DC: Rise of the Kryptonian Tyrant

Bardi's cold, towering voice and presence echoed across the desolate Apocalypse, connecting the gray sky to the shattered horizon.

In the blink of an eye, he appeared before Highfather, looking down at him with an air of dominance.

Highfather was in terrible shape. A strange power had turned part of his divine body to stone, petrifying half of him.

He knelt on the cracked ground, tears streaming down his face, his expression mournful, and his sorrowful voice echoing through the void.

Begging, praying, pleading—completely humbled.

He had discarded the pride of a One God.

"Who are you begging for!"

Bardi asked again, his voice cold, his gaze like a blade.

Highfather appeared lost. The light of justice had disappeared from his eyes. Even the will to survive could no longer be seen. He was dejected, no longer resembling a god.

The divine compassion that once defined him had vanished.

He had forsaken the very love he once stood for.

Only the muttering and pleading on his lips remained.

Bardi reached out his large hand, grabbed Highfather by the neck, lifted him forcefully, and made him look him in the eye.

"The central core of the Mother Box—what's inside?"

"Who's behind everything you've done?"

Bardi wasn't asking who Highfather had been begging for. He was about to die, and the strange petrification was still spreading, turning his divine form to stone.

This petrification could kill a One God. That alone made Bardi uneasy.

Currently, only gods, beasts, Watchers, and himself—having absorbed the power of Origin—could kill a One God.

This petrification was the result of Highfather's plea. It was killing him.

As Bardi became the One God after absorbing the power of Origin and entering the first stage, he started to reflect on the past. He began to see that not everything had happened by his own will. It was like standing on a chessboard under the daylight, with all the pieces in plain view.

It wasn't temptation. Everything had been placed before him, allowing him to make the choices someone else wanted him to make.

His current power, his absorption of Origin, even his ability to kill the One Gods—it was not the result of his own effort alone.

It had been arranged.

Someone had taken a liking to the evolutionary potential of his godhood and intended to shape his path.

From the moment he stepped into the realm of gods, he had been chosen by someone else.

"Ho... ho..."

Highfather suddenly came back to his senses, his throat rasping, eyes widening in disbelief. He seemed about to speak.

But the petrification advanced rapidly. It spread from his already-stone body up to his neck, beard, chin, nose, eyes, and forehead.

Until finally...

Highfather turned to stone and collapsed.

Bardi's eyes narrowed. Instinctively, he tightened his grip. Highfather's petrified neck snapped, and his head fell at Bardi's feet, shattering.

Dust rose.

Bardi's expression remained calm. Slowly, he opened his hand, letting the powdered remains of Highfather scatter.

Apocalypse was a wasteland. The sky was gray, the ground cracked. Corpses lay everywhere, lava spewed violently, and divine blood soaked the earth.

Everywhere Bardi looked, it was nothing but a graveyard of fallen One Gods.

But he wasn't the only one.

Apocalypse's palace, the seat of power for the tyrant of the gods, Darkseid, was also in ruins. Only the throne remained standing.

Darkseid stood with his axe, his cracked skin still ferocious. His face held its cruel, domineering expression as he glared coldly at the world.

"I won!"

He sat on his throne, head held high. Though his armor was shattered, his stomach torn open, and divine purple blood flowed like a river, his tyrannical demeanor showed no weakness.

The war between Apocalypse and New Genesis, which had raged for eons...

Ended with Highfather begging and turning to stone, and Darkseid sitting alone on the throne.

In a flash, Bardi appeared before Darkseid.

"Why you!"

Seeing Bardi, Darkseid, still exuding cruel arrogance despite his broken body, suddenly twisted his face in fury. His crimson eyes blazed with rage.

His voice pierced the sky. The volcanic ash clouds above rippled outward like shockwaves.

Why Barmulodi?

Why Barmulodi?

Why Barmulodi?

Even Yuga Khan had inspired fear in him.

Even if not perfect, he was capable of inheriting the vast power of the Origin.

Why Barmulodi?

Darkseid's rage and jealousy echoed that of his father, Yuga Khan.

No god would turn down greater power.

The power drawn from the Wall of Origin, spanning three eras.

Bardi had obtained this god-erasing power. Darkseid's envy and fury reached their limit. His mind was filled with rage.

Boom...

Bardi, expressionless and domineering, grabbed Darkseid's face and slammed him down.

Darkseid's divine purple blood gushed out as he roared in pain. The obsidian throne shattered from the force. Purple blood and dust exploded across the ruins. Bardi stood firm, like a mountain, looking down from above.

Slamming Darkseid into the throne, Bardi then yanked him back up by the lower jaw, dragging him from the throne's broken rubble. Amid the dust, Darkseid's cracked head was pulled into the light.

Holding Darkseid's blood-covered lower face, Bardi looked down at him with his black hole-like eyes.

"Anyone else, but not you."

"Not you!"

Darkseid, covered in purple blood, his cracked skin oozing divine fluid, looked terrifying and unwilling to yield.

No matter what, Darkseid would never accept that Barmulodi—the one who had once tried to seize his Ω existence—had acquired the power of Origin.

Ω symbolized the beginning and end of all things, the alpha and the omega, the end that also signified a new beginning.

It should have been the ideal symbol to inherit the Origin's power.

Now, everything had been taken.

Darkseid's crimson eyes flared, fury nearly driving him insane. As everything slipped from his grasp, his Omega Ray energy surged violently.

The red light in his eyes exploded.

These Omega Rays, which made Darkseid infamous, could erase existence itself. They could pierce the flow of time, annihilate beings, create and destroy with a thought. Activated from the source of a One God, their destructive force could devastate even the divine realm.

Unleashing all of his power, Darkseid's Omega Rays tore through space-time, surging with destruction, manipulation, and exile. They exploded toward Bardi.

Bardi's eyes were cold. From the depths of his black hole-like gaze, two dark beams fired out.

Having absorbed the power of Origin, he had ascended to the first stage of One God—not a god of origin, but a god of evolution.

By devouring primal forces, he forged his own divine path.

Bang

Crimson Omega Rays clashed with the dark beams.

Enough to terrify even gods.

The Omega Rays couldn't hold out.

The dark beams swept away the future, destroyed the present, and ended all things. They completely obliterated the Omega Rays and vaporized Darkseid's eyes, gouging holes that bled with dark lava-like fluid, horrifying to behold.

Darkseid's fury came to an abrupt halt.

He fell silent. Only his divine body remained, his eyes now empty sockets from which eternal black lava flowed.

Bardi's eyes flickered as the dark beams slowly receded. He casually flung Darkseid's body, which slammed into the ruins, kicking up clouds of dust.

He had become so powerful that he could slay Darkseid, destroy the essence of a One God, and wipe him out entirely.

Yet this overwhelming power brought him no peace.

In the next moment, Bardi looked up at the Barmulodi Universe—now completely empty.

(To be continued.)