"Back off—watch my light show! Let Green Lantern handle this!"
As Darkseid barreled straight toward them, Hal Jordan thrust out an arm, forcing everyone behind him. Green light erupted from his ring, shaping into a colossal iron fist that surged forward to meet the oncoming god.
BAM—!
Hal put everything he had into it.
But the instant that construct touched Darkseid, the massive fist shattered into fragments, like glass slammed against a mountain.
It felt less like punching a person and more like driving his knuckles into a peak forged from something far harder than steel.
Darkseid didn't speak.
He simply flicked his hand—casual, dismissive, like swatting a fly—and Hal was sent flying into a nearby building. He struck the wall hard enough to crater it, then rebounded and slammed down to the ground.
Parademons swarmed in immediately, rushing to finish off the human who had dared to offend their king.
Before they could reach him, Ben snapped his wrist and fired a fireball—searing heat punching straight through their skulls in an instant.
The Flash blurred forward, yanked Hal's limp body out of danger, and dragged him back toward the others.
By then, Darkseid's Parademon army had fully gathered.
The real battle began.
"I need time to connect the Mother Box to Apokolips' network—better get me higher up!"
Cyborg pulled the Mother Box stored within his body and immediately began trying to establish a link. In their plan, his job was the single most critical piece.
Whether it was sending the enemy back to their homeworld—or bringing back the humans who'd been taken—he had to complete the connection.
[Data link in progress…]
As his interface sank into the Mother Box, oceans of information flooded his mind in a violent rush.
[Connection failed.]
He tried again—forcing his way into the network—
—but the enemy had anticipated it.
A firewall snapped into place and slammed the door in his face.
"Did it work?!"
Ben lobbed another fireball, blasting apart a Parademon at his side, and shouted up at Cyborg in the sky.
"How much longer until you can send these Parademons back?!"
"They intercepted my connection. I'm trying to break through—don't interfere."
Cyborg's voice was tight with strain. After that, he went silent, diverting every ounce of processing power into cracking Apokolips' defenses.
Down below, Superman had already taken the fight directly to Darkseid. Shazam stayed close to Cyborg, swatting down any Parademons that tried to disrupt him.
Wonder Woman and Flash supported Superman's attacks. Green Lantern still hadn't fully regained consciousness. Batman was getting mobbed from every direction by Parademons pouring in like a storm.
Cyborg needed time.
But the battlefield didn't have time to spare—and the momentum was turning ugly.
"Batman! Want to try Hal's ring?! A Green Lantern ring is one of the most powerful weapons in the universe—if you've got the will, you can bring out its power!"
Batman hadn't even emptied his belt yet, but the harsh truth was obvious: tools meant for Gotham's criminals weren't cutting it against Apokoliptian war-beasts.
Ben kept forming fireballs and hammering the Parademons that tried to drag Hal away.
Not far off, Darkseid was still dominating, even against the combined assault of Superman, Wonder Woman, and Flash.
Ben's conclusion was simple:
Batman should put on the ring and become a reliable front-line combatant.
"I'm the greatest Green Lantern!"
Hal's eyes snapped open—barely—his willpower forcing his battered body upright. The ring flared with blinding brilliance.
Green energy surged, forming a smoking locomotive around him.
Hal launched forward like a runaway train, charging Darkseid head-on.
"My power isn't just this!"
"..."
Ben didn't even have time to stop him.
Watching Hal hurl himself into what was basically a suicide rush, Ben felt a cold twist in his gut.
"I shouldn't have provoked him…"
He even regretted not telling Hal ahead of time what happened the last time the Green Lantern Corps fought Darkseid.
Three thousand six hundred Green Lanterns had died—two-thirds of them—just to reach Darkseid in the first place.
The survivors, even with the help of the "little blue men," still couldn't truly contend with him.
Unless Hal Jordan showed up carrying Oa's Central Power Battery on his back—and somehow fused with a time-warping alien like Eon—maybe then he'd have a chance to trade blows with Darkseid.
The green locomotive struck.
And in the same instant—
it collapsed into useless scrap metal.
Hal tumbled away, rolling across the ground.
Calling it "low damage" would be generous.
It did nothing.
But it did one thing Hal hadn't managed all night:
It earned Darkseid's attention.
Red light kindled in Darkseid's eyes—
Omega energy building, about to erase that irritating "insect" with a single shot—
When Superman appeared in front of him.
A brutal rising uppercut slammed into Darkseid's jaw, interrupting the attack.
Then Superman's left arm whipped through—
another heavy punch crashed into Darkseid's face.
Darkseid finally reacted.
He snarled without words, seized Superman by the cape, and swung him like a weapon—
then hurled him down hard enough to crater the street.
Wonder Woman darted in during the opening.
Her divine blade—sharp enough to cleave Parademons like paper—only carved a shallow mark across Darkseid's armor.
Darkseid answered with a single straight punch.
Wonder Woman was blasted away—caught midair by Shazam before she could smash into the buildings.
Then Flash rushed in.
Darkseid's eyes turned, and the Omega Beams fired.
Darkseid's Omega Beams weren't like Superman's heat vision.
They didn't just shoot straight—
Darkseid could steer them at will, curving and turning until the target was completely destroyed.
Flash was fast.
To him, the world had slowed into something like stillness.
But the Omega Beams…
They still kept up.
He tried to cut left.
The beams cut left too—no delay, no loss of lock.
"Run, Barry—RUN!! He's locked onto you!"
Only Superman could even track Flash at that speed, and the warning came sharp and urgent.
"That beam doesn't stop until it hits something!"
Flash spotted a cluster of Parademons down the street—and an idea struck.
He accelerated harder, forcing his body's molecular vibration to shift.
Faster. Faster—
Until his vibration frequency matched the Parademons'.
Flash phased—
passing straight through several of them in a row.
The Omega Beams followed.
They slammed into the line of Parademons instead, detonating through a dozen bodies—
and only then, once they'd finally "hit," did the beams stop.
Flash exhaled, breath ragged.
"Haa… I usually don't even breathe hard."
And the next moment, he was already accelerating again—back toward the main fight.
Nearby, Batman had just repelled another wave with micro-bombs. He checked the time, then looked up at Cyborg in the air.
"Still can't connect to the Mother Box and send them back?"
Even with a quantum computer for a brain, Cyborg couldn't brute-force through a prepared defense.
With Apokolips fully on guard, he simply couldn't break the firewall and access the network.
"The enemy predicted my intrusion. I'm still trying!"
Batman's jaw tightened.
If Ben's earlier interference with the Mother Boxes had tipped their hand, then Apokolips was clearly responding in real time.
From Cyborg's struggle, one conclusion became hard to ignore:
Breaking into Apokolips' network from the outside was now extremely unlikely.
Batman's eyes narrowed.
"Then maybe… we break in from the inside."
…
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 60)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 80)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 60)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 64)
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