"This is impossible!" Seeing Clark emerge unscathed, the Heavenly Sacrifice felt a jolt of fear, a dark thought flashing through his mind before he quickly dismissed it. Desperately, he controlled his divine power, unleashing an unending barrage of lightning strikes toward Clark.
"Boom!"
The sky filled with thunderous roars, with bolts of lightning engulfing Clark's figure. Yet, unlike the excited and awestruck believers, the Heavenly Sacrifice grew increasingly uneasy.
Unlike his followers, who were thrilled by the sight of divine retribution, the Heavenly Sacrifice knew that despite the storm of lightning, Clark remained unharmed. Through his connection to the divine power, he could feel Clark's eyes piercing through the storm, locked onto him.
This realization filled the Heavenly Sacrifice with dread. He began to doubt himself—perhaps he had overestimated his power and underestimated Clark's strength. Was it too late to retreat?
"What should I do? Should I surrender now? No, I can't let my followers see me back down... I must disperse the divine image first," the Heavenly Sacrifice thought. However, before he could act, the lightning surrounding Clark dissipated.
"He's unscathed? How is this possible?"
"That was divine punishment from the gods! How could he survive?"
"Yeah, when Radis angered the god, he was struck to ashes. How could this man be fine?"
Gasps of disbelief echoed among the followers. Many of the Heavenly Sacrifice's believers felt their worldviews shattering. Even though they knew Clark was Superman, they had believed their god to be the one true deity, far above a mere superhero.
But this was just the beginning of their disillusionment. What happened next utterly shattered their faith.
With a sudden bang, Clark burst through the remnants of the lightning storm, and without a word, appeared in front of the Heavenly Sacrifice. The god didn't even have time to react before Clark's fist smashed into his chest, sending him flying backward.
"Wait…" The Heavenly Sacrifice barely had time to speak before being silenced. But his plea came too late—Clark had already decided not to show him any mercy.
To the Heavenly Sacrifice's believers, he was a god worthy of reverence, and their faith in him was genuine. But to Clark, the Heavenly Sacrifice was nothing more than a false god, one who murdered his own followers.
Initially, Clark had been willing to give the god a chance to explain himself, knowing how intricate the link between divine power and belief could be. But now, Clark had no patience left. Swift and decisive action was the only way to minimize the god's influence and prevent further harm.
With another loud bang, Clark appeared before the Heavenly Sacrifice again, delivering a second punch that shattered the god's body into a mist of blood and gore, leaving him in a motionless, defeated state.
Despite his rapid progress in power, the Heavenly Sacrifice had no chance against Clark. In fact, if Clark had attacked the first time they met, the god wouldn't have survived even a single punch.
"This can't be!"
"The god is dead? This has to be a trick!"
"I refuse to believe it! How could a great god die?"
The image of the god being obliterated sent his followers into a panic. But there was still a flicker of hope: the divine connection hadn't been severed. The image of the Heavenly Sacrifice remained in the sky, meaning his divine power was still tied to his followers' faith, and he wasn't entirely gone.
However, being reduced to blood mist wasn't without consequences for the god. Had he not broadcast his confrontation with Clark to his followers, no one would have known that his body had been destroyed, and their faith would have remained intact. But now, having witnessed his defeat, many of his believers' faith was shattered, weakening the god further.
As a result, the Heavenly Sacrifice's strength continued to diminish, and his ability to reconstitute his body was significantly delayed.
"Ssshhh!" Meanwhile, Clark, fully aware that the god wasn't dead yet, wasn't about to let him go. Clark's eyes glowed with a terrifying heat vision, which swept through the mist of blood, incinerating what little remained of the god's body.
Within that mist, traces of the god's flesh and bones were hidden, but none of that mattered. The Heavenly Sacrifice's power was no match for Clark's. Under the relentless onslaught of Clark's heat vision, what remained of the god's physical form rapidly dwindled.
"Wait! Give me a chance! I'll surrender! I can help you collect faith!" The Heavenly Sacrifice panicked as he realized the extent of his predicament, transmitting his plea telepathically to Clark in a desperate bid to save himself. He was willing to do anything to survive, even serve under Clark.
After all, the Heavenly Sacrifice knew he couldn't defeat Clark. If he couldn't win, he might as well join Clark, allowing the Kryptonian to rule the Earth as the supreme god while he could settle for being a lesser god.
"Heh, give you a chance? Did you give your followers a chance when you killed them with your so-called natural disasters?" Clark scoffed in response, his voice dripping with disdain.
The disparity between Clark and the Heavenly Sacrifice was clear. Clark had stepped in to stop the god because he had been harming innocent people. But the Heavenly Sacrifice, in his warped view, believed Clark was only after his faith.
The god was momentarily taken aback by Clark's question before responding with confusion, "Oh, you want to be a benevolent god? No problem, I can be the evil god, and we can play a good-vs-evil game. I'll commit some evil acts, and then you can swoop in to defeat me and harvest tons of faith…"
"How utterly foolish!" Clark's heat vision intensified, obliterating the last remnants of the god's body. He had no intention of engaging further with the deluded deity.
At this point, the remaining believers had no idea what Clark had just done. Though they saw him incinerate the blood mist, they didn't know what it meant. They hadn't heard the exchange between Clark and the Heavenly Sacrifice and still believed their god was dead, consumed by grief.
Suddenly, a faint light flickered from the body of a grieving believer who had collapsed in anguish. His expression shifted instantly as he lay on the ground.
"Damn it! Who is this Superman? Why is he so unreasonable? Does he plan to monopolize all the faith on Earth?" The Heavenly Sacrifice's consciousness had now taken over the body of one of his most devout followers, using it as a vessel to hide and recover.
"Hm?" Clark's gaze sharpened. While most Kryptonians would have been unable to detect the god's presence, Clark had developed some mental powers and was also familiar with the workings of faith-based energy. As soon as the god's consciousness stirred, Clark instantly locked onto him.
"Your survival instincts are impressive, but you shouldn't have stolen that man's body," Clark said coldly, appearing before the possessed believer.
"You!" The god, now trapped in the believer's body, was startled by how quickly Clark had found him. Still, he quickly composed himself and shot back, "If you hadn't forced my hand, this man wouldn't have died! You want to be a good god, but you're the one who killed him!"
"Heh, trying to guilt-trip me? Even if I didn't confront you, how many more people would you have killed? The only way to stop you from harming these innocent people is to end you for good!" Clark laughed, raising his fist.
With a single punch, the god's newly possessed body exploded again. This wasn't Clark killing an innocent person—once the Heavenly Sacrifice took over the believer's body, the man's soul had already been devoured. Even Robert or a Hell Lord wouldn't have been able to save him.
"You hypocritical god! His death is on your hands!" the Heavenly Sacrifice spat before his consciousness faded once again.
"Almost!" Clark had managed to track the god's soul, but it narrowly slipped away. He followed the trail, determined to stop the god from possessing another follower, but he was a step too late.
"Damn it! How does he keep finding me so quickly?" the god cursed, having just taken control of another follower's body. Seeing Clark approach again, he gritted his teeth and sneered, "This death is on you as well!"
"Your so-called god has lost his divine body and is now desperately possessing his followers. If you don't want to be the next victim, it's best to stop worshipping him!" Clark's voice boomed, echoing across the god's domain.
"What? The god is taking over our bodies?"
"But our lives belong to the god! If he wants them back, isn't that his right?"
"Are you insane? He's lost his divine form! He almost died at Superman's hands. Can he still be called a god? Should we really continue believing in him?"
Clark's message began to stir doubt among the god's followers. Some continued to believe in him, while others started to question their faith, which was precisely what Clark wanted.
The Heavenly Sacrifice could only possess those with unwavering faith. As long as the number of true believers dwindled, his days were numbered.
"Damn you! What have you done?! Being possessed by their god is the greatest honor for these followers. It gives their lives meaning, and you dare to turn them against me?!" the Heavenly Sacrifice roared, realizing his diminishing power. If not for Clark's overwhelming strength, he would have fought back with everything he had.
"Did
n't you like showing your power to them earlier? Why not show them how you possess their bodies now?" Clark said mockingly, glancing at the sky where the god's earlier projection had vanished.
"Fine! If you won't let me off easy, I'll make sure you suffer! I'll show the world how you murder innocent people, and you'll never be able to play your 'good god' role again!" the god snarled.
"Buzz!" With that, the projection in the sky shifted, focusing on the god's current body and Clark's looming presence.
"Go ahead! Strike me down! Let the world see how you slaughter the innocent!" the god taunted, convinced that Clark was killing him to monopolize the world's faith.
Boom! Without a moment's hesitation, Clark coldly struck, as casually as a butcher who had slaughtered countless fish in a market, instantly obliterating the taunting god.
"Got him!" Clark's eyes glowed with heat vision, and he shot a blast into the sky, wounding the god's fleeing soul, which frantically raced toward another believer.
The god's connection to faith-based power saved him from being obliterated entirely by the heat vision, but barely.
Once again, the god seized another believer's body, only for Clark to catch up, strike it down, and wound his soul with heat vision, forcing him to flee to yet another follower.
With each possession and death, the god desperately tried to smear Clark's reputation, throwing lives away in a futile attempt to tarnish his image...
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