Zarc

"I will keep on winning! Until I destroy everything in the world!"

- Zarc's destructive desire

Zarc or Z-Arc (ズァーク, Zāku) is a character in Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V anime and the true main antagonist of the series. Before his revelation, he is known as The Darkness or Black Shadow residing inside Yūya Sakaki and his dimensional counterparts. He is the incarnation of Yūya Sakaki (Standard Dimension), Yūto (Xyz Dimension), Yūgo (Synchro Dimension), and Yūri (Fusion Dimension). Zarc's growing aggression led him to destroy the Original Dimension and take on a dragon form known as Supreme King Dragon Zarc. During his confrontation with Ray, Zarc's soul was split into four and reincarnated into four different lives. He is the original owner of the Four Heavenly Dragons.

Appearance
Zarc shares mixed traits to his four dimensional counterparts. Zarc has silver hair with light green highlights, having striking similarities in hair design to the dual-hair color of all the dimensional counterparts and Yūri's side-parted hair. He wears a blue and white jacket with a white undershirt like Yūgo's Duel Suit. He is shown to wear thick black gloves along with brown jeans with gray knee pads. Zarc's revived body takes the form of Yūya - his Standard Dimension reincarnation who became his main host as he was the last survivor of the battle between his counterparts. His new body has a mixture between a dragon, human and a demon. His body turns grey and become bulkier with number of spikes protruding from his shoulders, arms, and ankles while his eyes turn bright yellow. His face sprouts veins and his ears are replaced by wing-like appendages. In this form, he no longer wear a shirt or his rollerblades, and has a large pair of black demonic wings on his back.

Personality
Zarc used to be a normal Duelist who simply liked to Duel for fun. Together with his monsters, he was having fun in Dueling for both himself and entertain the audience. After an incident when his fans cheering for him after he accidentally injured his opponent, Zarc began to develop a twisted view of entertaining the audience. Since then, he used more violent Dueling style that ruthlessly injured his opponents and he takes pleasure in harming them. However, as Zarc continues to answer his fans' exception for him to win his Duels in more violent exciting way, he developed a thirst for power that eventually turned into destructive impulses with the thought of winning is the only thing in his mind. His impulse eventually drove him mad, making him obsessed to become the strongest by destroying everyone until he is the only one left in the world. In his own twisted view, Zarc thinks that his rampage was his way of responding to people's expectations and that his revival was the result of people's desires for him to keep winning.

After becoming the Supreme King Dragon, Zarc also became somewhat misanthropic, resenting and looking down on humans. This most likely due to the influence of the Four Heavenly Dragons' wrath towards humans for forcing them to fight to entertain them. He shows excessive pride and boastfulness, believing that he is the ultimate existence that rivals God and considers himself to be superior to everyone in every way, mocking the opponents he is fighting against by continuously calling them foolish and telling them that being defeated by him is the greatest honour.

His obsession to become the strongest also seems to cause Zarc developed a fear of defeat. This can be seen during his Duel against Crow and Shingo by his outrage towards such suggestion and causes him to lose his usual calm deamenor.

History
Zarc was a resident of the original dimension. He once was a Duelist who claimed able to hear the voices of duel monsters and connected his heart with them. Due to this, he was very skilled in Dueling and quickly gain advantage on field, soon becoming an undefeated Duel champion and widely known as a superstar in the newly conceived Real Solid Vision Dueling. He started to change after his Duel style accidentally severely injured one of his opponents yet the audience kept cheering for him, leading Zarc to think it's fine even if his opponents are injured in a Duel. Since then, his Duel style became more violent and flashy, resulting his opponents sustained heavy injuries. At first, he simply wanted to answer his fans' expectations, however, as he continued to Duel more and more ruthlessly, Zarc became obsessed to become the strongest. Eventually, his mastery of using all summoning methods made him the strongest Duelist in the Dueling world. Despite this, Zarc's thirst was still not satisfied, driving him mad. Zarc finally reached his peak at the end of a tournament where he declared his desire to destroy the world as he summoned his four dragons, "Odd-Eyes Dragon", "Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon", "Clear Wing Synchro Dragon", and "Starve Venom Fusion Dragon", destroying everything in his way. Feeling that his dragons were also not yet satisfied with their battles and seeks to attain the strongest power, Zarc fused himself with his four dragons using "Astrograph Magician", becoming a single giant dragon that people called as the "Supreme King Dragon Zarc". The only ones who could fight Zarc were Duelists, but despite the people's best efforts, they were all helpless against Zarc's overwhelming power and were annihilated without exception.undefined Zarc was on the verge to destroy the whole world until Ray opposed him with the four cards containing Earth's natural energies that Leo created, stopping Zarc's terror at the cost of the world to be split into four dimensions. However, Zarc didn't completely perish; his clash against Ray caused his soul got split into four fragments and each of these souls reincarnated into four boys who bears striking resemblance with him. Each of his soul fragments were residing in the four dimensions: Yūya Sakaki in Standard Dimension, Yūto in Xyz Dimension, Yūgo in Synchro Dimension, and Yūri in Fusion Dimension, with Ray's reincarnations also following his reincarnations. undefined

Battle Royal
Zarc first appeared during Yūya's Duel with Isao Kachidokiundefined but was only recognized as a separate entity when Mieru Hōchun used her crystal ball on the out of control Awakened Yūya while he was restrained by Noboru Gongenzaka, Michio Mokota, and Teppei Tairyōbata. Through her crystal ball, it was shown that Zarc, only known as the Black Shadow or the Darkness slowly tried to overwhelm both Yūya and Yūto's souls while they were still in their Awakened state, though Yūya fell unconscious from his Awakened state before it could do so. Once Yūya regained his consciousness and realized his existence as well as Yūto's soul inside him, Yūya came to realization that Zarc was the one responsible for his violent Dueling against Isao and the Obelisk Force. This made Yūya scared for a moment, but he quickly dismissed it by remembering his father's encouraging words.undefined Zarc resurfaced before Yūya's Duel with Sora after the latter sealed Hikage, though Yūto's spirit calmed him down by reminding him of their promise.undefined

Friendship Cup Semi-Final
Zarc returned even stronger after Yūya was electrocuted by a chip in his helmet that increased his aggressiveness during his Duel with Crow. This caused him and Yūto to awaken, duelling Crow with direct offensive attacks. Since both Yūgo and Yūri were also in vicinity, Yūya synced with them, forcing them to awaken with the same dark aura as him until he won the duel.undefined

Yūya vs. Barrett
When all four dimension dragons appeared during Yūya's duel with Barrett, Zarc returned and overwhelmed Yūya and his dragons, even giving the dragons a shadowy aura until Yuzu's bracelet ended the process by transporting Yūri and Yūgo along with their dragons.undefined

Duel Against Edo Phoenix
While exploring Heartland Duel School, Yūya and Yūto discussed Zarc's strong control over them while they were awakened in their Duel against Barrett. Yūto recalled the Four Dimension Dragons' desire to become one and suspected that they have a strong connection to Zarc. He also theorized that his current residence in Yūya's body may have had to do with "Dark Rebellion"'s will.undefined

Duel Against the Tyler Sisters
During Yūya and Shun's Duel against Gloria and Grace Tyler, Yūya was worried about Yūto's anger controlling him because Zarc might return to possess them again.undefined

Yūri vs. Asuka
When Yūri confronted Yūshō and the others, Asuka Dueled him to buy some times for Yūshō, Reiji, and Reira to go on ahead so they can reach Leo. The Duel went to Yūri's favour, leading to his victory. Before he carded Asuka, Zarc made his appearance as purple aura that surrounded Yūri's body, though it's not visible to be seen. As if resonating with Yūri, he declared his goal that he will turn all people in all four dimensions into cards, which will prove himself that he is the strongest Duelist.undefined

Yūya and Yūto vs. Ruri and Serena
When a  Parasite Monster entered Yūya's brain and  tried to take over  Yūya 's mind, Zarc easily destroyed it, which caused Yūya to awaken briefly before returning to his senses. Zarc returned again when Yūya's anger caused him and Yūto to awaken after seeing  Yuzu  under the  Doctor 's control. Together, they Summoned " Odd-Eyes Raging Dragon " and swiftly defeated  Ruri  and  Serena, destroying the lab in the process. Zarc then disappeared after Yūya remained conscious. undefined

Yūgo vs. Yūri
When Leo finally met Reiji, Reira, and Yūshō at his throne room, he explained about the original dimension before it was split and how Zarc destroyed it. At the same time, Yūri and Yūgo finally confronted each other and started their Duel, summoning each of their respective dragons. The summonings of the two dragons caused all the pieces of Zarc's soul inside Yūgo, Yūri, Yūya, and Yūto to react stronger than usual even when Yūya nor Yūto have yet to summon their dragons. None of the counterparts were able to hold back Zarc's power, resulting Zarc to take over their bodies once more and declared to become one as a thunder shock suddenly bolted from the sky to between Yūri and Yūgo's field. Zarc's soul inside Yūya's body declared to use a card called "Astrograph Magician" to become one, creating a strong blow of wind that enough to destroy the cage trapping them and blew away Kaito and Edo who came to help Yūya.undefined

Yūya and Reiji vs. Leo
In the middle of Yūya and Reiji's Duel against Leo, the machine that was trapping Yuzu and her counterparts began to activate to fuse them and create the fifth dimension ARC-V. Witnessing Yuzu and the others cried out for help, Yūya and Yūto began to be consumed by their anger, awakening Zarc's soul inside them. Zarc possessed Yūya's body and then he stated that he was simply answering people's expectations to become stronger and fight fiercely before Yūya regained control of his body. However, as the Duel goes on, Zarc slowly gained control and Fusion Summoned "Entermate Gatlinghoul", ruthlessly attacking Leo by activating both of "Gatlinghoul's" monster effects.undefined Yūya and Yūto managed to make brief contact with Reiji again but Zarc returned, shouting he will become one and regain his original self, but he will bury Leo first. When the Four Heavenly Dragons returned, Zarc took on form of a dragon's silhouette around Yūya before dissipating.undefined

Yūri vs. Yūshō
After defeating Yūgo, Yūri used Zarc's power to absorb him and resonated with Yūya while overflowing with Zarc's energy. He then used Zarc's power to create a strong black shockwave that sent Yūshō and Reiji flying across the room.undefined During the duel between Yūri and Yūshō, Yūri summoned "Starve Venom Fusion Dragon" and "Clear Wing Synchro Dragon". This helped Zarc's soul within Yūto and Yūya to start taking control again, which he succeeded once Yūya got overwhelmed by his anger after watching his father got carded by Yūri.undefined

Revival
After breaking free from "Binding Swords of Impact", Yūya released a shockwave that pushed Yūri back and unintentionally sends Reiji flying. During their Duel, Yūto and Yūya Summoned all Four Dimension Dragons, which enabled Zarc's soul to control Yūto, overflow around Yūri, and being held back by Yūya.undefined While in the end, Yūya was able to defeat Yūri with the support of his friends, his friends' support urged Yūya to think nothing but winning the Due and it also overlapped with the memories of Zarc's fans who cheered for him in the past that set him to his path, which inadvertently helped Zarc to fully take control of Yūya's soul. With no one able to stop him now, Zarc declared his intention to keep on winning from now on until everything in the world is destroyed. He fused "Timegazer Magician" and "Stargazer Magician" into "Astrograph Magician" and used it's effect to fuse his four reincarnations, reviving him as Supreme King Dragon Zarc.undefined Now revived, Zarc revealed that he was born from humans' desire and declared his intention to destroy the whole world as he began his attack on the Fusion Dimension all the while demanding someone to Duel him.

Duel Against Edo & Sora
He was challenged by Edo and Sora, so he revealed his humanoid form which resembles Yūya. When Sora questioned what happened to Yūya, Zarc revealed that his current form is his true form and Yūya was his reincarnation who helped him revived, which means that Yūya no longer existed since he has revived. Zarc started his turn by summoning two "Supreme King Servant Dragon Darkwurms" through Pendulum Summon using "Supreme King Gate Zero" and "Supreme King Gate Infinity". Due to their effects, Zarc could negate any damage and increased his LP the same amount of Edo and Sora's monsters' ATK. Through the use of their Trap and Magic cards, Edo and Sora managed to destroy all of Zarc's monsters, but Zarc special summoned "Astrograph Magician" whose effect allowed him to revive all of his monster that have been destroyed. Furthermore, he was also able to summon the Four Heavenly Dragons from his deck to his field and performed Integration Summon, fusing himself with the four dragons and summoned "Supreme King Dragon Zarc". Zarc activated his effect, destroying "Destiny HERO - Dystopiaguy" and "Death-Toy Mad Chimera" and inflicted damage to Edo and Sora from the equal amount of their monsters' ATKs, defeating both of them. Once they were defeated, Zarc prepared to face Shun and Kaito who have arrived to help the two fallen Fusion Duelists.undefined

Duel Against Shun & Kaito
Seeing Shun performing Xyz Summon, Zarc also performed Xyz Summon right after Shun did so during the latter's turn, summoning "Supreme King Servant Dragon Dark Rebellion". With its effect, Shun and Kaito couldn't attack other Xyz Monster as long as "Dark Rebellion" is still on the field, which means they couldn't attack him since the Supreme King Dragon is treated as an Xyz Monster. Zarc also used his other effect that made his monster won't be affected by any Fusion, Synchro, and Xyz monsters' effect, forcing Shun and Kaito to take a risk of decreasing their own LPs to power up their monsters' ATKs with Spell cards once Zarc has used up all of "Dark Rebellion's" Overlay Units. Zarc simply laughed at their attempts as he activated "Dark Rebellion's" final effect which was releasing it back to the Extra Deck to summon back its Xyz Materials and reduced "Neo Galaxy-Eyes Cipher Dragon" and "Raid Raptors - Revolution Falcon's" ATKs to 0. When Shun and Kaito attempted to avoid the incoming attacks by using Action Cards, Zarc activated another of Supreme King Dragon's effects: negating and destroying all cards that they add to their hands outside Draw Phase, destroying the Action Cards they just got. Noticing Jack and Gongenzaka intruded the Duel, Zarc chose them to be his next target and lost interest in Shun and Kaito. He attacked both "Neo Galaxy-Eyes" and "Revolution Falcon" with his two "Supreme King Servant Dragon Darkwurms", defeating the two Xyz Users who then entrusted their task to them.undefined

Duel Against Jack & Gongenzaka
The moment Jack Synchro summoned "Red Daemon's Dragon Scarlight", Zarc responded by doing the same thing as he did in his previous Duel, Synchro summoning "Supreme King Servant Dragon Clear Wing" and used its effect to negate battle phase and destroy "Red Daemon's", which Jack countered by using the effect of his monster in the graveyard. When Gongenzaka also performed Synchro summoned but with his monster in defense mode, Zarc criticized his move as being cowardly, but Gongenzaka defended that it was his Steadfast Dueling, confusing the Demon Duelist. As Gongenzaka tried to reach Yūya by reminding them of their times together and his Entertainment Dueling, Zarc began to respond to the word entertainment. Seeing Gongenzaka and Jack were working together to defeat him, Zarc mockingly laughed at what he preceived as foolish attempt. Accepting Gongenzaka's challenge, Zarc declared he will attack with his entertainment, but warned it will be violent. Using his Equip Spell, "Supreme King Violent Spirit" on "Clear Wing", Zarc attacked "Big Benkei" and due to the effect of the Equip Spell, he was able to inflict "Clear Wing's" effect on all of the monsters in Jack and Gongenzaka's field Jack survived thanks to Gongenzaka's monsters protecting him, but Gongenzaka soon got defeated from taking all of the damage to himself to protect Jack. The moment "Clear Wing" was destroyed, Zarc's LP increased thanks to his monsters' Pendulum effects. Praising Jack for being the one who entertained him the most so far, Zarc directly attacked Jack, defeating the Riding Duelist.undefined

Duel Against Crow, Shingo, & Leo
Facing against Crow and Shingo, Zarc once again summoned back "Clear Wing" right after Crow summoned "Raikiri". He then used the dragon's effect twice and his Magic Card "Supreme King Dance" to destroy "Raikiri" and "Chidori", though Crow managed to destroy "Clear Wing" in return. Crow tried to reach out to Yūya by telling their times in City, but Crow's implication of losing enraged Zarc who persisted that he won't lose. When Shingo Pendulum Summoned, Zarc special summoned "Supreme King Servant Dragon Odd-Eyes". Noticing Zarc started to lose his composure after Crow's reminder and decreased his LP, Shingo provoked Zarc by pointing this out and used the combination of his Magic cards and monster's effect that forced Zarc to be on defensive, much to the annoyance of the Supreme King Dragon. After Shingo forced him to use "Odd-Eyes'" once per turn effect, Shingo tried to destroy him again using the same cards, but Zarc used the monsters he have destroyed to once again prevent his destruction. Leo then intruded the Duel and confronted him. Zarc remembered Leo as the one responsible for bringing revolution to the Dueling world with his Real Solid Vision technology, and then told him that in the past, as the audiences cheered for him he had vowed that he will become stronger than anyone and will continue to win until the world is destroyed, a vow that has yet to change. Realizing that Leo intended to use the four cards Ray once used to defeat him, Zarc first defeated Crow and Shingo, and then banished the four cards using his Magic Card that also inflicted 300 damage to Leo for each card destroyed, defeating Leo.

Abilities
Before becoming Supreme Dragon King, Zarc had an ability to hear the voices of duel monsters within the cards and connected his heart with them, which proved to be handy in his Duel as he was able to coordinate with his monsters to make a suitable strategies. Zarc first awakened from inside Yūya when Yūto took over the former's body and initiated the Awakening, resulting Zarc to awaken inside Yūya as well. Zarc influenced Yūya and Yūto's Dueling style to become battle rough and violent. Not only that, he also influenced Yūya's behavior, making him malicious with only desire to defeat his opponents and takes pleasure in causing and seeing harm to them, particularly Duelists from Academia due to Yūto's anger and hatred for them. Zarc also significantly strengthened Yūya's Awakening state more than usual that signed by a thick black aura surrounding Yūya's body. Consequently, while under his influence, neither Yūya nor Yūto are aware of their surrounding and if stopped by someone while not Dueling, Yūya became more unstable to the point of needing to be restrained until he finally reverted back to his normal self, usually falling unconscious. When in a synchronized awakened state with all of his dimensional counterparts, they also gain dark auras around themselves until the synchronization or until the awakening ends. Zarc's power is so strong that it was able to kill the Doctor's "Parasite Fusioner" when it attached itself inside Yūya's brain to try controlling the boy. Even Zarc's sheer intimidation before he can even take over Yūya's body was enough to make all of the Parasite monsters afraid.

Deck
Zarc uses "Supreme King" Deck that focuses on maintaining dominance of the field and restricting his opponent's ability to damage him. When these monsters were destroyed, he activates "Astrograph Magician's" effect to not only summoned back all his destroyed monsters, but also easily banish Four Heavenly Dragons from Field, Deck, Extra Deck, and/or Graveyard to Integration Summon "Supreme King Dragon Zarc" and use its field presence to dominate the game.

Offensively, Zarc uses his "Supreme King Servant Dragons" version of the Four Heavenly Dragons to counter an appropriate type of monster card (Fusion, Synchro, Xyz or Pendulum) in response to the Summon of those monster by sacrificing a "Supreme King Servant Dragons" de controls. Their effects redirect any attacks to them should they be able to overpower "Zarc".

As a last resort, should the "Four Heavenly Supreme King Servant Dragon" became rendered useless or overpowered by his opponent, he return them to the deck and summon back its sacrifices and make the ATK of all corresponding monster card type 0. "Zarc" can also prevent the use of any cards his opponent adds to the hand outside of the Draw Phase, effectively shutting the "Last-Resort-Savior" Action Cards.

Defensively, Zarc uses "Supreme King Gate" to change any damage to his LP. And thus neutralizing the loss of his cards. Also, "Zarc" grants immunity to all monster he controls from his opponent's Fusion, Synchro and Xyz Monster effect.

Trivia

 * In Japanese version, he shares the same voice actor with his Standard and Fusion reincarnations, Yūya and Yūri. While in English version, he shares the same voice actor with all of his reincarnations.
 * Like most of his reincarnations, Zarc used to referred himself as "Ore" in Japanese. However, after becoming Supreme King Dragon, he referred to himself as "Ware" or sometimes "Waga" in Japanese.
 * He is one of the only four people in the series to have mastered all four summoning methods. The other three being Reiji, Reira, and Yūya.