The shockwave spread outward, shoving mantle material in every direction and forming a spherical cavity hundreds of kilometers across.
At the boundary of the cavity, the mantle material had been compressed into a ring of dark-red, glowing walls, like the shell of an expanding star.
Inside the cavity, there was no matter, no air—only Loren's energy shield and the embryo's energy beam.
Loren's shield began to heat up under the beam's continuous assault.
Dark-red spots appeared across its silvery-white surface, marks left by the embryo's energy.
His arms trembled faintly, not from fear, but from exertion.
The embryo's power was stronger than he had expected—so strong that even his Silver Superman body had to draw on all its strength to maintain the shield's integrity.
Tina stood behind Loren, covering her ears with both hands.
Even though she knew there was no air deep within the Earth and sound could not travel.
Yet the vibrations generated by that energy impact pierced through her body, making her teeth ache, her eye sockets swell, and her internal organs shift slightly with the resonance.
She watched Loren's back, watched his hair remain utterly still amid the energy storm, watched his eyes calmly fix on the beam tearing through the Earth's core.
"How long can you hold out?" Tina's voice was almost inaudible beneath the hum of the energy field.
"I don't need to hold out for long," Loren said. "It can't hold out for long."
The embryo's energy beam began to weaken.
Not because it wanted to stop, but because its energy core needed time to recharge after releasing too much power at once.
The dark-red pillar of light narrowed, weakened, and finally turned into a wisp of dark-red smoke that dissipated before Loren's shield.
The embryo's mouth closed, and the crack in its