Chapter 87: Celestial Requiem

Ash and smoke blanketed the scorched surface of Apokolips. What once stood as mighty towers forged in the fires of New god Darkseid now lay crumbled in twisted heaps of molten metal and shattered obsidian. Highways of destruction carved across the landscape, marking the paths of chaos born of emerald flames that refused to die. Even the eternal fires of Apokolips seemed subdued beneath the crushing silence… until a monstrous roar shattered it.

The very atmosphere trembled. A sonic pulse rippled through the realm, cracking already-weakened foundations and causing dying structures to collapse with thunderous finality.

From above, a voice reverberated, calm yet dripping with apathy.

"Well… that wasn't entertaining."

A pair of ethereal, blue eyes laced with delicate flower patterns opened slowly in the air, their tranquil beauty contrasting the carnage below. As the smoke cleared, the figure descended with an almost dreamlike grace. Ctoneri floated downward, his white robes rippling in the toxic winds, untouched by soot or flame. One hand rested calmly at his waist, while his gaze fell upon the devastation he had wrought.

Below him lay the fallen might of Apokolips.

Steppenwolf, once the fearsome general of Darkseid, lay broken. His armor had been torn apart, one horn snapped in half, blood trailing down the right side of his face. His great axe shattered was nowhere near, flung miles away during the battle's climax with the monstrosity.

Kalibak, Darkseid's brutal son, was sprawled out several meters away. His arm and leg were missing, nowhere to be found perhaps buried or vaporized in the chaos. He groaned, barely conscious, blood pooling beneath him.

Big Barda lay at the base of a massive crater, her left arm twisted unnaturally, bones snapped. Despite the pain and blood, her breathing remained steady conscious, defiant.

Near her, a towering beast let out another guttural roar.

Typhan, Ctoneri's monstrous summon, bellowed not in victory but in disappointment. Its burning eyes scanned the ruins as if seeking more carnage… only to be left wanting.

From the edge of the wreckage, Lashin stirre awake for some time, only to be greeted by this abomination. Mad Harriet, her face bloodied and twisted, laughed with sharp, raspy glee, giggling through pain as crimson stained her tattered suit.

Big Bard, gritting her teeth, started to reach for her blade.

Ctoneri sighed, his expression flattening into a quiet frown. His head tilted slightly.

He had felt something.

Or rather… someone.

His original.

Silence followed. A pause in the wind. Then, his eyes shifted toward Typhan.

'How troublesome…'

Without another word, a burst of chakra enveloped the beast. With a massive plume of smoke, Typhan vanished. The suddenness of it drew gasps even from the bloodied warriors around him.

Big Barda, blade now halfway unsheathed, growled through her teeth.

"Where did you send that monstrosity of yours?" she demanded. "I'm not done yet.

Mad Harriet chuckled darkly, slumping against a broken pillar, coughing blood.

"Hehehe… did you see it? That thing's eyes, pretty weren't the, it's like the fires…"

Ctoneri turned his gaze on Barda. That gentle smile returned, one that stirred only fury in her gut.

"You would have made a fine kunoichi," he said quietly, voice soft and sincere.

"All of you would have."

His eyes drifted to Lashina, then to Harriet, and even to the downed Kalibak and groaning Steppenwolf.

Ctoneri's gaze eventually settled on the intact tower in the distance the one place he had intentionally spared during the conflict. Within, the battle still raged. But the tide was turning. Superman, still controlled, was faltering. His team was breaking through.

He looked back at his adversaries, speaking as if reciting the final line of a poem.

"But our time together… has come to a finality."

He raised a single hand.

"But for your effort and your resistance I shall gift you something… something you lack. A light, perhaps. To illuminate this fiery pit you call a world."

The softness in his voice could've fooled anyone, anyone but them. They had seen what lay beneath that calm. They had bled because of it.

A harsh gulp echoed. It was Kalibak, now bracing himself on his one remaining leg, clutching the stump where his arm had once been.

Everyone froze.

Ctoneri raised his palm.

A black sphere began to form a swirling orb of condensed energy laced with condensed chakra. It hovered in front of him, pulsing, emanating quiet hum.

Their instincts screaming as they say the orb.

The air around them thickened with tension, chakra surging from Ctoneri in undulating waves. The orb seemed to devour the light around it. Slowly, steadily, he brought his palm upward, facing the heavens.

They watched, helpless, as he clapped his hands together.

The black orb shrank… pulsing faster… then, with a flick of his wrist, he launched it skyward.

"Chibaku Tensei."

A brilliant white flash lit up the sky for a split second and then silence.

Until they felt a strange pull in the air. A slow pressure building around them. The sky warped.

The orb glowed ominously above as debris began to rattle, lift… float.

Steppenwolf's eyes widened in sheer horror.

"What have you done now!?" he barked.

Ctoneri, still hovering in the air, looked down at him.

Still smiling, Still calm, "I am gifting you…"

He paused.

"…a moon."

The ground split beneath them. Massive chunks of the land rose skyward. Bodies of Parademons, metallic corpses, chunks of blackened terrain, and twisted engines were ripped from the planet, all dragged toward the orb, which was now the new core of a forming satellite.

The Furies scrambled grabbing hold of broken pillars, gutted machines, anything to resist the gravitational pull.

Steppenwolf's face twisted in panic as he tried to stand, only to be yanked off balance.

He looked up only to see Ctoneri vanish, flickering away like mist on the wind.

"We need to destroy that orb!" he howled. "If it completes Apokolips will be torn apart!"

His warning came too late.

The world around them began to fracture.

The terrain cracked and shattered. Fire pits were ripped open, their flames spiraling into the void. Rocks and bodies levitated alongside weaponry and ash, circling the orb now glowing with divine intensity.

Even Steppenwolf, mad harret,Lashina, Barda, Stompa and the scrawny one with a knife and Kalibak were lifted helplessly, screaming into the sky as gravity no longer obeyed the planet's laws. They were becoming part of the celestial body a new moon, born from devastation.

The walls trembled. Screams echoed from outside. Debris clattered through broken windows. The gravitational pulse was now reaching them too.

Within the tower Ctoneri rematerialized, robes fluttering in the chaos as the floor beneath him cracked.

The clone's eyes flicked toward the center of the room… Where Superman knelt, fists buried into the floor, shaking…

Ctoneri, silently walked in.

Above, the sky continued to fall upward.

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