Black Adam launched himself, flying at a terrifying speed forward; in a few seconds, he was almost in front of Sombra.
'Ba-dum….Ba-dum'—a sound of a heartbeat echoed across the snowy landscape as a wave of energy passed through Black Adam's body.
And yet, that was it…. Black Adam's eyes opened in shock as he found himself frozen in the air, staring at Sombra's glowing red eyes that were surrounded by green smoke.
Sombra's left gauntlet was raised, as his telekinesis surrounded Black Adam's form, holding it in place, while the Crystal Heart helped by simply amplifying the force slightly.
The hold on Black Adam lasted only for a second, as he broke through it with brute magical and physical might.
But those few seconds were enough. The moment his body broke through the telekinesis, he was crushed in between two massive hands made from dark crystals.
The corrupted nature of the crystals didn't wait, as they started stealing magic from Black Adam….
Black Adam, who had not noticed this before, now realized what the strange sensation was when he had crushed the crystals with his hands before.
Black Adam forced the two hands crushing him open with brute strength, while the two hands cracked as he crushed them and freed himself.
The moment he was free, a beam of magic slammed into his chest, launching him backward….
It only took an instant for Black Adam to stabilize himself and evade the second beam coming at him, as the frown on his face increased.
Black Adam moved forward again, appearing behind the Sombra that had launched the magic, and thrusted his hand like a spear through Sombra's chest.
"You aren't as smart as you like to think, aren't you, stranger?"
The impaled Sombra in front of Black Adam faded, as Black Adam turned his gaze to see countless figures, each an exact copy of Sombra, each floating over a piece of dark crystals.
All the Sombras started talking at the same time with a condescending tone:
"You have terrifying magical potential, yet all you know to do is some lightning tricks and to punch things in the face."
Sombra's tone turned mocking, as all the copies said, "Did you expect a magician like me to give you a fair fight, or have you been facing fools all your life?…. I was quite curious about your identity, but at this point? I don't care enough to hear the name of an overgrown child."
Black Adam raised his hand toward the sky, as a scowl formed on his face. "You talk too much for a man who has yet to harm me in any meaningful way."
He brought his hand down, slamming it into the ground, as countless bolts of lightning formed and struck everything around him in a hundred-meter radius.
The copies all faded…. Since none of them was actually Sombra.
"You said I haven't hurt you?…. Very well, let's remedy that mistake!"
Black Adam's face moved upward, as he saw a huge dragon far high in the sky.
The dragon was covered in azure-colored scales, with the dragon's size reaching 700 meters…. But that wasn't what drew Black Adam's attention; what did was that a small sun was formed in front of the dragon's opened maw as it increased in size.
'BORO BREATH!'
Sombra released the pillar of fire downward towards Black Adam's position, who didn't hesitate to move out of the way.
Yet, Sombra's draconic face showed a grin, as the Crystal Heart teleported in front of the pillar of flame and absorbed all of it.
Sombra's massive form floated lower, as he moved to be behind the Crystal Heart protectively, saying, "I told you before…. I wasn't even trying."
The next second, a massive heartbeat started echoing, originating from the glowing Crystal Heart and moving across miles, shaking everything with pure magical waves.
Black Adam felt a deep sense of dread, but he crushed the thought of retreat as he launched himself forward.
The next instant, a pillar of pure white flames erupted from the Crystal Heart, moving towards Black Adam.
The intensity and terrifying flames of dragon breath were all enhanced and brought to terrifying levels inside the Crystal Heart, while being filled to the brim with magic.
Black Adam, sensing the terrifying attack, moved to the side, intending to evade it…. But a single heartbeat was the answer from the Crystal Heart, as the pillar of flame literally tilted sharply and followed Black Adam.
Black Adam, seeing the situation, raised both of his hands as a lightning bolt reaching a terrifying intensity erupted and clashed with the pillar of flames.
The two attacks clashed as a terrifying explosion occurred, shaking the snow and ground for miles. The Crystal Heart answered with few heartbeats, increasing the intensity of the attack.
A Cold Victory
A few minutes later.
Sombra walked on the now solid ground, as all the snow in the area melted for at least a mile. He saved a single glance at the Empire from afar, making sure that it wasn't harmed.
Not taking any chances, he was in his hybrid form, with two large shields of crystals held around him in telekinesis, while his tail held the now slightly dim Crystal Heart protectively.
Which, thankfully, was the case, since the Empire on the far horizon seemed to be unharmed.
Arriving at the edge of a deep crater, Sombra looked down, seeing Black Adam…. He wasn't dead, not even close.
His skin was charred black, but other than that? It wasn't really fatal to a man of his powers. If Sombra had to guess, then Black Adam would take a few hours before healing enough to wake up.
Sombra walked forward, as he lifted his right leg and slammed his foot on Black Adam's head. "Not so high and mighty now, are you?"
'If I fought him on my own, the fight could have taken a whole lot more time than I am comfortable giving to a meaningless conflict.'
Sombra's long tail brought the Crystal Heart up, as Sombra turned his gaze to the Heart with a frown. 'Almost empty'…. 'I don't have time for ideas; I need a solution for the Heart, and I needed it yesterday.'
Unconsciously, Sombra's foot grinded harder on the face of his defeated opponent.
"Consequences be damned. I am taking the Heart to a city tomorrow. I will deal with whatever results from that afterwards."
Sombra removed his metallic foot from Black Adam's burned face, as he leaned down. 'Now, what to do with you?'
'I don't care how, but I will make you pay for every little molecule of magic the Heart had to spend on you….'
New Eyes
(A few minutes before)
Thomas and Jack knew things went to hell when an explosion that could give a nuke a run for its money shook everything.
They had no idea what exactly was happening, but making an educated guess, it was obvious that Sombra was currently having some competition on who is more villainous-looking with some other superpowered fighter.
Yet, through all of it, Thomas simply stared in the direction of the fight. The walls from crystal didn't allow him to see much, but he saw a huge pillar of light before the explosion hit.
'If I learn magic, could I possibly do that?…. Magic….. I WANT TO LEARN EVERYTHING ABOUT IT!'
Jack had to literally smack Thomas in the face to snap him from whatever daze he was in, before the two turned and started running to the castle.
Yet, none of them noticed that Thomas's pupils changed, as their color became deeper, and behind his pupils, a marking formed of a small magical wand mid-casting with a star at the tip of it. His pupils were replaced entirely by the mark for a few seconds, before it returned to normal.
(Back to the present)
As Sombra was wondering on his options, he turned his gaze upward as a green cube, that was holding several individuals, came from the sky.
The cube was formed from a green ring that was being worn by a man with brown hair, who floated beside the cube.
The cube itself contained several individuals: one of them was a man in a bat-like costume, and beside him was a man in a hood with a green costume, and he had a green bow at his back.
On the side was a young woman with purple hair and a gem in her forehead.
Outside of the cube, Superman was present with a green humanoid, as they all floated down to the ground and gazed around at the battle aftermath.
'Batman, Green Arrow, Martian Manhunter, Green Lantern, and Superman.'
'Joy…. As if Superman himself isn't enough to throw the sun at me, he brought far more individuals than I expected.'
'And why is she here? She should be with the Teen Titans being moody about her father or something, instead of visiting an Empire literally on the edge of the world.'
Sombra turned his face to Raven, as the most evident question came to mind: 'And why is she staring at me like I am a nightmare with legs?'
(Raven POV)
It was strange months arriving on Earth…. Raven spent quite a while simply surviving on whatever methods she can, while meditating to avoid the consequences of her blood.
It has been a few weeks since she got into contact with the heroes, and although suspicions were present, thankfully, everything worked fine…. Mostly.
She was currently residing in the League tower, waiting for the new team or whatever the League had in mind for the young heroes.
It was mostly being managed by Batman, and even Canary, who was responsible for the psychological profiling for all the young heroes and sidekicks that are being considered for the team.
It was then that when Superman, along with a few of the League heroes, were going on a mission, and somehow Superman suggested she come along.
Batman refused at first, but Superman said that Sombra wasn't a threat that couldn't be solved with talks. And even if anything happened, they would all be there.
After Martian Manhunter agreed that she can't spend all her time in the tower, Batman agreed, although Green Lantern was on babysitting duty.
All was fine, and Raven would admit that she was slightly curious about a whole city made from crystals.
All was fine, until she laid her eyes on that…. Thing.
While others saw a tall man wearing medieval-looking armor and a metallic crown that suited the royal cape around his shoulders.
The King had blood-red irises with deep black hair with sharp teeth.
It was a villainous look, but Raven didn't see any of that…. She saw what was under all of it.
Corruption… Dark magic… Hate, anger, pride, arrogance, jealousy.
She didn't see a man. What stood before her was something barely human in shape.
A towering silhouette swallowed by darkness that moved, that breathed, shadows coiling and expanding around it like a living thing with lungs of its own. Where a face should have been, there was nothing but two crimson orbs burning through the black, their red light bleeding into wisps of green smoke that curled lazily outward like poison finding air. And beneath them were sharp, shark-like teeth.
So much evil… So much anger and hate. It wasn't on her father's level, not even close, but it was the first thing to look slightly similar.
(Meanwhile)
Sombra was seeing Raven standing still beside the group of heroes, staring with wide eyes and literally sweating bullets.
Superman and the others took notice shortly, as Martian Manhunter moved to calm her down.
All the while, Sombra had a floating question mark above his head. 'I swear I didn't do anything …. I don't know what she did, but she scared herself by herself.'
'I am as innocent as it can get here!'
*********
(A/N) : I have decided to declare that I have been productive!….I have been writing about this fic the whole last few days even in college when the professors lessons have an hour apart in which we normally have to wait while we rot slowly…I have been using it for writing! I finished not One! NOT TWO…But four chapters! I have been on the grind I will not post all of them because I plan or at least Promise to TRY to make it weekly updates on this fic so those chapters will be in reserves so that when abyss of knowledge arrive for my head I will be able to update it weekly!… And oh boy have I been struck by lightning on how to get him some people I will start writing it now or maybe tomorrow and I hope I can make it as nice as my head imagines it…I plan to write five more chapters by the next three days! I have finally FINALLY AFTER THREE WEEKS or maybe four I lost count..OF NONE STOP TESTS I FINALLY HAVE A BREATHER AND OH BOY AM I GOING ALL IN!