Grail watched silently, the faintest trace of surprise crossing her face. Infinity-Man stood motionless, its red eyes flickering—as if uncertain what to do now that its master was dead.
Joseph turned his attention back to Grail and Infinity-Man, his voice low and steady.
"Now," he said. "Where were we?"
Grail stared at him in mild disbelief. "I studied you, Nova. You're supposed to be one of the Justice League's heroes. You don't kill."
"No," Joseph said coldly. "I'm not part of the Justice League. Letting repeat offenders go isn't my thing. I don't do second chances."
Speaking of the League—had Hal or Kori contacted them?
'Nova?'
//There seems to be a communication-jamming field surrounding the city block. Every form of tech other than Fatherboxes is being disrupted.//
That explained it. Convenient. He could continue acting without mercy.
He raised his sword, pointing it toward Grail. Infinity-Man appeared inert—a non-factor now. "Your turn."
He couldn't use the same trick of attacking through a boom tube again. Opening one was slow for combatants of their caliber, even with the Speed Force accelerating the process. Besides, she was probably fast enough to react and defend herself even then.
Honestly, he didn't feel like ending it quickly. He wanted to draw the fight out. Maybe he just wanted to test his strength against a worthy opponent—an opportunity that had become increasingly rare.
The one with Lobo had been interesting for the first few seconds, but it became boring once Lobo was immobilized in the vacuum of space, completely at his mercy. Thinking back, he almost wished he'd drawn that fight out too.
Or maybe he just enjoyed inflicting pain on his enemies now.
Joseph didn't think too much about it.
He primed his Strength Force. At base level, he could match Superboy's strength simply by maintaining focus—but when he truly concentrated, he could more than double it.
Having spent time mastering the Strength Force, he understood it intimately. Like the Speed Force, it was additive, not augmentative. If a normal human tapped into the Strength Force, their power level jumped to X—say, island-level strength. But if someone already at island-level strength tapped into it, their power didn't become island × X; it became island + X. The stronger and more durable your body, the more X you could draw out.
And then he had Shockwave's tech—fully assimilated into the nanites in his bloodstream and suit—which added the impact of a magnitude 10 earthquake to every strike.
Also, the speed from the Speed Force created more kinetic energy and impulse with each blow. Honestly, it wasn't an exaggeration to call himself one of the strongest beings on Earth. Fracturing mountains with a single punch should put him up there.
Of course, some might lift more. But striking power was a different story—without perfect momentum or comparable speed, most couldn't hit harder than he could.
It was like how a powerlifter might deadlift a thousand pounds but throw a slow punch, while a martial artist who could only lift four hundred pounds could still break cinder blocks with a kick by channeling full body weight and explosive speed.
In Joseph's case, it was far more exaggerated. His localized anti-gravity field let him accelerate to hypersonic speed almost instantly—even without the Speed Force.
With that much power, he didn't even need the Strength Force for raw strength. Instead, he applied it to his surroundings. Using the Speed and Strength Forces to enhance his anti-gravity field, he created a dampening field that instantly reduced the effective mass—or inertia—of the air. The goal was to reduce the medium's ability to transmit energy.
A shockwave relies on the sequential collision of molecules. If their inertia is reduced, the energy transfer rate—the speed and intensity of the shockwave—drops dramatically. Essentially, the energy gets transferred into a "lighter" medium, slowing its destructive spread.
The nearby buildings would still feel the vibrations, but not enough to cause serious damage.
He launched forward at Speed Force velocity, Alien Excalibur slicing toward Grail's neck.
She reacted in time, launching herself forward despite the anti-gravity field's pull and blocking with her weapon—a dark hybrid between scythe and axe. The impact shook the chamber, sending the New God tech below flying in every direction.
Grail's strength was impressive—and her reaction speed even more so. She met him blow for blow, counterattacking with frightening precision and landing several deep cuts despite his perfect martial arts, which extended to swordplay. The Speed Force boosted his top speed to five percent the speed of light, and his max reaction time to 60–70 nanoseconds. But according to his HUD calculations, hers kept climbing as they fought on until it reached 20–30 nanoseconds.
That difference was enormous—it meant she could perceive, decide, and act twice as fast as he could.
Separating himself from her after narrowly blocking a slash to the neck, Joseph took a moment to think as his wounds began to heal.
'Nova.'
//Initiating predictive analysis software. Due to processor damage, it will take 11 seconds.//
Despite himself, Joseph smiled. This was a real fight—his life wasn't on the line as he could always fly or teleport out but they were both going at each other with the intention to kill and were both capable of it.
What was her weapon made of, anyway? Alien Excalibur—a vibroblade of Nth metal enhanced by Nova Force—should have cut through anything, yet her weapon held firm.
"Wondering about my scythe?" Grail smirked. "It was forged by Hades himself—made to cut through gods."
Joseph gritted his teeth. She'd won the first exchange, but that was about to change. "You might want to brush up on your mythology. Forging belongs to Hephaestus, not Hades."
"I am aware of what I say, boy," Grail replied, discretely tapping the Fatherbox on her belt. Without the Speed Force to accelerate it, a boom tube would take at least thirty seconds to open—and even one second was a long time for fighters like them. She was stalling, but so was he.
"The blood of Amazons runs through my veins. And I sense it runs through yours as well. Along with your connection to the Source… are you also an Amazon–New God hybrid? Who are you?"
Were the New Gods genetically connected to the Source? And how did her parents even meet?.
"I am the son of Hope Taya—an Amazon." He didn't know why he told her that. Not that there was anything she could do with the info. He kept the rest of his heritage to himself. Lex wishes he was a god. "I should be asking who you are, and what your purpose on Earth is."
Grail noticed he was stalling too and made her move. She leapt forward on her aero-discs, scythe raised.
//Booting predictive analysis software…//
He tapped into the Force again, preparing for her next assault. She still processed decisions twice as fast, but now—with Nova's predictive algorithms feeding him optimal counters psychically—he could match her, turning a losing battle into a drawn endgame.
Their blades clashed continuously, sparks and shockwaves flashing between them. Where she once had the clear advantage, Joseph now kept pace, his swordsmanship superior to her hybrid style of Themysciran and alien scythe combat.
And unlike her, who could only hover on her aero-discs, he had full flight control—able to shift momentum for both of them with his anti-gravity field.
He could always overpower her by drawing more from the Strength Force if push came to shove—but it was already maintaining the dampening field. Like the Speed Force, using too much risked being pulled into it entirely and he wasn't sure he would be able to escape.
Balancing both Forces while keeping focus on the fight was difficult enough.
Sensing she was being pushed back, Grail lashed out with a powerful kick—which he predicted and dodged—but then unleashed her Omega Beams point-blank, giving him no time to evade.