Apocalypse's twisted limbs transformed back into their normal shape as he spread his hands.
The ocean twisted.
Water surged upward in towering columns. Waves froze mid-crash, then curved inward, spiraling around Apocalypse in massive rotating rings. The sea rose higher and higher, forming whirling walls of compressed water that thundered with raw pressure.
Doom scoffed. "Hydrokinesis. Predictable."
He raised both hands. Emerald sigils ignited around him, rotating in layered circles. A storm of arcane bolts erupted outward, slicing through the rising water pillars. Each impact detonated with explosive force, superheating the ocean into expanding clouds of steam. The sky filled with thunderous booms as magic met pressure.
Apocalypse shot forward through the chaos, moving faster than the collapsing waves. His body shimmered as his density increased. Doom fired a focused beam of green energy. Apocalypse twisted midair and let it graze his shoulder, the blast detonating behind him and sending a wall of steam skyward.
Doom gestured sharply. Gravity inverted.
Apocalypse was slammed downward, driven toward the ocean like a meteor. He hit the surface hard enough to create a massive crater of displaced water. Doom followed instantly, palms glowing as chains of magic wrapped around Apocalypse and yanked him back up into the air.
Doom clenched his fist.
The chains constricted. Arcane pressure crushed inward from every direction.
Apocalypse grunted but did not scream. His skin hardened, his mass shifting again. He absorbed the pressure and then released it in a massive shockwave. The chains shattered into glowing fragments. Doom was blasted backward, skimming across the air before stabilizing himself with a sharp pulse of magic.
Doom's eyes narrowed.
He extended one arm and chanted a spell in ancient language. A massive construct formed around his gauntlet, layered with spell matrices and humming power. He fired.
The beam struck Apocalypse's center mass and drove him straight into the ocean. Water exploded outward for kilometers. The sea itself recoiled.
Doom pressed the attack.
He unleashed wave after wave of arcane bombardment. Each strike hit the ocean with catastrophic force, sending geysers hundreds of meters into the sky. The surface began to boil under sustained magical assault.
Apocalypse erupted from the depths, carrying the ocean with him.
A colossal wave rose behind Apocalypse like a moving wall. He thrust his hands forward and compressed it into a spinning mass of hyperdense water. The projectile launched toward Doom at hypersonic speed.
Doom conjured a layered shield. The impact hit like a freight train made of liquid steel. The shield fractured but held. Doom countered immediately, teleporting above Apocalypse and slamming both palms downward.
A rune stamped itself into the air beneath Apocalypse and detonated.
The explosion punched Apocalypse back into the sea, forcing the water to part around him like a wounded creature.
Doom hovered above the devastation, clearly in control now.
Apocalypse vanished in a flash of blue light.
Doom's eyes snapped upward.
Apocalypse reappeared in the sky. His body was a mess. Craters punched clean through his torso. One arm hung half-formed, muscle and armor still knitting together. Steam rolled off him as flesh and bones reassembled in real time. It barely took a few seconds to regenerate. Power surged back into place like a system reboot finishing its last step.
He looked down at Doom and smiled.
"Is that all you can do?"
Doom's reply never came.
Apocalypse blinked.
One instant he was in the sky. The next he was inches from Doom's mask.
The punch landed.
The impact folded space. Doom was launched backward so fast the ocean beneath him split into a miles-long trench. He skipped across the air, crashed into the sea, punched through it, and vanished beneath the surface in a spiraling shockwave that turned water into vapor.
Silence followed for half a heartbeat.
Then Doom teleported out of the water in a violent green flash. He barely stabilized before Apocalypse was already on him again.
Doom threw both hands forward.
A barrage of arcane blasts erupted point-blank. The air itself fractured as spell after spell slammed into Apocalypse's body. Each hit would have erased a lesser being.
Apocalypse did not slow.
The blasts struck him and dissipated. Magic unraveled on contact, reduced to harmless wisps that slid off his skin like smoke caught in a breeze. He has adapted to Doom's magic.
Doom's eyes widened behind the mask.
Apocalypse stepped through the fading spells and grabbed Doom by the throat.
"As I've said before," Apocalypse said calmly. "A pest, no matter how many tricks it shows, it will always remain a pest."
He tightened his grip.
Doom gasped as he tried to teleport, but the spell fizzled. Apocalypse's hand glowed faintly as Celestial energy disrupted the space around them.
Doom slammed an elbow into Apocalypse's side. Apocalypse did not react.
Instead, he threw Doom up into the sky before compressing the gravity around him.
Apocalypse tightened the gravity field around Doom, compressing space until the air screamed under the pressure. Doom's armor creaked. Runes along his gauntlets flared, then flickered as the Celestial power crushed the magic sustaining them.
Apocalypse floated closer, eyes burning. "Your tricks are exhausted. Your will is breaking. This is the end."
He clenched his fist.
The gravity intensified. Doom felt his bones strain as if the universe were trying to fold him into a smaller version of himself. No matter how many times he tried to use his magic, it just wouldn't work.
Apocalypse smiled. "You can not defy me. I am immortal. I AM GOD."
The green glow faded from Doom's hands. The runes died completely.
For a fraction of a second, Apocalypse felt something was wrong.
The Celestial plates fused into his flesh began to vibrate. The blue light running through the armor flickered, then stuttered like a corrupted signal. Apocalypse looked down just as symbols began to crawl across his own body, not carved or etched, but rewritten at the molecular level.
Doom's response came out strained. "And... I... AM DOOM!"
"What are you doing?" Apocalypse demanded, and for the first time there was uncertainty in his voice.
Doom raised one gauntlet and slowly closed his fist.
Every piece of Celestial technology inside Apocalypse responded.
Locks disengaged. Power conduits reversed polarity. Command hierarchies collapsed. The upgrades that Apocalypse had worn like divine gifts began to reject him.
The armor plates tore themselves free.
They did not slide out cleanly... They ripped.
"AAAARRRGGGGG!!!!" Apocalypse screamed.
The sound was raw and animal, echoing across the sky as Celestial metal peeled out of his flesh in glowing shards. Energy conduits ripped free like burning veins. Systems designed to overwrite biology began to overwrite themselves instead, unraveling in cascading failures.
Apocalypse clawed at his chest as more plating tore free, floating toward Doom in perfect formation as his grasp on Doom was gone.
"Impossible," Apocalypse roared, pain cracking his voice.
Doom's eyes burned behind the mask with a green glow.
With a sharp pull of his hand, the Celestial upgrades ripped free from Apocalypse's spine in a violent surge of light and blood. Apocalypse arched backward, screaming again as the energy was torn out of him entirely.
However, his natural regeneration kicked in, healing the mutant.
"You think this changes anything?" Apocalypse yelled in rage, but he noticed a new variable.
When the battle first started, Apocalypse wasn't at his 100%. Although he had been regenerating for a while now, the progress slowed down massively due to a glitch in his celestial regeneration machines. So, he had to absorb the life force of everyone on that island to regain 60% of his power. And for some reason, during his fight with Doom, he could feel his body was deteriorating at a massive rate. It was as if something was eating him from the inside out. It was thanks to his physical celestial augmentations and his regeneration boosted by the armor that he managed to hold on.
Now, with the celestial augmentation ripped apart from his body, Apocalypse lost his greatest weapon. However, he noticed that the body deterioration had stopped. So, he concluded that Doom was the one who slowed down his regeneration. All this time, it was Doom who had been inflicting internal injuries on him by manipulating technology grafted into his body.
"Yes," Doom said as he fused the celestial tech with his armor, giving him a nice upgrade.
"You'll pay for this," Apocalypse screamed as a massive portal opened above them, and from within came out a giant burning meteor.
"Cough! Cough!" Doom was about to end this battle, but he coughed up blood. He touched the little gap on his mask and looked at his hand. He could feel an intense burning sensation spreading throughout his body.
'Rejection?!'
Doom thought the new tech was rejecting him. 'Is it coded to Apocalypse's DNA?!'
But he didn't have the pleasure of thinking thanks to the giant meteor above him. So, he decided to use the Power Gem to end this fight.
"WHAT!?" Doom's eyes widened as he noticed that the Power Gem was missing from his wrist. His bracelet and the casing were there, but the Gem was missing. He quickly tried to use his portal, but failed to do so.
Some foreign power has locked the space around him.
Doom summoned raw arcane energy and hit the meteor.
...
..[POWERSTONES AND REVIEWS]...
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