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 turned on his peers and sought to create a world of twisted metal and robots using the power of his people's crystals. Before he could carry out his nefarious deed, however, he was imprisoned. A millennium later, Lyric was freed and resumed his plans, but met opposition from 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 with green scales and brown spots in places. He wears a sophisticated brown robotic chest armor with a pair of three-fingered arms. He has a rattle-like object on the tip of his tail that is a gray claw, essentially resembling a hand.

Early Life
Lyric was originally a member of a race called the Ancients, who was devoted to peacefully controlling the world’s resources. At the time, Lyric was working to unlock the true power of the Chaos Crystals. However, a failed experiment led to Lyric being crippled, and thus built a robotic suit to survive. Soon after, the snake was driven insane, and became convinced that nothing but technology could be trusted. 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. However, just before he could successfully take over, he was confronted by Sonic the Hedgehog (who had travelled to the past) who trapped him in his own base, allowing the last surviving Ancients to imprison him in a tomb where he was supposed to remain forever. 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.

Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal
In Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal, Lyric had escaped from his prison and had begun searching for the scattered shards of a crystal that would give him omnipotence, where he was later met by Shadow. Lyric took a liking to Shadow's style and turned him into his slave by sneaking a device on him when the hedgehog refused his service. Days later, Lyric found Amy at some ruins and planned to use her archeological knowledge to find the crystal he coveted. Ambushing her, Lyric tried to fight and force Amy into helping him, but eventually chose to knock her out by placing another device on her.

Personality
Lyric is described as darker, more foreboding and more power-hungry than Dr. Eggman. Having been driven mad by power, Lyric is an evil, ruthless, dangerous, pitiless and remorseless monster, and an extremely tech-savvy mastermind. He is also rather vengeful, spending his time in his prison to plan his revenge.

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'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 also 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 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 in air without touching them.

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 beams. 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 short out and collapse, but will quickly recover. After repeating the above procedure for the final time, the battle will end.

Sonic the Hedgehog
Lyric seems to have an unspecified relationship with Sonic the Hedgehog. He recognized Sonic upon his release, claiming that they both had unfinished business, even though Sonic had no idea of what he meant.

Dr. Eggman
In the present day, Lyric formed an uneasy partnership with Dr. Eggman, even though the doctor is less powerful than 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.