106 The Source

Edge of the Multiverse

December 2006

As the gods begin to make their way to the Boom Tube, it does not even take a second to telepathically relay the plan to Athena and Aphrodite. The plan is simple, during their earlier battle Ambrosius and Scáthach inscribed a set of runes inside of Darkseid. Every cut or open wound that was inflicted on him has the runic array inscribed within them. The array's purpose is to slowly and stealthily transfer Darkseid's stolen connection to the Source and his power to Ambrosius, Scáthach, Azula and Morgan while also breaking down his divinity until he becomes mortal. Due to how much power Darkseid has currently, it is almost impossible to kill him. As such, the plan is to allow the array to do its job by buying time and to draw his attention to them so that he never notices the arrays. Despite Darkseid's genius, he tends to overlook anything too small and deems them unworthy of his attention. This plan is to use that against him.

The assault on Darkseid begins as soon as the gods emerge from the Boom Tube. No words are spoken, no warning is given and Darkseid certainly did not receive any time to prepare. Despite this however, Darkseid's response can only be called optimal as he manifests a shield to block Ambrosius' Excidium blast. His shield however does not last much longer against Ambrosius' onslaught, allowing Azula to take the opportunity and smash a lightning encased fist to his chest that staggers him and sends out a shockwave that shakes the Multiverse upon impact. He recovers quickly however and promptly blasts an Omega Beam towards her. The beam connects only for her body to shatter like glass, showing that his target was in fact an illusion.

As he turns to block an incoming slash from Scáthach, Athena takes this opportunity to send her spear through his eye. Despite making contact, the spear is easily removed and his eye heals in a matter of seconds. With the spear in hand, Darkseid turns and slashes at Aphrodite only for Azula to intercept the attack and allows Aphrodite to cut open a gash in his arm that once again quickly heals.

While Darkseid has been defending himself, Ambrosius has taken a second to inscribe a runic array in the air. From the runic array, a rift is torn open in the empty space resembling a gaping mouth. With a thunderous roar and a tremor, a massive chariot emerges from the rift. Its dimensions are greater than that of the average house and it has two large, straight spikes on its sides used to demolish surrounding obstacles and hurl the debris at enemies. Pulling the massive chariot are two massive bulls of the same size that travel on lightning, create thunderous sounds and webs of lightning with each stomp as they travel, and each lightning strike shakes the very fabric of space as the bulls smash against Darkseid and proceed to run him over.

Jumping into the chariot, Azula takes the rains and proceeds to empower the bulls even further as the lightning they generate not only increases in numbers, but also in power. Recovering quickly, an enraged Darkseid attempts to blast the chariot with his Omega Beams, only to be ensnared by Bahamut as the massive sea serpent tightly coils its body around Darkseid and proceeds to burn the god's face with flames almost as hot as Azula's.

Before he can retaliate, Bahamut quickly retreats as a massive bolt of lightning, the likes of which can easily destroy Earth, strikes Darkseid and an Excidium blast of similar power smashes into his chest. As he flies backwards from the assault, Darkseid finds that his body is completely frozen from an attack by Scáthach that would freeze the Earth ten times over. Using what little control he has over his reality warping powers, Darkseid shatters the ice just in time for Ambrosius to appear before him and impale Poseidon's trident through his chest. As Darkseid attempts to backhand Ambrosius away from him, the God of War blocks the blow with enough force to create a shockwave that is felt throughout the fragmenting Multiverse.

While Darkseid deals with Ambrosius, Aphrodite attempts to slash the back of his throat only to be struck by an Omega Beam that sends her flying back. Before she can be hit by another Omega Beam, Scáthach opens a Boom Tube that sends her back to Earth along with Athena.

Turning her attention back to Darkseid, Scáthach proceeds to freeze the entire left side of Darkseid's body just as he rears his fist back to strike Bahamut. Taking advantage of the opening, the sea serpent proceeds to spit acid on the god's face before ripping out his throat. Breaking out of the ice with a furious roar, Darkseid proceeds to release a massive shockwave that sends his assailants flying back towards each other.

"How much longer until the array activates?" asks Azula from the chariot.

"Normally I would wager a few more seconds." says Ambrosius as he looks at his brightly glowing trident in concern. "With the Source running through his veins like this however, I say a few minutes." replies Ambrosius as they watch Darkseid's body heal from its injuries at a slower pace than before.

"Godling, what have you done?" questions Darkseid as he finds that not only do his injuries heal at a slower pace, but it is becoming more and more difficult to channel as much from the Source as he wants.

Rather than answer Darkseid, Ambrosius, Scáthach, Azula, and Bahamut launch themselves at him. Seeing that they have no plan to answer him, Darkseid decides that he will receive his answer once he's crushed them beneath his heel.

The first clash between them results in a shockwave when Darkseid blocks a strike form Ambrosius' trident only for Ambrosius to dissolve before his eyes and appear a few feet away from just as he releases a beam of pure divine energy from his trident powerful enough to send Darkseid flying into a moon. As he recovers, Darkseid is blasted by a bolt of lightning frozen in place just in time for the massive chariot to once again run him over and for Bahamut's tail to send him flying through the moon, shattering it.

Manifesting a shield to block any incoming assault, Darkseid regains control of his flight before putting the moon back together and hurtling it towards an improching Scáthach. Before the moon can reach her, Ambrosius completely destroys it with an Excidium Beam and allows Scáthach to impale Darkseid in the throat.

As Darkseid moves to punch her away, Ambrosius appears near Darkseid and slashes his back open only to have to block an incoming Omega Beam. Unlike before, the Omega Beam is not a single attack but rather a continuous one that Ambrosius continues to block even as cracks begin to form on his trident.

Deflecting one more Omega Beam, Ambrosius proceeds to channel divine energy through his weapon and blasts Darkseid backwards to be impaled by Scáthach with an ice spear big enough to leave a gaping hole through Darkseid's chest.

Unfortunately for Ambrosius, the amount of power he channels into the trident is too much and proceeds to shatter the weapon. Discarding the broken weapon, Ambrosius summons his spear to him. As he grips the spear, a flash of light emerges from the weapon, catching every combatant's attention.

Hoping to stop whatever Ambrosius is up to, Darkseid appears before him with his fist swinging towards the god. Before his fist can connect, a golden lasso wraps around his arm and Scáthach pulls him backwards, leaving him wide open for Ambrosius to stab him through his head. Before the weapon can completely break through Darkseid's skin, he snaps the golden lasso and blasts an Omega Beam at Ambrosius who responds with his own Excedium Beam. Unlike in their last struggle, Darkseid gains the upper hand and blasts Ambrosius only for his body to explode into lightning and fire just as the real Ambrosius appears behind him and stabs him through his healing chest.

Before Darkseid can retaliate, a beam of pure divine energy, more powerful than any that Ambrosius has ever created before, blasts through Darkseid's chest and completely disintegrates his left side. With a pained roar, Darkseid teleports away from Ambrosius and conjures a shield around him as soon as he appears miles away.

"You…" menacingly says Darkseid as he attempts to access the Source and heal himself. "What have you done?!" he demands once he realises how limited his connection to the source has become.

"No matter." says Darkseid after taking a calming deep breath and uses what Source power he has to slowly rebuild his left side. " I am Darkseid, Lord of Apokolips. I have ravaged pantheons down to the smallest organism. I have crushed gods older than you as easily as I have crushed all who dared to oppose me throughout the cosmos. I am power unlike any you have ever known: absolute, infinite, and unrelenting, and I will not be made a fool of by gods younger than their planet." he claims as he sends two planets five times the size of Earth flying at them.

With ease and despite knowing that the planets are nothing but diversions, Ambrosius destroys them just in time to see the Omega Beams blasting towards them. With a runic inscription in the air, Ambrosius blocks the attack as Bahamut, hidden behind an illusion, slithers around Darkseid tears his neck into shreds before being teleported back to Ambrosius as a blue flame burns his right arm into ashes

With a silent scream, Darkseid sends out an Omega Beam that zigzags towards Ambrosius that he deflects with his spear as Scáthach completely ensnares Darkseid with a set of golden runic chains. As Darkseid attempts to blast the chains with his Omega Beams, he finds that the more he struggles, the more the chains tighten around him, and the weaker he becomes until eventually he cannot even muster enough power to use his Omega Beams.

"Let's get this over with." says Azula as the chariot and the bulls dissolve into golden lights and she, Scáthach and Ambrosius approach the chained Darkseid.

As they place their hands on Darkseid and begin to completely drain him of the Source, a bright multicolored light erupts from Darkseid and separates into three parts before flying into Ambrosius, Scáthach and Azula. As the light continues to leave Darkseid and go into the trio, Darkseid's body begins to quickly shrink and slowly return to his humanoid look before he became a god.

Other than his skin retaining its grey tone, Darkseid now looks completely human. His skin's hard texture and rocklike looks smooth out and become as soft as a normal human's. His glowing red eyes lose their glow and he gains a black sclera with red iris, the armor that he wears crumbles, showcasing his now slimmer and much smaller body.

As the last Source power drains from Darkseid, his connection to it snaps and a shockwave resonates throughout the Multiverse along with a blinding light that forces Scáthach, Azula, and Ambrosius to close their eyes.

As the trio opens their eyes, they find themselves suspended in a white void that stretches in every direction farther than they can see even with their godly physiology. Despite floating in the void, the group finds that their sense of direction is completely skewed and they cannot feel anything. Not air, heat, cold, or even the vastness of the space they find themselves.

"This is unexpected." comments Azula as she looks upwards, or at least what she believes to be up.

"What did you three do?" asks the voice of Morgan from behind them. "You were supposed to defeat Darkseid. Not bring us to… whatever here is." she says as the trio turn around to face her.

"This was not intentional." answers a confused Scáthach. "I do not believe that we had a hand in bringing us here." she says.

"*That is correct.*" speaks the void.

"Did the void just speak?" wonders Azula.

"*I am not the void, but rather the Source.*" it answers with a voice neither male nor female. "*This is not a physical space, but a metaphysical one from which I have brought you here to speak to.*" it says.

"So Hecate was right. You are sentient." observes Azula.

"*To some extent. I do not have an identity, I have no gender, nor do I fall under any specific category that you can label me as. I am what I am and beyond the comprehension of even gods such as yourselves.*" it explains.

"What is the purpose of bringing us here?" asks Scáthach as she voices the question on all of their minds.

"*The purpose is simple. To rid myself of this Multiverse you come from.*" it says, causing the group to prepare for battle. "*You misunderstand me.*" says the Source. "*I do not wish to extinguish this Multiverse. No, despite this Multiverse's problematic nature due to how it was created, I find that I am… fond of it, for lack of a better term.*" explains it.

"Fond of it? And how does its creation make it problematic?" questions Ambrosius.

"*That is the best term I can make use of for your minds to comprehend.*" says the Source. "*As for its creation, that is simpler.*" it answers. "*You see, far before time existed I created 'The Hands', a group of celestial beings, and gave them the duty to birth Multiverses by using their internal positive energies, which they have come to call Connective Energy and Anti-Crisis Energy.*" ir explains. "*All but one followed my instructions and created countless Multiverse with the Connective Energy. The one who disobeyed created a Multiverse with the Crisis Energy, the opposite of the Anti-Crisis Energy, in the hopes of creating a Multiverse everlasting by feeding upon other Multiverses.*" it explains.

"It created our Multiverse." comments Morgan.

"*Correct.*" answers the Source. "*Naturally I destroyed the one who disobeyed me but chose to leave the Multiverse as is out of interest. I observed your Multiverse until you four arrived within it. I had planned to remove you from the Multiverse when I was met with a being far more powerful than I who simply introduced themselves as R.O.B. According to R.O.B, it allowed me to sense your presence for a simple purpose, to draw my attention.*" explains the Source.

"I believe that I may have misheard you, but did you say that you met R.O.B?" questions Ambrosius.

"*Indeed I did.*" answers the Source. "*R.O.B struck me a deal, allow you to reside in that Multiverse for a set amount of time and he will offer me a solution for that Multiverse that does not require its destruction.*" it says. "*As I have grown 'fond' of that Multiverse I accepted and watched you carefully. It was during my observation of you that I understood R.O.B's intentions, to offer you this Multiverse should you successfully achieve godhood. However, I was not content with that as I saw that if you simply lived long enough you would have achieved godhood. I wanted you to prove your worthiness to me.*" says the Source.

"Did you stage our conflict with the gods?" questions Scáthach with a frown.

"*No.*" answers the Source. "*I simply allowed Darkseid to find a way to drain the other gods millenia early and did not interfere when he enacted his plan. Had Darkseid not found a way to drain the gods your conflict with the Olympians would have still occurred, including your conflict with Klarion, Ares, Brainiac and any other conflict that was not directly related to Darkseid. I also did not aid or hinder you in any way.*" it explains

Silence fills the void as Morgan, Scáthach, Azula and Ambrosius process what they have just heard. Finding out that none of this was staged other than allowing Darkseid to have a single piece of knowledge is reassuring. At the same time however, that very same knowledge allowed Darkseid to massacre at least trillions. The pantheons are not the only ones who suffered. With the breaking of the Source Wall, many dimensions were wiped out and many more lives were lost when the countless Earths began to occupy the same space. Still, despite how they feel about it, there is nothing they can do other than accept the power and use it to right some of those wrongs.

"Alright. What do we have to do?" asks Ambrosius.

"*Nothing.*" answers the Source. "*This was not a request. Me bringing you here was merely a… formality.*" it says and with a blinding flash of light the four find themselves in their original positions in the Multiverse.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

AN: This chapter ends the DC arc and I'm honestly tempted to end the fic here. Tell me what you guys think (and please don't just say it was good or it was bad. Give me actual criticism like what did you guys like, what did you not like or even hated, how do you think I could improve, what would have made you like it more, etc…)

I still plan on doing the vacation jumps, but the narrative is basically done here. So don't expect anything too deep in terms of plot or anything.