Chapter 266:
Artemis and I sat next to each other as servants brought out entire cartloads of food. My mouth watered at the sight of all the delicacies. Themyscira must have had a pretty diverse ecosystem because I was seeing prime rib, roast pork, and lobster all on the same spread. It was all placed on the long table in front of us.
"I hope the meal will be to your liking, my Ladies. We Amazons don't usually host such extravagant feasts, but our chefs went all out this time," Queen Hippolyta said. She was sitting at the head of the large table. Her sister was sitting on her left.
"It is… adequate," Artemis said curtly. She was still acting naughty and aloof. I could tell she was excited to try all the food.
"That means she likes it," I translated for her and the Queen sighed in relief. Artemis could act haughty and aloof, but she was anything but a picky eater. She spent most of her existence living in the wilderness after all.
"This is nice. It feels homey," Hestia said with a small smile while glancing around the dining room. She was seated across from Artemis and I. "When will your daughter arrive?"
"In a few minutes. I just received word that her flying machine has landed. She should head directly towards the palace since she's a bit late," Hippolyta told us.
I couldn't wait to meet her. I understood why Hippolyta wasn't exactly proud of the path that Diana was currently on. The Amazons were all warriors. Diana joining the Justice League made the mother think that her daughter had turned her back on how she was raised. In a way, maybe Wonder Woman had. I never agreed with the Justice League's no killing rule myself–some villains just straight up need to die. But that doesn't mean I can't appreciate someone for sticking to their own beliefs. That's why I wasn't expecting Artemis's "talk" with Diana to amount to much.
Members of the Justice League tended to be damn near incorruptible. They would never turn against their own morals. There were only a handful of DC universes where that wasn't the case, and I hadn't gotten any evidence we were in one of those bad Universes…
The double doors to the dining hall were pushed open by one of the guards. "Now presenting Princess Diana…and guest," the guard grumbled that second part.
My eyes lit up a second later as Wonder Woman entered the dining hall. She wasn't alone either. Superman walked in directly behind her! They were both in full costume and strode in the room with their heads held high, full of confidence.
…Confidence that quickly dissolved when they noticed who was sitting at the table.
"A–Aunt Hestia?" Wonder Woman's voice was laced with surprise. "What are you doing here...?" She sounded incredibly nervous. Next to her, Superman was cleaning his fists tightly.
"I've always been here…" Hestia said nonchalantly. "This is my home."
"Is that so…?" Diana asked while turning around and sharing a look with Superman. She turned back to Hestia a second later. "...I thought I just saw you on Olympus. We took a small detour there. That's why we arrived a few minutes late."
Artemis scoffed next to me. They were more than a few minutes late. They were closer to an hour late at this point.
Hestia wasn't surprised by Diana's confusion. "I left a puppet of myself on Olympus. It had most of my memories and a bit of my power, but otherwise it was completely autonomous," she explained.
"You don't have remote access to your puppet at all? You can't see what it has seen?" Wonder Woman inquired with a gleam in her eye.
Hestia shook her head. "No, I wanted a clean break from Olympus," she explained. "Please keep the existence of my puppet a secret from Zeus. I don't want him coming here to try and drag me back there. He hasn't needed me in hundreds of years, but his paranoia always made him want to keep every other God or Goddess in Olympus where he could see them."
"Your secret is safe with us. Besides, I do not think you will have to worry about Zeus anymore..." Diana said with a small chuckle.
[Well…that wasn't ominous or anything.]
"Daughter…" Hippolyta spoke with a strained tone. "You are aware of our laws. Why have you brought a man to our island? Even if he is your… friend, his presence is still not allowed here." Hippolyta said while barely hiding her disdain for Superman.
Wonder Woman actually glared at her own mother. "Kal-El can go wherever he pleases, mother. If you don't want him here, then why don't you try and kick him off the island yourself. I'd like to see how well that goes for you," she snarked.
Hippolyta grimaced and didn't say anything more on the topic. She was obviously aware of who Superman was. All of Themyscira could rise up against him and they wouldn't be able to beat him. "Fine… Will you and your guest please take a seat? We have other guests here who were kind enough to wait for your arrival before the feast," she said.
I think that was the first time Wonder Woman and Superman noticed Artemis and I. That was actually surprising, I wasn't used to not being the center of attention.
Did that make me sound narcissistic?
[Yes.]
'That was rhetorical, System…'
The princess's eyes widened when she locked eyes with us. Once again, she sputtered in surprise. "L–Lady A–Artemis. I wasn't expecting to find you here as well. W–Were you not also just on Mount Olympus earlier?"
"I don't have to give you my schedule. I can go where I please. Just like your little boy toy, princess," Artemis remarked dismissively.
"Boy toy!?" Superman glared at Artemis, who in turn scoffed at him. She could probably tell he was stronger than she was, but that didn't mean she would ever back down.
Her statement drew reactions from all around. The guards all gasped in disbelief while the Queen and her sister looked mortified.
"Daughter!? You're together with a man!? How could you? The Scandal!" Hippolyta exclaimed in disbelief. "You're the princess of the Amazons! What will all of our subjects say when they find out?"
"I can be with whoever I please, Mother." her daughter replied. "It's none of your business and I could care less what the rest of the Amazons think."
I found myself nodding in agreement. Fuck anyone else's opinion. I felt like Wonder Woman and I could be great friends if we could get past the strange reaction she seemed to have to all of us. I thought she was supposed to be respectful of the Greek Gods, but it was clear as day that she was very upset that Hestia and Artemis were in her home.
"It is our business! Your relationship is unnatural!" Antiope added while crossing her arms. "Men and women aren't supposed to be together!" she declared loudly.
Unnatural… What?
"Pfft! Hahahaha!" I couldn't help it. I started cracking up at that statement. It was absolutely absurd and the best part was that Antiope believed her own statement wholeheartedly. "Tell that to the other 99 percent of the world!" I said with a giggle.
Antiope blushed and put her head down. "You all know what I meant," she mumbled to herself in embarrassment.
My laughter drew the heroes' eyes to me next.
"And who might you be? I do not recognize you, but I sense you are divine in nature." Wonder Woman asked me distrustfully while folding her arms.
"Another Goddess?" Superman was clenching his fists again.
I wiped a few tears of laughter out of my eyes and stood up, still letting out a few chuckles. "Hello, I am Layla of the Fallen. Otherwise known as the Goddess of Angels. It is nice to meet the both of you, I've heard quite a bit about the exploits of the Justice League. While I don't agree with all of the League's principles, I can appreciate everything it does for the world," I introduced myself with a calm smile, hoping to ease all the tension.
The League might cause immense property damage on a regular basis fighting the same villains over and over, but that's not all they do for the world. They also help rescue people from natural disasters or any other potential tragedies.
Superman frowned at me for some reason before he spoke. "I've never heard of a Goddess of Angels before. Definitely never read about you in the Bible either…" he said.
"You wouldn't have heard of me," I confirmed. "I am relatively young after all, only a little over 300 years old. My ascent is also incredibly recent as well. I've only been a Goddess for a year. Sometimes I still forget that I am one, and not just a regular Fallen Angel anymore," I said to the two heroes. There was also the fact that I was from another Universe entirely, but that was left unsaid.
Artemis reached over and grabbed my hand in support. "Layla is downplaying her achievements quite a bit. She is very impressive, there are very few beings who can hope to best her in combat these days. She cut the Devil's head off less than a week ago in single combat." Artemis smirked at the two of them.
Superman's eyes widened after Artemis's declaration. "You're not joking? The Devil is real? You're claiming that you're actually an Angel?" he asked me in shock.
I stood up from my chair. My 14 Black Wings sprang up behind me. "Be not afraid…" I said with a small chuckle at both of their gaping expressions. My wings receded and I sat back down with a smirk. It was interesting that I had now reached a point where I could officially say I was stronger than Superman. Despite my Observe skill telling me he was Level 130, I had faced higher leveled opponents and come out on top.
There was tension in the room. Tension that didn't seem to go away even as Wonder Woman and Superman took their seats at the table. I thought this was going to be an enjoyable dinner where I got to meet some of my favorite heroes come to life.
Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.The two heroes sat next to each other in relative silence, they didn't bother so much as glancing at all the delicious food in front of them. I tried to strike up a conversation with either of them, but I kept getting brushed off with one or two word answers. They simply sat there, whispering only to each other.
Their behavior made the meal extremely awkward for everyone else. It was so awkward that my plate was full of delicious foods I was dying to try, but I hadn't bothered taking a single bite. Between their whispers that I couldn't make out, the glares and distrustful glances that the two heroes kept giving Artemis, Hestia and me were very distracting and unpleasant.
[This is why they say you shouldn't meet your heroes.]
After five minutes I had had enough. There was no reason for me to have to stick around after all. I stood up from the table and Artemis quickly did the same.
"Well, this hasn't exactly been a pleasant evening. I have to say that I'm disappointed. Artemis and I will be taking our leave now," I announced while glaring back at the disappointing heroes. "I think we'll just pop over to Metropolis and get some burgers. Would you like to come with Hestia?" I asked her.
"Yes please," Hestia quickly joined us. "This dinner has been awful. I usually prefer home cooked meals but I'll take anything over whatever drama these two have to unpack," she circled around the table quickly.
Hippolyta looked mortified. "I am so sorry, my Ladies. I'll be sure to discipline my daughter for ruining our evening."
Wonder Woman scoffed as she slammed her hands on the table and stood up. The wooden table couldn't take the force and immediately cracked. Copious amounts of food fell on the floor as it split down the middle and collapsed.
"Once again, the ignorance of the Divine rears its ugly heads," she said.
Superman had gone quite for a moment before he spoke. His voice was laced with fury and his eyes glowed smoldering red. I immediately stepped in front of Artemis and Hestia, in case he attacked us out of nowhere. I stared at him with my Rinnegan. What the hell was his problem with me!?
"You said you were going to Metropolis? You claim to be an Angel? Did you not hear the prayers for help as my city burned. Where were the Angels when the Joker detonated a nuclear bomb in my city. Where were you when my wife and unborn son both died!?" His voice was laced with fury as he spoke.
Metropolis has been destroyed?
Ok… I'm in an Injustice Universe. Now the hostility all makes sense…sort of? For some reason these two seem to be blaming the gods because the Joker decided to drop a nuke on Metropolis.
Could the gods have stopped him? Yes. Should the gods have stopped him? Also yes. Did the gods care even a little bit? Probably not.
Okay, I could see where his anger was coming from a little bit.
[That explains why these two heroes have both been dicks to you. The mystery has been solved…good job. You enterprise, that prize is probably violence!]
'Yay…' I thought sarcastically.
[Hah! I told you there was no way your date wouldn't end in violence!]
'That's not guaranteed quite yet!'
[What!? He's the Evil Superman! Aren't you going to fight him?]
I internally sighed. 'There's probably hundreds of thousands of Universes with Evil Superheroes. Am I supposed to go and clear out all of them?'
[Yes? Maybe…? I don't know.]
Diana picked up the small bag they had walked in with. "The Divine no longer has a place in this world. They cannot be relied upon. From now on, we put our faith in my beloved, we put our faith in Superman." She unzipped the bag and turned it over. Two round objects fell out of the bag and unceremoniously plopped onto the marble floor.
They were heads, bloody severed heads. The blood wasn't red though, it was gold.
Hippolyta and Antiope both gasped.
"Lod Zeus!"
"Hercules!"
They both exclaimed at the exact same time. Wonder Woman reached down and picked up the severed heads by the hair. She held them up and presented them to us as if they were trophies.
"The Gods of Olympus are no more. All of them have been slain besides Artemis and Hestia. Both of you tried to trick us by leaving puppets to die in your places, it's too bad we were too clever to fall for that! We discovered you both hiding on Themyscira immediately!" she said with a confident smirk.
"We weren't hiding, we were literally sitting at your mother's table, waiting for you to arrive. And so what if you killed off the others? Good riddance, no more women will have to suffer at their cruel hands," Artemis said with a shrug. She didn't care at all about the fate of her family's counterparts.
Wonder Woman was obviously mistaking my Artemis for her own Univers's Artemis–who was probably now dead. Hestia left a puppet in her place and no Wonder Woman was under the impression that Artemis had done the same.
Hestia didn't look particularly upset either. "I always knew this day would come someday. Those fools always went out of their way to be needlessly cruel to mortals and make enemies. Good job." Hestia said as she gave Superman and Wonder Woman a casual thumbs up. She then turned back to me.
"Well, if Metropolis is gone then I guess we'll just try another city. I'm pretty sure we can find a burger anywhere. The time difference means that it's only a little bit past noon on the East Coast. We should check out Gotham," I said while preparing to open a portal to the East Coast. I wasn't exactly sure where Gotham was supposed to be, but I figured we could just start in New York and fly down the coast until we find it. It shouldn't take very long.
Superman took an angry step towards us. His eyes were still glowing red from anger. "You're just going to leave? After we showed you the heads of Zeus and Hercules. You don't care that your own family is dead!?" he asked in disbelief.
"No."
"Not really."
Hestia and Artemis said at the same time. That seemed to be the wrong answer Superman was looking for. Or maybe he was just looking for any excuse to start a random fight. The Injustice Superman always seemed to be partially insane.
"Raaaaahhh!" he screamed in rage. Twin beams of steering energy blasted out of his eyes!
"Susanoo." A purple rib cage surrounded the three of us right before his heat vision struck us. The twin beams tried to burn through the rib cage, but Susanoo was created from pure energy. Energy couldn't exactly be burned, and the kinetic force of his heat vision wasn't actually that strong either. He would have been better off trying to punch us.
Which was what he immediately tried next of course. "Damn you!" Superman cut off his heat vision and blitzed towards us. The marble flooring shattered underneath the force of his charge. A heavy fist slammed into the translucent rib cage.
"Woah, he packs a punch," I said as I noticed a few cracks forming in the giant bones.
Superman noticed them too and grinned at us vindictively. "Your bone shield won't save you from my wrath! You'll pay for everything you've done to this world!"
"He has truly fucking lost it hasn't he?" Artemis remarked as Superman started wailing on the rib cage in anger.
His fists turned into rapid blurs as he started delivering a never ending barrage of high speed punches against my construct. At the rate he was going, he would end up breaking it in about a minute.
"He lost his home, I feel bad for him." Hestia added with a sigh.
"You feel bad for him?" I asked her in disbelief. "He literally just tried to kill the three of us with his heat vision," I pointed out.
Hestia nodded sadly. "I know, but he's in terrible pain. I can feel his pain, it's almost completely consumed him."
I patted the innocent Goddess on her head. Despite being thousands of years old, she was still too kind for the real world.
"What he went through is horrible, without a doubt. Losing his wife and unborn son was a tragedy. That doesn't give him a pass to lash out at the world though. People suffer all over the world every day. Even right now, there's probably someone in the world going through a tragedy even worse than he has. Someone probably just lost their entire family in a car crash, or maybe a house fire, or an earthquake," I told Hestia as Artemis nodded along with my words. "Shit happens and you know what, Superman is a borderline god. He could find a way to resurrect his family if he really tried, but he didn't try to do that did he?" I asked her.
"Raaaaaaaghhhh! Damn you, lying bitch! How dare you talk about them! You don't know anything!" Superman shouted at me. His punches sped up even more. His blows rained down harder until my Susanoo couldn't take the strain anymore.
The ribs shattered, and I didn't bother reforming them. I wanted to see what a legend was made of.
{Emergency Quest Started: Defeat the Man of Steel and the (In)justice League!}
{Reward: Level Up x 10! Kryptonian Bloodline!}
[Layla of the Fallen]
[Title: Fourteen Winged Angel, Goddess of Angels, Death's Favored.]
[Level: 100]
[Sacred Gears: Purger of Darkness, Orb of Infinity]
[HP: 118,000]
[MP: 130,000]
[Faith Energy: 7,585,457]
[Vigor: 10,400]
[Strength: 5,643]
[Intelligence: 13,100]
[Luck: 2656]
[Available Free Stat Points: 0]
[Perks and Skills:]
-Goddess of Angels (10x Increase in all Stat Points. Access to all Angelic Abilities. Can turn other races into white or black winged Angels depending on the person's Karma.)
-Death's Favored (Resurrect on Death after 24 hours. Can resurrect up to three people a day.)
-Daughter of Heaven's Will (Passive Skill: Ask and you shall receive! The universe bends to your whims and circumstances that you wish for are far more likely to occur!)
-Observe (Max: No one's level is hidden from your gaze. No one can detect you using Observe on them.)
-Light Manipulation (Max: All Light Abilities Cost 10x less MP to Cast.)
-Senjutsu (Max: Passively regenerate 1000 MP/Min.)
-Rinnegan (Max: All Rinnegan abilities cost 5x less MP.)
-Faith Pool (Can draw upon Faith Energy when MP runs out.)
-Cosmic Energy (Instead of air, you know breathe Cosmic Energy. All abilities are drastically improved along with access to Cosmic powers.)
-Lustful Queen (Active Skill: You can drain the energy of anyone you touch and convert it into any type of energy you desire. This ability is 100x more effective when performed during sexual intercourse.)
I had really struck a nerve with my speech. Superman rushed forwards and slammed his fist into my cheek. My head whipped backwards.
{-50 HP}
"Everything I said was true by the way! Don't get mad at me because you're a dumbass."
He obviously had not been expecting me to recover so quickly. I lashed out and punched him in his face. I had over 5000 Strength, but I hardly ever used it outside of the improved reaction times it gave me. I felt like mixing things up a bit.
Spit flew out of Superman's mouth as he went careening backwards. His body smashed through a stone wall and he ended up landing in the next room.
"Kal-El!" Wonder Woman shouted his name in panic! "Damn you! How dare you attack my beloved!" she unsheathed her sword and pointed it at me.
"He literally attacked us first. We were just going to leave and go on a burger run…"
I don't know why I was even trying to reason with these people at this point.
"Enough of your filthy evil lies!" Wonder Woman exclaimed. She levitated off the ground and rapidly accelerated towards me. She swung her sword directly at my head.
CLANG!
Her blade was never able to make contact. It was intercepted by Artemis who had drawn her own silver blade in my defense. Despite being more proficient with a bow, that didn't mean she didn't know how to use a blade.
"I promised your mother I would have a chat with you, Diana. I figure now is as good a time as any." Artemis stabbed forward with her blade. Wonder Woman was sent flying backwards as she blocked. Her armored boots skidded across the floor as she landed next to her mother and Aunt.
"Diana…what are you doing? Why are you attacking our guest!?" Hippolyta asked in panic. "You need to stop this! Zeus and Hercules are dead, let this madness end."
"You need to stop now, Diana. You are not acting like the girl I spent so many years training," Antiope pleaded as well.
Wonder Woman scowled at both of them. "No! It won't end until the whole world bows down to Superman's rule! Themyscira included! This is a new world order mother, and the Amazons will join!"
Hippolyta and Antiope looked completely shocked at her declaration. "You would have your sisters bow down to the rule of a man? One who only wishes to conquer?" Hippolyta asked in disbelief.
"He's not just any man. He is Superman, our world's new god. The Justice League serves him as its new pantheon. The only pantheon the world needs," her daughter replied. There didn't seem to be any reasoning with her.
'Ugh…this is why I find evil Universes to be annoying. It's like she's turned insane and evil just for the sake of being evil…'
[That pretty much describes most of the villains you've fought]
'...shut up, System.'
"You must be pretty confident to ignore me!" Artemis took advantage of Wonder Woman's distraction. She shot forwards and struck the princess across the face with the flat side of her blade. She could have killed Diana in that instant had she chosen to do so.
Diana's head whipped backwards and blood escaped her lips. "You claim to have wiped out an entire pantheon with only this paltry amount of skill?" Artemis taunted as she kicked Diana in the ribs. Her armor stopped them from being immediately broken, but she still dropped to her knees and wheezed for air.
"Diana!" Superman shouted as he witnessed his lover's beat down. It looked like he had finally recovered himself enough to continue fighting. He stuck his arms forward and tried to tackle Artemis from behind.
I didn't allow that to happen. He was moving so fast that he couldn't stop himself from flying into the portal I opened right in front of him. I teleported him into the sky a few thousand miles above the Island. I quickly opened another portal next to myself and joined him. We could go all out against each other in the upper atmosphere. Neither of us needed to breathe after all.
"I'm going to kill you for hurting her!" Superman threw a punch at me with everything he had. He had clearly been holding back his full power earlier. The thin air in the upper atmosphere caught fire all around us from the force of his punch. Bringing him to an isolated area allowed him to truly fight with everything he had.
I punched forwards at the same time and our two fists collided. I quickly realized that his Strength was much higher than my own.
A snap rang out and I grit my teeth from the temporary pain of experiencing my arms breaking. Thankfully, my Gamer's Body made it so that my arms didn't actually break and the pain quickly faded away.
{-500 HP}
"You're going to regret going against me. You caught me off guard earlier, but now you'll experience my true strength. My true power!" A yellow aura spread from a small ring on his right hand. It quickly surrounded his body and even changed the color of his costume. It was the Power of the Yellow Lantern Core. The power of Fear.
With the power of Fear, he actually jumped in power all the way to Level 180. He really was going all out now.
"If you're going all out, then I suppose I should as well." I started pulling on the Cosmic Energy inside of me. The reward I had gained after dealing with Ego and Arishem. It was a power that I hadn't truly mastered yet, hence I was very hesitant to use it in populated areas. Thankfully, I didn't have to worry about that all the way up here.
A purple aura began to spread around my body. My jet black hair and wings both changed their hues. They turned slightly purple as I felt a tremendous surge in power. The final change was to my Rinnegan. my eyes stood out before, but now they were literally glowing with enhanced power.
[Weird, I'm having trouble giving your enhanced Stats accurate numbers. They keep fluctuating, but at the very minimum your power has increased over 20 times!]
'20 times?' I smirked at the number. I could definitely work with that.
"Warning! Tremendous energy surge detected in proximity. Defeat imminent! Recommended course of action: Immediate retreat and request for backup." the Power Ring on Superman's hand spoke out on its own.
Superman ignored his fancy rings warning. Now that we had both powered up to max, we flew at each other.
The world shook as we collided!
XXX