It was a shocking scene… how could it not be?
Kneeling before a throne stood some of the Omniverse's most dangerous villains. The true form of Trigon. The Empty Hand. A twisted version of the Justice League—each member wielding both Anti-Crisis and Crisis Energy.
Nekron was there too, now bonded with a fragment of Ashborn's weapon. So was the Batman Who Laughs. In fact, every figure present had merged with a piece of Ashborn's armor.
And seated on the throne, exuding a quiet yet overwhelming menace, was the one who possessed the largest piece of all: the chest plate.
Darkseid sat upon his throne, silent and imposing. From time to time, flashes of lightning surged across his armor—remnants of the Mother Storm now under his control.
That's right. Darkseid had tamed the Mother Storm. It had devoured the Primordial Storm that once nearly killed Ashborn. Though powerful, that storm had been badly damaged and was forced into a deep slumber to recover and adapt to its newfound strength. It never stood a chance.
By pure fate—or perhaps dark design—the armor housing the main core of the Mother Storm had landed right at Darkseid's doorstep. And when the storm awoke to challenge him, he didn't hesitate. He fought it… and he won.
On its knees, the Mother Storm submitted. They became one.
Through this union, Darkseid inherited all the knowledge the Mother Storm possessed. And now, with its power fully recovered and refined under his rule, he was far more dangerous than ever before.
At this point, Darkseid was stronger than he had ever been. Even his true form—achieved by absorbing all of his multiversal avatars—paled in comparison to what he had become now.
And this was without combining his true form with the armor. Once he did… he would ascend beyond limits. A being of High Omniversal stature, easily ranking among the most dangerous forces in all of creation.
But even with all this power, Darkseid wouldn't move. Not yet. Not until Ashborn returned to his omniverse.
Why? Simple. Because as powerful as he was, Darkseid knew the armor still responded to Ashborn. It was forged from his essence, infused with his power. The only thing within it that didn't belong to Ashborn… was the Mother Storm.
If Ashborn came close enough—if his senses touched the armor—he could command it back. And that was a risk Darkseid couldn't take. Not yet.
The armor, as it existed now, had lost its connection to Ashborn. It was like a badly damaged phone—too weak to send out a signal. And even now, after the armor had recovered and grown stronger, it had already accepted a new master. It wasn't reaching out to Ashborn anymore… If anything was going to happen, Ashborn would have to be the one to reach out, and that would only happen if Ashborn came within range.
"Shouldn't we act now, since Ashborn is clashing with the Darkness?" a dark, shadowy version of Superman asked, his eyes fixed on the sky above, where the distant battle between Ashborn and the Great Darkness raged on.
If they acted now to overthrow the Multiversal Justice League, they could have easily shifted the balance in their favor, opening the way to strike at Ashborn and finally get rid of him.
"Ashborn is about to leave for his omniverse. We should wait until he's gone…" the Batman Who Laughs said with a twisted grin. "My only concern is that he might already know about our spy."
Only the Prime members of the Justice League knew about Ashborn's plans to leave this omniverse…
"Ashborn already knows who the traitor is. The reason he hasn't acted yet is most likely because of All Sight," Darkseid said calmly.
All-Sight was a shadow born from fusion, created by combining the abilities of The Watcher, Heimdall, Miles Morales, Agamotto, and Sage. It possessed the terrifying power to see everything.
Uatu, The Watcher, could already view all timelines and possibilities at once. But even he had his limits—he couldn't focus on everything simultaneously. All Sight, however, had no such weakness.
Heimdall was essentially all-seeing. His only real weakness was that he couldn't focus on everything his eyes perceived. All of creation existed within his line of sight—but the sheer amount of input overwhelmed even him. He could see everything, just not process it all at once.
Miles Morales, on the other hand, had his enhanced Spidey sense. When choosing which Spider to fuse, Ashborn had to decide between Silk and Miles. Silk possessed a wider range, with senses so sharp she could detect threats before they happened—essentially glimpsing into the future. But Miles was different. His Spidey sense gave him near-total awareness of his surroundings. He could feel when something was off in the world around him—almost like he could see through reality itself. More importantly, he had fine-tuned control over it. Unlike others, he didn't need danger to trigger it. And that was exactly what Ashborn wanted for the fusion.
Next was Agamotto, and he was the most important fusion to make All-Sight truly powerful. Unlike the others, Agamotto had the brain-processing power to comprehend infinite happenings at once. This is where the weaknesses of Uatu and Heimdall became clear: while they could see everything within a universe, down to the shift of a single atom, they couldn't fully process or understand it all at once.
Agamotto, however, could. He could follow the trajectory of an individual's timeline, observe countless events across the multiverse, and grasp an unlimited number of occurrences in real time. That level of awareness wasn't just powerful… it was terrifying.
Lastly, there was Sage. She was chosen for one reason: her unparalleled multitasking ability. Sage could allocate different partitions of her brain to separate tasks simultaneously. For example, she could replay a movie she had seen, play a game of online chess, and engage in a life-or-death battle—without letting any one task interfere with another.
So, with Sage's mutant gift, Agamotto's limitless mental processing, Miles' controlled and intuitive Spidey sense, Heimdall's all-encompassing vision, and Uatu's cosmic oversight, Ashborn had created All-Sight. And yes—Ashborn saw everything.
Not only that, but All-Sight had grown stronger over time. Ashborn had even fused some of the best sensors from the DC universe into its framework. He had long since located all of his missing armor pieces… he simply hadn't made a move. Not while the Darkness still existed.
But with the Darkness now sealed away, Ashborn simply had to wait for his strength—and his shadows—to recover. Yet, from Darkseid's perspective and the others watching closely, this was the moment they had been waiting for. All of Ashborn's shadows were gone. The only real line of defense he had left… was Ember.
Wasn't this the perfect time to launch an all-out assault against him and the Multiversal League? It's not like Ashborn can just appear and get his armor back with but a thought; it would be a fight between them and the armor, and in Ashborn's current weakened state… they would have the upper hand, another reason Ashborn was not making his move against them. But they would not make a move against him… because he was far too calm about their existence.
"We should wait a little longer. Ashborn will leave soon—then we'll have nothing standing in our way," the Batman Who Laughs said with a twisted grin, his laughter echoing through the chamber. The others grinned as well, all eyes turning toward Ashborn. His arrogance would be his downfall.
Meanwhile, Ashborn stood face to face with Lucifer Morningstar.
{A/N: It would not be as easy as Ashborn walking up to his former armor and calling it back.