Lyric the Last Ancient

"Technology is the only thing you can trust. Which is why I'm going to rid this world of all organic life forms&mdash;and rebuild it, piece by robotic piece."

- Lyric the Last Ancient, Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric

Lyric the Last Ancient is the main antagonist and final boss of both Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric and Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal. He is the last of a benevolent race called the Ancients, but went mad with power and turned on his peers to create a world of twisted metal and robots using the power of his people's crystals. Before he could carry out his nefarious deeds, however, he was imprisoned. Centuries later, Lyric was freed and resumed his plans, but was defeated by Sonic the Hedgehog and his crew.

Concept and creation
Lyric is supposed to be an extreme embodiment of everything the Sonic franchise has come to stand for surrounding its central conflict of nature versus technology, with Lyric representing the love of technology. According to Bob Rafei, the CEO of Big Red Button Entertainment, the concept of the main villain involved many creatures, including an owl and mechanized owl, until he decided that "the snake design really fit" and was compelling for Big Red Button Entertainment. Lyric parallels the role of the snake in the Biblical Garden of Eden, and it was then decided to make the villain of the Sonic Boom continuity a snake; it represented dark sides and evil things, the opposite of Sonic's can-do heroic attitude.

Appearance
Lyric is a giant and monstrous snake-like creature with dark green scales, a light green jaw and a pointy snout with two prominent nostrils. He also has several sharp teeth, unlike real snakes, and eyes with dark green (round) irises and light green sclera.

Lyric wears a sophisticated reddish-brown body armor on the upper section of his body which provides him with a torso. It is spherical in shape with three ring segments on the lower section, a glass sphere around Lyric's head with a silver frame that connects on his back by three thinner frames, two round antennas on his back, a blue button on the chest, and a pair of arms with ball joints and three-fingered hands. He also has a grey rattle-like object on the tip of his tail that resembles his hands.

Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric
In Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric, Lyric was originally a member of the Ancients, who was devoted to peacefully controlling the world’s resources. At the time, Lyric was working to unlock the power of the Chaos Crystals, but the experiment made him sick and the Ancients' attempts to heal him with organic medicines failed, forcing Lyric to build himself a robotic suit to survive. Blaming the Ancients, the snake descended into insanity, and became convinced that nothing but technology could be trusted. Lyric was soon driven mad by power and turned on his fellow Ancients and took control of their resources, thus sparking a war against his peers. Lyric subsequently set out to destroy everything organic on the planet and create a reliable world of twisted metal and robots which he would rule by building an army of Sentinels programmed to obey his every command.

Just before Lyric could successfully take over, he had found the map to the hidden Chaos Crystals which he needed to power his army. However, as Lyric was reviewing his plans with his creation Q-N-C, a rogue MAIA unit hijacked a Sentinel and trashed his facility. Lyric was then confronted by Sonic the Hedgehog (who had come from the future) who trapped Lyric in his own base, allowing the last surviving Ancients to imprison Lyric in a tomb where he was to remain frozen forever, though not before Lyric left behind his Destruction Troops so someone would find them and thereby set him free to learn their secrets. With his army shut down and his plans ruined, Lyric waited in prison plotting his revenge, though as the years passed, he began to give up hope.

A thousand years later, Lyric was awoken by Sonic (who had yet to meet Lyric at that point) and his crew by accident. Knowing Sonic's tricks, Lyric made him break his restrains which he used to tie up the heroes. Escaping his tomb, Lyric fled Team Sonic as they tried to pursue him and started looking for his map to the Chaos Crystals so he could continue his plans. When his search proved fruitless, Dr. Eggman confronted Lyric with his Destruction Troops to make him hand over his technological secrets. However, Lyric overrode Eggman's controls, forcing Eggman to offer a partnership. Despite his infuriation with Eggman, Lyric allowed him to help and sent him out to find his map which he suspected Sonic already had.

When Eggman reported to Lyric that Team Sonic had seemingly died, Lyric had anticipated his failure and had sent Driller Worms to find the Crystals. When he discovered one was destroyed by the still living Team Sonic, Lyric decided to look for Sonic instead, knowing that since he was now collecting the Crystals, he just had to wait for him to find them and then take them. During Lyric and Eggman's search, they found Team Sonic and chased them down for the Crystal. When they lost them thanks to Eggman, Lyric decided to dissolve their "partnership." Eggman, seeking to betray Lyric, called in Metal Sonic, but Lyric took control of the robot and had him drive Eggman off before upgrading him and make him search for the Crystals. Later, while salvaging components, Lyric faced Eggman in his mech which Lyric could not control, but after seeing the mech's flaws, he merely left.

When Team Sonic had found all the Crystals, Lyric ambushed them with his toops and threatened them to hand the Crystals over or he would kill Sonic. Despite Sonic's friends complying, Lyric still attacked Sonic, leaving him buried in rubble and left with the Crystals. As he activated his Sentinel army at his lair with the Crystals, Sonic arrived, having survived the onslaught, with his team. After failing to taunt Sonic with his reliance on his team, Lyric fought them, but as he was losing, he tied Team Sonic up with their Enerbeams. No sooner though, Lyric was distracted by a shot from Eggman in his mech. Lyric still proclaimed victory, but was defeated and tied up by an Enerbeam by Sonic, who then disposed of his control device, thus ruining Lyric's plans for good. Lyric has not been seen since then.

Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal
In Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal, Lyric was originally a member of the Ancients, who was devoted to peacefully controlling the world’s resources. Driven mad by power, Lyric turned on his fellow Ancients and took control of the resources. Building an army of robots programmed to obey his every command, Lyric set out to destroy everything organic and create a world of twisted metal and robots, with him as the ruler of this empire. Just before he could successfully take over, Lyric launched an attack on the last surviving Ancients to seize the Lost Crystal of Power and gain omnipotent power, but the Ancients restored to shattering the Crystal and using its fragments to imprison Lyric. With his army shut down and his plans ruined, Lyric waited in prison plotting his revenge, though as the years passed, he began to give up hope.

5,000 years after being imprisoned, Lyric finally escaped and began searching for the Crystal Shards to gain power-like power. While searching, he met Shadow the Hedgehog whom he took a liking to and made him his slave using a Mind Control Device when Shadow refused to serve him. Not long after, Lyric learned that Amy Rose had invaluable knowledge about the whereabouts of the Crystal Shard and, in his eagerness, ambushed her in some ruins. When Amy refused to help, Lyric disabled her by sneaking a Mind Control Device on her. As he took his leave, Lyric saw Sonic on Amy's AVA where he introduced himself and his plans to rip Amy's knowledge out of her brain before leaving.

While peeling Amy's mind, Lyric detected he lost control over Shadow to Team Sonic and contacted them over a hologram, warning them that he would soon be omnipotence once he got the information needed from Amy and destroy them, before leaving. However, as Sonic continued to persist, Lyric grew increasingly infuriated with him, something he noted to Amy as he tapped her mind for her knowledge. Not long after, Team Sonic freed Amy and they cornered Lyric for a final showdown on his fleet where Sonic announced that he was unbeatable with his team behind him. Lyric thus trapped Sonic's friends and engaged Sonic one-on-one, but was defeated. Regardless, Lyric summoned a weapon to kill the heroes, only for it to be destroyed by Shadow. As Lyric was sent flying by a vengeful Shadow, Sonic open a hatch on the fleet, making Lyric fall to his doom.

Personality
Surmised, Lyric is an evil, ruthless, dangerous, pitiless and remorseless monster, and is darker and more foreboding than Dr. Eggman. A profound sociopath, Lyric is voided of any sense of compassion and will do anything to accomplish his goals, even if it means wiping out innocent lives. At his core, Lyric is one that relishes death and destruction, as he would slither in glee at the prospect of destroying everything on the planet.

Some of Lyric's prominent traits is his deep-seeded hatred for organics and love of technology. An extremely tech-savvy mastermind, Lyric loathes organic life forms for their unreliability, considering them nothing more that lowly and useless wastes of carbon, which made him adopt the philosophy that technology is the only thing that can be trusted. As his hatred evolved into rage, Lyric would become a strict person of technology with no care for the environment, plant life or other living creatures, and made it his mission to wipe out all organic life and remake the planet into a "glorious world of metal", completely blind to the balance needed between technology and the environment.

Usually, Lyric is very serious, cold, threatening and has almost no tolerance for failure. Rather than relying on trust, he keeps his sentient minions in check by fear and only has them around for as long as they serve his interest; after that, he will dispose of them without mercy. While he is willing to make deals with others lower than himself, Lyric has no trouble using lies or deceit to make things work out to his liking, as he had his troops attack Sonic despite promising not to do it if Team Sonic handed over their Crystals. Likewise, Lyric has also some sardonic and sarcastic wit, taunting Sonic with his predictability following his second encounter with him and calling the Eggman Mech "impressive" after it failed to hit him. Lyric is also an intelligent mastermind and schemer, setting up a contingency plan for his imprisonment and letting Team Sonic collect the Crystal for then to steal them all. However, when pushed to the edge, he can snap into a vicious rage and respond with animal-like ferocity.

Lyric is an extremely power-hungry tyrant, more so that Eggman, and his lust for power has driven him to insanity. He will not settle with anything less that absolute control over the world or even omnipotence, and believes that his people's Crystals belong to him since he is not afraid to use them for greater purposes, a view which makes him so incredibly arrogant that he deems himself unstoppable, even when on the verge of defeat. Lyric has also proven himself very vengeful, even spending his several centuries in his prison to plot his revenge, and will not consider his business with those he believes has wronged him to be over before he has personally annihilated them and/or everything they care about.

Powers and abilities
Lyric is the strongest enemy Sonic and his friends have faced yet. He is described as a formidable enemy and a force to be reckoned with, suggesting he is very powerful. As another testament to his power, he is the first person to dodge Sonic's spin attack, though he was already familiar to it when Sonic used it on him for the first time.

Lyric has proven himself to be a technological genius, having created an army of giant robots capable of wiping out all life on a planet. He has also been shown to have good deduction skills, able to quickly figure out that it was Sonic who stole his map. Also, as a reptile, he has a natural ability to regrow his parts.

Lyric's body is merged with a robot armor of steel, giving him a sophisticated robotic body which he uses to carry out his own nefarious deeds. This armor also drastically increases Lyric's lifespan, allowing him to survive for over a millennium.

Lyric's armor contains a computer-like device that grants him limited technopathy; with but a press on the button on his torso, Lyric is able to take control of virtually anything electronic around him and operate it with his mind alone, as long as it is not manually controlled. He lost this ability after Sonic discarded the device behind it.

Lyric has demonstrated the ability to levitate in the air and is also capable of shooting harmful energy beams from the hand-like tip of his tail, He can unleashes powerful shock waves when he hits a ground. He can also use an ability similar to telekinesis by charging his hands with a green energy to lift things into the air without touching them.

The Ancients
Some of Lyric's oldest and most hated foes are his very own race, the Ancients. In Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric, when he fell ill from his experiments and had to turn himself into a cyborg, Lyric blamed the Ancients for not warning him of the danger and being unable to help him, which set him on his path to destroy the planet. As the Ancients tried to stop him, Lyric turned on his peers and began a war with them, dead-set on annihilating them and everything they held dear. While Lyric managed to destroy most of the Ancients, he was trapped by Sonic, allowing the last Ancients to imprison him.

In Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal, Lyric hated the Ancients for their refusal to use the limitless power of the Lost Crystal of Power, which made him view them as frighten and weak old fools. Believing the Crystal was his by right as he dared to use it otherwise, Lyric betrayed his fellow Ancients and almost wiped them out. However, before he could achieve total victory, the last surviving Ancients destroyed the Crystal and imprisoned him, an act that Lyric would curse them for even five thousand years later.

Sonic the Hedgehog
In Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric, Lyric had a very antagonistic relationship with Sonic the Hedgehog and considered him the one thorn in his side for over a thousand years. Lyric first met Sonic in his facility as he was winning his war with the Ancients, where Sonic had traveled back in time after meeting Lyric in the present. Telling Lyric they had "unfinished business", Sonic attacked him and trapped him for the Ancients. His plans ruined thanks to Sonic, Lyric developed a deadly grudge at him which would fester for centuries.

After Sonic accidently released Lyric, Lyric claimed they both had "unfinished business," though Sonic had yet to meet him in the past at this point. As Sonic tried to attack him, Lyric was able to stop his attack, mocking how predicable he was before leaving him to rot in his tomb. However, Sonic escaped, and Lyric soon grew infuriated with him and his crew as they continued to foil his plans. Lyric eventually cornered Sonic and had his team hand over the important Chaos Crystals in exchange for Sonic's life, but instead had his troops attack him. Believing Sonic to be dead, Lyric deemed their business finished. However, Sonic soon returned with team where Lyric tried to taunt him with his weakness: his friends. However, he failed when Team Sonic took him down, with the final blow being dealt from Sonic who took Lyric's control device, leaving his plan ruined once again by Sonic.

In Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal, Lyric's relationship with Sonic was much less prominent. As he was kidnapping Amy, Lyric first met Sonic over Amy's AVA where he briefly revealed his plans to him, certain that Sonic was no threat. However, Lyric soon saw him as growing nuisance as he and his team continued to overcome his forces to the point where he viewed him as the only true threat to him. Once they finally met face-to-face, Lyric acknowledged that Sonic had proven himself surprisingly troublesome for someone inferior to him, before trying to crush him himself. However, Lyric still lost to Sonic who subsequently ensured he plummeted to his doom.

Dr. Eggman
In Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric, Dr. Eggman was a temporary ally of Lyric's before becoming a minor enemy. While Eggman feared Lyric and tried to get rid of him, Lyric, who was powerful than Eggman, looked down on the doctor with contempt, considering him a pathetic waste of carbon, and found him even more infuriating than Sonic.

Lyric's release was staged by Eggman, who only wanted the technological secret. Once they met, Lyric was just annoyed by Eggman and quickly turned the tables on him. Rather than killing Eggman though, their common hatred for Sonic convinced Lyric to let Eggman live so he could serve his interests. While the two formed an uneasy "partnership", Lyric never acknowledged Eggman as his equal, but rather as a useless minion he kept in check by fear. Eventually, Lyric had enough and dissolved their partnership and got rid of Eggman. Though Eggman returned to defeat Lyric, the snake hardly considered him a threat and left him rather than wasting time on him. In the end though, Eggman ensured Lyric's downfall when the doctor distracted him with a missile in the final battle, allowing Team Sonic to finish him.

Shadow the Hedgehog
In Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal, Lyric took a liking to Shadow's style when he first met him, which made him decide to make Shadow his slave.

Allies

 * Destruction Troops
 * Q-N-C (formerly)
 * Shadow the Hedgehog (formerly)
 * Dr. Eggman (formerly)
 * Metal Sonic (formerly)

Enemies

 * Team Sonic
 * Sonic the Hedgehog
 * Miles "Tails" Prower
 * Knuckles the Echidna
 * Amy Rose
 * Sticks the Badger
 * Shadow the Hedgehog
 * Dr. Eggman
 * The Ancients
 * Metal Sonic

Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric
Lyric will periodically fly into the air and summon minions to attack the player. When on the ground, he will slam the ground with his tail and attacks with his robotic claws. After hitting him enough times, the player will be able to hit him with the Enerbeams. A gateway then opens for a character to retrieve the Crystals. There are four of these in the battle, and each one employs the skills of a specific character. As the battle progresses, Lyric's attacks become much stronger, ranging from a laser assault to throwing a bomb at the player. After getting all the Crystals, Lyric will then remain grounded, allowing the player to attack him but he will still attack the player. After repeating the above procedure for the final time, the battle will end.

Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal
Shattered Crystal's boss fight restricts the player to only controlling Sonic, as his friends have all been recaptured by Lyric. The fight has three phases, separated by chase sequences similar to the Rival Races from elsewhere in the game, (though losing the races here does not penalize the player). After the first chase, the pod containing Sonic's friends will roll to a stop, but before Sonic can jump to it, Lyric appears and the fight begins, taking place on a 2D plane with a bottomless pit on either side. Lyric's attacks include hovering out of reach and firing wide lasers downwards at different spots on the field, firing rockets that semi-home-in on Sonic, hovering to the end of the arena and firing a long laser all the way across, and extending his robotic arms outwards. Sonic must attack Lyric by either homing attacking him just after he finishes firing his horizontal laser, or homing attacking his hands as they extend towards him, destroying the barrier protecting his face so he can land a blow. Deal three hits, and the next chase will begin. The only differences between phases are the layouts of the chase sequences being different, and the arena having more and more gaps covered by platforms that fall in stood on for too long.

Trivia

 * During the boss fight against Lyric in Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric, by using Knuckles' "infinite jump" glitch, it is possible to jump over the force field of the arena and travel all the way to collect the Crystals and immediately skip to the final phase of the boss fight with Lyric.
 * This is no longer possible since the glitch was fixed in the 2015 January patch.