Heh, Idiot

Angelina's pupils slowly dilated. Even straining her eyes to the limit just now, she had only caught an Afterimage of Azu's rapid advance.

She simply could not see his movements clearly!

Master was so fast!

Angelina breathed heavily. She had thought she understood Homelander's strength well enough, but only now did she realize that what she had seen was merely the tip of the iceberg.

Also looking at the fallen Big Eater, Midnight Clown Brad felt something entirely different.

It's over!

Without Big Eater's Dimensional Projection holding him back, Homelander's energy beams will kill me!

No, calm down.

Brad, it's not time to despair yet.

I can use the Substitution Technique and illusions to shake Homelander off!

With that thought, Brad broke into a run. However, he did not excel at speed, and at most, he could only run a little faster than an ordinary person.

Azu glanced at the fleeing Joker and waved a hand. "Xiao Na, get out of here. As fast as you can."

Without waiting to see the result, he shot into the sky. Then his eyes swiftly lit up with golden radiance, bright and blazing like the midday sun!

As the capillaries around Azu's eyes lit up, the temperature in the air began to rise sharply.

The swelling heat made the air itself rumble, producing a thunderous roar.

Brad's heart trembled as he ran. It felt as though a volcano was about to erupt behind him!

The Joker merely glanced back, and his eyes felt as if countless silver needles had stabbed into them. The pain instantly blurred his vision and brought tears streaming down.

He knew that the energy Homelander was gathering behind him was simply too powerful, the heat it gave off too scorching. Even a Super like him could not endure it, which was why his eyes hurt and filled with tears.

Brad let out a scream, rainbow-colored light surging in his eyes. Then one phantom after another appeared across the ground.

The Joker had created illusions.

Countless figures, Joker after Joker, sprinted in every direction, trying to prevent Azu from locking onto his true body.

"Heh, idiot."

Azu's lips curled upward. He no longer suppressed the energy, allowing the scorching, violent power in his eyes to erupt like a volcanic explosion.

Boom!

The tremendous blast drew the attention of Colonel Yuri and the others in the distance.

They looked up and saw a brilliant golden pillar of light descend from the sky, pouring downward like a waterfall.

It radiated astonishing heat and carried the force to burn everything. The instant it touched the ground, it raised towering waves of fire!

Like a tsunami, the firestorm spread in every direction. Wherever it passed, everything turned to ash.

It skipped the process of burning entirely and went straight to the result!

The many figures Brad had conjured vanished in swathes within the firestorm. When the searing flames and shockwave caught up to him, Brad cried out in despair, "No!"

The flames and shockwave washed over him.

Midnight Clown's body instantly turned to charcoal, then shattered segment by segment from head to toe before exploding with a roar!

That firestorm swept across the entire town and even spread to the highway beyond it, finally stopping before it crashed into the army, Starlight, and the other Supers.

Before them, the earth was blackened and devastated beyond recognition.

Starlight swayed and collapsed onto the ground, only to cry out and leap back up.

The ground was like a red-hot iron plate at that moment. Even a Super like her could not bear it, much less the soldiers.

They did not dare stop until they had retreated two kilometers away.

In the sky, Azu gave a surprised "Huh." "The event isn't complete yet?"

"Mm, even though Brad and his Circus are finished."

"Those Nightcrawlers haven't been cleared out yet."

He looked around and quickly spotted a dense, black mass of people.

Nightcrawlers!

After rushing out of the town, those things had already taken the highway toward the distant city of New York.

Aside from that group, some Nightcrawlers had scattered in twos and threes, running in other directions.

Azu ignored the stragglers and focused only on the pack of Nightcrawlers heading for New York.

He rose higher into the sky, made a slight adjustment, and shot away with a howl.

At that moment.

On the interstate leading to New York, The Boys had set up barricades and checkpoints long ago after receiving Midnight Clown's threat.

Beside a Tank, several soldiers hid in the shade cast by its hull.

"Does anyone know what's happening in Silver Tree Town now?"

"No idea. Even if something happened, the higher-ups wouldn't tell us."

"That's true. We're just grunts, after all."

At that moment, a soldier standing atop the Tank gave a surprised "Huh," then said, "Something's happening."

Before his words had even faded, the Broadcast sounded.

"We have just received notice from Colonel Yuri. The situation in Silver Tree Town is out of control. Mutated residents are heading in our direction!"

"These residents are extremely dangerous. They are highly aggressive and possess physical abilities beyond ordinary humans."

"During combat, aim for their heads whenever possible. That is the only way to stop them!"

Listening to the repeated Broadcast, a soldier who had been secretly smoking dropped his cigarette to the ground.

"Oh God."

"Oh God!"

The soldier atop the Tank shouted, "They're here! They're here!"

Soldiers immediately climbed onto the Tank, and one of them snatched up binoculars to look ahead.

On the highway, he saw one pitch-black figure after another. Every one of those dark figures was sprinting at astonishing speed.

Regardless of age or gender, red light shone from their eyes. They looked exactly like humanoid beasts.

There were an enormous number of them—at least nearly two thousand!

"You've got to be kidding."

Lowering the binoculars, the soldier glanced at the barricade. They were only a company, barely more than a hundred men.

How were they supposed to stop these mutated monsters?

As that black torrent drew closer and closer, some soldiers had already begun to pray. Others took photographs of the girls they loved from inside their hats and kissed them.

But just then.

The soldiers heard a tremendous boom from the sky. Then a blue shadow fell from above, smashing into the highway ahead like a meteor and making the ground shake.

"Homelander."

"It's Homelander!"

"We're saved!"

When they saw the blue figure clearly, the soldiers all cheered. Some even threw their hats into the air.

But someone soon questioned, "Can Homelander handle so many mutated monsters?"

The cheers immediately vanished.

Yeah.

There were two thousand monsters, while Homelander was alone. Could he really handle them?

The soldiers' confidence immediately began to waver again.

Then they saw Homelander rise into the air and charge toward those monsters.

His eyes lit up.

The next second, two golden beams blasted forth, sweeping down the highway.

Wherever the beams passed through the mutants, a row of them fell. Then blazing flames erupted all along the beams' path.

In an instant, a stretch of blazing fire more than a thousand meters long appeared on the interstate!

On that burning stretch, the mutants not struck by the beams were ignited by the flames, turning into fireballs and living torches.

Then, amid flames reaching nearly a thousand degrees, they melted, collapsed, and died!