Mephiles the Dark

Mephiles the Dark (pronounced, "Meh-fill-iss") is the main villain of Shadow the Hedgehog's story and the evil mastermind behind all the events in Sonic the Hedgehog. Mephiles is the other half of Solaris, and is the conscious mind and will of Solaris. In his natural state, his body is a gaseous substance, but he can mold it into the form of another using shadows the form casts. When in another's form, Mephiles warps it into a crystalline look when he taps into his full power. Mephiles has many powers, including the ability to travel through time and throwing purple energy blasts that are the same as the balls he travels inside when time traveling. He has another ability that allows him to make numerous 'shadows' which are floating forms with one blank eye, and a similar look to a demon. With two Chaos Emeralds, Mephiles is able to form unlimited copies of himself.

He is sealed in the "Scepter of Darkness" by Shadow, who had traveled through time to ten years before the events of Sonic the Hedgehog. In the present, Dr. Robotnik accidentally releases him when he causes Rouge the Bat to drop the Scepter. When he is released, Mephiles uses Shadow's shadow to create a form that is a near exact physical duplicate of Shadow himself, the only differences being is that the stripes are pale blue instead of red, a pale grey muzzle, dull colored rings, and green eyes with vertically slit pupils, much like a reptile. Mephiles then disposes of Shadow and Rouge by sending them into the future before beginning to seek the Chaos Emeralds. At the same time, he makes plans to bring pain and despair to Princess Elise with the goal of making her cry, which would break the seal on Iblis, his other half and release him. With the release of Iblis, Mephiles would then use the power of the Emeralds to fuse them together, and thus complete Solaris. With the knowledge that Elise has grown fond of Sonic the Hedgehog, Mephiles uses his powers of time travel to manipulate Silver into thinking that Sonic was responsible for Iblis being released and destroying his time, causing Silver to hunt down Sonic. Mephiles also tries to get Shadow to join him, telling Shadow the world was going to turn against him after Iblis was released, but failed because Shadow didn't trust him. Afterward, Mephiles attempts to eliminate Shadow using his more powerful crystaline form but fails, and Shadow turns Silver against him. In the end, Mephiles personally kills Sonic in a sneak attack, causing Elise to cry over his death, thus releasing Iblis. Mephiles immediately fuses with him and completes Solaris. However, Mephiles is destroyed along with Solaris during a battle against Shadow, Silver and a revived Sonic in super form.

He is voiced by Takayuki Sakazume in the Japanese-speaking version of Sonic the Hedgehog, and is voiced by Dan Green in the English-speaking version.

Trivia

• Mephiles is thus far the only villain to successfully kill Sonic, something not even Robotnik has done.
• Why Mephiles did not simply merge with the Iblis of Silver's time is unexplained in the game.
• Mephiles was named after Mephistophiles.