Bellum

"They just want to fill their empty bellies. They hunger for life force!"

- Oshus

Bellum, Evil Phantom is an enormous squid-like monstrosity and the main villain of The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. He is an ancient parasitic creature that lives off the life force of other beings. He rose from the depths of the sea and attacked the Ocean King due to his large supply of life force. The Ocean King fought to destroy him and lost, instead sealing them both at the bottom of the Temple of the Ocean King. His influence permeates most of the temple, and without the Phantom Hourglass, anyone who ventures in too deep will have their energy sapped until they die. Bellum still attempts to escape, resulting in frequent earthquakes across Mercay Island. It is never made clear if Bellum is actually capable of complex thoughts, as most descriptions of him indicate he is merely a hungry animal with abominable powers. He is intelligent enough to create monsters and other entities to lure potential victims to him, such as the Ghost Ship, as well as protect him, like the Phantoms and the game's other temple bosses. Additionally, he is capable of moving through solid walls and inhabit other beings to control them. Due to his power, the only weapon that can destroy him is the Phantom Sword.

Bellum is not directly mentioned in the game until Tetra's petrified body is found on board the Ghost Ship. Oshus appears and explains what Bellum is. He also tells them that he is a clone of the Ocean King, sent to the surface to help find and guide a potential hero to defeat Bellum. He explains that only the Phantom Sword can hope to defeat him, and Link starts on a quest to get it forged. Eventually, Link makes his way down to the bottom of the temple, where Bellum slowly floats down to confront him, then dives into a pool of noxious purple liquid in the center.

To attack, Bellum will spit out globs of purple slime in Link's general direction, which form into simple enemies called Muddies. Link needs to use his grappling hook to pull some lighter-colored globs of slime off Bellum's body, then use it to grab Bellum himself. This pulls him to the edge of the pool, where his eye opens in surprise, allowing Link to attack it repeatedly. He will attempt to swim to the other side after some hits, but Link can follow and continue attacking. After enough hits, Bellum flies from the pool to the floor above, where the second phase starts.

Now floating in the central gap of a ring-shaped arena, Bellum latches on to the support pillars around him with his five tentacles. When Link approaches, Muddies will slowly drip from the ceiling while Bellum tries to hit Link with his nearest tentacle. He raises a tentacle and looks over the area in front of it using the tentacle's eye for a while, eventually putting it back on a pillar, which is sometimes different from the one it started on. Link needs to use his bow to shoot arrows at the eyes on tentacles across from his current position, as they are at the same level. Each eye that is hit closes and foams up with more purple slime as the tentacle it is on slides down a bit and is no longer used to attack. When all the tentacle eyes have been hit, Bellum writhes and falls back into the pool.

The third phase is much like the first, but now he spits out three Muddies at a time over a wider area, and there are many more globs covering him. He is also quicker to swim away when grappled. The fourth phase is a repeat of the second, though now Bellum will have most of his eyes closed at any given time. After three of his eyes are hit, Bellum will float off, twirl, and slam all his tentacles down on the ring before attaching to the pillars again. Due to the uneven amount of tentacles and spaces, there is always somewhere safe for Link to stand during this. Once all eyes are hit, it floats up to the top floor of the arena for the fifth phase.

On the top floor, Bellum takes a similar position as in the previous phase, but now has up to two tentacles ready to attack at a time. Additionally, he rapidly spits three Muddies high into the air, which fall with much more accuracy than before after a few seconds. In general, Bellum's movements are much faster here, including switching tentacles and closing eyes. After two eyes are hit, he twirls and slams his tentacles four times before returning to position. After two more hits, he repeats this. When all five eyes have been hit, Bellum writhes again and ejects the final memory of Ciela, as explained by an apparition of Oshus. Ciela remembers the final step to defeating Bellum, and Link and her travel back down to the bottom floor for the sixth phase.

Now, Bellum is flying wildly around the ground around the pool, its central eye rolling all over. When Link reaches the bottom, the stairs collapse, and Ciela begins telling Link her advice. She calls Bellum's movements hard to predict, but with her recovered identity of the Spirit of Time, she can use the Phantom Hourglass to stop time itself. To do this, Link needs to collect the Phantom Sphere Ciela releases, and then the player must tap the hourglass icon on the lower screen and draw a figure eight, representing the hourglass's shape. Once he does so, time will stop, and all but Link and Bellum's vulnerable central eye will turn grayscale for several seconds, allowing Link to attack several times consecutively depending on how close he is. However, each Phantom Sphere can only be used once. Once Bellum's eye has been hit enough times, it flies around wobbly and disoriented, eventually flopping into the pool, followed by a splash that indicates he explodes.

Link and Ciela go up to the pool's edge, only for another earthquake to strike, with the ceiling starting to crack and no apparent exit. However, they are warped out to the SS Linebeck by Oshus just before a falling pillar crushes them. Oshus uses his powers regained from Bellum's defeat to restore the petrified Tetra, but she is then suddenly wrapped up in small versions of Bellum's tentacles, which pull her into a portal, confusing even Oshus. The three make their way up to the deck, where they see Bellum floating over the water in front of them carrying Tetra while the Ghost Ship looms behind. Bellum then flies into the Ghost Ship and merges into it, with several giant Muddy-like eyes growing from it. Link and Linebeck pursue it in their own ship, with Linebeck steering and no longer afraid, and Link shooting the eyes with the cannon. Once all the eyes are destroyed, the Ghost Ship sinks and breaks apart, and Link and Linebeck investigate it.

Rushing onto the deck, the two see Tetra laying unconscious, and Bellum bursts through the floor and grabs her again. He then deliberately crashes into the mast, causing it to fall on and destroy the SS Linebeck with Oshus still aboard. While Link, Linebeck, and Ciela are distracted by this, Bellum captures Link and causes him to drop the Phantom Sword. Realizing he is their only hope now, a trembling Linebeck wields the sword against Bellum, stabbing through one of his tentacle eyes with it. Bellum then throws Link and Tetra and crashes onto the deck in front of Linebeck, shrinking. Link slowly wakes up while Linebeck continues to swipe at Bellum. Bellum then restrains both of Linebeck's arms, and he throws Link the Phantom Sword. In a final effort to survive, Bellum wraps all his tentacles around Linebeck and holds himself to his back, summoning a dark whirlwind as he takes control of him while summoning Phantom-like armor, becoming Bellumbeck.

In the ensuing battle, Bellum's central eye remains the only weak point, while his only unoccupied tentacle is used as a whip until instead using it to restrain Ciela. Once his eye is attacked enough, Bellum leaves Linebeck and pulses around trying to escape, but in the end becomes Sand of Hours like the previous bosses. Link draws the sand into the sword and the dark clouds surrounding the ship vanish, while the Ocean King's power fully returns.

Trivia

 * Despite being labeled as a "phantom" by his boss subtitles, Bellum himself looks nothing like a Phantom aside from when he is Bellumbeck. However, the Japanese version uses Mugen regarding him instead of "Phantom" like the enemy, so it may simply be a synonym lost in translation.
 * During development, Bellum was known as 「グランデオクタ」 (Guran de Okuta, Gran De Octa or Grande Octo) and considered a giant Octorok. In internal data, his file names remain relating to "GranDeOcta." The Octomines were additionally developed to be his minions before the Phantoms had that role. His Octorok design basis is not apparent at all in the finished product, as they do not appear in a related capacity and Bellum's design does not resemble an Octorok's. However, the toothy jaw may be modified from an Octorok's funnel.