Dan shook his head as he slipped around Apocalypse's concentrated energy blast, eyes on the mutant’s armour. Without it, this version of En Sabah Nur would be powerful, but not a threat. As it was, the godly technology of the Celestials provided an impenetrable defence.
“You are fast, but nothing you do can…”
Dan appeared before the mutant king and planted a fist into his chest. Launched skyward with the sound of a gong, Apocalypse’s words were lost as he tumbled toward the distant ocean. Dan followed, a half step behind as he searched the armour for weak points.
Even the Mutant’s face was coated in a forcefield, one that repelled Dan’s blows as easily as the armour itself. The Celestial technology was truly a wonder, one that he couldn’t wait to pull apart and study.
“Let’s see just how much you can take, shall we?” Dan smiled as he drew on the full might of his ki, backed by the power stone’s ravenous energy. The might of a universe, carried forward by the weight of his fist.
Air compressed, pushed aside as a vacuum of chaotic force enveloped the ancient mutant. Plasma bloomed, accompanied by the roll of thunder, as Dan’s knuckles hammered into Apocalypse’s chin.
Space fragmented, a broken hole that swallowed the mutant king. Dan shook his fist and followed, into a sub layer that the Sorcerers called the mirror dimension. He would be able to let loose a bit more inside, without the need to suppress his power with his biofield.
“Still alive, are we?” Dan squinted at the undamaged armour and sighed. The mutant was a turtle with an adamantium shell, too slow to be a great danger but too durable to be destroyed. “You're quite lucky to have that technology, or you’d be dust on the wind by now.”
“That power…” Apocalypse spat out a mouthful of blood, eyes widened in horror. “You carry a gem of infinity… the power stone is in your hands.”
“Quite perceptive, but even if you can detect its energy it won’t change things for you,” Dan landed another full force blow against the mutant’s skull, an attack that buried him within the mirror dimension’s Earth. “That armour might be able to withstand my hits, but your body is still taking damage. I’ll bet that I can pummel you faster than you can heal, even through that shell of yours.”
Dan drew even more energy from the stone, a surge of power that pushed at the edges of his control. Purple light emanated from under his skin, his healing factor in full swing as it repaired his embattled cells.
The gem allowed him to almost double his power, though he mostly used it to infuse himself with sunlight and imbue his attacks with destructive energy. His own strength was slightly higher than the stone itself, but he would need to use everything he had if he wanted to outshine the cosmic artefact.
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“You cannot kill me, ‘Superman,’ I am eternal!” En Sabah Nur exploded from the depths of the fragmented reality, a bloody scowl on his lips. He released a compressed wave of silver plasma toward Dan, an attack that was pushed aside by a flash of purple. “I was made so by the Celestials and not even the infinity stones can bring about my death!”
“Even the Celestial’s can die, En Sabah Nur,” Dan blurred forward and took hold of the mutant’s wrists. “Nothing under creation is truly eternal, not even the One Above All…”
Sapphire flame lanced from his eyes and into Apocalypse’s face, a downpour of energy that carried the full might of the power within his body. The mirror dimension folded on itself, twisted and broken as the temperatures soared beyond the realm of physics.
Apocalypse released energy of his own, not enough as his flesh slowly boiled within its armoured cocoon. Rather than cry out in pain, the mutant king released crazed laughter, his gaze locked on Dan’s through the fire.
“Perhaps, but not by your hand!” The words forced their way through a mouth without lips, a skull mask that sizzled and burned. “We shall meet again, ‘Superman,’ we shall meet again and I shall show you the true power of Apocalypse!”
The mutant’s body swelled, ballooned outwards until it erupted in an explosion of silver light. Dan wrapped his biofield around the glow, compressed it down and snuffed it out, yet he was dissatisfied. The mutant king would clearly return, resurrected by whatever Celestial mechanism he’d rigged in his favour.
The next time he appeared, he wouldn’t be so foolish as to announce his location with a careless release of energy. Dan would need to keep a closer watch upon the world, a distraction from his research that made him sigh. A pulse of his biofield and he pushed free of the mirror dimension.
“At least I didn’t come out with nothing,” Dan gave the Celestial pyramid a once over, before he sent out a signal to the Primes. The technology within was advanced enough to block his sight and empower Apocalypse to withstand universal blows. “Hopefully we can reverse engineer enough of this thing to find a way to overcome En Sabah Nur’s defences…”
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Thunder rippled through the air, a violent storm on a lifeless world. May kicked a boulder and reduced it to high velocity sand, lips turned downward as she scanned the base that stood in the wasteland.
“He’s already gone,” runes flashed behind her eyes, divination magic that showed little of value. May stomped her foot and a ravine opened below her feet. Deep below the earth, an obsidian temple glinted in the light of the thunderstorm. “Let’s find and salvage what we can, leave nothing intact behind.”
Anakin nodded and descended toward the modern base, while she and the Wizard set their sights on the temple. Covered in hieroglyphic scrawl, it echoed in the Force. A place of death and blood, where darkness pooled. Oily and oppressive, the ancient building called out into her mind.
“We must be careful here,” Merlyn frowned, hand extended toward the void within the ominous structure. “This is a powerful nexus, beyond any others that I’ve seen in this galaxy… it has the same flavour as Abeloth, but directionless and feral.”
“It’s not alive,” May let her eyes close, senses extended toward the hostile energy below. It grated on her nerves, formless shards of hate and rage. “It’s an impression in the fabric of the universe, the memory of an event so terrible that it scarred reality…”
Light emitted from her palms, white rays that strobed over the temple's surface. Wherever they touched, the black stone hissed and sparked. Black mist boiled from within, dispelled as a glint of silver took shape.
“This was once a place of creation, but whatever happened here has twisted its purpose,” May shook her head and lowered her hand. She needed to rest before she could cleanse this place, barely on her feet after her struggle with Abeloth. “I think Sidious used it to break free of my spell and maybe even create a new body…”
“We shall inform Ultron of this planet’s location, he can secure it while you recover,” Merlyn placed a hand on her back and infused her with a healing light. “You have absorbed a tremendous amount of divine energy, so much that even your body will take time to adapt.”