Inside the command hall of the military base—
The general sat down, glanced around at the officers, and then spoke.
"Can someone tell me what that white skull just now was about?"
"And those cracks in the sky, what are they?"
"And what the hell were those things that crawled out of the cracks!"
What had happened today had completely overturned the general's understanding of the world.
If it were just the series of battles that had happened earlier, the general could barely accept them.
Superhumans, genetic mutations, geological weapons, and the like.
Those still fell within his understanding.
But now, a gigantic human skull, spatial cracks, and terrifying figures crawling out of those cracks, that had already gone completely beyond his comprehension.
These things were supposed to appear in fantasy novels, in fantasy movies, not in reality.
"Maybe it's some other country's secret weapon?", one officer suggested, proposing an idea he himself didn't quite believe.
But it sparked the others' imagination, and they began throwing out one astonishing idea after another.
"It could be some kind of holographic projection. You know, our labs can do that too."
"Then what's the point of projecting holograms, to scare us?"
"No, maybe we should consider that it's something that actually exists, something that exists in a non-physical form."
"You mean ghosts? That's ridiculous. If ghosts really exist, does that mean God exists too? And if God exists, where is he? Why hasn't he protected us?"
"Shallow. Just because it's non-physical doesn't mean it has to be a ghost. Couldn't it be an energy-based lifeform?"
"Energy lifeform? I think you've been staring at your computer too much."
"Which is exactly why people like you can't become scientists. Your imagination is far too limited."
Seeing the officers about to argue, the general stood up and shouted, "Enough."
"We have to consider every possibility. Since even something like a humanoid nuclear bomb can exist..."
"Then I think energy lifeforms aren't impossible either."
"But compared to all that, what I care more about is what exactly is happening in that underground pit right now."
"What is the tech department doing? Are the technicians in this country just drawing salaries without doing any work?"
"Otherwise, why can't I see what's happening underground yet!"
Under the general's urging, a military satellite was finally urgently deployed.
The high-powered telescope on the satellite magnified everything on the ground on the screen.
Soon, the image reached underground.
They saw three figures below.
Inside the underground sinkhole, Alex, through the eyes of his clone, saw that Martin, who had already been killed, had stood up again.
Then even his pierced-through body returned to its original state.
Now Martin was shrouded in a pale, terrifying figure.
That figure could barely be identified as humanoid, but upon closer inspection, it was a non-physical existence formed by countless illusory "faces" stacked together.
Each "face" contained endless energy and information. Even with Alex using "quantum-level split thinking," just analyzing one "face" made his "split mind" show signs of crashing.
From this, it was clear that the figure summoned by that "Homelander" on the other side was no simple entity.
"What did you do?", Alex asked through his clone's mouth.
Martin was in a great mood, and perhaps because he felt he had victory in hand, he didn't rush to attack.
Instead, he explained to Alex.
"This is the result of me using a spell from the Darkhold."
"This spell can summon the shadow of an ancient demon and temporarily attach it to my body."
"Allowing me to briefly borrow its power."
"This spell also has a special effect."
"If the caster dies before the shadow of the ancient demon attaches, then once the demon descends, it will cast 'Resurrection of the Dead' on the user, bringing them back to life."
At this point, Martin said somewhat resentfully, "Unfortunately, the 'Resurrection of the Dead' spell can only be used once in a lifetime."
"I didn't expect to use that chance here."
"I have to give you credit."
"As a newbie entering an 'invasion' world for the first time, you actually managed to kill me once."
"Not bad."
"But that's as far as it goes."
"You don't have another chance now."
"Because I've already grasped my strongest trump card!"
As he spoke, Doomsday had already rushed over. Martin looked at Doomsday and opened his mouth wide.
With a loud "wah," a swarm of locusts flew out from his mouth.
There were countless locusts, tens of millions, perhaps even hundreds of millions.
They surged toward Doomsday with a deafening buzz. Each one had a tiny white human head.
The moment they landed on Doomsday's body, they began gnawing at his skin at high speed.
Once they broke through, they burrowed inside.
Doomsday roared in fury, blasting beams of light from his eyes, sweeping back and forth.
Countless locusts turned to ash under the blazing, searing beams, but Doomsday's body was already covered in them.
They gnawed at him, devouring his flesh, and this actually made the locusts that consumed his flesh grow stronger.
Their bodies swelled, growing a second skull, even more.
This increased their devouring efficiency.
Martin laughed loudly, "This is necromancy, 'Hell Locusts.' They're devils from the Gluttony Prison."
"They will never be satisfied. They'll gnaw their target down to nothing but bones."
"And they can't be killed!"
"A spell like this would be extremely expensive to exchange for in the shop."
"But now, with an ancient demon possessing me, I can use it easily."
"This feels incredible!"
Doomsday fired another beam, and at that moment, the locusts that had died in the beam, they crawled out again from the ashes on the ground, then flapped their wings, their skulls squeaking, and lunged at Doomsday once more.
In an instant, Doomsday was wrapped layer upon layer by the hell locusts.
His figure could no longer be seen.
But Alex believed Doomsday wouldn't be devoured so easily, so he fired a golden beam at Martin.
The golden beam, carrying extreme heat, tore through the air and blasted toward Martin.
Martin's face suddenly turned pale, and then his body lost its solidity, emitting a cold, faint glow.
Alex's heat vision passed straight through his body, hitting the rocks behind him and causing a violent explosion.
"Necromancy."
"Wraith Form!"
"It lets me become a non-physical existence, able to do what ghosts in folklore can do."
"Like this."
His body suddenly vanished, then appeared behind Alex's clone and pressed in.
But the moment he touched the clone, his pale, ghost-like body was bounced away.
He let out a surprised sound, "Oh? You actually have 'magic resistance.' Your abilities are quite comprehensive, aren't they?"
"Though they lean more toward survival and defense."
"Tsk! But my possession failed."
"I was hoping to give you a nice show of a ghost possession suicide."
"No chance now."
"However," Martin's figure flickered again, then he sank into Doomsday, who was wrapped in the hell locusts.
The next moment, the hell locusts vanished, and Doomsday, whose body had been chewed full of holes, walked out.
His body rapidly repaired itself, and what flickered in his eyes was no longer lightning, but pale flames.
Martin's voice came from Doomsday's mouth, "That's right. Doomsday doesn't have 'magic resistance.' In fact, this thing is a creation without a soul."
"A shell that only knows destruction and ruin. Possessing it is ridiculously easy."
"So, brother."
"Didn't expect that, did you?"
"The weapon you planned to use against me is now mine."
After saying that, under Martin's control, Doomsday fired a dazzling beam from his eyes.
Alex's clone didn't dodge. He directly met it head-on.
And from the very start, he raised the temperature of his heat vision to ten thousand degrees.
Instantly, the underground air ignited.
The two torrents of energy collided. After a brief stalemate, Alex increased the solar radiation output again.
The torrent surged forward, overpowering Doomsday's beam and washing over his body.
Doomsday was blasted away.
He was driven into the rock by the clone's energy torrent. When the clone stopped firing, a tunnel-like passage had been carved into the mountain at the far end of the pit.
At the bottom of the passage, Doomsday's entire body crackled with light, turning into arcs of electricity.
Light burned in his chest, so intense it seemed ready to explode.
The monster continued evolving. Because his body had been easily devoured by the hell locusts earlier, the flesh he now regenerated became incredibly tough.
The clone's ten-thousand-degree heat pushed him to evolve a body capable of resisting one hundred thousand degrees, and his energy increased further as well.
Feeling Doomsday's changes, Martin burst out laughing, "Brother, you're feeding Doomsday a feast."
"I'll gladly accept it."
Then Doomsday shot out of the tunnel and appeared in front of the clone in an instant, throwing a punch.
That punch reached several times the speed of sound, the air crackling violently. But when it struck the clone, it passed right through his body.
Doomsday couldn't stop his momentum and went straight through the clone, flying off and crashing into the rock on the other side of the pit.
A large section of the mountain collapsed, rocks pouring down like a storm.
Only then did Martin control Doomsday to break out of the rubble, land on the ground, and look at the clone.
The next moment, Martin emerged from Doomsday's body, "So you can also become non-physical."
"So just now, you really were feeding Doomsday."
"Helping it evolve into something even stronger."
"However...", Martin reached into the air as if grabbing something, then pulled out a full-length mirror with a dark style, decorated with human bones.
The mirror trembled in his hand, rapidly expanding until it became a massive mirror nearly five meters tall.
It landed in front of Doomsday.
In the mirror, Doomsday was reflected.
At that moment, the Doomsday inside the mirror roared and stepped out of it.
Appearing in real space.
The two Doomsdays faced each other, then roared and charged at one another.
"Dark magic, Real Mirror Space."
Martin smiled, "It can turn what's reflected in the mirror into a physical entity and project it into real space."
"The mirrored entity has the same abilities and power as the original."
"See, even if I don't possess Doomsday..."
"I still have a way to deal with your toy."
"So now, it's our turn."
He looked at Alex's clone.
———
At this time, on the surface—
Gwen jumped down from Old Osborn's glider.
The first thing she saw was that enormous human skull.
There was no way to miss it. It stood out too much.
On the entire ground, it was the only thing rising above everything else.
It was impossible to ignore.
At that moment, Alex's voice sounded in Gwen's mind.
["Destroy that skull."]
Gwen immediately looked up at Old Osborn, "Mr. John wants us to destroy that skull."
Norman Osborn nodded, "I heard it too."
"Let's go."
Right away, Old Osborn controlled the glider and flew over.
There wasn't much Gwen could use here, so she had no choice but to run over honestly.
When she got close, she realized just how absurdly large it was.
It was forty to fifty meters tall, and at its widest point, nearly three hundred meters.
There was no doubt.
It was a colossal object.
Perhaps because the shadow of the ancient demon had already been summoned, the skull no longer had any special energy protecting it.
Its eye sockets were pitch black, and the cracks covering it made it look extremely fragile.
Old Osborn lowered his altitude, then used the micro-missiles on the glider to attack.
One missile after another shot out with flames, firing from beneath the glider and drilling into the skull's eye sockets.
Moments later, orange fireballs exploded inside.
Blazing waves of heat burst out from the eye sockets and from the cracks.
The skull altar hummed and trembled as fragments, large and small, began to fall.
A chunk as big as a boulder crashed not far from Gwen.
She immediately shot a strand of web at it. After sticking to it, she swung the web.
With her enhanced strength, she easily swung the massive bone, spinning it twice before hurling it like a cannonball at the damaged skull.
The chunk didn't disappoint. It smashed into the broken skull, destroying most of its structure.
The already crumbling bone altar was completely shattered.
At that moment.
The ground trembled.
A massive roar came from the direction of the underground pit.
Standing atop the shattered altar, Gwen looked into the distance and saw two black shadows shoot out from the sinkhole.
They shot into the sky, then after a moment, fell back to the ground.
They were two identical humanoid monsters.
Doomsday!
Facing its own mirror image, Doomsday roared and charged forward.
The mirrored Doomsday did the same.
The two collided at the midpoint, fists slamming into each other.
A dull sonic boom rang out.
Where their fists struck each other's bodies, a blurred ripple spread out.
The ripples expanded into shockwaves, kicking up violent winds.
They howled past Gwen, making it hard for her to breathe, and even caused Norman Osborn's glider above to sway unsteadily.
Next, the two Doomsdays began beating each other madly.
Every strike either produced shockwaves or smashed shallow craters into the ground.
They also fired energy beams at each other. When the two blazing streams collided, they unleashed a massive energy storm.
The superheated storm swept across the surroundings. Even though it didn't directly hit Gwen and the others, the scorching wind blowing from that direction still made their hearts pound with fear.
"What are those two monsters?", Norman Osborn had already lowered the glider's altitude.
Of course, he didn't expect Gwen to answer.
But Osborn had a vague guess.
Those two monsters were probably related to Mr. John.
———
At the same time.
Inside the command hall of the military base, people gasped.
Some covered their mouths, others clutched their heads, staring at the screen showing the battle between the two Doomsdays.
The general had already pulled at his hair more than once, "Can someone tell me what's going on with that monster?"
"Wasn't there only one before?"
"Why is there another one now?"
"And why can't we clearly see what's happening at the bottom of the pit?"
"Can't the tech department do something about it!"
A technician responded, "General, we've detected a large amount of radiation in the pit. It was likely caused by that earlier energy impact."
"It's affecting our satellite. There's still interference."
The general shook his head, sat down, and watched the two Doomsdays fighting on the screen.
Then he said in a low voice.
"Get me the president."
Soon, the call connected.
The president was on the line.
The general picked up the receiver and said in a deep voice, "Sir, although I'm reluctant to say this, we may have to use nuclear weapons next."
"I'm transmitting the footage we've captured to your office now."
"You should be able to see it."
After a moment, a soft exclamation came from the president on the phone.
["My God."]
["General, what is that?"]
The general replied in a low voice, "We don't know exactly what it is yet."
"All I can say is that it's a kind of humanoid weapon."
"The destructive power they possess is comparable to nuclear bombs."
"Right now, those two monsters are attacking each other. In that underground pit, there are other beings with immense power fighting as well."
"As for these beings..."
"I believe our military simply does not have enough firepower to fight them."
"So at this point, I think we may need to use nuclear weapons to flatten this entire area."
The president was silent for a moment, then said, ["General, do you know what that means?"]
"I do, sir."
The general said in a low voice, "But right now, one of these extraordinary beings already has the capability to easily destroy New York."
"If their battlefield expands further, it may cause our country to disappear from the face of the Earth."
"Compared to the criticism we'll face for using nuclear weapons, I believe the priority now is to eliminate them as quickly as possible."
After a brief pause, the president said, ["Very well. I authorize it."]
["But, General..."]
["Are you certain nuclear weapons can eliminate them?"]
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