"Who are you?"
Clark surveyed the familiar yet strange human world.
After a moment of bewilderment, his sharp gaze finally landed on Lothar.
Having just been resurrected, his mind wasn't fully processing things, but he sensed a crisis from this man with a tail.
A strong sense of crisis.
Even more intense than the one he'd felt from his former formidable foe, General Zod of Krypton.
"Who are you?"
Lothar cracked his knuckles, squinting as he retorted. He, too, felt a threat from this man.
"Clark Kent, hero codename Superman, true identity Kryptonian. Possesses heat vision..."
As Lothar's combat-support AI, Woz immediately provided Clark's detailed information after completing its scan. Woz even pulled up a file that Bruce Wayne had long archived and presented it to Lothar—"The Superman Containment Plan."
"Was it you who awakened me?"
Clark, whose mind wasn't quite right after lying in a coffin for so long, was filled with intense hostility from the anger of having his coffin lid thrown open.
His tone was aggressive.
He remembered clearly that he was supposed to be dead.
The coffin was closed, the dirt was buried, and now his grave had been dug up, his headstone destroyed, and the lid of his buried coffin pushed open.
They wouldn't even let him rest in peace after death? Did they insist on making him do sit-ups in his coffin?
"I hate it when someone looks at me like that."
Lothar slowly raised his right hand, palm open, pointing it at Clark's hostile eyes.
Whoosh!
A silver energy beam shot straight at Clark's forehead. The latter tilted his head at extreme speed, narrowly escaping death.
"What? Who is that?"
The cyborg, Victor Stone, who had rushed to the scene, looked at the figure confronting Superman Clark with confusion. He couldn't find any data on that person.
"I think I know him. Bruce said he's Lothar, a descendant of a Titan god."
"Don't worry, I know him, he's a good—"
Barry Allen, who had also arrived at Superman's location, was explaining. The next second, the relaxed smile on his face instantly froze.
"Barry Allen, are you sure?"
Boom!!!!
A deafening sonic boom instantly ignited the entire empty plaza!
Superman Clark, fresh from resurrection and brimming with anger and morning grumpiness, clashed with Lothar, who had attacked him...
"Uh... now, I'm not so sure," Barry Allen shrugged, his face showing a hint of awkwardness from being proven wrong.
"Your Highness Lothar, the target's internal energy is rapidly increasing. You'll need Kryptonite to—"
"No, I don't need that."
Lothar, who had been slammed to the ground by Clark, creating a large crater, stood up, his raven-black hair suddenly turning golden!
"Hmph!"
In his golden-haired, green-eyed state, Lothar's strength instantly surged.
"Now, stay down!"
Almost at the speed of teleportation, Lothar's figure appeared above Clark's head. He clasped his hands together and slammed them down on Clark's head, forcefully smashing Clark, who had just turned around, into the plaza, creating a gigantic human-shaped crater and sending dust flying!
Zzzzt!
Two energy beams, capable of piercing Lothar's chest, instantly cut through the mist, stabbing straight at Lothar's chest like two sharp swords!
A silver energy wave erupted from Lothar's hands, instantly overshadowing the Kryptonian heat vision!
Rumble!!!!
Surging, powerful energies collided, and the resulting shockwaves directly shattered the empty plaza!
Broken stones flew, and yellow earth billowed!
Barry Allen and Victor Stone, observing from the sidelines, exchanged glances, bewildered. This level of combat was completely beyond their ability to intervene.
"Hey! You're not enemies! There's no need—"
Boom!
Barry Allen, who was about to speak since he couldn't fight, instantly vanished!
The arrival of the heat vision and energy waves directly blasted a bottomless pit where he had just been!
"Crazy, crazy, crazy!"
"Where's Bruce?! Tell Bruce quickly! Make him think of something!"
"At this rate, they won't just demolish this plaza, they might even demolish this city!"
Victor Stone, who had been constantly performing energy spectrum evaluations, had an extremely grim expression. Both Clark and Lothar's various data outputs were changing every second, their seemingly endless surges completely overturning all of Victor Stone's concepts of "energy."
"I understand! I'll go get him now!"
Barry Allen, having escaped using the Speed Force, instantly vanished. The next second, Bruce Wayne, driving the Batmobile, appeared at the edge of the battlefield.
"What's happening?"
"It's what Diana feared most. Superman doesn't seem to be the Superman we knew," Barry Allen answered honestly, pointing to the two figures relentlessly colliding in the sky.
Scattering heat vision and energy blasts scarred the entire wide plaza.
Bang bang bang bang bang!!!!!!
The impacts of fist on flesh made Lothar's blood gradually boil.
"Hey, is that all you've got?"
After another inextricably fierce exchange of blows, Lothar panted heavily, beckoning with his finger towards Clark, whom he had just blasted away. His black combat suit was now damaged, and a rare sheen of sweat beaded on his forehead, but the provocative smirk on Lothar's lips grew even more audacious.
Thud!
A piercing sonic boom rang out again, and the two figures, moving at a speed imperceptible to the human eye, collided once more!
Rumble!!!
Crimson heat vision and silvery-white energy waves intertwined, their shockwaves shaking the entire city! Stunning the whole world!
"Roar!!!"
It was unclear whose roar it was.
At speeds no one could grasp, Metropolis, the city once protected by Superman, fell in an instant.
Sirens wailed, and people fled in panic. Trampling, crowding, wailing.
Collapsing skyscrapers and shattered asphalt roads tolled the death knell for the ordinary citizens of Metropolis, sending them to the great beyond.
Bruce Wayne, dressed as Batman, stood atop the ruins, staring blankly at the two figures still locked in combat in the sky. Echoing in his ears were the cries and wails of Metropolis's citizens.
"Dad! Dad! Someone save my dad! Please!!" A sixteen or seventeen-year-old boy struggled to push the massive stone pressing down on his father, roaring in a final, desperate struggle.
"Mommy! Mommy! Mommy, where are you?! Mommy!" A six or seven-year-old girl cried endlessly, clutching a bright, shiny Barbie doll, her young body pushed by the fleeing crowd towards the beyond, towards what felt like heaven...
Bruce Wayne's eyes were bloodshot, unable to discern whether it was anger or sorrow.
The cruel reality transformed into intense self-reproach, continuously gnawing at the Gotham protector's heart.
The familiar feeling of powerlessness from witnessing Superman Clark battle his fellow Kryptonian General Zod surged within him once more.
Yet the battle in the sky never ceased...
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