The Next Day: Around mid-afternoon:
The Devil's Throat (Garganta del Diablo), Argentina. One of the 275 waterfalls that made up the Iguazu Falls.
"I remember visiting this place back in my world," Satoru muttered, sitting atop one of the big rocks on top of the waterfall. "It's totally different from what I remember, though."
Behind him, Makima gently landed from above and said, "An earthquake ten years ago opened up that ravine on the left. Likely a tectonic shift." She pointed at the gigantic chasm to which the waterfall was connected.
Spanning about five miles (8,000 meters) in length and 1 mile (1,600 meters) wide, the depth of the chasm seemed unending from above. From the sky, it looked like someone had opened a crack in Earth's surface.
"Caught up on some local intel, have you?" he asked without turning around.
"Just some general knowledge," she replied and stood beside him, then added, "This place used to be a tourist spot, apparently, but the increasing monster activity over the past two years has led the government to shut this site down."
"That makes things easier for us. Besides that, the energy signature coming from the bottom of that chasm is off the charts," Satoru said.
Makima, looking down from the top, raised her eyebrows and asked, "How deep is this, anyway?"
"About 12,600 meters," Satoru replied, then thought for a few seconds and added, "Alright, let's not waste any more time. I'll go first." He got up, dusted off his clothes, and casually leaped down the waterfall, disappearing into the mist.
Makima just sighed and followed suit. The physical conditions of the environment in the chasm became more extreme as they descended deeper.
It made Satoru wonder how the humans had even made it to the bottom and were able to extract them. 'Maybe some supes or really advanced equipment,' he thought.
As they flew down, they could see several channels of lava flowing down as the chasm became narrower and narrower.
When they reached the bottom, the temperature was already above 100 degrees Celsius, the atmospheric pressure was two to three times greater than that of the surface, and there was barely any light, which wasn't a problem for Satoru. However, Makima summoned something that surprised him.
It was a devil with a big, bright spotlight on its head. With a dumbfounded expression, he said, "Don't tell me it's really a Spotlight Devil?"
She just shrugged and replied, "People are afraid of the strangest things."
When they started exploring the bottom of the chasm, the number of dead and decayed monsters just kept piling up.
There were several advanced machines that were destroyed, probably piloted by someone who had been exploring this place.
As they continued toward the energy source that Satoru had sensed, they were surprised at the sheer number of dead monsters that filled the bottom of this ravine, almost every one of them in pieces or crushed into deformed shapes.
Standing atop the highest point in the pile of monster corpses, Makima could also feel the presence of something at the very bottom of the corpse mountain.
They could almost feel a rhythmic beating that echoed within the place. 'It's like a beating heart. But this energy, it's definitely something with a spatial nature,' Satoru thought.
Makima, pointing her finger down, spoke, "Well, whatever it is, it's down there. So, I guess we'll have to start working."
Satoru just smirked and said, "Nah, not really an issue. Just stand a bit back. I'm still trying to learn how to isolate targets."
Makima remembered what he did with those soldiers in the forest, but this was way too much mass. Tens, if not more than a hundred thousand monsters were in this pile, each one of them bigger than a bear, at least.
Still, he'd surprised her in many ways already. Makima jumped up, a big ape-like devil appeared below her, and she sat on its shoulder along with her "torch" devil, while the ape latched onto the side of the chasm, holding onto a protrusion of rock.
As she watched him work his "magic," she understood why he wanted her out of the range. When Satoru raised his hand, a dense mass of blue energy manifested as a sphere above his palm.
It started growing in size and began sucking in the air toward its center. Satoru aimed the sphere down, and within seconds, it vacuumed up the corpses into it, crushing them into a ball of flesh while it kept growing bigger.
Satoru raised his hand, pulling the violent vortex of attractive force above his head as it kept pulling everything from the surroundings toward its dark-blue, bordering on black, center.
Even from a distance, Makima could feel the attractive force of that sphere. At first, she thought it was something similar to gravity, but no, gravity couldn't affect smaller things like the strands of her hair, which she could see being pulled up.
It was either not effective at this distance, or he really was trying his best to target only the things he wanted to affect.
After about a minute of violent wind blowing toward the sphere and the sound of flesh and bone being crushed, it was finally over.
Everything that made up that pile before was now compressed into a single massive sphere that looked about a third of the original size.
But Satoru wasn't done yet. He muttered, "Phase, twilight, eyes of wisdom… Maximum output: Blue!" His voice was sharper at the end; he really wanted to see how far he could push the amplification.
The gory sphere of monster flesh trembled and then, under the sheer inward pull of Blue, collapsed into a ball the size of a small boulder.
Satoru, still trying to do more, widened his eyes when he felt the force between the atoms start to resist his action. Realizing that was his current limit, he released the technique.
The most important thing he had learned from fighting Sukuna was to never stop breaking his limits and to do what the rest of the world thought unachievable.
"If you're done showing off to absolutely no one, can we take a look at what that is?" Makima spoke with an impassive and unimpressed voice, pointing her finger behind him.
"Now, now, don't be so jealous, Makima-chan. I'm sure you'll get to show off soon enough…" Satoru's demeanor changed as he replied with a grin.
With her hands behind her back, she walked silently toward the big, orange-red pulsating mass of energy that resembled a human heart, just several dozen times the size. The space behind it was cracked in a straight line like a mirror, with a few fragments suspended in the air.
"So, this is where I was feeling that spatial distortion from, huh?" Satoru muttered as they walked closer to it.
To them, the beating heart looked very much alien. "It's alive," Satoru said, Makima looking at him curiously.
The sheer quantity of negative energy emitted from that heart… 'Even Sukuna and Tengen combined couldn't match up to this volume,' Satoru thought as he sensed the emotions coming off it.
"It feels confusion. And rage, lots of it," he muttered, observing it closely.
"Maybe we woke it up?" Makima asked, trying to analyze what she could.
"No, this feels much deeper. Something primal, as if it's the personification of rage and hate itself. What even is this-" He couldn't finish his sentence when the heart started pulsating, sending out a miasma of dark-red energy.
Satoru was already behind Makima, his hand placed on her shoulder, infinity protecting them both from that wave. His instincts were telling him not to come in contact with it directly.
She gave a nod, and they both backed off in unison, their simultaneous movement complementing each other's momentum.
The dark-red miasma started gathering in one place. The sphere of flesh that Satoru had made began bulging out, distorting into a new shape, while all the remaining monster corpses flowed through the energy toward the pile of flesh, as if everything was converging into something new.
"The heart saw us as threats. And now it's using everything to eliminate us," Makima said as they both looked up at the newly forming creature. The dark-red energy was creating everything, down to the bones.
A giant skeletal structure covered itself with newly formed flesh and blood, all from the corpses in that place.
Satoru, with a smirk, said, "Aww, how nice of it, then. I was itching for a real fight."
Right when the monster was about to be completed, the space around the heart started distorting, and in the next moment, it disappeared, converging into a point in that space.
The space around the place where the heart had been was still cracked. It started sucking in everything from the surroundings as it opened up into an even bigger crack, more space shattering like glass.
When both Makima and Satoru thought that they should probably run, it was too late. The pull from the fractured space was so quick and rapid that all three of them- Makima, Satoru, and the newly formed monster- got sucked into it.
The fracture closed up after they went inside, leaving behind nothing but silence.
New York, Liberty Island:
The day was like any other normal day, with lots of tourists visiting the famous landmark of the island: the 250-meter-tall statue of Homelander, the world's greatest superhero.
Homelander's cape/American flag designed as if it was flowing back with the wind as his hand was raised in the sky, as if he were offering a helping hand, with a smile on his face.
In the park, directly in front of the statue, a couple was taking photos of each other. The guy, who was directing his girlfriend to raise her hand a bit higher so it would look like she was holding Homelander's hand, suddenly looked away from the camera and stared at the sky, just beside the statue.
The girl, confused about what her boyfriend was doing, looked up, just like everyone else. The sky had cracked like a mirror, and the crack was already expanding.
While some had started taking videos, others who were smart enough were already running away. A couple grabbed their child and started running toward the docks, saying, "Hell nah, we're out."
"But Daddy," the child complained, but the mother shushed them. "No buts. You're going to thank us later."
After about a minute, the crack broke into dozens of shards, fragments flying off as they disappeared, opening a rift in the sky.
Now everyone was planning to run, but they all suddenly felt a chill down their spine, seemingly struck by fear and shock, when they saw a giant falling out of that rift.
It looked bigger than Homelander's statue, and when it fell into the harbor, a big wave crashed through the island.
A big, greyish-black hand with spikes growing out of its forearm splashed out of the water, then the whole body emerged. It had no facial structure, just a smooth black surface on an oval-shaped head with two sleek horns on the side, bending backward.
There was a wide slit that looked like a mouth, but it was fully closed. When it stood, its dark-grey body became visible, its outer skin completely smooth and black except for the spiky protrusions on its forelimbs and spine.
It stood a bit taller than the statue and was now facing it, probably staring at the face that had an eternal fake smile.
In just a few seconds, there were a few helicopters flying around the island and the whole world was watching. Almost every platform was broadcasting the live feed of what was happening.
Everyone was so focused on this new monster, so no one could see the two figures who flew out of that fracture before it closed up.
"Wait a minute. Wasn't this supposed to be the Statue of Liberty?" Satoru asked, pointing at Homelander's statue as they floated in the sky above the island.
"Well, maybe they love their hero that much," Makima shrugged.
"The Walmart Superman who wears a flag as a cape?" Satoru commented with a chuckle. They both already knew the origins of John. That facility was basically Vought's secret stash, after all.
Satoru was amused at how the company managed to make the whole world believe that the world's greatest hero was an alien.
'Well, there are probably a lot of people who know the truth; this wouldn't have worked otherwise,' Satoru thought to himself.
Makima then asked, "Didn't you say you wanted to fight it?"
Satoru smiled and replied, "Let's see how he fights first, shall we?" He pointed his head at the figure far away, who was flying toward the monster's position.
Homelander, flying toward Liberty Island, was anything but calm. You could see the fury on his face. All he could think of was, 'Do you even know how much fucking trouble I had to go through just to get approval for that statue?'
His speed increased, breaking the sound barrier, creating multiple sonic booms in the air. The monster had been standing still until then, but Homelander flew straight into its side, pushing it away from the statue.
He was using a lot of force, so John expected the monster to just fall down. But what running headfirst and lasering everything fails to teach one is that not everything big is slow and brutish.
The monster quickly stabilized itself by pressing one leg back, the ground below caving under its weight. It grabbed Homelander's cape with one hand, pulled him off its body, and threw him like a tiny rock into his own statue.
It was too fast and strong for John to react or fly the other way. He went right through the chest of the statue; everything from above crashed down, breaking apart into dust and concrete blocks.
Homelander skidded through the surface of the water behind the island, then crashed right onto one of the ships docked in the harbor.
After a few seconds, he flew out of the rubble, looking at the broken statue with wide eyes. "That does it!" he shouted in fury and flew toward the island at full speed.
His eyes glowed red as he flew near the monster. The laser beams shot out of his eyes, directly striking the monster's chest and back as he flew around its body, the lasers still activated.
Homelander stopped his lasers and was shocked to see only a few small burn marks on its body. It seemed totally unbothered. Its head was turned toward him, and even though there were no eyes, he felt like his soul was being stared at.
There were already a few helicopters flying around the island, capturing the live feed of the whole event. The people watching, who had been surprised until now, were fully shocked, seeing the monster shrug off Homelander's attacks like some minor inconvenience.
There was one other person watching this with more intrigue than the others: a man with dark hair, a beard, and a mustache, who was inside a secure room with his team.
His eyes gleamed with interest as he looked at the TV showing Homelander's confused face.
Madelyn, in her office, was starting to stress out and had begun biting her nails.
The monster, which had been mostly still until now, suddenly crouched down and leaped off the ground, creating a large crater on the island.
The shockwave from its jump rippled outward, pushing wind and debris toward the sea. The monster, despite its size, was deceptively fast.
Homelander couldn't react before being caught in its grasp again. The monster used both of its hands and then threw him near the remaining half of his statue.
Homelander crashed onto the ground, making a giant crater that shook the entire island. The monster fell toward the ground and landed on its knees.
"Wow, a monster doing a superhero landing," Satoru commented, sitting cross-legged in the air. Makima gave him a look; she didn't think Satoru would actually try to save any of the people down there.
But amidst the chaos, Satoru had managed to teleport multiple people at once onto a big boat that was leaving the island and was now casually floating beside her, enjoying the fight.
He also didn't seem to care that their live feed was being captured by the cameras in the helicopters, so she too decided to roll with it.
"I never knew you could teleport," she said in a flat tone.
"You never asked. Also, it's more like warping than teleporting, but I won't bore you with the details," he replied.
"Then tell me why we flew thousands of miles if you could've just teleported us," she asked, not angry, just genuinely curious.
"What? We're a newly formed team, Makima-chan. More time spent together is a good thing, after all," he said with a smile, nudging her shoulder with his.
"You're really serious about that team thing, huh," she mumbled.
"Of course, from the start…" he said with a grin.
While they were busy discussing "important" stuff, poor Homelander was having the worst day of his life.
None of the attacks he was throwing at the monster were doing anything in particular, other than pushing the thing around, which it would take like a tank and then give the supe a thrashing of a lifetime.
Right now, the monster was constantly stomping on John, who was on the ground at the center of a crater, being squashed like a bug.
The monster suddenly kicked the almost unconscious supe toward the remaining half of the statue. Then, stomping toward him, it grabbed the torso of the statue, completely ripping it off along with the base, and slammed it above Homelander.
Yes, Homelander was durable enough not to be severely injured from that attack, but for the first time in a long while, his entire body felt like it did when he was in that laboratory, being tested for his limits.
Some bad memories piling up in his head, he roared in anger, flying out of the rubble, staring up at the monster. His eyes turned bright orange-red, and two beams of lasers, hotter and thicker than he'd ever managed to dish out, rippled out of his eyes.
The lasers managed to sear through the skin of the monster, but it did not falter. The slit on the lower part of its face suddenly opened, revealing pinkish-red flesh inside.
A lot of heat and energy started gathering in front of its open mouth. Before John could react, a beam several times thicker than his laser shot out of the opening, pushing against his lasers, a shockwave of heat and wind ripping out of the clash.
John's lasers were too weak to do anything against that amount of energy. The beam seared through his shoulder. His face twisted in pain as he crashed to the ground.
"ARRRGH!!!" A guttural scream escaped his mouth as he looked at his side; a cauterized wound was now on his shoulder, extending to the upper part of his right chest. "What the fuck-" he could clearly see his upper ribs.
Fear. He felt it for the first time. More than the pain, the hairs on his back rose, sweat dripping down his temples. He could see his life flashing before his eyes.
The entire world was silent right now. They didn't care about the two strangers floating in the sky or the monster, only that Homelander was now hurt- something no one had ever seen or heard before.
'Even as a Walmart version of Superman, isn't he just too weak?' Satoru thought to himself, confused as fuck. The records back in the facility suggested that he could survive the blast of a nuke point-blank.
'Like hell he's surviving a nuke. Did they even consider how fuckin' hot it gets at the center of that explosion?' he thought.
Makima, as if reading his mind, said, "Maybe they just considered he'd fly away, being smart enough not to take a thermonuclear explosion to his face. But now I'm starting to doubt his intelligence too."
When Homelander barely got up, pain and anger evident on his face, Satoru was almost impressed, but all that went down the drain when John flew into the sky like a rocket and disappeared from the place.
Satoru and Makima just looked ahead with deadpan expressions when Satoru burst out laughing. "Oh man… Now I'm curious what his version of Kryptonite would do to him."
The monster, its focus now off Homelander, who had just run, was now on the two in the sky, casually having a conversation.
"Seems like it's your turn now," Makima said as Satoru got up, stretching his hands.
"Well, all in a day's work," he replied, slowly descending from his position.
"Try to keep it one piece, will you?"
"Another minion for our cute necromancer… Why not?" He shrugged with an excited grin.
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To be continued!