The forging of the Kryptonite sword went even faster than expected.
In this reality, LexCorp had already been struggling to survive under Wayne Enterprises' relentless pressure and was perpetually on the verge of acquisition.
Now that their Metropolis headquarters had been completely destroyed, a simple phone call was enough for the massive LexCorp laboratory in Gotham to temporarily become Wayne property.
Batman—who had expected to force his way in and borrow the facility—once again experienced the convenience of overwhelming wealth.
While LexCorp's laboratories could not compare to giants like S.T.A.R. Labs, their equipment was more than advanced enough for his purposes.
After all, all he really needed was to synthesize artificial Kryptonite and use it to create weapons lethal to Kryptonian organisms.
"Here."
Batman handed Diana a high-grade alloy longsword with Kryptonite embedded into both the hilt and the tip.
"Try not to block with it. And be careful when thrusting."
Embedding Kryptonite into the blade had compromised the weapon's entire structural integrity, making it impossible to wield like a normal sword.
If anything, it resembled a ceramic knife now—lethally sharp, but dangerously fragile.
But without Kryptonite, the sword's alloy alone probably wouldn't even pierce Doomsday's skin.
Wonder Woman accepted the weapon and gave it several test swings, adjusting herself to its altered balance.
"Trust me," she said calmly. "I understand better than you how to use a flawed sword like this."
Because this was not truly a sword.
It was a disposable weapon—more akin to a crossbow bolt or an artillery shell.
Having fought Joey before, Diana understood better than anyone how terrifying Kryptonians were.
And yet she still had no choice but to face him.
If Joey was right—if Doomsday's adaptation ability was truly powerful enough to eventually overcome Kryptonite entirely—
Then the only path to victory Diana could imagine was finding the perfect opening... and killing him in a single strike.
At this very moment, Doomsday was already charging toward Gotham, guided by some inexplicable instinctive connection to Joey.
No matter what obstacles slowed him down along the way, it would only take another hour or two before the monster reached him.
And unfortunately, the trio was currently at its weakest.
Though Diana had regained her divine power, she still lacked both the God Killer sword and the Lasso of Truth. All she had was this crude weapon forged from mortal metal.
Even so, she was still the only one among the three capable of fighting.
Outside the laboratory, Joey paced anxiously. The moment he saw Diana take the Kryptonite sword, he frowned.
"Diana!"
He shouted after her, but she ignored him completely.
Without hesitation, she leapt through the laboratory ceiling and flew toward the battlefield.
She knew as well as he did that, unless a miracle occurred, she had no chance of defeating Joey's other half.
Joey's resistance to divine weapons like the God Killer sword had already evolved from able to pierce his body to merely able to cut flesh.
His adaptation to Kryptonite would likely not take long either.
Diana could already guess what Joey wanted to say.
There was no need to hear it aloud.
Just like the other Wonder Woman—the one already laid to rest—the Amazons would never flee from a stronger enemy when it meant protecting their companions.
"Fuck!"
No—what Joey had actually wanted to say was that he had finally come up with an extremely bold solution.
He turned and rushed toward Batman.
"Bruce! Get me a vehicle—I'm going to the battlefield too!"
Doomsday's behavior matched his name perfectly.
Wherever the creature passed, only destruction remained.
This twisted, neither-living-nor-dead abomination possessed an instinctive hatred toward every form of life in the universe.
Which was why, on his way toward finding his other half, countless things kept distracting him from his path.
Humans. Animals. Plants. Even insects beneath the soil and creatures within the sea.
Every living thing constantly irritated his nerves.
Doomsday's rate of evolution during combat was unimaginably fast, as though the monster had been born for battle itself.
After enduring the military's bombardment of white phosphorus and depleted uranium munitions, flames now engulfed his entire body. His skin had begun imitating nuclear fission reactions, radiating terrifying levels of nuclear energy.
Wherever he passed, the earth split apart, oceans boiled, and the air filled with lethal radioactive dust.
At this point, even if Doomsday stopped attacking entirely, merely wandering across the planet would be enough to transform Earth into a lifeless radioactive wasteland.
And this was the monster Diana now descended from the skies to confront.
He was already far too close to Gotham City.
She could not allow him to advance any farther.
Like a Valkyrie diving from the skies of Norse legend, Diana plummeted downward and grabbed hold of the pale bone spikes protruding from Doomsday's head. With a violent pull, she yanked the monster backward and slammed him onto the ground.
As Diana continued flying forward while dragging him behind her, the already ruined earth was carved open once again, Doomsday's body gouging a massive trench through the land.
Moments earlier, Doomsday had still been overwhelmed by the agony caused by sensing every living creature on Earth, his desire for slaughter spiraling ever higher.
Only after being dragged several miles did he finally react.
The monster swung one clawed hand—now equally covered in jagged spikes—toward Wonder Woman as casually as if swatting away an insect.
But Diana had anticipated it already and effortlessly ascended into the air to evade the strike.
That sudden exchange gave Diana a sliver of hope.
She realized the creature before her possessed none of the intelligence of an ordinary sentient being.
It was driven purely by murderous instinct.
Which meant this battle was not entirely unwinnable.
But everything had to happen quickly.
At such close proximity to Doomsday, Diana could already feel her skin beginning to itch, every nerve in her body screaming with discomfort.
Her battle instincts were warning her.
Diana had been born with the divine mission of ending war itself, and that divinity elevated her far beyond ordinary Amazons.
Her body was strong enough to hold up the heavens or wrestle with Kryptonians.
Durable enough that ordinary mortal weapons could scarcely harm her.
Yet that same divinity also imposed limitations upon her.
It prevented her from being fully immune to things intrinsically tied to the concept of mortal warfare.
And unfortunately, nuclear energy had been born for war from the very beginning.
No matter how powerful Diana's body was—strong enough to endure even the fires of Hell—her resistance to nuclear radiation was no greater than that of any ordinary Amazon.
If she could not end this quickly, the constant nuclear radiation emanating from Doomsday would eventually become fatal even to her.
"ROAR!!!"
Without hesitation, Doomsday launched himself upward from the ground and lunged toward Diana.
Calmly evading the attack, Diana confirmed another weakness.
The monster could not fly.
Under normal circumstances, wielding the God Killer sword, she would have already slashed sideways during his charge, using his own momentum to carve open his torso.
But now, armed with nothing more than mortal-forged steel, she could no longer fight that way.