Clark reacted even faster than Diana. The instant the black dot appeared, he sidestepped and smoothly evaded the sneak attack, narrowing his eyes at Steppenwolf. "I thought you'd be tougher than that. That's all you've got?"
Before he finished speaking, the red-and-blue figure seized the blue-gray one and shot out of Earth like a cannonball. The thunderous boom of breaking the sound barrier still rang in their ears when they had already surpassed escape velocity. Before reaching Mars, they had entered sublight speed. And when Clark crashed into the Sun with Steppenwolf in his arms, the Spacetime stagnation brought by lightspeed made the tongues of solar particles dance with elegant grace.
Steppenwolf did not even have time to scream before the blistering heat and immense pressure of the Sun's core melted him away without leaving even ashes behind. Clark emerged from the Sun with only the corners of his clothes slightly dirty, and by the time he returned to Earth, the flames on his cape had already gone out.
Clark clapped his hands. "Done."
Everyone froze for a moment before erupting into deafening cheers. Clark shrugged, putting on an indifferent look, but the corners of his lips still lifted.
Just as everyone breathed a sigh of relief, faint ripples suddenly spread across the sea. Arthur was the first to sense that something was wrong, lowering his head to look into the ocean depths. Clark, too, felt a subtle tremor beneath his feet.
Then, before everyone's shocked eyes, an enormous city rose from the sea. Arthur was stunned, because it was Atlantis.
Beneath Atlantis, within the pitch-black seawater, a towering figure held the city aloft. His body was a deathly blue-black, and dense darkness churned in his eyes. Arthur's gaze pierced through the seawater, and the moment he saw that face,