Just as Su Ming had said, Darkseid was not dead. He was merely injured.
When he teleported back, he was still rubbing his eyes. Steam rose from his entire body like a freshly roasted turkey, while the blood flowing from his seven orifices rapidly coagulated against his skin under the intense heat. Great chunks of skin and muscle had burst apart, exposing a charred, skeletal inner structure.
Under the combined strike of ten Power Rings, Darkseid's injuries had nearly killed him. Even his sleeveless T-shirt had melted away, leaving him looking like nothing more than a bare-chested alien brute.
In the past, no matter how the Justice League had surrounded and attacked him, even when he was defeated, his T-shirt-like armor had always remained spotless and undamaged. That thing had been forged from Black Diamond smelted in Apokolips's Fire Pits, the same substance as the Black Diamond that imprisoned Eclipso.
But clearly, that armor had truly served its purpose this time. As it shattered, the energy it released neutralized part of the beam's power and protected Darkseid.
Su Ming shook out his hand, drew a deep breath, and gripped the Nightfall Greatsword once more as he stared at Darkseid's return to the battlefield.
The Cosmic Tyrant was currently undergoing Rapid Healing. His charred, ruptured muscles writhed as they closed, while his blood vessels and nerves wove themselves back together.
This was an ability he had not possessed before. It seemed he had altered some of his biological traits through the Spectre Universe.
Darkseid kept his eyes tightly shut, his face wrinkled like a walnut. Yet he slowly placed his newly healed, trembling hands behind his back and did his best to look calm and unconcerned as he said, "Humans truly are a race full of possibilities. I never would have