Cloud of Darkness/Dissidia (PSP)

The Cloud of Darkness is one of the villains fighting for the side of Chaos in Dissidia Final Fantasy and Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy. She is an entity that appears when the balance between light and darkness is disturbed, and tries to pull the world into the Void. She hovers like a cloud, and attacks with the tentacles wrapped around her body. Cloud of Darkness allies herself with Kefka, Exdeath and Kuja in her attempts to destroy everything and return the world to darkness. Her rival is the young Onion Knight who wishes to protect his friends from her.

Attire
Cloud of Darkness's appearance is based on her Amano artwork, depicting her with pale skin and a red and black cloak attached to her wrists. Black and red coverings adorn her body, including her breasts and hips, and two mouthed tentacles extend from her back.

Cloud of Darkness's first alternate outfit, "Dark Robe," recolors her cape blue. In Dissidia, her EX Mode is colored a mixture of light green and dark green with a dull red for the legs. In Dissidia 012, her EX Mode in this outfit is changed to a bright orange and yellow form with blue markings along her legs, reflecting her NES sprite while invincible.

Cloud of Darkness's second alternate outfit, "Lucent Robe," has an overall lighter appearance. Her cape is white, and her tentacles are a more pale yellow and lack faces. Her body coverings also change to black, white and various shades of purple, and she has several loops of beads along her legs. In this outfit her EX Mode colors her body coverings gold and different shades of white, and gives her red markings on her skin.

Her manikin version, Counterfeit Wraith, is green.

Dissidia 012
At some point prior to the 12th Cycle, the Cloud of Darkness aids Sephiroth upon his request, due to the latter taking interest in her abilities when fighting the Warrior of Light and Lightning. The Cloud of Darkness ambushes Laguna while he is separated from the others, their fight ends with Laguna getting a leg cramp after unintentionally offending as well as flattering her by staring at her scantily clad body this and when Laguna states his reasons for helping Cosmos caused her to develop an interest in him, the Cloud of Darkness reveals where the manikins are coming from. She reveals this information as it is a potential suicide mission, and is curious about the manner of death Laguna would choose for himself. She later re-emerges with Kefka, Garland, the Emperor, and Ultimecia to fight against Laguna (whom she is happy to see), Vaan, Lightning, Yuna, and Tifa before they could stop the rift from producing more manikins. In the aftermath of the battle, she is later ambushed by Kefka who marks her as a traitor for revealing information to the enemy, and she receives purification in preparation for the next cycle.

Scenario 013
Working with Kefka, the Cloud of Darkness attempted to kill off Terra and the Onion Knight from a distance before Kefka stops her due to his desire to regain control over Terra. Though not convinced of Terra's power, the Cloud of Darkness agrees to capture her and release her full power. After Terra loses control of her powers and battles the Onion Knight, the Cloud of Darkness arrives after the fight to abduct Terra. She berates the Onion Knight on his blindness to Terra's struggle during their travels and tells him he has only himself to blame for her capture.

The Onion Knight travels to the World of Darkness, where the Cloud of Darkness is standing over an unconscious Terra, proclaiming the girl is too fragile to be of use. The Onion Knight arrives and offers to take Terra's place as her servant, only to fool the Cloud of Darkness and strike her with her guard down, proclaiming he will defeat her and protect Terra. The two battle and the Cloud of Darkness is defeated. She fades away, leaving Terra to recover and the Onion Knight to claim his Crystal. The Cloud of Darkness later appears when Kefka realizes he cannot have Terra, cornering the girl and Cloud Strife when the Onion Knight comes to their aid and helps Cloud double team the villain while Terra fights Kefka. The outcome of her battle with Cloud and the Onion Knight is not shown, but the two of them are safe once Terra dispatches Kefka.

After Cosmos is killed, the Cloud of Darkness speaks to Ultimecia, who tells her Shinryu has begun to stir, and reveals it is Shinryu who is responsible for the cycle of war. The Cloud of Darkness is unfazed by the Emperor's plans, along with Ultimecia's own Time Compression scheme, and focused only on the eternal Void. Later, when the Onion Knight confronts her, Cloud of Darkness asks him why he still opposes her now when Cosmos is gone and there nothing for him to protect. They engage in battle, and the Onion Knight wins. After she loses the battle, the Cloud of Darkness tells the Onion Knight it is too late, claiming they cannot stop the current of change. He replies he is listening to his heart and will not run away, because the determination of his friends encourage him to move forward. The Cloud of Darkness comments that living creatures are fascinating and she will be waiting in the rifts of the Void. She disappears into the darkness, going back to sleep.

Battle
In battle, Cloud of Darkness' fighting style is Bane of Life, as she uses a wide array of powerful energy beam attacks to drain the opponent's HP, and has the most HP attacks of any character. Her Bravery attacks are limited to attacks of her tentacles, which can attack in one of three ways according to when the circle button is pressed a second time while attacking. Though limited, her Bravery attacks are still very formidable. Her HP attacks cover a wide variety of tactical options and can hit across multiple ranges and altitudes. A drawback is that she moves a bit slowly, and her reliance on HP attacks can leave her vulnerable to counterattacks before she can recover her Brave.

Boss
In Dissidia, Cloud of Darkness is fought in Destiny Odyssey III, Shade Impulse, Distant Glory and Inward Chaos.

In Dissidia 012, she is fought in Clues, An Undocumented Battle, Wisdom or Courage?, and Conclusion of the Cycle chapters of Story Mode.

Attacks
Bravery attacks

HP Attacks Bravery attacks

HP Attacks

EX Mode
Ultra Particle Beam MySeaKAyWSs The Cloud of Darkness's EX Mode is Flood of Darkness, where she loses her cape and her skin turns green, identical to her in-game appearance from Final Fantasy III. When in EX Mode, the Cloud of Darkness gains ability "[Null] Particle Beam". This lets her cancel out the lag after she attacks by using an HP attack, allowing her to attack faster in succession and combo her attacks together.

Her EX Burst, Ultra Particle Beam, has her attack with a smaller beam of energy, then summoning a large orb of darkness. The player must hold down to charge a bar up to 120%, allowing the Cloud of Darkness to blast opponents with a powerful beam of energy. Releasing the button at the wrong time will result in the bar dropping to 80% and the Cloud of Darkness firing a smaller beam that does less damage.

Equipment
Cloud of Darkness is able to equip Rods, Staves, Bangles, Hats, Hairpins, Clothing, and Robes. In Dissidia 012, the Cloud of Darkness can also equip Throwing Weapons and Poles.

Allusions

 * When the Cloud of Darkness uses Aura Ball, she laughs her characteristic laugh from Final Fantasy III.
 * In Shade Impulse II-3, when fighting the Cloud of Darkness with a character other than Onion Knight, one of her pre-battle quotes is "We have had an eternity in the Void to prepare. We will flood this world with darkness---and return all to the Void." This is roughly the same as the dialogue in Final Fantasy III. That scene was removed from the Dissidia 012 version.
 * All of Cloud of Darkness's HP Attacks and her EX Burst are variations of her signature attack in Final Fantasy III, "Particle Beam" ("Wave Cannon" in the Japanese version).
 * When the Cloud of Darkness charges her EX Burst, she takes on the same pose as her original NES battle sprite from Final Fantasy III. She assumes the same pose if Onion Knight uses his EX Burst against her.
 * Interestingly, while Cloud of Darkness's attacks "Tentacle of Pain," "Tentacle of Suffering" and "Aura Ball" did not appear in any game version of Final Fantasy III, they did actually appear in the game's 1992 manga adaptation. The manga, like the game, was written by scenario writer Kenji Terada.
 * Cloud of Darkness seems to dislike the manikins, as they are a foreign presence that upsets the equilibrium of the world. This alludes to her appearing when the equilibrium between light and darkness is destroyed.
 * Cloud of Darkness's opening line towards the Warrior of Light in both games might be an allusion to the fact that she was only defeated after the Warriors of Darkness sacrficed themselves and the Warriors of Light weren't enough to defeat her alone.
 * Cloud of Darkness's opening line towards the Cecil in Dissidia is an allusion to how she needed both light and dark energies to invoke the Void's power.

Trivia

 * Tetsuya Nomura has stated that when he joined the company, he saw Yoshitaka Amano's original design of the Cloud of Darkness which was not featured in Final Fantasy III, and decided to use the design in a future game once he got the chance.
 * In the Dissidia Ultimania guide, the Cloud of Darkness is described as being genderless and merely takes on the form of a woman. This is implied by Zidane's comment, "Well, she is a lady...I guess," before battling her. In-game however, female pronouns are used when referring to her.
 * The Cloud of Darkness has the dubious distinction of having the smallest role in the game of the main playable characters. Not counting the final storyline Shade Impulse (where all ten villains are fought) and the bonus storylines, the Cloud of Darkness is fought only once while all other villains are fought at least twice. Outside of the Onion Knight's storyline, the Cloud of Darkness only appears in three cutscenes, and never speaks to any characters outside of Kefka, Ultimecia and the Onion Knight.
 * With the exceptions of her introduction quotes when fighting Cloud, Squall and the Warrior of Light, the Cloud of Darkness refers to herself as "we." Her use of plural pronouns is explained in her character file as being due to her two tentacles, which have minds and personalities of their own. This fact is furthered by them taking offense to Laguna's staring at the Cloud of the Darkness.
 * Though she and Exdeath both support the idea of sealing the world in the Void, they are never seen interacting with each other. Before battle, Exdeath would originally say to Cloud of Darkness, "The Void you seek is false." Based on their EX Bursts, she and Exdeath have two opposite views of the Void, his being an all-consuming nothingness (which is why his gauge reduces to 0%) and hers being an all-destroying energy (which is why her gauge rises to 120%).
 * The Cloud of Darkness is the only defeated Warrior of Chaos that returns to her resting place of her own accord (unless one counts Kuja refusing help from Zidane as returning to his resting place of his own accord).
 * The Cloud of Darkness is the only returning character in Dissidia 012 whose EX Mode appearance differs from the original Dissidia in the case of her alternate outfit, which is multi-colored in Dissidia 012, unlike its original Dissidia version. This orange version alludes to the first encounter where she is unbeatable in Final Fantasy III.
 * Cloud of Darkness is the only Chaos warrior to be fought by their respective Cosmos warrior a second time after their defeat in their Cosmos warrior's Destiny Odyssey (Destiny Odyssey VI against Onion Knight and Cloud Strife.)
 * When fighting her in the Onion Knight's storyline, her base Bravery value is 666.

Nube de Oscuridad/Dissidia Nube oscura (Dissidia) Wolke der Dunkelheit (Dissidia)