Benevodons

''"The Goddess of Mana felled eight incarnations of disaster, that guided the world to destruction, the God Beasts, with the Sword of Mana, and sealed them in eight stones. And as the Darkness left, the world was created." ''- segment of the Game's introduction

The eight God Beasts (or Benevodons) are eight highly powerful and destructive elemental demons, who serves as bosses and as a central plot device in the game Seiken Densetsu 3. They are demonic alter-ego to the eight elemental Spirits of Mana who were created before the world fully formed, probably by the Archdemon of the Underworld when the Goddess of Mana created the eight spirits. They spreaded destruction and misery all over, until the Mana Goddess sealed them in eight conic stones, and placed them under the Mana Spirit's watch.

In Seiken Densestsu 3, the Three Great Evils of Mana (the Dark Prince, the Dragon Emperor and the Masked Mage) want to unleashes them and use their power. To do so, they send their servants to manipulate one nation against another and start a worldwide war, draining the Mana Power which sustains the World of Mana. The three factions eventually manage to lift the seal on each Mana Stone, by tributing one human soul per stone. Then, the heroes party (formed by three of the six available protagonists) starts a quest to save Mana. They obtain the eight elemental magic from the Mana Spirits and reach the Mana Holyland. Unfortunately, the Mana Goddess has lost almost all her power and cannot help them. She gives them the holy Sword of Mana, but one of the Three Great Evils (the one selected as the game's Final Boss, through the choice of the first protagonist) gets rid of the other two and his servants coerce the party to relinquish the Sword. The villains then use the Sword of Mana to set the God Beast free and the party must reach them and destroy them before they reach their full power and go on a rampage.

The party manage to destroy all the God Beasts but this was in fact what the game's villain wanted all along. When a God Beast is slain, its power is transfered into the Sword of Mana, left free for the the villain to absorb it and to surpass the Goddess' power. However, the Goddess uses her remaining strenghts to cancell or at least to restrain this increase of power, leadong to the final battle of the game.

The party can fight the first seven God Beasts in any order they want, but with each God Beast slain, the monsters in the dungeon where the next God Beast is foud gain two levels, meaning that the next demon will be harder to reach.

Dangaard.jpg Dangaard, God Beast of Wind
'''Level 29. Life-Points 21136'''

This God Beast is the weakest in terms of level but it has the highest number of life-points. It ressembles a dragon with two vulture-like heads. He is fought in the skies with the heroes riding Flammy: the White Dragon of Mana, and the main mean of transport in the Seiken Densetsu franchise. The battle is divided in four stages during which the scenery changes. Dangaard isn't very hard to defeat but the battle is long. It unsurprisingly uses every Wind or Lightning based attacks including the three spells Air Blast, Thunder Storm and Stun Wind (each spell is stronger than the previous one) which it can cast on every target, increasing the spell's strenght. Its most dangerous attack is called Air Slasher and deals huge damage to the entire team. It can use the spell Speed Up whose effects are obvious and cast the Thunder magic on your weapons, which heals it whenever you strike. Cast the Earth magic on your weapons and use all the Earth based spells you can cast in order to defeat him.

Land_Umber.jpg Land Umber, God Beast of Earth
'''Level 37. Life-Points 9839'''

Contrary to Dangaard, Land Umber is very strong but it has low life-points. It ressembes a huge floating stone golem with a pointed body and two separated hands, which he uses to deliver strong physical attacks: by squeezing a character or worse, by crushing him/her betweeen its two fist and tossing him violently on the ground. He uses earth based attacks including the spells Diamond Missile, Earthquake and Stone Cloud. Once again, the three spells are listed according to their level of power and if it casts a spell on all targets, it gets stronger. Also its most powerful attack: Hypercannon, strikes every character. (Among the God Beasts' best attacks, this is one of the most crippling.) Beware as its attacks, and especially Stone Cloud may petrify its target. (Use curing spells or items when this happens.) It can also cast the Earth magic on your weapons to be healed by your blows. Cast the Thunder magic on your weapons and use every Wind or Thunder based spell you know.