A man had kept the universe's greatest secret for himself. That was what Vandal Savage had done in the past. He carefully safeguarded the meteor fragments and studied the knowledge within them.
Over his long life, aside from dealing with rivals like Hawkman and Hawkgirl, he had spent most of his time on the second meteor.
The information—or rather, the power—it contained was far beyond human comprehension. He had needed his long life to decipher it.
He needed magic, psychic power, technology, help in every possible field—things he did not possess himself.
To that end, he had once traveled to ancient Atlantis and sought the help of the great hero Arion. Yet a few centuries later, Arion's life had abruptly ended along with the Tears of Extinction.
Vandal Savage had made some progress, but it was far from enough. He came to understand the power of gods, so he waited several thousand more years. By displaying fearless bravery in the arenas of Ancient Rome, he earned the favor of Ares, the God of War.
The God of War helped him temper and purify the meteor with rage, weakening the barrier around that fragment.
After that, Vandal Savage sought out King Arthur. Beyond the Knights of the Round Table, King Arthur also had the strongest order of sorcerers in the world at the time: Merlin's Circle of Mages.
Great Mage Merlin, Vivienne the Lady of the Lake, Morgan le Fay, Madame Xanadu. In an age when gods no longer walked the world, these people were forces capable of changing it.
The sorcerers turned the irregular meteor into a sphere.
Over the following thousand years, Vandal Savage found many people—scientists, artists, sorcerers, lunatics—and the meteor's secrets gradually dwindled.
But as with all research, the final step was always the hardest. So around