Deep in the cosmos.
Two golden figures were like entangled comets, every collision making the surrounding space-time tremble.
The stars grew dim. Their speed surpassed the limits of biological possibility, and their power overrode physical laws; the aftershocks of their battle even caused nearby galaxies to drift from their orbits. Clark Kent—no, at this moment, he was more like a transcendental being, bathed entirely in radiant gold.
Currently, he was no longer the Son of Krypton wearing the red and blue uniform. His body was encased in pure golden light, his eyes like two burning stars. Wherever his heat vision passed, even space itself was seared with eternal scars. He was the incarnation of Hope, the posture of a Sun God walking the earth.
The heat vision in his eyes seemed as if the sun itself were spilling over.
Both Supermen were in this state.
Their power far exceeded the miniature suns in Ian's own eyes. Of course, Ian had no need for dejection; after all, he was still just an underage, little Kryptonian.
"It seems you do have a bit of potential." The Clark Kent locked in fierce combat with Ian's father was Superman Prime (One Million), a powerful existence from a distant parallel universe.
He possessed power akin to a deity, capable of reshaping reality and reversing time. His golden suit flowed with the primal energy of the universe, and his pupils reflected infinite possibilities.
In fact, Ian had already recognized this, but as weak as Ian was, he simply couldn't interfere. Superman Prime is the ultimate evolutionary form achieved after Superman spent tens of thousands of years sleeping and training within the core of the sun.
"Your mercy is too narrow; your capacity cannot support the salvation of all universes." The Golden Superman's voice echoed directly in Clark's mind, low and majestic.
"And what about you?"
Clark's fist smashed toward the opponent, only to be caught by the Golden Superman with one hand. The resulting shockwave shattered many nearby planets. "On what basis do you decide what the 'correct' future is?"
The Golden Superman did not answer. He simply exerted sudden force, hurling Clark toward a dying star. Clark's body, like a cannonball, pierced through the stellar core, triggering a supernova. Blazing plasma spewed forth, only to be frozen by a single thought from the Golden Superman, as if the pause button had been pressed on time itself.
"I am not like you. Your ideals are too naive." The Golden Superman hovered before the supernova, his voice icy. "For some problems, there is only one solution."
"The strongest Superman must be born." It was unclear how the High Council had brainwashed the Golden Superman; he clearly wasn't being controlled, yet his thinking had become extremely radical.
Clark charged out from the stellar wreckage, the golden light on his body becoming even more intense. He spoke no more, attacking the Golden Superman with an even more violent posture. Their battle tore from the physical dimension into the torrent of time, and from the quantum realm back into the material universe—this was fundamentally a fight Ian could not touch.
The Golden Superman was too strong.
By absorbing solar energy, he had achieved a dimensional leap, becoming a five-dimensional being capable of manipulating timelines. He held the Last Power Ring, the ultimate artifact of the Green Lantern Corps. In other universes, the Golden Superman had demonstrated multiverse-level abilities such as crushing a Poison Sun and reshaping DNA to create five-dimensional life.
Against such a Kryptonian lifeform...
How could Ian, who had been on the job for less than fifteen years, even compare?
He couldn't even provide a buff to his father with his eyes, because the range and speed of the two Supermen's combat far exceeded what his current eyes could capture.
"Furthermore, even if I could track Dad's speed, the amplification I could provide would likely be negligible. He has already ignited the sun within his own heart."
Ian had always firmly believed his father possessed the potential for Idealistic Willpower, and facts had proven it. As Clark Kent's great son, the only assistance he could offer now was using his new ability [Whisper] to constantly murmur in his locked-on father's ear about the unhappy life Mom would lead after remarrying.
"Dad, if you lie down now, Mom could hold a matchmaking convention in the Fortress of Solitude tomorrow—you want to guess if that bald, caped Lex-Luthor-version of Clark from the neighboring universe would show up with a kryptonite ring to propose?"
"There really is such a parallel universe..."
Clark didn't want to hear it.
But Ian's Whisper ability was indeed a bug; after all, it was derived from Mephistopheles, the great Marvel Archdemon. Clark's fist brushed past the Golden Superman's cheek, missing by half an inch.
His hand shook.
"Jonathan and Jordan will have it rough~ Big brother Jonathan and second brother Jordan will meet a stepfather who really loves domestic violence, but you don't have to worry about me."
"I know how to take up the weapon of the law to protect myself. I can beat a stepfather to death with the *Constitution of the United States*. Of course, if things go on like this, Mom will definitely have to keep remarrying."
"Just like that, over and over, endlessly. Who knows, maybe one day Mom will be forced to remarry Batman. I saw Batman give Mom an extra look last time."
When it came to stoking the fires, Ian was a professional. Clark Kent, hearing this, experienced a frantic surge in power. The Golden Superman's palm strike was suddenly caught by Clark, the finger bones emitting an overburdened cracking sound.
"IAN!!!" Clark's pupils instantly lit up with a golden light of the Idealistic level. Having fought into the depths of space, he grabbed the Golden Superman by the throat and smashed him toward the core of Apokolips.
"YOU. SHUT. UP!"
This was a furious rebuke directed at Ian, but the one who suffered was the "spectator planet," Apokolips. Apokolips is the core of Darkseid's rule and one of the most terrifying planets in the DC Universe, known as the "Heart of Darkness."
Built with New God technology, its surface is covered in burning scorched earth, massive factories, and prisons. The sky is eternally shrouded by a red sun, and the air is thick with the scent of despair.
Now, it suffered an attack that no one could have predicted.
*BOOM!*
The entire tectonic plate of Apokolips was shifted three kilometers by the impact. Magma erupted from the fissures like fountains. The surface of Apokolips cracked open with scars far exceeding the Great Rift Valley.
...
At the same time.
Darkseid was originally sitting on his throne.
Darkseid is the ultimate symbol of "Darkness and Chaos" in DC, also known as the Lord of Darkness. He is the ruler of Apokolips and one of the most powerful evil gods among the New Gods. Born Uxas, he was originally the second prince of Apokolips.
By murdering his brother to seize the throne and claiming the Omega Effect—an ultimate power—he became the ruler.
His appearance is that of a stone giant standing 8 feet 9 inches tall, with skin like grayish-black rock. His face is covered in hideous textures, and his eyes reveal extreme indifference and cruelty.
As Superman's fated enemy, Darkseid's ambition is not just to rule Apokolips, but to conquer the entire multiverse, destroying the free will of all sentient life through the "Anti-Life Equation."
Establishing an eternal dark order—at this very moment, Darkseid was tapping his fingers on the armrest, thinking about how to exploit the chaos of the multiverse to expand his domain.
However, suddenly, the entire palace shook violently. Walls cracked, and the ceiling collapsed.
"What is happening?!"
He stood up abruptly, the Omega Force already brewing in his eyes.
"My... My Lord!" a subordinate rushed in, stumbling. "There are two Super—"
*BOOM—!!!*
The dome of the palace was shattered. Two golden lights smashed into the great hall like meteors. A red-and-blue afterimage slammed into the conference table in front of Darkseid with a *thud*, the shockwave instantly blowing away all the Dark Elite. Before Darkseid could even see clearly who it was, he heard two roars ring out simultaneously.
"Don't get in the way!" Clark's fist swung.
"Get lost!" The Golden Superman's heat vision erupted.
Somehow, the trajectories of both attacks mysteriously curved, heading straight for him.
Darkseid: "...???"
*BOOOOOOM—!!!*
In the next second, the fists of both Supermen greeted his face simultaneously. The Omega Force automatically protected its master at the last moment, yet it was still pushed back by the impact of two god-level powers. The crust of Apokolips buckled at this moment; magma surged, and the entire planet wailed.
Darkseid was stunned.
He only saw two Supermen fighting their way onto his turf, and moreover, they were fighting toward him. He hadn't even gone to destroy Earth yet, and his own home was about to be dismantled.
This was the tragedy of not buying the "Property Insurance" offered by Ian's insurance company. Of course, even if Darkseid had bought it, Ian would have found a reason to deny the claim.
He was someone who truly fit into the ranks of the capitalists.
...
"Rumble~ Rumble~"
Continuous explosions rang out on Apokolips. Two deity-like figures interlaced amidst the lead-gray clouds, every collision making the planet shudder.
"BOOM—!!!"
Clark punched the Golden Superman into the core fortress of Apokolips. That super-fortress, claimed to be able to withstand the Big Bang, shattered like a biscuit. Magma spewed out, only to be evaporated into invisible particles before touching the two Kryptonians.
"You—"
Darkseid's roar came from beneath the ruins of the throne. He had, after all, taken two solid, "dishonorable" sneak attacks. The Omega Effect boiled in his angry eyes.
"This is Apokolips!"
To this, the two Supermen did not respond. No response meant they knew.
They continued to pummel each other.
Clark's heat vision clashed with the Golden Superman's bio-electric field. The overflowing torrent of energy just happened to wipe out three gathering Parademon legions. The Golden Superman threw an elbow strike; Clark dodged to the side, and the shockwave, sufficient to shatter a galaxy, sliced diagonally through Apokolips' orbital weapon platform.
Apokolips, this hellish planet composed of steel, lava, and eternal war, was now facing the most absurd and humiliating moment since its birth. It wasn't an invasion, nor a conquest, but being used as a boxing ring.
The two figures collided frantically at low altitude. Every clash of their fists caused spatial folds; every dodge tore the atmosphere. Golden energy torrents poured down like waterfalls, lighting the entire planet as if it were day.
Yet, this destructive light precisely avoided all civilian areas.
The civilians of Apokolips—those low-level creatures living in the lava fissures—shivered, yet remained unharmed. Meanwhile, their "god," Darkseid's legion, met with a catastrophic disaster.
The Parademon nests. Before the eggs could even hatch, the nest entrances were swept by a stray gust from a punch, turning them to ash. Parademons are the iconic creatures of Apokolips, transformed from captives of planets conquered by Darkseid. They have no thoughts and no free will, obeying only Darkseid, and are the primary force for his conquest of the multiverse.
Now, they died before they could even set out.
Even the Female Furies, who served as Darkseid's personal guard, were not spared. They were completely swallowed by the light, their traces of existence lost entirely to the universe. This elite force of Darkseid's finest warriors had just awakened from stasis pods, their armor not yet fully activated, and the defense systems of Apokolips didn't even have time to lock onto the targets.
"Warning—Unknown Energy—"
"Activate Plasma—"
"Quick! Contact—"
Before the words could be finished, the golden light surged like a tide, swallowing them along with the entire command center. There was no battle, no resistance. The Furies, along with the technological warfare they took pride in, evaporated completely in the light.
"No... this is impossible..." In the monitoring room, a high-ranking Parademon commander stared at the screen, his voice trembling. The next second, a stray punch grazed the outer orbit of Apokolips. The tower he was in was directly erased, along with him.
The entire war machine of Apokolips was being cleared out in the most brutal way by a power beyond comprehension.
Darkseid sat on his Omega Throne, forged from countless skeletons, his eyes fixed on the battle outside. He, the tyrant of the universe, the destroyer of order, had once made countless civilizations kneel before the Omega Beams.
Yet now, he was like a furious parent whose home had been broken into by children, left completely without options.
"They... are fighting."
Darkseid's voice was as low as thunder, yet it carried a hint of unbelievable absurdity. "On my Apokolips... like street thugs... fighting?"
What enraged him even more was that the shockwaves of these two "thugs" were precisely destroying all his living forces and core technological facilities. Parademon armories, anti-matter cannon arrays, dimensional jump engines... strategic strongholds disintegrated one by one in the golden light. Of course, this wasn't what got to Darkseid the most.
It was mainly that the two figures would occasionally throw a "cheap shot" at him personally. They had even beaten his nose into a bruise.
Darkseid finally couldn't sit still.
"Shameful!" Darkseid roared, scarlet flames igniting in both eyes simultaneously. "My legions... my nation... trampled like this!" His massive body pressured the entire planet like a mountain.
"Since you want to play..." The Lord of Darkness whispered, his voice echoing like an abyss. "Then let me join this 'game.' When I stare into your eyes, crush your dreams, and shatter your hearts, sixty billion eyes will follow."
He raised his right hand, pointing toward the center of the battlefield.
[Omega Effect]—Activated!
In an instant, the sky of Apokolips was torn asunder. A crimson beam, more piercing than the sun, erupted from Darkseid's eyes, shooting straight into the heavens to converge on the battlefield of the two golden figures. This was the power capable of erasing existence, twisting reality, and making a target vanish completely from space-time.
However.
The Omega Beams tore through the air, but when they struck the center of the clash between Superman and the Golden Superman, they were intercepted halfway by two heat visions—not an annihilation, but a collision.
The red light interlaced, erupting with a brilliance more dazzling than a supernova. Space shattered like glass, and time flowed backward in the cracks. The entire planet of Apokolips was tilted slightly by this force, and the ocean of lava surged with waves tens of thousands of feet high.
The three cosmic-level energies entangled and exploded, the shockwave lifting the crust of Apokolips three thousand meters high.
This power of Darkseid's originated from the Omega Effect, a cosmic-level energy from the essence of the New Gods, manifested primarily through two signature abilities. First, the Omega Beams: concentrated plasma beams fired from the eyes that can directly erase a target's existence or resurrect them for his own use. Second, the Omega Sanction: trapping an opponent in an endless cycle of parallel worlds where even death provides no escape, as the victim continuously accumulates Omega energy within the cycle.
Ultimately, it could destroy an entire world.
In reality, Darkseid is likely a six-dimensional being, one level higher than the five-dimensional Golden Superman. However, he was currently still in a super-infant state. Of course, even an infant Darkseid was very strong, yet the two current Supermen were burning the suns within their hearts. Under the impact of the Omega Beams, they only retreated half a step.
"Since you both wish to be gods... then I shall let you taste true 'divine punishment'."
Darkseid joined the fray. It should have been a deadlock.
However.
He had only made one move.
In the next second, Clark Kent and his parallel universe counterpart, the Golden Superman, glanced at each other. Without a word, both golden lights simultaneously turned and charged toward him.
1 + 1 sometimes really does not equal two.
*THUD!!*
The Omega Shield shattered like glass. Darkseid was caught in the middle; he took a Kryptonian straight punch from Clark on the left and a future elbow strike from the Golden Superman on the right.
The Lord of Darkness flew backward like a cannonball, piercing through eighteen anti-matter reactors in a row, finally crashing into his most cherished Omega Armory.
The great Lord of Darkness was in such a wretched state. Fortunately, he wasn't seen by his sons, otherwise what little dignity remained in their hearts would surely vanish. Of course, no family members witnessing it didn't mean no outsiders saw it. Ian, watching the battle through the Marvel Black Box from afar, had silently started recording.
Under Ian's Greatest Technology Company, Ian Film—where currently only Ian himself persisted in creating—if they wanted to reach the stars, they had to rely on some truly hard-hitting content and things others didn't dare to film.
"This is truly pathetic. In the future, if Darkseid wants to act tough, he can be reminded repeatedly of the time he was jumped by two Supermen to suppress his arrogance!"
"In all the worlds, even Lord Ian hasn't been beaten like this by a Superman."
...
Ian casually threw the unconscious Injustice Superman, who was covered in burns, to the side. He was the merciful Lord Ian, so he disregarded past grievances and applied over ten boxes of burn ointment to the Injustice Superman.
Lord Ian was so gentle that the unconscious Injustice Superman had also been struck in the eye by the butt of Gungnir, very warm-heartedly helping him cry in an unconscious state.
The story of Apokolips was still being broadcast on the Black Box.
Ian didn't blink. His fingertips slid gently over the smooth surface of the Black Box, adjusting the observation frequency, completely failing to notice that the unconscious Injustice Superman behind him was slowly awakening.
The Injustice Superman's fingers moved first, followed by his eyelids. His eyelashes trembled as if he were struggling to wake from a nightmare. When those eyes—once sapphire blue, now turbid—finally opened, what met his gaze was a fragmented starry sky—a universe torn by energy, becoming somewhat empty.
"Where am I..." His voice was raspy, unlike his own.
Memories rushed back like a tide, yet slipped away like sand held in a hand. He remembered the golden light, and he remembered the forced control he was subjected to after returning to headquarters from the last time he left this universe.
He also remembered the planets turned to ash by his hands—the Injustice Superman struggled to prop himself up, every muscle screaming in protest. He looked down at his arms; the skin had been burned black and ulcerated by the Golden Superman's energy. Those black magic runes that had once entwined his skin like venomous snakes had naturally disappeared without a trace.
This was why the Injustice Superman regained consciousness.
"I have gained freedom?" The word rolled off the Injustice Superman's tongue, strange yet familiar.
He looked around. An unprecedented sense of guilt hit his chest like a heavy hammer.
Then he saw Ian—that "should not exist" person who was always elusive, currently with his back turned, focused entirely on tinkering with that mysterious Black Box.
The Injustice Superman staggered to his feet. The ten fingers broken by Ian looked incredibly twisted. He dragged his feet toward Ian, wanting to know what he had just done.
"Ian Kent?" The Injustice Superman spoke with difficulty, his voice sounding as if from a great distance. When his hand finally landed on Ian's shoulder, he found the other had reacted as if to a stressor, executing a direct strike.
"Overlord's Reverse Spear!"
The tip of Gungnir flashed with a lethal cold light, piercing the Injustice Superman's abdomen at a speed the human eye could not track. The Kryptonian steel body was like thin paper before the artifact.
The Injustice Superman's eyes widened; he looked down at the spear tip protruding from his back, blood dripping onto the surface of the planetary fragment along the golden patterns.
"I have... escaped control..." With every word, scarlet blood overflowed from the corner of his mouth. "I just wanted to... warn you... why are you so decisive... like a villain..."
Before the word "decisive" could fully leave his mouth, the already severely injured Injustice Superman collapsed backward.
Ian's expression froze. He only then noticed that because the Injustice Superman's skin had been entirely burned, the magic runes were gone. The madness of being controlled was no longer in the other's eyes.
He remembered that his Uncle Batman—who had already gone to Hell to wait for Ian to arrange his job—had once said this parallel universe Superman, who had visited this universe before, was in a state of mental control.
Now it seemed... the opponent had a tendency to turn over a new leaf?
"Dammit! Turns out it wasn't a UFO coming to catch me for breeding!" Ian cursed as he withdrew Gungnir. The Injustice Superman subsequently knelt and fell forward. Ian caught him before he fully collapsed, feeling this once-invincible body was terrifyingly light now, as if the power previously absorbed had been transferred to others.
"I thought you were trying to sneak up on me... look at the mess. Luckily, my medical skills are decent." He quickly checked the Injustice Superman's vitals—weak but stable. He breathed a sigh of relief and began to find a way to save the man's life.
Ian carefully placed the Injustice Superman on a relatively flat piece of ground and began to rummage through his dimensional pocket. First, he pulled out the All-Black the Necrosword as his surgical tool.
Then came seemingly ordinary fishing line. Finally, a stapler with Adamantium staples.
Medical equipment was ready.
Ian began his second act of illegal medical practice while watching the footage on the Black Box. However, the battle playing in the video made it somewhat difficult for him to concentrate.
Darkseid seemed to be going into a power-up state as well—his background was truly strong. Because Ian was distracted, he accidentally tore the unconscious Injustice Superman's wound open even wider.
"Uh..."
Looking at the Injustice Superman's abdominal cavity with its numerous organs, and having forgotten to give him anesthesia, Ian gave the pained, moaning Injustice Superman another blow with a hammer.
The hammer had green kryptonite on it. Therefore, the physical anesthesia effect was excellent.
It had originally been a "loving-brother" protection measure prepared for his second brother, Jordan.
"Sorry, just bear with it." As an apology for his mistake, Ian stared at the Injustice Superman's abdominal cavity, beginning to hesitate whether to give him some compensation.
Perhaps, that could be a bond that could truly make the Injustice Superman abandon evil for good?
The divine doctor Ian was somewhat unsure if this would violate secular norms. After all, he was almost fifteen, no longer a fourteen-year-old boy, so he also had moments of hesitation.
Mainly, he was hesitating whether twins or sextuplets would provide a stronger bond.
***
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