The Third Planet Base, like a cold steel giant nail, was deeply wedged into the most barren red rock layers of this planet.
The massive Viltrumite fortress-style architecture exuded a rugged, utilitarian aesthetic; the heavy alloy gates silently slid open as the Ark arrived, like a giant beast opening its mouth to swallow.
Here, Trigg's will was the absolute law.
Without any interrogation or obstruction, the Ark drove directly into the core hangar.
Mark Grayson and Allen were transferred at the fastest speed to the base's core medical bay, where the medical environment was vastly different from the Ark's rudimentary life support system.
The huge, cylindrical medical chambers, with liquid energy pipelines flowing through them, emitted a low hum, and the air was filled with a unique scent of high-efficiency disinfectant mixed with pure energy fluid.
Mark Grayson was placed on a life support platform radiating a soft golden light; complex mechanical arms extended like living things, precisely attaching sensors to various key points of his damaged body, and high-purity life support energy, like liquid gold, slowly injected into his body through precise pipelines.
Allen, on the other hand, was immersed in a larger biological repair tank filled with life support fluid, where countless nano-level repair factors, like a school of silver fish, busily shuttled over his charred and damaged body.
Trigg stood before the massive observation window, closely monitoring Mark Grayson's status data stream.
Rudy and Eve were placed in an adjacent observation room, holding their breath and watching through the one-way glass.
"Initiate the highest-level bio-energy field stabilization program, 100% power, activate the neural bundle regeneration induction matrix," Trigg's voice issued commands over the communication channel, calm and efficient.
The Viltrumite research personnel at the base faithfully carried out the tasks.
Initially, the situation seemed to improve.
The two fiercely conflicting energies at Mark Grayson's fracture site seemed to be temporarily suppressed, his violent convulsions stopped, and a faint trace of color even returned to his pale face.
Allen's vital sign curve also showed a slight rebound.
"It's working!" Rudy couldn't help but exclaim, hope igniting in his eyes.
Eve's tightly clenched fists also loosened slightly, but the unease in her heart did not dissipate.
She looked at Trigg's focused and cold profile, which contained not only the desire to save him but also a hunter's scrutiny and greed for a rare prey.
He seemed to have an inexplicable interest in Mark Grayson.
However, hope, like a fragile bubble, lasted for less than twelve standard hours.
"No good! Regent, Mark Grayson is experiencing severe abnormal fluctuations, the neutralization of the Old Day Annihilation energy residue has failed, and the backlash is intensifying!" The cold alarm blared through the medical bay and control room.
Inside the observation window, Mark Grayson's body began to convulse violently again, more furiously than before, and the energy restraints on the life support platform creaked under the strain.
The energy at his fracture site, which had just been suppressed, suddenly erupted like an out-of-control furnace, while the dark purple Annihilation energy, like maggots clinging to bone, permeated deeper into the core of the newly formed tissue, even beginning to reverse-corrode the injected high-purity medical fluids.
Mark Grayson's skin and muscle tissue began to exhibit a strange, semi-transparent state, like molten glass, with the internal energy conflict vortex clearly visible.
"Vital signs are rapidly deteriorating!"
"Neural bundle regeneration induction matrix overloaded and collapsed!"
"Patient's brainwave activity has fallen into deep disarray!"
Various emergency reports from the base became increasingly urgent.
"A bunch of useless fools! I want him alive!" Trigg's voice carried a hint of imperceptible impatience.
He slammed his fist onto the control panel, and the sturdy alloy surface instantly dented.
Stronger energy currents surged in, more potent neutralizers were injected, and extreme cold air began to envelop the life support platform.
But everything was like throwing mud into the sea.
Mark Grayson's body seemed to have become an out-of-control energy furnace; the Viltrumite's top medical technology appeared so clumsy and powerless in the trans-cognitive war within his body.
Those precise instruments could repair physical trauma but could not reconcile the mutual repulsion between two different energies and the struggle at Mark Grayson's soul level.
Trigg's face was ashen, and his eyes inadvertently revealed frustration and disbelief.
His proudly proclaimed Imperial technology couldn't save a half-blood kid?!
No! He cannot die!
His uniqueness in resisting Old Day contamination, his potential value to Titan...
And that foolish courage that even Trigg had to admire...
All made Mark Grayson an irreplaceable asset!
"Useless!" he growled, yet he was helpless.
Rudy slumped onto the chair, the light of hope in his eyes completely extinguished.
Eve's face was ashen, her fingernails digging deep into her palms, tears silently streaming down.
If even the most advanced medical technology at the Viltrumite base was powerless, then who else in the entire universe could save Mark Grayson?
Under the dual assault of violent energy tearing and the cold numbness imposed by the life support system, Mark Grayson's consciousness completely sank into an endless abyss of darkness.
Physical pain seemed to be isolated, replaced by a cold sensation of his soul slowly being stripped away and falling into nothingness.
Death seemed imminent.
Just at the critical point where his consciousness was about to completely dissipate, a faint but incredibly pure golden light, like a spark at the beginning of the universe, ignited deep within his consciousness.
It was not the Viltrumite energy he was familiar with, nor the coldness of Old Day Annihilation, but a call that seemed even more ancient, more immense, echoing from distant galaxies!
The light rapidly spread, tearing through the darkness in his consciousness.
Mark Grayson felt as if he had been thrown into a turbulent river of time and space composed of countless fragmented images and lights.
He saw a completely different starry sky.
...Or rather, a plane.
It was a huge planet radiating red light, named Rao.
He saw a highly advanced planet, orbiting this red giant, yet shrouded in cold rationality and a repressive social structure.
He saw crystal cities soaring into the clouds, people with serious faces wearing clothes with family crests, fierce debates in magnificent council halls, and scientists in laboratories with a fanatical worship of the gene pool and strict prohibitions on natural childbirth.
Images flashed by; he saw the planet's core violently shaking amid a scientist's desperate warning, red cracks spreading like blood flowing from the planet!
He saw the stubborn refusal and indifference of the council members!
He saw a man and his wife, at the last moment of the planet's destruction, placing a tiny infant, carrying the last hope of their civilization, into a solitary space shuttle, launching it towards a distant, unknown yellow sun system!
Boom—!!!
The terrifying sight of the planet being pulverized in a cosmic-scale explosion struck Mark Grayson's consciousness like a heavy hammer.
That torrent of destruction, that despair and sorrow of losing a home, instantly reminded him of the shocking memory of Viltrum Prime's destruction.
No matter how much pain, anger, or unwillingness he felt before... it would all disappear.
The scene shifted.
Mark Grayson saw the infant grown into an adult, wearing a flamboyant red and blue battle suit, capable of flying and doing anything, choosing to use this power to help others under his adoptive father's guidance.
And the ordinary people he saved gave him a nickname.
Superman!
"This guy looks like a Viltrumite..." Mark Grayson muttered deep inside.
Mark Grayson saw Superman fighting various powerful enemies, saw his determination to protect Earth, and, more importantly, saw the core source of his power.
The radiation of a yellow sun!
In an instant, countless images, sounds, and emotions surged into Mark Grayson's consciousness like a flood.
"Kal-El, remember, you are a child of Krypton, but you are also a child raised by humans; with great power comes great responsibility..."
"Clark, people will fear you, they will misunderstand you, but you must remember, who you choose to be is far more important than your abilities..."
"We are the sentinels of the sun, Kal, our power comes from light, and it should be used for light..."
Buzz—!
Mark Grayson's consciousness was pierced by a golden lightning bolt; all the fragmented illusions instantly coalesced into an incredibly clear understanding.
Scene after scene flashed through his mind.
Back on Earth, when his father, Nolan, first beat him to near death, an imperceptible golden light quietly entered his body from the edge of the sky.
This golden light carried Kryptonian genes.
His heat vision! His freeze breath!
That was not the product of so-called bloodline contamination, as Nolan had claimed, but rather a characteristic of the bio-field emission of the race called Kryptonians; it was the instinct to release high-energy plasma from the eyes after the body absorbed excessive solar energy!
It was just that he had always believed all of this was a power granted by his Viltrumite bloodline.
He could continuously grow stronger under the sun, with astonishing regenerative abilities, because of the light-energy absorbing and converting cellular structure within him!
And Earth's yellow sun radiation was the source of his power!
The source of his power and his character destined him not to be like his father, Nolan, indulging in a cycle of violence and conquest, nor to pursue cold order and expansion like the Viltrumite Empire.
The destruction of Krypton and the rise of Superman demonstrated another possibility to Mark Grayson.
Power could be protection, responsibility, a light that ignites hope in the darkness.
Even burdened by a heavy past, even if power came with pain and a price, he could still choose to become a symbol of hope and strength!
"I understand..." In a daze, a faint but incredibly firm thought sprouted in the core of Mark Grayson's nearly shattered consciousness.
This was not an external indoctrination, but an awakening from the depths of his soul, after experiencing life and death and visions across the cosmos.
"My power... comes from the sun... my path... I choose it myself!"
...
Just inside the medical bay.
The base medical bay emitted a piercing final alarm.
"Target Mark Grayson: vital signs gone! Brainwave activity stopped! Declaring clinical de..."
Instantly.
On the life support platform, Mark Grayson's body, which had been violently torn by two energies and declared dead, suddenly erupted with an unprecedented, pure, and blazing golden light!
It was no longer the chaotic and violent energy conflict from before, but a warm, stable, and vibrant light!
This light, as if substantial, instantly dispelled all the coldness and oppression in the medical bay!
"What?!" Trigg rushed to the observation window, his eyes filled with shock.
Eve and Rudy also instantly stood up, watching in disbelief!
The dark purple Annihilation energy that had originally been entrenched deep within Mark Grayson's fracture site, furiously corroding it, now, under the illumination of this pure golden light, shrieked like snow encountering boiling oil, then rapidly melted, retreated, and was forcibly purified!
The violent solar power within him instantly calmed down, like a hundred rivers returning to the sea, converging and flowing docilely and efficiently, beginning to repair his damaged body at a visibly rapid pace.
Charred wounds were regenerated, covered by glowing muscle fibers; cracks on exposed arm bones were mended, reinforced, and regenerated by golden energy threads.
Even more astonishingly, Mark Grayson's tightly closed eyes slowly opened.
Those once golden eyes were now a pure gold, like molten gold.
Calm, profound, as if containing endless stellar power, without any pain or confusion, only a clarity and firmness born from experiencing life and death and seeing through to the essence!
He slightly turned his head, his gaze piercing through the thick observation window, calmly falling upon Trigg, Eve, and Rudy, who were beyond shocked outside.
His lips moved silently, no sound emitted, but an incredibly clear thought, like warm sunlight, directly illuminated the hearts of Trigg and Eve, who were closest to him.
"I'm back!"