Space was no longer a vacuum; it was a canvas of violence.
To an observer on Earth, the night sky above the moon was flickering. New stars seemed to be born and die in milliseconds. Red and White lights clashed, creating auroras that spanned half the hemisphere.
Elias was moving faster than thought. In his Hyper Form, he was a streak of oscillating light—silver, cyan, pink, gold. He didn't just fly; he teleported through sheer velocity.
He slammed into Darkseid with a Hyper Dash.
CRACK.
The sound defied physics, traveling through the ether. Darkseid was hurled backward, smashing through a derelict satellite. But the Lord of Apokolips didn't slow down. He caught himself, his boots digging into the fabric of space-time itself to brake.
"You possess the power of a universe," Darkseid rumbled, his voice echoing in Elias's mind. "But you lack the will to use it."
Darkseid clapped his hands together.
The Omega Shockwave.
A ripple of pure red entropy expanded outward. It disintegrated the wreckage of the armada. It vaporized asteroids.
Elias didn't flinch. He flew straight into the red wall.
Hyper Flash.
His aura flared blindingly white. He pierced the shockwave, parting the sea of destruction like a needle through fabric. He reached Darkseid in an instant, delivering a flurry of kicks that launched shockwaves of positive chaos energy into the New God's chest.
Bam-Bam-Bam-Bam!
Darkseid grunted, taking the hits. His armor cracked. His lip bled. But he didn't fall. He grabbed Elias's leg mid-kick.
"Enough," Darkseid said.
He threw Elias.
Elias spun, righting himself instantly. He charged a Hyper Beam in his hands, the seven energy stars swirling into a vortex.
"Take this!"
He fired. A beam of prismatic light engulfed Darkseid. It was enough energy to erase a solar system.
When the light faded, Darkseid was still standing. His skin was smoking, his armor was shattered to reveal his grey, rocky chest, but he was smiling. A cold, cruel smile.
"Is that the best your 'System' can provide?" Darkseid mocked.
Elias stopped. He hovered ten feet away, his chest heaving despite his infinite stamina.
"Why won't you stay down?" Elias asked, frustration leaking into his voice. "I'm Hyper. I'm invincible. I'm hitting you with infinite velocity."
"You are hitting a body," Darkseid said softly. "You are striking a shell."
Darkseid floated closer. The Omega effect in his eyes stopped flaring. It became a steady, deep crimson pull.
"Look at me, child," Darkseid commanded. "Do not look at the avatar. Look at the Truth."
Elias frowned. He shouldn't do it. The System screamed a warning in his head.
WARNING: PSYCHIC HAZARD DETECTED.
ADVISORY: DO NOT ENGAGE OCULAR CONTACT.
But Elias was confident. He was Hyper Sonic. Nothing could hurt him.
He looked.
He stared directly into Darkseid's glowing red eyes.
The universe vanished.
The Fourth World
The silence was absolute. The stars were gone. The Earth was gone. The ship was gone.
Elias was floating in a void that wasn't black. It was a color that didn't exist—a sickening, jagged grey-red that hurt his mind to perceive.
He looked down at his hands. The Hyper form was gone. He was just Elias. Small. Blue. Mortal.
"Where am I?" he whispered.
You are nowhere, a voice said. It didn't come from a direction. It came from the fabric of reality. You are in the Shadow of the God.
Elias looked up.
And he screamed.
Above him, filling the entire sky, filling the entire concept of distance, was a face.
It was Darkseid. But it wasn't the alien he had been fighting. That was just a puppet, a 3D projection into a 3D world.
This was Darkseid.
He was a singularity of tyranny. He was a face made of jagged, dying planets. His eyes were the size of galaxies, burning with a hate so old it predated light. He was the concept of Evil itself. He was the hole in things.
Elias felt gravity pulling him. Not physical gravity. Spiritual gravity.
He was falling into the eyes.
Inside those red pits, Elias saw billions of worlds. He saw trillions of souls, all kneeling, all chanting, all broken. He saw the Anti-Life Equation written in the blood of civilizations.
I am the Tiger-Force at the core of all things, the voice thundered, vibrating Elias's bones. When you cry out in your dreams, it is me that you hear.
Elias tried to turn away, but he couldn't. The Abyss was looking back at him.
The Abyss was amused.
You are a glitch, the True Darkseid whispered. A chaotic variable. You think your 'Hyper' form makes you a god? You are a firefly raging against a black hole.
A massive hand, made of darkness and despair, began to descend from the void to crush him. It was inevitable. It was Final.
"SYSTEM!" Elias shrieked. "LOG OUT! GET ME OUT!"
Real Space
GASP.
Elias snapped back to reality.
He hurled himself backward, hyper-ventilating. He was back in his Hyper form, flashing furiously, but he was shaking uncontrollably.
Darkseid stood there, watching him. The physical avatar looked small now, but Elias knew what was pulling the strings. He knew what was behind the mask.
"You saw," Darkseid said satisfyingly.
Elias clutched his chest. The System was running diagnostics, frantically trying to repair the psychological trauma.
Mental Integrity: 60%.
Terror Levels: Critical.
"You..." Elias stammered, his voice trembling. "You're not just a warlord. You're... a cancer. A cosmic cancer."
"I am the End," Darkseid agreed. He raised his hand, preparing the Omega Beams again. "And you have stared into the abyss, little glitch. Now you know. Even if you destroy this body... I am eternal."
Elias gritted his teeth. The fear was paralyzing. He wanted to run. He wanted to use his infinite speed to flee to the edge of the universe.
But then he looked down at the Earth behind him.
If he ran, that Abyss would swallow the world. It would swallow Superman, Batman, the pizza place in Gotham, the chili dog stand.
Elias clenched his fists. The fear remained, but the Hyper energy surged to meet it.
"You're ugly up close," Elias spat, forcing a grin onto his face. "And you're huge. But you know what they say about the bigger they are..."
He flared his aura. The flashing lights intensified, blindingly bright, pushing back the darkness of space.
"I can't kill the Concept," Elias shouted, charging forward. "But I can definitely kick the Avatar's ass!"
He launched himself at Darkseid one last time, not with the arrogance of a god, but with the desperate bravery of a hero who knows exactly how small he is—and fights anyway.