Reading settings
Chapter 471: The Seed of Betrayal
New Oa, a planet temporarily constructed by the Guardians using the willpower stored in the Central Power Battery.
This temporary planet, built from a massive amount of green light, became a foothold for the Guardians, as well as a temporary gathering center for some of the Green Lanterns.
Since Ancient Doomsday destroyed Oa, the headquarters of the Green Lantern Corps had naturally been relocated here.
The Guardians sat atop pillars tens of meters high. Atop each pillar sat one of the little blue Guardians, their faces ancient and heavily wrinkled. Their gazes were uniformly numb and indifferent as they coldly watched the approaching Lanterns.
When Doomsday destroyed Oa, it also slaughtered over three hundred Green Lanterns who had rushed to intercept it.
That terrifying power made the hearts of the Guardians, who had witnessed ten billion years of history, pound with fear.
The willpower the Green Lanterns were so proud of was laughable before Ancient Doomsday, like a child's toy.
"Oa is destroyed, but fortunately, the Central Power Battery is unharmed. The core of the green light of will is still under our control," one Guardian said in a low voice, watching the clamorous Lanterns in the distance.
The Central Power Battery has a more fitting name: the "Central Battery." It contains the sealed collective willpower and emotions from countless lives. All Green Lantern Rings must be periodically recharged from the Central Power Battery.
This was also one of the ways they maintained tight control over the Green Lantern Corps.
They trusted no one.
Wasn't it just like this ten billion years ago, with the matter of Volthoom, the First Lantern?
Volthoom was the first being to discover the Emotional Spectrum, and he cooperated with their race of Little Blue Men to maintain stability in the universe. Volthoom generously shared all his research findings on the Emotional Spectrum with them.
The Little Blue Men and Volthoom joined forces, using the Emotional Spectrum to forge the very first ring in the entire Omni-Sphere World and Sphere of the Gods—the Ring of Origin.
Volthoom thus became the unprecedented First Lantern, the first being in history capable of wielding the power of the Emotional Spectrum.
Then, a series of events caused the relationship between the two sides to deteriorate rapidly. In the end, they betrayed Volthoom without hesitation, sealing him away inside the Shadow Cabinet.
To this day, Volthoom has been imprisoned for ten billion years.
The Volthoom incident was just one of the dark deeds they had committed over their long lifespans.
There were many more, such as the Sector 666 massacre that occurred during the time of the First Army; the subsequent disbanding of the First Army and the establishment of the Green Lantern Corps; the time the ambitious Little Blue Men declared war on Apokolips, only to be completely annihilated and forced to betray the great Lantern Rekt to Darkseid for torture and execution just to survive; and their later war with Qward of the Anti-Matter Universe... There were too many.
Too many vile deeds had been covered up in their past.
"The Lanterns are now planning to take revenge on Doomsday, but the Green Lantern Corps is no match for it."
"Doomsday is heading toward Earth. Tony will confront it. We just need to wait for the result."
"Parallax is also a huge problem. It has escaped our control. Abin Sur will surely die."
"It's better if he dies. He discovered many things he shouldn't have... By the way, now that Parallax is free, do the Green Lantern Rings still have the yellow impurity?"
"Yes. When we secretly locked Parallax inside the Central Power Battery, it caused an irreversible effect. Even with Parallax free, any new Green Lantern Rings we create will still be vulnerable to the color yellow, the embodiment of fear."
"Good. In a while, we'll change the color scheme of New Oa back to yellow..."
"The only trouble now is how we explain the matter of Parallax to Sinestro. Should the secret of the Lantern Entities be revealed?"
The Guardians conversed, speaking of secrets that only the seven of them, beings ten billion years old, could understand.
They thought this was top-secret information.
Oh, in fact, Tony was crystal clear on all these vile and shady dealings.
Just then, a beam of green light flew over and landed on the platform situated between the seven tall stone pillars.
The Guardians' expressions shifted. They fell silent and looked down at Sinestro.
Sinestro's face was a mask of grief and anger. His red-skinned features twitched slightly, his eyes were bloodshot, and he craned his neck to look up at the Guardians he respected.
"The greatest light in the universe has been extinguished."
Sinestro said, full of grief and indignation, "Are we truly going to do nothing?"
Six of the Guardians stared at him with cold indifference. The only exception was Ganthet, whose emotions flickered slightly, though he did not let it show.
Sinestro roared, his expression savage, "The greatest of the Green Lanterns is dead! If you are willing, allow me to lead a team to seek revenge! I don't care what that Parallax thing is, I will make it pay!"
The Guardians were silent for a moment before Ganthet spoke up. "Parallax is the embodiment of the emotion of Fear, the natural enemy of the Green Light of Willpower."
The other six Guardians suddenly turned their heads to look at Ganthet.
"Fear?" Sinestro froze, his expression changing instantly.
"This has to do with the Yellow Lantern Ring you forged..."
"No, Sinestro, we did not forge a Yellow Lantern Ring. The power of yellow fear you previously felt on Oa was us suppressing a rampant Parallax, preventing it from escaping and endangering the universe."
One Guardian said with an air of profound compassion, "The emotion of fear is too terrifying. We Guardians must shoulder the task of maintaining peace in the universe. We cannot allow Parallax to escape."
Sinestro pressed, "So you're saying you hid from me that you had Parallax sealed on Oa, and not on some other planet as you claimed? And you carelessly let it escape? Then you secretly sent Su to hunt it down, which led to his death?"
"Watch your tone, Sinestro! You are now the acting Leader of the Green Lantern Corps. Do not let your emotions get the better of you! We did this for the peace of the entire universe!" a Guardian said, displeased.
Sinestro was a firebrand; talking back during a disagreement was standard procedure for him.
"But none of that can cover up the fact that Su died in battle! He shouldn't have died so easily! You shouldn't have sent him to pursue Parallax alone!"
Sinestro roared, his eyes wide in disbelief as he stared at the Guardians. Those blue faces, at this moment, seemed utterly alien to him.
Sending a Green Lantern with the yellow impurity to single-handedly pursue the embodiment of yellow fear? What a foolish tactic!
In that instant, a flood of memories returned to Sinestro.
The yellow hue on Oa, the Green Lantern's yellow impurity, Su telling him about the darkness in the Guardians' hearts, and how Su seemed to be secretly working on something, anxiously preparing a contingency plan...
And all along, he had been mocking Su, telling him he was being overly paranoid...
Sinestro suddenly fell silent.
He was no fool; on the contrary, his intellect was formidable. He simply had never allowed himself to think this way in the past.
He felt that now, his mind was clearer than ever before.
It was just too late.
After a long while, he finally spoke in a hoarse voice, "Su's ring has found a successor. Great Guardians, I request permission to go to the Solar System myself to bring that person back. I will then personally train them, just as Su once trained me."
Ganthet was the first to nod. "You may. The region around Earth is Tony's home; the danger level is very high. It is a place that requires a Lantern of significant standing and power."
The other six Guardians frowned slightly but did not object.
Sinestro left without looking back. The moment he turned, his face became incredibly twisted and grim.
With his intellect, how could he not have detected that something was amiss? Su was his most trusted friend and mentor, and even his family—his wife was Su's younger sister. With Su dead, he was the one most overcome with grief.
"Parallax... the Guardians..." Sinestro murmured inwardly, suddenly becoming calm.
The ring on his left middle finger lit up, enveloping him in green light. He flew away swiftly, afraid that if he were a moment too slow, the Guardians would see his grim and resentful face.
"Why did you allow Sinestro to go to Su's sector? That is a serious violation of Green Lantern protocol," one of the Guardians questioned Ganthet.
Ganthet replied, "But besides Sinestro, we have no one else to send. Parallax is watching us from the shadows, preparing its revenge. We must also spare manpower to guard against overlords like Thanos and Mongul, and constantly monitor all fluctuations in the Emotional Spectrum throughout the universe, severely suppressing the emergence of other Lantern Rings... Most importantly, Ancient Doomsday is once again charging toward the vicinity of Earth. Aside from Sinestro, we have no other suitable candidate."
The other Guardians fell silent.
(end of chapter)
New Oa, a planet temporarily constructed by the Guardians using the willpower stored in the Central Power Battery.
This temporary planet, built from a massive amount of green light, became a foothold for the Guardians, as well as a temporary gathering center for some of the Green Lanterns.
Since Ancient Doomsday destroyed Oa, the headquarters of the Green Lantern Corps had naturally been relocated here.
The Guardians sat atop pillars tens of meters high. Atop each pillar sat one of the little blue Guardians, their faces ancient and heavily wrinkled. Their gazes were uniformly numb and indifferent as they coldly watched the approaching Lanterns.
When Doomsday destroyed Oa, it also slaughtered over three hundred Green Lanterns who had rushed to intercept it.
That terrifying power made the hearts of the Guardians, who had witnessed ten billion years of history, pound with fear.
The willpower the Green Lanterns were so proud of was laughable before Ancient Doomsday, like a child's toy.
"Oa is destroyed, but fortunately, the Central Power Battery is unharmed. The core of the green light of will is still under our control," one Guardian said in a low voice, watching the clamorous Lanterns in the distance.
The Central Power Battery has a more fitting name: the "Central Battery." It contains the sealed collective willpower and emotions from countless lives. All Green Lantern Rings must be periodically recharged from the Central Power Battery.
This was also one of the ways they maintained tight control over the Green Lantern Corps.
They trusted no one.
Wasn't it just like this ten billion years ago, with the matter of Volthoom, the First Lantern?
Volthoom was the first being to discover the Emotional Spectrum, and he cooperated with their race of Little Blue Men to maintain stability in the universe. Volthoom generously shared all his research findings on the Emotional Spectrum with them.
The Little Blue Men and Volthoom joined forces, using the Emotional Spectrum to forge the very first ring in the entire Omni-Sphere World and Sphere of the Gods—the Ring of Origin.
Volthoom thus became the unprecedented First Lantern, the first being in history capable of wielding the power of the Emotional Spectrum.
Then, a series of events caused the relationship between the two sides to deteriorate rapidly. In the end, they betrayed Volthoom without hesitation, sealing him away inside the Shadow Cabinet.
To this day, Volthoom has been imprisoned for ten billion years.
The Volthoom incident was just one of the dark deeds they had committed over their long lifespans.
There were many more, such as the Sector 666 massacre that occurred during the time of the First Army; the subsequent disbanding of the First Army and the establishment of the Green Lantern Corps; the time the ambitious Little Blue Men declared war on Apokolips, only to be completely annihilated and forced to betray the great Lantern Rekt to Darkseid for torture and execution just to survive; and their later war with Qward of the Anti-Matter Universe... There were too many.
Too many vile deeds had been covered up in their past.
"The Lanterns are now planning to take revenge on Doomsday, but the Green Lantern Corps is no match for it."
"Doomsday is heading toward Earth. Tony will confront it. We just need to wait for the result."
"Parallax is also a huge problem. It has escaped our control. Abin Sur will surely die."
"It's better if he dies. He discovered many things he shouldn't have... By the way, now that Parallax is free, do the Green Lantern Rings still have the yellow impurity?"
"Yes. When we secretly locked Parallax inside the Central Power Battery, it caused an irreversible effect. Even with Parallax free, any new Green Lantern Rings we create will still be vulnerable to the color yellow, the embodiment of fear."
"Good. In a while, we'll change the color scheme of New Oa back to yellow..."
"The only trouble now is how we explain the matter of Parallax to Sinestro. Should the secret of the Lantern Entities be revealed?"
The Guardians conversed, speaking of secrets that only the seven of them, beings ten billion years old, could understand.
They thought this was top-secret information.
Oh, in fact, Tony was crystal clear on all these vile and shady dealings.
Just then, a beam of green light flew over and landed on the platform situated between the seven tall stone pillars.
The Guardians' expressions shifted. They fell silent and looked down at Sinestro.
Sinestro's face was a mask of grief and anger. His red-skinned features twitched slightly, his eyes were bloodshot, and he craned his neck to look up at the Guardians he respected.
"The greatest light in the universe has been extinguished."
Sinestro said, full of grief and indignation, "Are we truly going to do nothing?"
Six of the Guardians stared at him with cold indifference. The only exception was Ganthet, whose emotions flickered slightly, though he did not let it show.
Sinestro roared, his expression savage, "The greatest of the Green Lanterns is dead! If you are willing, allow me to lead a team to seek revenge! I don't care what that Parallax thing is, I will make it pay!"
The Guardians were silent for a moment before Ganthet spoke up. "Parallax is the embodiment of the emotion of Fear, the natural enemy of the Green Light of Willpower."
The other six Guardians suddenly turned their heads to look at Ganthet.
"Fear?" Sinestro froze, his expression changing instantly.
"This has to do with the Yellow Lantern Ring you forged..."
"No, Sinestro, we did not forge a Yellow Lantern Ring. The power of yellow fear you previously felt on Oa was us suppressing a rampant Parallax, preventing it from escaping and endangering the universe."
One Guardian said with an air of profound compassion, "The emotion of fear is too terrifying. We Guardians must shoulder the task of maintaining peace in the universe. We cannot allow Parallax to escape."
Sinestro pressed, "So you're saying you hid from me that you had Parallax sealed on Oa, and not on some other planet as you claimed? And you carelessly let it escape? Then you secretly sent Su to hunt it down, which led to his death?"
"Watch your tone, Sinestro! You are now the acting Leader of the Green Lantern Corps. Do not let your emotions get the better of you! We did this for the peace of the entire universe!" a Guardian said, displeased.
Sinestro was a firebrand; talking back during a disagreement was standard procedure for him.
"But none of that can cover up the fact that Su died in battle! He shouldn't have died so easily! You shouldn't have sent him to pursue Parallax alone!"
Sinestro roared, his eyes wide in disbelief as he stared at the Guardians. Those blue faces, at this moment, seemed utterly alien to him.
Sending a Green Lantern with the yellow impurity to single-handedly pursue the embodiment of yellow fear? What a foolish tactic!
In that instant, a flood of memories returned to Sinestro.
The yellow hue on Oa, the Green Lantern's yellow impurity, Su telling him about the darkness in the Guardians' hearts, and how Su seemed to be secretly working on something, anxiously preparing a contingency plan...
And all along, he had been mocking Su, telling him he was being overly paranoid...
Sinestro suddenly fell silent.
He was no fool; on the contrary, his intellect was formidable. He simply had never allowed himself to think this way in the past.
He felt that now, his mind was clearer than ever before.
It was just too late.
After a long while, he finally spoke in a hoarse voice, "Su's ring has found a successor. Great Guardians, I request permission to go to the Solar System myself to bring that person back. I will then personally train them, just as Su once trained me."
Ganthet was the first to nod. "You may. The region around Earth is Tony's home; the danger level is very high. It is a place that requires a Lantern of significant standing and power."
The other six Guardians frowned slightly but did not object.
Sinestro left without looking back. The moment he turned, his face became incredibly twisted and grim.
With his intellect, how could he not have detected that something was amiss? Su was his most trusted friend and mentor, and even his family—his wife was Su's younger sister. With Su dead, he was the one most overcome with grief.
"Parallax... the Guardians..." Sinestro murmured inwardly, suddenly becoming calm.
The ring on his left middle finger lit up, enveloping him in green light. He flew away swiftly, afraid that if he were a moment too slow, the Guardians would see his grim and resentful face.
"Why did you allow Sinestro to go to Su's sector? That is a serious violation of Green Lantern protocol," one of the Guardians questioned Ganthet.
Ganthet replied, "But besides Sinestro, we have no one else to send. Parallax is watching us from the shadows, preparing its revenge. We must also spare manpower to guard against overlords like Thanos and Mongul, and constantly monitor all fluctuations in the Emotional Spectrum throughout the universe, severely suppressing the emergence of other Lantern Rings... Most importantly, Ancient Doomsday is once again charging toward the vicinity of Earth. Aside from Sinestro, we have no other suitable candidate."
The other Guardians fell silent.
(end of chapter)
