Unknown Planet in the universe

Sector: Unknown

........

The earth within a thirty feet radius looked deformed. Cracks, pits, trenches, it was completely uneven indicating that this place was the center of a great battle.

A straight, wide gully stretching forward for God knows how long could be seen. It was terrible.

The whole area was accompanied by the clear sound of silence. Save for the soft footsteps that although weren't loud, were particularly resounding in the pin drop silence.

Thud!

A figure dropped to the floor face first. A pained expression crowning her features and her body particularly bruised.

Her left arm was twisted in ways it wasn't supposed to go while her right was......... A bleeding stump.

“Gods, huh?........ So tell me. Do you bleed?” Amari's faint voice fell into her ears causing the deformed face of Mad Harriet to twitch in anger.

She gritted her razor sharp teeth and resisted the immense pain assaulting her in an attempt to attack her opponent yet again.

She wasn't called Mad Harriet for nothing. Nevertheless, the countless broken bones in her body told her otherwise. Her senses kept telling her.......... That she was in no condition to stage another assault.

Still, she resisted and mustered energy. Enough to raise her face from the dirt.

'Stay Down'

Slam!

The ground beneath them cracked as Mad Harriet was driven into the earth by a force surpassing hers. Her internal organs shook wildly as she drove into the earth, blood flowing from her mouth.

“...... Well...... I guess that's my answer”. Amari muttered with a plain face as Mad Harriet drifted to the land of dreams........ Or nightmares in this case.

Batman once asked Superman that question. He would be sure to relay his....... Discoveries to the Caped Crusader.

Following which, his gaze was drawn to the next conscious target he could find.

Big Barda.

“..... Unless of course, you aren't really Gods”.

Sweat oozed from Barda's skin. Even in the apocalyptic hellscape that was Apokolips, she had never sweated this much in her life. Except, of course, during the time she endured torture under granny goodness.

But that was a training session. This....... This was worse.

Amari walked forwards. Ignoring Mad Harriet's body that was still alive. Alive…. But out of commission. Now and for God knows how long.

“You are Gods, though. Aren't you? After all, it's in the title”. He continued to spill out irrelevant sentences with a face housing nonchalance and a lack of care.

His words made Barda grit her teeth. He was mocking them.

This ....... How could it have come to this?

As he walked, he passed by Lashina's body. As well as Stompa's....... Each of them rested on the destroyed earth, bleeding, bruised and unconscious. Stompa in particular had every giant bone in her body crushed to the point where she couldn't move.

Her chest was sunken, and she didn't seem to be breathing.

Who told the hulking brute of a woman to kick him in the head? She had it coming.

Forty-three seconds.

That's how much time had passed since Amari stepped foot through the portal.

The initial amusement he had due to the situation was long gone. Lost in the aftertaste of abusing weaker opponent's.

It was boring, really.

Their combined force wasn't even enough to make him take them seriously. Having his opponents in this state despite holding back immensely was quite tragic.

If he were more serious, he would will them out of existence.

“Usually, one would expect the Gods to be filled with ......... I don't know…. Mystical energy, perhaps. Or their blood would give off a golden color. Maybe they wouldn't even have bones or blood, and their injuries would heal instantly if they were ever injured...... Doesn't happen to you guys, though”.

Barda took a look to the side. Gilotina laid in a crater, her eyes closed, red lips open and body half buried with rocks.

One of her swords was a distance away from her unconscious body. The other was nowhere to be found.

Barda didn't utter a word, but inwardly, she was infuriated. Not at the fact that he was mocking them, but what he was mocking them for.

Their injuries didn't heal? All New Gods had enhanced healing. But even that had limits.

These few seconds had been the most disastrous in her thousands of years of existence.

He injured them, and they healed. Then...... He did it again. And again...... And again.

Before they could even raise their weapons and put up a good fight, they found themselves being hurled away by a force they couldn't withstand.

One so strong, it cracked their bones.

Then, they would be pulled back like puppets on a string and slammed forward again like a yoyo.

Gravity around them would increase, making them feel like they carried planets on their backs

Their healing had barely kicked in to repair the damage when he inflicted even more.

The powerlessness she felt in these few seconds was immense. He was playing with them....... Like a child playing with food. Testing their bodies, exploring their limits. Her mind drifted for a moment to Desaad who tortured his experiments just to see how long they would last.

This inherent cruelty........

Little did she know that Amari wasn't being cruel.

Well......... He didn't think he was. He was honestly, genuinely curious.

Wanting to see exactly what made them call themselves Gods.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Strength?........... Perhaps only Barda and Stompa were truly worthy of that title. The power of their attacks had exceeded hundreds of thousand of tonnes in pure force.

Considering, they didn't do much punching. This was a conservative estimate.

At least, they were far stronger than Earth sixteen's Superman.

Speed........

That was debatable. Their movements could keep up with this universes Flash for sure. However, they were Gods existing outside the multiverse. In a different plane of time and space.

The Justice League of Earth 16 weren't the strongest version of themselves out there. At least, not when Superboy Prime existed on Prime Earth.

As proclaimed Gods. Not being able to beat the mortals thoroughly in every aspect should be regarded as a major shame.

Of course, the beings of this universe were arguably weaker. Flash hadn't even reached Mach 10 much less the speed of light.

To his words, Barda didn't answer. As a trained warrior, words didn't get to her. At least not easily.

BOOM!

Her starting speed surpassed sound as her figure turned into a blur, rushing towards her target. Now, she didn't have any tricks up her sleeve.

Watching her arrive, Amari felt amused.

This lady still didn't get the memo. Following which.......

'Stop'.

Her halt brought about a gust of wind that blew past him.

The female New God stood unmoving. Her torch pointed forward and her solemn features frozen in place.

Amari brought his hand forward and caressed her cheek with a playful look in his eyes.

She couldn't move, but that didn't mean she couldn't see and feel what was happening.

“You look tense. So just chill out for a few minutes”. He smiled and made a detour around here.

“So are you just going to keep staring at me?” Amari turned his gaze to one of the last two conscious people.

Kara.

With the initial attack, the Kryptonite was nowhere to be seen. Either it was far out of range or it had been thoroughly destroyed.

Either way, Kara was fine. But weirdly, she just sat where she was, watching the whole thing like a short movie.

Seeing this, Kara shrugged.

“It looked like you had it covered”. She was being serious. Amari looked at her, the frown on her face indicating that she wasn't in a good mood at the moment.

Understandable really. She just got kidnapped in a truly pathetic way, completely unable to defend herself.

All due to a glowing green rock, she was utterly defenseless. It would be weird if she could smile.

With a raised eyebrow, he asked.

“You ok?”

To which, she replied with a downcast grunt. The annoyance practically seeping through it.

"Who are these guys? And what do they want with me?"

“Apparently, Darkseid's elite guards”. Amari swept a look across the battlefield.

“They're called Furies. Trained to be the best warriors of Apokolips, feared across the multiverse for their strength and abilities. Fearsome warriors with a fanatical loyalty to Darkseid, willing to die.........”.

Amari noticed that Kara was looking at him weirdly.

He paused, tilted his head slightly and placed his gaze on the last member of the Furies still capable of moving.

Their Leader, Aurelie.

“...... Or so they say”.

Unlike what one would think, Aurelie didn't look as badly beaten as her sisters. Battered sure, but far from broken up. Mostly because, she didn't put up much of a resistance.

“So tell me redhead, am I wrong?”

Towards the nickname, she didn't have any reaction. Her aching arms and chest prompted her to drop the spear held tightly in her palms.

Seeing this scene, Amari's eyebrows couldn't get any higher.

“Well....... That's plain embarrassing to my earlier statement”.

“Don't tell me you're going to surrender?”

“Go ahead. Kill me. Fighting a losing battle is pointless”.

Within the forty plus seconds the battle began, she barely made a single advancement. Simply because she knew that they couldn't win.

“Really? In that case….”.

His eyes glowed.

Aurelie felt a strong pressure grab her throat and drag her forward. She appeared before Amari, her hand subconsciously grasping at her neck in which she was lifted.

Kara's face changed drastically.

“What..... What are you doing?”

Amari didn't answer. Just stared at the New God straight in the eye. And although she was grasping at her throat, the latter looked back at him unblinkingly. Those eyes shone with something he once saw in Orm, or rather, something they lacked.

The Fear Of Death.

Both had the same thing, but the fundamental basis for it was different.

The silence stayed for several seconds before he released the telekinetic hold on her and chuckled deeply.

Looking at the female New God, his eyes lit up with particular fascination.

“You're pretty interesting, you know that?”

Aurelie took in light breaths of air.

Looking at the man who stood right in front of her, her frown did not lessen in the slightest.

“If you have plans to extract information out of me, you will find your efforts useless”.

“Information?” Amari smiled brightly and shook his head.

“No! Whatever knowledge you have in, there is useless to me. I already know your purpose. Still, I have to admire Granny Goodness. Even at this point, your loyalty is so strong”.

“You think I want to get knowledge from you about Apokolips?”.

Aurelie's face remained impassive.

“What else?”

“I couldn't care less about that”. The tone was filled with indifference.

“So no. What I am interested in, is you”. He leaned in slightly.

“A woman who wants to kill herself by my hands”. Amari couldn't care less about Darkseid and his kingdom.

Extracting information for that was purely a waste of time. But this..... This was definitely more interesting. The Furies of Apokolips were trained to be loyal to Darkseid. Honed to obey and answer to his every whim.

For years, it had been this way. In battle, they feared nothing. No opponent could ever make them quiver even if they knew they couldn't win. They would still charge forward to embrace their deaths in the form of glorious combat.

The rest of the Furies were like this. Even Big Barda who would betray them and flee to Earth was the same at the moment.

They had cultivated the unyielding warriors spirit.

During the short Forty plus seconds, the thought of escaping had never crossed their minds. Which was why Amari found their leader odd.

Furies never quit. They never shrunk in the face of a challenge, yet one just did. And she was their leader to boot.

She was unafraid of death like her sisters, but she wanted to die more than the rest of them. As if....... Death was an escape route for her.

She was running....... Though not from Darkseid or Apokolips. But from something else.

“So would you mind telling me dear, what exactly makes a God seek death?”

Aurelie's expression changed slightly. It was covered quite fast but Amari who had been analyzing her features noticed easily.

Aurelie didn't say a word. Her fist clenched slightly but she remained silent.

Kara frowned. She didn't understand why the situation had taken such a twist.

But Amari didn't care.

“No?” Seeing she was unresponsive, he directly unsealed his Cosmic Awareness, letting it rush out without restraint.

“Then I'll just have to find out myself”.

All Aurelie saw was the flashing blue eyes and everything went dark. She felt the force invading her mind and desperately tried to resist.

As expected, her resistance was futile.

The bleak effort was pushed aside as he rudely penetrated into the depths of her mind and experienced her thousand years of existence.

(Apparently, Barda was born in 1748 Human years, so I'll just dial back the time a bit and make it a thousand)

Any attempt she would have made to keep the secrets of Apokolips a secret was gone. But Amari never bothered to sift through those memories anyway.

He skipped the early years of her existence, Granny Goodness's orphanage, her training, and induction into the Furies.

Day after day passed and finally, he discovered the answer to his question.

Sexual Abuse.

Willik!