Chapter 235: Forerunner to a God, Promotion to Multiversal
Who was the bastard that took Nekron away?
On the verge of death, Hal's heart was filled with regret. He mulled it over and over but never could have imagined this would be the outcome.
Even Death of the Emotional Spectrum had run off, no longer in the Main Universe. What was the point of him coming to Nekron's world?
His plan to commit suicide, be resurrected as a Black Lantern Zombie, and return to the world of the living was now just wishful thinking.
"In the end, it's all up to Sinestro? This is truly... But then again, compared to Sinestro, I really am inferior in every way. I'm far too lacking."
Hal's thoughts ran wild as his consciousness gradually faded.
An unknown amount of time passed.
He was alive, as a Black Lantern Zombie. He numbly lowered his head, looking at the Black Lantern Ring that had been placed on his finger at some point.
"Your luck is good. Nekron has returned, and he specifically resurrected you," Black Hand said, standing in the darkness and looking at Hal with indifference.
Black Hand, an Earthling, was a valued servant of Nekron and the spokesperson for the Black Lantern Corps—at least on the surface.
But Black Hand knew very well that the Hal Jordan before him was now the true spokesperson.
"So you were in this world all along. You pulled Sinestro and me into the Dead World and personally witnessed my death. You must be in a great mood, right?" Hal felt no anger. Sensing his decaying body, he had lost all sense of pain.
This was what it felt like to be a Black Lantern Zombie.
Speaking of which, Black Hand had originally been forced to join the Blue Lantern Corps. Wearing a Blue Lantern Ring, his mind was filled with nothing but pity and remorse, brainwashed into a compassionate Blue Lantern. It was only when Kyle clashed with the Blue Lantern Corps that he was fortunate enough to remove the Blue Lantern Ring and escape successfully.
He was subsequently found by the Guardians. The Guardians used the power of the Emotional Spectrum to forcibly transform the living Black Hand into a Black Lantern Zombie in Nekron's absence.
The purpose was to dispatch Black Hand to ambush Sinestro and Hal, dragging these two—the "greatest Green Lanterns" of the last and second-to-last generations—into the Dead World to finally kill them.
However, none of this process mattered to Black Hand, because Nekron had returned.
A colossal figure stood in the dim Dead World. Hal looked up, gazing at this Deity holding a giant scythe.
According to his original plan, he would immediately leave this world and return to the world of the living, using the power of the Black Lanterns to quell the turmoil outside.
Whether it was the Guardians or some other characters, they would all fall silent in the face of the all-devouring Death.
Sinestro had gone to do just that. Now, Hal couldn't possibly let a dangerous and ambitious person like Sinestro save everyone, because Sinestro would definitely take the opportunity to desperately push his own agenda while saving the world. That's just how Sinestro was.
"Nekron, whether you can understand me or not, and whether you can communicate with me if you do, I need your power," Hal said grimly to Nekron, turning to leave.
But Nekron immediately moved, not to respond to Hal as he had hoped, but to swing his scythe and slash at a mass of rapidly moving darkness.
*Sssshhh!*
The Dead World was torn open by a powerful force, and the Dark Walker charged out from the rift.
"Our battle isn't over yet. Since you were in such a hurry to move the battlefield to the Main Universe, I'll indulge you. Now, we should begin a new round of confrontation."
The Dark Walker refused to let Nekron go, which annoyed Nekron quite a bit.
They were both Death; neither could kill the other. Why were you fighting so desperately?
"Who is this guy? Another Death Deity?" Hal was astonished.
Nekron had no interest in paying attention to Hal. He immediately used his power and, in an instant, pulled more Black Lantern Zombies in front of him.
Zombies from Universe 3 had followed Nekron to the Main Universe.
But this was of little use, nor could it provide Nekron with any extra energy. Other than tying up the Dark Walker to facilitate Nekron's escape, it served no purpose.
As for letting these Black Lantern Zombies from Universe 3 run to the Main Universe and hunt the living on a massive scale? It was completely redundant. The most astonishing ability of the Black Lantern Ring was its self-replication and proliferation. A single Black Lantern Ring could instantly split into thousands, and these newly split rings could continue to self-replicate endlessly. There was no need to mobilize ordinary Black Lantern Zombies from other universes to hunt the living.
The Dark Walker was indeed tied down by this group of fearless Black Lantern Zombies. These guys weren't all weaklings; a few of the Black Lantern Zombies clearly possessed formidable strength and were bound to draw away some of the Dark Walker's attention.
Hal Jordan was not qualified to intervene in a battle between two entities of Death, so he simply took advantage of the chaos and led a batch of Black Lantern Zombies away.
"How could you do this? Nekron is fighting a powerful enemy. It's one thing not to help, but you shamelessly take away Nekron's power?" Black Hand reprimanded Jordan in shock.
"Nekron doesn't lack this power. No amount of otherworldly zombies can provide the current Nekron with the strength to defeat his enemy. It's better to let me take them to save the Main Universe."
Hal didn't know where Nekron had gone after leaving the Main Universe, or why he had provoked a powerful Deity like the Dark Walker, but this didn't interfere with his original plan—to fleece Nekron and save the Main Universe.
Hal returned with a batch of Black Lantern Zombies and, after a moment's thought, immediately followed in Sinestro's footsteps, heading for Earth.
At this time on Earth, fierce battles were frequent and raging white-hot. That the planet hadn't been blown up on the spot was largely due to Earth's special nature.
Unlike in the Marvel Multiverse, on the DC Comics side, the Earth of any universe was the irreplaceable core planet of that universe—perhaps with the addition of each universe's Mars.
Mars and Earth were originally training grounds specially built by the creator goddess, Perpetua. Martians and Earthlings were the soldier source meticulously created by Perpetua. By genetically fusing these two races, an even more powerful biological weapon could be created—a super-soldier countless times stronger than Parademons, and one that could be mass-produced.
Sinestro arrived on Earth and silently watched the scene before him.
What a spectacular battle. The Guardians, who seemed to be the instigators, were instead huddled together like little chicks.
Volthoom had already begun fighting with several Xenomorphs.
Under Sinestro's gaze, Xenomorph heroes exuding powerful auras continuously appeared, forcing Volthoom to bring out even greater power to deal with them.
"Xenomorphs... It seems I guessed wrong. The source of all these changes isn't Volthoom, and it can't even be considered the Guardians. Perhaps it's these endlessly emerging, powerful Xenomorphs. But how come I never knew Xenomorphs could be this powerful, and in such great numbers?" Sinestro felt like his eyes had been opened.
To have such an oversight and omission in his understanding was an unbearable mistake for him.
But the development of events had exceeded his expectations, leaving him with no way to intervene or interfere.
This was especially true when he noticed that Nekron and the unknown Deity had also brought their fight to the world of the living, and Hal Jordan was leading a group of Black Lantern Zombies, rapidly approaching Earth.
Sinestro immediately made a move against the Guardians.
"This is a wrong decision."
"Sinestro, you betrayed us, and you betrayed the Green Lantern Corps. You must pay the price with your life."
Facing the Deity, the Guardians were meek and submissive. Facing Sinestro, they struck with heavy fists, each one full of vigor, bringing out their utmost power to besiege him.
At that moment, Volthoom let out a furious roar.
"Is this all you've got? You lot, is this all the strength you possess? Where is Du Wa? Why haven't I seen him after all this time? Does the God of Xenomorphs only send his Xenomorph subordinates out to fight me?"
Volthoom unleashed his full firepower, fighting one against many. Endless colored light illuminated the universe. The Emotional Spectrum in Volthoom's hands became almost tangible, appearing throughout the entire Main Universe and triggering changes in even more universes.
A battle of this magnitude erupted in the Main Universe, and the brilliant colored light it produced extended beyond the Main Universe's boundaries, causing changes in more worlds.
This was the special nature of the Main Universe. As the core universe of the Multiverse, any major event that occurred within it could easily radiate out to more worlds.
"This is about far enough."
Du Wa raised his head, watching this scene.
Even at this moment, he still hadn't used much of his power, only sending a few decent subordinates to join the Main Universe's Justice League in dealing with Volthoom.
Everyone knew that after Volthoom escaped and made his move, Du Wa, who was hiding behind the scenes and had never shown his true form, was the real key to influencing the direction of the Main Universe.
But, when would Du Wa finally make his move?
"When are you going to make your move?"
Superboy-Prime put down his comic book, looking at Du Wa before him with confusion.
"The time is now. The result I wanted has been achieved." Du Wa glanced at the contents of the comic.
While Volthoom seemed to be on a rampage, he was, in fact, under Du Wa's interference, trapped on Earth, unable to move and incapable of making any real progress.
And Du Wa had obtained what he was waiting for.
"My Concept has finally, in a substantive sense, expanded to the Multiverse... Every universe has my Xenomorphs. Every world is within my domain."
Just as he had done in Marvel Universe 1543681, he had made the entire universe a part of his Concept—a higher specification, greater inclusion, eroding the rules, and assimilating billions of lives. Only this time, he had made contact with a similar yet different multiverse and expanded his Concept to the entire Omniverse.
"Volthoom put in a lot of effort. His desperate struggles in the Main Universe caused constant agitation in the Emotional Spectrum, the power of creation, causing the changes in the Main Universe to radiate to more universes. In the flow of hyperspace, it imperceptibly affected the historical progress of even more universes," Du Wa smiled.
The power of creation is the primordial force that constructed the DC Multiverse, a power that every universe relies on.
The changes in the Main Universe were transmitted through its special position and the Emotional Spectrum. Naturally, the normal evolution of the Xenomorphs—the absolute focus of the current major event in the Main Universe—in other universes also received a precious opportunity to accelerate.
This saved Du Wa a lot of effort.
"Clark, I am about to take an important step now."
"I can guess that, but you shouldn't do it here. This is Prime Earth!" Superboy-Prime's face darkened slightly. "In this world, aside from me and those humans you've parasitized, there are no other superhumans—don't even try to turn every living person in the universe into a Xenomorph, absolutely not!"
"I have no intention of doing so. On the contrary, no superhumans other than Xenomorphs should exist here. Clark, go. Go to the Main Universe and deal with Volthoom."
Before Superboy-Prime could refute, Du Wa sent him to the Main Universe—by pressing on Jeff's head and adding new content to the new comic he was creating.
Superboy-Prime arrived in the Main Universe in a daze, but he was used to it. It had happened many times before: he would inexplicably transmigrate, and then somehow transmigrate back.
This was also the reason he utterly loathed and beat up those editors. The bastards were always messing around, and in ways that were completely unacceptable to him.
Superboy-Prime flew up to Volthoom.
When the others saw another Superman arrive, they didn't show any strange expressions at first, assuming it was another hired gun Du Wa had sent from a parallel universe. And in fact, that was the case.
But only someone like the Main Universe Superman frowned at the first sight of Superboy-Prime, recognizing him.
However, the one who reacted most violently was Volthoom.
"It's you! I recognize you, you damned thing!"
The moment Volthoom saw Superboy-Prime, he instantly went berserk, losing all his previous composure. "It was you, you demon, who destroyed my home!"
"I've destroyed plenty of worlds. Which one are you referring to specifically?" Superboy-Prime clenched his fists, his expression unfriendly.
"Universe 15, the history of the 31st century."
"I didn't do that."
"If it wasn't you, it was the future you!"
"?"
Superboy-Prime quickly stopped thinking about it and charged forward coldly. He never feared any opponent; he had personally fought more than one or two Deity-level beings.
He knew even more clearly that whether he killed Volthoom or not was meaningless from Du Wa's perspective, because Du Wa had never truly regarded Volthoom as an opponent from the very beginning.
Even if the current Volthoom called himself a Deity and indeed possessed god-like power.
But Du Wa had seen and commanded too many Deities. Even now, there were still several Deity-level Xenomorphs who had not yet acted, coldly watching Volthoom's spectacular performance.
"I just hope that guy Du Wa doesn't really destroy Prime Earth... although I really dislike the current Prime Earth and want to revert it to the Golden Age Prime Earth..." Superboy-Prime thought to himself.
(end of chapter)