HISD Chapter 97 The Arrival of the Ancient Doomsday
On Mars, inside a triangular fortress belonging to the local civilization.
Martian J'onn J'onzz stepped through the doorway of his home into the main hall. In the open kitchen, his wife—shaped in the green humanoid form of their people—was preparing food.
At the same time, a little green figure, something between a ghost and a slime, floated over.
"Hello, little flower."
J'onn smiled, scooping up his daughter, K'em, who rushed toward him. Looking toward his wife, he asked, "How was work today, Marianne?"
Marianne blinked her red eyes and smiled. "I just got home myself. Most of lunch was cooked by your daughter."
"Really? Then I'd better sit down and taste it properly!"
J'onn laughed as he sat.
The family of three began their meal, the warm atmosphere full of peace.
"And how was your day, Dad?" K'em's crimson eyes sparkled as she asked in a childlike, admiring voice. "When those villains meet the city's strongest hunter, they must all run away, right?"
"Or maybe the hungriest hunter," Marianne teased.
J'onn was devouring the food ravenously, but hearing his wife and daughter's words made him smile.
If only days of peace like this could last forever...
Recently, there had been several cases of Martians burning themselves alive in strange sickness, spreading fear across the entire city of Mars Gore.
Just as J'onn was about to speak, his expression changed sharply, the spoon in his hand clattering into the plate.
"There's something happening in the city!"
Marianne and K'em felt it too—their telepathy sensed the panic and dread sweeping across the minds of countless Martians.
The flood of psychic information J'onn received was clearer than theirs. The owner of the gladiator arena he dealt with was calling to him for help. At the same time, hunters all across the city were urgently reaching out for his support.
After all, he was recognized as the strongest of their kind—the one known as the Martian Manhunter.
In his mind's eye, through the fear of his people, J'onn could faintly "see" a monstrous being of bone and spikes descending from the sky, crashing down into the underground gladiator arena.
A calamity had come to Mars itself!
"Stay home! Don't go anywhere. Wait for me to return!"
With that, J'onn shot into the air and streaked out of the fortress.
…
In Greg City, Mars Gore, inside the underground gladiator arena.
The arena spanned a hundred meters across, filled with thousands of Martian spectators—most with pale or golden-hued slime-like bodies.
Now, every single one of them stared wide-eyed at the intruder who had descended into the center of the arena.
A towering, two-meter bone-spiked monster stood there, clad in a black suit with the S-emblem on its chest. It idly played with a metallic cube, silently waiting.
Two muscular, pale Martian gladiators still stood at either end of the field, briefly frozen in shock. Then, after a quick telepathic exchange, they attacked. One punched like lightning, the other swept a kick through the air, both blows aimed at the creature.
No!
Their strikes stopped one meter short, as if frozen mid-motion. Their bodies twisted, shifting fluid-like forms in a struggle, yet they were pinned in place by an invisible force.
Crackling sparks burst forth.
Without even moving, the bone-spiked monster unleashed violent bolts of lightning within the unseen field. In an instant, the gladiators' liquid forms were pierced through.
With a wet pop, the two bodies exploded into splatters across the arena floor.
Silence fell over the stadium.
Then, all at once, panic. The Martian audience screamed and stampeded for the exits.
"Too weak."
Scarlet light flared in the monster's eyes as it looked upward.
Green-hued streaks of light descended from the sky—Martian hunters, clad in combat suits, rushing to the arena.
"The hunters are here!" someone shouted.
In a storm of rushing winds, a squad of towering green Martians descended, charging straight at the monster. Breaking through the force field, their attacks finally landed—blows slamming into its head, neck, body, and limbs all at once.
The arena shook as if struck by missiles. Explosions thundered outward from the monster's body, shattering the battleground beneath them.
When the dust settled, over a dozen green-skinned Martians stood with fists and feet pressed against the bone-spiked creature. Their coordinated assault was flawless, each strike powerful enough to level a fortress.
But none of them smiled. Every hunter's face was pale with shock.
Even as the arena lay in ruins, the monster floated calmly in the air, idly spinning the cube in its hand.
He felt pain—true pain—for the first time in ages.
The bone-spiked creature grinned, his bones loosening in pleasure.
It was Yi Meng, the Ancient Doomsday. He laughed, a joy rising from deep within.
The Martians, the people of J'onn J'onzz, future Justice League hero—alive, not extinct.
What a marvelous beginning.
With a clatter, the Mother Box was tossed aside.
At last, Yi Meng moved. His massive hand seized a hunter and hurled him forward.
Boom!
The air detonated as the Martian's body blurred into a streak, smashing through the arena wall and careening across the city.
Crash!
Another hunter, who had struck at Yi Meng's head, was smashed upward by a bone-spiked fist. His green form twisted grotesquely as he shot a kilometer into the sky.
Step!
Yi Meng stomped, releasing a sphere of lightning that burst outward in a storm, blasting dozens of hunters away. The entire arena crumbled as its walls collapsed.
"Attack!"
Dozens more Martian hunters roared, hurtling toward the living calamity.
The battle erupted in full force.
…
Three minutes later.
When J'onn J'onzz arrived above the arena, the sight below was one he would never forget.
The gladiator pit, and kilometers around it, had become a wasteland. The earth had caved in, forming a massive crater.
The battle still raged.
Over a hundred hunters—nearly every one in the city—were locked in combat with a single foe.
From above, green silhouettes swarmed the monster in black. But again and again, Martians were flung away, crashing into the ground or the ruins of the city.
More and more hunters fell, losing the ability to fight. But the bone-spiked monster only grew more relentless, each step birthing thunder and storm.
This was no battle.
It was Doomsday itself.
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