The tearing of the space crack caused a massive disturbance, disturbing the animals and causing the birds to flee.
BOOM!
Dust sprung up everywhere and the debris flew in all directions. From the tear in the sky to the earth on the floor, a long golden chain decorated with countless black curse marks destroyed Ares's palace with a single swing.
Countless buildings, towers and supporting columns collapsed as a result, with Ares and Klarion being engulfed in the destruction.
But not for long.
From within the ruins, a blast of red energy scattered away the surrounding rubble, revealing the Witchboy.
"Damn! Who the hell is it?" With a greatly annoyed expression, Klarion dissipated the shield he instinctively placed around himself.
If not for his subconscious reaction, he would have been smashed by falling rocks.
"Whoever you are, you're gonna...". Suddenly, his words were stuck in his throat as everything he wanted to say was swallowed back on the tip of his tongue.
With a loud clatter, the sound of shattering rocks fell into his ears as the golden chain was pulled back
A mountain in the way was sliced in two as the chain withdrew towards the giant dark red skeleton floating in the distance.
In the head of the skeletal monster that was developing battle armor at a rapid pace, the dark-haired figure with glowing blue eyes was all too familiar.
Precisely the reason why he was even here in the first place.
"Well well ....". Amari shifted his attention for a moment.
".... If it isn't lucky number two".
For a moment, Klarion was dumbfounded by his words. The next, however, he understood clearly.
The first was Ocean Master. And now, he had just been discovered. Following which, his expression changed drastically.
"Fuck! Why the hell are you here?"
Amari raised an eyebrow with some amusement.
"I should ask you the same thing".
"Visiting a comrade. Obviously.....". The next reply, however, was not what he expected. With a cat resting on his arm, he reached to pat away the dust on his clothes.
His voice carried not the slightest hint of fear at the fact that a powerful enemy stood before him. In fact, why should he?
It was difficult for a Lord Of Order Or Chaos to maintain a presence on a physical plane. Since he couldn't bring his true body to the earth, he just used an anchor to bind himself to the mortal realm.
In essence, the death of Klarion didn't mean his true death. At worst, he would just dissipate from this reality and lose his fun for a while.
So among the members of the Light, Klarion was actually the least anxious to get rid of Amari. The nervousness of his fellow acquaintances in the past few weeks was actually kinda funny.
So scratch that, he wasn't anxious at all.
After all, he literally had nothing to fear. The others however..... Not so much.
"See what you've done? You got dust all over my clothes. And you almost squashed Teekl ...".
"Meow!"
At that moment, the cat suddenly meowed, alerting his master on the surrounding developments.
"Huh? What do you mean he's gone?" The Witchboy was taken aback and hurriedly turned around only to discover that there was no sign of the old God.
His mind shutdown for two seconds before realizing.
"That damn bastard! He actually left me here and ran away. Dammit!" At that moment, the Lord Of Chaos exploded in fury and began to release all forms of obscenities without repetition.
For a being with the character of a re year old, his language set skills were surprisingly mature.
"He's already run away". Amari with Al this and uttered with a slight smile on his face.
"Won't you?"
"You.....". As if finally coming to his senses and realizing there was still someone here, the Lord Of Chaos returned his attention the main person he ought to face.
"I'm not like the others. Don't think I'm afraid of you... You…. Killjoy, bully ..... Geezer".
The reply he received was the now armored skeleton raising its hands and swinging the chain towards him yet again.
Feeling the ominous energy released from those curse seals, Klarion's face changed drastically.
"Holy Carp! We're outta here". A red portal opened behind him three feet away and sucked him inside right before the strike hit.
Boom! The earth rumbled, and the surrounding hills were reduced to rubble. Simultaneously, numerous areas Al over the world experienced earthquakes, tsunami's and various natural disasters due to their single action.
But that was a problem for the Justice League to handle. Seeing Klarion flee for his life, Amari didn't bother to pursue.
Just as Klarion thought, Amari knew that among the members of the light, The Witchboy was the hardest to kill. The most he could do was destroy his physical form in this world and that could easily be done by destroying his pussycat without having to damage the actual body.
Unless he wandered into other dimensions in the multiverse again to search for Klarion's trail.
Perhaps he would have done so before, but now, he wasn't so idle and narrow-minded anymore. So, the zeal to kill Klarion was the weakest among all of them.
In fact, his zeal to deal with all members of the light wasn't particularly strong as it was before. That didn't mean he wouldn't kill them if they crossed paths but still.
Hence, he let Klarion go without giving chase. Other matters were pressing before him.
The palace had been completely destroyed and the new strike had just ripped deeper into the earth. The chain was withdrawn and through the narrow space granted within the rocks, a small passageway could be seen through which Ares had made his escape underneath his throne.
It seemed similar to a small underground Labyrinth and at the very end of this tunnel was a room in which a gleaming portal floated in midair.
Susanoo dissipated and Amari's figure emerged at the end of the tunnel just in time to see the portal flash with a dazzling light before returning to normal.
"He really turned tails and ran, didn't he?" Seeing this, Amari's eyebrows couldn't get any higher, finding it hard to believe that his opponent was the Greek God Of War who slaughtered the old Gods with his own hands.
For a man who practically lived to fight, he certainly ran faster than the flash when he needed to.
"This energy signature ....". There were fifty-two breaches across the earth. Plus one massive one in outer space that still hadn't produced any movement.
Among them, seven in particular all possessed the same energy signatures. All those breaches led to Earth -1 in the dark multiverse and this .... Was one of them.
Unexpectedly, in order to escape, Ares directly fled to another universe where his senses couldn't reach. As for how he did it .... He was a God. Although greatly weakened, that was in terms of physical capabilities.
He couldn't tear open the space between dimensions, but he could safely transverse them if there was already a portal open. Ares had discovered this upon his return in search of his ultimate goal.
Never would he have expected to make use of it, especially for such reasons.
"Do you think it's that easy to run away ...". Amari resisted the urge to chuckle and prepared to follow with a smile on his face.
However.....
"You're forgetting something, master".
"Hmm?" Amari paused, before realizing that he came here for something else, while discovering Ares was just an accident.
Looking at the swirling portal, Amari pondered whether to ignore Alice and carry on his plans to hunt down the God Of War or finish what he came here for first. After all, he was in no hurry. If not, he would have struck immediately he appeared without relenting.
With Ares's current state, he wouldn't even know what hit him.
Badum!
"Huh?" At that moment, his ears twitched.
Badum!
The faint sound falling into his ears was as loud as a truck's horn, arousing his curiosity.
Badum! Turning away from the portal, his eyes peered into the distance with curiosity and doubt gleaming in his eyes.
That sound ... It was slow. Appearing once almost every forty-five seconds. Not only slow, but also low. So low to the point that only those with greatly enhanced hearing could hear it.
Badum!
That sound, was the sound of a heartbeat. Only, why was it so low? At this level, it would directly be rated as a dead person by a seasoned doctor.
Appearing before it, he found himself standing in front of a cell. And within that cell, laid the dried up body of a haggard woman.
Her eyes were closed and her skin was parched. The material she wore indicated that she had been here for a long period of time.
Amari knew not who this woman was. And if he had no clue, Alice definitely wouldn't know either. Searching social media and the likes would be pointless because this woman who was teething on the edge of life and death itself wasn't human to begin with.
The three straight line cuts on the sides of her neck immediately revealed her racial identity.
An Atlantean.
But there was the problem. Why did Ares keep an Atlantean as a prisoner? Pondering slightly for several seconds, Amari made-up his mind to do something he had decided not to do a while ago.
Within his glowing blue eyes, a change emerged and lines of written data appeared within his view.
The first one, however, was all he needed to see.
<< Name: Atlanna >>
<< Race: Atlantean >>
Alright, Ares could wait for a day or two.
.....
Meanwhile....
Metropolis, Oct 23, 17:28 EDT
Boom!
A loud explosion resounded as a yellow portal opened up in the midst of the Metropolis Central Park. Following which, what looked like a hovering car flew out of the portal and took to the skies.
The flying car took to the skies, in which five figures could be seen sitting within.
They spoke in languages that weren't from Earth for several seconds before one of them took out a rectangular object with black and orange colors.
" ..... Wait till we see some cowboys".
"Your obsession with barbarians must wane, serifan". Vykin uttered blandly.
"Motherbox, please camouflage extraterrestrial energy signatures. Then scan the planet and advise".
Ding! The box let out a ringing tone.
"What we seek is one world". Vykin said while looking at the box.
"So the Intel is correct. The New Genisphere is on Earth".
"Great. That's one thing down".
"Indeed. But ...". Moonrider spoke hesitantly.
"What about the other one?"
Everyone showed different expressions.
"Our mission is simple". The red haired, burly male spoke in place of their leader Vykin.
"Our first priority is to get the New Genisphere back from the treacherous beings who stole her".
"Right". Vykin nodded. "As for the other ... We need to find him first".
"That should be easy, right?" Dreamer asked with a raised eyebrow, expecting this to be an easy task.
"Not really". Contrary to her expectations, however, Vykin said the opposite.
"The Motherbox has sorted out a lot of information on the person in question, but there's no location on his current whereabouts. Just where he once was".
"..... That's ...". Dreamer was slightly stunned. It seemed their task wasn't that easy.
"Then how are we going to find him?" Serafin asked.
"I don't know. But even if we do, we might have to worry about what happens when we do".
....
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