The power of this strike was so immense that it almost cleaved the very foundation of hell, and the results it achieved were quite remarkable.
It not only took away one of Hades's hands and one leg but also Nuada and the unlucky Osiris, as well as countless demon Soldiers and dozens of Demon Lords on the battlefield.
However, the consumption of this strike was also enormous. Although Cortana helped with timing, the divine power within was still provided by Dane himself.
Shazam's divine power is similar to that of the Gods, making replenishment very difficult.
If he transformed back into his human form, he might recover faster, because the Shazam Force would return to the Rock of Eternity as lightning, where there was ample magic that could be converted into divine power, like a gas station.
Or he could replenish it through other energy conversions; whether it was the energy of the dream stone or the power of the emotional spectrum, it was actually possible. But for some reason, Dane had maintained a weakened posture in front of the Gods.
Hades endured the intense pain, grasping his wound with his remaining hand. Divine blood sprayed into the air, raining down like a blood shower.
Convinced that he had seen through Dane's true state, he suddenly roared to the sky: "His divine power is almost exhausted! Why aren't you coming out?!"
No sooner had Hades's voice fallen than a stone gate suddenly appeared in the void, so immense it seemed to blot out the sky.
The stone gate opened, and a ghostly aura emanated from the crack, yet the first thing to emerge was a ray of sunlight!
That was the gate to the Egyptian Pantheon's underworld. Beyond the gate was Duat, the realm of the Afterlife. That ray of sunlight was the light of the great Egyptian chief God, "Rao."
However, he should now be called "Atum," symbolizing the setting Sun, and only Atum would appear within Duat.
Egyptian mythology has a very interesting characteristic: their Gods are not eternally young and vigorous like other deities.
Ancient Egypt respected the cyclical changes of all things and believed that all things have an end, so their Gods also experienced birth, old age, sickness, and Death.
But they understood "Death" as the point in the life cycle that overlapped with "life."
After experiencing birth, old age, sickness, and Death, the Gods would be reborn in Duat, the realm of the Afterlife. Duat was another World where present life resided after Death, no different from the present World.
As the Sun God, the supreme chief god of ancient Egypt, His form also changed periodically like the Sun, and with these changes, different forms would emerge.
Therefore, at sunrise, He was the sacred scarab "Khepri", and at this time, He would emerge from Duat, slowly rolling the Sun ball and pushing it above the horizon.
This is also why the dung beetle was revered as a sacred scarab by ancient Egypt; it recreated the process of the Sun God making the Sun rise.
At noon, He would transform into the majestic Sun God "Ra", which was also the moment of His strongest divine power during the day.
In the evening, He would become the weary Atum with a ram's head, entering the realm of the Afterlife below the horizon, only to regain vitality in the morning.
So when Atum stepped out of the stone gate, He appeared in the form of Aton, the newborn Sun.
Aton had no physical form; He did not appear as a sacred scarab but as a complete Sun before the gods.
As soon as He appeared, the earth dried up, the Water in the Demon Lords' bodies rapidly evaporated, and swathes of Demon Lords were scorched to death amidst their wails.
Diana had divine artifacts protecting her, Hal's lantern ring allowed him to be unafraid of intense heat radiation, and Barry's battle suit quickly helped cool down his body.
As for Clark, he spread his arms and embraced the sunlight.
At the same time, the energy within him surged, and not only did he feel no discomfort, but he also felt extremely comfortable.
Aini and Berial were in trouble; they could only use various means to hide in the shade.
"Fuck! A Sun God entered Hell, who would have thought?"
Even a powerful Demon Lord like Berial dared not contend with Aton at this moment.
Not only was this true for him as a Demon Lord, but other deities from various pantheons also found Aton's scorching heat unbearable and avoided His light.
Hades only felt a slight discomfort, but it was nothing serious.
He wasn't a Vampire; he was just unaccustomed to the Sun due to living in darkness for many years.
Dane was also fine; don't forget, among the Egyptian Gods' Shazam Force he possessed, Aton was also one of the divine power providers.
Moreover, since almost all the divine powers within the Shazam Force originating from the Egyptian Gods were related to the Sun God, Dane already knew what his opponent intended to do.
The Sun was an object of eternal worship in ancient Egypt; in the word "Shazam", the two "A"s represent "Amon" and "Aton", which are manifestations of the Sun God's cyclical divine power, thus both are the Sun God's divine power.
The "M" representing "Mehen" is the god who protects Atum and is also under the Sun God's jurisdiction, thus it is also considered an extension of the Sun God's divine power.
The "H" representing "Horus" was later in ancient Egypt, in Heliopolis (which means "Sun City" in Greek), regarded as a mixture with "Ra", called "Horus of the Two Horizons".
They conflated him with the newborn Sun, making him another incarnation of the Sun God.
And the "S" representing "Shu" was once conflated with "Horus" into "Anhur"; he is strongly related to Horus, which means he is strongly related to the Sun God, and thus can also be another manifestation of the Sun God's divine power.
Thus, in the Egyptian Shazam Force, except for "Z" representing "Thoth" which symbolizes wisdom, the remaining five divine powers all originate from the Sun God.
So, once "Ra" wanted to reclaim Dane's divine power, the Shazam Force he had plundered from Black Adam would essentially be completely useless.
What was worse was that the two Shazam Forces within Dane had undergone deep fusion and were inseparable.
Once the Egyptian divine power was plundered, the divine power of the Olympus pantheon would also be affected and become immobile.
This was the true killing move Hades had prepared for Dane!
As long as Dane ceased to be Shazam, the prophecy about Shazam in the divine realm would fall apart, and Hades could bypass that ominous prophecy.
After all, a "Shazam" who had lost his power was no longer "Shazam"; he was just Dane Davis, a mere mortal.
That being said, as mentioned earlier, the Shazam Force has its own will, so when Aton began to forcibly reclaim His divine power in the air, it met with fierce resistance from the Shazam Force!
Especially the divine powers of Solomon and Thoth, which symbolize wisdom, they resisted most strongly.
Although Aton's attempt to reclaim divine power did not succeed, He and Hades's goal had already been achieved.
Having lost a large amount of divine power and being severely wounded, Dane was unable to use his Shazam Force to protect himself against the plunder by the Sun God Aton.
Moreover, in order to protect himself from being plundered by Aton, the Shazam Force began to lie dormant within Dane, and he consequently reverted to his human form.
In an instant, Dane's human body was directly exposed to the scorching sunlight, thus feeling the pain of his skin almost being burned, and the Sun's heat was about to dry up the Water in his body.
Fortunately, he was still wearing his nanotech battle suit, which helped him resist the heat.
Dane calmly looked up and met Hades's gaze: "Your plan is brilliant."
He was genuinely impressed by Hades's plan; who would have thought that Hades would go to such lengths to deal with him?
Perhaps even Teth-Adam didn't know that when he made a deal with Hades, what this god truly wanted was the knowledge about the Shazam Force 097 in his mind.
And the purpose was solely for this moment, to complete this killing game targeting Dane!
Hades clutched his now-staunched wound, looking at the young human before him with a sense of emotion.
"Even though I had calculated this far, I still didn't expect you to be able to inflict such immense damage on me; as an enemy, you are very formidable.
You are a worthy opponent, even Zeus, in the most glorious period of his career as a god, was still not as good as you."
Hades unhesitatingly gave Dane the highest praise, but at the same time, he raised his bident with his remaining hand, his eyes filled with murderous intent.
Respect is respect, but only a dead opponent is the best opponent!
But Dane just smiled at Hades, a smile that instinctively made Hades uneasy, so he immediately threw the bident in his hand.
Dane made an eye-shaped mudra with both hands, placing them flat in the center of his chest, then spread his hands left and right, making a "door-opening" gesture.
In an instant, a dark blue magical eye opened on his chest, releasing an evil power.
"Ha~ My dear Dane Davis, you are finally willing to accept us!"
"I said long ago that the Shazam Force is not worth mentioning at all; your true destiny is us~"
"Come quickly, come quickly! Merge with me!"
"Hahahahahaha, you despicable wizard, in the end, we won! Hahahahaha!"
Dane's actions made them ecstatic; from the very beginning, he was the heir they wanted.
A truly perfect, ruthless heir, who would spread the "evil" of the seven deadly sins across the earth, across every inch of this Universe, and upon every intelligent life!
Dane closed his eyes and uttered the incantation..
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