BOOM!
A colossal eruption of lunar dust and rock exploded outward as Hyperion emerged dramatically from beneath the moon's surface.
Upon his emergence, he turned to his left, his attention drawn to the ferocious battle between Sentry and Hulk. Each blow they exchanged carried unimaginable power, sending shockwaves rippling through their bodies with every impact.
POW! CRACK! BANG! BANG! POW!
The sheer force of their strikes began to fracture the moon's fragile surface. The lunar inhabitants, from the Inhumans to the Moon God Khonshu, currently residing within Marc Spector and relentlessly pummeling a drug dealer into submission, felt the tremors of the chaos unfolding above.
Hyperion's gaze then shifted toward another part of the battlefield, where Blue Marvel stood firm.
He narrowed his fiery, furnace-like eyes, scanning intently until he discerned the form of another figure, a towering, muscular man with wild, black, shoulder-length hair floating weightlessly in the zero-gravity environment.
"Who is that..." Hyperion murmured in a low voice, watching as William and Blue Marvel clashed. Their powers erupted in a stunning display of emerald-green and electric-blue light, illuminating the battlefield in dazzling brilliance.
Hyperion's eyes widened in astonishment as the two combatants abandoned technique altogether, resorting to raw, brutal brawling in the space above Earth. The faint bronze sheen of the protective shell that William had cast over the planet provided a radiant backdrop to their explosive confrontation.
Suddenly, Hyperion felt a surge of battle lust coursing through him. He gritted his teeth until they creaked under the pressure and clenched his fist so tightly that droplets of blood began to rise and hover, weightless, above the lunar surface.
A dense, orange fog-like energy began to saturate his surroundings, and his already burning eyes erupted in a fiery blaze, dense orange flames roaring within as he let out an earth-shaking roar, unleashing his most devastating optical blast yet. The sheer magnitude of the beam eclipsed all surrounding light, drawing the attention of those fighting nearby, who turned to look on in a mixture of awe and shock.
WHOOOOOOSH... RUMMMBLE!
The massive surge of orange energy hurtled toward William and Blue Marvel, who had paused to witness the sudden spectacle. Their expressions shifted to surprise, each for vastly different reasons.
"Is he insane?" Blue Marvel muttered, his eyes gleaming with power as he began to channel immense and volatile levels of antimatter to counter the incoming beam. His body became enveloped in an electrifying blue glow, the unmistakable hue of antimatter in the Marvel Universe.
Meanwhile, William was consumed by his signature green ki, radiating like an enormous green flame amidst the cosmic expanse. The ring on his hand pulsed with an internal bronze energy, responding to his unyielding resolve. Its gleaming metallic surface shimmered as he funneled more determination into it, causing the Earth's protective barrier to expand. Massive plates of energy formed extra layers of defense, halting only at William's back. "BRING IT ONNNNN!" he bellowed, his battle fervor igniting as the protective measures locked into place. His green ki surged, mirroring the firestorm of emotions raging within him.
The universe ignited.
Hyperion's immense beam, molten orange, vast as continents, blazing like a newborn star, tore through the void toward Earth. It wasn't merely energy; it was destruction incarnate, a sun unleashed with the singular purpose of obliterating a world.
Blue Marvel raised his hand.
William mirrored him.
And the cosmos seemed to pause.
KRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAOOOOM!
The beam collided with them.
Space warped.
Stars flickered.
Earth's magnetosphere convulsed like a wounded leviathan.
William's palm crashed against the onrushing inferno, emerald ki and molten bronze erupting from him like sentient fire. It felt as though he were attempting to hold back a collapsing star through sheer force of will, his body trembled beneath its impossible weight.
Beside him, Blue Marvel anchored himself mid-space, hand outstretched, antimatter coiling like a supernova collapsing in reverse. His field burned bright, reality fracturing around him.
The beam met their combined strength.
And halted, barely, hissing and crackling against their united power.
The universe turned blindingly white.
William's teeth clenched, his aura erupting with violent intensity. Bronze light radiated from his chest and spine, threading across his muscles like molten armor, alive and unyielding.
His ring hummed with power, an ancient force answering his resolve. The barrier surrounding Earth grew denser, layers of bronze energy interlocking like celestial shields, reforged with every heartbeat.
"Hold—!" William bellowed, his voice reverberating through the void.
Blue Marvel's calm tone belied the tension in his clenched jaw, beads of sweat evaporating into steam in the vacuum.
"Contain. Reverse. Override."
Antimatter streamed from his hand in shimmering torrents, white-blue lightning unraveling space molecule by molecule, consuming the energy of the beam and forcing it back atom by atom.
The assault intensified.
Space splintered like shattered glass.
Bronze fissures crept across William's aura.
Antimatter spirals coiled around Blue Marvel's arm, their destabilizing force threatening to break free.
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
Each pulse from Hyperion made the beam swell, blazing wider, hotter, heavier. Earth trembled in its orbit behind William, oceans surging and clouds churning in chaos.
From the moon, Hyperion roared, his face contorted with fury and triumph:
"BREAK. BREAK AND BURN!"
William roared back, his eyes igniting with molten bronze fury.
"NOT... ONE... INCH!"
With unrelenting force, he pushed forward, his fingers clawing into the radiant light as if gripping the very essence of a star.
Behind him, Earth shimmered within the barrier, a fragile blue miracle cradled by an indomitable wall of divine wrath.
The void howled.
For an instant, the fragile balance held, Hyperion's cosmic fury consuming reality itself, while William and Blue Marvel strained against it, their combined will and impossible strength defying the collapse of the barriers behind them.
Then Hyperion erupted.
No warning cry. No prelude.
Just a raw, unrestrained surge of destruction, a conflagration of pride, rage, and the relentless blaze of a solar inferno—
HYYYYYRAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
The moon beneath him fractured, cracks spreading like jagged veins across its surface. His aura erupted in a chaotic surge of molten orange plasma, burning like a dying star unleashing its final embers of loathing into the void.
And the beam surged.
It didn't merely grow.
It multiplied exponentially.
Space didn't warp, it shattered and shrieked.
CRRRRRAAAAAAACK... KOOOOM!
The force struck William and Blue Marvel with the unrelenting power of an enraged deity.
They didn't falter. They didn't retreat.
They were hurled through the void, their bodies whipping and twisting under forces so immense they distorted space/time itself.
One bronze barrier disintegrated.
Then another.
Then ten more.
Each one shattered like cosmic glass, sending bronze shards scattering as glimmering stardust across the emptiness before reforming and detonating again in rapid succession.
They collided, skidded, and tore against the crumbling shields—
Their bodies blazing through layer after layer, leaving trails of energy vapor in their wake.
The final barrier quaked, rippling and curving inward toward Earth.
They were nearly there, three-quarters of the way home.
Below, clouds churned in violent chaos.
The atmosphere burned and rippled, a cascade of liquid fire.
The planet shook.
Humanity teetered unknowingly on the brink of annihilation.
William's muscles ripped and mended in an endless cycle,
Bronze light fracturing and sparking along his body like a dying star shell.
Blue Marvel growled, antimatter spiraling uncontrollably around his arm, tearing spacetime into jagged black-and-white scars. "The beam, it's gaining amplitude—"
His voice strained. "This is unacceptable."
William's vision blurred, his bones screamed, and his energy fractured under the crushing weight of a dying sun cast by a mad god.
Hyperion, voice trembling with rabid triumph:
"FALL."
But William refused.
Through the blinding light, through the crushing gravity and searing starfire—
Something ignited.
Not rage.
Not desperation.
Resolve.
His eyes snapped open, ablaze with a new light—
not just emerald, but laced with molten, divine gold.
His ki didn't just surge.
It ascended.
A shockwave rippled outward, silent in space, yet so vast the stars themselves flickered.
William's aura transformed, golden-green, a fusion of primal Saiyan fury and the sacred bronze of his unbreakable resolve.
His hair burned brighter, every strand shimmering like liquid emerald fire kissed by sunlight.
Lightning danced around him, green, gold, and bronze.
And his voice thundered like a prophecy:
"THIS... STOPS... NOW."
He raised a single arm.
Only one.
Palm facing forward.
Fingers rigid.
His hand trembled, not from strain, but from sheer, contained power waiting to erupt.
With deliberate precision, he placed that lone hand against the raging beam.
The universe shuddered.
And then—
He pushed.
No scream.
No struggle.
Just a push.
The cosmic blast faltered.
Hyperion stood paralyzed.
Blue Marvel's expression shifted to pure disbelief, antimatter sparking erratically.
"…He's countering it with just one arm—?"
VOOOOOOOOOOM—
The beam screeched as it began to slide back, grinding against the relentless force.
Hyperion faltered on the lunar surface, his stance breaking, his eyes wide with utter disbelief.
"What—" His voice fractured, raw and trembling. "WHAT ARE YOU?!"
William's gaze bore into him, blazing like twin suns at the zenith of their power.
No anger.
Only conviction.
Only unyielding resolve.
"I am the wall," he said, his voice low, steady, and unshakable, as power radiated from him in waves, a tidal surge of destiny crashing against the void. "The shield standing between Earth and destruction."
His aura erupted, a cataclysmic force, unrelenting and infinite.
"And you—"
With a thrust of his arm, the beam screeched backward another meter, bending to his will.
"—are not enough."
The universe bent and twisted around William as he moved.
He did not fly.
He did not lunge.
He moved.
In one moment, he held back the beam with a single hand. In the next, his figure streaked forward like a golden-green comet, his aura slicing through the void like a blade driven by divine momentum.
The beam recoiled, collapsing in reverse as though the very fabric of reality had been compelled to yield.
Hyperion bellowed, his eyes igniting once more, molten orange flares erupting from his skull as he unleashed everything, his fury, his pride, the fiery wrath of his solar core, into the assault.
"MORE! MORE! I AM HYPERI—"
He never finished.
William was suddenly there, before him.
No sound.
No warning.
Only a presence, abrupt, unyielding, tyrannical in its absolute stillness.
His palm, still cradling the entirety of the condensed beam that Hyperion had unleashed upon Earth, pressed with a gentleness, almost an eerie tenderness, against Hyperion's face.
William's voice was low, resolute.
"Return to sender."
And then, he detonated it.
KRAAAAAA-THOOOOOOOOOM
Light consumed the cosmos.
Not illumination, obliteration.
The moon did not tremble.
It collapsed.
A perfectly circular shockwave erupted from Hyperion's skull, resembling a divine eraser's sweep, gouging an immense crater across the lunar surface in an ever-expanding ring of searing gold-green and orange devastation.
Rock was vaporized.
Regolith ascended and dissolved.
Ancient lunar dust transformed into celestial ash.
Part of the explosion refused to halt—
It surged beyond the moon's horizon, disappearing into the abyss of deep space, etching a glowing scar across the void.
As the light dimmed, a molten circle glimmered beneath them, radiating with the raw intensity of fresh glass under starlight.
Hyperion lingered at its core, trembling, smoke curling from his face and armor like the remnants of a smoldering offering. His body drifted, limp and weightless. The flames that once roared around him now flickered weakly; his eyes, unfocused, betrayed a reality struggling to reassemble itself.
He wasn't dead.
He wasn't shattered.
Merely… humbled.
The bitter tang of being overpowered by something inconceivable still hung in the vacuum around him, a reminder of his defeat.
Above him, William hovered, his golden-green aura shimmering like the surface of a living sun-forge. Each measured breath carried the weight of quiet, god-like certainty. This was no warrior fueled by rage, but one elevated by resolve tempered into divine purpose.
He brushed the dust from his arm with deliberate calm. It wasn't arrogance, it was precision.
"Next time," William said, his voice resonating across the moon and cascading back to Earth without so much as a glance at Hyperion,
"Aim away from my planet."
Below, Blue Marvel stood frozen, lips slightly parted, his wide eyes betraying the awe of a scholar witnessing the impossible.
Hyperion's body jerked once, then erupted into violent spasms.
Humiliation morphed into a dark, uncontainable fury.
His eyes flew open, blazing brighter than molten plasma, searing with intensity. Ragged, forceful breaths tore from his chest, and the lunar dust around him surged upward, spiraling in a storm as solar energy surged beneath his skin, a volcanic eruption desperate for release.
A single, thunderous sound broke through the silence of the vacuum, reverberating louder than thought itself:
"NO!"
RROOOAAAAARRRR!
The moon trembled beneath him.
Hyperion launched skyward, a streak of crimson wrath, an unstoppable comet of pure vengeance. In an instant, his fist collided with William's jaw, delivering a blow of unimaginable, earth-shattering power.
KRAK—!!
William's head snapped to the side, shockwaves rippling down his frame as his body hurtled through the void, spinning uncontrollably.
There was no time to recover.
Hyperion stood firm, distorting space with sheer ferocity, his fists pounding like solar flares incarnate.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Each strike reverberated with the immense force of a collapsing star.
William intercepted one blow with his forearm—
the impact shattered the surrounding debris, reducing it to shards of glass-like fragments.
Through gritted teeth, Hyperion's voice erupted, fractured by rage and humiliation:
"I WILL NOT BE OVERSHADOWED!"
William responded with a snarl, his golden-green aura blazing as he seized Hyperion's fist and drove his knee into him with such force that the very sound warped the fabric of space.
"Then fight better."
Yet, before William could capitalize on his momentum—
A streak of blue energy tore through the void.
A low, gravitational hum followed.
Reality twisted under the weight of a force too calculated to be mere anger.
Blue Marvel.
He didn't shout.
He didn't boast.
He materialized beside William like an inevitable force of nature, his hand aglow with the deadly promise of quantum annihilation.
His voice was calm, focused, almost reverent.
"Forgive me—"
His palm struck William's ribs with the force of an antimatter explosion.
"—but science demands answers."
THOOOOOM!
William was hurled backward, coughing as his aura flickered unsteadily.
Not weakened—
stunned.
He regained his footing, but Blue Marvel and Hyperion were already closing in, one driven by cosmic pride, the other by an insatiable thirst for knowledge.
Two colossal forces.
Two opposing ideologies.
One united purpose.
Hyperion roared, his fists ablaze with power.
Blue Marvel attacked with surgical precision, his strikes encased in a coiling quantum field.
For the first time in this battle, William was forced to retreat.
A block here—
A parry there—
They surrounded him, relentless and overwhelming.
Every strike landed with purpose.
Every blow threatened to break him.
In the fleeting silence between impacts, Blue Marvel's voice hissed, strained but unwavering:
"What ARE you?"
Before William could respond, Hyperion's roar tore through the chaos:
"HE IS NOTHING!"
William's aura ignited, a tempest of defiance and exhilaration entwined.
Starlight dripped from his jaw as he grinned, a warrior tasting the thrill of unbridled combat for the first time.
"Wrong."
Ki erupted—
Bronze blending into green and gold, radiant and fierce.
"I am."
The surge unleashed a wave of energy, forcing both titans back precisely one meter—
no more, no less—
"I AM THE LEGENDARY SUPER SAIYAN!"