DC: Rise of the Kryptonian Tyrant

Bardi faintly sensed a breath of despair and gloom shrouding his heart. He closed his eyes heavily.

The Mother Box was created by the Great Artisan God.

This realization shocked him.

He had been reborn on Krypton. After his revolution failed, he fled in haste to Earth, rose from Earth, ruled Earth, faced the Justice League members of many universes, and fought off a multiversal force that came to strike him down. He destroyed them with his own hands, killed Superboy-Prime, killed the Golden Superman, killed Mandrakk, killed the Phantom Stranger, dragged the entire multiverse out, brought it into the Divine Realm, and built his own Barmulodi Star.

Bardi had originally believed that by taking the Mother Box core from and hiding the Barmulodi Star, he could protect his wife, his family, and all the believers of Barmulodi who placed their faith and lives in him.

However, that was a miscalculation.

The Mother Box was made by the Great Artisan God.

If you told him that the Great Artisan God selflessly created the Mother Box for the benefit of all, Bardi would never believe it.

In that moment,

Bardi deeply felt the omnipresent suppression within the Divine Realm.

He couldn't yet conclude that the Great Artisan God was targeting him directly. But the feeling of being held in the grasp of someone far stronger than himself filled him with terror and unease.

What's more, he had once been given the unknowable ability to devour the Wall of Origin by the Great Beast.

And the Great Artisan God stood on the side of the gods.

Traditionally, it was light and darkness, positive and negative.

The Beast and the God.

Now it seemed as if he had been pulled aboard the Great Beast's pirate ship, drawn into rebellion.

"I can't beg for mercy from others."

"I need strength to fight."

Bardi opened his eyes, his mind settled. His eyes became like black holes, and a flash of intellectual brilliance burst from them. His gaze swept across the glowing red Wall of Origin behind the clamoring gods.

Maybe he could devour the Wall of Origin to strengthen himself.

But it was too slow.

Even after devouring it for a century, the Wall of Origin had not changed. It regenerated faster than he could consume it.

Far too slow.

By the time this era ended, he still wouldn't be able to escape the Wall of Origin.

"Thinking about leaving the Wall of Origin?"

"I see the desire to break free in your eyes."

Yuga Khan turned his head, his eyes lit with excitement, and his perfect white teeth grinned in delight.

He had long been waiting for a god who could move freely to fight alongside him and slaughter Origin.

Yuga Khan's goal was to become a stronger deity. Power was his only pursuit.

Only by killing Origin could his path to ultimate power advance. So, Origin must die.

"No god doesn't want to leave this place. But we cannot kill a supreme One God."

Bardi gave him a cold look.

He never believed that he and Yuga Khan alone could slaughter a One God at the first stage.

Why?

He wanted to know.

"What if I told you that Origin can no longer move, and is now just waiting to be slaughtered?"

Yuga Khan's eyes narrowed, a fierce gleam flashing within. His wide mouth still grinned grotesquely.

"It's true," the Creator God nearby opened his dry eyes again and said something earth-shattering.

"Origin grew too arrogant."

"He absorbed the powers of many gods, and the variety of divine powers has become too much for him to digest."

"The expanding scale of the Wall of Origin is proof that the burden on Origin has grown far beyond capacity and has extended into the wall itself."

"He controls many unique gods but is now trapped deep within the Wall of Origin by their powers."

"As long as you locate Origin, you can devour him while he's defenseless and ascend to become a One God of the first stage."

Several ancient gods spoke in agreement with the Creator God. Other gods who were unaware gasped in shock, their mouths watering, eager to find Origin and devour him.

Origin represented the era of nothingness, the beginning of existence, the source of everything. To devour Origin was to trace everything back to its source. From nothing to something, everything emerged from that point. Devour that, and one would become the supreme, One and Only God.

No One God could resist this temptation.

Such power was an irresistible lure.

But... no god had ever devoured Origin from nothing.

None.

Just as it was impossible to kill a One God.

"You possess the ability to devour the Wall of Origin, which means you can devour Origin."

"Most importantly, I have found him. I have locked onto his position."

"In exchange, I want half of Origin."

Yuga Khan stared at Bardi with meaningful eyes. His grin widened, tongue slithering from the dark hole of his mouth, licking the edge of his lips. His bloodthirsty smile twisted with greed.

Not only Yuga Khan, but the eyes of all the ancient gods across the Wall of Origin glimmered with meaning.

Only those gods who hadn't lived through the historic upheavals stood confused, questioning their motives, condemning Yuga Khan's greed, and burning with envy for the power he was about to claim.

In an instant, Bardi seemed to understand why the Great Beast had granted him the power to devour the Wall of Origin.

The Great Beast.

It wanted him to devour Origin?

But why?

Bardi's dark, black-hole-like eyes flickered with deep sparks of thought. One flicker was enough to burn a universe or compute it to death.

In that instant, he seemed to understand his situation.

He... appeared to be the centerpiece in a tug-of-war between the Beast and the God.

If nothing had gone wrong, then the Barmulodi Star might have already fallen into the hands of the Great Artisan God.

The Great Beast wanted him to devour Origin, release the Monitor, maybe even release the gods imprisoned on the Wall of Origin.

"When did I become their pawn?!"

Bardi's expression darkened. The rage in his heart exploded like a volcano, consuming him from within.

Unprecedented fury burned through his reason, heart, and body.

He had just stepped out of the multiverse, only to enter the den of wolves in the Divine Realm.

Now, even Barmulodi Star could no longer be considered safe.

This sense of powerlessness, of being manipulated like a chess piece in an invisible game, left him furious and helpless.

No matter what he did, it all followed their arrangements.

Psychologically, physically, in behavior and reality—he had been calculated into a corner.

Even the gods on the Wall of Origin, even Origin, even Yuga Khan—they were all under the control of this invisible manipulation.

There was no hope.

Bardi inhaled deeply and exhaled through his nose. His cold, evolved body flared with raised bone spurs, like a sky-piercing blade. His gaze turned indifferent.

"Fine. I'll work with you."

(To be continued.)