“The lives of vermin should not be mourned,” Apocalypse snorted as he took in Dan’s sudden appearance without concern. His armour had been modified, and the cosmic energy with the mutant’s body had reached beyond expectations. “You have increased your power, but so have I, Superman. Even if you slaughtered each of my servants, I would still have the strength to defeat you.”
“We’ll see about that,” Dan waved his hand and the space around them shifted, replaced by the void between the stars. This battle would be too much for the Earth to handle, especially if he was forced to go all out. “Your servents are already close to finished… even the Eternals have come out to play with them.”
Dan scanned over En Sabah Nur’s body with his newfound perceptions, every atom exposed to his gaze. Celestial technology could no longer limit his vision, with even its structure laid bare. Apocalypse stood at the edge of a threshold, on the border that would carry him into the lowest tier of multiversal.
“You are much stronger than before, but so am I,” Dan rolled his shoulders, eyes closed as he sorted through the constant stream of information that flowed from around him. Even in the depths of space, he was aware of the activities on Earth. “You won't be able to hide away in that shadow dimension this time, and that armour of yours can’t stop me either.”
The power he could draw from the phantom zone was limited, at least when he was outside the zone itself, but the changes the connection brought were more than enough for him to be confident. Even En Sabah Nur’s inner voice was exposed to Dan, alongside the thoughts of countless other living beings.
It was as if he stood next to everything within this galaxy and beyond, at one with the spatial layers that contained the phantom zone itself. His mind adapted quickly to the increased data flow, but it was still a distraction. He experienced the lives of countless, unknown people, even animals.
He saw every star, the mad titan Thanos on his throne, even the twisted mass of Kryntar. His biofield was infused into the fabric of reality, in contact with more than he’d ever imagined possible. Tears of joy and sorrow, the echoes of pain and happiness all mixed into one.
“You seem distracted, Superman!” Apocalypse blinked from existence, to reaper at Dan’s back. He lashed out with a kick that catapulted him free of the galaxy, into the empty space between the galactic filaments. “Your lack of attention is an insult to our battle!”
The universe streaked past Dan’s unfocused eyes, the blow to his upper shoulders barely within his notice. The energy under his skin magnified his defences to an absurd degree, enough that he went unpunished for his lack of concentration.
Apocalypse leapt from the shadows, fist extended to launch Dan toward the centre of an unknown galaxy. Caught in the grasp of its supermassive black hole, he pulled his limbs inward and sat cross legged as he descended beyond the event horizon. He had to take hold of his focus, or he would lose himself in the infinity of knowledge that poured into his brain.
“YOU DARE TO IGNORE ME?” En Sabah Nur roared into the void, hands raised to release a flare of cosmic power. Silver energy burned away the stars and stripped the black hole of its companions. “I WILL FORCE YOU TO YOUR KNEES AND TURN ALL YOU LOVE TO ASHES!!!”
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The Supermassive black hole shuddered around him, overwhelmed by Apocalypse’s assault. Dan released a slow breath, his thoughts drawn inward, anchored to his body by the force of his will. The activities of the universe drifted into the background, reduced to a gentle murmur at the back of his mind.
“That’s much better,” Dan’s eyes opened as the singularity under his feet exploded, sheared apart by Apocalypse’s wrath. He rode the wave of broken space, eyes focused on En Sabah Nur’s face. “I can finally hear myself think.”
Dan stepped forward, in front of Apocalypse before the mutant king could react. A twist of his body drove his knee upward, into En Sabah Nur’s gut. The barrier that wrapped the mutant’s armour sputtered, bent inward as he tumbled through a dozen galactic clusters.
Apocalypse howled, eyes lit from within as he rallied the cosmic force under his skin to force himself to a halt. Face blackened with rage, he slashed a hole in the void and pounced through, his fist an inch from Dan’s face.
The lightest shift and Dan was drawn back, just ahead of the wrathful mutant’s blows. En Sabah Nur was too new to his power, too inexperienced at high speed combat. His greatest advantage was still the Celestial armour, reinforced by Apocalypse’s half-step multiversal cosmic force.
“I can tell that you’re not used to fighting with an equal opponent,” Dan shook his head as he pushed aside the mutant’s attacks without effort. One hand repelled En Sabah Nur’s fists, while the other carved geometric patterns into the vacuum. “You rely on your raw power more than you do on skill…”
A portal opened behind Apocalypse’s back, a black expanse that held a single star. Dan smiled as his improvised spell worked without sign of flaws. Before he’d forged a connection to the phantom zone, the Ancient One’s magic had seemed unwieldy and redundant. Now it meshed perfectly with his own, empowered and clarified by the energy of his new realm.
“You’re still too tough a turtle to crack, at least in this universe,” Dan narrowed his eyes as he slipped past En Sabah Nur’s reach, fist planted against the mutant’s breastbone. “Let’s see how you do outside it!”
Eerie, black-edged light pulsed from his knuckles, concentrated force that blasted Apocalypse through the gateway and into the depths of the phantom zone. Dan gave a final glance at his allies on Earth, before he stepped through the portal and left the bounds of the universe once more.
Now that he’d touched upon the Marvel universe, his lonely phantom star hovered just above the divide between the two dimensions. Its light bridged the gap, connected to his warriors through luminous silver strands.
“What is this place?” En Sabah Nur halted his uncontrolled tumble, positioned just above the silver star. His eyes narrowed as Dan sealed the portal behind himself, entrapping them both in the desolation of the phantom zone. “My connection to my Horsemen has been muted, but if you think that will be enough, you’re sorely mistaken…”
The words died on Apocalypse’s lips, held in place by an overbearing press of power. Within the zone, Dan could marshal far more energy than he could outside. The mutant king trembled, body held motionless under the pressure of the realm..
Dan drifted forward, body highlighted by a sliver-black glow. Everything was different within the phantom zone, silent and peaceful when compared to the outside world. Everything here was a part of himself, even the cosmic power under En Sabah Nur’s skin.
“This is my realm, but you can think of it as your prison,” A flick of his hand and the silver-white energy ripped itself free of Apocalypse's body, drawn before him and compressed into a small ball. It was similar in structure to the storm that empowered the fantastic four, extremely pure and capable of bending reality itself. “Nothing happens here, unless I permit it.”
Dan closed his eyes, concentrated on the modification of another of the Ancient One’s spells. He tied its roots to the darkness of the zone, fused it with a spell he normally used for mental defence.
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Apocalypse wailed as the shadows swallowed him whole, buried him in an artificial layer of space. The depowered mutant cursed Superman’s name, fists raised to batter against the walls of an endless corridor.
His blows only opened up more branches, countless pathways that held no pattern or rhythm. An impossible labyrinth unfolded up before him, boundless halls of ink-black stone that carried on forever.
“I will find my way out of here, Superman!” En Sabah Nur snarled at the barren walls, a flare of cosmic power under his skin that vanished as quickly as he created it. “Just you wait and see…”