44 Darkseid

I exited the portal to arrive inside a hall with devices on the side that seemed to show some sort of data. The surroundings were rather dark with the only light being provided by red flame-like lights that resembled torches on the pillars at the wall.

I ignored all of this since I already had some knowledge of the place from Granny Goodness's memories and instead focused on the soldiers that acted as guards. I raised my hand and fired three [Death Beams] through their head. Like puppets whose strings had been cut, they dropped dead to the floor.

I could sense that there were more around, which meant that they weren't new gods, so I couldn't care less about them. There were also some abominations, experiments to advance the parademons into a new, more dangerous, and useful generation. They might have been strong enough to contend against a weaker man, but to me, dealing with them would just be a nuisance.

There were other targets I wanted to take care of before I visited Darkseid himself. I mentally went through the subordinates that I knew of and headed towards the nearest new god, Desaad.

He was a cunning little rat as far as I remembered, so I didn't want him to surprise me when I was fighting Darkseid. I ignored the ones that were trying to obstruct me and just crushed my way through the ceiling before dropping a basketball-sized ki blast at the building, wiping it out, and killing anyone inside in one fell swoop.

Ignoring the distressed shouts by the soldiers around the building, I flew into the sky and looked towards my target, the building that was surrounded by fire. Because why shouldn't it be? It was Apokolips, after all.

In a flash, I arrived at Desaad's torture chambers and entered it with ease. There were some defenses and a lot of guards that tried to obstruct my path, but I just obliterated anything in my way until I reached the innermost sanctum. I saw a panicking Desaad pressing all sorts of buttons on the display in front of him.

It seemed he had activated all available defenses and had sent all the available guards my way and was now left completely defenseless. I raised an arm and fired a ki blast at him.

I wasn't judging him by his body, but by the pathetic memories I got from Granny Goodness. Even as a new god, he wasn't formidable. The ki blast carried him to the ceiling before exploding. He dropped to the ground with his skin torn open, bleeding on the floor while groaning.

Picking him up by the face, I used him as a shield as exited the building through the ceiling while I drained Desaad of any useful information that I could get. With the crude method I was using, there wasn't much I could gather, but it filled some gaps about other subordinates and where they were right now.

I was incredibly careless as I ripped the information out of his mind, so there was a lot of information lost, but it also helped me get familiar with the limits of a new god's mind even if Desaad wasn't a unit of measure by all means, though his response time was remarkable, I gave him that.

His mind turned into a mush as I extracted everything that he was worth before snapping his neck. I threw him into another residence of a new god. Bernadeth, a former fury and the sister of Desaad. I burst through the ceiling and broke through every story until I reached the bottom.

My wreckage through the building made it incredibly unstable, which only worsened when I started to heedlessly fire at the guards patrolling the area. With their life force, I could even home in on the ones that I couldn't see, penetrating the walls to kill the ones behind them. I was quickly destroying the foundation of the building as I literally exploded almost every wall I could see.

I picked up the fleeing Bernadeth from her neck and redid what I had done to her brother. I dropped her twitching form after her mind had turned to mush before using a ki blast to kill her instantly. Afterward, I flew out of the building towards Darkseid's palace.

There were more disposable new gods living and serving Darkseid, but most were currently on a mission to distract the new gods of New Genesis. On this planet, there should be only Darkseid left to contend against me.

While hovering in front of the palace, I heard something approach me at a fast speed from behind me. I adjusted my position a bit and let the attack fly by me before I gripped the neck of Darkseid's son.

He looked almost comical, but from the power of his neck and the speed at which he had approached me, I could guess that his strength was at least higher than that of a fury, though he was still weaker than Steppenwolf.

With a punch to the temple, I knocked him out and was about to artificially put him into a coma. I hesitated, as there wasn't much use to him besides making him one of my puppets. Darkseid certainly wouldn't be intimidated by the threat of his son's death. Besides, as I entered his mind, I knew it would be a bitch and a half to reconstruct his mind.

I hesitated for a moment, wondering if his value as my slave was worth the effort. I delayed the decision since I could end him later on as well. There was no need for me to rush this and make a permanent decision.

Of course, the same could have been said about Desaad and Bernadeth, but I looked down on them for being so weak as gods that I couldn't care about them. Not to mention that the risk of them betraying me would be a lot higher. I would rather choose a straightforward brute than these scheming psychopaths any day.

Kalibak was dumb enough that I could confidently say that once his obsession with gaining the approval of Darkseid was extracted and reworked or redirected to me, he wouldn't be able to escape it.

It was probably just my paranoia speaking, but I remembered a story I had read or seen where the protagonist was able to escape the villain's mind-control/reading just because they were that much smarter than the villain. I couldn't remember which story it was, but that scene was so memorable to me that even now I wouldn't dare to control someone like Lex Luthor in case he found a way around my control.

Besides, those scheming new gods that were adverse with breaking someone's mind and brainwashing others would surely be the ones that could detect something amiss and reverse my mind control. Even with my knowledge and gained proficiency in mind control that it would be highly unlikely, the possibility still existed.

I threw Kalibak towards some rubble, burying him underneath it, and made my way towards the palace. I calmly walked through the big-ass entranceway as I only heard the screams of the citizens of Apokolips and the roaring of giant flaming pillars that were shot out by these pits which extended deeply into the planet.

I stepped into the building and headed upwards, where I knew Darkseid's throne room was. It didn't take me long to arrive. Darkseid sat on his throne as he watched me enter the room. There was a stone bridge over a lava pit leading towards the throne and several pillars extending from within the lava all the way to the ceiling on the side.

A hole in the wall on the side acted as a window, pointing out to a wretched sight of this planet. The throne seemed to be part of a machine as it was embedded into a giant pillar with metal tubes extending into the ceiling.

Maybe it was like the War World with the throne as the controlling center. The walls and pillars were made of red metal, not unlike the spaceship-turned camps on Almerac.

He watched me as I approached the throne.

"Your defenses are lousy." I opened up as I looked around, expecting to find anyone else. A trump card or a minion that I have to beat before the end boss, perhaps. Since I didn't find anyone, my gaze rested on the Lord of Apokolips, "Did you really think these wannabe gods would be able to capture me?"

"Their failure is inexcusable, but their deaths will be avenged." His voice was deep and gravelly, effortlessly carrying a threatening quality to it. I could feel my blood boil and my body got ready to fight as he slowly stood up and walked forward with his arms behind his back. He was taller than I was, but smaller than I had imagined. Probably only reaching 2.5 meters[8 feet].

"If you crawl on your knees and beg for my favor, I might reconsider your fate." His eyes threateningly glowing red as if he would activate his Omega Beam any moment now.

"You think I came all the way here to kneel before you? By the shape of Apokolips, I should have known that you are out of your mind." I couldn't help but let a grin appear on my face as I saw the glow of his eyes intensify.

"You are challenging a god, fool. You could have fled and extended your existence for a few more days. Instead, you came here, only to find your doom."

After he said that, the glow of his eyes turned into his infamous Omega Beam. The attack was fast. I was only able to react because I was mentally prepared. Barely able to raise my arm and send a palm-sized beam at Darkseid. It collided with his Omega Beam just a few meters away from me.

The bridge cracked underneath my feet as I was being pushed backward. I jumped up just as the bridge collapsed. With my other hand, I pointed my palm at Darkseid. A condensed blue sphere appeared almost instantly as I pumped it full as fast as I could.

[Big Bang Attack]

"HAAAA!" The attack exploded forth towards Darkseid, whose eyes widened just a bit. The attack arrived almost instantly, to which he raised his arms to guard. The moment it impacted, an explosion unfolded that obliterated the throne and everything else in the throne room. I was pushed back from the intense wind.

Even the enhanced alloy this building was made off couldn't contain the attack completely. It was already lucky that the building still stood afterward. Probably mainly because I contained the explosion in its area of effect.

I blocked the Omega Beam with my forearm, tanking the attack that had burst through the previous sloppy beam I used to block it.

My ki depleted rapidly and gave way as I felt it tank the Omega Beam's destructive properties. It left a nasty burn on my arm. The wound sizzled for a moment before I smelt the scent of burned flesh. It made me realize I shouldn't play around.

Initially, I thought I could feel him out with my Ikari state, but like this, I couldn't push him to use anything else than his Omega Beam.

I dropped out of the Ikari state and immediately pulled on the familiar feeling deep inside my body. Forcefully pulling the strength out of my body, letting it fill it entirely. Empowering and overwhelming my entire being.

The building quaked at my rising power. The cracks of the building worsened with the added pressure of my transformation. Chunks of the walls fell out and collapsed into the lava pit below.

"Impressive." With a wave of his arm, Darkseid dissipated the smoke the explosion had caused. He looked unharmed. The only evidence of my attack was the bit of dirt on his suit which he brushed off, "But not enough to best a god. Your last chance, kneel and become my warrior or meet your demise."

Just seeing him brushing off my full-frontal attack like this pulled the dormant strength inside me over the edge. The threat of him just standing there menacingly made the transformation almost effortlessly.

The air pressure grew intense as the air was pushed away from me. The debris was sent flying as the golden glow of my erratic and violent ki aura around me announced the arrival of the Saiyan legend. He didn't interrupt me. He just stood there, watching me.

"Darkseid, petty threats won't work on me." My fist clenched with boundless and unstoppable strength. He didn't comment on my change of appearance, probably because he didn't know of it.

"Your lack of fear displays ignorance, not bravado. After I am done with you, you will beg for the sweet release of death." Darkseid announced.

"Funny. I wanted to say the same thing."

With a burst of speed, unprecedented to the brief exchange I had shown before, I arrived just before he released his Omega beam again. With an uppercut, his head snapped upwards. His Omega Beam shot into the ceiling, never to be seen again.

Its flying path didn't change mid-flight. It seemed like not every attack would display that annoying accuracy that was portrayed in the various movies and shows.

The momentum carried him through the ceiling. The shock wave of me hitting him completely tore apart the still-standing ruins of this palace.

The shock wave of hitting someone in the face as a Super Saiyan had proven to be more destructive than the [Big Bang Attack] I had previously released. I shouldn't be surprised as I knew I was now 50 times as strong as before, but witnessing it in the flesh was something else. Although these thoughts flashed through my mind, I hadn't stopped my assault.

A ki sphere was already following him outside.

In an instant, I arrived outside as I pushed my way through the falling debris of the palace. I was just in time to see my ki attack hit him, resulting in an explosion. I could instantly feel the heat produced by the casual ki attack I had sent after him.

As the explosion faded, a lot of smoke replaced it.

Darkseid uncontrollably tumbled out of the smoke, with smoke following him. It was just a moment that I believed that I went too hard on him before that thought vanished as I watched him. He abruptly stopped midair before unnaturally adjusting in the air as he looked at me.

A red beam exited out of his eyes and headed for me in a zig-zag. I dropped to the floor and shot through the buildings. Looking back, I saw the red beam following me. As I wrecked myself through the building, parademons could be seen everywhere, though there were some other life forms among the citizens of this wretched world as well.

However, to me, it didn't matter which species they belonged to. I didn't feel any guilt as I used them to tank the attack, which completely vaporized them. The entire world felt yucky and evil. It was honestly disgusting how many on this planet and the planet itself had accumulated such degenerate ki to where I wouldn't feel a thing if I eradicated the entire planet.

After making my way through the poor excuse of a city. I raised my hand to where Darkseid was hovering and started firing at him, only for him to fire Omega Beams right through them, taking out a few ki blasts with a single counter before it fizzled away. Just seeing that clarified that it wasn't an attack I wanted to be touched with. If I wanted to dominate the fight, I needed to close the gap.

With another ki blast that wouldn't contain its explosive power too much and focused on being as bright as possible, I prepared myself to approach him. He didn't want me close and would just spam his stupid move. I had to distract him for a moment and since Big Barda hadn't any time to tell him about my moves, he would be caught unaware of my flash grenade-like attack.

The ki blast looked just like the other, but when it was hit by an Omega Beam the following explosion made it feel like looking directly into the sun. Fortunately, I had already closed my eyes to prevent myself from being blinded. The power was spread out, so I didn't hesitate as I flew into the searing hot aftermath.

In the disguise of the bright explosion, I threw out a [Destructo Disk] heading in an arc while I rushed at Darkseid in a straight line. Besides floating backward a bit, he had moved little in the face of the admittedly weak attack.

The attack blinded him, and he didn't seem to have a way to track my movements. Besides the initial attack, this would be the first exchange in close quarters.

My punch in his face wasn't met with a block. The surrounding dark cloud instantly vanished from the shock wave of my punch.

His nose shifted ever so slightly. He grunted from the hit and grimaced slightly. I knew this had to hurt him. From the corner of my eye, a shadow approached.

The next moment, the sound of the screaming aliens had vanished, and the surroundings blurred together. My sense of gravity turned upside down before I managed to stop and shake my head. I looked at Darkseid. The ringing in my ears was still prominent.

He cracked his neck, which attracted my attention to the blood leaking from his backhand. Was he injured when he blocked my ki attack at the start of our battle? As if on cue, I noticed something. My fingertips touched my upper lip, only to have blood coloring it. With my forearm, I wiped it away. That bitch backhanded me.

Darkseid hovered towards me as if he was unconcerned that I would attack him. Not surprising after effortlessly dodging my Destructo Disk before continuing his path towards me. Obviously, having noticed it long ago.

With both my arms raised, I created two more disks and swung them at him while controlling all three of them towards him. He wasn't impressed. His Omega Beams made quick work of them.

My ki flared up before I shot through the air again arriving almost instantly in front of him. At least I had the advantage in speed. I twisted my body and kicked him as hard as I could.

My shin smacked against his hard head. Like my previous attacks, a loud bang as if a cannon was being fired, sounded out from flesh hitting flesh. Darkseid snarled as his head tilted with the force of impact.

All the years he had been alive weren't wasted. His arm snapped towards my leg. I pulled back just in time. He followed with a knee, which I quickly blocked. The impact of it traveled through my leg. I worried that it would snap if he used a bit more force.

Dodging another attack, I entered his guard. A hook to his torso left my arm tingling. Ridiculous. He ignored my attack and instead swung at me. I gritted my teeth as I barely managed to redirect his punch.

I pulled back for a quick breather and to shake off the trauma, but he pressured me. Even though I deflected his attacks, I felt a lingering tingle, making me quickly recognize the gap between us.

Every hit I managed to get through was brushed off, while I would feel every attack I blocked or deflected. Although I was landing all the hits now, just redirecting his attacks took a toll on me.

It wasn't until the first punches slipped through my guard that I truly realized who I was fighting against. His fist drilled into my stomach, trying to crush my innards.

I could feel the hit travel through my body. My spine, my entire skeleton, was about to collapse. My rips were creaking from the abuse, but I persisted in close combat.

His Omega Beams packed too much punch, coupled with the short charging... It killed all my momentum to dodge it, though that didn't mean I was much better off with my fists.

I hadn't expected it since Granny Goodness's memories didn't show him in close combat, but he was good. He used his advantages perfectly. I prided myself on being an excellent fighter, but I found myself in a bit of a pickle.

From the number of hits I could get through his defense, a lesser fighter might suggest that I was more skilled, but even the hits I landed weren't random. He could dodge most of my hits if he wanted to, but then he would miss out on some counters. Of course, he wasn't an invincible fighter.

I tried to prove with a heavy elbow to his chin made his head turn, only for his entire body to follow. It was a split second too late when I realized he used the momentum as he backhanded me into his planet. The buildings were made of the special alloy, but it still gave way as if I was a stone thrown into water. I only stopped because I willed myself to stop.

"Really, the same move twice??"

Just me pushing myself up out of the debris had the metal look like dough in my hands. I didn't care about the environment or what I accidentally destroyed by squeezing too hard. My concentration was entirely on trying to pull all my strength out of my body to aid me in this fight.

He had the upper hand, but not for long. A formidable hand-to-hand combatant he might be, but I had seen better. I was already getting used to his style, which hid its savageness with his efficiency. Perhaps he realized I was improving and adapting to his style as he pressured me, or he just wanted to end me.

Trying to deny me any rest, he wanted to push on until I broke. His declaration that he would grind my bones to dust was clear enough. Not that I cared to listen to him. I wasn't here to talk.

With my arms high, I blocked his punches with my elbows, using the hardest part of my arm, hoping to break his hands. Though I could already tell it was a pipedream. I felt myself losing ground. I backed away as I tried my best to not be hit. He was like an unstoppable force. His every punch caused whirlwinds to follow.

The many buildings were ignored as he aimed for my head, trying to crush it with his fist. I was getting weaker with every block. The pressure was too much, but this wasn't one-sided. I targeted his vital areas. A spear hand with a ki-edge cut off a layer on his neck before he retaliated.

Darkseid whacked me across the side of the head and into the ground, drawing a deep trench for several kilometers.

When I finally stopped and broke out of the ground, I put two fingers on my forehead as I concentrated my energy on them. Darkseid was already on to me, wanting to give me no time to attack. I did my best to back away and use the parademons around us to block his Omega Beams. Much to his annoyance.

It wasn't until he arrived just an arm's length away that I released my attack.

[Special Beam Cannon]

The probably best attack in terms of penetration power exited my fingers, only to meet Darkseid's Omega Beam. His retaliating Omega Beam resisted the attack for a moment, but not for long. At the last moment, he tilted his head out of the way. He was just slow enough for my attack to graze his right eye before continuing out of the atmosphere.

He clutched his eye before he roared out and threatened me to let me experience something worse than death.

"How about something less generic?" I smirked, as I could see him tick off.

"Who do you think you are, mortal?!" The zig-zagging Omega Beam returned as it zapped through the surrounding space in a confusing manner. I ignored it and just pushed off the ground and shot straight at him.

His beam hit me in the back, but I refused to acknowledge the hit in favor of using a flying side-kick to drive my foot in his face. The kick landed and the resulting pressure flattened the surrounding surface of the planet into a crater, while Darkseid shot through several buildings before he fell into one of this world's pits of fire.

That wasn't something that would kill him, obviously, so I fired several ki blasts as fast as I could all around the pit.

A few seconds later, Darkseid burst through the lava on the ground before realizing the numerous ki blasts hovering around him.

[Hellzone Grenade]

Every single ki blast homed in him, only giving him time to roar out his annoyance. Every attack had a minimized blast radius, but that small impact area made the damage by one attack that much more potent.

If that was this easy to end him though I would have been disappointed, so it didn't surprise me too much when Darkseid decided to fly through the attacks, approaching me after realizing that his Omega Beam was blocked by throwing several parademons and rubble in its path with my telekinetic powers.

His flying path wasn't a straight line as every ki attack of [Hellzone Grenade] slightly thrust him into the opposite direction of where they hit him. However, he still made a good way through the seemingly never-ending attack.

The moment he arrived in front of me, I met his fists with my elbows again, using his attacks as a source of the momentum I needed to counterattack. He was 1.5 times stronger than I was, maybe a bit more, but he wasn't insurmountable.

"You are weaker than I thought. What a 'god' you are!" I taunted. His knee directly punished me for it, knocking the wind out of me before he grazed my face with a fist, sending me into the barren, rocky soil below us.

My body blasted through the boulders with ease. My body drilled into the hard, rocky floor. After who knows how long, my momentum finally stopped. I was underground. The temperature had already risen. My hair would have already combusted if it wasn't protected by my ki.

"That was why you shouldn't talk while fighting." I mused before jumping out of the hole in the ground. Just as I emerged from the ground, I felt the familiar heat of a destructive beam.

With a ki blast, I canceled out the attack, but a hand suddenly grabbed me by the skull before a sharp pain in my spine made me scream out. I could hear Darkseid wind up for another punch, so I tried my best to ignore the pain. A spheric energy barrier emerged out of my body, pushing everything unwelcome away.

Darkseid couldn't hold on to me with the barrier pushing him away, even when he strongly resisted it, trying to grab me. He added another layer of pressure with a continuous Omega Beam as he tried to break my ever-expanding barrier.

It wasn't until I detonated the barrier that I was able to distance myself, using the explosion as a visual distraction, before an Omega Beam tore through the smoke and hit me squarely on the chest. I could hear my skin sizzling as it was burned.

My energy was getting low, so his attacks did more and more damage. While Darkseid was barely getting weaker or hurt, it wasn't anywhere near the degree where I could confidentially say that I could win.

He still looked fine, with just several superficial cuts and bruises. Some wounds were bigger but nothing that would hinder him greatly except for my [Special Beam Cannon] that seemed to have taken his eye out. On the other hand, his attacks were just too heavy-hitting.

The burned wounds of his Omega beam, the sting of my numerous open wounds amid dusty smoke, and the stabbing pain of the broken ribs weren't pleasant, but a good reminder that I wouldn't be winning this way, especially with my elbows that were starting to break apart in the effort to break his hands.

My body was slowly falling apart as I hit myself against something more resilient than me. His body didn't even feel like normal, tough skin like Kara's or anyone else that was tough. It felt like a body made of rocks that were too hard to break apart, though I knew it was just an illusion. The blood leaking out of his body was proof of him just being made of flesh and blood like everyone else.

Still, if I wanted to come out victorious, I had to attempt something that I had suspended until I had mastered Super Saiyan. Well, now or never.

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A/N: Break on 06.06 and 13.06. I have to finish my bachelor thesis, so imma be busy.

Btw. this is cartoon Darkseid. I read some comments about Darkseid only using avatars in the multiverse or something. I googled it and it seems to be a fan misconception, but there were comics that confirmed it as well? Can someone confirm or deny this? It won't influence the story too much since I already have plans regardless of what is canon, but it would be good to know.