Mephiles the Dark (WI02)

## Mephiles the Dark

**Mephiles the Dark** was a major antagonist from *What If Emerl Survived?*. He was one half of the eternal sun god, Solaris, and upon being enticed by the power of the Gizoid, once took control of him to threaten the entire multiverse.

## Personality

Mephiles was a Machiavellian schemer and manipulator who often attempted to control events from the shadows before personally involving himself in any conflicts, seeking to gain allies through his trickery that would do his dirty work for him. Though the appearance of Emerl undermined some semblance of control he had over the proceeding incidents around Soleanna, he was able to take the rogue variable in stride and research how best to turn his opposition into an advantage, showing pragmatism in the face of strife.

## History

### Past

10 years prior to the events of the events of the series, Mephiles was created when an experiment known as the Solaris Project went wrong, causing the 'Flame of Hope' - Solaris - to undergo fission into two halves: Mephiles, the intelligent half with power over time, and Iblis, the immortal half with power over flames. By travelling through time, Shadow the Hedgehog and Silver the Hedgehog appeared in the wake of this disaster and assisted with the sealing of both halves into separate vessels: Mephiles in the Scepter of Darkness and Iblis into Princess Elise the Third.

### Emerl 06 Arc

At some point off-screen, Mephiles was unsealed from the Scepter of Darkness during a conflict between Shadow, Rouge the Bat and Doctor Eggman. He used his powers to banish Shadow and Rouge 200 years into the future. He also manipulated Silver and Blaze the Cat into working for him for a time, making them believe that Sonic the Hedgehog was the cause of their future's ruin.

Mephiles first appeared in Part 2, watching over the gathering of Emerl, Team Sonic, Shadow and Rouge as they prepared to travel back to the present from the current era that they'd found themselves in. Shadow, who'd noticed Mephiles, abandoned the closing Chaos Control portal to pursue him, followed by Emerl. Mephiles revealed the sealed body of Future Shadow in an attempt to sway his present counterpart into joining sides with him, that they might take revenge on humanity; following Emerl's interjection, however, Shadow refused and Mephiles quickly changed tack to engage the pair in battle using his crystal form.

Despite his power, Mephiles was immediately overwhelmed and outmatched by the combined strength of Shadow and Emerl, and upon being struck with a powerful punch to the jaw by the Gizoid, felt the scope of his boundless power and realized that - if left unchecked - it could destroy him entirely. While still reeling from the strike, Mephiles attempted to probe Emerl for information on his origins, but was mercilessly gunned down amidst the sudden arrival of E-123 Omega and caught in the crossfire during the subsequent onslaught of Omegerl. In the chaos of the battle, Mephiles used his ability to generate time portals as a means of escape, inadvertently allowing Emerl to copy the skill from him as he fled to an unknown era.

Mephiles was next seen at Wave Ocean, ruminating on the developments caused by Emerl's appearance. Becoming certain that the energies he felt emanating from the Gizoid's body were that of the Chaos Emeralds, he began to covet Emerl as a means to gather the full set without the need to assemble one from the Chaos Emeralds of different time periods. To learn more about Emerl, Mephiles travelled back to the recent past to observe his history, coming to understand the intricacies of the "Link" system. With his newfound knowledge, he re-appeared in the path of Sonic, Emerl and Elise while they were travelling back to Soleanna following their battles with Doctor Eggman and Gemerl, whereupon he abruptly hurled a crystalline lance at Emerl. Correctly predicting that Sonic would risk his life to protect his ally, Sonic was impaled by the lance and killed, severing his bond with Emerl and robbing the Gizoid of the ability to avenge his former mentor; this allowed Mephiles to supplant the role of Emerl's master and demand him to provide the power of the Chaos Emeralds unto him, coinciding with Elise finally breaking down and giving into despair upon losing her two close friends. With Iblis' seal broken and the power of the Chaos Emeralds to hand, Mephiles began to absorb the pure essence of Iblis - the Flames of Disaster - and transformed into Solaris.

When Solaris was later killed and his essence erased by Masterl, Mephiles was erased along with it.

## Powers and abilities

Mephiles' powers were identical to his video game canon counterpart's, but many went unseen due to his few battles in *WI02*. Most notable was his power to generate time portals, used by both him and Emerl to traverse different eras up to their discretion. This power was also used by Masterl, serving as an instrumental element to his capability of killing Solaris.

## Transformations

### Solaris

> *Main article: Solaris (WI02)*
>
>

By using the seven Chaos Emeralds, Mephiles was able to infuse the pure essence of Iblis into his body and return to his original form - that of Solaris, the sun god.

## Weaknesses

Mephiles, despite having incredible mystical powers, could be overwhelmed by sufficiently powerful physical fighters or weaponry, as shown by his battle with Shadow and Emerl. He was also susceptible to being sealed inside the Scepter of Darkness.

## Trivia

* Due to the perspective focus on Emerl in *WI02*, many key moments in Mephiles' history were left completely unaltered from his video game canon counterpart and occurred off-screen. These include his manipulation of Silver and Blaze, his release from the Scepter of Darkness and the events that led him to be sealed into the artifact to begin with.

## References

1. ↑ *Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)*
2. ↑ *"The laser continues to flow, eventually snuffing out any remaining embers of the sun god and destroying it entirely." ~ What If Emerl Survived? Part 4*