The Collector is immortal because he lost a bet with Death and was barred from ever setting foot in her realm. For millions of years, the Collector lived with his wife and children on X-1, passing the time and pondering the meaning of life. After another three billion years, his wife grew weary of longevity and surrendered her immortality. The Collector was devastated.
After that, he decided he needed a hobby to keep his sanity, so he began gathering interesting artifacts and life forms from all corners of the universe. In the end, his obsession with collecting reached such a level that he started hoarding anything he deemed rare or precious purely for the sake of collecting.
Zod, unsure whether he was living in a comic-book universe or a movie universe, had always been extremely cautious.
He didn't even dare to leave Earth. After all, Earth at least had the Ancient One and Odin, two heavyweights watching over it — a perfect beginner's village to develop in.
However, after awakening Doomsday and becoming Doomsday Superman, Zod headed straight into the cosmos without a second thought.
After all, neither Phoenix Superman nor Dragon God Superman could give Zod the same sense of security that Doomsday Superman did.
"Knowhere. Let's go take a look over there."
Zod thought it over and figured a visit wouldn't hurt, even though Tivan hadn't gotten his hands on the Orb yet.
Zod's goal was simply to acquire a Kree scientist to help him develop the biogenetic engineering technology he lacked.
If he had a ship like Clark's, storing the knowledge of a hundred thousand worlds, he wouldn't need to chase after other people's knowledge and technology.
Of course, Zod possessed the Codex of Life. If he wanted, he could mass-produce Kryptonians in an instant.
But Zod had no desire to fill the entire world with Kryptonians, and Kryptonians were dangerous too. What if some bastard like that bald Luthor used a Kryptonian corpse or Kryptonian genes to cultivate a Doomsday?
Zod wasn't afraid of Doomsday, but that didn't mean Doomsday wasn't a pain in the ass.
"Can we fight in Knowhere?" Esdeath asked with keen interest.
"No. Stop thinking about fighting all the time," Zod said.
"Of course, if someone starts trouble, you can fight back directly," Zod added.
The ship followed the star map's coordinates, passing through over a dozen spatial nodes in succession, and finally arrived at the location of Knowhere.
It was a full eighty thousand light-years from Earth.
Directly ahead of the ship, the dark void of deep space was filled with a vast, flocculent cloud. Light from a distant star fell upon it, making the cloud's surface shimmer with a dreamlike iridescence of rainbow colors. The magnificent, breathtaking sight was utterly intoxicating.
At the center of the cloud floated an unimaginably enormous head. After countless eons, the head's true features could no longer be discerned; with its empty, hollow eye sockets, calling it a skull was more fitting.
Everyone on the ship stared, dumbfounded, shaken to their core. The sheer realism of the scene before them made their scalps tingle.
Zod, however, having broad experience and having seen all manner of strange things in the DC universe, reacted with perfect calm.
"Zod, what is that thing?" Tifa and Yan Lingji were deeply awed. This, their first foray into the cosmos, was an absolute eye-opener.
"The head of a Celestial!"
"Celestials… what are those?"
"Extremely powerful life forms, akin to the creator gods of origin myths — like Pangu, Fuxi, Taiyi. They can create life on entire planets. To those life forms, they are creator gods," Zod explained.
Tifa and Yan Lingji were even more shaken.
Esdeath, on the other hand, recovered quickly.
"What I really want to know is who killed it." Esdeath was itching for action. A creator god that can create a world? How strong could it be? Was it stronger than Zod?
Zod was just about to steer the ship into Knowhere when suddenly he felt a wave of discomfort wash over his entire body.
This sensation was all too familiar to Zod… was a new ability coming?
The distant starlight made Zod's body go limp. Esdeath and the others noticed something was wrong and quickly moved to support him.
"Zod, what's happening? Your breathing is so rapid." Esdeath saw that Zod's whole body was trembling, his breathing ragged. The sight was alarming.
Zod could hear them, but he couldn't answer, because a new mutation had begun.
The rays of the distant star pierced straight through Zod's bio-field. Ignoring its filtering effect, the light acted directly on his cells.
Then an intense, mind-boggling transformation erupted.
Zod felt utterly wretched all over, as if he'd pulled three consecutive all-nighters and then been dragged out to run five kilometers.
A colossal force surged from every extremity, from deep within his limbs. Like stormy waves, it slammed into Zod's brain in an instant. Next, thwarted by an unattainable peak, it sullenly retreated from the ground it had seized. Carrying even greater power within the tide, it smashed once more toward that unreachable height with unbridled arrogance.
Blood, boiling. Muscles, swelling.
Even Zod's ears, nearly stripped of function by the shock, seemed to hear the brittle cracking of his own bones expanding and twisting. He could clearly see it: his hands had already lost their original form. Over the violently bulging muscle surfaces stood stark, dark veins. They were so thick that he could see the blood rushing and surging through them.
Scalding. Blazing. Crimson. An indescribable power coursed and cycled through his body, making him want to vent, to destroy, to go berserk.
Then, just as everything was about to erupt, his body returned to calm. That power rapidly receded.
Zod opened his eyes and sat up.
"Zod?" Yan Lingji looked at him with worry.
"I'm fine. Just mutated another new ability." Zod shook his head.
But this new ability was actually pretty practical… if he'd gotten it before Doomsday.
Because this was Magic Superman!
Extremely high resistance to all magic and mystical forces, along with powerful resistance in the mental, spiritual, and soul aspects. A top-tier, first-rate talent for learning magic.
"Oh well, better than nothing. And now I don't have to fear the Mind Stone or the Soul Stone either." Zod rose to his feet.
Sure, he had the Phoenix Force and the Dragon God power, but when it came to the Mind Stone and Soul Stone, having Magic Superman as an extra layer of protection was reassuring.
"You got stronger again?" Esdeath was deeply envious.
"Pity that every time I get stronger, the process feels so damn dangerous," Zod grumbled. That sensation of utter powerlessness — he didn't even know how to describe it.
He figured no one in their right mind would ever want to experience that feeling. Still, getting stronger was always a good thing.
/-\
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