For a heartbeat the planet held its breath then, like a line of dominoes, every Parademon tower on Earth began to fail. Stone faces cracked, alien steel shrieked, and each spire folded in on itself. From Lagos to Sydney, from Metropolis to Moscow, they toppled in perfect unison and thundered into dust.
At the foot of Earth's last standing tower, Toneri watched the structure crumple. His Sage Mode shimmered, then bled away; the constant drain on his chakra finally stopped. The six‑point Crimson Ray Formation winked out as he dismissed the clones that had been sustaining it. Only four Bijū‑tails' worth of chakra remained swirling in his core.
'Hmm… modest, but workable,' he thought, flexing aching fingers.
Cyborg jogged over in his new armor still humming with Shazam right behind.
"Vic?!" Shazam blurted. "Dude, you look uh jacked… and kinda freaky."
Green Lantern hovered down, eyebrows high. "Tell me Central City Comic‑Con hired you, because that's a suit, what the hell happened to you."
Batman's gaze flicked from the portal where Darkseid had disappeared, to Toneri, then back to Cyborg's war‑suit.
Vic lifted a gauntleted arm, the plating rippling like living metal. "Yeah… pretty sure this is a side effect of letting Lunaris's energy rewrite my OS." He half‑laughed. "Feels good, though."
The helmet flowed away from his face, melting into his collar.
Flash whistled. "Ohhhh that's definitely new."
Superman leaned closer. "Looks almost… nanite‑based."
Toneri studied Vic, luminous Tenseigan turning. "Try dismissing it completely."
"Uh can I do that?" Vic looked at Batman.
"Try," Bruce said flatly.
Vic took a breath. The armor shrank, plates folding into lines of glowing script that spiraled to a single point over his sternum and vanished. He stood in shredded track shorts and a stunned grin.
A dull‑green diamond sigil, no larger than a credit‑card, glowed on his chest.
Diana tilted her head. "What is that?"
Toneri leaned in. 'A karma. But… muted a dud. It stores my chakra signature without siphoning more and seems to have significantly improved his body to accommodate the changes done to it.' He straightened. "You're 'normal' until you call it."
Vic focused. The sigil blossomed script raced across his skin, armor re‑forming in a heartbeat. He flexed steel fingers, nodded. "I can live with that."
Batman's eyes narrowed. "Good. Now human victims?"
Vic's eyes flashed emerald. Three fresh Boom Tubes irised open. Hundreds of humans saved by Toneri's clone and Superman slid out.
"I've got 'em," Hal said, conjuring three giant catcher's mitts. The constructs cradled each platform and drifted toward the city fringes.
"What about Darkseid, how do we make sure he doesn't come back for a rematch?" Batman asked, gaze on the fading sky. "He'll most likely try again."
"I've slagged every Mother Box in his network," Vic replied. "No quick ride back to earth for them anytime soon."
Toneri shook his head. "And Darkseid needs time to knit bone and flesh. He won't risk another humiliation soon."
"So Earth gets a breather," Diana sighed.
A sonic boom rolled overhead news drones and police VTOLs racing toward the ruined skyline. Below, survivors spilled from shelters, pointing, cheering.
"Uh‑oh," Flash muttered. "Crowd incoming. Think they'll hug us or lynch us?"
Lantern flashed a wide grin. "Relax, Scarlet. Listen."
The sound was unmistakable applause raw, relieved, thunderous. People chanted Thank you! Those who saw Toneri's pale figure raised phones, recording the man who had wrestled a god in the outer darkness and some had seen his video bathed in the emerald aura form the satellite feeds that was streaming before he took the god off planet.
"That's the hurry, Flash?" Hal teased. "Soak it in."
Toneri exhaled, weary, but allowed himself one small nod to the crowd.
Toneri closed his eyes and entered Sage Mode once more. The winds stirred around him as he began to float upward.
"Uhhh… Lunaris, what are you doing?" Flash asked, shielding his eyes from the emerald shimmer that cloaked the floating figure.
"Something," Toneri replied, his voice even, "that I hope won't be resisted."
"You're creating a spectacle," Batman muttered from below, arms crossed.
"Wait," Wonder Woman said, placing a hand on Bruce's forearm. "Let's see what he intends."
Superman simply watched in silence, arms folded across his chest, glowing eyes unreadable.
High above them now, Toneri brought his palms together into a prayer seal, and thought, 'I should have enough chakra for this.'
His body shimmered his chakra cloak flaring to life once again as he entered Tenseigan Chakra Mode, First State. Gasps rose from the gathered crowd of civilians as his form glowed, divine and unearthly.
Cyborg's armor began to hum in resonance.
Green Lantern glanced sideways at him. "Dude, are you shivering?"
"No," Cyborg said with a frown. "My system… it recognizes his energy. It's like it knows him."
Toneri's energy surged, spilling into the air like the breath of a sleeping god. He raised his hands, formed a mudra, and whispered, "Kaishi."
A pulse of light erupted from his form, engulfing the ruins around the battlefield. Blinding, radiant it washed across the entire planet. Every head turned away. Every eye squinted.
And then…
Nothing.
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