Beelzebub

* Phase 1
* Phase 2

"**Beelzebub**" (unofficial name) is the main antagonist and final boss of Episode 1 in *Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2*. He is the controller and possibly the creator of the Dark Swarm.

## Description

Beelzebub first appears in The Demon's Crown, at the beginning and throughout the stage, where he chases the player being surrounded by the Dark Swarm itself. During this time, he will be immune to all of the player's attacks, but will be pushed back by them instead. This is important should the player be cornered by any enemies with him right at their tail. Enemies that make contact with the boss in this state will be instantly destroyed.

At the end of the stage, the heroes will encounter him directly after he forms from the Dark Swarm blocking the background.

The boss attacks by slowly backing away from the player. During this time, one of the skulls in his hands will glow before a portal opens up, summoning a line of the Dark Swarm that flies in a straight, but wavy pattern. Depending where the portal opens, the player may want to get to higher ground, crouch, or stay on lower ground to avoid the Dark Swarm that comes through.

After backing away to the edge of the arena, he will transform into a swarm of demonic insects. Depending on their positioning, the insects will fly straight across the screen, or fly above and below from two different groups that try to surround the player.

Upon defeat, he will scatter into a swarm of bugs that fly out of the screen. After a few seconds, pillars of these demonic insects will rise from the bottom of the screen, eventually destroying the edges of the arena the player fought on, and making it fall into the next phase of battle.

The second arena takes the form of the remains of the first that are descending from where they previously fell. There are no thin platforms th player can jump on from below, but the blocks that make up the floor will move up and down while falling, sometimes stopping for attacks.

After landing, the boss itself will have taken a more grotesque form that can be seen in the background before it hops high into the air and grabs onto the walls to slow down its descent enough to face off against the player. In this form, the boss has six massive arms, with four of them being seen sliding across the walls. Its lower half is composed of multiple eyes and teeth with a crown on top of it. The upper half of the boss is the same as its first phase, only instead of having four horns on its head, it has two large ones, and its four arms are replaced with two scythe-like appendages with five eyes on each one. It also has a large tail that can briefly bee seen when the boss directly appears. Behind him are six large insect wings which he uses to fly.

During this form, the boss will attack by moving one of its hands away from the wall before directly slamming it, causing rubble to fly out. The player must be at the opposite side of the hand in order to make it through the attack unscathed. He will also open up his chest to release a swarm of demonic insects that will sweep across the arena from left to right or right to left, and do it again from the other side it stopped. He will sometimes bob left and right. The boss will raise its scythes up into the air and open them, with the lower arms raising up to create a beam of dark energy. Afterward, the eyes on the scythes will flash before firing lasers across the left and rightmost sides. He will also summon a large spear that will track the players position. After a few seconds, the spear will fall, destroying any footing it lands on. The spear itself will have two purple lanterns on top of it, which the player can destroy. Afterward, the spear will rise up. He will perform these attacks until his health reaches a certain point.

After his health reaches a certain point, he will rise up offscreen before appearing directly in the background, carrying a huge scythe, and the screen will go white with the platform's shadows being seen. He will raise the scythe before charging toward the arena, and with one quick and powerful slash, destroy it. The player must be on the highest point of the arena and jump before the beam consumes the footing, forcing the player to fall on more falling blocks. The boss will appear again, and conjure up to four orbs (6 in harder difficulties), which will fire lightning that destroys the blocks they were above. The fight continues as normal after that, with a different arena positioning.

After being defeated again, he towers over the weakened party, although he unexpectedly ends up literally stabbed in the back by one of Mephisto's arms.

## Trivia

* Beelzebub is possibly a reference to Abaddon, a boss from the *Castlevania* series, physically being very similar and having similar attack patterns.
	+ This is further supported as Koji Igarashi, producer of the *Bloodstained* series, has stated that Abaddon is one of his favorite *Castlevania* bosses, which would probably explain Beelzebub's appearance in *Curse of the Moon 2*.
	+ Additionally, there is a boss also named Beelzebub in *Castlevania* which also controls flying insects, although it is a giant corpse instead.
* The titles of the two battle themes played during his first and second phases, Castle Swallower and Consumer of the Land, respectively, are references to the sin of Gluttony, which Beelzebub represents.

## References

1. ↑ Igarashi On His Most Memorable Boss Fights From Castlevania at Siliconera (June 1, 2015).