Phantom Ruby
From Sonic Retro
The Phantom Ruby is a mysterious stone with great power that appears in Sonic Mania and Sonic Forces. According to the game's digital manual, the stone was found by Dr. Eggman on Angel Island due to a unique wave signature emanating in the atmosphere. Upon noticing that the gem had an unexplainable power, the scientist sent his elite group of Eggrobos to retrieve it. Upon being excavated, the power of the gem sends Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and the Eggrobos to Green Hill Zone and causes the Eggrobos to transform into the Hard-Boiled Heavies, loosening a few of their screws.
Throughout the game, Eggman takes the gemstone for himself, and uses it to displace the heroes at different places in space-time; a power similar to the Time Stones. By the time the heroes reach Titanic Monarch Zone, Eggman has mastered control of the gemstone and has used it to create portals around the fortress, and transformed the Hard-Boiled Heavies into "Phantom" versions of themselves.
If Sonic collects all the Chaos Emeralds and defeats the Phantom Egg, the Phantom Ruby sends him, Eggman and the Heavy King to Egg Reverie Zone, a mysterious pocket dimension created by the Ruby itself. Time and space are distorted within this pocket dimension, as the background is psychedelic and the timer in the HUD is malfunctioning. After Super Sonic defeats the Phantom King and the Klepto Mobile, the Phantom Ruby reacts with the Chaos Emeralds and opens a portal that transports Sonic to an unknown dimension.
In Sonic Forces, in the prequel comic, Rise of Infinite, the ruby is found by Eggman when the energy sensors of his new laboratory in Eggmanland detect an unusual energy signature outside and the scientist will investigate. When he touches the gem, an illusion is created, after which Dr. Eggman begins to search more about the object and names him Phantom Ruby, at that very moment, his laboratory is attacked by the Jackal Squad, so he leads a troop of Egg Pawns to exterminate them. The leader of the squadron attacks the doctor, but touches the ruby, causing a new hallucination, after which Eggman makes a proposal for the leader to join his empire and change the world.
Trivia
- The sounds made by the Phantom Ruby when it distorts space-time are the same ones heard when Infinite appeared at the end of the E3 2017 trailer for Sonic Forces.
- In the mobile game, Sonic Forces: Speed Battle, at the end of each course the player can see a fragment of gemstone that is simply called the Phantom Ruby Prototype.