Act 0: Apokolips
Planet home of Darkseid and his people
Not all Earths have happy endings. At this very moment, in this precise existential plane, the epic final clash reached its climax: the absolute purity of goodness against the extreme decay of evil. The Justice League was no more. Its members had offered their lives to prevent their universe from succumbing to an even greater darkness. Unfortunately, that evil still breathed. It still stood tall. It was Darkseid. And he was facing the greatest hero that ever existed and ever will exist... even though both their lives hung by a thread.
Darkseid, exhausted and marked by the arduous battle, rose to his feet. Wounded, but unshaken in his determination to win.
"It was an incredible fight, Kal-El. But your efforts and those of your League were not enough..."
Superman, the last remaining hero, on his knees, endured the fatigue with a resigned clarity in his eyes.
"In this world... heroes gave their lives to defend those they love. They shed their last drop of blood... following me and believing that this universe would not crumble and fall into your hands... their families will never see them again, but their names will be remembered. Their sacrifices and their will shall become a symbol... one that I will carry and honor. This ends here, Darkseid. Your tyranny has already claimed too many lives."
In a flash of speed, Superman closed the distance, surprising the tyrant with a devastating blow from his fist directly to the face, sending him flying through a wall of ultra-resistant igneous rock. Darkseid quickly recovered. When Superman charged again, the Lord of Apokolips was ready, grabbing him with brute force and hurling him to the ground. There, he began to strike him with such intensity that the very ground shook with each impact against the Man of Steel's face. Darkseid then held his skull and began to release the Omega Sanctions directly into his eyes. Kal-El, however, retaliated, unleashing his own Heat Vision. The beam clash began with an advantage for the tyrant, but Superman, spotting an opening, charged with a violent upward thrust.
Barely catching his breath, Superman went at him again, hitting Darkseid with a knee to the stomach, followed by a devastating punch to the back, which sent him crashing back to the ground. A monumental curtain of dust rose, revealing a smoldering crater where the god had fallen.
Superman proclaimed, his voice echoing over the desolation.
"Enough, Darkseid. Look around you. Your own world is in ruins. You caused this. Your demons faced my friends and destroyed this place. We came to create a universe that could live in peace, free from your tyranny... and today that tyranny ends. There is still time to give up."
Darkseid looked at the horizon with infinite arrogance. He stood up, placed his arms behind his back, and replied, his voice like thunder of wicked conviction.
"My gift was inherited by me so that I might control all. My thirst for power elevates me to other levels. If the entire universe resides in good, one day an evil sufficiently powerful to combat peace will arise. This is the balance of the cosmic scale, Kal-El. The universal physical law tends towards total equilibrium... I am this concept. I am the personification of the Omega Power... a power far above any Kryptonian, any god... I am the essence that allows this universe to continue existing."
Superman was stunned by the tyrant's twisted idea. Realizing that his companions had sacrificed themselves against a monstrous ideal, an inexplicable fury ignited within him.
"All of this... was for a twisted idea? My friends died for this? And you tell me this was necessary for some supposed balance?!"
He flew slowly towards Darkseid, and each word that left his mouth was more intense and laden with pain than the last.
"You dethroned kings and enslaved planets! Killed millions! Instilled a divine image of yourself in fragile people so they would worship you! Placed yourself above all so your sick ideals would be a priority!"
Darkseid retorted with a cruel, tight smile.
"The universe is rotten, and I am here to bring the balance to the forefront. And it will not be you who stops me, inferior Kryptonian."
Darkseid charged at Superman with all his thrust power, hitting his chest with a punch so colossal it cracked the ground from one horizon to the other. But Kal-El, with a look of pure contempt, absorbed the entire impact with his hands and uttered, solemnly:
"Bruce Wayne... Barry Allen... Hal Jordan... Diana Prince... J'onn J'onzz... Billy Batson... Oliver Queen... Arthur Curry... Kara Zor-El..."
Darkseid tried to hit him again, now with a knee to the chin. Superman took the blow and continued to stare at him, uttering more names.
"Dick Grayson... Shiera Hall... Dinah Drake... Ted Kord..."
Darkseid, astonished and reluctant, continued to deliver repeated blows against Superman's body. Even feeling each impact, the last Kryptonian kept his gaze fixed on the monster's soul, until, with a decisive move, he grabbed Darkseid's fists, twisting his hands until he forced him to his knees.
"Every name spoken here is a part of my family that is now gone. And I will not allow more families to suffer. I've endured you for far too long... false god."
Superman then held Darkseid's head and thrust it backward, violently slamming him against the ground. He returned every blow he had received, with interest, and then spun him through the air, throwing him by the legs. Darkseid could barely comprehend the speed and fury of the counterattack. Superman approached, and his voice sounded like a final decree.
"In this world... everything is fragile... everything breaks easily. My gift is a present to protect people... but I never managed to use it at full strength, lest I hurt an innocent. But... there are no more innocents here. Only the one monster... who can withstand my attacks. Our battle has lasted long enough. Goodbye, Darkseid."
In a state of extreme exhaustion and fury, Superman used his last reserves of energy to pin Darkseid to the ground and strike him with all his might. The tyrant tried to resist, but Superman was simply stronger. Each punch was more powerful than the last. The ground trembled. The planet began to spew lava with the seismic shocks. The roar of the impacts propagated like a tremor through the very fabric of space, reverberating even to the neighboring stars and planets. Darkseid could no longer fight, nor even profane. The fight between good and evil was coming to an end.
Superman, fatigued and panting, fell to the side. With bruised fists, he realized it wasn't over yet. Darkseid was a god; his body was weakened, but his mind, fueled by the Omega, remained.
"...Defeat... does not exist... in my concept...", whispered Darkseid, his voice a hoarse drag. "I can... die... but my power... will find... another... vessel. As I said... the balance will continue to exist... whether you want it... or not. I do not lose... I am a concept... I am the Omega Power... I am... Darkseid."
Suddenly, a beam of optic blasts shot from Darkseid's eyes. They did not aim at Superman. Instead, they went through the ground, piercing the planet's crust, burning and destroying everything in their path, until they found their final destination: the core of Apokolips. A core surrounded by a black flame of such overwhelming intensity it could disintegrate matter at an atomic level with a mere touch. The beams hit the core, rupturing its protective layer.
In one thousandth of a second...
All of Apokolips came undone.
The light from the explosion was so intense it could be seen for leagues, an absurd flash that illuminated even the skies of Earth, a last breath of a dying god.
And Superman? He defeated the tyrant. Sacrificed everything so the people of Earth would survive. The children and friends of the heroes would continue their legacy, remembering their stories and honoring their names...
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But... this is not the end of our story. It's not even the beginning!
Darkseid's Omega Power, a pure and conscious energy, freed itself from its master's destroyed body. It rose through the flames of destruction, climbing higher than any mortal eye could follow. The tyrant's essence began a reckless journey across tens of thousands of miles, cutting through the vast cosmos at an unimaginable speed.
Twenty years passed.
The power reached the absolute border of the universe, a cosmic barrier separating the known from the completely unknown. Without hesitation, the Omega launched itself against this barrier, rupturing it, and entered a new path: a vast spatial vacuum, strangely similar to the one it had left behind.
However, it was no longer in its universe of origin. This was no longer the world where its former bearer had died, nor the world where the greatest of superheroes had sacrificed himself to protect everyone. The Omega Power had crossed the barrier marking the end of one universe and the beginning of another.
And it is here that the true story begins.
Welcome to what we can call Terra-Sapiens, the universe where the human race ascended to the condition of supreme race, dominating about 80% of the known cosmic vastness.