The figure clad in golden armour was a bizarre sight to behold. Standing roughly two and a half metres tall, it wore a strange mask over its face, and its eyes blazed with red light.
Most unnerving of all were the two deep crimson halos that burned where its eyes should have been, perpetual and impossible to look at directly.
That red glow was not mere light. It was more akin to a pair of bottomless abysses opening into the void, brimming with pure destructive will. Simply meeting the creature's gaze was enough to freeze one's soul.
The eerie figure before him filled Axis with a pressure unlike anything he had ever felt. This thing was powerful, terrifyingly so, even stronger than Beerus.
Damn it all. He had barely crossed over into this universe, and he was already facing something this vicious. Who the hell was this? Certainly no a nameless nobody, judging by appearances.
"Axis, what's going on? This thing gives me an extremely dangerous feeling." The Emperor, too, had sensed that something was deeply wrong.
The creature before them, swathed in that grotesque, warped armour with crimson light pouring from its eyes, exerted an unimaginable pressure on him, as though it could kill him utterly at any moment it chose.
"The situation isn't good, Father-in-law. If things go south, I'll send you away first." As Axis spoke, terrifying purple energy ignited across the surface of his body.
Against a foe this dangerous, showing weakness was not an option. Axis unleashed his most powerful energy of destruction without hesitation.
The golden-armoured being, which had been in the process of annihilating the entire universe, noticed Axis and turned to regard him with curiosity.
Strange. There should not have been any living thing in that direction. His antimatter should have destroyed everything already.
Upon seeing Axis, the creature's expression grew grave, for it sensed a genuine threat emanating from the purple energy that wreathed the Saiyan's body.
As for the other one, the figure radiating golden light, his strength was roughly equivalent to a God-King. That sort of being did not warrant the creature's concern.
Having destroyed countless positive-matter universes, it had encountered far too many God-Kings. The number that had perished by its hand was beyond counting.
But the other one was rather interesting. What was that purple energy he possessed? It was nearly on par with the creature's own antimatter.
How fascinating. To think there were still things in existence that it knew nothing about. How many secrets had its mother left behind when she created this world?
"I am the Anti-Monitor. Name yourselves, unknown gods." A burst of golden light heralded the Anti-Monitor's arrival before Axis and the Emperor.
The moment it revealed its identity, cold sweat ran down Axis's back. The Anti-Monitor was a legendary name, one of the most powerful villains in the DC multiverse.
Its stature rivalled Darkseid's, perhaps even exceeded it. It was the son of the Creator Goddess, Perpetua. A being whose standing was no less than that of the Grand Zeno, a creator of entire multiverses in her own right.
One of the Perpetua's other sons, the World Forger, had forged countless universes.
The Anti-Monitor had first appeared during the DC crisis event known as the Crisis on Infinite Earths, serving as the final boss. Later, in the Darkseid War, it had outright killed Darkseid.
It had separated from the Anti-Life Equation on its body. It had also appeared during Death Metal and Dark Nights: Metal. All things considered, this being's power genuinely surpassed that of a God of Destruction.
Of course, that was assuming this was the comic book version. If it were merely the live-action version, its power level would fall far short.
This was serious trouble. The Anti-Monitor had truly destroyed countless universes, and its strength far exceeded the level of any ordinary universe level entity.
"Father-in-law, I'll send you away first. I'll hold this thing off and come find you afterwards." Axis turned to address the Emperor.
Once the fighting began in earnest, he would have no capacity to protect the Emperor. Better to send the old man to safety first, then figure out an escape for himself.
"Is it really that powerful, Axis? Do you have any confidence in defeating it? I can stay and help you." The Emperor asked with furrowed brows.
"Honestly, I'm not sure I can beat it. But with you here, you'd only be holding me back." Axis refused without a shred of courtesy.
Against an opponent of this calibre, the Emperor was nothing but dead weight. Without another word, Axis tore open the fabric of space beside him and sent the Emperor through.
"Wait, Axis! Let me help—" The Emperor's words were cut short as Axis hurled him bodily into the spatial rift.
He did not send the Emperor back to their own universe, however. Instead, he deposited him in a parallel world within this one.
With a foe this dangerous, Axis did not dare open a portal to the Warhammer universe until he had shaken the Anti-Monitor off his trail.
If the Anti-Monitor followed them through, it would not stop to negotiate or reason. It would simply destroy.
Witnessing the spatial abilities Axis had displayed, the Anti-Monitor was deeply shocked. Although it, too, could traverse worlds, it could not do so with such ease.
At present, for example, it found itself trapped in this world, unable to leave. Still, the Anti-Monitor had not tried to prevent Axis from sending the Emperor away. A mere God-King was beneath its notice. If it wanted to flee, so be it.
"Interesting ability. Is that some manner of spatial energy? You can traverse worlds." The Anti-Monitor approached Axis. "I have never seen you before. You have never appeared in our universe. Who are you?"
At that moment, shadowy figures composed of black energy materialised around the Anti-Monitor. These were Shadow Demons, energy constructs formed from the residual antimatter of the strong beings left behind by the countless universes it had destroyed. They could not truly be called living things. They were merely weapons of the Anti-Monitor.
Axis let out a cold snort.
Purple radiance flared from his body, and every black figure that drew close to him vanished the instant it touched the violet light. They were annihilated by the destructive energy.
"I suppose you could call me a visitor from another universe. To be frank, I really didn't want to run into you." Axis said with a wry smile.
"A shame, then, that you have. Unknown being, perhaps you can be of use to me. Help me kill Darkseid." The Anti-Monitor regarded Axis steadily.
That peculiar purple energy possessed extraordinary destructive power. It seemed as though all matter disintegrated the instant it made contact with it.
What a curious substance. This individual very likely hailed from beyond the multiverse, from outside the world his mother had created.
How utterly fascinating. Perhaps, with this individual's aid, it could free itself from the Anti-Life Equation, free itself from the thing that had twisted it into a monster.
"I have no intention of being anyone's subordinate. And I don't work for free." Axis replied flatly.
"No one refuses me. If you are unwilling, then I will simply take control of you entirely. Perhaps after killing you, I can claim that energy of yours." A cold smile curled across the Anti-Monitor's lips.
"Heh. If you want a fight, then by all means, come at me. You'll find that we're evenly matched." Axis showed no inclination to back down.
Purple light blazed across his body as God of Destruction energy suffused every fibre of his being.
Besides, as a Saiyan, he had never feared battle. You want to fight? Then let us fight. And Axis did, in fact, relish the idea of clashing with a powerful opponent. The Anti-Monitor suited him perfectly.
"Then let me see what you are truly made of!" The Anti-Monitor let out a cold grunt as terrifying antimatter energy erupted from its entire body.
It was the embodiment of cosmic annihilation, the antithesis of the universe itself.
"Fine by me. Haaah!" Axis struck first. His silhouette vanished from where he stood, leaving behind only a ring of spatial ripples that detonated outward as he shattered the spatial folds itself.
He appeared before the Anti-Monitor's massive frame almost instantaneously, and his fist, wreathed in dense God of Destruction energy, drove into the creature's golden-armoured chest without an ounce of finesse.
BOOM!
A deafening, concussive blast erupted at the point of impact. The moment fist met armour, two forces of universal-origin magnitude annihilated each other in a frenzy.
The highly condensed destructive energy on Axis's fist ate into the Anti-Monitor's antimatter armour like the most violent acid imaginable.
Within the deep geometric channels carved across the surface of the armour, the Anti-Monitor's deep crimson eyes flickered violently.
Energy runes composed of pure antimatter flared to life in an instant, forming an impregnable barrier that held the all-consuming purple at bay.
The space around the two combatants fractured outward from the epicentre like glass struck by a hammer, revealing the chaotic torrents of the void beneath.
"Your strength is not insignificant. That strange energy of yours can actually destroy my antimatter. A complete form of destruction, it seems, one that breaks down molecular structures entirely." The Anti-Monitor offered Axis a word of praise.
"Likewise. You're not bad yourself. This is the first time I've ever encountered anything that can withstand the energy of God of Destruction." Axis let out a cold snort. "I hope you can keep me entertained for a while. Truth be told, I quite enjoy a good fight."
At the same time, his fist, still wreathed in destructive energy, crashed squarely into the Anti-Monitor's face, sending the creature hurtling backward.
The deep crimson halos in the Anti-Monitor's eyes surged with sudden fury. There was a flicker of surprise, but it was quickly eclipsed by sheer rage at the provocation.
Its colossal frame had barely been rocked by the blow, tilting just slightly backward, when its massive gauntleted hand was already sweeping toward Axis with a force that could rend the universe apart, trailing a dense cloud of antimatter energy potent enough to erase an entire galaxy.
Axis's pupils contracted. He crossed both fists in a guard, and destructive energy instantly coalesced into a heavy purple shield before him.
BOOM!
By now, the Anti-Monitor's helmet had cracked open, revealing a horrifying visage that resembled a walking corpse. Its appearance was grotesque in the extreme, like a desiccated cadaver.
The face bore a passing resemblance to the Emperor seated upon the Golden Throne, though Axis's fists showed it no mercy for the likeness.
The two continued to exchange blows in the void. Antimatter energy and God of Destruction energy raged and clashed without restraint as the Anti-Monitor intensified its assault.
This time, the resulting explosion dwarfed anything that had come before. Axis was struck as though a supernova had detonated point-blank against him, and his body became a purple streak of light as he was hurled away at tremendous speed.
His body carved a black, shattered trail through the fabric of space as he tumbled, and the asteroid belts caught in the blast were ground to dust without a sound. Even the light of their detonations was instantly swallowed and annihilated by the antimatter.
Axis felt his arms screaming with agony.
The Anti-Monitor's antimatter did not merely carry horrific physical force; it bore within it a rule-level power of existential erasure that battered and unravelled his protective destructive energy with relentless fury.
Fortunately, the divine power within his body combined with the God of Destruction energy was enough to hold the antimatter forces at bay.
"Hmph! You do not know your own limits. You have only just set foot into this tier of power. I will show you the gulf between us." The Anti-Monitor's low voice tolled like the death knell of the cosmos. It took a single stride, disregarding spatial distance entirely, and appeared above the tumbling Axis in an instant.
Its palms pressed together, and a massive black energy sphere composed of pure antimatter, crackling with annihilating thunder within, took shape between them.
The terrifying energy fluctuations it radiated caused every star within several light-years to flicker violently on the verge of extinction.
Singularity Burst!
The black sphere was hurled downward with devastating force. Axis was swallowed instantly by an endless tide of darkness.
It was not simple darkness. It was an absolute antimatter domain in which the very concepts of light, space, and time were being forcibly erased.
Axis felt his energy and his consciousness being drained and annihilated by the horrific power at a frenzied pace. His Saiyan divine body groaned under the strain, and the God of Destruction energy on his surface boiled violently as it struggled to resist the all-encompassing attempt at erasure.
Pain. Pain beyond anything he had ever known.
But that agony was like a spark cast into a vat of boiling oil, igniting the dormant battle-instinct buried deep within his Saiyan bloodline.
"GRAAAAHHH!"
A savage roar, torn from the deepest recesses of his soul, erupted from the heart of the darkness.
God of Destruction energy, condensed to its absolute extreme, detonated outward like a supernova, forcibly tearing open a rift in the absolute void created by the antimatter singularity.
Axis burst from the gap, his body drenched in blood, but his eyes blazed with a battle-fury that burned even more fiercely than the destructive energy itself.
This was exhilarating.
The closer he came to the brink, the more he craved battle. And the more he craved battle, the stronger he became.
This was the essence of the Saiyan race. This was the power of Saiyan blood.
Axis's form left countless purple afterimages in its wake as his fists, feet, elbows, and knees lashed out in a relentless onslaught.
Every strike was wreathed in purple destructive energy powerful enough to pulverise a star, hammering with pinpoint precision into the joints, seams, and energy nodes of the Anti-Monitor's armour.
Each collision triggered a localised spatial annihilation as the purple destructive energy and the dark-red antimatter tangled, cancelled, and detonated against one another.
The antimatter energy that the Anti-Monitor fired back was met and precisely neutralised by Axis's destructive energy.
For the first time, the Anti-Monitor's massive and seemingly impervious frame faltered under the storm of close-range blows.
Its antimatter energy blasts were dodged at impossible angles, or smashed apart head-on by fists condensed to the absolute peak of destructive power.
Axis's speed continued to climb. His strength continued to grow. His mastery of destructive energy grew ever more refined, as though he were evolving in real time through the act of battle itself.
"Impossible! Your power... is growing during combat?!" For the first time, the Anti-Monitor's voice carried a tremor of disbelief.
How could this be? The individual's strength was increasing at a rate visible to the naked eye.
The Anti-Monitor's expression shifted to one of utter incredulity.
At the start of the fight, it had clearly held the upper hand against Axis. Yet now, the two of them were evenly matched.
And if it dropped its guard for even a moment, it risked being wounded.
"We're not done yet! Anti-Monitor, have a taste of this!" Axis seized on a minuscule gap in the Anti-Monitor's energy output.
In an instant, he channelled every ounce of his strength into his right fist. Destructive energy compressed to extreme density formed a blinding point of purple light, and he drove it squarely into the centre of the Anti-Monitor's chest plate.
CRACK.
A subtle but unmistakable sound of fracturing rang out. For the first time, a hairline crack appeared on the Anti-Monitor's supposedly indestructible armour. Deep crimson energy seeped from the fissure like blood from a wound.
While the Anti-Monitor reeled from the blow, Axis swiftly produced a perfect Tree of Might fruit and devoured it.
Before crossing over into this universe, Axis had made a point of cultivating perfect Tree of Might fruits on two separate planets. They could mend his injuries and restore his strength.
Meanwhile, hidden within the surrounding void, a cloaked figure in black battle armour watched the two combatants.
"How extraordinary. I originally believed I had found only one being capable of killing my father. It seems there is a second." The mysterious figure murmured to itself.
The battle between Axis and the Anti-Monitor only grew more ferocious.
The Anti-Monitor loosed an earth-shaking roar.
Its enormous frame was, for the first time, driven back repeatedly by the concentrated destructive force. The crimson light in its eyes blazed to its absolute limit as its antimatter energy solidified to near-physical density.
"I will defeat you, outsider." The Anti-Monitor was consumed by fury. It threw both arms wide, and the entire cosmic backdrop seemed to dim.
Boundless antimatter energy poured from its body like a breached dam, coalescing behind it into a slowly rotating dark vortex that swallowed all it touched, spanning nearly half a galaxy. It was a projection of the antimatter universe itself.
It intended to end this battle decisively, to erase this ever-evolving threat along with the entire universe.
Axis hovered at the centre of the raging energy storm, his body soaked in blood, yet his aura had climbed to an unprecedented peak.
The light of undying battle-madness burned in his eyes. Gazing upon that world-ending dark vortex, a savage grin tugged at the corner of his mouth.
"Now that's more like it! Come on, then! If I take a single step back, I lose." Axis slowly brought his hands together at his waist.
The power of the Saiyan God and the God of Destruction energy merged and surged without reservation. A purple energy sphere, brighter than a star and imbued with the ultimate principle of destruction, spun and swelled between his palms.
The purple sphere of ultimate destructive energy versus the galaxy-devouring projection of the antimatter universe.
Purple and pale gold collided.
Just as the two were locked in a stalemate, neither able to overpower the other, a man in a red cape and blue bodysuit suddenly charged into the fray and drove a straight punch into the Anti-Monitor's face.
At the same time, a woman in black combat attire lashed a barbed lasso around the Anti-Monitor and held it fast.
Beside her stood a man wielding a green ring, a skull with flames dancing atop its head, and a mortal clad in owl-themed armour.
"Now! Kill it now!" the woman shouted.
...
..
.
ps?