(General P.O.V)

"This is nothing compared to the eternal torture you will feel for daring to stand in my way."

Empty Hand whispered close to Aden's ear. In response, the creator of Gaea, shifted forms into his golden flame state in a sudden power up. Divine energy rippled out to the surroundings.

The pain in Aden's chest was immediately alleviated. He looked down at the hand going through his chest and held on to it tightly.

"You're not going anywhere!"

He yelled.

Then, energy started wafting off Aden's body like a broken faucet. His golden form turned white due to the heat he was exuding. Heat hot enough to turn anything into ash.

Empty Hand felt the effects the most, the skin and flesh of his hand almost instantly combusted, turning into ash. The being screamed in pain. However Aden was not done. He pulled in all the energy into a spot within him, his body changing back to gold then yellow, orange before becoming a red giant. Inside him all the energy was compressed into a sphere that was too bright to even stare at.

Empty Hand felt something coming but was too slow to react. An explosion of great magnitude erupted from their position. The shockwaves bombarded the being from the Dark Multiverse, breaking down his shadowy form before the heat drowned him under and ended him.

A zone of more than 38,000,000 miles in every direction was left bare of anything. The silver fire was pushed away revealing charred grey sand under the fire as the entire space of Aden's being, groaned. Cracks appeared everywhere, showing nothing but dark holes and unstable rifts.

Aden suddenly felt weak and fell from the air, smacking onto the ground after the damage his being had taken. Within him, was the feeling of something important breaking. He felt as if his life force was draining away.

He did not have time to regret as intricate webs of white and black energy appeared, covering everything his eyes landed on. Healing his sense of self. Aden felt strength come back to him as he instinctively used chaos and order to heal his being.

He groaned, floating off the ground after that showing.

"Somehow a hangover feels worse than this."

He joked.

He knew it was not enough, Empty Hand had shown, time and time again that he always came back. Somehow someway, he always fucking came back. It had reached a point where Aden understood that he needed to change tactics. He hated fighting tricky opponents like these.

He needed help.

(Aden's P.O.V)

My original was fighting against an entity of untold power.

Splitting my attention into two like this while not too distracting, rendered itself pretty counterproductive in a high stakes battle like this was turning out to be.

It wasn't your run of the mill fight either, no. I needed to give this my all. But first,

"Gaea, is everything okay in the main dimension?"

I asked in concern, it wouldn't be good if the fight happening between Empty Hand and I started affecting the realm.

No mortal could survive the mere shockwaves produced as a result of every clash. Still, to find out that I had been mind fucked into thinking the initial fight had happened...his telepathic abilities were leagues above my own and although I was confident in fighting him on an even ground despite the fact that he had some pretty big advantages over me, I needed a plan b.

"The realm is safe, but I calculate a 70% chance that things get worse the longer the battle goes on."

Gaea's words confirmed my fears. I had to end this fast. But how? Logically speaking, I was supposed to hold more power than him as long as we were both in my consciousness. Yet the opposite seemed to be true.

He could regenerate even from my silver flames and could cast mental illusions that were nigh unbreakable. Lastly he had a nullifying effect on all my divinities. A drop of sweat fell down my forehead, uncaring of the cold temperatures.

Plan B it is then.

"Gaea, keep an eye on things for me. I'll be back."

I told her. Luckily she was connected to pretty much everything in the realms. I could feel Aqua's curiousity when I used my authority over the realm to leave the water dimension.

"I'll be back. I promise."

I assured her, speaking straight into her mind.

The yellow light from a boomtube manifested under my form and swallowed me. My view changed, as I appeared in outer space. My Homunculi puppet skill could not really handle continued exposure to this type of environment but a few minutes was not a big issue.

My clothes started freezing over my skin and the cold of space was only mitigated by a great amount of chi energy circulating within my body. The sun and the stars dotted around, provided enough light to see the floating pieces of rock that used to be earth. My guilt came back in full force.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

I could feel over a dozen awarenesses hone in on me the minute I appeared. And if I couldn't capture the attention of the one I wante...

My surroundings changed instantly. I found myself seating on a table inside a cozy tavern. The cold vanished and I could finally breath. I hadn't noticed it but the shivering I had been experiencing from the chill had ended.

Something was slammed onto the table infront of me. My eyes captured the steaming hot cup of tea from the barista? Waitress? Who turned out to be a red and yellow colored girl. No, I kid you not. Her skin was scarlet and yellow zig zag streaks of energy ran from her similarly yellow hair down to her body.

There was something also eerily familiar about her.

"Who are you?"

I asked but instead of answering she merely winked at me and walked off. That wink...and that motif...

"Speed force."

I muttered to myself.

Her aura gave me the same feeling as pulling in energy from the dimensional energy that governed momentum.

"Close enough."

A voice stated and...it's like I hadn't noticed him before despite him sitting right opposite me.

The Presence. Oh thank God. Ha ha.

I tightened my fingers into fists and immediately bowed my head. There was no time to waste.

"I am sorry. Because of my negligence, I let the cradle of humanity get destroyed."

Knowing just who I sat before was enough to humble me. The fear I held for him was almost outweighed by the desperation I had to seek him out. I was from his biggest enemy's side. I wouldn't blame him if he blinked his eyes and made me disappear.

"I see you've found yourself in quite a pickle."

He commented dryly, not offering up insight on his true feelings. I dared to look up.

"Yes. An enemy even I struggle to defeat."

Empty Hand was a bit too much for me now. It grated on my nerves that I had to admit that. I couldn't go all out she to the risk it carried. I needed a sure fire way to thoroughly defeat him.

"I didn't know where else to turn to."

I looked away in shame. For all my power...yet I was reduced to begging for help.

"I understand." The creator of the DC multiverse stated. Too easily. Where's the blame? The dislike?, I wondered.

Establishing eye contact with his eyes to try and see for myself his true feelings was a bad idea. My mind opened, seeing everyone and all things.

"Aden."

My name startled me and I blinked, feeling something flowing down my nose. I dabbed at it with a finger and found.

"Blood?"

The Presence sighed, removing his hat and placing it on the table before me.

"You looked into my eyes. No mind is strong enough to handle the strain." He frowned.

"We have wasted enough time here."

My surroundings changed yet again. This time I found myself floating in nothingness.

The void. Or rather a layer of it. The presence tapped his umbrella on something...and the nothingness was replaced by a canvas of endless white. Something I could finally perceive.

"That was trippy as hell."

I stated from his side. Trippy but eye opening as well. It showed me I still had leagues to go before I approached his power.

My breath was then stolen away by the image before us.

Two swirling masses of existence. One dark and the other bright. One positive and the other negative. Two polar opposite bubbles lying around like marble balls in the wide and boundless infinitude. An infinitude that stretched out to...

Thwack!

The umbrella in his hands landed on my head.

"Focus."

"Ow," It was actually more painful than it was supposed to be.

"On what! There is nothing here except for the multiverse and it's opposite...oh."

I finally understood what he meant and turned my eyes towards the two bubbles.

They were connected together by a force of mutual attraction and mutual repelling, ensuring they never collided on each other or drifted apart. The vision changed from two bubbles of existence to two disks, one gloriously bright and the other anti-everything to the first.

"Like the reflection on a mirror. Seen from the mirror's perspective. No distinction between the two except a necessity to be separate. They steal meaning from each other."

I stated, comprehending something not meant to be seen for even one such as I.

Put up against these two multiverses, my own realm seemed so pitiful in comparison. It was so young it was crazy.

"What does this mean?"

Still there was a difference between comprehending the intricacies of reality and actually understanding how I could apply that knowledge for my own gain.

"If you're looking for a way to kill 'its' servant, then you will not find it here."

The presence informed me. I turned towards him and opened my mouth. Only to close it as a look of contemplation appeared on my face.

"Ok, so...that makes sense. I'm not fighting his true self, his physical body is elsewhere. Which means that what I'm seeing is a mental projection."

I frowned, casting another look at the disks. They changed shape and pattern again into strings of energy pulling and pushing at each other. Under the power of the presence, I floated around the void easily, trying to capture a different angle I could use to look at the Multiverses.

"If it's a mental projection, then how is Empty Hand connecting to my mind despite my realm being on a different layer of the void entirely?"

That question was the most important one. When scratching my head to answer it became too difficult, I tried another tactic.

"If it was me, how would I do it?"

And then the answer hit me like a ton of bricks.

"That's it!"

How had I not seen it before!? It was so obvious!

I stared at The Presence and saw a gentle smile on his face. I bowed down or atleast tried. Mostly, I just ended up looking funny as up and down was confusing here.

"Thank you."

I said sincerely.

He tipped his bowler hat.

"Give em hell."

"I will."

I promised, deactivating Homunculi puppet.

Now with all my mental focus back in my consciousness, I disengaged from the fight and jumped away, creating massive distance between Empty Hand and I.

"Oh, have you decided to give up now?"

Empty Hand questioned, it's face split into a vicious smile.

Instead of the furious expression he was expecting, I smiled, dismissing Equity back into my hammer space. God, I hope this works.

"Your jig is up."

He narrowed his eyes.

"Explain."

I shook my head.

"I won't."

This fight needed to end now. I had finally figured out how he was doing what he was doing. And it all had to do with my dualities. Despite being the master of Chaos and darkness, the concept itself was not anything new to The Great Darkness. One might even say he was the first master. The first wielder.

The Presence presented Order and meaning. Which made sense that the Great Darkness would be the opposite to that. And the opposite of order is...chaos. They were essentially like me only plus a few infinite...years. In a way. It's complicated.

As it stood, the Great Darkness had a more strict control over darkness and to that effect chaos which was stronger than mine. That's how Empty Hand kept coming back. He just used my own connection to Chaos to do it as well as sustain bus mental projection. This news elated me. Why?

If the Great Darkness could supercede my own control over my abilities...who says I couldn't do the same and take control over the Dark Multiverse? For all I knew my mom and little sister were back in my universe.

The only way to make sure they were truly safe was by eliminating the threat completely. I did not care if The Great Darkness was something otherworldly. I was issuing a challenge and that challenge came with a promise of death for fucking with me.

Back to Empty Hand, he seemed harmless in comparison to what I knew now.

There was only one way to finish this.

I looked deep within myself...and called him out.

The Order Avatar State.