Heart Destroyer Ricardo

Seria says: "Nothing should be as mysterious as I am!" Some info is missing, please help to provide it if you can.

Ricardo, or known by his moniker Heart Destroyer is the Kashipa's Chief Combatant alongside being a leader of his own unit called Fiends and assistant to Sarpoza. He is known to be very powerful and dangerous Blood Mage, serving a primary antagonist role during the Harlem Quest line.

Heart Destroyer Ricardo
Age	21
Sex	Male
Race	Pandemonian
Affiliation	Kashipa
Occupation	Fiends' Unit Leader Chief Combatant Blood Mage
Alias
Location	Harlem
Foreign Name(s)	N/A
Likeability	N/A

Ricardo inside an unfortunate host during the Harlem quest line.

Lore

Character Biography:

Male/Age 21.
The chief combatant of the Kashipa organization. He developed and uses an extremely powerful magic called "Corrupt Heart" during 1-on-1 duels.
Ever since losing to Niu at the time of the Pandemonium Assembly, he has continually held a grudge, looking for opportunities to get his revenge.

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ARAD TIMES Lore:

Ricardo is a famous genius in Pandemonium.

However, the proximate battle technique fused with magic was beyond imagination.

A new magic, chaser, presented by a girl who he had underestimated.

It was fresh. It was fun.

It's upsetting to lose, but when I think about it, the irregular movement was very enjoyable.

I want to say to those who die in weak defeat to learn from this.

Had I ever anticipated the next showdown so much in my routine and boring life?

The vitality I had forgotten resurfaces. Did the guys who fought me feel this?

I’m starting to feel sorry for those I killed. I killed them without having any fun.

When I think about it, isn’t it our responsibility to rejuvenate this boring Pandemonium?

If so, may I please?

Ricardo smiled and held his hand near his heart.
Sorry. Hang in there.

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Pandemonium War Lore:

I've never felt this great before.

The moment the immense energy engulfed my Abyss,

the gaping wounds on my body closed up, and the blood I had spilled was replenished.

My head feels as if it's boiling from the inside, and it feels amazing!

I've never felt so powerful, exhilarated, or ecstatic!

With this power, I don't have to hide anymore.

Not from the Half-breed in the gold helm that disemboweled me with its spear.

Not from Niu who keeps showing up at the worst possible times.

And definitely not from that adventurer who put me in this predicament!

Just a little longer...

Wait for me just a little longer.

Once I absorb all this energy through my Abyss,

I'll come to you, and chomp down on your necks.

History

In his past life, Ricardo is one of many high ranking Kashipa members who received a Abyss Transplant sometime after the Abyss was discovered by High Mage Moah during her research into dark magic. With the transplant being a success, Ricardo's powers increased tremendously, able to develop his own magic called Corrupt Heart during duals and became so terrifying that he even caused members such as Gragol and Hatred Veil to tremble in fear and leave the organization. With the internal conflicts surrounding Kashipa possibly due to the Abyss, Ricardo took it upon himself to kill Moah, Male Mage and his companions as well.

He would later participate in the First Pandemonium Assembly, managing to defeat the representatives of those organizations until he encountered Niu of the Guardians, a Battle Mage who he underestimated at first during the Semi-Finals, but would lose to her when she presented Chaser Magic during their duel. Ever since then, Ricardo has held a grudge against her and would find different ways to get his revenge, such as recruiting a young Snowflake Joshua as his student.

When a mysterious flame fell from Harlem's sky and crash landed into Dark City, Ricardo who was there at the time, recovered it and gave it to Trauma Yom being unaware of it's true identity. Then he would order both Soul Keeper Mondegreen & Silver Light Tagor to kill runaway slaves who fled into the city.

Tagor mentions Ricardo when bringing up the flame's whereabouts to the Adventurer and wants them to join forces with her by overthrowing Yom to take control of Royal Casino. Concerned about Tagor's unusual actions, Ricardo is carefully watching events unfold from behind the scenes as he placed a surveillance spell on her subordinate, Healer Soniar's point of view throughout District 9 and later the Casino. After an argument between Yom and Soniar ensues over the flame which turns out to be an Apostle's egg and Yom killing his lover, Ricardo speaks to Yom through his voice.

He's quite aware of Yom's plans in advance not only trying to get rid of him, but recruit the Adventurer for Fight Club as well. He also explained about unleashing Demon Sworder Chermak from Tagor's ward and made the Wardmancer self-destruct during an earlier confrontation which resulted in those two being eaten by Yom's Shadow Beast, Garum. Now referring to the Adventurer as an "Outsider", he wanted to let them know what type of situation they gotten themselves into and plans to pick up the egg knowing it's location.

After Yom's death and Garum's defeat by the Adventurer, Ricardo makes his appearance through a portal inside of a secret room where the egg is being kept and kills an unguarded Cobb who was there by himself and then leaves off with it.

Along with Niu, Pai and Ceberin, the Adventurer's group returns to Dark City now through a passageway from the Casino fighting off more Kashipa members and monsters alike until they finally confronting Ricardo, but Niu is unconvinced that isn't the Ricardo she's familiar with as he runs off asking for more time. With the egg speaking to him through telepathy, Ricardo refuses to obey it's orders as one of the Guardians attacks him from behind which causes him to act very strange in front of Niu with something squirming inside of him. A figure suddenly bursts out of his chest and to Niu's reaction, it's revealed that figure is none other than the real Ricardo who was using that body as a host the entire time.

He then attacks the Guardian members, fights the Adventurer and Niu only to lose. He speaks to the egg offering his help in exchange since he's not at full strength after getting out of his host and with the egg glowing in agreement, empowers the Fiends' leader to make his escape from Harlem. Somewhere in a hiding spot, Ricardo attempts to break the egg open with various objects, even explosives which didn't leave a scratch on it. Unsuccessful in his plan, Ricardo leaves.

During Nighttime Skyscraper, Verdant Frekses mentions seeing Ricardo trying to break the egg before running off to the Skyscraper's center by avoiding Isys's followers, mainly Arketo before getting injured by his spear. Sometime after Isys is resurrected, a wounded Ricardo returns to the cracked eggshell at his hiding spot and remarks that he'll borrow it for a bit, using his Abyss to go inside completely vanishing.

Ricardo later resurfaces during the Pandemonium War at Mansion de Sarpoza both recovered from his injury and encroached by Isys's energy through the eggshell, drastically changing his appearance and becoming far more powerful than before. When the Adventurer and their group infiltrate the Mansion, they confront Ricardo who still desires his revenge towards Niu, she remarks that he's crossed the line as they duel each other, only to be interrupted when he's detained by Gizel Logan through Sarpoza's orders from Dog Head saying it's not the prophesied time yet as she teleports the group out of with a return spell.

Revisiting the Mansion again, Ricardo is let loose after Gizel leaves as he prepares to battle once more. But despite his blood-enhanced powers, Ricardo's body was unable to control Isys' energy, let alone defeat the Adventurer. He then retreats to the Spire Throne and is seen having his powers drained by Sarpoza instead, being dropped on the floor while dying.

As an Enemy (Harlem)

Heart Destroyer Ricardo

Type

Ricardo is the end boss of Fight Club. He'll start off in his host body, but doesn't attack at all and he'll run away if you attack him. After lowering his HP for a bit, the real Ricardo emerges.

Move Set

• Straight Punch: Uses Monk's  Ducking Straight Punch.
• Sway: Uses  Sway, he can evade attacks.
• Machine Gun Punch: Uses a  Machine Gun Jab along with a two fist variant.
• Blood Boom: Ricardo charges up and slams the floor with his hand, performing a AoE blast.
• Uppercut: Does a basic uppercut attack, there's also a spinning variant.
• Corrupt Heart: Ricardo's main pattern. He'll summon a magic sphere that floats around him making his attacks much stronger. After some time has passed, he'll cast this attack and dashes over to the player and if it connects, he'll enter their heart and tears it, dealing potentially lethal damage or instant kill after exiting.

As an Enemy (Pandemonium War)

Heart Destroyer Ricardo Named Monster

Type

Ricardo re-appears in the Mansion de Sarpoza portion of Spire Throne as a Sub-Boss.

Move Set

• Dark Regime: Ricardo steps back and uses the energy to rapidly punch at party members while moving forward. While it's avoidable, getting caught within' the attack's range can inflict moderate to heavy multi-hit damage.

• Dark Power Sphere: Ricardo attempts to pull in players and grabs at them with the energy from his back in a fan-shaped indicator. If he successfully traps anyone in close range, they'll be encased in a blood red sphere and explodes. The sphere's damage itself can be amplified depending on how many players he captures.

• Dark Energy Claw: Ricardo punches to launch out a black claw projectile that spreads out forward, dealing mult-hit moderate damage upon contact and if only the first claw hits, he'll follow up with launching a second claw.

• Blood Boom: Ricardo dashes forward to cause a giant red explosion in the middle followed up by six smaller ones that which randomly spread out across the room.

• Power Bombing: Ricardo launches the claws-like wings out of his back and fires them down forward on the floor creating three explosions.

• Berserk:
  • Power Runaway: After 40 seconds into the fight, Ricardo moves to the room's top center and due to his inability to control Isys' energy, starts to spread out in multiple different directions along with blood explosions appearing underneath party members being very identical to Magic Sword Bachira's I'm very thirsty! berserk pattern to how it's set up. But unlike Bachira, Ricardo is invulnerable during the pattern and enters his groggy phase for 20 seconds after it ends.

Strategy

• Ricardo is quite comparable to Bachira for having fast, yet very hard-hitting attack patterns. Similarly, party members should focus staying behind him when he attacks.
• Due to his constant movement during the fight, try using hold-specific skills to stop Ricardo before he gains hold-immunity.
• If your party is strong enough, having the Crusader/Enchantress to deploy their  Apocalypse/ Crux of Victoria/ Marionette isn't necessary, but it can be useful to speed up progress especially on Hard Mode with his increased health.

Appearances

• Sleepy Hollow (Boss)
• Fight Club (Boss)
• Pandemonium War
• Spire Throne (Mansion de Sarpoza)

Gallery

Artwork

Sprites

Trivia

• His character motif is inspired by Ricardo Baretta, one of many playable characters featured in the Cyphers Universe:
  • The host body resembles his in-game appearence.
  • They both wield blood to fight with their attacks, however the Cyphers' Ricardo can do this by using bugs he controls.

• Ricardo's true appearance is based on The Joker from the 2016 Suicide Squad film.
• The way he exits out of his host is similar with Chestbursters in the Alien Franchise.
• His boss theme in Fight Club sounds identical to Why So Serious, the theme used for Joker in The 2008 film sequel to Batman Begins, The Dark Knight.
• If playing as Male Mage regardless of subclass or Battle Mage, they'll receive special dialogue during scenarios or fighting Ricardo considering that he killed the former and despises the latter because of Niu.