"In the blood of creation lies the key to extinction."
---
The Ship of glories past
The Black Zero hung above Earth's atmosphere. A shadow blotting out the sun.
Inside its heart lay a sanctum of alien steel, etched with alien symbols that pulsed with silver light. Zod's scientists drew Superman's blood and King let them.
Zod led the way, his boots echoing across the chamber.
Superman followed, his wrists still bound, while King walked at his side, utterly unconcerned, as though gravity itself awaited his command.
At the chamber's center stood a chamber filled pods. The Genesis Chamber, humming softly with Kryptonian energy but it was empty.
"Here it is," Zod said, voice almost reverent. "The key to activating the Codex. The seed of our people. With it, we will rebuild Krypton upon your world, Kal-El."
Superman frowned, his eyes narrowing. "You'll destroy Earth in the process."
Zod turned sharply, his expression hardening. "You speak of one planet — one species — while my people number in the billions, lost to the void! Would you let your mother world die for them?"
Before Superman could respond, King spoke, his tone cold and heavy as an ocean trench.
"You mistake creation for conquest, General."
Zod turned. "You dare..."
"You would burn a world to restore a corpse," King interrupted. "You call it rebirth, but it is necromancy of flesh and history."
Zod's soldiers shifted uneasily; even the ship seemed to hum in dissonance under King's words.
The Growth Codex Revelation
A holographic flare burst from the chamber's wall — the familiar visage of Jor-El, reborn through crystalline code.
The AI's eyes flicked between Zod, Kal and King.
"You found it," Jor-El said softly. "And yet you understand nothing."
Zod snarled. "You doomed Krypton with your weakness, old man. You had the Growth Codex. The key to our survival and you hid it away!"
Jor-El's eyes turned toward his son.
"No, Zod. I did not hide it. I entrusted it."
Superman blinked. "Entrusted? To who?"
Jor-El smiled faintly. "To you, my son. The Codex lives within his blood. Every line of Kryptonian DNA. Every ancestry, every house, every potential life is carried within you."
The room went still.
Zod froze. The truth dawning upon him like a blade through the chest.
Then, fury.
"You placed the future of Krypton in one child's veins?" He roared. "You made him the graveyard of our people!"
Superman clenched his fists. "I'm not your weapon, Zod."
King's voice cut through the tension like thunder rolling across eternity.
"And he never will be."
Zod turned to him, eyes blazing. "You defend him as if he were divine..."
"He is mortal," King said, stepping forward, "but his soul holds choice. That alone makes him greater than any god that ever cursed the stars."
The words hit harder than any punch.
Even Zod's lieutenants lowered their eyes.
Wrath of the Indomitable
Zod lunged forward suddenly, his fist igniting with plasma, striking at King's chest.
The impact echoed and nothing happened.
King didn't move.
Didn't blink.
Didn't even shift the angle of his jaw.
Zod's gauntlet shattered upon impact, molten fragments scattering across the deck.
"Impossible…" Zod hissed, stepping back.
King's eyes glowed like twin suns behind clouds.
"No, General. Final."
A low hum filled the chamber. The King Engine awakening in full resonance. The air shimmered as though every atom bent to his heartbeat.
Zod and his soldiers fell to their knees, crushed beneath the invisible weight of his presence.
Panels ruptured. The ship groaned. Even the hologram of Jor-El flickered under the gravitational distortion.
"You claim to serve Krypton," King said, his voice layered, thunder and abyss. "Then learn from its end. Pride begets ruin."
Superman stepped forward, placing a hand on King's arm. "That's enough."
King's eyes flicked to him and in an instant, the crushing gravity lifted.
The soldiers gasped for breath, Zod barely holding himself upright, sweat streaming down his temples.
"Mercy," King murmured. "A lesson few species survive long enough to teach."
Superman looked at Zod, his own anger fading into sadness. "You don't have to do this. We can rebuild together."
Zod's voice trembled with rage. "You've taken everything from me…"
"No," Superman said softly. "My father gave me everyone."
King turned away, folding his hands behind his back once more.
"This conversation is over," He said. "The next words you speak, General, will decide whether your ship remains in orbit or in memory."
Zod stared at him, trembling, torn between pride and the primal instinct that whispered the truth.
This wasn't a man.
This was inevitability wearing human skin.
The Departure
Back aboard the transport chamber, Superman stood beside King as the beam prepared to send them back to Earth.
Zod and his crew remained behind, silent, shaken, their arrogance fractured beyond repair.
As the chamber hummed, Superman looked at King.
"You didn't kill them."
King's gaze remained forward. "There was no need. The destruction of belief is more permanent than the destruction of flesh."
Superman nodded slowly. "You really believe I can stop him?"
King turned, meeting his eyes.
"I believe you already have. The moment you chose restraint over wrath. But should he choose to escalate then so shall I."
The light consumed them and they vanished from the ship.
Above, the Black Zero drifted silently, like a tomb afraid of its former occupant.
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