Kai POV
My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I pulled it out, seeing a message from Hope.
You need to come to the base. You need to see this.
I frowned at the lack of explanation but just slipped the phone back into my pocket.
"Your training starts tomorrow," I said, looking at the group. "For now, go home and get some rest."
I opened a portal behind them, leading to their house.
Some looked disappointed leaving my Dimensions, but the others looked relieved that this crazy day was over. One by one, they stepped through the portal.
And as soon as the portal closed, my armor activated around me in a flash of light, and I teleported straight to the base.
The moment I arrived, I saw Hope standing in front of the main screen, staring at the outside security cameras with the kind of expression that usually meant somebody had created a problem she now had to fix.
I walked up beside her and looked at the screen myself.
…and immediately regretted it.
Standing outside the base was Jack.
Along with a literal army of women.
Not just any women either. Their armor, weapons, and overall vibe made it painfully obvious who they were.
Amazons.
A lot of Amazons.
I already had a bad feeling about this.
"What's going on?" I asked, finally drawing Hope's attention.
She slowly looked at me, completely deadpan.
"A giant headache our brother dumped on us," she said. "Especially you."
I blinked. "...What?"
"Jack will explain," she said before turning and walking away.
The bad feeling in my stomach only got worse, but I still followed Hope outside.
The second we stepped out, I froze.
Jack was standing at the front of the massive group of Amazons like some kind of general leading his army. Behind him were rows of armored warriors holding shields, spears, swords… and for some reason, bottles.
A lot of bottles.
What the hell was this?
What made it even worse was the fact that almost every single Amazon there was staring directly at me.
Before I could even ask what was happening, Jack suddenly stepped forward dramatically and raised his arms.
"Amazons!" he shouted loud enough for everyone to hear. "As I promised, the God of Magic is here!"
…What?
I slowly turned toward Hope.
She looked seconds away from bursting out laughing.
Jack pointed directly at me.
"Mazahs, Superwoman, and your Queen's was weak, but he is not!" Jack declared proudly. "He is my leader! He commands all forms of magic and wields the power of the gods themselves!"
The Amazons started whispering among themselves while still staring at me.
Oh no.
"Not only that," Jack continued, somehow getting even louder, "he is the King of all Dragons! He can destroy armies, shake the land itself, and erase entire planets if he wishes! I may be physically stronger, but his magic power is on an entirely different level!"
My eye twitched.
"What's going on?" I whispered to Hope out of the corner of my mouth.
"He's getting to that part," she whispered back, clearly enjoying this way too much.
Jack turned back toward the Amazons and dramatically pointed at me again like he was introducing the final boss of reality itself.
"You speak of prophecies warning of a new age of evil," he shouted. "Then let me give you a new prophecy!"
Oh god.
"He will bring forth a new age of heroes! He will reshape this world into something out of a fairy tale! A true paradise!"
The Amazons started murmuring louder now.
"That is why," Jack finished proudly, "he should become your new king!"
…What.
I stared at him in complete disbelief.
Hope immediately looked away because she was trying not to laugh in my face.
"Jack," I said calmly.
He straightened up instantly.
"Can you come here for a minute?"
The confidence vanished from his face almost immediately.
The Amazons watched curiously as he slowly walked over to me like a man approaching his execution.
"What's going on?" I asked slowly, already knowing I wasn't going to like the answer.
Jack rubbed the back of his neck nervously.
"Well… you know how I went to Earth-3 to help Lex fight the evil Justice League?"
"Yes…"
"Well, good news: Earth-3 is safe now."
I nodded once.
"But the bad news is… after I beat Mazahs, I accidentally became the leader of the Amazons."
I stared at him.
"What?"
"And since I really, really don't want that responsibility…" Jack said while avoiding eye contact, "I'm trying to pass it on to you."
I blinked slowly.
I knew I had a bad feeling about this.
Jack quickly started explaining everything in more detail, before I could strangle him.
Apparently, after defeating Mazahs, all the Amazons immediately stopped fighting, bowed to him, and declared him their new king. Naturally, Jack panicked because the last thing he wanted was to rule an entire civilization of super-powered warrior women.
So instead of acting like a normal person, he made up some giant story about me.
According to him, I was some legendary God of Magic and Wisdom destined to lead them into a new age.
I was going to kill him.
"And the bottles?" I asked with a twitch in my eye.
"Oh, those contain all the evil villains from Earth-3," Jack answered casually. "I sealed them away."
I stared at the bottles again.
I didn't even know he knew the Evil Containment Wave.
After he finished explaining everything, I just stood there with the most dead, exhausted expression imaginable.
Then a giant magical hand suddenly appeared behind Jack.
SMACK!
The hand grabbed him and launched him across the lawn like a baseball.
I was beyond annoyed.
This idiot had dumped an entire civilization onto my lap because he didn't want to be responsible for them.
"You idiot, you can't do that without asking me first!" I shouted.
The moment I said that, I noticed all the Amazons staring at me with shocked expressions.
Not because I yelled.
Because of how casually I had just sent Jack flying without effort.
I slowly turned my head toward where Jack landed.
That was when I noticed him lying face-down on the ground completely motionless.
…That little bastard.
I narrowed my eyes.
He was pretending to be unconscious.
It hit me too late what he was doing.
To the Amazons, it looked like I had effortlessly defeated their current king.
Before I could explain anything, every single Amazon immediately bowed toward me.
Oh, come on.
I looked at Hope for help.
She was literally recording this on her phone while trying not to laugh.
"Hope," I said flatly.
"Nope," she replied instantly.
I looked back at the army of Amazons bowing in front of me and sighed in pure defeat.
That son of a bitch played me.
Batman POV
"You're telling me Mage King now has an army of Amazons?" I asked again, hoping I somehow heard him wrong.
"Yes, but honestly, I think Warrior just didn't want the responsibility, so he dumped the entire situation onto Mage King," Martian Manhunter said.
Right now, the rest of the Justice League and I were gathered inside the Watchtower conference room, discussing everything that happened on Earth-3. They had just finished explaining every detail, every battle, every decision that led to this outcome, and I could honestly say I had never been more concerned in my life.
An army of evil Amazons from another world was now on our Earth, and now they follow Mage King.
A man with unknown origins.
Unknown limits.
And an impossible amount of knowledge.
That alone would have been enough to concern me, but what made it worse was the fact that not even Dr Fate could tell me who he is; somehow, Mage King can avoid even Dr Fate's detection. For the first time in a long time, I couldn't even begin to form a proper contingency plan.
And I had a feeling I was going to need one soon.
As if that wasn't already bad enough, now I also had to deal with his brother.
Warrior.
A man who, according to the reports, might actually be stronger than Superman.
"Clark, are you sure you can't beat him?" I asked.
Superman stayed silent for a moment before finally answering.
"I watched him fight, Bruce. I got a good read on his strength, and I even saw what looked like his limit. Even then… I can't beat him in a one-on-one fight."
The entire room went quiet.
Clark rarely admitted something like that.
"I'm not even sure Diana and I together could win," Superman continued seriously.
"There's also a chance Kryptonite doesn't even work on him," Flash suddenly said.
That immediately caught everyone's attention.
Green Lantern frowned. "Why do we think that?"
"Because he told me himself," Flash replied. "We ended up talking for a bit, and somehow weaknesses got brought up. So I asked him if he had the same weaknesses as Superman."
Flash paused for a second before continuing.
"And he said… he used to. But not anymore."
The moment those words left his mouth, shocked expressions spread across everyone's faces.
Even Superman looked unsettled by that answer.
"Apparently, a couple of months ago, he asked one of his friends to build him a special room that erased red sun radiation," Flash explained. "Then he gathered a bunch of Kryptonite, didn't really say where he got it from, he was pretty vague about that, and locked himself inside the room with it."
Flash rubbed the back of his neck before continuing.
"He trained in there for months until his body adapted. Somehow, his cells evolved past the weakness. Now he can absorb red sun radiation, and Kryptonite doesn't affect him anymore."
The entire room fell silent again.
I felt my stomach tighten.
I had always hoped that if New Dawn's Kryptonians ever stepped out of line, Kryptonite would still be the ultimate answer. The fail-safe. The one thing capable of leveling the playing field.
But now?
Their strongest Kryptonian was apparently immune to it.
That changed everything.
I leaned back slightly in my chair, my mind already racing through hundreds of possibilities, searching for anything that could work against Mage King and Warrior.
Because deep down, I could feel it.
One day, the Justice League and New Dawn were going to clash.
And when that day finally came…
I wasn't even sure contingency plans would be enough for us to win.
2 Months Later
Kai POV
These last two months flew by faster than I expected.
Honestly, nothing major really happened during that time, but New Dawn became even more popular across the world. Especially Warrior.
Jack completely embraced the role of being a hero.
The guy was out there stopping criminals, preventing natural disasters, and handling city-level threats like it was just another Tuesday for him. Every time the news showed him saving people with a grin on his face, public support for New Dawn skyrocketed even more.
At the same time, I had been training the Shazam Family relentlessly in magic, and to my surprise, they picked it up incredibly quickly.
Especially Mary.
I honestly don't know why, but she learns any type of magic I teach her at an absurd speed. Spells that normally take experienced sorcerers months to understand, she grasps in days.
Because of that, I officially took her in as my apprentice.
Teaching both her and Hermione different forms of magic has been surprisingly fun. Ancient runes, dimensional magic, combat casting, enchantments, sealing techniques, they absorb everything like sponges.
And honestly?
I love seeing the expressions on their faces whenever they master a new spell or finally understand a difficult concept. The excitement in their eyes reminds me why I started loving magic in the first place in the game.
The scary part is that both of them have absurd talent.
Potentially even greater talent than mine.
Jack has also been helping me train the new Champions. Every single day, he spars with them, teaching martial arts, combat awareness, and battlefield strategy. Watching him fight is like watching a living war machine in motion.
Honestly, even I've learned a few things from him.
Also, Lucifer—or Mary Caine, as she prefers to be called—has practically been living inside my library these past two months, constantly studying every type of magic she can get her hands on.
Dark magic.
Celestial magic.
Ancient curses.
If it exists, she wants to learn it.
She disappears from time to time, though. Where she goes, I honestly have no idea.
But every time I ask, she just smiles innocently and says she's "having a little fun."
I decided not to press the issue for now.
At the moment, she isn't hurting anyone, and picking a fight with Lucifer over curiosity sounds like a terrible life decision.
Right now, I was inside one of New Dawn's training facilities, watching Soldier Boy train the new recruits.
Honestly, they had come a long way.
White Rabbit had become significantly faster and more agile, moving around the battlefield almost like a blur now.
Friendly Fire finally stopped shooting his own teammates every five seconds, which, surprisingly, counted as major progress.
Peacemaker had always been a capable soldier. The main thing he needed was restraint and the understanding that not every petty criminal needed to be turned into red paste.
Then there was T.D.K.
He improved far more than I expected.
Not only did he learn several new martial arts styles, but he also evolved the way he used his powers. Before, he could only detach his hands and make them slowly float around.
Now?
He could launch them like projectiles.
Not quite bullet speed yet, but close enough to seriously hurt someone before they could react.
Soldier Boy walked over toward me with his arms crossed as the recruits continued sparring in the background.
"They're almost done with basic training," he said. "Especially White Rabbit and Peacemaker. Those two improved a hell of a lot."
He smirked slightly.
"They even became friends somehow. Weirdest damn thing I've seen all month."
Honestly, they worked surprisingly well together.
Which was exactly why Hope and I already had plans for their next upgrades.
We were going to give White Rabbit and T.D.K artificial Devil Fruits.
For White Rabbit, I was thinking about a fusion between the Usagi Usagi no Mi: Model Rabbit, the Scroll-Scroll Fruit, the Door-Door Fruit, and the Spring-Spring Fruit.
A terrifying combination focused on speed, mobility, storage, ambush tactics, and unpredictable movement.
She would basically become impossible to catch.
As for T.D.K., he was going to receive a combination of the Chop-Chop Fruit and the Heat-Heat Fruit. The ability to separate his body while superheating detached parts of himself into burning projectiles?
Yeah… that was going to be dangerous.
Peacemaker's upgrade was simpler but honestly just as terrifying.
He was going to receive a perfected Super Soldier Serum mixed with Hope's custom Compound V, unlike normal Compound V, Hope could actually influence what type of powers a person would develop, which meant Peacemaker wasn't just going to become stronger. He was going to become optimized for warfare.
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AN: Happy Mother's Day.