"What?"
Steppenwolf's expression changed dramatically. He snapped his head around and saw, through the spaceship's monitor, a group of unharmed people—and among them, the nightmarish man who had made him unforgettable: Lucci!
He's coming! He found me so quickly!
Terror washed over Steppenwolf like a cold tide, swallowing his heart in an instant. But that fear soon twisted into hysterical madness! There was no way out now!
"Ahh!"
Steppenwolf let out a reluctant roar. He could no longer bother with energy stabilization or psychic programming. Without hesitation, with utter abandon, he poured all his power into the Mother Box in his hand!
"Bring him back to life!"
He bellowed.
The Mother Box burst with an unprecedented, blinding red light, transforming into a thick, unparalleled energy pillar that struck fiercely into the Fountain of Life!
BOOM—
At the same time, the ultra-dense alloy gates of the Kryptonian spaceship were blasted apart by the golden pillar of light, as easily as slicing through tofu!
Lucci led the others through the split opening.
In one glance, he saw Steppenwolf performing the final ritual, with the figure in the pool wrapped in violent energy.
When Steppenwolf saw Lucci, the pleasure of revenge and madness flickered in his eyes. He used the last of his strength to roar:
"You're too late! Too late! Despair!"
The moment his words fell, the energy of the Fountain of Life was finally injected!
BOOM—
Suddenly, an indescribably powerful shockwave erupted from the pool, sweeping everything inside the ship away!
Steppenwolf was the first to be struck, sent flying like a kite with a broken string, crashing hard into the wall.
Under everyone's gaze, the figure in the pool suddenly opened his eyes!
Those eyes were empty, unfocused, like two pieces of deep blue glass.
In the next moment, he turned into a red-and-blue streak, punched straight through the heavy roof of the Kryptonian ship, tore open the base's skydome, and vanished into the vast sky!
The next second!
Steppenwolf slid down from the twisted metal wall, thick green blood spraying from his mouth.
Ignoring the agony, he stared at the massive hole Superman had blasted in the sky—his eyes filled with disbelief and utter shock.
Where is he?
What happened to the Kryptonian I resurrected?
He escaped?
Steppenwolf's mind went completely blank, utterly stunned.
He had planned to create an invincible puppet to fight Lucci and remove all obstacles, even at the cost of exposing himself!
But now, his so-called "final weapon," in which all his hopes rested, had simply… run away!
He didn't even get to see him!
What now?
"Mother Box! Answer me! What's going on?"
Steppenwolf howled inwardly.
"Why didn't he obey my orders? Why did he just leave?"
A cold, emotionless stream of consciousness from the Mother Box echoed in his mind:
[Warning: Operator failed to follow standard procedure. Mental compiling step omitted. Target lifeform successfully activated, but its mind is initially blank and acts only on instinct. Unable to establish slavery connection.]
The Mother Box's icy reply erased the last trace of hope from Steppenwolf's heart.
In his final panic, he realized he himself had destroyed his only chance of turning things around! Endless regret and terror swept through his body.
Run! I have to run now!
Steppenwolf no longer had any will to fight. He forcibly activated the last ounce of his divine power, giving the Mother Box a final command—open the Boom Tube!
As long as he could return to the barrier, there was still hope!
BZZT—
The space before him twisted and rippled violently, as a swirling vortex of electricity began tearing open the fabric of reality.
But unfortunately, it was already too late.
How could Lucci let him escape again?
"You want to leave now? Don't you think it's a bit too late?"
Lucci's indifferent voice rang in Steppenwolf's ears, like the pronouncement of judgment from the nine hells.
In an instant, an indescribable supreme will enveloped the world!
"The universe… is frozen!"
CRACK!
A sharp sound, like glass shattering, echoed deep within everyone's souls.
Steppenwolf watched in horror as the forming Boom Tube before his eyes froze like a mosquito in amber. All the energy, all the spatial distortion—everything stopped in that instant!
Then, with another freezing "crack," the frozen vortex of time and space began to shatter, turning into tiny red lights that faded in mid-air.
Failed!
Even the Boom Tube had been forcibly disrupted by the enemy—something he couldn't comprehend at all!
"No—!"
Steppenwolf roared desperately.
He turned and saw Lucci approaching at a slow, unhurried pace, his eyes bloodshot and filled with madness.
"Even if you kill me, it's useless!"
He howled hysterically, "I've already reported the biggest secret to Lord Desaad! The day will soon come when our god Darkseid descends upon Earth with the Apokoliptian army!"
"When that time comes, you all must die! No—something worse than death! For ten thousand years, your souls will be burned in the crucible of torment, and your wails will be the sweetest music beneath our gods' thrones!"
He seemed to see that apocalyptic vision, a fanatical, pathological smile twisting his lips.
"And I! As the hero who delivered this secret, may be resurrected by the great Lord Darkseid himself!"
Listening to his last shout, Lucci's steps didn't pause in the slightest, his face as calm as still water. He raised an eyebrow, and in a flat tone, asked:
"Oh? The great secret you're talking about isn't the Anti-Life Equation on Earth, is it?"
The moment these words left his mouth, Steppenwolf's deranged smile froze instantly.
His eyes widened as if seeing a ghost, staring at Lucci, his voice sharp and dry from the shock.
"You… how do you know?!"
The Anti-Life Equation!
This was the universe's top secret, Darkseid's ultimate goal for years!
After descending to Earth, even the Mother Box confirmed its existence here!
How could this Earthling know so clearly?
Lucci spoke lightly, "How pitiful."
"It may be a great secret to you, but to me, it's nothing at all."
He approached Steppenwolf, looking down with a playful curve to his lips.
"As for your Darkseid… are you sure he'll even come?"
"Honestly, I'm actually quite interested in his Omega Effect."
"If you want to be resurrected, that will never be possible."
As he spoke, light flashed, and a simple, elegant longsword appeared in Lucci's hand, galaxies and cosmic rivers etched on its blade, the cycle of creation and destruction of the Great Path inscribed upon it.
It was the Path Flame Sword!
"Because I can use Causality Sword Intent to erase the very concept of your existence at the conceptual level."
"No matter past, present, or future, you will cease to exist."
"Even Darkseid—how could he resurrect someone who never existed in the first place?"
"No… no… That's impossible!"
"You're spouting nonsense! No such power exists in this world!"
Steppenwolf was utterly shattered!
From Lucci's words, he sensed a truth a hundred thousand times more terrifying than death itself—true "nothingness"!
But Lucci didn't give him a second to defend or roar again.
"Goodbye, Steppenwolf."
With those words, the Path Flame Sword in his hand slashed down!
There was no flash, no sound.
A formless, mysterious power transcending space and time instantly struck Steppenwolf.
In the next moment, Steppenwolf's body faded quietly from head to toe, like a pencil drawing being erased…
He vanished!
He didn't turn to ash or break apart into particles—he simply disappeared from the universe, as if he'd never existed.
Every trace of his existence, every causal connection, was cleanly severed under the sword!
The interior of the Kryptonian spaceship was plunged into utter silence.
Bruce Wayne, Diana, Arthur, Barry…
All of them stared blankly at the empty scene before them, their minds blank, unable to process the overwhelming flood of information.
What did they just hear?
Desaad? Darkseid? Apokoliptian army? Anti-Life Equation? Omega Effect? Erasing the concept of existence?
Each of these words felt like forbidden language from distant myth, filled with mystery, the unknown, and a crushing sense of weight.
They felt like a band of primitive people who'd just started a fire, suddenly overhearing the highest council of cosmic gods debating the fate of the universe.
"Gulp."
Barry swallowed hard, his gaze toward Lucci shifting from stunned shock to pure… worship.
This man was not just strong.
His standing, the secrets he knew—all of it far surpassed their wildest imagination.
Jean's beautiful eyes also sparkled with intense curiosity.
She couldn't help but quietly ask:
"That monster mentioned… the Anti-Life Equation? And, the Omega Effect you mentioned—what are those?"
Lucci sheathed the Path Flame Sword, glanced over everyone's curious and anxious faces, and explained gently:
"The Anti-Life Equation… you can think of it as a formula of the rules."
"It's a cold, ruthless formula that proves hope, free will, and even life itself are all meaningless."
"Once someone masters and spreads it, any sentient being who hears or sees the formula instantly loses their sense of self, becomes completely controlled, a puppet of the practitioner."
"It's not mind control or telepathy. It's the ultimate weapon that robs free will at the level of truth."
"What?!"
Everyone present was shocked by this explanation!
"In this world… there's something so terrifying?" Diana said after a pause.
As an Amazon, she knew how essential free will was to life.
To fundamentally erase free will was more evil than any massacre!
"And… it's still on Earth?"
Bruce Wayne's face grew extremely grim, recalling Steppenwolf and Lucci's conversation and sensing a vast conspiracy enveloping the planet.
"Yes."
Lucci nodded, confirming their guess.
Bruce's heart sank, his breathing becoming a little tight. He calmed himself and continued:
"Then… about the Omega Effect? And Desaad, Darkseid—who are they?"
The alien files he'd gotten from Lex Luthor were vague, only half-understood at best.
"Desaad is Apokolips' chief scientist of torture, who delights in spreading despair. He's Darkseid's most loyal subordinate."
"And Darkseid… he's the ruler of Apokolips, a New God of the universe, the embodiment of tyranny and evil, known as the 'Dark Monarch.' He's one of the most powerful and evil beings in the cosmos."
"As for the Omega Effect, it's Darkseid's divine power, the manifestation of his might as a god of darkness."
"He can release Omega Beams from his eyes—energy that can track and rotate at will, destroying targets utterly, teleporting through time and space, or even… resurrecting them in a more agonizing form."
"It's an inescapable, certain-death force."
Whoosh—
As Lucci finished explaining, everyone around involuntarily held their breath.
They had already thought Steppenwolf was a huge threat, but now, in front of Darkseid, Steppenwolf seemed like nothing more than a strong ant!
A cosmic tyrant pursuing the ultimate weapon, the "Anti-Life Equation," wielding the power of certain death, and commanding an endless army of demons…
Just thinking about such an enemy was enough to make any civilization despair!
"Our enemy… is really this kind of being?"
Barry felt his legs go weak.
"Alright."
Seeing their increasingly distressed faces, Lucci waved his hand to interrupt their thoughts.
"Darkseid is coming. I don't know when. All of this is about the future—the ship will naturally head straight for the bridgehead."
"Right now, we have something more important to deal with."
Lucci's words brought everyone back to reality.
"That's right!"
Bruce snapped back to attention.
"Superman! We have to find him—before he causes irreversible damage!"
A memoryless Kryptonian, acting on pure instinct, was like an unmonitored nuclear bomb that could explode anywhere, anytime.
"But he flew off so fast, we don't know where he went."
Arthur frowned.
All eyes turned to Lucci—now, he was their only pillar of support.
Lucci closed his eyes for a moment, and immense spiritual power instantly spread out, integrating with the MagicNet like an invisible net.
The entire planet appeared vividly in his mind.
He began searching for the unique, powerful Kryptonian energy signature.
A few seconds later, he opened his eyes.
"Found him."
"He's flying to the Metropolitan Museum."
As soon as he finished speaking, he reached out, put away the final Mother Box, and used spatial power again.
The familiar distortion of light and shadow enveloped everyone.
In the next instant, all their figures vanished from the ruins of Stryker's Island base.
…