AN: Here's the next chapter my dudes! Did this one as quickly as possible too! ENJOY.

ARC Nine: Infinite Crisis

Chapter Ninety Four: Corrupted

Wonder Woman and Rem crashed into a nearby branch of the Algol Tree, leaving Julius to dodge a strike from Warlock Batman. He quickly summoned his contracted spirits that swam in the air around him.

Batman shook his head in an apparent moment of frustration.

"Fell Goa!"

A gigantic burst of flames shot out at him, only for him to crush it with his Authority. He shot forward, Julius kicking up an earth dome. Batman punched through it but was tackled away by Wonder Girl, as she tried her best to get him to be on the defensive. But activated his Authority yet again and squashed her to the ground, making him stomp his foot on the back of head in frustration.

She tried getting up, but only managed to lift her bloodied face as Batman continued to leer down at her.

"Fell Huma!"

Julius summoned a long spike of ice and fired it at him, only for him to dodge the projectile and grab Wonder Girl's leg and toss her at Julius.

"Fell Fula!"

Julius put up an armor of wind around himself, which helped slow her down and protect himself from possible damage, catching her as he did.

She panted and heaved as she held onto him, but sensed something in the back of her mind...she knew it.

"MOVE JULIUS!"

She shoved him out of the way, only for two light blue beams to shoot through her neck and chest. She looked down at her wounds as she saw the severity of it all.

She tried to cough, but it hurt too much to even try, she glanced over and saw Julius's horrified expression as he got his balance back. His eyes trembled seeing her like that.

She gave a soft smile...just as Batman had charged forward and crushed her head in with a overhand punch.

Her body fell to the ground…

Julius stared at the corpse, before he finally turned his now rage filled expression to Batman.

"WARLOCK!"

"It's like I said Julius, I am going to be killing every last one of you, does it really matter in what order I do it in?"

"Hellish fiend, I promise to end your foul existence here and now!"

"...Hellish? I am the true justice here boy, and I intend to implement it with extreme prejudice."

He kicked off the ground, only for Starfire to blast down a powerful green beam down at him. He activated his plasma shield blocking the attack. He let a small grunt as he fired countless yang beams into the air, luckily she maneuvered around them and dodged each hit.

"HRAAAHHH!"

"Damn! It's Rem!"

Rem shot down several icicles at him, forcing him to blast them away with his eye beams. Rem saw her chance and landed a hit with her morningstar on his chest, only for him to slap it away and rush to her.

"BRUCE!"

"DIANA."

Diana made it around her and clashed her sword with his fist, she let out a barrage of sword strikes before she slammed her bracelets together, letting out a shockwave, almost making him tumble over. He caught his balance, and slammed his fist across her cheek, Rem leapt over to kick him, activating her horn as she did. Batman saw this flew up to meet her, he blocked the kick and pushed through punching her in the face before grabbing her by the hair and slamming her head to the ground. He slammed her again and again...before he shoved her up to her feet.

He then used his super speed mode and made it over to stab her in the shoulder with a light sword. Before she could respond accordingly he lifted her body while it was still stabbed and slammed her to the ground, shaking the entire tree. Then they felt the whole tree shake for some reason, but it was of little consequence to their fight.

Julius made his way to him and sliced at him with his spell Al Clausiria. Batman created another plasma shield, barely saving himself, before kicking Julius on the side, easily breaking several ribs. Batman then focused on his forehead...intedning to kill just as he did in his original world-

"Al Goa!"

A fire blast knocked Batman away from him, breaking his concentration. He glanced over and saw Wonder Woman was the one who shot him with the attack. He fumed at her.

"Just because you can use magic now, means nothing of this fight, it's results will be the same, Diana!"

"...Why?"

"Huh?!"

"Why are you doing this, Bruce?!"

She lowered her sword down, even with her nose bloodied...she looked at him with a graceful look of concern.

"Why are you, trying to kill us?"

"YOU KILLED PANDORA! SHE WAS EVERYTHING TO ME! SHE WAS THE ONE PERSON I LOVED MORE IN THIS ENTIRE WORLD THAN ANY OTHER!"

"...You loved her huh?"

"Of course, everything was for her. More than myself. More than my duty to being a hero. More than protecting Gotham. It was all for her! We were going to create the perfect world, together we would have brought peace to her world!"

"...You say that after all the people you've killed-"

"-Sacrifices are necessary in the grand scheme of things, Diana."

The harshness of his tone, left Diana reeling a bit from his attitude.

But she had to say her peace.

"Bruce. I love you."

"...What?"

She held her hands together as she stared at him with an expression of sadness, but desire as well.

"Bruce, I...I loved you."

"...?!"

"I wanted us to be, maybe...at one point to be together. I wanted to tell you how I felt about you. But you always seemed to be focused on your before anything else...then, what happened to Selina, Alfred and then Damian... I honestly felt it was none of my business getting in the way of your life, especially after everything you had gone through."

"That's what I thought, that if I gave you the space to cope, someday you could look my way. Then, you disappeared."

She held her hands tighter, making sure to hide back any escaping emotions. Everyone else just watched the whole affair silently, not wishing to interrupt her confession.

"I wanted to find you, but you were nowhere to be found...I thought you died."

"..."

"But low and behold, you came back, bringing along Rem and all her friends with you...including your fiances."

"...?"

"I...I would be lying that I wouldn't say I was jealous of them. They had the courage to outright reach out to you, and in the end that got the one thing I wanted from you. Hell, if I wished I could have joined in on the little arrangement you had going on...but I am a Queen, I can't do that...so I had to let you go."

She had a single tear escape her eye as she held out her hand to him, even if he wasn't the right version to tell this all to, she had to get her feelings out to him.

It was quiet for a moment…

"I don't care. I love Pandora."

Those few words stung like hot needles.

Batman made his way forward, only for Rem to step in front of Diana, as if to protect her.

"Rem?"

"Rem doesn't believe in the love you have for Pandora, Tristitia."

Batman titled his head slightly at the comment.

"Oh?"

"Yes. Rem for example is in love with Natsuki Subaru, and Rem holds him dear to her heart. Him being the closest to my heart."

"Then, you can understand-"

"-Let me finish."

"Rem's love for him has changed her ever so much. I...I am able to be myself, to yearn for more outside of my nee-sama, Rem was able to make friends, Rem was able to see more the outside world...Rem was able to be happy, sad, embarrassed, angry and so much more, than she could ever imagine. My love for him helped change me, and in return it changed him. We both changed for the better...and Rem thinks that, when it comes to love, the most important kind is the one that changes you."

"All well and good, but I have also changed as well, have I not?"

"...No, the kind of change you are speaking about it as a degradation on your soul."

She furrowed her brows at him,making the man under the helmet do the same.

"You have changed for the worst. No longer are the friend to my hero who has earned the respect of his fellow man, no longer are you the man Diana-sama fell in love with, and you are no longer the person I knew who valued life more than any other. You…"

"You are corrupted! This false love of yours for that Witch, has led you to become less of a man and more of a monster! Just as evil and disgusting as anyone else in the Witch's Cult….even now…"

She bit her lips, she didn't want to say it...but it was the truth.

"Even now, you reek of the Witch's scent."

Batman charged forward, he had enough of their words.

Julius and Starfire made their move. Starfire fired upon him with her bolts of fires, only to not only see them being shot down to the ground by his authority...but noticed his hands were becoming black with a white hue to them.

She tried dodging what was coming next, but he teleported in front of her, tearing his odd colored hands into her abdomen. She scramed out in pain as he began pulling her closer to himself.

"STARFIRE!"

Julius struck Batman in the back with his sword, but snarled at him and fired a light beam at him, shooting through across his back. Then, focusing back on Starfire, he began tearing into her, pulling her apart slowly...he thoughts ran across her friends, the adventures they had...and of one person she would like to see again…

"Di-"

She was then torn in half, leaving most of her head in tact, but her body halves flopped around like the slabs of meat they became, organs strewn all over tossed the two halves away like nothing, watching as a giant bird made of magical energy shot up near them, disintegrating her body completely. As the bird shot down Julius charged forward, seething in rage for the unholy actions the monster in front of him undertook in. He swung his magic infused sword...only to be crushed by his first Authority.

"The two abilities of the Authority of Tristitia. Imposing Will of Justice. Eternal Grasp. The abilities to manipulate Gravity, to either increase it with my will or invert it with my hands...either way they are quite the skills to have in getting rid of you bunch."

"Damn….y...you…"

Julius had blood oozing out of his eyes, nose and mouth as he was being slowly crushed by the Authority's power.

However, his spirits continued swimming around in vain as they were almost perpetually trapped in position unable to get closer to Batman...so he got closer to them. Wonder Woman and Rem made a charge forward, only for Batman to create barrier made of light in front of the two of them, bouncing them back by several feet. He leered down at Julius, his dark hands to begin creepily reach out to Julius. Soon his spirits launched their assault against him...and be crushed by his hands, they let out high pitched screams, making Julius beg.

"PLEASE! NO! LET THEM GO! IT'S ME YOU WANT! BATMAN! PLEASE!"

"Begging for your friends lives is quite admirable, and willing to sacrifice yourself is as well."

He crushed all of those spirits in his hands, thus making them slowly dissipate into light.

"Losers shouldn't beg, Juukulius."

Julius watched on helplessly as his spirits floated to him, rubbing themselves on his cheeks, one by one disappearing. Until only one, Ia...she was left.

"Sorry...Julius…"

"Ia…"

"...Wish...we...could have...helped…"

"Please…"

"...We will always-"

She broke apart into numerous orbs of light, Julius lifted his face as his face was drenched in tears. He choked on his own words, his own breath and could only scream out painfully.

"IA! KUA! ARO! IK! IN! NES! COME BACK! NO! NOOOO! I'M SORRY! I'M-"



Julius had his leg stomped on, stopping his screams of sadness and turned them into screams of agony. He was lifted up by his collar, he attempted to kick him...but he caught his foot and crushed it into mush.

"Simple tactics like that will never work Juukulius."

He tossed him to the ground and was ready to claw out the back of his head, until Diana sliced his back with her sword then tackled him with her shield.

"AUGH!"

"STOP IT BRUCE!"

"SHUT UP!"

He backhanded her before he fired a Yang beam from his finger, only for it to be deflected by her gauntlets.

"Damn!"

Then he ate a surprise attack to his face by Rem's Morningstar and then ate two hard kicks to his chest by her. He countered by reaching out his free hand...and clawing out her right eye.

"REM!"

Diana saw the damage she took and attacked him again with her sword, and while it did knock his helmet off, he activated his Authority yet again and crushed her to the ground. She tried with all her might to get up, but she was having trouble herself doing so.

"Don't bother! I'm nothing like that useless Hector! My abilities outrank him by years! Just stay there and die!"

"I may bleed, but I will not fall!"

"Such a pain!"

He was ready to strike her down only to be hit in the back by Rem's morningstar, crushing through his armor, he leered at her and let out a blast of his Willpower mode on her, clearly breaking her right arm and sending her rolling to the ground.

"HERA...GIVE...ME...STRENGTH!"

She lifted herself up and flew forward, breaking away his chest piece, but only time to eat a full barrage of punches by him, his face indicative to the fury he was feeling towards these people.

"I will break all of you! I will kill all of you! And then, I will use this tree's power to revive Pandora! I will have her!"

He punched again and again on Diana, she treid using the Lasso if Truth, but he dodged it and broke her jaw with a chop to the face.

"Not you or anyone is going to-!"

Then a sword stabbed through his chest.

"AHK!"

"...A warrior...should never let his guard down...even against someone..injured like me."

Julius was on his knees and had his sword impaled through the back of Batman, the hole on both sides of his armor, helped the sword quickly pierce through him.

Batman coughed out blood as he broke the sword with his hand and spun kicked Julius across the face, nearly sending him flying off the branch they were on. He pulled the sword from his back...only to be hit in the face by Rem's morningstar. It stabbed into his cheeks, eye and ear as he roared out in frustration.

He grabbed the weapon and crushed it. Rem stared back at him…

"The Batman-san I know...would have never fell for such attacks. That is how you have changed, you have over relied on your Witch powers and that suit of yours! You...YOU HAVE GOTTEN WEAKER!"

"GRAGGGHHHH!"



He charged forward, intending on breaking Rem's neck...his face was hideously damaged, holes littered it and his left eye was indeed gouged out.

But he would not flater, he would break this maid's neck.

So why was he stabbed again, this time by Diana?

She twisted herself as she then slit his throat with her sword, then punched him across the face, only to eat a punch as well, then a knee to the face, then a headbutt...but sure enough Batman was losing his balance and composure, nearly tripping twice. As he backed away, charged but was kicked to the ground, Julius launched himself and stabbed him again, this time with a dagger.

Batman backfisted him away, then teetered on the edge of the branch, his entire being covered in crimson blood. He panted, coughed, wheezed and finally sneezed out blood from his mouth. Diana's swollen face looked on as Bruce...began to fall backwards…

"I'm sorry…"

"Ah!"

"Pandora...Mom...Dad...I'm...Oh God...I'm so sorry…"

He fell back, his body falling further and further down, Diana thought about going after him...but a pillar of light, caused by an unknown explosion shot out from below them, vaporized his body into nothing. Diana fell to her knees as she watched on, not even shutting her eyes from the bright flash of light.

From above them, Felix Argyle wearing his Witch Cult suit was watching on with tears falling from his eyes, but he shook his head and quickly wiped away his tears.

"Now's not the time to cry."

He began running for it, he raced forward...a crazed smile crept on his face.

"I gotta live, for Mama Pandora's and Papa Batman's sake...for the sake of the Witch's Cult."

He kept running, a hideous glimmer ever bright in his once soft eyes.

"I will continue their legacy…"

Rem healed Julius as best as she could, but it was evident her abilities in such magic were too low to properly fix all of his injuries. Julius himself, still felt like mourning the loss of his friends, but he pushed it to the back burner of his mind as he still had a duty to attend to. Rem also didn't seem to focus on her own injuries, merely wrapping some bandages around her lost eye and letting her broken arm slump around. This wasn't acceptable to him.

"Rem-dono, please focus on yourself. I am fine, your eye, your arm, they need proper attention."

"It's alright, Rem can handle it until we get Subaru-kun back."

"No that isn't an appropriate thing to do at this moment! Please, humble this knight by listening to my request."

"I'm sorry Julius-sama, but I'm afraid we won't have the time for such pleasantries, we have to move, and we may be fighting more enemies in the meanwhile, so we have to save our strength."

Julius held his tongue, but didn't want to look at Rem's grisly wounds, he was sure that when he met with Subaru again, he would be quite angry with him. Diana moved away from the edge of the branch, taking in a small breath as she continued to the others.

"We'll have to be moving now."

"Yes Diana-sama, we should hurry and make our way-"

As Rem tried to continue, up above them the battling continued and they could see a black wave of sort fly across the sky and break through more branches of the tree...they saw one of them was falling right towards them. Diana held the two of them and flew away as they watched the blood stained branch they fought on, break instantly and crumbled away. They landed on an adjacent one.

Then they heard a scream...from a familiar voice.

Landing on the ground and skidding on the ground, Garfiel huffed as he put up his fists. His other self stood there, tall and as imposing as can be. Tivey and Hetaro got behind him and let out their signature sonic scream, only for him to quickly spin around and block it with his shield. The attack shot him back a bit, making Garfiel kick off the ground and aim a high kick at him. His other self, got low on the ground setting his shield down and pressing his arms against it, giving him the chance to block the kick with his own. He then twisted his body and grabbed him with his feet and flipped him towards the twins, he crashed into them. Garfiel quickly grabbed the two when he saw him try to stab them with his shield.

As he landed back and away from the strike, just as they felt the whole tree begin to shake. Mimi caught herself before she tripped and aimed her staff at him, she fired pink ring of light at him, only for him to block it again with his shield. He charged forward, just to run into Knight Subaru.

"Invisible Providence!"

Several Unseen Hands shot out of him, only to be destroyed by a roar by this Garfiel.

"T-The hell?!"

"We fought Petelgeuse in the past, that stupid trick won't work on me!"

He kicked off the ground, Subaru summoned several Minya blades all around himself and fired them at him, only for Garfiel to suddenly gain speed and dodge all of them. Subaru put up a barrier himself, only for it to be completely broken apart.

"El Minya!"

Beatrice got behind Garfiel and fired her own spears of light at him, only for him to kick the air and twist himself away from the attacks...he then punched the air, and it actually crushed half of Subaru's face. He stepped back as his nose began to bleed profusely.

Garfiel put the twins down and charged forward, he landed a kick to his other self's shield, cracking it.

"Ain' no shield my amazin' self can' break through!"

"Think this is a game, weak me?!"

He spun the shield and knocked Garfiel away to the ground before backflipping and blocking a sword strike by Subaru. Subaru created several orbs of light around himself, but didn't even see Garfiel grab his shoulder, kicking the air several times as he went around in circles.

Then with a sudden force, Garfiel tossed Subaru away at high speed and he went flying through several branches of the Algol Tree.

"SUBARU!"

Beatrice cried out to him, before Garfiel sliced open her back with his shield and headbutted the back of her head, through the branch they were standing on. She landed painfully on a branch just below them. Garfiel then saw the two siblings go around him, intending to use some spell on him, so he got low and spun kick the air to his left. The impact crushed Hetaro into the ground, before Tivey could react he suddenly got grabbed by the neck and choke slammed into the ground. His eyes began turning white as he began losing consciousness.

"This is a waste of my time!"

"LET GO OF THEM!"

Garfiel made it behind him, so he decided to use Tivey as a weapon and tried to whack him with his body, Garfiel got low and landed a surprise uppercut, then elbow to his chest. He let go of Tivey giving Garfiel the chance to catch him, before he backflipped a kick on him, knocking off his helmet. The near splitting image of his face with Garfiel's only with a buzzed haircut, was quite unsettling.

Garfiel landed and placed Tivey down.

"D…"

"Huh?"

"Don't need….help...from someone...who wants to take Mimi away…"

"I don' wan' tha' at all, if I forced Mimi away from th' only family she has, not only would it make her cry, but it'd make me a complete asshole...and a lousy excuse of a boyfriend."

"...Why?"

"HUH?"

"Why...are you...acting this…"

"Cuase I love yer sister, obviously."

"For the smart guy of th' group, yer really dumb you know?"

Garfiel cracked his knuckles and charged forward, both of their shields clashing. Just at that happened Mimi got near his head and tried to knock him across the head, only for Garfiel duck his head and headbutt Garfiel. He accepted the hit and kneed him in the chin, but this seemed to do nothing and he kicked Garfiel away. Mimi found herself alone with him, but tried to let out her own scream, only to have her mouth covered by his hand and actually slammed to the ground. He then proceeded to stomp her on the stomach, over and over again. She spat out blood and saliva from her mouth, before he stopped. Garfiel had come back and punched him hard across the face. He then hopped off the ground and landed a powerful kick across his cheek, only for his other self to palm thrust him to the ground.

Before he could get up, his other self kneed him in the stomach and proceeded to punch his face repeatedly over and over again. Garfiel tried to maneuver his way out of there, but he just couldn't.

Finally Justice Commander Garfiel was struck across the back of the head.

He looked back and found Mimi with anger fueling her glaring at him.

"LEAVE GARF ALONE!"

He got up, but not before stomping Garfiel on the face. He slowly walked over to Mimi, she fired her light magic, but he used his shield to block them.

She was then kicked in the stomach. She hurled out a mixture of vomit and blood as she held her stomach. Mimi was then grabbed by her ear and yanked up in the ear painfully, she let out a scream from the pain. Garfiel tried getting up, but he found himself too injured to do so.

"Well? Weren't you going to protect this kid?!"

He slapped her across the face.

"LEAVE HER ALONE YOU FUCK!"

"Then do something about it! Can't believe a weakling like you is even remotely a version of me!"

He jabbed her in the face, and then again.

Garfiel dragged himself on the ground.

Hetaro and Tivey tried to help, but the both of them were too broken to do so...even if they used their Divine Protection to transfer their injuries between the siblings, it was too much for them.

They watched nearly helplessly as Mimi was hit across the face countless times.

Garfiel began to have tears fall from his enraged eyes.

"Come on then! Your girlfriend can't last much longer! Do something! Get up! Or am I going to have to kill a little girl to make you a fucking warrior?!"

Mimi's face was swollen beyond recognition, her upper lips were cut open. She couldn't even open her eyes or make too much noise. The sight of which made Garfiel want to hurt himself just as much as he did his other version.

"No? Not doing anything?"

He began choking Mimi with one hand, staring down at the mind broken Garfiel….even as he began to scream.

"I'MMA FUCKING KILL YOU! KILL YOU! KILL YOU! KILL YOU! KILL! KILL! DIE! COME OVER HERE SO I CAN KILL YA!"

"A weakling should shut up and die…"

He then moved his hand to the top of her head and began squeezing, intending to crush her head. She whimpered...and then some tears began falling, not for the pain she was feeling…

"...f…"

"Huh?"

"Garf…"

She was crying for him, the person she loved. The very sight of which filled Garfiel with a sense of dread he couldn't describe, and filled him with such rage he felt like throwing up at that very moment.

Only for a strange void to appear next to them.

Knight Subaru made it through a rift and fired a burst of magic against his sides, making him let go of Mimi, but just before he could catch her, he was hit across the face with a backhand. Subaru fired his beam out of his sword, only for him to roar at him in close proximity, rattling his brain. Subaru then ate a punch to the face and was sent flying.

"Th...This is Garfiel…"

"Hmph."

He caught Mimi once again in a choke.

"This is...Garfiel's potential…"

Subaru said this as he skidded across the floor and hit his head twice before coming to a complete stop.

He began choking Mimi again only for Garfiel to have leaped out at him, punching his shield into pieces and kicking the ground to get his own punch across the face. As he let go of Mimi, Garfiel caught her and tossed her over to Tivey.

"Mimi! MIMI!"

He began to cry as he saw the state of injury she was in. Garfiel let out his fury with a barrage of punches, each one easily breaking his the flesh of his knuckles apart. His other self kneed him across the face before clawing his chest. Garfiel countered with a kick across the head, only to eat a straight jab to the nose, twisting it to a broken point. Garfiel headbutted him, breaking some of his adversary's teeth off. He shoved Garfiel away, just in time to notice Garfiel was beginning to transform.

"Oh?! You want to go there then?! FINE WITH ME! I'll kill you either way!"

The two of them quickly beastified into their tiger forms and began battling each other.

Bites.

Scratches.

Tackles.

Everything they could to kill the other.

But it was quite obvious that Garfiel was losing his momentum, and sure enough he was sliced across the stomach and then haymakered down to the ground. Causing them to fall through the branch and Garfiel was tackled into the adjacent one, near where an injured Beatrice was trying to heal herself.

She watched as she saw both men return to their normal sleves as Garfiel was being choked by his other self.

"Not even in that other form...hahhhh, can you beat me...my justice is stronger than yours...hahhhh, just like my strength is."

But before he could speak further about it, Subaru showed up behind him with his sword shining black and purple, he let out a scream as he shot out a gigantic black wave of energy against him, it shot out and cut down mor adjacent branches nearby. He let out a breath...before realizing Garfiel was lying on the ground holding his neck.

He looked around...only to realize Garfiel was right above him, aiming a fist downard...and he landed it, slamming Subaru right next to Beatrice, she huddled over to him, seeing his face was covered in blood and he had a black eye. Justice Commander stomped the ground, sending out a shockwave out and causing Beatrice and Subaru to fly back several feet. He made his way to Garfiel, who shot up and caught him in clinch.

"Fuck, you tired or something?!"

"Ack."

"It ain't gonna help you!"

He kneed him on the sides, but he didn't let go. Soon enough, his other self got his face closer and whispered.

"I'm gonna get out of this and fucking beat you to death. You and all your little friends…"

"Hahhhh, hahhhh…"

"Then, I'm gonna rip your girlfriend's head clean off...how about that?"

Garfiel snarled viciously at him...before biting into his neck.

"AGHHHH!"

Garfiel bit down with all his might, even as his ribs were being destroyed by knee strikes from his opponent. His sides were blue and purple, with some skin tearing from the strikes.

Garfiel tore off a huge chunk of flesh with his teeth, spraying blood all over his injured face. The other Garfiel got free from the clinching and crossed him in the face, making him spit out the flesh from his teeth and fall on his back.

Justice Commander proceeded to punch Garfiel continuously in the face. Then he stood up, holding onto his terrible neck wound, looking down...at the defeated Garfiel.

"Fucker, no one screws with me! I'm Batman's number one soldier! And I hope you take this lesson with you to hell!"

He raised his foot, intending to stomp his head in like putty...just like he did to the Ram of the world they conquered years ago.

"DIE!"

"Hukk….Sis...Subaru...Ram…"

He spoke...of the people he would like to see…

"Otto-nii...Bruce...Petra...Slade…"

As the foot began to descend.

"Mimi…"

Deathstroke stabbed through his chest with his Godslayer sword.

"WHAAAAAT?!"

He lost his footing and his stomp missed Garfiel. Deathstroke pulled out his pistol and shot him in the side of the face, injuring his face quite a bit. He yanked out the sword, showing it suddenly become two smaller swords.

"YOU MOTHERFUCKER!"

Garfiel and the others were wide eyed seeing Deathstroke land on his feet, just after appearing out of nowhere.

Justice Commander rushed forward to hit him, but Deathstroke kicked something forward, seeing it as a potential danger, he covered up, only for the grenade to explode and riddle his body with shrapnel.

Seeing his chance he sliced forward, nearly cutting off his forearms, which, barely hanged on by a few muscle fibers.

Just before he could react accordingly, he began to glow white..his eyes widened as he realized what exactly was happening to him. He let out a vile roar at him, his eyes becoming bloodshot as he raced to him, letting his arms swing around.

"I AM NOT GOING TO DIE ALONE!"

"Oh no, you're not...YOU'RE JOINING ALL YOUR LITTLE SOCIETY FRIENDS TOO."

"DAMN YOU!"

As he kicked at him, Deathstroke leaped over him in a flip, aiming his twin swords downward, they combined again and became a long spear, stabbing him through the shoulder. He yanked it out and landed cleanly behind his opponent.

He roared out and spun around, his eyes shining red with fury; he vanished into light, leaving nothing behind.

Just as this happened, a pillar of pink light shined several feet away from them, almost as if it was a signal for the fight's end.

Everyone collected themselves as they met up on the branch where the fight started.

"Deathstroke-san, how did you even get here?"

"Well, I was up several branches ahead of you when I saw the shit display of combat you guys were in. Couldn't stand the pitiful display so I decided to intervene."

"Yeah, but how did you get here so fast?"

He recalled how he asked Priscilla to kick his feet as he jumped into the air, making him dive down at an incredibly fast rate, like some sort of missile.

It was...kind of an embarrassing sight for him.

"Don't worry about it."

"...Well, okay then."

Subaru rubbed his hair as Beatrice finished healing his injuries, so she moved on to heal the Pearlbaton Siblings.

Garfiel bowed in front of Deathstroke,his head to the ground and everything.

"Thank you. Thank you for helpin' Slade-"

"-What the hell are you thanking for?"

"Huh?"

Deathstroke crossed his arms as he stared down at the young man.

"If you didn't do such a terrible job at fighting, I wouldn't have had to step in at all. If I hadn't shown up most of these people would have been killed, all on your watch Garfiel."

"I...I know…"

"And why is that?"

"...Because…"

He began to tremble a bit, Mimi looking with her only good eye, which could barely see through the swollen mass around it.

"I'm weak."

"..."

"I'm weak and try to do things that only th' strong can do. I hate myself for bein' this stupid. I just want to get stronger...Stronger so I can save my friends, like th' shield I'm supposed to be...so tha'..."

"Well?"

"So I can protect th' girl I love."

Mimi just stared at him, seeing the tears falling from his eyes.

Deathstroke sighed.

"The first step to get stronger is realizing your weaknesses and overcoming them. So do that and get strong Garfiel."

"Slade…"

"Cause' I don't get paid enough to be saving everyone's asses. Especially yours. So get stronger damn it. I don't want to be having to come back here and saving your ass again."

He nodded turned away and looked out into the settings around him.

Garfiel bowed to him again.

"Thanks."

Mimi walked over to him, but he never raised his head.

"Garf."

"Please Mimi...please forgive me…"

"Garf…"

"I know you mus' be angry, dissapointed and le' down by stupid old me…"

"Garf, look at Mimi."

He raised his head, only to be bonked in the head by her staff.

"OW!"

"STUPID GARF! STUPID! STUPID!"

She then hugged his head and held him affectionately.

"Mimi is glad! Happy! Mimi is so happy to see her Garf still alive and with her."

"Mimi…"

"M...Mimi loves you Garf, don't ever forget that."

He hugged her back, before sniffling his tears and pulling her face close to his, making her blush.

"Um, Mimi's face still is messed up-"

"-Shut up."

He pulled her into a kiss, making her tear up as well. Everyone around them let them have their moment. Even her brothers had seem to accept it as something normal they had to deal with.

Subaru patted Beatrice on the head.

"Hey Beatrice, you think Garfiel will ever get as strong as that?"

"Hmmm...Betty thinks if that is the case, her Subaru should work on his own strength, I suppose. Lest you get caught off guard in the future."

"Ha, right."

He watched on as the couple broke their kiss and simply hugged each other.

As soon as the healing session was over, they would move on and hopefully catch up with the others.

Batman punched Elsa away before grabbing her by the leg and slamming her on the ground, he did this twice more before flying up in the air with her, spinning around and around and tossing her straight into the ground. She had a crater form under her, but she stood up and licked her lips up at him. He flew down and traded strikes with her, before he actually gave her, her comeuppance.

Slicing open her belly with his armors claws.

She smiled down at the sight, sickening Batman per usual. He tackled her off the branch and fired a Jiwald beam through her shoulder, she raised a large sword over her head and struck down. But it was of course blocked. He then punched her across the face, ripping apart half of it. Then he saw a light below himself and kicked her down towards it. She spin in the air, too late to notice the pillar of light raising itself to her, she looked up and saw Batman flying away with his wings. She tried to catch up but two bats he created with his nanosuit tackled her back.

Instantly, she knew she was beaten.

"How...interes-"

She was bathed in the explosive forces, leaving nothing behind. He made it back to the branch and saw Frederica and Sarah on the floor with Maira standing over them. Both ladies tried to get back up, but both were too injured to do so.

Maira retrieved her long spiral spear and aimed it down at Frederica's head, she struggled to look up as the assassin prepared to outright impale her.

She was then tackled away by Batman who dragged her against the ground before proceeding to punch her cheeks in. Even as she summoned her dragon scales, they were actually chipped away by the force of his punches. She got free from his grasp, only for him to dodge each strike, with such speed that both girls were barely even to register the movements.

Sarah got up to her feet and got her forearm blades ready, she dashed forward and got behind Maira, who summoned a spiked tail and tried to slam her away. She twirled around the strike, and got next to her...only for Maira to suddenly toss the spear to her head, impaling it completely.

"SARAH!"

She fell to her knees…

Maira then noticed she was somehow back to being pushed by Batman and Sarah was coming up behind her.

"HUH?"

Batman realized what had occured and slammed his foot to the ground and made his wings form giant hands that grabbed Maira and shoved her to the ground and flipped her in the air.

He made it over to Sarah, watching as a beam of light shot between them and struck against Maira's scaled face.

He looked back and saw Priscilla aiming her fan and Aldebaran running forward.

"Al!"

"Coming through!"

Al dashed to the dragon girl as she rubbed her face from the initial blast, he retrieved his sword and sliced at her neck. His sword broke into pieces and he was stabbed through the back of his helmet and put his eyeholes.

As Maira glared back at the others, she saw Al once again running towards her, this time he summoned an earth pillar that hit her in the chin and drop kicked the very pillar, slamming it against her.

"She's all yours bro!"

Batman leaped over and fired his chest beam at her, crushing her down to the ground. She got up from the blast, showing a burned area beneath her shaped as the bat symbol.

She panted and heaved as clumps of her hair were burned away, her eyes were bloodshot and her scales were tearing off bit by bit.

Batman finally got next to her and punched her hard enough in the face that the scales around her neck broke apart exposing her normal neck.

Al saw the chance and sliced it away, shooting blood all over the area. Priscilla created her Light Sword and carefully aimed, before she licked her lips and tossed it with great speed, a gust wind shooting from it. It shot forward and stabbed straight through the assassin neck...as she began to cough out her last breaths she glared at a still injured Frederica. She lunged towards her, only to come face to face with Batman, his red visor shining blood red.

"DON'T EVER GO AFTER HER."

He slapped her away and she dragged across the floor for several feet before coming to a stop...she tried getting up..but the strength in her arms left her and she fell to the ground, dead.

With the fight over, Batman and Sarah hurried over to help Frederica to her feet.

She hugged the both of them, seemingly overjoyed to see them still alive and the feeling was indeed mutual between the three.

Batman turned his head as he hugged her back.

"Al, thank you for saving Sarah, I owe you."

"Don't mention it, you've saved our skin way too many times to count. It was the least we could do."

Batman nodded, he began to work on Frederica and Sarah's injuries as Priscilla looked up and saw that they were nearing the top of the tree.

"We're almost up there it seems."

"Yeah Princess, just a bit more and then we'll be the first ones."

"Alright, Al, we shall be the ones to conquer the top of this tree."

He sighed at her beaming excitement.

Batman finished up wrapping up their bandages.

Having removed his helmet they could see he was sweating profusely and his skin was still cracked, it was obvious a lot of healing would need to be done on him.

"Bruce."

"Yeah, Sarah?"

"Yes, Are you doing well?"

"As long as you two are doing well, then I am at a hundred percent."

The two girls blushed as he put his helmet back on.

The two of them rested their heads on his shoulders. Frederica decided to nuzzle as well.

"I...I just hope we can end this."

"Me too."

He reached out his hands and both of them entwined their fingers with his.

Several feet behind them a blast of fire shot down and incinerated Maira's body. The group of five looked up and saw that wall of fire was being created by an orange haired girl, one they recognized. Being held around the neck, by another person they all knew too well.

Their faces scrunched up in anger as they stood tall and faced him.

Batman got up, but in front of Sarah and Frederica; as if to prevent them from fighting any further.

"THE SIN ARCHBISHOP OF PRIDE."

"BATMAN."

Natsuki Subaru frowned as he looked down at his current mortal enemy, his Witch Cult cape fluttering in the air and his new arm being seen by them for the first time.

But once again a hideous smile plastered across his face, the fire growing stronger around him.

"No one's moving any closer, I'll have you all incinerated. But what luck...I get the traitor."

He glanced over at Al, who clenched his sword's hilt tightly. He then moved his sights back to Batman.

"And of course, this asshole too."

Batman ready his claws as he glared at him under his helmet.

Now, they would have to face the last guard of the Algol Tree, a version of the very person they were there to save in the first place.

At the ground back on the converged world, Halibel cloned himself several times as he slaughtered down members of the Witch's Cult...but he was tackled away into a nearby house, as he got up he snarled at his opponent.

"Damn it, snap out of it!"

He stepped forward readying his sword.

"Snap out of it! Cyborg-san!"

Cyborg aimed his blaster arm at him; through his scrunched up face, it was evident in how he was not in control of his body.

Petra looked around as she saw the fighting was getting intense, Flash zipping by, Green Lantern trying to scale back some Cultists and Blue Beetle blocking several fire blasts. She glanced over and saw a broom nearby, she nodded to herself, as she grabbed it and slammed away the brush part. The other version of herself watched on in shock seeing her spin around the wooden weapon she made for herself. Just as a Witch Cultist appeared before her.

"Little girl, you should put that down, you'll only get hurt."

"No! It's time I put in my own work too! I have to prove myself!"

"Cute, but meaningless in the long run."

She glared at him, as he began to float in the air. The Rem from the Kararagi timeline, flinched as she saw this...she knew who it was.

"Sado…"

Subaru glanced over to her as she held his hand even tighter.

"Rem?"

"He...he helped destroy my village."

Subaru panicked as he realized Petra was intending to fight someone like him, but he couldn't help but watch as Petra aimed her staff weapon at him.

"You won't get any closer, Witch Cultist!"

Petra made a face of determination, not intending to be weak and helpless any longer.

Fearmonger laughed as dragged his staff forward and had raised it up quickly, sending earth spikes hurling forward. Aquaman struck them down with his trident, before Otto shot a magic stone at him. He rolled away from it, as it exploded behind him, and smiled as he did so.

Soon the ground began to crack and the Witch Cultist gripped his staff with excitment.

Raven had her shadows all around, mostly to protect the others behind her...but also to cover up her disintegrated left arm. In front of her, Nightwing was aiming his staff at her and Kilowog aimed his ring at her...she furrowed her eyes at the man behind them, Stride Vollachia. Who was sweeping some dust off his shoulders as if nothing important was going on around him. Two ninjas guarded him as he then noticed the other one, leering at him.

Constantine had some magical symbols all around himself, panting as he stared right at the nonchalant looking Sin Archbishop.

"Damn it, why?"

Stride motioned them to bring it on.

"Why the hell are my attacks not hitting him?!"

Pamela was sitting with Ferris and Crusch on the ground. She could see the fighting was taking quite the bad turn, she glanced at her two friends.

Ferris was petting Crusch who stared off into the distance, the cat boy mumbling to himself.

She made a pained expression, realizing that they were in danger. She got up, grabbing their attention.

"P...Pamela…?"

"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid, I have to fight."

As tried to move away from them, Ferris grabbed her hand.

"NYO! FERRIS...CAN'T LOSE ANYMORE PEOPLE! NYO MORE! NYO MORE!"

Pamela hugged him tightly as she caressed his hair, she looked back at Crusch who tilted her head.

She smiled at her friend.

She tossed Ferris back and formed a dome of vines around them. She also made sure to toss in a conversing metia for them.

She nodded as used a large vine to carry her forward.

"NYO! COME BACK!"

Ferris slammed his fists against the vines, over and over again he did this, panicking as he did so.

"PLEASE COME BACK!"

Pamela sharpened her gaze against the sight of the battlefield, the sun rising ever so highly above her.

She knew, what she had to do.

Ferris could only cry out.

"PAMELAAAAAA!"

The final obstacles ahead of them, were the very representations of the sin of pride, and to defeat them, sacrifices were once again, necessary.

AN: Next time, "Power of Pride", see you then!