Lyric the Last Ancient

Lyric the Last Ancient (リリック) 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 a member of the Ancients, a race devoted to peacefully controlling the world’s resources. At that time, Lyric worked to unlock the power of the Chaos Crystals, but his experiments made him sick, and the Ancients' attempts to heal him with organic medicines failed, forcing Lyric to build a robotic suit for himself to survive. Blaming the Ancients for his condition, Lyric grew convinced that only technology could be trusted and that it show be the dominant force in the world. Soon driven mad by power, Lyric turned on his fellow Ancients and took control of their resources. Building an army of Destruction Troops and Sentinels programmed to obey his every command, Lyric sought to destroy everything organic on the planet and create a world of metal which he would rule, sparking a war against his peers.

Just before Lyric could successfully take over, he found the Ancients' map to the hidden Chaos Crystals which he needed to power his army. However, as Lyric reviewed 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 him in a tomb where he was to remain frozen forever, though not before Lyric left his Destruction Troops behind for someone to find and thereby set him free to learn their secrets. Lyric thus waited in prison plotting his revenge, though he began to give up hope as the years passed.

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 briefly constrict the crew. Escaping his tomb, Lyric escaped Team Sonic to look for his map to the Crystals and continue his plans. When his search proved fruitless, Lyric came face-to-face with Dr. Eggman, who tried to make him to hand over his technological secrets with Lyric's own robots. However, Lyric overrode Eggman's controls over his troops, forcing Eggman to offer him a partnership and help stop Sonic. Despite his infuriation with Eggman, Lyric allowed this and sent him out to find his map, which he suspected Sonic had.

When Eggman reported to Lyric that Team Sonic had seemingly died, Lyric had anticipated his failure and sent Driller Worms to find the Crystals. When he found one was destroyed by the still living Team Sonic, Lyric decided to look for Sonic instead, knowing that since he sought the Crystals, he just had to wait for him to find them. During Lyric and Eggman's search, they found Team Sonic and chased them down. Losing 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 Metal Sonic and had him search for the Crystals. Later, while salvaging components, Lyric faced Eggman in his mech which Lyric could not control. When the mech failed to hit him though, Lyric mockingly left Eggman.

Eventually, Lyric ambushed Team Sonic with his troops after they got all the Crystals and made them surrender them when he threatened to kill Sonic. Regardless, Lyric still attacked Sonic, leaving him buried in rubble. At his lair, Lyric activated his Sentinel army with the Crystals when Sonic arrived, having survived the onslaught, with his team. Failing to taunt Sonic with his reliance on his team, Lyric fought them. As he was losing, Lyric trapped Team Sonic with their Enerbeams, but got distracted by a shot from Eggman in his mech. Lyric still proclaimed victory, but was wrapped by Sonic with an Enerbeam, who then disposed of his control device, thus ruining his plans for good. Lyric has not been seen since then.

Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal
In Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal, Lyric was a member of the Ancients, a race devoted to peacefully controlling the world’s resources. Driven mad by power and obsessed with the Lost Crystal of 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 its ruler. Just before he could successfully take over, Lyric launched an attack on the last surviving Ancients to seize the Lost Crystal and gain omnipotence, but the Ancients shattered the Crystal and using its fragments to imprison him. Lyric thus waited in prison plotting his revenge, though he began to give up hope as the years passed.

Five thousand years later, Lyric escaped and began searching for the Crystal Shards after retrieving his Destruction Troops. During this, he met Shadow the Hedgehog whom impressed him so much that he made him his slave using a Mind Control Device when Shadow refused to serve him. Not long after, Lyric learned Amy Rose had invaluable knowledge about the whereabouts of the Crystal Shard. In his eagerness, he ambushed her in some ruins. When Amy refused to help, Lyric disabled her with a Mind Control Device. 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, certain Sonic was no threat.

While peeling Amy's mind, Lyric sensed he lost control over Shadow to Team Sonic and contacted them over a hologram, warning them that he would be a god once he got the information he needed from Amy and destroy them. However, as Sonic continued to persist, Lyric grew increasingly infuriated with him, something he told Amy as he worked on her. 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 cannon to kill the heroes, only for it to get destroyed by Shadow. As Lyric was sent flying by a vengeful Shadow, Sonic open a hatch on the fleet, making Lyric fall down from the sky.

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

Lyric's most prominent traits are his deep-seeded hatred for organics and love of technology. Extremely tech-savvy, he loathes organics for their unreliability and considers them no more that useless wastes of carbon. This has lead him to adopt the philosophy that technology is the only thing that can be trusted. As his hatred evolved into rage, Lyric became a strict person of technology with no care for the environment 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.

Lyric is usually very serious and threatening, yet composed and collected, and has almost no tolerance for failure. Rather than relying on trust, he rules his minions by fear and only has them around for as long as they serve his interests; 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 breaking his promises or lying about them, like when he had his troops attack Sonic despite promising not to if he got the Crystals, showcasing a complete lack of honor. Likewise, Lyric has also some sardonic and sarcastic wit, taunting Sonic with his predictability following their second encounter 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 Crystals for then to steal them. When pushed to the edge however, he will snap into a savage rage and respond with animal-like ferocity.

Lyric is extremely power-hungry, 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 will go to any lengths to achieve it. Obsessed with the power of his people's Crystals and convinced that they are his by right, Lyric is incredibly arrogant, so much that he thinks himself unstoppable, even when on the verge of defeat. Lyric has also proven himself very vengeful, spending his several centuries in his prison to plot his revenge, and will not consider his business with other to be over before he has personally annihilated them and everything they care about.

Powers and abilities
Described as a formidable enemy and a force to be reckoned with, Lyric is the strongest enemy Team Sonic have faced to date. Additionally, he was the first person to dodge Sonic's spin attack, suggesting a high level of fighting skill. However, this feat is somewhat downplayed as he was already familiar with the attack when Sonic first used it on him.

Lyric's body is fused with a sophisticated robotic body armor of steel, which allows him to him carry out his nefarious deeds. Physically, it has enough strength to create shockwaves by hitting the ground. It also contains a computer-like device that grants Lyric limited technopathy; with but a press on the button on his torso, he can take control of anything electronic around him, as long as it is not manually controlled. He lost this ability after Sonic discarded the device behind it. Additionally, Lyric's fists can be dethatched to fire them at his foes, his armor's antennas can generate a protective force-field and shoot electrical bolts, and his helmet can show detailed heads-up displays for operating his robots. Due to being merged with Lyric's body, his armor also drastically increases Lyric's lifespan, allowing him to stay alive for several millennia.

Lyric is able to emit lasers in various ways which are powerful enough to blow a large hole in a stone wall. He can shoots blasts from the palms of his hands, summon pillars of beams from the sky, release energy bombs and beams from his tail tip, and even generate a barrage of lasers in midair. He can also use an ability similar to telekinesis which lets him move boulders at the size of large houses, and he is capable of levitation that lets him move around at speeds rivaling Team Sonic's running speed. It is unverified if any of these skills are due to Lyric's cybernetic armor or natural powers that he already possesses.

Lyric has a genius-level intellect, having proven himself a technological mastermind and a master of robotics. His remarkable skills as an engineer are best evidenced by the armies of robots he has made for himself, the most base of which were so advanced that even Dr. Eggman had a hard time figuring them out, and his own cybernetic armor which he invented to keep himself alive, ironically implying some biological knowledge as well. He also has good deduction skills, able to quickly figure out that it was Sonic who stole his map. Also, as a reptile, he has the natural ability to regenerate his body parts. Also, even without his cybernetics, Lyric has impressive physical strength; with a single swipe of his tail, he could shatter a stone wall.

Equipment
In Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal, Lyric has a number of Mind Control Devices on him. When put on a victim, this device allows Lyric to control the mind of a person by will alone and reveal their thoughts. This gives his victims a somewhat robotic behavior.

The Ancients
Some of Lyric's oldest and most hated foes are his 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 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 them, 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, making 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 true one thorn in his side. Lyric first met Sonic in his facility, where Sonic went back in time after meeting Lyric in the present. Telling Lyric they had "unfinished business", Sonic trapped him for the Ancients. His plans ruined, Lyric developed a deadly grudge at Sonic which would fester for centuries.

After Sonic accidently released Lyric, Lyric claimed they both had "unfinished business" (though Sonic had not met him at this point) and mocked Sonic as he predicted his attack and left him to rot in his tomb. However, Sonic escaped and Lyric would grew more infuriated with him as he kept disrupting his plans. When he thought he had killed Sonic, Lyric would finally deemed their business finished. When Sonic returned though, Lyric tried to taunt him with his weakness, but failed and was taken down by Team Sonic, with the final blow being dealt by Sonic, leaving his plan ruined once again by the hedgehog.

In Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal, Lyric's relationship with Sonic was much less prominent. As he kidnapped 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 continued to overcome his forces. Eventually, he saw Sonic as the only true threat to him. Once they finally met, 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 his doom.

Dr. Eggman
In Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric, Dr. Eggman was a temporary ally of Lyric's (although the snake-like villain was more powerful than the doctor) before he became a minor enemy. While Eggman feared Lyric and tried to get rid of him, Lyric looked down on the doctor with contempt, considering him a pathetic waste of carbon and even more infuriating than Sonic.

Lyric's release was staged by Eggman to gain his technological secrets. Once they met however, Lyric was just annoyed by Eggman. Rather than killing him though, their common hatred for Sonic convinced Lyric to let Eggman live so he could help him. While the two formed an uneasy "partnership", Lyric never acknowledged Eggman as his equal, but rather as a useless minion. Eventually, Lyric had enough and got rid of Eggman. Though Eggman returned to defeat Lyric, the snake hardly considered him a threat and would ignore him rather than wasting time on him. In the end though, Eggman ensured Lyric's downfall by distracting him in the final battle at a crucial moment for Team Sonic.

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 (Arch-enemy)
 * Miles "Tails" Prower
 * Knuckles the Echidna
 * Amy Rose
 * Sticks the Badger
 * Shadow the Hedgehog
 * Dr. Eggman
 * The Ancients
 * Metal Sonic

Battle
Lyric the Last Ancient is the overall final boss of both Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric and Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal, though the circumstances surrounding this boss differ between versions.

In Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric, Lyric is the sixth boss of the game and is fought with the entirety of Team Sonic after reaching the end of Lyric's Lair. In Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal, the Lyric is the fourth boss of the game and can be fought after unlocking "Lyric's Airship" in Cloud Sanctuary.

Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric
In Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric, the boss battle takes place on a small enclosed platform where the player controls all of Team Sonic. To defeat Lyric, the player first has to reacquire the Chaos Crystals from four distant platforms (by smashing the receptors there). Each can be reached through a path that employs the skills of a specific character who is designated by colored paths: blue is for Sonic, yellow is for Tails, red is for Knuckles and pink is for Amy. These paths are blocked by force-fields which are lowered sequentially as the player clears phases with Lyric.

In the first phase, Lyric will periodically fly into the air and summon Destruction Troops to attack the player. When on the platform, he will slam the ground and create a shockwave (though it leaves him stuck to the ground for a few seconds), or shoot red energy bombs from his tail, either by focusing briefly or slamming his tail into the ground (thereby creating a shockwave) so bombs rain down. Dodge the attacks by jumping or evading and hit Lyric until he collapses, then use the Enerbeam on his tail until a path to a receptor platform opens.

Upon retrieving the Crystals and returning to the main platform, the battle with Lyric restarts, except now he will hammer a pillar into the platform while flying (which will create a wide green shockwave upon impact). Repeat the previous pattern and unlock the path to the next receptor. After getting the Crystals and returning to the main platform, the battle restarts again, but with Lyric gaining more attacks: he will now shoot red lasers from midair that will home in on the player, and on the platform he will slash with his claws that send small crescent-shaped shockwaves along the ground; the former can be outrunned and the second can be evaded. Repeat the previous pattern and unlock the path to the next receptor. As the player returns to the main platform for the final phase, Lyric gains another attack where he shoots a continuous red laser from midair for a couple of seconds, which can be dodged by moving. Repeat the previous pattern and unlock the path to the final receptor.

After getting all the Crystals, Lyric will then remain grounded, but he will still attack. Hit him until he collapses and the battle will end.

Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal
In Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal, the player can only use Sonic for this boss fight. The fight has three phases, separated by chase sequences similar to the Rival Races in the game (though losing the races here does not penalize the player).

When the battle begins, the player enters a racing segment, with the pod containing Sonic's friends rolling down a half-pipe in the background. Upon reaching the end of the chase, the player arrive on an arena platform with a bottomless pit on either side, while the pod comes to a halt in the background and Lyric appears. Lyric's attacks include hovering out of reach and firing laser columns at spots across the platform, firing rockets that semi-home-in on Sonic (which release one Ring upon exploding), firing a laser across the platform, and extending his robotic arms outwards. The player must attack Lyric with the Homing Attack either just after he finishes firing his horizontal laser, or his hands as they extend towards him. The latter will destroying the force-field protecting his face so he can get hit. Deal three hits, and the next chase will begin.

The player repeats this pattern two more times, the only differences between the phases are the layouts of the chase sequences and the platform arena having more and more gaps covered by disappearing platforms. Upon clearing all three phases, this boss will be defeated.

Trivia

 * Steven Frost has stated that what happened to Lyric at the end of Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric may be revealed in the future.
 * Due to mandates placed by SEGA, Lyric is not allowed to appear in the Archie Comics.
 * 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.
 * After the release of Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice, Lyric's profile on the offical Sonic Boom site was deleted.