Max stared at the planet-sized sphere of antimatter as it continued growing larger and larger.
At the same time, he actively directed more ki into his heart. A bright rose glow began shining beneath his skin, illuminating the cracks and wounds covering his body.
"Very well then," Max muttered.
He slowly clenched his fists.
"Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa..."
The roar started low.
Rose-colored ki began pouring from his heart, forming a bright cocoon of energy around his body. The cocoon rapidly condensed into a glowing sphere that continued expanding outward.
"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
Space warped around him as lightning arced across the growing sphere of energy.
As Max's power surged, the previously expanding antimatter sphere suddenly began shrinking. Faster and faster it contracted until it was only a hundred meters in diameter, hovering before the Anti-Monitor's outstretched arm as he then roared.
"BEGONE!"
He launched it.
The antimatter sphere shot forward and collided with the rapidly expanding sphere of rose energy.
BOOOOOM!
The impact ripped holes through space itself.
White arcs of energy leapt from the point of contact as the two attacks struggled against one another.
Slowly inch by inch.
The Anti-Monitor's attack began eating away at the sphere of ki surrounding Max.
"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
Max roared as he poured more power into it.
The sphere of ki begun pushing back but it wasn't enough.
The antimatter sphere continued advancing until it finally engulfed him.
Now the only thing protecting Max was the layer of energy still surrounding his body.
No... I can't afford to lose.
I have to keep pushing.
A glint flashed through his eye.
Then he dug even deeper.
"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!"
Lightning exploded around his form.
His hair became even spikier, displaying the telltale signs of Super Saiyan Rosé being pushed beyond its limits.
The effect was immediate.
The Anti-Monitor, who had already begun smirking, suddenly frowned when he sensed the spike in power.
The white sphere of antimatter that had engulfed Max began turning rose-colored.
Thin beams of rose light escaped through its surface.
The Anti-Monitor's eyes widened.
Then the sphere exploded outward in countless streaks of light.
The rose-colored sphere of ki surged back to life, stronger than before.
And it was growing.
Rapidly.
The expanding sphere raced toward the Anti-Monitor.
'I have to retreat,this has to be his final attack afterwards he'll be spent,I just have to evade it'
The thought had barely crossed the Anti-Monitor's mind when he suddenly felt arms wrap around his neck.
His eyes widened.
A Max clone had appeared behind him and locked him in a chokehold.
Another grabbed his right leg.another his left,another his right arm,another his left.
The Anti-Monitor struggled violently as more clones emerged from the rifts scattered throughout the battlefield.
He had been so focused on Max that he had completely ignored them.
For the first time in the battle, panic flashed across his face.
The expanding sphere of rose energy rapidly closed the distance.
The clones held on despite their bodies beginning to burn away from the sheer energy washing over them.
One of the clones tightened its grip around the Anti-Monitor's neck and leaned closer.
"I win."
The Anti-Monitor's eyes widened further.
Far away, the real Max gave one final roar.
"HAAAAAA!"
He roared one final time as the planet-sized sphere of energy detonated.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!
Meanwhile, everyone had returned to the Monitor satellite as soon as Max's battle intensified. The tremors rippling through space, the distant flashes of rose and white light they couldn't hear, and the constant distortions in reality were enough to signal what was happening.
Then there was silence.
For a few seconds, nothing moved.
A white "sun" bloomed in the distance, followed shortly by a rose-colored one that was noticeably dimmer. The two lights hung in the void for a moment before colliding. The white light seemed to overwhelm the rose.
Then, suddenly, the rose light expanded dozens of times over,completely engulfing the white before spreading even further.
"Is that… is that caused by Max?" Wonder Woman asked.
"From the energy signature I'm detecting, it has to be," Mr. Terrific replied. "And it's about to go critical." he said as the rose star then suddenly vanished.
"Everyone, brace for impact!" Mr. Terrific shouted.
Although most of them were unsure what he meant, they all prepared themselves anyway.
Less than a second later, the Monitor satellite shook violently. The lights inside flickered uncontrollably before stabilizing again.
"What was that?" Terra asked, her voice tight with worry.
"That was a space-scale shockwave," Mr. Terrific said as he typed rapidly across his console. "Instead of a normal shockwave, it's the displacement of space itself."
He paused as new readings flooded in.
"The Anti-Monitor's energy signature has completely vanished."
A brief silence followed.
"I think he's done it."
A few of the heroes finally exhaled the breath they had been holding but Terra didn't relax.
"Where's my dad?" she asked immediately.
"I… I can't detect him either," Mr. Terrific admitted.
The atmosphere in the room shifted at once. Any sense of victory disappeared ad cyborg stepped forward, his voice low.
"What happened to him?"
-------
Meanwhile, Max's limp body drifted through space, his body slowly healing as the burns covering it gradually faded away. The red aura of the Eighth Gate slowly dimmed around him as his chakra reserves remained critically low.
A finger on his right hand twitched.
His eye fluttered open,or rather, his one remaining functional eye as consciousness slowly returned to him. He simply stared into the empty void deep in thought.
He'd actually won again.
But that bastard was definitely still alive in the Antimatter Universe and would be back again after recovering, because Max lacked the necessary hax to truly kill him.
It's time to follow the plan.
But first...
Max held his breath and plunged his right hand into his chest, breaking bone in the process. He gritted his teeth as he grabbed hold of his heart and ripped it out, blood spilling into the void as he tossed it away into space.
Almost immediately, a new one replaced it.
This was the only loophole he had come up with to avoid being killed by the Eighth Gate after giving it some thought. The gate in the heart couldn't be closed unless he had Naruto's mark from the Sage of Six Paths. The only other way was to replace the heart with another one whose gate was still closed.
How much he could have abused this in the future.
A shame he wouldn't be part of it.
Max closed his eye and concentrated on where he was going next.
During his fight with the Anti-Monitor, when all those rifts had been opened, he had sensed something interesting.
A Flying Thunder God marker that he didn't remember ever placing.
Which could only mean one thing,with that thought, Max vanished.
End of Chapter
Chapter 52:Saddening news
Chapter 53:is this how the story of Max Schiller ends?
Chapter 54:Back hom
You can read advanced chapters at patreon.com/darker knight