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Chapter 509: I'll Take It From Here
Hal had already become a monster, a monster that controlled fear.
Perhaps at this very moment, the Parallax entity itself was rushing madly toward Earth, wanting to completely merge with Hal and become the incomparably powerful Parallax.
"Is that... a mutant?" Captain America asked, uncertain. He threw his shield like a discus, knocking away several enemies before it flew back into his hand.
"No, he doesn't have the X-Gene. It's more like some kind of superpower, or he's being controlled by something. Worst-case scenario, we might have another enemy on our hands," Tony said quickly after a scan.
The current Hal had transformed into a humanoid monster with a grotesque, gaping maw. His body was covered by a yellow battle suit, making him look like a color-swapped Green Lantern.
Countless blades formed from the emotion of fear transformed into terrifying scythes, frantically reaping the lives of the slaves. Every slave who died was instantly torn to pieces, their deaths horrifyingly gruesome.
"What is that thing!"
"A Green Lantern?"
"I don't want to die..."
The shrill screams only made Parallax more violent. A cruel smile spread across its face as it waved a hand, conjuring a missile silo out of thin air. Dozens of yellow missiles gathered, ignited, and blasted toward Cyborg Superman, who was locked in a fierce battle with Superman, causing a staggering explosion.
A vast cloud of dust and smoke billowed out, spreading and gradually thinning.
The explosion had enveloped both Cyborg Superman and Superman.
The next second, Parallax appeared directly in front of Cyborg Superman. Without even glancing at Clark beside him, it reached out, grabbed Cyborg Superman's head, and slowly lifted him up.
"I can feel the fear in your heart, Hank," Parallax said in a low voice, filled with the satisfaction of a cat toying with a mouse. "You crave family, but you have lost them forever. You fear loneliness, but you fear your inability to get revenge even more."
Cyborg Superman glared with his one remaining fleshy eye, unleashing his heat vision, but it was blocked by a rapidly formed shield.
"What do you know? You don't know anything! They were innocent, and yet they died! It's all Jor-El's fault! His son will pay for the deaths of my wife and child!"
"Who you want revenge on has nothing to do with me. I just want revenge on you." Parallax extended its talons, then slowly pushed them into the fleshy eye. It pressed down hard, plunging them in, and amidst Cyborg Superman's agonized roars, began to gouge the eye out bit by bit.
Enduring the pain, Cyborg Superman threw a vicious punch, instantly shattering Parallax's blocking arm and reducing it to a pulp.
But in an instant, a flash of yellow fear energy flickered, and Parallax was restored to its original state.
"You fight me while filled with fear, Hank. You will die." Parallax chuckled lowly, deliberately slowing its movements as it tore the eyeball out piece by piece.
The mangled, blood-stained eye rested quietly on the tips of Parallax's talons.
Cyborg Superman's right eye socket was now a bloody, empty cavity, with what little blood he had left trickling down. More painful than the physical agony was the mental anguish. He only had so few Kryptonian features left, yet this right eye had been gouged out by the creature before him.
He was just a civilian, wailing helplessly a moment ago. How did he become so terrifying in an instant?
But that didn't matter. Cyborg Superman attacked Parallax relentlessly, his electronic eye fixed on the shocked expression of Clark standing nearby.
As long as he could kill Clark, anyone could take his life.
Once his revenge was complete, he would find a way to kill himself anyway; he had no desire to live on.
But Parallax didn't want to give him time. It just wanted to kill him immediately.
"Can you hand him over to me first? I have some questions for him," Clark said, sending a slave flying with a single punch.
"That won't do..." Parallax said in a bizarre tone, its sharp fangs no different from a monster's.
Cyborg Superman roared, his entire mechanical body creaking as he barely managed to break free from Parallax's grasp. He stomped on the ground, kicking up a deep crater, and slammed his shoulder into Parallax, sending it staggering back and coughing up blood on the spot.
The current Parallax was merely a combination of a bit of fear energy and its host. They had just bonded and were far from perfectly integrated.
If the Parallax entity itself were here, it would absolutely crush Cyborg Superman.
"You'll pay for the residents of Coast City, and you'll pay for Carol." Parallax grimaced, wiping the corner of its mouth while enduring the intense pain.
Clark wanted to say more, but the master of Warworld grabbed his cape and slammed him violently to the ground.
The melee erupted once again.
Blood streamed down Cyborg Superman's face. His electronic eye scanned Parallax, and ignoring everyone else, he decided to kill Parallax first, then torture and kill Clark with his own hands.
He leaped and stomped down hard on Parallax, the immense force smashing it directly into the ground. But immediately, Parallax's fingers twitched, a giant hammer formed, and it sent Cyborg Superman staggering back.
Hal, enveloped in fear, struggled to maintain his willpower, his eyes red as he stared at Cyborg Superman. He wanted revenge for Coast City, revenge for his childhood sweetheart, Carol.
For the first time, the carefree Hal felt such an intense desire to kill someone.
The two avengers, filled with hatred, fought savagely. Their brutal fighting style, a desperate exchange of injury for injury, was terrifying to watch.
From time to time, others were caught in the crossfire. The shockwaves of their power spread out, triggering violent, hurricane-like storms.
Their battle grew increasingly brutal, and both began to sustain serious injuries. Overall, Parallax's injuries were more severe.
Cyborg Superman's body was mostly mechanical, so he didn't care about getting injured.
Fighter jets fell from the sky, trailing thick smoke. Among the thousands of slaves, people were dying every moment, but the casualties on Earth's side were even greater. The ordinary soldiers who had rushed to the scene were using their lives to hold back the enemy.
"Just die!" Parallax roared, opening its mouth and biting down on Cyborg Superman's neck like a madman. Its teeth, a dozen centimeters long, sank deep into Cyborg Superman's neck.
Cyborg Superman grabbed Parallax's head with a backhand grip and pulled with all his might, trying to rip its head off first.
Parallax let out a pained scream but refused to let go, clamping down and tearing, ripping out a handful of components.
More and more people were dying, and in outer space, Warworld hung over the heads of all humanity like the Sword of Damocles.
"That's enough!" Stephen gritted his teeth and used his magic, about to pull Warworld into the Mirror Dimension.
This was equivalent to forcibly dragging a celestial body the size of a moon into another spacetime!
A strange energy began to surge forth, attempting to shift the real-world object into another dimension, but the process was clearly taking an immense toll.
A sorcerer capable of this feat should, by all rights, be not far from a star-destroying level, but the current Stephen was still a bit short.
"Forget it, Stephen. I'll take it from here."
A familiar voice sounded as Tony stepped out of a suddenly opened portal. He surveyed the catastrophic state of Coast City, his expression grim.
(end of chapter)
Hal had already become a monster, a monster that controlled fear.
Perhaps at this very moment, the Parallax entity itself was rushing madly toward Earth, wanting to completely merge with Hal and become the incomparably powerful Parallax.
"Is that... a mutant?" Captain America asked, uncertain. He threw his shield like a discus, knocking away several enemies before it flew back into his hand.
"No, he doesn't have the X-Gene. It's more like some kind of superpower, or he's being controlled by something. Worst-case scenario, we might have another enemy on our hands," Tony said quickly after a scan.
The current Hal had transformed into a humanoid monster with a grotesque, gaping maw. His body was covered by a yellow battle suit, making him look like a color-swapped Green Lantern.
Countless blades formed from the emotion of fear transformed into terrifying scythes, frantically reaping the lives of the slaves. Every slave who died was instantly torn to pieces, their deaths horrifyingly gruesome.
"What is that thing!"
"A Green Lantern?"
"I don't want to die..."
The shrill screams only made Parallax more violent. A cruel smile spread across its face as it waved a hand, conjuring a missile silo out of thin air. Dozens of yellow missiles gathered, ignited, and blasted toward Cyborg Superman, who was locked in a fierce battle with Superman, causing a staggering explosion.
A vast cloud of dust and smoke billowed out, spreading and gradually thinning.
The explosion had enveloped both Cyborg Superman and Superman.
The next second, Parallax appeared directly in front of Cyborg Superman. Without even glancing at Clark beside him, it reached out, grabbed Cyborg Superman's head, and slowly lifted him up.
"I can feel the fear in your heart, Hank," Parallax said in a low voice, filled with the satisfaction of a cat toying with a mouse. "You crave family, but you have lost them forever. You fear loneliness, but you fear your inability to get revenge even more."
Cyborg Superman glared with his one remaining fleshy eye, unleashing his heat vision, but it was blocked by a rapidly formed shield.
"What do you know? You don't know anything! They were innocent, and yet they died! It's all Jor-El's fault! His son will pay for the deaths of my wife and child!"
"Who you want revenge on has nothing to do with me. I just want revenge on you." Parallax extended its talons, then slowly pushed them into the fleshy eye. It pressed down hard, plunging them in, and amidst Cyborg Superman's agonized roars, began to gouge the eye out bit by bit.
Enduring the pain, Cyborg Superman threw a vicious punch, instantly shattering Parallax's blocking arm and reducing it to a pulp.
But in an instant, a flash of yellow fear energy flickered, and Parallax was restored to its original state.
"You fight me while filled with fear, Hank. You will die." Parallax chuckled lowly, deliberately slowing its movements as it tore the eyeball out piece by piece.
The mangled, blood-stained eye rested quietly on the tips of Parallax's talons.
Cyborg Superman's right eye socket was now a bloody, empty cavity, with what little blood he had left trickling down. More painful than the physical agony was the mental anguish. He only had so few Kryptonian features left, yet this right eye had been gouged out by the creature before him.
He was just a civilian, wailing helplessly a moment ago. How did he become so terrifying in an instant?
But that didn't matter. Cyborg Superman attacked Parallax relentlessly, his electronic eye fixed on the shocked expression of Clark standing nearby.
As long as he could kill Clark, anyone could take his life.
Once his revenge was complete, he would find a way to kill himself anyway; he had no desire to live on.
But Parallax didn't want to give him time. It just wanted to kill him immediately.
"Can you hand him over to me first? I have some questions for him," Clark said, sending a slave flying with a single punch.
"That won't do..." Parallax said in a bizarre tone, its sharp fangs no different from a monster's.
Cyborg Superman roared, his entire mechanical body creaking as he barely managed to break free from Parallax's grasp. He stomped on the ground, kicking up a deep crater, and slammed his shoulder into Parallax, sending it staggering back and coughing up blood on the spot.
The current Parallax was merely a combination of a bit of fear energy and its host. They had just bonded and were far from perfectly integrated.
If the Parallax entity itself were here, it would absolutely crush Cyborg Superman.
"You'll pay for the residents of Coast City, and you'll pay for Carol." Parallax grimaced, wiping the corner of its mouth while enduring the intense pain.
Clark wanted to say more, but the master of Warworld grabbed his cape and slammed him violently to the ground.
The melee erupted once again.
Blood streamed down Cyborg Superman's face. His electronic eye scanned Parallax, and ignoring everyone else, he decided to kill Parallax first, then torture and kill Clark with his own hands.
He leaped and stomped down hard on Parallax, the immense force smashing it directly into the ground. But immediately, Parallax's fingers twitched, a giant hammer formed, and it sent Cyborg Superman staggering back.
Hal, enveloped in fear, struggled to maintain his willpower, his eyes red as he stared at Cyborg Superman. He wanted revenge for Coast City, revenge for his childhood sweetheart, Carol.
For the first time, the carefree Hal felt such an intense desire to kill someone.
The two avengers, filled with hatred, fought savagely. Their brutal fighting style, a desperate exchange of injury for injury, was terrifying to watch.
From time to time, others were caught in the crossfire. The shockwaves of their power spread out, triggering violent, hurricane-like storms.
Their battle grew increasingly brutal, and both began to sustain serious injuries. Overall, Parallax's injuries were more severe.
Cyborg Superman's body was mostly mechanical, so he didn't care about getting injured.
Fighter jets fell from the sky, trailing thick smoke. Among the thousands of slaves, people were dying every moment, but the casualties on Earth's side were even greater. The ordinary soldiers who had rushed to the scene were using their lives to hold back the enemy.
"Just die!" Parallax roared, opening its mouth and biting down on Cyborg Superman's neck like a madman. Its teeth, a dozen centimeters long, sank deep into Cyborg Superman's neck.
Cyborg Superman grabbed Parallax's head with a backhand grip and pulled with all his might, trying to rip its head off first.
Parallax let out a pained scream but refused to let go, clamping down and tearing, ripping out a handful of components.
More and more people were dying, and in outer space, Warworld hung over the heads of all humanity like the Sword of Damocles.
"That's enough!" Stephen gritted his teeth and used his magic, about to pull Warworld into the Mirror Dimension.
This was equivalent to forcibly dragging a celestial body the size of a moon into another spacetime!
A strange energy began to surge forth, attempting to shift the real-world object into another dimension, but the process was clearly taking an immense toll.
A sorcerer capable of this feat should, by all rights, be not far from a star-destroying level, but the current Stephen was still a bit short.
"Forget it, Stephen. I'll take it from here."
A familiar voice sounded as Tony stepped out of a suddenly opened portal. He surveyed the catastrophic state of Coast City, his expression grim.
(end of chapter)
