It works as a withdraw. Since it says "character" and not "characters", it only affects one.
For a lot of old wording on cards like that, the ORCID on Land of Redemption can show you a "play as" that updates the wording. If you go into the excel sheet and search "refuse" you can actually see the two cards that use that wording, and look at the play-as that says "Withdraw an evil character. Opponent may present an evil character."