Chapter 218: You, Go Kill Black Hand
Ultraman's face was filled with fear, and even deeper confusion. He had no idea what was so special about this ring of his that it could attract the attention of a god on the level of Du Wa.
"Interesting. The Green Lantern Ring from Universe 3 is quite strange. Not only does it not choose people with strong willpower, but it specifically picks out cowardly mice?"
The God of Knowledge watched with great interest. He maintained a high level of enthusiasm for anything that was unexpected. This was an instinct for him—or rather, for the chair he sat upon—to constantly pursue new knowledge.
Ultraman bowed, his face full of sycophantic flattery, as he hurriedly reached for the Power Ring on his finger. "I am willing to serve the great God of Xenomorphs. Your will is the meaning of my existence..."
"To think I once considered this guy my strongest enemy. I must have been blind not to have recognized his true nature."
Alexander Luthor's expression was ugly. Watching the bowing, scraping Ultraman desperately licking Du Wa's boots, he found the sight sickening.
This guy was the de facto leader of Earth-3, the strongest Villain, ruling the entire world with brutality. Yet in the face of an unprecedentedly powerful Otherworld Deity, he could cast aside his pride so completely?
"It's the influence of that ring. Doesn't Steel Lantern also wear a green ring? He even went so far as to dye his Steel Armor green. Such terrible aesthetics... I remember a similar guy seemed to appear in my Native Universe, but he disappeared very quickly... Is it related to the wearer's willpower?"
The Lex Luthor from the DCEU Universe patted his own head, thinking hard. Before Du Wa's invasion of the DCEU Universe, he remembered seeing information about cosmic warriors wearing Green Lantern Rings, though there was very little of it.
"The Green Lantern Ring is the power used by a cosmic force called the Green Lantern Corps. As long as you have sufficiently strong willpower, you can use the energy within the Green Lantern Ring to create all sorts of weapons at will, and even achieve faster-than-light travel in the Universe."
Diana from the DCEU Universe whispered, "I learned about the Green Lantern Corps in my history classes on Themyscira, but I never thought I would use that knowledge in this Universe."
In truth, she was willing to say this because it made little difference whether she did or not. Du Wa clearly knew a great deal about the Lantern Rings, and his demand for Ultraman's ring was extremely specific.
"A version of myself who possesses such great strength, yet is so incomparably cowardly and completely subservient to Du Wa... it would be best to eliminate him as soon as possible."
The Superman from the DCEU Universe looked even grimmer. He had never given up on resisting Du Wa. After witnessing the miserable death of the Super-Soldier and the infection of the two Doomsdays by the zombie virus, he even felt the impulse to voluntarily become a Zombie. That way, he should be able to escape Du Wa, right?
After all, the zombie virus was a power that even Du Wa had to constantly "kill" himself to fight against.
Someone soon realized that perhaps Du Wa had found a way to combat the zombie virus, and the key lay in the Lantern Ring. Otherwise, how could this ring, which was the complete opposite of the Green Lantern Rings from other universes, attract the attention of a being like Du Wa?
By manipulating Thanoseid, Du Wa had smoothly killed the Anti-Monitor, taken out New 52 Darkseid, and seized the Anti-Life Equation, indirectly causing Universe 3 to become a Zombie Universe. The truly terrifying part was that after doing all this, no one could truly grasp the full extent of Du Wa's strength. It was highly likely that he was still holding back.
"It won't be that simple. His thoughts can't possibly be guessed by us so easily."
Steel Lantern, as an amalgam of Marvel's Iron Man and DC's Green Lantern, showed no reaction under the subtle gazes of the others, having no intention of explaining anything.
Dark Claw also remained silent. Among those present, besides the two Luthors and Steel Lantern, he, being half Batman, was the most intelligent.
Under the watchful eyes of countless people, Du Wa obtained the Power Ring, this special Green Lantern Ring.
"The Emotional Spectrum... To be able to distort the Green of Will to this extent, thereby creating a ring that weakens the will, is partly thanks to this universe existing as an inverted universe."
Of course, this was only part of the reason.
The most crucial factor was the one who personally created the Power Ring and hid a part of his own consciousness within it, the very first human in the entire Omniverse to come into contact with the mysterious and vast "Emotional Spectrum"... First Lantern Volthoom!
"Du Wa from Earth, you do not meet the requirements for wielding this ring. Now selecting a successor..."
The Power Ring emitted a faint green glow, transmitting this message into Du Wa's mind. Du Wa, of course, ignored it. With a light flick of his finger, he broke through the Power Ring's energy layer and launched a forced invasion.
"Violent analysis detected. Initiating emergency protocol 28... Failure. Correction, no such protocol exists..."
Before Du Wa, the Power Ring's defenses crumbled like sand.
The First Lantern hidden inside the Power Ring was thus exposed to Du Wa's sight.
"How did you find me? This is completely illogical!" The soul of Volthoom, which had the form of a tall human, looked up with a face full of shock.
"Within my concept, you have nowhere to hide, even inside a Lantern Ring. Besides, what you are now is, in essence, nothing more than an incomplete, ordinary human soul," Du Wa said, also sizing up this version of Volthoom from Universe 3.
He lacked the translucent, spectral form of the First Lantern, and he had no nerves visibly spread across his body.
The truly complete Volthoom was a 31st-century scientist from Earth-15. He and his mother were the first in all of DC Comics history to discover the Emotional Spectrum.
During an extraterrestrial invasion, his home was destroyed. So he took a Travel Lantern and journeyed through the history of the 52 Parallel Universes, searching for a way to save Universe 15. He eventually chose Universe 0, the DC Main Universe, as the end point of his journey. He believed that in Universe 0, the Main Universe, he had found a highly advanced species—the Maltusians—who were morally upstanding, emotionally rich, technologically advanced, and possessed long lifespans.
Volthoom excitedly shared all the secrets of the Emotional Spectrum, cooperating with the Maltusians of the Main Universe to develop its power.
But later, in order for Volthoom to better connect with the Emotional Spectrum, the Maltusians decided to strip themselves of all emotion, infusing it into an energy battery called the "Great Heart." The Great Heart, in turn, gave birth to a strange Lantern Ring—the Origin Ring!
Up to this point, everything should have been wonderful. The Maltusians were indeed sincere in their assistance to Volthoom, vigorously developing the Emotional Spectrum, searching for a possibility to save the 31st-century Earth of Universe 15, while also trying to use the Emotional Spectrum to protect the peace and stability of the Main Universe.
Volthoom implanted the Great Heart and put on the Origin Ring, instantly gaining immense power to control the Emotional Spectrum. The Green Light of Will, the Yellow Light of Fear, the Red Light of Rage, the Orange Light of Greed, the Blue Light of Hope, the Indigo Light of Compassion, the Violet Light of Love... He could manipulate the seven most accessible and abundant emotions of all life on the Emotional Spectrum at will through the Origin Ring.
But this was where things went wrong. Volthoom was just a special human, not immortal like the Maltusians, who could easily live for billions of years. He was completely unable to withstand the accumulated emotions of eons that countless Maltusians had stripped from themselves.
Volthoom thus became schizophrenic and was ultimately attacked by the Maltusians, who had lost all emotion and could only think like machines. In the Maltusians' calculations, this was the optimal solution. Since Volthoom was beyond saving, his mind and soul already in chaos, simply eliminating him would solve the problem at its source.
The dangerous Emotional Spectrum should also be controlled by them, those without emotion and with long lifespans. This was for the good of the Main Universe.
If the Main Universe became unstable, or even collapsed, the entire Multiverse would be finished along with it, necessitating yet another reboot—and not a soft reboot like the one caused by the Flashpoint event, but a true great destruction and great rebirth of the entire Omniverse.
This schism also completely severed Volthoom's hope of saving his home and his mother. Enraged, Volthoom began to hunt and slaughter Maltusians across the universe, until he was finally besieged and defeated by the Maltusians and the seven Original Green Lanterns they had created, and then imprisoned.
The surviving Maltusians also split in two. One group entered the Sealed Land to guard Volthoom, while the other took control of the Emotional Spectrum, choosing the most stable power of the Green of Will to form the Green Lantern Corps to protect the Main Universe—though this ultimately proved useless, as it led to a series of incredibly tragic spectrum wars, such as the war of the Seven Lantern Corps.
According to the Main Universe's timeline, a billion years had passed from the time Volthoom was sealed until the dawn of the Justice League's era.
And the Volthoom of Universe 3 was just a soul fragment that the complete Volthoom had cut from his soul while he was wandering across various universes and time points throughout the Omniverse.
He had no memory of going to the Main Universe, no fusion with the Great Heart, no Origin Ring, and no knowledge of the Maltusians, let alone the fact that his main body had gone insane and been sealed away for a full billion years.
The soul fragment of Volthoom inside the Power Ring observed Du Wa uneasily. "I've seen what's happened to this universe by observing the outside world through the ring, but I still don't understand how you found me... A terrifying god like you, perhaps you observed this universe's history and that's how you discovered my actions back then?"
After waiting a moment and seeing Du Wa remain silent, Volthoom grew even more anxious, his entire soul-form curling into a ball. "Then you should know that this evil ring wasn't made entirely by me. That sorcerer Mordru used the Emotional Spectrum and a part of my soul to create this Power Ring..."
"Ring of Volthoom. I know that's the Power Ring's true name," Du Wa said, reaching out and seizing Volthoom's soul.
Given his current stature, no matter how powerful the negative force of the Power Ring was, it had absolutely no room to resist in the face of the immensity of his consciousness.
As for the messy business between Volthoom's main body and the Guardians of the Universe from the Main Universe, and who was right or wrong, Du Wa had no interest in investigating. He just needed to make good use of the Volthoom before him.
"You've either observed the history of Universe 3—I hope that's the reason—or you've met my main body, or you know what another me has done."
A look of anticipation appeared on Volthoom's face as he urged, "Tell me quickly, did my main body succeed? Did I save my home, Earth-15, and my mother?"
"...As far as I know, no. The other you encountered many twists and turns. You had a falling out with an ally you once deeply trusted, were defeated in battle, and sealed away. You are still trapped in a cage, where you've spent a billion years." Du Wa spoke casually, then began to invade Volthoom's soul with his own powerful will and concepts.
"He still failed... It seems he went through so much, spent countless years, and still failed... Can't even the Emotional Spectrum save my world and my mother?" Volthoom was incredibly furious. As the core of the Power Ring, his intense emotional fluctuation caused the ring to respond, spontaneously generating various green, deformed monsters, only for them to be smashed to pieces by a single slap from Du Wa.
This caused Volthoom to calm down instantly.
"My Main Body is sealed, but I am still alive. Perhaps even the complete me from back then would never have expected that the act of letting Mordru extract my soul to make a Lantern Ring for an experiment would leave behind a new hope."
Volthoom looked at Du Wa. "You are powerful, extremely powerful. And you have countless powerful subordinates! Help me, lend me an army strong enough, I want to rescue my main body! There are more important things he needs to do!"
"Your main body is no longer the person you knew. For that matter, can you even recognize your current self? Look at you, guiding the Lanterns who wear the Power Ring to degenerate into cowardly, brainless fools."
"I have no choice! This is determined by the rules of Universe 3! When the complete me brought the power of the Emotional Spectrum to this universe, how could I have predicted that this world was an inverted world?" Volthoom retorted.
After becoming a part of the Power Ring, Volthoom's thinking and perception had also shifted. But then again, Volthoom was never a good-natured person to begin with.
"You did not bring the Emotional Spectrum. It has always been here, existing everywhere in the Multiverse," Du Wa said coolly. "I can lend you an army. It will be more than enough to deal with the ones who imprisoned your main body."
As for what the now-insane First Lantern, Volthoom, would think of this part of his soul—which had been severed countless years ago and made into a Lantern Ring by someone else—after being freed from his prison, that was hard to say.
Du Wa mused that he would either use the Power Ring as a tool, or simply destroy it and re-fuse the severed soul into his body to make himself whole again.
"There was once another who borrowed an army from me to counterattack his homeland. I helped him fulfill his wish. Fulfilling your wish is also not a problem, but I need you to do something for me."
Du Wa looked at the intensely eager Volthoom and said slowly, "Volthoom, go kill Black Hand. This is very important to me."
"What did you say???"
Volthoom suspected he had misheard and was stunned on the spot.
(end of chapter)