A scarlet pillar of light tore through the clouds.
There was no sound. When energy reached a certain critical density, even the vibrations in the air were forcibly erased.
Over ten meters in diameter, the destructive beam slammed straight toward the center of Metropolis's ruins, bearing enough terrifying power to punch clean through the earth's crust.
There was nowhere to run.
Yang Ming knelt on one knee amid the rubble, every muscle fiber feeling as though countless blunt knives were sawing through it. The backlash from opening the seventh of the Eight Gates was ravaging his body. Even lifting a finger took all his strength.
"Fuck." A rusty taste rose in Yang Ming's throat, and he spat a mouthful of bloody foam onto the ground.
The phone in his pocket was still warm. Thirty million dollars had just landed in his account, and he hadn't even decided how to spend it.
He wondered whether he should pull out the Anywhere Door and flee in full view of everyone, but if he ran, Dave and Bruce would be in for hell.
"Teacher Yang!"
A dozen meters away, Dave bellowed hoarsely, scrambling to reach him, only for Bruce to pin him firmly to the ground.
Bruce raised his head, the blue eyes beneath his mask fixed on that red light.
"Looks like this time, we're going to die... right here."
Just as the pillar of light came within fifty meters of Yang Ming's head-
BOOM!!!
An incredibly violent sonic boom erupted over the bay!
The air was brutally torn apart as a red-and-blue blur cut sideways into the main cannon's firing path at a terrifying speed that defied every law of physics!
Clark Kent had arrived.
He neither slowed nor dodged. Crossing his arms in front of himself, he slammed head-on into