In the vast land of Siberia, lived a group of Inuit people.
They also have another name, "Eskimos," but they dislike this name because it comes from the language of their enemies, the Algonquian tribes of Indians, meaning "eaters of raw meat."
"Inuit," on the other hand, is their self-designation, meaning "people." They believe they are the first civilized humans on this World.
And the evidence lives here: the longest-living human on Earth, an ancient Neanderthal.
He was the first civilized human, and also the first sage to bring wisdom to primitive people.
He has had many names: Marduk, Napoleon, Jack the Ripper. Most of the time, he appeared as a conqueror. He even joined the Nazis, and his sole pursuit in this World is to become the master of humanity.
He is Vandal Savage.
He is the man revered as "God" by the local Inuit, an ambitious man who has lived for at least fifty thousand years.
In his long life history, Savage has accumulated astonishing wealth, technology, and experience.
Why did Steppenwolf know the location of Doomsday's spacecraft?
Because Savage told him. He had personally witnessed the spacecraft carrying Doomsday crash in Canada, but at the time, he lacked the ability to decrypt Kryptonian spacecraft technology, so he merely recorded it.
In this land enveloped by cold winds, there is an underground Base, which is Savage's fortress, his palace.
It is also the place the Inuit call the "Temple."
This "Temple" is constructed with the most advanced material technology in the World today. Even the N Metal that Carter Hall, Hawkman, clutches tightly in his hand is abundant here.
Of course, what exists here is still only secondary N Metal; pure N Metal is beyond Savage's capabilities to obtain.
He also stocked some Eternity Metal, purchased from the International Gang before Kahndaq was taken over by Dane.
At this moment, Savage stood in his fortress, peering at the outside World through the central large screen.
This was not a networked projection device; Savage didn't trust the internet much.
He believed that anything put into the network World had a high chance of being exposed, and he didn't want to take that risk.
So he would have his subordinates regularly collect information on recent major events and bring them to him.
Although this led to delays in intelligence, it also ensured his personal information security. With such methods, neither Cortana nor Dane were able to discover him.
Yet Savage had always been hidden in the Shadow, observing this World.
Especially in recent years, there have been increasing signs of naturally or unnaturally augmented metahumans globally, which has attracted his intense attention.
Savage looked at the large screen with a serious expression, trying to find useful information from the limited intelligence.
Suddenly, as if sensing something, he looked up at the ceiling.
The next second his gaze fixed on that spot, a blue Boom Tube opened, and Steppenwolf appeared from within.
"You should connect this place to the outside communication network instead of me having to come here every time," Steppenwolf said with some dissatisfaction.
However, Savage merely said, "This is the safest way. It ensures that our conversation will not be intercepted by the Justice League through any means."
"I still don't understand how they obtain such detailed and accurate intelligence. It never hurts to be careful."
"But the global network is now under the control of the mother box!" Steppenwolf retorted.
Savage simply replied, "Only temporarily."
Steppenwolf didn't bother to continue; there wasn't much time left anyway, so it didn't matter how this matter proceeded.
He then got to the point: "The mother box will be fully activated in three days. How is your work progressing?"
Savage immediately replied, "Don't worry, they are ready for combat at any time!"
It turned out that Savage had been providing technical support to Steppenwolf all along. The Doomsday that blocked Dane's pursuit of Steppenwolf near Victor Stone's house was his doing.
"It's just a pity that I still cannot modify the cognition of these monsters; they can only Carnage all living things indiscriminately," Savage said with regret.
If Doomsday could act according to his will, let alone Steppenwolf in front of him, he would even dare to confront the Justice League head-on.
Savage was never truly cooperating with Steppenwolf. He wanted to become the master of humanity, but relying on his own strength was clearly far from enough. So, when he inadvertently came into contact with the mother box, he formulated today's plan.
The mother box guarded by humans, designated as "Item 6-1-9-8-2," was initially stored in a secret research institute of the German Empire.
And he happened to have an alias in that country back then, so he came into contact with and studied this item much earlier than S.T.A.R. Labs.
However, Savage was not a particularly outstanding scientist, so his research on the mother box back then did not yield great results, but he did record the mother box's radiation data.
When Silas Stone used the mother box to resurrect his son, Victor Stone, the mother box was briefly activated for the first time. Savage quickly obtained the mother box's radiation signal.
It was also then that, with the help of the mother box, he established contact with Steppenwolf, who claimed to be a New God from Apokolips, and devised a bold plan.
He planned to use Steppenwolf to deal with the increasingly powerful Justice League. For this, he was willing to cooperate with him, decrypt Kryptonian technology, and extract the desired genes from the sealed Doomsday.
It was precisely because of this that he was able to clone such an outrageous creation as Doomsday.
Dane's concerns at the time were correct: the spore virus on Doomsday was discovered and utilized by Savage, making the cloning of Doomsday extremely easy.
As long as humans were used as consumables, even if the success rate was not high, he still managed to build a Doomsday army by continuously piling up the population.
And because Doomsday was also Kryptonian, Savage also unexpectedly learned of Superman's weakness.
Superman's X-ray vision, which could see through everything, had always bothered him, because although Savage's Base was underground, it couldn't block Superman's sight.
He feared that one day, when Superman learned of his identity and actions, he would use those eyes that could see through anything to find him.
But Savage discovered from his research on Doomsday that Kryptonians cannot see through lead; this is their visual weakness!
He therefore suspected that Superman might have some other undiscovered weaknesses that he was unaware of, and this weakness could be very fatal.
"Before our plan is about to begin, I need to confirm again," Savage turned to look at Steppenwolf. "When you have transformed this Planet, it will become the World I rule, correct?"
Apokolips plunders many Worlds. Apart from those Planets that were ultimately destroyed due to stubborn resistance, most of the remaining Planets still operate on the principle of self-governance.
After all, Darkseid himself couldn't manage so many Worlds at once. All he wanted was for these Worlds to believe in him and obey the precepts of Apokolips.
As for himself, he always stayed on Apokolips and rarely left there.
Having understood this, Savage immediately proposed a deal to Steppenwolf.
He could help Steppenwolf acquire this Planet with the least cost, but he hoped to become the governor of the new World and the ruler of all humanity.
Steppenwolf agreed to him; such things were common on Apokolips.
Don't assume that Apokolips only forcibly occupies other Planets with military might; fostering separatist forces in these Worlds is also a common tactic they use.
In the movie, Steppenwolf once said that the free will of resistors must be taken away, indicating that Apokolips has very high demands for obedience. Therefore, dividing local forces is their consistent modus operandi.
Military force serves this purpose.
Originally, Steppenwolf had no intention of breaking his agreement with Savage, because he considered Savage to be a very pragmatic person.
So, handing over the transformed Earth to him was not a problem.
However, ever since he learned that the anti-life equation was also hidden on this Planet, he changed his mind.
But he wouldn't let Savage notice this, after all, Doomsday was still in this human's hands, and he needed those monster Soldiers.
So Steppenwolf said calmly, "Of course, this is what I promised you. Apokolips never breaks its word!"
Savage seemed to believe his words, "In that case, I will also continue to support you as I promised before!"
After Steppenwolf left, Savage took out a paper document from his hidden safe and deciphered the intelligence contained within through complex encryption.
After reading it, he burned the intelligence and sneered into the void.
"Damn alien Loki, you can continue to be immersed in your beautiful Dream World. Earth will not be given to you; it belongs to me!"
Just as Steppenwolf had hidden things from him, Savage also had hidden things from Steppenwolf.
For example, the number of Doomsday clones, or that he had no intention of helping Steppenwolf transform Earth, or that he knew Lex Luthor was actively contacting military and political leaders of various countries, preparing to unite the World's forces to deliver a heavy blow to Steppenwolf.
As an old man who had lived for tens of thousands of years, no country's history on this World was longer than his lifespan. So, when Lex Luthor first activated those hidden hands, he knew about it not long after.
But he not only did not stop it but even fanned the flames.
Although he didn't hate metahumans as much as Lex Luthor, he also believed that metahumans were an obstacle to his World domination.
So, as soon as Steppenwolf could help him eliminate those metahumans who might endanger his World domination, he would immediately destroy Steppenwolf!
He already knew that even a creature like Steppenwolf couldn't physically withstand high-yield nuclear bombs, and Savage had already prepared a big gift for this guy who called himself a New God of Apokolips...
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