Every hero has their own battlefield.
Batman descended toward DeSaad, the Hellbat Armor—once called the Anti-Superman Armor—granting him strength rivaling Superman's own. With its overwhelming power and speed, the Dark Knight adapted instantly.
Upon landing, he struck DeSaad with a single punch, shattering the villain's energy shield and sending him flying. Without pause, Batman raised his palm cannon and fired, obliterating Granny Goodness, who had been boasting moments earlier. Blood splattered across the black surface of his armor.
Batman exhaled slowly.
"So, this is what it feels like to be Clark," he muttered.
Above them, Doctor Fate, Cyborg, and the rest of the Bat-team flew in the opposite direction from Tony Stark. Their mission: intercept the Parademons and keep Malrick's fight undisturbed.
Kara and Diana exchanged a brief, determined glance before flying together toward Darkseid.
Malrick, meanwhile, was locked in a deadly dance with curving Omega Beams that chased him relentlessly across the sky. Though battered and scorched, he fought back with sheer resolve.
Those beams— manifestations of the Omega Effect—weren't just attacks; they were divine instruments of erasure, capable of vaporizing or conceptually eliminating anything they struck.
Malrick countered with Heat Vision, his crimson rays clashing violently with Darkseid's Omega Beams. Each second, his energy was devoured, unable to truly block them.
It was like watching a max-level player duel a game developer armed with cheat codes. Only Superman himself, shielded by the Source Wall's protection, could face them head-on and survive.
Still, Malrick pressed forward. He knew even Batman had once escaped those beams—through luck, skill, and sheer defiance.
Realizing his Heat Vision couldn't overpower Darkseid's might, Malrick changed tactics. He darted through the air at impossible speed, the Omega Beams twisting and pursuing him like serpents of death. He looped, dived, and surged upward again, each movement more precise than the last.
Then, in a blinding burst of acceleration, Malrick charged directly at Darkseid.
Darkseid's eyes widened too late.
Malrick's punch struck Darkseid's abdomen with the focused impact of a planet.
Boom!
Even as Malrick restrained his strength to avoid harming the others, the resulting shockwave shattered the remaining ground. Magma erupted skyward, painting the battlefield in red and gold.
Darkseid coughed blood, his body trembling from the sheer force.
Before the Omega Beams could redirect, Malrick vanished—his speed too great for even Darkseid to track. The beams struck their master instead, exploding against his abdomen.
"Argh!"
Darkseid roared, staggering. The once-imperious New God clutched his midsection, his burning eyes locked on the Kryptonian floating above.
"Kryptonian!" he thundered, fury surging.
He hadn't felt such humiliation since the days of his youth, when he was mocked by gods far greater than himself. Never again.
Now, he would erase this defiance from existence.
With a growl, Darkseid raised his fists. His eyes blazed, and the Omega Beams flared anew.
Malrick steadied himself. The instant they shot forward, he prepared to move—until a strange glow ignited in Darkseid's palm.
A dense wave of symbols and light burst forth, forming rings that intertwined like the Mobius strip itself.
The Anti-Life Equation.
The moment it appeared, Malrick felt it—an unbearable flood of cosmic information crashing into his consciousness. It was as if a river of divine truth poured straight into his mind.
Every drop of that river was made of words—concepts—that defined existence itself. The weight pressed on his spirit like mountains. His soul convulsed; agony tore through him.
His body froze, and he began to fall toward the molten abyss below.
Like a falcon struck mid-flight, he spiraled downward.
The Anti-Life Equation—the ultimate power of control—had seized him.
Even Malrick…
A smirk flickered across his lips.
"I think you can hit harder than that, Darkseid!"
Just before hitting the magma, Malrick twisted midair, reversing his descent. He shot back into the sky, his entire body trembling from the mental strain.
Veins bulged across his forehead as he forced his will to the surface.
"Is that all you've got?!" he roared. "This level of mental assault barely scratches the surface! You'll have to do better than that!"
The Anti-Life Equation clawed at his will, trying to bend him into submission, but Malrick's spirit didn't yield.
Darkseid's brows furrowed. His incomplete Equation shouldn't be resisted. Even Superman had faltered beneath it before. Yet this Kryptonian stood defiant, burning with defiance instead of despair.
Impossible.
Darkseid realized that no matter how powerful his Equation was, it couldn't fully dominate Malrick's will. It could only cause pain—an unbearable, splitting headache—but not control.
For the first time in a long while, the God of Apokolips hesitated.
But then his expression hardened again.
If he couldn't control him… he would destroy him.
As Malrick steadied himself in midair, Darkseid raised his fists, energy pulsing at his fingertips.
"Let's see," he growled, "if you can resist my wrath and dodge the Omega Beams at the same time!"
---
The sky above the battlefield darkened further, as if the cosmos itself recoiled from the intensity below. Lightning crackled unnaturally, highlighting the jagged scars etched into the landscape by previous attacks.
Malrick's eyes scanned rapidly, searching for openings in Darkseid's assault. Each Omega Beam split the air with searing heat, forcing him to twist, dive, and leap in ways that seemed to defy physics itself.
Behind him, distant echoes of explosions and shattering stone marked the relentless advance of Parademons toward the Bat-team. Yet Malrick ignored them, focused entirely on the towering tyrant before him.
A subtle grin tugged at the corner of his lips. He thrived under pressure. The greater the threat, the sharper his instincts became.
He flexed his fists, heat radiating off him, and prepared for the next move—knowing full well that every second could be his last if he faltered even slightly.