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Chapter 359: Decomposition and Recombination
Brainiac stood up. As he looked at Orin Vale, his expression seemed completely devoid of emotion, but in truth, all his scanners were already operating at full capacity.
"He's actually even stronger than before." Brainiac was puzzled.
What kind of creature could have its energy level skyrocket so continuously and unscientifically in such a short amount of time?
This made Old Bu feel an unbearable craving, eager to capture this peculiar creature and delve into the deepest secrets of his body.
If he could, that is.
Orin Vale wasted no words and attacked directly.
This was his first time facing Brainiac's true form. Although Orin Vale was confident that his current strength had few opponents in this universe, he still needed to be cautious when facing Old Bu.
He had no combat data on Brainiac's primary body. The ones Brainiac had sent before were merely vanguards to scout the way. Even the Kryptonian database had no records of the primary body. Back then, Old Bu had effortlessly crushed the Kryptonian army; they didn't even know if his mothership had arrived, let alone seen his true form.
But Brainiac was, without a doubt, a major, event-level boss for the Justice League. Even if he were weak, there was a limit to how weak he could be.
Orin Vale was very confident in his speed. He believed he should be faster, that Brainiac wouldn't be able to keep up, but it probably wasn't to the point where Brainiac couldn't react at all.
Halfway through his charge, a purplish-red light suddenly flashed from the dark ceiling of the ship cabin. A beam of light shot down in a sneak attack from above.
Orin Vale was a bit surprised. He changed his charging path and dodged to the side. The beam instantly melted the floor below.
"This is still my home turf." Brainiac didn't move his mouth, but his voice seemed to ring directly in Orin Vale's mind. "You're not just facing me, but this warship as well."
As he spoke, various energy beams shot out from the surroundings. Orin Vale impassively dodged them one by one, weaving nimbly through them while rapidly closing the distance to Brainiac.
But Old Bu's own body also thrust out both palms, blasting out energy rays that formed a pincer attack with the light beams from the warship.
Orin Vale opened his left palm, holding up an Ultra Barrier with one hand to block the rays. At the same time, from behind the barrier, he flicked his other hand and fired two arrow-shaped light bullets in a counterattack. Brainiac failed to dodge in time, and a hole was immediately blasted in his shoulder by the light bullets.
He staggered a step. By the time he stabilized himself, Orin Vale had already flashed in front of him, his right fist raised for a standard Superman-style thrust, enhanced by superspeed.
Brainiac flipped his palm, conjuring a shield to defend. Unexpectedly, Orin Vale was just feinting. His upper body postured as if to punch, but he was actually delivering a heavy blow with a low sweep kick to Old Bu's supporting leg.
Although Brainiac's body was a frame of steel and iron, forged from an indestructible special alloy, it couldn't withstand Orin Vale's terrifying leg strength. Under the single blow, his mechanical joint immediately broke under the strain, and electric arcs flared from the wreckage.
But despite having a half-biological body, he seemed to feel no pain. As his leg broke, he simultaneously threw a punch in retaliation. His fist glowed with an eerie violet light, releasing a peculiar energy fluctuation.
In Orin Vale's accelerated vision, Old Bu's punch, which was as fast as Superman's, was also in slow motion, giving him ample time to notice that the energy on the fist seemed strange. To be cautious, he didn't block it head-on. His upper body leaned to the side, leaving an afterimage, and the ray fired from Brainiac's fist missed.
Orin Vale glanced in the direction the ray had fired and saw the part of the warship it had hit bizarrely disintegrate. It wasn't an explosion or being shattered by impact; rather, in a single instant, the object's surface was covered in neat cracks, and the entire metal structure decomposed into countless particles along those cracks.
This was a change he could only perceive with his Ultra Vision. To an ordinary person, the object that was hit would have simply seemed to vanish into thin air.
Matter decomposition.
It was an ability similar to Firestorm's. But Firestorm rearranges matter at the subatomic level to recombine it, whereas Old Bu's technique wasn't recombination. It directly broke matter down to the particulate level, a terrifying weapon that could almost ignore a target's hardness and defenses.
"My knowledge is beyond your imagination. The technology I command is at the apex of the universe."
Brainiac threw a rapid series of punches, firing ray after ray.
"All things will belong to Brainiac..."
The rays flew everywhere. Although Orin Vale seemed to have dodged, his arm appeared to have been grazed. Even though it was just a scratch, his arm began to rapidly disintegrate just like that piece of equipment, irresistibly turning into particles under the effect of the corrosive energy.
The corners of Brainiac's mouth turned up slightly. "...And you are no exception."
"That's not necessarily true," Orin Vale chuckled lightly.
The next moment, Brainiac watched as the Orin Vale before him decomposed into particles, starting from his arm, up to his torso and head, until his entire body had vanished from his sight.
Only then did Old Bu suddenly realize something was wrong.
No, a mere graze couldn't possibly be that powerful. He knew the efficacy of his own weapon best; that last hit should have only been able to decompose up to the wrist at most. How could such a large person just disappear like that?
In other words...
The sight before him was not the result of his matter decomposition.
His opponent had done it himself.
Sure enough, the next moment, the light particles had already re-coalesced into a physical form behind him. A heavy punch enhanced with superspeed and wreathed in electric arcs slammed violently into Brainiac's face.
In a moment that seemed to unfold in slow motion, Brainiac's entire face caved in from the force of the punch, electric arcs exploding across his skin. Green blood gushed from his nasal cavity. It seemed his head still had a biological component.
"New knowledge," Orin Vale transmitted the thought calmly as his fist landed. "I can recombine my own body. No need for you to go to the trouble."
Brainiac took the punch and was sent flying straight into the rear wall of the ship cabin, caving the entire wall section inward. The impact seemed to be distributed throughout the entire mothership, causing the warship to shake violently.
To Orin Vale's surprise, the impact didn't even punch through the wall. The materials and workmanship of Old Bu's warships were truly top-notch. He had no idea what kind of black technology could withstand such monstrous strength.
Orin Vale's movements didn't stop. He shot forward like a bolt of lightning, chasing after the flying Brainiac, relentlessly aiming another punch straight for Brainiac's now-mangled face.
But this punch also hit nothing. The wall was blasted through by his fist, and the colossal explosion was like an interstellar main cannon firing inside the ship cabin, booming outwards for a great distance.
But it failed to hit Old Bu's forehead.
Because Old Bu's forehead... had vanished.
Just like the matter that had been disintegrated earlier, in the instant before Orin Vale's punch landed, Brainiac's entire upper body decomposed and disappeared. Then, in an extremely short moment, it recombined to the side, still attached to his lower half, but now in an evasive, sideways posture.
"Then let me give you a new hint as well," Brainiac said.
"What I can recombine... also includes myself."
(end of chapter)
Brainiac stood up. As he looked at Orin Vale, his expression seemed completely devoid of emotion, but in truth, all his scanners were already operating at full capacity.
"He's actually even stronger than before." Brainiac was puzzled.
What kind of creature could have its energy level skyrocket so continuously and unscientifically in such a short amount of time?
This made Old Bu feel an unbearable craving, eager to capture this peculiar creature and delve into the deepest secrets of his body.
If he could, that is.
Orin Vale wasted no words and attacked directly.
This was his first time facing Brainiac's true form. Although Orin Vale was confident that his current strength had few opponents in this universe, he still needed to be cautious when facing Old Bu.
He had no combat data on Brainiac's primary body. The ones Brainiac had sent before were merely vanguards to scout the way. Even the Kryptonian database had no records of the primary body. Back then, Old Bu had effortlessly crushed the Kryptonian army; they didn't even know if his mothership had arrived, let alone seen his true form.
But Brainiac was, without a doubt, a major, event-level boss for the Justice League. Even if he were weak, there was a limit to how weak he could be.
Orin Vale was very confident in his speed. He believed he should be faster, that Brainiac wouldn't be able to keep up, but it probably wasn't to the point where Brainiac couldn't react at all.
Halfway through his charge, a purplish-red light suddenly flashed from the dark ceiling of the ship cabin. A beam of light shot down in a sneak attack from above.
Orin Vale was a bit surprised. He changed his charging path and dodged to the side. The beam instantly melted the floor below.
"This is still my home turf." Brainiac didn't move his mouth, but his voice seemed to ring directly in Orin Vale's mind. "You're not just facing me, but this warship as well."
As he spoke, various energy beams shot out from the surroundings. Orin Vale impassively dodged them one by one, weaving nimbly through them while rapidly closing the distance to Brainiac.
But Old Bu's own body also thrust out both palms, blasting out energy rays that formed a pincer attack with the light beams from the warship.
Orin Vale opened his left palm, holding up an Ultra Barrier with one hand to block the rays. At the same time, from behind the barrier, he flicked his other hand and fired two arrow-shaped light bullets in a counterattack. Brainiac failed to dodge in time, and a hole was immediately blasted in his shoulder by the light bullets.
He staggered a step. By the time he stabilized himself, Orin Vale had already flashed in front of him, his right fist raised for a standard Superman-style thrust, enhanced by superspeed.
Brainiac flipped his palm, conjuring a shield to defend. Unexpectedly, Orin Vale was just feinting. His upper body postured as if to punch, but he was actually delivering a heavy blow with a low sweep kick to Old Bu's supporting leg.
Although Brainiac's body was a frame of steel and iron, forged from an indestructible special alloy, it couldn't withstand Orin Vale's terrifying leg strength. Under the single blow, his mechanical joint immediately broke under the strain, and electric arcs flared from the wreckage.
But despite having a half-biological body, he seemed to feel no pain. As his leg broke, he simultaneously threw a punch in retaliation. His fist glowed with an eerie violet light, releasing a peculiar energy fluctuation.
In Orin Vale's accelerated vision, Old Bu's punch, which was as fast as Superman's, was also in slow motion, giving him ample time to notice that the energy on the fist seemed strange. To be cautious, he didn't block it head-on. His upper body leaned to the side, leaving an afterimage, and the ray fired from Brainiac's fist missed.
Orin Vale glanced in the direction the ray had fired and saw the part of the warship it had hit bizarrely disintegrate. It wasn't an explosion or being shattered by impact; rather, in a single instant, the object's surface was covered in neat cracks, and the entire metal structure decomposed into countless particles along those cracks.
This was a change he could only perceive with his Ultra Vision. To an ordinary person, the object that was hit would have simply seemed to vanish into thin air.
Matter decomposition.
It was an ability similar to Firestorm's. But Firestorm rearranges matter at the subatomic level to recombine it, whereas Old Bu's technique wasn't recombination. It directly broke matter down to the particulate level, a terrifying weapon that could almost ignore a target's hardness and defenses.
"My knowledge is beyond your imagination. The technology I command is at the apex of the universe."
Brainiac threw a rapid series of punches, firing ray after ray.
"All things will belong to Brainiac..."
The rays flew everywhere. Although Orin Vale seemed to have dodged, his arm appeared to have been grazed. Even though it was just a scratch, his arm began to rapidly disintegrate just like that piece of equipment, irresistibly turning into particles under the effect of the corrosive energy.
The corners of Brainiac's mouth turned up slightly. "...And you are no exception."
"That's not necessarily true," Orin Vale chuckled lightly.
The next moment, Brainiac watched as the Orin Vale before him decomposed into particles, starting from his arm, up to his torso and head, until his entire body had vanished from his sight.
Only then did Old Bu suddenly realize something was wrong.
No, a mere graze couldn't possibly be that powerful. He knew the efficacy of his own weapon best; that last hit should have only been able to decompose up to the wrist at most. How could such a large person just disappear like that?
In other words...
The sight before him was not the result of his matter decomposition.
His opponent had done it himself.
Sure enough, the next moment, the light particles had already re-coalesced into a physical form behind him. A heavy punch enhanced with superspeed and wreathed in electric arcs slammed violently into Brainiac's face.
In a moment that seemed to unfold in slow motion, Brainiac's entire face caved in from the force of the punch, electric arcs exploding across his skin. Green blood gushed from his nasal cavity. It seemed his head still had a biological component.
"New knowledge," Orin Vale transmitted the thought calmly as his fist landed. "I can recombine my own body. No need for you to go to the trouble."
Brainiac took the punch and was sent flying straight into the rear wall of the ship cabin, caving the entire wall section inward. The impact seemed to be distributed throughout the entire mothership, causing the warship to shake violently.
To Orin Vale's surprise, the impact didn't even punch through the wall. The materials and workmanship of Old Bu's warships were truly top-notch. He had no idea what kind of black technology could withstand such monstrous strength.
Orin Vale's movements didn't stop. He shot forward like a bolt of lightning, chasing after the flying Brainiac, relentlessly aiming another punch straight for Brainiac's now-mangled face.
But this punch also hit nothing. The wall was blasted through by his fist, and the colossal explosion was like an interstellar main cannon firing inside the ship cabin, booming outwards for a great distance.
But it failed to hit Old Bu's forehead.
Because Old Bu's forehead... had vanished.
Just like the matter that had been disintegrated earlier, in the instant before Orin Vale's punch landed, Brainiac's entire upper body decomposed and disappeared. Then, in an extremely short moment, it recombined to the side, still attached to his lower half, but now in an evasive, sideways posture.
"Then let me give you a new hint as well," Brainiac said.
"What I can recombine... also includes myself."
(end of chapter)
