Flame-wreathed black-and-red tendrils seized Homelander in the night sky.
Homelander was yanked to an abrupt halt, his cape pulled into a straight line by the howling wind. Several bone spikes scraped across his back, tearing open more wounds.
He looked down, and his face instantly turned ashen.
"Let go of me."
The red glow in Homelander's eyes had already grown blindingly bright, but it could not hide his panic.
"What's the hurry?" Chen Mo stood amid the flames, slowly closing his fingers. "You're already here. Why not stay for a meal?"
The moment he finished speaking, the tendrils jerked downward.
Homelander was dragged out of the air like a fish on a line.
His eyes swung sideways, and two beams of Heat Vision swept along the tendrils. The black-and-red flesh was instantly cut most of the way through, charred scraps of meat crackling as they fell into the fire pit.
But the next second, Chen Mo appeared beneath him.
He grabbed Homelander by the ankle.
"Got you."
Chen Mo grinned. The muscles in his arm swelled, and he swung Homelander down hard into the ground.
Boom.
The impact blasted a deep crater into the old highway. Cracks spread outward like a spiderweb, and rubble and sparks shot more than ten meters into the air.
Homelander lay at the bottom of the crater, his chest heaving. For the first time, his face had lost its usual lofty composure.
Chen Mo landed at the edge of the crater. The bone spikes behind his shoulders spread one by one, as if choosing where to cut.
"I have to say, you can take a pretty good beating." He looked down at Homelander, sounding quite serious. "It's just that your packaging is too flashy. It spoils my appetite."
Stormfront's expression changed completely.
It was the first time Homelander had been smashed into the ground like a ragged sack. In their previous clashes, the two sides had been fairly evenly matched.
She stopped mouthing off and thrust both hands forward. Purple-white lightning burst from her palms, converging into a thick column that blasted straight at Chen Mo's back.
Black Noir moved at the same moment.
He charged out of the shadows cast by the lightning, gripping a short blade in reverse. He skimmed almost along the ground, but his target was not one of Chen Mo's vital points. It was his wrist.
He was saving Homelander.
Chen Mo immediately understood his intention, and the corner of his mouth twitched.
"Finally, something that actually belongs in a superhero story. Pretty touching."
The lightning struck Chen Mo's back, instantly blasting large scorch marks across the surface of his black-and-red armor.
Black Noir seized the chance to close in and thrust his short blade into the joint of Chen Mo's arm. The blade lodged in his flesh, unable to advance another half inch.
Chen Mo turned his head and glanced at him.
Black Noir did not retreat. Instead, he drove his knee toward Chen Mo's ribs, determined to use his body to hold him in place.
Seeing this, Homelander jerked his head up. His Heat Vision swept out from the bottom of the crater, severing the last few tendrils wrapped around his ankle.
He finally broke free and slammed a fist into Chen Mo's chest.
Bang.
The blow drove Chen Mo back half a step, but the rebound also made Black Noir's shoulder jerk.
Chen Mo looked down at the armor plate dented in his chest, then looked at Black Noir.
"You really aren't afraid to die."
As soon as he finished speaking, a layer of heavy black-and-red armor sprang over his right fist, which smashed into Black Noir's abdomen like a battering ram.
Squelch.
The fist punched straight through his suit and emerged from Black Noir's back.
Black Noir's body stiffened. The short blade slipped from his hand and clattered onto the shattered asphalt.
Stormfront gritted her teeth, and lightning erupted again, gouging a charred fissure through the ground between her and Chen Mo.
Homelander took the opportunity to fly out of the crater. The suit on his chest had been slashed to tatters, and another streak of blood marked the corner of his mouth.
Chen Mo held Black Noir up with one hand. Black-and-red flesh spread from his palm, already burrowing into Black Noir's body through the wound.
"I'll snack on an assassin first." Chen Mo looked up at Homelander. "Wait your turn. No cutting in line."
Homelander's face was frighteningly grim.
Of course he knew Black Noir was almost finished.
But what he found even harder to accept was that Black Noir had died saving him, and after this, Chen Mo would be even harder to kill.
No.
It was no longer a question of how hard he was to kill.
If they let this monster keep eating, the whole world would become his buffet.
Just as the black-and-red flesh was about to envelop Black Noir completely, several sharp whistles suddenly came from the distant night sky.
Chen Mo looked up.
Several missiles trailed flames as they shot out of the darkness, heading straight for the highway where he stood.
"Oh, extra dishes?"
The next second, the missiles exploded with a thunderous roar.
Fire engulfed the highway in an instant. The shockwave swept outward with rubble and dirt, and a huge section of the wasteland collapsed into a fire pit.
The heat and impact tore a gap in the Blacklight tendrils beneath Chen Mo's feet, and the blast knocked the hand holding Black Noir slightly aside.
Homelander moved.
He stopped talking and stopped pretending to be the world's number one.
The blue-and-red figure plunged into the edge of the explosion. He first used Heat Vision to interrupt the devouring, then grabbed the half-dead Black Noir. Reaching out, he seized Stormfront, who had been thrown away by the blast, and shot straight into the sky.
Stormfront stumbled as he pulled her, the anger on her face yet to fade.
"You're running?"
Homelander did not look at her. He simply gritted his teeth and flew upward.
"Shut up."
The words seemed to be forced out between his teeth.
Chen Mo rose to his feet at the edge of the fire pit, half his body charred black. It healed within seconds.
He raised a hand and grasped, telekinetic force pressing down hard on the air above.
Homelander's body jerked to a halt, his cape snapping as an invisible force pulled at it.
The armor on Stormfront's shoulder was also torn off, falling away with a chunk of flesh.
Chen Mo closed his fingers further.
Crack.
Half of Homelander's cape tore away and fluttered down into the flames.
The blue-and-red figure carried the other two into the clouds, quickly disappearing into the depths of the night sky.
Chen Mo stood where he was, with only half a charred cape and a bloodstained piece of armor left in his hand.
"They ran faster than rabbits."
The surviving superhuman soldiers in the distance had completely broken down.
Some turned and ran, some knelt on the ground begging for mercy, and others held up their guns but could not even pull the triggers.
Chen Mo turned and looked at them.
Firelight shone on his black-and-red armor, and flames still flowed between his fingers after he had just devoured Lamplighter.
"Don't panic." He walked toward the nearest soldier, his tone quite calm. "Your captain abandoned you. I'll feed you."
The soldier's lips trembled, and he turned to flee.
Black-and-red tendrils burst from the ground, instantly wrapped around his waist, and dragged him back to Chen Mo's feet.
His screams were quickly swallowed by the churning flesh.
The rest did not get far either.
The tendrils spread from the cracked highway and the edges of the fire pit like a black-and-red net, dragging the superhuman soldiers who could still move into the fire one by one.
Chen Mo was in no hurry to chase Homelander.
He stood by the fire pit, watching the energy he had expended gradually replenish. The smile on his face slowly faded.
Vought had seen it this time.
Devouring.
Evolution.
Plundering.
These things could no longer be hidden.
Next time, they would not send just a team to surround and kill him.
Perhaps it would be an army, perhaps some secret weapon, or perhaps the entire machinery of the state would bear down on him under the guise of legality.
Chen Mo exhaled a breath of hot air flecked with sparks.
"What a nuisance."
He had just finished eating the last superhuman when a Vought drone in the distance that had yet to crash suddenly stirred.
Its camera slowly turned within its charred casing and aimed precisely at him.
Chen Mo raised an eyebrow.
A burst of static came from the drone's speaker.
Then Edgar's calm voice came through.
"Mr. Blood Angel, now we can discuss the second offer."