บท 12: Death of the Old World I

-Neo-

"You wouldn't believe the stuff I have to keep an eye out for." Green Lantern began.

Him, Shazam, Batman in his space bat suit and I were watching from afar superman who was hovering a few hundred meters above the infected surface of mars.

"That's why I can't always be on earth. Just as an example, last night, a meteor was approaching a populated city on Kataron 2, a planet with a red sun and really good food in the sector. We had to call in two other Lanterns to deal with it!"

"Wait." Shazam interrupted. "So how many aliens are there in this… space sector?"

Hal Jordan looked down on his ring. "Ring, how many planets harbor alien civilizations in sector 2814?"

After a few instants, the green glowed. We were in space so we couldn't really hear it though.

"It says there are 12638889 planets in a lantern sector and of this sector, only two hundred have civilizations on them."

"That is a serious responsibility for a single individual." Batman said.

And I had to agree. Yet clearly, it doesn't seem that bad. The Lanterns are very effective. Earth is just unique in how much trouble it gets in... Being the center of the multiverse and all that.

Green Lantern smirked.

"Not when you have the most powerful weapon in the universe."

Suddenly, Superman's voice came through the communications.

"Alright everyone. I'm about to throw the nuke at the thing."

According to Luthor, that single nuke was the most powerful ever made by men. It should be more than able to blow away a third or so of the Moon's surface while blasting the damn space cancer with radiation.

My helmets enhanced vision allowed me to see Superman with ease. He prepared to launch, winding his arm and then, with the flick of his wrist, he sent the bullet shaped object at ludicrous speeds towards the thing. When it landed, the blast was ridiculously large, larger than Superman thought because he had to fly back and turn away from the blinding light.

The explosion dissipated. The final result? It still stood.

"That… didn't work." Said Shazam.

Green Lantern turned towards him and rolled his eyes. "Thanks, Mister Obvious."

"Wait. Look, something's happening." Batman informed us.

We looked onto the black surface of the moon to see the creature rapidly shrinking.

"Let's go! We won!" And I swear, Shazam did some kind of horrendous victory dance, it was abysmal.

"Don't be so sure…"

By the end, all that was left was a hole a few meters in diameter. It retreated inside the fucking moon!

"Alright. Now I'm pretty sure we made things worse." Green Lantern sighed and turned around to leave.

This failure Isn't a setback or anything. I still have a bunch of backup plans. I wouldn't be a real Batman fan if I didn't prepare for this eventuality!

We were about to land just in front of the Hall of Justice but, surprisingly, two people were standing in front of the doors. A woman in deep blue and with a top hat, a man with a dark beige trench coat.

Well fuck. I don't know what this is about but if magic is involved, it's gonna be a pain.

Hal wa having a hard time believing it.

"Wait. So you to are wizards?"

"Practitioners of the arcane arts" corrected Zatana. "And we need your help. The world is at stake."

"Yes, you've already said that but, what is this threat you speak of?" Asked Wonder Woman.

"And why come to us for help? Only two of us, Shazam and Wonder Woman know anything about magic."

"I'm still skeptical about this whole thing." Flash added. "I mean, magic? Seriously?"

"We don't have the bloody time for this, alright? These things are coming to wage war on us and magic isn't needed to fight against them." Constantine pulled out a cigar and lit it before sighing and letting out a cloud of smoke.

"And what are these things you're talking about?" Cyborg asked.

I was a little impressed. He didn't seem as closed to the idea of magic as you'd think. Probably because the mother box database has some form of info on the arcane arts.

Zatana spoke some gibberish and suddenly, a map appeared on the big screen.

"They call themselves the children of the void, they are the ones who've been causing the earthquakes across the world."

Now I'm actually getting worried. I don't know if this is from the comics or somewhere else but I don't remember ever hearing about anything like this.

"The worst us that all the previous 'attacks' were only test runs. They plan on decimating the surface world and wage war on whatever's left when their spell is done."

The landmasses on the map began to be covered in water until there was nothing left but a single large ocean.

"Wait… did you say, attack the surface?"

It was Aquaman. He spoke very little. So much that I forgot he was part of the team sometimes.

The plot had long been detailed. Because of T. O. Morrow, we never found Atlantis and because of… something, Mera never found him and Ocean Master never attacked. Maybe it had something to do with these children of the void…

"Oh, yeah, the Atlantean. Sorry to break it to you, pal but, your people are total wack jobs. Absolutely cracked, I tell you."

Wonder Woman placed a hand on Arthur's shoulder.

"I'm sorry Arthur, it mustn't be easy to learn such things but… we don't choose our families…"

He nodded solemnly.

"Even if they are my people, so is humanity. At least they didn't give up on me."

He never had the chance to learn about his mother or any of the political drama of Atlantis. It's to be expected he would hold a bit of resentment towards Atlantis.

"So hum, what are we supposed to do to stop that spell?"

Zatana and John looked at each other. I felt it. I wasn't going to like whatever came next.

"We can't stop it. John and I already did our best to reduce its power, another friend of ours is currently fighting against the leader of the cult… even if he wins, Doctor Fate can't stop the spell either."

Even Fate is involved….

"So we're supposed to wage war. Drive them off the land and save as many lives as possible…" Batman concluded.

"Worse, if Arthur is so much more powerful than a normal human, imagine a trained Atlantean soldier…" Wonder Woman said. "Human armies stand no chance."

I wouldn't be so sure. You lot ate forgetting all the assets we have at our disposition.

"No. But human armies aren't what they'll be fighting. Wonder Woman, I need you to call for help from your Amazonian Sisters. They too are in danger. We'll inform the whole world of the coming crisis. I've got over one hundred drones able to manage battlefields from safe distances, we should also establish fast communication among everyone, I'm sure our magic practitioners can get on that. We've got other hero teams like the Titans we can call for too. We will win this war."

We can't even ask the Green Lantern corp for help, they'll consider this too minor to send more Lanterns our way. The Guardians are really inconsistent when it comes to direct help.

Wonder Woman nodded towards me and quickly rose to her feet to exit the room.

I turned towards the magical duo.

"How much time do we have?"

"Dunno." John said. "A spell that big with so many moving parts and artifacts involved… Maybe a few more days?"

"That's good enough, I think."

"I've already taken the liberty of recording every meeting we have." Cyborg said before rising out of his seat too. "I can broadcast everything from this one across the world."

Batman turned towards me.

"Over two million people own one of your holo devices across the world. You should send an urgent alert to all of them."

"Yes, good idea. Flash, you'll be moving the people in coastal cities as far above and inland as possible."

In a flash, he was gone.

"Only two years since Darkseid and we're already at war again." Said Green Lantern.

"That's probably the point. Taking advantage of our vulnerability. Everything from the economy to world cultures have been affected by that catastrophe. It only makes sense they'd attack now."

Batman was right, of course. I just wished these evil sea people, however they had even become evil, hadn't decided to be a pain in my ass so soon.

Clearly, Ocean Master had nothing or little to do with this. Someone else was at work, the question is, who?

Even Fate had to be involved. If he's gone to fight against their leader and isn't back, they are either evenly matched or Fate has been defeated.

"Miss Zatana, who is there master, the one you spoke of?" I asked. Maybe the name would help.

"An old Atlantean wizard name Meirleius. He's the leader of their void cult."

Nope, nothing comes to mind…

"A cult, so they serve an idea or a god then?"

"A god I've never heard of, they call him the peace bringer, the walker from the void and the god of eternal requiem."

Who the hell is that? I've never heard of anyone like this in any DC media!

"Personally, I don't care who or what it is they serve, those wankers are getting what's coming to them."

The very same night, we did as planned, the people reacted about as well as you'd think. It was utter chaos at first, social medias were on fire, people were joking around about the end of the human race, others somehow refused to believe anything we said because they don't trust us… Regardless, in the span of twelve hours, Flash and the others helped move as many people away from the coasts of the world, a ridiculously daunting task.

Flash is much faster than when we fought against Darkseid. Very much. Enough to pull off something like this with such ease, it's ridiculous. That new speed coupled with a gravitational gauntlet… I shudder at the thought, He might just be able to strike two to three times stronger than Superman as he currently is!

Not that Superman is staying like this for long, there's no way I'm letting him die against Doomsday.

Besides, more and more powerful enemies are bound to show up and the time until I actually become overpowered seems frustratingly far… So I'll have to help those that are already strong get even stronger.

The earthquakes in those twelve hours reached devastating levels. Entire buildings collapsed. After this war, the world will never be the same. I can't even begin to understand how many millions will die. We don't even know how long it will last. Entire economies will collapse, it might take hundreds of years to stabilize whatever's left of humanity.

Sure, that's the worst case scenario. But even in the best case scenario, all of that is sure to happen, only at a much lesser scale.

Crime rates escalated like crazy too, of course. Sometimes, the worst of someone reveals itself in moments of Crisis. To be fair, I understand them. It's a perfect opportunity…

We didn't just help people thought that was mostly Flash's job. Thanks to the guidance of Zatana and Constantine, we sent GL to check on Atlantis, the whole place was surrounded by some kind of shield, it was impossible to get in. To my surprise though, he revealed that Fate was still fighting against Meirleius. Whoever this guy was, he was crazy strong. No. Whoever the void walker was, it was strong as hell.

His job is to keep watch over it to tell us when something indicates they're ready to attack.

As to Superman? He's doing the same thing as Flash. I would have preferred to send him sunbath in space, just to be safe against whoever we're fighting against, saving lives is more important.

"Neo, Wonder Woman and the Amazons have sailed to defend Europe. The military of the globe have been mobilized and are moving to defend the safe houses."

I heard the voice of Zatana resonate inside my mind. They had given us a strange potion which allowed us to maintain a mental connection between us.

"Perfect. I guess we just wait then…"

I stood high above Bludhaven. It was a coastal city. Of course, I don't actually expect them to attack starting here. I just came for one last look before it's engulfed by the waves… With any luck, it won't be permanent and we'll be able to rebuild… Eventually.

The ground shook. This time, it was different. A shock wave traversed through the air. An explosion?!

I looked behind me and the smoke clouds were already falling, all across the city, entire city blocks were blown to ashes.

Another shaking, the ground cracked under me… And as I looked up, there it was. The single biggest wave I've ever seen. Bigger than any building, all over the coast, without end.

It just appeared, no warnings, no chance to see it approach. It was already too late.

"I hate magic."

I hate it now. Really.