Confrontation

The whole world seemed to freeze in tense anticipation as a metal platform slowly rose from the center of the alien structure in the sea, on which a mighty five-meter tall humanoid stood with his arms folded behind his back, surrounded by his minions. I was naturally out of breath, and my ears were full of absorbent cotton, but soon the platform rose to its maximum height, and the obsession disappeared, allowing me to breathe in full. Judging by the convulsive sighs of my allies, I wasn't the only one who was taken aback by the epic appearance of the main bogeyman of the multiverse.

The Ruler of Apokolips soared and headed in our direction at a very leisurely pace. When he was halfway there, a trio of fighter jets flew in front of him. As they flew a little closer, they fired a homing missile.

The alien didn't even think about defending himself or changing his route, and the night sky erupted in a bright flash from several powerful explosions. Burning wreckage of armor and body parts of the cyberjacks accompanying their master rained down from the sky.

"I thought he'd be stronger," Green Lantern began to say, but was silenced when a sharp gust of wind dispersed the cloud of fire, revealing the unharmed leader of the creatures.

The pilots began to make a sharp turn to attack again, but scarlet rays burst out of the monster's eyes, zigzagging around the mighty figure, and in a few moments burned through the equipment, turning it into a melted pile of scrap metal. After assessing the strength of the armor and the killing power of the peepholes, I hugged both beauties and dragged them to the nearest alley. I'm not even sure the others noticed, absorbed in the air battle.

Mousey was very impressed with Darkseid's capabilities, so she didn't immediately realize that I was going to send her away from this place, for which I was instructing Harley in detail. Not to say that my faithful companion was thrilled, but in a combat situation she followed the instructions quite clearly, with occasional suggestions.

"Hey! Why? - In one word, Mouse managed to express the storm of emotions that overcame her, where anger at overprotection, fear of the invulnerable monster and worry for the remaining heroes were intertwined.

"Scree!!!"

~Schmuck~

The underdemon who came out from behind the corner immediately met the baseball bat of the blond cutie. So, fear and worry in the redhead's emotions are obviously unnecessary.

"I don't want you to die," I hold the girl close to me while creating a courage buff.

If I cast it on a normal person, he could at least hide from the aliens who smelled fear. I had to figure out how to extend the spell over at least a couple of streets, because I couldn't do such a large-scale weave even with the support of Shadow Peak, and I'd be too tired to work through a lot of energy.

"But I can fight!"

"Not against that gray-skinned freak. You saw how the planes were destroyed, right? It's like he's showing off, but once he gets tired of it, it's going to be incredibly difficult to just survive. I think even Superman would be powerless against him, and you're only slightly superior to the average person.

"But... But I'm a hero too!"

"Hmmm... Then why don't you do what you're supposed to do? Go into town and rescue civilians from monsters, and Harley will back you up."

"And you? - Two sad blue eyes stare back at me.

"Well, I'm stronger than you, and I'm not gonna get ahead of you. Huh. Magic is everything," my palms were filled with colored sparks, creating a miniature fireworks display.

"Well then... - without finishing the phrase, the redhead gave me a very hot kiss, and then I had to give some time to the second girl, after which they still headed away from the neighborhood.

It didn't take long to talk and say goodbye, so I was able to quickly make my way back to find the monster hovering not far from our company. It was as if he was allowing himself to get a good look at me and take in the majesty. I couldn't say that our enemy's appearance was much different from the one shown by the obelisk, but unlike the metallic bust we'd seen earlier, Darkseid's face was grayer, resembling the texture of cracked stone, and his high-tech armor was a deep blue, with gold inlays to match the armor of the minions hovering nearby, and a red Omega symbol on his belt.

To be honest, I had a faint hope that he wasn't flying towards us, but it looked like we were doing a pretty good job of reducing the critter population to draw attention to ourselves, though maybe it was the fact that there were heroes gathered here who'd managed to finish off his general and interrupt the Unity.

"I am entropy. I am death. I am Darkseid," each word echoed in his head, sending shivers down his spine.

I decided to use my true sight, so I dived right into the second layer, and then I felt like cursing. The creature's aura stretched across the width of the street, and yet it was too static, too dark, too dense, too alien to this world. It was the first time I had ever seen such a thing, but it was as if the planet itself was trying to get rid of the foreign body by stirring up the astral background. However, it made little sense, as all the invisible vortices that appeared were unsuccessfully smashed against the unshakable aura. Oh, I felt that Darkseid would not be able to get away with my illusions, and physical attacks were unlikely to do much harm to this monster.

Hey! Why the hell am I even putting my hands down?! I've got one adorable person with different colored eyes as my patron, and judging by the comics, Earthlings have fought off even more powerful creatures more than once or twice. Although... There's a pretty high chance of dying in the process, so it's worth doing everything I can to have as few regrets as possible when embarking on a new adventure.

"Ha ha ha ha! - A joyous laugh shakes off the obsession. - Since our lives are hanging by a thread, it's worth it to have one last fling," I voiced my own thoughts loudly, so that a moment later I pulled Diana close to me and gave her a very hot kiss, appreciating the firmness of her taut ass.

The Amazon princess was so shocked that she even forgot to be outraged when I put her back in her place, pulling back her slightly upturned sylor-fuku. The rest of the team was shocked, too, and Darkseid was silent as he watched the spectacle. Probably, his arrival had never been greeted in such a way before, so the script broke.

"Oh, what the hell! - Hal, in whose eyes I saw real envy, was the first to break the long silence. - It's just a big gray man in armor. Step back and watch the light show. Green Lantern's about to give it to him!

Clearly working for the audience, he bravely lunged into battle, creating powerful spiked gauntlets around his hands.

The alien did not dodge, allowing himself to be hit, but the green structure shattered like glass when it collided with his breastplate. Lantern swung with his other hand, enveloping himself more strongly in green energy, but Darkseid had already assessed his opponent's level, so he grabbed him sharply with his huge paw and threw him into the nearest building.

"Oh, I guess I didn't get the heat," I commented on the short fight.

The superhero fell to the asphalt and was immediately attacked by two of the nearest parademons. Naturally, our team couldn't stay on the sidelines and rushed to the attack, only to get caught up in the crowd of monsters, behind whose backs the ruler of Apokolips stood calmly with his arms folded behind his back. Fortunately, Flash and his blade quickly dispatched two of Lantern's battering non-demons, and the latter decided to try his luck again. He created a train out of the ring's energy, and flew himself into the center of the structure. I don't know what he was counting on, but the structure shattered into green shards once again. The alien's eyes flashed red, beginning to form deadly beams as a trident flew into his head, launched by the mighty hand of the Atlantean.

"I hope I'm not too late? - The man in the tight-fitting scaly armor asked, smiling contentedly.

I wish I could say that with the arrival of another superhero, things got better and we brought all the aliens to their knees and brutally killed them, demonstrating the superiority of Good over Evil. But reality is full of disappointments. Despite the fact that our friendly company was quite cheerfully reducing the population of fire-breathing armored monsters, any attempts to harm their leader ended in a fizzle, and sometimes serious injuries. Lantern did get hurt when he tried to smack Darkseid again, creating a huge hammer to do so, and his arm was broken. Diana had to fight off the deadly rays with her sword, and Aquaman had to drag away the overactive idiot. I was quietly buffing allies, debuffing enemies, occasionally casting spells on Darkseid, and using firearms to support the occasional attacks of Cyborg, Flash, and Bats. The superheroes weren't exactly eager to fight the main villain, though, as he would first take their attack and then counterattack in the best Chuck Norris tradition: "Is that a punch? Here's a punch!". The rest of the time he preferred not to interfere and calmly watched the fight.

As I suspected, the magical structures simply dissipated when they hit the monster's aura, but the physical objects they created did quite well. At least they could reach the gray-skinned humanoid floating in the air, and one of the ice icicles broke near his left eye.

Oops, looks like the last attack was too successful.

"You're the mage," he muttered, turning his head and looking directly at me despite the distraction charms.

So, Jay, congratulations, you've managed to get some attention after all. And who promised Harley not to take any chances?

"Oh, I'm honored. Darkseid himself knows me! - I frantically begin to weave the strongest spells of protection and even my newly learned stone skin, hoping that the asphalt beneath my feet will be enough to form it.

"I don't care about pathetic insects, but your abilities have managed to interest one of my cronies."

"Ha ha ha. Now you're going to offer me a welfare package and cookies so I'll defect to the side of multiverse evil?"

"No. You have already missed your chance to join me willingly. Soon enough, Earth will fall, and you will find yourself in Terroria, where you and all your comrades will be forcibly turned into my loyal subjects."

"Ha ha ha ha ha, won't my belly button come undone? I'm a mage after all, and I can always hide in the folds of space that no demon can find. Besides, my companions are strong enough to send you back."

"How presumptuous."

His eyes flashed red.

"Speculum Scutum, Lapis Cutis," I activated the shield and stone skin charms in a cursive voice, feeling the illusion's weave dissipate from the latter.

~Bah~

The beams detonated, colliding with the barrier. Unfortunately, it couldn't take the abuse, and I was thrown back by the blast. While I was recovering and restoring the enchantments on my face, the heroes had just finished the last parademon and rushed to attack the leader of the invasion, but Darkseid had already evaluated each of us, so he saw no point in further confrontation with weaklings. His hands were enveloped in red energy, and then he simply slammed them to the ground.

"Scutum Maximum! - I shouted another spell, splashing it with a mixture of energy, before the world was drowned in a white-hot flash that blinded me even through my closed eyelids.

I came to my senses from a light pat on the cheek.

"Joker, Joker, Joker, wake up!"

"It better be a sexy hottie, not a hairy man, and in the case of a hottie, a kiss is necessary to wake her up," I replied, struggling to open my eyes and seeing Aquaman's slightly blurry face in front of me.

"Save the Earth first," Diana's disgruntled voice came from the side.

"Oh, now I'm ready to save planets in packs. What's the plan? - I jumped to my feet to immediately lean on my cane. Well, I think I'll hold off on the vigorous exercise for now.

"Cyborg and I are infiltrating Apokolips and hacking into the central server. You're distracting Darkseid in the meantime," Bats replied.

"And how do you intend to get there? I doubt they'll let you through the portal so easily, well, maybe only with a fight, but who knows what awaits on the other side? Maybe there's an endless army that even the boy scout can't get through."

"If you have ideas, suggest them," Bats cut off my speculation.

"Of course I do! - A satisfied smile came out on my face.

***

"Pha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha, it looks good on you," Green Lantern said with a laugh when he saw the new look of Gotham's protector.

"I agree, it looks pretty good," Diana supported him, carefully hiding her smile, while the rest of the audience tried not to laugh out loud.

"Mrh," the person under discussion mumbled something indistinctly and began to scrutinize the suit.

The superhero did look a little unusual. Purple mask with rhinestones, smoothly passing into the same color cape, purple underpants, gloves, boots and a symbol on the chest, which complemented the emblem "Hello Kitty", well, and the rest of the costume painted in a cool pink-purple color. I only did not change the color of the legendary yellow belt, having caught faint mana emanations from it.

And it all started innocently enough. I remembered perfectly well what happens to my charms under the influence of the energy of the magic box, so for normal disguise it was necessary not only to supply the weave with a large amount of mana and prana, but also to create a power source, which was the usual diamonds and my own blood. But despite the measures taken, I still had to make do with primitive: a rather simple illusion weave with only fifteen anchor points, a light version of the privacy charms, so that less attention would be paid to the assassins, and, just in case, a buff for courage.

So, after attaching some green diamonds, resembling rhinestones, to the mask of Gloomy Mouse, I got a little carried away, and as a result, Cyborg turned into another unremarkable parademon, and Bats became like his Chinese toy, which Uncle Liao carefully repainted in another color to avoid paying royalties. Yes, yes, the Chinese in this universe like to dabble in such things, but nobody cares about them as long as they don't get into the world market.

"I just thought you might be recognized, and then you and Victor would be intercepted after the exit on the other side. And also, purple is the color of camouflage," I nodded smartly, not even thinking about hiding a happy smile.

"Understood," the man replied seriously, pulling back his transformed cloak. - Because of their limited intelligence, the parademons might not recognize me in this form. Besides, changing colors should take less mana, which means your charms will last longer.

"And you just ruined all the fun," I said grudgingly, and snapped my fingers. The image of the hero floated away, and in a few moments we were looking at an unremarkable tramp in a dirty gray coat.

"Hmph," Bats' lips twitched into a smile for a moment. - That's good, too. Diana, you're in charge. Joker, you're in charge of television. Let's go.

The plan was already well thought out, so Cyborg silently picked up the disguised Gotham protector and took off to join the rest of the Parademons, who were dragging the captured men to the towers. The rest of the heroes didn't hesitate to rush toward Darkseid, who was hovering over the city, so that he wouldn't even think of returning to Apokolips and stop firing his rays at the city.

When I was alone on the ruined street, I scrutinized the transmitter Cyborg had created, and then galloped toward the miraculously surviving TV tower. I'd recently been thinking about how I could put a buff on a lot of people at once without dying in the process, and while working on the illusion complex, I'd come up with an ingenious idea. Why waste your own mana when people can cast a spell on their own? And all you have to do is turn to the most ancient magic - blood magic!