Above the moon, the surface was riddled with craters, like countless marbles popping out from beneath its scarred face.
Bardi appeared as a remarkable figure, dressed in white, stepping onto the lunar surface like an exiled immortal descending to Earth.
As he stepped lightly, the moon seemed to pause, the entire satellite halting under his feet.
The dust on the moon surged like a tidal wave, vast and far-reaching, forming a massive wave of dust that rippled into the distance.
Bardi stood alone amidst the scorching, distant dust of the moon, cold and merciless.
At this moment, all the hatred and grievances of Krypton would be settled.
Zod, now monstrous in size, bore the hideous body of Doomsday. The surface of his body distorted the dust and gas around him. His body radiated intense heat like an oven and emitted a powerful magnetic field the moment Bardi landed.
This Doomsday creature had lost control of its body, unleashing a violent magnetic field. The massive energy surged like a storm, lifting the moon's dust.
The two intense body magnetic fields clashed like colossal waves, stirring and colliding with the billowing lunar dust.
In an instant, the entire moon seemed as if it would collapse.
"Barmulodi!"
Zod's grotesque, muscle-bound face roared. The terrifying visage on that pile of muscle radiated tyrannical fury, his red eyes blazing violently.
Wave after wave of force rolled out, lifting vast clouds of dust that obscured the cold, cruel, and violent glares exchanged between them.
There was no need for words. The hatred between them had been forged long ago, on Krypton.
It could only end with one of them dead.
Boom!
Zod suddenly stomped, the lunar surface beneath him instantly cratering. The moon itself, knocked more than a thousand kilometers off its original orbit around Earth, began to sink.
If the moon had consciousness, it would already be crying under that one stomp.
Zod's massive body burst through the lifted moon dust. With rage-filled eyes and an overwhelming desire to kill, he charged at Bardi.
Bardi did not retreat. The moment Zod moved, a grin curled across his face. He reached out toward the incoming Zod, grabbing his rough, frost-covered skin and arms pierced with bone spurs.
Boom boom boom boom...
Bardi's eyes glowed a sinister red. Veins bulged along his arms. In an instant, he transformed from a celestial being of ethereal grace into a demon king of the abyss, his grin becoming twisted and terrifying.
Bardi seized Zod's attacking hand and instantly lifted both of Zod's arms, swinging his enormous frame left and right, slamming Zod down with frenzied force.
He smashed Zod into the moon like a broken rag doll, pounding him back and forth with a thunderous bang bang bang bang. The moon trembled, beginning to separate from Earth's orbit.
In just one exchange, Zod was completely overpowered.
On Krypton, it once took over fifty high-ranking generals to suppress the once-weak Bardi. Now, after ten years of strength, ten years of solar absorption, and the Codex of Life within him. Bardi had refined himself relentlessly. In this confrontation, Zod was immediately suppressed.
This was a suppression not only of strength but of combat technique.
The moon sank further, beginning to drift away into deep space.
Tear...
Zod's twisted face contorted. His blood-red eyes flared violently. He tore off his own arm, scattering blood across the lunar surface. His searing hot blood scalded the ground like boiling water.
Zod ripped his arm free to escape Bardi's grasp. As he tumbled away from Bardi, granulation tissue rapidly grew from the stump. Tangled like ancient tree roots, the arm regenerated in an instant.
Extremely powerful and horrifyingly resilient, the regenerated arm was even thicker than before. Its skin tougher and denser, clearly different from the rest of his limbs, it now exuded an even stronger and seemingly immortal presence.
"Hmm?"
Bardi's grin froze. He looked at the massive arm in his hand, then at the newly regrown limb on Zod's body.
Super-powered regeneration and recovery.
This regenerative strength had already surpassed any Kryptonian.
What's more, Bardi noticed that the regenerated arm appeared even more brutal, encased in a layer so thick it was nearly impenetrable.
This meant that unless he killed Zod instantly, Zod would keep recovering, becoming stronger each time.
Boom...
Bardi tossed aside the massive severed arm. His fierce face twisted with demonic fury. His body radiated fiery and violent energy as he unleashed all of his magnetic field, no longer restraining its force. His power exceeded even Zod's, pulling the entire moon into his magnetic influence. Their opposing gravitational pulls seemed to distort the very fabric of space.
Though his body looked smaller than Zod's, the majestic and formidable aura he exuded made the moon tremble. The stars themselves seemed to wail beneath Bardi's feet.
"Bar...mu...lodi!"
Zod let out a ferocious roar, the waves of destruction embedded in his genetic code boiling with bloodlust. His berserk and violent cells corroded his mind, destroying his will until only one thought remained—
Kill Bardi and destroy everything!
His violent eyes immediately lit up with twin beams of heat vision. The intense blasts shot across the moon's surface, tearing it apart. From Zod's position, the blasts gouged out two massive tunnels, which quickly merged into a single, wider trench due to their sheer size, blowing open a colossal channel across the lunar crust.
Bardi's eyes blazed with red-hot veins as he fired his own heat vision in return, clashing directly with Zod's thick beams.
Compared to Zod's wide, powerful heat vision, Bardi's beams were more concentrated, causing far less environmental damage to the moon.
The two beams collided head-on. They looked like massive pipes or columns of energy crashing into each other, spraying massive sparks—like a grinding saw spewing flames. Bardi's heat vision showed no weakness, colliding fiercely.
On the contrary, Bardi's concentrated beams, compressed to the extreme, pushed forward relentlessly, meeting Zod's attack. In a flash, Bardi's heat vision began to overpower Zod's.
The searing heat, over 100,000 degrees, and the erupting sparks carved out a molten crater on the moon's surface. Where the beams collided, a giant river of lava was formed as the molten rock flowed through the tunnel, advancing in Zod's direction.
(To be continued.)
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