章節 160: Chapter 160 Death's Back
Meanwhile,
Earth 16 .....
A portal suddenly opened in an open space.
Thud, Thud, Thud,
An able-bodied man with white eyes, blue clothes and a fedora stepped out of the portal and stood in place.
Less than a few seconds later, the portal flashed again as several figures stepped out.
"Hey, hold on. What in hell do you …". Clark first caught the figure of The Phantom Stranger.
Then in between his sentences, his eyes caught something else.
"... What the …". Those pupils widened in shock. ".... This … this is …".
As right before his eyes, large buildings could be seen floating in the skies. Or at least, half of them anyway.
Among them, Clark's eyes fell on one that was all too familiar. He would know, he worked there.
"Metropolis". The phantom stranger finished. ".... Or what's left of it".
The floating half of the daily planet was in sight.
Horror emerged in his eyes at what had happened to the city. Metropolis, was in ruins.
The portal behind him flashed as the rest emerged.
"... By Hera …". Diana was equally shocked.
"Oh my God".
"Is this …".
"No. It can't be". Superman shook his head in disbelief. "We weren't even gone for an hour. How could this happen?"
He didn't believe it. He couldn't believe it.
Unfortunately.
Bang!
The flying buildings suddenly plummeted to the ground. Upon impact, the earth trembled as the earth was up heaved from the floor.
"... Alright, now what did I miss ….". Constantine, the last of them, had just stepped out of the portal when he saw the scene akin to a natural disaster sweeping towards them.
"Holy freaking ….". The earth upheaval rushed over them. Time elapsed. John, in a flinching posture, opened his eyes to see nothing had happened.
A blue shield had enveloped them like a shield.
".... Is this your universe?" John asked in disbelief. How did this one seem so much worse than his?
".... It's … Something's happened, and ….".
"Take Cover!" At that moment, the Phantom Stranger yelled hurriedly.
Before anyone could react, a black dot miles away tore through the air and slammed down their direction in the blink of an eye.
The shield created by the Phantom Stranger seemed as fragile as paper, shattering into pieces.
The black dot slammed headfirst, knocking him into the distance. The shockwave didn't spare anyone else either as Superman, Diana, and the rest of the team were blown away.
BOOM!
Following which, it slammed into the earth, bouncing off it several times before finally crashing.
A massive crater emerged as it crashed, unearthing everything around it. Dust and debris flew in all directions.
"Ugh!" After a period of silence, a pained groan emerged.
A hand burst out from underneath the rubble. Following which, it quickly pushed aside the rocks pressed upon it, revealing a man in red and blue tights.
Taking a look at Kara in his arms, he let out a breath before observing his surroundings with Kryptonian vision.
'It's wrong …. Everything's all wrong'.
The Earth's gravitational field was going haywire. Stable in some places and completely out of order in others. These states could switch at any time.
That explained the flying buildings.
"This is Superman to all Leaguers. Is anyone there?"
He touched his intercom, hoping for a response. None came.
"I repeat, this is Super .....".
BOOM!
An explosion nearby interrupted him.
Turning his head, all he saw was large rocks flying in his direction, carried by a mighty shockwave.
His eyes turned red, heat vision emerging and blasting the projectiles to pieces. The shockwave, however, still pushed him into the distance.
It took him a few seconds to stabilize his figure in the air, before turning his gaze to the direction of the attack.
The dust settled.
Under his gaze, a dark-haired youth with fair skin and glowing blue eyes appeared.
Someone Superman was all too familiar with.
Amari.
'So he's behind this .....'.
The dark-haired youth stood up from the rubble.
At that moment, The man of steel had his eyes widen.
Because as Amari stood to his feet, a light blue glow could be seen on his chest. That wasn't the point, though, as alongside that was a weapon embedded into his chest.
The key point being, embedded.
Clark couldn't believe his eyes.
Was Amari …. Injured?
….
POV Change
The dark-haired youth stood up from the rubble.
Taking a look at the sword piercing into his chest, Amari couldn't help but frown.
'I actually felt that'.
The weapon had penetrated his skin, a faint light revealing on the edge areas.
He raised his right hand and placed a firm grip on the weapon's hilt.
The short sword was pulled out. No blood flowed.
He never had any to begin with.
Instead, a bursting blue light shone from his chest area for a split second ..... Of course, it was only for a second.
A moment later, it healed completely without leaving a scar. The light disappeared, covered up by extremely dense flesh.
Regardless however, Amari's expression wasn't the slightest bit good-looking.
'…. I did not expect this'. He thought while examining the blade before him.
'No laws, no rules, no order, no chaos, nothing concrete to base itself on …. Yet, it actually exists'.
These were his thoughts before he tossed the blade aside. Moving his gaze upward to where it needed to be.
As high in the air, stood the devil himself.
A cunning smile lighting up his features as he finally found a solution to his problem.
The answer was simple. So simple yet almost impossible to achieve.
Energy attacks were useless. So that left only physical attacks as the only option.
But how do you defeat someone who could absorb kinetic energy from all physical attacks?
Easy ... Take kinetic energy out of the equation.
In the laws of physics, that was impossible to implement as energy couldn't be created nor destroyed. Only converted.
Such a possibility was simple the complete erasure of the physical laws and behavior of matter and energy.
For humans, it wasn't even a concept worth considering.
But what if you weren't human? What if you had the power to change reality as you pleased, with nothing but a single thought?
Lucifer had done so.
The previous attack was simple a test. Creating a weapon with no physical or natural laws to govern it.
It could move but produced no energy of any kind.
This was why it could bypass Amari's energy absorption. Lucifer had wiped away all natural laws governing matter and energy upon creating the blade, so in the moment of contact, there was no obstruction as there was no energy to absorb.
Then came the natural defenses of the body.
The result …. It failed.
In a moment of carelessness, Amari had gotten stabbed through the chest, the force pushing him back towards the earth during their fight.
Two pairs of eyes locked onto each other. The hostility within brewing to the extreme.
"No".
It happened then.
A giant magic rune appeared out of thin air. The surrounding space was locked instantly.
"Cease your battle. Or you will invoke severe harm on this universe".
A figure flew out from the distance. He quickly stood in between Lucifer and Amari, seemingly in an attempt to stop them from fighting more.
It had results.
Amari frowned. His legs that were gathering momentum came to a state of rest.
'…. Who is this guy?'
He had never met the Phantom Stranger before.
On Earth -1, in the dark Multiverse, the two didn't cross paths.
But just because he didn't know him didn't mean someone else wouldn't.
Lucifer, who was preparing to release another attack, stayed his hand.
"It's been a long-time Stranger".
He uttered with twinkling eyes.
"... Nice to see old …. acquaintances".
"Samael". The Phantom Stranger uttered, his expression heavy.
"How long has it been? Five? Six million years?".
Lucifer's handsome features broke out into a devilish grin.
In the time before creation, The Presence had created the first three.
Michael, Samael, and Gabriel.
They were the first angels to come into existence. And they certainly weren't the only ones.
The Phantom Stranger shared two things in common with the devil.
One, they were both creations of The Presence. Two, they were both fallen angels.
Yes.
Fallen angels.
Although fallen in different ways.
Lucifer had led a group of angels to rebel, failed and was ultimately cast out from Heaven, becoming the first of the fallen as punishment.
As for what the Phantom Stranger did that caused his fall from heaven. Well, the answer was simple really.
Nothing.
This wasn't a joke. He literally, did nothing.
When Lucifer led his rebellion, the beings of heaven had split into three sides.
One, Lucifer who sought to overthrow God. Two, Michael who fought against him.
And three, we have the ones who did, nothing.
The scarce minority of angels who stood on neither side and simply watched the show unfold.
The Phantom Stranger belonged to this group. Unfortunately, despite not siding with Lucifer, they weren't going scot-free after Lucifer's defeat.
These angels were similarly cast out.
And while the others turned dark, he was condemned to forever walk the earth alone for all time.
In a sense, they were acquaintances, ex-coworkers and brothers.
But Lucifer never saw it that way. As all angels weren't created equal, only two were worthy of his attention.
Michael, and Gabriel. One was his only true equal and the other was not far off.
These were the only brothers this prideful, arrogant and narcissistic devil recognized.
The rest were simply slightly bigger ants and could all go to hell. Phantom Stranger included.
"... Well, sorry. If we were at Lux, I could have put aside whatever I was doing to show my hospitality, but I currently have an engagement. So why don't you scurry on along to whatever you were doing?"
It had always been like this.
Even after their fall, they had only crossed paths twice, and Phantom had tried his possible best to stay out of his way.
Not anymore, though. For the sake of this world, today, he couldn't.
"... You … need to stop". After a moment of silence, the man wearing a fedora spoke again. Making sure to choose his words carefully.
"Oh?" The devil raised an eyebrow. "Well that's new".
'The cowardly bird his grown wings. Interesting'.
In speaking, he was referring to the Stranger's new courage to intervene in his affairs.
Like previously stated. All angels weren't born equal.
The phantom stranger wasn't a regular among regulars in heaven.
Once an angel became fallen, they would lose their immense holy powers and would have to reconfigure themselves from scratch.
But Stranger was an exception. Although fallen, he didn't turn into a demon but transformed into what he was today, retaining the power he once possessed.
Basically, he was a boss among the fallen.
Nevertheless, Lucifer wasn't even an Archangel.
He alongside Michael had transcended that tier and stood as Demiurgic Angels.
Below them were the aspects of the presence and Archangels like Gabriel who could rival certain aspects such aspects.
Underneath were regular archangels and below that was the Pax Dei.
Even at full strength, Stranger was ranked at the upper end of lowest level above.
They weren't on the same level, and they both knew it.
Well, at least he was an angel. Lucifer's tolerant nature would still allow the latter to speak.
What really surprised him was the one who followed.
A distance away, Clark had found Diana.
"I'll be right back. Take care of her". He uttered while handing over Kara.
Before Wonder Woman could say another word, he turned around and took to the skies.
A red and blue figure flew into the air, stopping right beside the Phantom Stranger. With dark hair, blue eyes, a well angled face and a solemn expression.
Apart from Superman, who else would it be?
"Superman?"
"Mr ….". Clark never really got a name, so he could only end on Mr. Then, he turned his gaze to the one in question.
"Who is this?"
"Stand back Superman". The stranger warned solemnly. "I will handle this".
Lucifer wasn't a being the man of steel could handle. He told Clark to back off, clearly aware of this.
Unfortunately, Clark wasn't having it this time.
Instead, his gaze locked onto the devil with incomparable sharpness.
"Why are you destroying our world?" The stranger froze.
As an angel, he had overlooked one thing. That was the weight of earth in Clark's heart.
At this moment, no one knew just how hurt, saddened and furious the man of steel was.
Look around, the earth was a mess. Worst of all, he could hear it all. Millions of people dying with each passing second.
If not knowing that there was nothing he could do …. If not seeing the miracle of a world being reborn with his own eyes, perhaps Superman would have gone crazy at this point.
Each additional dead rested a heavy rock on his heart, and his tightly clenched fists that could shatter the hardest of diamond was enough to show just how much restraint he held.
If not, he would have thrown his fist at Lucifer despite knowing that he might be no match.
Everything he had ever known was falling apart. He had to try, or die trying.
A flash of amusement appeared in the devil's eyes.
"Why do you care which toys I break?"
"You …".
"This world isn't a toy Samael". The Stranger cut in.
"It is the Nexus of all worlds within this universe. If you destroy it, all else will follow. You will be ending a universe with quadrillions of lives".
If one wanted to destroy a universe, the method was simple.
Destroy the earth.
"Hehehe ". At that moment, Lucifer chuckled. "Do you think I care?"
It happened then.
Those words seemed to snap whatever reason Clark had left within him.
"Superman … Don't ….". Unfortunately, it was too late.
Before the warning fell, Superman had already thrown his fist at the opponents face.
Clark never cared about how powerful the enemy was, or how severely underpowered he weighed in comparison.
As long as he still had strength and there was no other option, he would fight. Fight against anyone for those he cared about.
However .....
His hand paused in place. As if encountering an insurmountable obstacle.
"Admirable. I like you". Lucifer uttered. "So instead of erasing you both, I'll spare your lives in another way".
Amari might be immune to demiurgic influence, but these two clowns before his eyes were not.
A cocoon of red light enveloped both men for a few seconds. Once it dispersed, two rats fell downwards from midair.
Silence .....
"Oh, my …". Kidflash didn't know how many times he had been shocked today.
Wonder Woman was the same.
"Well call me bullocks. Barely twenty minutes on the job and my employer's been turned into a rodent".
The visual impact on Constantine was the highest.
Unlike the others, he knew who the Phantom Stranger was, making it difficult to accept what was before his eyes.
"He just turned them into ….".
'Rats?'
Amari saw his scene, his expression becoming weird.
Although he wasn't affected, it was still odd.
"Now that the nuisances are out of the way, let's start playing big time. First, we'll get rid of all the unnecessary stuff ….".
The devil uttered as he stretched his arms wide, unleashing his presence and powering full.
Immediately, the space began to twist and contort.
" … Like laws, rules, time ….".
A fat distance away, cracks began emerging on the moon and the sun began to die out.
"... Do tell though". Lucifer asked with curious eyes. "Are you ready to die?"
"Not quite". Seeing the surrounding space morph into something else entirely, Amari's frown deepened for a second.
"In your words, I'm game. You want to play? .....".
That frown disappeared in an instant, turning into a wide grin.
In the face of external situations, when had he ever cared about the consequences?
".... Then let's play big time".
His words fell, and he removed the passive limit on his body's energy absorption.
The next moment .....
Unfathomable amounts of energy rushed into his being seemingly out of thin air.
Things had gotten to this point. Being pushed this far, Amari had no other choice.
At the same time, outside the DC Multiverse ….
A black dot suddenly emerged at the center of an inconspicuous corner of the Godsphere.
It soon turned from a small black dot, to a hole, to a larger hole, ...
In realms all over the Sphere Of God's, the energies powering dimensions seemed to receive divine calling as it all rushed in one direction.
The movement startled the inhabitants of Saudi realms, as magic, divine, order, chaotic energies gathered into the forest of a cyclone at a certain spot.
Time elapsed as more and more gathered, ad disappeared in the blink of an eye, in a perpetually endless cycle.
The gods, deities, and dimension lords of all realms immediately took notice
Many of them had their expressions changed drastically.
Someone was stealing energy from the God sphere …. And at such a rapid rate.
A lesser dimension Lord who resided the closest didn't even have time to react.
Not long after, his dimensional was sucked dry.
Meanwhile, back in Earth 16 ….
Lucifer's eyes almost popped out wide.
What exactly was happening?
He had searched through countless futures a few minutes ago …. Why had he never seen anything like this?
Under his omniscient gaze, Amari's energy reserves broke to new heights without stopping.
'He's siphoning the energy of countless dimensions ..... To fuel himself".
Lucifer's eyebrows furrowed.
This power didn't give off the aura of the source. Not did it radiate of antimatter. It was all positive energy.
Within the current Multiverse, there was only one place that had so much.
'He connected himself to the God sphere …. Extraordinary'.
Lucifer watched with appreciation.
"Alright, let's end this".
The next battle would probably shake the entire multiverse to its core.
Once again, a smile graced the face of the King of hell.
"Gladly". He uttered.
However ...
"ENOUGH!"
When neither had made the first move, someone else did.
A feminine voice fell into both their ears, followed by the ripping of space.
Dark hair, pale skin, black clothes, sexy vibe …
A silver ankh hung on a chain around her neck, and her top was covered with a black leather jacket.
Her appearance instantly captured the attention of both men, causing them to raise their eyebrows.
The newcomer was an old acquaintance to one and a familiar face to the other.
"You've had your fun, gentlemen. But unfortunately, playtime's over".
....
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