Empress Lyrandra fell into deep thought after learning why the Swordbearer had not returned.
If the Kryptonian Empire truly had control over a large number of Swordbearer's people, then their best option would be to surrender immediately.
Only those who had fought alongside—or against—the Swordbearer understood just how terrifying he truly was.
Over on Zod's side, genetic research on the Swordbearer had successfully cloned numerous Kal-Els.
The problem was, none of these Kal-Els were nearly as strong as the Swordbearer.
Or perhaps—they were merely ordinary people, while the Swordbearer was a warrior?
As he pondered the question, Zod suddenly felt a familiar wave of dizziness.
No way—was he awakening a new ability at a time like this?
What kind of Kryptonian would he become now?
Zod lay down on the examination table. The Black Queen monitored and recorded the changes in his body, so that he could study them later.
He failed to notice that this mutation seemed to be caused by the Plasma Spark Tower. The light radiation from ten thousand Plasma Spark Towers had passed through the filtration of Zod's bio-field and reacted with his cells.
This transformation did not happen overnight—after all, since Zod had become Doomsday, his genetic makeup had already stabilized considerably. Shaking that stability to induce mutation would take a long time.
And coincidentally, Zod had remained on Krypton throughout this period, allowing his body to absorb enough light radiation from the Plasma Spark Towers to finally trigger the mutation.
The change was agonizing. Zod suffered through torment and excruciating pain for an entire month before the transformation was complete.
When Zod finally crawled out of the lab, he already understood just how terrifying his new power was.
This mutation had shattered most of his previous abilities. Apart from the Doomsday transformation, which remained untouched, his telepathy, energy absorption, and Magic Superman abilities were all gone.
But Zod's lips curled upward—because he had vaulted straight past the Skyfather level, shattering that immense gap, and ascended to become a deity on the Universal level!
This mutation had turned Zod directly into a "black hole."
Or rather—a Superman possessing the devouring power of a million black holes?
Or perhaps—a Superman whose every cell was a black hole singularity?
Black Hole Superman!
He had mastered the power of black holes—the most massive existence in physics, the ultimate convergence of gravity and magnetism, the universe's most ultimate and violent force!
For example, Zod could now casually create a black hole singularity and hurl it out to annihilate an entire galaxy-sized star system.
Used offensively, it was indestructible—a black hole singularity attack could erase both time and space, the macroscopic and microscopic. Quarks, Planck-scale particles, even smaller quantum entities—all would be affected by the black hole's assault.
Used defensively, it was virtually impenetrable. With every cell in his body transformed into a black hole singularity, Zod could simply ignore any attack and absorb it to grow stronger.
That meant his magic resistance was no longer zero—even if he stood still and let someone hit him with magic, Zod could now ignore it completely.
"No wonder it took a whole month to mutate—Doomsday's genes are too stable. It almost failed."
Throughout that month, the mutation had been locked in constant struggle against Doomsday's genes, torturing Zod mercilessly. Doomsday's traits were repeatedly pushed back, only to rally and strike again. In the end, the two transformations were forced into a compromise.
The abilities that couldn't withstand the pressure—telepathy, energy absorption, and Magic Superman—were simply erased.
The power of the black hole was too domineering to coexist with other abilities. Only Doomsday could stand toe-to-toe with it.
Zod looked at his hands. Now that every cell had become a black hole singularity—was he even still biological?
And more than that, his mass had become so ludicrously immense that if he ever released his bio-field, it would likely tear apart everything within a range hundreds of times larger than the Milky Way, triggering a collapse effect that would form a supermassive black hole in an instant.
More importantly, now that he had both Doomsday and the black hole transformation, he probably wouldn't mutate any new abilities in the future. Of course, if he did, that power would have to be even more terrifying than Doomsday and black holes combined.
But Zod couldn't even imagine such a power.
He traveled at superluminal speeds to a star thousands of light-years away from the Kryptonian Empire.
Then, experimentally, Zod formed a black hole singularity in his hand. Its terrifying gravity completely warped space, creating layer upon layer of spatial ripples that swirled around the singularity like temporal turbulence.
The singularity's mass was greater than Earth's. The moment it was born, its gravitational waves had already triggered a reaction from the star.
He hurled the black hole singularity toward the star. Everywhere it passed, a true vacuum was created.
Everything along its path—high-energy particles, light, all matter and energy—was swept away and devoured.
Then the star's own gravity was disrupted by the singularity. Massive amounts of stellar energy were captured by the black hole's gravitational pull, the rate of consumption accelerating faster and faster. The star visibly shrank before Zod's eyes.
In the end, the entire star was torn apart into quarks and completely consumed!
Where the star had once been, a spherical zone of absolute silence now appeared.
This void stretched over tens of thousands of kilometers in every direction. Within its range, all matter had been collectively annihilated in an instant.
Zod recalled the black hole singularity, feeling himself grow significantly stronger.
"Destroying a star doesn't even take a minute. And with the power of black holes, I can stand against the Infinity Stones on my own—I no longer have to worry about the threat of the Soul Stone..."
In an instant, Zod returned to Krypton and extended his right hand.
Then, countless black particles materialized from the surrounding void, converging into Zod's hand with a rushing sound.
The light effects lasted several seconds before fading.
In Zod's hand now sat a small, marble-sized black sphere.
This sphere did not possess the spacetime-warping power of a black hole singularity.
But the material composing part of this tiny black sphere—
—was neutron-star-grade matter!
For manufacturing and scientific research, such material was priceless—something one could only dream of obtaining.
However, without the restraint of Zod's bio-field, the gravity it carried would instantly destroy everything around it.
"So, this thing can't actually be used normally, huh."
Zod couldn't help but complain. He had created neutronium before, but this time the neutronium he'd produced was on the scale of the universe's largest neutron stars.
The problem was, this neutronium couldn't be used practically. The gravity caused by its mass was simply too terrifying. It seemed he'd still need to put in more work if he wanted to build a warship that could smash straight through a star.
/-\
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