The boy opened his heavy eyelids and quickly determined from the cold sensation against his cheek that he was lying face down on a metal floor. Dazed, he climbed to his feet and looked around, finding himself in a pitch-black room. Cracks ran through the walls and floor. A fluorescent fixture holding four bulbs was embedded in the ceiling, but three of the tubes had shattered. Dull booms came from beyond the thick walls, as though someone were endlessly beating a war drum with an iron hammer.
The boy began to panic. His head throbbed violently, and he could not remember what had happened before or how he had gotten here. But he was certain he did not belong in such an unsettling room. It felt like some kind of high-tech prison. He felt his way to the door, shouting as he pounded on it with his fist. Yet to his surprise, a single punch dented the entire metal door as though it were made of paper. With a groan of overstressed metal, it collapsed to the floor.
He was stunned. Judging by the force of its impact, the alloy door should have weighed over two hundred pounds, yet it had crumpled beneath one punch.
But he did not have long to marvel at that, because the scene beyond the door was far more difficult to accept.
A dark crimson sky. A wailing earth. Black winged creatures blanketing the heavens like storm clouds. Such a sight could evoke nothing but hell—or the end of the world. He seemed to be inside a military base, or at least somewhere that might once have been one. He saw ruined tanks, burning armored vehicles and fighter jets, as well as corpses and blood scattered everywhere.
Everything that lay beyond the bounds of his understanding told him one fact—he had crossed over into a mad world.
This was the first time he had seen a corpse with his own eyes. He could not help recalling the bloody battlefield scenes he had watched on screens before, but those artistically processed images could not compare to the visual shock of witnessing it in person. The smoke and stench of blood fused into the unique smell of a battlefield, making waves of nausea rise uncontrollably within him.
It looked as though he was the only living person left in this base.
He braced one hand against a cracked wall and fought back the urge to vomit. When his eyes suddenly and uncontrollably saw through to the bones in his hand, he could not stop himself from crying out. Before he had time to adjust, boundless noise flooded in after it. He heard countless people screaming and calling for help, artillery fire booming one after another like thunder, soldiers shouting as they bravely marched to their deaths, and every flap of the monsters' wings overhead.
Too many sounds rushed into his mind at once. It was not an experience anyone would want to have twice. He covered his ears in agony and dropped to his knees, feeling as though the overwhelming information would crush his mind until it exploded.
But at the same time, he quickly understood.
Tremendous arm strength, X-Sight that could see through objects, and super-hearing powerful enough to be terrifying—perhaps there were even more extraordinary abilities he had not yet discovered.
He might have gained Superman's abilities.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the city.
Countless brave soldiers already lay dead amid the city's burning ruins, while the casualty count continued to soar. The troops fearlessly poured artillery fire into the endless army, using their blood and lives to stubbornly resist the alien demonic horde.
"Come on, soldiers!" As the army prepared to meet the enemy's next charge, General Sidman encouraged his men. "Good news has come from the White House. If we can hold through this wave of attacks, reinforcements will arrive immediately!"
It was a lie. They had no reinforcements left. There was still no response from the White House. Every military force in the world was being pushed back again and again, and they were the last remaining unit in this city.
One soldier hesitantly asked, "General... they say Superman is dead. Is it true?"
The general froze for a moment and fell silent.
"They say the Justice League was defeated on the second day after the enemy arrived. They all died. But if even they failed, how could we possibly win?"
The atmosphere instantly froze. This was the question everyone had avoided these past few days, because it was like a cruel, bloody reality that no one had enough courage to face.
General Sidman remained silent for a long while. Instead of answering, he merely said in a low voice, "Prepare for battle within ten minutes."
Just when the world had become desperate enough, the ruler of darkness descended, delivering one final push to a world already standing on the edge of the abyss. He had a jet-black, hulking body and descended from the sky within a domineering beam of light. The instant his feet touched down, even the earth trembled.
"General!" the communications officer stammered. "Y-you need to come look at this."
General Sidman drew a deep breath and walked over to the screen monitoring the front lines. His face changed in horror as well. On the display, the black demon god strode toward his army like the ultimate king. Every obstacle in his path was pulverized by dark crimson energy beams fired from his eyes. Their tank force was instantly disintegrated under that destructive sweep of energy, as though it had vanished into thin air. The targeted fighter formation tried to evade, but the light turned with them as though it were alive, clinging tightly to their tails like it had been programmed to track them. The air force was annihilated as well, all in less than ten seconds.
General Sidman slumped into his seat. His throat was so dry it felt as though it were on fire, and he could not say a word. He could not order his men to bravely go out and hold the line, because he knew it would be meaningless. The black demon god needed only one second to reduce his remaining forces to ashes—perhaps even less.
They were finished. So was this planet.
Yet all of a sudden, the invincible black demon god stopped. He raised his head and let out a roar that sounded as though he were in extreme pain. Dark crimson light burst from his nose and mouth. Then, without warning, his entire body shattered, like an inflated balloon bursting from the inside out. A terrifying energy beyond human comprehension shot toward the sky and vanished beyond the clouds moments later.
The black monsters stirred uneasily. The fall of their leader had clearly caused considerable chaos. They scurried about like headless flies for over a minute. Then several enormous vortices opened in the sky above the city. The monsters no longer cared to destroy anything and swarmed desperately into the aerial vortices. Within ten minutes, they had withdrawn completely.
General Sidman stared dumbfounded at everything unfolding on the monitor. Silence held the command center for a long time, so quiet that even a pin dropping would have been clearly heard.
The invaders were gone. They had won.