The demon-like army following Kalibak is numerous, but not enough, possibly numbering in the millions, but when these forces are spread across the major cities of the world, each city only gets a few ten thousands.
Moreover, the heavy firepower weapons of the human race can damage the demon-like creatures. Finally, it's time for the ordinary human army to show off its skills. These things haven't even landed yet and have already been plowed by a round of missiles. Once landing on the ground, they face various calibers of artillery and high-yield bombs.
The demon-like creatures are not purely carbon-based. They are monsters mechanically modified. This means they have the advantages of both carbon-based and mechanical life, but also the disadvantages of both.
Compared to Darkseid's technology, human artillery is far too simplistic, unable to destroy the mechanical parts on the demon-like creatures. However, like the human race, their flesh is also carbon-based, and anything carbon-based cannot withstand thousands of degrees of high temperature and explosions.
At the moment of seeing Kalibak, countless orders were issued from the Presidential Palace. Of course, this wasn't done by Shiller; Batman is the master of deploying troops. He mobilized the army and enveloped the important cities on the East and West Coast tightly, continuously using artillery and missiles to force the demon-like creatures to land in the Central State.
This was unavoidable; America's interior regions have relatively fewer people, and the cities are not very developed, leaving enough space for fire suppression against the demon-like creatures. After all, those national parks and farms are usually unpopulated, so bombing them isn't a big deal. If they landed on the East or West Coast, any office building destruction would cost hundreds or thousands of lives, and without large-scale firepower, it would have to be street fighting, where humans have no advantage.
Countries all basically adopted similar measures, using fire attacks to force the demon-like creatures into uninhabited areas. Luckily, there are plenty of places on Earth not suitable for human habitation. Each continent essentially has such areas, and millions of demon-like creatures were quickly eliminated.
Shiller glanced at the monitor and found that the demon-like creatures weren't being revived, cursing the Lantern Corps as useless. Seven Lantern Corps besieging Apocalypse Star, yet Darkseid could still divide forces to attack Earth; this clearly shows that they don't regard the Lantern Corps at all.
However, the multi-universe united Darkseid is not to be underestimated, also having ample experience in battling the Justice League and has dealt with the Lantern Corps, knowing their weaknesses. And since the Lantern Corps lost the Total Furnace, they have no energy supply, and defeat is just a matter of time.
Shiller sighed, turned to Batman, and said, "Prepare to execute the final plan, first get rid of the Black Death Emperor, then we can deal with Darkseid."
Batman nodded, knowing it was time. The threat of the Black Death Emperor is significant, but there's the Cosmic Justice League to resist it. Their biggest crisis is Darkseid; this guy is too close, and he's at full power, a big battle is likely imminent.
Before dealing with Darkseid, the Black Death Emperor must be kicked out, or else it would be a cycle of fighting and reviving his forces; no one can handle that. Just the elite warriors revived on Darkseid's side are enough to give humanity a hard time.
"I'll notify Hal to prepare." Shiller said.
When Hal received Shiller's message, Hal and Clark were about to remove the last pollution source. But obviously, things weren't that simple; Atlanna informed them of Kalibak's movement, and the general, as strong as a barbarian, charged straight towards them.
Clark moved to resist, only to be directly knocked away by Kalibak. This guy's strength was astonishing; although he didn't have much technique, his brute strength allowed him to fight Superman to a standstill.
Hal became increasingly anxious but dared not act rashly. At this critical moment, he absolutely couldn't get infected, or it would all be for nothing. Fortunately, that guy was focused on Clark, not even considering him a threat.
Hal intended to continue supporting from a distance, but he noticed that Clark seemed to be struggling. He found that Clark couldn't quite lift his injured arm, while the revived Kalibak was at his peak, and Clark was taking a significant loss in close combat.
Hal hurried forward, shielding Clark with a barrier of green lantern energy and then blasted Kalibak away with a cannon shot.
"Are you alright?" Hal asked with concern.
Clark covered his arm, his expression grim. This Power of Death was evidently very stubborn and conflicted with the vitality inside him, making it nearly impossible to absorb easily. He had tried for a long time without making any progress; the Power of Death had made significant advances, and now half his body was numb, unable to move freely.
"Hang in there," Hal said, "we're almost done."
But seemingly, Hal's action angered Kalibak, who roared and pointed the golden trophy in his hand at Hal. Hal was immediately hit hard.
The Beta Trophy could emit an incredibly painful nerve laser, with strong penetration that could almost ignore any energy. Caught off guard, Hal was hit, leaving him momentarily dazed with pain.
Fortunately, Clark caught Hal. Hal trembled all over, taking a deep breath. But at this time, Kalibak's huge fist was already in front of him. Clark took Hal and flew back, but the opponent was relentless, charging like a cannonball.
"This isn't going to work," Clark said through gritted teeth, "we need to lure this guy away so we can deal with the pollution source."
"Should I..."
"No way," Clark said, "If we don't stay together, he'll definitely take us down one by one. Unfortunately, we're short on manpower..."
Just as he said this, several figures suddenly appeared on the horizon. Leading them was an incredibly tall giant, none other than General Zod, who had transformed into Doomsday, and following behind him were the Kryptonians who had come to Earth.
The two Kryptonians who had become the President's trusted aides even waved at Clark. After being exposed to yellow sunlight, they had gained flying ability and super strength. Although they hadn't been on Earth long enough to be as strong as Superman, they at least had a third of his prowess.
More importantly, there were many of them. In addition to General Zod, there were seven or eight people, all professionally trained soldiers, skilled in combat techniques and working in perfect coordination. Once they joined the battlefield, the situation immediately turned around.
So many superpower users surrounded Kalibak in battle. Kalibak swung his fists tightly, but he couldn't break through the encirclement. General Zod, transformed into Doomsday, was the strongest among them and faced Kalibak directly, exchanging blows without a clear winner, while others assisted from the sidelines, eventually pushing Kalibak down to the sea surface.
Atlanna was evidently anxious, continuously stirring up waves to attack the group. At first, it did cause some chaos, but the group was indeed well-trained. They quickly figured out how to counter it and started attacking Kalibak's lower body, forcing him to fly upward. As they fought, they were close to leaving the atmosphere, making it impossible for Atlanna to interfere any longer.
Seizing the opportunity, Hal used Green Lantern energy to encase the source of pollution, and Clark used his laser beams to cut open the seabed again, extracting those polluted bones. As the Indian Ocean began to clear up, the pins that struck Earth started emitting a faint glow.
Hal and Clark initially thought that this was part of the cleansing process, but the more they observed, the more something felt off.
Previously, they saw the seawater becoming clear and assumed it was the force emitted by the pins driving away the power of death. But upon closer inspection, the glow emitted from the pins looked exactly like the power of death?
Hal seemed to understand. The so-called ocean purification wasn't about dispersing the power of death in the ocean through the power of seven lanterns. They had personally experienced how stubborn the power of death could be; such a power seemed impossible to directly dispel, otherwise green lantern energy would have purified the spirits when Hal physically encountered them.
The pins were actually using the power of seven lanterns to absorb the power of death from the ocean. The power of seven lanterns acted like a big net, collecting all the power of death into the tower. That was the true essence of ocean purification.
If that's the case, then just absorbing the power of death from the ocean would suffice, so what exactly is this?
The glow emitted from the pins grew stronger, and the intense corrosive aura began to recede, but it wasn't being sealed. Instead, it kept solidifying until it became a sharp arrow, shooting forcefully into the Earth's core through the output point where the pin was stuck into the crust.
Hal was stunned. What kind of move was this? Who is Batman sniping at???
He soon found out. Because just a few seconds after the three pins, using the power of death as bullets, sniped at the Earth's core, he heard a heartbeat awakening from the depths.
This was a very peculiar sensation felt by all lifeforms on the surface. Whether on the ground or in the trees, whether on the surface or in the air, their heartbeats started resonating with an ancient creature.
Endless life force radiated from beneath the surface. The Kryptonians that had already ascended into space looked back to see the originally blue planet now coated in a faint white light, appearing sacred and beautiful.
Hal finally understood what Batman's backup plan was—turns out, the White Light power they had been searching for was hidden deep within the Earth's core.
The outbreak of life force made the spirits possessing the power of death immensely painful. Atlanna was the first to scream, melting like a vampire encountering sunlight.
He had no choice but to leave the ocean, flying into the sky to escape the increasingly intense purification of life force. The flesh and bones shaped by the power of death kept falling off his body, and he plummeted back into the sea like a skeleton.
Meanwhile, Damian and Steve at the Presidential Palace felt the same pain. But maybe because their hearts rekindled with love for Batman and Diana, and possessed a portion of the rules of life, this pain didn't completely tear them apart but continued to fight against the power of death within their bodies and purified them.
Kalibak, naturally, was also affected, but the power of death in him was especially strong, as if the Black Death Emperor had high hopes for him. Moreover, being Darkseid's son, he clearly knew more.
He began to look around, searching for something. Suddenly, light points gathered in the sky over the Pacific Ocean. Hal immediately realized this was the lantern ring of the White Light power. He had to obtain the ring and become the host of the White Light power to have any chance of defeating the Black Death Emperor.
But his eyes shifted, and he said to Clark, "Go, Clark, go grab the lantern ring!"