Not even Thanos could maintain his iron grip on the human.
With a sickening crackle of shifting cartilage, Ernst's body contorted.
His limbs became impossibly pliable, shifting like a greased serpent to slip completely free of the desperate grapple.
Using the Titan's own body as leverage, Ernst vaulted over the massive head.
The attack window was small.
Darkseid's jagged Omega beams were already tearing through the air, mere inches from impact.
Reacting with terrifying speed, Ernst lashed out with a twisting, mid-air kick.
His boot struck the back of Thanos's thick skull, shoving the warlord forcefully forward.
Unaware of the impending threat, the hapless Titan took the full brunt of the Apokoliptian blast.
Despite Darkseid's frantic, last-second attempt to divert the crimson energy, the beams struck true.
The resulting impact was catastrophic.
Thanos's golden armor, renowned across the galaxy for withstanding direct starship weaponry, was instantly reduced to a smoldering, melted ruin.
The blast revealed a gaping, charred wound on his thick purple hide.
A cold sweat slicked the Mad Titan's brow as he grasped the severity of the error.
A fraction of a second's delay from Darkseid would have carved a permanent, debilitating gash straight across his chest.
It was a wound that would have sapped the very life force from his veins.
With Thanos momentarily incapacitated in the smoking crater, Ernst seized the initiative.
He locked his cold, rational focus entirely on Darkseid.
A whirlwind of devastating martial prowess unfolded across the blasted landscape.
Ernst unleashed a relentless barrage of precision punches and punishing kicks.
Darkseid, vastly outmatched in close-quarters combat, was forced into a desperate, continuous retreat.
Though the ruler of Apokolips boasted physical strength comparable to Thanos, he severely lacked the finesse and technical skill to match Ernst blow for blow.
Unable to find a clean opening, Darkseid resorted to spamming his Omega beams.
He fired them from his eyes like a hail of erratic, crimson bullets.
He hoped the sheer volume of attacks would slow Ernst's relentless advance, even if it failed to inflict genuine damage.
But Ernst moved with an uncanny, mechanical prescience.
He dodged the erratic beams with effortless, flowing grace.
Their jagged trajectories posed no real hindrance to his assault.
In the blink of an eye, he had closed the distance, trapping Darkseid against the ruined terrain.
Cornered and desperate, Darkseid threw a massive, sweeping haymaker.
Simultaneously, he encased his own body in a protective, crackling halo of Omega energy.
The events that followed would forever be etched into Darkseid's memory.
Moving with an almost serpentine fluidity, Ernst dipped cleanly under the heavy fist.
His left hand, seemingly guided by an unseen cosmic force, reached out into the crackling halo.
He snagged one of the hovering Omega beams right out of the air.
He manipulated the intangible, lethal energy with an impossible feat of control.
Simultaneously, his right hand morphed into a rigid, clawed weapon.
Ernst lunged for Darkseid's armored abdomen.
He sank five fingers deep into the seemingly impenetrable flesh, leaving five bloody punctures in his wake.
In a final act of violent defiance, Darkseid redirected two more Omega beams directly toward Ernst's head.
It was a desperate gamble for mutually assured destruction.
Forced to react, Ernst retracted his bloodied hand.
With a casual, precise flick of his wrist, he guided one crimson beam directly into the path of the other.
The opposing energies collided, effectively canceling each other out in a burst of harmless static.
Just as Ernst prepared to press his lethal assault, a deafening roar shook the earth.
Thanos had recovered enough to launch a devastating, heavyweight punch aimed squarely at Ernst's exposed back.
The sudden threat left the smaller warrior with no choice.
He disengaged from Darkseid and pivoted to confront the Mad Titan.
Seizing this brief reprieve, Darkseid gritted his teeth, reversed his retreat, and charged back into the fight.
He flanked Ernst alongside his bitter rival.
The three titans clashed in a furious, blinding dance of devastation.
The battlefield expanded rapidly.
The very tectonic plates of the planet trembled and fractured under the weight of their combined blows.
High in the upper atmosphere, the two observing spaceships were caught in the expanding shockwaves.
The massive cruisers were forced to ignite their thrusters and flee the atmosphere entirely to escape the devastating concussive blasts ripping through the air.
On the massive tactical screens aboard the Obsidian Star and the Apokoliptian flagship, the assembled generals watched the carnage in stunned silence.
The raw, unfiltered power on display defied their comprehension.
Entire mountain ranges buckled and collapsed under the combatants' fists.
"Who in the heavens are these beings?" whispered one of Thanos's lieutenants, his voice laced with unmistakable awe.
The might they were witnessing dwarfed anything they had ever encountered in their long histories of conquest.
Down on the ravaged surface, the tide had turned decisively.
Darkseid and Thanos, battered, bruised, and bleeding, lay sprawled in a massive crater.
They coughed up mouthfuls of dust and dark blood.
Ernst, hovering silently above them, appeared relatively unscathed, his emotionless mask firmly in place.
Seizing a fleeting, desperate opportunity, Darkseid activated a sleek device attached to his belt.
A swirling Boom Tube tore open the fabric of space just behind him.
Without hesitation, the ruler of Apokolips lunged toward the portal, abandoning the fight in a frantic bid for survival.
But Ernst was not finished.
With a sharp flick of his wrist, he unleashed a concentrated burst of spatial energy.
The pulse rippled through the portal, causing the Boom Tube to collapse with a violent snap.
Caught mid-jump, Darkseid slammed headfirst into a jagged boulder, his cowardly escape thoroughly thwarted.
Thanos glared at his temporary ally with undisguised fury.
Darkseid had intended to use him as bait, abandoning the Mad Titan as a distraction.
It was a vile betrayal, a complete violation of their fragile, unspoken alliance.
Swallowing his simmering rage, Thanos knew this was no time for internal disputes.
His survival hinged on maintaining a united front against the anomaly hovering above them.
With a grimace, Thanos pushed himself to his feet, let out a war cry, and charged at Ernst.
He poured every ounce of his remaining strength into one desperate, earth-shattering punch.
Ernst descended to meet the blow head-on.
The impact echoed across the devastated landscape like a thunderclap.
However, something highly unexpected occurred.
As their fists collided, a sudden mist of blood erupted from Ernst's arm.
The collision revealed a network of gruesome, micro-fractures tearing through his skin and muscle.
Darkseid pushed himself off the boulder, watching the exchange with a sharp glint of hope.
This singular clash exposed a fatal vulnerability.
Ernst's overwhelming power, artificially amplified by the integration of his future phantom, came at a terrible biological cost.
His mortal body was nearing its breaking point under the cosmic strain.
Capitalizing on this newfound weakness, Darkseid unleashed a highly concentrated beam of Omega energy.
It was thicker and far more potent than his previous attacks.
Ernst, his arm throbbing with agonizing pain, was forced to deflect the incoming strike with his uninjured limb.
His fingers danced in a complex, arcane sequence, momentarily disrupting the beam before sending a violent burst of redirected energy right back at Darkseid.
The retaliatory blow struck the Apokoliptian's broad shoulder, tearing open a fresh, bloody wound.
But the victory was pyrrhic.
Ernst's defending arm dissolved into a familiar bloody mist, the same gruesome lacerations ripping across his skin as the cellular strain overwhelmed his biology.
A cruel, knowing smile stretched across Darkseid's stony face.
"Your power may be immense, human," Darkseid rasped, wiping blood from his chin.
"But your physical vessel is a ticking time bomb."
"Continued fighting will only see your own body crumble to dust. I believe we have reached a stalemate, wouldn't you say?"
For the first time since the battle escalated, a flicker of genuine emotion crossed Ernst's otherwise impassive features.
The cold, rational mask slipped.
A spectral phantom materialized beside him, separating from his form.
It was the mirror image, yet it reflected the exact same bloody wounds currently marring his arms.
A deep, heavy sigh escaped his lips.
"It seems fate has intervened," Ernst said softly, his voice returning to its normal cadence.
"Perhaps you are right. Further conflict would benefit none of us today."
"We shall call a truce for now. However, be warned: I will be fully prepared if you choose to resume these hostilities."
With those parting words, Ernst retrieved the silver mirror from his coat.
The bloody phantom dissolved into light, sinking back into the glass.
Using his remaining energy, Ernst propelled himself skyward, vanishing into the upper atmosphere toward his waiting spacecraft.
Thanos and Darkseid, drained, battered, and thoroughly humiliated, watched him depart.
They slumped into the dirt, their bodies screaming in protest from the relentless beating.
"Thanos," Darkseid rasped, breaking the heavy silence.
"Have you been aware of this formidable presence residing on Earth?"
"Why did you not eliminate him before his power reached such a catastrophic level?"
Thanos shot Darkseid a withering glare, the memory of the attempted betrayal still burning fresh in his mind.
The question went unanswered for a long moment, the tension between the two warlords hanging thick in the dusty air.
"Haven't you been keeping tabs on Earth yourself?" Thanos countered, his voice laced with bitter accusation.
"After all, you have three Mother Boxes stashed away on that miserable rock."
"Surely, you had spies monitoring the sector. Did your flawless intelligence network miss this anomaly entirely?"
Truthfully, Thanos himself was completely at a loss.
Ernst seemed to have materialized out of thin air, and his immense, reality-bending power was a complete and utter surprise.
Darkseid sputtered, on the verge of a violent outburst.
Thankfully, he managed to rein himself in, forcing down his pride.
He took a deep breath to compose himself.
"Regardless of our past oversights," Darkseid rumbled, "one thing is undeniable. Our opponent is strong."
"Let us put aside our differences for now. A united front against this mortal."
"He stands directly in the way of your Infinity Stone collection, and his existence is a massive thorn in my side as I strive to unify the universe."
"Our goals converge on this single obstacle, do they not?"
Thanos considered the proposition for a moment, weighing the tactical logic.
He gave a curt nod.
"Very well. But our cooperation extends only to dealing with Ernst. There will be no collaboration on any other matters."
Darkseid readily agreed.
Frankly, the prospect of extensive teamwork with the Mad Titan held little appeal.
Both were considered supreme overlords in the greater cosmos.
They acknowledged each other's strength but harbored deep, unshakeable paranoia.
Given the slightest opportunity, either would gladly eliminate the other without hesitation.
Meanwhile, upon his arrival aboard the Space Walker, Ernst was greeted by the incredibly relieved faces of his commanders.
Seeing their leader return alive brought a collective sigh of relief.
This was especially true for Shaw, whose earlier paternal anxiety was still deeply etched into his features.
However, just as the palpable tension on the bridge began to ease, an entirely unexpected turn of events unfolded...