Phantom 37

The moment Harry whispered the curse, Steppenwolf’s chest convulsed violently. Blood—not red, but dark and oil-thick—sprayed from the seam Harry had carved. The alien general howled as space itself seemed to ripple around his body, Snape’s curse hacking through his guts painfully. 

However, it wasn't Steppenwolf alone who was harmed. From the wound he had given to the alien, foreign energy warped out angrily, and Harry stifled a curse as he felt stings blossom throughout the length of his arm. Above him, Diana jumped into the air and brought down her leg in a sharp axe kick, driving her foot right into Steppenwolf’s head. Pushed back from the force of her attack, Harry took a moment to look at his arm as his paramour continued to lay into the general. 

The energy had not been physical, nor had it been magical in nature. However, whatever it was, it had eroded through his protections like a grinder on stone.

Shaking off the tar like blood off his hand, Harry clenched his fists as he took a deep breath, and rushed in again. Clocking Steppenwolf in his face right as he was beginning to rise up, Harry summoned Diana’s sword to his hands. Thrusting it forwards faster than bullets could move, Harry watched those alien blue eyes track the tip of the crackling blade, and a smirk began to form on his lips at the vi-

His face buried in the ruined soil, the invader roared in anger and opened his hand, his axe appearing in his open fingers instantaneously in a calamitous explosion of pale yellow electricity.

Everything in a radius of fifty feet was burned to a crisp, and Harry slid back from the force of the storm that exploded out as he crossed his arms before him. His wards shattered from whatever energy Steppenwolf had shot out at him earlier, he had no way of protecting himself from the assault other than a haphazardly put-up shield. Harry watched past his blistered, smoking arms as his inferi collapsed into ashes and charred pieces of flesh. Grass burnt black and wood turned to ashen dust, and blue eyes shone with power as Steppenwolf heaved his greataxe and leaped into the air. Disappearing, Harry materialised himself into the air and watched Diana engage the large creature once again, both of them wreathed in electricity; one azure and the other acidic yellow.

Physical attacks were turning out to be useless against Steppenwolf. Diana and him were strong enough to hurt him, but so was he, and his armor was a greater equaliser than he had expected. And it turned out his magic too, was not going to be effective. Not when he had to first break through the armor covering the giant, and then use it…only to have that weird energy lash out against him. Looking down as the blisters on his arms burst and sagged before disappearing, Harry frowned and watched Diana tackle Steppenwolf, her scream bringing down another bolt of lightning from the churning heavens atop them.

Mayhaps, that energy was the godhood Steppenwolf had been talking about. It had been similar to what he had felt back in Arthur’s domain, when he felt something shatter around him right before the portal had opened. While it had not been able to hurt him beyond a few cuts on his arms, Harry wasn’t nearly a fool enough to risk a greater injury by an unknown variable, not during a time like this, at least.

And that left only one option for dealing with Steppenwolf.

Reaching deep into his soul, Harry touched that dead, cold ball of power, feeling numbness instantly spread out throughout his body as his heart slowed to a stop. Master of Death, a title he had unknowingly attained, a power that was always present in the back of his head, connecting him to this Universe’s Death. Ever since his first meeting with the Primordial, Harry had scoured dozens of magical ruins across the globe in a bid to somehow find Faora.

And while he had been unable to breach the space-time into another Universe, he had found numerous books and grimoires detailing the workings of this Universe. Amongst them, one ancient Egyptian tome had talked about the Endless. Seven beings that defined the seven governing concepts of the Universe, and amongst them, Death and Destiny were considered the oldest. It was in that book that he had understood what Death had truly done for him. Like his case with Voldemort’s soul, the Egyptians had dealt with one too, and it was only through Anubis’ intervention that Death gave the permission for the souls to be merged, for in that priest’s words: ‘what was the mind and memories but a facet of that everlasting flame?’

Every time he accessed this power, Harry felt his connection to Death pulse with a warning, reminding him of her words when she had merged Riddle’s soul into his own, saving him from insanity and another episode of hostile mental takeover.

“In return for saving your mind and body, you will owe me a single favor.”

After that, it had taken him some time to realise a rather important fact. Each time he used Death’s power, he was binding more and more of his soul to her, shaving away parts and sewing them into the bond that connected him to the Eldritch entity. However, nothing harmful had occurred to him until now, and Harry hoped that the primordial wouldn’t harm him so after investing her energy into keeping his mind intact.

And each time he immersed himself in Death’s hungering cold essence, the power he could draw on was increasing, as if his body was adjusting to the primal concept and its foreign energies. He had noticed his temperatures go down, his heartbeat slow lately—animation and creation of living things were also becoming difficult while entering his “Reaper” form, as Kara liked to call it.

But still, that was for future him to worry about. Right now, all he cared about was killing Steppenwolf here and now before he killed any more Amazons or harmed Diana. Faust had been a small fry compared to the raging bull beneath him, Harry observed with a frown as Diana blocked the axe swinging for her head, only to get kicked by his foot right in her chest, denting her armor and sending her flying back into the barely standing forest. The sorcerer’s biggest strength had been his unparalleled knowledge, and collection of artifacts, not his rather impressive power. 

Steppenwolf, on the other hand, was as smart a combatant as he was powerful, and he had that unknown energy on his side too. Even now, Harry wasn’t sure how that unexplainable force would react to Death’s essence, but yet, it was all he had left to offer now…other than slugging it out with the alien general that is. A sense other than his usual five and his magic arose within his body, letting him feel out the souls of everyone around him, the potency of their life force akin to burning flames to his mind’s eye. And in that moment, as he saw an accursed red fire blossom as Steppenwolf’s soul, Harry let out a quiet breath and teleported yet again.

He appeared in the air over the brawling pair, watching their chaotic energies strike against his robes and singeing the runes to burn through and mark his skin wherever they struck. A cold breath escaped his lungs as Harry drew more on the union of Hallows and the bond between him and Death, and he saw the moment he disappeared from their senses, a frown of confusion coming over both their faces for a moment, even as they continued trading blows. Diana was worse off between the two of them, and whatever energy Steppenwolf possessed, it was giving him an edge in healing and warding off attacks that she dearly lacked.

He swayed past Diana’s sword, its edge missing his shoulder by inches, and Harry let the restraint on his nature fall away, feeling that ever-empty void inside his soul open its maws.

Cold. Hungry. Endless.

Ravenous and indiscriminate, it leeched the life out of everything around him, and it was only due to his banisher that Diana was spared, as he sent her crashing through the forest to the other side of the cliff. Steppenwolf stumbled instantly, that raging crimson flame inside him dimming a shade as his eyes widened and he looked around widely.

All around him, the remaining Amazons backed off instantly as the remaining vegetation dried and turned to dust, and trees withered into dried husks, aging hundreds of years in mere moments as all color seemed to leave the world around the alien warlord. Reality shifted as an Endless’ power descended upon the already metaphysically overflowing dimension, and tiny static lines seemed to appear in the three-dimensional space, shattering through the Amazons’ visual perception.

Warmth entered his soul as he felt the shattered, broken remains of parademons and his remaining inferi’s life force enter his domain, only for the cold to return as they were devoured by Death. Steppenwolf too, slowed down and wheezed, falling down to a knee as his soul was tugged upon, and Harry frowned as he felt that same energy intervene again, covering the general’s soul in a protective shell and limiting his power from reaching it. He pushed harder against it, directing all of his attention and Death’s hunger to the power protecting the alien soul, and while he felt vestiges of it enter his grasp before being snuffed out, most of it was still locked away from his reach.

His focus shifting away from his cloak, Harry watched Steppenwolf’s pained, confused, and most of all, angered eyes shift towards him, the large alien still on eye level with him despite being on his knee. “YOU!” gnarled lips spreading into a bestial snarl, Steppenwolf lunged forwards, and Harry swiftly turned intangible, making the armored minotaur fall forwards on his face. If it hadn’;t been taking so much of his focus to keep his leeching aura at bay, he might had cracked a laugh at the sight, but as it was, Harry could only shift his body into tangibility and take a step back as a glowing axe passed a hair's breadth away from his head, “What fell sorcery is this?! Fight me like a warrior, you ugly human pest!”

“This is not sorcery, God of War,” he shook his head, taking a step forwards and reaching out with his hand as he conjured hundreds of chains of goblin silver, anchoring them to Steppenwolf’s horns and burying them into the earth, shrinking them in another eyeblink and forcing the alien to kneel before him. He knew the chains would hold him for but a few moments, magical conjuration of this level no match for the might Steppenwolf had displayed—or even that energy protecting him, which had somehow rejected even the power of Death itself. But yet, a few moments were all he needed.

Channeling that all-consuming coldness that had befallen countless civilisations and stars since the dawn of the Universe, Harry grabbed Steppenwolf by his horns, grunting as the alien bucked against his hold and the chains wildly. Half of them snapped instantly, and one of his arms was free again, free to dig itself into his chest with his sharp, clawed fingers. Grunting at the excruciating pain that almost made him remember the cruciatus, Harry felt the claws try to find purchase in his half-Kryptonian flesh, digging through slowly but painfully, tissue by tissue.

“You and your fell magic shall perish at my hands, human!” Steppenwolf grinned as he tugged his other arm harshly, muscles bulging under that moulded armor in a display of brute strength that snapped the goblin silver like threads. Nothing but fanaticism and anger colored his words, and Harry saw the fear of failing his master shine in his eyes just as brightly as the belief in his power to vanquish them, “None shall challenge the might of the Great Darkseid’s most faithful!”

“This is not sorcery, you bull-headed imbecile,” Harry grinned past the pain as he saw the chitinous exoskeleton beneath his fingers flake and turn a dark grey, and at the same time, realisation bloomed on Steppenwolf’s face. “This is the curtain dropping on your existence. Let’s see how a New God fares against the Master of Death, shall we?”

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They had traversed half the city by now, and Kara had long lost count and sense of how many buildings she had destroyed as she fought against Kalibak. Sluggishness was settling in her cells now, and while it was just an infinitesimal change—against an enemy of Kalibak’s caliber, it was a glaring weak spot.

Thankfully, Kal had recovered enough of his endurance to act as support, filling the holes in her defence when she faltered, and attacking Kalibak when she created an opening. As if hearing her thoughts, Kal burst out of the building behind the monstrous giant, spearing him through the truck by her side. Taking a deep breath as she felt her heartbeat rise, Kara shook her hands as she felt her broken finger reset itself.

“Need a hand?” 

A crimson streak passed her as the Flash’s voice echoed amidst the ruined buildings, and Kara ched watched it enter the rubble Kal had created, punching a distracted Kalibak right on his nose, breaking the cartilage yet again, “That’s for before, you asshat!”

‘Faster, much faster than before,’ Kara thought with surprise as she watched him lay into Kalibak, reaching speeds that made even her struggle to keep up in such a short span of time, while Kal continued to restrain the Apokoliptian the best he could, ‘Maybe we can now take him down quickly?’

Flying into the air above, Kara clenched her fists and shot down towards Kalibak at hypersonic speeds, barely missing Flash by an inch as she drove her hand into the alien’s skull, bending it forwards even as she sent him crashing underneath the road, alarms blaring up once again from the cars inside the parking.

“Can’t we just throw him into the portal and be done with it?”

“It is not as easy as it looks,” Kal shook his head, coming to her side as Kalibak just laughed beneath them, the sound of groaning metal and falling concrete echoing alongside that demonic chuckle. “Your injuries…are they fine?”

“Oh yeah, I healed up after John got me some food,” the speedster nodded, electricity beginning to spark over him once more as gratitude flowed into his words, “and thanks for saving me, Superman, I would have been a goner if you hadn’t come then.”

“No need to thank me for it,” her cousin shook his head and touched down, as his still-healing ankle pressed against the earth. “I will be on the ground. I need to conserve as much energy as possible.”

“There are no more of these ‘parademons’ coming from the portal,” Flash muttered as he leaned forward, and electricity sparked over his metallic suit. “The Lanterns should be coming in soon for backup.”

“That’s good,” Kal nodded, and mentally Kara agreed with her cousin. She had tried everything she could against Kalibak—everything that at least, would not catch her cousin or the surrounding city in the crossfire too. She had used the full strength behind her punches, shaking the ground with each strike as the whole metropolis around them had shook with the force of their clash. Merlin’s balls, she had even drawn blood from Kalibak half a dozen times, yet the Apokoliptian laughed in the face of her attacks and shrugged them off like a monolith standing in front of an errant breeze. For Rao’s sake! This all had been after Kal-El had already been fighting him for hours!

And even now, she saw leisurely move through the concrete below, looking for all purposes as if he was taking a walk in the park. There were only a couple of options she found viable now. She lacked the control for fiendfyre, and the Unforgivables were equally impossible for her—and forever would be, if she had her say. One way was to exploit Kalibak’s incapability of flight. While the chances of it were nil at best, Kal and she could probably carry him into space, let him suffocate into unconsciousness before throwing him back into whatever hell he had crawled out of.

However, it was going to be nigh on impossible to do so. Kalibak boasted strength at least equal to Kal-El's, if not greater, and he was better at combat than them. His endurance, reflexes, and savagery were off the charts, and that, coupled with his larger size, made him seem an insurmountable obstacle. However, the one thing that truly made Kalibak dangerous was his ability to just ignore the injuries that she and Kal had managed to inflict on him. A broken nose was returned with a haymaker that crushed her into the pavement. A blast of heat vision resulted in him just moving towards them and grabbing their faces, before delivering punishing blows to their bodies. A few minutes ago, Kal had put him in an armbar, using his flight to twist and extend Kalibak’s hand, but the brute had just his arm in the opposite direction, letting his wrist snap in favor of cracking Kal’s ribs.

The second option had come from Harry, or rather, his story of how he had come to this Universe. Looking down at her wrist, she turned towards Kal-El, switching to Kryptonese to avoid the Flash from understanding them, “Kal, can you summon your escape pod to our location?”

“For what purpose?” he asked, surprise evident on his face as she raised her palms towards the hole below her, and with a deep breath, summoned every bit of water around her into her grip, draining ti from the very atmosphere around her. “And I can’t, without its power cells, the escape pod can’t function.”

‘Then I need you to bring it here,” she looked at him as thousands of liters of water collected before her, and let it drop into the hole over Kalibak’s emerging form, “And bring the power cells too. I might just be able to create a Phantom Zone Projector and send this E’xal damned creature to that dimension.’

“Like what happened with Ha-Phantom,” he stopped midway before changing her brother’s name, and she nodded. However, Kal didn’t leave right away, his eyes flicking down to the water covering Kalibak, “It's dangerous to leave you here.”

“It's dangerous either way, and I have the speedster for support” she sighed, concentrating her energies upon the water, and felt a large chunk of her magic vanish as she stopped and compressed the molecules, releasing every bit of heat inside it into the air. “Go, and come fast. I will try to hold him here the best I can.”

“Yeah, encrypted talks aside, can we focus on the monster below us…and just why is the air so warm all of a sudden,” the Flash interrupted them, and Kara nodded towards the water in an eyeblink, she had flash froze it. Besides them, Kal looked skywards and disappeared in a sonic boom, crumbling the already shattered infrastructure around them further. At the sudden appearance of the ice, he nearly jumped back, before kneeling down to touch the surface, “Damn, you think this will hold him till Superman comes back?”

“It won’t,” she almost chuckled at the thought of ice holding back someone like Kalibak, “but it will buy a couple of seconds, and every moment counts here. How fast are you currently able to move?”

“Hypersonic to Ubersonic, the latter is more possible if I have time to accelerate.”

“I will keep his attention on me, you try to build as much momentum as you can before punching him,” she grit out as she felt Kalibak begin to struggle against the ice, feeling every iota of force try to wrench her telekinetic grip on the ice. “Go, and try your best not to get caught in his hands. Also, just remove any civilians still around the edges of the city…this may get a lot more explosive.”

“Roger that, Appolina,” the speedster nodded and disappeared in a trail of crimson, and Kara grunted, feeling the supercooled ice before her crack, Kalibak’s vast strength pushing against her grip with ever rising force despite the lack of oxygen and space to move his arms, “Fucking hell, just what the fuck are you?!”

Something gathered at the edge of her senses, the energy rising in a crescendo sharply, and Kara traced its origins even as she felt agony lance through her brain. A crack travelled through the ice, splintering through the surface right before her eyes, and she grunted as the strain upon her hold increased yet again, the weird energy rising in tandem with Kalibak’s struggle against the prison she had created. She tried to discern its source, hoping to eliminate it before it empowered the invader anymore, but each time she tried to focus on it, it slipped away from her gaze, as if she lacked the capability to cap-

“Oh fu–” her curse was swallowed by the sound of the ice and ground exploding out as earth around her shook for miles. Buildings fell yet again, but that was the least of her concern as she beheld Kalibak rise past the hole, casually rolling his neck as the energy inside him seemed to settle down, orange fire aglow in his eyes.

An eyeblink later, she crossed her arms over her chest as he rushed her, a fist the size of her head racing towards her torso. Grunting as she felt her whole body shudder from the impact. Kara used her flight to control her body as she was pushed back dozens of feet. From that one punch, she knew that Kalibak’s power had increased, her forearms rattled to the point of being almost numb as she swayed to the side, avoiding his grapple, only to shout as it turned out to be a feint, his other hand landing on her kidney and sending her flying to the side.

Not giving her any respite, Kalibak followed instantly, and even before she managed to find some semblance of control over her flailing body, he grabbed her by her head, dragging her face through the destroyed road before flinging her into an abandoned bus. Or at least, he would have if not for a powerful, thundering punch that rocked across his brutish face. Jumping back as she felt powerful bursts of electricity burn across her already breaking wards, Kara kicked Kalibak right in his neck as he stumbled back from the Flash’s punch, the speedster already long gone to the other side of the city. While it was definitely not a concussion, the blow to his temple had rocked some of Kalibak’s senses for him, at least for a few moments.

And she had to make it count.

She continued to hammer his skull and neck with her attacks, leaving every bit of restraint behind as she felt her muscles scream in protest, while her knuckles bled from the force she was hitting Kalibak. The faint sound of the Flash’s incoming run broke through her thoughts, and she pulled back just in time to see him strike Kalibak yet again. Closing her eyes as she felt the electricity leave faint burn marks on her skin, Kara willed the spasms to end, knowing she didn’t have much time left before he adjusted to this strategy too.

“All this,” he sighed, planting a foot in the ground solidly and catching her next punch squarely in the palm of his hand, encasing her much smaller fingers within his giant fist as spat something to the side—a tooth, she realised, catching sight of the large canine as it bounced along the ground. However, her attention was grabbed by Kalibak as the giant slowly stood up, giving her a bestial grin that promised devastation as he looked around at the destroyed city, letting his tongue push against the cavity, “For just a single tooth.”

There had been only a few instances in Kara's life when she had felt true fear, the kind that makes you sweat and tremble as you feel the cold creep in your thoughts and body.

This moment topped them all.

She tried to teleport away, gathering magic in her core as she focused on being anywhere but here. But her fist being in Kalibak’s grasp, it was a simple matter for him to tug her like a cart, the full force of his uppercut landing right in her torso despite her best attempts to protect herself. Air driven from her lungs as she felt her ribs outright snap under the power of his blow, Kara choked on air as blood welled past her lips, spraying blood and spittle all over the Apokoliptian’s front.

Yet, she knew it was only the beginning.

Another punch landed on her head, driving her down, and Kalibak drove his knee into her forehead, concussing her so hard that she didn’t even realise how many strikes came after that. The only thing she realised was in the moments that passed, another three of her ribs cracked, pushing bones into her lungs, and one of her vertebrae was splintered.

Looking past her swollen eyes as the world swam in and out of focus, Kara felt herself drop to the ground as something flashed past them, breaking Kalibak’s hold on her hand. Past the blackness that threatened to overcome her tired brain, Kara heard a scream of rage that visibly distorted the world, and an absolutely titanic explosion of force happened right above as if a fusion weapon had gone off.

“~ra! Kara!” The ringing in her ears died down as something shook her, and she clenched her eyes closed for a moment, somehow finding the focus to heal herself of the concussion and make the swelling over her face go down. Opening them once she felt her thoughts somewhat stabilise, Kara saw the symbol of House of El before her, Kal’s escape pod lying at the edge of her vision as she was gently turned over. Blinking softly at the sight of Kal’s worried, dust-covered face, she smiled slightly before the events of the last minute caught up with her and she instantly straightened. Taking a step back to give her some space, Kal laid a series of grey cubes before her and turned around, Kalibak large form casually lumbering towards them from where he had presumably thrown him, “The power cells. I got a couple more from the fortress just in case. Can you really make a projector out of it?”

“I know how to do it in theory,” she muttered, shaking her to clear the last of the cobwebs before standing up, levitating the power cells in her grasp as she took a step back, trusting Kal to handle the Apokoliptian for the moment. “I just need to reroute the hyperdrive and tap into the archives to lock it onto the Phantom Zone. Kelex should have the destination codes embedded in its systems, but I will need to fuse the hyperdrive with the power core to make it breach the dimensional barrier.”

“How much time do you need?” the Flash asked as he came to a stop by Kal’s side, and Kara cursed herself for not using Kryptonese. While the chances of it were slim, she wanted to keep everyone ignorant of Kryptonian technology for as long as she could. 

“Five minutes,” she answered after a pause, and watched both the speedster and her cousin share a nod.

“You shall have them,” Kal gave her a smile, and Kara believed him. Despite the dust covering his face, despite the fact that they both had gotten equally trashed by Kalibak, and Kal had been fighting for far longer than her. And probably for the first time, Kara didn’t see her cousin. She saw Superman.

She saw the ray of hope, the shoulder he had become to humanity. Don’t get her wrong, while she was equally grateful to the Flash…the speedster just didn’t radiate the same brightness, the same reassurance that her cousin seemed to do effortlessly, promising with his eyes alone that everything was going to be fine.

Nodding with all her belief in him, Kara sent a prayer to Rao as she turned towards the escape pod, conjuring the tools that she would need as she kneeled by its seamless body. Now, she had to do it carefully. A single misstep, and the fusion coils would detonate right in her face, wiping this city clean off the Eart-

Kal flew past her, narrowly missing crashing into the pod, and Kara reflexively grabbed him with her magic before setting him down, quickly authenticating her identity as a descendant of El in the interface and choosing manual inspection in the terminal. As the compartments housing the fusion engine and the hyperdrive regulator slowly ejected out, Kara watched Kal fly back in, heat vision shooting in a thin, star-hot beam while the Flash continued to zip around, taking potshots at the Apokolitian when he could.

Grabbing onto the empty tray reserved for the power cells, Kara began to slot in the heavy, delicate slabs of fuel into the spaces given, feeling the earth shudder beneath her as Kalibak roared in anger, that casual, swagger-filled countenance finally shattering.

“ENOUGH!” he roared as she slotted in the last of the cells, and she watched the Flash be thrown past her, his crimson body crashing against the pole before falling to the ground lifelessly, “I HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF YOU INSECTS! It was fun for a while, but now you are just making me ANGRY!”

“Yeah, same here,” she muttered quietly as she opened the hyperdrive compartment, taking the power cables and slowly pressing them into the engine ouput, “Now jus-”

The ground shook heavily, and Kara’s eyes widened even as her hands jerked, the live cables almost sparking against the power cells as she saw Kal punch Kalibak in his stomach out of the corner of her eyes. Now, just a single adjustment more and then she cou–

Kal slammed by her side, a pained groan leaving him as Kalibak pushed him deeper into the ground, and Kara barely grabbed the pod to save it from rolling over into the depression, her eyes frantically moving between the engine and her cousin. 

“Finally,” he chuckled, leaning down to rap Kal’s delirious head with a finger before looking at her cloaked face, “It was getting tiring you know, repeatedly putting you both down like an annoying, buzzing fl-”

A brilliant flash of light interrupted his gloating, and Kara turned to her right as a rip tore through the space before them, white light spilling into the darkened city—and Kara blanched with horror as she realised it looked exactly like the portal from which Kalibak had emerged.

Magic pulsed through her bracelet as she sent an SOS to Harry, alarmed eyes staring at her cousin, Kal pushing against Kalibak’s heavy foot with his arms but to no ava-

“What’s this?” the Apokoliptian snarled as he moved off Kal’s chest, hands clenching in barely controlled rage, “Who dares intrude upon my conquests?”

“C’mon brother, it hasn’t been that long that you’ve forgotten me?” a flippant, snarking voice replied as the portal rippled, and a tall, well-built man much like her cousin walked out. Clad in a red, yellow, and blue armored suit, strength radiated from the man in ways that reminded Kara of the morning sun, his presence a far cry from Kalibak—and they were… brothers?

As if echoing her disbelief, Kalibak snarled hatefully, looking down at the much smaller man, taking another step forward, and almost pushing his face into the newcomer's.

“Orion!”