Darkseid lay at the center of the crater, his legs shattered from the impact. The sand around him slowly changed color as his blood seeped into it. He stared up at the sky, motionless.
Then he heard a sonic boom.
Max descended from above and landed beside him, the impact of his touchdown sending a small tremor through the ground.
"Impossible-" Darkseid began and was about to continue when his body seized.
A stillness fell over him. When he spoke again, his voice was different deeper then before and calmer.
"This is not over, Max Schiller. This is only the beginning....I will be seeing you again soon."
Max looked down at him before responding calmly.
"I'm counting on it."
He said as he clenched his fist.
Boom!!!
Darkseid's head ceased to exist on impact. The shockwave blasted outward in a perfect radius, sweeping the sand clean for over two hundred meters in every direction and revealing the bare earth beneath.
High above on Apokolips, Desaad had been watching the battle closely. He watched his lord and master fall.
With Darkseid gone, it would only be a matter of time before they came for him. But he would not be going down without a fight.
Desaad's fingers moved across the console, diverting every last drop of remaining power on Apokolips to a single point. The lights flickered twice, then died. The console went dark as the Annihilator Cannon began to charge.
Down below, Max stood in the crater. He sealed away Darkseid's remains, then slowly raised his eyes to the sky.
A beam was descending toward him. In reality it was moving at tremendous speed but to Max, it looked like it was crawling.
He spread his legs apart and brought his hands to his side, palms cupped.
"Kaa....."
A brilliant purple light began to form between his palms, pulsing and building with every passing second.
"....meee....."
The beam punched through the clouds above, illuminating everything around him in a harsh, stark light.
"....haaaa....."
The glow between his hands intensified, crackling and swirling, hungry.
"....MEEEE"
"HAAAAA!!"
Max roared and thrust the Kamehameha forward.
The two forces met.
BOOOOM!!!
Space itself seemed to fold at the point of impact. The Annihilator Cannon's beam pressed forward, grinding against the Kamehameha, pushing it back toward the earth. Max dug in, every muscle in his body straining.
"RAHHHHHHHH!!"
A black aura erupted around his body. The beam shuddered. Then, slowly, it began to reverse,pushed back inch by inch, then meter by meter, climbing back up toward the sky as Max's Kamehameha gained ground beneath it.
It reached Apokolips.
BOOOOOOOOM!!!
The Annihilator Cannon exploded. But the Kamehameha didn't stop there. The blast continued drilling into the planet itself, boring through layer after layer as Max kept pushing.
Apokolips shuddered, then began to move ,lowly at first, then faster, pushed backward through space by the sheer force of the impact. Cracks spreading across the fabric of space around it before the beam punched clean through.
BOOM.
A tunnel bored from one end of the planet to the other. The force destabilized Apokolips' very core. The planet began to tremble violently. Cracks spiderwebbed across its surface, widening by the second. Molten lava geysered upward through the fissures as the planet began to collapse in on itself.
Deep within, Desaad walked leisurely through the crumbling corridors toward Darkseid's throne. The ceiling fractured above him. The walls groaned and split. He paid it no mind.
He reached the throne, knelt before it, and bowed his head.
"Hail... Lord Darkseid," he murmured quietly.
Apokolips collapsed in on itself,and then exploded, a final bloom of fire and destruction swallowing everything that remained.
And just like that, the war was over.
Meanwhile
They all stood in stunned silence.
Of course, Superman and Supergirl both knew they could probably destroy a planet themselves,or at the very least make one uninhabitable.
But not like that. Not with such ease or as fast. Max and Darkseid had reached Apokolips, an attack had come down from the planet, Max had retaliated,and Apokolips was now gone. All of it had happened in less than ten minutes. That was why it had hit so hard. That was why none of them could find words.
"He's done it," Barry murmured, his voice barely above a whisper. "He's actually done it."
"Yes," Wonder Woman said quietly. "Max has destroyed Apokolips."
"Now all that's left is wiping out the remaining bastards hiding here on Earth," Cyborg said, his voice tight with anger.
Batman began briefing the team on their next move.
Then Thena suddenly shot into the sky in a burst of speed.
"Wait,Thena!" Wonder Woman called out. She took off after her without hesitation, leaving the group behind.
A somber mood settled over those who remained. The briefing continued, but the weight of it all was pressing down on every one of them now. Yes, they had won. The war was over.
But at what cost?
Because today, they had lost a lot of friends.
-------------
Max appeared back in the training grounds and walked toward Nina, who still lay on the ground with his clone kneeling beside her, hands still glowing as it stabilized her condition. The clone looked up at him, then dispersed without a word, leaving them alone.
Max knelt beside her.
"Nina."
"I guess it's finally over, huh," she said softly.
"Yes. Everything will be alright,I'll heal you with the Rinne Rebirth." He began, but she cut him off.
"No." Her voice was gentle but firm. "Dad. You know what the cost of that jutsu is. Save your eyes for the right time,you're going to need them." A pause. "Besides... my time ran out long ago. It's time for me to go now."
Silence settled between them.
"Tell Thena, Terra, and mom for me that I'm sorry I couldn't keep my promise," she continued. "And take care of Thena and Terra. You're all they've got."
"I will," Max said quietly.
Nina gathered what remained of her strength and slowly slid the time ring from her finger. The moment it left her hand, time began correcting itself. Her body began dissolving from her legs upward, turning to soft motes of light that drifted into the air around them.
She turned her face toward Max,as if she could still see him, even through her blind eyes.
"And dad?"
"Yes?"
Nina smiled a small smile before speaking.
"You've got this."
Her body dissolved completely, the last of the motes swirling gently around him before rising and dispersing into the sky. All that remained was the time ring,and a photograph.
Max picked up the photo.
It was a picture of him and Thena. She sat on his shoulders, grinning from ear to ear, one arm stretched out and pointing at something ahead of them in what looked like a mall. His own smile in the photo was wide and unguarded.
The photograph began to dissolve too, its edges turning to motes of light in his hands, fading away piece by piece until there was nothing left.
Max reached down and picked up the time ring.
He didn't let the tears fall. He bit them back, jaw tight, and closed his fist slowly around the ring until his knuckles went white.
End of Chapter
Chapter 31:A Dark Day
Chapter 32:A Final Reunion
Chapter 33:The End of Zetsu
You can read advanced chapters at patreon.com/darker knight.