Pharaoh Zumarud

Pharaoh Zumarud is a major antagonist of Dark Deception: Unchecked Limitations. They serve as the main antagonist and final boss of Egyptian Epidemic, a Hidden Nightmare. He is also confirmed to return in Dark Deception: Journey of the Girl In Red and The Wacky Misadventures of Lucky & Friends as a supporting character.

Appearance
Zumarud at first resembles a tall insectoid with a pale face and glowing emerald green eyes. They wear a long cloak and Egyptian headwear. Underneath the cloak are two pairs of large dragonfly wings and four arms.

In his final form, Zumarud's face is now grey and he glows a Teal/Turquoise color. He has three pairs of arms and two pairs of massive wings. He has a long tail and a segmented torso. This form is slightly larger than the Metallic Colossus.

Personality
Zumarud is a varied character, normally appearing to be very eccentric while also displaying sadomasochistic tendencies around certain individuals. He has his fair share of pushiness and pompousness but has also shown signs of a cheery childish side of himself, being carefree, and thinking highly of himself. For the most part, he is evil, cunning, and sadistic, toying with Doug and laughing at them when the chance is given. Despite this, Zumarud is notably polite and reserved, maintaining a sophisticated composure even when he loses. Zumarud has a degree of respect for Doug but dislikes that Doug has shown no respect back. Zumarud is happily married to Yagut, and the two enjoy each other's company. Zumarud also is a good friend of Malak, as the two can be seen exchanging compliments.

His interests are noticeably perverted, as is seen with various peculiar objects, and uses innuendos often in his dialogue. He may also have knowledge regarding the medieval history and lore judging by his preferences.

Powers
Zumarud is an insanely powerful demon that can fly, teleport and transform. In his initial form, he is experienced with magic and spells and utilizes his knowledge of divine blessings and curses to his advantage. Zumarud possesses authority over the Xutep Grunts and Zunbis. Zumarud is capable of summoning powerful beings at will, such as Albardiu. Zumarud can transform into his final form, where he gains even more physical strength and can manipulate reality itself, this is seen through him changing the dark night sky into a bright, star-filled turquoise haze.

Behaviour
Zumarud has many attacks:
 * Dash: A dash attack from one side of the arena to the other. When performing this, a sarcophagus will open and Zumarud will zoom out of it before entering the respective sarcophagus on the other side of the arena before it closes.
 * Dive Dash: Teleports into the air, cloaks up so he looks like a drill, then dives towards the player. He then flies down and makes a quick dash in the player's direction while wielding his arm like a lance that is wrapped in his cloak. Near the beginning of the dive, Zumarud keeps track of the player's location, and the dive can cover the entire arena.
 * Dash Uppercut: Dashes across the arena with a broad swipe before throwing an uppercut into the air. He vanishes at the peak of the uppercut and rains down five fireballs on the arena. The five fireballs fall in predetermined parabolic arcs onto the arena.
 * Chase: Teleport to a random location and chase the player at high speeds similar to Agatha, but the player's speed boost is only slightly faster than Zumarud.
 * Lunar Spikes: Sends his cloak into the ground, causing large twisted cloak spikes to shoot up from the floor, which are indicated by a green glow. This can either take up a quarter of the arena, the middle of the arena, a cross pattern, a chessboard pattern, or even an entire half of the arena. The spikes reach to the top of the arena but there are large enough gaps between them to stay safe. The spikes are not dangerous until they are at their tallest. The spikes persist for about half a second.
 * Mark of Decimation: Zumarud can teleport to a random location with his spear and slash it, the slashes drawing three random Egyptian symbols from a selection of 26 (The Ankh, Djed, Eye of Horus, Eye Of Ra, Was, The Scarab beetle, Cartouche, The Lotus, Uraeus, KA, BA, Canopic jars, Winged Sun, Ouroboros, AMENTA, Tiet, Feather Of Maat, Crook and Flail, Deshret Crown, Hedjet Crown, Pschent Crown, Tree Of Life, Seba, Ajet, Menat, Sistrum, Nemyss, Obelisk, and the Shen ring). Zumarud will point his spear and the symbols will shoot forwards, exploding like Agatha's portals upon contact with the walls or the player. There is a 0.1% chance that any of the summoned symbols will actually be Amogus, causing a loud 'AMOGUS' sound and an Egyptian-styled remix of 'Among Us Drip' to play for the rest of the battle and any more symbols summoned will be Amogus
 * Bombardier Beetle: Creates beetle shells and scatters them in random locations on the arena. These explode like Agatha's portals after 2 seconds. The player can pick these beetle shells and throw them back at Zumarud to stun him for a few seconds.
 * Locust Swarm: Opens his cloak, unleashing a swarm of three locusts at the player. The player's head is where the locusts begin, and they move erratically as they follow them. During this attack, Zumarus stays still. The gout of flame emanating from Zumarud's eye that ascends to the top of the arena serves as an indicator to the summoning of each locust. Zumarud teleports to a different area of the arena and releases one final locust if the player approaches him within arm's reach before he releases all three of his locusts. There is no stopping this locust. This indicates that only one locust may be sent out by Zumarud.
 * Pyrokinesis: Encloses the arena in his cloak before puffing out and hurling tiny gem-shaped fireball projectiles everywhere. This assault always comes from the arena's middle. There are five general directions that the fireballs move. Fireballs frequently arrive in pairs, making dodging them essentially a puzzle. Every fourth set of the twelve fireballs that Zumarud launches is guaranteed to contain both fireballs in the bottom two positions. Zumarud can neither be stunned nor is he immune to some types of damage while in this mode.
 * Teleport: Teleports to a random place in the arena to perform an attack.
 * Skitter: If Zumarud teleports on the ground too close to the player, he skitters away on all fours before resuming his attack. It is rare, but possible, that Zumarud telegraphs one type of ground attack, skitters away, and then performs a different ground attack.

Zumarud either has to be stunned through beetle shells 3 times (5 on Infernal Difficulty and 10 on Lunatic Difficulty) or the player must survive for 5 minutes (7 on Infernal Difficulty and 10 on Lunatic Difficulty), to which Bierce will unlock the exit door. Zumarud will curse the player with a death symbol which causes all the sarcophaguses will open, revealing Zunbis in each one. Zumarud will encase himself in a glowing cocoon in the air as the player will be chased out by the Zunbis, which unlike before will always chase the player regardless of how far away they are. The player must exit the Pyramid.

After exiting the Pyramid, Zumarud will emerge from the cocoon in his final form and chase the player, flying up from behind the pyramid. The player must make their way back through Zone 1 and to the portal as an enraged Zumarud chase them. An entire army of 50 Xutep Grunts will also chase the player. There is only one route, all others are blocked off by spikes. Additional Zunbi sarcophaguses will be present, activating Zunbis that also join the chase. The player must escape with the help of speed boost and teleportation, as it is impossible to escape without them.

In Boss Rush as well as in Infernal Mode and Lunatic Mode, Zumarud gains a Phase 2, where he will transform into his final form and force the player to survive a set amount of time. His moveset now is:
 * Lunar Spikes: The same attack from Phase 1, but does it three times in one go.
 * Bombardier Beetle:The same attack from Phase 1, but summons more, and trying to pick them up causes them to explode earlier
 * Death Ray: Positions all his arms into a Kamehameha position and fires a death ray. Zumarud will spin around the arena slightly faster than the player's speed boost, forcing the use of teleportation
 * Miracle Missiles: His upper two arms will open their palms and hold glowing orbs, which rapidly fire missiles at the player. These explode and the player must avoid both the initial projectile and the blast zone.
 * Dragon Fist: Rapidly punches the ground with all six fists. Each punch is telegraphed by an indicator and Zumarud will hover above the player while punching. This barrage lasts for at least 5 seconds.
 * Albardiu: Summons a portal that Albardiu comes out of and uses one of his attacks while Zumarud flies above the arena. After Alabardiu finishes his attack he will dive back into the portal and Zumarud resumes attacking.
 * Servant Summon: Summons two Xutep Grunts which fly around him at shoot gem-like projectiles at the player. These grunts can be scared off with Primal Fear but will reappear when Zumarud summons them again.

Playable Data

 * Gimmick: TBA

Light Attacks

 * Jab (Light): TBA
 * Forward Attack (Light): TBA
 * Up Attack (Light): TBA
 * Down Attack (Light): TBA
 * Dash Attack (Light): TBA

Heavy Attacks

 * Jab (Heavy): TBA
 * Forward Attack (Heavy): TBA
 * Up Attack (Heavy): TBA
 * Down Attack (Heavy): TBA
 * Dash Attack (Heavy): TBA

Special Attacks

 * Neutral Special: TBA
 * Side Special: TBA
 * Up Special: TBA
 * Down Special: TBA

Ultimate Attack

 * TBA

Trivia

 * Zumarud means Emerald in Arabic
 * Zumarud's headpiece bears resemblance to Ahsoka Tano from Star Wars, but this is a coincidence
 * Zumarud's design, personality, and powers are a direct reference to Grimm from Hollow Knight, a charismatic vampire moth that is secretly the avatar of an eldritch Nightmare god.
 * Zumarud is bisexual. He is also panromantic.
 * Zumarud's headcanon voice actor is Keith Silverstein, who voiced Hawk Moth in Miraculous Ladybug and Zhongli in Genshin Impact.
 * Zumarud is confirmed to reference Entomophobia, the fear of bugs, and Dracophobia, the fear of dragons.
 * Zumarud speaks in Egyptian during his fight, if one were to translate his voice lines, it would translate to 'Deeznuts', 'Wombo Combo', 'Nothing personal kid', 'Ligmaballs lol' and 'Yeet'.
 * Zumarud's final form is slightly based on Moon Lord from Terraria.
 * Zumarud's favorite drink is Osmanthus Wine.

Lore
The Xuteps are an advanced but ancient race of dragonfly demons that through their power have toppled countless upon countless foes. They were feared by almost everything in the dark dimension and very few were able to face them and live to tell the tale, and the survivors were usually heavily scarred or modified by the Xutep's magic into freakish abominations. Their leader, the pharaoh, was mainly the reason for their success. Wise, agile, and strong, Zumarud led his kind to victory. He possessed power beyond that of normal demons and rivaled the gods in every aspect to the point people began believing he himself was a god. While Zumarud is no deity, he is worshipped by the Xutep as one and is the subject of legends. His own Queen, Yagut, however, is an actual deity and aided him in his rule. One day, Zumarud let his power and status get to his head and went after the gods. Weren't it for Yagut, he would've died in the resulting clash. His men were outmatched and his realm was reduced to rubble. After recovering he woke to his men slaughtered and beaten by the angels from above. His reputation was also shattered, as others would mock him for being so foolish. It seemed he would never be able to recover, but then he met Malak. The two became friends and even helped each other. Eventually, the Xutep began to return to their former legacy, and despite them not being feared as much as before, they began to be taken more seriously again. Today, the Xutep are treated with caution, and Zumarud rules over them as the Lunar Dragonfly.