Zaria's POV
"Dammit! Dammit, dammit—this wasn't supposed to happen," I cursed under my breath, racing through secret passages long since erased from official records. My mind kept circling back to the same questions: Which force was attacking us? How had they breached our perimeter? I'd personally overseen the patrol ships' security upgrades—this shouldn't have been possible.
"Stop spiraling," the voice cut through my thoughts—sharp and impatient. My companion, mentor, whatever you wanted to call it, had no patience for weakness. "Dwelling on what already happened won't help. Focus on what you can still control."
I gritted my teeth. "Easy for you to say. That attack—that black sun—was powerful enough to wake you and force us to abandon our timeline. You can't blame me for being concerned."
The voice had become familiar over the months, an unexpected consequence of interfacing with that subject. When I first heard it, I'd been horrified, running every diagnostic I could think of. But this consciousness evaded detection by even our most advanced scanners. I tried isolation protocols, tried blocking it out—only to realize it had already established some kind of foothold in my mind.
Eventually, I'd stopped fighting and started negotiating. The bargain was simple: I'd help it prepare what it needed to awaken the Kryptonian boy, and in exchange, it would share knowledge of its people and the Higher Realms. That knowledge had transformed our civilization, revolutionized our synthetic world.
But I'd learned one crucial thing—it only spoke when it chose to, usually when initiating contact. So the fact that this attack had rattled it enough to force immediate action? That told me everything I needed to know.
"Tell me the truth," I said. "Are we dealing with Higher Realm forces? What else could rattle someone like you?"
For a long moment, all I could hear was the echo of my footsteps as I navigated the final turn toward my destination.
"Dark Sun," it finally answered. "A magical spell from the Higher Realms—specifically, the Aetherium Concordance. One of the pinnacle mid-tier techniques created by their mad practitioners." A pause. "So yes, our attackers may have Higher Realm connections. More likely, though, they're lower realm beings who've acquired a Higher Realm legacy."
My eyes narrowed. "A Higher Realm arcane technique… That explains why you ordered full deployment. But I've mobilized the entire Hegemony garrison planetside plus all our guards—Kryptonian and Hybrid. Surely that's enough? We might even capture them for study. Do we really need the emergency protocols?"
"Never underestimate beings with Higher Realm connections," the voice replied, cold and stern. "Your lower realm standards are meaningless against them."
I stopped walking. "Are you saying even with our full forces—including the Kryptonian and Hybrid guards—we can't win?"
"If they're true Higher Realm beings, your forces won't stand a chance. If they're lower realm beings with Higher Realm legacies, the berserker protocol might give you a fighting chance—but that depends entirely on what level of legacy we're dealing with." The voice paused. "Either way, once you revive me, we can handle them. So focus on what you need to do next, not on useless things."
"Understood." I resumed walking. "Should I activate the berserker protocols then?"
"No. It's still too early. Let your forces engage first. I need to assess their capabilities, see what we're truly facing. Save the berserker protocol for when they reveal their full strength."
"And if they have a legacy?" I couldn't help myself. "I'd like your help capturing one. The research potential—"
"Fine. Now move. Prepare for my revival."
"Understood." I reached the entrance to the tower core chamber, knowing exactly what had to be done.
Back on the Battlefield
"Shit." Kara grunted as a Kryptonian guard's punch forced her back several steps. "Are they…?"
Her Ki sense flared—another attack from behind. She channeled her Ki and pivoted at the last moment, slipping behind the guard. Her left hand locked around the attacker's neck while her right caught their arm, wrenching it behind their back. She used the guard as a shield, their body absorbing the beam attacks streaking toward her.
Kara's expression hardened. "They're trying to box me in."
She kicked her hostage toward the other enemies, then whipped around, eyes blazing with searing blue heat vision. The blast struck an attacking guard, shattering their armor and sending them flying backward. Sensing movement behind her, she dropped low just as a punch whistled past where her head had been.
She flipped mid-fall, then shot upward, firing heat vision at the attacker above. Her momentum added force to the attack, blasting through their defenses. "These puppets think they can corner me," she muttered, glancing sideways to see Faora and Jer-Em getting surrounded. She shot toward them. "Just great."
Meanwhile Rachel emerged from the Elder Hall in a ripple of space, materializing high above the battlefield. As she took in the tactical situation she saw the devastation below. Buildings that had survived her initial attack now lay in ruins, the ground cratered and scarred from the ongoing battle. Bodies of Psions and Hegemony soldiers littered the scorched earth, most reduced to charred husks or torn apart by the violence.
"Mother Empress, status report," Rachel commanded.
"Princess, enemy forces have withdrawn to defensive positions around the tower," Mother Empress responded. "Kara's team maintains pressure on their forward elements, but the main force has fortified the tower perimeter. Current enemy strength still at roughly 65-70% combat-effectiveness."
"Anyone injured on our side?"
"Minimal injuries on our side. Jer-Em took a few hits but remains operational. The freed Kryptonians are performing well overall. Faora has eliminated three hostiles—seems she has no problem killing her own kind." Mother Empress paused. "However, I'm picking up multiple signatures heading your way."
Rachel's eyes narrowed. "Reinforcements?… Must be the remaining Hybrids."
"Affirmative. The rest of the Hegemony garrisons on the planet are mobilizing as well." Mother Empress paused. "Princess, I've run multiple scenarios—this feels like a diversion. There is a high probability that while we're engaged here, Zaria—or the Tuffle consciousness—is making her way to the tower core to awaken the Kryptonian boy."
Rachel's Ki flared, crimson energy bleeding into her dark Ki as winds churned around her. "Did I make the wrong call? Should we have hit Fyraa's lab instead?"
"Your instincts served you well, Princess. The lab had hidden defensive protocols that activated the moment we attacked—shields identical to the tower's erected simultaneously at that site and three others. The AI Zaria developed is remarkably sophisticated when it comes to defense, likely incorporating Higher Realm knowledge from the Tuffle. It initially escaped my detection, though I'm targeting it now after detecting its existence. Turns out that even the maturation pods had localized shielding. M'gann couldn't have done anything inside without triggering an alert." Mother Empress paused. "Either target would have led to this scenario. The real fight was always going to be stopping Zaria before she reaches the tower core."
"Then we proceed as planned." Rachel steadied herself with a breath, though the planet's artificial atmosphere still felt wrong in her lungs. "Once enough forces are in the open, I'll hit them with another area spell—one I've been saving for exactly this situation. When the berserker protocol activates, those Hybrids will become nearly unkillable. This spell should even the odds."
"Acknowledged. Shall I coordinate with Kara's team to draw the enemies into a kill zone when the time comes?"
"Yes. And tell Mother to be ready." Rachel's attention shifted to the sounds of battle below.
From her vantage point, Rachel could see the entire tactical picture—Kara's team locked in brutal close-quarters combat, the enemy's defensive formations, and the tower looming at the center of it all. Once Zaria reached the core, that structure would become a serious problem. She'd tried tracing Zaria earlier, but the underground chambers weren't in any database Mother Empress had accessed. Worse, her empathic abilities combined with Ki sense couldn't penetrate beyond a certain depth when she'd swept the area before leaving the Elder Hall.
Below, she spotted Kara being forced back after helping Faora and Jer-Em, enemy guards moving to encircle her. "Looks like she needs a hand."
Rachel shot forward, her Ki blazing. Space rippled ahead of her, and she materialized directly behind Kara just as a Kryptonian guard's fist drove toward her friends's back.
Her fist intercepted the strike with a thunderous impact, the shockwave forcing the guard back several steps. She didn't stop there—closing the distance before the guard could recover, she drove her fist into their helmet with devastating force.
The helmet's outer layer cracked and shattered, fragments scattering through the air. Her knuckles connected with exposed flesh beneath. In one fluid motion, she launched a rising uppercut kick that sent the guard's head snapping upward, then immediately brought her heel down in a brutal axe kick. The strike drove the guard into the ground with bone-crushing force, the remaining helmet fragments exploding on impact.
Kara spun around, a smile crossing her features. "Took your sweet time… huh?" Just then she noticed something peculiar. "What's with your aura? It feels a little like… Orach?"
"Yeah. Encountered something unexpected that woke Dad's soul shard up for a bit. Now it's giving me a bit of assistance," Rachel said, her gaze already tracking the next wave of attackers. "We have more incoming. A lot more."
"Finally," Kara muttered, straightening up and hovering back-to-back with Rachel. "Looks like the real fight's about to begin."
Their eyes met for the briefest moment—an understanding passed between them. Then they moved as one.
Rachel flowed left as Kara went right, their movements complementary, each covering the other's blind spots with practiced ease. When a guard lunged at Rachel's flank, Kara intercepted with a thunderous punch that sent the attacker careening into two others. When three guards converged on Kara simultaneously, Rachel's spatial ripple swallowed them whole, only to expel them seconds later—directly into the defensive line surrounding the tower, where they crashed in a tangled heap of limbs and broken armor.
"Fighting side by side like this," Kara admitted between strikes, a hint of a smile crossing her features, "really reminds me of our training on the Sentinel, doesn't it?"
"Kind of," Rachel replied with a smile, ducking under a heat vision blast and redirecting it with a Ki-infused palm strike, sending the beam careening back toward its source.
From their position near the ground, Faora and Jer-Em watched the display with expressions that warred between admiration and bitter resentment.
"She fights like us," Jer-Em muttered, his jaw tight as he dispatched another guard with a savage elbow strike.
"She fights like her father," Faora corrected coldly, never taking her eyes off Rachel. "Efficient. Brutal. Merciless when it counts." Her expression darkened. "The daughter of the man who killed General Zod—now fighting beside us. The irony is almost too much."
"Then why don't we just slip away?" Jer-Em demanded, though his hands never stopped moving, never stopped defending. "We could let them handle this while we get to the guards defending the tower. Lady Ursa has to be among them."
"Because right now, we need her strength. She and her friends are all that stand between us and whatever nightmare those reptiles created," Faora said quietly, almost to herself. "Those reptilian freaks did something to all of us. So, we use them to survive first. Then we make our move once we find Lady Ursa and young Lor."
"Argh… fine," Jer-Em grumbled, turning back to engage another enemy.
For a moment, the battlefield held a manageable rhythm. Then suddenly, Rachel's Ki sense flared.
"They're here," she said sharply, her gaze snapping skyward.
The sky darkened with enemy reinforcements. Aerial fighters cut through the atmosphere in tight formations. Drones materialized by the dozens, their targeting systems cycling through acquisition sequences. And descending in precise battle formation were the remaining Hybrids—roughly 290 of them—their eyes already beginning to glow with the telltale crimson light of charging heat vision.
Kara rose to float beside Rachel, her expression hardening. "That's… a lot more intimidating than I expected."
"I see them." Rachel's aura flared as she assessed the enemy formation. In the next moment, their eyes met—a silent understanding passed between them. Kara gave a firm nod.
Rachel moved forward, positioning herself at the front. Behind her, Kara, Faora, and Jer-Em spread into defensive positions. Above them, the enemy forces completed their targeting sequences.
The Hybrids' eyes blazed brighter. Drones hummed with building charge. Fighter cannons locked on.
Then they fired.
A devastating barrage converged on their position—heat vision from hundreds of sources, plasma bolts, exotic particle beams—enough concentrated firepower to level a city block, back on Earth. Rachel raised both hands, fingers splayed wide, and channeled her Ki into the space before her.
Reality rippled before their eyes.
The distortion was subtle at first—a subtle ripple in the air—but as the attacks struck it, they simply vanished. The spatial anomaly swallowed every beam, every bolt, every blast. The rippling barrier extended dozens of meters in all directions, forming a shield protecting her team.
But in the next moment, behind the enemy formation, space rippled.
The entire barrage erupted from behind the enemy formation. Many fighters exploded mid-air, their hulls torn apart by their own weapons. Drones spiraled wildly, trailing smoke and fire before detonating in brilliant flashes. The Hybrids took the brunt of it—most managed to recover after being struck, their enhanced armor absorbing the damage, but dozens weren't so lucky. They plummeted toward the scorched earth below, trailing smoke as they fell.
Their shattered formation created an opening for the team to act.
"Now!" Rachel's voice cut through the chaos. "Before they regroup!"
The team made their move. Rachel shot upward, her form shifting to her adult form as magnificent black wings unfurled from her back. Dark energy coalesced around her, swirling and condensing into hundreds of shadowy arrows that rotated at incredible speed, each one warping the space around it.
She flicked her wrist and released them.
The torrent of arrows tore through the disorganized enemy ranks. More drones shattered while even more fighters' hulls were punctured, fuel cells detonating in brilliant flashes. The Psion ground forces scattered as the projectiles exploded on impact, lighting up the battlefield with cascading detonations.
While Rachel attacked from range, Kara, Faora, and Jer-Em engaged the Hybrids in close combat. Kara channeled her Ki, her movements fluid as she fought multiple opponents simultaneously. She knew these enhanced Kryptonians and Hybrids had to be destroyed before their berserker protocols activated. She couldn't afford to show mercy—not here. She caught one Hybrid's punch, redirected the momentum to throw him into two others, then followed with precise heat vision strikes targeting weak points in their armor.
Faora continued to fight with cold efficiency, each strike calculated for maximum effect. But she underestimated the power level of mature Hybrids. When a Hybrid lunged at her, she attempted her usual combination—sidestep, elbow to the back, palm strike to the chest—but her attack was caught mid-motion. Her arms were forced wide. "What—" The Hybrid's fist drove into her midsection, launching her backward through the air and forcing the breath from her lungs.
"Faora!" Jer-Em moved to cover her, his enhanced senses allowing him to intercept flanking attacks. But the pressure was mounting. Until now, Kara's support had kept them from being overwhelmed. Fighting without it made the Hybrids' superior strength brutally apparent.
The enemy adapted quickly, learning from the team's movements. Hybrids organized into coordinated strike teams, concentrating their largest numbers on Kara and Rachel while the remaining guards provided covering fire and drones executed flanking maneuvers.
Rachel sensed the tactical shift immediately. 'They're learning.'
With a wave of her hand a spatial ripple opened beside her. "Wonder Woman," she called through the chaos, her voice steady, "we need you."
Diana in her Blackberry form stepped through from the Prometheus Javelin, and the battlefield shifted.
Her deep purple hair flowed in the artificial wind as divine energy radiated outward in waves. The pressure was immediate and unmistakable—even the mind-controlled guards hesitated instinctively. The Hybrids shifted into tighter defensive formations, their sensors detecting energy fluctuations that registered as severe threat levels.
Diana's aura carried a different weight—a kind of divine authority that seemed to press down on everything around her.
Tower Core Chamber
"What… is this?" Zaria muttered as she began preparing the equipment to activate the tower. Her attention was drawn to the displays showing the battlefield. So far, witnessing the performance of Rachel, Kara, Faora, and Jer-Em against the forces she'd mobilized had startled her—especially Rachel and Kara's displays. After confirming through her equipment's sensor readings that Kara was a pure, healthy Kryptonian, she'd even considered capturing her to conduct experiments—perhaps breeding her with the subject, Lor, to produce offspring that could surpass them both. But now, seeing this new enemy arrive and exude such pressure that even her Hybrid guards shifted into tighter formations as if sensing danger…
"Just what are they?" Zaria questioned, her eyes narrowing, expression turning cold.
"Cultivators," the voice in her head replied. "But while powerful for a lower realm, they aren't Higher Realm beings. However, the power they're displaying means they definitely possess legacies."
"How can you be so certain they aren't Higher Realm beings?" Zaria asked.
"Because I'd sense it if a Higher Realm powerhouse descended. But these strangers' base signatures are all similar to yours, indicating they belong to this lower realm."
"They're legacies then. What kind of legacy grants that much power?" Zaria wondered aloud.
"It doesn't matter. Activate the berserker protocol. The one who just arrived is more powerful than the others. Let the berserkers deal with her. Focus on your task and prepare for my revival."
"Just for the core Hybrids?" Zaria asked, referring to the fully developed Hybrids who'd received all recent enhancements.
"All of them."
"…Understood." Zaria nodded after recovering from her momentary shock, tapping her datapad to send the activation code for the protocol, then returned to her work.
Back on the Battlefield
In the sky, Diana's eyes scanned the enemy forces, taking in the tactical situation in seconds. She spoke through the comms. "All of you, pull back."
"Understood," came Rachel and Kara's voices as they disengaged from their opponents and retreated. Faora pulled back as well, dragging Jer-Em with her before he could utter the curse forming on his lips.
The enemy forces couldn't understand what was happening, but the pressure Diana exuded made them wary. The Hybrids formed a defensive formation, eyes lighting up. Beside them, the Psion Hegemony remaining war machines aimed their weapons at Diana and the team, preparing for the next engagement. Seeing their enemies retreat, they believed an opening had presented itself and so prepared to fire.
Diana raised her hand, and Lunar Edge materialized in her grasp in the form of a magnificent broadsword that hummed with divine energy.
The sword spirit's voice resonated in her mind,"Master, shall I unleash my power?"
"Yes," Diana replied. "Let's thin their numbers."
She channeled her God Ki into the blade, drawing it back to her left side in a deliberate, measured motion. Deep purple-colored energy erupted along its edge, crackling with pink lightning that made the very air vibrate. Space itself seemed to bend around the weapon's power.
The Psion forces mistook the retreat for weakness. Seeing what they believed was an opening, they fired their weapons in a coordinated volley—directly towards the Diana and the others.
Just then Diana swung her sword.
A massive crescent wave of deep purple God Ki exploded from Lunar Edge, carving through the air with reality-warping force. The incoming barrage simply ceased to exist as her attack swallowed it whole, then continued its devastating path toward the enemy formation. War machines vanished in brilliant flashes as the wave tore through their ranks. Psion soldiers didn't even have time to scream. The Hybrids erected energy barriers in desperate synchronization, but Diana's attack—infused with the laws she'd comprehended—shattered them like glass. Bodies were cleaved in half. Limbs vaporized. Some disappeared entirely, truly killed by the divine energy that left nothing behind to regenerate.
As the light faded, Diana surveyed the devastation with cold eyes, listening to Mother Empress's status report through her terminal. The Psion Hegemony garrison was virtually eliminated—less than a handful of signatures remained. The guards were a different matter. Approximately 10–20 had fallen permanently, with more succumbing to their wounds each second as their bodies disintegrated. Still, over 200 remained combat-capable—many had evaded the worst of the attack or survived with grievous injuries by activating their shields in coordinated formation.
Diana's eyes narrowed. She'd hoped to eliminate more before the inevitable happened. As if on cue, unbeknownst to them, deep within the survivors' genetic code, a buried command activated. The berserker protocol had been triggered.
Meanwhile, the team had varying reactions to witnessing the attack.
Kara's face twitched, unable to find words as she processed what she'd just witnessed.
M'gann, monitoring the situation from the Prometheus Javelin, stared wide-eyed, her mouth agape.
Faora's expression hardened, the small measure of confidence she'd regained crumbling away. She remembered Diana from the Earth invasion—back then, they'd been equals. Now Diana stood leagues beyond their entire race. Even with all the Psion enhancements, Faora couldn't display such devastating power. Suddenly a sharp sting pierced her skull, vanishing as quickly as it came. "Arrgh—what was that?"
On the side, Jer-Em trembled, his fantasies of escape evaporating. Until now, he'd harbored hope of somehow breaking free from Rachel and Kara's grasp—perhaps even turning the tables. But witnessing this godlike power, his defiance finally crumbled into true despair. A faint sting flashed through his head, unnoticed amid his mounting panic. "How are we supposed to escape these monsters?"
Diana surveyed the devastation below. Her strike had obliterated the Psion garrisons and war machines while killing over hundred guards outright and grievously wounding the rest. Bodies—many cleaved clean through—littered the ground. Only about a hundred remained airborne, survivors who'd broken free from the attack's pull, though many were missing limbs.
"Did we do it?" Kara scanned the battlefield, hoping they'd eliminated enough Hybrids before the worst could happen.
"We reduced their numbers significantly. Wonder Woman took out about—" Rachel froze mid-sentence, her terminal displaying rapidly changing data as Mother Empress fed her tactical readings. The bodies below were convulsing. Energy signatures spiked across her display. "Crap! They're regenerating!" She whirled toward Diana. "Wonder Woman, they're getting back up! Energy levels are spiking across the battlefield. They activated the berserker protocol!"
Diana noticed the anomaly as well and raised her blade to strike again. But in the next instant, she hesitated. An unknown enemy lurked out there—someone powerful enough to orchestrate all of this. Expending more God Ki now could leave her vulnerable when it mattered most. With a solemn expression, she lowered her sword and settled into a defensive stance, conserving her strength for the real threat ahead as she watched the transformation unfold below.
Every guard—Kryptonian and Hybrid alike—collapsed as their blood boiled. Neural subjugation chips rewired their minds toward pure aggression, overriding all self-preservation instincts.
Veins turned gray beneath their skin. Blood tears streaked from eyes that turned crimson. Their armor shattered as bodies expanded, steam hissing from superheated flesh radiating massive amounts of energy.
Those still airborne plummeted, crashing to their knees as the transformation consumed them. Exoskeletons stretched and reformed with their growing frames. Bone spurs erupted through skin—knuckles, shoulders, knees. Skin calcified into gray stone. Tendons snapped and rewove themselves. Jaws extended forward, distorting faces beyond recognition. Vocal cords thickened as guttural roars began echoing across the battlefield. Guards who'd lost limbs regrew them completely, flesh knitting together in seconds.
Mother Empress's voice cut through the comms. "Weakest power level reading is at 120,000. Strongest at 170,000. Average combat power is around 150,000."
Diana, Rachel, and Kara's expressions hardened as they absorbed the threat assessment.
"What… what is this?" Jer-Em's voice cracked as his body trembled. "What is this madness—"
"So this is what they did to us?" Faora's composure finally broke, fear flickering in her eyes. 'Lady Ursa...'
"Calm yourselves," Kara's voice came through the comms, steady and cold.
"Calm ourselves? How can you ask us to calm ourselves when witnessing this?" Jer-Em's voice came through scared and barely coherent. "Those are our people—the only surviving Kryptonians—transforming into… into… abominations!"
"What good is fear now?" Kara's fists clenched at her sides, her gaze never leaving the transforming guards. "They're your brethren, aren't they? Then show your love by strengthening your hearts to end their suffering. That's what I, as one of the last daughters of Krypton, am resolved to do. What about you?"
Jer-Em opened his mouth to protest, but Faora cut him off.
"Stop, Jer-Em." Faora took a steadying breath before turning to Kara. "Kara Zor-El… even though our views differ, and we'll still be enemies after this—if we survive—you've earned my respect. You're right. Freeing them from this suffering is the right thing to do. None of our brethren deserve to be slaves or turned into such monsters." She turned to Rachel. "Raven, was it? Am I correct in assuming we didn't transform because of your interference?"
"Correct," Rachel answered. "I modified your chips to ensure you wouldn't become liabilities. Even if you received the berserker protocol command, you'd only feel a slight sting."
Faora nodded, understanding dawning as her fists clenched. So that's what that sting was.
"This is insane," Jer-Em muttered through gritted teeth. But unwilling to die, he prepared to fight—not for General Zod this time, but for survival.
Diana watched the enemy complete their gruesome transformation, her eyes narrowing as they stood and began looking up toward her and the team. "So it begins," she muttered under her breath, settling into her fighting stance. Her God Ki flared, her aura now tinged with a cardinal pink hue.
The transformed guards—now monstrous berserkers—locked their crimson eyes on the team. For a moment, there was silence.
Then, as one, they roared.
The sound was deafening, primal—a chorus of rage and pain that shook the very air. The ground beneath them cracked as they launched themselves forward with terrifying speed—faster than they'd been before, stronger, more savage.
"Here they come!" Rachel shouted.
Diana shot forward to meet them head-on, Lunar Edge blazing with divine energy. The blade hummed with the primordial law of destruction—a power she'd touched during training that had stunned even Orach, drawing a rare flicker of envy from him since he couldn't fully grasp it himself. She intercepted the first berserker mid-air, her sword cleaving through its torso in one fluid motion. The creature disintegrated into ash, every cell in its body destroyed before it could register the strike.
She didn't stop there. Her Ki sense detected the next attack—she pivoted sharply, blade cutting through another berserker, reducing it to ash. But there was no respite. Diana's fist drove into another berserker's chest. Despite the impact, it countered with massive arms reaching to tear her apart. She twisted aside and released an energy blast point-blank into its skull. But even as she took care of it, dozens more surged toward her from every angle—some launching themselves from the ground in powerful leaps, others diving from above with outstretched claws. Their movements were erratic, unpredictable—pure instinct stripped of strategy or self-preservation, driven by rage.
Elsewhere, Kara engaged three at once, her movements a blur. She ducked under a wild swing and countered with a palm strike that shattered a berserker's sternum, sending it crashing into another. She spun and fired heat vision point-blank into the third's face, killing it instantly. A fourth grabbed her from behind, but she flipped backward, using its grip to slam it into the ground with devastating force. She grabbed the leg of the dead berserker and channeled more of her Ki throughout her body. Muscles tensing, she swung the massive body like a weapon, knocking back incoming attackers before hurling it into another group of berserkers rushing toward her.
Nearby, Rachel created spatial rifts around herself, turning the battlefield into a lethal maze. Berserkers lunged at her only to be redirected mid-leap—crashing into each other or expelled hundreds of meters away. She followed up with volleys of shadow arrows tinged with her dark flame, targeting vulnerable points. The arrows buried into limbs and torsos, burning flesh from bone until entire bodies turned to ash, leaving nothing to regenerate from.
While Diana, Kara, and Rachel held their ground against the berserkers, Faora and Jer-Em were a different story. Fighting back-to-back, they barely managed to hold the line. Each creature they faced down was relentless—stronger than before the transformation, and maddeningly regenerative. Wound one, and it came back angrier. Kill one, and it stood back up moments later, more vicious than before.
"They just keep coming!" Jer-Em shouted, blasting one back with heat vision only to have it charge again seconds later.
"Then we don't stop fighting!" Faora snarled, driving her fist through another's chest. Her arm screamed in pain—piercing the creature's tough skin demanded enormous power. She felt its ribs crack, its heart rupture—but still it clawed at her, trying to tear her apart even as it died.
Diana cleaved through another wave, her God Ki incinerating everything it touched. But even she could see the problem—there were too many. They regenerated too quickly, and worse, they came back stronger each time.
"Raven, Supergirl!" Diana called out, gritting her teeth as she saw no other alternative but to release another big attack. "Buy me some time. I'm thinning their numbers again. We end this—now!"
"No don't." Rachel's eyes blazed with determination. "Don't waste your God Ki on them. We are going to need you more should the worst come to pass. Let me do it instead. Get most of them together to a spot and give me thirty seconds to charge a spell!"
"You'll have it!" Diana roared, her aura exploding outward as she positioned herself between Rachel and the horde. "Everyone, defensive formation around Raven! Protect her at all costs!"
"Understood!" came the unified response.
Kara, Faora, and Jer-Em immediately shifted positions, forming a perimeter around Rachel as she began channeling an enormous amount of Ki.
The berserkers sensed the threat and converged on their position with renewed fury, throwing themselves at the defensive line with suicidal abandon.
Diana met them head-on, Lunar Edge in hand, bearing the brunt of the enemy forces. She was a goddess of war incarnate—every movement precise, deflecting attacks and delivering lethal strikes. Berserker after berserker fell before her blade. Even as enemies encircled her from all sides, bodies continued to fall around her, disintegrating into ash.
10 seconds
As Rachel channeled her Ki, sweat beading on her forehead as her inner world churned building up power needed for the spell.
Nearby, Kara's eyes swept the battlefield. Diana though effective was still facing overwhelming numbers on the far side—a mass of berserkers converging on her position. Seeing a wave get past Diana and was closing in on their group Kara narrowed her eyes. "I need to help out." muttered Kara under her breath, her expression turning cold.
"You two, stay on Raven!" Kara barked at Faora and Jer-Em before launching herself at the incoming horde.
She hit the lead berserker like a meteor, the impact sending it careening backward into the creatures behind it. Bodies tumbled one after the other as a result. Kara didn't pause there—she pivoted mid-air, intercepting two more with precision strikes before diving into the mass.
Her goal was simple, take on some of the load from Diana and buy Rachel the time she needed.
Her Ki sense picked up more incoming attacks coming from every angle. She weaved through most of them, her enhanced reflexes keeping her one step ahead. But there were too many. A clawed hand caught her side, sending her spinning. Another blow hammered her into the ground, cratering the earth beneath her.
The girl of steel gritted her teeth as her inner realm churned channeling more of her Ki and pushed herself up. Again. And again.
Her armor absorbed what it could, but fatigue crept into her muscles with each impact. Every breath came harder. Every movement cost more as the enemy kept rising stronger every time they fell.
But she didn't falter.
Rachel needed thirty seconds. Kara would give her thirty seconds—even if she had to take every hit herself.
Faora and Jer-Em remained vigilant, eyes tracking Diana and Kara's movements while watching for incoming threats. They lent support whenever possible—shooting heat vision blasts toward the enemy even as they held their positions.
20 seconds
The energy around Rachel became visible even to ordinary eyes—a swirling vortex of dark Ki tinged with crimson rising toward the sky. The weather shifted in response. Clouds churned overhead, darkening the horizon until night itself seemed to descend upon the battlefield.
Diana drove Lunar Edge into the ground, and a shockwave of God Ki erupted outward, buying them precious moments as the berserkers were thrown back.
30 seconds
"Now, Raven!" Diana shouted as they lured roughly two-thirds of the remaining berserkers into the kill zone.
"Pull back!" Rachel's eyes snapped open, glowing with power.
She raised both hands skyward, voice clear and commanding,"Return to dust. Stardust Reversion!"
Two massive magic circles materialized—one above, one below—trapping the lured creatures between them. Lightning crackled along their edges as they spun faster and faster, until a column of white light connected them. The shockwave knocked uncaught berserkers off their feet.
Inside the spell, the trapped creatures roared and rushed toward the edges, too enraged to sense the danger. The air itself began to change. Transparency gave way to something blinding and opaque as the gas superheated into plasma. Magical energy tore electrons from nitrogen and oxygen atoms. The temperature spiked—matching the surface of Earth's sun.
The creatures' reinforced skin offered no protection. The plasma flooded their bodies with so much energy that carbon bonds broke apart at the molecular level. Cells came undone. Their regeneration tried to kick in but couldn't keep pace—the spell was destroying their cellular structure faster than biology could respond.
Within moments, the circles slowed and faded. The column of light dimmed and vanished. Where dozens of berserkers had stood, only gray dust remained—their atoms reduced to their most basic state.
Rachel lowered her hands, trembling from the exertion. The spell had drained half her Ki reserves, but watching the dust settle where dozens of berserkers had stood moments before made it worth it. She'd stumbled across Stardust Reversion in the Void Sentinel archives months ago—one of those Higher Realm spells her father had reluctantly let her study under supervision. At the time, she'd been driven by pure curiosity, never imagining she'd actually need it in this Lower Realm. But against enemies that refused to stay dead? It was perfect.
A moment later, her expression turned thoughtful. The spell she'd just cast was only mid-tier—two entire tiers existed above it. Her father had made sure she understood that while the archives contained five spells from those higher categories, he'd explicitly forbidden her from even attempting to learn them. "For your own safety," he'd said. She'd rolled her eyes at the time, but after feeling what this one took out of her—and seeing its power? Maybe he'd had a point.
Diana's expression on the other hand was complicated. She and Orach had approved Rachel's access to the spell, after all. After the Dark Sun incident on the other Earth, they'd established a firm rule: Rachel had to seek their permission before attempting any dangerous Higher Realm spells from the archives. They both knew their daughter's hunger for magical knowledge sometimes made her overlook the power required—and the consequences that came with it. But seeing the spell's devastating effectiveness now made Diana wonder if another family meeting was in order.
Kara and M'gann simply sighed. They'd witnessed enough crazy feats from this mother-daughter pair to resign themselves to not being surprised anymore.
But Faora and Jer-Em took the hardest hit to their pride. Jer-Em fell back, expression pure horror. Faora went wide-eyed and pale. Both shared the same thought, 'I can't make an enemy of these monsters.'
Rachel collapsed to one knee, breathing heavily. Diana rushed to her side.
"Rachel! Are you okay?"
"I'm… fine," Rachel managed, accepting Diana's hand. "That spell just takes a lot out of me."
"Mother Empress," Diana called through comms, "confirm remaining enemy count."
"Scanning now." A moment passed. "Confirmed. Approximately 57 signatures remain. Twelve regenerating from heavy injuries, five reviving from death state. Power levels rising fast—average around 210,000. The twelve range from 230,000 to 290,000. The five reviving have surpassed 300,000 and climbing. All five have crossed the high God-King threshold."
Throughout the battle, the berserkers had grown stronger with each revival. Only Diana could kill them cleanly enough to prevent adaptation. Those killed by others—or merely wounded—came back more powerful and aggressive.
Loud roars echoed as the remaining creatures rose, stronger than before.
Diana, Rachel, and Kara's expressions turned cold.
"Okay. Looks like this'll be challenging after all," Kara muttered, steadying herself. "But it's still better than facing the previous numbers."
"Yeah. Still wish we'd gotten all of them." Rachel sighed, but her expression returned to calm determination. "We need to finish this. We still have Zaria in that tower. If she completes whatever she's doing… we'll be in real trouble."
"Then we move now." Diana helped Rachel to her feet, then turned to Faora and Jer-Em. "Can you both still fight?"
Both stood, nodding. "Yes. We can," Faora replied for them both. Despite the odds, having such powerful allies—temporary as they were—gave them hope to survive this situation.
"Good." Diana met Faora's gaze. "Raven needs time to recover. You two protect her while Kara and I handle the enemy. Defend against any that slip past us. Understood?"
"Yes," they both nodded. Jer-Em internally sighed with relief.
"Wonder Woman, I can still—" Rachel began, but Diana's stern look cut her off. Rachel understood and simply nodded.
"Good. Gather your strength, then join us." Diana stepped forward with Kara.
Rachel straightened despite her exhaustion. "I won't keep you waiting long."
Diana addressed the team through comms. "M'gann, keep running sensor sweeps of the system. Those Hegemony patrol ships might return after an attack like this. Watch for them and use the Javelin to counter if necessary. Your primary mission is to ensure the Javelin stays hidden and available for extraction if we need it."
"… Understood," M'gann replied, hiding her reluctance and guilt at not being more useful on the battlefield.
"Alright then." Diana turned to face the approaching enemy, their roars growing louder. "Let's finish this. Then we breach that tower and stop Zaria before she completes whatever she's doing."
As one, the team engaged. Rachel floated in meditative stance, eyes closed, channeling her Ki while Faora and Jer-Em flanked her protectively.
The remaining fifty-seven berserkers charged with even greater ferocity than before. Their power levels had skyrocketed, and the five that had crossed 300,000 mark, led the assault—massive, hulking creatures that dwarfed their brethren.
"Mistress, the five strongest are pushing 320,000 now," Mother Empress warned. "Recommend priority elimination."
"Acknowledged." Diana's eyes locked onto the largest of the three. "Kara, take the left flank. I'll handle the vanguard."
"On it!"
Diana shot forward. The lead berserker—nearly three meters tall with bone spurs covering its body—met her charge with a roar. They clashed mid-air, the impact creating a shockwave that flattened the ground below.
The creature was fast—faster than the others had been. It learned from her initial strike, twisting mid-swing to avoid Lunar Edge's lethal arc. Its clawed hand shot toward her forearm, seeking a grip that would neutralize her blade.
But the moment its claws made contact with her armor, the creature's triumphant roar turned into a shriek of pain. Its claws splintered on impact—the battle suit had absorbed the kinetic energy of the strike and redirected it back through the point of contact.
Diana's eyes narrowed. "It's learning."
She activated more of her God Ki, dark purple aura intensifying. Lunar Edge hummed as it channeled her understanding of the primordial laws of destruction. When her blade struck, the berserker's arm disintegrated from it's shoulder.
It didn't scream. Instead, it lunged with its remaining arm, accepting the loss to get closer. Diana sidestepped, pivoted, and drove her blade through its skull. The creature collapsed, body turning to ash before it hit the ground.
"One down," Diana breathed as she looked at her next target.
Tower Core Chamber
Zaria's fingers moved across the control panel, finalizing the last sequence. Outside, the Earth champions battled her berserker guards, but here, surrounded by the tower's humming machinery, she felt oddly detached from the chaos. The auxiliary power core had stabilized minutes ago, and energy levels now climbed steadily toward the critical threshold. Until now, the core had been strained maintaining shields against the outsiders' attacks.
She glanced briefly at the display showing the battlefield. Diana's dark purple aura blazed as she cut through another berserker. Rachel floated in meditation, recovering her strength. Both women had given her much to think about. They possessed powers that shouldn't exist in a Lower Realm.
"Tell me honestly," Zaria said aloud, addressing the presence in her mind. "What kind of legacy do those two belong to? Just how powerful is their background?"
Silence answered her. The voice—ancient, imperious, and usually composed—had been uncharacteristically quiet since Diana's last attack.
Zaria understood why. She'd felt it too—that spike of shock when Diana first appeared on the battlefield. The voice had warned her the woman was dangerous and ordered her to activate the berserker protocols on all remaining guards. But even with the protocols active, nothing had prepared her for what came next.
Diana's slash had carved through everything in its path. Zaria watched in stunned silence as her Hegemony forces and many guards simply ceased to exist. Completely destroyed.
And the voice—that ancient consciousness that had guided her for months with unwavering confidence—had broken.
"Impossible!" it gasped, composure shattering. "That's... the law of destruction! How can a Lower Realm ant comprehend such a law?!"
Zaria felt its agitation ripple through her mind—raw, unfiltered shock mixed with something she'd never sensed from it before, fear.
She'd learned about the primordial laws only recently. The voice had mentioned them in passing, describing them as the fundamental building blocks of creation and existence. Abstract concepts, she'd thought. Theoretical frameworks that Higher Realm scholars debated.
But watching Diana wield one of those "abstract concepts" to erase dozens of her guards in an instant? That had been an eye opener in ways no lecture could match.
Then came the second shock.
Rachel's spell had been equally devastating. Zaria had studied arcane arts during her time with the Hegemony. They'd encountered practitioners across conquered worlds, and while such individuals could be dangerous, the Hegemony's scientific supremacy had always proven superior. Magic was just another tool to be cataloged, understood, and if necessary, eliminated.
But this was something else entirely.
She'd watched the twin magic circles trap her berserkers. Watched the column of light appear, and minutes later, all that remained was dust. The scene made her pause. She couldn't grasp the spell's mechanics. "Did that girl's spell… break molecular bonds at the atomic level, reducing living creatures to dust? How is that possible?" This question rang in her mind.
"What was that spell?" she'd demanded turning, unable to keep the edge from her tone.
Another long silence. Then, quietly it replied, "I don't know."
That admission chilled her more than anything else. The voice claimed to be from a Higher Realm, to possess knowledge spanning eons. Yet it didn't recognize that spell.
"Don't waste time on useless thoughts. There are countless spells in the Higher Realms, and as someone from a scientific civilization, I only encountered them briefly. No matter how powerful, they were still something we could counter. But to answer your question… I don't think they belong to a single legacy. That hooded girl used a spell from the Concordance, so she likely carries an Aetherium Concordance legacy. That woman however… she should be carrying a legacy from my Higher Realm."
Zaria's eyes widened. "Yours? Then could this be a targeted attack against you?" She shook her head. "No, that shouldn't be possible. We restricted entry and monitored everything leaving our space. No one should have known about you. Too many things don't make sense."
"Stop with the useless thoughts and finish the preparations," it commanded, urgency tinged its usual imperious tone. "Hurry."
Zaria hadn't appreciated the harsh tone, but she understood the necessity. The shields around the tower wouldn't hold much longer—they'd have to be dropped entirely once activation began. If Diana and Rachel breached the core chamber before the ritual completed...
She pushed the thought aside and focused on the task at hand.
The tower was incomplete—they both knew that. The original plan had called for a full-scale breach into a Higher Realm, creating a permanent gateway through which raw dimensional energy could flow, enriching all guards and allowing passage of the ship they were building. But without the right resources and time to finish construction, and now facing this attack from a powerful group, they'd been forced to adapt.
Instead, they would open a smaller breach. Just large enough to siphon a concentrated surge of Higher Realm energy through the tower's conduits and channel it directly into the core chamber below—where the unconscious Kryptonian boy Lor lay suspended in stasis.
Lor. The true host.
The voice had explained it months ago when they'd first formed their alliance. The consciousness guiding her was merely a fragment—a remnant of something far greater that resided in Lor's body, its power dormant in a special gene that existed in a silent state.
The energy surge would change that. It would awaken the dormant gene, allow it to fully merge with Lor's physiology, and give the voice the anchor it needed to complete its resurrection. The ancient being would take control of the Kryptonian's body, and seventy to eighty percent of its full power would return.
And Zaria would have her reward: passage to the Higher Realms. Knowledge that transcended this primitive Lower Realm. Power beyond anything the Hegemony could offer.
It was worth the risk. It had to be.
A chime from the control panel pulled her attention back. The display flashed green—energy levels had reached the critical threshold.
Zaria took a deep breath and stepped forward. Her hand hovered over the activation switch, protected by biometric locks only she could bypass. She leaned down, allowing the scanner to read her irises. Twin beams of red light swept across her eyes.
"Identity confirmed: Zaria, High Scientist. Authorization granted."
The locks disengaged with a series of mechanical clicks. Below, through the reinforced viewing port, she could see the tower's core—a massive spherical chamber where Lor floated in suspended animation, surrounded by a web of energy conduits.
This was it. No turning back now.
Zaria's expression hardened with resolve. She gripped the activation switch and pressed down firmly.
The response was immediate.
The core systems blazed to life, lighting up the entire chamber in brilliant blue-white radiance. Energy surged through the conduits like blood through veins, racing outward from the activation panel and spreading throughout the tower's infrastructure. The structure itself seemed to awaken, thrumming with power that made the air vibrate.
Below, in the core, the energy web surrounding Lor intensified. The conduits pulsed brighter as they channeled power toward the suspended Kryptonian. The system interfaced with the boy's mind, allowing the consciousness to feed in the coordinates of the Higher Realm it intended to reach, which in turn allowed the system to adjust accordingly.
"Finally!" The voice burst through her mind, no longer composed or controlled. Pure, unbridled excitement colored every word. "Finally, I will return!"
Zaria felt a smile tug at her lips despite the tension. She'd waited months for this moment. Endured the voice's demands, followed its cryptic instructions, sacrificed her standing within the Hegemony—all for this.
Outside
The tower shuddered as the plan entered its next phase. A beam of bluish-white light shot from the incomplete tower toward the sky, attracting everyone's attention. Above them, far beyond the atmosphere, reality itself began to thin. After a moment, a crack sound reverberated. The breach was forming. The crack spread until reality seemingly shattered. M'gann stood up from her station on the Javelin in shock as she witnessed space itself crack and shatter to reveal an opening. Through the crack, once she zoomed in, she could see an entirely new space unlike anything she'd seen before. She immediately contacted the rest on the comms.
Back in the Tower Core Chamber
On the displays, Zaria could see it—a tear in space high above the planet, pulsing with colors that shouldn't exist in this reality. Higher Realm energy began to pour through, funneling down through the tower's collector arrays.
"Is that your Higher Realm on the other side?" Zaria asked, watching the new reality through the split in the sky.
"No. Returning to my Higher Realm would be dangerous. This is a hidden Higher Realm our civilization discovered. We had only just begun to explore its outer regions and found it rich in resources to fuel our technological advancements when the war broke out. We had to stop, but we made sure this realm remained hidden. We even wiped out every record of it. This realm represented a huge strategic advantage."
Zaria's raised "But isn't going to an unknown realm dangerous?" Zaria asked.
"It would be for many, but we established an outpost. Even though we abandoned it during the war, its shielding and location should have kept it intact, and the breach should have formed near that outpost. Though I won't be at my peak, I'll still have enough strength to take us both there. From there we can build and plan the steps forward."
"Understood. How long until the energy surge reaches Lor?" Zaria asked as she watched the beam dissipate and the tower begin its siphoning sequence, Higher Realm energies speeding through the crack.
"Moments," the voice replied. Though calm, she felt the tinge of anticipation in its tone. "The breach is stabilizing. The Higher Realm energy is responding. Soon, very soon, I will reclaim what was stolen from us."
Zaria turned back to the displays, watching as Lor's vitals began to fluctuate. Inside the core, Lor's body began to glow with an inner light.
"And our agreement?" Zaria asked, needing to hear it confirmed one more time. "When you return to your full strength, you'll take me with you to the Higher Realms? You'll teach me the knowledge I seek?"
"Of course," the voice purred, smoother now. "We made a pact, you and I. I honor my bargains. You've proven yourself worthy, Zaria. Together, we will ascend beyond this primitive realm. Together, we will claim power that makes even those two outside look like mere insects to crush beneath our feet."
That promise was enough. Zaria nodded in excitement. The prospect of greater knowledge was her true desire. "Yes. This is right. This is worth it," she thought to herself, reassuring herself of her choices.
In the core chamber, Lor's body convulsed as the energy reached him. His eyes snapped open, glowing with an otherworldly blue light as he screamed in excruciating pain.
"Yes!" the voice roared in her mind. "YES! I can feel it! I can feel the gene awakening and the boy's body transforming. Soon, very soon, he'll be able to assimilate with the power now flowing through him. Hahaha!"
Zaria's smile widened. They'd done it. Against all odds, despite the interference from the strangers outside, they'd actually done it.
The ancient being was awakening. And soon, very soon, this Lower Realm would learn what true power looked like.