"Long time no see, Darkseid." Hal gave him a cold smile and said, "Primary Universe Batman sends his regards."
Darkseid gritted his teeth and said, "That treacherous guy, he betrayed our pact!"
"Come on, Darkseid, do you honestly cooperate with anyone? We all know that Earth and Apocalypse Star are incompatible like water and fire, sooner or later there will be a battle. Given this, you can't blame us. The human race must secure its rightful place in the cosmos."
"Using such despicable means to destroy civilizations, in the end, you won't have a good ending." Darkseid looked at Hal and said, "The destruction of Krypton has not made you realize that endless transcendence is the root of destruction."
"Unfortunately, you haven't learned the lesson either." Hal slightly raised his head and said, "Since the dawn of civilization, there has been no turning back for us. Every step forward is a gamble, and you're no different. You want to bet that you can retreat from Apocalypse Star unscathed, and gain enough benefit from Batman. But unfortunately, you lost the bet. There won't be another chance."
Darkseid also let out a cold smile: "I have long transcended above the cosmos; every Darkseid in every universe is my projection. Unless you kill us all, one day I will return to the Prime Universe. Let Batman wait for that day."
Hal had no intention of speaking further with him. He reached out, and the dark green energy enveloped Darkseid, who in turn called upon his last bits of the Power of Nightmare to construct a shield, making a final struggle.
But unfortunately, the Jade Power Hal used included the Green Lantern energy representing willpower. A strong-willed person will not be crushed by nightmares. In the realm of mysticism, willpower energy, like the Power of Thunder, restrains the Power of Nightmare.
The moment the Jade Power came into contact with the Power of Nightmare, it was as if it crushed all obstacles. Hal used the Jade Power to form a long sword, thrusting it fiercely towards Darkseid's chest. As the sword pierced through, he suddenly saw a strange light flash in Darkseid's eyes.
Suddenly, the surrounding Power of Dreams was stirred up, all being absorbed into Darkseid's body, yet it could not merge with the Power of Nightmare and the Heart God Power he originally possessed. Darkseid no longer had the strength to wait for these powers to merge; he opted for the most direct approach, which was to completely detonate these energies.
Amidst an explosion that shook the Dream Dimension, the soul of Prime Universe Darkseid dissipated completely, and the unprepared Hal turned into a beam of white light, returning to the Battleworld.
After Darkseid's death, the forces of both DC and Marvel were depleted, the war reaching a point where it could no longer continue. Finally came the day to decide victory.
Both sides believed they held the power capable of tilting the scales of victory. The moment Darkseid died, Stark ascended to become the Iron Demon God, with countless pieces of information flowing through his eyes, understanding the universe's rules, comprehending the world's codes, and mastering all programs in the cosmos.
Meanwhile, the Primary Universe Batman wore the Hell Bat Armor, but with the difference that his chest was embedded with six Infinity Gems.
After the Dark Multiverse Batman returned from a perilous situation, though heavily wounded and having made many sacrifices, he brought back news from the Middleman who possessed the Soul Gem.
Upon learning that all the chaos in the Chaos and Order Dimension was because of the gem in his possession, the Middleman decided, akin to the Cosmic Elders. He entrusted the Dark Multiverse Batman with his contact details and after making a deal with the Prime Universe Batman, handed over the Soul Gem to him.
Thus, the Prime Universe Batman came to possess six Infinity Gems, but instead of forging a gauntlet, he embedded them into his Hell Bat Armor. Through the power of the Infinity Gems, he attained Single Universe Peak Level strength.
The showdown between Infinite Gem Batman and Iron Demon God Iron Man had no flashy techniques, but was a clash on the cosmic rules level.
In the dark universe space, the enormous visage of Iron Man held Earth in his hand, while the Infinite Gem Hell Bat flickered with the colorful light of Infinity Gems.
Primary Universe Batman raised a longsword composed of light, while the Iron Demon God condensed the information flow into a shield. Both sides approached swiftly, and at the moment of collision, everything began to collapse from the point of contact.
Whether the terrifying power came from the collision of rules, or whether the administrator was already exhausted, at the moment of impact, everyone only saw a white light, silent and unaware. No one knew how long it took, but when everyone regained consciousness, they found themselves in Battleworld.
"What the hell!" Greed was the first to jump up, saying, "Why cut the power?! Who won???"
Others were also bewildered. After putting in so much effort fighting for so long, in the end, they were not allowed to see the final outcome?!
"So who really won? It should be Batman, right? I saw his sword seemed to go in..."
"Honestly, how is victory determined? If one of them wins, does that mean their side wins? Or is it determined by who has more people left at the end?"
"No idea. Logically, it should be who has the last person standing, but if we all died, who wins?"
"Had I known, we shouldn't have had the final showdown. We should have had someone hide, and that way, we'd probably be counted as the winners, right?"
The superheroes were full of differing opinions, and no one knew who ultimately won. When Prime Universe Batman and Stark walked into the meeting room together, all eyes fell on them.
"Which one of you survived to the end?!"
The two exchanged a glance and shook their heads simultaneously.
"What do you mean by shaking your head? Is there no job or you don't know?"
"We both died." Stark sighed and said, "He used the Infinity Gem to directly erase my existence, and I modified the program, erasing his existence. So, the two of us should have perished together, but as for whose erasure took effect, you'd have to ask the administrator."
Hearing this, Greed knew for sure it was another earth-shaking code conflict. The administrators on both sides must have been at their wit's end, unable to come up with any animation performance, so they finally just shut it down, and everyone went back to the Spring.
"You stay here, I'll go take a look," Greed said. After all, he was one of the Dojo Administrators, free to come and go in the boss's office, and he had to see what the results were.
Arrogant went with him too, mainly because if he didn't keep an eye on Greed, who knows, he might tamper with the results. After fighting for so long, everyone still wanted a fair result.
As soon as Arrogant pushed the door open, he saw a room full of desperate souls. Now he somewhat understood the hellish atmosphere Anna had described as a "post-final exam math classroom."
The God of Stories was leaning against the wall with a cane, dozing off. The Transcendent was staring blankly at the ceiling. The Court of Adam Life was banging his head against the floor. Lucifer was slumped like a noodle on a chair. Michael and Uriel were already buried by unknown information, with only half a wing visible, and various abstract entities were sprawled everywhere, with various M-bodies crawling around chaotically.
Greed stretched his neck to look inside and shouted, "Big Boss! Big Boss, are you there?!"
He first stepped over Eternity, then moved Oblivion aside, pushing away a bunch of information space fragment from who knows where, and finally found the OAA, which had turned into an indescribable mass, in the innermost part of the office.
"Oh my, what happened here?" Greed asked, "Are you okay?"
The other party had no response at all, looking like a tangled mess of shattered space fragments. Greed couldn't help but marvel, "Human programmers at most lose their hair, why can't these Universe administrators even maintain a human form?"
Just as he was about to continue asking, he saw an old man in a suit and hat appear at the door, who, like him, was marveling.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk, how did it end up like this? This is too sloppy. Isn't it just writing a bit of program? Young ones just can't handle it..."
Before he even finished speaking, he saw Greed coming out of the room, and just like he was being choked, he turned to run, only to be blocked by Arrogant standing at the door.
"Long time no see, God," Arrogant gave a cold smile, "Doctor Shostakovich sends his regards."
"Uh... haha, all good, all good. I have something to do, I'll leave first." And with a whoosh, God disappeared.
God's visit wasn't in vain. He first rescued his good son, Lucifer, and perhaps due to colleague ridicule, also brought OAA back to his senses, who finally barely returned to human form. Then he sent the tormented souls back to where they belonged, leaving the office finally quiet.
"So who won after all?" Greed asked.
"Don't rush, I'm checking," Adam said beside him. "You guys created so many unprecedented power usage methods and invoked so many programs we never thought of, the entire System's cache is about to explode. The search System is already unusable, I have to check one by one manually. Go back and wait, results will be out in two hours."
With that, Shiller couldn't ask anymore. Greed and Arrogant went back, and faced with everyone's inquiries, they could only tell the truth.
Stark clicked his tongue and said, "I always feel that in our wars, the most unlucky ones are the administrators. I don't even dare think how many program errors need fixing."
"Rather, it's a miracle this compatibility can even run," Reed said, sitting with his arms crossed. "Who set up this System framework? Should be our side's administrator, right?"
"It should be God," Prime Universe Batman said.
"Impossible, the competition venue was on our side, how could the System framework be set up by your side's god?"
"But I do think God's level is indeed higher than our side's..."
"Easy for you to say, if we go over there and have another fight, their side's administrators would be just as exhausted as grandsons..."
Ever since returning to the Dojo, the meeting room hasn't quieted down, everyone chattering. Some were guessing the outcome, others were reviewing, and of course, many were already laying blame.
The representatives were the Marvel Prime Universe group, and the reason was no other than their truly poor performance in this war. It could no longer be explained by the universe being too young; disunity was one reason, but excessive arrogance was the main cause. Yet, precisely because they were too arrogant, no one was willing to admit it was their fault.
Meanwhile, Greed took the opportunity to seek out another group, the superheroes from Old 616 Fusion Earth 1.
That's right, they participated in the war too, only, it wasn't in the main battlefield.