The rest of the battle was brutal and unrelenting.
Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and the rest of the Justice League clashed with Darkseid in a storm of chaos and destruction.
Darkseid began the fight with his Omega Beams, twin rays of death that hunted their targets with terrifying precision.
Superman and Flash, the fastest among them, had anticipated this. They darted through the air, weaving around the deadly beams and guiding them toward Darkseid's lieutenants, Granny Goodness and DeSaad.
The result was explosive. Darkseid's Omega Beams obliterated his own generals.
His roar shook the heavens in fury.
Even after his rage, Darkseid's strength was only slightly above Superman's—especially after Superman's recent emergence from the Sun. Without the Anti-Life Equation, his Omega Beams were his only true weapon of advantage.
And so he unleashed them without restraint.
Run fast? Omega Beams.
Summon lightning like Shazam? Omega Beams.
Magic spells? Omega Beams.
Green Lantern's constructs? Omega Beams again.
He didn't even move from his throne. The battlefield was his arena, and his eyes were his artillery.
But every attack was countered.
Wonder Woman blocked the beams with her indestructible Bracelets of Submission. Superman intercepted others with his heat vision and sheer resilience.
They were the only two capable of stopping them, but even gods have limits. Their armor was cracked, their skin burned, their breath ragged. The Omega Beams left trails of ruin across the ground and sky.
"Batman! Batman! Are you ready yet?" Flash shouted into his earpiece, his voice strained.
"Hellspores launch in sixty seconds. Everyone evacuate now!" Batman's voice came through, steady but urgent.
"No! Superman and the others are still fighting Darkseid!" Flash protested.
"I'll hold him!"
Batman, clad in the Hellbat Armor, descended from above like a shadow made of fire and metal.
Timing it perfectly between bursts of Omega energy, he dove toward Darkseid and struck. The impact shook the air itself.
Under the amplification of the Hellbat Armor, Batman became something more than human—every strike calculated, every motion precise. He was faster than sound and heavier than steel, darting in circles around the god of tyranny, landing blow after blow.
Each attack found its mark. Each dodge narrowly avoided annihilation.
While Batman distracted Darkseid, the others fell back. Shazam carried Superman, Cyborg carried Wonder Woman.
"Batman, hurry! Get out of there!" Flash yelled desperately.
The armory on Apokolips glowed bright—thousands of Hellspores launched at once, streaking through the blood-red sky.
Their target was clear: Darkseid.
But Batman was still in the middle of the fight.
If he withdrew even for a moment, Darkseid would unleash another round of Omega Beams and obliterate the retreating heroes.
"I have another way out. Leave now, Barry!" Batman said, barely dodging another blast.
"But—"
"Go!"
Barry hesitated, gritted his teeth, then sped out of the palace, glancing back one last time before vanishing in a streak of lightning.
When everyone was gone, Batman exhaled slowly.
In the encrypted data he had retrieved from his future self, there was one message left only for him.
A line from the Joker.
You always sacrifice others, Bruce.
Batman smiled bitterly beneath his helmet. Maybe Joker had been right. If he had sacrificed himself to save Lois before the world's reset, maybe things wouldn't have come to this.
Not this time.
This time, he wouldn't hesitate.
He looked up. The Hellspores were descending like a thousand miniature suns.
Barry suddenly realized something was wrong. He turned and dashed back toward the palace, lightning trailing behind him.
Darkseid sensed it too. He stopped trading blows and turned his eyes toward the retreating heroes, his Omega Beams flaring again.
"Cyborg, open a Boom Tube!" Batman shouted into the comm.
At the same time, he lunged into the path of the Omega Beams.
A Boom Tube opened before Darkseid's throne. The combined blast of thousands of Hellspores would soon strike, powerful enough to erase entire continents.
Batman's calculations were flawless. The explosion would push Darkseid through the Boom Tube, straight into the black hole coordinates he and Cyborg had calculated.
As for himself... he knew what that meant.
He would be the sacrifice this time.
Just before the Omega Beams struck him, he remembered his last conversation with Alfred.
"Are you sure about this, Master Wayne?"
"Yes, Alfred. This might be the most meaningful thing I ever do."
"You said the same thing last time when you fought Master Kent."
"I was wrong then. I won't be this time."
Batman smiled faintly. This time, there would be no retreat.
The beams closed in. In less than a second, they would vaporize him. He wouldn't even feel pain.
It was a good death.
Then suddenly, the light dimmed.
A voice spoke from the shadows. "Every time we meet, I'm saving you. You're becoming a real handful, Batman."
Batman opened his eyes in disbelief.
Before him stood another Wonder Woman—this one in radiant golden armor, bracing herself against the Omega Beams.
And holding him securely in his arm was a man in a pitch-black suit.
"Malrick?"
"Yeah," Malrick said simply.
Batman tried to speak again, but before he could, Malrick pulled him away from the palace, Wonder Woman flying close behind.
Only Darkseid's enraged roar echoed through the burning halls.
"Time to go," Malrick said.
Outside, Cyborg had already activated the Mother Box, sending Earth's forces back home.
Tony and Kara had joined the battle earlier, and thanks to their help, the Earth's casualties were shockingly low—less than a hundred.
Now, only Batman and Barry were still on Apokolips.
Malrick swooped down, catching Barry mid-sprint, and with Diana beside him, they dove through the collapsing Boom Tube back to Earth.
A moment later, thousands of Hellspores detonated. The explosion's force sent Darkseid hurtling through the Boom Tube and into the black hole.
The shockwave consumed the planet's surface, wiping out every last Parademon.
It had worked. Batman's plan had succeeded.
Even with all the League's power, Darkseid could not be defeated through combat alone. It took sacrifice and strategy—and Batman's unyielding will—to end him.
---
Earth – First Island Chain Coast
The survivors waited anxiously, hearts pounding.
When Batman finally appeared through the shimmering portal, he simply nodded.
"We won," he said quietly. "Earth... we won."
For a heartbeat, there was silence.
Then the world erupted in cheers.
"We really did it!"
"We defeated Darkseid!"
"Clark! Clark! Over here!"
Laughter and tears filled the air. Soldiers threw their helmets and caps skyward. Some danced, others hugged. The sound of victory rolled across the waves.
This war had decided the fate of the world—and they had survived.
Superman and Lois embraced under the sunlight, then soared skyward, leaving the crowd below.
As the celebration continued, Diana found her counterpart, the other Wonder Woman, and the two spoke quietly about Themyscira and all that had changed.
Tony, arms crossed, stood a few paces away, waiting for Batman. He wanted to talk armor.
Kara, meanwhile, walked beside Malrick.
"Aren't you going to find your cousin?" Malrick asked, giving her a teasing smile.
"He's with Lois," Kara replied softly, her golden hair gleaming in the sunlight.
Malrick chuckled. "Then you'll probably have to wait until tomorrow."
"I know," Kara said with a knowing smile. "They're going to perform Earth's... reproduction ritual. Just like Kal's parents once did."
Malrick raised a brow. "You even know that?"
Kara tilted her head slightly, her expression calm yet sincere. "I saw you and Diana do the same ritual once. So... I'd like to try it too."
Her golden hair shimmered under the sun, her usual composure replaced by a faint blush.
Malrick looked at her flushed cheeks and lowered his head slightly, a small smile tugging at his lips.
"I'll take you to my world," he said quietly.
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I'll be dropping a 50% discount code for my Patreon membership on the 15th, in celebration of the upcoming Christmas season.
The code will be active from that day until the end of the month.
Stay tuned