Savage Wolf sensed the air currents attacking from behind and turned around impatiently, intending to swat Hal away. Yet the moment he touched Hal, an inexplicable panic surged within, instinctively making him turn back. Seeing the yellow light in Hal's eyes, countless hallucinations flashed before him.
Darkseid is a sufficiently cruel monarch, treating enemies and subordinates alike harshly. Anyone failing to meet his demands faces severe punishment, ruling his subordinates with fear. Consequently, those under his command deeply fear him.
Though Savage Wolf isn't immune to the influence of fear energy, his will is relatively strong. However, Hal is a natural Lamp hero, maximizing the potential of both Green Lantern and Yellow Lantern. Parallax hadn't specifically targeted Savage Wolf before, yet Hal was directly aiming for him.
In a momentary lapse, Hal surrounded Savage Wolf with fear energy. Savage Wolf staggered vaguely, and Hal struck a powerful punch to his face.
But Savage Wolf isn't a pushover; he took a deep breath, his eyes emitting an even stronger light, countering by grabbing Hal and slamming him into the ground, followed by a straight punch to Hal's chest.
The Yellow Lantern energy couldn't solve Hal's issue of weak close combat skills. After Savage Wolf's punch, Hal spit out blood again. The rate of physical repair by Yellow Lantern energy doesn't match Green Lantern energy. With no retreat, Hal flew up again, trying to control Savage Wolf with fear energy.
Though Savage Wolf was indeed disturbed, he's a natural war machine; even with mere instincts, he could catch Hal's flight trajectory and strike him down heavily, crashing him into the ground.
Hal's heart raced with urgency; Yellow Lantern energy seemed strong and replenished constantly, focusing on the mind but was impractical like Green Lantern energy. Continuing like this, there's no way to defeat Savage Wolf.
Hal had no other options; since Green Lantern energy couldn't replenish and Yellow Lantern energy wasn't useful enough, there was just one solution—convert Yellow Lantern energy into Green Lantern energy.
But that was easier said than done; Hal had no clue. These energies clearly didn't mix, making conversion impossible. What was he to do?
Hal's brain raced rapidly. On his own, it was certainly not feasible; when absorbing Yellow Lantern energy, he discovered Yellow Lantern energy repelled the little remaining Green Lantern energy in the Lantern ring, proving they can't coexist within the ring—one enters, the other must exit.
His body couldn't handle it either, as these energies attempting fusion or conversion would violently react, which his frame couldn't withstand without exploding.
He needed an external medium capable of absorbing both energies, sturdy enough to withstand conflict, and ranking higher than these energies without being influenced.
Hal suddenly noticed Vic lying on the ground.
With a low flight swoop, he grabbed Vic, seizing the moment while Savage Wolf hadn't reacted, injecting Yellow Lantern energy into Vic's body.
Vic was still unconscious, having previously exhausted his strength and been mentally attacked by fear power. Now fear power wasn't just affecting his mind externally but penetrating internally.
These intrusion methods differ significantly. Vic's spirit primarily stems from his physical form; the mother box integrated into him lacks independent consciousness, rendering his spirit purely Vic's, with low defense easily disturbed by fear power.
However, his physical defense differed, being a fusion of man and mother box, immune to invading fear energy. The mother box, a cosmic editor, is inherently a source of universal strength, not needing external force for reaction but is a black hole capable of containing all forces. Without this, it couldn't edit cosmic energies.
After Hal injected Yellow Lantern power into it, the mother box absorbed it, and Vic's body started gleaming faint with yellow light. Had he been awake, he might exploit editing features, altering Yellow Lantern energy to Green Lantern energy, yet unconsciousness halted this.
Hal didn't rely on him, unloading all his Yellow Lantern energy into Vic, then recited the Green Lantern Oath:
"In brightest day, in blackest night,
No evil shall escape my sight.
Beware my power, Green Lantern's Light!"
Of course, this couldn't summon the Lantern ring or Lantern Furnace; otherwise, he wouldn't need to painstakingly convert energy for replenishment. In training at Green Lantern Corps Headquarters, other lamp heroes informed him the oath was a means to connect with teammates; reciting it can alert nearby lamp heroes.
He refused to believe such a massive Parallax came to Earth unnoticed by the Green Lanterns, renowned custodians of cosmic safety. Parallax had been here quite some time; Green Lanterns should have arrived flying. If they could sense the oath, they should come to Earth for inspection.
But to Hal's disappointment, no Green Lanterns appeared immediately. Savage Wolf, instead, approached.
Chasing up, Savage Wolf was still affected by Yellow Lantern energy, and seeing Vic radiating yellow light made him furious. The mother box absolutely mustn't malfunction; he dreaded punishment by Darkseid!
Fear further stimulated his savage instinct, and he rushed directly forward, knocking Hal into the air, smashing him to the ground with two punches, and clawing at his chest.
"Ahhhhhhh!!!" Hal let out an earth-shattering scream, his heart almost dug out.
But Savage Wolf hadn't stopped his actions yet; he had to kill this annoying fly completely. He squeezed Hal's neck, exerted force suddenly, making Hal tremble all over, and then his pupils began to dilate.
Hal's spine was directly broken, death came so suddenly that he hadn't even reacted. Just then, several streaks of green light appeared in the sky; the Green Lantern Corps finally arrived.
When they saw the Parallax in the sky, everyone felt as if faced with a formidable enemy. Yet, they first began searching the ground for their teammates who recited the oath and then witnessed Hal's death.
"No!!!" The leading Green Lantern shouted as he flew straight towards them. Following him were several Green Lanterns, none of whom were humans. One big guy crashed fiercely into Savage Wolf, knocking him aside.
They were completely confused, not knowing why this Green Lantern was already dead, killed by another monster, nor understanding what was up with those lying around.
The leader of the Green Lantern Team rushed forward, wanting to save Hal, but it was already too late. Green lantern energy can heal wounds but cannot bring back the dead. Hal's death was too sudden; they didn't have time to save him.
The leader let out a mournful cry, turned, and glared viciously at Savage Wolf. Just as he was about to attack Savage Wolf, he noticed Hal's corpse pointing in a direction, a position unchanged until his death.
He looked in that direction and saw Victor lying beside him. The leader recognized the fear energy on Victor's body, so he didn't dare to approach easily.
However, during training, the leader knew Hal was not fundamentally strong, nor was his physical strength as powerful as the aliens', but his mind was very nimble, often having unexpected strategies; he was a very promising newcomer.
The judgment he made before his death must have its reason. Moreover, Victor didn't look like a henchman of the Parallax; they were completely different. Even for the sake of saving people, the leader still stepped forward to check on his condition.
The leader felt the fear energy within him, and his first thought was to help dispel the fear energy, as it was a curse, not only invading a person's spirit but also possibly harming the body.
And the best way to eliminate the Power of Fear was for a person with strong will to resist Yellow Lamp Power using green lantern energy. So the leader poured his own green lantern energy into him.
If it were a regular medium, say a human body, then Yellow Lamp and Green Lantern's Power could not coexist; once green lantern came in, Yellow Lamp had to be dispelled. But the Mother Box was not an ordinary medium; within it, all powers could coexist.
The leader input green lantern energy, and Yellow Lamp Power did not disappear. He found no dispersion and thought perhaps his energy input was insufficient, so he put more in but still saw no change.
The leader gritted his teeth, initially wanting to give up, but upon glancing at Hal beside him, he decided to try again. This time, he started at maximum power, a rich green light appeared in his hand, pressing it to Victor's chest, flooding it with great amounts of green lantern energy.
Victor's body surged with green lantern energy, suddenly reaching a critical point of balance with Yellow Lamp Power. At this moment, Victor's eyes snapped open, his body erupting in a dual-color glow.
Green lantern energy and Yellow Lamp Power began continuously clashing, Victor let out a low, painful growl. But as he turned his head, he saw Hal's corpse.
Victor was stunned, looking back at Savage Wolf beside him, even if he had been confused before, he must have realized Hal sacrificed himself to protect him.
Victor hit the ground with force, veins popping all over, unable to care about the two energies battling inside him, he crawled and rolled to Hal's side.
"No... no... save him! Save him!!!" Victor shouted frantically.
But Hal was indeed already dead, and due to the two raging energies inside him, Victor couldn't enter the previous modification mode. All he could do was hold Hal's corpse and roar with fury.
Wait, Victor, you have to calm down, he told himself in his heart. Only you can save Hal now; you must think carefully about what to do.
The Mother Box is so powerful, it must be able to achieve far more than imagined, even resurrection must be possible.
Victor took several deep breaths, forcing himself to calm down. The yellow lamp and green lantern energy wouldn't appear inside him for no reason; these two energies must have an effect. Hal was a Green Lantern, so surely the green lantern energy is more useful to him.
Therefore, Victor began to favor his will, allowing the green lantern energy to continuously devour the Yellow Lamp Power, then converting the Yellow Lamp Power into green lantern energy. It sounded unbelievable, but with the help of the Mother Box, nothing was impossible.
Having converted the majority of the Yellow Lamp Power, Victor still felt it wasn't enough. He turned to stare at the Parallax, reaching out his hand, beginning to extract the Power of Fear from the Parallax.