The Justice League once again advanced towards the Nail. Meanwhile, the resurrected Atlantis and Savage Wolf had grown smarter. They didn't show themselves in front of the Justice League, but instead went underground, intending to pull the Nail out from below.
"I'll open a path," Arthur said, "follow me, but be very careful. I'm afraid they'll attack you in the dark."
"I'll protect Clark," Ron said, "If there's an attack, I can shield him. After all, I can phase, so I won't get hurt or contaminated."
Clark moved his lips, seemingly disagreeing, but he knew it wasn't wise to take risks, so he followed behind Ron.
Victor followed Clark, his main goal also being to protect Superman, nerves highly strung. If anyone attacked, he'd immediately activate modification mode and teleport the attacker away. Although this method couldn't be used many times, blocking one or two attacks was feasible.
The group followed the path Arthur carved, heading towards the deep sea. Heading downward, they reached the place where the Nail had penetrated, but saw no trace of Atlantis and Savage Wolf. They didn't dare to search around, so they stayed by the Nail.
Soon, a familiar figure appeared. Arthur exclaimed: "Mother?!"
The visitor was the Queen of Atlantis. Clark's heart sank; he quickly blocked Arthur and said, "It might be an imposter."
Arthur knew this, but he clenched his fist tightly and said, "The last time I saw him, he was still alive."
Upon hearing this, the group fell silent. This likely meant they killed the Queen and then resurrected her.
It made sense since Atlantis had already been resurrected, and the cemetery wasn't far from the sea trench. He would have certainly targeted the Queen.
"Don't you recognize me, Arthur?"
"Shut up, you imposter!" Arthur was furious and wanted to curse more, but then his eyes widened. Atlantis stepped out from behind the Queen, holding a man.
"Father!!" Arthur was shocked to the core.
"Wait." Clark stopped him again, saying, "Batman has already sent people to protect our families. They wouldn't capture your father so easily. This one might be fake too."
With that, he carefully inspected the man, looking for flaws, as did the others. Although Arthur regained his composure, he hadn't completely recovered from the shock. Just then, a glistening dagger pierced straight into Arthur's back.
"Watch out!!" Victor shouted angrily, and the Mother Box flashed. In the moment of teleportation, the deceased Amanda revealed a cruel smile.
Arthur fell, clutching his wound painfully. Ron hurried to support him. Instinctively, Arthur tried to heal using water magic, but the sea was filled with the Power of Death, and even though he wasn't using it actively, the Death power was invading his body through the wound.
"Damn it, we've been tricked!" Clark glared at Atlantis. The man was released, wrapped in potent death power. This wasn't Arthur's father, John, but a man with a black hood and a ferocious face.
Ron was puzzled, wondering when the Black Death Emperor had mastered illusion techniques. Even he hadn't noticed it earlier.
Then he realized, this might not be the Black Death Emperor's ability. He had colluded with Darkseid long ago. Since Darkseid had Savage Wolf, there would naturally be other capable individuals. Even if the main force was held back by the Lantern Corps, sending one or two subordinates to cause trouble wasn't impossible.
Ron took a deep breath and said, "We can't stay in the sea. We need to go up."
Clark knew there was no other way. Without Arthur, the ocean was Atlantis's domain. Fighting here would expend much more energy than their opponents, eventually exhausting them.
The group immediately swam upwards, but Atlantis was unwilling to let them go. As he raised his hands, the seawater became even more viscous. The power of death was almost tangible, its rotten aura enveloping everyone, even Clark found it hard to move.
Knowing this wasn't working, Victor gritted his teeth and said, "I'll open the Sonic Channel."
With that, his body emitted a white light, opening the Sonic Channel. Ron escorted Clark away. As Victor was stepping out, Atlantis fired a well-aimed waterjet that pierced through his shoulder.
Victor fell through the portal heavily, and Clark quickly caught him. Victor struggled painfully, then said, "Leave me, I'll make it back to the base myself. You have to stop them, don't let them attack Batman!"
Victor gritted his teeth, opened the teleportation channel again, and sent himself to the Justice League Hall. Shiller emerged from the office, surprised to find him on the ground, and quickly helped him up.
Victor looked at his shoulder wound. Fortunately, the Mother Box's energy and the power of death were evenly matched, so the necrosis wasn't spreading quickly. Nonetheless, the injury was severe. Shiller called an ambulance and sent him to the hospital.
Hal arrived late. Upon hearing that Victor and Arthur were injured, he took a deep breath. At that moment, Clark's anger reached its peak. He shot a laser towards the sea, causing the Nail to tremble.
"Wait, Clark, don't be rash!" Ron hurried to stop him. "We can't cause too much commotion; Batman is still inside."
Clark clenched his fists. The current situation was such that good people should be under the gun. Earth was theirs, the Nail was theirs, Batman was theirs. To ensure the safety of these things belonging to them, they couldn't use overly violent means. But the other side was unscrupulous, deceptive, and used every trick possible.
"I'll go deal with them," Hal said, "Don't worry too much; they're not my match. The power of death hasn't affected me, right?"
After speaking, he flew down. Ron was a bit worried, but he didn't dare leave Clark, fearing the Black Death Emperor would pull some trick to capture them alone.
"What a pity, my offensive capabilities aren't strong enough," Ron said, "Even though I can use the illusion power to remain unaffected, I can't be the main attacker. Otherwise, we wouldn't be so passive."
Seeing his self-blame, Clark quickly pushed away the irritable emotions in his mind and said, "No, your ability to remain untainted might be our trump card."
Hal descended to the seabed, unexpected that those people did not directly attack the nail, but stood in neat rows as if welcoming him.
"Hal." A stranger, wearing a black mask, called out his name and said, "The famous Green Lantern."
"You know me?"
"Of course, I'm from Seashore City too. When your mother died back then, it might have been me who prepared her funeral."
Hal squinted his eyes, sizing up this person. But Seashore City was not a small city, even if he knew the other's profession might be a funeral director, he didn't recognize him.
"Join us, Hal. You will become the greatest Black Lantern ever."
"Are you dreaming?" Hal mocked, "Could the greatest Black Lantern be much stronger than the greatest Green Lantern?"
"Of course. The Black Death Emperor is the most magnificent…"
"Don't you understand human language? I mean, even the greatest Green Lantern isn't much better. Why should I be the greatest Black Lantern?"
In fact, Hal was already somewhat disheartened by the actions of the Green Lantern Corps. It was known that Sinestro wasn't unaware of the danger Earth was facing, perhaps he was even more aware than others. Yet he still chose to attack Darkseid.
Indeed, in their view, the Total Furnace had been taken by Darkseid. But Hal knew that the Green Lantern Headquarters still had plenty of green lantern energy left, enough for them to fight.
Earth is in a relatively remote sector, and although Hal made a contribution in the battle to seal Parallax, he was still a new recruit and not given much attention. So Sinestro, thinking from the bigger picture, chose to attack Apocalypse Star directly. And this choice meant he abandoned Earth.
Hal was still very grateful to this teacher who taught and guided him when he first joined the corps. But undoubtedly, this decision made Hal lose all faith in the Green Lantern Corps.
Unexpectedly he would reply like that, and the man in the black hood was taken aback for a moment, then said, "You are not doing well in the Green Lantern Corps, because they don't recognize talent when they see it. Lord Black Death Emperor sees your potential, Hal. Join us and show those who look down on you what you can do, isn't that good?"
"Oh, so you're actually asking my opinion?" Hal snorted coldly, revealing the corpse spots on his arm, and said, "Then what's this? A greeting gift before an official visit?"
That man was taken aback when he saw the corpse spots on his arm, then immediately changed his tone and said, "This is a gift from Lord Black Death Emperor, you naturally should accept it with joy. Soon you will feel just how powerful this is!"
"Powerful my ass." Hal vented all his pent-up frustration at that moment, saying, "This junk can't even break through the defenses of my green lantern energy. If your master's only got this little skill, he better hurry back home to the sewers!"
"You!!!"
Hal couldn't be bothered to waste words with him any longer, and with a wave of his hand, the green lantern energy surged, sending them all flying away.
A while later, Hal resurfaced and nodded to Clark, saying, "I drove them off. But I can't kill them; even if killed, they'd return. Better let it be."
"Are you okay?"
Hal shook his head and said, "The Power of Death isn't notably eroding me. You don't need to worry about me."
"What did Shiller want with you?" Clark asked with some curiosity.
Hal hesitated for a moment but then said, "They are preparing a plan and need a backup candidate. We don't know if I can do it, but we have to try."
"What plan?"
"I'm not too sure, but it might have to do with the lantern ring," Hal said, "It's also a kind of fail-safe, I guess."
"I have to go see Batman," Clark said, "These guys who can't be killed are tougher than imagined. I'm afraid he won't hold out."
But Hal dissuaded him, saying, "You going there is just to comfort him, doing nothing substantive. Just now when I was heading underwater, I sensed the flow of the Power of Death. We need to track that direction, maybe we can find the source."
With Hal saying so, Clark hesitated for a moment before nodding and said, "Right, we need to eliminate the source first, stop the marine pollution, then we can assist Batman. Let's go, let's check it out."
Hal breathed a sigh of relief. Although in the just-ended conversation, Shiller indeed mentioned the plan candidate, more so was to show him the massive Power of Seven Lanterns reclaimed from Oa Star, as well as the unscathed Batman.