Steppenwolf fled.
More accurately, he was rescued.
Lothar didn't know who rescued him, but he was certain that person was incredibly powerful.
Extremely powerful.
Even stronger than Odin, who defeated him on Asgard, and stronger than his adoptive father, Thanos.
Keep in mind, even Odin and Thanos couldn't have withstood his energy attack without revealing their true powers.
"For Darkseid..." Lothar looked up, gazing at the direction where the teleportation array vanished, muttering the words Steppenwolf left behind before his pathetic escape.
Who was Darkseid?
A name?
A place?
Or was Darkseid the one who just rescued Steppenwolf?
A series of questions flooded Lothar's mind, but he found no answers.
"For Darkseid?" Bruce Wayne, supporting Barry Allen, also chewed on Steppenwolf's parting words.
Darkseid, a name Bruce Wayne had never heard before, instinctively put him on alert.
And then there was this Son of Titan, Lothar.
Bruce Wayne's gaze involuntarily drifted to the severed arm on the beach. It was Steppenwolf's arm.
Steppenwolf, having been thoroughly thrashed by Lothar, clearly didn't have the time or presence of mind to take his severed limb with him.
Bruce Wayne had an idea for it.
"Incredible..."
"You remind me of Superman, I mean your strength." Diana, who had mostly been an observer and sidekick, packed away her long sword and shield and walked towards Lothar, who was still pondering who "Darkseid" was.
"...Alright."
Receiving no response from Lothar for a long time, Diana, to ease the awkwardness, waved to Bruce Wayne in the distance.
She retracted her earlier assessment. At least Superman's personality was much more approachable than Lothar's.
"Diana." Bruce Wayne, arriving with Barry Allen, eased the Greek demigoddess's discomfort.
"Mera." Mera, standing beside Lothar, nodded to Bruce.
"Bruce Wayne."
"Barry Allen." The smiling, conscientious Flash Barry Allen introduced himself, then cast a curious gaze at Lothar, who had reverted to his normal black hair.
"Thank you for your help, Lothar." Bruce Wayne also stared at him. Everything about this man was too mysterious. His immense power, his enigmatic origins, and even his spontaneously changing hair and eye color.
"I wasn't trying to help you." Lothar, annoyed by the interruption to his thoughts, frowned and turned to leave. Woz's reminder immediately came:
'Your Highness Lothar, please do not leave. Regarding the Mother Box, according to Steppenwolf's earlier statement, Ms. Mera will be a significant breakthrough.'
Lothar was speechless. He felt like something was off, but couldn't pinpoint what. Lothar's single sentence killed the conversation, and the atmosphere among them became awkward.
"Diana, do you know about 'Darkseid'?" Finally, it was the thick-skinned Bruce Wayne who broke the uncomfortable silence.
"No, I've never heard of him. Perhaps there are records on Themyscira, but if I wanted to know, I'd have to go back there."
"Those ancient texts haven't been opened in a long time." Diana shook her head, indicating she had no knowledge. She didn't even know who Steppenwolf was; she was completely in the dark.
"Regardless of what that 'Darkseid' is, one thing is clear."
"Their goal is the so-called 'Mother Box'." Connecting this to what Steppenwolf said when he targeted Mera earlier, Bruce Wayne's gaze immediately turned to her. The implication was clear.
"Actually, I'm not entirely sure what the 'Mother Box' is either. But there's a legend that has always circulated among our seven undersea kingdoms."
"In ancient times, the ancestors of Atlantis united with the ancestors of humanity and the Amazons to defeat an alien invader who sought to invade Earth."
"And the Mother Box was something belonging to those alien invaders."
"The Mother Box is incredibly powerful. It's said it can instantly destroy a planet, or drain a planet dry, turning it into a desolate husk. And, apparently, it can also perform ultra-long-distance spatial teleportation."
"To ensure the Mother Box's safety, the ancestors of the three races divided the Mother Box into three parts, each taking one back to their respective tribes and hiding them, to prevent them from falling into malicious hands."
Listening to Mera explain all the information she knew about the Mother Box in one breath, Lothar instinctively narrowed his eyes, deep in thought.
'Woz.'
'Your Highness Lothar, this is Woz's preliminary plan.'
Woz typed in Titan script on its panel, communicating with Lothar.
It could also hear what Mera was saying. Because of this, Woz quickly drafted a plan for Lothar to go home.
From the currently available information, once the three Mother Boxes are united, they might unleash enough energy to blast open a cosmic pathway. Even if it's not enough, Lothar himself is an energy source; he could be the final straw that breaks the camel's back.
As long as Lothar could seize these three Mother Boxes and use his Super Saiyan form's energy as a key to ignite the combined Mother Box, he could blast open a door to leave this universe.
This way, Lothar could go home.
As for the coordinates needed to return home, the dormant Reality Stone in Lothar's hand was the best coordinate.
The Reality Stone was inherently part of that universe's rules; once it entered the spatial gate, it would want to go home even more than Lothar.
After all, in its own universe, it was one of the representatives of the rules, whereas in other universes, it lost its supreme status.
Seize the three Mother Boxes, huh... Lothar pondered, his gaze unconsciously drifting towards Mera...
...
Five minutes earlier, Atlantic Ocean, an unknown sea area.
Orm, the current King of Atlantis, slowly surfaced under the protection of his royal guards.
"This is the down payment. Once it's done, I'll give you everything you want." Orm gestured for a guard to throw a bag in front of the human before him.
"A pleasure doing business."
"A pleasure doing business."
Orm watched the human swiftly climb into the submarine, a cold smile on his face. He waved, preparing to leave.
Atlantis needed a reason to be "attacked by humans" to unify the scattered seven undersea kingdoms.
This current King of Atlantis was very ambitious. He wanted to lead the Atlanteans to war against the surface. After all, that damned Kryptonian was truly dead; no one could stop them from returning to the land.
'Once successful, I will be the true ruler of this planet.'
'Humanity must be destroyed.'
Orm, with a fierce glint in his eyes, was still envisioning a bright future. Suddenly, a strong sense of danger washed over him.
BOOM!!!
A silver-white energy wave, coming from who knew where, directly pierced through the departing human's submarine and half of Orm's body!
"...What... what happened...?" Orm, sensing death, was unwilling, unwilling for his life to simply vanish. He hadn't unified the seven undersea kingdoms yet, he hadn't conquered humanity yet, he hadn't...
When gods fight, mortals suffer...
...
"What? Orm is dead? Atlantis is getting a new king?"
In Kansas, Mera's face became incredibly strange after receiving a notification from her father.
Her fiancé was dead???
Such a formidable Orm, just dead just like that?
Who did it?
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