Chapter 363: Stealing The Hive
Over a dozen new Federation fighter jets circled the blood pillar that stretched for tens of kilometers. The fighter Pilots, while using the high-definition equipment on their jets to film the situation inside the blood pillar, maintained communication with the Air Force Command Center.
Inside the Air Force Command Center, several Generals with golden stars on their shoulders were watching the dynamics within the blood-colored light pillar in Real-time via the fighter jets' camera equipment displayed on the Big Screen.
"General Duran! I think we should let our Subordinate try attacking and see the effect!"
A white-haired Air Force Major General looked at the transparent light pillar shrouded in Blood Mist. Although the monitoring and photography equipment on the fighter jets used the most advanced technology, the picture displayed on the Big Screen showed nothing but patches of Red Mist, making it impossible to see anything clearly.
"Launching an attack is too much of an adventure. We can't determine the danger of this thing yet!"
A slightly out-of-shape, short and stout, overweight Elder raised an opposing opinion!
"So what do we do now? The Pentagon and the White House are still waiting for our information. Do we just wait like this?" the white-haired Air Force Major General retorted.
"Tell the Air Squadron to launch their airborne drones and see if they can enter the light pillar. Additionally, contact the Navy SEALs and have them prepare two assault teams! Be ready to breach at any time."
The Elder, who had been standing still without saying a word but wore the rank of Lieutenant General on his shoulders, looked at the screen, ignoring the two men's debate. After long deliberation, he directly issued the operations order.
As the Commander of the Air Force Base, and also the person with the highest rank and official position within the Base, once the Elder's operations order was issued, the Operations Staff Officer and Military Officer of all ranks within the Base quickly began executing it.
Buzz buzz buzz buzz—
Upon receiving the operations order, over a dozen fighter jets circling the River Styx Blood Pillar simultaneously ejected two black matte-finished drones, about one meter in size, from their underbellies. After being ejected, the drones' indicator lights turned on.
At the Air Force Base in New Jersey, inside the Command Center, rows of images representing the drones also lit up with red lights.
A group of Soldier and Military Officer in green camouflage uniforms sat in front of computers, watching the Real-time Footage of the drones displayed on the computer screen, and began operating the control sticks, directing the drones to fly towards the blood-red light pillar.
"Nine o'clock direction, the Military has deployed drones. Hmm, they went through... Looks like they aren't stupid either, they didn't send troops in directly!"
"Not necessarily, eleven o'clock direction, six attack helicopters. It seems your world's Military still hasn't given up on using Special Forces for reconnaissance."
"Looking at their attire, they are either Navy SEALs or Delta Force Counter-Terrorism Special Forces. Their equipment is quite good!"
"How does that fighter jet compare to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Helicarrier? It looks like an ARGUS aircraft?"
Black Widow Natasha and Hawkeye stood side by side. The helmets of their Ant-Man suits had built-in long-range viewing functions. The two elite Agent, while observing the movements around them, analyzed the official strength of this world based on their professional habits.
Compared to the two's professionalism, the other members of the Justice League and the Avengers didn't possess such tactical acumen.
The lazy Star-Lord even leaned directly against a tree, drinking beer he got from who knows where with Thor, one can each.
A cool breeze blew, carrying the fragrance of lotus flower. Looking at their lazy appearance, one might think they were here on vacation.
Black Widow rolled her eyes at the two guys who were embarrassing themselves in another universe.
Thor wiggled his body a few times on the ground, patted his stomach, pretending not to see Black Widow's glare, and whispered to Star-Lord beside him:
"How did they treat you when you fell into their hands? Did they torture you? Did they use branding irons or leather whips?"
"No torture, but Wonder Woman has a Lasso of Truth. As long as you're tied up by that rope, you can only tell the truth!" Star-Lord gulped down the beer in his hand.
He very extravagantly took off the finger-sized pendant hanging from his waist. Using a Pym Particles amplifier, he enlarged it. The pendant was surprisingly a wine cabinet over two meters tall and more than three meters wide.
However, judging by the Wayne Family crest carved on the wine cabinet, the origin of this thing was questionable.
Thor looked enviously as Star-Lord took out a bottle of crystal-bottled, beautifully packaged whiskey from the wine cabinet. He finished the beer in his hand in one gulp, crushed the beer can, and threw it aside.
"Lasso of Truth, I remember Asgardian Treasury also has a similar treasured item. When Loki used to lie all the time as a child, my Father King had someone make a magic ring using the tail hair of the eight-legged heavenly horse and the wings of a Raven. As long as you wear it, you can't lie!"
Mentioning his younger brother, Loki's image surfaced in Thor's mind, and his look became somewhat dazed. He couldn't forget the scene when Loki died tragically at Thanos's hands for him. He reached out his large, fan-like hand towards Star-Lord:
"Give me one too!"
Star-Lord took out a bottle of gold-labeled whiskey from the wine cabinet. Thor and Star-Lord didn't use wine glasses; they twisted open the bottle caps and started drinking straight from the bottle.
Perhaps influenced by the two's carefree attitude, after a while, the hearty Aquaman Arthur Curry also joined in.
Compared to the three's leisure, Cyborg Victor, Green Arrow Oliver Queen, Tony Stark, Dr. Banner, and others had already started busy setting up weapons on the Hillside.
The weapons were sent by Bruce Wayne's old Butler, Alfred Pennyworth, using the Bat-jet. Among them were some good items that even Tony Stark found eye-opening.
Over a dozen rapid-fire condensing cannons with automatic aiming and biological tracking systems, several high-energy laser cannons, and some strange alien equipment.
"This equipment of yours doesn't seem like products of Earth!?"
Tony Stark held a laser cannon, stroking the S-shaped mark on the gun barrel, and looked at Bruce Wayne, who was busy adjusting instruments nearby.
Bruce Wayne heard Tony Stark's words, and the action in his hand paused. Then, without lifting his head, he said in a deep voice, "These are weapons given to me by an old friend. His Homeworld is not on Earth!"
Tony Stark immediately understood. The old friend Bruce Wayne mentioned was Superman! Having experienced so many matters in the Marvel Universe, Tony Stark also had his own daughter and had become more mature; he was no longer the foul-mouthed Stark! He had no intention of reopening Bruce Wayne's wound and silently walked to the side, using nanobots to research the laser cannon in his hand.
At this moment, Wonder Woman Diana Prince walked up to Bruce Wayne. Looking at this old friend, she didn't know how to comfort him for a moment and could only change the subject.
"Leaving the matters to Barry, is that okay?"
Bruce Wayne forced himself to cheer up and said in a deep voice, "I've already had Alfred Pennyworth contact the Gotham City Mayor and the New Jersey Governor. With the Government coordinating, evacuating all the General Public from Gotham City shouldn't be a big problem!"
"As for Barry, Director Gordon will send police force to help him escort those madmen!"
Wonder Woman Diana Prince looked at the dazzling blood-colored flower in the distance, sighed, and was somewhat puzzled: "Bruce, I understand evacuating the General Public, but those criminals, as far as I know, with the crimes they've committed, dying ten times wouldn't be enough to repay the innocent! Why are you still trying so hard to save them!?"
Bruce Wayne looked back at Diana and said in a deep voice, "Other than the law, no one has the authority to define the life and death of others. It's true they are evil people, but they are also humans and enjoy the rights of Normal Person. I cannot stand by and watch them fall into danger!"
Diana didn't understand the mentality of her old friend Bruce Wayne. She shook her head:
"Everyone has their own choices. I don't support your attitude, but I respect your choice. So, how long do we have to stay here?"
Looking up at the blood-colored sky in the distance, Bruce Wayne said in a low voice, "Until this blood-colored light pillar disappears. I'm starting to regret agreeing to John's plan now. Facing those alien Parademons, with the Human World's Military, perhaps we could still put up a fight, but this ability to instantly turn tens of millions of Parademons into Blood Mist simultaneously, this is not something we humans can contend with! What kind of monster did this guy John communicate with?!"
Saying this, Bruce Wayne looked behind him. Under the shade of a tree a dozen steps away, John Constantine was curled up in a wheelchair, with a blanket thoughtfully placed over his legs by Barry Allen. He was unfolding a hand-drawn complex map, frowning as he looked at the complex patterns on it and the twelve locations circled in red pen.
"Hmm, this kind of blood sacrifice method is similar to the ancient vampire rituals sacrificing to Cain, but even sacrificing to Cain wouldn't reach this scale. Damn it, this complex magic array, even the ancient magic of Judaism, known for its complexity, hasn't reached this level!
Tens of millions of Parademons instantly turned into ash. What kind of enormous magic power is this!"
The white-suited, barefoot man with slicked-back hair had silently walked in front of John Constantine. He bent down, almost face to face with Constantine, looking at the map in his hand.
Looking at the magic array on the map, which was completely outside his memory, the slicked-back man couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. As the most famous demon god of Hell, his legend was circulated everywhere in Parallel Universes where the concept of Hell existed.
Having lived for a long time, in the long years, besides his hobby of coveting the Mortal Realm, he also liked to read some books to pass his boring daily life.
It could be said that compared to him, the little magic tricks Constantine mastered were like a firefly compared to the bright moon, incomparable.
However, the magic array drawn on this blueprint/diagram, he searched through his memory but couldn't find even a shred of a clue. This was not knowledge from this Multiverse! John Constantine held the blueprint/diagram, feeling the burning aura behind him, forcing himself not to let his expression show any flaw.
Suddenly, a teasing voice sounded: "John Constantine, hmm. Your heart is beating very fast, and your blood flow has increased by a tenth. It seems you're very nervous!"
Hearing the familiar voice, Constantine's face immediately showed a smile uglier than crying. He raised his head and looked at the face close to his.
"Long time no see, should I address you as His Majesty Satan or His Majesty Lucifer!" "Hmm! Although I already obtained the position of Satan two thousand years ago, a name is just a codename, call me whatever you like," the barefoot, white-robed figure, who was the demon god Lucifer, watched Constantine's complexion change with interest: "John, I've specially reserved a layer in Hell for you. There are quite a few of your friends there, and they miss you very much. When are you coming down with me?!"
Magic power was emanating from the talismanic seals all over Constantine's body, subtly hinting at the terrifying nature of the person before him.
Of course, Constantine also knew that this guy before him, as the foremost boss of Hell, whether he was Satan or Lucifer now, didn't matter to him. He had no doubt that this guy before him could effortlessly kill him with a single breath.
Although Constantine felt a chill/cold sensation in his heart, his body was already stiff at this moment. This was the instinctive fear of a lower being towards a higher creature. A Normal Person facing a demon god like Satan would, at this moment, have no thought of resisting at all, except to close their eyes and wait for death.
Constantine, however, showed a bitter smile: "His Majesty Satan, you also know how many debts I carry. If you want to take me back to Hell, how would I dare to resist, but those creditors..."
"Hmm? Are you threatening me?" Lucifer took out a white handkerchief from his jacket pocket and wiped his fingers. He shook his head like a gentleman and said elegantly:
"I really don't want to conflict with the First of the Fallen and the others. After all, I bear the name of Satan, and Hell is my Territory. I can't just watch it get smashed!"
The next moment, a greenish-black beast claw grabbed Constantine's neck, lifting him up. "But that's not a reason for you to threaten me, Constantine, you are too presumptuous!"
Constantine watched as Lucifer's face turned into a scorched red Demon face before him. He struggled, and along with a sense of suffocation, he could even hear the sound of his Adam's Apple being crushed.
"Cough cough! I know the origin of that alien Evil God!"
Barely roaring out this sentence, Constantine felt the large hand gripping his throat loosen, and he fell heavily back into the wheelchair.
"Hoo hoo hoo hoo—"
Constantine gasped for air in large gulps. Lucifer was not in a hurry, quietly waiting for him to regulate his breathing.
"That Evil God is from Another Universe. According to Him, He killed the God of His Universe!"
Constantine's first sentence immediately made the smiling expression on Lucifer's face freeze!
"He killed the God of His Universe!"
Walking in the light pillar Space filled with blood mist, feeling the sense of weightlessness as his body ascended, Constantine's words still echoed in his mind.
Killed God! No one understood the terror of Yahweh, the Father God, better than Lucifer. Even after He fell to Hell and gained the blessing of Hell's Will, He dared not presumptuously challenge His Authority.
This was also the Reason why Lucifer voluntarily stepped into this blood-colored Space. He wanted to defeat that God from the Alternate Universe! To obtain the Method to defeat God from Him.
Of course, there was another unsaid Reason. Although He had betrayed Yahweh, in Lucifer's eyes, only He was qualified to kill the Father God who created Him. Even the God of an Alternate Universe was not allowed.
A black drone flew past Lucifer. Lucifer casually stroked the drone's fuselage a few times, focusing on the small missiles hanging below it. He shook his head, a trace of disdainful smile appearing on his face, clearly not thinking much of this kind of human weapon.
The blood-colored mist drifted in this blood-colored light pillar tens of kilometers long. An invisible figure merged into this blood-colored mist. Tang Song's thought clone fused with this Ritual Passage, turning into blood mist and leisurely drifting in the River Styx Blood Pillar.
"Six, seven, eight, nine, nine is a bit lacking!"
Tang Song counted the fat fish in the light pillar who thought they were well-hidden. However, he was clearly not very satisfied with this catch. His gaze couldn't help but look outside the Altar.
"Ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, hmm, fifteen, that's more like it!"
Along with Tang Song's counting sound, the blood-colored light pillar of the Altar began to extend an invisible fluctuation outwards. From Tang Song's perspective, the River Styx Altar silently expanded outwards by ten kilometers.
It also enclosed some fat fish he had his eye on but weren't biting the hook. Although some of these fat fish Tang Song selected had strength no less than his main body, under the power of the Twelve Capital Heaven Netherworld King Banner, a magical power was released that interfered with the perception of those existences. Under the influence of the most ancient witchcraft in the Jambudvīpa World, not a single person noticed that they had fallen into a trap.
Even the First of the Fallen, whose power essence had reached the peak of Skyfather, comparable to a True Immortal, although He was extremely careful and constantly scanned the vicinity with His mental power to prevent sneak attack, He surprisingly didn't realize that His main body was gradually moving away from this Universe, and His entire power was slowly dissipating at an extremely weak speed, being absorbed by the nearby blood mist.
The magnitude of this power loss was extremely weak, like the heat expelled through the pores from Inside the Body. If not deliberately investigated, it would be impossible to detect.
In the Marvel Universe, in the Blood Sea Hell created by Tang Song, at this moment, the entire Hell, centered around the River Styx Altar, was covered with countless complex formation spirit marks.
From the outside, the Altar in Blood Sea Hell was identical to the Altar in the old district of Gotham City in the DC Universe, except that the Altar in Blood Sea Hell was hundreds of times larger than the one in the old district.
Although this River Styx Blood Sacrifice method originated from the Asura magic created by Daoist Styx in the Jambudvīpa World, from a scientific perspective, there was a connection between this Altar and the Altar in the old district that was quite similar to quantum entanglement.
The Altar in Blood Sea Hell could receive energy from the other Altar through this quantum entanglement and also exert influence on it.
The red light in the Altar greatly intensified. A continuous stream of energy shot up along the light beam reaching the sky into the center of the Altar, nourishing the two sword implements and one Demonic Blade, Invisible Shadow, in the middle of the Altar.
Standing in the center of the Altar, Nv Ba, who was also absorbing the natal vital qi of tens of millions of Parademons, suddenly opened her eyes. Two blood flames shot out from her eyes, and the next moment, her voice echoed throughout the entire Blood Sea Hell.
"Someone has broken into the Blood Sacrifice Space. Boss has given the order, everyone, activate the Netherworld Blood Sea Blood Lotus Formation. It's time for the harvest!"
In Blood Sea Hell, countless blood shadows and Blood God Sons surged out from the Blood Sea, transforming into streaks of blood-colored spirit marks and merging into the Netherworld Blood Sea Blood Lotus Formation. On the other side, Black and White Impermanence, Ox-Head and Horse-Face, the eight great Yin Commander who were rushing to build the Netherworld Government, also put down their work. Leading tens of millions of fierce soul and vicious spirit, fierce ghosts, vengeful spirits, they gathered the power of these fierce ghosts, fierce spirits, vicious spirits, malicious ghosts, black-hearted ghosts, and wrongfully dead ghosts into the Ghoul White Bone Banner.
As thousands of grayish-white Ghoul White Bone Banners swayed up and down, the fierce and malevolent aura of the entire Blood Sea Hell converged into the blood-colored light pillar in the center of the Altar.
However, after all preparations were complete, Nv Ba did not rush to activate it. She walked to the center of the Altar and slightly bowed to the two treasured swords inserted in the middle of the Altar. The two ancient sword implements, with their swords still in their scabbards, shot out two streams of emerald-green sword qi reaching the sky. The sword qi howled, even shattering the blood cloud several thousand meters high above Blood Sea Hell.
Nv Ba picked up the two sword implements and threw one of them to Hela, who was cultivating using the supreme Demonic Art from the Blood Scripture. Hela stopped absorbing the surrounding blood mist essence. She held the sword body with her left hand and held the sword hilt with her Right Hand, and drew the sword from its scabbard.
*Chime!* With a crisp sword hum, the surrounding Space even showed black cracks because it couldn't withstand the sword light of this sword implement.
However, being within the Netherworld Blood Sea Blood Lotus Formation, these cracks instantly disappeared.
Holding the sword in her hand, Hela felt the bone-chilling coldness emanating from the sword body. She looked at Nv Ba. After cultivating the Blood Scripture, she also understood that the woman before her should be the protector refined by Tang Song.
Even though she was nominally Tang Song's woman, in terms of importance, she was incomparable to the other party.
There was a sentence in the Blood Scripture that Hela remembered very clearly: The hatred of hindering one's Dao path is irreconcilable. And a protector is clearly a Personal Bodyguard who guards one's self, their importance is self-evident.
"What do we do next?"
Standing in the center of the Altar, Hela used her Divine Sense to feel the power of the Netherworld Blood Sea Blood Lotus Formation that had begun to operate. With such powerful force, Hela felt that if she entered it, she would be annihilated within a few minutes.
"Master instructed us to wait a little longer, wait until these fish leave the Water Surface before we activate it, otherwise, in the water, some big fish might have enough strength to get off the hook!"
As Nv Ba spoke, she formed hand seals. Countless streams of black and red misty qi and demonic flames flew out from her hands, shooting into the vast and boundless Blood Sea.
That was the blood flame transformed from Nv Ba's Natal Vital Qi. When this power was integrated into the formation, it could give the entire formation the ability to silently absorb the essence blood of those fat fish.
And those fat fish wouldn't even notice.
What is the form of the Universe? This question is not something humanity can understand, because the Universe is too vast, and since its birth, it has been expanding every moment.
The form of each Universe is not fixed, but that is only on the physical level. On the Space level, a vast Multiverse is like a giant The Hive.
Each hole in The Hive represents a Parallel Universe. They are close to each other, but the distance between them is despairingly far.
However, being deep within the same The Hive, some powerful existences are not without the ability to traverse Parallel Universes, just like Darkseid of Apokolips, who relies on the power of the Mother Box's Passage to travel through Space and occupy multiple Parallel Universes.
And demon gods like Lucifer can also travel between Parallel Universes by relying on the power of Hell.
However, the distance between the DC Universe Multiverse and the Marvel Universe Multiverse is not the distance between holes in one The Hive, but the distance between two The Hives on two branches of a tree.
Although similar, it's like one is a bee The Hive and the other is a hornet The Hive. When a transparent tube connects the two The Hives, when the bees leave their The Hive through the tube, they can naturally detect the difference in scent.
In the eyes of the human satellites and fighter jets outside the Altar, and some peripheral Soldier, the blood-colored light pillar that caused global panic was gradually fading, as if it were mist under the morning Sun.
While the Human Government breathed a sigh of relief, they were completely unaware that some unspeakable existences were also disappearing from their Universe along with the mist.
(end of chapter)