Niko

Niko (ニコ) is a supporting character in Tales of Berseria. She was Velvet Crowe's friend who, on a Scarlet Night three years prior to the events of the story, succumbed to a case of daemonblight and was killed by an unknowing Velvet during the Advent.

History
Niko was Velvet's childhood friend, a young girl who owned two dogs named Orthie and Russ. During a Scarlet Night, daemonblight swept through the village of Aball and infected the townspeople, including Niko. After Arthur's sacrifice of Laphicet Crowe at the cape's altar near Aball, Velvet was turned into a therion in her attempt to rescue her little brother, resulting in her left arm becoming mutated. She proceeded to use her newfound power to slaughter the daemons attacking her, only to realize after she had killed them that they were the townspeople, Niko included.

Three years later, when Velvet returns to Aball with her newfound companions, an apparition of Niko leads her to the village, where everything seems to be unaffected by the Advent three years prior. However, this is soon revealed to be an elaborate illusion orchestrated by Melchior Mayvin using a powerful arte. The group dispels the illusion and rushes to the cape, finding Niko's dogs having been transformed into a therion, now called Orthrus, imprisoned by the Abbey for the sake of consuming other daemons to feed Innominat, the Empyrean of Suppression.

The group defeats the Cerberus-like therion in battle, while Velvet acknowledges the dogs' resentment toward her for killing their master, Niko. She tells them they may have their revenge once she obtains her, and the beast reverts into the forms of the dogs, accompanying the group back to Titania, where the group is keeping the therions they retrieve. Orthrus, whose name is a portmanteau of the dogs' names, represents the "obsessive" type of malevolence.