The AntiChrist

Unlike the Dark Messiah, who may claim to be the Messiah/Saviour, the Antichrist is the real deal, but for the Legions of Hell. He is not dark but misunderstood. What he wants is to bring about The End of the World as We Know It so that evil can inherit the Earth.

This is a guy so far up the Sorting Algorithm of Evil that there's not likely to be a Deus ex Machina capable of stopping him (or her), so the heroes likely have to race to stop him from either being released, being born, coming of age, or demonically possessing someone. Often, the consideration is that the vessel and the messiah are different entities, and killing the bad also kills the innocent. If they do catch him before he starts putting his storyboards to film, they still have to kill an innocent.

If the writer likes irony, the Antichrist will take after Dad and rebel against his Dad, ditching the whole "destroy the Earth" shtick to become an Anti-Antichrist.

Expect a lot of 666 motifs, as that is the number attributed to the Beast of the Book of Revelation in the Bible. This trope is an integral part of Religious Horror, particularly of the Christian variety. If the Antichrist is unaware of or resistant to their fate as the Destroyer of All, s/he is the Apocalypse Maiden. Chances are that the Antichrist will pose as The Übermensch, and will almost certainly be a Dark Messiah.

Note that while an actual description of the Antichrist in Christianity is not very well defined, it doesn't follow this trope very much. Mostly, the Antichrist is a false prophet who is attempting to undermine the faith of Christians and slowly pervert their teaching. While he appears before the beast of the sea, he is more like the chief of propaganda and does not direct or even participate in the end of the world. In fact, Jesus Christ himself defines Antichrist as anyone who believes that Christ is incorrect, with "anti-" being used in the same way as "anti-Semite." The man of lawlessness, described by Paul in a chapter entitled "Antichrist" is where this trope comes from.

Examples

 * Anti-God
 * Anti-Christ/Nemo
 * Moloch (Sleepy Hollow)
 * Michael Langdon
 * Ara Astaroth
 * The Fallen
 * Darth Hades
 * Diabla the Qliphoth Tyrant
 * Nibiru Entity
 * Scathach
 * Malcolm Dreyfuss
 * Eckidina KnightWalker
 * Diablo
 * Aryana Westcott
 * Abyss Zurg
 * Sayaka Kirasaka
 * Dio Brando
 * Griffith