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Chapter 824: Fallen
Krona had fallen.
He had fallen in a humiliating fashion.
Even at the very end, he couldn't understand. Larfleeze, who radiated an intense avarice, should have been the easiest target. Why had he betrayed him? He had even given Larfleeze a Green Lantern Ring as a reward!
Krona still didn't understand, right up until he was sent to the chopping block.
A grand life, an ignominious death. Such was the life of the ten-billion-year-old Krona. This major figure, who had single-handedly guided the First Army to its destruction and accidentally created the Anti-Matter Universe, was sentenced to death by the High Council, to be hanged in the Kaon Gladiator Arena.
There was no interrogation, no imprisonment, no torture, not even a moment of hesitation. Krona was captured and immediately executed. It seemed as if the entirety of Cybertron had no interest whatsoever in this Guardian, a being who had wielded such a significant influence over the Multiverse.
"Why?! Don't you want to know the secrets in my mind?! Don't you want the intelligence I have on the Emotional Spectrum?! Don't you want to know the history of the Maltusians?!"
The short-statured Krona roared in grief and fury, his voice utterly desolate. His body was bound in high-alloy chains as a seven-meter-tall Transformer carefully carried the one-meter-tall little man to the execution platform, as if afraid of accidentally crushing him.
At this critical juncture, all his schemes and plots were worthless. No one was interested in talking to him; they only wanted to execute him.
For Krona, who had been filled with ambition just a few hours before, this was devastating. He was overcome with grief and indignation, his heart turning to ash.
These Cybertronians didn't play by the damned rules!
Larfleeze stood ramrod straight at the front of the spectating crowd below. With a solemn expression and a pained voice, he said, “Farewell, my friend. You shouldn’t have bribed me, you really shouldn’t have. Otherwise, we could have become the dearest of friends…”
As he spoke, Larfleeze reached into his clothes and pulled out a ring that glowed with a green light. His pained expression instantly twisted, blooming into a wide, gleeful grin.
"My ring..."
"That's my ring!!!"
Krona was so enraged he coughed up blood and nearly fainted.
It was too humiliating, too infuriating! He, Krona, had actually been swindled by a worm he could crush with a single hand! He had even managed to get himself captured and was now about to be hanged.
Krona's eyes bulged, bloodshot, as he stared intently at the ring in Larfleeze's hand. He still had a chance. That ring was his and under his control. He was still a few steps from the gallows; all he had to do was summon the Green Lantern Ring...
*Snap!*
The Transformer cleanly and decisively snapped Krona's neck.
With his last shred of consciousness, Krona struggled to move his eyes, staring at the Transformer in disbelief. *Wasn't it supposed to be a hanging?! I was still two steps away from the designated spot!!!*
"Execution complete," Clampdown said with an ugly, savage grin.
Hanging? That’s right, this was a hanging. As the master of the Kaon Gladiator Arena, Clampdown preferred using his own two hands instead of a rope; it was more cost-effective.
Krona’s eyes bulged, wide with fury. He could not rest in peace.
His tattered clothes fluttered in the wind. The crowd scattered in an instant. Even Clampdown left. No one paid any mind to the corpse of Krona—the influential figure who had stirred up the Multiverse.
"How tragic."
Tony averted his gaze and sighed.
"That was a really pathetic death. He was taken out before he could even do anything."
Krona was a ruthless character. According to the original storyline, after the Blackest Night and Brightest Day events, he would have suddenly appeared and enslaved the seven Lantern Entities. He would have forcibly bonded each of the Guardians of Oa with a Lantern Entity, turning them all into something akin to a Parallax Host. He would have also enslaved the minds of the entire Green Lantern Corps, turning them into his slaves.
He even wore seven Lantern Rings at once, rampaging across the cosmos and creating a Major Event of cosmic proportions.
But compared to now... how utterly pathetic...
Wanda gave Tony a strange look. "He only met this fate because you ordered it. Otherwise, the High Council wouldn't have executed him so directly."
"When it comes to highly intelligent but physically weak enemies, my habit is to kill them first and figure things out later. I'd rather forsake any greater value they might possess just to eliminate the threat."
Tony shrugged.
Back when he was still on Earth, he had eliminated Lex Luthor right as he began to rise to prominence, before he had done anything truly evil. At the time, he had nearly come to blows with Batman over it again.
If Tony hadn't decisively killed Lex Luthor, who knows how many disasters that man would have caused. Even Tony would have likely been overwhelmed trying to deal with them.
Krona was the same. Compared to any potential value he could offer, Tony much preferred to kill him first and save himself any future trouble.
Besides, Tony wasn't a superhero...
"I need to go out for a while."
Tony stroked Wanda's soft hair and smiled faintly. "I'm always so constrained in the Main Universe. It's time to consider moving Cybertron to the Blood Realm. That's going to be a massive undertaking."
"But the Celestials..." Wanda said, a little worried.
"I'll leave my Divine Power Clone here on Cybertron. With the three Mother Boxes I have, protecting Cybertron will be more than enough. Worst-case scenario, I can just teleport Cybertron to the Nirvana Universe, or pull my main body directly back here." Tony ruffled the top of Wanda's head.
This was something Tony had been planning to do for a long time. After augmenting the One-Above-All, and with the addition of the Doomsday King Kong, Cybertron finally had some confidence in its hard power.
In fact, information about the Doomsday King Kong has likely already reached the Top Ten Celestials. The deterrent effect of this single Doomsday King Kong alone on the Celestials would be unprecedented.
"I need to go collect a massive amount of matter and energy to serve as resources for Cybertron's expansion. This is destined to be an incredibly complex project," Tony said with a smile.
A planet comparable in size to a universe... the amount of matter and energy required would be an absolutely insane figure, likely the sum total of countless universes.
One must understand that a universe, aside from its planets, consists mostly of vast, empty space; matter makes up an extremely small percentage of it. Therefore, to build a planet the size of a universe, one would have to destroy numerous universes to collect the necessary matter and energy. That would be the most time- and labor-efficient method.
But Tony wasn't that foolish. He wouldn't roll up his sleeves and destroy universes himself. That would only provoke the Speed Force Wall prematurely, and he would be banished to the Sphere of the Gods in an instant.
"I have an excellent enforcer who can help me achieve my goal. And if handled correctly, he might just play an even greater role in the future."
Tony stroked his chin, deep in thought. He then slowly rose, took a single step, and vanished.
Logically, Tony could have remained in the Main Universe, using the entire universe as a 'hostage.' This might have made the Celestials and their ilk think twice.
But putting aside whether or not that would even work, if a great war were to break out and the vital Main Universe collapsed, the Speed Force Wall would undoubtedly come after him.
The Main Universe had, in a way, become Tony's 'weakness'.
(end of chapter)
Krona had fallen.
He had fallen in a humiliating fashion.
Even at the very end, he couldn't understand. Larfleeze, who radiated an intense avarice, should have been the easiest target. Why had he betrayed him? He had even given Larfleeze a Green Lantern Ring as a reward!
Krona still didn't understand, right up until he was sent to the chopping block.
A grand life, an ignominious death. Such was the life of the ten-billion-year-old Krona. This major figure, who had single-handedly guided the First Army to its destruction and accidentally created the Anti-Matter Universe, was sentenced to death by the High Council, to be hanged in the Kaon Gladiator Arena.
There was no interrogation, no imprisonment, no torture, not even a moment of hesitation. Krona was captured and immediately executed. It seemed as if the entirety of Cybertron had no interest whatsoever in this Guardian, a being who had wielded such a significant influence over the Multiverse.
"Why?! Don't you want to know the secrets in my mind?! Don't you want the intelligence I have on the Emotional Spectrum?! Don't you want to know the history of the Maltusians?!"
The short-statured Krona roared in grief and fury, his voice utterly desolate. His body was bound in high-alloy chains as a seven-meter-tall Transformer carefully carried the one-meter-tall little man to the execution platform, as if afraid of accidentally crushing him.
At this critical juncture, all his schemes and plots were worthless. No one was interested in talking to him; they only wanted to execute him.
For Krona, who had been filled with ambition just a few hours before, this was devastating. He was overcome with grief and indignation, his heart turning to ash.
These Cybertronians didn't play by the damned rules!
Larfleeze stood ramrod straight at the front of the spectating crowd below. With a solemn expression and a pained voice, he said, “Farewell, my friend. You shouldn’t have bribed me, you really shouldn’t have. Otherwise, we could have become the dearest of friends…”
As he spoke, Larfleeze reached into his clothes and pulled out a ring that glowed with a green light. His pained expression instantly twisted, blooming into a wide, gleeful grin.
"My ring..."
"That's my ring!!!"
Krona was so enraged he coughed up blood and nearly fainted.
It was too humiliating, too infuriating! He, Krona, had actually been swindled by a worm he could crush with a single hand! He had even managed to get himself captured and was now about to be hanged.
Krona's eyes bulged, bloodshot, as he stared intently at the ring in Larfleeze's hand. He still had a chance. That ring was his and under his control. He was still a few steps from the gallows; all he had to do was summon the Green Lantern Ring...
*Snap!*
The Transformer cleanly and decisively snapped Krona's neck.
With his last shred of consciousness, Krona struggled to move his eyes, staring at the Transformer in disbelief. *Wasn't it supposed to be a hanging?! I was still two steps away from the designated spot!!!*
"Execution complete," Clampdown said with an ugly, savage grin.
Hanging? That’s right, this was a hanging. As the master of the Kaon Gladiator Arena, Clampdown preferred using his own two hands instead of a rope; it was more cost-effective.
Krona’s eyes bulged, wide with fury. He could not rest in peace.
His tattered clothes fluttered in the wind. The crowd scattered in an instant. Even Clampdown left. No one paid any mind to the corpse of Krona—the influential figure who had stirred up the Multiverse.
"How tragic."
Tony averted his gaze and sighed.
"That was a really pathetic death. He was taken out before he could even do anything."
Krona was a ruthless character. According to the original storyline, after the Blackest Night and Brightest Day events, he would have suddenly appeared and enslaved the seven Lantern Entities. He would have forcibly bonded each of the Guardians of Oa with a Lantern Entity, turning them all into something akin to a Parallax Host. He would have also enslaved the minds of the entire Green Lantern Corps, turning them into his slaves.
He even wore seven Lantern Rings at once, rampaging across the cosmos and creating a Major Event of cosmic proportions.
But compared to now... how utterly pathetic...
Wanda gave Tony a strange look. "He only met this fate because you ordered it. Otherwise, the High Council wouldn't have executed him so directly."
"When it comes to highly intelligent but physically weak enemies, my habit is to kill them first and figure things out later. I'd rather forsake any greater value they might possess just to eliminate the threat."
Tony shrugged.
Back when he was still on Earth, he had eliminated Lex Luthor right as he began to rise to prominence, before he had done anything truly evil. At the time, he had nearly come to blows with Batman over it again.
If Tony hadn't decisively killed Lex Luthor, who knows how many disasters that man would have caused. Even Tony would have likely been overwhelmed trying to deal with them.
Krona was the same. Compared to any potential value he could offer, Tony much preferred to kill him first and save himself any future trouble.
Besides, Tony wasn't a superhero...
"I need to go out for a while."
Tony stroked Wanda's soft hair and smiled faintly. "I'm always so constrained in the Main Universe. It's time to consider moving Cybertron to the Blood Realm. That's going to be a massive undertaking."
"But the Celestials..." Wanda said, a little worried.
"I'll leave my Divine Power Clone here on Cybertron. With the three Mother Boxes I have, protecting Cybertron will be more than enough. Worst-case scenario, I can just teleport Cybertron to the Nirvana Universe, or pull my main body directly back here." Tony ruffled the top of Wanda's head.
This was something Tony had been planning to do for a long time. After augmenting the One-Above-All, and with the addition of the Doomsday King Kong, Cybertron finally had some confidence in its hard power.
In fact, information about the Doomsday King Kong has likely already reached the Top Ten Celestials. The deterrent effect of this single Doomsday King Kong alone on the Celestials would be unprecedented.
"I need to go collect a massive amount of matter and energy to serve as resources for Cybertron's expansion. This is destined to be an incredibly complex project," Tony said with a smile.
A planet comparable in size to a universe... the amount of matter and energy required would be an absolutely insane figure, likely the sum total of countless universes.
One must understand that a universe, aside from its planets, consists mostly of vast, empty space; matter makes up an extremely small percentage of it. Therefore, to build a planet the size of a universe, one would have to destroy numerous universes to collect the necessary matter and energy. That would be the most time- and labor-efficient method.
But Tony wasn't that foolish. He wouldn't roll up his sleeves and destroy universes himself. That would only provoke the Speed Force Wall prematurely, and he would be banished to the Sphere of the Gods in an instant.
"I have an excellent enforcer who can help me achieve my goal. And if handled correctly, he might just play an even greater role in the future."
Tony stroked his chin, deep in thought. He then slowly rose, took a single step, and vanished.
Logically, Tony could have remained in the Main Universe, using the entire universe as a 'hostage.' This might have made the Celestials and their ilk think twice.
But putting aside whether or not that would even work, if a great war were to break out and the vital Main Universe collapsed, the Speed Force Wall would undoubtedly come after him.
The Main Universe had, in a way, become Tony's 'weakness'.
(end of chapter)
