Corrupter (BTD8CR)

"All this for a species of mortals... and in the name of what? Justice? Fairness? Ichthyeus, dear brother, you don't understand... Morality is little more than a pathetic waste of time, and one so easily forsaken in a single crack. In the end, all things degrade, becoming corrupted, until nothing is left but ashes and the whispers of the damned. All life is meaningless, being nothing more than a fickle distraction from the truth: There is no justice, there is no morality. There is only the corrupt and the corrupted. I am the one who will shed the light on this dark truth. I am the embodiment of the darkness that lies inside all things, the darkness that you so desperately try to deny and reject as the inherent workings of your inner selves, no matter how much they ultimately define you. I am the evil that personifies the universal constituent of all life. I am... the Corrupter."

- Corrupter

Akwimus'Sab, also known as the Corrupter, is a villain who briefly appears at the end credits of BTD7: Planet of the Apes and to be the main antagonist in an upcoming sequel, BTD8: Corrupter's Revenge. He is also heavily implied to be "the evil behind the evil" in BTD Heroes and appears again in Bloons: Clash of Worlds.

Appearance
The Corrupter looks like a large dark indigo-bluish monkey with glowing red eyes and sharp teeth, as well as ugly-looking fur. Unlike Mr.OAH's Corrupter, this Corrupter is male and does not have any form of cybernetic implants.

History
Akwimus'Sab is the younger brother of the Blue Sun God, Ichthyeus'Sab. Like his older brother, Akwimus also had a "Vengeful" persona. While Ichthyeus controlled his dark self, Akwimus succumbed to his Vengeful persona and chose the darkness over light. Eventually, his Vengeful self completely took over his body and mind, becoming a shadowy, evil monkey with unspeakable powers of mind control, corruption, and energy projection. Little else is known about him. Since he was imprisoned in the EMPEROR's top secret ghost prison, we must assume that his power was enough to scare the EMPEROR, and anyone who's too extreme for the E.M.P.E.R.O.R. is not to be trifled with. Whatever information that was able to be obtained was through ancient hieroglyphs and decrypted Bloon files. Many Monkeys died to gather this info.

Beginnings
Akwimus'Sab was born a few years after Ichthyeus'Sab, several hundred million years before the Monkey World existed. Both were born with "Vengeful Monkey" personas, and while Ichthyeus fought to control his Vengeful self, Akwimus was tempted by the evil and darkness of his Vengeful self. As eons passed, Ichtheyeus gained increasing control over his Vengeful self while Akwimus slowly descended into the darkness. As the Monkeys began evolving in the Monkey World, Ichthyeus saw greatness, beauty, honor, and respect in the sentient life forms while Akwimus looked upon them with utter contempt, seeing them only as easily-corruptible puppets whose sole purpose is to destroy each other. Akwimus sought to prove his scorn for them by corrupting all of Monkeykind and driving them to obliterate the planet. Ichthyeus, who had grown to care for the Monkeys (they worshipped them as a god), could not allow that to happen, eventually leading to a huge, brother-vs-brother battle. After a long, brutal fight that nearly obliterated a large portion of the galaxy, Ichthyeus emerged victorious. Unwilling to kill his younger brother, Ichthyeus removed his powers instead and banished him to a cave in Simianjaro. Akwimus also lost lots of his memory during the ordeal; he forgot a lot about the sentient species residing in the Monkey World and many other parts of his knowledge, including the galactic coordinates of the Monkey World's location. All he could remember was his undying hatred of his brother...

Meeting the Bloon Regime
At around 1,900 BBO, the wounded, defeated Akwimus stumbled upon a dark place somewhere underground beneath Simianjaro. That place had a secret gateway to Terra Bloonus, right to where the EMPEROR was. He was given dark powers and became the EMPEROR's third-in-command as the Corrupter. For hundreds of years he continued to command the Bloons and grow more and more powerful, but then for a reason not yet understood he tried to overthrow the EMPEROR. Historians theorize that the sudden betrayal had something to do with the Corrupter regaining his memories, as his brain would almost certainly have, at the very least, partially recovered during the course of 300 years, but no one knows for sure. In any case, Akwimus attempted a coup on the EMPEROR and very nearly succeeded. The EMPEROR narrowly defeated the Corrupter and sent him to a dark ghost prison where he languished in agony for the next 1600 years.

Attempting to burn the Monkeys
Even in his prison, the Corrupter was able to bypass the technomagical mechanisms that suppressed his powers, albeit barely. This enabled him to manipulate the dark energies that are now beneath Simianjaro. With these energies, the Shadow Bloon was created. The Corrupter attempted to use the Shadow Bloon to corrupt Monkeys including Gwendolin, of which the Corrupter saw as one of the most powerful of those that they can control.

The Shadow Bloon then infiltrated the Bloon Regime and managed to subtly manipulate Bloon commanders into following the goal of ultimately capturing Gwen. Once they managed to do that, they brought her to the Shadow Bloon's base, where the brainwashed her and made her evil. However, having followed their tracks, Quincy and Everton invaded the base only to be attacked by the now-turned Gwendolin. Gwendolin's evil programming forces her to attack them both, and they have a brutal beatdown that causes lots of destruction within the base. In the ensuing chaos, the evil Gwen unleashes a massive barrage of Blimptonite fire. Since Everton is a Super Monkey, he becomes weaker and weaker, beginning to suffer from painful subconjunctival hemorrhages (bleeding from the eyes) and epistaxis (nose bleeding). Meanwhile, Quincy and Gwendolin clash in a devastating hand-to-hand combat brawl, but Gwendolin gets the upper hand due to concentrating fire into her fists (and the chemicals the Bloons injected into her made her stronger and have a constant adrenaline rush). She slams Quincy to the ground and is about to finish him off with a blast of fire. When Quincy attempts to evade, his legs are caught in the fire, completely incinerating them. The Shadow Bloon sadistically laughs and urges Gwendolin to kill him, but Quincy tries to convince her to fight the mind control by trying to stimulate her memories and stuff. After a tense moment, Quincy is successful; Gwendolin resists the brainwashing long enough to turn around to shoot at the Shadow Bloon, incinerating him instantly. The device that sustains the mind control is destroyed, foiling the Corrupter's plan. Quincy is trapped in rubble, and Everton lifts the rubble trapping Quincy, sacrificing himself to allow Gwen and Quincy to escape.

Escape from the prison
When the Monkeys defeated the EMPEROR, the prison started shutting down. The Corrupter immediately exploited this opportunity, and not only escaped from the prison but killed every guard and warden as horrifically as possible before leaving.

BTD8: Corrupter's Revenge
Escaping from Bloonus Obscuro, the Corrupter sought to fulfill his ultimate wish: seeking revenge against the Blue Sun God and his people whom he despised. The first stage of his plan was to infiltrate the Monkey Empire as a doctor and gain access to the medical facilities to tamper with the Bloonoa Virus. The Corrupter's ultimate goal would be to make the virus actively try to exterminate Monkeykind, triggering a massive global pandemic. He would also use his "role" to sow mistrust within the Empire's military unit, particularly Alpha Team. He knew he couldn't rip Quincy and Gwen apart - they love each other too much - but he could possibly undermine the trust between Quincy and the other members of Alpha Team, such as Striker Jones and the new members of Alpha Team, the Monkey Flashes of the rebooted Timebreaker Project (which was like the old Timebreaker project but minus the corrupting of minds part that drove the original Timebreaker mad). (WIP)

Powers

 * Nigh-Omnipotence
 * Nigh-Omnipresence - Tiny portions of the Corrupter's soul exists inside all creatures that are capable of evil.
 * Energy Projection
 * Dark Energy Manipulation
 * Dark Magic
 * Energy Construct Creation - The Corrupter can make solid, virtually-indestructible energy constructs out of pure darkness.
 * Super Strength - The Corrupter possesses virtually unlimited strength, capable of punching a hole through the chests of 3 Super Monkeys with little or no effort.
 * Super Speed
 * Enhanced Endurance
 * Super Senses
 * Invulnerability
 * Mind Control
 * Pain Inducement
 * Infection
 * Telepathy
 * Regenerative Healing Factor
 * Matter Manipulation
 * Pathokinesis - The Corrupter is able to corrupt, modify, control pathogens to obey his bidding. For example, he was able to make the Bloonoa Virus cause Monkey Zombies to attack Monkeys instead of Bloons, and granting it immunity to the Bloonoa Virus Cure.
 * Nigh-Omniscience

Abilities

 * Master Tactician
 * Martial Arts - Due to being trained by the EMPEROR's ability to plant things including skills into people's heads, the Corrupter has pretty mastered every martial art, including those of extradimensional origin. He was easily able to outmatch the Myth of the Shadows, the Dank Knight, and Quincy all at once in less than 8 moves, as well as instantly kill an Aquamonkey with a single well-placed blow.
 * Intimidation
 * Interrogation
 * Manipulation
 * Genius-Level Intellect
 * Leadership
 * Weapons Mastery - The Corrupter has pretty much mastered all forms of weaponry
 * Indomitable Will
 * Multilingualism
 * Stealth
 * Disguise

Weaknesses

 * Love - The emotional bond between organisms - be it romance, friendship, or parental bond - negatively affects the Corrupter's ability to make said organisms turn on each other. The stronger the bond, the more difficult it is for the Corrupter to sow mistrust between the organisms in question. There is a threshold of bond strength in which the Corrupter is unable to directly manipulate the organisms. Although this threshold is very high, some organisms managed to exceed that threshold such as the extremely-strong and virtually-unbreakable emotional bond between Quincy and Gwendolin. Emotional bonds that are strong enough to reach or exceed this threshold become practically immune to the Corrupter's mind control and manipulation abilities, and it is no wonder that love is the emotion which the Corrupter despises the most.

Shadow Blades
The Corrupter summons an array of 16 enormous blades that rotate rapidly around the Corrupter, inflicting 1,000-1,200 Armor-Piercing Damage per hit to Towers and applying Bleeding DoT that lasts for 6 seconds.

Shadow Corruption
Taunt: "Don't be fools! Deep down, all of you are inherently evil, like me! I'm just the spiritual manifestation of this universal truth, here to eradicate the lies of morality you have fostered for so long."

The Corrupter takes control of a random Hero for 18 seconds. This Hero will attack your towers with 40% increased fire rate and damage, and uses its abilities with 50% cooldown reduction.

Abilities (2nd phase)
In his second phase, the Corrupter retains all the abilities from his first phase, but also uses these new ones:

Shadow Death Beam
The Corrupter unleashes a huge, devastating beam of pure darkness that inflicts M A S S I V E damage to your towers - 10,000 damage + 20% target HP. The width of the beam is about as much as the range of a 0/0/1/0 Dart Monkey.

Shadow Bloons
Taunt: "Behold, the vessels of ebony!"

If Gwendolin is within 256px of the Corrupter, he will also make another taunt: "Tremble before your worst nightmares, Fire Queen."

The Corrupter spawns 5-8 clones of the Shadow Bloon that attack your towers (Yes, this is a form of RNG - Random Number Generator).

Shadow Bloon Clone
The Shadow Bloon Clone has 5.7 million HP and 12 Defense, and executes the following abilities:
 * Brainwash - The Shadow Bloon Clone brainwashes a random Hero and 4 adjacent towers for 11 seconds. These brainwashed entities attack your towers with the normal damage and attack rate.
 * Sagum Tenebris (Dark Curtain) - The Shadow Bloon Clone engulfs the nearest 7 towers in a cloud of darkness, which causes them to have significantly decreased accuracy and DISABLES their Activated Abilities for 20 seconds. These towers will also have a 60% chance for their attacks to MISS their targets (when an attack MISSES, the attack in question will not do anything to the target and a word spelling "MISS" will appear). After the 20-second timeframe, the clouds will explode, inflicting 1,000 damage + 25%-28% target HP to the engulfed towers and all other towers within a 0/0/1/0 Dart Monkey's range of the initial victims.

Zombie Apocalypse
The Corrupter spawns a large, overwhelming array of corrupted Monkey Zombies. All of them are immune to mind control, ability disables, Stasis, Petrify, Stun, and being sucked in by Bloonchippers.

Zombie Pouncer (Spawn count: 12-15)
Each Zombie Pouncer has 1,192,645 HP and 4 Defense. They move towards towers at the speed of a Green Bloon, and cannot be slowed down by any means. They also have the following abilities:
 * Pounce of the Damned - The Zombie Pouncer will target a random tower within a 500px radius and violently rush towards the target at 2 times the speed of a Pink Bloon, pouncing on the targeted tower and inflicting 1,500-1,600 Armor-Piercing Damage to said tower and all towers within a 200px radius of the target. All Towers that get hit will also be STUNNED and ARMOR BROKEN for 8 seconds.

Zombie Rusher (Spawn count: 11-16)
Each Zombie Rusher has 1,222,000 HP and 2 Defense, and moves at the speed of a Pink Bloon along the track towards the exit. Towers within a 0/0/1/0 Dart Monkey's range of the zombie will be STUNNED for 3 seconds and take 900-1,100 Armor-Piercing Damage per hit from being rammed by Zombie Rushers. Rushers cannot be slowed down by any means.

Zombie Bomber (Spawn count: 10-17)
Each Zombie Bomber has 700,000 HP and 0 Defense, and moves towards towers at a speed 60% faster than a Pink Bloon. It also has the following abilities:
 * Autothysis - Upon dying, the Zombie Bomber will explode violently, inflicting 1,700-2,000 Armor Piercing Damage + 25%-30% target HP to all Towers within a 0/1/0/0 Super Monkey's range of the Bomber.

Zombie Dreadnought (Spawn count: 9-12)
Each Zombie Dreadnought has 1,140,000 HP and 2 Defense, attacking Towers with plasma crowbars as basic attacks, inflicting 900-1,000 Armor-Piercing Damage per hit. They have a 85% CRIT chance by default and inflict 5x damage with their CRITs, and every time the Dreadnought inflicts a CRIT attack, the zombie glows red. They also have the following abilities:
 * Explosive Reflux - The Zombie Dreadnought spits out an acidic mini-nuke that inflicts 1,500-1,700 Armor-Piercing Damage in an area equivalent to a 0/2/2/0 Super Monkey's range and applying STUN and POISONED which lasts for 7 seconds.

Zombie Behemoth (Spawn count: 8-11)
Each Zombie Behemoth has 15 million HP and 20 Defense, and are immune to pierce, Armor Pierce, Freezing, and Glue. They also have the Super Shield status effect at all times, and it cannot be removed by any means. They form a moderately-sized circle around the Corrupter and circle around him at a moderate pace, protecting him from attacks. Behemoths are immune to pierce; no attacks can pierce through them by any means until the Behemoths in question are destroyed. They also have the following abilities:
 * Ground Smash - (WIP)

Lapsae Sole (Fallen Sun)
Taunt: "I shall now inflict the eternal dusk which you have merely delayed over the past eons! Now, witness your inexorable fate!"

The Corrupter unleashes omnidirectional streams of dark projectiles that resemble the beams fired by a BTD6 VTSG, inflicting 1,200 damage + 1% target maximum health PER HIT.

Noster Malum (Paragon of Evil)
Taunt: "The chips are down, so you are all free to EAT EACH OTHER!! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!"

The Corrupter instantly takes control of all Towers within a radius of himself equivalent to the range of a 0/1/0/0 Super Monkey for 40 seconds. Heroes can also be affected unless stated otherwise. These controlled entities will attack your towers with 20% increased fire rate.

Trivia

 * The Corrupter's real name, Akwimus'Sab, bears resemblance to Aquisab, a mod in ISAB's Discord.