Invasion

The Flaxans came on a Tuesday.

Not that the day of the week mattered to interdimensional invaders, but there was something especially offensive about violating the mundane middle of the workweek with their green-skinned, goggle-wearing troops and scuttling war machines.

Mark Grayson was in English class when the first portal tore open above downtown, a swirling vortex of sickly green energy that belched forth legions of alien soldiers.

By the time the school's emergency alert system began blaring, three more portals had opened across the city.

"This is not a drill," crackled the principal's voice over the intercom. "All students are to proceed to designated shelter areas immediately. This is not-"

The announcement cut off as the power failed, plunging the hallways into semi-darkness relieved only by emergency lighting.

Mark was already moving, ducking into an empty classroom to change into his costume. His heart hammered in his chest - not from fear, but from a strange mix of excitement and dread. His first major crisis as Invincible. His chance to prove himself alongside the Guardians of the Globe.

Across the school, in AP Chemistry, Eve was having similar thoughts. The moment the lights flickered, she'd excused herself with a hurried explanation about a bathroom emergency.

Now, in a maintenance closet, she transformed her clothes into her Atom Eve costume, her mind already calculating the fastest route downtown.

Neither of them noticed the third student making an equally hasty exit from the building - Megumi Fushiguro, slipping away with practiced stealth while chaos consumed the hallways.

Unlike his superhero classmates, Megumi didn't bother with a costume change. There wasn't time.

The moment he reached the school's rear exit, he leaped upward, cursed energy enhancing his muscles as he bounded from rooftop to rooftop toward the nearest portal.

From his elevated vantage point, he could see the invasion unfolding across the city.

The Flaxans' strategy was immediately apparent - multiple entry points, each one disgorging both troops and heavy artillery, creating widespread chaos that would divide Earth's defenders.

A classic tactic. Effective, but unimaginative.

Megumi's communicator buzzed against his wrist. Rex's voice came through, tense but controlled: "All Teen Team members, converge on the downtown portal. Guardians are handling the western and northern breaches. Invincible, respond if you're en route."

"On my way," Mark's voice replied, slightly breathless.

"Atom Eve here," Eve added. "Three minutes out."

Megumi - now Sukuna in all but costume - considered his options. The downtown portal would be well-covered with the Teen Team responding. The eastern portal, however, had no assigned defenders yet.

"Sukuna here," he transmitted. "I'm redirecting to the eastern breach. No response teams visible from my position."

"Negative," Rex countered immediately. "We stick together as a team. That's an order."

Megumi didn't bother responding. He had already changed direction, bounding eastward across the city skyline. Rex's authority was a fiction he tolerated when convenient, nothing more.

The eastern portal hovered above a commercial district, its sickly green light casting an alien pall over office buildings and shopping centers.

Below it, chaos reigned as civilians fled screaming from advancing Flaxan troops. The aliens moved with eerie synchronization, their green skin contrasting with the metallic sheen of their armor and weapons.

Megumi landed atop a parking garage overlooking the scene, quickly assessing the situation. Approximately fifty Flaxan soldiers, three larger mechanized units that resembled armored centipedes, and what appeared to be a command officer directing operations from a hovering platform.

'Pathetic. In my prime, I would have slaughtered them all with a single technique. But even now, this will hardly qualify as exercise.'

He extended his hand toward the nearest mechanized unit, which was cornering a group of civilians against a storefront.

"Dismantle."

The invisible line of cursed energy sliced through the machine with surgical precision. For a moment, nothing seemed to happen - then the alien construct split perfectly in half, both sections sliding apart before crashing to the ground in a shower of sparks and viscous fluid.

The Flaxan troops froze, their goggled faces turning upward in unison to locate the source of the attack.

Megumi stepped to the edge of the rooftop, allowing himself to be seen. No point in stealth now. These creatures needed to understand the nature of their mistake in coming here.

"You chose the wrong planet to invade," he stated calmly, his voice carrying an authority that made several of the alien soldiers take involuntary steps backward.

The command officer barked something in their chittering language, and the troops raised their weapons - elongated rifles that glowed with the same sickly green energy as the portal. Energy beams erupted toward Megumi's position.

He didn't bother dodging. Instead, he channeled cursed energy throughout his body, creating a barrier just millimeters from his skin. The alien weapons fire dissipated harmlessly against it.

"Is that all?" he asked, his tone almost disappointed.

Then he leaped from the rooftop, descending into the midst of the Flaxan forces with devastating precision.

No wasted movement, no unnecessary flourish. Just the perfect application of force exactly where needed.

"Dismantle"

A wide arc of cursed energy swept outward, adapting to the varying densities of Flaxan armor and flesh. Ten soldiers fell in that single motion, their bodies bisected with surgical precision.

The others opened fire at point-blank range, a desperate fusillade that might have troubled a lesser opponent. Megumi moved through them like a shadow between raindrops, each step placing him exactly where no fire would land.

When he reached the second mechanized unit, he didn't bother with Dismantle or Cleave.

Instead, he simply drove his fist through its central control node, cursed energy enhancing his strength to the point where alien metal crumpled like tissue paper.

The command officer was shouting now, its voice rising to a panicked pitch as it directed all remaining forces to focus fire on this single, terrifying human.

Megumi allowed himself a small smile. The expression would have chilled the blood of anyone who knew the being whose soul resided within him. It was the smile of a predator who had been denied proper hunting for far too long.

"Divine Dogs."

Shadow pooled at his feet, then erupted upward, forming into two massive canine shapes that lunged toward the Flaxan troops.

The shikigami tore through the alien ranks with savage efficiency, their shadowy forms immune to the energy weapons.

As Megumi continued his methodical destruction of the invasion force, a familiar red and white blur streaked across the sky above - Omni-Man, arriving to assess the situation.

Nolan Grayson hovered briefly, observing the carnage below. His expression was unreadable as he watched Megumi dispatch the alien forces with effortless brutality.

Then, without a word, he accelerated toward the portal itself, disappearing into its swirling depths.

'Interesting,' Megumi thought, dismissing the Divine Dogs as the last of the ground forces fell. Nolan's response was... atypical.

Across the city, similar scenes were unfolding. The Guardians of the Globe had contained the western and northern breaches, while the Teen Team - minus their wayward member - battled the downtown invasion force.

Mark, in his blue and yellow Invincible costume, was proving his worth, his Viltrumite strength allowing him to tear through Flaxan war machines with his bare hands.

Eve provided tactical support, using her molecular manipulation to create barriers protecting civilians and trapping alien soldiers.

But it was at the southern portal where the most significant development occurred.

There, the Immortal and War Woman found themselves overwhelmed by a particularly large contingent of Flaxan elite guards - until a dark figure descended from above, unleashing waves of cursed energy that cleaved through the alien ranks like a scythe through wheat.

"Sukuna," the Immortal acknowledged, his tone a mixture of relief and wariness. "I thought you were with the Teen Team."

"I go where I'm needed," Megumi replied simply, flicking alien blood from his fingertips with a casual gesture.

War Woman studied him with professional assessment. "Rex mentioned you. Said you were powerful but undisciplined."

"Rex," Megumi said, "overestimates his own importance."

Before the conversation could continue, their communicators crackled with an emergency broadcast from Cecil Stedman, head of the Global Defense Agency.

"All heroes, be advised: Omni-Man has entered the eastern portal. Repeat, Omni-Man has entered the Flaxan dimension.

We have no communication capabilities across dimensions. Guardians, continue containment operations. Teen Team, assist with civilian evacuation."

The Immortal frowned. "That's not protocol. We're supposed to repel the invasion, not pursue them home."

"Perhaps Omni-Man sees an opportunity to end this permanently," War Woman suggested.

Megumi said nothing, but his mind was racing.

Nolan's decision aligned with something he'd been sensing for weeks - a growing impatience, a barely restrained violence in the Viltrumite's demeanor.

The spiritual miasma surrounding him had been thickening, visible to Megumi's soul perception as a dark cloud that clung to Nolan like a second skin.

Bloodlust. Anticipation. The spiritual signature of a predator preparing to strike.

"I'm going in after him," Megumi announced abruptly.

The Immortal's head snapped toward him. "That's not your call to make. Cecil's orders were clear-"

"I don't answer to Cecil," Megumi cut him off. "And Omni-Man shouldn't be in there alone."

He didn't wait for a response, already moving toward the eastern sector of the city where Nolan had disappeared. As he traveled, he activated his private channel to Eve.

"The eastern portal. Meet me there if you can break away."

Her response came quickly, her voice tight with tension. "Why? What's happening?"

"Omni-Man went through. I'm following."

A pause. "That's... not like him. He usually stays to protect the city."

"Exactly."

Another pause, longer this time. "Be careful, Megumi. Something feels wrong about all this."

'You have no idea, but that's the plan.'

"I know. That's why I'm going."

By the time Megumi reached the eastern portal, the area was largely secure.

The Flaxan forces he'd decimated earlier lay scattered across the commercial district, their bodies and machines being cordoned off by GDA agents in hazmat suits.

The portal itself still hung in the air, a swirling vortex of green energy that pulsed with otherworldly power.

Beneath it, GDA technicians were setting up monitoring equipment, likely trying to determine how to close the breach. Megumi didn't hesitate.

With a single powerful leap, he propelled himself upward toward the portal. He heard shouts from below - GDA agents ordering him to stop - but they were meaningless noise.

The sensation of passing through the dimensional barrier was... peculiar.

A moment of disorientation, a feeling of being stretched and compressed simultaneously, then a sudden shift as gravity reasserted itself from a different direction.

He landed in a crouch on what appeared to be a vast plaza of purple stone.

Around him rose bizarre structures - buildings that defied Euclidean geometry, twisting spires that seemed to bend in impossible directions, all constructed from the same purple material.

And everywhere, destruction. Bodies of Flaxans littered the plaza. Not dozens, but hundreds. Buildings had been sheared in half, streets cratered by impacts of tremendous force.

In the distance, something massive burned, sending columns of oily black smoke into an amber sky.

This wasn't a battle. It was a slaughter.

'Efficient, though tasteless. I would've savored it more.' Sukuna thought to himself.

Megumi tracked the path of destruction with his eyes, following it to a distant point where flashes of light and the sounds of continuing devastation indicated Omni-Man's current position.

He bounded across the alien cityscape, covering ground with inhuman speed. As he traveled, he noted the strange temporal difference - his movements felt slightly different, as if the dimension itself had a different relationship with time.

Interesting. This is just like he expected. It explained how the Flaxans could mount repeated invasions despite being repeatedly defeated. Time moved faster here. What might be years for them could be days on Earth.

The trail of devastation led to what appeared to be a government complex - a massive structure surrounded by defensive fortifications, all now in ruins.

At its center, a figure in white and red moved with blinding speed, tearing through ranks of increasingly desperate Flaxan defenders.

Nolan Grayson, Omni-Man, Earth's greatest hero, was systematically dismantling an entire civilization. And he was enjoying it.

Even from a distance, Megumi could see the smile on Nolan's face as he pulverized alien soldiers, the casual cruelty in the way he deliberately prolonged certain kills.

This wasn't justice or even tactical necessity. This was a predator reveling in the hunt.

'I stand corrected. He is savoring it in his own way,'

The spiritual miasma surrounding Nolan had intensified, now visible to Megumi's enhanced perception as a churning aura of malevolence.

Whatever restraint the Viltrumite maintained on Earth had been abandoned here in this alien dimension.

Megumi approached steadily, dispatching the few Flaxan soldiers who attempted to intercept him with dismissive efficiency.

He reached the central courtyard of the complex just as Nolan finished dealing with what appeared to be the Flaxan high command - a group of larger aliens with more elaborate armor and insignia.

Or what remained of them, now scattered in pieces across the ornate purple stones.

"Megumi," Nolan acknowledged without turning, his hearing acute enough to detect Megumi's approach despite the chaos. "I didn't expect company on this little excursion."

"Clearly," Megumi replied, his tone neutral as he surveyed the carnage. "You've been... thorough."

Now Nolan did turn, and the expression on his face would have sent a chill through anyone else's soul.

There was something primal in the Viltrumite's eyes, something ancient and terrible barely contained behind the veneer of civilization. Something that reminded Megumi of himself.

"They needed to learn," Nolan said, casually crushing the skull of a still-moving Flaxan underfoot.

"This is the seventh time they've invaded Earth in the past ten years. Each time we repel them, each time they regroup and try again. The definition of insanity, wouldn't you say?"

"And your solution is genocide?" Megumi asked, still keeping his tone conversational, no judgment in it.

Nolan laughed, the sound devoid of humor. "Hardly genocide. I'm just making an impression. Time moves differently here - what's a few hours of violence to teach a lesson that will last them centuries?" He gestured around at the devastation.

"Look at what one Viltrumite can do to their civilization in an afternoon. Do you think they'll be eager to invade Earth again after this?"

For a moment, neither spoke.

The ruins of the Flaxan government complex smoldered around them, purple stone cracked and blackened, alien bodies scattered like discarded toys across what had once been a grand plaza.

In the distance, the wailing of survivors provided a macabre soundtrack to the devastation.

Megumi studied Nolan with calculating eyes.

The Viltrumite stood amid the carnage, his white costume spattered with alien blood, his cape billowing in the hot wind that carried the scent of burning flesh and melted metal.

Despite hours of slaughter, he showed no signs of fatigue - only a terrible satisfaction.

"Effective," Megumi acknowledged, stepping over a fallen Flaxan soldier without sparing it a glance. "But unnecessary. They were already retreating."

"Retreating to regroup," Nolan corrected, his eyes narrowing slightly. "To plan their next invasion. I'm simply being... efficient."

That word. Efficient. The same quality Nolan had praised in Megumi's own approach to combat. The parallel was not lost on either of them.

"You're enjoying this," Megumi observed, taking a step closer. "The destruction. The killing."

Nolan's smile returned, colder now. "And you don't? I've seen you fight, Sukuna. The precision, the control, yes - but also the satisfaction. You understand the pleasure of exercising power."

"I understand the necessity of power," Megumi countered. "Not indulgence in it against the weak."

Ironic coming from him, who seconds ago contemplated a more enjoyable way to commit this genocide.

A flicker of something - annoyance? respect? - crossed Nolan's face. "You sound like the Guardians. All that power, all that potential, constrained by arbitrary moral codes."

He turned away, launching himself into the air to smash through another Flaxan structure, one that appeared to be some kind of communications array. The entire complex collapsed in a shower of purple debris and screaming aliens.

When Nolan returned, landing with enough force to crack the stone beneath his feet, Megumi was waiting.

"Why now?" he asked directly.

"Why what?" Nolan replied, though his eyes suggested he understood the question perfectly.

"Why this level of violence now? The Flaxans have invaded before. You've repelled them before. What's changed?"

Nolan's expression hardened. "Perhaps I've simply grown tired of half-measures."

"No," Megumi said, taking another step forward. His cursed energy gathered around him, not aggressively, but ready. "It's more than that. I can see it."

"See what, exactly?" Nolan's tone had taken on a dangerous edge.

"The spiritual energy surrounding you. For months now, it's been building - a cloud of bloodlust and anticipation hanging over Earth like a storm about to break.

Whatever you're planning, whatever you're preparing for... it's coming soon, isn't it?"

For a long moment, Nolan was perfectly still - a stillness more threatening than any movement could have been.

When he finally spoke, his voice was quiet but filled with a cold intensity that made the air between them seem to crystallize.

"You see more than you should, Megumi Fushiguro. Or should I say... Sukuna?"

The name hung in the air between them, a challenge and a recognition of his dual face. Megumi didn't flinch.

"We all have our true natures," he replied evenly. "The question is what we choose to do with them. So I'll ask again, Nolan Grayson - what are you planning to do with yours?"

The silence that followed was broken by a distant explosion as another section of the Flaxan city collapsed.

Around them, the few surviving aliens had fled, leaving the two powerful beings alone in the midst of apocalyptic destruction.

"You speak of spiritual signatures," Nolan said, his tone shifting to something almost conversational as he casually crushed a piece of alien technology underfoot.

"An unusual perspective. Not technological, not biological. Spiritual."

His eyes narrowed, studying Megumi with new intensity. "You're human, yet you perceive what should be imperceptible to your kind without technological assistance.

I was under the impression that only angels and demons possessed such natural sight."

A hint of genuine curiosity entered his voice. "How is it that you can see such things? This... ability to perceive spiritual energy. Is it connected to your other powers?"

"There are forces beyond the physical," Megumi replied. "Beyond what your Viltrumite science can measure."

Nolan's eyebrow raised slightly. "So you know of Viltrum."

"I know enough." Megumi took another step forward, his red aura intensifying. "I know you're not what you claim to be. Not Earth's protector. Something else."

A calculating look crossed Nolan's face. "And yet you haven't shared these... insights with your teammates. With the Guardians. With Cecil Stedman and his Global Defense Agency. Interesting choice."

"I prefer to verify my observations directly," Megumi replied. "To understand the full scope of a situation before acting."

"Efficient," Nolan noted again, that word like a recurring motif between them. "And cautious. Qualities I've come to appreciate in you." His eyes narrowed.

"Which makes me wonder why you're confronting me now, in this dimension, away from potential allies."

"Perhaps I'm offering you an opportunity," Megumi suggested. "To explain yourself before I draw my own conclusions."

A laugh escaped Nolan, genuine this time, though tinged with something darker. "An opportunity? That's... unexpected." He gestured at the devastation around them.

"Most would look at this and already have their conclusions firmly in place."

"I'm not most," Megumi stated simply.

"No," Nolan agreed, studying him with renewed intensity. "You're not. Which brings us back to my question: What are you, Sukuna?

A human with powers that defy explanation, including this ability to perceive spiritual energy - something that has always been a... limitation for my kind."

The cursed energy around Megumi pulsed, briefly taking on shapes that resembled ancient, malevolent faces before settling back into a steady aura.

"I am what I am. Nothing more, nothing less."

"Evasive," Nolan observed, his tone sharpening

After a moment of silence Nolan spoke up once more.

"Fascinating," He murmured, his gaze still fixed on Megumi. "A human who can perceive spiritual energy - a feat beyond even the most advanced Viltrumite technology. You truly are an anomaly."

He paused, a calculating glint entering his eyes. "But anomalies must be accounted for. And power, such as yours, must be controlled or destroyed."

The pleasant facade dropped completely, replaced by the cold, ruthless demeanor of a Viltrumite warrior. The hand that wasn't bloodstained clenched into a fist, ready to strike.

"It seems our philosophical discussion has reached its end," Nolan said, his voice devoid of warmth. "And since you refuse to see reason, I have no choice but to eliminate you as a threat."

Megumi met his gaze, his own expression hardening. Cursed energy surged around him, his red aura burning brighter. The ground cracked further beneath their feet.

"You're right about one thing," Megumi suddenly said, "I'm not like those heroes you speak of. Those well-meaning fools who believe in justice and compassion."

He raised his hands, the air around them distorting with the force of his cursed energy. "I don't care about Earth. I care about what's mine. And you've made the mistake of threatening it."

Nolan smirked, a predatory glint in his eyes. "Brave words for someone about to face a Viltrumite."

"Let's see if you can survive what comes next," Megumi said as his cursed energy became a storm.

The two in an instant charged towards one another - clashing arms, a shockwave erupting from them that cratered the ground beneath them.

The battle between King and Conqueror has begun.

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(Author note: Hello everyone! I hope you all liked the chapter!

Do tell me how you found it.

So, we are finally at the point where Sukuna fights Omni-Man.

Excited?

I hope so.

Well, I hope to see you all later,

Bye!)