Chapter 41: Chapter 41: Invasion

My eyes widened for a moment before I picked her up. "Kara, get a blanket for the couch." The couch was new, and I didn't need blood all over the place. Besides, giving Kara a task would calm her down, though I wasn't even sure if she would panic in the first place.

She blurred away and got a blanket. She also got the first-aid kit and placed it on the table. I carefully laid her down before checking her pulse and then checked her body for injuries, but it seemed nothing was fatal. She might have passed out because of exhaustion. There actually wasn't much need to check her physically since I could sense her life force, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

"What do you think happened?" Kara asked as she went to bandage Maxima's wounds after she disinfected them. It wasn't too necessary since Maxima was incredibly strong and resilient and, according to her accounts, she was never ill, so I didn't think she needed the bandages, but it wasn't too much effort to help her heal with some bandages.

We couldn't do anything else either, besides wait for her to wake up. I paused for a moment as I decided to heal her with my life force. I put my hands on her stomach and released my life force through my palms and into her body, invigorating her slowly. I rarely use this technique. The only times I used it were if any of the people I rescued were critically wounded.

I couldn't just walk around and heal everyone for the smallest wounds. It took too much effort for little to no gains. I wouldn't even heal Maxima since she could heal by herself just fine, but I was just too curious to know what she had to say and therefore wanted to make her recover as soon as possible.

After training with me, there weren't many people that could pick a fight with her and leave her behind like this. Even the heavy hitters of the Justice League would have a hard time with her. Maybe if they ganged up on her, they could finish it rather quickly.

Though the universe was a big place. Maybe she picked a fight with the wrong people. I could see how she had claimed another mate, only for him to have a wife that wasn't pleased with her declaration.

Suddenly, another life force rose from the ground. Raven's eyes widened by a fraction as she looked at the unconscious Maxima in surprise.

As she approached Maxima, she asked, "...What did I miss?". She laid a hand next to mine before it shone with purple-whitish. It did something as I felt my life force being greedily absorbed by Maxima, accelerating her healing process by a large margin.

A few seconds later and all her wounds had been healed. If she had been a normal human, I would have been able to heal her even faster, but considering the fact that she was just that much more powerful than the average or even peak human, it took some effort to heal her.

"Nothing much. She arrived only a moment before you came." I commented after watching the wounds close. Raven sat down on a chair.

"You alright?" I knew Raven could heal by absorbing the pain from her patients, so for her, it definitely wasn't pleasant to heal someone.

"Yes. I just have to meditate." She responded before closing her eyes for a few moments. I let her calm herself while I carefully took off Maxima's bracers. It doubled as her teleportation tool, so I hoped to find some clues from it.

She hadn't shown me how to use it, but I saw her use it plenty of times, so I knew my way with this device. I clicked through it until I found the recordings of when she last activated it and where the destination was.

I was somewhat surprised to find the destination to be Almerac, the planet on which Maxima was the ruler. It was now obvious that this teleporter wasn't used to bring her here, which I had already guessed from the portal itself.

The portal had looked slightly different from what the people of Almerac used. It looked more stable than usual, at least that was the impression I got from it.

Was another rebellion happening, and they defeated her with alien technology? I thought for a moment, but I shook my head the next second. I had already visited her a few times and even as the sole ruler and her past actions, the people loved her now. Besides, I doubted rebels would let their former ruler live after successfully overthrowing them.

I looked at the timestamp of the last teleportation and the last time her teleporter was activated was already a few days ago. She didn't come here voluntarily, that's for sure, but who send her here? Did Maxima's right hand, Sazu, send her here?

If they were confronted with trouble, I could see how she would try to bring Maxima out of there and somewhere safe, though that didn't explain why they didn't use their own teleporter since it clearly wasn't broken.

"What do you think happened to her? Who did this to her?" Kara said as she cleaned up the bloodied bandages that weren't much of use anymore after she had healed.

"I don't know, but they had to be powerful. We will find out more when she wakes up." I concluded as I tried to ease my clenched fist. My body filled with a thirst for action.

The last few days had been exhausting, but that was only mental stress and staying up too long, so I was looking forward to throwing myself into the thicket of battle. Whoever messed with Maxima would feel the accumulation of my dissatisfaction over the last few days. Not to mention that I couldn't let anyone get away with hurting a friend of mine.

A few minutes passed before Maxima showed signs of waking up, "W-where...". She groggily woke up and looked around for a moment before her eyes sprung open as she fully woke up.

Her eyes snapped towards me, "N-Nathan, I need your help." She said as she stood up with a notion of desperation.

"Sit and calm down for now. What happened?" I asked as I pressed on her shoulder to sit back down on the couch, which she resisted. She gripped my hand on her shoulder.

"We have to leave now! Almerac. My planet, it's under attack." She said. It wasn't just her that was attacked?

"Who is attacking?" I asked as I summoned my battle suit and my amulet. Although I would have liked to get the specifics, a rough rundown will have to do. If her planet was under attack, every second counted for the lives of many.

I donned my suit and tucked my amulet below my armor. Kara suited up as well. Before I could even say something, she shut me up with a glare. I guessed it wouldn't hurt to have her with me. Raven stepped forward and glared at me as well as if to dare me to deny her this. She wanted to make a difference, after all. I guess a world under attack would suffice...

Maxima's lips thinned after she heard my inquires, "Apokolips. Apokolips is attacking my planet."

...

In my Ikari state, I made my way through the crowd toward the edge of the capital city. The barrier of the capital was still holding on strong, but the intense atmosphere made it feel like it was about to collapse. Still, I couldn't blame them. The lives lost were steadily climbing higher. The soldiers were fighting a seemingly hopeless battle.

The Parademons captured the injured soldiers and turned them into one of their own. While Almerac's numbers were dwindling, the numbers of Parademons were bolstering. The only silver lining was that Almerac wasn't easy to conquer. Their technology gave them an edge in the fight against the savage Parademons.

Their weapons could take the Parademons out while their city-wide barriers could hold the Parademons off indefinitely, though that was only because the enemy forces hadn't taken out their more formidable weapons.

There was no doubt in my mind that they had something to break through these barriers. Apokolips was a terrifying existence in this universe or any other, really. Having already conquered countless worlds, creating an empire with Apokolips as the throne world with Darkseid as the ruling god was already proof of their daunting existence.

Not to mention that Darkseid accomplished this while he was being opposed by the warriors of New Genesis, the homeworld of the New Gods.

Usually, if Darkseid attacked a planet, New Genisis would be there to stop them, but there was no sign of them here now. Maybe it had something to do with this attack not being led by Darkseid.

Indeed, although Maxima had guessed that Apokolips was attacking them, it was in fact 'only' an army of Parademons led by Granny Goodness and her Furies. Though the reason for the invasion wasn't something Maxima knew.

Even though Apokolips was, by all means, unreasonable, there was still the fact that they had New Genisis to worry about and it didn't do them much good to go against Almerac, a rather formidable empire with a powerful army.

Although it felt almost inevitable for Almerac to fall, it would take decades to accomplish with the current force, if at all. If Darkseid truly wanted to conquer this planet, he would best show up himself.

Maybe this attack was a distraction? Were they trying to lure out some New Gods of New Genisis? Otherwise, it made little sense why they would try to invade Almerac.

Maxima had given us a summary of what had happened and from what she told us there had been no prior provocation. Quite the opposite. They had barely any contact with each other. Maxima was just suddenly ambushed as she headed towards a vassal world for some political talks.

The furies had personally surrounded her in an attempt to capture her. She had intended to fight to the death by the side of her soldiers when she was strongly hit in the back of her head by one fury.

She almost fell unconscious and was about to be captured, but was fortunately saved by a portal.

She didn't know how, but she had guessed that one of her soldiers must have managed to send her out of the encirclement. I felt like something was off from her recounting. How did her soldier get a hold of an alien teleporter? She didn't have an answer to that, so I had asked her if I could investigate her mind.

Although it was frowned upon by almost all species of nontelepathic beings, she trusted me enough to not mess with her. It wasn't like I could instantly control her with a singular attack. Mind control would take time.

I had feared that she was indeed captured and brainwashed to lure out earth's defenses, but after a thorough check, it revealed that I was wrong. Still, to be safe, I informed the Justice League of a potential attack and to be alert for the following days while I would investigate the situation on Almerac with Supergirl. Raven was there with us, but that was something I didn't mention to the Justice League, for obvious reasons.

The two were currently tasked with one of the Parademon's camps. In these camps, there were portals leading somewhere they would turn the injured soldiers into Parademons. At least, that was the guess by the military generals, who noticed that the Parademons' numbers were replenished after having dragged their victims there.

These camps represented their foothold on this planet. They needed to be destroyed quickly and the Parademon's army would take a heavy hit, which was why we separated in order to quickly destroy a great number of these camps.

Raven and Supergirl were working together in order to prevent any mishaps while I alone was enough. Superman would be strong enough alone, but she and Raven barely had any experience, so it was best to have them work together. Maxima was heading to another camp with a small squadron of elite soldiers equipped with their version of my battle suit.

While we would work on destroying these camps, the army was preparing to strike another camp. I had established a telepathic connection with Maxima, Raven, Supergirl, the general that would lead Almerac's army to attack, and another general that was defending the capital. It was all in order to get instant feedback on any devastating news.

We didn't know where the Furies were, so that was a variable we couldn't ignore. It would be even worse if Darkseid decided to show up himself or any other subordinate of his. I remembered little about Darkseid's subordinates, but I knew Steppenwolf was a thing in this universe as well, though from what I have been told, he seemed to have a different appearance than how he was depicted in Zack Snyder's Justice League movie.

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I raised my hand and pointed at a group of Parademons with my index finger before firing a ki blast which ended in a minor explosion, decimating several dozens of Parademons. These twisted creatures were truly unrelenting. Even seeing that they were unmatched, they tried to drown me with their numbers.

If I was a lesser man, my knees would have already crumbled at the sight of these creatures blocking out the sun. Not that much of the sun could be seen anymore with the dark smoke filling the atmosphere. It wasn't unlike the sight of the Imperium's usage of their device, the only difference being that explosions and fires caused the smoke.

I noticed they were already drilling into the planet's mantle in an attempt to get to the core, something I had seen in a late animated movie about the founding of the Justice League. Their drilling happened in the middle of a camp I was heading towards.

There were only this one and two others the furthest distance away from here currently trying to turn this planet into a knock-off Apokolips world. Maxima and the army would take the other ones, so if we succeeded, the invasion would be thoroughly thwarted.

They were also already developing a barrier that combined the barriers around the major cities to protect the entire planet from further attacks from outer space, while also preventing teleportation. I wasn't sure if they managed to finish it this shortly, but from what the general in charge of the defense told me, the barriers around the cities had been built with that goal in mind.

I advanced through the air as I killed any Parademon that charged at me in a frenzy. It didn't take me long to arrive at my target. Over my connection, I let the other parties know that I was about to arrive at my target, just being a few moments slower than Raven and Supergirl, which wasn't too surprising since Raven could teleport them.

We would attack right away and destroy the portals as soon as possible. Although it was cruel for the soldiers that had already been dragged off-world, it would be too difficult to rescue them and it might lead to a trap that the enemies were preparing.

With that in mind, I waved my hand, sending out several tiny ki blasts that ripped the Parademons into pieces without being able to resist, emptying the surroundings in a few seconds. The ki attacks that landed on the walls of the camp tore through the metal with some difficulties. It was obvious that they did not make it with simple metal alloy.

The camps were spaceships that embedded themselves deep into the earth, which was why it had been so difficult for Almerac's people to prevent the creation of their camps. They flew in from space and directly burrowed themselves into the soil, connected with each other, creating a fortress-like camp that soon after deployment began churning out their Parademons.

I quickly distanced myself and hovered hundreds of meters above the camp and closed my eyes for just a moment. I sensed the surroundings of anyone that could ambush me, while conversing with the others and their progress. After confirming that everything went alright on their end, I focused.

The moment I opened my eyes, my view changed and my gaze honed in on the camp itself. For a moment I adjusted myself to the influx of information that I was seeing before I dropped several hundred meters before I hovered just in front of the camp.

Out of the torn wall exited Parademons like an anthill that had been stirred. I took a deep breath and released it as a giant flamethrower. [Fire Breath] a technique that felt more natural as an Oozaru was now melting through the Parademons that were trying to exit.

The metal of the camp's walls was not melting away. They were only faintly glowing from the heat. It barely took me a second to realize that it had something to do with Apokolips, being a world of fire, and all that as far as I remembered. It would be an obvious choice to have their constructs endure the temperature that they wanted to channel from a planet's core.

After 20 seconds of turning Parademon's into ash, I stopped the technique after no Parademon came to join their fellows in hell.

I landed a few dozen meters away as I gathered ki in my hands. A single attack should be enough to erase this camp from existence. I had to angle and control it carefully, so I wouldn't accidentally do more damage than I intended to do.

Both my hands were trembling from the ki I controlled in my palms. The exterior of this camp had already given me a rough estimate of how tough it was.

I was about to release my attack when I heard something behind me, followed by a sharp pain at the bottom of my neck. The force I was hit with sent me straight into the camp's wall. I tore through it before slamming into another wall.

I grunted uncomfortably from the pain as I pushed myself out of the indention. I turned around, watching the hole that I was sent through. Just two walls were enough to stop my momentum. Surprising since it resulted from an attack that made me feel pain even though I was using Ikari to bolster my strength. I was apprehensive, to say the least.

From what I could see in my periphery view, the surroundings looked like a hallway of a spaceship, which wasn't weird since that was what it was before they converted it to act as a military camp. It was quite dark. Maybe I broke something when my ki blast impacted the walls or when I filled this hallway with ki-induced fire.

I ignored the smell of burned flesh and focused on the hole where I saw a silhouette appearing. A swish through the dry and hot air alerted me just enough to lean backward as something flew at me from the darkness down the hall.

It chipped me at the shoulder, slicing through my armor and my skin, drawing blood with surprisingly ease before flying back where it came from.

I jumped backward and turned towards the darkness where the attack came from but was almost immediately punished for it as I heard a blade slice through the air just behind me. With a jump, I dodged a white sword before I lashed out at where the head of my assailant should be.

With a wonderful whack, I felt the impact of my kick, giving me enough momentum to create distance into the middle of the hall. When I turned around, my assailant had already vanished back into the darkness that seemed artificial now that I had time to analyze the surroundings. Even if it was dark with just little light, my physiology allowed me to see even the darkest corner.

My head alternated between both sides I was attacked from. I couldn't sense any life force nearby, so they had to be humanoid androids or hard light illusions.

I could only rely on my other senses, so the moment I heard something drop from the ceiling, I instantly looked up as I jumped backward. A woman with a head full of green hair and armored claws scraped the metal floor on which I stood just a moment ago.

The moment I jumped backward, I heard the sound of rocks breaking through the hole behind me before I found myself in yet another ambush from the one outside.

The burly figure tackled my lower back at astonishing speeds, driving me into and through the wall of the hallway. We entered a wide round room with a giant elevator in the middle. My bones creaked from the attack by the figure and the impact into the astonishing tough metal.

Growing tired of the assault, I raised my arm and slammed my elbow behind me into the tackler's temple. They groaned as I knocked them to the side, unable to hold on to me.

I slid over the ground while turning my body to once again dodge the rope dart that had followed up almost instantly. It sliced through my chest plate as it brushed past me.

My hand was already grabbing toward the rope the metal dart was attached to, but I had to create distance when a white sword intercepted me. I jumped back once again, but the blonde woman with the white sword in one hand and a white dagger in the other pursued me without giving me time to rest. Worse, the green-haired woman with the claws joined in.

For the first time in this battle, I now had all four of my opponents in view. They had to be the Furies from Apokolips.

I raised my left hand, my fingertips glowed greenish before releasing 5 streaks of ki beams. They didn't fly in a straight line, but in an arc around the claw and sword girl, heading towards the one with the rope dart and the burly one who already got up and tried to surround me together.

My other hand was already preparing a follow-up attack of a [Kiai]. The powerful shockwave created by my ki tore through the metal floor before hitting the two at the front full force. They crossed their arms to protect themselves. The power was more than enough to lift them off the ground and hurled them back into the hallway.

The girl with the rope dart used her weapon to slice through three of my ki attacks, exploding them before they could reach her, which was probably the smarter thing to do than what her colleague opted on doing. The burly woman tried to tank the attacks with her body and paid the price for it.

I reduced the potential for explosive power for penetration, so even though this casual attack wasn't able to destroy a planet in a massive explosion, it could pierce through several with ease.

The burly woman raised her arms, taking two to the forearm. I was surprised that my attacks didn't just pierce through her, but her sprinting momentum had fully stopped before she slid backward, being pushed by my two ki attacks.

Her saving grace was her reaction to lean to the side, resulting in the attacks deflecting and flying through the metal walls behind her.

Her metal vambraces now donned a new pattern of spiderweb-like cracks. Blood was flowing through the cracks, dripping on the ground, but she didn't seem to care too much as she sprinted towards me again while trying to clench away her trembling arms.

I leaned my head out of the rope dart and directly wrapped my forearm around the rope. I pulled at the rope, sending the woman controlling the rope dart sprawling at my feet.

I was about to capitalize on her lying form, but a white dagger shooting at my head distracted me long enough for the woman to stand up again. I caught the dagger before throwing it back at the swordswoman, which she promptly blocked with her sword.

A kick to my head by the rope artist left me unable to follow up again. I leaned back and took several steps back as I dodged the burly one's attempt to slam into me from the side. I directly countered her. Kicking out like a whip, I checked her face with my right shin. I could hear a satisfying crunch as she was launched into the ceiling.

The rope artist pulled me towards her with her rope that was still wrapped around my forearm, making me lose my balance. I tumbled forward towards the white sword of the swordswoman, who had returned from the hallway, and tried to capitalize on the opportunity of my lost balance.

Their strength and speed were currently a bit higher than mine, though in single combat, I could best each of them with ease. If I had to guess, I would estimate that their strength hovered around 15 million, though I couldn't be sure since I couldn't sense their life force.

Their individual skills were flawed and inferior to mine, but their teamwork was doing wonders. They could easily punch above their strength and skill level, not to mention someone their equal.

Fortunately, I relied not only on my physical strength or even my ki. I used everything in my repertoire, something that had leveled the playing field from the beginning. The swordswoman's eyes widened in surprise when she found her sword slow down significantly in my psychic barrier that was almost visible to the naked eye.

I could feel her sword slice into the barrier and despite my psychic energy resisting it, it didn't completely stop, which spoke volumes of the quality of her sword and her strength. I didn't let her register what happened and instantly prepared my follow-up. In an instant, I opened my mouth and released my attack.

A beam spread out to hit the rope artist, the swordswoman, and the green-haired one who was leaping over her friend in an attempt to surprise me.

It would have worked if it was before my training with my androids. It somewhat prepared me against opponents that I couldn't sense, even if the real thing was a completely different beast, especially against these women that were currently stronger than I was.

My ki beam drowned the three women in a spectacle of light and hurled them backward with some second-degree burns. I was about to mock them when I felt a sharp pain shooting through my lower back and then into my abdomen.

I looked down and found a spear sticking out of my stomach. Before I could do anything, it was swiftly pulled out again.

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