Dark Lich

The Dark Lich is a recurring villain from the Seiken Densetsu series, who appears in Seiken Densetsu 2 (known in occident as Secret of Mana) as the primary antagonist, and in Seiken Densetsu 3 as one of the three available final bosses. He is an unfathomably powerful ghost-demon warlock, who can be regarded as the very embodiment of Dark Magic. He wants to become all-powerful, in order to overthrow the Goddess of Mana and to rule the Mana World. To do so, he always tries (and succeeds) to set free an ancient dreaded power, sealed long ago: the Mana Fortress in Secret of Mana and the God Beasts in Seiken Densetsu 3. Dark Lich manifests himself by possessing the body of a dark wizard, who appears to be the game's antagonist while he is but a vessel.

As Thanatos
"For ages I have been searching...for a human with the power to conquer this world... ...one born in the shadow of darkness, and raised in the light of Mana. Dyluck is the one. I cannot wait any longer. My body has grown weak! It is time! Using his body I will take the Mana Fortress, and rule the world!" - Thanatos

In Secret of Mana the primary protagonist, Randi draws the mythical Sword of Mana from a rock, unknowingly lifting a spell that prevents the monsters from the Underworld (the Mana counterpart of Hell) to walk the earth. The evil Emperor Vandole and his generals then seize this opportunity and proceed to break the seal on the eight Seeds of the Mana Tree. (the earthly avatar of the Mana Goddess) By breaking this seal, the Emperor Vandole plans to gain control of the Mana Fortress, an ancient flying castle and ultimate warship, which was sealed away inside a sunken island. With the Mana Fortress under his control, Vandole would be able to take over the entire world.

Randi and his two partners soon discover that Thanatos, a powerful wizard and one of Vandole's four generals, has plans of his own. Thanatos works in the shadows, controling the monsters and stealing the energy of all the citizens of the Kingdom of Pandora, whom he turns into mindless puppets. He also abducted and brainwashed Dyluck, the female protagonist's boyfriend for unknown reasons.

Later in the game, the seal of the eight Mana Seeds is broken and Thanatos kills the Emperor Vandole whom he no longer needs. It appears that the evil wizard was the true mastermind behind the plot, and that he manipulated the Emperor and his fellows generals to serve his schemes. Thanatos reactivates the Mana Fortress and uses it to destroy the Mana Tree. When the heroes invade the Fortress and reach Thanatos, the villain tells them that his current body is breaking apart and that he plans to take over Dyluck's stronger one, thus adding Dyluck's immense power to his own and becoming all-powerful. Hopefuly, Dyluck sacrifices himself, forcing "Thanatos" to appear under his true spiritual form, the Dark Lich. Dark Lich is in fact a ghostly demon warlock from the Underworld, who uses the corpse of powerful humans to walk the earth.

The heroes manage to destroy Dark Lich, but his action has caused the rise of another threat, the Mana Beast, whom the heroes must kill before it destroys the Mana Fortress, or else, the world will be destroyed along with it.

Boss Battle
Dark Lich is very powerful but not that hard to defeat if the characters' level, magic and weapons are sufficiently strong. He has 6666 life-points and he is weak to the Light element, so cast the Light magic on your weapons and harass him without end with the spell Lucent Beam, at level at least 6, and he will fall rather quickly. You can also attack him with other spells, but weapons doesn't work when he is not fully materialized. Don't attack him with Shadow magic or you'll heal him.

Dark Lich masters all the spells of the Shadow, Water, Wind and Earth elements at level 6. He can also cast Dispel which prevents a character from using magic, and uses many magical effects that can confuse, shrink, petrify and freeze your characters, or turn them into harmless Moogles. You will need many curing items to circumvent this. When he disappears, his hands will phase through the ground, surrounded by flames and track you down. Avoid it at any cost as it can kill your characters in one hit. When his head appears you can attack him with spells, do it quickly to end this attack.

Seiken Densetsu 3
The game was released after Secret of Mana, but its story is set millenia before the events described in the first game.

Background
Long before the game's beginning, Belgar, one of the most powerful mages in the Holy City of Wendel tried everything he could to save an ill young girl, but not to avail. Belgar then began to study the forbidden Dark Magic, but the girl died too soon. Belgar's mind eventually became corrupted by the dark power and he kept studying Dark Magic, looking for a necromancy spell that could revive the girl, but people in Wendel began to fear him and to call him the Priest of Darkness. At first, Belgar remained a benevolent mage, who kept Wendel neutral in conflicts and who served as a playable protagonist in the game Heroes of Mana. But Darkness ultimately corrupted his body and mind and he became evil.

The Priest of Light banished Belgar from Wendel, and the dark wizard swore revenge, vowing to conceal his face under a mask until Wendel was destroyed. He built the Mirage Palace in the Jungle of Illusions and raised an army of monsters from the Underworld, rising in ranks until he became one of the Three Great Evils of Mana. (Along with the Dark Prince and the Dragon Emperor.) It is not known if the Dark Lich was born from his evil soul, if he fused with the demon warlock or simply got possessed, but from then on, he and the Dark Lich became one and the same.

As the Masked Mage


''"And how I've waited for this day! Underneath this mask is all hatred towards humanity". ''- The Masked Mage

The Masked Mage is the least mentioned of the Three Great Evils, as the character only hear of him when they meet him in person. (Or when they learn his death if he isn't the game's final boss.) In the game, the Masked Mage is one of the three main antagonists, and he will be the final boss if the player choses Kevin the beastman prince, or Carlie the cleric, as the first of his three characters. If not, he will be slain by the game's chosen final boss. The three final bosses share the same goal and will act the same way.

The Masked Mage plans to unleash the eight dreaded God Beasts on the world and to use their power for his own gain. To do so, he needs to sacrifice eight souls, to break the seal on the eight Mana Stones that keep the Beasts sealed. He sends his faithful servant, the Death Jester, in the Beast Kingdom, in order to manipulate the beastmen's ressentment against the human kind to wage war against the Holy City of Wendel. Later, Death Jester abducts a young priest mage from Wendel named Heath, (who appears to be the Masked Mage's son) and brings him to his master. The evil wizard likely recognizes his son and brainwashes him, raises his power to its maximum, and makes him his right-hand-man and his bodyguard.

When all the seal on the Mana Stones are lifted, the game's heroes reaches the Mana Holyland, where the Mana Tree is located, and gain the fabled Sword of Mana from the Mana Goddess. Then, the Masked Mage kills his two rivals and their servants, and sends Heath and Death Jester to abduct the characters' Fairy guide in exchange for the Sword. The villains use the Sword's power to set the God Beast free, fulfilling the Mage's purpose. From then on, the Mage keeps the sword with him and patiently waits until the heroes destroy all the God Beasts, chanelling their power into the Sword of Mana. After having destroyed all the beasts, the heroes reach the Jungle of Illusions where they defeat Death Jester, and later the Mirage Palace,where they confront the evil wizard.

A very pleased Masked Mage greets the heroes and tells them that the God Beasts' power lies in the Sword, and that he waited for them to absorb this power before their very eyes, which would make him mightier than the Goddess herself and would enable him to become the new god of Mana. Hopefully, the Goddess manages to cancel, or at least to restrain this power increase. Irked, the Masked Mage teleports to the Mana Holyland to settle his score with the exhausted deity. The characters manage to defeat Heath, who comes back to his senses and tells them the Mage's story before dying. The heroes then track down their enemy in the Holyland, but they are to late; the Mana Tree is destroyed, the Goddess is dead and a new Dark God will soon rise. The gloating Masked Mage kills the Fairy and turns into the Dark Lich to deal with the heroes, but he is ultimately destroyed, and the Fairy's spirit fuses with the remnants of the Tree to become the new Mana Goddess. Yet the power of Mana will need thousand year to rise again, ending for good the era that the characters knew.

Boss Battle
"I'LL WIPE OUT HOPE TIL IT NEVER RETURNS! NOW, FEEL THE WRATH OF YOUR NEW GOD!!" - (a seriously irked) Dark Lich

The Dark Lich is the easiest of the three available final bosses, but this does'nt mean that he must be taken lightly. He is at level 50, it has 49846 life points and he is extremely powerful. He can kill your characters with two or three spells so you must remain cautious.

He casts the spells Power Up and Speed Up, whose effects are self-explanatory on himself, as well as the Wood magic which enables him to drain your magic-points with his physical attacks. He also uses a spell that poisons your character and needs to be cured, and attacks with the strongest spells and special attacks of the Shadow, Light, Water, Earth and Wood elements. His special attcks are very damaging and strikes the entire party. Worse, some of his attack can turn your characters into stone or into harmless Moogles, which need to be cured. His most dreadful attacks are Death Spell, (which instantly kills its target if his/her level is lower than his own) Ancient (a devastating rain of meteors on every target) and Death Ecstasy, his most powerful attack. (A spell which looks like Ancient, but in more impressive and much more damaging.) And he uses these often.

The battle is long but isn't this hard if your characters are strong enough and if you heal (or resurect) often. If Dark Lich's attacks are very powerful, he is most of the time left open for your blows. Dark Lich's main element depends on the background. If its dark, he mostly uses Shadow attacks and is weak to Light. If it's Watery, he uses Water and Ice and is weak to Fire, if its a clear desert he uses Light and Earth and doesn't has real weakness. If you attack him with his current element he will get healed so remain cautious. Use Kevin's pressure point to raise his strenght and don't hesitate to increase your stats and decrease his own. If you have Carlie and you can cast her Turn Undead spell, then the battle will be a piece of cake. Use it without stop as it deals 999 damages on any living-dead including him. If your characters are level 50 Death Spell won't work. Keep attacking him and use all your strongest spells and special techniques to deal with him quickly.