Death

Death (死神 Death God), also known as the Grim Reaper, is a major villain from Konami's Castlevania series. He has appeared in every game except Castlevania: The Adventure and Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge. Death is Dracula's right hand man, thus he usually appears near the end of the hero's quest, often in the Clock Tower, to challenge them before they confront Dracula. He is also sometimes the first of Dracula's major servants to greet the hero, such as in Rondo of Blood, Symphony of the Night, and The Arcade. Death sometimes plays an equal or lesser role in Dracula's organization when someone other than he is the driving force behind Dracula's resurrection, such as Shaft, Elizabeth Bartley, or Carmilla. Two of Death's closest associates include Slogra and Gaibon, who directly report to him. He is also closely associated with the beast Cerberus. He has also been known to show respect to characters for their courage and skill.

Castlevania: Lament of Innocence
This mysterious being forged an alliance with Mathias Cronqvist - who later became known as Dracula - in 1094. Initially, Death pretended to be a servant to Walter Bernhard, owner of the Ebony Stone. However, Death later betrays him after Leon Belmont defeats him with the Vampire Killer whip.

It is revealed that Mathias Cronqvist had the Crimson Stone, a stone much more powerful than the Ebony Stone. With Walter defeated, Mathias gained access to Bernhard's Ebony Stone, giving him both of the Vampire Treasures. To add insult to injury, Mathias used the Crimson Stone to suck out Walter's soul and place it inside the stone. The soul became a power source to fuel Mathia's dark desires.

Crushed by Mathias' turn to the dark forces of evil, Leon Belmont was ready to slay his former friend when Death arrived and challenged Leon in the final showdown of the game. Even though Death was defeated, Mathias made his escape after some parting words with Leon. With Mathias Cronqvist gone, Leon Belmont swore that no matter where he should go, The Belmont Clan would hunt him and his kind down forever.

Since then, Death has proven to be the Count's most loyal and devoted servant.

Castlevania: Curse of Darkness
After Trevor Belmont had successfully defeated Dracula, the Count placed a curse on all of Europe, with the intent that the corruption and misery bred from it would bring about his ressurrection. To speed up the process, a mysterious priest by the name of Zead came across Hector, and appeared friendly enough with his wanting to help Hector defeat his nemesis, Isaac. What Hector didn't know was that the priest, Zead was actually Death in disguise. However, his disguise did not fool the timetravelling Saint Germain who knew that if either Devil Forger, Hector or Isaac should fall, then the dark lord Dracula could be revived. Both fought, and in spite of Saint Germain getting the upper hand during their first tussle (and mentioning he would return until Zead surrendered), Zead managed to trick him into the Eneomaos Machine Tower and freeze his powers until he was defeated in combat by Hector. After this, Saint Germain left the timeline, after asking Hector to give Zead his sarcastic regards.

In the reborn castle of Dracula, Hector fought Isaac and beat him to the brink of death. But before he knew it, the body of Isaac was whisked away into a coffin by Zead who had big plans for him to be the new host body for Dracula's ressurrection. When Zead removed a scythe from his sleeve, it was then that Hector realized who Zead was. Shedding his disguise, Death appeared and battled Hector.

Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance
This time around, Death wanders through Dracula's Castle searching for his Lord while trying to understand where his master has dissappeared to. Death soon realizes that due to Maxim Kischine's eagerness to find and destroy Dracula's body parts the same as Simon Belmont did about half a century ago, he inadvertantly had awoken the spirit of Dracula.

This led to Maxim slowly being taken over by the spirit of Dracula, and the split of Dracula's castle into two different castles. Death soon realized that Maxim Kischine's body would make a suitable host for the resurrection of Dracula, and soon sought to prevent Juste Belmont from finding his former friend and freeing him from Dracula's control.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
After the dark priest Shaft's successful resurrection of Dracula, the Count is swiftly defeated by Richter Belmont in 1792. However, due to a sinister curse placed on him by Shaft, Richter is slowly possessed by an evil spirit. 5 years later, in 1797, Richter Belmont mysteriously disappears and Dracula's Castle appears once again.

This time, Dracula's son, Alucard awakens from his self-inflicted permanent slumber when he senses that something is terribly amiss. When he enters Dracula's Castle, Alucard is confronted by Death. Since Alucard is Dracula's son, Death gives him a chance to cease his attack and turn back. Upon refusing, Death steals all of his equipment and scatters it throughout the entire castle.

Later, when Alucard encounters Death again. Death notes that he has given Alucard ample warning, and with Alucard not backing down, he engages Alucard in combat.

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin
In Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, Death once again wanders through the castle seeking his Lord and Master: Dracula. However, when he runs into Jonathan Morris and Charlotte Aulin, he learns of the interloper, Brauner, taking the role of Lord of the Castle for himself. Death initially rebuffs the idea of anyone except Dracula controlling the castle, saying the notion is "positively absurd". At first, he does not even try to fight the heroes, even hinting at a posssible alliance to kill Brauner, albeit with different aims in mind. However, he is rebuffed and is confronted in the castle's Clock Tower. He leaves the battle when his energy is exhausted, saying he has other affairs to handle.

Later, after Jonathan Morris and Charlotte Aulin defeated Brauner, Death materializes and slices through Brauner with a swing of his Scythe to finish him off. When Jonathan and Charlotte pursue him, they find the newly risen Dracula. Ready to take him out, Jonathan is blocked by Death who has come to Dracula's aid. In a surprising turn of events, Death and Dracula decide to team up for their battle against the two young heroes. When either Death's or Dracula's life is depleted, Death screams: "My power! Use my power!" At this point, Dracula uses his Power of Dominance and absorbs Death's soul, allowing him to evolve into the True Dracula.

Akumajo Dracula: Kabuchi no Tsuisoukyoku
After the ultimate defeat of Dracula in 1999, Death remained with the Castle in the eclipse and fought Soma Cruz there in 2035. He would fight him again the following year in Celia's castle. Dracula's former servant Olrox began attempting to conquer the forces of chaos. Death opposed this and set out to destroy him.

Tradition
Death is a Grim Reaper, as such he is never seen without his Scythe. His attacks and appearances may have been changing from game to game, but in basic, he always summons floating sickles out of thin air to hunt down his oppositions.

Abilities

 * Magic Mastery: Like Dracula, Death is capable of using magic, most of which is dark-based, such as summoning skulls, sickles, or beams.
 * Teleportation: Death is also able to teleport to confuse his opponents and distract them.
 * Immortality: Death is immortal; while he can be killed, he will always find a way to return, and is usually ressurected when the castle is.
 * Shapeshifting: Death can transform, like Dracula, into a number of things, and prefers to do so when he is near defeat. Some examples of Death's tranformations are a giant skeleton snake, a giant scythe (this was not an actual second form), a skeleton-mantis-turtle creature, a creature with scythes for hands, a giant skull, a human (Zead; this was, once more, not an actual second form), and so on.

Appearance Gallery
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Castlevania
Death appears here, as usually, in a large cloak. He fights Simon only by flying around the screen and by making appear little scythes, an attack he uses in every fight. An astuce is known to beat him very quickly : Simon must have the Holy Water equipped and when Death appears, you must jump and throw he Holy Water in his face to make him not to move during a few seconds, allowing you the time to whip him.

Castlevania II: Simon's Quest
Death appears in Brahm's Mansion, but for some unknown reason, he isn't a boss in this game! He appears as usual dressed in his cloak, also armed with his trusty scythe. He will continue to come toward you firing his sickles and trying to hit you with his Scythe. Just attack him with regular whip attacks and when he gets on the ground level use the Sacred Flame. After a few hits he will drop the Golden Dagger.

Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse
Death waits at the end of the elaborate halls near the end of the castle. He begins the battle by attacking the player much like he did in the original Castlevania. His familiar hooded form will appear near the top of the screen and quickly descend as wickedly sharp sickles almost continuously materialize and hone in on the player. Using Trevor in this battle is the only real option, as Grant, Sypha, and Alucard lack the ability to use the holy water or the boomerang.

Without the holy water or the boomerang, this battle is just about hopeless. Double and triple shots will make things much easier, but things can still quickly go sour as it will only take Death, at most, 4 hits, to completely deplete the player's life meter.

When his life bar is depleted, Death will lift his scythe and transform himself into a his second form; a huge, floating skull. He will fly about the room, occasionally stopping to laugh and shoot a single sickle from his mouth at the player's character. The giant skull will move swiftly, and if the battle lasts too long chances are that the player will be crowded into the corner and take obscene damage. This form, while much scarier, is actually easier to conquer. Once again, bombarding the grim one with holy water is the easiest path to victory. If you have depleted your hearts then your best bet is to kneel and whip repeatedly when the skull is near the floor.

Castlevania Legends
Death once again appears in his usual cloak, and also armed with his big and nasty scythe! Once you enter his domain, the ropes will pull themselves up, and the floor closes. If you've ever met Grim Reaper/Death before, you know what to do: do not be hit by the big sickle or the small sickles that home in on you afterwards. Use the ice soul as you need it, and whip away. You get the Fire soul as your reward, which blasts every enemy on screen with a bit of damage for 5 hearts.

Super Castlevania IV
Death appears as the last boss before Dracula himself. He attacks Simon by summoning sickles and flying around the room. It is also the first time Death appears along (or more precisely just after) Slogra and Gaibon, his two servents.

Castlevania: Bloodlines
Depending on the difficulty selected, the boss battle with Death in Bloodlines can be subtly different.

Dracula X: Rondo of Blood
In this game, Death has 2 forms just like he did in Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse and the sequel to this game, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Death also appears in his usual tattered and torn cloak in his first form in this boss fight! Keep jumping around avoiding Death's many sickles. Do this while constantly barraging him with Crosses/Dragons, hopefully they will also take out some of the sickles. If things get hairy, as Richter use the Cross Item Crush for temporary invincibility, the destruction of all sickles on-screen and to take some damage out of Death. Once you get him roughly down to 2/3 of his life bar, he will head to the background and will launch many skulls at you. Just keep moving to avoid them, if you get hit he'll launch some more at you. Death will then remove his cloak, revealing his more classic form. In this form he will slice at you with his scythe, and use a devastating spinning scythe attack. He's very agile, almost ninja-like. As Richter, don't use Crosses on him in this form, he'll just brush them off and counter-attack with magic. Some small sickles will still fly around, but there are a lot less than his first form. Anyway, to kill him without being harmed, rush in and hit him a couple of times and then retreat, then wait for him to attack and then after he has finished rush in and hit him a couple of times and then retreat, rinse and repeat. Collect the Magical Sphere and you will proceed to Stage 6 - Inside the Castle.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Death first appears in the beginning of the game, asking to Alucard stop the attack to the castle. As Alucard refuses, he removes Alucard's equipment, and leaves. Alucard meets him again in the Reverse Mine, where he asks again for him to stop. Refusing again, Death says he has no choice them but to kill him, and they fight.

Death has two forms: His normal form that conjours heat seeking small scythes, then heat seeking death balls with the latter,then a two large skulls rotating,then two large scythes,finally a monstruous form that uses two scythes. After his defeat, he leaves the Eye of Vlad.

Castlevania 64
This incarnation of Death was the first to have "wings".

Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness
This version of Death is almost identical to the Castlevania 64 Grim Reaper.

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon
When Nathan encounters it,it'll send small sickles that move towards Nathan's direction. Death also can release three expandable spear-looking weapons and release two green energy balls on both sides.When the player defeats it,it'll be on its second form.

On its second form,it'll transform into a horrible beast while still sending small sickles.It'll walk slowly towards Nathan,then attack him on close range.It also can protect itself by forming a shield in front of it or slowing down Nathan's move speed and jump.When the player defeats it,he/she will gain the Cleansing ability.which is needed in the Underground Waterway.

Strangely enough, although he uses scythe attacks, this incarnation of Death is not shown to be holding the Scythe, as he does in all his other incarnations.

Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance
Death awaits and attacks Juste Belmont in the underground of the Castle. He has two forms : the first is the traditional purple-cloacked Grim Reaper, trying to slice Juste with his Scythe and summoning sickles, and a second form who looks like a gigantic skeleton worm with two armored arms.

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow
Death appears in the Clock Tower as the game's 6th boss. This battle, much like many other battles against Death, come in two phases.

Phase one is where his body is invisible, but the floating scythe can be destroyed. He has 3 main attacks in this form. The first is that small floating scythes fly around the room, making the battle annoying if you're hit by one of them. This is also the same power you get when you obtain his soul. The second attack is that the scythe starts spinning towards you, meaning you have to get away from it in order to be able to attack it again. The third is where he summons beams of light to rain down on you. This attack is only used when the health on the scythe drops to half. When the scythe is destroyed, phase two begins.

Phase two is a little different. His body becomes visible now, and able to hit. But the twist is that he summons a double headed scythe made out of bones, making him become more melee oriented. Avoid the attacks at all costs, because you WILL take a lot of damage if you take one hit. His first attack is where he goes down to where you're standing and rushes at you. This attack can be easily jumped over, but watch out when he starts going backwards to try and hit you from behind. The second attack is where he starts spinning the scythe and throws it like a boomerang. This attack can be easily ducked under, but don't duck underneath Death, because this attack will hit you if that happens. The third attack is where the scythe rolls around the Clock Tower arena like a rapidly spinning wheel. This can be easily jumped over as well, but if you're hit, you'll take more damage than any other attack he throws at you.

Upon defeat, Death will be sucked into a wormhole and give up his soul. However, he will drop the scythe, and you will take a lot of damage if you are hit by it. You win two souls upon his defeat. The first is the Skula Enhancement Soul, which allows you to walk underwater. The second is the Death Guardian Soul, which mirrors the sickle summoning attack from the 1st phase of the battle as long as it's active.

Castlevania: Lament of Innocence
Death appears as the one who tooks Walter soul, ordered by Mathias in order for him to obtain th Crimson Stone, for unknown reasons he follows Mathias commands and even agries to take care of Leon after his "Master" departure, for dawn was coming and would not allow Mathias to finish his old friend himself.

This is the first incarnation of Death and so far is the only instance in Castlevania that he served as a final boss.

Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
Death appears in this game in the Mine of Judgment as the game's 13th boss. Like Dawn of Sorrow's predecessor, Aria of Sorrow, this fight has two stages to it. However, unlike the Aria of Sorrow fight, Death changes his appearance and tactics in the 2nd phase of the fight instead of just changing weapons. He also has attacks where he gets rid of the scythe for other tactical attacks in both phases of the fight, but he can summon up the scythe again whenever he wants to.

The 1st phase of the battle is quite possibly one of the easiest fights, as all of Death's attacks are predictable. Mainly, he has three noteworthy attacks, two that involve the scythe, and one that doesn't. The first is a simple melee rush attack, with two slices from the scythe with it. You can easily backdash away from it, but if you're playing Julius Mode, you can use Alucard's Critical Attack to damage him and avoid the damage from the attack. The second is where he throws out the scythe, which explodes into a circle wave of miniature scythes, all of which can be destroyed. The third attack is where he summons three ghostly clones of himself to shoot beams of light down on you. The attack can be easily avoided by standing between the beams. When you've done enough damage to him, phase 2 begins.

The 2nd phase of the battle not only involved a wardrobe change, but a change in tactics as well. He still has two attacks involving the scythe, and one that doesn't, but his attacks are much more powerful now. The first is where he disappears, reappears behind you, and tries to cut your head off with the scythe. While you can easily jump over this, if you try to attack him, he'll keep attacking at a faster rate until you get hit. The second attack involves getting rid of the scythe again, but instead arcs it all the way across the room, summoning miniature scythes to attack you. The third attack, which is not only the non-scythe attack for this phase, but is also arguably the most powerful one. He shoots out beams of energy from both his hands, and they become giant skulls that bite you for almost instant death damage. The best way to avoid the attack is to run in the direction that each skull comes from, and be prepared to switch direction every second.

Upon defeat, The Abyss area is unlocked, and you get the Death Guardian Soul. It behaves exactly like the soul you get from him in Aria of Sorrow, except the scythes cover much more range. If you decide not to keep this soul, you can turn it into the Death's Scythe weapon as the final Axe Weapon synthesis.

Castlevania: Curse of Darkness
The character known as "Zead" that Hector encounters earlier in the game, is indeed Death in disguise. Zead watches Hector and Isaac's last battle in the Castle and then makes disappear Isaac's corpse. He confronts Hector just after the Isaac battle. His appearance looks a lot like Lament of Innocence's one. Death attacks Hector with his gigantic Scythe, fire attacks, summons sickles and later, after he has his life reduced to a half, he will create a massive explosion. At the end of this "Big Bang" attack, you have less than one second to steal the Death's Pulse, who allows Hector to forge the powerful Death's Scythe.

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin
Death first appears in the Great Stairway. Jonathan Morris and Charlotte Aulin run into him and think he is serving Brauner. He disagrees with that statement and almost makes an alliance with them, although he does not. He is encountered later at the Tower of Death as a boss. He only has two forms, one purple with silver scythes, and one white with red scythes. Purple is weak to magic, and white is weak to physical strength. He is later encountered in Brauner's room and in Dracula's room as a secondary boss. There is a well-known glitch that traps you in the boss room permanently if you skip any dialogue during the Tower Of Death battle. Aside from his best-known moves such as summoning sickles out of thin air, he will create four portals; chains erupt from within each, interlocking to form a square that contains the spinning scythe when thrown or seizing one of the two characters, ensnaring him or her for Death to deliver a killing blow.

He also appears at the end of the game, along with his Master Dracula. Death's principal attack is a great Scythe slash from the top to the bottom of the screen, making him disappear during a few seconds. He also uses dual attacks with Dracula (Sythe explosion, fireballs) and sacrifices his soul to make Dracula transform into True Dracula.

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
Death appears in a section of Dracula's Castle known as Mechanical Tower "Styx Passage" as the game's 13th boss. He wears a green cloak, much like in Castlevania Chronicles or in his second form in Dracula X or Rondo of Blood. He is strong against physical attacks, so equip any items that will increase your intellect & enhance light damage, & also the Nitesco glyph. This battle will be hard, as he will constanly be summoning miniature scythes that track you. One of his attacks also consists of summoning miniature scythes from his hand, which can be easily destroyed. He will rarely use his scythe, which is odd for a battle involving Death. The reward for defeating him is the Sinestro Custos glyph.

Castlevania: Judgment
Death has been confirmed to make an appearance as a playable character in the 3D fighting game Castlevania Judgment. His appearance is a rather robotic look with no cloak. He is equipped with a scythe on his right hand and a hook that replaces his left. His battle theme is "Evil's Symphonic Poem" from Castlevania: Lament of Innocence. Just before the song's loop, an arrangement of "Poison Mind" can be heard.

Judgment Quotes

 * Short description: A god who swears his allegiance to Dracula
 * Select Screen: "Time to perform my duty?" "I will feast on your soul." "Who is foolish enough to challenge me?"
 * Before battle: "If you wish for death, here I am."
 * Before battle: "You fool... how dare you challenge me!"
 * Before fighting Carmilla or Golem: "You dare challenge me? You forget your place."
 * Before fighting himself: "These tricks of time do not amuse me." "Pathetic wretch, you will die quickly."
 * Before fighting Trevor, Simon, or Aeon: "All who stand against the Master will perish."
 * Before fighting Alucard: "If you'll not take your rightful place, you leave me no choice."
 * Before fighting Aeon: "Traveler of time, I will not permit you to interfere."
 * Before fighting Dracula: "With all respect, my master, I ask for one contest."
 * After battle: "I am the god who governs death."
 * After battle: "I decide who lives and who dies. You could not expect to win."
 * After fighting himself: "One advisor is all the Master requires."
 * After fighting Simon or Trevor: "If only this had happened in the true stream of time..."
 * After fighting Alucard: "You should never have betrayed your heritage."
 *  After fighting Aeon: "You may elude time, but you cannot escape death."
 * After fighting Dracula: "That cannot have been the full strength of my master." "A true Lord of Darkness should command more power than that."
 * After fighting Cornell in Story Mode: "The master has need of you, but here that holds no meaning."
 *  After fighting Simon in Story Mode: "Your line will die out and fade from memory... It is your fate."
 * After fighting Alucard in Story Mode: "Shed your weakness and return to our service."
 * After fighting Aeon in Story Mode: "You would have done well to step aside."
 * Before fighting Time Reaper: "Even your visage mocks me. Die!!"
 *  During Hyper Attack: "Fallen ones! Seize them!" "Your fate is sealed. Too late for regrets." "The gates of Hell are open!" "Hahahahaha! I'll swallow your soul!!!"

Judgement abilities
His offensive tactics are more projectile, and more damaging. This makes Death favorable among projectile class players. Death also has an ability to catch enemies with his Orb of Gahena and a teleporting skill that warps him forward. He has astounding performance in close combat and very distant combat but suffers a little at mid range combat. Death also favors the uses of The Reaping to catch enemies due to its high damage potential, as well as it being easy to execute.

Main Ability
Death uses his scythe to make a spinning scythe attack around him and finishes it with a forward charge while his scythe covers him.

Moving Ability: Teleport a few meters.

Other Abilities
Spinning Scythe: Throws the scythe and it spins around him.

The Reaping: Throws the scythe and the scythe gains a homing ability, and has incredible range and lasts a long time as long as the button is held.

Twin Sickles: Throws two sickles.

Orb of Gahena: Charges and fires a black orb that freezes the opponent for a while.

Judgement: Grabs the opponent and hits them onto his scythe, which he pulls through them, followed by a slash.

Hyper Attack
Gates of Hell: Death summons the fallens souls to literally grab an opponent and hold them in place. Victim sees an illusion of Death in confusion and the illusion dissapears further taunting the victim. Death announces that the Gates of Hell are opened. He changes his hook into a blade and stabs his victim before dislodging his head and "swallows" thier soul. It is possible due to Death swallowing his victim's soul, the Gates of Hell are through Death's jaws.

Akumajo Dracula: The Arcade
Death is the first boss found in the first person fighter arcade game. He fights near the entrance to the castle. He is fought again later in the Clock Tower, before Dracula. However, he looks completely different in his second battle, ressembling to his Judgment's mechanical appearance.

External Videos

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Trivia

 * Galamoth has his own version of Death ten thousand years in the future, the Time Reaper.
 * For some strange reason, despite his loyalties to Dracula, he fights Soma Cruz in both games that he has appeared in, even though, technically, Soma is the reincarnation of Dracula. It was possible that Death wants Soma dead to allow the power of Chaos to possess Soma and therefore revive Dracula. However, this is open for debate, and even that doesn't explain why he wanted to kill Soma in "Dawn of Sorrow", as Chaos was destroyed. However, Soma does not wield the Crimson Stone, so Death is not controlled by Soma.
 * In Belmont's Revenge, when you walk across the bridge that leads to Dracula, you can see statues in the background that resemble Death.
 * Often, Death's HP/EX values contain only fours, or they are multiples of four in some obvious way. This is a Japanese-language-specific pun. The pronunciation of the number four and the word for death are phonetically identical: shi.

Death in Fan Fiction

 * Return of Dracula - Death has returned and once more tries to resurrect the dark lord.