Vandal Savage

In the early days of the planet Krypton, it was a violent and hellish world where only the strongest creatures could survive. At that time, the dominant lifeforms were considered some of the most dangerous beings in the universe. At some point, a mysterious alien named Bertron aimed to create the ultimate life-form. To achieve this, Bertron and his team sent a baby creature to the surface of Krypton, where it would likely be killed instantly by the harsh environment or by the vicious inhabitants. And that's what happened. It died instantly. This process was repeated over and over again. 

Each time the creature died, any remains that survived were collected and used to create an improved, stronger version of the being. In essence, Bertron employed a cloning method to accelerate the evolution of his creation. He named his project "Ultimate." Over decades, the entity that would become known as Doomsday endured the agony of death thousands of times. The memory of these countless deaths became ingrained in its genes, fostering a deep hatred for all forms of life.

Eventually, Doomsday evolved the ability to adapt against the threats that had killed him in his previous lives, no longer needing Bertron's technology. At this point, he began to hunt down and eliminate the lethal creatures that inhabited Krypton. When he encountered Bertron, Doomsday viewed him and his team as threats due to their involvement in his numerous deaths and attacked their ship. Ultimately, Bertron met his end at the hands of his own creation.

Why was that important for Vandar? 

Simple, he had plans. Very stupid and ambitious plans. He thought to himself that if it was possible for the strange alien Bertron to ingrain the 'death's into Doomsday's genetic information, then it should be possible to do the same, but for himself. Instead of using another creature to get the desired result, Vandar decided to use himself for this 'experiment.' 

Why would he do that instead of just adding it to his Essence of himself?

...

Let's not talk about that. There were two things to consider at this point. 

#1 He was immortal. So 'dying' was not something he was strictly possible for him to do. But it could still work, depending on how you lay it out. 

#2 No matter what happened, Vandar would profit from putting himself through grueling and painful experiences. His Viltrumite body and his ability to grow by pushing himself beyond his limits make this great. 

Vandar's body was already durable enough to not get much damage from falling from the atmosphere and he had barely gotten these powers one day. He didn't stop however and continued to fly into atmosphere and push himself beyond his limits. He used the very thin air as a means of growth and started doing exercises. He tried shadowboxing and flying as fast as he could. But very quickly, he understood that that wasn't going to help him. He needed harsher conditions. 

He flew higher than ever until he reached outer space. The void did not press all the fluids out of his body, proving his durability already at this stage. He held his breath and thought about the pain he was thinking about and the pain he would be putting himself under. His mind was made up, though, and so he exhaled. All of the air inside his lungs disappeared, and he started to choke. 

He tried to breathe unintentionally and took a breath. But it wasn't working, there was none. His skin colour changed, and after struggling for a while, he finally lost consciousness. A few moments after that, he 'died' and right after this, he woke up again. He is immortal and can't die. His healing tried to do something, anything. But without luck, he wasn't hurt in that sense. While he was alive, he still had no air inside his lungs and started to struggle again right away. 

Vandar was in outer space. Earth's gravitational pull wasn't as strong as it was in the atmosphere, so he wasn't being pulled back as fast. So he remained in space while suffocating to death. Once again, he fell unconscious and 'died', only to wake up the next moment and for the entire process to repeat itself again. 

Suffocation -> unconsciousness -> pseudo-death -> alive -> suffocation -> unconsciousness -> pseudo-death -> alive again -> ....

Over and over and over again. 

...

..

.

Why would Vandar put himself through this? Was he a masochist? A sadist? An idiot? All of the above? 

No.

Vandar knew that as a Viltrumite, he would stand no chance in the DC Universe. There are feats of strength from Superman that he could fart and the strongest Viltrumite would die. The difference was staggering, to say the least. But Vandar was alive 50'000 years before Superman existed in the Universe, and he was immortal. This gave him one advantage at least. Would it work? Probably not. Immortality, reactive adaptation and accelerated growth were all things he counted on to push him further and further. 

Vandar didn't like the easy way. Of course, if he had to decide what to do in a given situation, he would take the easy way, but this was different. He was immortal and had the time to grow. He loved stories where the main character had to put in the work to become truly powerful and not just sit in the sun and bask in overpowerdness. He took the harder way, but also the more rewarding way. 

Over and over, Vandar went through the process of suffocation and death, only to be alive the very same moment after and go through it again. This was not only a physical pain but a ginormous mental one. His mind was being pushed beyond what was thought possible, and it would break the minds of most, if not all, men.

... It is possible for the limiter to be broken. Doing so allows an individual to grow indefinitely; however, to do so, the individual would need to conquer death, overbearing their body and soul. This process is very difficult and is only possible via sheer willpower and resilience ...

'sheer willpower and resiliance' 

That's what this was about, not just replicating the Doomsday experiment. It was about conditioning his mind and will to be able to challenge the most outrageous things unimaginable and come out on top. This was his personal training montage, and he refused to yield to the pain and settle for mediocrity or the easy way. 

.

Time passed. It is unclear how long it took, but Vandar's eyes focused at some point during the torture, and he gained clarity. He had found his death, which he would conquer, and he did so. Refusing to yield, he clenched all the muscles in his body, be they physical or spiritual and held on. He went through the process again and again, and eventually ...

*crack*

 Vandar floated in space. He looked at the star that was Earth's sun in wonder. He hadn't had the time to look at it since arriving in this world. It was beautiful up close. A satisfied smile settled on his face, and he closed his eyes. He relaxed in the sunlight and fell asleep. His body and mind needed the sleep to recuperate. 

.

.

Vandar was flying above the Atlantic ocean and was using his eyesight to scout for something. A large predator in his own right. He plunged into the waters and shot through the water with great speed. He had scouted the waters for a few weeks now and had finally found a place that he thought would be a good spot. And indeed, he was lucky. Right ahead of him was the creature he was looking for, a Megalodon. 

The Megalodon is considered to be the largest shark, as well as the largest fish, that ever lived and was thought to be extinct on his original Earth for millions of years. But this was a different Earth, and these beasts still existed here. There was a simple reason why he was looking for them, and it had nothing to do with a fight. However, he would get one of those, at least a very short one. 

The Megalodon finally noticed the small creature that appeared in front of him. It opened its mouth to swallow it, but that wouldn't work. Vandar moved backwards and observed the creature. It was roughly 20 meters long, 65 feet and between 65 and 70 tons. That's what he wanted: portable weights. 

That's right; Vandar was looking for his version of dumbbells. 

He dodges the fish's slow attempt to eat it again and grabs its tail with both of his arms. His fingers dig into the meat, and he starts to pull. He is very strong and manages to overpower the Megalodon, slowly moving upward towards the surface. Vandar accelerated, and despite working against it, the large fish stood no chance. The two shoot out of the water. Vandar swings the large fish powerfully and throws it into the air. He then moves under it and holds the animal above his head, flying towards the shore. He is carrying roughly 70 tons, and while it's not heavy, he knows that he will first have to get comfortable with it before he moves on. 

He carried the Megalodon to shore and placed him there. After punching the fish on its head, he killed it and then went back to the Atlantic to find another one. He needed to get a pair of dumbbells. 

This time, he doesn't take too long to find another one, and he does the same thing, carrying it to shore and killing it. Then, it was time to start his workout. He took the Megalodon's, one tail in each hand, and flew into the air. They were too long to do this on the ground. Then he started. He did some biceps curls and started to get a good feel for his strength and power. The situation was as outrageous as it was funny. A man using two large prehistoric predators as dumbbells for his bicep curls. 

He used his past experience to train himself. He didn't know how his muscles worked and whether it would be more useful to go the Dragonball training route or if this was good. Time passed with Vandar going through the motions. He went through set after set and got a great feeling for his body. He could feel himself grow slowly as he pushed himself. 

Back, Abs, Traps, Triceps, Forearms, 

Calves, Front, Delts, Glutes, Chest, Biceps, Quads, Hamstrings, Side Delts, 

Rear Delts ... Vandar went all out. After training for 8 hours, he realised that conventional training standards wouldn't work. His healing was just too outrageous to allow fatigue to build up. So he took it as it was and pushed himself more. 

He started using a large boulder for bench presses and added weights until it became too bothersome. After going at it for the entire day, Vandar came to the conclusion that while he did experience gains, it was problematic. He would have to find a better way to get to his weights. 

Vandar had quite a few plans to grow stronger. There were quite a few ways to become strong in the DC Universe, and he had enough time to explore those options. For now, he would stick to his Doomsday-like training of pushing himself beyond insanity and growing stronger through it. What this would mean for him, whether he would turn into a similar monster like Doomsday did, he was unsure, but he would grow more powerful through it, and that was all that mattered in this dangerous Multiverse. 

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Once again, if you have ideas on what he could do to grow more powerful, please comment. I have some plot points in mind, but I am open for more. 

Cheers.