Chapter 225: Part Of An Equation Final Part
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(General P.O.V)
Reverberations spread out across the multiverse.
An integral part of reality was going through a massive change. An old man walked through the rain. He had an umbrella in his hand that instead of using to shield himself from the droplets of rain, he instead used it as a walking stick.
The cobblestone path under him shone from the light of the streetlights reflected on the wet ground. Despite the fact that he was being rained on, no drop landed on his body. He stopped in the middle of the road. The victorian houses flanking either side denoted to this being a different time.
He sighed, tipping his bowler hat at the figure sitting on the bench to his side. The figure was dressed in a full neck and resembled a very familiar comic book artist.
"Fancy meeting you here, old friend."
The Presence said to the OAA.
The creator of the Marvel multiverse patted the empty space next to him.
"Still as reckless as ever."
The Presence laughed, suddenly sitting on the space next to him.
The whole area had changed into a massive white nothingness that stretched out into the infinitude. A split millisecond later, they were inside a Tavern floating in the middle of two massive bubbles of every color imaginable, every sound imaginable, every abstract concept that could exist. The distance between the two was incalculable.
"So...what is this favor, you wanted to ask?"
The OAA asked.
"Someone might..." he struggled to find the word,
"...crop up in your home."
The Presence finished.
"One of your own?"
A brief silence dominated. The OAA nodded taking the Presence's silence as an answer.
"I see."
A tea set was placed on the table they were seated on. The Presence smiled genially at the waitress, a red and yellow colored girl with streaks of multicolored lightning shifting around her form.
"Thank you Sela."
"Enjoy."
The waitress said and walked away. Immediately after taking a sip of the tea, a glint appeared in the OAA'S eyes.
"Well?"
The Presence asked.
"It is good."
"A friend of my son's introduced it to me."
The Presence told him jovially.
(Aden's P.O.V)
A rush of energy comparable to the massive amounts of divinity I had within me invaded my core.
Explaining divinity is like trying to describe color to a blind person. A shallow explanation would be that I had these wells of energy inside me. One, a green ocean of infinite swirling tornados, cosmic storms and darker than dark holes. The other ocean was pure blazing golden fire. It burnt unceasingly, unrelenting and unforgiving. Even the I from before, wouldn't survive a single touch.
The black sun above me was part of my own original power, I could feel it pulsing with the same thump as Equity. Equity wanted to be whole again.
The chaos from the Chaos Lords however was different. It contained an ethereal component that was missing from my own reserves. It had me buzzing with excitement as I immediately guessed what that component was.
The scene around me was straight from a cinematic setting. Threads of black energy connected the black sun above to each of the Lords of Chaos, dragging out every ounce of pure chaos they possessed inside them to Child. The energy changed after leaving them to a blood red color.
Child gasped as her eyes went unfocused, she visibly started wasting away, decaying while Equity greedily drank in the all their power.
Instantly, my vision changed. A world of impossible dimensions appeared before me. A world where the sands of times were not linear. A world of red with criss crossing lines of everything in its deranged form.
A shadow hang above head. The shadow had a huge face made up of countless smaller faces all with different expressions. It was horrifying.
"Usurper! Thief! Let go of us! Let go of MORDRU! CHAOS IS MINE! MINE!!!"
The shadow shouted, billowing up through the cracked glass like sky and then diving towards me. It hit and merely passed through my body without doing any damage. I laughed.
"This is your own doing Mordru! I was content to let you scurry in the dark. I was content to not concern myself with you wannabe gods. Your demise was signed by your very own hands!"
And with that, I claimed the very core of Chaos as mine. POWER rushed into me. A vortex of red formed around my body as I basked in all of it. I gorged myself, Equity having no limit to how much it could store.
"No! Stop! Curse you ADEN STRONG! CURSE YOU FOR ALL ETERNITY!"
The dying echoes of Mordru and his fellow lords rang out for the final time.
The chaos rift in my own dimension changed. I could feel the separation of structure. My realm had more than doubled in size after it's upgrade but the chaos rift had stayed there, a stark reminder of my mistake.
With the deaths of Mordru and the others, the uneven, unknowable and incomprehensible realm of chaos they resided in joined with my world and a true split occured. A split that went beyond the third dimension. Chaos was it's own dimension now. Just like the Hollow Lands, Chaos was separate but still connected to the wider expanse of my realm.
And things were already beginning to get interesting there. I opened my sight and found myself back where I had previously been. The mystic circle only had occasional bursts of mystical energy.
I could also feel a new web of power connected to everything. Reaching out, sparks of yellow traced along the path my fingers took. Magic. The energy of possibility. 'Not the time Aden.'
My fingers tightened as I let the arm fall. I sighed, reaching into my hammer space and withdrawing a GRANGO to munch on. I sat down on the ruined magical circle watching as Child's pile of ash drifted in the air.
The overcast red sky, the whispers in the air of 'HIS' power, the sheer malice everything here contained, and the prisoners from different worlds I could feel toiling below the metallic surface of the planet. All pointed to the same thing... Apokalips sucked.
Not the best vacation spot. I threw the seed of the Grango back to my hammer space and stood up, feeling a little rested despite the fact that I wasn't tired at all.
The ritual was supposed to be conducted on the highest point of the whole planet so as to avoid interruptions. Darkseid's tower however was reserved for only Darkseid. I looked towards it. Towards the undeniable beacon of power buzzing in my divine sense like a sole light in a dark room.
This was it. I centered myself, gripped Equity tightly and took a step forward. The next step deposited me behind a wall of gray muscles looking out into the wide area of the industrial heavy planet.
A terrible storm was already brewing above head. The planet seemed to anticipate pur clash. I walked forward and stopped just a few meters away from him.
"Darkseid... I've come for your head."
I calmy announced.
"Then it is doom you seek."
His voice was a deep rumble. Like grinding rocks against each other taken a few octaves lower.
"That remains to be seen."
I answered.
"Have you no sense of self preservation?"
The New God questioned curiously.
I snorted.
"It is precisely due to my self preservation that you must die. We're enemies but more than that you are relentless."
I shook my head and continued before he could say anything.
"And no. That is not a compliment. Apokalips is a cancer. You are a cancer. Even ignoring the fact that you have an unhealthy obsession with earth and the fact that I have destroyed all of your forces, you would still fuck with me, regardless of whether I stayed away or not."
He moved, rotating to face me. His red eyes spike of every evil thing imaginable. It was... indescribable. It also made me clench my hand in worry. I had been right. There was more to this being than had been shown before.
"You are right. Nothing matters except for the Anti - Life equation. Your enemity, my forces, my son...they are nothing before the promise of absolute power."
He stated, hands clasped behind his back.
I blinked. Up close and his power was fucking amazing. The fine hairs on the back of my neck rose and my grip on Equity tightened.
"And all fall before Darkseid."
I made contact with his red eyes.
"Trust me, you're yet to see anything like me."
He lowered his head and went silent for a short time before his lips stretched out in an evil smile.
"Yes. You are correct. There is nothing like you. I sense something hidden, woven through your skin, flesh, bones and blood." He levitated forward.
"A sense of mystery. A formula of potential. Perhaps I should...delay the plans I have for your planet and slice you open to discover the secrets you hide. To discover what Equation you are a part of."
I swallowed in worry not because of the threat to torture me but by the confidence in which he injected when mentioning earth.
(Elsewhere) (The Hollow Lands)
Michael perked up. A second later, his face scrunched up in confusion.
'What a weird request...'
He got up and left.
(Aden's P.O.V)
Equity twirled in my hands. The distance between us was only separated by a handful of feet. And goddamn this fucker is huge.
"A second option would be...I kill you, save all these slaves you have working for you, destroy this god forsaken chunk of metal and then leave. Just...consider it."
I proposed.
"You..."
He begun to say but I was already blurring forward. Equity's edge widened to a massive cleaver. I slashed out at his neck, aiming to hack through the Stony skin and behead him in one fell swoop.
Darkseid's hand rose up to block the blade, relying on his durability. He lost four fingers due to that. Red blood sprayed out and he backed off with a grunt. Without giving him time to register the pain, I was already aiming for the top of his head, Equity shifted into an axe reminiscent of the Divine axe Rhitta, Escanor's weapon.
With speed that was at odds with his size, Darkseid stepped to the side and let Equity sail down on his position. My chaos blade sliced into the ground, digging deep into the metal before shifting into a thin rapier that easily came off when I tugged. A blast of telekinetic force hit my body, pushing me away from him. My divine sense showed me something speeding my way, something that curved corners and turns through space.
I slid to the right, almost stepping off the platform like roof of the whole structure.
"My Omega beams cannot be evaded."
Darkseid telepathically said. A quick glance at his fingers showed red glowing digits where his missing fingers were and his gaze stuck on Equity with an intense look. Did Equity count as a godkiller? The answer was of course yes.
Equity came up and helped me block the omega beams, the concussive force threw me off the roof and into a second building, where I speared past it before landing in a chamber with different looking humanoid sentient creatures. Alien slaves.
They started screaming and running off in panic as I rose up from the remains of the table my back had landed on. I shook my head.
"Fuck, no more underestimating those beams."
I'd forgotten that they were different to Superman's. On top of being entirely unavoidable, they were also more concussive than laser like.
"Hey, what's your name?" I shouted to a middle aged man, with weary but hard eyes huddling with a few more slaves at the corner of the room.
"Malach."
He answered without hesitation.
A boom tube manifested before them to my side.
"Use this and evacuate this place if you want to survive."
He didn't give me an answer except for a nod.
With my divine sense, I deployed portals across the whole planet anywhere I felt a large collection of people. With my telepathy, I spread the same message across the masses. The portals would lead to one of the massive continents in my main dimension.
After my good deed of the day, it was time to go kill a galactic tyrant. Darkseid's gaze speared from his perch on top of the monstrous skyscraper to land on me. The quiet confidence he had earlier adopted was now stained with something else. He was alert, waiting for my next move.
Equity changed form into a brass knuckle that I wore on my right fist. Calmly and without hurry, I waved a hand and my clothes evaporated into divine energy, leaving me shirtless with only gray pants and boots on.
My long hair brushed against my back as I stretched a little. Crouching, the whole establishment shook.
"Come on! Everybody in now!"
Malach ushered the last of the slaves in and threw me a look before he entered the portal as well.
I shot out of the building at dizzying speeds. The air screamed around me, the building at my back exploding in a shower of wrecked metal and stone. The noise lagging behind me.
THWACK!
Darkseid's cheek folded against my fist and the huge god was thrown a few paces back. My leg blazed with a golden coating of flames and capitalizing on my unexpected blow, I planted the foot onto his chest. This time the force of the blow was enough to push him through the building and out into the atmosphere. I followed through the hole only for red light to wash down in my position.
The building's ceiling came down on top of me, while the foundation itself toppled to the right. I blinked, spatially relocating to within close proximity of my opponent and slammed an uppercut onto his chin. His head was thrown back and a sudden shockwave rippled through the air from my fist.
Grabbing his huge foot, I spun and heaved, letting go of him. The new god sailed through the air and smacked onto the highly industrialized planet. I dove down only to change course due to the zig zagging concussive rays he targeted my way.
Unavoidable huh?
With my connection to space, I stretched out the space between the rays and I into the closest approximation of infinite I could construct, a loop. The space surrounding me was instantly filled up by red threads that continuously followed billions of trajectories without actually touching me.
I blinked from that position, feeling the omega beams collapse onto the empty pocket before exploding outwards, the wave of shockwaves slammed onto my back pushing me to the ground faster.
While gravity did it's thing, my body changed into diamond. Shapeshifting for the win. Legs straight and faced downwards, I plowed through the omega beams, not even bothering to dodge them.
My legs slammed onto Darkseid's forearms and pushed him further down onto the ground. He broke past the first layer of the planet and arrived in a wide hot chamber that seemed to be an assembly line. I bounced off of him and raised my hands. With the motion, pieces of metal on top of the assembly line belt (don't know what they are called) rose up.
Darkseid flew towards me with a savage look on his face and to meet him were my telekinetically thrown projectiles. They bounced off of him and embedded onto the chamber, destroying the drones at work and wrecking the place.
His huge fist swung towards me but I flipped over the attack, to land at his back. Before I completely touched the ground, Darkseid was already moving. His back hand smacked onto my forearm with strength greater than anyone had ever hit me with. My bones shook and my muscles felt the sting. I could tank his blows but that shit was painful. I dug a groove under my feet while jets of golden flames exploded behind my back to slow me down.
"Give up, you are no match for me."
My adversary said as a matter of fact. I ignored him in favor of something else. What else have I not tested? Oh yeah... speed.
The world slowed down. I stepped off the belt and slid to a stop below his huge torso. My hands pulled back and then the first fist landed, then the second and the third. The 10th. Darkseid reacted at the 60th, Omega beams deploying with a sudden vibration and moving towards me from the right then the bottom. I bolted out of the chamber, stepping onto the walls before speeding through the hole we had initially created.
I broke through the air, lacking traction and floating in open space for a short period. A sensation of not quite heat was growing apparent behind me. The Omega beams were trying to catch up.
Golden streaks of lightning flashed a little under my feet, not too visible. I pulled some more and the streaks increased in number.
I flexed my muscles and my speed increased from mach 20 to almost a hundred. And it wasn't the fastest I could go. A ray of golden light that turned out to be me stepped onto the ground, my body handling the land before I was off.
I passed through buildings with the beams following closely behind while accelerating to catch up with me. From a high point of view, one would have noticed a steak of golden lightning zig zagging through the city while curving beams trailed after it.
I pushed myself to go even faster, using space as a spring board under every step I took. My gaze grew focused and apart from the flashing lights intermittently spearing through the buildings from the far away fire pits, the world was silent.
It started with a slight buzz...by now I had almost covered half of the planet. My feet touching the ground only barely and then, the buzz changed into a click sound and motion gained color.
A new sense of my surroundings hit me. Reaction speed and perception slotted back into place to seem as if I was walking normally in a world that was stuck in time. I stopped in place in sudden shock. Golden lightning from my own inner fire ran erratic rounds over my body.
Thinner than the gold light were features of white lightning coming from somewhere...else.
"The speed force."
I concluded.
Somehow I had connected with the dimension governing the motion of the multiverse. Was this how the different speedsters saw the world? It it was then my earlier speed; something I had been proud of was laughable. How the Flash managed to be taken less seriously than the others baffled me. With this, he was easily the second strongest or even the strongest member the League had.
And it was so easy to use. Almost docile in my hands. I concentrated a little and the streak of white lightning converged to form a jagged sword that vibrated with power. Enough skills and I could rewrite time itself, cross dimensions and take on anyone. If only it wasn't borrowed power...
I waved a hand across the air and watched as shadows were left behind. Afterimages that made it seem as if I was moving through viscous liquid.
I pulled on that alien buzzing I could feel with every cell in my body and shot off before the Omega beams could even move a single centimeter. Before I knew it I had made over a dozen laps across the planet. I took everything of note. Fatherboxes, technology, crafts, precious metals and even Amazo's parts, which I then sent to my dimension. After all that, I stopped before the concussive rays to begin studying them.
The energy was tightly packed, containing a substance that displaced everything in its path along with somehow not losing sight of it's target. I looked back at Darkseid's relative position then at the omega beams.
How about a taste of his own medicine? I felt myself slowed down marginally or rather the world got faster? Suddenly the Omega beams curved in the air and pulled up to follow me again. I released a laugh and stepped up my game, weaving through the monstrous buildings to finally arrive where my opponent was.
Darkseid seemed to only possess one pose. Hands clasped behind his back and a perpetual frown on his face.
I knew the split second he noticed me. For that short period of time, I increased my speed yet again and dove under his massive hand aimed to grab me and then between his legs. Stopping a few feet away, I heard the Omega beams connect with their creator and a surprised grunt of pain leave the galactic tyrant.
The dust settled down and I found myself facing the god of evil. His body was smoking lightly and the frown had changed into a cruel glint. His feet finally landed onto the ground.
"You are going to die a slow painful death."
He promised which elicited a snicker.
"Finally getting serious huh? It's about time."
"You were using me to test yourself." He concluded, walking forward. His steps left huge impressions on the ground.
"Yes. Yes I was. And I gotta say...you are disappointing. So how about we step it up a notch." My face changed.
"I know this isn't the real you. This body is just a Facsimile of your true form. And I have a certain penchant for wanting to deal with things at their core. So how about this...let's end this once and for all?"
An evil smile spread across his face.
"Very perceptive of you boy." Then Apokalips begun shaking.
"I was going to offer you to join me in a crusade of power to bring the Multiverse to heel...but I see now that you lack vision. For all your uniqueness you are stuck thinking like a lower life form. Your humanity has cost you your godliness Aden Strong. Any last words?"
An aura of red clad him, burning like flames. His presence changed into something oppressive and a prodigious amount of telekinetic waves rippled out of him. His mental abilities were far more developed than what I had. Buildings got torn off their foundations and joined a storm above him. The fire pits started feeding power into the storm, creating a burning world everywhere I looked.
And in the middle of the storm, I stood. Shirtless, with only gray pants and shoes and a brass knuckle in my hand. However, there was nowhere else I'd rather be. I delved deep into my divinities and touched upon one. The world grew focused as the fire above head and in the pits became mine to control.
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