Darkseid clenched his jaw, blood dripping from a split lip, bones groaning beneath cracked skin as he looked around at the shadows of his army staring at him waiting to rip him apart. His godly essence quivered with rage, but not just at his injuries. At humiliation.
His army was gone. His world is being attacked. His forces turned to dust and now walked as shadows.
But it was this man, this thing before him, that broke his pride.
He locked eyes with Ashborn, standing among the ruin, shadows behind him like an endless tide.
"They called you their king," Darkseid spat. "Are you going to hide behind them instead of fighting?"
Ashborn did not flinch. His face, carved from the stillness of death, remained unchanged.
"Do you think your provocation will work?" he said quietly.
Ashborn took a step forward, his presence suffocating.
"I have a better question," he said, voice cold. "Do you think fighting me is better?"
Darkseid didn't respond. The answer was irrelevant. His pride had decided. He growled and surged forward, fists clenched, Omega energy crackling across his form.
Ashborn raised a single finger.
"You, puny god, should be kneeling for mercy."
A pulse erupted… Ruler's Authority.
Darkseid's knees slammed into the broken earth.
The god roared, trying to rise. Muscles flexed, body trembled but he couldn't stand. His hands clawed at the ground as his fury boiled.
His eyes blazed, glowing crimson as the Omega beams charged.
Ashborn casually pointed downward.
Darkseid's face smashed into the dirt.
"You should be kissing the ground for mercy," Ashborn said icily. "Yet you, lowly thing, had the audacity to think you could fight me?"
With a snarl, Darkseid forced his head up, breaking free of the pressure. He let loose the Omega Beam with a thunderous roar, the deadly twin rays spiraling toward Ashborn like divine retribution.
Ashborn didn't move.
He simply looked at the incoming beam.
And then…CRACK.
A fist collided with Darkseid's jaw, Ashborn's, as he appeared beside him in the blink of an eye. The Omega Beam fizzled as Darkseid flew backward like a broken meteor.
Ashborn began to walk, slow and deliberate.
Darkseid roared again and charged.
But it was no longer a fight.
It was a beat down.
Ashborn didn't dodge. He didn't defend. He hit. Over and over again. Brutal, merciless. Every strike echoed like a thunderclap. When Darkseid tried to swing, Ashborn vanished, only to appear behind him, in front of him, above him, each time with a strike that shattered bone, burst muscle, or ripped armor.
Darkseid's confusion grew. He couldn't see him. Couldn't track him.
Ashborn tilted his head.
"Do you know what is the fastest thing in existence, puny god?" he asked. "Some might say light…"
He caught Darkseid's wrist mid-punch.
"…but the answer is darkness."
Ashborn's voice chilled the world.
"Wherever you go, wherever light travels…darkness is already there waiting."
With an inhuman power, Ashborn twisted and punched with all his might.
Darkseid's body shattered through buildings like a comet, disappearing in the distance.
In Ashborn's hand remained the god's severed arm torn between the punch's force and Ashborn grip.
The world fell silent. Heroes and villains alike stared, unable to believe it. The god of Apokolips… was being crushed.
Then a blur from the side, a streak of speed and shadow hurtled toward Ashborn.
Dark Supergirl.
Her body, bloodied and torn from battle, streaked across the field, loyal even in the face of annihilation.
Ashborn didn't look at her.
He simply punched to the side.
His hand pierced her skull with ease. Bone cracked, blood sprayed, and the woman body dropped lifeless at his feet.
Darkseid stood in the ruins of his own pride, his body a ruin, blood dripping from his mouth and chest, his arm gone. But his fury remained.
With a final scream, he prepared the Omega Beam again, when a spark of heat struck him in the chest.
He stumbled.
Looking up, he saw the source.
His loyal Supergirl. Now shadow.
Her corpse had shifted and stood silently beside her new master.
A soldier of the dead.
Darkseid's face fell into horror, and for the first time in eternity…He felt alone in the face of this ever expanding army.
___________
Kara gasped, a ragged breath escaping her lips as her eyes fluttered open. She bolted upright with a start, disoriented. Her limbs trembled, still feeling the phantom pain of a blow that had nearly killed her.
"What… what happened?" she rasped.
Superman, kneeling beside her, looked grim. "You nearly died," he said solemnly, then cast a glance at the figure beside her. "But that… shadow thing saved you."
Kara turned her head.
A tall, silent shadow loomed beside her, motionless, watching.
"…Thanks," Kara said softly.
The shadow didn't respond.
She blinked, confused, and slowly stood. "What did I miss?"
A voice replied from nearby.
"A lot," said Galatea.
Kara turned, startled. Galatea stood tall and whole, her wounds healed as if they'd never existed. Kara followed her gaze, then froze.
In the distance, Ashborn.
Before him stood Darkseid, bloodied and broken, and around them: hundreds of shadows, once paradooms, now loyal to a new master.
"What is going on?" Kara asked, her voice barely a whisper.
Flash, who had joined them moments earlier, spoke with a half-wry, half-terrified tone. "You missed a lot. Ashborn Black came back and went full death god on Apokolips forces. Genocidal mania included."
Kara turned her eyes back toward Ashborn.
She saw it all. The way he walked, like strength incarnate. She heard every word he spoke. The way he shattered Darkseid's pride. The moment her dark counterpart charged to help… only to be struck down without Ashborn even looking.
The punch. The piercing hand. The collapse of Dark Supergirl's body. Kara flinched.
But then…Then she watched the shadow of her counterpart rise from the corpse. Stand beside Ashborn.
Her stomach turned to ice.
"How…?" she whispered.
Superman's voice was grave, his eyes hard with dread. "He commands the dead," he said. "Every shadow you see… every single one of them… came from a corpse. They are bound to him. Utterly loyal."
Kara's lips parted in horror.
Her gaze drifted over the battlefield. So many shadows. So many lives ended… and now in his service.
She finally understood.
Ashborn wasn't just powerful. He was terrifying beyond anything she had ever known.
___________
The world watched in silence as Ashborn walked slowly toward the broken god who had once ruled with absolute fear.
"I truly can't fathom," he said, voice cold, "what made you think fighting me was a good idea."
With a final desperate cry, Darkseid unleashed the Omega Beam. Brighter and stronger than ever before. A direct blast to Ashborn's chest, a beam strong enough to annihilate stars.
The impact triggered an eruption of a wildfire of energy, red and golden, engulfing Ashborn in a tempest of destruction.
But from within the fire…
Ashborn walked. Unharmed. Unbothered.
"You couldn't match my soldiers," his voice echoed through the flames. "You were beaten by them. But still, you wanted to take me on?"
The red storm burst apart as darkness erupted, swallowing the Omega Beam.
A torrent of black and purple flame surged forward, devouring everything in its path.
Darkseid staggered back, dread consuming him as he asked "What are you?"
The world began to change.
The sky blackened into a void deeper than night.
Streets turned pitch black. Rubble, buildings, even light itself… vanished into endless darkness.
All colors were lost.
The world became monochrome death.
And in that void, only one light remained.
A towering torrent of purple fire, roaring where Ashborn stood.
Then came his voice, but not as before. Now, it was inhuman.
"I brought down rulers," he declared. "Monarchs. The Itarim alike."
His tone rumbled like a god's damnation.
"And you… a mere god think can take me on?"
Every syllable shook the souls of the living.
From within the inferno walked a giant, five meters tall. His black armor pulsed with purple energy. A long cloak of darkness trailed behind him. His helmet was ancient and cruel, eyes glowing like twin stars of apocalypse.
Atop the helm burned a crown of purple flame.
With a single step forward, the entire world shook.
Silence.
Every living creature across the world fell into stillness. Their thoughts fled. Their bodies refused to move.
Fear gripped them, not just fear of death… but of something far worse.
This was judgment. This was inevitable.
The incarnation of death and darkness had come.
Even Darkseid, the god of tyranny, stood frozen.
This wasn't a man. This wasn't a king.
This was the end of all things.
"I am the first of the rulers. The Ruler of Death. I am the last of the monarchs. The Shadow Monarch."