Huh? The moment Ion emerged, it spotted Diana. An old acquaintance! They'd worked together during the Blackest Night. The God of Courage, perfectly in line with its standards. A hundred million years of existence, and the Entity grasped Thea's plan in an instant. It wagged its tail, darted over, and merged with Diana in a flash.
The Courage that had been sealed away in another dimension returned, thanks to Ion. Dark-green armor materialized across her body. Diana had reached the absolute peak of her own strength.
With one side weakened and the other strengthened, Krona was pushed onto the back foot for the first time in this prolonged battle.
This was only step one. Thea had already positioned Atom and Ant-Man in hiding. The moment Ion departed and before Krona's defenses fully closed, the two slipped inside.
Technology was impressive but ultimately not a native ability. Complex to manufacture, intricate in structure. Powerful, but also vulnerable to sabotage, especially from the inside.
Atom and Ant-Man entered Krona's armor. The internal architecture was, frankly, beyond even Atom's comprehension. Not the occasional "I don't follow" kind. Completely incomprehensible. From design philosophy to conceptual framework, from structure to operating principles, he understood none of it. Krona's knowledge surpassed modern science by an unimaginable margin.
But that didn't stop them from wrecking it. Who cares what it does? Sever circuits. Destroy nodes. Smash every energy hub they could find. They were experienced at this. They broke a single point on each line, so that when energy flowed through, it would automatically tear apart the damaged sections.
Under normal circumstances, Krona would've caught their handiwork immediately. But with Ion ripped out, his mental coherence had deteriorated further. Frenzied emotional energy rampaged through his psyche. Without the Entities to mediate, his control over his own body grew weaker by the second. Fundamentally, the man was already dead and had been for over a hundred million years. No amount of injected life force could truly reverse that kind of decay.
Krona's body hadn't changed at its core. The life force he'd preserved was finite. Prolonged combat, massive blood loss, and rampaging emotions were pushing him past his limits.
"My turn!" Thea reverse-summoned Atom and Ant-Man out, then drew another massive surge of Phoenix Force from Jean. Fire-red wings unfurled behind her, vast and radiant. A majestic phoenix silhouette appeared within her form. She didn't draw Excalibur. Instead, she pulled a blazing sword wreathed in overwhelming power from the void itself.
A single sharp, soaring cry rang out. Every hero present heard the phoenix's call on the wind. Those who knew Jean well couldn't help but think that whoever had first named this power "Phoenix Force" must have heard that very same cry.
Thea's speed peaked. At her realm, this was maximum output. Like Kakashi burning through the Sharingan, every second the Phoenix Force exacted a crushing toll. Her window was brief.
Krona had just realized something was wrong with his armor. The chaos from losing one Entity after another was fading rapidly, burned away by the killing intent bearing down on him. In the face of death, his gaze sharpened back to that cold, analytical scientist's eye. But it was too late.
Thea accelerated again and again, crossing the hundreds of meters between them in a blink. Facing Krona's clear, probing stare, she didn't hesitate. Like a spinning crimson arrow, she punched straight through his chest with a clear phoenix cry ringing in her wake.
The obscenely durable armor offered almost nothing. The Phoenix Force blew a gaping hole through Krona's torso. He stared down at it, still half in disbelief. "Me? Am I really going to die...?"
"You died a long time ago!!" Diana stood before him, eyebrows sharp, black hair whipping behind her. She gripped the Sword of Hephaestus with both hands and swung. One clean horizontal cut severed Krona's head.
The Chief Scientist of Maltus had never unlocked the secret of creation. He carried all of his regrets back into the grave, a corpse once more.
"Hah..." Everyone felt the weight lift. A villain who'd cast his shadow across two worlds had finally been brought down. Every hero was wounded. By the end, even Professor X had joined the fight.
Cleanup went smoothly enough. A handful of top-tier combatants mopping up conscripted grunts was no contest.
Thea collected the remaining four Entities first. Diana, covered in wounds, dropped out of the Ion state. All seven Entities were finally accounted for. Then, at Reed Richards's suggestion, she stabbed Galactus one more time for good measure.
A strange feeling washed over her. She'd killed this version of Galactus so many times, and he'd never once given experience or dropped loot. Devourer of Worlds? Please. What a waste of a perfectly good title.
After a quick search inside Galactus's body, Diana found a black-bound tome. A large one, easily two meters tall.
The Book of the Black. Its name literally meant "death," but it had little to do with Thea personally. This was the Black Lantern Corps' book.
Just like the Green Lantern Corps had the Book of Oa, the Sinestro Corps had the Book of Parallax, and the Indigo Tribe had the Book of Nok [?], this was the Black Lantern Corps' equivalent. Its primary function was storing life force. Krona had used this very book to cheat death, surviving a hundred million years to cause trouble today.
Sinestro's devoted follower Lyssa Drak had been corrupted by the Book of the Black. Her mind was fractured, and she was currently wandering inside the book like a two-dimensional creature. Thea thought it over and decided to release her once they got home.
"Is the crisis over?" Batman scanned the surroundings.
Thea did the same. "Unfortunately, not yet. The two worlds are still mid-fusion." They had no idea how Krona had fused the worlds in the first place. The man's soul had been fractured, effectively dead for over a hundred million years. The Underworld couldn't reach him, and whatever remnant of his spirit remained had been claimed by the Marvel universe.
She turned to the Avengers. "Everyone, time is still short. The crisis hasn't been fully resolved. We may have to say our goodbyes here. It's been an honor fighting alongside you."
Then she turned to the Phoenix trio, who were visibly exhausted. "Jean, lower your mental barriers a fraction. I need to communicate with the Phoenix Force. To separate the two worlds, I'll need its help."
The negotiation went smoothly enough. Thea nodded and withdrew from the mental space.
Heroes from both worlds embraced, exchanged well-wishes, bringing this joint battle to a close.
"Will we ever see each other again?" Captain America reclaimed his shield and asked with his usual grace.
Thea smiled. "Once the connection between the two worlds is severed, I doubt they'll converge again."
"Then I wish you all fair winds. It was my honor to fight beside you."
"And mine."
A warm handshake. A genuine farewell.
The Avengers departed aboard the Dawn. The Justice League, carrying Krona's corpse, teleported directly back to their own world.