Chapter 65: Forcing the hand of Superman

"what are their coordinates?!" Black widow shouted as she flew a spaceship with the strongest avengers towards space to help Kevin.

"They are right in front of us... but space has been locked, we can't reach them no matter what." Dr. strange spoke in a panic.

"Then unlock it!" Bruce Banner shouted.

"I can't, this is... it's something else, it's not magic." He said, trying to come up with a plan or idea.

Try to contact anyone that might be able to breach this locked space. Reed said, with one hand over Johnny's shoulder. Johnny was very stressed right now because of obvious reasons.

In fact, all of the avengers were in a state of stress and worry, this also applied for all of humanity.

A man stood on the street looking upwards. He had been save by Superman multiple times in the past. He was very unfortunate in his life but he had found hope in Superman.

"Why is it that whenever a great catastrophy comes around, it's always Superman that needs to shield us." He whispered to himself in sadness.

He had been a drug addict, and somehow ended up in a lab where he was experimented on.

In the end the avengers found them and destroyed theab and saved him, the only experiment that survived. He had been saved by Superman thrice.

Staring upwards towards the sun directly he spoke. "I wish I could become a sentry for you Superman!"

As for Superman, after he reached the other side of the curtain, they arrived in a mirror dimension where everything was white and shining brightly.

"So the pressure will be put on us until one of us dies?" Kevin asked, but the shadow didn't answer.

Superman felt the pressure on his body increase exponentially.

"Sorry, lying is not something I enjoy, but something I regard as necessary to kill you with the least effort." the Shadow said, raising his hand that had a purple gauntlet made out of marble. on it were 4 purple stones and one blue stone.

"This does not exist in reality, but in this dimension it came to existence to kill you." The shadow said as he showcased his purple gauntlet.

Superman felt that the power of this dimension came from that gauntlet. So he moved forward to fight the Golden Shadow, but no matter how fast he moved, he never came closer to the shadow.

Superman realised that this wasn't an invitation for a fair fight between beings way too powerful for the good of the universe, this was a trap set to kill one of them.

Superman looked around, and realised that he might be able to break this dimension as well.

"Don't waste your energy, do you really think I wouldn't have thought of that?" The Golden Shadow spoke almost in a mocking tone.

Superman brought his fist as far back as he could, before utilising every drop of his power that he could muster to thought his fist forwards.

Just based on feeling alone, it felt like he had broken though many dimensions.

But his eyes told him that nothing happened.

Even the golden Shadow just stood there silently for a few seconds.

"I might as well explain, every vector in spacetime you make, will be comected to millions of other mirror dimensions to this dimension. You're moving in others dimensions, but in this one, you can do NOTHING!" The shadow almost shouted the last part, as if a king had been challenged by a beggar, the shadow didn't seem to like Superman's struggle.

"Congratulations Superman, you have successfully angered a being that has never felt anger before!" The Shadow said eerily as it walked towards Superman, stopping in an arm's reach.

Supermans hands instantly flew forwards to catch him but they just flew through the Shadow.

"My real body isn't here, it would be dangerous for me to be here you see... Your death will no longer suffice as a punishment, everyome that you worked so har to protect needs to see you suffer?" The shadow said as his purple gauntlet suddenly started shining.

On earth, the sky lit up once again, and wherever the humans might be, they saw the same thing.

In the sky there is a gigantic hologram of Superman and the shadow, standing apart speaking. But their voices couldn't be heard by the earthlings.

"It's better if I stand back a bit, it's better if they believe you, their hero lost in a fair fight. This is your punishment, that everyone you love will see you suffer, wither and then die in pain."

Supermans mind was going in light speeds, trying to figure something out, but the pressure was becoming greater and greater by the second.

Even veins on his. forehead started showing.

"You can not fight this, succumb to you finality!" The shadow spoke in what seemed to be pleasure.

"This gauntlet, it doesn't exist in existence, it's a creature outside of all possibility. I have brought it forward int hsi dimension to destroy you. the cost of using it depend on how much power I use of it, so it's better for you to accept your death, and simply die, don't you agree?" The shadow said as he raised his hand showing the purple, marble gauntlet with 4pruple stones and one blue on it.

Superman felt every cell on his body was overloading with pressure, and he fell down to his knees.

"Mom, is that a king? why does Superman bend to him?" An innocent child asked the parent beside them, while pointing towards the sky.

"Yes Honey, that's.. exactly what's happening..." the parent said horrified while covering the eyes his child.

the world had stopped as they looked up to the sky, Never had anyone seen Superman suffer so much towards any enemy before, which created a shadow in the hearts of mankind.

In the Collins farm, Kevin's mother and father were hugging each other, the mother crying in the arms of the father and hiding her vision in his chest, and the father tearfully looking up at the sky.

Some avenger had been in the middle of a fight, with villains, robber or law breakers, in the end, all of them had stopped to follow what was happening in the sky.

Amongst them, even villains felt their hearts constrict, because if the shadow that could kill superman came after earth the. everyone was doomed. So even the evils of the earth hoped for Superman to stand back up and fight back.

The Golden Shadow itself had become silent for a while now, aghast at the physical aspects of Superman. The pressure on Superman right now was enough to not only destroy an dimension, but multiple universes.

'Even celestials would have long fallen...' The Shadow started to worry.

It had felt that Superman's body was becoming stronger at an unimaginable speed. But even then, it's was to slow for the exponentially growing pressure.

Superman finally fell forward to his hands, holdhe was on his knees with his hands barley holding him up.

His face was completely red as ally he veins and muscles in his body were extruded.

Superman forcefully looked up towards the shadow, and his eyes became red, as if ready to spew the most dangerous of all heat lasers.