Death

Death (死神 Grim Reaper, lit.transl.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. He is said to be called "The Governer of the End of Living Things." 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. Death is also said to be Dracula's close friend. Death can also use dark arts to summon the souls of the dead and defeat even the strongest of the living. Nothing can hurt Death as the attack will go straight through him with no damage. The only way to hurt Death is to attack with weapons or spells that have divine properties, namely the Vampire Killer.

Character historyEdit
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow. (Skip section)

Castlevania: Lament of InnocenceEdit
This mysterious being forges an alliance with Mathias Cronqvist - who later becomes known as Dracula - in 1094. Initially, Death pretends 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 has the Crimson Stone, a stone much more powerful than the Ebony Stone. With Walter defeated, Mathias gains access to Bernhard's Ebony Stone, giving him both of the Vampire Treasures. To add insult to injury, Mathias uses the Crimson Stone to suck out Walter's soul and place it inside the stone. The soul becomes a power source to fuel Mathias's dark desires.

Crushed by Mathias' turn to the dark forces of evil, Leon Belmont is ready to slay his former friend when Death arrives and challenges Leon in the final showdown of the game. Even though Death is defeated, Mathias makes his escape after some parting words with Leon. With Mathias Cronqvist gone, Leon Belmont swears that no matter where he should go, The Belmont clan will 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 DarknessEdit
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 resurrection. 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 time-travelling 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 resurrection. 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 DissonanceEdit
This time around, Death wanders through Dracula's Castle searching for his Lord while trying to understand where his master has disappeared 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 inadvertently 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 NightEdit
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 RuinEdit
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 possible 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 TsuisoukyokuEdit
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.

Castlevania: Lords of ShadowEdit
While Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is a reboot to the series, Death appears in the game.

Spoilers end here.

TraditionEdit
Death is a Grim Reaper, as such he is never seen without his Scythe (with the exception of Lords of shadow). 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.

AbilitiesEdit

 * Scythe Mastery: Death is a master of the long hook, a scythe in battle. There are several incarnation of his weapon, from bone based to classic wood based, but the function is the same: To reap the soul of his victims with ease. He can also command his Scythe to fly like a boomerang and home in to an enemy.
 * Magic Mastery: Like Dracula, Death is capable of using dark arts magic, most of which is dark-based. He can fire vertical beams, energy shots, shoot floating skulls, summon giant demonic skulls, summon up to 100 sickles per cast, and a variety of summoning spells that involve spirits or metal sickles.
 * Sickle Summon: His most popular spell, the ability to create many sickles to support in battle or to create a diversion while he goes for reaping. Death can create small to big sickles to large scythes that cover a wide area. Only two humans has ever used this spell: Hector, via creating a Death's Scythe, and Soma Cruz, via dominion over his soul, for 10MP per second.
 * Deadly Tempest: Death only used this spell twice in history, against Leon Belmont and Hector. It is a fire based spell, that burns enemies with a wave of fire and has a wide range of effective area.
 * Spirit Summon: Occasionally, Death can summon a variety of spirits in many different forms to attack and destroy his opponents. One popular summon is his personal minions.
 * Teleportation: Death is also able to teleport in a variety of ways to confuse his opponents and distract them. He uses long range teleportation by opening a portal of darkness or slashing a portal.
 * Immortality: Death is immune to any human attacks. Any form of normal attack will pass through Death as if he was a ghost. He can be hurt with weapons of divine properties like The Vampire Killer, Hunter's Whip, Divine Weapons, Divine spells, and then some other spells, and while dark spells can hurt Death, he is very strong against them. As a divine force, Death cannot truly be killed and only his manifestations are destroyed.
 * Dimensional Rift: Sometimes Death can open a dimensional rift to confuse and damage his enemies. It is a chaotic realm and boost Death's power's significantly.
 * 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 transformations 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.
 * Hell's Gate: Death being Death, can open the gates of Hell, containing the demons of the deepest of the underworld. He does this to supply an army for Dracula, and also to send his victims through it for an appointed time to torture and hurt them before returning them to the real world.

Role in the series
In the Spongebob series, Death is revealed to be the darkness in Grim's soul, having been extracted from him by Chernabog in order to have a loyal follower during the First and Second Cartoonian War. Currently, Death is.