Darking

*This article contains spoilers for Creepy Castle. You have been warned!*

* In-game
* Portrait
* Portrait 2
* Portrait 3

**Darking** is one of the major characters of Creepy Castle and the final boss in its first scenario.

## Description

Darking is the ruler of the City of Light. He was once known as a noble and beloved ruler but, gripped by obsession, he now works toward a vision of a world where everyone operates solely on logic without emotion.

## Personality

Darking was once a benevolent and just ruler, but the loss of Umi changed him. He now believes that all pain and suffering come from human emotions, and that true harmony and peace can only be achieved once all feelings are removed. According to Poindexter in Slugger’s story in Freepy Castle, Darking also forced Manny Mantis to fight by threatening to “heartbreak” him. He mentions that he does not want anyone to have to go through the pain of losing a loved one, which implies that the loss of his wife could have spurred him to build the Heartbreaker.

Darking acknowledges that he is a villain for trying to destroy all emotion, but is nonetheless willing to go through with his plan, truly believing that removing all emotions will allow for a world of peace even though no one else believes in his vision. He sees instinctual impulses and feelings as shortcomings that lead to death and suffering, and that their removal through use of the Heartbreaker can bring true unity. This is what he calls "the revolution of logic".

## Abilities

Darking is well versed in combat, having a solid amount of endurance and being able to use a variety of attacks such as an extremely fast strike, a rushing attack, or even a flurry of attacks at the opponent. He also moves quickly and has a good amount of strength when it comes to grappling.

Outside of combat, Darking can be intimidating and fierce, which prevents his citizens from rebelling even though they may not approve of the Heartbreaker.

## Combat

### First battle

Darking's Quick-Draw is tougher than most other bosses in this scenario. The window for a Perfect is very slim, but achievable with good reflex.

His Find duel is fairly challenging, but only has 4 clones, and is not faster than Catpillar's by much.

Shinken Shirahadori, Darking's Struggle duel, involves Darking directly grasping the blade of Moth's sword. Stamina is as important as sheer speed here, as the bar fills at a very moderate pace.

Upon being brought down to 16 HP, Darking becomes visibly furious. The difficulty of his existing duels do not change, but he adds parry and sumo duels to the mix.

Dark Rush, the sumo duel, has a time limit of 10 seconds. Moth is passively pushed back significantly faster, but missed inputs have an unchanged amount of penalty.

Darking's Parry duel can be unforgiving, as attacks can appear with as little as 4 frames of reaction time, up to a maximum of 12 frames. There are no feints, and the player is given 3 lives.

Reaching 9 HP, Darking is brought to tears. Dark Rush is no longer in the duel pool.

His Find duel becomes extremely fast and has 5 clones to pick, but on a miss, will become sluggish, generally resulting in no worse outcome than an OK.

The final duel is an altered version of Shinken Shirahadori where both bars fill extremely slowly. Regardless of how well the player does in the duel, Darking's bar will spontaneously empty itself completely, and the player will get a Perfect.

## Possessed Darking

* In-game
* Portrait

### Duels

Quick-Draw
Parry
Find
Struggle

### Second battle

Having been possessed by an evil spirit, Darking unwillingly fights Moth again shortly after being defeated the first time. Possessed Darking has ridiculous amounts of HP, and it is completely futile to attempt damaging him, but surviving 8 turns will end the battle.

The Quick-Draw is inhumanly fast, with only 4 frames of reaction time.

Possessed Darking's Find duel is similarly unforgiving, and has 7 clones.

His Parry duel still has no fakeouts, and the player is given 6 lives, but all attacks come in at 4 frames or less.

The 6th, 7th and 8th turns are all Killforce, a Struggle duel. Possessed Darking's bar fills disproportionately faster than the player's, and taking at least 2 damage is guaranteed.

After the battle is over, the force controlling Darking sets fire to the City of Light. Outrunning the flames requires swift use of the key items acquired earlier in the scenario, and failing to flee quickly enough will result in a game-over.