbed the graves of felled Grandshelt soldiers which Lazarov used for his experiments, turning them into zombies that the party had to face. Horrified, Emma wonders if her mother died for his sake. Lazarov recognizes Emma as the daughter of "that woman" who opposed him, so disturbingly reveals he experimented on her and covered her death as an accident and plans to do the same with Emma. Disgusted at Lazarov, Rain and Lasswell prepare to attack him but he unleashes his creation, Test Subject No. 8. An horrifying gargantuan monstrosity composed of organic and mechanical parts. The party manages to beat it but Lazarov succeeds in escaping. He believes the party fascinating and that just as Veritas of the Dark told him, and departs promising to meet the party again.

At some point he brainwashes Evan as he needed the engineers abilities to restore the ancient airship the Invincible for his plans of genocide to gather more corpses to experiment upon. After Veritas of the Heavens is defeated and the Wind Crystal broken, the heart of the Invincible beats again and the machine becomes functional once more, being used as a vehicle for the Veritas.

He immediately sets his sight on the Zoldaad Empire and its militaristic tendencies, seeking to exploit the reign in order to wage war and with it create the corpses he needs. For that purpose he brainwashes Emperor Sozhe and makes him his puppet, forcing the otherwise benevolent regent into becoming a cruel war-wagging tyrant, forcing the people into military service and impose heavy taxes, greatly affecting the country causing the creation of the Raven rebel movement.

Leaving the Fire Shrine the party reaches a town that doubles as a forward base of the rebels, but they find it ravaged. Lid theorizes it was an airship strike. Rebels inform Jake of the situation with their leader ordering them to treat the wounded while he goes on his own to take care of personal issues since he has to think on his plans after the revolution suceeds. The party follows him and demands to know what he's plotting, he then reveals that within Zoldaad's high command there are those who oppose Emperor Sozhe's regime and secretly aid the rebels, one such case being the Crown Prince Shera himself. Jake explains that after they defeat Sozhe, the Empire will be in chaos and the one that can help them in that time is the Crown Prince, as such Nichol correctly deduces that Jake's plan is to "kidnap" Shera in order to put him to safety. Jake confirms this and decides to carry out his plan by wreaking havoc in the imperial capital.

The party succeeds in their endeavour and are now surrounded by soldiers with the next part of the plan to be captured in order to infiltrate Zoldaad from the inside. However and much to their surprise the party finds Dr. Lazarov and Evan in the high ranks of Zoldaad. Lid is left in disbelief while Evan chastises her pacifist ideas as naive while gloating on the Invincible's might that could reduce to ashes any place in the world much like the Rebel's base and how he will build more weaponized Airships for money, making Lid feel disgust. Dr. Lazarov has the soldiers throw the party into the empire's arena throwing a wrench into Jake's plans.

In the Arena the party is able to meet Emperor Sozhe who is in company of Lazarov. Sozhe promises "princesses" to the victors with Lazarov correcting Sozhe that there are no princesses in the Empire. Lid wonders if that is truly the "bad Emperor" that Jake mentioned. He confirms this but notices the Emperor is behaving strangely. The party is then faced by a Behemoth and overcome the beast. Sozhe goes to the arena himself with soldiers to greet the party and give them a prize with Jake then attempting to "claim" the prize by getting close to Sozhe. However the Emperor gloats that he can see through their identities. Jake alleges that they were never trying to hide it in the first place. Sozhe then has the party sent to the dungeons and Jake notices something strange about the emperor.

In the prison Jake reveals the next part of his plan as soon as a guard shift occurs one of the maids assaults the guard knocking him unconscious and frees the party. The maid identifies as Amelia, the Crown Prince's maid. Jake performs some of his advances on her, but she quickly declines any of them in favour of sticking to the plan. She tells Jake that Shera's allegiance with the rebels was discovered and he was imprisoned. Jake feared that it could happen soon and sets on rescuing him. After battling several soldiers the party meets with the Crown Prince. Shera discloses that Dr. Lazarov was the one who discovered his alliance with the rebels and that ever since that man came, Emperor Sozhe has changed drastically, given that despite the nations militaristic tendencies they would wage war for far more noble reasons than at present time, going as far as believing that Sozhe is little more than Lazarov's puppet. The party asks if Lazarov is in the castle and Shera confirms this. Jake asks Shera if he's sure about what he's doing, given they will defeat his father, but Shera is resolved to bring peace back to the nation.

At Zoldaad Castle the party manages to infiltrate although noticing that it is unusually quiet. A soldier approaches and Shera attempts to reason, thinking he will give an answer. However the soldier behaves strangely and is revealed to be a monster before others appear, forcing the party to fight them while the alarms sound. Reaching the throne room the party find Emperor Sozhe. Shera denounces that the person before them is not his father but Lazarov corrects him saying that it is indeed Sozhe, however he has been experimented upon by Lazarov's machination and turned into a mindless puppet.

Lazarov explains he wanted war in order to conduct his experiments and as such Emperor Sozhe proved more useful to his goals than the Veritas with whom he parted ways, he then has Sozhe battle the party while he makes his escape. The fallen regent proves a tough adversary but is defeated and with the last of his life manages to regain his senses and feel regret for his actions and blame his desire for power as the drive that made him easily controllable by Lazarov. Emperor Sozhe passes away leaving his ruling duties to his son, thus putting an end to the present tyranny.

The party chases Lazarov down into the Magic Labs where he is believed to be and manage to reach him. There they find Lazarov who explains his motives. He's in pursuit of eternal life and experiments on resurrection in order to be able to find the secret to achieve it. The party disapproves of his unethical methods claiming eternal life doesn't exist but he protests saying that it indeed exists, mentioning "monsters who have lived for seven centuries" as proof. He continues elaborating that in order to perform his experiments he needs corpses and that the most efficient way to get corpses is through instigating war, making the party disgusted at his inhumanity. Angry, Lid tries to reason with Evan but finds out an horrible truth, that Evan too has been brainwashed by Lazarov. He explains that to get his corpses, Lazarov needed the Invincible and for that purposes he needed an engineer, so he brainwashed Evan. To prove his point, he orders Evan to laugh at her sister's stupidity. Evan subsequently breaks into hysteric laughter and random and erratic rants about money, disturbingly showing how broken he is at present. Lazarov finds his obsession with money impressive but claims it didn't come as a result of the brainwashing itself, but rather that it was within him to begin with and that likely the mind control amplified his burning desire for money to achieve his dreams. Disgusted at Lazarov's depravity the party confronts him but he makes his escape as he unleashes his zombies on the party.

Dr. Lazarov and Evan manage to board the Invincible and prepare to burn Zoldaad with their weapon to get more corpses. However before he can begin, Bahamut who witnesses the Invincible and claiming to have "his heart" attacks the Airship with his Megaflare, severely damaging the machine and forcing Lazarov to hide for repairs.

Following the encounter, Shera has Amelia deliver a message to the party, saying that Lazarov was monitored into an old hangar that is no longer used, which has enough equipment to repair the Invincible. The party decides to travel in order to put an end to Lazarov's menace.