The tall, metal-clad figure landed and immediately reached for the Mother Box.
But just as his hand was about to touch it, swoosh!
A golden lasso shot through the air and wrapped tightly around his wrist, restraining his free right hand.
At the same time, Diana pulled desperately on the opposite end of the lasso and shouted at the towering figure.
"Who are you, and why have you come here?"
"Hmph. I am Steppenwolf, General of Apokolips. I have come to reclaim the three Mother Boxes Apokolips left on Earth."
Steppenwolf glanced at the lasso around his wrist.
"Interesting. A lasso that compels its target to speak the truth?"
His expression quickly turned contemptuous.
"Even without it, I would not lie to you, woman. You are nowhere near worthy of deception."
As he spoke, Steppenwolf tightened his right hand and stomped down.
The ground beneath his feet instantly fractured, the stone breaking apart under the overwhelming force before being crushed beneath his weight.
At the same moment, Diana, locked in a struggle with him, was violently dragged forward by Steppenwolf's sudden burst of strength.
Seeing Diana stumble toward him, Steppenwolf scoffed. He swung his right hand, still gripping the lasso, and smashed it directly into her face.
Thud!
Diana staggered from the impact. She released the lasso and immediately drew her sword, swinging it toward Steppenwolf's shoulder.
Before the blade could reach him, Steppenwolf raised his long axe with his left hand and effortlessly blocked the attack.
The force of the counter made Diana's eyes widen.
How long had it been since she had encountered someone capable of overpowering her so completely in a direct clash of strength?
Even Supergirl, whom she had encountered the previous month, had only been comparable to her in raw strength.
As for Axel, who had once left her completely helpless, he was an entirely different matter. Axel had transformed from someone she could once regard as insignificant into an existence that could now treat her as insignificant in return.
Aside from Axel, Diana had not encountered an opponent capable of completely suppressing her physically in decades.
She had attacked with both hands on her sword, yet Steppenwolf had parried her strike with only one hand.
Though shocked, Diana did not hesitate. She withdrew her sword and swept it horizontally toward Steppenwolf's waist.
Steppenwolf immediately rotated his left hand, bringing his axe around to block the blade.
Clang!
The weapons collided.
As he deflected Diana's attack, Steppenwolf smoothly transferred the axe to his right hand and swung it in one fluid motion.
The rough edge of the axe slipped past Diana's defensive sword and slammed directly into her face.
Boom!
A violent shockwave erupted from the point of impact.
Diana was sent flying backward and crashed heavily into the temple wall.
As she was thrown away, a second lasso shot from the side, wrapped around the Mother Box, and pulled it away.
"Hmph!"
Seeing the Mother Box in another woman's hands, Steppenwolf let out an irritated grunt and strode toward Hippolyta, who had seized it and was retreating.
He had barely taken a step when his right leg was suddenly caught by the Lasso of Truth.
Thud!
His restrained foot slammed into the ground.
Cracks spread rapidly across the floor.
Anger finally appeared in Steppenwolf's eyes.
Diana, still holding the lasso, rose to her feet and met his furious gaze. Blood trickled down her cheek, but her expression remained resolute.
"Mother, seal off the temple ruins. Let me fight this enemy here!"
She tightened her grip on the lasso.
"As long as I remain here, he will never get that thing!"
"Foolish Old God. I have no time to waste with you!"
Steppenwolf's expression darkened.
He was in a hurry.
A very real hurry.
Ever since Darkseid had been defeated by Earth's ancient gods, Apokolips had never abandoned its desire to reclaim the Mother Boxes.
Darkseid himself had been occupied with the upheaval that followed his rise to absolute power on Apokolips, leaving him unable to personally retrieve them.
But Darkseid's absence did not mean the New Gods and members of his Elite were willing to overlook the enormous credit that recovering the Mother Boxes would bring.
The Boxes were on Earth.
Whoever returned them to Apokolips would earn tremendous merit.
Naturally, everyone wanted that achievement.
For Steppenwolf, however, the importance went far beyond simple recognition.
Steppenwolf was Darkseid's uncle.
Yet his relationship with his nephew had never been particularly warm.
Steppenwolf had once remained aligned with his sister, Heggra, during the struggles for control of Apokolips. Because of that, he had not followed Darkseid during his earliest campaigns against Earth.
When Darkseid returned from his failed conquest and eventually seized absolute control of Apokolips, Steppenwolf still remained opposed to him.
Only after Darkseid established his dominance through overwhelming strength did the ambitious Steppenwolf finally submit and join his nephew.
Even then, Darkseid never held his uncle in particularly high regard.
Steppenwolf spent tens of thousands of years serving beneath Darkseid, and his resentment continued to grow.
Eventually, he could no longer tolerate his position.
Steppenwolf launched a rebellion of his own.
The result was predictable.
His rebellion was crushed almost instantly by Darkseid and the forces of Apokolips.
Steppenwolf was then condemned to exile.
If he wanted to escape that fate, he needed an achievement significant enough to earn Darkseid's favor again.
Recovering the three Mother Boxes was exactly the kind of accomplishment he needed.
But that was only one reason for his urgency.
The deeper reason was fear.
If retrieving the Mother Boxes had truly been easy, why had Apokolips allowed them to remain on Earth for tens of thousands of years?
Because Earth had always been dangerous.
When the Mother Boxes were originally left behind, Earth's ancient powers were at their height. The Old Gods, Amazons, Atlanteans, and humanity had stood together, leaving Apokolips with no opportunity to reclaim its technology.
As the ages passed, the Old Gods disappeared, Atlantis eventually sank, and human civilizations rose and fell.
Yet Apokolips still could not act.
Another power had emerged to protect Earth.
The Council of Eternity.
After the ancient gods withdrew and Atlantis fell, the Council of Eternity, led by the ancient Wizard Shazam, emerged as one of Earth's greatest magical powers.
The ancient Shazam was nothing like the inexperienced champions who would appear in later ages.
At his peak, he was an extraordinary magical powerhouse, one capable of confronting beings far beyond the understanding of ordinary humans.
Among the entities whose power could be compared to his were monsters of immense scale and beings such as Doomsday.
So, just how powerful had the ancient Shazam been?
He had nearly brought an end to the age when gods openly walked the Earth and supernatural power was commonplace.
His strength could be partially understood through the powers he granted to his champions.
The power of Shazam was derived from six divine patrons, with each patron representing a specific attribute. The champion could wield their combined gifts, including wisdom, strength, stamina, speed, power, and courage.
Black Adam had likewise received a separate divine inheritance tied to the Egyptian pantheon.
Even a single complete set of these divine powers could create a champion with strength capable of rivaling Superman.
Yet no one knew how much power the ancient Shazam himself had accumulated throughout his long existence.
His influence reached across countless magical traditions and pantheons.
During his prime, the ancient Shazam and the Council of Eternity had confronted numerous supernatural threats and suppressed powers that could have endangered the world.
That was why Apokolips remained unwilling to provoke Earth.
For thousands upon thousands of years, Earth's greatest defenders had appeared one after another.
Even after the ancient Council of Eternity eventually declined, other generations of heroes rose to replace them.
The Justice Society eventually inherited that role.
The Mother Boxes had witnessed Earth's defenders appear generation after generation, and under the constant pressure of these powerful beings, they remained dormant rather than risk drawing Apokolips' attention.
Until recently.
The situation had changed.
The Justice Society had been crippled by Axel alone.
With the deaths of the Society's leaders, the disappearance of two generations of Doctor Fate, and the loss of Hawkman and Hawkgirl's reincarnated warriors, its remaining power had become negligible.
As for Axel, the Mother Boxes recognized him as an even more terrifying existence, one whose presence could rival the ancient Shazam.
But they had also discovered something crucial.
Axel frequently left Earth.
Sometimes, he even left the universe entirely.
And during one such absence, Axel had taken the Son of Krypton with him, another being whose presence the Mother Boxes instinctively feared.
The Mother Boxes seized the opportunity.
They began transmitting signals to Apokolips, hoping someone would come and reclaim them.
Although the Mother Boxes did not possess human intelligence, they were capable of communicating with Apokolips and conveying their circumstances.
Thus, when Steppenwolf responded to their signal, he already possessed a basic understanding of Earth's current situation.
The most dangerous beings on Earth regularly departed for periods lasting roughly half a cosmic hour, with their absence lasting less than another half hour, equivalent to approximately one Earth day.
Steppenwolf knew exactly how much time he had.
He had to reclaim the Mother Boxes before Earth's most powerful defenders returned.
With that in mind, Steppenwolf had no intention of wasting time fighting the Amazons.
These women wanted to hide the Mother Box and send an Old God to delay him?
Fine.
He would simply retrieve the other two first.
The Mother Boxes could transmit their locations at any time. Even if one of them was temporarily moved, Steppenwolf could follow the signal and find it again.
The Amazons could hide their Mother Box wherever they wanted.
He would retrieve the other two, then return and deal with this troublesome warrior.
With that decision made, Steppenwolf kicked hard.
The force sent Diana, who was still gripping the Lasso of Truth, flying backward.
As Diana lost her balance, Steppenwolf gave her a cold glance.
Then he vanished.
Diana stared at the suddenly empty section of the lasso.
Her expression immediately tightened.
"Damn it. Where did he go? Is he heading for the other two Mother Boxes?"
Her thoughts raced.
"Will he choose Atlantis, or the Mother Box kept by humanity, whose location remains unknown?"
While Diana desperately tried to determine Steppenwolf's destination, the scene shifted to Gotham City.
Burnley District.
S.T.A.R. Labs, Gotham branch.
Silas Stone, head of the facility, was conducting another round of tests on the black cube before him according to the established experimental procedures.
As he worked, he chatted with two scholars nearby.
"By the way, have I told you that my son joined the Gotham University football team?"
Silas smiled proudly.
"From what I've seen, that kid could become a football star. Maybe he'll become Gotham City's Michael Jordan."
"Haha, Silas, you really don't watch sports, do you?"
One of the scholars laughed.
"Michael Jordan played basketball, not football. Besides, the Mother Box has already shown two anomalies and is still vibrating. Let's focus on this thing."
The scholar's words brought Silas's attention back to the Mother Box.
Silas's expression became serious as he prepared to organize the data concerning its unusual vibration frequency.
But before he could do so, the Mother Box suddenly released a roar thousands of times louder than its previous emissions.
The next instant...
Hum!
Hum!
Hum!
Hum!
A massive Boom Tube opened without warning.
Steppenwolf's enormous figure emerged inside the relatively narrow observation room.
Through the glass, he looked at the panicked scientists in white coats.
A satisfied smile spread across his face.
He recognized that expression.
Apokolips had plenty of scholars of its own.
And scholars were among the easiest people to deal with.
Steppenwolf laughed as he reached toward the Mother Box.
This time, no one would stop him.
The S.T.A.R. Labs scientists had prepared numerous security measures around the Mother Box, but ordinary lasers and sonic weapons were meaningless against Steppenwolf.
He endured the barrage without slowing.
With one swing of his Electro-Axe, he cleaved through the security door and strode toward the trembling scientists.
"Humans."
Steppenwolf looked down at them with contempt.
"So this is the Mother Box you've been keeping?"
His voice dripped with disdain.
"Such fragile creatures. What right do you have to possess Apokolips' greatest technology?"
He sneered and stomped his foot.
The floor cracked beneath him.
Steppenwolf launched himself through the S.T.A.R. Labs building like a missile.
After a brief free fall, he crashed onto the street below.
A Mercedes came speeding toward him.
Steppenwolf casually swung his axe.
The vehicle was cleaved in half.
The smell of human blood reached his senses.
Steppenwolf spread his arms in satisfaction, a Mother Box in one hand and his great axe in the other.
"Everywhere I look, there are weak insects incapable of stopping me."
His voice carried across the street.
"This is the conquest I crave."
He raised his head.
"Let this place become my temporary base while I gather all three Mother Boxes. I will turn every one of these weak insects into worthy..."
He suddenly stopped.
"Hmm?"
An unfamiliar engine-like sound came from above.
Steppenwolf instinctively looked up.
A small, bright silver spacecraft was moving through the sky.
It stopped directly above him and hovered there.
Steppenwolf narrowed his eyes.
"The design of that ship..."
His expression changed slightly.
"A Kryptonian spacecraft?"
He stared at the vessel.
"But Krypton was destroyed."
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