Chapter 85: CHAPTER 85
Zod rushed toward the transport ship with singular determination, his eyes wild with desperation. The fate of Krypton's legacy hung in the balance. If the ship collided with the Earth, his plan to transform the planet into a new Krypton would be complete.
Clark followed in hot pursuit. He slammed into Zod mid-flight, sending both of them spiraling away from the transport ship.
"Clark, if that ship is destroyed, there's no turning back!" Zod roared, struggling to shake off Clark's grip.
"Krypton is already gone!" Clark snarled. "I won't let you take Earth down with it!" Their struggle intensified as they plummeted from the sky.
"I'll kill you, Kal-El!" Zod bellowed.
Using his superior combat skills as Krypton's most formidable warrior, Zod began targeting Clark's vital points with ruthless precision. He locked Clark's neck in a crushing hold, driving powerful blows into his vulnerable spots—his spine, ribs, and lower neck.
Crack! Boom! Thud!
Clark's blood spattered into the air as he gasped in pain. Zod's relentless assault forced him to his limits. Finally, Zod released him with a vicious kick to his waist, sending Clark hurtling through the air like a rag doll.
The impact was devastating. Clark crashed through several buildings, leaving a path of destruction before slamming into the ground, carving a deep trench into the Earth.
"Clark! Are you okay?" Diana's voice cut through the chaos as she arrived on the scene, her movements swift but grounded.
Clark groaned, struggling to rise. "I'll be fine... but you have to stop Zod! If we don't stop him now, Earth is doomed!" His words were strained, his body still regenerating from Zod's brutal attack.
Diana nodded resolutely. She turned to find Zod, but Fiora, Zod's second-in-command, intercepted her path.
Meanwhile, Diana's thoughts flashed to Kaius, her partner. She had always relied on his strength and presence in battle. But now, she realized she had to rise on her own—both figuratively and literally.
"Kaius said I could fly," Diana murmured to herself, recalling his encouragement. "If I master my divine power, I can overcome gravity."
Diana steeled herself. She had attempted flight before but had never succeeded. The truth was, she had never tried hard enough, relishing instead the moments Kaius would carry her. But this was different. This was her fight.
Summoning her divine strength, Diana took a running start and leapt into the air. "I am not bound by gravity!" she cried out. Divine energy coursed through her, crackling across her skin in flashes of light. A sonic boom erupted as she surged into the sky.
She intercepted Zod mid-air. "Zod, this ends now!" she shouted, her kryptonite sword poised to strike.
Zod turned his searing heat vision on her, his eyes blazing with fury. Diana dodged swiftly, descending to avoid the deadly beams. But Zod pursued her relentlessly, his rage fueling his movements.
The two clashed in the air, Diana's sword clashing against Zod's gauntlets. With each blow, the stakes rose higher, the fate of Earth hanging in the balance.
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After several evasive maneuvers, Diana soared for the first time, mastering flight under immense pressure. But Zod's heat vision narrowly grazed her arm, sending the kryptonite Sword spiraling downward.
"You will not stand in my way!" Zod roared, his fury unrelenting. Twin beams of blazing energy erupted from his eyes, cutting a deadly path straight toward Diana.
From a distance, Kaius observed the imminent danger. Without hesitation, he activated his Speed Force abilities.
"Speed Field—activate!"
Time slowed to a crawl. The world became eerily silent, as if it were a frozen stage play. Zod's heat vision, though lethally fast in real time, seemed to inch forward in this suspended reality. The beams were mere meters away from Diana.
Kaius moved like lightning. In an instant, he was beside Zod. Fiora's eyes darted, attempting to track him, but she was too slow. Zod, sensing the disturbance, began to shift, but Kaius was already mid-strike. His fist connected squarely with Zod's temple, redirecting his heat vision away from Diana.
In this altered reality, sound did not exist. Even Zod's groans of pain were swallowed by the Speed Field's eerie quiet. The redirected heat vision narrowly missed Diana, who turned to witness the confrontation.
Zod retaliated with a ferocious punch, but to Kaius, it was sluggish. "Your instincts are sharp," Kaius muttered under his breath, "but you're too slow."
Grabbing Zod's arm, Kaius used the Kryptonian's own momentum to hurl him toward the descending Kryptonite Sword. Simultaneously, he switched his Superman Card to the Wonder Woman Card, adapting to the sword's power. Seizing the weapon midair, he pivoted and drove it straight into Zod's chest with unyielding force.
In less than two seconds, it was over. Kaius deactivated the Speed Field, and reality snapped back into motion.
Zod gasped, blood pouring from his mouth. His eyes widened in disbelief as he looked down at the kryptonite Sword embedded in his heart. "This... this is impossible," he muttered weakly.
"General Zod!" Fiora shouted, frozen in shock. Moments ago, Kaius had been beside her, and now he stood victorious, the sword delivering a fatal blow to her leader. She couldn't comprehend the speed or the precision.
Kaius twisted the sword slightly, ensuring Zod's defeat. "It's over, Zod," he said firmly.
Above them, the transport plane collided with the Kryptonian starship, triggering a massive reaction. For a brief moment, there was silence, then a black hole began to form. The starship and all its occupants were inexorably drawn into the singularity.
The gravitational pull was immense. Entire sections of the Metropolis skyline were torn apart, debris spiraling toward the black hole. The ground quaked violently, and rubble floated into the air. Buildings collapsed, and destruction reigned.
Kaius, Diana, and the remaining fighters stood on the outskirts of the black hole's reach, its gravitational pull weakening at their distance. After several agonizing minutes, the black hole collapsed in on itself, leaving the sky clear once more.
As debris rained down from the heavens, the citizens of Metropolis emerged from hiding, their faces etched with disbelief and relief. For them, the destruction seemed endless, but now, the world was still.
In a military command center, the tension broke. A technician turned to General Swanwick. "Sir... did we win?"
General Swanwick clenched his fists, his voice trembling with emotion. "Yes," he declared. "We won. Superman, Wonder Woman, and Kaius saved the world."
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