Zara injured and humbled fell into the Injustice universe like a dying star.
He did not arrive standing.
He crashed through an uninhabited wasteland, body burning, bones cracked, ki flickering at levels that would have killed any lesser being.
Erasure scars still glowed faintly across his chest, wounds left by Angels and the Grand Priest's specialized attack .
For the first time since rebirth, Zar did not rise immediately.
He buried himself.
Deep beneath the planet's crust, wrapped in stone and silence, he entered forced hibernation.
His body did not heal quickly. It relearned.
Every cell rewrote itself to survive what had nearly ended him.
Just adaptation.
Above him, the Injustice timeline unfolded.
.....
Zar emerged weeks later, still injured but alive.
For one year, he became a ghost.
He watched Metropolis fall.
He watched Lois die.
He felt the moment Superman's heart fractured and calcify.
Zar did nothing.
He observed Batman's defiance.
Wonder Woman's encouragement and brain washing of tyranny.
The slow construction of the Regime.
"So this is what mercy becomes," Zar thought.
During this year, his base form climbed silently.
It thickened in ki potency.
His ki no longer flared uncontrollably, it existed in harmoniously with his body and mind, heavy and oppressive even when sealed.
Erasure scars faded into resilience.
Conceptual attacks slid off his awareness without notice.
By the end of the year, Zar base form surpassed what his transformed states once were.
The ceiling cracked.
He felt it.
But it had not yet broken.
The Regime noticed anomalies.
Satellites vanished.
Scouts failed to return.
Entire patrols went silent.
Superman listened.
"Find him," he ordered.
Regime forces discovered Zar standing alone in a ruined city, aura suppressed, eyes calm.
They attacked.
Zar dismantled them in seconds.
Not cruelly.
Efficiently.
He left survivors.
On purpose.
Superman then arrived personally.
The air bent around him.
"You will kneel," Superman said.
Zar looked up.
"Nah, don't feel like it," he replied.
....
Their first clash erased the city.
Superman struck with speed and power born of absolute conviction.
Zar met him head-on, base form finally straining against its limit.
Each blow forced Zar body to choose:
Break.
Or evolve.
He chose evolution.
Bones reinforced. Muscles compressed.
Ki stabilized into a constant singular pressure.
Superman screamed as Zar matched him.
Not surpassed.
Matched.
That was enough.
Zar drove Superman through continents, through oceans, through orbit.
When Heat vision burned. Ki beams answered.
The fight lasted hours.
When Zar finally caught Superman's punch and did not move....
The ceiling shattered.
His base form broke free.
Not with light.
With silence.
The universe felt heavier.
Zar then struck once, a sharp elbow to the temple.
Superman fell.
Alive for now
But Broken.
Zar stood over the fallen and injured Regime god.
"You confuse control for justice," Zar said. "And mercy for weakness."
He turned away.
He had proven his base form could rival gods, tyrants, and ideals alike.
But he was not finished.
Not with Angels.
Not with the Grand Priest.
Not with the primordial beast still whispering beneath his skin.
Zar then finally vanished.
The multiverse remembered his weight.
End of the chapter