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Eram, also known as Shadow Mantle Holder (and Nightmare in the game files) is a Secret Boss in Chapter 3, who is hidden behind the 3rd S-rank minigame in the Sword Route.
They are the mysterious holder of the Shadow Mantle, a cloak that reduces the Dark/Star damage type by 66% when equipped, which is recommended, but not required, when challenging the Roaring Knight at the end of the chapter, who focuses heavily on these types of attacks.
Eram first “appears” in the original game in the S-rank room within the Desert Board, upon approaching them in a hidden room they leave behind a message telling the player they will be seeing them soon. In the second level, upon reaching the final room of the Ice Castle, Eram will congratulate Kris on making it so far, though notes there is nothing there, though will congratulate them if they manage to find the shelter key.
In the third and final level, Eram taunts and proceeds to fight the video game version of Kris, "HERO_SWORD". Interestingly, Eram both deals damage to HERO_SWORD and the real SOUL, meaning that dying causes the game to "reload". As Eram takes more damage, the fight progresses through several phases, using new attacks or harder variants of previous attacks. However, after hitting Eram 50 times, Eram admits defeat, and allows Kris to claim the Shadow Mantle if they can reach it. They then float upwards and put the Shadow Mantle into a chest that HERO_SWORD cannot reach. HERO_SWORD must follow a hallway leading to the right, but upon reaching the end of it, instead of going to the next room, they walk out of the game into the real world and either walk left and swing in the direction of the "real" Kris with their sword, or going right and walking offscreen. Kris can then reach the chest by walking onto the video game screen, and thus receives the Shadow Mantle.
In Battle
Attacks
Eram has 4 phases:
In Phase 1, they will either shoot 6 fireballs in a hexagonal pattern, or place down 3 bombs that shoot out attacks which push the player back if hit by one, similar to the ones in Board 2 of Tenna's minigame.
In Phase 2, they will start by turning into a meteor and falling onto random parts of the screen 4 times. On the 5th time, they will land in the middle, pausing to laugh for a few seconds (which is a decent opening to attack them) and release 5 FRIENDS. Each FRIEND has a chance to spawn a heal worth 1 attack's damage. This cycle repeats until Phase 3.
In Phase 3, they do both of the Phase 1 attacks simultaneously whilst sometimes throwing 4 bombs but not shooting fireballs. After a short period of time, it becomes identical to the second part of Phase 2.
In Phase 4, they shoot bombs very slowly whilst also having a rotating ring of fireballs making the player have to keep moving. After around 10 seconds of this, they become a meteor again but this time 2 other meteors with half the damage also spawn. The player then has to hit Eram in this state until they are defeated, rewarding the player with the Shadow Mantle.
Strategy
It is important to note that Eram does not hurt the player on contact, though their attacks will still deal damage at this range.
A simple strategy to dodge Eram's meteor attacks involves moving from left to right at the bottom of the stage.
During any of the meteor phases, the player can stall by choosing to not attack Eram and instead farm heals by killing the minions when they spawn, this can be used to gain full health if lucky or at least just heal, and allow the player to take more hits later on.
During phase 4's beginning, it is possible to attack Eram several times before any of their attacks begin, this is a good way to deal lots of damage in this phase. Additionally, if the player has enough health, they can continue attacking Eram during their attack to deal enough damage to end the fight.
Trivia
Eram is orange, this is a reference to the fact that they set themselves on fire.
While Eram is giving the player the Shadow Mantle, an item which covers the chest, is a reference to this, Eram being mare backwards also simply refers to the word Nightmare.
The name Eram has been given to it by the fans, as the song that plays before its bossfight is called Eram.
The song that plays during the bossfight is called BURNING EYES. This is in reference to a line from Eram which says that Kris' eyes are flickering like flames.
After defeating ERAM and obtaining the Shadow Mantle, a cutscene will trigger where Susie enters the room and gives Kris a Flatsoda, but there is a secret cutscene you can trigger during this. Hold the left arrow key and HERO_SWORD will reappear, and walk towards Susie, once getting close enough to her, Kris swiftly grabs and pulls her away from HERO_SWORD, to which they walk down again, triggering the secret cutscene
Speculation
Many players think that this boss is the Shadow Mantle itself, though this is impossible to determine.
The main basis of the theory is how Erams appearance resembles the item description of the shadow mantle itself.
A counterpoint is how Eram says"this SHADOW MANTLE that I'm holding,"
Eram's fight is possibly supposed to reference boss battles in early games of the Legend of Zelda, especially with the playstyle it enforces.
This is reinforced by Eram's name being Mare backwards, as well as Nightmare in the game files, as the final boss of Link's Awakening is named Shadow Nightmare. This would reference both the nightmare related nature of Eram's name, and the name of the Shadow Mantle.
Eram spawns what are FRIENDs in their fight. Whether they are FRIEND itself or clones of/entities resembling FRIEND is unknown.
Many people believe the one who speaks to Kris is separate from the enemy that gives the Shadow Mantle, a common theory that the enemy is the Mantle due to its appearance being mostly dark, like a shadow, and looking much like a mantle. We also do not see it speak.
Some suggest Eram might have a connection to Ramb in some way, theories about Ramb controlling the Eram via plugging himself into the back of the console playing the game, having some proof by the fact he disappears after the Eram Mantle boss fight.
Eram can also be considered a corruption of Ramb, further implying a connection between the two.
There is also a theory that Eram is the games version of the Knight, due to them both being primarily black, and having similar themes.
