BOOM!!!!!
The tremendous energy unleashed by the collision of the Mother Boxes swallowed Steppenwolf in a blinding pillar of white light before he could even react.
Desaad had prepared this trap specifically for Raymond.
But Steppenwolf had taken the brunt of it instead.
To be precise, the instant the Mother Boxes released their energy, Steppenwolf was torn apart so completely that not a scrap of his body remained.
More than a quarter of the fortress was reduced to elementary particles in that single discharge.
Freed from their physical bonds, protons, neutrons, and electrons rapidly recombined into stable forms throughout the area. The process was spectacular.
In the Material Universe, these elementary particles were ordinarily bound tightly together by the strong interaction and electromagnetic force.
Breaking the strong interaction on a scale visible to the naked eye required nuclear fusion on the scale of a star.
Yet here it was, on Earth's surface.
Fortunately, some force held it firmly above Apokolips Fortress. Otherwise, who knew what a chain reaction might have done to Earth's environment and ecosystems?
"Heh heh heh. Is this the surprise you prepared for me? Were you planning to use the Mother Boxes to tear me apart?"
In his Archdevil form, Raymond bared his teeth in a mocking grin.
Clearly, Desaad had hoped to use the Mother Boxes' connection to the Origin Wall to erase him at the root.
Unfortunately for Desaad, he had miscalculated one thing: Raymond was not from this world and had no connection to the Origin Wall.
The Origin Wall's power would not have the same fatal effect on him that it would have on a life born in this universe.
Besides, Raymond had been secretly watching everything inside the fortress through New Phyrexia's pervasive infiltration.
He had worked out most of Desaad's trap