Chapter 15
Anti-Matter Universe / Dawn of Time
Barry-Red and Thawne were engaged in yet another fierce battle as they exchanged high-speed blows and dodged each other's yellow-orange and bright red lightning blasts. At first, it seemed like the two speedsters were in a deadlock as usual, but while both of them had their speed greatly enhanced, Barry proved to be noticeably faster than Thawne and, thus, used that to his advantage. As Thawne rushed him at full speed, Barry stuck his arm out, knocking Thawne to the ground with a clothesline to the neck. Thawne jumped back up, hurling a lightning-charged punch that Barry avoided by simply leaning back. Thawne threw another punch, but Barry grabbed Thawne's arm and threw him twenty feet away. Before Thawne could recover, Barry sped at him, delivering a punch to the yellow-clad speedster's chest.
"How?" Thawne gasped, eyeing his red-clad opponent in disbelief as he got back up. "How?! How are you faster than me?! I created you! I taught you everything you know! Everything you are!"
"This fight between us was already over before it even began," Barry stated. "Face it, Thawne, you lost!"
"No," Thawne said angrily before a smirk appeared on his face. "You're not gonna kill me, Flash! You're too weak and cowardly to do the one thing that would stop me for good! As long as that's the case, you will never truly beat me!"
Barry decked Thawne in the face, knocking him out cold. As Barry turned to look around, flashes of red and blue lightning attracted his attention as he caught sight of his Earth-50 counterpart battling the other Reverse-Flash.
Barry-Blue dodged three blasts of red lightning his opponent hurled at him. He charged at Reverse-Flash, smashing a punch into the yellow-clad speedster's face. Barry-Blue threw another punch, but Reverse-Flash sped out of the way to avoid it and maneuvered behind Barry-Blue, elbowing him in the back. Reverse-Flash kicked Barry-Blue in the back of the leg, knocking the young speedster to the ground.
"You've gotten much faster," Reverse-Flash noted. "I've gotten faster too, which means you're still not good enough to beat me. In fact, you never will be because I will always win, Flash!"
"Not today, Thawne."
Reverse-Flash turned to see Barry-Red standing several feet away from him. The Earth-50 version of Eobard Thawne rushed at the Earth-1 speedster, but Barry-Red sidestepped and punched Reverse-Flash in the chest. He followed up with an uppercut punch to Reverse-Flash's face, knocking the villainous speedster down. Reverse-Flash tried to get back up, only for Barry-Blue to trip him back down. Barry-Red wasted no time knocking Reverse-Flash out with a punch to the face.
"Thanks for your help," Barry-Blue said, gratefully.
"After years of fighting my Thawne, your version of him isn't much of a challenge to me," Barry-Red stated.
"Considering how much of a hard time he gave me, I'll try not to take offense to that," Barry-Blue remarked.
Zoom was getting frustrated as he ran at maximum speed in a great effort to catch Bart, who had no problems at all staying ahead of the Earth-2 speedster. Desperate, Zoom created a time remnant and both of them pursued the Earth-21 Flash. Seeing that he was being chased by two Zooms, Bart sped at one of them, sending the Zoom tumbling many feet away. He rushed at the other Zoom, the real one, and knocked him down with an uppercut punch. Bart turned to see the time remnant speeding at him. As the time remnant hurled a blast of blue lightning at him, Bart sped out of the way, got behind the time remnant, and kicked him into the real Zoom, who had gotten back up. As the two Zooms fell down after colliding into each other, they merged back into one.
"I know all about you, Zoom!" Bart said, glaring at the villainous speedster. "How you terrorized Central City, not just on your Earth, but also on Earth-1. How you kidnapped Caity and held her prisoner for weeks. Then you killed a bunch of cops and did the same to Barry's father just because you're a pure evil, bloodthirsty bastard!"
"Everything I did was completely necessary!" Zoom insisted, angrily. "I'd do it all again, and more, in a heartbeat if I had to!"
"Of course you would!" Bart retorted. "I wouldn't expect a serial-killing menace without a heart like you to have a bit of remorse!"
"I needed to be the fastest speedster in the entire Multiverse!" Zoom roared, madly. "I wasn't gonna let anyone or anything stop me from accomplishing that goal! And I still won't!"
Zoom jumped to his feet in a rage and hurled multiple punches at Bart, who easily avoided them all and kicked Zoom in the leg, sending him down on one knee. As Zoom stood again, Bart literally ran circles around him, hitting Zoom multiple times with lightning-charged punches while he was at it.
"This is for Caity!" Bart shouted, angrily.
He blasted Zoom with a yellow lightning bolt, sending the evil speedster flying off.
"News flash!" Bart said as he appeared right in front of his fallen opponent, who was dazed. "You were never the fastest man alive! You just haven't met me… until now!"
Before Zoom could react, Bart knocked him out with a hard kick to the head.
Flash (Wally-192) and Earth-1 Wally punched Godspeed in the face at the same time, knocking him to the ground. As Godspeed retaliated with a powerful blast of white lightning, Flash countered the attack by spinning his arms around to generate a very powerful vortex of wind. While Flash and Godspeed were focused on overpowering each other, Wally fired his lightning at the latter. By the time Godspeed noticed Wally's lightning coming at him and ceased his own attack, it was too late as the villainous speedster was struck and thrown to the ground. As Godspeed stumbled up, Flash delivered multiple punches to his chest and one to his face, while Wally blasted Godspeed with another lightning bolt, knocking him out.
"Great work, Wally," Flash complimented.
"Back at ya, Wally," Wally returned as the two high-fived each other.
From the gauntlets of his armor, Lex-38 sent out an intense blast of green electricity that struck Kara D in the center of her chest. The bald villain was smirking, fully expecting his opponent to collapse in agony from the kryptonite. However, the Girl of Steel remained hovering where she was, completely unaffected by the attack as Lex-38's smirk vanished and was replaced by a puzzled expression.
He intensified the blast of green lightning to its full capacity, but Kara D still showed no signs of even the slightest discomfort.
"I don't understand," Lex-38 said, dumbfounded. "That's kryptonite!"
"Which has no effect on me now," Kara D grinned, clearly enjoying the look on her enemy's face.
She unleashed a powerful beam of heat vision that knocked Lex-38 dozens of feet back. Lex-38 crash-landed on a pile of rocks, the front of his armor singed. He stood up, only to get pummeled with a barrage of powerful punches from Kara D that further damaged his suit with each blow. He raised a hand, sending out a jet of green flames that were just as useless as regular fire against Kara D.
"Impossible!" Lex-38 yelled in frustration.
"We superheroes are good at the impossible, Lex," Kara D retorted, grabbing Lex's wrist in a steel grip and crushing the gauntlet to the point that it was rendered useless. "Something you should know now after all the times you tried to kill my cousin."
With a pull, she ripped the gauntlet right off of Lex-38's hand. She grabbed his other wrist, crushed that gauntlet too, and ripped it off as well.
Lex-38 threw his now-bare hands out, firing a blast of white energy that struck Kara D in the chest. The Earth-38 Supergirl staggered back, momentarily stunned by the attack, before she immediately recovered.
"You have powers," Kara D noted in surprise.
"A little upgrade from the Book of Destiny," Lex-38 said, before blasting her a few more times.
"Well, whatever you're blasting me with is useless because I barely feel it," Kara D stated, before grabbing Lex-38, holding him up, and slamming him on the ground hard enough to shatter the rest of his armor into pieces.
Glaring at the Girl of Steel, Lex-38 charged at her with a punch. Kara D caught Lex-38's fist and clenched it, breaking his hand with a sickening crack as Lex-38 howled in agony.
"I'm guessing you also gave yourself super-strength with the book," Kara D said. "I mean, there's no other reason you of all people would throw a bare-handed punch at a Kryptonian, not that you're a match for me either way, especially now that I'm twice as strong as I was before."
"THIS IS UNFAIR!" Lex-38 ranted crazily as he held his broken hand in pain. "IT WASN'T SUPPOSED TO BE LIKE THIS! I'M SUPPOSED TO WIN!"
Kara D shook her head with a sigh. "You're pathetic, Lex."
She knocked him out with a punch to the face.
"Looks like you didn't really need me for this fight," Lena said, before Kara D turned to her.
"If it wasn't for Amazo, it would've been a lot harder to take Lex down," the Girl of Steel pointed out. "Mind keeping an eye on him in case he wakes up? I'm gonna help somewhere else."
"Not at all," Lena answered, and Kara D flew off.
Lex-192 was stunned as Kara K shrugged off his concentrated red sunlight blast like it was nothing.
"What the…" Lex-192 trailed off in disbelief and worry. "The red sunlight. You shouldn't be as vulnerable to it as any Kryptonian!"
"Forget to check the expiration date?" Kara K sneered, before smashing a punch into Lex-192's torso.
Lex-192 crash-landed on the ground hard, multiple cracks appearing in his golden armor. As Lex-192 got back up, Supergirl-192 flew down at him and punched him in the face, sending him flying back. Lex-192 got back up again and punched Clara in the chest, but the Earth-111 superheroine was unaffected by the blow. Clara grabbed Lex-192 by the arm and threw him on the ground, dazing him.
Superman and Linda flew around, trying to catch Lex-78, who kept teleporting himself to avoid the Kryptonian cousins. When Lex-78 disappeared and instantly reappeared again, he pulled out a gun and fired two shots at Linda. The bullets, which were laced with green kryptonite, bounced off of Linda's abdomen as Lex-78 stared in disbelief.
"How are you still standing?" Luthor wondered. "Those were kryptonite bullets!"
He fired another shot at Linda, who caught the kryptonite bullet in her hand.
"We've become immune to this poison, Lex Luthor," Linda stated, firmly.
"What?!" Lex-78 asked, feeling genuinely worried.
Superman sped at the bald man in a blur, snatching the gun from him and crumbling it into a ball like a sheet of paper. "You have no advantage over us now, Luthor. You might as well give it up!"
"Lex Luthor never gives up!" the bald man shouted. "I am the greatest criminal mind in the entire Multiverse!"
He punched Superman in the face, but, despite Lex-78's super-strength and due to the Man of Steel's doubled power, the blow had no effect. In response, Superman thumped Lex-78 on the forehead with an open hand, rendering him unconscious.
Alexander fired a missile that exploded upon Lex-21's chest, sending the bald Luthor flying back before he steadied himself. While the front of Lex-21's white suit suffered quite a bit of damage from the explosion, he was unharmed. Alexander flew closer to Lex-21, slashing him across the chest with his cosmically-enhanced blade as Lex-21 cried out in pain. Alexander tried to slash him again, but Lex-21 sidestepped, punched Alexander three times, and followed up with a kick that knocked Alexander two dozen feet back. Lex-21 was then engulfed and swept around by a massive tornado from Tess, who intensified its power to full capacity as Lex-21 struggled against the devastating winds. With gritted teeth and a lot of effort, Lex-21 pulled himself out of the immensely powerful tornado and descended to the ground hard in front of Tess, who was sent flying off by the resulting shockwave. As Alexander fired another missile at his doppelganger, Lex-21 caught it and hurled the missile back at Alexander, who was violently thrown backwards by the explosion that followed, while his gold and black armor suffered some damage. Lex-21 was then tackled to the ground by Tess, who punched him in the face eight consecutive times, making his nose and lip bleed. Lex-21 caught Tess' ninth punch and head-butted her face, staggering her back. He then grabbed Tess around the throat and slammed her on the ground hard.
Regime Wonder Woman fought as hard as she could against Prince, Diana-21, Diana-76, and Wonder Woman, but the battle wasn't it her favor due to being outnumbered by opponents of similar skills and power set, even if she was quite stronger than Prince, Diana-76, and Wonder Woman, while Diana-21's strength and durability were a bit ahead of hers. At the end of the fight, Prince, Diana-76, and Wonder Woman managed to restrain Regime Wonder Woman with their lassos, while Diana-21 grabbed the Earth-222 Amazon's head and, with a mighty twist, snapped the heroine-turned-villainess' neck.
Zod-38 fired a powerful beam of heat vision that struck J'onn in the chest. The Earth-38 Martian Manhunter gritted his teeth, but stood his ground against the concentrated beam. Astra flew at Zod-38, sending him crashing to the ground hard with a punch to the face. Zod-38 stumbled up as Astra flew down, grabbed his throat, and pummeled his face with multiple blows. Zod-38 punched Astra back, getting her in the chest, and knocked her dozens of feet in the air with an uppercut punch. Zod-38 flew up to Astra, only for Kara D to suddenly ram into him, knocking Zod-38 back on the ground as the Girl of Steel's blow dazed him.
Clark smashed a powerful punch into Zod-21's face, sending him hurtling thousands of feet away. Clark flew at Zod-21 in a blur, intending to ram into him, but Zod-21 flew up to avoid the attack and kicked Clark in the face, sending him hurtling backwards and crashing to the ground. Before Clark could get up, Zod-21 flew down to him at full-speed and smashed a barrage of punches into Clark's chest before Clark grabbed Zod-21's fists in his hands and delivered a powerful head-butt to the rogue General's face, making his nose bleed. With a roar of rage, Zod-21 unleashed his heat vision, but Clark stood his ground as the fiery beam hit his chest.
Glancing to the side, Clark saw Kal and Conner battling Earth-50 Zod in the distance and turned back to his Zod, who threw a punch at his face as Clark raised a hand to block it just in time. Clark clenched Zod-21's fist, making the latter grunt in pain, and used his other hand to punch Zod-21 in the chest, knocking him to the ground. As Zod-21 staggered up, Clark flew down at him, tackled him away at great speed, and threw Zod-21 into Zod-50. Upon colliding with each other, the two Zods crash-landed on the ground, equally dazed by the impact.
Clark turned to Kal and Conner. "I thought it'd be best if we helped each other against our Zods."
"Sounds good to me," Kal nodded.
"We will make you kneel before us!" Zod-21 snarled, as he and his counterpart stood up.
"Either we kill you three or you kill us!" Zod-50 added. "That's the only way this fight will end!"
At that moment, Superman and Linda appeared next to Clark, Kal, and Conner.
"This looks like a job for the five of us," Superman announced with a grin.
"I'll say," Conner agreed.
"Couldn't agree more," Clark added.
As Zod-21 unleashed his heat vision, Superman blocked the beam with the palm of his hand and, with a shoving motion, deflected it back at Zod-21, who was thrown back by his own attack.
Zod-50 flew at Clark, tackling him through the air. Clark quickly overpowered Zod-50, punching him in the face three times and throwing him to the ground hard. Before Zod-50 could get back up, Kal and Conner were suddenly on him, pummeling the villainous Kryptonian general with many punches.
Regime Superman roared as he flew at Kal-El with a punch. The Earth-96 Superman blocked the blow, while Supergirl-222 kicked Regime Superman in the abdomen, knocking him several meters back. She then grabbed her cousin's arm and flung him hundreds of feet away.
Steadying himself, Regime Superman charged at Supergirl-222 as she dodged his punch. Supergirl-222 tried to punch him back, but Regime Superman blocked her blow and delivered three punches to her torso and two to her face, before Kal-El grabbed Regime Superman by the cape, spun him around several times, and hurled him thousands of feet away.
Regime Superman steadied himself again, only to get blasted back by heat vision from Kal-El, who then smashed a powerful punch into the former's chest, sending Regime Superman hurtling off again.
Bruce, Wayne, and Knight had taken down their villainous Earth-113 counterpart, who was knocked out and firmly restrained in three grapple cables, each one having been fired by a Batman.
Robin, Slade, and Deathstroke were still fighting Evil Slade. Thanks to the former three's increased strength, Evil Slade found himself struggling quite a bit against his opponents, but was nevertheless determined to gain some kind of advantage over his young arch-nemesis and two counterparts. Robin staggered Evil Slade back with a several kicks to the chest, while Slade punched Evil Slade in the face twice and Deathstroke delivered a kick to his abdomen, knocking Evil Slade down. Evil Slade got right back up, tossing two explosive devices at his opponents' feet, only for all three of them to leap and flip out of the way just in time. As Robin, Slade, and Deathstroke charged at him, Evil Slade blocked their weapons with his rod and used it to smack Robin across the face before knocking the young Teen Titans leader several feet back with a kick to the chest. Evil Slade then kicked Slade in the abdomen, knocking him back too, before blocking the strikes of Deathstroke's lance. Deathstroke kicked Evil Slade in the abdomen and smashed a flurry of punches into his chest, staggering him back. Slade rushed forward, stabbing Evil Slade in the left leg with his sword, while Deathstroke took the opportunity to plunge his lance through Evil Slade's chest, right where his heart was. As Evil Slade gasped in pain, Deathstroke retracted his lance, which was covered in blood, and Robin struck his wounded arch-enemy with his rod multiple times, knocking him on the ground.
Robin reached down and pulled off Evil Slade's mask, revealing the face of an older Caucasian man with somewhat messy white hair, a matching goatee, and a black eyepatch over where his right eye had once been.
Evil Slade coughed, blood spilling out of his mouth. "Excellent fight, you three." He coughed again, feeling the life leaving his body as he continued to bleed out. "How perfectly fitting it is... that the person who defeated me... was me." He looked to Robin. "Congratulations, Robin. You will finally have the one thing you've always wanted, which is my permanent demise. Although, whether or not you and your fellow Teen Titans will be able to revel in this victory shall be determined by the ultimate outcome of your battle with the Anti-Monitor."
"I'm fully confident he will be defeated," Robin stated, firmly. "Not that you'll be around to see it."
"Farewell, Robin," Evil Slade said with a note of genuine respect for his young nemesis before he closed his one eye and his lifeless body went limp.
Robin sighed, looking down at his deceased enemy with a grim expression, while Earth-1 Slade patted him on the shoulder.
"You'll never have to worry about him ever again, kid," Slade stated. "Since he's my counterpart, I suppose I owe you an apology for everything he put you and your team through."
Robin shook his head. "No. You don't owe me anything. My Slade may have been a monster, but, unlike him, you seem like a good person."
"I try, kid," Slade said. "Although I've done my share of terrible things in my past."
He and Robin turned to Deathstroke, who used his sword to chop Evil Slade's head clean off.
"It's best to make sure he stays dead to avoid any unexpected surprises," the Earth-50 mercenary pointed out.
Slade nodded, while Robin continued to stare at Evil Slade's corpse, hoping that his enemy would, indeed, remain dead forever.
High up in the sky, the fate-determining battle between Amazo and the Anti-Monitor raged on as the two cosmically powerful beings attacked each other with telekinesis, completely determined to destroy the other once and for all. While Amazo was mostly composed, the Anti-Monitor showed quite a bit of strain as he exerted all his power in a desperate effort to overcome the golden android. After nearly a full minute, Amazo's telekinesis overpowered that of the Anti-Monitor as the latter was thrown backwards. Before the Anti-Monitor could fully recover, Amazo flew around at speeds greatly exceeding that of light, blitzing into the Anti-Monitor hundreds of times per second as the destroyer of the Multiverse's mechanical body became more and more damaged from the relentless strikes. After a few seconds, Amazo grabbed Anti-Monitor and slammed him on the ground in an area far from where the various heroes were battling their respective enemies. The impact, which formed a massive crater, was so great that it shook that entire anti-matter universe, causing everyone else, heroes and villains alike, to lose their balance before they steadied themselves or picked themselves back up.
The Anti-Monitor staggered to his feet, pieces and chunks of his thoroughly damaged blue and silver armor falling away. He threw his hands out, unleashing the full intensity of a concentrated anti-matter beam, in addition to sending out a series of powerful shockwave blasts upon Amazo, who blocked the combined attacks with a gigantic force field as he was staggered back multiple times. Struggling under the intense effort he was exerting, the Anti-Monitor slowly walked towards Amazo, who began to struggle to keep his force field up to block the continuous stream of anti-matter and the persistent shockwave blasts.
Once the Anti-Monitor was right in front of Amazo, the former ceased his combined attacks and the latter removed his force field before the two powerful cosmic beings grabbed each other by the shoulders while gazing directly into each other's eyes. They then unleashed their most devastating attacks until that moment upon each other as a massive swirl of anti-matter emanated around the Anti-Monitor while an even larger swirl of cosmic energy emanated around Amazo.
I… AM… ETERNAL! The Anti-Monitor declared in a booming, menacing voice that so loud that everyone present in the anti-matter universe heard it.
"NO! YOU ARE NOT!" Amazo declared back in an equally loud, utterly powerful voice that was also heard by everyone. "YOUR PLAN TO RECREATE THE MULTIVERSE IN YOUR OWN IMAGE HAS ALREADY FAILED! PREPARE TO MEET YOUR END!"
The swirling energies of the Anti-Monitor's anti-matter and Amazo's cosmic power completely surrounded and engulfed the two gargantuan beings as their emanating powers, which resembled an enormous cosmic tornado at that point, grew more and more intense with each passing second.
"GOODBYE, ANTI-MONITOR!" Amazo declared as his cosmic power overpowered his opponent's anti-matter.
For the very first time in his extremely long life, a horrified look appeared on the Anti-Monitor's face as his anti-matter began to dissipate while Amazo's cosmic energy started consuming him.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! The destroyer of the Multiverse bellowed in a mixture of rage, horror, and pain as Amazo's enormous cosmic blast ripped through his utterly damaged mechanical body.
The Anti-Monitor attempted to conjure a force field in a last-ditch effort to save himself, but the cosmic energy of his opponent was too overwhelming even for him. As Amazo's attack on him persisted, the Anti-Monitor started glowing reddish-white through the many cracks and openings visible all over his body. The glow grew brighter and brighter until the Anti-Monitor, with one last roar of utter horror and excruciating pain, exploded in a massive ball of white light that was much brighter than the sun itself as the entire anti-matter universe shook even harder than the first time.
The various heroes, as well as any villains who weren't unconscious, gazed around in surprise as all the Shadow Demons suddenly faded into nothingness, while the statue-like stone creatures crumbled into dust. The heroes were relieved and filled with joy, realizing what the sudden disappearance of the aforementioned enemies meant.
As the light from the explosion, along with all the smoke and dust, cleared, there was nothing left of Mobius the Anti-Monitor, while a damaged Amazo was lying on the ground, having reverted to his normal size with multiple cracks visible in his golden android body. While the main enemy of the Crisis had finally been defeated, there was still more work that needed to be done. Amazo stood up, levitated in the air, and flew around at light speed, unleashing multiple streams of cosmic energy that traveled in their own directions.
The Joker-like Bruce Wayne of Earth-113 opened his eyes as he came to, only to get struck by a stream of cosmic energy as he rapidly disintegrated into nothingness.
Lex-78 was back on his feet, rubbing the bruise on his forehead, when he was struck by a stream of cosmic energy. He screamed in utter agony as his body immediately reverted to its natural elderly state moments before he disintegrated into nothingness.
As Lex-38 regained consciousness, he looked up to see his sister Lena glaring at him with utter hate, right before he was struck by a stream of cosmic energy. Lex-38 screamed in utter agony until there was nothing left of him moments later, while Lena watched with widened eyes before her shock suddenly transformed into immense relief as the female Luthor felt no sympathy whatsoever for what had just happened to her brother.
Lex-192 was lying on the ground, battered and beaten as his golden armor had been shattered, while Supergirl-192, Kara K, and Clara hovered before him. A stream of cosmic energy appeared seemingly out of nowhere and struck Lex-192, who screamed in agony before he was reduced to nothingness, while the three women watched in disbelief.
Lex-21 grunted and hissed in pain as Alexander blasted him with electricity from his gauntlets. Lex-21 stood his ground against his red-haired doppelganger's attack, only to suddenly scream in agony upon also getting hit by a stream of cosmic energy that, within seconds, disintegrated him into nothingness.
Godspeed and Earth-50 Reverse-Flash were also disintegrated by streams of cosmic energy that appeared faster than the two speedsters could react to them.
Zoom glared hatefully at Bart, who was standing twenty feet away with his back turned to the former. No one made a fool out of Zoom and got away with it! The villainous Earth-2 speedster was about to charge at the Earth-21 Flash, intending to plunge a vibrating hand through Bart's back and into his heart as revenge for humiliating him, when he was struck in the back by a stream of cosmic energy that disintegrated him as well.
Kara D delivered two punches to Zod-38's face and threw him towards Astra, who sent a kick to Zod-38's chest, while J'onn smashed a punch into the side of the villainous Kryptonian general's head. Before the fight could go on, Zod-38 was struck by a stream of cosmic energy and he screamed in pure agony, while Kara D, Astra, and J'onn watched in disbelief as their opponent get disintegrated into nothingness.
Conner and Linda each grabbed one of Zod-50's arms to hold him at bay, while Kal smashed two punches into his enemy's face. Zod-50 was about to unleash his heat vision when he was struck in the chest by a stream of cosmic energy. The villainous Kryptonian general screamed in pure agony until there was nothing left of him, leaving the three heroic Kryptonians dumbfounded.
Clark and Zod-21 were firing heat vision at each other, their intense beams clashing halfway, when the latter screamed in agony upon getting struck by a stream of cosmic energy. Zod-21 yelled in pure agony until he, too, was disintegrated into nothingness.
Kal-El seized Regime Superman around the neck from behind and held him in a firm chokehold.
"When I break free, I'm gonna pummel you into the ground and make you kneel before the real Man of Steel!" the latter growled, right before he was struck by a stream of cosmic energy.
Regime Superman yelled in pure agony until there was nothing left of him a few seconds later, while Kal-El was utterly taken aback by what had just happened to his counterpart as an equally shocked Supergirl-222 appeared next to him.
Thawne jumped to his feet and sped at Barry-Red, tackling the scarlet speedster to the ground.
"I've said it before and I'll say it once again! I always win, Flash!" Thawne snarled, raising a fist and preparing to bring it down on Barry-Red's face.
Thawne was suddenly tackled away by Barry-Blue, who smirked at the yellow-clad enemy and said, "Bet you didn't see that coming!"
Thawne stood to his feet, right before he was also struck by a stream of cosmic energy. The Earth-1 Reverse-Flash yelled in utter agony until he was disintegrated into nothingness.
"Whoa!" Barry-Blue exclaimed in shock. "What the hell just happened?"
"It looks like Thawne was disintegrated," Barry-Red said, immensely relieved that the bastard who had murdered his mother in cold-blood and put him and his friends through constant hell was no more. With a growl, he uttered, "Good riddance."
Once all the villains that the Anti-Monitor had recruited were wiped out, Amazo unleashed more bursts of cosmic energy that obliterated the remaining Monitors, Manhunters, and Parademons, abruptly putting an end to all the fights. The golden android turned his head skyward and his eyes emitted a concentrated pillar of pure white light that shot up into the sky.
"What is that?" Chloe wondered from where she, little Roy, Lyla, Lois-93 (who was still holding Arthur Jr.), Harry, Emil, and Cleo were standing.
"The beginning of a new Multiverse," Harry realized.
"Everything's gonna be fine," Cleo said with an optimistic smile.
"Amazo is lighting the spark," Lyla stated. "It's up to the Paragons to fan the flame." She turned to the others. "Wait here."
Lyla disappeared in a flash of light, heading off to gather the Paragons.
A few minutes later, Clark, Kara D, Barry-Red, Oliver, Ollie, Batman, Prince, Diana-76, Superman, Kal-El, J'onn, Martian Manhunter, Flash, Green Lantern, Shayera, Sara, Tess, Conner, Courtney, and Laurel-One stood in a circle, holding each other's hands.
"Remember, focus entirely on what you're each the Paragon of," Lyla instructed as she stood to the side.
"A singular, laser-like focus," Kara D said in understanding.
"While thinking of certain moments in our lives that we lived up to our Paragon titles," Superman added.
"Exactly," Lyla nodded.
"All right, I'll go first, everyone," Ollie volunteered, before focusing on his title. "Humanity."
He glowed green.
"Justice," Clark said, before he glowed blue.
"Hope," Barry said, before he glowed crimson red.
"Optimism," Kara D said, before she glowed violet.
"Courage," Batman said, before he glowed yellow.
"Steadfastness," Oliver said, before he glowed a slightly darker green than his Earth-21 counterpart.
"Resilience," Sara said, before she glowed orange.
"Truth," Kal-El said, before he glowed light blue.
"Heroism," Superman said, before he also glowed light blue.
"Love," Diana-76 said, before she glowed pink.
"Compassion," Prince said, before she glowed purple.
"Loyalty," Flash said, before he glowed scarlet red.
"Destiny," Shayera said, before she glowed golden.
"Honor," J'onn said, before he glowed teal.
"Peace," Martian Manhunter said, before he glowed turquoise.
"Redemption," Tess said, before she glowed magenta.
"Progress," Conner said, before he glowed reddish-orange.
"Willpower," Green Lantern said, before he glowed lime green.
Courtney and Laurel-One exchanged a look before they both said, "Life."
The two women glowed white.
As the Paragons continued to focus on their respective titles while thinking back to certain moments in their lives that defined who they currently were, the glowing colors swirled out of their bodies, forming what looked like a massive rainbow. The rainbow-like swirl of Paragon energies traveled up to the white pillar of light that was still shooting out of Amazo's eyes into the sky and mixed in with it, transforming the pure white beam into a colorful one.
Once the process was complete a minute later, Amazo exploded into pieces in a ball of cosmic energy and, the next thing all the heroes knew, a blinding white light erupted in the sky before descending and expanding throughout the entire anti-matter universe.
At last, the Crisis on Infinite Earths was over and a new Multiverse – one that was would be quite different from the original one in many unexpected ways – had just been brought into existence.
Two more chapters to go and both will focus on showing the new Multiverse, along with finally wrapping this series up. If anyone wants to take a few guesses on what the changes will like be, feel free to do so.