(General P.O.V)

There are core concepts that are needed for the continued existence of the universe and on a larger scale, the multiverse. Those cannot be killed, not without destroying the whole thing. And even if you did manage such a feat, these concepts will just pop up anywhere else with life. They are truly eternal.

The Endless are such.

Below the concepts are abstract beings, beings that through necessity came about after an aspect of life grew to large proportions.

Cosmic beings all around felt the end of Darkseid. It came as a shock. Darkseid was not just your run of the mill god. The true forms of all the gods were abstract entities that existed above space. Above the 3rd dimension.

Many of these beings could not interact with mortal beings save for two ways, one, having a presence in the mortal world through a belief system and secondly by having a larger standing in their own dimension that they could impose their selves on to the mortal world as pale reflections. Facsimiles that had shallow control over an aspect.

Normal gods relied on mostly the first option, by having the denizens of the lower world acknowledge them as beings with power and influence over the world. The new gods relied on the latter. They were strong enough to impose a copy with only very limited control over an aspect of reality in any and all universes without relying on faith or worship.

Normally, if a god died in one universe, their true existence which was localized above the third dimension was unaffected and wouldn't raise any concern or shock. In one universe, the Olympian Pantheon was fully destroyed by Ares, however the true incarnation of the gods were unaffected, they only lost presence in one universe.

It was complex, a maze of otherworldly tales with twists that had twists that had twists.

The situation was very different this time.

An actual abstract being was dead. Destroyed. The will had been eroded and non existence granted to the former god of evil. And in so doing, the balance between the worlds had been greatly upset. Pre ordained events, drastically changed. Even without a true temporal change, the timeline had shifted considerably. The shift was too great to be ignored.

And Aden was going to pay for the concequences of messing with reality. As the victor, the repercussions fell to his shoulders.

Forces begun moving in the dark.

Unnoticed by Aden, a text box had appeared in the corner of his vision, the minute Darkseid had been defeated.

(FAITH UNLOCKED)

(Aden's P.O.V)

It only took a second to understand what was going on.

"Aden?"

Hal with a busted lip and civilian clothes said. He was kneeling on the ground, cradling his right arm to his body infront of a fallen Guy Gardner, who had a hole through his chest and was lying on the metallic floor on a pool of his own blood.

He was also missing his iconic lantern suit. The craziest part was that he was still breathing, albeit shallowly.

That was one side of the room. Straight before me, was Stewart with his mouth and eyes open in an expression of unspeakable agony. blue streaks of electric energy clad his form. My expression went carefully blank. The Agony Matrix. I knew first hand just how painful that thing was.

Imagine the pain of having your skin stripped raw in a slow crescendo of anguish without relief. My gaze drifted to the other individuals present. A gray skinned alien with white hair, Grayven, a yellow skinned huge alien and...I snarled and lost it when I saw the last person. A black Kryptonian.

My hand rose up, palm opened and a blast of lightning had the little shit that had tried to assassinate Kori, landing and cracking the huge throne in the room.

The yellow skinned alien broke out into a mad rush towards me. I met his fist with an open palm, which produced a loud shockwave that I nullified through space manipulation. Failure to that would have seen a hurt Gardner and injured Hal get blown away.

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My fist rose up in retaliation and I brought it down with the crack of thunder. The alien's head exploded, brain matter, flesh and blood burning away in the air.

"You... impossible!"

Grayven shouted, rousing from his shock at my appearance.

I snapped a finger and a golden flame rushed through the Lanterns, healing them and in the case of Stewart releasing him from the Agony matrix.

"Those aren't yours."

Another finger snap and the green lantern rings in Grayven's hands were teleported from him to the their owners. Grayven looked around at us in panic. Between the powering up Lanterns and me, it wasn't a surprise he was shit scared.

"Thank..."

Hal begun but I waved a hand, dropping them through the boom tubes that appeared under their feet.

"Save it."

I threw behind me before Jordan was fully through the portal.

The chamber was suddenly silent as I turned to face Grayven. We eyed one another and the new god stumbled back from my murderous look.

"You know the worst possible thing a cruel bastard like Darkseid could do? Decide to be pettier than the petty. So it's a good thing, that I had the fore sight to have every human being and animal alive on the planet teleported somewhere far away." I shrugged.

"you know, just in case something of this nature were to happen."

The repercussions hit Grayven and he paled.

"No..."

"Oh yes." I narrowed my eyes and smiled.

"If hearing that makes you despair this much, you must have been gloating to Stewart and the others rather heavily." I chuckled, feeling the itch to just end this already and go see my family.

"Or maybe you're just a sick fuck who gets off on death."

"I..."

"Oh and Daddy's dead." I interrupted him bluntly.

"You must have felt it and convinced yourself that it wasn't true." I shrugged at his rapidly breaking spirit. It was in the way his world seemed to shatter.

"Sucks to be you cuz that's far from it." I walked over closer and leaned in his ears.

"You are all alone. Apokalips was destroyed in the fight, but I made sure to kill every new god on the fucking planet too."

Grayven cracked, allowing his hand which had been holding the device that caused the agony matrix to activate to go slack.

"What?"

I cocked my head to the side,

"Cat got your tongue? No worries, a few sessions with one of my creations and you will find your voice again."

I couldn't keep the cruel glint out of my eyes. A boom tube swallowed him before he could protest or do anything.

I both heard and felt as shards of the broken throne were thrown away and someone floated out of the debris with an angry look on his face.

"Aden Strong!" The Kryptonian teen shouted.

"Yes?" I answered easily.

"No need to shout moron, we're the only ones here."

"Long have I waited for this day. You are the cause of so much of my pa..."

"And you're going to wait some more." I interrupted him again, something he did not like, given by the yell of fury as he lunged out at me.

My telekinesis froze him in midair before I walked towards him. I turned his head to face me.

"Look, I'll be completely honest with you, you c-list villain, you're going to die. One way or the other. But I also need some information only you can provide. So, I propose you don't fight me as I rip it out of your mind or I make you suffer a painful end."

I gave him control over his mouth and he spit at me. Oh boy, I...did, huh, I did not react well to that.

The anger I had been trying to keep a check on snapped and the telekinetic hold I had on him, suddenly pressed onto him from all sides. His eyes bulged, and his body exploded or rather imploded into itself. In a single second, The Kryptonian went from being able to handle some really tough punishments to a ball of pulsing flesh the size of a marble.

The gravitational force of this thing was crazy. It tried to warp space and collapse onto itself into a miniature black hole but luckily the energy it needed to do that was still weak. I held a hand under it and let my golden flames do their magic. I couldn't be sure, but I felt the second his soul left his body. Mmmh, gotta look into that some more.

And now I was truly alone. Of course that was if you didn't count the thousands of prisoners in the War World put in stasis chambers. I waved a hand and with telekinesis and space manipulation, the throne that had been destroyed was swiftly put together into a better form than even before. What a scary combination.

It seems like both skills gave me an in into matter manipulation. It was a minor control over substance of course but with practice, maybe I could do some crazy things.

I sat on the throne and rubbed my tired eyes. My body was teeming with energy, not the least bit exhausted. And even my mind was unnaturally clear. However, that was the problem. That clarity is what allowed me to actually see the shit ton of long lasting concequences, saving everyone on earth had on well... everything.

Mass panic, mass fighting as governments tried to exert whatever minimal control they had over the people. My own eco system would be threatened as well, humanity was worse than a pest in some ways. The mind that gave them the ability to create also gave them the ability to destroy.

Not to mention the sentimental aspect of it all. People had literally lost everything except for the clothes on their backs and family members. No one was going to die for quite some time as I knew that my realm wouldn't let the natural cycle continue with creatures that were not a part of it. But that was still a problem in and of itself.

Leave alone the unnaturalness of it all, there was the whole soul and afterlife thing. The earthen gods would no doubt be on my ass about that. Infact, the odds of my getting a sermons...

Oh, I think I might be a prophet.

A golden light bloomed at the center of the room. A handsome dude just a few years older than I was phased through the walls and appeared before me with a thud. He stood up from his kneeling position while I studied him with curiousity.

"Greetings god of fire and air." He said sternly, confidently and respectfully.

"I am Mercury and I need you to come with me."

Called it.