Darkseid Is Dead, Eric Shall Rise

Hearing the commotion from the Owl Council chamber, Eric looked up.

The council members who had witnessed Mr. Irony's defeat firsthand had been terrified by the power displayed by the so-called "Homelander." Unable to maintain even a semblance of calm and composure, they abandoned their seats and fled in panic.

Bang!

The air rippled as Eric activated his super speed, instantly appearing in the Owl Council hall.

With one hand, he seized the panicked chairman by the throat.

"Looks like the final victory in this game of hide-and-seek belongs to me."

With a soft chuckle, Eric rolled his neck. Beneath the owl mask, his eyes glowed with an eerie crimson light.

"Y-you... who are you?"

His neck gripped tight, the chairman's face turned red as he forced a few words from his throat.

He had witnessed Eric's battle with Mr. Irony earlier. The visually overwhelming fight between them had left even someone as composed as him unable to remain calm.

"What a strange question."

Eric's grip around the man's throat steadily tightened. "You call yourselves the shadow of this city, claiming to have shaped everything within it, yet why did you fail to investigate even my identity? Or are you merely a group of rats with nothing but appearances, pretending to be profound in the sewers?"

"I-I beg for mercy!"

The chairman, who had always looked down on others and called himself a god, finally revealed his fear. "I-I'll give you everything you want. I'll fulfill any desire you have."

"Sorry, but I'm getting a little tired of this game. If it were those owls in Gotham, I might still be interested in playing with them, but it's time for you to leave the stage."

As soon as he finished speaking, a beam of crimson Heat Vision shot from his eyes.

The wide-set beams struck the chairman directly in the eyes, and the searing heat melted his eye sockets in an instant.

Eric released his hand, and the chairman's corpse crashed heavily to the floor.

Seeing the chairman's horrific state, the fleeing council members screamed in even greater terror.

A woman in an exquisite gown was running and screaming when, in the next second, a sharp pain erupted across her back. With a bang, she was slammed into the wall beside a bench, collapsing into a curled-up heap.

A young councilwoman who had once brutally tortured and murdered her enemies by the cruelest means was pierced straight through the chest by Heat Vision. Her feet stumbled, and she fell headfirst before an owl statue.

She lay there quietly, gasping for breath, her burning face pressed against the floor. Tears of fear and unwillingness flowed out, as hot and heavy as the blood of those she had killed.

The lights above the council chamber were damaged as well. They flickered with a hiss before going out.

A man in an elegant black formal suit was struck by a severed live power cable. His mind registered a dull impact, then his body began convulsing wildly as he fell forward.

When Clark entered the Owl Council, he saw corpses covering the floor, flickering lights, dark red blood staining the ground, and electrical wires occasionally spitting sparks.

"Eric..."

Clark stared at the expressionless Eric in shock. "You killed them?"

"They were just rats. Dead is dead."

Taking off his owl mask, Eric casually tossed it onto the floor and crushed it beneath his foot.

"You don't need to mourn them. Go mourn the people they killed."

"B-but!"

Clark's voice was filled with shock and incomprehension. "Even if they were villains, they should have been handed over to the law for judgment."

"They are the law, Clark. Even the law cannot judge them."

Eric's gaze gradually turned cold. "The law exists to protect rats like them, those who think themselves the ruling class. If you want to play within their rules, then be prepared to be crushed to pieces. So put away that useless sense of justice and compassion."

"Maybe some of them were innocent. Maybe not all of them were terrorists. You can't lump them all together."

Clark still sounded unable to understand. "You shouldn't have done this, Eric."

"Innocents? Maybe there were some, maybe there weren't. But... who cares?"

A light so calm it was nearly indifferent flickered in Eric's eyes. "There are people who believe in the law of the jungle and survival of the fittest. Then fight them in that way, not with laws and rules."

"I think..."

Clark fell silent for a moment, then raised his head and looked into Eric's eyes. "Eric, we aren't gods. We have no right to judge others. I would never elevate myself to a position where I can judge people just because I have power. What I feel more is fear. I'm afraid my power will hurt the people around me. I'm afraid my power will make this world afraid. Eric, I don't want you to become that kind of person."

"That's exactly where we differ."

Eric turned and walked forward. "But there's one thing you got wrong. I don't think of myself as a god, because I have the same weaknesses as everyone else in this world."

Reaching a wall, he suddenly threw a punch.

The wall was blasted open by the tremendous force, revealing a hidden space before him.

Stepping over the rubble, Eric entered the Owl Council's secret hideout.

Inside the hidden space, cabinets were filled with all kinds of documents and records.

Glass display cases held countless skulls. Each skull had a code name and a name marked before it, presumably trophies of the Owl Council.

In the metal chest with its intricate locks at the center of the room were all kinds of precious metals, currency forged from rare metal materials, and owl statues made of gold.

All of the Metropolis Owl Council's wealth was likely stored here.

"What is this—?!"

As Eric examined the hidden space, Clark walked in.

When he saw the skulls in the glass cases, his expression changed in shock.

"Looks like some kind of trophy collection."

Eric replied casually.

"..."

Clark walked over to the glass cases and stared at the skulls inside with complicated emotions.

Then his gaze inadvertently caught an ancient book with an archaic design.

Mysterious patterns were engraved on its cover, but it had no title. It simply lay quietly at the very bottom of a cabinet.

Driven by curiosity, Clark walked up to the cabinet and picked up the mysterious book.

He gently opened the heavy ancient book to its first page.

His consciousness suddenly blurred.

Space twisted, then darkness engulfed him. When his vision returned to normal, he found himself in an unfamiliar place.

Amid a landscape of ruined walls and broken debris, he was dressed in a blue-black bodysuit and cape, slowly descending from the sky.

Eric, dressed in a dark uniform, floated before him with a trident in hand.

Impaled upon the trident was a bald man with a ferocious face, dark skin, and dark red eyes.

On the ground before them stood several people in bizarre outfits: one dressed as a bat, another a woman clad in red-and-gold battle armor and wearing a winged crown...

The people on the ground stared at the trident in Eric's hand in shock, their eyes filled with disbelief and terror.

"Darkseid is dead!"

Floating in midair, Eric slowly spoke the words.

Thank you all for your votes! You've worked hard!