Chapter 124: The Stage of Gods
They arrived at the Dawn of Time.
The sky above them was a swirling abyss of black and red, like fire dancing across the bones of the universe. Stars blinked in and out of existence like dying embers. In the distance, a looming shadow twisted across the horizon—a shape so massive it dwarfed the heavens themselves.
The Anti-Monitor.
A void given form. A being that fed on existence itself.
And standing before it—seven figures. Each glowing faintly with the essence of what they represented.
Love. Courage. Hope. Honor. Humanity. Destiny. Truth.
And behind them, hands in his pockets, leaning against a jagged rock, stood Dante Hart. The Red Doom. Not a Paragon. Not a hero. Just... watching.
Dante's crimson eyes scanned the wasteland, unimpressed. He lit a cigarette with a spark of red energy and took a slow drag before exhaling.
"Alright," he said casually, looking over at the Monitor. "I got a question."
The Monitor turned his gaze to him, silent.
Dante smirked. "Now, I'm not trying to start anything. Just... curious. Purely academic, I swear." He gestured at the void around them. "See, I get that the Anti-Monitor eats Earths. That's his thing. Cosmic cannibalism. Fine."
He leaned forward slightly. "But what I don't get is why you waited until he'd swallowed, like, what? A hundred Earths? Maybe more? Before calling the Power Rangers to throw hands?"
There was silence.
Dante kept going, voice now edged with amusement. "I mean, if I were in charge—and thank God I'm not—I'd probably stop the universe-destroying monster before he starts his all-you-can-eat multiverse buffet."
The Paragons turned toward him.
Kate crossed her arms. "He's got a point."
Ryan Choi looked nervous. "Wait, is that true?"
J'onn narrowed his eyes. "Monitor?"
Barry stepped forward slowly. "Dante…"
Dante didn't stop. "Look, I'm just the side character here, not part of the holy prophecy or whatever. But someone has to ask the obvious. Why now? Why let billions die? You're supposed to be this cosmic godlike being of balance and wisdom, right? Or…"
He tilted his head, eyes glowing faintly red. "Are you just here for the show?"
The Monitor finally spoke. "You misunderstand my role."
"Do I?" Dante took a step forward, his tone sharpening. "Because from where I'm standing, you watched this whole tragedy unfold. You let it happen. All these people—families, worlds, timelines—you didn't try to stop it. You waited. You assembled the seven just in time to look noble when there was nothing left to save."
Sarah Lance was already looking uneasy. "Monitor… what is he talking about?"
The Monitor's expression didn't change.
Dante tilted his head again. "No answer? Okay then. Let's tell the class a story, shall we?"
His voice deepened, red lightning dancing across his fingertips.
"You created the Anti-Monitor, didn't you?"
Gasps.
Ryan stepped back. "Wait—what?"
The Monitor finally responded. "He is my brother. Born of the same cosmic spark. Where I observe... he consumes."
Dante smirked. "Yeah. You created balance. That's what they say. Light and dark. Monitor and Anti-Monitor. The Watcher and the Devourer."
His smirk vanished. "But here's the thing. You never once stopped him. Because deep down… you didn't want to."
Now even Kate looked shaken.
"What are you saying?" Barry demanded.
Dante pointed at the sky. "I'm saying this whole 'Paragon against the great evil' thing? It's not a mission. It's not a war. It's a goddamn entertainment special to him."
He turned to the Monitor. "Isn't it?"
The Monitor didn't blink. "They must be tested."
Dante's voice exploded with fury. "TESTED? You call genocide a test?"
Kal-El's fists clenched. "You let my world burn."
The Monitor spoke calmly. "Only through struggle can true Paragons be forged."
"You're not forging heroes," Dante said darkly. "You're building a highlight reel."
And then he said it. The words that shattered everything:
"There is no saving the multiverse."
Silence. Heavy. Devastating.
The Monitor's voice was even.
"It was lost the moment the Anti-Monitor awoke. The seven are not here to stop him. They are here to stand as the last sparks of light as the void takes hold."
Ryan's voice cracked. "You… knew?"
"I have always known," the Monitor said. "And I stayed to see how they would burn."
The Paragons were frozen. Staring. Disbelieving.
Sarah took a shaky step forward. "You're lying…"
"I am truth," the Monitor replied.
Dante stared at him, now with something close to pity.
"You sick, hollow bastard."
He turned to Barry. "You still think we're here to save something?"
Barry looked broken. "We… we have to try."
"Try all you want," the Monitor said, fading back into the void. "But know this: the end has already happened. You are merely its final note."
he was about to go
In that moment, the Speed Force began to dance around Dante's body—vibrant and alive. But this time, it wasn't just red.
It was black.
Dark. Shifting. Ancient.
The air around Dante cracked with unstable pressure. His eyes blazed with fury and something deeper—something older.
He smirked. "You motherfuc**…"
The Monitor turned, sensing something was very wrong.
Dante stepped forward, the black lightning now pulsing with every heartbeat. "Before I ever touched the Speed Force, I was connected to something older… something worse."
His voice dropped to a whisper. "The Void Force."
And in a blink, Dante vanished.
A split-second later, he appeared behind the Monitor—his hand clenched tight around the cosmic being's neck. The sky trembled as dark lightning exploded across the Monitor's body, draining him, burning through cosmic fiber like acid.
The Paragons cried out, stunned.
The Monitor struggled, voice cracking. "You... shouldn't exist..."
Dante's grip tightened. His eyes glowed with cold wrath.
"That's why you didn't want me here," he growled. "That's why I wasn't a Paragon. Why I was 'supposed' to die in the future."
Black lightning surged down his arms. "Because I'm the last."
His voice cracked with fury and sorrow.
"Michael—my little brother. Gone. Leon—my older brother. Gone. The Black Order… all of us, erased."
He leaned in closer, his voice venomous. "You made sure we all dead . Just so you could keep your little stage show going without interference."
Dante's body flickered with unstable Void energy, half his form dissolving into shadow, the other half blazing red.
"You thought the Speed Force would overwrite it," he whispered. "That it would hide it."
His voice shattered into a roar:
"But the Void never left me!"
The Monitor screamed in agony as the lightning began to consume him.
"The Speed Force only helped me channel it. And now?"
Dante stepped back, releasing the Monitor, who fell to one knee, smoldering and weakened.
"I can use it one last time thanks to your shit "
The Paragons stood frozen, watching as Dante's form stabilized—half-man, half-force, wreathed in dark energy and burning purpose.
Dante turned to them, voice calm but cold.
"I'm not a Paragon. I never wanted to be. But I'm going to finish this."
He looked toward the horizon.
Toward the Anti-Monitor.
"I'm going to end it."
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