When he is freed, he begins a search for his own identity, and his purpose in life, which eventually takes him to Apokolips (where he befriends a Female Fury named Seera), and later to South America.
Highfather appears in JLA: The Nail, involved in a war between New Genesis and Apokolips, triggered when Apokolips assumed that a Kryptonian shield around Earth was part of a sneak attack by New Genesis and decided that the only way to prevent their destruction was to attack first.
In the 1998 Elseworlds JLA: The Nail, Lightray is depicted fighting in a war between New Genesis and Apokolips.
Both Apokolips and New Genesis were seemingly destroyed in a final conflict, similar to that which destroyed Urgrund, home of the Old Gods prior to Grant Morrison's Seven Soldiers: Mister Miracle mini-series.