Dante Alighieri

Durante "Dante" Alighieri(ダンテ・アリギエーリ; Dante arigiēri) is a supporting character in Highschool DxD: Яe-birth and a member of the Weiß team, being considered their second strategist after Zhuge Liang.

The descendant of the original Tuscan Poet Dante Alighieri, he's the current host of the Mid-tier Longinus Sephiroth Graal and the older half-brother of the current wielder of Longinus Annihilation Maker, Howard P. Lovecraft.

Appearance
Dante is a tall, handsome young man of average height, fair skin, sharp face structure and sharp olive-colored eyes, his spiky grey hair always slick backwards. According to Ichijou, Dante is always exhalating a heavy aura similar to a devil's, and has a rather "bad boy" vibe around him.

Being the most normal member of the Weiß team, he usually wears rather casual, if not expensive, clothes of several famous brands, and rarely anything else, except for one occasion where he wore a proper black suit during his invasion of the Devil-Vampire peace conference in Volume 9.

Personality
The most down-to-earth member of the Weiß team, Dante is usually the second voice of reason among his teammates and is both the brains and the face of the group, always making sure no one violates their own code of honor for their individual objectives. Cool, collected, if not a little lazy at times, Dante is possibly the friendliest member of his entire team, and the one who Ichijou made friends with the fastest, which is also why he's the one usually in charge in taking care of the team's affairs with other groups and factions.

Dante doesn't seem too much interested in his own heritage and rather ignore the fact that he's descendant of a hystorical figure, which is reason why he's always on bitter terms with his younger half-brother Howard, who instead takes pride on his link with the original Lovecraft. Despite such animosity, he deeply cares and loves his little brother, so much the reason why he joined the Weiß team was to make sure he was going to be safe from danger, such affection also extending to his parents.

Dante seems to like chick-flicks, rom-com tv shows, has a rather fetish for girls wearing short skirts and, while he might not admit, his favorite book seems to be really the own Divine Comedy. He also dislikes being called by his birth name, "Durante".

History
Dante is the descendant of the tuscan poet Dante Alighieri, born somewhere in Italy before his parents got divorced and he moved with his mother to England, where she met and married the descendant of the writer H. P. Lovecraft, and with him had her second son Howard, who became Dante's half-brother.

A few years before the start of the series, both half-brothers were found and invited to join the Weiß team by Arthuria Pendragon, with the warning that, if they don't, other not-so-friendly factions might come and become a threat to them. Fearing for the safety of his parents and half-brother, Dante agreed to join the team under the condition that Arthuria would garantee the safety of his parents and that Howard would stay out of danger. Both siblings are members since them.

Powers & Abilities
Master Magician - Despite not caring much about his own heritage, Dante is a well-versed magic user that uses an unique type of black magic of devil origin he learned from his father, with enough strength to rival and even surpass the inherited abilities from the 72 Pillars in terms of destructive power and mastery. According to Tasha Campbell, Dante's runes not only are complex and well-made to the point they're practically impossible to recreate, himself claims that there's still more room for improvement. Dante seems to take preference in a type of explosive magic that is similar to the Bael's Power of Destruction.

Wit - Dante is the second most intelligent member of the Weiß team, only under fellow strategist Zhuge Liang, and as such, the one who come up with several plans for the group. Unlike Zhuge Liang, he is in charge of escapist strategies in case the situation goes south, claiming that he can come up with more than 100 escape plans in a instant. Being also quite eloquent with his words, combined with his intelligent makes him the main manager of the group's affair with other factions. Such intelligent is also the reason of how he can still improve the already complex type of magic he learnt from his father.

Sephiroth Graal
The Sephiroth Graal, also known as Holy Grail of the Secluded World, is a Sacred Gear  listed as one of the thirteen Longinus. Taking an appearance of a golden cup, The Sephiroth Graal has the ability to make contact with the principle of life, where the possessor is being forcefully told about how the life and soul is made. The possessor also takes in the mind and the concept of the dead, the living, and various other things as they use the Holy Grail which would result in the possessor being broken by the abundance of thoughts that enters their heart and soul when overusing the Sephiroth Graal. From its power to control the principle of life,the Sephiroth Graal can bring the dead back to life as many times as the user desire as long as the soul of the deceased remains intact.

Having relative mastery over his Sacred Gear, Dante can use the Sephiroth Graal combined with his own hystorical knowledge of his ancestor to bring back to life several hell tweelers to aid him in his battles, including: King Minos, the Minotaur, Nimrod and other frozen giants, Phlegias, Pluto, etc.

Trivia

 * The images and appearance used are from the character Yahiro Takigawa(or Lars) from the Testament of the sister new devil series.
 * Dante's motto is "Expectation is the worst of fears", which is both a nod towards the idea of Inferno from Dante and an antithesis for Howard's motto, which is "fear of the unknown".
 * His favorite drink is apparently Cuba Libre, and he uses his own Sacred Gear as a cup when he can't find one, much to the other's horror.