The time that followed was a true doomsday for the Apokolips occupation forces on Earth... North America.
A group from the Superman Strike Team was besieging a civilian shelter.
"Bang!"
The sky suddenly exploded.
The man descended from the sky, and the Impact of his hypersonic landing directly shattered the internal organs of all enemies within a hundred meters.
He waved with a smile and then immediately rushed to his next target.
Europe, Paris.
This city of romance had now become a dead city.
The Eiffel Tower was broken in two, and various debris floated in the Seine River.
Thousands of Parademons were surrounding and attacking a Resistance stronghold located in the ruins of the Louvre.
"Ammunition is exhausted!"
"We can't get out!"
The Resistance looked at the sky in despair, which was densely packed with the silhouettes of Parademons.
Just then.
The rapid sound of something breaking through the air came from the horizon.
Before everyone could react.
Two crimson beams of Heat Vision, like the God's whip of judgment, swept across the entire sky.
"Sizzle— Sizzle—"
Countless Parademons were instantly sliced in half, falling down like raindrops with a pitter-patter.
Immediately after, a red and blue figure appeared, hovering before the Resistance.
Though covered in wounds, he still gave everyone a warm smile and a thumbs up.
"Good job, everyone. You are true heroes..."
Having said that, he didn't give the crowd a chance to worship him.
"Boom—!"
He soared into the sky again and disappeared over the horizon.
Leaving the Resistance fighters standing there in a daze, their eyes filled with tears.
"Homelander... he's here!"
The same scene took place in London, Berlin, Moscow, San Andreas...
Homelander wasn't bragging.
He went full throttle, pushing his speed and efficiency to the limit.
He turned himself into a tireless God of Death.
Wherever there was a battle, there he was.
He needed no rest, no supplies.
He only needed applause and cheers.
At every location, he would deliberately stay for a few seconds, letting the survivors see his face clearly, see the wounds on his body, and see how "desperately" he fought to protect them...
Asia, the Himalayan Defense Line.
It could be said that this was the place where the fighting was most intense on Earth because of huge population of surrounding countries.
It was also the last bastion of human civilization.
At this time, the Himalayas were no longer just highest mountains, but biggest defense line given to people by nature.
Atop on the one of the mountains, giant Electromagnetic Railguns were mounted every few dozen meters, and the mountains were covered with Sanskrit Mantras.
The combination of technology and metaphysics allowed them to build an insurmountable Wall upon these mountains.
Countless warriors in Exoskeleton Armor were relying on the wall, engaged in a life-and-death struggle against the tide of Parademons.
But today, they too had reached their limit.
"Hold on!! We can't let them through!!"
An Old Chief, his face covered in blood, brandished a high-frequency alloy combat knife and sliced through a pouncing Parademon.
His left arm was broken, but he still held his ground on the Beacon Tower.
"Behind us are the lights of ten thousand homes! We have no way to retreat!!"
"Kill!!"
The young warriors roared, their Gauss Rifles spitting out nail bullets blessed by Mantras, each shot exploding into a burst of Spiritual Fire on the Parademons.
There were too many Parademons, so many it was despair-inducing.
The dark mass of the Parademon army blotted out the sky, like an endless swarm of locusts.
"Chief! The eastern defense line has been breached!!" a desperate roar came through the communicator.
"Fill the gap! Reserves! Everyone, get up there!!" the Old Chief shouted, blood and tears streaming from his eyes.
"There are no reserves left... Chief, we are the last ones."
The communications officer laughed miserably, pulled the pin on his Glory Grenade, and charged into the crowd of Parademons about to break through the line.
"Boom boom boom—!!"
The flames swallowed everything.
The Old Chief watched this scene, his heart aching as two lines of turbid tears fell.
But in the next second, he suddenly wiped his tears with his sleeve, his eyes reflecting a resolve to die.
"Guard Company! Follow me! The moment for the nation and the people to test us has arrived!!"
"Sacrifice one's life for the World crisis, and look upon death as going home!!"
"Sacrifice one's life for the World crisis, and look upon death as going home!!"
...Just as they charged into the enemy ranks.
A red light suddenly lit up on the horizon.
The light was too fast, too dazzling, like a sword of dawn, carving out deathly sword marks several kilometers long across the sky.
"Sizzle sizzle sizzle—!!"
The dense swarm of Parademons had nowhere to hide, turning into a shower of burning meteors and falling straight down.
The Old Chief looked at the sky in surprise.
He saw a red and blue figure crash violently into the dark mass of the Parademon army.
"That is..."
The figure shuttled through the air at high speed, creating bursts of sonic booms.
Every turn was accompanied by the explosion of hundreds or thousands of Parademons.
Ten minutes.
Only ten minutes.
The Parademon army that had originally blotted out the sun had mostly disappeared.
On the Great Wall, everyone watched this incredible scene in the sky, standing frozen in place.
And when the last Parademon was torn to pieces.
Homelander did not leave immediately as he had before.
Instead, he hovered above the Mountains, quietly looking down at the mountains beneath him and the warriors bathed in blood on the battlefield.
"Is this the will of ancient Civilizations like India, Japan etc ?"
He whispered to himself.
In other places, what he saw more of was fleeing and hiding.
Only here did he see the will to never retreat, even if fighting to the last man.
This kind of will was something that moved him even more than super strength.
He descended slowly, landing on the highest Beacon Tower, right in front of the Old Chief.
Looking at the Old Chief's severed arm and those eyes that still burned with the intent to fight.
The Old Chief was also sizing up this blond, blue-eyed young man.
Yet strangely, he actually saw something of the same origin in the eyes of this young foreigner.
"Thank you... young man..." The Old Chief raised his hand to salute, but nearly fell due to excessive blood loss.
Homelander supported him.
"You're welcome, I am also an interWorldist warrior."
"And, it is I who should be thankful. Thank you..."
"You have upheld the dignity of humanity."
Saying this, Homelander made a move that no one expected.
He reached out and unfastened the epaulette buckles on his shoulders.
"Clatter—"
That iconic stars and stripes cape was ripped from his shoulders and tossed aside.
Then Homelander turned around and walked to the edge of the wall, in front of a blood-stained flag.
"I'll borrow this for a moment."
He said softly.
Under the shocked gazes of all the warriors, Homelander tore down the red flag and buckled it onto his epaulettes.
The bright red flag snapped and fluttered behind him.
Homelander raised his hand and gave the shocked warriors a salute that wasn't standard, but was absolutely solemn.
"Please allow me to take this flag, for it is dyed red with the blood of heroes."
"I will carry their will and liberate all of humanity."
Having said that.
With that splash of bright red, he soared into the sky again, heading for the next battlefield.
"Salute!!"
Every warrior who could still stand, no matter how severe their injuries, raised their right hand in unison toward the retreating figure.