When Darkseid looked past Homelander and saw the enormous Black Steel fortress still standing in the distance, his nerves eased a little.
Good. The fortress is still there.
As long as the Dark Fortress had not completely collapsed, the foundation of his power remained intact.
If I kill this Earthling and take back the Mother Box...
Darkseid ran through his options, and the fear in his eyes gradually gave way to ruthlessness.
So what if Apokolips is destroyed?
I can build a second Apokolips. A third! Earth would do nicely!
But in the next instant,
the most horrifying, absurd, devastating thing in his long life as a god happened.
Beneath Shocker's eyes on the surface of Apokolips, a bottomless chasm split open with a deafening crack of tectonic plates, like a gaping mouth.
"Grrr—"
A muffled growl rose from deep within the planet.
A massive tongue made of blue energy and rock shot from the depths like lightning.
Flexible as a cosmic python, it coiled tightly around the entire Dark Fortress.
"CRACK! SNAP!"
The tongue jerked back, and the sound of the fortress breaking rang through the sky.
The Dark Fortress, symbol of Apokolips's supreme power, was ripped straight from its foundations!
Then the tongue dragged the fortress into that terrifying abyss of a mouth.
The mouth closed.
"CRUNCH! CRUNCH! CRUNCH!"
Rhythmic chewing echoed across the world.
Darkseid stood frozen.
His outstretched hand hung in midair, his mouth slightly open.
His home planet had eaten his house.
And it was crunching away.
Homelander flew over to the stunned Darkseid, stopped beside him, and patted the tyrant's rigid shoulder.
"Don't be sad, buddy," Homelander said kindly. "At least your home planet seems to be enjoying it, right?"
Darkseid said nothing. He might as well have turned to stone.
The veins that