Diana was the first one to speak after the long silence that had followed the Tetracide's death. She turned to face Kon-Rao fully, her expression a mixture of awe and confusion.
"Who are you, Kon?" she asked, her voice carrying genuine bewilderment. "I am a demi-god, born of divine blood. I am a sorceress trained by the favorite of Hecate herself - my mother Circe, one of the most powerful sorceresses to ever walk this earth."
She gestured toward the ocean where the Tetracide's body had sunk.
"Even I was not certain if I would be able to defeat the Tetracide. The battle could have gone either way, and victory would likely have cost me my life. Yet you... you simply looked at it and cut it in half as if it were nothing more than an inconvenience."
Kon-Rao's expression remained neutral. "I am merely a survivor, like my people. And this monster?" He glanced toward where the creature had fallen. "It did not seem like much of a threat."
Diana's eyes widened a bit. "Not much? Kon-Rao, the Tetracide, is something that most demi-gods fear to even speak of!"
She stepped closer to him, her voice dropping to a more serious tone. "In the past, it has consumed many demigods on the command of Zeus himself. It was created as an executioner, a weapon to eliminate immortals who had displeased the King of Olympus."
"Even the Gods who committed crimes against the divine order were stripped by Zeus of their divinities and fed to the Tetracide, their souls destroyed so completely that even death could not claim them."
Kon-Rao listened carefully, his mind cataloging every piece of information Diana provided. Demi-gods. Gods. Zeus. Hecate.
These were beings he knew about from Alex's comic book memories, but they had not been explored in great depth in those stories.
The comics had focused primarily on superheroes and their conflicts, treating gods as background elements or occasional guest stars rather than major players.
The information about the true powers of these gods, how they actually functioned, what made them different from other powerful beings - that knowledge was frustratingly sparse in his memories.
But he was extremely curious about them now. What exactly were gods? How did they differ from other enhanced beings? What was the source of their power? Divinity?
He recalled something called the "Godwave" from Alex's memories, an event that led to the creation of Gods and a Sphere of Gods, but the details were vague and incomplete. It had been mentioned in passing but never fully explained.
In this world, he knew that the Greek pantheon existed, as Diana's presence confirmed.
The Norse gods likely existed as well, given the interconnected nature of this merged universe. Even his own ancestor Rao, had been known as the God-King of Krypton, worshipped as a divine figure by billions of Kryptonians across millennia.
And it was not just Rao alone.
Under the Rao Orthodox religion, there were fourteen major deities, two hundred eleven demigods, and one thousand four hundred two titans. An entire pantheon that had supposedly guided Krypton through its golden age.
What made something a god? What separated a god from merely a very powerful being?
Was his ancestor Rao simply a Kryptonian who had basked under the light of a yellow sun and gained powers similar to what Kon-Rao now possessed? Was the entire Kryptonian pantheon just empowered Kryptonians whose abilities had been mythologized over time?
Or was there something more to it? the fundamental difference that elevated certain beings to Gods?
'Am I as strong as Rao was?' Kon-Rao wondered. 'Or was Rao something more than just a sun-empowered Kryptonian? Did he possess additional powers that I have yet to develop?'
He could not find definitive answers about the Kryptonian pantheon.
The records had been deliberately obscured or lost over time, hidden by the Council or simply eroded by the passage of eons. His father had promised to explain everything when he came of age, but that conversation would never happen now.
But perhaps he could find those answers by studying the gods of this planet.
If he could understand what made Zeus and Hecate and the other Olympians divine, perhaps he could understand what his ancestor Rao truly was.
Even Diana was a demigod, born of divine heritage. But as Kon-Rao looked at her, analyzing her with all of his senses, he knew with certainty that he was stronger than her.
Her physical abilities were impressive by any standard. She was strong, durable, fast - far beyond human capabilities. But he did not see her winning against him in direct combat. The gap in their power levels was simply too vast.
Though he was genuinely curious about fighting against her while she employed her magical abilities.
Magic was one of the few things that could potentially threaten a Kryptonian, and observing how Diana wielded it in combat would be valuable intelligence.
Diana continued speaking, seemingly unaware of his internal analysis. "Of course, the Tetracide could be defeated. It is not truly invincible. And I could have defeated it eventually, though doing so would likely have killed me in the process."
She met his eyes directly. "You saved many people today, Kon-Rao. Not just the citizens of Gateway City, but potentially millions along the eastern seaboard. The Tetracide would not have stopped with one city. It would have continued until—"
But her words were cut off as both she and Kon-Rao suddenly disappeared from their positions.
Coulson and Natasha stood frozen in shock, their minds struggling to process what their eyes had just witnessed. One moment, the two powerful beings had been standing on the beach, the next they were simply gone.
"What the—" Coulson began.
"There!" one of the SHIELD soldiers shouted, pointing toward the sky.
Everyone looked up.
Kon-Rao was hovering in the air, holding Diana in a princess carry. His arms supported her weight effortlessly, one arm under her knees and the other behind her back.
Diana looked at Kon-Rao's face, confusion evident in her expression. She wanted to ask what had just happened, why he had moved them, but the words caught in her throat.
She had seen him move at super speed. Her eyes had enabled her to track the motion. She had seen him cross the distance between them in a fraction of a second, seen him scoop her up and launch them both into the air.
But her body had not been able to react at all. He had moved so fast that by the time her brain registered the movement, they were already airborne. The speed differential was staggering - like comparing a racing horse to a statue.
And her current position in his arms... being held so securely in his strong arms... a red hue appeared on Diana's face, spreading across her cheeks despite her best efforts to maintain her composure.
She was a warrior, a princess of hell, a being who had faced countless dangers without flinching. Yet being carried like this, held so gently by someone so powerful, triggered a response she had not expected.
She was never held by a man before.
But Kon-Rao was not looking at her. His eyes were fixed on the spot where Diana had been standing moments before, his expression alert and focused.
Diana followed his gaze and felt her blood run cold.
The ground where she had been standing was split open, a jagged crack. A bluish hand was emerging from the fissure; it was bright as if the hand were a source of light.
The hand was many times the size of a normal human hand.
Diana's eyes widened in recognition and fear.
She knew that particular shade of blue, knew the signature of that power.
"Hades."
.....
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