The Way Home; A Shot Fired Eight Hundred Miles Away

Steppenwolf ran.

More accurately, he had been rescued.

Beckett did not know who that person was, but one thing was certain: whoever had rescued Steppenwolf was strong.

Very strong.

Perhaps even stronger than Odin, who had defeated him in Asgard, and stronger than his adoptive father, Thanos.

After all, not even Odin or Thanos could have withstood his energy attack without even revealing their true forms.

"For Darkseid…"

Beckett raised his head and stared in the direction where the teleportation array had vanished, murmuring the words Steppenwolf had left behind before fleeing in disgrace.

Who was Darkseid?

A person?

A place?

Or was Darkseid the one who had just stepped in and rescued Steppenwolf?

A string of questions flooded Beckett’s mind, but none had an answer.

"For Darkseid?"

Supporting Barry Allen, Bruce Wayne was likewise turning over the words Steppenwolf had left behind before departing.

Darkseid. The unfamiliar name instinctively put Bruce Wayne on guard.

And then there was Beckett, this Son of Titan.

Bruce Wayne’s gaze drifted unconsciously toward the severed arm on the beach.

It was Steppenwolf’s arm.

After Beckett had beaten him into fleeing like a rat, Steppenwolf clearly had neither the time nor the inclination to retrieve his severed limb.

Bruce Wayne had ideas for it.

"Unbelievable…"

"You remind me of Superman. I mean, in terms of strength."

Having contributed little throughout the battle and essentially watched from the sidelines with Mera, Diana sheathed her sword and put away her shield, then walked toward Beckett, who was still pondering Darkseid’s identity.

"…All right." After receiving no response from Beckett for quite some time, Diana waved toward Bruce Wayne in the distance to ease the awkwardness.

She took back that comparison.

At the very least, Superman was far more approachable than Beckett.

"Diana." Bruce Wayne, who had come over with Barry Allen, spared the greek demigoddess further embarrassment.

"Mera." Standing beside Beckett, Mera nodded to Bruce Wayne.

"Bruce Wayne."

"Barry Allen." The cheerful Flash, Barry Allen, introduced himself first, then turned his curious gaze toward Beckett, whose hair had already returned to its usual black.

"Thank you for your help, Beckett."

Bruce Wayne was watching him as well.

Everything about this man was simply too mysterious.

His formidable strength, his mysterious origins, even his changing hair color and pupils.

"I wasn’t trying to help you."

Interrupted in his thoughts by the man before him, Beckett frowned and turned to leave. Then Woz’s reminder arrived:

His Highness Beckett, please do not leave. Regarding the Mother Boxes, based on what Steppenwolf said earlier, Lady Mera will be a major breakthrough.

Beckett was speechless.

He always felt that something was off, yet he could not say what it was.

Beckett killed the conversation with a single sentence, and the atmosphere between them became rather awkward for a time.

"Diana, do you know Darkseid?"

In the end, it was Bruce Wayne, thick-skinned and black-hearted as ever, who broke the awkward silence.

"No, I’ve never heard of him. There may be records on Paradise Island, but if we want to know, I’ll have to go back."

"No one has looked through those ancient texts in a long time."

Diana shook her head, indicating that she knew nothing. She did not even know who Steppenwolf was yet; she was completely in the dark.

"No matter what Darkseid is, one thing is foreseeable."

"That their goal is the so-called Mother Boxes." Recalling what Steppenwolf had said when he targeted Mera earlier, Bruce Wayne’s gaze shifted to her.

The implication was obvious.

"Actually, I’m not entirely sure what Mother Boxes are either. But a legend has always circulated among the Seven Undersea Kingdoms."

"Long ago, the ancestors of Atlantis joined forces with the ancestors of humanity and the Amazon tribe to defeat alien invaders who wanted to invade Earth."

"And the Mother Boxes belonged to those alien invaders."

"The Mother Boxes are incredibly powerful. It is said they can destroy a planet in an instant, or drain one dry and turn it into a ravaged, empty shell. And apparently, they can also perform ultra-long-distance spatial teleportation."

"To ensure the Mother Boxes’ safety, the ancestors of the three races divided them into three parts and took them back to their respective peoples, hiding them separately to prevent them from being taken by those with malicious intentions."

As Mera finished explaining everything she knew about the Mother Boxes in one breath, Beckett narrowed his eyes thoughtfully.

Woz.

His Highness Beckett, this is Woz’s preliminary plan.

Woz typed in Titan script on the panel, communicating with Beckett.

It could hear what Mera said as well.

And precisely because of that, Woz swiftly drafted a preliminary plan for Beckett to return home.

Based on the information currently available, once the three Mother Boxes were combined, they would very likely unleash enough energy to blast open a passage through the universe.

Even if that was not enough, Beckett himself was an energy source. He could provide the final straw needed to break the camel’s back.

As long as Beckett could seize all three Mother Boxes and use the energy of his Super Saiyan form as the key to trigger the combined Mother Boxes, he could blow open a door leading out of this universe.

Then Beckett could go home.

As for the coordinates needed to return home, the dormant Reality Stone in Beckett’s possession was the best possible coordinate.

The Reality Stone was originally part of that universe’s laws. Once it entered the spatial gate, it would want to go home even more than Beckett did.

After all, in its own universe, it was one of the embodiments of the laws themselves. In another universe, it had lost its supreme status.

Seize… the three Mother Boxes…

Beckett silently calculated in his heart, his gaze unconsciously drifting toward Mera…

Five minutes earlier, in an unknown region of the Atlantic Ocean.

Under the protection of his personal guard, Orm, the current king of Atlantis, slowly surfaced.

"This is the deposit. Once the job is done, I’ll give you everything you want." Orm gestured for a guard to toss a bag in front of the human.

"Pleasure doing business with you."

"Likewise."

Watching the human quickly slip into the submarine, Orm sneered inwardly and waved his hand, preparing to leave.

Atlantis needed a reason to claim it had been "attacked by humans" in order to unify the politically fragmented Seven Undersea Kingdoms.

The current king of Atlantis was highly ambitious. He wanted to lead the undersea people into war against the surface, because that damned Kryptonian was truly dead. No one could stop them from returning to the land anymore.

Once I succeed, I’ll be the true ruler of this planet.

Humanity must be destroyed.

Orm’s eyes gleamed fiercely as he continued envisioning his glorious future. Suddenly, an intense sense of danger surged through him.

BOOM!!!

A silver-white wave of energy from nowhere pierced straight through the departing human’s submarine—and through half of Orm’s body as well!

"…What… what happened…?"

Feeling death approach, Orm was unwilling—unwilling to let his life end like this.

He had not yet unified the Seven Undersea Kingdoms. He had not yet conquered humanity. He had not yet…

When immortals fought, mortals suffered…

"What? Orm is dead? Atlantis is going to crown a new king?"

In Kansas, Mera’s expression turned extremely strange after receiving word from her father.

Her fiancé was dead???

Orm was just dead, like that?

Who did it?

I originally wanted to try releasing three chapters, but there wasn’t enough time to slack off today. I only managed six hundred words for the third chapter…

Well, I should be able to do three chapters tomorrow, 2333.