Chapter 35: God Realm
On the summit of Mount Olympus, between Thessaly and the Macedonian administrative region in northern Greece.
Luka, Superman, and Shazam hovered in the air above the mountaintop.
Superman's powerful hand rested on Luka's shoulder, his eyes filled with concern and worry.
"Are you sure you can handle this alone?"
"This was Batman's plan, wasn't it?"
Luka shot the blue giant a sidelong glance, his meaning clear.
If you think it's not feasible, you can always go talk to Batman.
Superman chuckled awkwardly and removed his hand.
Shazam, however, was focused on an entirely different angle.
"Hey man, no offense to your fashion sense, but that outfit doesn't seem very suitable for combat?"
Shazam's teasing gaze landed on Luka's oversized gray hoodie.
This was an old piece Tom had dug out from his closet during Luka's first few days on Earth.
It had been worn for who knows how many years, washed who knows how many times. The elbows and other areas with angular designs that saw more friction were even fraying with prickly, loose threads.
In the Mediterranean winter, at an altitude of four to five hundred meters above the summit, a damp, cold wind whistled through the gaps between the three of them, making Luka's hood flutter wildly behind his back.
Shazam's eyes followed the wildly flapping hood.
"Your hood looks like it's about to fly off any second."
Superman also noticed Luka's currently inappropriate attire. He tilted his body slightly toward the direction of the North Pole.
"My Fortress of Solitude has a suit-design function.If you need one, I can go make you a set right now. The round trip would be very quick."
"And then I'd have to strip naked and change into a skintight suit hundreds of meters above Mount Olympus?"
Luka was trying not to laugh.
"That's a great idea. We might not even need to actively open the entrance to the divine realm. Those gods would probably rush out to beat us up on their own."
Shaking his head at Superman, Luka crossed his arms and lowered them, lifting the gray-white hoodie from his waist until he pulled the entire garment off.
Wearing his black-gray Viltrumite battle suit, Luka handed the hoodie to Superman.
"Hold onto it for me. I don't exactly have many casual clothes on Earth."
Shazam's gaze drifted strangely toward the black battle skirt that extended downward from Luka's waist.
"So, Superman's cape is on his back, mine's on my left shoulder, and yours is hanging from your waist. I thought you were just wearing an extra-long black T-shirt down there, like those hip-hop guys do."
Luka's face flushed slightly. When he was younger, he had tried to reject this design, but the tradition-obsessed Viltrum elders clearly disapproved of his aesthetic preferences.
Strictly speaking, if Luka hadn't escaped, he would have been required to grow a mustache on his upper lip upon reaching a certain age, as this was another Viltrumite tradition.
Superman, on the other hand, seemed far more tolerant of different styles. He made no comment about the loincloth-like skirt, simply praising the color scheme.
"The dark tones look really cool."
Luka's fingers brushed over the Viltrumite emblem on his chest, which had been deliberately thickened and painted over by the people of Rou to conceal it. He shook his head slightly without speaking.
This color represented nothing but the immense, blood-soaked hatred of the last survivors of Rou Planet.
A pitch-black Batplane rested silently on a grassy plain not far from Mount Olympus.
Batman's deep voice crackled through the earpieces of the three heroes.
"Ten seconds until the time node calculated by Cyborg. I hope you're all prepared."
Superman carefully folded Luka's hoodie, nodded to the others, and flew a short distance away.
Shazam gazed up at the sky, taking several deep breaths while shaking his hands to relax.
"Stay loose. I don't want to accidentally strike you."
Luka didn't speak anymore, just silently gazed straight ahead.
Cyborg's electronic voice began counting down the final seconds.
"5."
"4."
"3."
Shazam raised his hands toward the heavens and inhaled sharply.
"2."
The Batplane's front section rose, revealing a cannon that fired a blue energy beam capable of tearing through space toward the mountaintop sky.
"Now!"
"Shazam!!!"
A massive bolt of lightning materialized from thin air, intersecting with the blue energy beam right in front of Luka.
Zeus's magic lightning resonated with the hidden divine power within Luka. In the blink of an eye, the three forces twisted together, forming a deep, spiraling vortex in space.
In the next instant, Luka's eyes lost all perception of the world's colors.
After a dizzying few seconds of darkness, a crisp, herbal fragrance suddenly filled his nostrils.
When he opened his eyes, he found himself standing on a smooth, mirror-like white-gray stone pavement.
The road was wide enough to accommodate over a dozen warhorses riding abreast, stretching into the misty depths.
Flanking the road were towering white marble pillars, their surfaces intricately carved with intertwining vines. Amidst the foliage, half-bloomed silver lotuses and ivy coiled together.
"Please follow me," a clear, emotionless voice called out.
Luka turned to see a figure standing nearby.
The figure wore a short, silver-gray tunic cinched at the waist with a sapphire-studded belt.
Most striking were the boots, each adorned with a pair of small, gently fluttering golden wings.
Luka looked up into the messenger's eyes, hoping to gauge the God Realm's attitude through their gaze.
Instead, he met only an unfathomable abyss of ink-black irises, entirely devoid of whites.
No emotion could be discerned, only an unsettling calm.
"Heh, I thought I'd be greeted with a lightning bolt the moment I stepped in."
The other party didn't respond, turning to walk deeper into the stone-paved path as if certain Luka would follow.
Luka focused for a moment. All extraneous emotion vanished from his eyes in an instant, his pupils dilating slightly, adopting the detached demeanor of a Viltrumite.
He didn't understand the Greek Pantheon of this world, but this wasn't his first time venturing into the territory of an alien civilization.
He stepped forward to follow the messenger, his power gradually activating with each stride.
The two walked in silence, the golden patterns inlaid between the stone slabs growing denser as they advanced.
Soon, a colossal temple loomed ahead.
Its arched dome was carved with images of the sun, moon, and stars.
Before the temple stretched a vast plaza, at its center stood a massive statue of a figure wielding a thunderbolt scepter, its expression majestic and imposing.
Twelve colossal stone pillars lined the sides of the plaza, with only three figures standing scattered among them.
The foremost figure wore pitch-black thorn-covered armor, radiating the familiar aura of slaughter that Luka knew so well.
Ten meters to the left, a woman with flaxen shoulder-length curls coldly scrutinized Luka.
Her rose-red gown was embroidered with golden olive branches, and she wore golden armguards.
On the other side stood a towering, inhumanly muscular giant, easily three meters tall. His upper body was bare, his arms resembling flowing lava, and he wielded a massive, long-handled hammer.
The giant's immense height obscured his face in swirling clouds and mist, rendering his expression unreadable.
The messenger's figure silently faded into transparency.
To the left of the temple, Diana was tightly bound to a stone pillar by the Lasso of Truth.
When she saw Luka come alone, surprise and concern appeared in her eyes.
"Vile mortal! How dare you steal the Golden Apple!"
The man in thorn-covered armor stepped forward first, his voice booming with fury.
"Blaspheming the authority of the gods! Today marks your death!"
Luka completely ignored the furious outburst, tilting his head to peer around the speaker and carefully assess Diana's condition.
Though she appeared to be a bound prisoner, with some kind of restraint on her throat preventing speech, not even a strand of her hair was out of place.
So Batman was right? The God Realm wanted something else?
How intriguing. How had that man deduced this?
Completely ignored, the God of War seemed to erupt in fury, his crimson gaze locking onto Luka through the slits in his helmet.
"How dare you show such contempt for me?"
Luka slowly straightened his head, shifting his angle to meet those crimson eyes.
"Mortal! You—"
A thunderous punch, charged throughout the entire journey, sent Ares flying, his unfinished sentence and entire body crashing through the air.
The goddess in the rose-red gown stared in disbelief as Ares shattered four sonic booms in rapid succession, vanishing into the horizon. Instinctively summoning her spear and shield, she saw Luka had already rushed to Diana's side.
"Don't worry," a deep, rumbling voice boomed from the three-meter-tall giant. "I know that Lasso well. Even Superman can't—"
Luka's hands never touched the golden Lasso.
He wrapped both arms around the pillar instead. His fingers drove in like steel spikes, punching deep into the stone.
Lowering his stance and exhaling sharply, he unleashed a crackling burst of power, uprooting the entire stone pillar binding Diana. His feet slammed into the ground, carving two massive craters as his thigh muscles bulged, compressing his strength to its absolute limit in a millisecond.
"Take this!"
Luka's garbled roar crackled through the Batplane's communicator, while Cyborg's screens flooded with thousands of lines of data.
Superman and Shazam stared intently at the spot where Luka had vanished moments before.
Disbelief crept across Shazam's face.
"That fast?!"