An All-Consuming Dawn.

The year was 1967.
American spy-satellites picked up flashes of intense gamma radiation from their orbits.
At the time, these bursts of gamma rays were feared as some kind of Soviet weapon. But as more was learned about them, it became clear they didn't come from Earth. In fact, they didn't come from this galaxy at all. Or any nearby galaxy.
They came from galaxies far, far away.

Now, this probably doesn't seem like that big of a deal. After all, they were nothing but spikes on a chart which you wouldn't know were there without hi-tech monitoring equipment. But the thing is that galaxies are very far apart. It would take billions of years to reach Earth from the furthest reaches of space. By then you'd have lost a lot of energy on the way.
Spikes on a chart they may be now, but when they were young and spry they'd have been incredibly energetic events. Enough to make a supernova seem like a firecracker. We're talking on the scale of galactic collisions over here.

If we ever got hit by that, it'd be the end to life itself. And since it travels at the speed of light, we'd have no way to see it coming before it happens.

Nobody knew what they were and how they were made.
That mystery got me baffled as well. But I figured it out. Then I figured out how to shoot it like a beam. That's what I'd used against the Bitch Witch. A beam kept in orbit around a miniature black hole which I contained in a vessel that perpetually sustained it.
In my case, a **** Star keyring.
If the electronics inside were to ever be compromised, the black hole could no longer be sustained, and would instantly vanish in a cloud of Hawking radiation. Anything orbiting around it would be released.
And out comes the Gamma Ray Burst.

Yeah, I eventually realized I probably shouldn't have explained the Achilles heel of nearly every piece of technology to the person I was about to fight.
Not my proudest moment.
But why obsess over past mistakes? Maybe it was a good thing I exposed my weakness. That means I knew exactly what to plan for.
So the concept for a contingency couldn't be simpler: a device that kept something bad from happening. Something my opponent would immediately regret if they ever broke it.
But what would happen then? So many options. All of them compelling, but I could only pick one.
Whatever it was, it'd have to settle the battle instantly. And it'd have to cover every possible contingency. It's not like I already had trouble coming up with even a single surefire weapon against magic. And finally, it'd have to be the very last resort. After all, why would I save my best moves for when it might be too late?

Now, I don't know why a doomsday device was the first thing to pop into my head, but I really couldn't come up with anything better. So I thought, what the heck. Let's do this.
It's not like I expected her to actually pull it off. More than anything, I made a plan just to fill out the big plan-shaped hole I made. So you'll have to forgive me if I didn't take it all that seriously.
When it became clear what she was gonna pull off, it blew my mind.
And also everything else.

No, the world didn't really come to an end.
But it's not like I had any way of knowing that at the time.
I saw a flash of light. Probably visible from space. So bright it defied what it means to be bright. A cataclysmic burst of energy that boiled the very air it passed through, and consumed everything in sight. I managed to angle it away from the ground in the last second, so the beam flew off to the sky.
Still hit the Bitch Witch right in the face. She evaporated instantly. Not even dust would remain. I'd be surprised if even a single atom was intact after that.

The Barrier shattered. The beam sliced right through, and kept going.
The Angel thingy got in the way too. You'd think that she'd be able to withstand light...
But that was a lot of light. The wave of unimaginably hot radiation torched her on impact, and she burned to cinders. Inside and out.
Lucky the Devil managed to slip by the pillar of light as it extended into space, crackling with lightning from the super-heated plasma surrounding it.

Did you know that light has momentum?
That's right!
When someone shines a flashlight at you, the light actually pushes on you. Just a teeny bit. Way too light to even notice, even if it's bright.
But it's still momentum. And if you're hit with enough, you'll definitely feel it. That Gamma Ray Burst contained as much light as a star can produce during its one billion year lifetime.

That's enough.
I felt it.
The recoil floored me. Tore my pants right off of my legs. I toppled down and struck the ground with a resounding snap. That snap was my spine.

Ow.
Very ow.
There's no hell damned enough for that kind of pain.
My mouth opened to scream. No scream came out.
I lost control. Involuntary spasms took over my body. I could do nothing but writhe on the ground. It kept up for who knows how long?
Hours probably. Maybe years.
Although that's an awful long time without air.

When it stopped, it stopped abruptly. Nothing remained of the pain but a warped memory, almost like a dream.
Was I dead? Was that what being dead was like?
Perhaps I passed away and went to heaven.
I peered to the side to find Wonder Witch lying next to me.
Guess not.
I'm surprised they managed to put her back together after being so thoroughly disintegrated. That restoration magic was the real deal.

The sky looked like it was on fire. Ribbons of colorful light shifted across the air. Slowly, as if dancing through syrup.
What a sight. Simple, yet sublime.
How beautiful. If you can overlook the enormous hole in the ozone layer it caused.

The screaming had stopped. The crowd still shuddered and sobbed. Some cried. Some laughed. Some exchanged hushed murmurs.
Mostly they waited in silence for the disaster to resume.
But it didn't.

They've all decided that the end was nigh. None of them thought they were coming out of the biblical Armageddon alive, and they made peace with that. More or less.
Now when it turned out they got a second chance, they weren't sure where they stood. The serene silence. The aftermath of a world-ending threat.
So much loss...
So much destruction...
Yet they were still there.
More dumbfounded than relieved.

Can't blame them either.
This has got to go in the Top Three times I've almost destroyed the world. Not sure if I should count it though. It's not like the world was in danger. Just a world.
Some might say that's enough. After all, nearly destroying one world is nearly destroying one world too much.
Sure. That sounds good. But then what about all the uninhabited planets I destroyed when testing my doomsday devices? Don't really get any more 'almost' than that.
No, I should not be more careful!
Look, I've nearly destroyed planet Earth on sixteen different occasions. Guess what? That amounts to a grand total of zero times when it was actually destroyed.
So to me it seems like I'm doing pretty fine over here.

"Science Girl..."
I looked back towards Wonder Witch.
"Yeah?" I answered.
Both of us were intact. The restoration magic brought her back and healed all our injuries. Clearly the match was over.
But it was never about the match.
She still had some fight in her?

"I don't think I've ever had that much fun in my life."
I looked at her confused.
She looked at me back, smiling.
I smiled back, "I know, right? That was awesome!"
"I'll look forward to this again next year."
I laughed, "You're on!"

Poor old Ben crawled out from under the rubble. He coughed, dusting off his jacket as he rose to his feet. He held up the microphone and addressed the crowd.
"Ladies and gentlemen... Words fail to describe the tragedy that transpired before our eyes. We have just endured a calamity of unprecedented proportions. Senseless destruction and terror has gripped the very heart of the city's soul. Things will never be the same again. We mourn the lives that were lost today, and may God have mercy on our souls."

Silence fell over the crowd. The dust had settled, and the sun shone on the ruins of this catastrophe.
"Anyway, Allison is victorious! Beatrice has committed suicide, and..."
"WHAT!" Wonder Witch shouted.
Ben cleared his throat, "Beatrice has committed suicide..."
"NO!" She kicked herself up, "STOP IT! STOP AT ONCE!"
Ben peered towards Wonder Witch for a moment, but ignored her, "Beatrice has committed..."
"I SAID NO!" She hurried towards him and grabbed him by his collar, "Listen, that wasn't me killing myself! You've got it all wrong!"
Ben blinked, "Listen, Beatrice... We saw you cast a spell. We saw Allison warn you not to do it. Then we saw both of you caught in a huge blast. Our monitors then found that you were dead, and your opponent still alive. So tell us, what else could possibly have happened?"
She let go of him and scoffed, "Fine, I'll tell you. Nothing could be easier. You see, it's an oscillating... I mean, the electric **** and the magnetic..."
She blinked, "...Oh no."
Hehehe... I couldn't help but smirk watching her squirm.
Hang on... That wasn't good for me either!

Ben cleared his throat, "Allison is victorious! Beatrice has committed suicide, and will be her ****!"

The crowd clapped. Slowly at first, but it picked up. Soon enough the entire stadium was in uproar once more.
Seems like they needed something to distract themselves from the world almost ending in like six different ways.

With a resounding plop, we were both out.