Even from thousands of miles away, they could guess what was happening on the battlefield by the tremors in the sky and the occasional bursts of energy beams.
"Even with Shazam added, they still can't bring him down?"
Diana felt a little shocked.
In all her experience to this point, she had never encountered such a strong enemy as this before.
Superman, Shazam, and Martian Manhunter, and still couldn't break through.
Viktor stayed silent. He felt that anything he said now would sound like he was bragging about himself.
Moreover, Diana had been living in seclusion since returning to Themyscira, and she clearly didn't know about the previous Doomsday incident.
That creature had been an immortal monster that grew stronger without limit.
If it hadn't lacked intelligence and been tricked into being exiled into space, the disaster on Earth would have been much worse than what Emperor Viktor was doing.
"Honestly, I personally don't recommend that you get involved, Ms. Prince."
He knew why Batman had sent him to find Diana.
Batman hoped Wonder Woman would put aside past grudges and help him for his sake.
Since Emperor Viktor had been able to handle Martian Manhunter on the beach near Metropolis, Batman likely calculated that even adding Shazam wouldn't guarantee a win.
If Viktor could bring Wonder Woman into the battle, there would be hope of quickly stopping Emperor Viktor.
Even if the five of them still couldn't defeat him, they could at least test the limit of Emperor Viktor's powers.
Diana had already pulled off the white linen robe she wore over her armor.
The red and gold of her battle armor radiated divine light, and she gripped the Sword of Hephaestus tightly in her hand.
After hearing Viktor's words, she turned back with a slight look of surprise.
"Why?"
"He... also knew where Themyscira was, and we still didn't know his limits."
He judged the other man by himself.
Since Emperor Viktor had attacked A.R.G.U.S. first in anger, if Diana joined the fight and failed to stop him, Themyscira might also have ended up on his next target list.
Artemis's voice rang out suddenly from behind him.
"She is Wonder Woman. She is Princess Diana. Themyscira is her support, and never a cage."
Artemis pressed her large hand onto Viktor's shoulder.
"You weren't this hesitant in the past, boy. Where did your manliness go?"
He slapped Artemis's hand away with a sharp smack and clicked his tongue.
This woman was totally ignoring his good intentions, and her way of speaking was incredibly annoying.
Since Artemi had already said what she was going to say, Diana simply gave him a confident smile.
"If he were also my student, I would have even more reason to join this fight. I have always felt guilty for not noticing your struggles sooner. As a teacher, I should never have only taught you how to control power."
Afterward, Diana moved first and flew into the sky, rushing toward the distant battlefield that sounded like a thunderous hell.
Viktor exhaled helplessly and looked back at Rachel.
Rachel shook her head at him.
"Those rings...don't use them again. It isn't good."
He laughed despite himself.
By now, Viktor knew all too well that relying too much on the yellow ring would only accelerate his own evolution toward becoming the Emperor of Fear.
That version of himself probably wanted nothing more than to see him put on a Yellow Lantern ring again.
"I know. I just hoped that if something happened, you would remember to protect yourself."
Rachel nodded.
After thinking for a moment, she suddenly stepped forward and hugged him.
"Don't leave like last time and never come back."
Artemis and the group of warriors behind her let out noises.
He awkwardly patted Rachel's arm in fluster. She quickly let go and stepped back a few steps.
He pressed the button at the side of his waist, and the pieces of the Atom suit all detached from his body one after another.
Then Viktor also flew up into the sky and chased after Diana in the direction she had left.
High up in the sky, Emperor Viktor stood ten thousand meters in the air.
The yellow fear energy swirled around him, and his slitted pupils flickered.
He looked relaxed, but he was actually tracking every movement of the three heroes.
He had already fought these powerful enemies in his own timeline, but none of them lived as long as he did.
Martian Manhunter hadn't even fought him more than three times before some supervillains on Earth, taking advantage of the chaos, set him on fire and drove him insane.
After he briefly turned into a powerful Burning Martian strong enough to overpower the Emperor, Martian Manhunter disappeared.
Shazam had resisted Emperor Viktor's conquest for nearly a hundred years, but his human body had been too weak.
After reaching fifty, Shazam had to maintain his transformed state almost all the time, and his aging mortal body simply couldn't withstand the escalating threats of an increasingly dangerous Earth.
After a hundred years, the aging Shazam gradually realized the responsibility behind the Rock of Eternity.
He slowly left the Justice League and disappeared from the main force fighting against the Emperor.
Superman's fate was even worse.
He had been caught in a scheme from a higher dimension and was poisoned by overexposure to Kryptonite.
In the end, Tom, who had originally posed the greatest threat to Emperor Viktor, willingly gave up everything and merged with this younger Superman, who had been dying from Kryptonian cancer.
The new Superman had all the memories and experience of Tom's version, but he no longer had the power to threaten Emperor Viktor, who continued to evolve to terrifying levels.
Even though those superheroes gradually trained many newcomers, and some of them managed to threaten Emperor Viktor several times, they simply couldn't handle how well he could hide and how long he lived.
The two generations of Earth's heroes spent their entire lives fighting the Emperor until they grew old.
Finally, the third generation made a mistake.
They tried to find Rachel, Raven, who helped calm Emperor Viktor's mind during his brief periods of ruling Earth.
They hoped to use her to set a trap for him.
What happened after that was directly erased from future history.
Even the Reverse-Flash, who came from the future, searched through all available records about Emperor Viktor and still couldn't find anything.
After facing the combined attack of Superman, Martian Manhunter, and Shazam, Emperor Viktor still remained calm.
Superman's heat vision swept down across the sky from above.
Emperor Viktor tilted his body aside, letting the beam graze past his shoulder, hitting the ocean and exploding into massive waves and clouds of hot steam.
Martian Manhunter phased in from behind and attempted to plunge all ten fingers into Emperor Viktor's mind to control him.
Emperor Viktor drove an elbow backward and sent him flying, coughing blood.
Shazam summoned his magical lightning.
Emperor Viktor took the strike full on, endured the burning, and drove a fist into Shazam's midsection, sending him back.
"I've fought more than just you. Your descendants, your successors, every single one of them."
He raised his fist, looking at enemies from long ago reappearing before him.
There was something almost nostalgic at the corner of his mouth, but his eyes still stayed cruel and cold.
"It's always the same few moves, maybe mixed with some human technology or clever tricks. Even though I gave up some of my power to come to this reality, you still can't stand against me."
Martian Manhunter vanished beneath the ocean for a moment, and Shazam gripped his stomach in pain.
Emperor Viktor had made a wrong judgment during the fight and had wasted most of his strength on the earlier lightning strike.
While Parallax had destroyed Emperor Viktor's soul, he developed formidable magical resistance through multiple evolutions.
Seeing that his two teammates needed time to recover, Superman shouted angrily and rushed straight at him like a blue blur, throwing both fists forward.
However, Viktor simply raised his hands and caught Superman's fists, but his body was pushed back a few hundred meters before he came to a sudden stop.
He then forced Superman's arms open and slammed a headbutt into the bridge of Superman's nose.
The impact let out another boom that shook the sky.
In the middle of the unbearable pain, Superman felt dizzy, and his vision went blurry as blood sprayed from his nose.
Emperor Viktor didn't follow up with another attack. Instead, he kept his power level exactly the same as Superman's to lock his arms in place.
He even had the spare time to mock him.
"Batman and the others suggested it so many times. They tried to persuade you over and over, but you just hated the feeling of weakness under a red sun. You refused every attempt by anyone to train your fighting skills. You would train for a little bit and then run away, saying 'that's enough, that's enough.' Well, 'enough' was never enough."
He began to build power in his waist and core. He prepared to deliver a full-force knee strike.
"But look at you now. Is it really enough? Our strength is almost exactly the same, yet in an actual fight, how far behind me are you?"
Just as he was about to land the heavy blow on Superman, Emperor Viktor's yellow vertical pupils suddenly flashed.
He pulled back most of his force, released Superman's arms, and kicked him sharply in the abdomen simultaneously.
He used the force of the kick to retreat just in time.
He narrowly avoided a downward sword strike that looked like it could cut through space itself.
However, Emperor Viktopr didn't look scared or angry.
He looked at the figure standing in front of Superman and gave a very pleasantly surprised greeting.
"Ms. Prince!"
...
600 POWER STONES = 1 BONUS CHAPTER
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