"Dead... he's dead...?"
The biting cold wind blew, yet Barry Allen's heart burned with an intense warmth.
Darkseid's headless corpse lay silently about ten meters away from him. His chest was caved in, his limbs utterly destroyed.
These were Lothar's handiwork, and Barry Allen, typically a proponent of peace, felt not a shred of aversion. Instead, he felt a joyous satisfaction, almost wanting to clap his hands in delight.
Darkseid, the ruler of Apokolips who had brought nightmares to Earth, the terrifying emperor who had single-handedly decimated the Justice League, was finally dead. And in such a cathartic manner.
Killed by Lothar, punched to death, literally beaten to death.
If his legs hadn't been crippled, rendering him immobile, Barry Allen would have walked up to Darkseid's corpse and whipped it with his Flash-dagger.
"Woz, disable self-diagnostic system, boot up."
Lothar, expressionless, bent down and picked up the bracelet he had discarded earlier, placing it back on his wrist.
"Woz is booting up, please wait..."
On the sky-blue panel, the large blue cat icon softened Lothar's expression slightly. Then, Lothar's gaze turned to the bronze gate hanging above Gotham.
Three powerful Mother Boxes spun leisurely before the portal.
Lothar remained silent, then flew above the bronze gate under Barry Allen's watchful eye. With a sudden burst of strength, he tore the bronze gate into two halves!
Clang!
The ancient, massive gate panels crashed to the ground. Lothar, holding the three Mother Boxes, emerged from the swirling dust. The powered-down Woz reopened its eyes, looking bewildered at its surroundings, both familiar and strange.
"Lothar... Your Highness Lothar?!"
A subconscious data scan of Lothar overloaded Woz's data panel, startling the robotic cat. What had happened during its data corruption?
"Is Darkseid dead?"
"And where is Lady Mera?"
Scanning the environment, Woz saw Darkseid's corpse, but Mera had vanished without a trace.
"Dead."
Lothar's gaze flickered, his eyelids lowered. In his ears, he could almost hear Mera's confession from before she disappeared.
Lothar, I like you.
The golden light in his eyes gradually faded, and the immense power dissipated with Lothar's will. Lothar, bare-chested, sat atop Darkseid's corpse, his calm gaze fixed intently on the Golden Trident not far away. Mera's weapon.
"Dea—" Woz opened its mouth, but the comforting words got stuck, unsure how to begin. It scratched its head in distress. It felt it had likely guessed how Darkseid ended up dead in the wilderness. But precisely because of that, Woz found it difficult.
Hela was gone, Lothar couldn't save her; Mera was gone, and Lothar still couldn't save her... This was undoubtedly another huge blow to the always proud Lothar.
"Although I know this might be inappropriate, and rather tactless, but..."
"Mera, she... she would be very pleased."
"You avenged her."
Barry Allen, his legs crippled and relying on his hands to drag himself across the ground, leaned against an irregular stone in the ruins, comforting the expressionless Lothar.
"Shut up." Lothar cast a cold glance.
"In fact, I have something to give you here. Mera gave it to me. She said if the war ended and she died, I should give this to you."
Barry Allen shrugged, opened the lightning insignia on his chest uniform, and handed a chip to Woz. Woz eyed the heavily breathing Barry Allen suspiciously, then parsed the chip's contents.
"Don't look at me like that. She knew I'm a Flash, not easy to kill."
Barry Allen's expression was somewhat downcast. He felt his abilities were still too weak, lacking anything besides speed. And relying solely on this speed, which he once prided himself on, he couldn't contend with enemies like Darkseid.
"Your Highness, it's a message from Lady Mera."
Woz, having parsed the chip's contents, scratched its head, momentarily unsure whether it should show this to Lothar.
"Play it."
Lothar looked up, and the image on the sky-blue screen before him suddenly changed. Mera, dressed in casual home clothes, was waving at the camera, greeting Lothar: "Hello, Lothar. Are you surprised?"
"By now, you must have defeated Darkseid, right?"
"I believe in you. You definitely can defeat him."
"I..."
Mera, on camera, toyed with her enchanting red curly hair, rambling on about everyday matters for half an hour. She focused on explaining how the plan to revive Lothar was formulated and shared some of her innermost thoughts.
"I like you, Lothar."
"I don't know, I don't know if I'll say these words to you before I die, so... you know, life-sharing is an Atlantean secret art, and I don't know if I'll have to use it."
"So I recorded this video in advance."
"Consider it a small effort I made to defeat Hela." Mera, on camera, bit her lip and gave a playful wink.
"Queen Atlanna once told me that if you're sure you like someone, you must pursue them, regardless of the outcome."
"You like Hela, I know. Don't rush to deny it. Woz has told me your story many times."
"But Hela is dead."
"So, I wonder, what can I do to make you remember me?"
"I—"
The image on the monitor screen suddenly vanished. Lothar had directly stopped the video playback.
"Woz."
"Woz cannot detect Lady Mera's life signature. The Mother Boxes cannot resurrect her." Woz, already guessing what Lothar wanted to ask, responded respectfully. There was simply no solution for this.
"Is there anything in this world similar to the Time Stone?" Lothar clearly wasn't giving up. In his original world, he couldn't take the Time Stone, which could reverse time, from the Sorcerer Supreme Agamotto. But what about this world? Now his power had increased to an extremely terrifying degree. Even if he encountered someone equivalent to Agamotto, Lothar was confident he wouldn't lose.
"... Time Stone? Your Highness, are you thinking of reversing the timeline?" Woz, bewildered for a good while, finally caught up with Lothar's train of thought. Fight Darkseid again? It seemed plausible.
Woz glanced at the corpse Lothar was sitting on and began to consider the potential consequences of Lothar's action.
Lost in thought, Woz frantically sifted through system data... After a long time, Woz's gaze turned to Barry Allen. The latter was clearly somewhat at a loss.
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