Mallus

"I am so much more than a god!"

- Mallus

Malice, mistakenly known to his followers and enemies alike as Mallus, was a primordial time demon that was, according to John Constantine, a demon of the highest order, who was imprisoned in another dimension by five of the six tribes of Zambesi in ancient times. Unable to directly threaten the populations of other dimensions, he worked through his followers as avatars and intermediaries, before being released due to the actions of both the Legends and the Order of the Shrouded Compass, the latter of which was led by Nora Darhk and her father, Damien Darhk. However, he was later finally killed by the Legends whilst using the Totems to manifest a giant Beebo doll.

Origins
Centuries ago, the Lost Tribe of Zambesi that guarded the land of the dead with the Death Totem formed an alliance with Malice, causing him to form a link with said totem, but he was soon imprisoned by the combined efforts of the bearers of other five Totems of Zambesi within a cage of time. This prison exists beyond the astral plane, which separates the real world from Malice's prison. In order to free himself from his confines, there must be enough rift and destruction in the fabric of time to release him.

According to Rip Hunter, Malice was perceived as a myth, existing throughout all of the time, and known by many different names in all types of languages. Rip also states that the Time Masters were too frightened to even speak his name. Malice acquired followers to aid in his endeavours, such as the Order of the Shrouded Compass.

Plotting his escape
Following the Legends' time storm that disrupted history and created anachronisms, Malice took advantage of the disruption to maintain the anachronisms and deteriorate time as well as his prison. To create more temporal disruption from beyond his cage, he resurrected people who he also deemed worthy of wielding the totems that imprisoned him to prevent them from being used to stop him again.

Agent Ava Sharpe mentioned that Malice became a threat after the Legends "broke" time. After Kuasa was resurrected by a servant of Malice, she told her that Malice requested her services. Malice was hunted throughout time by Rip Hunter for years. Malice later ordered Nora Darhk to travel to London 1895 and resurrect Damien Darhk. During the ceremony, Rip Hunter interrupted them and demanded to Nora to speak with Malice. Without hesitation, Nora agreed and within seconds, Malice took possession of her body and stated to Rip that it was a pleasure to meet him. Rip then demanded to see his true form, Malice wickedly laughed and said that he wouldn't live when he saw his true form and claimed that while Rip was mortal, he was a god. Just before Damien was resurrected, Malice stopped possessing Nora.

Malice was not seen again for a while until the Legends crossed paths with the Darhks again, this time in the year 1000 A.D. while endeavouring to rescue a younger Martin Stein from Vikings and preventing the modern-day United States from becoming New Valhalla. During a pitched battle between the two sides, Damien came rushing to his daughter's aid, using his time stone to transport them away. As they did so, White Canary grabbed on to Darhk and was transported suddenly to a dark, desolate place, the very dimension in which Malice was imprisoned. Malice called out to her from the darkness, never revealing his face or true form. Declaring his name when asked who he was, Malice swore that he would soon be free and that the entire world would soon be subjected to unendurable pain. Canary could only look on in stunned terror as a huge, black hand reached out towards her from out of nowhere as ghoulish laughter echoed all around before she was yanked back into her own world by Agent Sharpe through a portal hovering nearby.

Possessing Nora Darhk
While possessing a young Nora Darhk in 2017, Malice soon attracted the attention of the notorious warlock John Constantine who subsequently broke into the mental hospital Nora had been placed in to exorcise her. Constantine, unfortunately, had no idea what he was really blundering into and recklessly tried to banish Malice from the girl with an ordinary exorcism without knowing the entity's name first; Malice merely laughed it off and derided Constantine's efforts, citing his failure to save Astra, his own eternal damnation and his efforts to save the soul of Sara Lance. Frightened by Malice' power, Constantine fled the hospital and went in search of Sara.

Malice didn't have to wait long before Constantine returned to the hospital with the Legends in tow to help him. Once he, Sara Lance and Leo Snart had revived the catatonic Nora inside a magical seal known as the Triangle of Solomon, Malice soon emerged and greeted them, focusing on Sara and remarking on how he had been expecting her; that she would soon see his true form when he took her back to his world for all eternity. Wasting no time, Constantine launched into another exorcism, this using Malice' name to amplify it. Laughing ghoulishly, Malice once more shrugged off Constantine's exorcism without even trying and simply strode out of the Triangle, bellowing that Constantine's powers were useless against him. Telekinetically tossing the group aside, Malice quickly scrawled a temporal displacement symbol on the ground and cast the group back in time to the 1960s version of the same hospital before withdrawing back into Nora. Obsessed with taking possession of Sara Lance, Malice reached out telepathically to her in the 1960s and began haunting her, giving her hallucinations and dredging up her worst memories so as to incited enough fear and rage within her to prime her for possession. He was foiled in this regard by Constantine who coached Sara through the process of resisting possession.

Meanwhile back in 2017, Malice revealed himself to Zari and Ray in Jitters after they attempted to help Nora reenter normal life and mocked their efforts. Roaring, screaming and bellowing as the building shook with tremors all around, Malice ignored their appeals to Nora and threw Ray against a wall when he got too close. In response, Zari moved to grab Nora by the arm which unexpectedly started to badly burn the entity. Horrified and roaring with pain, Malice accused Zari of being 'one of the six' and tried to fire a swarm of glass shards at her. Unfortunately, at that exact moment, Nora reasserted control over herself with the help of Sara, temporarily silencing Malice.

Targeting White Canary
Determined to win over Sara Lance as an ally, Malice concluded that, as a former assassin, she would be the perfect candidate to bear the Death Totem and thus be swayed to fight for him. To that end, he once more reached out to her in the temporal zone, this time more cautiously by disguising his telepathic voice as Sara's own and projecting harmless illusions into her mind via the Death Totem, which at the same time had already begun drawing her to it so as to ensnare a new bearer with promises of power over death. Sara was unable to resist the pull nor Malice' influence and put it on, allowing Malice to take her over completely and transporting her mind to his home dimension.

Wielding the Death Totem, Malice rampaged throughout the locked-down Waverider, gravely injuring Ray and laying out Amaya, Mick, Zari, Wally and Nate in quick succession with relative ease while shrugging off Sara's efforts to reassert control over her body. Suddenly Ava Sharpe appeared through a temporal window with Gary and John Constantine in tow. Undaunted, Malice casually tossed the Time Bureau agents aside telekinetically and taunted Constantine by mimicking the voice of Astra and trying to convince him to trade her soul for Sara's to which Constantine refused. Enraged, Malice began telekinetically choking Constantine when the Death Totem suddenly began glowing on its own, triggered due to the activation of the restored Fire Totem by Mick. Malice raced to the lab Mick and Amaya were in but was stopped in his tracks when Mick hurled a miniaturized sun at him, forcing Malice to telekinetically catch and contain it and force it back. Seeing an opening, Mick hurled a fireball at Malice and knocked him out.

Furious and smarting over being overpowered by Mick, Malice frantically tried to revive his vessel but despite help from the younger Darhk, Sara rejected Nora's offers of power and an alliance with Malice and expelled him from her body as well as the influence of the Death Totem.

Assuming his true form
Eventually, Kuasa began having second thoughts about helping the Darhks to free Malice and double-crossed them by returning the Anansi totem, which the Darhks had stolen, to Amaya. In retaliation, Nora used her magic to extract the Water totem's powers from Kuasa's body, killing Kuasa in the process. Losing Kuasa prompted Amaya to take the Waverider 's jump ship to 1992 Zambesi, the day before her village is attacked by warlords, Amaya's 1992-self dies, and her family is torn apart. Ultimately, the Legends decide to allow this anachronism to happen to the timeline, in order to free Malice so that they can take him down once and for all.

The plan backfired, however, due to Damien Darhk's sabotage in hopes of freeing Nora by losing Grodd on the village in an attempt to protect the timeline to keep Malice from being freed. The Legends scatter in the chaos and Nora is set free by her father while the team battles Grodd. Once the rampaging gorilla is defeated, Malice is freed, and Nora painfully transforms into the demon's true form.

Final Defeat
Later, Ray comes up with a plan to stop Malice from completely taking over Nora's body. Desperate to save his daughter, Damien Darhk goes along with it. Ray and Damien's time jump back to right before Malice broke free in 1992 Zambesi, Damien shoots Nora with Ray's anti-magic gun, and, not to be defeated so easily, Malice proceeds to take over Damien's body.

With all six totems, the Legends try battling Malice but accomplish nothing. Desperate for answers, Amaya and Nate go on a vision quest to find out how the original totem bearers were able to imprison Malice. They then learn that the totem bearers (aside from the bearer of the Death totem, who sided with the demon) stood in a circle, joined hands and combined their totems' powers to conjure something to fight Malice. However, without the power of the Death totem, they were unable to kill Malice; they could only imprison him.

After finding out what to do, the Legends tried to do as the totems' original bearers had. Their first attempt to do so failed, creating a "Cronenbaby," but when they tried a second time, they were able to summon something that could kill Malice once and for all; a giant Beebo doll. This led to a battle between Beebo and Malice, ending with Beebo destroying Malice by body slamming him.

Personality
Whilst possessing Nora, Malice is shown to be a malevolent entity whose very existence even scared the Time Masters. Malice is also extremely arrogant, referring to Rip Hunter as "hopelessly mortal," compared to his presumed status as a higher being. When Sara Lance accidentally entered the very dimension he was imprisoned in, he vowed to her that once he is freed from his prison, he will make her entire world know unendurable pain.

Powers

 * Demonic Physiology: Malice is a primordial, mysterious, malevolent and extremely powerful being, whom John Constantine identified to be a demon of the highest order. Malice possesses tremendous amounts of maleficent supernatural power and has so far shown the following powers and abilities.
 * Immortality: Malice states that Rip Hunter is "hopelessly mortal," suggesting that Malice is immortal. It is known that the ancient Zambezi tribes sealed him away, suggesting that he is a primordial demonic entity.
 * Supernatural Immunity: Malice was immune to John Constantine's traditional magic and exorcisms, even going so far as to be immune to a trap that Constantine boasted to be able to hold any demon. It should be noted, however, that he was vulnerable when splashed with holy water.
 * Demonic possession: Malice displays the ability to possess and speak through Nora Darhk. This possession is characterized by his target's eyes turning blood red. In the sense, he gained absolute control over Nora's body and inhabited her.
 * Demonic Transformation: Upon gaining complete control over Nora, he fully inhabited her body and transformed her human physiology into a powerful demonic physiology, with extremities like claws, tails and demonic wings and horns.
 * Power bestowal: Malice was able to grant Damien and Nora Darhk powers similar to those obtained through the Khushu Idol and a few extra powers.
 * Photokinesis: Malice was able to grant Nora the powers to control condensed light blasts while being channeled through her.
 * Thermokinesis: Malice was able to grant Nora the powers to control fire and ice while being channeled through her.
 * Mediumship: Malice was able to grant Nora the ability to communicate with deceased spirits as well as himself. It's possible he granted Damien the same ability.
 * Superhuman Durability: Malice can grant Nora the ability to take massive hits with no harm brought to her. He hit Nora's head on a table multiple times at high speeds without even damaging her physically, stating that she feels no physical pain.
 * Superhuman strength: Malice made Nora significantly strong, enough to use her nails to easily scratch on a television without any signs of slowing down, strain or fatigue.
 * Telekinesis: The ability to impart kinetic energy on objects.
 * Immobilization: Malice has been shown, on several occasions, to use telekinesis to halt all the movements of multiple people at once.
 * Restoration: Malice can also apparently restore any lost aspects of a person as upon resurrecting Damien, he regained his lost memories while part of the Legion of Doom. He also regained his magical powers, which were apparently improved to no longer require the Khushu Idol.
 * Biological manipulation: Malice made dark colored goo appear from Nora's mouth.
 * Resurrection:  Malice' has the power to resurrect the dead. He resurrected Damien Darhk.
 * Telepathic powers: Malice has also displayed telepathic capabilities. So far he has shown.
 * Illusion Conjuration: Malice was able to cast realistic illusions into the minds of others. It made Sara believe that Malice's demons were attacking her.
 * Memory manipulation: Malice was able to manipulate Sara Lance's memories, to show her the painful memories she had repressed for years, enthralling her in submissive fear.
 * Flight: Malice possesses massive wings that allow him to fly in the air.
 * Pyrokinesis: Malice was able to generate and hurl fireballs from his hands.

Abilities

 * Intimidation: Rip states that the Time Masters were too frightened to even speak his name. Malice was able to strike fear into the highly courageous and dangerous assassin Sara Lance when she heard his voice in the very dark dimension he was imprisoned in. The Time Bureau are also terrified of him.
 * Occult knowledge: Malice is extremely knowledgeable of magic and spell works, such as a time based one in order to transport the Legends.
 * Clairvoyance: He even knew of John Constantine's sin of failing Astra and dooming her to Hell.

Weaknesses

 * Totems of Zambesi: Malice is vulnerable to whoever wields one of six mystical totems of Water, Earth, Fire, Air, Spirit, and Death. If he is even touched by one of the totem bearers, it burns him considerably.
 * Totem Being: When the powers of all six of the totems of Zambesi have united, they form a being of light, which is strong enough to kill Malice once and for all.
 * Possession resistance: Malice can only possess someone who has been completely consumed by their rage and darkest fears. If they have not, they can resist his influence successfully.
 * Temporal imprisonment: Malice was imprisoned by five of the six original totem bearers. His prison is time itself, so when the Legends broke time, it started to release his influence. The more anachronisms that were created, the weaker his prison became.

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Trivia

 * Malice's influence on the timeline has so far been identified as random anachronisms throughout history; when Nate Heywood conducted a scan of the timeline, he determined that a series of anachronisms were directly linked to the breaking of time caused by Legends revisiting the same time and place twice in order to defeat the Legion of Doom, but Malice's anachronisms broke this pattern.
 * Ray Palmer and Nate have noted that these divergent anachronisms have all had some connection to the Legends' own personal histories; Malice's first role in an anachronism was linked to Ray Palmer's younger self, another involved Sir Henry Stein (Martin Stein's great-great-grandfather), and a later anachronism targeted the younger Stein, while one anachronism was peripherally linked to Mick Rory's father.
 * When Sara Lance spoke directly to Malice, he has expressed a personal interest in her for unspecified reasons, reinforcing the implication that he has ties to the Legends.
 * Malice's claim that he would soon be free, indicates that, at the time, he was imprisoned in the realm where White Canary had encountered him, answering the question as to why he must communicate with his followers through Nora Darhk.
 * As of Malice appears to closely resemble a number of demon kings featured in Constantine who originated as pagan gods, such as Pazuzu, Lamashtu, and Nergal. Stripped of their old glory, these entities try to restore their worship as gods while possessing people and trying to escape their prison-like bounds.
 * Malice is very similar to Savitar in that they are both godlike villains, who are initially trapped in some sort of alternate dimension; influencing the outside world by possessing a certain individual (Nora Darhk and Alchemy, respectively), and are both the main antagonists of the third seasons of their respective shows; Legends of Tomorrow and The Flash. Also, Malice exists simultaneously throughout all of the time, which was Savitar's ultimate goal.
 * When Sara Lance asked Nora Darhk what voices she heard in her head from Malice, Nora replied the number 6, which John Constantine points out is the number of the Biblical Beast from Christianity's Book of Revelation. It could also be from his fear of the six totem's of Zambesi as he also called Zari "one of the Six."

Behind the scenes

 * In the DC comics, Malleus is an almost-identically named and similarly-looking metahuman supervillain in the Dakotaverse universe unrelated to most of the DC continuities. While he is not a demon, he shares more then a passing resemblance with Malice, having similar bestial appearance with occasional bat-like leather wings, having his first appearance in shadows, having a shady and mostly unknown past (including name and time period) as well as creating a group of supervillains with supernatural powers, albeit with a "fail-safe" switch.