The Dark of You ( DC/Overlord) [No Ainz/Nazarick]

[Stimpak Medic]

Disclaimer: No Nazarick/Ainz in this.

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Prologue: Saving Carne Village

"Rao knows I tried. But broken and alone, I bowed to the beast inside. I turned into a monster. A wrecking ball in a world of porcelain. I broke my vows I made to myself, and everyone else. As sure a the sunlight that empowered me, I should not have been forgiven, and rightfully I have not been. But still, I will do what I can to right my horrible wrongs.

Sometimes I even scare myself with what I did. What I am capable of doing.

They call me Superboy Prime.

Right now, there's this lame Batman wannabe doing what a billion other villains have tried to do before him. Remake reality in his fancy.

So as I fight this Bat God who wishes to redo all of reality in his image, I can only think of one thing.

I can't go back, but I can go forward.

This is why I will defeat him. He is what I could be if I did not hold back. If I did not realize my deadly flaws.

We clash, and we are evenly matched. His crisis energy from all of time and space, versus my determination and unbridled power. They clash, each trying to overcome the other, but we cannot find closure to our conflict.

He offers me a universe where everything is how it was, but no. I won't falter. If such a place exists, he wouldn't touch it.

And so, I come to a final conclusion.

I must destroy his multiverse to weaken him severely. My fight isn't to beat him. We can't beat each other. However, I can do what only I can. Change the story. Turn his nightmare multiverse against him. Turn his narrative back at him, in one final attack.

I clench my fist, and the powers of all my love, my hope, my pain, my sorrow, and my fear condense into one power. A power that can alter even fate itself. I can't stop what I've already put into motion, and so I pull back my fist with the power to make things right. Then I release my punch, and all goes white.

---

Clark woke from what he assumed was a nightmare. Sweat poured off his forehead and every part of his body. It was a horrible feeling. Knowing something horrible had happened, but not knowing exactly what. The last thing he remembered was letting loose the strongest punch he had ever thrown at the Batman Who Laughs and the very essence of his dark multiverse.

He remembered the feeling of changing the past, present, and future of all those universes. Changing the very story itself, then nothing. Waking up here, wherever this was. It was as if he had left a DVD in his player before leaving the room for an hour, not knowing what had occurred whilst he was gone.

A yellow sun shone down on him. The bruises and lacerations from his multiverse-spanning battle slowly healed, and he stood from the thick green grass where he had been deposited. His solar armor, made from the Anti-Monitor's remains, was gone, and all he had on were the tattered bottoms of his costume and silver boots.

All around him were the sounds. The sounds of a living, breathing, real world.

He let out a breath he didn't even know that he had been holding in.

He clenched his right fist, extending his arm out, flexing his muscles, then stretching. His body felt incredibly tight. As if he were clenching his muscles excessively.

"Relax..." He said softly to himself, letting the noises and sensations slip by him like a sleek stone in a stream.

Slowly, everything seemed to come together. A vague memory flashed through his mind. A hooded figure in a gray robe. Red eyes, a thin gray body. Spiked bone protrusions and a row of sharp teeth.

"Doomsday!" Clark grit his teeth, grinding them against each other. Something wasn't right. Doomsday didn't have that powerset, and also, why did Doomsday not attack him? Instead, he sent him to this world.

No matter how he thought about it, it didn't make sense. Doomsday didn't do things like that. Doomsday didn't think this far. The Doomsday he knew about wasn't stupid, not by any proper sense of the word, but he still would not act like this. Something was dreadfully wrong with this whole situation.

Something bigger was happening, and he was left out of it. His nerd brain began working at full capacity.

Why would Doomsday do this? Doomsday must be trying to get him out of the way, throwing him into this universe. He could punch his way out of the universe. He could do that. But he wouldn't. Universe hopping without a guide or an anchor was excessively dangerous, and he wasn't that stupid as to try without a goal.

Another thought hit him like a right hook from the Monarch. Then it hit him again.

What if... What if the memory about Doomsday was fake? What if it had been planted there by someone? Sure, his mind was incredibly strong, and your average telepath or mind warper wouldn't have a shot in Hell at anything in his head, but if it was The Batman Who Laughs, with the powers of both Perpetua and Doctor Manhattan, that might be possible.

"Darn. Not enough information." Clark grumbled, clenching and unclenching his fist several times in front of him. It was a fist that could make real changes, but it was a fist he wouldn't use anymore if he couldn't help it. It was a power that was too dangerous, too volatile.

The sun was providing him with all the energy he was missing from his fight with the Bat God. It was slow, but it was all coming back. The power used to alter the very base information of reality, to change the very stories and narratives the Bat God had so carefully created, left him dry, but the sun would return that power. It was only a matter of time. A cut above his left eye sealed closed, and the dried blood flaked off and fell to the grass.

'I guess the first thing I have to do is find out just where I am, and what I should be doing.'

With that thought in mind, Clark began walking through the grasslands towards a forest in the distance. After a little more than twenty minutes, Clark found himself on a road to a village. In the distance, he could hear the sounds of men and women in their day-to-day work. There were no sounds of cars, trucks, televisions, or any electronics, for that matter. As he walked down the dirt path through the woods, he saw in the distance a small town poking its roofs through the trees and bushes. As the forest faded away somewhat, the ground made way for an open village square. However, something was dead wrong.

In the small village of stone and wood cottages, what looked like well-armed medieval soldiers were slaughtering the townsfolk.

'I gotta stop this.' Clark's mind was slower than his body.

With a loud Crack of the sound barrier breaking, Clark shot forward as a blur.

Within no more than a second, the entire group of attacking soldiers were unconscious and disarmed in a pile in the small town center.

Clark hovered above them, arms crossed while looking down at his good work.

Slowly, but cautiously, the surviving villagers stepped out of their hiding places, only to see the strange sight of a young man of barely nineteen years of age floating above a large pile of slumped disarmed soldiers. The soldiers' armor and weapons were tossed into a pile farther away from them, their weapons snapped and crunched into small, palm-sized balls.

The young man had no shirt, revealing his pale, incredibly muscular, toned torso and arms. He had short black hair, blue eyes, blue tight material that might have been full chaps, and silver boots.

It was so absurd. One second, the soldiers were attacking them, and then in the blink of an eye, they were defeated by this strange young man. Was he a wizard? He had to be, as only wizards and their strange magics could do such a thing.

An old man cautiously and slowly walked out of what looked to be the town hall, which really was no more than a somewhat larger cottage.

"Greetings and our Deepest thanks, young man. I am the chief of this Carne Village. Are you a wizard from E-Rantel sent to help us?" The man, with an elderly body and brown hair, said, stopping at a polite distance from Clark. The man wore a fiber brown shirt with brown pants. Gray boots were tightly laced on his feet, and his body was firm, likely from many years of hard work.

Clark floated down in front of him. The man seemed to be good, and he had an almost Pa Kent air to him, so Clark had a good impression of him.

Landing and stepping forward, hand out for a handshake, Clark spoke.

"Nice to meet you. My name is Clark Kent. You can also call me Prime. I'm not a wizard, just very far from home haha." Clark finished with an awkward smile and weak laugh.

"Well met, Mr Kent. I hope you don't take offense to my asking this, but are these soldiers still alive? I don't think the survivors of this attack can handle them if they wake up."

"None taken. These guys won't be waking up for a day or so. Enough for me to figure out what's going on. Would you mind talking inside? It's not that being outside is bad... It's that I'm not good with attention." Clark responded, giving another awkward smile before letting the chief's hand go.

"Of course, Mr Kent. Is there anything that I can give you in return for saving our village? We don't have much, but I'll do my best." The old man replied, turning towards the hall. Of course, he was a little nervous about the soldiers waking up, but if this powerful traveler said they wouldn't wake up, then he wouldn't question their savior further.

Inside the cottage, Clark and the man sat down at the table. The man stood up and bowed to Clark. Now that we have time, I would like to thank you again, good sir. We don't have much silver, but I will be sure to gather it for you if you want it." The bowing man said.

Clark was made uncomfortable by this. He didn't want this man, who reminded him of a younger Johnathan Kent, to be bowing to him like this.

"You don't need to bow to me. I did it cause it's the right thing to do. If you want to pay me back for it, then tell me about this place. I'm from very far away, and I'm like a fish out of water. Haha." Clark laughed and ran his hand through his hair.

He was trying hard to ignore the nagging thought in the back of his head that this was all happening for a reason. That he was dancing to someone else's tune. Yet there was nothing he could do about it just yet.

"Of course. Can you wait for a moment? My wife is still hiding. We can have our talk with her, she used to make maps in her youth, and she would know the world more than an old shepherd turned chief like me." He said with some reminiscence in his voice.

" Oh, yes, let her know it's alright now."

"Thank you, Mr Kent." The elderly man replied, walking into another room down a short hallway. The sounds of a hatch being opened, followed by the conversation of the man and an elderly woman, could be heard by Clark.

The two returned moments later. The lady, who had a thin face, long brown hair and gray eyes, wearing a blue evening dress, bowed to him.

"Thank you for saving me, my husband, and everyone. I dread what would have happened otherwise." She said, and her voice, unlike her husband's thick voice, was light and calm.

"No problem, Mrs. I am Clark Kent from New England. It's far away from here. Tell me, who were those soldiers?" Clark asked.

"From what little we've seen, they're from the Empire. Our Carne Village is on the border zone between the Re-Estize Kingdom and the Baharuth Empire. Not to mention the nearby Great Forest of Tob. That's where all the monsters are." The lady said, looking to her husband for confirmation.

"Yes, that's what the lumberjack and trappers report. I heard that the Goblins have been getting restless these days. Too many adventurers are killing them. But good riddance, I'd say get the job done and kill em all already. Too many merchants and adventurers died from those nasty things."

"I agree, they arerereven attacked our herbalist transport wagon. Thankfully, the adventurers fought them off." The woman agreed.

'Oh, so it's one of those worlds.' Clark though. One where, unless subdued by a greater force, the goblin menace would be a serious issue for the day-to-day lives of farmers and traders.

It was like one of those old-school RPG games, before everything became morally gray. That was better for him. He didn't want to have to think if he was doing something bad when obliterating monsters, and he didn't wanna play goblin babysitter for every goblin out there. Best to just get rid of them.

He didn't particularly hate non-human races. Elves were cool, so were dwarves. Everyone enjoyed Tolkien and Advanced Dungeons and Dragons second edition, but goblins and ogres were kill on sight for him unless there was a really good reason not to. A really good reason.

"Let me know if you need some goblin extermination. I'll do you that favor before I hit the road again." Clark said, standing up and punching his palm softly.

" If you would, we would deeply appreciate it. Gathering herbs gets really scary with those around." The lady continued.

"Alright, can you give me a place to stay the night? I'm thinking of resting here tonight before leaving tomorrow to explore. I feel like there's a purpose to be had here." Clark responded with some hope he could get a room.

" Of course. We'll make room for you any time you come... Now, pardon my asking, but what are you going to do about the soldiers?" The chief asked, putting his hands behind his back and preparing for an unpleasant answer.

But that unpleasant answer never came.

Prime thought for a moment.

"Good question. I'll probably just fly them back to their country's capital. I'm not looking to start killing people as soon as I arrive here, unless I have to, I guess." Prime shrugged. He could kill them all; he could do that. But he didn't want to if he didn't have to. He had done enough killing of people weaker than him.

In a strange way, this was his chance to start fresh, where nobody knew where he was. He wanted to be like his hero, Superman. Not Zod. Zod had his moments, but he was pretty lame. Superman didn't kill people unless he had to. Monsters were a different story, though. He was pretty liberal with their deaths. After all, he wasn't your Grandpa's Superman.

He was Superboy Prime, and he had his own code. He was a Superman, but he was his own man, with his own systems.

And right now, deep down, all he cared about was how good it felt to be alive.

 

[Stimpak Medic]

Chapter One: Eye of The Storm

'It's hard to say that I'm back on a straight line. Changing things is what I do. It's in my blood, it's in my fists, and it won't die. And so, it begins. It's this urge, this awareness that holds me here. I begin to feel like I am needed here. Doomsday could not have predicted this. It must have been random. Right?'

"Mr. Kent, are you well?" The chief asks with some restrained trepidation, seeing me cut off and seemingly stare into space behind him.

"Yes, I am. I just have a lot to think about." Clark replied, snapping back to reality.

"Well, I was just thinking that the Empire's capital is so far away. It'll take you a long time to get there. Much less get back. Days even."

"For me, it will just take a few moments. I'm pretty fast. The problem is that I have no clue where anything is." Clark replied with a grin; it was amusing. Then a thought hit him.

Why not just listen? He'd done it before, but he didn't like it all that well. Sifting through thousands upon thousands of people talking taxed his brain, especially when it was so far away. His mainline Hero Clark was always better than him at it.

The two just looked at him oddly.

The idea that he could just fly across the country and back with those soldiers was beyond their comprehension as simple people. The abilities of wizards, witches, and whatever this young man was were completely outside of their frame of reference.

"Well, we do have a map somewhere around here, but are you sure you can do that?" The chief asked as the two sat back down across from Prime.

"More than sure. Just watch!" Prime replied. He had a bit of enjoyment watching these regular folks from this new world react to his powers, but it would get old quickly.

"Well, it would be much appreciated." The chief responded, shaking his head and just accepting the words at face value.

The chief swallowed a gulp and asked something that had been on his mind since he saw the young man.

"I hope I'm not overstepping my boundaries, but what happened to your chest? Were you branded? That looks very painful," he said, looking at the S that was carved into his chest.

Prime looked down at his chest. Then he pointed to the 'S'.

"Oh, this? This was from when I was a lot more unstable. I was locked up in a really hard-to-escape prison. I did it." He said, giving a somewhat scary smile to the man, before speaking again

"Let's not talk about that, alright? I'm trying to put that behind me." He said, running his hand through his hair.

"Oh, alright." The lady next to the chieftain said, tapping her husband on the shoulder and whispering something in his ear.

"Anyways, I wanted to go look around. I'll take my leave." Prime said, walking around the two and leaving the hall.

"What have we invited into our homes?" The chief asked his wife, who shared a serious look with him.

Prime walked into the village. The first thing he thought about was the two young girls whom he quickly passed on the far edge of the village when he was collecting the soldiers. They seemed pretty scared.

Taking to the sky above the trees, he used his X-Ray vision.

In a second, he saw their skeletons moving through the trees.

""Found you." He smiled and shot down through the trees. Not even once did he think about the adverse reaction they would have to him. He should have.

Crunch. He landed on some twigs and leaves in front of the girls.

"Stay back!" The taller girl stopped mid-stride, while the smaller girl behind her, likely her younger sister, cowered behind her.

Prime put his hands up to show he wasn't a threat, but he had miscalculated. The girl thought he was preparing a spell and hugged her sister.

"Please don't!" She cried, and Prime had flashbacks of what he did back during the Infinite Crisis and other worlds.

"Easy there, I'm not here to hurt you. I was just making sure you were alright. The chieftain will be worried if you're not back soon." Prime said, giving his best non-threatening demeanor. But for a bulky young man with an S carved into his chest, that just flew down from the sky, was a hard sell.

"Really?" The young lady, holding her sister, slowly turned her head towards him and asked him a question.

"Then are... Are the soldiers gone?" She dared to hope.

"Yep, I got rid of them," Prime said, neglecting to mention some soldiers he noticed a few miles out, but he wasn't sure if they were coming to the village, or if they were the same as the attackers. They could be from whatever country the village was from that was chasing the attacking soldiers. He honestly didn't really care much for the conflict, but he needed information, and saving a village wasn't exactly a bad thing to do.

"Really?" The young lady asked, her eyes wide with a mix of confusion and awe.

"Now you're just making me feel bad. When I say I did, I did." Prime chuckled, running his right hand through his hair. He was trying to make his best impression, but he just wasn't used to this stuff. If you needed something punched or killed, he was your guy. Caring for children was not his bread and butter.

The young lady seemed to catch on that he was telling the truth.

"Thank you, mister. I'm Enri, and this is my little sister." She said, stepping to the side and giving him her name. The younger girl poked her head out from behind the girl's back and gave a small wave before hiding again.

"A pleasure," Prime said, very much out of his comfort zone.

"With that out of the way, do you want to walk or fly back?" He asked, looking back at where the village was.

"Fly?" Enri asked, her eyes going wide and looking nervous.

"Yeah, climb on my back," Prime said, turning around.

"Uhhhm..." Enri said cautiously, and her younger sister shook her head, tugging on her dress. It seems they were still very shook up.

"Know what...never mind, let's just walk," Prime said, turning around while shrugging. It seemed asking to fly them back to the village wasn't the best given the scenario. He was pretty obtuse when it came to things like this.

Prime walked back towards the village, and the girls walked quietly behind him for a minute before Enri walked next to him. Her younger sister tagged behind her, still nervous around Prime.

"I haven't seen you around the village. Have you moved in or are you just passing through?" She asked, looking up at Prime.

Prime slowed down a little, thinking about his plans in this world.

"Well, I'm not going to stay for long. Probably for a day or so after I get rid of the nearby monsters. I promised the chief that much." Prime shrugged, looking back at Enri. Then, Prime spoke up again.

"I think a bunch of people in the village died before I got there. I hope your parents are still alive." Prime tried to console the girls, but there was little he actually knew about the situation, so he wasn't entirely sure.

Enri's sister stumbled and fell with a cry, and the two stopped.

"Nemu!" Enri called to her, kneeling next to her and holding her close.

"Oh, right, are you two hurt?" Prime asked. He should have asked earlier, but he wasn't thinking about it.

"We'll be alright," Enri said, but only then did Prime see the blood soaking the shoulder of her dress, and Nemu's leg seemed twisted in a not-so-normal way.

"Stay still, I'll try to help heal you. I've never done this before, but I remember how He did it." Prime said, standing next to the two sisters and raising his arms.

"Wh-" Enri quieted down mid-word as she felt a warm energy embrace her body. It felt like the sun itself had gently and non painfully embraced her body. It was warm and comforting. She looked up at Prime, who was in the middle of what looked like a strange dance. Was this some kind of martial arts?

Twenty or so seconds passed, and Prime stopped his strange dance-like motions, and both Enri and Nemu's wounds had sealed closed, as well as Nemu's leg righting itself into it's proper place.

"What was that?" Nemu, seemingly calmed by the technique asked in awe, and Enri was also curious.

"Torquasm Rao. A martial art from my people, which I used to redirect some of my powers to you for a moment to accelerate your healing. You should have felt the warmth of the sun for a moment." He said, taking a soft breath before continuing.

"I've never done it before, but I've seen it done by someone I dearly look up to." Prime replied, but most of it went completely past the girls, but Enri understood the words martial arts to an extent. She had seen a passing adventurer talk about martial arts. They were special abilities of adventurers honed by their own effort and struggles.

"Whoa!" Nemu said excitedly. It was obvious she enjoyed the experience, and even if most of the words went over her head as well, she did realize something special had happened.

"Thank you." Enri bowed to Prime, and he just smiled.

"Don't worry. I've already said I would look after you guys to the village chief, so while I'm here, I'll do what I said I would." Prime said, and began walking back towards the village.

"Right," Enri said happily, and the three made their way back to the village.

Several hours later, Prime had sat and talked with the chief and his wife, and then, with the help of a map and a large net he had quickly made, brought the soldiers somewhere. He didn't really want to put in the work to bring them to a capital city, so he just flew in one direction for a few minutes before dropping the net filled with disarmed soldiers in a large field somewhere.

He left them there and didn't think about them again, as it was, in reality, several hundred miles away. They had to make their way back if they really wanted to.

Then, using his Super-Hearing, he located the chieftain and flew back. He passed over several cities and more than a dozen towns, but he would visit those later. He made a promise, and he wanted to keep it.

Landing down in front of the hall, he was greeted by the Chieftain coming out of the hall, and there was a moment of confused hesitation on his face, before Prime gave him a two-thumbs-up.

"They're not going to be bothering you any time soon. But, some people are coming..." Prime said, his eyes narrowing as he looked towards the far entrance of the village.

"People?" The chief looked worriedly where Prime was looking, but there was nothing there.

"Men on horses, a good few dozen of them or more," Prime replied, a smile on his face.

"Should I go give them a greeting?" He continued.

"Could you wait here? Just in case." The chieftain's wife asked, and Prime nodded.

"Sure thing, I'll wait at the entrance to the village," Prime said, and time passed.

Soon, the sounds of dozens of horses' hooves galloping down the road in front of Prime, who was hovering a few feet off the ground on the road to the village, could be heard by the villagers. Soon after, the soldiers came into view, in file, slowing down upon seeing the Kryptonian.

Prime put out his hand, flying forward.

"Stop!" He shouted lightly, his voice empowered by his super speech.

With a whinny, several dozen horses slowed to a trot as they approached prime, then stopped, one man's horse trotting up to him. He stopped a few meters away.

It was a bulky man with slightly tanned skin, a square face, and bright eyes. He wore brown armor and had a large sword on his back. His brown hair was ruffled by the wind, and he had a strong but gentle air to him.

"Are you this village's guardian?" He asked, and his stern voice made it clear that violence was to be had if he was, in fact, an enemy.

Prime floated down and replied. "While I'm here, I'll protect this village."

The man on the horse gave a relieved sigh.

"That's good. Too many border towns have fallen. Can you let us into the town? We're here to help." The man said, and Prime, seeing this man truly wished to help, stepped aside.

"Thank you, young man. What's your name? I'm Gazef." The man said, and Prime responded.

"You can call me CK. Clark Kent," Clark replied with a nod.

"Thank you, Mister Kent. Let's go to the village together." The man named Gazef chuckled and gave a genuinely relieved smile.

"On your right," Prime said, floating next to him.

"Soldiers, let's move," Gazef called out, and the soldiers with him spurred their horses, and they galloped into the village.

So came the beast into a trap, one he was not completely aware of. One Prime had not looked far enough to see.

One that both Prime and Gazef were soon to trigger. One that would change the balance of the world for the first time since the Eight Greed Kings.

 

[Stimpak Medic]

Chapter Two: Through the Eye Of The Storm

Half an hour had passed, and the small force led by Gazef Stronoff, as he was so named, stopped by the village, and the soldiers took a short rest. It turned out that they had been hunting down imperial knights that were taking villages by storm. Naturally, this came to the situation that Prime had created.

"You're saying you flew them into Imperial territory and dropped them there without weapons and armor?"

"Yeah, should I not have?" Prime replied with some awkwardness, but he didn't really care too much. Still, the situation was now further revealing itself to him. From what he saw, he liked the Gazef fellow. Straight to the point, good, kind, and honest. He would make for a good hero.

"No, that works. I'm more interested in how you managed to do it?" Gazef, who was sitting with him, his captain, and the chieftain in the hall, asked.

"I can fly really fast," Prime replied, giving his best grin, leaning back on his chair.

"Are you a wizard? Well, regardless, thank you for saving this village. The less of our citizens' blood spilled needlessly, the better." Gazef replied, the serious look returning to his face.

"I'm not a wizard. I'm not one for magic. I like the up close and personal fighting style. Good old fists and kicks." Prime responded with a grin before continuing.

"Y'know, I like you, Gazef. You seem like you'd make a great Hero." Prime replied.

Everyone in the room went silent for a moment, looking at Prime with a mixture of different emotions.

"I appreciate the high appraisal of myself, but I'm only doing what I should for the people who need it," Gazef replied with a chuckle, and Prime nodded.

"And that's exactly why. I'm sick of the darkness. Everyone wanting to remake the world in their image. It's all so tiresome." Prime continued, shrugging. The Batman Wo Barfs really put a bad taste in his mouth.

"Uhuh...Anyways, we're going to head over to the next village in a few hours. Do you want to join us?" Gazef asked, and Prime shook his head.

"Not now, but when I'm done here, I'll meet up with you if you want," Prime replied, and Gazef accepted.

"Any help we can get would be appreciated. My position isn't very good right now." Gazef said, and then the conversation continued for fifteen more minutes before Prime and Gazef left the hall.

Walking out into the square, Gazef stopped and asked him a question.

"What happened to your chest? Were you branded?" He asked, and Prime shook his head.

"I was locked away in a prison, and things happened." He responded. This Gazef character reminded him of the heroes back home, and something inside him made him not want to talk about the past he was trying to put behind him.

Gazef's eyes narrowed for a moment before sighing.

"We all have our secrets." He said with a shrug. Anyone could see Gazef had the exhaustion of a man who hated dealing with half-truths and secrets, and had dealt with too many of those in recent times for his liking.

"If you're worried I'm going to do anything to the village, I'm not that kind of guy anymore. I've turned things around and am trying to do good now." Prime said, doing his best to sound assured, but there was some trepidation within him. Would he really be able to turn things around? What if he did do bad again? Was vanquishing the Batman Who Laughs really his turning point? He wanted to believe so, but who knows?

Gazef shook his head and shrugged.

"Well, if you say it, I'll trust you. If you need help with anything, you can look for me back in the kingdom's capital when this is all over. And before I head out, do you need a shirt? Not everyone is going to be as accepting of someone without a shirt. Not to mention your wound." Gazef said, and there was a certain hardness to his voice. It seemed he was slightly let down. Prime realized he had hoped that Prime would have been a genuinely good person, and felt slightly disappointed after learning he had secrets. It seemed like Gazef was surrounded by secrets and treachery, and he just wanted to find one genuinely good peer in power.

"Oh, yeah, I should get a shirt, shouldn't I?" Prime said, and Gazef motioned to follow him. Gazef walked with Prime over to his horse, which stood still near the entrance to the village. In one of the pouches in the saddle was a spare outfit. It was gray pants with a gray shirt. Since Gazef was of a similar height to Prime, if not an inch or so taller. With Prime being 5'11 and Gazef being 6'1, Gazef's clothes fit slightly loosely with his barrel-chested build, as well as Prime's thickly muscled form.

"We also have some spare boots if you're interested. What you're wearing is interesting, but It's not doing you any favors." Gazef said with an apologetic laugh.

"If I'm going to be here, I guess It's the right thing to do to get some clothes. If you don't mind. But can you hold them for the next...Uhmmm, five or ten minutes?" Prime asked, giving Gazef confirmation.

Gazef paused for a moment.

"Alright, and when you say 'If I'm going to be here '" I get the feeling you're not just talking about the village. Where are you from?" He asked.

"From another universe." Prime shrugged.

"Another universe?" Gazef asked, clearly deciding on whether this man was entirely insane or actually from an entire universe outside of their own. This young man was throwing him entirely for a loop. He was either entirely too honest or utterly insane.

"Yes. I've been dragged here with no way back. I'm trying to do right for once." Prime said, looking away. He was somewhere between melancholic and irritated. Doomsday had really done a number on him.

"Gazef put a hand on his shoulder and looked him straight in the eye.

"You have to believe you can do it, and it will work itself out." He said, and Prime seemed to have a moment of inspiration.

"You're right," he said, his mood brightening. "I can do whatever I want!" He smiled and turned around.

"Thanks, Gazef. I have something to do now." Prime smiled, raising two fingers on his hand and turning a little back to Gazef.

"I owe you a big one," Prime said before the crack of the sound barrier shattering and a large sonic boom. Prime shot into the sky.

Crackoom..Boom..Crack...Crackoom!

The shaking of the land, followed by the sounds of what sounded like lightning crashing, caused Gazef to look up, thinking there was a storm, but no, there was no storm. Then, things fell into place.

Prime!

Gazef shook his head. This prime fellow must be making those noises. He must be insanely powerful beyond Gazef's level. It was clear that those sounds were from his punches and kicks, sending noises reverberating through the woods.

Just who was he?

Back with Prime..

Prime was walking up to a small cave deep in the side of a hill. There were small wooden pit traps near and around it, and he could hear the disgusting creatures inside.

More Goblins.

He loosened his shoulders and flexed his muscles before disappearing. The cave was a long-abandoned mine shaft from about 30 years before. It was small, and crudely made in the way a mine from a small village would be, and the goblins inside were no more than fifteen or so.

Prime stepped into the entrance, and two goblin archers positioned behind wooden crates used as cover released their crude arrows at him.

Twang. Crunch.

The arrows bounced off his chest, their shafts shattered. He didn't even bother dodging. He pulled back his right arm, and the goblins must have noticed something incongruent as they hesitated, looking at each other with confusion. This villager should have been hurt, but the arrows just bounced off his exposed chest.

Crackoom!

Prime's punch was released, and the shockwave blew the crates, goblins, and everything else inside the front of the cave to a red, dirty mist.

What once were goblins were now splattered bloodstains on the ground and splinters of wood on the cavern floor. It would take a lot more than crates to block a punch from Superboy Prime.

Inside the mine, the goblins seemed to have heard the sounds, but it was over for them the moment they were on Prime's target list.

"Let's just get this over with." Prime sighed and disappeared.

Crack! Crack! Thoom!

The entire forest shook and rumbled as Prime finished his work. Birds flew from the trees into the skies, and the villagers who had just recovered from the attack of the soldiers earlier also felt the rumbling.

But not every being that heard these attacks was docile. In a camp full of large white tents several miles away, people were talking. Important people.

The Sunlight Scripture of the Slane Theocracy, led by Nigun Grid Luin, who had taken post several miles away from the village, had just received the information from their spies that the soldier unit disguised as Imperial troops had been subjugated by a strange young man who could fly and was incredibly fast beyond comprehension.

Both the camp and spies had been cloaked in invisibility magic, and thus Prime had not seen them at the time. For he wasn't looking for them specifically. He wasn't looking for anything specifically. Certainly not people disguised by invisibility magic.

Nigun, a tall blonde man with healthy pale skin, a well-muscled body under his black robes, and very short blonde hair, spoke up.

"It seems we're going to have to alter our plans. Whoever this young man is, he isn't to be taken lightly. We're going to have to draw Gazef to us, without pulling this young man along. We'll deal with him after we pull the beast into our trap." He said with a stern and commanding voice.

"Treius, prepare some villager clothes, copper, and some silver, then send a 'sacrifice' to the village. Have them pretend to be a villager, and have them tell them that a nearby village has just been attacked and they need help. Be careful about how much silver you bring. Too much silver will be suspicious."

"Understood." His subordinate bowed and left briskly.

Nigun hated when things didn't go to plan, and things were clearly deviating from script. Those soldiers sent to the village should have cleared out the village quickly. They were well-trained and strong soldiers easily capable of besting Imperial troops one to five, yet this strange flying young man had disturbed the plan.

He would have said to wait more, but Gazef had arrived. He didn't want any interference, and it seemed, according to the intelligence, the young man had left the village. Now was the perfect time to strike.

Nigun walked into a nearby tent, picked up a scroll from a nearby table, and tore it in half. Instantly, his eyes glowed, and his vision shifted to the spy sent to bring the prey to the trap.

The spy, who had intentionally taken several minor wounds and worn a villager outfit, quickly ran two and a half miles to Carne village. Limping into the village, he was stopped by the soldiers.

"Help!" He cried, with an exhausted voice, as if he had run from the other village a dozen or more miles away.

"What happened?" One of the Soldiers nearby asked, seeing that the man was injured and unarmed.

"Lymhurst village. We've been attacked! Please take me to the village chief!" He cried, stating that one of the nearby logging villages, which conveniently was in the direction of the Sunlight Scripture's camp, had been attacked. Of course, Lymhurst had already fallen to the soldiers. It was where the infiltrator gathered the clothes for this task.

Two of the soldiers, the ones who were there, looked at each other and then nodded. It really seemed that this disheveled man was an escaped villager from a nearby village.

"Come with us." One of the soldiers said, taking the man gently by the shoulder. Naturally, the man accepted the hand and thanked him profusely. His target wasn't the village chief, but if Gazef saw him begging the chief for help, he was sure that Gazef wouldn't say no, if not now, then later that day. Whatever finesse he needed, he would use.

If worse came to worse, they would just assault the village, but right now, finesse was better than brawn.

They passed a dozen soldiers, and the man was brought to the chief, who was sitting with Gazef at the moment.

The man broke out of the soldiers' grip and ran over to the chief, getting on his knees and pulling out the small chest.

"Chief Mikhail, please, help us. Our Lymhurst village has been attacked! I know it's not much, but this is all I could bring. It's copper and silver. Please help save my daughter Rose." The man begged, presenting a small chest the size of a book from within his coat.

"Wait, calm down. Let's talk about this. You don't need to offer me money." The chieftain said, trying to placate the distressed man. If one were paying close attention to the man's face, one could have seen the tiny twitch of his lips upward. However, it quickly disappeared as fast as it came.

The chieftain, seeing the man's desperation, turned to Gazef, who was watching from his seat.

"Gazef, Sir. Could you talk to this man? Our village has no warriors, adventurers, or mages, and Clark's not back."

Gazef nodded. "That was my plan from the start. It's why we're here in the first place." He finished, walking over to the kneeling man. Putting his hand out and taking the man's hand, Gazef pulled the man up.

"Come, sit down. Tell me about what happened." Gazef said, and as if on cue, the man's erratic breathing slowed down. He calmed himself somewhat, still giving the air of fear, but with a dulled variant of panic.

The man was led to a chair the captain pulled out, and he sat down.

"They came in like a wave. The Empire's soldiers. They killed almost everyone, but a few of us ran and survived, including my daughter and wife. Please, help us, Mr. Gazef. We're hiding near the northern road to this village, a mile out in the woods. We won't make it much longer. My wife has been wounded, and she won't make it long either." The man quickly said, as if he had to say everything as fast as he could. As if Gazef would disappear with the wind if he didn't say everything right then and there.

"Very well, we will come get your survivors, but we won't go to the village yet. We need to hear the full story." Gazef said, as if he felt something wasn't completely right, but couldn't put his finger on it. Everything looked right. The man, covered in sweat and with visible wounds, had an appropriate level of panic. The imperial soldiers had been attacking the border towns, and the village here would have also been destroyed, but Gazef had dealt with deception and lies enough to feel like something was off.

"Vice Captain Thackery, I will lead a rescue party to save these villagers. Stay here and look over the survivors and this town whilst I'm gone. Inform me of anything that happens when I get back."

"Understood. You, stay here. Soldiers, with me. I have to get something." His vice captain said, and left the survivor with the village chief, walking out of the hall into the town center with Gazef, who was going to gather his men for the rescue operation.

When the soldiers left, the 'survivor' stood up from his chair and politely asked the Chieftain if he could relieve himself, and the chieftain nodded, sending him to a large outhouse a good couple dozen yards from the village.

"Thank you. "The man bowed, a smile on his face, and he disappeared from the house moments later.

Back with Nigun...

The light died from Nigun's eyes, and he stood up from his seat.

"The trap is set, and the pieces are moving. It's time to slay the beast." He smiled, and his eyes glowed gold.

The eye of the storm had passed, and it was time for the rain, thunder, and lightning to descend upon the earth and cleanse the land of the Theocracy's enemies.