The Anti-Monitor clone that had emerged from the rift raised its arm slowly, deliberately, and angled it toward the monitor satellite.
Antimatter began gathering in its palm.
A bright, swirling mass of energy formed and began to grow. It surpassed the scale of every previous attack within seconds,and kept growing. The light it cast reached the satellite, washing the interior in a cold, sickly glow that grew brighter with every passing moment.
Inside, nobody spoke,they just watched.
Then Stargirl broke the silence.
"I guess it finally stopped holding back," she said quietly. "It's decided to wipe us out once and for all."
"And it's still getting bigger," Nightwing murmured, his eyes fixed on the expanding sphere outside.
"How do we even stop that?" Black Canary asked. The question hung in the air because it was the question. The one everyone was thinking and nobody had an answer to.
"There must be something we can do," Superman muttered. His tone made it clear even he wasn't convinced by his own words.
"Like what, Superman?" Luthor threw his hands up, his voice sharp with barely contained panic dressed as sarcasm. "What exactly haven't we tried? Please, enlighten us."
Superman said nothing.
"So we're just going to roll over and die?" Thena asked.
Her voice was calm and flat as It cut through the noise in the room like a blade and drew every eye to her immediately.
Luthor turned toward her.
"What part of this don't you understand, kid?" he said, his tone carrying the particular exhaustion of someone who had run out of patience entirely. "There is no way to stop that. There never has been. Every time one of those things shows up, a universe falls. We've established that. Repeatedly." He gestured toward the growing sphere outside.
"That attack alone could wipe us out ten times over. At this point we should be abandoning ship while we still have the option."
"You are right, the odds aren't in our favour, but my father is out there fighting for all of us. We don't necessarily need to win, we just have to hold on long enough for him to end this. So let's not let him down. And I don't know about you all, but if I'm going out, then I'm going out fighting. Now let's give it everything we've got," Thena said.
There was silence for a few seconds before Superman spoke.
"I'm in."
"Count me in as well," Wonder Woman said.
"So am I," Cyborg added, followed quickly by the rest of the gathered heroes.
"What can we do to stop that?" Superman asked, turning toward Mr. Terrific.
"We need to counter it with an energy attack of higher magnitude because direct contact would obliterate you. That's antimatter. Alpha Team already knows about it," he replied.
"There's no time to waste," Saturn Girl said as she took off from the ship, followed by a squad of Lanterns, Firestorm, Booster Gold, Captain Atom, Superman, and Cyborg.
"I can't believe I'm doing this," Lex Luthor muttered as he flew out after them.
"Martian, status on the ship?" Mr. Terrific spoke through his comms to Martian Manhunter, who was aboard Warworld.
"The Star Cannon has charged up to eighty percent," he replied.
"Stay on the trigger," Mr. Terrific said.
Thena then nodded toward Terra and Wonder Woman before taking off from the satellite as well, leaving behind a worried Terra.
Though she tried to hide it, her trembling hands and clenched fists betrayed her true emotions.
She had never cursed her lack of power more than she did now because she couldn't do anything to help.
For a moment the antimatter sphere hung suspended in the Anti-Monitor's palm, perfectly still.
Then he released it.
It advanced slowly,deliberately,toward the monitor satellite, its cold light washing over everything in the Bleed ahead of it.
"Now!"
Saturn Girl fired first. A beam of white energy tore forward from her position and struck the sphere dead center. The Lanterns followed immediately, dozens of emerald beams converging and combining into a single massive column of green that pushed forward against the advance. Captain Atom unleashed a concentrated burst of atomic energy alongside it. Firestorm followed. Booster Gold added his own force to the column.
Both Supermen positioned themselves at the front of the formation.
They drew in everything,every last reserve of solar energy stored across every cell in their bodies,and released it simultaneously. Twin beams of heat vision, burning blue-white at their cores, tore through the void and slammed into the sphere alongside the others in a brilliant, blinding flash.
The antimatter sphere slowed a little but it kept coming.
Waves of scattered energy rippled outward from the point of impact into the empty void around them, the forces grinding against each other in a cascading storm of light l. The sphere pushed through it all in its advance.
Thena formed a single seal.
"Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
Puffs of smoke erupted around her in every direction, dispersing rapidly to reveal a hundred shadow clones hovering in formation across the void. Each one pressed their palms together and pulled them slowly apart,a glowing cylinder of energy forming between each pair of hands, humming and crackling with power.
" Sage Art:Dust Release" they called out in unison.
"Atomic Dismantling Jutsu!"
A hundred waves of Dust Release chakra launched forward simultaneously, combining mid-flight into a single massive wave that slammed against the antimatter sphere and joined the torrent of attacks already pushing against it.
The sphere slowed further then stopped.
A trembling, grinding deadlock,the combined might of heroes from across the multiverse holding a force that ended universes at a standstill through sheer collective will.
Thena didn't stop there.
She formed twenty more clones immediately, splitting them into groups of four. Each group began forming Rasengans then followed by a high pitched whistle of the spinning chakra cutting through the void as the spheres grew, expanded, evolved into Rasenshurikens that kept growing larger and larger.
Thena clasped her own hands together and began compounding chakra. Enormous amounts of it,drawing from the Ten Tails reserves within her
The Anti-Monitor's eyes narrowed and flickered briefly,the faintest tell of emotion before his expression returned to cold impassivity as he raised his hannd pushed.
The antimatter sphere lurched forward and begun pushing again.
"Everyone,push back!" Superman shouted, his heat vision blazing brighter as he poured everything he had left into it.
The entire formation responded,every attack intensifying simultaneously. The effort was visible on every face. Teeth gritted as they pushed past limits that had already been exceeded.
But it still wasnt enough because the sphere continued to advance slowly,forcing the entire formation to give ground,fallingher mind
'Just a little longer'.
End of Chapter
Chapter 49:Super saiyan rosé
Chapter 50:The Anti-Monitor's last attack
Chapter 51:Final explosion?
You can read advanced chapters at patreon.com/darker knight.