Infinite

"That day, I gave up my own unsightly face. And I let go of the old me, the one that was so weak, so that I could become stronger. And then, at last... I obtained the power. The power to make all yield to my will. I... was... REBORN!"

- Infinite abandoning his old self. "You may call me... "Infinite"... in the brief moments that remain to you."

- Infinite introducing himself to Sonic the Hedgehog.

Infinite is the main antagonist of the 2017 platform videogame Sonic Forces. He is an anthropomorphic jackal who used to be called the "Ultimate Mercenary". After his encounter with and defeat at the hands of Shadow the Hedgehog, Infinite became obsessed with the desire to prove him wrong about being weak. He wants nothing more than to be the strongest, until he is never defeated again.

He was voiced by Takashi Kondō in the Japanese version and by Liam O'Brien in the English version, who also voiced Archer from Fate/stay night, Caius Ballad in Final Fantasy XIII-2, as well as Nephrite in the Viz Media dubs of Sailor Moon and Sailor Moon Crystal.

Origin
Infinite was originally the leader of a mercenary team named "Jackal Squad". One day, the squad saw Doctor Eggman in his base with Cubot and Orbot and decided to steal his tech and sell it. When they attacked, Dr. Eggman was helpless and started raging, calling on his Egg Pawns to attack the mercenaries. Infinite still manages to successfully get through all of the Egg Pawns and to Eggman; however, just when he is ready to deal a final blow on Dr. Eggman, he misses and instead grabs the newly discovered Phantom Ruby. This distracts Infinite and allows Dr. Eggman to knock him out, though Dr. Eggman later gives Infinite the chance to join him in destroying the world (upon seeing a vision of a world in chaos that was granted to Infinite by the ruby). While his teammates try to stop him, Infinite decides to join Eggman.

Later, Dr. Eggman hires Infinite and the rest of Jackal Squad to defend his base when it is assaulted by Shadow the Hedgehog. Infinite attempts to attack Shadow out of vengeance for annihilating the rest of his squad, but Shadow effortlessly defeats him, calling him weak and worthless before teleporting away. Enraged and devastated by both his loss and Shadow's words, Infinite was driven to gain more power, eventually fusing with the finalized Phantom Ruby Prototype.

Sonic Forces
At the beginning of the game, Infinite is first seen inside a container during his experimentation by Dr. Eggman. Dr Eggman gloats over Infinite in his process, as he refers to him as his unstoppable creation.

In Episode Shadow, which takes place a month before the events of the game, Infinite is now complete and wears a mask to hide his face. He soon crosses paths with Shadow again after he had delt with E-123 Omega, whom had previously fought through Dr. Eggman's base. Though Shadow did not remember their last encounter, Infinite reminds him of that incident, which explained his motivation. Infinite then uses his powers to trap Shadow in an augmented reality. Although the plan backfired, as Shadow broke free, Infinite becomes interested in seeing his power, inciting him to use Shadow's own skills in his agenda against Sonic. Infinite then leaves Shadow and escapes from the base as it begins to collapse. Infinite assisted Dr. Eggman and his robots in an attack on a large urban center. After Sonic the Hedgehog fought off Eggman's forces, Infinite engaged the hedgehog, alongside replicas of Shadow, Zavok, Metal Sonic and Chaos that he had created, and defeated him. Sonic was then captured and brought to the Death Egg to be tortured before being executed.

Infinite later provided Dr. Eggman with a new power that allowed the Eggman Empire to conquer 99% of the world. He was later appointed the leader of the Eggman Empire's military and worked alongside the other members of it to enforce Eggman's rule. Sonic's friends formed the Resistance against them, but they posed of little threat, as Infinite easily handled them.

Infinite one time had wiped out a Resistance squad and faced its sole survivor, the Rookie. Instead of killing him, however, Infinite allowed the Rookie to live after he sensed his fear in him, though doing so also allowed the Rookie to join the ranks of Sonic's friends, and later helped rescue Sonic.

At the Mystic Jungle, Dr. Eggman dispatches Infinite to destroy a copy of the Phantom Ruby Prototype. While there, Infinite encounters Silver and the two face off. Infinite soon defeats Silver with ease (though unwittingly drops the Phantom Ruby prototype in their quick battle) and prepares to finish him off until he is interrupted by the arrival of Sonic, whom he discovers is still alive. Although Infinite tries to taunt Sonic with his power during their face-off, Sonic fares better as he strikes him. However, Infinite still defeats Sonic and decides to spare him after seeing him as no threat. Soon afterwards, the Rookie investigates the Mystic Jungle and finds the same Phantom Ruby prototype that Infinite dropped earlier.

Infinite later meets Dr. Eggman at Green Hill, where he reports in to tell him that he seemingly accomplished his mission to destroy all Phantom Ruby Prototypes, as he already destroys one held in his hand. Dr. Eggman asks Infinite if he ran into Sonic. Infinite replies, but assures Dr. Eggman that Sonic was powerless against him. He then asks Dr. Eggman to move forward with the plan. Dr. Eggman confirms as he explains the plan involves in eliminating the entire Resistance. After Infinite takes his leave, Tails and Classic Sonic appear before Dr. Eggman after hearing his conversation with Infinite and then chases after him. After defeating him, Dr. Eggman reveals to Tails and Classic Sonic that his plan will occur in three days, before escaping.

Sonic confronts a Shadow replica, as he believes him to be real after witnessing him fighting against the Resistance, only to be attacked by it. Luckily, the real Shadow appears and defeats his replica before it could land a blow on Sonic. Shadow then reveals to Sonic that Infinite has the ability to alternate reality and create replicas of old foes that are formidable as the originals. Shadow learned of this from his second encounter with Infinite, when Infinite studied his powers and was inspired to make replicas of him as well.

Meanwhile, the Resistance leads an assault on the Eggman Empire at Metropolis, as they believe it is their chance to succeed. However, Infinite soon appears at Metropolis and unleashes his Phantom Ruby' powers among the Resistance, using his reality warping powers to cause panic and wipe them out. The Rookie manages to escape from the augmented reality and encounters Infinite. Infinite tries to intimidate the Rookie like last time, but the Rookie now stands up to him after being reminded of Sonic, whom helped encourage the Rookie with his words. During their battle with each other, Infinite recognized the Rookie as the Resistance member he spared earlier, after sensing their fear, and decides to finish him off by summoning several cannons before him. However, once Infinite opens fire, the Rookie manages to dodge the cannon blasts, as the Rookie had the Phantom Ruby prototype he had found earlier that counteracts Infinite's powers. Though shocked, Infinite reminds the Rookie that they have two days left until he initiates the plan to wipe out the entire Resistance.

After destroying the Phantom Ruby's power source on the Death Egg, Dr. Eggman witnesses its destruction and orders Infinite to follow him to Metropolis. Once Sonic confronts Dr. Eggman there, Dr. Eggman orders Infinite to unleash a void called Null Space that sucks Sonic into it, along with the Rookie, whom follows in to save him. As Tails becomes confused after they destroyed the Phantom Ruby's power source, Dr. Eggman reveals to him that he had a back up power source under Metropolis. However, Sonic and the Rookie soon escape Null Space with their efforts combined and make it back to Metropolis, where they appear before Dr. Eggman and Infinite. While Infinite was only slightly displeased about this, a furious Eggman had them retreat to the Eggman Empire Fortress.

When the Resistance Army stormed the Eggman Empire Fortress, Infinite confronted them with an army of his replicas. While facing Sonic and the core members of the Resistance, including the fully repaired E-123 Omega, Infinite creates a virtual sun above the entire Resistance army, which Dr. Eggman points out will fall and destroy them. Tails soon notices a Phantom Ruby that the Rookie possesses in hand. Once Tails observes it, he deduces that the Phantom Ruby Prototype only reacts to the person who activated it, encouraging the Rookie to run towards the virtual sun and use his Phantom Ruby Prototype to take it out, though also destroying his Phantom Ruby in the process.

Infinite soon becomes weak after his attempt to create the sun, forcing him to retreat to the center of the fortress with Sonic catching up to him. Once the two battle each other, Infinite's Phantom Ruby Prototype recharges and is about to finish Sonic until he is stopped by the timely arrival of the Rookie. The Rookie and Sonic then take Infinite head on and defeat him. Infinite then begins to fade away, but the latter says he can still fight as he heads towards the power source reactor. Sonic and the Rookie race towards the reactor. While there, they discover it to be the place where Infinite came to be.

They destroy the reactor, but before they could celebrate just yet, Dr. Eggman appears before them in his Death Egg Robot, revealing to them that the reactor was only a decoy, and that he actually has the Phantom Ruby Prototype incorporated in the Death Egg Robot, while saying that he has surpassed Infinite with his machine. Using his Phantom Ruby-empowered mech, Dr. Eggman began conjuring up more replicas of his army than ever, now including replicas of Infinite. Sonic, Classic Sonic, and the Rookie manages to defeat Dr. Eggman and his robot in the end, causing the entire replica army to disappear along with the Phantom Ruby Prototype.

Personality
Infinite is extremely overconfident and arrogant. The powers he recieves from the Phantom Ruby make him confident in himself, stating himself to be the most powerful creature on earth. He harasses weaker, less powerful people like the Rookie, who he abuses multiple times throughout the game. At the start he offers to spare the Rookie's life if he/she shows fear.

He does not only insult the Rookie, but also other stronger individuals like Sonic, who he calls a "filthy rat". Even before Infinite obtained the Phantom Ruby that made him powerful and mighty, he was already sadistic and obsessed with power. In his first meeting with Eggman, he even wanted to kill him, only to be interested in destroying the world when Eggman gave him the offer to join him in his goal. Despite his extreme arrogance, Infinite is cold and calm at almost all times. Even when he loses, something he absolutely hates doing, he simply gets shocked and starts talking to himself, but does not lose his temper.

Powers and Abilities
Before being weaponized, Infinite was a highly skilled mercenary. He is proficient in sword-fighting and has sharpened reflexes. His base agility is also higher than average, being able to traverse an entire jungle in a few leaps.

After obtaining his synthetic Phantom Ruby, Infinite gained the ability to create an augmented reality that achieves form through his imagination and the psyches of his victims. By simply willing it, Infinite will generate a field that allows him to control the movements of his enemies through a gas called "Ruby Mist." While in this field, he is also able to generate whole facets of reality such as people, landscapes, weapons and atmosphere. The field itself has an estimate range of around a 10 mile radius, in which he can do essentially anything to his enemies with absolute precision, regardless of his conscious effort.

The Phantom Ruby's augmented reality constructs are as powerful as their originals and Infinite is able to selectively remove their effects on reality in any way he chooses. When generating a star with which to incinerate the Resistance, Infinite withheld the sun's gravity and atmospheric range to avoid distorting the entire solar system. When generating replicas of Sonic's past enemies, he removed the personalities of the Shadow copies to make them unreasonable. Whether or not the synthetic Phantom Ruby is capable of creating fully sentient copies or if it merely creates proxies of the original being is unclear. The copies are capable of existing outside of the Ruby Mist field, but they disintegrate if they lose consciousness. Despite having never met Zavok, the Phantom Ruby was able to perfectly replicate his appearance, powers, and personality to the point where Sonic thought he was fighting the original.

At base, the Phantom Ruby's power generates a thin force field around him that can deflect bullets and allow him to fly. Though he doesn't take advantage of this ability: by placing Ruby Mist clouds in various locations, Infinite is able to teleport by passing through them.

The Phantom Ruby under his control, while powerful, is not stronger than the original. The original is able to fully control its augmented reality with a minimum 50-mile radius. To make up for the glaring flaw of being forced to have the original in-hand, the synthetic Phantom Ruby is designed to be smaller and hands-free. However, the synthetic Phantom Ruby doesn't generate its own power, requiring an external reactor to maintain the strength and stability of its augmented reality.

"Powers" Debate
Due to translation errors and conflicting ideas in narrative structure, the Phantom Ruby and thus Infinite's powers are labeled as "virtual reality" despite having effects on the real world, which would be called "augmented reality." However, a lack of explanation on the Phantom Ruby's origin and full capabilities makes it entirely possible that the Phantom Ruby is connected to a form of virtual realm that has yet to be explored.

Evidence of the Phantom Ruby's power being based in augmented reality: Infinite is capable of generating "illusions" that function in real time and have mass. According to Tails and Dr. Eggman, the Phantom Ruby causes a being to experience and show real pain including lacerations and burns. Psychosomatic injuries are not capable of showing burns or signs of external damage; at the very worst the only signs of injury would be internal bleeding from strained muscles or organ failure due to brain trauma. Infinite is also capable of affecting gravity and Ruby Mist clouds cause beings to teleport. Assuming that these abilities aren't generated directly by the Phantom Ruby's source of energy, they would be otherwise impossible to perfectly simulate using virtual reality.

Evidence of the Phantom Ruby's power being based in virtual reality:

There has been no conclusive evidence that injuries and death inflicted by the Phantom Ruby don't just appear as injuries, nor has there been any evidence that any virtual reality construct created by the Phantom Ruby are given illusory mass by the brain's reactions. It could merely be that the psychosomatic trauma is given as illusionary overcoat to further the fact that the Phantom Ruby is a weapon, and the illusions it creates don't wear off after a victim dies. Or, it's possible that the Phantom Ruby is somehow capable of tricking the brain into inflicting real burns and lacerations on the body as a reaction to the illusions. As for the simulations of gravity, it is possible that the Phantom Ruby can trick the brain into thinking gravity is altered while removing any sensations that would indicate being on the ground.

Viewing the nature of the Phantom Ruby's power as a whole, the former is more likely due to the explanations given in-game and the terminology may have simply been lost in translation.

Allies

 * Jackal Squad
 * Dr. Eggman
 * Orbot
 * Cubot
 * Replicas
 * Replica Chaos
 * Replica Metal Sonic
 * Replica Shadow
 * Replica Zavok

Enemies

 * Modern Sonic the Hedgehog
 * Classic Sonic the Hedgehog
 * Avatar
 * Miles "Tails" Prower
 * Knuckles the Echidna
 * Amy Rose
 * Silver the Hedgehog
 * Team Dark
 * Shadow the Hedgehog
 * Rouge the Bat
 * E-123 Omega
 * Chaotix
 * Vector the Crocodile
 * Espio the Chameleon
 * Charmy Bee

Quotes
"Impossible!"

- Infinite

"Fine, I will teach you fear, then pain. And then...well, at least the fear and pain will end."

- Infinite to the player's avatar.

"I've been looking forward to finishing you and your annoying friends. I trust your all ready for oblivion? If your not...oh well."

- Infinite starting his final showdown with Sonic.

"Still thrashing around, I see, you filthy little sewer rat!"

- Infinite in his first clash with Sonic.

"Is there no end to these annoying insects? I will burn your resistance to ashes and you along with it."

- Infinite preparing to finish off the Resistance army.

"Make peace with your fate. Because your lives are now over."

- Infinite about to kill the Resistance members.

"Thanks to this limitless power I've obtained, I have become unstoppable! TAKE THIS!!"

- Infinite trapping Shadow in an illusion.

"And the Resistance will yield to the Phantom Ruby's power. All will submit."

- Infinite to Dr. Eggman.

"WHAT?! Who dares!?"

- Infinite meeting E-123 Omega again.

"(cackaling) The World's most powerful robot is no more a challenge than Crabmeat. As I suspected, this power is without peer... IT IS THE ULTIMATE STRENGTH! Ah, and still more wonderful, a not-so tall, dark, and brooding guest has arrived. I've been waiting for you, Shadow."

- Infinite's first words when defeating E-123 Omega and meeting Shadow again.

"I remember you. You ran from me before, you survived then, but you throw it all away now. Curious, eh?"

- Infinite thinking he remembers the player's Avatar before.

"(cackling maniacally) Ah, I suppose you would think so. Ohohoh yes. I am Infinite. You say you do not know me, and yet, I remember you so very well. To you, it was simply another in a long list of Eggman bases you tore down without a second thought."

- Infinite thinking Shadow doesn't know him.

"This wasn't part of my agenda, but I'm always happy to crush a hero. It keeps the rabble in line. Shows them that there is no hope."

- Infinite facing Silver the Hedgehog.

"...nothing. We move on to the plan."

- Infinite ignoring something he heard.

"Seeing is believing."

- Reply to Silver before finishing him off.

"Well, look who's back from the dead. The little blue savior. But what's that I smell? You reek of fear. Glad to see I left an impression."

- Infinite encountering Sonic for the second time.

"Yeah, yeah, I got it. (to Shadow) You... You destroyed my squad. I'll show you why they call me the ultimate Mercenary! Take THIS!!"

- Before confronting Shadow.

"More ants to crush. I wonder if this world can offer me a real challenge. And as if to answer, the world sends me a trembling child. Are you going to fight and die here, or run away again?"

- Infinite meeting the player's avatar again.

"And with that, the disposal of the Phantom Ruby prototypes is complete."

- destroying the Phantom Ruby prototypes.

"Pathetic little hedgehog. Even with the Phantom Ruby weakened, I still have enough power to smash you into blue jelly. I'll show you how outclassed you really are!"

- Infinite encountering Sonic for the third time.

"There is no reason to resist. Your savior is no more. I can taste you terror, child. All that anxiety and doubt...it's delicious. Give in to your fear, flee, screaming, and I'll let you live."

- Infinite attacking a town.

"No, wait! I can still fight!"

- Infinite's last words after Sonic and the Avatar defeated him.

"I'm shaking... Me!? Me... Afraid...!? Urgh. Pathetic!? Me... he's calling ME weak!? No! I am not weak! I'm...I'm not. I'm not weak! I AM NOT WEEEEAAAAAAK! URRRAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"

- Infinite's villainous breakdown after he loses in his battle against Shadow, prior to his transformation.

Trivia

 * It is unknown what Infinite's real name was prior to his transformation by the Phantom Ruby although many fans have came up with the name Zero the Jackal which appears to be the most widely accepted name albeit unofficial.
 * Infinite's face is never seen in the game itself nor the "Episode Shadow" prequel. However, it is shown in the prequel comics.
 * Following his boss battle, Infinite fades away and vanishes, against his own will. It is unknown whether Eggman forcefully teleported him away or if the Phantom Ruby deemed him unworthy and possibly erased him from existence, allowing Eggman to harness its power for his Death Egg Robot.
 * It is strange that Infinite is not attacking Shadow directly in the main game since he hates him well before he meets Sonic. It's also unexplained why Shadow is one of the counterfeit villains Infinite produces if he hates Shadow.
 * Infinite is one of the very few antagonists in the franchise who works with Dr. Eggman without betraying him for his own personal agenda, alongside The Time Eater.
 * According to Sonic, Infinite reminds him of Erazor Djinn. He was the second villain who called Sonic a rat. (The first being was Erazor)
 * Because of the "edgy" (a term used for something that is overly dark) nature of Infinite's character, a lot of people have made fun of the character, even to the point of it becoming a bit of a meme.
 * In addition to this, Infinite is often compared to certain Sonic "OCs" (Original Characters), where they are portrayed as powerful beings with a dark history/nature, mainly due to his design as well.
 * Infinite is one of the most evil villains in the Sonic franchise. Alongside Mephiles the Dark, Black Doom, and Erazor Djinn.
 * He is similar to Konoe A Mercury/Nine the Phantom, in fact, despite still unknown of Infinite's whole origins, both have suffered the pain of what they lost, both have been reborn into Phantom beings and both of them denies reality claiming the whole world is an illusion as both want to destroy the whole planet to recreate a new world to their images, and they both blamed the persons who pushed them to become what they are, such as Infinite blames Shadow while Konoe blames Yuuki Terumi. They also both consider their old selves being weak.