(General P.O.V)

Orion was destined to fight his father, Darkseid.

Orion had always looked at his eventual fate with a grim determination to do everything in his power to ensure the evil of Darkseid did not spread across the universe.

Orion was starting to think he was wrong. The sky shown with a massive golden light. A light that swallowed everything in its path.

Apokalips had been destroyed.

"It is time, Father."

He told his adopted father.

All eyes were on the Highfather. Izaya gripped his staff tightly as the New Gods awaited his order to move to war. The 'peace treaty' was nothing but a sham. Everyone knew it.

Darkseid had been content to let the balance be maintained. However once he got his hands on the Anti-life equation, no one was dumb enough to think that things wouldn't Change.

The Utopia that was New Genesis would face off against their opposite, the hellish landscape of Apokalips.

Behind the light followed a cold darkness that wormed itself through their minds, seeking out every dark thought that was hidden deep within their souls.

A void, an emptiness that they couldn't fill. An emptiness that screamed,

Darkseid Is.

"Get ready."

Highfather finally stated.

Orion breathed out and faced the other New Gods. It was time. Time to put this all to rest.

"We move out to fight! To..."

"No."

Highfather spoke again.

"Get ready to leave. This is a fight we cannot absolutely interfere in." He turned to a shocked Orion and placed a hand on his shoulder, then smiled.

"Rejoice my son, for the burden you carry has been lifted from your shoulders."

The light shone on his face as he gazed at the Sky.

"Rejoice for Darkseid has finally met his match."

(A few minutes ago)

By now it was a given that the planet shook from the power we both exuded. My size had changed. My black long hair had shifting into golden locks and my tanned skin was now the color of unblemished gold as well. I was taller than I'd ever thought I'd be.

About 7 feet which put me almost at Darkseid's eye level but not quite. And I knew I could go bigger. We eyed each other silently and then...

Whoosh!!!

Darkseid copied me. By waving a single finger, everything above me, floating in a storm of metal, concrete and debris shot down like bullets from a KPV general purpose machine gun.

My vision was overtaken by all the projectiles. My feet hovered above the ground as I readied myself. A metal spike landed on my left, missing me by inches. I weaved and dodged lightly by barely moving. My base speed was enhanced to the point that everything seemed to move in slow motion.

A huge chunk of a torn building almost 300 meters in diameter beared down on my position. And behind it, I could sense an even bigger piece of the building.

I raised a hand and molded my energy. Putting a tiny tiny fraction of power, I let loose the violent energy in one massive explosion. The air popped as the laser like compressed heat landed on the falling chunk and destroyed everything above me.

The shockwave was enough to ragdoll a massive container ship but all I saw was an open path towards my adversary. Another massive explosion escaped my feet, pushing me to the sky in insane speeds. This time Darkseid himself flew down to meet me in mid air.

One streak of golden against one of red. We clashed and started fighting. Each punch I threw was backed by all the strength I could spare. Darkseid received the attacks and was only pushed back a little. My blows were aimed at his vulnerable body parts.

A punch diverted by his forearm gave me enough momentum to transition into a mule kick that he received on his chest, only to grab my leg in a tight grip and throw me away towards a fire pit. I fell down to my normal form and blinked behind him, then entered my divine flames form.

He had enough sense to anticipate the move, seeing as he threw out a backhand at the position I appeared in. I felt the blow land but then pass through as I broke down into a cloud of flames that washed up his arm to his face where I released a golden flash bang that blinded his vision. He pulled away with a wince as I reformed into a humanoid shape and landed a massive punch onto his solar plexus.

His telekinetic shield blocked my attack. I struggled as the explosion held tightly on my fist begun to push against his mental hold. Another explosion occured, pushing us both away. I reoriented myself and flew back in, wary to give him enough time to regroup and come up with an effective strategy.

Darkseid snarled and let loose Omega beams. The concussive rays over took my vision but I ducked under them, breaking into two forms. My vision was split into two perspectives. The first body was the Fire God form and the other one had green hair and a symbol of the air element on the Glabella, My Air God form. A perfect use for the Homunculi puppet skill.

The Omega beams followed after my Fire God form while the Air God body moved past Darkseid like a breeze buffeting a stubborn rock. I reformed behind him and heard him grunt in pain. Multiple slashes appeared on his body.

His rage was almost tangible. I blinked and he was before me, fist already pushing through the air to land on my chest. I turned into multiple bundles of air only to feel a sudden pain from my ribs breaking. From my uncontrolled fall to the ground I saw that Darkseid's fist was covered by a red energy. He had used the Omega Force to ignore my intangibility.

I felt my back hit the ground at maximum velocity with Darkseid following behind me with intent to do harm. I unravelled into wind again, blowing broken building parts and dust away. This time, I spun and the air in the atmosphere joined with me to form a tornado with cutting winds around him.

I tried to suck all the air out of him and failed. His eyes glowed red and I knew another omega attack was coming. From above him at the mouth of the Tornado, my fire god form arrived. A sword of fire was held in his hands. I grunted as I held onto the highly compressed flame construct and swung down.

The air screamed when the sword passed through Darkseid's red shield and then touched his head.

The sword broke apart from a timely intervention by the Omega beams. Still, I managed to land on his head, opened my mouth and let loose destructive golden flames down at his face. The flames washed down to cover him, boiling the ground underneath us and turning it into a dark red magma pool.

My air god form spun faster and faster, containing the heat that allowed us to boil the god of evil inside an oven of the fusion of all my flames. The golden colored flames contained all the best qualities of my flames except the silver flames. The silver flames were special and I still had no idea why.

Omega beams flew all around my body but an application of my space manipulation ensured none of them reached me. Instead, they all added into the hot and violent energy buffeting Darkseid. For the first time ever, I heard his guttural screams of pain. It was a sound that excited a dark part of my soul and I wanted more of it...

Then it happened. A brief incoherence filled with rolling vision and impacts as I flew away. My scenery had changed. A tightness suddenly gripped the chests of both of my forms. I rose up in my fire god form, only now noticing dull but steadily growing more apparent pain in my left arm. I looked at it and blinked. From my shoulder, my left hand was missing.

The realization brought with it sudden incapacitating pain that brought me to my knees. A layer of dust rose up from where I knelt. Looking around, I was in a wide crater or at least the outskirts. In the horizon I couldn't see any buildings that had survived what that attack had been.

All I remember was a build up of the omega force, before scarlet took over my sight.

My air god form was trapped under a layer of metal and stones. He wasn't moving. I widened my eyes. I couldn't...I couldn't feel me/him...no I could feel but it felt like I was in a deep sleep.

I got up to my feet and stumbled in a walk. This fight was going about exactly how I'd thought it would. I was getting my ass kicked. I had Equity as a trump card but that was just in case.

Something grew bigger from the horizon. Something huge...I only had time to pull on the connection with the speed force and roll away before Darkseid could land on me.

"You cannot defeat me."

The god of evil said. He seemed almost bigger somehow. His energy was certainly sharper from what I could feel. Fortunately, he hadn't escaped unscathed. His skin visibly smoked and although it wasn't apparent with his gray skin, he had burns across his face and chest. His upper attire was nothing but strips of clothes, that he contemptuously ripped off his form.

"Fuck you!"

My left hand was healing quickly but in a high speed battle like this, quick wasn't fast enough. A golden arm made of fire took it's place.

I settled into a basic Krav maga pose. Both of my hands held up face level and the palms open. Darkseid had a lot of physical power going on for him and clashing with him head on had shown me that that wasn't the way to go when fighting him.

"I'm going to fuck you up."

I promised.

"So be it!"

I was ready for the Omega beams this time. By ready, I mean my size shrunk within the flame construct I created in my position. The beams hit the flame construct and dispersed in a blinding flash and bang!

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I pushed out of the flames with a knee that slammed onto his face with a resounding crack. A spray of blood erupted from his nose, splashing on to my pants.

He snarled and swept out a clawed hand at my head. My flame hand billowed in size and received the blow, only pushing me to his left. I completed the rotation and snapped out a kick that doubled in size, landing onto his chin and throwing him away.

He dug a groove through the dusty crater, before rolling to a stop. I followed closely behind him but felt a force slam on to my back. The telekinetic blow smacked me onto the dusty crater followed by a shadow appearing above. Darkseid landed onto my back but I unravelled into golden flames that washed out into the surroundings like water before reforming into a sphere that imprisoned him inside.

A tongue of flames snaked out of the bubble and reformed into me. I pressed my hands together and compressed the sphere holding him before throwing it to the sky. A snap of my finger and the flame construct exploded through combustion bending.

Darkseid was thrown out of the attack and I blitzed with fast speed towards where I knew his trajectory would take him. I pulled back a hand and let loose a punch using the hand wearing the brass knuckles and my 1000+ ton strength at his face. The gales produced by the contact cleared away the smoke around the region.

He shot off again and once again, I punched him through the air after catching up with him. This incident repeated itself over time as I'd finally managed to gain the upper hand.

There's something to be said about counting your chicks before they hatch. My next fist was grabbed out of the air and I was unceremoniously sent to meet the ground.

A second later and the enemy landed next to me, his raised hand was lowered and below me, the ground shook rising up above and behind him like a tsunami. At his motion, the huge chunks fell to pelt my position. In response, I breathed in and roared.

The sky was again awash with light as everything disappeared in the blaze. Serving as a great distraction, I emerged from the remnant flames and once again, repeated an attack that was quickly becoming a favorite of mine.

Another knee slam onto his huge face and a tooth chipped off, digging into the flesh of my thigh painfully. I stepped on his chest, pulled myself up to his shoulders, raised my elbow and then smacked it on top of his head. Hard.

Darkseid fell to his knees. The second strike I had prepared, landed onto the back of his hand as he blocked and by the time I detected the build up of energy, a red wave of concussive force snapped out of him, dislodging me.

My chest felt constricted when instead of flying off, my opponent grabbed me by my torso and pulled me back, then smacked me onto the ground. No matter how powerful or durable you are, getting slammed onto the ground was akin to someone hitting you with a hammer the size of a planet.

My spine almost broke and a breath of air left my lungs, leaving me gasping for oxygen. Darkseid brought me close to his face. His breath was scalding hot and he was breathing heavily from his disfigured face.

"No more tricks."

Then he begun to squeeze. My ribs creaked dangerously as I screamed in pain. The agony became unimaginable when streaks of red lightning begun washing across my body.

I seized up.

"It's called the Agony matrix. The direct stimulation of every pain receptor at the same time. A very useful ability inspired by one of my servant's unique...tastes. Goodness has always had a knack for torture only second to my own." His words were distorted, as if his voice was traveling through underwater to reach my ears.

"Imagine the worst pain you have ever felt, times a thousand. Then imagine it never stopping. Never giving you the sweet release of death."

Darkness started creeping up on the edges of my vision. Was I...was I dying?

Then suddenly it stopped and I fell to my knees, weak.

(General P.O.V)

Born to a farmer, he lived his life full of hardship. Toiling the soil to provide what little he could for his family. He died at his death bed full of dissatisfaction. The king's measures had literally worked him to death.

Born as a slave with no name, no home and no hope, she faced all kinds of misery. Losing the only person she had in her life, her little brother, she decided to escape. Only to be caught, raped and tortured by her cruel master. She died with a lot of regrets.

Born as a general in a life of constant battle. He became the last bastion for humanity against the endless horde of demons. Only to be betrayed by his closest friend and made to watch as the city he protected all his life get razed to the ground and the people slaughtered. He screamed his throat raw when his daughter was disemboweled before him. Death was a sweet release.

Born as a dog. This time he was taken from his mother, brothers and sisters. Over his short 5 years of existence, he lost a leg and an eye due to mistreatment. He died with a lot of grievances.

Born as an orphan.

Born as a rich heir.

Born as a mouse.

Born as a bandit.

Born disabled.

Born as a demon.

Born as an imp.

Born as...

Each life was worse than the last and none were similar. No matter how much he tried to change his fate, it always ended the same. Pain, despair, hate, distrust, greed...all the negativity a sentient being could feel...he felt.

Then the despair gave way to something... something unfathomable.

(Elsewhere)

In the deepest parts of space, a region surrounded by asteroids, a dark pocket of swirling energy existed. From far away, it would seem like a generic black hole. It's gravitational force was so strong that the nearest blue giant, a star bigger than Earth's Sol System was being devoured.

A trail of hot blue energy was being consumed by the center of the swirling dark pocket. Where it differed from a black hole however, were the sudden flashes of colors visible at the center of the hole. The two colors that were predominant were green and gold, with flashes of blue, brown and silver flashing once in a while.

That difference was also why there was a Green Lantern outpost in that region of space. The outpost was built inside a huge asteroid in the asteroid field revolving around the blue giant.

On this particular day? Night? The lantern manning the outpost, placed there as surveillance with direct orders to report back if anything changed, was roused from his sleep before the console by a sudden tremor.

"Warning! Energy levels critical. Advised to leave the quadrant immediately."

'What?'

The Okaaran Green Lantern blinked in confusion, pulling up the satellite feed on the enigma he was instructed to watch.

The flashes of color were growing more and more violent.

"Warning! Warning! Vacate the premises immediately!"

The A.I informed him. There wasn't time to call HQ, so he covered himself in a green shroud and speared through the walls of the outpost into outer space and then slipped in to FTL.

Behind him he could feel a pull. A pull that worked on him despite the fact that he was flying at speeds faster than even light! He screamed in exertion before barely breaking away from the pull. He slowed to a stop at the next quadrant over and watched in shock as the whole region was devoured by the strange black hole.

The last dregs of the blue giant disappeared into the void and everything went dim. The black hole imploded upon itself to a point where nothing could be seen. A region of 500 light years was left bare of nothing. The closest thing to a true vacuum.

Even the remnant cosmic radiation left over from the formation of the universe was simply...gone.

"Green Lantern Altin to..."

He stopped the transmission as something blinked within the center of the dark space. A light, blooming...

The light grew larger and brighter. It was as if space was expanding. A second later he realized he was wrong. Space wasn't expanding, something was headed towards him! He freaked and strafed to the left, just in time to see a blinking ball of rainbow light sore past him.

"I have to tell the Guardians."

The light went past the furthest reaches of space before eventually bearing down on a sector with only two huge planets. One a Utopia of great prosperity, the other a hell.

The light headed towards the latter. It broke through the dark red sky, visible to only one being. Death was seated on a top of a wrecked craft sipping on a juice box. She watched as the light speared past those she had come to collect and headed towards her. Then the light stopped a few feet away from her, hovering over the twitching form of her youngest brother.

She observed the light before sighing and getting up to stand above him, pushing away the green locks hiding his face.

"This will be good for you lil bro. I only hope you don't lose yourself like many others have."

She said her piece and walked away, she had a few souls to collect and safely usher into their respective afterlives. Bad or evil she didn't choose, she treated them all fairly.

Taking that as the cue, the light entered Aden's chest and fused with him. Immediately, the young Avatar opened his eyes. Somehow he had escaped. He didn't know how. He didn't feel any different but he had escaped from the endless cycle of lives brought about by Darkseid's attack. Now that he knew the lives were just a simulation, he could lock away those memories.

Resolving to solve the mystery later, Aden remembered he had a fight to get to. He blinked from his position and appeared, floating above Darkseid who was torturing his Fire God Form.

Aden reached out and unravelled the form. He felt his fire divinity recede to his inner reserves. Equity appeared on his right hand as a brass knuckle.

The whole fight had been him trying to clash Darkseid with overwhelming power...and he still hadn't given up on that front. Aden NEEDED to fight him and WIN in his own terms. No one and nothing had ever given him a true challenge. A challenge that carried with it a chance of death.

Frankly speaking his blood boiled with every punch they traded. Every omega beam dodged. Darkseid challenged him both physically and mentally. And so he would win without relying on his Trump Card.

Aden touched down before the New God. His pants were frayed and his long green air was covered in a layer of dust. His skin was covered in a thin sheen of green aura from his element. Darkseid did not look any better. For starters, his huge form was covered by slashes with dried blood flowing down, his nose was broken and a trail of blood fell from the top of his head. Lastly his skin was horribly burnt and he was missing a tooth.

The god was surprised.

"How did you escape my Omega sanction?" He questioned.

"No matter. I had hoped to give you a peaceful end, yet you have chosen a painful one."

Darkseid said.

"One of us is not leaving here alive Darkseid and it's not me." Aden's face changed.

"I have people waiting for me. A family that I can't disappoint."

A laugh bubbled out of the galactic tyrant.

"I have seen millenia. I am Power. You will soon come to learn the futility of your actions, Aden Strong. From one god to another, I offer you one last chance at mercy."

He held out his hand.

"Join me and let us reshape reality in an image fit to be ruled."

Aden shook his head and crouched. From here on out no more words would be exchanged. He pulled in more power from the Speedforce. With the base enhancement of ×100 even he had no idea how fast he was...the world didn't just slow down, it trembled while struggling to keep shape.

Aden for once saw what lied beneath it all. Strings of foundational energy holding everything together. He looked at his hands and found himself made up of the same strings but ones that vibrated differently from the rest. Looking up, his shock became all the more pronounced when his gaze landed on Darkseid.

Darkseid was made up of the same strings that were a part of everything. His However seemed more grounded and connected to the world than Aden was. What shocked him however was the projection...the brief flash of an entity behind Darkseid.

'I was right...every version in the Multiverse is a watered down Facsimile of the true being existing in a higher dimension...could that mean the same for all the gods? Could that mean the same for me? After ascension, did the true me ascend to a higher plane and leave this version? This third dimension me here to look after our family?' he stomped down on that thought process.

His new vision did grant him something else apart from his existential crisis. The reason why he was getting his ass kicked when they should have been more than evenly matched was Apokalips itself. The planet was actively enhancing Darkseid's power.

It gotta go. But even at full power, Darkseid would likely prevent that from happening. He had shown to possess great telekinetic abilities and an amazing control over the Omega Force.

So he had to use physics to his advantage.

Lightning danced across Aden's eyes as he shot forward at light speeds, the acceleration was almost instantaneous. Darkseid waited for him, his eyes glowing scarlet.

Before they could clash, Aden blinked away.

A thousand light years from Darkseid, Aden appeared still keeping the same momentum as before. He pulled more energy from the speed force causing every other speedster connected to the dimension of motion in the universe to momentarily lose their powers. As a concequence his speed kept on increasing.

A storm of light covered him as he cut through space like a shooting star.

A child of an alien species born without wings unlike the rest of her family, sat on a lone branch. Wonder appeared in her eyes when she saw the shooting star streak through the sky.

She closed her eyes and made a wish. A second later, white beautiful wings sprouted from her back, dripping with embers of starlight. She gasped and fell, closing her eyes in fear. However she found herself floating before her shocked family.

Several scenes like these appeared across the planets that laid their eyes on the shooting star. However, only the truly desperate, those who needed help and had pure dispositions had their wishes granted. Some called it a miracle and a faith was born.

This happened despite the distance from the nearest planet being hundreds of light years away. Somehow the light arrived to the closest planets without caring about physics. It was a miracle.

Back to Aden, he had no idea that he had changed something fundamental without even knowing or trying to. All he was focused on was the far away planet growing larger by the milliseconds. A full attack while on Apokalips would be countered by Darkseid using the Omega Force, but a strike from literally light years away?

Aden begun spinning dragging out air from little pockets connected to his dimension. The storm surrounding him now was an energy field of gigantic proportion spinning like a drill.

Darkseid saw the light and his red eyes widened comically. There was no way to...before he could finish the thought, the light landed.

Apokalips did not tremble or shake, it simply...ceased to exist. An explosion of light and energy ripped out and slammed onto the walls of energy erected by Highfather to protect New Genesis from the world ending event.

But he knew that this fight was far from over... because Darkness was now truly unleashed and the only one who could stop it was the young god fearlessly standing in opposition to the god of Evil's power.