The Messiah

Nikolaj Marshall

### Aliases

The Messiah, Messiah, Danger Man, Aberration, Mastermind, Niko, Animal, Immortal, Immortalilus, Amogus, Omnipotence Itself, Ark City's Greatest Protector, Ark's Finest, Destroyer of Worlds, Oppenheimer's Descendant, Pluto's Destroyer, Solar Eclipse, Ryan Reynolds, Leader, "No Man", "Lying Scum", Nikolaj No-Cock, Omni-Man, Super Saint, "You Fuckin' Cock-a-Roach!",

### Affiliation

Peacekeepers, Glassman, Mr. House, John Hancock (Arkverse)

### Occupation

Protector of Ark City, formerly Newspaper Boy

## Appearances

### Debut

February, 2021

 *We humans have purpose. We may have doomed our own planet, but we recognise our mistakes — no matter the quantity. It is never too late to change. Be someone better. Better than ourselves! What are we now, huh? Destroyers. We're no better than these invaders.*

︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎—**The Messiah**

Nikolaj Marshall, The Messiah, is a beacon of hope and horror for every person in Ark City. He is a being with great power, using it only to keep **Ark City** safe in the ways only he believes how. To many, The Messiah is a hero. To others, he is a villainous scamp recklessly deciding who lives and who dies; a judge, jury and executioner. All he'd known was pain, suffering and loss.

For countless years, Nikolaj used his powers to save people on the down low. Never truly showing himself, up until social media became a thing and sightings of him grew and grew. Eventually, he had to come out to the world and show himself off as the Metahuman he was. A being created by the very people who slandered his name. Dubbed "Messiah" by some and "Aberration" by many. Nikolaj found it hard to have a personal life in the current day and age.

## History

### **Origin**

During World War II and the Cold War, the Defense Department (DOD) and other national security agencies conducted extensive radiological, chemical, and biological research programs. Precise information on the number of tests, experiments, and participants is unavailable and the exact numbers may never be known. However, GAO has identified hundreds of experiments in which hundreds of thousands of people were used as test subjects. These experiments often involved hazardous substances, such as radiation, blister and nerve agents, biological agents, and LSD.

During the era of the Cold War, a simple newspaper boy found himself approached by a man asking for directions. When replying, the man asked if he could show him the way. It was a deceiving act. As soon as the boy rounded into the alley, he was abducted and taken to a facility designed specifically for the experiments once performed above. Once there, Nikolaj was put through devastating physical and mental torture, ranging as far as to make him filled with rage and anger. Though burdened by the demons not of his own making, Nikolaj remained a strong boy at heart.

Test after test, Nikolaj was subject to painful doses of various elements; plutonium scathed from the thinnest source, cobalt and others more. Liquid, gas and solid states entered his body, fusing together within his cells and DNA. Unfortunately for those experimenting, the signs of his change did not render on any form of data — it was only noted in one file; stolen by the man himself when he was later freed.

One test on the boy, years after his abduction, worked in triggering the reaction the researchers had hoped. One tinker with his DNA caused an outburst in electricity and radiation, leveling the building he'd been kept in for years. All he'd known was pain, suffering and loss. Gifted with the powers he never asked for, Nikolaj freed himself from the rubble of the building with ease, lifting up the roof atop him with barely three fingers. In the attempt he tried to run away, Nikolaj began ascending upward, miraculously finding out he could fly.

One thing he didn't know was that his age was at a stand-still. He looked like a roughed-up future version of himself upon returning home. The thing was, he hadn't a clue where home was. Once his home, now engulfed in military operations. His family was nowhere, friends nowhere. Nikolaj woke up to a nightmare.

### **Chapter One**

#### **Gang War**

In Chapter One, The Messiah's wrath upon Ark City's ravagers begun. During the **Ark City Killer**'s reign of terror, The Messiah took to the undergrounds, not in fear of the reaper, but in the task to eliminate all the mafia, mobs and more. It stopped any further Ark City Killer attacks, as the recorded pattern of the killer's victims loosely related to the various mobs, gangs and more. He successfully ended any turf wars and liberated the underground, leaving nothing left to crawl away.

#### **Mr. House**

When The Messiah's origin was uncovered by Mr. House, House began manipulating frequencies in The Messiah's head, controlling him in a way virtually no one knew how - the why was obvious to all; for total control of Ark City. With The Messiah on his side, unwillingly. he chose to attack a group of people trying to figure out who they were and what Ark City had in store for them. He ordered The Messiah to attack Jonah, Anthony & Massimo Murphy and Zaps. House captured Zaps and left The Messiah to clean up the mess. Messiah threw Jonah and Massimo across the city, Massimo landing on a rooftop and Jonah landing in the city. Anthony tried to attack The Messiah out of a spit of rage, but gave up mid-way through and fled the scene as fast as he could. The Messiah kept that moment in his mind, vowing to never kneel to anyone nor let a foe escape his grasp.

#### **The Decaying Wasteland**

The Messiah was bothered by Ark City's surroundings, one day, and ended up acting upon his suspicions. Moments after his thoughts during a Chapter One drought, he flew across The Decaying Wastelands and destroyed everything he sensed and saw. Millions of animal hybrids, savages, camps and rogues were killed. Over twelve billions dollars of property damage was dealt, though not a drop of money was ever paid to the wastelands to rebuild. There, from the ground up, they had to rebuild everything. The Messiah left a mark on The Decaying Wastelands, which are now known as The Mildlands.

### **Chapter Two**

#### **The Noverian Invasion**

Ark City was under threat by the Noverians over a dispute in galactic federations. They needed a new home, to which they'd attempt to conquer. However, they were blindsided by The Messiah's loyalty to Ark. Emperor Atriox Vektelarian attempted to manipulate Messiah through mind games of acting as though he were family. Unfortunately, The Messiah had a contingency to betray anyone to save Ark City from unadulterated rule. A long battle pursued, The Messiah receiving help from his enemy, John. Together, in the town square, the duo battled and defeated **Atriox**. At the end of the battle, before Messiah left the scene, The Glassman exited a portal and told him the conflict had only just begun.

#### **Sarsax Quarantine**

When a portal was opened to the hateful realms of horror, The Messiah, along with many more, faced monstrosities and reality bending. A temporal group was formed and they battled the hateful creatures for hours, stopping various trains from crashing and other hostilities from commencing. It was when the monstrosities of cosmic horror fled away, did The Messiah make an impact. He extended his lilac force and commanded the entire Sarsax District to be encased in a large, lilac hex, encasing in the lovecraftian creatures in a hold in order for the rest of Ark City to remain safe.

### **Chapter Three**

#### **Megabuilding Craters**

A disastrous group attacked various members of The Peacekeepers in the infamous Megabuilding 03, resulting in The Messiah's formerly reluctant self to aid the Peacekeepers in defeating Phantom Speed, Replicant & Malice. During the conflict, The Peacekeepers turned on each other, with Anthony Murphy almost murdering Zaps.

The Messiah brutally murdered Replicant and Anthony Murphy (temporarily). He ripped off Anthony's head and attached it to Replicant's decapitated body, using the lilac force to tie a connection back to full motor control.

The Glassman ordered Arura Chloros to attack The Messiah, but to his and her displeasure, the only way to stop was to kill her. Messiah detested, but it was not enough. Arura accepted the fate and was ripped apart by The Messiah, giving Glassman what he wanted.

### **Chapter Four**

#### **Many Deaths of The Messiah**

In a showcase of power, bravery, determination, stubbornness and sadness, all of Ark City's most powerful beings met in a grueling battle. The entire market was destroyed in what was undoubtedly the most explosive ending to a chapter. Hancock, **Atlas** & Messiah all faced one another in a fight, which evidently turned into Messiah & Atlas versus Hancock. After a bloody and hard-hitting battle, Hancock exceeded his power and unleashed himself onto The Messiah, however, The Messiah removed Hancock's regeneration energy and unleashed the lilac force upon him, killing Hancock. Atlas managed to teleport away. It saved him from any further altercation. Both of their lives forfeit in the fight, being removed from earthrealm. Hancock's body faded into blue and orange lights, his spirit leaving life — behind, he left Zaps. The Messiah was able to regenerate, shapeshifting his body into a new one, removing the good and bad from his morality. He was neutral. Weeks later, a time-altering John Hancock returned to Zaps and vowed to finish what he started. Hancock tracked The Messiah to a party hosted by Desmond Davis, where he removed the lilac force from him long enough to de-age and mortally kill Messiah, leading to his disintegration by General Vilgefortz. The Eidolon helped Hancock in his efforts to detain Messiah, but he chose not to assist in the killing.

### **Chapter Five**

#### **Omnipotence Resurrection**

Cloaked Figure, while attacking the Time Bureau of The Arkverse, unleashed a hole in Ark City, re-birthing a Messiah variant from the spawn of life and death. It was later revealed The Cloaked Figure was a variant of Nikolaj Marshall from Ark-110. In the later story, the released Nikolaj Marshall variant outburst with the lilac force and cleansed the entire omniverse from corrupt beings. However, the days after grew abhorrent and led to the universe's eventual relapse.

### **The Ark**

#### **Conquering Omnipotence**

Driven mad by his exile in the citadel de sanctus, The Messiah fantasied about owning and conquering it all. To help his efforts, he created a cult worshiping the lilac force birthed from his creation. Through the force came an abhorring call to the void, leading to his descent into madness. He commanded all entities across the Arkverse to bend to his will, having no control over those within the citadel at the time. Metacrisis & **John** tried to stop him from commanding all time and space, but they were ultimately too late.

The Messiah called upon Merlin to answer his plead, but the time keeper didn't budge. So, The Messiah caused all life to crumble, killing the infinite. It was when John Hancock, with his time-altering powers, went back to Ark City 50 years prior, did life become replenished. John altered time and put The Messiah on a good path. Unfortunately, one timeline was lost, but it saved all the others.

John met up with Zaps, leaving their kids behind, and rejoiced life. Later, did it become known that their efforts weren't all too well.

The Messiah had taken control of the Time Bureau of The Arkverse from Merlin, managing the flow of time and the creations of everything in existence. His effects on the time stream proved positive and efficient. The Messiah Corps, a time traveling bureaucracy, managed the flow of time underneath The Council of The Messiahs. From then on, The Messiah & countless other Nikolaj Marshall Variants surveyed the timeline, controlling almost all aspects of The Arkverse.

### **Ark Origins**

#### **Binary Arkverse**

Binary Arkverse was the tale of the deteriorating Ark City being under fire by an inter-dimensional variant of **Jonah** whose sole goal was to destroy the entire Arkverse; had been an injustice for existing. He'd conquered each and every timeline, obliterating them without a shed of mercy. Eventually, Jonah found his way to the current continuity's timeline and universe; Ark-311. He was quick to make an impact, materialising on Earth and immediately attacking Ark City's core building, Corpo Plaza. The Messiah was there to foil most attempts to destroy it all, rivalling Jonah's power with the Lilac Force. When he tried to erase Jonah from all existence, he was blocked by a familiar power. Jonah had killed a Messiah Variant, stealing their power and merging to make their own 'Marapotence', the nigh equivalent to the Lilac Force Nikolaj possessed.

The Messiah threw Jonah into the Sea of Dread to stall, and when he did so, it started a turn of events that exceeded his own omniscience. The first variant of The Messiah, from Ark-139, had come into the universe to help save The Arkverse. He told his own self that it was him that caused Jonah to go on the rampage. In a supposed mirrored timeline, Messiah-139 threw Jonah across the galaxy instead of into the ocean, to which Jonah proceeded to conquer and control the Andromeda Galaxy, using its force and power to dominate the cosmos without strong enough opposition. That parallel timeline's Messiah was the one to die, losing Lilac Force, with Jonah creating the aforementioned Marapotence.

After Current Continuity Messiah learned of what was, he was struck by the infinite corpses of Barbados Lucinda, a long time Messiah fan and possible psychopath. The two Messiahs saw Jonah had returned and they engaged in a mighty contest of power, intelligence and ego. Struck back and drained of a portion of his Marapotence, Jonah used his Mara's Light - the all-seeing and knowing beacon - and expelled tropane alkaloids to weaken OG Messiah, fatally stabbing him and throwing him to the streets below, where he fell to his death. Present Day Messiah attempted to save him, however, it came up short when his assailant held him back. He could not do anything for that moment to save his alternate self. So, he got revenge, thieving the Marapotence and leaving his foe without the almighty power anymore. Jonah fell onto the roof of Corpo Plaza from the air above after losing his power and was viciously beaten down by Anthony Murphy, not for the lack of mortally wounding Stanley Kane - which Wirebug saved from falling to his death. Meanwhile, below the rooftops, Present Day Messiah flew down and used the theft Marapotence to revive OG Messiah.

The Messiahs arrived to the rooftops to find both Jonah and Anthony collapsed over, exhausted and unconscious. Anthony had beaten the life out of Jonah with his speed, giving his all, knowing the cost of doing so. From that moment, The Arkverse was not the same. WIrebug, reaching the rooftop, pointed out the universes had began merging. Once he said that, both Messiahs merged, combining their power and achieving the true meaning of Lilac Force's Beyond Omnipotence. He was power. Wirebug and Messiah talked over the manner of all universes merging and knew the only way to stop it would be to reset it all.

**"Salute the world, this is our final moment."** Messiah said to Wirebug before heading for the centre of all known and unknown. From there, he tapped into all. Becoming one with every single aspect of The Arkverse's existence. He lived up to his name, bringing forth absolution. A saviour to the grand scheme. While becoming the nexus of omnipotence personified, he read the only thoughts Jonah had since his rampage across the oceans of eternity began. Only then, did he learn Jonah's plan to destroy all rather than merge all. Nikolaj was surprised he didn't perceive it at all.

Alone in the cosmos, adrift in the tides of unfathomable reality concepts, The Messiah found himself at the precipice of all. It was clear to Nikolaj that Jonah did not want to merge the Arkverse, but he wanted to destroy it. And now it laid in The Messiah's power to undo it all and recreate The Arkverse. All was history in a book beyond the void where no one has exited, one that would remain there until the absolute end. Thus begins a chapter for The Arkverse. Messiah threw his hands to the side and summoned a magical lilac energy to his hands, focusing all his might to rewrite all of reality, removing the cosmos of its denizens - decimating variants. The Messiah let out gasps as his body was ripped to shreds by The Arkverse fighting back against his power. Pain was an old friend. Gathering all, summoning all, collecting all, The Messiah twirled his hands and encased the entirety of The Arkverse in a prism. He was left in the blank of nothing. In the final act of The Messiah's tale, he rose his hand and waved off the prism, erasing it from existence entirely. To which, lastly, came his final goodbye, in the form of birth.

There was silence, and then there was light. The Messiah's body exploded in a big bang and the new Arkverse was made. Every fibre of his essence was used to create the new Arkverse, expanding infinitely. In this new reality, there was life, on Earth; historical data and events, leading up to the present, when Ark City is the last remaining place on Earth, in the year 2100; 50 years after a nuclear holocaust wiped out 95% of the world. Roaming the cosmos, since its beginning, is a vial containing the Lilac Force left over from The Messiah's time. The last remnant of a previous kalpa.

## Personality

Nikolaj has shown to care for the little and not show mercy to the big. He chooses to remove whomever he believes will harm Ark City and its entirety. As The Messiah, there are no limits to his ways.

## Powers & Abilities

### Powers

**Lilac Force:** The Lilac Force is a power essential to The Messiah's being. It is all that he is and is all that he possesses. The Lilac Force grants him the ability to do, see, hear, be, and know anything and everything; beyond the Omnipotence of other beings. His wishes are its command. The Lilac Force is an metaphysical and ubiquitous power which is all-knowing and all-powerful; exceeding the omnipotent. It is a power that grants him anything he desires and cannot be matched by other worldly forces. All it desires in return is a formidable host. The Lilac Force was placed into The Messiah's DNA and all, making it exclusive to only him and his offspring; not that he has any.

* **Meta Power Manipulation:** Nikolaj can freely manipulate absolutely and infinitely any/all powers without limits of any kind, including Meta, Nigh, Omni, Absolute and Almighty powers by controlling the fundamental force that all powers are created from. The user is omnipotent over any kind of power. The Messiah erased the entirety of the universe's power and gave it more, blessing the Arkverse with a refreshment, meanwhile at the same time causing countless worlds across the galaxy to collapse or be rewritten.
* **Strength Infinitum:** Nikolaj has strength that heavily increases over time and can increase their strength for essentially forever. This makes Nikolaj's potential for strength limitless and immeasurable. He has been seen punching a hole through the entirety of Pluto when facing a Mutant General.
* **Absolute Speed:** Nikolaj can move at speeds that not even the most attuned of beings can grasp. He can avoid anything an opponent can throw with ease. The Messiah can move at infinite velocities, allowing him to surpass and perceive light speed movements and move at speeds allowing him to move past time and space itself.
* **Flight:** Messiah can hold himself in any position in space. He once flew to Pluto in less than a minute, to ultimately deal a punishment to the Mutant General. Messiah has stood still in place as the Earth rotated, watching on as he broke countless foundations and destroyed the entirety of a city in ruins, east of where once New York stood.
* **Omnipotence:** Omnipotence is the attribute to describe beings who are all-powerful. The term is also used generically to describe numerous beings possessing vast power, which, although not unlimited, by far surpasses that of most sentient beings.
	+ **Omnipotence Embodiment:** Nikolaj has the potential to become his own omnipotence, a supreme being and source of everything. The Messiah has the ability to be the true master and wielder of any and every other power that is deemed omnipotent. However, when offered to become one with life upon his demise at the hands of John Hancock. In doing so, he returned to his life on Earth.

* **Omnificence:** Messiah can create absolutely everything/anything without limits, including concepts, existence, reality, and even the totality itself. He can also create from nothing or even to create one thing from another e.g. manifesting an image from a comic book, creating life from the dead, and duplicating anything. Nikolaj can create basically anything they choose on an unlimited scale.
* **Omnifarious:** Messiah has complete and absolute control over his own being, allowing him to manipulate his shape, density, size or to be solid, liquid, gaseous, or pure energy. He can spread his form into smaller segments that keep his ability to transform and recombine as he wishes. Nikolaj can take any form that he can imagine, independently from the laws of physics and logic.
* **Power Erasure:** The Messiah can eliminate/remove all powers of others, so they won't have access to them. He did as such to Anthony when locking him up in the Time Bureau of The Arkverse. He erased a witch's nigh-omnipotence without considerable effort.
* **Power Bestowal:** Nikolaj can give superpowers to others, either permanently or temporarily. All powers are at his disposal.

### Weaknesses

**Tropane Alkaloids:** A class of bicyclic alkaloids and secondary metabolites that contain a tropane ring in their chemical structure, able to act as a stimulant or anticholinergic. If consumed, The Messiah's Lilac Force goes into a 24hr hibernation due to the conflicting effects. Particular tropane alkaloids such as cocaine and scopolamine are incompatible with the substance Nikolaj was injected with, which embedded the Lilac Force connection into his DNA. Causing the Lilac Force to sleep, Messiah reverts to a vulnerable, normal human.

## Trivia

* The first Nikolaj Marshall was killed by John Hancock. The current one is a variant from Ark-139.
* Anthony & Massimo Murphy both talked about the possibility of The Messiah being immortal, which later caused them to be trapped in an unknown realm.
* The Messiah has had no friends over the course of his run. Each time he has been close with someone, he's had to kill or abandon them.
* During creation, certain reference pictures used for The Messiah were intended to mimic the appearance of Percy Jackson star, Logan Lerman.
* Nikolaj has revealed countless times that he does intend to retire, but he has never found anyone to replace him as Ark's Greatest Protector.
* During Arkverse Alpha's Chapter Two, Messiah was set to become Atriox Vek's adoptive son, but the confirmation was never met.
* He is a public domain character, flexible to all media -- the way Dexpo designed. His true form exists within The Arkverse, others being echoes of his existence.