The top floor of Lex Luthor Building.
The laboratory was deathly silent, with only the muffled whirring of the air conditioner.
Lex Luthor stood ramrod straight, his expensive custom-made suit soaked with cold sweat.
He dared not move, not even adjust his stiff posture.
Before him, a massive light screen composed of pure energy filled the entire wall.
The light screen was divided into dozens of small sections, each displaying in real time the fierce battles taking place in different corners of the battlefield.
This is a "live broadcast" that Thor casually projected.
The culprit was sitting swaggering in Lex Luthor's office chair, holding a bunch of purple grapes that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, and popping them into his mouth one by one.
Beside him, the woman in black named "Death" stood quietly; her very presence lowered the temperature of the entire space by several degrees.
Lex Luthor's attention was fixed on the largest screen.
In the scene, the black-haired female Kryptonian is engaged in a brutal battle with Darkseid.
Around them, Constantine's Hellfire, Zatanna's curses, Shazam's divine lightning... all the survivors, familiar or unfamiliar to him, were ganging up on the dark lord in a way he couldn't comprehend at all.
How is that possible?
Lex Luthor's brain was racing, but he came to only one conclusion: absurd.
He never expected that these survivors, whom he considered to be like stray dogs, would unleash such terrifying fighting power.
The most outrageous one is Clark.
His lifelong nemesis, Superman.
No one knew better than him how strong his opponent was.
In order to counter that man, he studied everything about Kryptonian, even making Superman develop a certain resistance to scattered Kryptonite powder.
But just now, in a brief replay on another split screen, he witnessed a scene that shattered his worldview.
Brainwashed by Apokolips technology, Clark, his eyes bloodshot, charged irrationally at the Supergirl.
The woman simply threw a punch.
A solid punch landed on Clark's face.
There was no burst of energy, no fancy techniques, just pure physical force.
Then... the crimson light that Clark had been controlled vanished instantly, and he regained his senses.
Lex Luthor felt his teeth chattering.
He had studied the brainwashing techniques of Apokolips; it was a deep control at the genetic and Soul Stone levels, and its technological level was many centuries ahead of Earth!
Even with all his wisdom, he could only barely decipher the most superficial aspects of it.
Such terrifying skill, just like that... was destroyed with a single punch?
This is no longer science.
This is theology!
Lex Luthor subconsciously glanced at the man eating grapes and the quiet lady beside him out of the corner of his eye.
He understood everything.
The reason these people became so powerful is most likely related to these two mysterious beings.
A chilling sense of powerlessness gripped his heart. He, Lex Luthor, the most brilliant mind on Earth, the pinnacle of human civilization.
He has schemed against Superman, fought against alien invasions, and even peered into the realm of the gods.
But in the presence of these two beings, he was no different from a transparent glass bottle, completely visible inside and out.
As Thor said before, Lex Luthor might still be useful to Earth and to those superheroes.
But for these two people, his presence or absence makes no difference.
All he can do now is stand quietly and be a dutiful quail egg.
"Tsk, these guys are really putting on a good show." Thor popped another grape into his mouth and mumbled a comment that was neither clear whether it was praise nor sarcasm.
With a casual swipe of his finger, the screen switched images, and one of the split screens was instantly magnified.
The scene no longer shows Darkseid, but the interior of a massive warship.
The space was filled with jagged metal pipes and instruments flashing an ominous red light.
Cyborg Victor Stone was strapped to a cross-shaped rack, with countless data cables piercing his body, frantically extracting information from the Mother Box within him.
Around him, the Granny Goodness and her henchman DeSaad were engaged in a fierce battle with another group.
It's the Bat Family.
Nightwing, Red Hood, Batwoman, Oracle, and the youngest and fiercest of them all Damian.
The funniest thing happened.
Bruce Wayne, the Dark Knight who always lurks in the shadows, has run headfirst into the Granny Goodness.
A sinister smile appeared on the old hag's wrinkled face as she uttered a simple word.
"Obey."
Batman froze instantly.
The next second, he whirled around and delivered a fierce whip kick to Jason Todd, the Red Hood who was closest to him.
"Ha! I knew it!" Jason yelled, neither dodging nor avoiding, but blocking with both arms, while the crowbar in his other hand slammed hard into Batman's knee.
Click!
A crisp sound of bones dislocating.
Batman grunted and knelt on one knee.
Before he could make a further move, Damian's knife hilt struck him hard on the back of the neck from a tricky angle.
Bruce Wayne's eyes rolled back, and he fell straight forward.
The entire process was smooth and seamless, with perfect coordination and not a moment's hesitation.
It was as if they weren't attacking their father and mentor, but rather dismantling a malfunctioning machine.
Lex Luthor's eyelids twitched as he watched.
Is this... is this still family?!
This method of handling the situation was far more ruthless and efficient than any gang organization he had ever encountered.
"Hahaha, interesting." Thor let out a low laugh. " The Wayne family's parent-child interaction time is always so unique."
Death simply watched quietly, gently shook its head, and said nothing.
Lex Luthor couldn't laugh; he only felt a chill run from the soles of his feet straight to the top of his head.
He always regarded Batman as an opponent on par with Superman, a mortal with a godlike willpower.
But now, this willpower is laughably fragile in the face of absolute power.
His children, however, were instantly "rebooted" using a near-cruel "physical therapy."
These survivors, driven to the brink of Extremis, have transformed into monsters he no longer recognizes.
Just then, the battle situation on the main screen changed again.
Darkseid, thoroughly annoyed by a swarm of "insects," finally ran out of patience.
He ignored the magic and harassment around him, letting the attacks strike his indestructible armor, producing a series of clanging sounds.
His bloodshot eyes were fixed on the black-haired Kryptonian kept jumping around in front of him.
That's enough.
A deep, yet powerful, voice, filled with boundless rage and authority, seemed not to emanate from his mouth, but rather resonated deep within the Soul Stone of everyone present.
boom--!
A terrifying energy far exceeding anything seen before erupted from Darkseid's body, transforming into a visible dark red shockwave that swept outwards in all directions!
Kara, who was closest to the wave, was hit hard by the energy wave and sent flying through the air in a horrific parabola.
Shazam, Constantine, Zatanna... all the heroes who were besieging the enemy were instantly blasted away by this force, falling like leaves in a storm, scattering into the distance.
In just a moment, the battlefield was cleared once again.
Darkseid was left alone, suspended in mid-air.
His entire suit of armor was radiating a destructive dark red light, and Omega symbols swirled and flickered around him.
"Now..." He slowly raised his head, his indifferent gaze sweeping across the entire battlefield before finally settling on the direction of Lex Luthor Tower, as if piercing through endless space to directly confront the three people in the laboratory, "Your turn."
Thor stopped eating the grapes.
He finally sat up straight, casually tossing the grape stem in his hand. The stem turned into specks of golden light and vanished in mid-air.
On the light screen, Darkseid's figure began to blur, and the surrounding space distorted violently; he seemed to be activating some kind of teleportation ability.
Lex Luthor's heart nearly jumped out of his throat.
He's coming! He's going to teleport directly here!
"Oh?" Thor finally spoke, his voice not loud, but with a hint of amusement after being provoked. "Found me? Looks like you're not too stupid after all."
He stood up, stretched, and his bones crackled and popped.
"Die
"Tetiyu, you're watching the show here." He waved casually at the woman in black. "I'm going to stretch my legs."
Before he finished speaking, he had already disappeared from the spot.
The next second, the giant light screen in Lex Luthor's office suddenly crackled and the image turned into blinding static.
Immediately afterwards, the entire Lex Luthor Building, no, the entire universe, heard a deafening roar!