On the screen, amid a lush, overgrown deserted island, two figures clashed fiercely at speeds too fast for the naked eye to follow. Everything around them was caught in the devastation and destroyed, as if a natural disaster had swept through.
Nearly half of the island, which covered close to a hundred square kilometers, had already been destroyed. Vast stretches of trees, rocks, and sea cliffs had vanished from the surface...
The land was riddled with devastation, covered in deep ravines and massive craters like a brutal battlefield bombarded by tactical nuclear weapons.
"..."
Watching the screen, even Edgar fell silent as he slowly rose from his chair, a hint of shock in his eyes.
Even he, who had always controlled and managed Vought International, had never seen anything like this.
No one had ever fought Homelander to this extent, or for this long.
Because Ron's displayed abilities differed somewhat from Homelander's, he had once suspected that Ron truly possessed strength comparable to Homelander's.
"But now... there is no doubt. It is just... not a good thing!"
He took a deep breath and watched with a grave expression.
On the screen, Ron seemed to have the upper hand against Homelander. He was far faster, and Homelander was tossed around like a punching bag through the sky and across the ground. Only his occasional counterattacks could hit Ron.
"The destruction caused by their power has cumulatively exceeded that of a thirty-megaton hydrogen bomb!"
After running an analysis on the computer, a technician turned deathly pale and stammered.
"If they had fought in New York, a conservative estimate says at least... several million people would be dead by now!"
The others watching the screen were terrified as well, their teeth chattering.
They had actually worked and lived every day in the same building as monsters with that kind of power!
How was that any different from working while sitting on a nuclear bomb? It was even worse!
"At least... at least two nuclear bombs would not start fighting because they did not like each other!"
They thought in terror.
No matter how powerful something sounded on paper, it was only a dry line of text. How could that compare to witnessing the shocking destruction caused by its power firsthand?
Madelyn's mouth hung slightly open, shock filling her eyes. She had never seen Homelander, who had always obeyed her every word and was even obsessed with her, be so frightening, so terrifying.
Only a few days ago, Homelander had destroyed a plane carrying a mayor just to please her.
And Ron...
"Homelander's fists cannot even budge him, while Ron often sends Homelander flying into the sky with a single punch, or drives him into the ground."
"A younger, stronger Homelander!"
In the blink of an eye, more than an hour had passed.
The two continued their fierce battle without stopping for even a moment.
"I am Homelander. I am the strongest."
Homelander roared viciously, flying up and launching a barrage of attacks. He had never felt so humiliated and powerless.
Even after fighting this long, he had not damaged so much as a single hair on Ron's head.
"No one can compare to me!"
Sizzle!
After his attack was dodged, light flared in his eyes as he unleashed his heat vision once again, beams capable of slicing through every substance on Earth shooting forth!
"It is useless. How many times have you tried already?"
In the sky, Ron's eyes lit up like two miniature scarlet suns, firing beams together.
The two beams collided, scattering sparks of energy and vaporizing everything.
"I saw through your power long ago. It has a limit. You are only forcing yourself to hold on and pretending to be relaxed!"
Homelander roared, his face twisted with rage. Baring his teeth, he poured every ounce of strength into his heat vision.
Though he said that, ever since learning that Ron's strange ability could absorb all kinds of energy and render him immune to damage, he had been trying to overload Ron.
But Ron's energy absorption ability seemed like a bottomless abyss, like a massive black hole without limits!
It left him feeling utterly powerless, making him unable to control his irritable fury.
"Is that so?
Then go ahead and try!"
Ron sneered and pushed his energy beams even harder.
Every ability had its limits. In truth, during their high-speed battle, Homelander had come close several times to reaching the limit of the energy Ron could absorb.
But Ron had quickly released the energy he had accumulated each time, turning danger into safety.
If Homelander had been a little faster, if his attacks had landed more quickly and more frequently, Ron would have already been in danger.
"Unfortunately, there are no ifs..."
Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle!
The two beams collided, sending out rolling waves of blistering heat and setting the island ablaze.
Because the energy output at the point of impact was too fast to annihilate itself in time, a massive energy sphere had formed there, swelling larger and larger.
Finally, after dozens of seconds, the energy sphere, several meters in radius, seemed to reach some kind of limit.
Boom! Boom!
A world-shaking explosion erupted, unleashing endless light and heat.
It was as if a sun had suddenly leaped into the sky!
Heaven and earth seemed to tremble.
A pitch-black sinkhole appeared at the center of the island. The unfortunate deserted island could no longer endure the devastation of their power. It was completely stripped bare, and everything on its surface was destroyed!
A massive shockwave swept across dozens of miles, sending both of them flying.
After tumbling several times, they steadied themselves in midair.
"Do you still want to fight?"
Ron and Homelander hovered far apart in the air, staring at each other. Their gazes seemed capable of colliding and throwing off sparks as Ron asked coldly.
"You think I am afraid of you?!"
Homelander's face darkened. He clenched his fists and spoke word by word, but he did not move again.
His hair was disheveled, his face smeared with dirt, and his clothes were in tatters. He looked like a homeless man by the roadside. He had never been so miserable.
"Heh..."
Seeing through him, Ron, with his hands behind his back, gave a cold laugh and said nothing. With a bang, he vanished.
Neither could do anything to the other. Ron was not certain he could kill Homelander, so there was no point in continuing.
Their battle had confirmed one thing for him—Homelander's greatest strength truly was his defense!
Although Ron had landed more attacks, Homelander's worst injuries so far were only some slight redness and swelling in a few places.
But comparatively, Homelander had even less confidence than Ron.
Ron had casually blocked and caught his attacks for so long that it was utterly discouraging. They had fought for this long; even a mountain should have been blasted apart and flattened, yet Ron had suffered no effect at all.
"Damn it..."
After Ron left, Homelander remained in midair, his face so dark it seemed capable of dripping water. He did not move for a long while before finally breaking the sound barrier again and again, leaving thunderous booms behind as he turned and flew away at top speed.
"It is over..."
Inside the office.
As the battle between the two came to an end, everyone let out a sigh of relief.
"Did Homelander... lose?"
Suddenly, a hesitant voice broke the silence in the office.
They looked at each other. "It... it seems so. At least Homelander did not win."
The battle seemed to have ended without a result, and both still had the strength to fight again.
But in their eyes, Ron's hair had not even been disturbed, while Homelander had been beaten into that state. It was truly difficult to say that Homelander had won.
"Enough. Go downstairs and sign a nondisclosure agreement. No one can talk about what happened today!"
The shock had not yet faded from Madelyn's face. She stopped them from discussing it further and told them to go sign nondisclosure agreements. Though there was no way this incident would remain unknown, and the entire world would likely be thrown into a frenzy over it, the details could not be leaked.
Once the technicians left, she hurriedly looked toward Edgar.
"Sir, what do we do now?"
Would Homelander believe the company had created Ron, and become resentful and lose control?
And what about Ron?
He was younger, yet not the slightest bit weaker than Homelander. The company still had not found a way to firmly control him!"
Having witnessed the destructive power of the two, Madelyn was panicking, unable to suppress her growing fear.
Edgar, who had always remained calm no matter what happened, slowly sat back down in his office chair. Expressionless and deep in thought, he spoke with absolute certainty.
"Given Homelander's nature, he will not."
"His former pride would not have allowed it, and now that Ron has shattered the pride of believing himself unique and above all others, he is even less likely to."
Unlike Homelander, whom he understood completely, Edgar fell silent when it came to Ron.
"As for Ron..."
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