The Godhood of Greatness presents - Death of a Celestial (Lex v Evander)

A line of unfiltered gold streaked through the purplish blackness of the void of space. He was on his way to complete an objective; Finding the Pistol Star. The Pistol Star was a blue hypergiant that resided within the Pistol Nebula. The Pistol Star was the first step to saving Jyulius and the other Proteges from Hados’s grasp.

However along his voyage, something caught his eye. Lightyears away, a planet’s surface scorched and in ruin. Beings flew over its surface like drones searching for an adversary. He could make out details of humanoid figures laying on the surface; lifelessly. A genocide -no , an omnicide- was the fate of that planet. He needed to get close, however, to make out the reason for this extinction.

He traveled the immeasurable distance in all but a moment, as he closed in near the planet’s star. It was in its main sequence yellow and healthy. He looked down upon the unfortunate world in distaste for the beings reasonable. Now closer he could see the entities in greater detail, they appeared organized and vigilant as they searched the world for whatever they were looking for, may it be resources or victims.

However.

A sole being sitting upon a throne of corpses looked at the sky - was it at him, Evander was unsure of. He could see the slightest sense of boredom from the being's, otherwise stoic, face. It was a sign of disrespect for Evander, even though it wasn’ directed at him. The fact that the omnicide seemed to have served no person, that millions, perhaps billions, of beings have lost their lives to simply be seen as boring angered the Son of Ikarius.

Kill Them Swiftly The words of his mentor, Romanis, resonated within his head. So they will be dead before they know it.

Evander nodded in imagined compliance, and acted. Without warning, he pierced the planet’s core.

The action would have appeared instantaneous to most beings. But to Evander, every detail was in excruciatingly slow motion. Time slowed down to little more than a halt for the Bearer Of Stellar Light, afterwards he launched himself at the planet's core, exceeding the speed of light multiple times, tearing through the planet as a train would paper

After appearing on the other end and time gradually returned, Evander would briefly watch the planet’s delayed reaction to confirm his work Satisfied, he left through the planet’s star. Turning the lively yellow star into a deep red ball frozen in space as he stripped it of any energy it had

@alexander_apex

Earth

Null-Ray.

That was his name now. He'd been born Daniel Boorman, but there was no Daniel Boorman here, on this world. What was the precise difference between this timeline and that other? He could not say. Many things remained the same on their two planets, up until the 21st Century. His was certainly more peaceful - it didn't need protection by an Emerald Elite. That was why he'd been deployed here, to this universe. It was more unstable, more full of suffering. He wasn't here to repair the universe by hand, but maybe to tip the scales in the other direction, to serve as a superhero for a world lacking one. Earth, lynchpin of the cosmos.

At the present moment, he was about to slurp up a delicious milkshake. The Null Band he wore on his finger let him pay by credit. He raised the straw to his lips -

- and the Null Band buzzed, an emerald glow filling his features. It communicated to him wordlessly:

The Null Band had picked up a wave of unspeakable suffering so acute that it could actually pinpoint the source in space. Tapped into the universal stream of consciousness, it detected the last death cry of a world so distant to Earth that the gap between the two defied conventional measurement.

This universe felt crueler sometimes. But that was why he'd been chosen.

"Great galaxies, what's going on out there?"

"Protect ourselves or protect others? Being a hero means not choosing between either, Null Band. It means choosing both!"

In a flash of green light, the Jade Agent's civilian garb was replaced by a slim emerald uniform, and he became Null-Ray once again. The ring on his finger surged with power, waiting to be unleashed - an omni-tool that was said to have the solution to any predicament. Well, for him, the solution usually looked like a giant hammer swung with enough force to launch whatever this week's menace was into the next century.

"Set a course for the origin of that scream. Inform High Command that Null-Ray's on the scene."

The power of the Null Band enveloped him, a cone of translucent jade - and he shot through space-time, folding into hyperspace and careening past thousands of worlds, dying stars, incandescent nebulas. Vistas only he was privy to - and that he had vowed to protect.

Deep Space

The Verdant Avenger exited hyperspace with little fanfare, a simple human in a skintight green uniform against the vast blackness of space. Yet today, here, space was violent. The sole star in the system was being abused - converted from yellow to red by a being the Null Band pinpointed for him against the endless backdrop of the stars. And on the far side of the sun was a dead world, the origin of the death scream.

The man who was drawing energy from the sun - guaranteeing the end of all life in the system - seemed like a being of immense power. He was a humanoid, bearing the same phenotype as most Earthers, but he bore a power unknown to all of them. His presence here could not be readily accounted for - and behind him was a world sheared of life.

Reconstruct crime scene, he commanded the Null Band. It began to pulse, scanning the spatial horizon, taking account of the physical motion of objects.

In his mind's eye, he saw a living emerald diorama, playback of what had just transpired. The man who was currently draining the Sun of power - his path there had left traces of both energy and gravitic vibrations. Furthermore, the motion of planetary debris suggested that someone had just violently flown through the core. He cross-referenced the impact aftermath with the gravitational flux in the surrounding area, and received a line - like the trajectory of a bullet - that carried the man in front of him through the heart of Kryonight.

Null-Ray scowled, and pushed himself nearer to the man.

Raising his fist - the fist which held the Null Band - he focused on the being before him, shining a green light over him as he fed on the sun. His approach was as fearless as could be - a human quality that pushed self-preservation away for the sake of something greater. Even though this enemy was unknown, someone would have to do something.

The ring he wore emitted a fantastic green light - a light that shaped itself according to his will. What did it form?

An enormous octagon, emblazoned with the word STOP.

There was no sound in the vacuum of space, but the Null Band allowed for passive telepathic communication. It wasn't a mind-reading device, but it could project thoughts in the immediate area - a way of speaking to others where sound could not travel.

Its voice was his own, and it was stern, determined.

"That's far enough! I'm Null-Ray of the Emerald Elite. Seven-Dimensional Policing. High Command put a out a psychic APB on a planetary genocide, and buster, you look pretty responsible to me."

His ring flashed in warning.

"We can do this the easy way, or the hard way. Your choice, compadre."

@null-ray: @alexander_apex:

The Son Of Ikarius bathed in the planet’s stellar energy. it was refreshing to say the least. His entire body gave off a radiant glow of pure white as he drew energy from the star. However, as the star began to grow cold, a green light grew brighter behind him. Another source of energy? Evander thought to himself, but as he turned, his question reached a difficult answer.

The source of the emerald radiance was a green light with a language he was at first unfamiliar with. English He heard the sound of a woman, smooth and filled with wisdom, educating him within his consciousness. One of the most notorious languages in the universe. I’ve taught you this myself. The voice pointed out, then it came to him.

The word was Stop. The message was then expanded in his mind, however, it wasn’t the voice he heard before, but that of a man. Who he could’ve only assumed it was the Emerald Clad warrior in front of him.

“I'm Null-Ray of the Emerald Elite. Seven-Dimensional Policing. High Command put a out a psychic APB on a planetary genocide, and buster, you look pretty responsible to me."

“Ados las” He cursed in his native tongue . Then repeating it in English in case he didn't know. "Fork Off", turning back to the dead star. But for the shortest time, he saw a figure. Hurtling at them at divine speeds. It took only that moment for him to reach a realization: It was the same lone being, and it was heading for the Green Man

Evander wasn’t sure what the speeding Murderer’s target was capable of, but he wasn’t going to take his chances.

He suddenly positioned himself in front at the last instant, making himself the unintended target of the assault. A brilliant white light emitting from his hands as they made impact.

Not even seconds passed and the two divinities were nearing the star’s cooled center. Yet even in his evolved state of power, the unknown killer’s might proved to be immense as he struggled to steer the course. Evander’s face hardened, his golden eyes locked into the destroyer’s murderous gaze with only focused anger.

As they crashed through the blood stained atmosphere, he readied his left fist to strike. And that he did. A blow to the jugular was the intention, immediately to be followed by a planetary knee to the hypogastric region, accompanied by a couple right and left hooks matching the speed they were traveling. He wanted to end this as quickly as possible, and he intended for that to happen

@alexander_apex@null-ray

With no time to reply to the rude rejoinder of the Prime Perp in this case, Null-Ray suddenly found himself under attack from an unexpected angle. The Null Band had warned him with its passive danger sense, but even then, it was hardly enough time - he pivoted in space, and the enormous STOP sign turned with him, deployed as a makeshift energy shield -

- one that was promptly shattered by the high-speed being who encroached relentlessly at speeds too fast to process.

But as the Emerald Elite braced himself for what would surely be a painful connection, the man he was interrogating suddenly placed himself between the two, in a dazzling display of speed of his own.

"Holy moly!" he vocalized, the words reflected back at him inside his ever-present force shield.

He raised his ring to his face as he initiated pursuit.

"Affirmative," he muttered, still in awe of the situation he was dealing with. Emerald Elites didn't scare easily, but the magnitude of the threat he faced made deadly force a necessity. The way the two moved was effortless, and the devastation they casually wrought meant his life was in peril just from investigating the matter. That was the day-to-day for Elites; no universe was the same.

This power - !

"OK computer. This is Null-Ray to Command. I need weapons hot, right now!" he shouted into the Null Band, now moving through space at speeds comparable to the pair. A new picture was forming - one of a universe-shaking duel between two cosmic entities, with him stuck in the middle. Anyone who valued their life would depart -

- but he was an Elite, and he'd be damned if he didn't return the favor to the Sun-Eater for getting between him and that killer.

With a surge of verdant energy, he moved to catch up to the two, teeth grit as he propelled himself through space at absurd speeds.

Something sparked in the green band on his finger. A confirmation of unrestrained power, downloaded from the Seventh Dimension into his very fingertip.

Here goes nothin'!

Aiming with his entire arm, he raised his fist, bracing his forearm with his other hand.

A second later, he'd unleash a thin green beam of light, a ray of concentrated null energy sufficient to slice a minor planetoid in two. For a mere flash, the beam would flick out of his weapon in a perfect straight line, aimed directly at the bearded super's head!

@alexander_apex@evander_

@null-ray: @alexander_apex:

Darkness

The last thing The Light Of Stars remembered before being brought into the darkness was trading blows with the Tectonic Titan. They locked eyes as they doze towards the center of the star, then Evander was sent into a state just above unconsciousness. The attachment between his mind and his the cosmos saving him

His mind was surrounded by an endless void, shadows darker than night surrounded him. This was similar. The state of never-ending umbra, his consciousness fading away, the indefinite feeling of loneliness. As his body floated limply in a temporal stasis, acting as a protective cocoon, his bit of mind sought to make sense out of the darkness.

He continued to float, in mind and body. Slipping away. An anger rising up in him,

Suddenly, a bright red light pierced from somewhere in the endless void of his mind “Father?” He muttered, wondering how he’d find him in this pit, until he finally opened his eyes, to the familiar crimson atmosphere of the dead star as his regeneration began to take its course.

Apparently, he was out, presumably by the False God that attacked him. His face hardened, he was forced to experience a unholy darkness, and he planned to recompensate.

“You want darkness, you will get it”

As the Emerald Clad Warrior and The Devil’s Heir descended from the sky at untold speeds, he stretched out his arms, and plunged the world into darkness. Like a black hole, he captivated and fed on the star’s energy. It turned from its dark red to an immeasurable blackness, as all light was stripped from it.

Its atmosphere stopped its gradual spin and froze in place as he took the star’s kinetic energy. The smoldering heat dropped into a state of absolute zero, as if the concept of heat was etched out of existence, threatening to freeze all who were not divine.

Evander raced to the site he last saw the two superhumans, leaving a travel of emptiness as his body absorbed all that was around him.

Finding the two enwrapped in a deadly dance, he pushed himself at The Universal Apocalypse with momentum on the verge of breaking time. Particles around him accelerated as he filled a few dozen protons with enough energy for a planet, with the intent of shredding the False God.

"Great nebula - !" Null-Ray muttered, the feedback from the ring rippling up his arm. That all-too-human danger sense raised the hairs on the back of his neck, only discipline and years of experience pushing back against the overpowering flight instinct. Faced with overwhelming might, with nothing but a simple 7-D tool between him and oblivion...only an Emerald Elite had the guts to take on something like this.

The green onslaught projected by the world-breaker clashed mid-space with his own laser, the mirrored attack creating a deadly aurora in the vacuum between them. Flares of emerald plasma licked at his uniform, and the energy spikes would be measurable for light-years around them.

The beam clash was interrupted by a physical hail of blows. As the enemy drew nearer, in the space between microseconds, the Elite drew his legs up closer to his body, curling into a ball to minimize the surface area available to strike; simultaneously, a reinforced bubble of green light wrapped itself around him, a sphere that seemed to continue wrapping around itself. An impossible geometric figure with rapidly-increasing thickness; for every visible layer, there was another beneath it, a shape that appeared to swallow the Jade Agent in its grip of safety as Alexander Apex delivered a devastating barrage of blows to its outer layers.

"I can barely keep track of him," the Elite gasped, narrowing his eyes on the blur outside the shield. The Null Band was compensating, reconstructing the man's motions in his mind's eye at 1:1 speed, but even then, his velocity dwarfed anything that could reasonably be anticipated in his home universe. This was a galaxy of extremes. No wonder they'd picked him, their most unconventional agent, to take a job like this.

He was able to discern feints and jabs, a rhythm to his enemy's combat style - he was more than just a beast, though to the untrained eye he'd just look like a living hurricane.

The back kick sent the orb - with Null-Ray inside - careening towards the dead planet. It was spiked like a volleyball straight through the mantle, an emerald comet holding precious cargo.

His ring pinged him mentally.

"Wrong again, Null-Band. I didn't think they programmed cowardice into your circuits!" he spat, soreness spreading through his whole body. The feedback from the strikes would eventually start to disrupt his internals...

...what kind of being could scare a 7-D weapon?

"I hear any more talk like that and I'll have you drummed outta the force, got it? Help me out now, and I'll leave it out of my report!" he shouted.

The ring crackled with redoubled energy. Just as Evander moved to collide with the planetary assassin, Null-Ray would curve up behind him with a barrage of hyper-sharp verdant javelins, each slicing through space with deadly speed!

@null-ray: @alexander_apex:

Evander hesitated, even while his attack was successful and the person before him remained drenched in his own blood. The man’s confidence created a sort of unease within the Son Of Ikarius. Perhaps it was a front or the man was insane.

However, Evander wasn’t going to waste this opportunity.. He attempted to collide with him once more, disregarding the safety of the Jade Possessor Of the Null-Band.

As they plummeted further into deep space, Evander noticed something in his opponents eyes. An energy that he found familiar.

Stars.

Like the one he absorbed, but in a much more intense and compacted state. As they continued to speed through the cosmos, he tried to place his hand over the head of the Universal Apocalypse and planned to take the energy from its undeserving master.

But as he pulled on it, it pulled back. The False God seemed to have an unusual mastery over the energy as well, and it seemed to hold against Evander’s pull, an invisible tug-of-war.

@nathaniel_: @alexander_apex:

"Got him!" the Elite said, the running self-commentary sharpening his focus. An almost inadvertent habit, one that he found common to all those from his Earth, but conspicuous in this universe. He had never in his life discounted the benefits of positive self-talk; his partnership with the Null Band had only made him aware of the tendency, an ever-present ally who made note of everything he said.

But even as he pierced the flesh of the stellar conqueror, his enemy's atoms dispersed...or perhaps he had simply vibrated to a different frequency, eluding the full brunt of the javelins' slicing power.

And, furthermore, his expression betrayed not caution or fear, but genuine amusement.

In retort, Boorman's expression remained static, professional, unfazed.

"Sufferin' starways," he replied.

If he can go intangible, I'll just have to give him something he can't phase out of, he thought. The Band picked up on his intention.

"Let's tangle him up!"

Drawing his fist back, with the Null Band gleaming upon his finger, he snapped his arm forward. From the tip of his weapon erupted an enormous and expansive web, thin lines of energy that whipped through space intended as a minefield to restrain his movements. Phasing out would cause the net to fill in the space where he had been - putting him at risk of injury if he became tangible once more.

As he cast the net, he kept in mind his power-supply; as 'limitless' as the Null-Energy was supposed to be, there was a cost exacted every time he used it to manipulate his surroundings. Eventually, he would be at risk of overtaxing himself...

...and that was without factoring in the immense power output they were dealing with.