Battle of the Gods

Metropolis

July 2006

As the white light from the teleportation circle vanishes, Scáthach, Azula, Artemis, Akila and the thousands of Amazons are able to get a grasp of their surroundings. As they survey the area, they find that they have been transported to the same place where they were originally before being transported to the different Earth, the Metropolis docks. From what they are able to tell, a battle was recently waged here and the city is currently being cleaned.

"Good, you're back. Although, I see you did not come alone." they hear as Ambrosius floats down to the ground in front of Scáthach and Azula. "It has been two days, you should hurry back to your people." he tells Artemis and Akila, shocking them.

"You're not coming?" asks Azula.

"No, things have been hectic around here and Earth is short of defenders. I will be staying here to coordinate with the League any other heroes should anything else attack. Brainiac may have been dealt with before you arrived, but with the chaotic nature of the past few days I am not comfortable leaving the rest of Earth short on powerhouses." he informs them.

"Has Morgan returned yet?" asks Scáthach.

"She has, but according to her she sensed Trigon probing our universe in search of something. She's planning on going to his universe to face him before he makes a move on Earth." replies Ambosius.

"Makes sense. We don't want Trigon to be a looming threat while we also worry about the upcoming battle." says Azula with a nod.

"Get going then, we can compare adventures later, and do make sure to kill a New God for me." says Ambrosius with a smirk before launching himself into the air before flying away with a sonic boom.

"Alright, everyone stay connected. I simply need to make a few changes to the array to teleport us to Bana-Mighdall." says Scáthach as she proceeds to erase a few runic symbols and begins to replace them with different ones.

"You know where Bana-Mighdall is?" questions Artemis. "It is meant to be the greatest hidden city." she says.

"We do know of its exact location as well as how to enter via teleportation through this array." answers Scáthach. "Originally this array was designed to teleport us to the Sphere of the Gods, however it did not work. As such we repurposed it to teleport us to any mortal civilisation that hides in its own pocket dimension. Even if they are protected by a pantheon." explains Scáthach while she begins to write the final symbol.

"How long have you been able to do this?" asks Artemis with a frown, this magical spell is a security risk to her people. Should an enemy somehow get hold of that, then they would be able to appear in Bana-Mighdall unannounced.

Before she can further question them, Akila places her hand on Artemis' shoulder and urges her with a shake of her head not to do so, at least not yet.

"It's a recent invention." answers Azula as she acts as if she did not notice the interaction between the two. As far as she and Scáthach are concerned, there's no point hiding this from them when they've already told Artemis and Akila that she's the newly ascended goddess.

"Let's go." says Scáthach as she finishes with the final rune and grasps Akila and Azula's arms.

Once everyone has done the same, Scáthach activates the runic formation and teleports them away.

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Bana-Mighdall, Somewhere in Egypt

July 2006

A few hours, that's how long it has been since Isis has sent Artemis and Akila away with the mission to find the newly ascended god. She knows that the chances of them finding and persuading the new god to help are slim to none however, they have no other options. One by one, members of her pantheon, her family, falls to Steppenwolf, and with every god or goddess that fall, he seems to become more and more powerful while they grow weaker. At this point, the pantheon suspects that he may be absorbing the powers of the fallen gods to empower himself. They believe that this is the purpose of this attack, to absorb the entire pantheon's power to strengthen himself.

As such, Isis and the Egyptians have had to resort to desperate measures such as raising the dead and even unsealing Apophis, the apocalyptic serpent bent on swallowing Ra and killing the pantheon in order to bring about the Egyptian's version of Ragnarok. Unfortunately it seems that Steppenwolf and Darkseid were counting on it, for as soon as Apophis was unsealed Steppenwolf opened a boom tube to transport the serpent to Apokolips, home of Darkseid.

It had been at that moment that Isis had decided that help was needed. As such she had sent pleas of help to every pantheon, the Norse and Greeks included. None had answered. As such, in one last desperate attempt she sent Artemis and Akila to search for the newly ascended god. She knows that they may fail and not arrive on time, however that works for her too as it means that at least her two friends will survive this purge. She does not want them to die or be captured by the forces of Apokolips.

For this reason, she has been protecting the remaining Amazons of Bana-Mighdall with all her might. While she may not be a warrior goddess, she is a goddess of magic and that is enough to deal with the invading parademons. Still, even as she puts on a strong front so as to not worry her Amazons, she can feel herself growing weaker every minute and it shows in her spells. Where they were simple yet powerful spells before, now they resemble complex spells attempted by an amateur with their effectiveness being significantly reduced. Where it would take her one fireball spell to incinerate scores of parademons, now it takes her three such spells to produce the very same effect.

Shaking the useless thoughts from her head, Isis refocuses on the battle, only for a bright white light to engulf the city and blind all of the occupants and stopping the battle momentarily. As the light slowly vanishes, Isis is finally able to see the cause of it. Around four thousand Greek Amazons armed and ready for battle standing in formation. In front of them stand Artemis and Akila along with three women that she does not recognise. The first is what she guesses to be the commanding officer wearing purple and black armor with an eagle motif on the cuirass, the second one must be her second in command as she wears the same armor as the rest of the Greek Amazons but stands next to the one in black and purple armor. The final one seems to be a warrior that belongs to the Irish pantheon, after all they are the only ones that she knows have a legend around a red barbed spear.

As the two opposing sides observe each other, it is the Amazons who take the initiative when she orders her archers to shoot down all parademons. True to form, the archers fall into formation and begin to strike down any and all parademons within sight with practice eased. As they do so, the formation slowly moves forward until they surround the exhausted Amazons of Bana-Mighdall in a protective formation while Artemis, Akila, and the two warrior women that Isis does not know break from the formation and begin to wreak havoc upon the parademons.

"You have returned." says a hopeful Isis as she approaches Artemis and Akila. "Were you successful?" she asks while hiding the hope that she feels.

"We were successful. The newly ascended goddess is Azula." answers a smiling Akila while she points towards Azula just as she summons a massive lightning bolt and proceeds to incinerate every single parademon in the city as Scáthach orders Motherbox to shut down all boom tubes.

As Isis inspects Azula who approaches her, she can tell that she is more powerful than herself even when she was in her prime. She exudes power in waves and Isis would not be surprised if she is as powerful as Ra used to be back in his prime.

"I thank you for accepting my people's call for aid and while I would love nothing more than to talk to you, we must hurry. The remaining gods have all given their powers to Horus in the hopes of giving him the power he needs to beat Steppenwolf. However, it isn't enough." she says as Scáthach joins Azula's side while the Greek Amazons tend to the wounded Amazons of Bana.

"Then let's go." says Azula.

With a nod of her head Isis bids her farewell to Artemis and Akila before teleporting her, Azula and Scáthach into the domain of the Egyptian gods where Horus battles Steppenwolf.

Arriving in their destination, Isis, Azula and Scáthach take stock of the current situation. They didn't know what to expect, but this wasn't it. A crimson red sun illuminates the sky, giving it a red hue, bodies of dead gods lay on the broken, cratered and shaking ground, and the stench of death fills the air.

"This… what is this?" whispers a despairing Isis. "This shouldn't be possible. When we lose our powers, we should fade and disappear, not… not die like mortals." she says with her hand covering her mouth as she slowly walks towards a corpse and kneels next to it. "Osiris? Honey? Speak to me." murmurs a horrified Isis as she cradles the dead body of her husband.

Choosing to leave Isis to her mourning, a grim Scáthach and Azula take to the skies in search of Steppenwolf. It does not take them long to find him and for them to be shocked. They find him exchanging blows with a grievously injured and exhausted Horus who seems to refuse to die despite missing an arm, a caved in chest, a gash on his right thigh and blood dripping from his mouth. However, that isn't what shocks them, rather it is Steppenwolf that surprises them.

While he retains his human form and wears the same armor, he stands at eight feet tall as opposed to six feet, and is enveloped in a blood red aura that releases an absurd amount of power.

"That's why they attacked." comments Azula as she watches Steppenwolf casually block Horus' attack before kicking the war god away with a minimal amount of effort. "To drain them of their power and connection to the Source."

"It makes one wonder, how many pantheons have Darkseid and his army done this too." replies Scáthach. "The Egyptians are the third most powerful pantheon of Earth after the Norse and the Greeks, and while the gap in power between third and second is immense, much less between third and first, that is still enough power stolen to easily annihilate the Greeks." she says grimly.

"We have to stop them here, or we won't stand a chance when they invade Earth." says Azula as she rockets off towards Steppenwolf and causes a few sonic booms in her wake.

As she approaches Steppenwolf, her body becomes wreathed in lightning as she decides not to hold anything back. While she may be traveling at speeds that most would not be able to perceive, Steppenwolf seems to have no problem reacting to her by dodging the slash that would have decapitated him. Before he can regain his footing however, Azula kicks him hard enough to create a shockwave and send him flying away.

"Who are you?" questions the hawk headed Horus as he takes the time to take a deep breath while Scáthach joins the two, her body enveloped in a dark purple aura while her eyes glow of the same color.

"Reinforcements." replies Azula as the lightning coming from her increases.

Before Horus can answer, Steppenwolf returns with an enraged roar as he swings his massive axe towards Azula's head. With a grunt, Azula blocks his axe while Scáthach takes the opportunity to stab through his throat with her newly enchanted Gae Bolg. Not phased by the quickly healing gash on his throat, Steppenwolf punches towards Azula, only to miss when she retreats and causes him to overextend. Taking advantage of the opening, Scáthach slices Steppenwolf's arm off while Azula incinerates it to ashes. Although dumbfounded, Steppenwolf easily reacts to Horus' follow up attack and backhands him away with his axe.

While Horus flies away, Azula and Scáthach continue to exchange blows with Steppenwolf. While they were able to take control of the fight early on, the current exchange results in a stalemate as Steppenwolf fights on the defensive for fear of the previous situation repeating itself. He has no idea where these two warriors come from and only knows that they are far too skilled to belong to any of the previous pantheons that were wiped out. He also knows that they do not belong to the Norse since they would have sent either Thor or the Valkyries, not some no name warriors.

Regardless of what pantheon they come from, Steppenwolf doesn't believe that they can defeat him. The power that he's drained from the Egyptians has elevated him to new heights. Even now as he battles them, he can feel his arm regenerating while his body continues to function in maximum condition. As he thinks this however, Azula slices his hand that wields his axe while Scáthach breaks both of his knees before sending him flying with a well placed kick to the chest. As he crashes through rubble and broken buildings, pyramids, and monuments, a lightning bolt far bigger and powerful that he thought possible strikes his very being and attempts to incinerate him.

Had this been before he absorbed the Egyptian gods' powers, then he would have died here and now. However, with his amplified powers he easily tanks the strike with only a few third degree burns that quickly regenerate alongside his newly grown hand and arm. As he attempts to stand however, Azula and Scáthach appear next to him while they attempt to plunge their weapons into his heart and throat respectively. Using his massive axe and his free hand, Steppenwolf attempts to block both attacks. However, Azula stops her attack midway and tosses her sword to Scáthach who makes use of her position behind Steppenwolf to slice his head off. However, just as the sword reaches inches away from his neck, it turns into a cobra that wraps itself around Scáthach's hand and bites her.

Using their shock against them, Steppenwolf proceeds to send Scáthach flying away with a punch and slashes open a gash on Azula's stomach before backhanding her towards Scáthach. Recovering quickly, Azula takes control of her flight and approaches a recovering Scáthach even as the gash on her stomach heals.

"This isn't working." says Azula as she floats down to Scáthach who inscribes a series of runes on the ground, creating a barrier around them that completely cuts them off from the outside. "He's gained reality warping abilities." says Azula as she ignores Steppenwolf's approach.

"While that may be true, he certainly doesn't have a grasp on them. Turning your sword into a cobra was an obvious fluke." says Scáthach as she points towards Steppenwolf who is banging on the barrier with his axe.

"The problem is that his connection to the Source is far too potent. He has the source of every god in existence empowering him at a rate that no other god ever has before. And if his connection is so potent, then imagine how powerful Darkseid's connection has become." comments Azula.

Before Scáthach can answer, her Motherbox releases a series of beeps that make her smile.

"What did she say?" asks Azula.

"She can siphon the energy from Steppenwolf and channel it to us. However, she needs to constantly be close to him." explains Scáthach as cracks begin to form on the barrier.

"That means that we'll have to engage him in close quarter combat and limit our use of magic so that he doesn't escalate to using magic or his reality warping powers." says Azula.

"That's fine. A plan is better than nothing." answers Scáthach as she and Azula begin to build up an absurd amount of energy in their palms. "Ready?" she asks as she prepares herself to lower the barrier.

Azula simply answers with a nod, prompting Scáthach to lower the barrier as as the launch the build up energy at Steppenwolf. From Azula, two massive bolts of lightning punch through his chest like a laser beam while Scáthach blasts him with a concussive blast that sends him flying back.

Following through with their attacks, they quickly close the distance between them and Steppenwolf and engage him in close quarters combat.

This time the battle seems to be in Steppenwolf's favor as he manages to block and parry every strike from the duo. To any outsider and Steppenwolf it seems that he has adapted to Azula and Scáthach's fighting styles. However, cannot be further from the truth as the duo manipulate him into a false sense of security using their superior skills and his arrogance while Motherbox begins to drain him of his stolen energy while also seeing if she can cut him off from the Source, the well power that the gods draw from.

Just as it seems that the battle will fall into a set pattern of the duo attacking while Steppenwolf defends, the sky begins to form cracks and pieces of it fall off like glass. Before the combatants can react to this new phenomenon, a bloody and battered figure crashes through the created cracks and crashes on the ground next to Scáthach and Azula while a hammer wreathed in lightning falls next to him with enough force to crater the ground.