Mephiles the Dark

Mephiles the Dark (メフィレス・ザ・ダーク) (pronounced Meh-fill-ess in English) was a character and the primary antagonist from Sonic the Hedgehog.

Mephiles has three forms; the first was a dark, formless ooze or gas. In his second form, Mephiles appears almost identical to Shadow the Hedgehog, another Sonic character (due to using his shadow to gain a physical form), but with a grayish-blue color replacing everything that was red on Shadow, and green, feral-looking eyes, but no mouth. His third and primary form was a crystalline, anthropomorphic hedgehog form resembling the appearance of other hedgehogs in the Sonic series, such as Sonic himself. This form has blue quill tips and red eyes with green irises, a pale muzzle and no mouth, just like his second form, and minus the nose. His name was based on the one of the names of Mephistopheles related to the legend of Faust.

History
Mephiles was created during the "Solaris Experiment" (Project Solaris) related to Elise's father. He was actually an extension of Iblis himself, his conscious part. He was sealed in the "Scepter of Darkness" by Shadow the Hedgehog, who had traveled through time to ten years before the events of the game. In the present, Dr. Eggman accidentally releases him while trying to steal the scepter from Rouge the Bat. Mephiles' true state was like Shadow's shadow. He seeks to get the Chaos Emeralds and bring pain and despair to Princess Elise, with the goals of making her cry, therefore releasing the "Flames of Disaster" (a.k.a. Iblis) and then fuse with him, becoming Solaris.

To accomplish this, he tells Silver the Hedgehog and Blaze the Cat that Sonic the Hedgehog was the cause of Iblis being released, which led to the destruction of their world. Sonic was, thus, referred to as the "Iblis Trigger". The two then promptly travel back in time to stop Sonic from inadvertently destroying the world in the future, when it was really Mephiles' plan to make Elise cry, as she loves Sonic.

Along the way, as all three storylines progress, the three main characters discover how Mephiles was somehow involved in the secret "Flames of Disaster", wielded by Princess Elise. Mephiles has a very pivotal role in all of the storylines, throughout the course of the game (even though he ends up battling Shadow in Shadow's story). In the Last Story, Mephiles uses a Chaos Emerald to warp to Sonic and Elise's location, then Mephiles instantly impales Sonic with a spear of energy, thus killing him. Elise cries over his death and, as a result, releases Iblis, allowing Mephiles to fuse with him and transform into Solaris.

Mephiles holds a particular hate for Shadow since it was he who sealed him in the Scepter of Darkness. Mephiles attempts to break Shadow's will to fight, much like Black Doom had, by revealing that in the current future, the world, and an unwilling Omega, would turn against Shadow and imprison him. However, Shadow proved immune to Mephiles' tactics.

Abilities
Mephiles has the ability to control time itself, as he appears in the past, the present, and the future in Shadow's, Sonic's, and Silver's stories respectively.

Many of Mephiles's offensive techniques are based on that of past Sonic bosses. He can sink into the ground and become the shadow of his opponent (particularly Shadow's since you only fight him as Shadow, but on one level you fight Mephiles as Omega); this was not unlike King Boom Boo. Mephiles's final attack used before transforming into his Solaris form was a long energy bolt that he extends from his right hand to impale Sonic. He can also duplicate himself into an army of clones.

Mephiles also appears to have some form of omnipotence as he was able to manipulate nine people (Amy, Blaze, Knuckles, Omega, Rouge, Shadow, Silver, Sonic, and Tails) across a time period of 210 years (from 10 years in the past until 200 years in the future) to get a single result in the present.

Iblis
Ironically enough, "Iblis" is the proper name for Satan in Muslim Culture. "Iblis" was an immortal monster of mass destruction and was Silver the Hedgehog's main enemy in Sonic the Hedgehog. It was a creature that was born from "The Flames of Disaster", takes the name "Disaster" from this. Iblis apppears to be mindless creature who only seems to be interested in causing destruction. Its primary form has four arms and was a lava-like version of Perfect Chaos in appearance. Originally sealed inside Princess Elise by her father over 10 years before the game, Iblis was inadvertently released by the "Iblis Trigger" a few years later. As a result, Iblis continued to destroy the world up until, and including, Silver's time period in the future. In Silver's story, Silver the Hedgehog and Blaze the Cat continuously battle Iblis, but it ended up proving too powerful for either of them to defeat, since it had the ability to continually resurrect itself. Thus, Mephiles advises Silver and Blaze to depart to the time period right before Iblis' final transformation to stop Sonic the Hedgehog, referred to as the "Iblis Trigger" from destroying the world. In order to defeat Iblis, Blaze was forced to seal it within her, seemingly destroying both of them. However, as the intention was to trap Iblis in another dimension, it was possible that Iblis and Blaze wound up in the reality Blaze came from in Sonic Rush. In addition to the form described earlier, Iblis' other forms are one like a giant snake with a ripped up face, the first one with two arms but has legs, and his original form, a ball of flame. Although Blaze seemingly now lives within the mentioned dimension, it is unclear what happened to the Iblis of Silver's time.

Solaris
The most powerful being to appear in the series so far (as it took three Super Hedgehogs to defeat him). Solaris was a god of time and the super-dimensional sun god of Soleanna seen in Sonic the Hedgehog. Solaris initially existed as a flame which was worshiped by the citizens of Soleanna. The Duke of Soleanna led experiments into Solaris, in the hopes of using its time control powers to allow humanity to correct its past sins. However, during one such experiment Solaris became unstable and split into two forms - Iblis, the raw power, and Mephiles, the conscious mind. Mephiles was sealed into an artifact known as the "Scepter of Darkness" whilst the Duke was forced to seal Iblis inside of his young daughter, Princess Elise The Third. Before dying from wounds caused by the accident, he told his daughter to grow up to be a strong queen who would never cry as doing so would destroy the seal on Iblis.

After killing Sonic, Mephiles was quick to rejoin with his counterpart, once again forming their complete form of Solaris. Plunging the world into darkness he prepared to devour time itself. Before he could achieve this, he was defeated by a combined assault from Super Sonic, Super Shadow and Super Silver. His defeat spirited Elise and Sonic back to before the fateful experiment. After some contemplation, Elise chose to blow out the tiny flame that was Solaris and thus change history by erasing him from existence.

Trivia

 * Mephiles' name derives from Mephistopheles, one of the chief demons of Christian mythology.
 * Mephiles was the only villain in the various Sonic continuities to canonically kill Sonic.
 * Mephiles was voiced by Dan Green, the same actor who voices Knuckles the Echidna. In Sonic the Hedgehog, he is credited as his alias, "Jay Snyder".