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Chapter 220: Wrong Place, Goodbye
"Ugh..."
Across a distance of over a hundred million li, in the footage transmitted from the direction of Earth, the Almerac princess, Maxima, had a pained expression, her face drenched in sweat.
A powerful electric current shot through her entire body, causing her to convulse unceasingly. Her body shook violently, her chest heaving dramatically, and her eyes rolled back into her head as she mumbled something incoherent...
Norland and the Almerac warriors who had accompanied him were all stunned. Their expressions seemed to say, "Is this something I can watch for free...? Ah, no, that's not it. How dare these barbaric humans torture the Princess of our glorious Almerac Royal Family?"
Were they striking the Princess? They were practically slapping Almerac in the face!
Norland's entire face immediately darkened as he shot a vicious glare at Orin Vale.
"Stop." Norland tried to muster the dignity of a kingdom's representative. "In this galaxy, no one has ever dared to provoke us, Almerac."
"You had best cease at once, or we will—"
"Or you will what?"
Orin Vale stared directly at him.
Norland's mouth opened. He had at least seven standard hardline retorts for the negotiating table ready in his heart, but as soon as he met the deep, glowing eyes opposite him and felt that formless, suffocating pressure, his mind went completely blank.
With an expression that seemed to say "Page Not Found," he loaded for a long moment before finally forcing out a single sentence.
"Or else we... we will just ask again."
Norland instinctively shrank back, suddenly feeling a head shorter than the person opposite him.
A second later, his mouth uncontrollably added another phrase.
"...Please."
With a wave of Orin Vale's hand, the footage of the hostage was cut off.
Meanwhile, far away on Earth, Maxima was still groaning with convincingly real agony, muttering, "Do what you will, you vile fiends. But the great royal princess will not yield."
Beside her, Kara looked at her with disdain. "Stop acting. They stopped recording a while ago."
"Eh?"
Maxima's pained expression vanished in an instant. She shot up and looked around. "It's over already? So soon?"
"..."
Norland said helplessly, "What exactly do you want?"
"Nothing much. Just a few questions first. What agreement did you Almeracians make with the Manhunters? What are your plans for Earth?"
Norland said weakly, "Those of us at the lower levels aren't clear on these things. It was mostly Minister Zazo and the leader of those metal-heads who handled the talks. They call him... 'Grandmaster,' but no one knows his real name."
"His name sounds impressive, but he's actually quite ugly. To be honest, I never liked him. Half his face is like a skeleton, not quite human, not quite a ghost..."
Orin Vale fell into thought. *Half a face like a skeleton, Grandmaster, leader of the Manhunters... was there such a person?*
His Light-Quantum Brain, with its photographic memory, began to operate, and the pages of some very old comics from a distant past slowly surfaced in his mind.
*Wait a minute, could it be...*
A grim, cold voice echoed through the public communication channel.
"I don't know how things are on Almerac, but on Earth, speaking ill of an ally behind their back is not appreciated."
Everyone looked up at once, only to see... Manhunters.
Countless Manhunters. The red glow from their innumerable eyes was particularly striking against the black curtain of the universe. They approached silently, surrounding the negotiation site from all directions.
"You... you're here!?"
Norland's expression changed drastically.
"But you weren't... I just communicated with Headquarters," Norland exclaimed in shock. "They clearly said you were on Almerac just a minute ago. Not even a faster-than-light engine could be this quick..."
The cold voice sounded again, this time preceded by a string of laughter.
"Faster-than-light? Spatial distance is no longer a limitation for me. Thanks to those allies from Apokolips, I have broadened my horizons and learned a great deal. Now, I no longer even see Superman as a threat."
"You want to know who I am? Very well, then remember this name. My name is—"
Amidst the countless Manhunters, a figure slowly descended. As he fell from space, the starlight revealed a towering silhouette, a faintly visible dark blue uniform, a fiery red cape, even the classic red trunks worn on the outside, and one could even vaguely make out the giant "S" on his chest.
But as he revealed his entire body, it became clear that this was something entirely different.
He had Superman's uniform, even Superman's physique, but he wasn't entirely biological. Only a small part of his face was human; the rest was cold metal, like a mechanical skeleton. His mechanical eyes glowed with a dangerous red light.
"...Cyborg Superman."
"As I thought." Having already made the connection a second ago, Orin Vale was not surprised at all.
Cyborg Superman was a tragic figure, and the origin of his tragedy had a familiar ring to it.
His real name was Hank Henshaw, a genius scientist from Earth and a member of the crew of the spaceship "Excalibur."
The story goes that he took his wife and two good buddies into space, where they encountered abnormal solar radiation. The intense sunbathing caused a genetic mutation, and both their physical bodies and minds were altered.
One of his two buddies had his body reconstructed by the radiation, becoming an energy being who could fly and breathe fire. The other absorbed spaceship debris and stone, becoming an immensely strong stone monster. And Hank Henshaw's wife's body began to phase into another dimension, sometimes becoming intangible and invisible...
But not all such stories have a happy ending, and comparisons are odious. When the Marvel scientists went through the exact same experience, nothing bad happened after their mutation. Their careers took off, they were embraced by beautiful women, they had fame and status, and even owned an entire skyscraper emblazoned with their team's name in the prime real estate of New York.
After undergoing the same radiation-induced mutation, however, Hank Henshaw's buddies and wife couldn't be saved. They all died when their mutations spiraled out of control.
After Hank Henshaw's own physical body perished, his electronic consciousness emerged. It flew from Earth and traveled through interstellar space, learning a vast amount of knowledge. He then used alien technology to reforge this half-man, half-machine body of Superman for himself, calling himself Cyborg Superman and returning to seek revenge on Superman.
The reason was that when the four of them crashed back on Earth and turned into monsters, it was Superman who stopped them when they caused a panic on the streets while seeking help. Hank Henshaw insisted that Superman's interference had cost them precious rescue time; otherwise, his wife and friends might have been saved at S.T.A.R. Labs.
"I knew it. I knew I couldn't trust you Almeracian cowards. Neither you nor that Zazo are cut out for great things."
Cyborg Superman slowly descended, casting a cold glance at Orin Vale.
"I've learned a lot about you recently. 'Ultraman.' I have indeed never acquired knowledge related to a race like yours during my travels in space... but it doesn't matter."
"I have now found powerful allies and possess the ultimate power in the universe. No one can stop my revenge against Superman, against Earth. Anyone who stands in my way will face only one fate: death!"
The moment the last word fell, a storm erupted in space.
And what appeared with it was none other than the physical form of Fear, the entity of the Yellow Lanterns in the Emotional Spectrum, Parallax!
Its body, constructed of golden light, was vaguely shrouded in swirling, dark yellow smoke. Its golden eyes lit up within the dense fog, exuding an indescribable pressure on everyone present before it even fully appeared.
A god-like pressure. Even the Almeracians, who were supposedly on its side, couldn't help but freeze at this moment. Unsuppressible fear washed over them like an instinct, as if their souls were being seized and sucked into a vortex of fear, growing colder and colder, until their minds felt as cold and empty as a corpse's.
Parallax had been sealed in the Anti-Matter Universe since ancient times.
The Guardians' cage had made it hungrier and thirstier, and over billions of years, its hatred for those Little Blue Men and their pawns, the Green Lantern Corps, had grown day by day.
And now, it was finally free!
Parallax had sworn an oath that it would absolutely never return to that damn Anti-Matter Universe. It would sweep across the universe, exterminate those foolish Guardians, forever extinguish the hateful green light, spread fear throughout the universe, and savor the final fear of every sentient being before devouring them all...
Hm?
Parallax, whose body stretched for hundreds of meters, had just emerged when its gaze locked onto a strange, red-and-silver being before it, one that emitted a fluctuation that felt somewhat familiar.
Parallax was suspicious.
Had it been away for too long? Since when did such a strange species exist in the universe?
And that fluctuation, that scent... it felt like it had encountered it somewhere before...
Parallax: !?
Its small eyes suddenly contracted as it made a series of extremely terrible associations.
The one light in the Emotional Spectrum that was, for Parallax, an even more absurd counter than its relationship with the Green Light.
An extremely rare light, one that had been extinct in the universe for tens of billions of years.
Hope.
If one were to use an analogy for the relationship between the Yellow Light of Fear and the Blue Light of Hope in the Emotional Spectrum...
It would probably be the relationship between scissors and stone in rock-paper-scissors.
Cyborg Superman had yet to notice that anything was amiss with the big gun he'd just brought out. He was still laughing heartily. "Do you see? This is the physical form of Fear in the universe, one of the entities of the Seven Lights..."
"Wait, where are you going?"
In a single second, he watched, dumbfounded, as Parallax, who had just emerged and hadn't even found its footing, turned around at light speed and fled back the way it came without a second glance.
Excuse me, wrong place. Goodbye.
(end of chapter)
"Ugh..."
Across a distance of over a hundred million li, in the footage transmitted from the direction of Earth, the Almerac princess, Maxima, had a pained expression, her face drenched in sweat.
A powerful electric current shot through her entire body, causing her to convulse unceasingly. Her body shook violently, her chest heaving dramatically, and her eyes rolled back into her head as she mumbled something incoherent...
Norland and the Almerac warriors who had accompanied him were all stunned. Their expressions seemed to say, "Is this something I can watch for free...? Ah, no, that's not it. How dare these barbaric humans torture the Princess of our glorious Almerac Royal Family?"
Were they striking the Princess? They were practically slapping Almerac in the face!
Norland's entire face immediately darkened as he shot a vicious glare at Orin Vale.
"Stop." Norland tried to muster the dignity of a kingdom's representative. "In this galaxy, no one has ever dared to provoke us, Almerac."
"You had best cease at once, or we will—"
"Or you will what?"
Orin Vale stared directly at him.
Norland's mouth opened. He had at least seven standard hardline retorts for the negotiating table ready in his heart, but as soon as he met the deep, glowing eyes opposite him and felt that formless, suffocating pressure, his mind went completely blank.
With an expression that seemed to say "Page Not Found," he loaded for a long moment before finally forcing out a single sentence.
"Or else we... we will just ask again."
Norland instinctively shrank back, suddenly feeling a head shorter than the person opposite him.
A second later, his mouth uncontrollably added another phrase.
"...Please."
With a wave of Orin Vale's hand, the footage of the hostage was cut off.
Meanwhile, far away on Earth, Maxima was still groaning with convincingly real agony, muttering, "Do what you will, you vile fiends. But the great royal princess will not yield."
Beside her, Kara looked at her with disdain. "Stop acting. They stopped recording a while ago."
"Eh?"
Maxima's pained expression vanished in an instant. She shot up and looked around. "It's over already? So soon?"
"..."
Norland said helplessly, "What exactly do you want?"
"Nothing much. Just a few questions first. What agreement did you Almeracians make with the Manhunters? What are your plans for Earth?"
Norland said weakly, "Those of us at the lower levels aren't clear on these things. It was mostly Minister Zazo and the leader of those metal-heads who handled the talks. They call him... 'Grandmaster,' but no one knows his real name."
"His name sounds impressive, but he's actually quite ugly. To be honest, I never liked him. Half his face is like a skeleton, not quite human, not quite a ghost..."
Orin Vale fell into thought. *Half a face like a skeleton, Grandmaster, leader of the Manhunters... was there such a person?*
His Light-Quantum Brain, with its photographic memory, began to operate, and the pages of some very old comics from a distant past slowly surfaced in his mind.
*Wait a minute, could it be...*
A grim, cold voice echoed through the public communication channel.
"I don't know how things are on Almerac, but on Earth, speaking ill of an ally behind their back is not appreciated."
Everyone looked up at once, only to see... Manhunters.
Countless Manhunters. The red glow from their innumerable eyes was particularly striking against the black curtain of the universe. They approached silently, surrounding the negotiation site from all directions.
"You... you're here!?"
Norland's expression changed drastically.
"But you weren't... I just communicated with Headquarters," Norland exclaimed in shock. "They clearly said you were on Almerac just a minute ago. Not even a faster-than-light engine could be this quick..."
The cold voice sounded again, this time preceded by a string of laughter.
"Faster-than-light? Spatial distance is no longer a limitation for me. Thanks to those allies from Apokolips, I have broadened my horizons and learned a great deal. Now, I no longer even see Superman as a threat."
"You want to know who I am? Very well, then remember this name. My name is—"
Amidst the countless Manhunters, a figure slowly descended. As he fell from space, the starlight revealed a towering silhouette, a faintly visible dark blue uniform, a fiery red cape, even the classic red trunks worn on the outside, and one could even vaguely make out the giant "S" on his chest.
But as he revealed his entire body, it became clear that this was something entirely different.
He had Superman's uniform, even Superman's physique, but he wasn't entirely biological. Only a small part of his face was human; the rest was cold metal, like a mechanical skeleton. His mechanical eyes glowed with a dangerous red light.
"...Cyborg Superman."
"As I thought." Having already made the connection a second ago, Orin Vale was not surprised at all.
Cyborg Superman was a tragic figure, and the origin of his tragedy had a familiar ring to it.
His real name was Hank Henshaw, a genius scientist from Earth and a member of the crew of the spaceship "Excalibur."
The story goes that he took his wife and two good buddies into space, where they encountered abnormal solar radiation. The intense sunbathing caused a genetic mutation, and both their physical bodies and minds were altered.
One of his two buddies had his body reconstructed by the radiation, becoming an energy being who could fly and breathe fire. The other absorbed spaceship debris and stone, becoming an immensely strong stone monster. And Hank Henshaw's wife's body began to phase into another dimension, sometimes becoming intangible and invisible...
But not all such stories have a happy ending, and comparisons are odious. When the Marvel scientists went through the exact same experience, nothing bad happened after their mutation. Their careers took off, they were embraced by beautiful women, they had fame and status, and even owned an entire skyscraper emblazoned with their team's name in the prime real estate of New York.
After undergoing the same radiation-induced mutation, however, Hank Henshaw's buddies and wife couldn't be saved. They all died when their mutations spiraled out of control.
After Hank Henshaw's own physical body perished, his electronic consciousness emerged. It flew from Earth and traveled through interstellar space, learning a vast amount of knowledge. He then used alien technology to reforge this half-man, half-machine body of Superman for himself, calling himself Cyborg Superman and returning to seek revenge on Superman.
The reason was that when the four of them crashed back on Earth and turned into monsters, it was Superman who stopped them when they caused a panic on the streets while seeking help. Hank Henshaw insisted that Superman's interference had cost them precious rescue time; otherwise, his wife and friends might have been saved at S.T.A.R. Labs.
"I knew it. I knew I couldn't trust you Almeracian cowards. Neither you nor that Zazo are cut out for great things."
Cyborg Superman slowly descended, casting a cold glance at Orin Vale.
"I've learned a lot about you recently. 'Ultraman.' I have indeed never acquired knowledge related to a race like yours during my travels in space... but it doesn't matter."
"I have now found powerful allies and possess the ultimate power in the universe. No one can stop my revenge against Superman, against Earth. Anyone who stands in my way will face only one fate: death!"
The moment the last word fell, a storm erupted in space.
And what appeared with it was none other than the physical form of Fear, the entity of the Yellow Lanterns in the Emotional Spectrum, Parallax!
Its body, constructed of golden light, was vaguely shrouded in swirling, dark yellow smoke. Its golden eyes lit up within the dense fog, exuding an indescribable pressure on everyone present before it even fully appeared.
A god-like pressure. Even the Almeracians, who were supposedly on its side, couldn't help but freeze at this moment. Unsuppressible fear washed over them like an instinct, as if their souls were being seized and sucked into a vortex of fear, growing colder and colder, until their minds felt as cold and empty as a corpse's.
Parallax had been sealed in the Anti-Matter Universe since ancient times.
The Guardians' cage had made it hungrier and thirstier, and over billions of years, its hatred for those Little Blue Men and their pawns, the Green Lantern Corps, had grown day by day.
And now, it was finally free!
Parallax had sworn an oath that it would absolutely never return to that damn Anti-Matter Universe. It would sweep across the universe, exterminate those foolish Guardians, forever extinguish the hateful green light, spread fear throughout the universe, and savor the final fear of every sentient being before devouring them all...
Hm?
Parallax, whose body stretched for hundreds of meters, had just emerged when its gaze locked onto a strange, red-and-silver being before it, one that emitted a fluctuation that felt somewhat familiar.
Parallax was suspicious.
Had it been away for too long? Since when did such a strange species exist in the universe?
And that fluctuation, that scent... it felt like it had encountered it somewhere before...
Parallax: !?
Its small eyes suddenly contracted as it made a series of extremely terrible associations.
The one light in the Emotional Spectrum that was, for Parallax, an even more absurd counter than its relationship with the Green Light.
An extremely rare light, one that had been extinct in the universe for tens of billions of years.
Hope.
If one were to use an analogy for the relationship between the Yellow Light of Fear and the Blue Light of Hope in the Emotional Spectrum...
It would probably be the relationship between scissors and stone in rock-paper-scissors.
Cyborg Superman had yet to notice that anything was amiss with the big gun he'd just brought out. He was still laughing heartily. "Do you see? This is the physical form of Fear in the universe, one of the entities of the Seven Lights..."
"Wait, where are you going?"
In a single second, he watched, dumbfounded, as Parallax, who had just emerged and hadn't even found its footing, turned around at light speed and fled back the way it came without a second glance.
Excuse me, wrong place. Goodbye.
(end of chapter)
