I spread my senses in all directions, trying to find my girl's lifeforce until I covered the entire planet but to no avail. My frown that could be found on my face deepened.
Mentally, I took a step back and started to sense from my position again, but this time I scanned every lifeforce. Maybe she was critically injured, hence her lifeforce would be much lower than normal. I couldn't afford to miss her because I wasn't meticulous enough.
Each and every lifeforce was scanned by me. It took me a while until I was done, but there was no sign of her even after scanning for several minutes. I was getting nervous.
Did she leave earth? She had done it before so it wasn't in the realm of the impossible. It wasn't unlikely for her to go to space. Maybe she once again stumbled over an alien who had ended up asking for her help. It wouldn't surprise me if she directly went to their planet and helped, but I had a problem with that reasoning.
My gut was telling me that something was wrong. She would have at least sent me a text when it became clear that she would leave for a while. After all, she had said that she would wait for me. If it was far away, she would have informed me. I was sure of that.
After thinking that, I pulled out my phone but saw no unread texts. I put it away and reached up for the small Justice league in-ear buds that I had yet to store away.
I pinged the watchtower and after a few seconds, I got a response from Martian Manhunter, who hadn't gone out yet, "Do you need help? I didn't register any major emergency calls from Portland."
He said as I flew up over my house and scanned the city with my eyes in case my ability to sense lifeforce was somehow blocked.
"Did someone leave earth in the last few minutes?"
"Leave earth? Inside a spacesh-"
"As in Supergirl flew up and left." I specified as I floated around the city and looked through the streets though I doubted that I would find her this way.
"I don't think that the Watchtower would be able to pick up someth-"
"Just try!" I snapped at him. I was getting more and more nervous and the hair on my arms was standing up. Something was about to go down, I could feel it. My instincts, my body was all ready to fight.
The strength coursed through my veins as I reached my peak performance with nothing holding me back. Usually, I would suppress my ki, it was easier to live that way. Even when fighting against Hawkgirl I obviously wouldn't go all out.
"There was no such event in the last dozen minutes. Hm? Th- ...wro- ...ve ...and's sky! I- nd..." I frowned as I tapped on the earbud, but there was only static coming from it.
It seemed like my connection was cut. I looked above me and watched as the sky above Portland was covered with a dark sphere, tinting the outside a dark red.
I heard some echoes of people saying something sounding out from somewhere below. The voices sounded like it was coming from all directions, but I still knew from where it was coming. Lifeforce suddenly popping up did more than enough to attract my attention and make me keep track of them. Two male voices rang clear between the growling voice of another.
Several life forces that felt malicious joined the newcomers. They had some significant power behind them, putting whoever came well in the superhuman realm.
Honestly, even if it sounded like it threatened the entire city, I would have ignored it if it wasn't my hunch telling me that whatever caused major problems now would have something to do with Kara's disappearance.
Besides, it was my only guess, otherwise, I would have to continue searching for her while flying aimlessly through the air. I would only end up wasting time like this.
I flew up the sky until I touched the sphere. With my touch red lightning extended from the barrier to my fingertips, electrocuting me which in turn made me pull away. I had to keep my options clear, if it was necessary to escape after I had found my girl, I didn't want to then find out that I couldn't leave. Better to know now and weigh my options than to be blocked at the end of my rope.
My hand glowed fiercely with a blue light as a ki sphere formed in my hand. I then thrust it towards the sphere covering the city. In an arc, it flew a bit further away clashed against the sphere without much fanfare.
The city below was shortly lit up with a bright light as my attack blew up. While this was happening I pressed my hand against the sphere and felt its response weaker this time. It wasn't by a lot, but that was some good news.
Just before I headed off to finally confront the voices I saw at the corner of my eyes that the Justice League had already assembled. It seemed like they were still available after our little get-together.
Even Batman was there with his Batwing, hovering next to the others. After they got close they tried to communicate with no success. Afterward, they started to attack the barrier but it would take a while until they would be able to come through this.
I gave them a nod before heading towards the inner city again. I quickly found the new life forces that I had been keeping track of and flew directly above them as I scanned the city again.
The civilians were being escorted out of the inner city where the voices seemed to come from. The kingpins' men and the police helped where they could.
I quickly arrived where chaos seemed to be spreading about. Explosions followed as a car exploded midair.
Looking around made me realize that three people were being encircled by several red demon-like creatures with two sets of eyes. They were the evil lifeforce I had sensed earlier.
I raised my hand as my ki gathered in a small point of light. Although I wasn't suppressing my ki that didn't mean I could only blast at full strength. There were still some humans running away and the demons didn't seem too strong.
If I did end up having to go all out, I was sure that my ki attacks would completely devastate the city. By then I would have to resort to physical attacks.
It might be an impressive feat to condense my destruction on a city level if I considered the fact that my current attacks were already easily planetary, but I wasn't willing to release this level of destruction on my city.
Having thought that, I was sure that they wouldn't be able to preserve even this level of attacks. My attack had split into three streams, all heading towards one demon. Each attack was more than enough to destroy the moon and I wasn't talking about blowing up the moon in pieces, but completely evaporating it from existence.
They seemed to have sensed my attack as the demons suddenly looked up. However, it was already too late, my ki attack was already fired.
Now, they would only be able to escape when they were able to move near light speed, but then I had a bigger problem than mere durability.
The attack split up into individual streams and homed in on each demon, unexpectedly hitting them head-on. One was picked up by the blast and carried into a near skyscraper, while the other two were buried into the ground.
An explosion followed shortly after, which just leveled the skyscraper and ripped open the ground in which the other two were buried.
These condensed explosions were the work of several months. What was normally covering a few thousand kilometers was now reduced to a few dozen meters. It was reduced to almost one hundred thousandths. The range wasn't even comparable any more.
Since it was controlled, despite its might it looked like I had just blasted them with a human-made bomb. The produced shock wave was blocked by a sphere around the group that had been fighting the demons.
I touched down near the three individuals that I now identified as two grown men and a teenager probably around 16, maybe older.
They had a stunned expression on their face. I too was surprised but for a different reason. I held my hand up and summoned the demons that I had attacked and gathered them in the air before dropping them in between the group of the presumably three humans.
"Bloody hell." One man blurted out who instantly attracted my attention. In a trenchcoat, blonde with a scruffy beard. Just the look of him gave me a hunch of his identity.
The other man was a middle-aged man with green eyes, a prominent black mustache and is distinguishable by his formal attire. He looked like a stage magician with his hat and wand in hand. I knew for sure who that was. He was a famous show magician after all.
Giovanni Zatara.
Which had already confirmed my previous guess of the other man. It was probably John Constantine. I looked at the teenager. If he was another famous character I didn't recognize him, but there was something wrong with him.
I could sense that his life force had some similarities to the demons that were thrown to the ground. Not only was I scanning him but I scanned the other two's life forces as well, but they seemed normal.
Honestly, I would usually have dismissed them, but since they were magic users they had my full attention. They were probably here for the demons and had somehow convinced my Kara to help them out, but if that was the case where was she?
Only the worst scenarios popped into my mind and with John Constantine's presence, those weren't unlikely to be topped with a worse situation.
My observation of them and assessment of the situation had at most taken a second. As I focused on the demons that seemed to be mostly unharmed but out of it, their eyes suddenly sprung open and they opened their mouth.
That they hadn't been obliterated made me guess that some sort of magic shenanigans or conceptual principle was at work here.
A black shadow with red glowing eyes escaped the bodies and seemed to have evaporated as soon as they had left. I didn't understand what happened but I couldn't care less.
I emotionally looked at the scene. I didn't care what they were here for nor whatever had possessed the humans that were now laying on the floor unconscious and injured, I only care for one thing.
The unconscious humans groaned in pain, but they were already lucky that they had survived what I had thrown at them because it seemed like the demons had taken the brunt of my attacks and would now live the day for it.
With telekinesis I sent these humans flying out of harm's way, dropping them off next to a paramedic several blocks away at the border of the city.
Without saying anything I pointed at the three who watched me like I was holding a gun and it wasn't inaccurate for them to act like this because a small pebble-sized blue light formed on my fingertips, shining threateningly at them"Where is she?"
I saw how they tensed up at my question as they looked concernedly at me holding them to the equivalent of a gunpoint.
"Who are you referring to? If I may ask." Zatara asked cautiously while calmly holding his wand as he subtly pointed it at me.
"...Supergirl." I said slowly and watched the three who didn't dare to make a sudden move like a hawk.
"...Look, lad." Constantine finally spoke up, "she was a good lass but she-" before he could finish his words the ground shook.
The walls of holes I made with my attack crumbled and fell into the darkness the sheer depth had created.
Suddenly a terrifying lifeforce revealed itself and I could sense it flying up from the depths. It wasn't terrifying because the lifeforce was enormous, it was around the likes of Superman and Supergirl, but the aura it gave off made the demons from previously feel like school bullies in comparison.
However, in the next moment, I realized that the aura I had sensed was superficial at best, even though it still felt malicious with seemingly no end and made me feel uneasy just by sensing it.
The being flew out of the hole and shot past us but it was enough for me to catch a glance. A familiar cape, the symbol on her chest, the color scheme, but most importantly the body was easily recognizable to me even though it was covered in a black miasma-like aura.
Four unfamiliar eyes looked back at me. It reminded me of a DC movie I had once watched. In the movie, Superman was possessed by a demon called Trigon, who matched up to the powers like Darkseid, but I doubted that this was the true incarnation of him.
Although I felt the disparity of possessed Kara's lifeforce and mine, the past few months especially have taught me that it didn't mean much, besides I was feeling confident with how much my strength had increased over the past few months.
My power level had been around 170 000. I was far from being a pushover.
I gathered myself and quickly felt the rise of a familiar strength running through my body, trying to enlarge myself to a beast, but I kept it in. I caged up the increasing tide that swept through my body.
The demon said something but I ignored it as I leveled my fingers towards the demon. My other hand came up and supported my wrist as the light on my fingertips started trembling and its color deepened to a dark blue as it got more intense.
[Death Beam]
The attack was let loose and a blue light shot through the air, arriving almost instantly at the demon's shoulder. The beam didn't penetrate the shoulder but it did more than enough.
"Argh!" The demon plummeted to the ground in a spiral pathway as he spun uncontrollably. I kicked off the ground and I felt how the ground gave way underneath the force I put behind it. A light shone behind me originating from the magician group, but that was unimportant to me right now and I completely dismissed it.
I arrived almost instantly in front of the demon that had a grimace on its face. I could see how its eyes widened slightly as it saw me appear just an arm's length away from it.
Without giving the demon any chance to turn the situation, my arm blurred into its face, sending it into a straight line through some skyscrapers in the way. I knew that it was Kara's body but that was also why I knew that she could handle it.
If I pulled my punches now, she would be more disappointed, besides I knew that possessed people could be released unharmed, I just had to beat the demon out of her.
The demon righted himself in the air and shot an attack that resembled Kara's Heat Vision, but it felt slightly different. It was more threatening and it wasn't because it came out of all four eyes.
Midair I tilted my body as I tried to fly out of the way. The beams just slightly graced me, burning through my armor as if it were normal clothes, but in face of these attacks, they might as well be.
I circled around the beams as the demon tried to catch me with them before arriving once again in front of the demon. Without much fanfare, I flew kicking into its face. It was like kicking a steel wall as a human, not pleasant.
Its momentum bled off when it went through several buildings before bouncing off a construction beam which sent it tumbling in the air before it rolled over the asphalt.
The entire street was ripped open as if it were some fallen leaves instead of the hard ground it actually was. Several humans that hadn't made it out of the city yet were running away in panic. Some were holding up their phones. Those would most likely end up dead.
I didn't stop to help any civilians because I knew that I needed to build up more momentum I couldn't let it gather itself, with Kara's body the possibility for the demon to turn the battle around was there.
Seizing this opportunity when I was in the lead was how I would win this. Kara would be fine as long as the demon was being exorcised. The demon skipped over the asphalt like a skipping stone over water.
It didn't take me long to catch up. I kicked her up into the sky and threw both arms open, hands held vertically and fingers wide while I gathered all the ki I could muster.
Like some of my other techniques, it was a replica of a powerful attack I knew was possible. My replicas might not be as well done as the original, but it was better than most things I had tried to come up with myself.
The preparation, the pose, and even the incarnation created a synergy inside the body that increased the efficiency and power of the attack. I had always thought it was ridiculous that someone would shout their attack like they were magicians, but it helped with the technique.
[Final...]
It was like commands for the body, so it would know what to do next, like a memory crutch to get through the movements better. It was the same as if a boxing coach called out the next combination for the pads, the boxer knew the calls and because of it knew the next movements and could act on it immediately after hearing it.
[...Flash!]
I shouted out pushing all my ki out with my breath. A perfect harmonized attack of pure destruction was released straight into the air, where the demon was still flying. I couldn't see anything besides the bright golden-greenish light blinding me, but I could feel that something was pushing against my attack or had at least stopped it.
I pulled on every bit of energy that was available and pushed it into my attack. I heard the ground crumble around me and slowly but surely I was sinking further into the ground. The heat originating from the attack, scalding hot, enough to melt the ground if it didn't rip it open.
After a short moment that had felt like an eternal struggle, the golden bright light fizzled out into a thin beam before it vanished completely.
I breathed heavily as I gathered myself, trying to regain the energy I had lost just now. The primal strength of my Ikari State filled me with enough energy to not collapse. Strength was still there and I felt myself recuperate as fast as I could with Ikari in tow but I knew it would take a while.
I looked at where I had blasted the attack into and saw the barrier seemingly having dimmed considerably but I wasn't sure about it.
I ignored it for Kara, who was tumbling to the ground. I knew how durable she was, she would be fine. If anything she was more durable than strong.
Kara stopped before she landed on the ground. I squinted my eyes. It was still the demon, I concluded. In the next moment, the demon pushed off midair and headed towards me with both hands outstretched, with seemingly no injuries sustained. I jumped to the side and let it fly past.
With a roll and a jump, I flew into the sky, trying to gain some distance before attacking again. I looked back and saw it hot on my heels. I guided it through the forest of concrete before I felt a searing sensation on my shoulders.
I dodged in pain and flew through a park, taking several trees with me, blinding me in the process. I didn't see what happened but I only felt as if my back was about to be snapped in half. My view was covered with dirt and stones, but I could still tell that someone was pounding away on my back.
I twisted around and threw out a blind punch which seemed to land as I felt my fist impact something that wasn't giving away like the soft ground. I just started throwing wild punches while being retaliated by the demon.
Completely underground like we would in the open air just without the advantage of being able to see each other, but... my senses made me able to read it better the longer the fight went on.
A complete basic ability for all dragon ball characters that I had almost forgotten. The ability to use ki sensing combatively showed now its full potential.
With my instincts as my guide I got hit less and dealt out more often, I was reading it like a good book. At one point we exited the ground. I dragged it across the asphalt before kicking it away.
This won't do, I could feel the demon's presence getting weaker, but it would be me who would have to turn in the towel first.
I didn't have much gas in the tank and it seemed like although the demon was getting weaker it still fought like it wasn't. Maybe it was because the host wasn't injured? If that was the case I could...No.
Although I had seen it with the other demons before, I was still worried that I would kill Kara if I used a full-powered Destructo Disk...
I ignored the burning sensation of my shoulder and raised my arms and interlocked my fingers before hammering down on the demon-like I wanted to knock it out with this one hit and I truly wanted to but I was already too low on fuel. I was going all out but with what I had left it wasn't much.
The demon rose his arms to block a direct hit, but he couldn't stop the momentum with which he was sent flying. The demon shot to the ground so fast that not even a blur could be seen, just the aftereffects of the impact.
Waves of the ground like it was water was spreading out of the point of impact, leveling any building in the vicinity. The terrifying evil lifeforce I had first sensed wasn't there anymore, but the lifeforce of an ordinary demon was still there. Barely hanging on but it was still there.
It wasn't too different for me, but the injuries I sustained were stacking on top of each other, a good thing that injuries were a Saiyan's cup of tea.
I took a deep breath before I shot to the ground and my ki flaring up in a flame-like aura around my body, protecting me as I penetrated the ground directly to the moving demon. Unlike before it looked like a demon with a mission, instead of going upwards, it was heading to the inner city again and not at a casual speed.
It seemed like it was trying to escape me for whatever reason. I pushed my reserves to the limit, trying to cut him off midway, but the speed the demon was going at wasn't to be underestimated.
I was just a few hundred meters away to catch up with it before its lifeforce vanished. I didn't stop and directly headed towards the place it vanished at.
As soon as I broke through the ground I entered a natural underground cave. There was a lot of water, but what attracted one's attention was on the other end of the cave. Several torches lit up the place of a giant statue with several corpses in robes in front of it.
An altar sat slightly elevated and the demon that possessed Kara was approaching it. I extended my arm, opened my palm, and turned my hand at him. My ki condensed in my palm in a fast and efficient way so I could release it almost instantly.
[Big Bang Attack!]
The attack radius's scope was large for all it was worth, but the attack didn't end here. It was what came after the condensed sphere had carved its way through whatever blocked its way to its target.
Without something unexpected happening, it hit the demon's back and exploded. A giant devastating explosion lit up the underground cult cave. The stairs, altar, and the entire platform the statues stood on were completely covered in the light and I couldn't see what happened to Kara.
Everything around it, everything the explosion touched was turned into dust, apart from the altar that sad unharmed inside a red bubble. It was protected by a red barrier, not unlike the one that had covered the city.
On the wall behind the statue was a hole that had opened releasing water into the crater underneath the floating altar.
I took a step forward, prepared to engage again, but my leg gave in, making me kneel down. Taking a deep breath to prepare me to gather the last bit of energy that I still had. However, reality was often disappointing.
Even my Ikari state seemed to have fizzled out. I couldn't muster any more strength from it. It was like I had squeezed it dry.
While observing the altar in hope that the demon didn't stand up, the demon did exactly what I had feared. It moved slowly but eventually stood up.
It looked at me and had the gall to laugh before it exited the protective barrier, hovering across the crater before shooting a laser into my propped-up leg.
I collapsed to the side, hearing a sizzle and smell of burned flesh filling my nose, it didn't make me hungry, however. I looked up at the demon who stood a meter away, I opened my palm and flicked my middle finger towards it and with it, a tiny pearl-sized energy ball flew out.
The demon shot a laser through it, creating an explosion and I was fully prepared to explode with the demon together but the scenery in front of my eyes had suddenly changed. I was somewhere else in the cave and I felt hands on my sides.
"Dude, you two are heavier than you look!" Someone said jokingly as he cautiously laid me on the ground. The position he sat me down gave me a view of the Justice League.
Wait. You two? I turned my head to the side and found Kara's possessed body. It suddenly opened its eyes and released a demon that dissipated with a scream., leaving only Kara with closed eyes next to me. No demonic life force on her anymore.
I turned my head to the other side again and saw a small group of demon minions appearing opposite of the League.
"Nicely done, got us the first mission for the League, well second if one didn't count the invasion, but you know what I mean." Flash said as he stood up to stand next to the other League member.
"Hey- *cough* assholes- this- huff my- fight."
"What?" Flash asked incredulously, the others glanced back at me in disbelief as well. Even though I didn't have any ki left, I could still use my body. I slowly stood up and was prepared to limp towards them.
This was the perfect opportunity to really strain the limits of the Zenkai. Before I could approach them, however, I heard a voice that sounded played backward.
With a rope appearing around my body I fell helplessly onto the ground.