Niflheim

"The name is Nif, but the real question is: Where am I?"

- Nif upon arriving in the Original Universe

Niflheim, commonly referred to as Nif, was an amphibious humanoid from an unexplored alternate universe who was mysteriously displaced into the Hell of the Original Universe during a battle in the Hell of Niflheim's World. His initial objective was to return to his home universe as soon as possible, but the events he witnessed in the Battle of Saskana and its aftermath soon caused him to become entangled in the war against Mazkertis. At present, Nif has decided to gather the Original Universe's counterparts of his old friends and confront Mazkertis in order to learn the full truth about the wizard's plans to change the timelines of two universes and unlock the key to returning home.

Description
Niflheim was a mostly-humanoid being whose body featured many subtle characteristics of aquatic life. His skin was a cyan-tinted white color with a spattering of light blue markings, much like an iceberg. He had scruffy white-stranded hair that measured about 35 centimeters long and was consistently damp regardless of his environment. His usual clothing consisted of a burned and torn piece of dark blue and white cloth that doubled as a cape which he wore around his neck, a torn white shirt, a pair of boxers, and an unattached belt with bags on it that was tied around his waist. Nif had bright blue eyes that were said to be the color of the ocean, with white vertical slit pupils, much like the eyes of a cat. He had some stubble on his face, which was noticeably human compared to the rest of his piscine form, and additional white hair elsewhere on his body. His hands and feet were webbed with claws at the end of each digit and suction cups on both hands. Spiked fins protruded from his forearms, lower legs, and between his armpits. He had six gills that were located in pairs on the sides of his chest. Nif also had an intricate tattoo that covered his entire torso: a giant white and blue dragon with spread wings; within the wings and around the dragon were smaller tattoos of sea creatures of various types: octopi, nautiloids, fish, sharks, rays, serpents, leviathans, coral, barnacles, jellyfish, and many more.

Early Life
Though details about Niflheim's backstory and origins are scarce, it has been established that he originated from an as-of-yet unexplored alternate universe that has since been nicknamed 'Niflheim's World'. In this universe, Niflheim was a member of a resistance group that included alternate versions of Chad, Drepp, EEEEEE, and Mina Bjork, who fought together in countless battles against "agents of the new world order who threatened the liberties of the people of their world". In addition to these characters, Nif knew "another version" of Captain Eurobeat who had similar powers as the one who roamed the Original Universe, and a familiar spirit named Leviathan who accompanied Nif in his adventures.

From One Hell to Another
During a battle with an unidentified opponent in the Hell of Niflheim's World, Niflheim was somehow unexpectedly catapulted through extradimensional space, which severed his connection to Leviathan and transported him to the Hell of the Original Universe in 150,084 CMT.

As soon as Nif came to his senses, he introduced himself to Bel, a demon who came to investigate his arrival, and asked to know where he was. After Bel informed Nif that he was in Hell, the domain of Mephistroth, she introduced herself as the Prime Consort of Mephistroth and the Grand General of the Legion who demanded to know why he was trespassing in their realm. From this, Nif deduced that he had been transported across dimensions into another Hell that he was not familiar with, so he told Bel that he would gladly leave if she could provide him with a way out. The Heller then appeared and attempted to interrupt their conversation by angrily swearing at them both, but Bel dismissed the emoticon by ordering him to be silent and quickly returned to the matter at hand by offering to take Nif before Mephistroth, who she claimed could help Nif if he deemed him worthy of his aid. Though Nif accepted Bel's offer and began to follow her across the landscape, the two were soon interrupted by the Heller again, who cut Nif with his razor-edged trilby while verbally attacking him. In response, Nif grabbed the trilby and threw it off a cliff into a cluster of fire pits, forcing the Heller to dive off in an attempt to save it. As Nif and Bel resumed their journey, Bel attempted to explain the Heller's erratic behavior by saying that lemures could be "a tad eccentric" due to their partially-formed brains.

Eventually, Nif and Bel arrived at Mephistroth's fortress and proceeded into his throne room, where Bel informed the Demon King that she had found Nif lost in the lemure lava flows. In his own words, Nif added that he must have somehow been transported from the Hell of his universe into the Hell that was ruled by Mephistroth, and expressed that he wished to return home or at least find out which universe he had been transported to. Before Mephistroth could respond, the Heller followed Nif into the room and threatened that he would exact revenge on Nif for destroying his hat, but Bel quickly and ruthlessly dealt with the intruder by stabbing him in the center of his form with her spear, which caused the Heller to fade away. Though Nif shrugged off the Heller's apparent death and repeated his request to Mephistroth by asking for his assistance to leave Hell, it seemed that Mephistroth was confused (or User LM was not paying attention) because he asked Nif to state his request yet again. After Nif did so, Mephistroth replied that he required an offering from Nif before he would indulge him with any favors. This annoyed Nif but did not surprise him, for he had dealt with a fair amount of egotistical rulers in the past. Nif defiantly replied that he had nothing to offer because he had arrived by accident, so if Mephistroth would not help him, he would find a way out himself.

Reluctantly agreeing to help Nif as a result of his protest, Mephistroth led Nif to a portal room that he claimed could take him out of Hell. Nif asked the Demon King to set the destination of the portal he would use to lead to a random spaceport in the parent universe so that he could get a better sense of his whereabouts and perhaps discern which universe he had been transported to. Moments after Mephistroth calibrated the portal, the Heller rushed into the area, only to be immediately attacked again by Bel. In the Heller's attempts to evade Bel, he knocked over a pillar that landed on and disrupted the portal before grabbing onto Nif's leg and using him as cover. Nif kicked the Heller off his leg, but the mischievous emoticon ran behind Nif's legs, causing him to trip over and fall into the portal. The Heller then chuckled and dove in after him.

Out of the Frying Pan...
Upon emerging from the portal, Nif found himself coming face to face with the Heckler, which made him very confused as to why there was a "living heck meme" in front of him. After the Heckler answered Nif's question by informing him that he had arrived on Meme World, the Heller emerged from the portal and charged furiously at the Heckler, but Nif tripped the Heller over with his foot before he could reach his target. Rather than tangle with the Heller again, Nif decided that he would leave the Heck Brothers to fight each other, and walked back into the portal.

Nif emerged from the next portal to find himself lost in an unfamiliar prison. While exploring the prison, Nif accidentally bashed his head on a cell door, which caused some of the lingering energies from the Hell portal to trigger the door's switch and release the cell's occupant: Steven Pinker. Though Pinker ominously whispered "ass" in Nif's ear, Nif decided that nothing could possibly go wrong with Steven Pinker released, so he decided to let Pinker escape while he walked back into the portal in the hope that he would be deposited somewhere more useful.

Next, Nif emerged from the portal to find himself in the middle of a seemingly-abandoned warehouse on Saskana. Because Saskana was the first place he had visited since his displacement that contained a thriving aquatic ecosystem with an abundance of water, he was immediately connected to the universal force of Hoh and mentally overwhelmed by the vast quantities of genetic information that his abilities could glean from the sea life that lived on the alien world. By the time Nif had recovered, he found that he had been surrounded by a few dozen H.A.S.A.N.s: robots which also existed in his home universe that had been created for the purpose of domination but had eventually been reduced to attempting to procreate with humans. By sprouting coral weapons and razor-sharp fins from his arms, Nif sliced his way through the H.A.S.A.N.s and exited the warehouse to find himself standing at the edge of the sprawling ocean of Saskana. Nif dived into the ocean and began to mentally scan the area, where he discovered that many powerful beings were engaged in battle above the surface.

Deciding to introduce himself to the battlers on Saskana, Nif coated himself in crustacean armor and summoned a giant manta ray that he rode above the waves before using his control over water to telekinetically lift himself up onto the lower platform of the battle. Though Nif tried to alert the battlers to his arrival by shouting "What the FOK is going on here?", only Moe seemed to notice him at first.

The Mazkertis Paradox
At the conclusion of the Battle of Saskana, Baron Alfred Ernst von Budberg provided Niflheim, Captain Eurobeat, the Full Frontal Fighting Force, and Strika with hotel rooms free of charge in return for their efforts against Mazkertis in the battle (though it was unclear whether Nif actually did anything). During his stay in the hotel, Nif was briefed on everything that was going on by Captain Eurobeat, who explained the current political situation in the Original Universe and the motivations of each of the factions that Nif had seen in the battle. It was then that Nif came to the shocking realization that the universe he had been transported to was a bizarre amalgam that not only contained alternate versions of some of the people he knew back in his home universe, such as Captain Eurobeat, but also many elements from copyrighted works of fiction that had somehow been made real, like Strika, a character from Transformers, and various spacecraft from the Final Fantasy series. After Nif left the hotel to collect his thoughts, he decided that he would confront Mazkertis to learn more about how he intended to "fix" the timeline of the universe. Just as Nif activated the entrance ramp of a spaceship that he planned to steal to pursue Mazkertis, he was suddenly transported to the mesopelagic zone in the middle of the ocean, where he found himself in a luxurious, air-tight crystal palace.

Niflheim was then approached by the creator of the palace, User Nif, who also explained that he was the creator of Niflheim as well as a member of the Users, the supreme architects of the BZPB Multiverse. Niflheim was initially sceptical of these grandiose claims, but User Nif proceeded to prove himself by altering the laws of physics in the immediate area and showing Nif an image of Stardust the Super Wizard battling the Heckumvirate. When Niflheim asked User Nif why he had summoned him, User Nif replied that he simply wanted to write some fun meta-commentary by writing himself in as a User and having him converse with his main character, who was also a self-insert character, within the pages of official canon. Niflheim then asked his creator why the Users did not just erase Mazkertis themselves if he was so much of a threat, to which User Nif replied that to do so would be unsatisfying to the Users, who found it far more entertaining when their characters sorted out their problems themselves. On that note, User Nif informed Niflheim that his purpose from that moment onward would be to amass a large following of allies to defeat the Kindred of Dawn and kill Mazkertis. Niflheim agreed to carry out this purpose, so User Nif restored Nif's spirit bond with Leviathan, the familiar spirit who had been lost in limbo when Nif was knocked out of Niflheim's World and transported into the Original Universe.

After User Nif informed Niflheim that he would be able to use his Evolve ability to its fullest potential now that Leviathan had been returned to him, User Nif transported both his creations back to the surface of Saskana so that they could continue their shared mission to defeat Mazkertis. Though Leviathan retained her memory of their meeting with User Nif, Niflheim's memory of the event was erased in order to ensure that he would continue to follow his purpose in the story instead of suffering a potential existential crisis as a result of his newfound awareness that he was a fictional character, which could have caused him to deviate from User Nif's plan for him. To ensure that Niflheim stayed on the correct path, User Nif left him with a strong inkling that he needed to kill Mazkertis in order to achieve his goal and return home.

Three days later (Day 4 of The Mazkertis Paradox arc), Niflheim officially teamed up with Captain Eurobeat and Strika to stop Mazkertis. The trio left Saskana aboard Captain Eurobeat's spacecraft, the Night of Fire, and embarked on a search for the wizard.

Plea to the Reverie
Almost two months later (Day 56), Niflheim, Leviathan, Captain Eurobeat, and Strika used a Void Manipulator-like device to open a portal to the conference chamber where the 3784th Assembly of the Reverie was being held in orbit around the Galactic Government homeworld of Mariejois. After the group emerged from the portal on the podium of Commander-in-Chief Akoran Zicks, Captain Eurobeat took the mic and the opportunity to flashily introduce each member of their alliance to the Reverie, though Nif did not offer a greeting beyond "h". Instead, it was mostly Levi who warned the gathered delegation of the threat that Mazkertis posed to the universe's timeline and asked for their help in stopping him. However, the Reverie dismissed the notion of a wizard who could change time on a universal scale as nothing more than the preposterous ravings of mad doomsayers, and the allies' request for help was overshadowed entirely when Zicks concluded the conference with the announcement that he intended to dissolve the Galactic Government altogether. Just as the allies were about to leave empty-handed, the representative of Earth, President Donald Trump, called out to them with the "opportunity of a lifetime". While Nif listened on in surprise, Trump revealed that he knew that they had been telling the truth about Mazkertis because he had previously met Mazkertis in person himself.

When Trump asked Nif if he had "beef" with Mazkertis, Nif replied "Not really, I'm just supposed to kill him". Despite the seemingly ragtag nature of the group, Trump liked their initiative and goal so much that he offered to lend Nif, Levi, Captain Eurobeat, and Strika the full support of planet Earth in their mission, but only if they broke into Supermax 282 and recruited three specific prisoners to their cause: Agent 47, the Joker, and Seeldier. Trump handed them the mugshots and identification numbers of these prisoners, who he promised would be of great use in the war against Mazkertis, especially because one could even locate anyone in the universe simply by thinking about them. After some consideration, Nif and his allies accepted Trump's proposition and used Eurobeat's transporter device to teleport themselves to Supermax 282.

Raid on Supermax 282
Nif, Levi, Captain Eurobeat, and Strika all appeared in Supermax 282 in the office of the prison's warden, Lemongrab, who immediately attempted to sound the alarm. Though Nif tried to convince the warden to "take it easy", Strika took a more direct approach by punching him in the face, which caused his head to explode all over the office. With the warden out of the way, Strika transformed into her Cybertronian alternate mode, a tank, which carried Nif, Levi, and Captain Eurobeat all the way through the prison to Cell Block D, the block that would contain the three prisoners that they needed to break out. However, moments after the tank arrived in Cell Block D, Strika was disabled by an EMP grenade, which left Nif, Levi, and Eurobeat alone to face the growing numbers of prison security guards and boxguards who had gathered in the area to oppose them. After sprouting a large tentacle from his left arm and moving a chunk of his coral armor to his right arm to use as a makeshift shield, Nif swept the tentacle across the floor, which tripped many guards over. He then withdrew the tentacle to attack again, but instinctively recoiled in pain when the guards zapped it with their electric stunsticks, and was subsequently blown across the room by an explosion that was created when the rockets fired by the boxguards collided with the forcefield created by I Came Here To Laugh At You.

After ICHTLAY and Strika destroyed the rest of the boxguards and sent the prison guards into a retreat, Nif and his allies set about finding and freeing the prisoners. However, when it was discovered that all the cell doors were made of adamantium and were sealed shut with electric locks, Strika decided to cut power to the locks by destroying a power box, which had the added effect of opening every door in the block. The Joker escaped in the chaos that ensued, but Nif and his allies found Agent 47 and Seeldier and successfully recruited them to their cause.

A Message From Beyond Time
Almost three weeks later (Day 76), while Niflheim was asleep in his quarters on the Night of Fire, his consciousness was drawn into the Dreamscape, a higher dimensional plane that contained the thoughts and dreams of every living being. However, instead of being returned to the waking world when he awoke from his slumber, Nif became fully aware of his presence in the Dreamscape like he was lucid dreaming. Eventually, he discovered that his conscious mind had been drawn into the Dreamscape by the telepathic abilities of Mina Bjork, a friend from his home universe who had projected her own consciousness through the Dreamscape of every timeline in an attempt to find Nif - meaning that the Original Universe and Niflheim's World were connected through time somehow. Once Mina had finished expressing her joy at having finally found Nif again after his disappearance, she divulged her theory that a catastrophic temporal event had caused Niflheim's World to diverge from its natural timeline and develop into another universe altogether (which may or may not be the Original Universe). Mina then speculated that, because Nif had been in Hell, a dimension that exists outside of time, when the theorized change occurred, he had been transported to the same place in Hell in a different timeline altogether instead of normal space in Niflheim's World when he had been 'knocked out of' Hell.

While Nif processed this information, Mina revealed that, in order for Nif to return home, he needed to focus on a 'constant' that existed in both universes like she had in order to prevent the cross-timeline astral projection from tearing his consciousness apart. Mina recommended that Nif should choose his friendship with her, Drepp, EEEEEE, and other close friends who existed in both universes to be his constant. Though Nif protested that he had not yet befriended the Original Universe's versions of the friends he had in Niflheim's World, Mina replied that he would and that it was the only way he could return home. Finally, Mina stressed that Nif needed to return to Niflheim's World soon to help her prevent some sort of apocalyptic event, but before Mina could elaborate further, Nif awoke in his quarters on the Night of Fire.

Nif spent the next few hours deliberating on what he had learned during his dream-like communication with Mina, including what would happen to his chances of returning home if Mazkertis succeeded in altering the timeline of the Original Universe. Though Levi attempted to give Niflheim guidance by reminding him of his meeting with User Nif a few months prior, she soon realized that User Nif had erased Niflheim's memories of the meeting even though he had not erased hers. Remembering what User Nif had said about the Users finding it more entertaining when their characters dealt with their own problems themselves, Levi came to the conclusion that User Nif had decided that her role in the grand scheme of events would be to guide Niflheim through the story by supporting him in the decisions that he would make himself rather than the decisions of others - thus, she could not directly tell him what action to take or offer any useful advice beyond emotional encouragement. Despite this setback, Nif remained resolute and wrote down as much of his conversation with Mina as he could remember into a journal.

The Search Begins
Once he had finished, Nif went to the bridge of the Night of Fire to tell Captain Eurobeat about his conversation with Mina and what he had decided to do next. While Eurobeat listened on with interest, Nif recounted the main points of the conversation and revealed that he had decided to leave the crew of the Night of Fire to do what Mina had instructed him to by seeking out the Original Universe's versions of his former friends. Thus, Nif asked Eurobeat to drop him off at the nearest space station so that he could begin his journey alone without disrupting the mission of the Night of Fire. A firm believer in the notion that one should always follow one's heart, Eurobeat accepted Nif's request and provided him with a full stack of standard credits (currency) before setting the Night of Fire on a course for the nearest space station: Atuar Sadiares.

After Nif used the Night of Fire's database to learn more about Atuar Sadiares, the spaceship was directed to land on Platform 68-D by the ZFT administration, who had recently taken direct control of the station as part of a territorial victory in the Terugan Civil War. When Nif and Captain Eurobeat stepped onto the platform to say their farewells in front of the platform's entrance to Atuar Sadiares, the two ZFT guards who were responsible for processing new arrivals on that platform, Mike & Dave, attempted to process them both, until Captain Eurobeat insisted that he did not need to go inside. Before Nif departed, Eurobeat borrowed his journal to write in the address of a MacDaniel restaurant in Bourba City on Malchior IV, which was one of Project D's secret meeting locations, in case Nif ever needed to make contact with him again. Mike & Dave admitted Nif into the station without a second thought when he promised not to report them for their lack of professionalism, but they forgot to complete the admission process by stamping Nif with an identification mark, meaning that he ended up entering the station illegally.

On Floor 068 of Atuar Sadiares, Nif approached a ZFT soldier to ask for directions as to where he could find a spaceship dealer. However, the observant soldier noticed that Nif lacked a visible identification mark, which caused him to regard Nif with suspicion and demand further proof of his identity. Nif used his Evolve power to manifest a thick carapace-like armor across his chest in anticipation of an attack, but before either man could strike the other, Seran Dol-Abi appeared and used a Jedi mind trick on the soldier and his allies to dismiss them from the area. Seran introduced himself as a Jedi whose Force-influenced visions of the future had informed him that it was his destiny to help Nif accomplish his goal by finding the OU's versions of his friends from Niflheim's World. This bewildered and amused Nif because the Jedi were fictional characters from the Star Wars franchise in Niflheim's World, but to Seran, the Jedi were real. In response to a question about his unusual accent, Seran replied that his voice had been altered by EEEEEE as part of his induction into the Dolissima Orthodoxee, which shocked Nif because EEEEEE was one of his friends on Niflheim's World. This revelation caused Nif to decide to leave Atuar Sadiares with Seran aboard his starfighter and begin their search together.

Abilities & Powers

 * Environmental Adaption: Niflheim could instantly adapt himself to most environments by altering his DNA with traits from any aquatic species that he was aware of. However, this would not work in more extreme environments such as the surface of a star or a gas giant.
 * Water Manipulation: Nif had such a fine degree of control over water that he could use it to alter his very own DNA, control other living things, and instantly alter the temperature of water to cause it to freeze, boil, or even turn to plasma with enough effort.
 * Portal Creation: With the help of Leviathan, Nif was able to open portals to locations that he had already been to. He mostly did this to summon aquatic animals as a form of attack, or gain water where no water was present.
 * Simple Telepathy: Nif had limited telepathic abilities that he mainly used to issue basic commands to water-based lifeforms under his control.
 * Familiar Bond: Leviathan was bonded to Nif and they were both able to communicate telepathically and share powers.