"Stop!" The instant the Anti-Life Equation materialized, Kalibak—Darkseid's eldest son, the one Thea had thrashed on multiple occasions—couldn't suppress the hunger clawing at him. He took a step forward. Darkseid shut him down immediately.
Thea watched with private amusement. One whiff of temptation and the man lost all composure. Kalibak was an utter fool. Even if Darkseid survived today, the throne would never pass to him. Evil didn't have to mean brainless.
Darkseid, by contrast, was meticulous. His gaze swept across every god present, cataloguing their ambitions, desires, and greed. None of it concerned him. He had more than enough power to crush any dissent.
His movements were slow but absolute. Under the collective stare of every New God, he reached out and seized the Anti-Life Equation.
The Equation seemed to weigh him against some internal standard. In the end, it accepted Darkseid, collapsing into a mass of energy that flowed into his body—from palm to arm, spreading through every fiber. Crimson energy manifested around him, faint phantoms at first, then coalescing into churning vortexes. His power climbed visibly, rocketing upward like a launch vehicle clearing the atmosphere.
All of Apokolips roared in response. Ordinary citizens panicked, assuming another natural disaster. Steppenwolf and his retinue felt something else entirely—a primal terror clawing at the deepest seat of their minds. Where was it coming from?
Only Thea understood. Apokolips was rejecting the Anti-Life Equation. That power had no business existing in the material world—not even in the Sphere of the Gods.
Darkseid may have received the warning too. But he didn't care. Forced to choose between Apokolips's safety and his own strength, there was no choice at all.
Barring the mad Yuga Khan, Darkseid had already stood at the pinnacle of the New Gods. He also possessed the Omega Effect, and now, with the Anti-Life Equation layered on top, three forces merged—and his power finally shattered the multiverse-peak bottleneck, reaching for something higher.
The moment he crossed that threshold, Darkseid's horizons exploded open. His pupils contracted sharply, because there, standing just a few paces away, calmly studying him, was Thea.
Today's Thea was unlike any version he'd encountered before. No razor-edged killing intent, no mocking smirk. Just... calm. Like she was watching an old friend.
"What the hell! What is that look? Your true body—on Apokolips!" Instinct screamed that something was wrong. He forced himself to stay calm.
Thea waved a hand. "I'm not here to fight. This is duty. Obligation. Or if you prefer, a rule. I'm here because I have to be—not because I came looking for trouble."
Darkseid glared at her, silently gauging the balance of power. She had to be here to sabotage his fusion with the Anti-Life Equation—he was certain of it. "Get out! You're not welcome here! Or I won't be polite about it!"
"Heh." Hands in her pockets, utterly at ease. "I won't hold the rudeness against you. Because you won't be laughing for much longer."
The dread in Darkseid's chest swelled. He barked at his subordinates. "Seize her! All of you—together!"
Steppenwolf blinked. His lord was pointing at empty air. Seize whom? Her? Was the power surge scrambling his brain?
As the eldest of the New Gods, Steppenwolf's mind immediately conjured the image of Yuga Khan's raving, deranged final days. A pang of pity—and a flicker of excitement. If Darkseid lost his mind, then with the Apokolips military under his command, maybe it was finally his turn at the top?
Seeing confusion and bewilderment on every face, Darkseid whipped back toward Thea. She was right there, real as stone, not a trace of illusion. His people genuinely couldn't see her?
"Impressive. You're worthy of being my opponent." He shifted to stalling, buying time while accelerating his fusion with the Anti-Life Equation.
Thea's gaze turned cold. He's in such a hurry to die.
She extended a finger. A beam of white light shot out and struck the Anti-Monitor's lifeless body.
Metal rattled and groaned. A bald, middle-aged man rose from the massive shell. This was the former God of Knowledge, the previous Anti-Monitor—Mobius.
He closed his eyes and drew a deep breath. The taste of freedom. Every realm of understanding and insight from his time as the Anti-Monitor remained intact. Given sufficient energy and time, he could climb back to the summit.
Starting over from zero with all his knowledge intact. For him, the outcome wasn't the worst.
He transferred control of the Anti-Monitor Tower—or, as it was now called, the Underworld Tower—to Thea with barely a moment's hesitation. Their bargain fulfilled.
"Thank you for your assistance. Full control is yours—whether you use it to save creation or destroy it is no concern of mine. If there's nothing else, I'll take my leave." Free of his chains, Mobius spoke with impeccable courtesy, his demeanor gentle and composed.
"Will we meet again?"
"Absolutely not."
"Confident, are we?"
The words were light, but the implication was heavy. As long as anything existed within this world, nothing and no one could escape her—could escape Death. Mobius's certainty meant he'd found a path to another world entirely.
"Then I wish you safe travels."
Thea inclined her head. If he was leaving this world, they truly would never meet again. She didn't know where he'd found his exit, but she wasn't envious. She'd been to the Marvel universe, after all. Some fringe worlds held no appeal.
Mobius departed Apokolips through some unique method of his own. At first, the shadow of death still clung to him. But the mark grew fainter and fainter until it vanished from Thea's perception entirely. He had truly left.
"That one had some real tricks up his sleeve, didn't he?" she remarked to Darkseid, conversational as small talk. "Your turn now, old friend. Time's almost up."
Once his level crossed a critical threshold, Darkseid finally saw the problem.
Godhood. The Omega Effect. The Anti-Life Equation. Any one alone suited him perfectly. Perhaps even two in combination would have been manageable—his reserves ran deep enough. But forcing three energies from entirely different sources to coexist was playing with fire.
"I am the invincible Darkseid! I will overcome every obstacle! These are nothing!" He was still talking tough, still straining to marshal everything he had to suppress the Anti-Life Equation.
Thea said nothing. To avoid any misunderstanding about her intentions, she took a few steps back and watched him die with a smile.
A heap of negative godhoods, plus the Omega Effect—the embodiment of endings—now laced with the Anti-Life Equation. Three energies from completely different sources, yet with dangerously similar properties, forced into fusion. He'd better not die too quickly. Especially considering that the Anti-Life Equation had already been tampered with by both Michael Demiurgos and the former Anti-Monitor...