Solaris


 * This article deals with the transcendental life form and final boss of Sonic '06, known as "Solaris", or the Flame of Hope. For details about the scientific research programme conducted by the city-state of Soleanna in an effort to harness Solaris' power, please see The Solaris Project

Solaris (ソラリス Sorarisu) is the main antagonist in the 2006 video game. He is a super-dimensional life form and the sun god of time of Soleanna, who also looks similar to Perfect Chaos. Solaris initially existed as a flame which was worshiped by the citizens of Soleanna. The Duke of Soleanna led the Solaris Project experiments in the hopes of using its time control powers to allow humanity to correct its past sins (and also to allow himself and his young daughter, Princess Elise, to see Elise's deceased mother once again). 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 Elise's soul. 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 would become Solaris and thus change history by erasing his corporeal form from existence.

Solaris is the most powerful being to appear in the (canon) series so far as it took three Super Hedgehogs to defeat him. Even then they couldn't actually destroy Solaris (as Solaris by this point was incredibly and immortal) so ultimately they did the next best thing: they destroyed his core which leaves him alive but powerless (as he can't control his body).

During the battle with the three super form hedgehogs, Solaris attacked shooting out meteors and firing a large laser that can hit its enemies from any distance. He increases the number of meteors and laser he fires in his second form (he can fire out 6-14 lasers). Solaris is one of the few bosses in the series whose attacks take rings away from Super Form characters, and the only boss that doesn't use different attacks when it changes to a different form. Another power Solaris has is during the "End of the World" level (where the characters are trying to revive Sonic) is to create massive orb-like "eyes" that suck in anything around them, including enemies the characters encounter. Touching the eye results in instant death, regardless of rings or even an invincibility power-up. He also has red eyes that he uses to hurl objects at his enemies. To top it off he has an almost impenetrable shield that can only be bypassed by certain attacks at certain times.

Abilities
Solaris is one of the most powerful villains in the Sonic series. It took the combined might of three super hedgehogs to defeat him. He may somehow possess telekinesis as Silver to send meteors to each of the three Super Hedgehog and can fire lasers at will. When in desperate need it can increase the number of lasers and meteors it fires. It can also generate a force field to block the attack whenever it predicts from Super Sonic, Super Shadow, and Super Silver attacks it twice in order to defend his consciousness at will.

Strategy
Solaris is by far the most powerful final boss in the Sonic series, as his attacks can actually take away rings. To defeat the sun god, the player must take control of Super Sonic, Super Shadow, and Super Silver. Like most super forms, rings are required to maintain them. If running low on rings, switch characters to collect more. The boss has two phases, and the strategies for each are below.

Solaris Phase One
To defeat this form of Solaris, the player's targets are the "light shells" on his body. Solaris mainly attacks by telekineticly throwing meteors at the hedgehogs as well as firing a laser from his chest. He can also create an invisible force field to protect himself. To start the fight, switch to Super Silver and use his ESP to grab the meteors Solaris throws and hurl them back to destroy the light shell on his right arm. Once that light shell is gone, switch to Super Shadow and use his Chaos Spear to destroy the light shell on his left arm. After the light shell on his left arm is destroyed. Switch to Super Sonic to destroy the light shell on his body. Once all three light shells are destroyed, attack the red core on his chest until he is defeated. Or so it seems...

Solaris Phase Two
It seems that Solaris has been defeated, but he quickly rises up with a new body. Eggman suggests that if they cannot stop his body, they can stop his consciousness. To do so, the player must attack the red core to damage him. Solaris' tactics have not changed from the previous battle. The only obivous difference is that Solaris can increase the number of lasers and meteors he can fire at the Hedgehogs, up to 14 lasers! otherwise, this is the easier of the two forms. So long as the player switches characters to collect more rings, Solaris will be defeated, and you will have won the game!!!

Trivia

 * Solaris is the second boss who can do any actual damage to a super form. Each of his attacks cost Sonic, Shadow, and Silver 10 rings.
 * The six stones behind Solaris turn clockwise with Sonic and Shadow being controlled however with Silver, his stones turn counter clockwise (after several hits). This possibly happens to indicate that Silver doesn't belong in that time period.
 * Solaris, at least in its second form, looks remarkably like part of the crest of Hyrule from the Legend of Zelda series.
 * Mephiles and Iblis are the pieces to Solaris, who is a sun god. Interestingly, Mephiles' name and one of his signature abilities are based on Mephistopheles and Legion, respectively (who are demons) and Iblis' name comes from the Arabic Quran and is the name of Satan. Both names have something to do with Satan, Hell, or demons. This could potentially be a reference to the Aztec sun god, who according to myth needed human blood to rise every day.
 * After Elise blew out the flame and time rebooted, they were still celebrating the Festival of Sun which is a a festival celebrating Solaris, who was erased from the timeline by Elise (However, that could be easily explained as the flame of Solaris was actually a "host" of sorts for Solaris and not Solaris itself, which would make sense, as if one tries to take Solaris as literally just being a flame, then he would be almost 30 years old at the time of the Solaris project, which is not enough to make it an eternal sun-god).
 * When Elise blows out the flame and time resets, the Solaris Project ceased to exists, so Elise's father wouldn't have died and would've been at the Festival of the Sun (Though there's also the chance that he may have died of natural causes, and yet another chance he could be out on political matters.)
 * Solaris is the first final boss to take three Super Form Hedgehogs to defeat, and there has yet to be another boss to be as powerful. The closest Final Boss to match Solaris' power is Perfect Dark Gaia, as it took both Super Sonic and the Gaia Colossus to beat him.
 * Solaris could quite possibly be based off of Lucifer, as they both were once good, yet turned to complete evil, they both have similarities between their titles of "Sun god" and "Angel of Light." Likewise, Iblis and Mephiles, in that case, would be based off of the Beast and False Prophet in Revelation, as one has the power of destruction and the other has the power of deception. Lastly, when Solaris is defeated, he reverts back to a single flame and is erased from existence just like Lucifer is thrown into the Lake of Burning Sulfur, and is eternally destroyed.
 * It should also be noted that Satan's mark appears on Solaris in his first phase through the 6 stones on his back, his 6 claws, and his 6 horn segments on his head making the reference of 666 (the Number of the Beast).
 * Solaris is one of the few villains to not speak.