Menace

Menace is a boss in the Castlevania series. He is a humongous amalgamation of powerful demons. He first appeared as the final boss of Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, as well as its mobile version. He later appeared as the main boss of Chapter 3 in Castlevania: Harmony of Despair.
==Description==
Menace was created when Celia Fortner and Dmitrii Blinov traveled to The Abyss in order for Dmitrii to fully round out his copied version of Power of Dominance that he had emulated after being inside of Soma Cruz's soul. This was with the objective to match Soma's level and make Dmitrii viable for candidacy to be the new Dark Lord.
Upon entering the corpse-filled central chamber of the Abyss, Soma quickly found that Dmitrii had acquired the soul of a powerful demon to use at his disposal. Furthermore, he casually sacrificed Celia right in front of him without showing any mercy in order to acquire even more power.
Nevertheless, before Dmitrii had the chance to test his newfound abilities the truth was revealed: because what he had was nothing more than a copy of the true Power of Dominance, he was unable to properly contain the monster souls he had collected, so they all slowly started merging within him, ultimately forming a single soul with the power of all those monsters combined, an entity known as "Menace". Unable to contain such power, Dmitrii died in agony as Menace emerged from within him, causing his body to violently explode in the process.
Soma confronted and, after a ferocious battle, subdued the monster. Once defeated, Menace's physical form shrunk down while consumed with miniature explosions before disintegrating, with its pieces being absorbed into the central core. However, Menace's overall essence broke down into his base components of evil souls and attempted to merge with Soma, nearly overpowering him and at the brink of driving him insane with the powers of the Dark Lord. Only once he was able to focus his mind thinking of Mina, was he able to turn the tables on the assault of darkness that threatened to consume him.
==Appearances==
===Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow===
Menace moves and attacks much like the other golem-style enemies found throughout the game, although being far bigger and posing an even greater threat.
He has three human-like heads which act as his weak spots:
#One head protruding from his chest, which must be destroyed in the first phase of the fight.
#A second head placed on his left knee.
#And a third head encompassed within the mouth of a larger skull.
;First phase
While in his first phase, Menace leans over in a kneeling position, with Soma right underneath him. Menace primarily utilizes several spiked objects that either protrude out of his body or from the ground. These spikes jut out from their hiding position, following an attack made by the main head, which is a colored mist that can cause Poison status and do massive damage.
;Second phase
Once the chest head has been destroyed, Menace stands upright and performs motions similar to most golem-style enemies in this mode. He will move back and forth, and occasionally jab if Soma is in the general area in front of his chest, or perform an uppercut if he's near his head.
Menace also uses his very large size as a form of attack, as coming into contact with him can cause a great deal of damage to the player. If the player gets too careless, he can end up being cornered and/or juggled by the monster's feet, resulting in an instant death most of the times.
One additional maneuver he has is to consistently spawn leech-like creatures from behind himself. These nuisances float toward the player, stop to bare their fangs, and then continue floating until contact is made. They can do a considerable amount of damage and the player can become easily overwhelmed by an entire swarm of these creatures.
====Strategy====
Menace has a weak point in the head on his chest in his first phase (when he's hunched over Soma) which must be destroyed before the second phase begins. When Menace fully stands up, the monster reveals two new weak points in the form of red faces, one attached to his left knee and the other stationed in his giant maw. Both must be destroyed in order to defeat him.
Recommended weapons to fight Menace are the Valmanway (first phase and knee face), Gungner (first phase and knee face), Death Scythe, and the Claimh Solais. It should be noted that, since Menace is weak against Holy attacks, the Claimh Solais does more damage than the Death Scythe, arguably making the holy sword the best weapon against this monster. Nonetheless, with high enough stats, the Death Scythe is capable of destroying the leeches in a single swing (many if they are gathered), which can prove to be very helpful during the course of the battle.
Recommended souls are any Bullet Souls available to the player. Guardian Souls cannot lock-on to the faces in the second phase; however, they will help defeat the leeches Menace spawns (Death's soul, Death Scythe, may be really helpful here). Other souls recommended are those from Erinys, Great Axe Armor, Flame Demon, Abaddon and Malachi. Players looking to increase their survivability here may also find the Arc Demon soul useful, as most of Menace's attacks possess the Dark attribute.
===Castlevania: Harmony of Despair===
Menace appears as the boss of Chapter 3: The End of Chaos. His first phase from Dawn of Sorrow is not confronted this time; instead, Menace lies dormant until struck. Once damage has been taken, Menace awakens and battles as he did in the second phase, possessing his original attacks, as well as a kick and being able to jump. Instead of taking out all of his heads in order to destroy him, the player(s) must destroy two. In this game, he also appears to be increased in size compared to his prior appearance, and retains the chest-head from the first phase unlike in Dawn of Sorrow.
His theme is "Piercing Battle Fury".
==Item Data==
==Gallery==
Dmitriiexplode.png|Menace's birth in Dawn of Sorrow.
DOS-MenaceF.png|Menace's first form from Dawn of Sorrow.
DOS-Menace.png|Menace's second form from Dawn of Sorrow.
DOSmobile-Menace.png|Menace from Dawn of Sorrow.(mobile)
HD-Menace.jpg|Menace from Harmony of Despair.
HD 1koma 05.jpg|Menace in the official Koma comic strips of Harmony of Despair.
==Trivia==
*There is an unverified fan theory that the three heads appearing on Menace's body represent Celia Fortner (first phase/chest head), Dario Bossi (knee head) and Dmitrii Blinov (upper head).
*Menace is fought in a room similar in appearance to that of Legion's in previous titles - a place filled with thousands of bodies and an eerie light in the distance.
*The small flying leeches that spawn during Menace's second phase resemble the titular monsters from Stephen King's 1990 novel, The Langoliers.
*The theme music for the battle against Menace is "Piercing Battle Fury".
*Menace is one of the three bosses in Dawn of Sorrow who does not give their soul to Soma Cruz or needed to be defeated using a Magic Seal. The others are Dario and Dmitrii.
**Menace does, however, nearly overwhelm Soma Cruz post-mortem into becoming the next Dark Lord via its dark remnants.
*Chronologically, Menace is the last boss ever fought in the franchise's main timeline, with the Undead Parasite from Castlevania: Lament of Innocence being the first.
==External links==
*Menace (Castlevania) at the Villains Wiki
es:Menace
de:Menace
Category:Dark Bosses
Category:Demons
Category:Original Castlevania Lore
Category:Poison Bosses
Category:Dawn of Sorrow Bosses
Category:Harmony of Despair Bosses