Looking at Kara, Daniel realized she wasn't listening to a single word he said.
He quickly ran through his options.
Matching her physically was impossible. Every exchange of blows ended with him being overpowered.
His soul manipulation wasn't working either. The enchantments woven into her Apokoliptian armor blocked his Death Scythe every time he tried to reach her soul.
"What are you thinking about?"
Kara's voice came from directly behind him.
Daniel instinctively twisted aside.
Her punch tore through the air where his head had been a fraction of a second earlier.
As she rushed past, Daniel caught hold of her cape.
A grin spread across his face.
"You know..."
"Capes are terrible in a fight."
He yanked it with all his strength.
Kara's balance broke for an instant.
Daniel spun with the momentum and used the cape to hurl her across the battlefield.
She crashed into a mountain of rubble, sending broken concrete and twisted steel flying in every direction.
Daniel didn't waste the opening.
He shot forward before she could recover.
Both of his hands clamped firmly around Kara's head.
"It's time to wake you up."
Instead of attacking her body, Daniel reached directly toward her soul, trying to force dormant memories back to the surface.
Kara reacted immediately.
Her fist drove straight through Daniel's chest.
Blood sprayed across the ground.
Her arm emerged from his back.
She expected him to collapse.
Instead, Daniel simply looked down at the fist embedded in his chest and smiled.
"Yeah..."
"Sorry to disappoint you."
"I'm heartless."
Before Kara could pull her arm back, Daniel's hands tightened against her head.
His consciousness reached past the magical barrier protecting her soul and searched deeper, attempting to force open the memories buried beneath Darkseid's brainwashing.
Daniel's consciousness finally reached the source of the brainwashing buried deep within Kara's mind.
The instant he touched it, the mental seal reacted.
Kara's entire body trembled.
Fear flashed across her face for the first time since the battle had begun, as though something inside her recognized what Daniel was trying to do.
Her eyes immediately ignited with crimson light.
Twin beams of heat vision erupted at point-blank range, piercing straight through Daniel's neck.
The attack was enough to vaporize steel.
Daniel didn't loosen his grip.
Blood ran down his chest, but his hands remained firmly locked around Kara's head.
"It's time to wake up, dear."
Kara completely lost control.
She struggled with everything she had, punching, kicking, and trying to tear herself free, but Daniel refused to let go.
Every attempt to escape only caused the mental seal to crack further as he continued forcing his way through the layers of Darkseid's conditioning.
Minutes passed.
The battle was no longer physical.
It had become a struggle between Daniel's will and the brainwashing buried inside Kara's mind.
The crimson glow in her eyes flickered violently.
Fragments of her real memories began surfacing, only to be buried again by the conditioning.
Daniel continued pushing forward.
The cracks spread deeper until the final seal could no longer hold.
Kara let out one last agonizing scream.
The crimson light vanished from her eyes.
Her body instantly went limp as consciousness faded, and Daniel caught her before she collapsed to the ground.
***
Steppenwolf rose from the crater left by Superman's last punch, rolling his shoulders as pieces of broken armor fell to the ground.
Around him, Superman hovered overhead while Diana circled with her sword and shield ready. Barry never stayed still, constantly using his speed to strike from different angles before disappearing again.
A short distance away, Batman and Cyborg ignored the battle entirely.
Bruce provided cover while Victor remained connected to the three Mother Boxes, trying to interrupt the Unity before it reached completion.
Steppenwolf noticed them immediately.
A smile spread across his face.
"Hmph."
"You're wasting your time."
He swung his axe, forcing Superman and Diana to jump back as a wave of energy tore through the ground.
"You cannot stop what is coming."
Barry reappeared beside him and landed dozens of punches in the span of a second, but Steppenwolf barely moved.
The New God backhanded Barry away before turning his attention back to Superman.
"The Unity has already begun."
He raised his axe toward the sky.
"Soon, this world will belong to Lord Darkseid."
Superman shot forward without another word.
His fist crashed into Steppenwolf's jaw, launching the New God across the battlefield and through the remains of an alien tower before the fight erupted once again.
Daniel looked over his shoulder at the unconscious Kara resting against his back.
He had to admit...
"You're really a handful."
He adjusted her slightly into a more secure piggyback carry before heading toward the center of the battlefield.
His objective hadn't changed.
The System Fragment hidden inside the Mother Boxes.
As he approached the Unity, the familiar notification appeared before his eyes.
[Fragment Detected.]
Daniel raised an eyebrow.
"That was easier than I expected."
Another notification appeared.
[Recovering Fragment...]
Unlike before, there was no resistance.
A small blue fragment separated itself from the energy surrounding the Mother Boxes and shot straight toward Daniel, merging into his body the instant it reached him.
The process ended almost immediately.
[Fragment Recovered.]
A final notification appeared before him.
[Congratulations.]
[You have obtained the Anti-Dimension Equation.]
*****
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