Fear...
Powerlessness...
Superman, fallen into darkness, made Diana truly understand for the first time what the term Kryptonian truly meant. That face, once a comrade in arms, was now utterly foreign. Clark's upturned lips made Diana's breathing increasingly difficult.
"You... still remember..."
Diana's desperate, strained words, forced through gritted teeth, brought an even greater satisfaction to Clark's heart.
"Of course." He still remembered his memories from before.
"Then you should... remember your... duty... Clark..." Diana struggled ceaselessly, trying to break free from Clark's grasp, but it was ultimately futile. The man's right arm was like a divine prison, locking her firmly in place. He wanted to watch her suffocate to death.
"Clark?"
"No, no, no, my name is Kal-El."
A cruel smile appeared on Clark's lips, and a visible black mist rose from beneath his feet.
Snap!
Inside the Apokoliptian portal high above Gotham, a crisp snap echoed. A battle suit made of Kryptonian technology climbed onto Clark's body as the black mist dispersed. The azure blue, representative of the name Clark, was now stained a grayish black, but the cape fluttering behind his shoulders remained vibrantly, blood-red. And the large "S" on his chest, the symbol of Superman, had clearly been dyed black by the rising mist.
"You... said... what...?"
Diana's eyes widened in disbelief, bloodshot from lack of oxygen.
"Darkseid was right. Since the humans who govern this world don't like me, why should I remain Clark?" The chilling glint in Clark's gray eyes sent a shiver down Diana's spine.
"At first, you wanted me dead."
"Later, you resurrected me."
"I'm not a tool to be exploited, do you understand?"
Clark calmly narrated the constantly twisting images in his mind. That torrential rainy night, the man in the Bat-armor clutching his collar, asking if he bled.
"No... Clark... we—"
Whoosh!
Time across the entire world seemed to halt.
Barry Allen, having successfully completed his long-distance run, arrived in Gotham precisely at the planned moment. The lightning boomerang he had conjured was ready to be thrown, but Barry Allen couldn't help but glance back at the situation on the battlefield. That single glance instantly made him shiver.
Clark, with one hand clamped on Diana's throat, was actually looking at him too?!
And what made Barry Allen even more horrified was...
Clark's gaze towards him was subtly turning red...
RUMBLE!!!!!!!!
BOOM!!!!!!!!
A deafening explosion made everyone turn their heads. Barry Allen, holding the lightning boomerang, was struck directly by two heat vision beams, and the Speed Force he had gathered instantly dissipated into nothingness!!!
Thud!
Thud thud thud thud!!!
Barry Allen, as if his entire body had lost sensation, tumbled five or six times on the ground, his eyes wide, his face etched with disbelief.
"No! Barry!!!"
As the key to Lothar's resurrection, Barry Allen, with his Speed Force, was arguably Mera's last hope. Disregarding her exposed position, Mera, wielding the Golden Trident, summoned warm water currents that instantly enveloped Barry Allen's body.
"...Ba... Barry..."
Diana's eyeballs were turning white, her eyelids growing heavier, as she murmured unwillingly.
"Die."
After blasting the Speed Force from Barry Allen with his heat vision, Clark's right hand clenched, instantly twisting Diana's neck...
Crack!
A crisp sound of bone breaking echoed, and Diana, completely devoid of life, was tossed aside by Clark like a broken rag doll.
"Have the rats hiding in the sewers finally shown their faces?" After dealing with another nuisance, Diana, Clark finally turned his gaze to the tense Mera. She held the Golden Trident and wore golden armor.
"Impossible!"
"How could this be...?"
"Why, why can you see me...?"
Barry Allen finally recovered from the unbearable pain; the lightning boomerang he had painstakingly summoned had also vanished.
"Because you're too slow."
Clark leaped lightly, his body floating before Mera and Barry Allen.
Slap!
Slap!
Superman's slaps instantly struck. Mera and Barry Allen, hit hard, crashed into the ruins of Gotham, smoke billowing...
"?!" Barry Allen gasped in pain; Clark's words were undoubtedly challenging his dignity as a speedster.
"I told you, I have no weaknesses."
"Whether it's Kryptonite, speed, or power."
Clark bent down and picked up the Kryptonite spear that had been broken by the black mist earlier. In front of Mera and Barry Allen, he personally crushed it into a pile of glowing green powder.
"Barry! Run!"
"Get out of here!"
"Now!"
Mera plunged the Golden Trident into the ground. She no longer cared about the cities that still relied on the water barrier for survival. Ancient, arcane incantations were recited, and the power of Earth's oceans instantly poured into Mera's limbs and bones!
She was going all out.
For the future of Earth, and for Lothar.
"Mera?!"
"Your Speed Force is the only key to resurrecting Lothar!"
"Run! Get out of here!"
BOOM!!!!
No sooner had Mera finished speaking than Gotham City, which should have been an inland city, was instantly submerged by the ocean!
Ruthless high-pressure water jets burst forth from the cracked ground, all surging towards Clark's position!
"I understand!"
Barry Allen, knowing the urgency of the situation, had just gathered his Speed Force when Clark already broke through the water's restraint, instantly appearing beside Mera!
Clark's invincible iron fist landed. Had it not been for the golden armor's defense, Mera would have likely perished under that punch. Heat vision swept across, and Barry Allen, who had just gathered his Speed Force, failed his starting attempt instantly!
"Die."
The restless heat vision was already aimed at the fallen Mera. The next second, however, a sudden disturbance erupted from the Apokoliptian portal above Gotham.
Looking back, the massive Kryptonian spaceship gradually phased out of its cloaking, floating directly above the three Mother Boxes. An azure robot cat had eight elongated mechanical arms extended from its back, securely fastened to the spaceship's surface. In its plump little hands, close to the Mother Boxes, it held two... flints?
"Woz?!"
Clank!
Woz, who had planned from the beginning to use Mera, Barry Allen, and the others to distract the enemy, unhesitatingly struck the flints it had created based on the Speed Force energy spectrum analysis.
Sizzle!!!
The next second, the Kryptonian spaceship exploded due to heat vision!
BOOM!!!!!
"WOZ!!!!"
Ascending flames dyed the dim skyline red. Mera, lying on the ground, stared blankly at the mushroom cloud blossoming in the sky...
"Next, it's your turn."
Clark sneered.
Suddenly, an extremely violent and unstable energy fluctuation erupted from above Gotham.
"?!"
Thump!
Thump!!
Thump!!!
Violent heartbeats, echoing across the sky right after the Kryptonian spaceship explosion! People all over the world looked up at the sky, searching for the source of the strange sound.
A crimson-gold light, like a long spear, split the dim horizon in two!
Thud...
The man who had changed half the sky's color slowly descended. Golden hair, emerald eyes, a swirling aura of power.
"Lo... Lothar?" Mera, still with smudges of blood on her lips, her face grimy.
The revived man still wore that incomparably stern expression, his arrogant gaze sweeping down upon everything around him, his internal energy climbing every second.
"Give me your hand."
Lothar said, his face cold, extending his hand to the fallen Mera. The woman on the ground smiled, radiant as a flower.
"Welcome back, Lothar."
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