"Can't you control it? I've reviewed part of the Amazo experimental data. Its commands can be remotely modified," Lex Luthor said leisurely, acting like none of this concerned him as he rubbed his bald head.
"It's currently simulating Superman. I recall it can only simulate one ability at a time. If we modify its encounter module and change it to a weaker state, we might be able to capture it. After all, this is just a robot running on programmed logic—far from invincible." Luthor seemed to find the military's so-called "invincible" claim grating. You dare call your cobbled-together creation invincible? Mr. Luthor disagrees!
Secretary Lane looked at him with unfriendly eyes. How do you know so much about this? Speak! How many moles have you planted in the Pentagon!
But now wasn't the time for investigations. Everyone was in the same boat—if it capsized, nobody would survive.
While they discussed, Maxwell Lord's gaze turned cold as he pulled out another Mother Box. "BOOM!" An explosion, and a brand-new portal opened. Several million Apokoliptian parademons appeared directly behind the human coalition, creating a pincer attack.
"Enemies behind us!" An officer, suddenly ambushed, didn't even draw his pistol before being torn to shreds.
"Carl! Ahh, you bastards, give me back my brother!" A young man saw waves of soldiers falling behind them. Eyes bloodshot, he charged forward, but couldn't even make a splash before being overwhelmed by the massive enemy force.
"Command, command, requesting support, requesting support!" Distress signals rang continuously through the command center hall.
The battlefield situation deteriorated sharply. Many soldiers fighting desperately were affected, unsure of the overall battle status. The thought "Have we lost?" surfaced in many minds, and morale plummeted instantly.
"You two, we need you to stabilize the rear," Batman said earnestly to Ganthet and Sayd.
The two little blue Guardians floated out and joined forces with the planet Mogo to establish a new defensive line. The Lanterns also retreated to Mogo's side. With assistance from this super-sized Green Lantern, they finally stabilized the situation.
High above, Thea witnessed this scene. Amazo's appearance was somewhat unexpected. After Moira entered the White House, she'd ordered the Amazo Project terminated. She hadn't expected it to be secretly developed anyway. This culmination of Earth's dark technology left her speechless. Copy superpowers with one glance? This was basically a technological Sharingan!
"You handle things here. Let me play with the Dark Lord. You go help below," Thea told Diana.
The goddess of war had withstood Darkseid for ages. Even Kronos's second-generation god-king shield was nearly shattered. Diana was now drenched in sweat, thoroughly exhausted.
She wanted to argue, but seeing her lover's determined expression, she could only descend to support the Lanterns.
Using Diana's cover, Thea finally completed her new technique.
An imperceptible fragment of Darkseid's soul, combined with shadow power for shaping—she'd created a shadow version of Darkseid right before his blazing eyes.
Same height and weight, square face, thick arms and legs. The only difference: the blue brute became a black brute. "Your Majesty, what do you think of my new puppet?" Thea patted the shadow Darkseid's broad face mockingly.
"You have a death wish?" The Dark Lord's voice grew even colder.
Thea scoffed. As if you'd spare me otherwise. Their positions were irreconcilable—peace was impossible.
"This is just an empty shell. Your little parlor trick serves no purpose except angering me," Darkseid said. One glance told him the truth. Thea had absorbed too little soul energy. This shadow Darkseid could only intimidate; he saw no real use for it.
"So I'll need to extract more soul energy. Since Your Majesty won't give it willingly, I'll have to work hard and take it myself!" Magic and the holy sword would cause too much collateral damage to the surrounding area. Below them was the battlefield—Thea didn't want to use large-scale attacks.
She'd recently advanced another level in comprehending soul divine authority. Time to test close combat against Darkseid.
Her formerly snow-white, delicate hands became shrouded in gray-white mist—soul divine power painstakingly converted from absorbing old Shazam's power.
Unlike conventional physical attacks, she targeted the enemy's soul directly. The lethality was too great; normally she could only practice alone. Today, with Blue Brute here, perfect test subject!
Darkseid naturally recognized the technique. Even though he considered himself superior to Thea, she couldn't be defeated in three or five moves. His demeanor finally turned serious.
However, his full vigilance still kept one eye on the shadow Darkseid standing there stiffly. What use was this thing? He considered his vision far superior to Thea's, yet the Dark Lord was genuinely confused. He couldn't see any purpose—one punch would shatter it. All that effort, using Diana to buy time, seemed like wasted work.
Thea quickly revealed the answer. The shadow Darkseid flew like a puppet into the parademon army.
"Waaah!" The parademons exploded in chaos, scattering in all directions, terrified of suffering catastrophic disaster. Several local battlefields where the parademons had held an advantage instantly collapsed as coalition forces launched fierce counterattacks. Thea was deviously clever—wherever the battle looked most dangerous, she sent shadow Darkseid charging in.
The Dark Lord's terror was deeply planted in these foot soldiers' hearts. Even though this shadow Darkseid was fragile—any grunt could hack it down with two swings—long-cultivated fear prevented them from trying.
Three consecutive battlefields where parademons held advantage got disrupted into scattered chaos. Human coalition forces didn't know where this black brute came from or why he helped them, but they understood how to kick someone when they're down.
Witnessing this, Darkseid's eyes nearly popped out. His imposing might was so overwhelming... how gratifying... gratifying my ass! Are my subordinates all idiots?! This is fake—can't you tell?!
When he saw shadow Darkseid going to harass Steppenwolf—no, in the Dark Lord's eyes, it was merely harassment-level interference—the result shocked him. Steppenwolf acted like a complete idiot, turned tail, and ran. Superman gave wild chase from behind.
Darkseid was speechless. Common soldiers not recognizing the fake was understandable. But you, Steppenwolf—can't you tell this thing is fake?!
Thea certainly wouldn't explain. This wasn't about strength—this was about politics! Seeing your boss meant you had to be scared enough to wet yourself. That was Apokolips's unspoken rule, and the sly old fox Steppenwolf demonstrated this principle perfectly.
Clearly, Darkseid had misunderstood. His focus remained entirely on divine authority and power. Thea said nothing more. Both hands wreathed in writhing shadow tendrils, she launched her assault directly.