Clark's heat vision tore through the Kent Farm with relentless fury.
The two women, pushed out of the blast's center by magic, had no choice but to teleport again using spatial spells. The moment they arrived at the farm's edge, Clark's super vision locked onto them without hesitation.
In that instant Clark had truly embraced his own darkness. He surrendered his fear and restraint, letting Jor‑El's influence strip away empathy and mercy. The gentle life he once led on the small Kansas farm was gone. With Jor‑El's guidance, his strength had surged beyond anything he had known before and his personality had shifted into something harder, colder.
With unrestrained power Clark drove Lana Lang and Chloe Sullivan into retreat, forcing them back just with his heat vision alone.
Lana exhaled sharply and drew the spellbook from her arms. This book, containing the foundation of her magical knowledge and years of study, was a source of her strongest incantations. She opened its pages and pointed it upward toward Clark's blazing form while chanting.
A thunderous bolt of lightning appeared out of the sky and struck Clark, driving him forcefully to the earth. The raw force of thunder and lightning enveloped him.
Seizing the moment, Chloe channeled control magic into a ball of glowing energy that shot out and wrapped around Clark, binding him. Her specialty was spirit‑binding magic that restricted movement and suppressed power. If Lois were present, she could have used this opening to strip Clark of his strength, but Lois was injured, leaving their advantage weaker than it should have been.
But Clark was no longer so easily contained. Within seconds he stood, the magical ropes snapping apart. He launched himself into the air and descended upon Chloe in an instant. Before she could react, he seized her by the collar and flung her aside with brutal force.
Seeing Chloe thrown, Lana reacted immediately, chanting from the spellbook and unleashing a vivid purple beam that clung to Clark's body. She raised her hand and exerted a powerful force that yanked him skyward. The magic she pulled from the book was stronger than usual, lending her incredible power, but even that was not enough.
Clark tensed his muscles and cast off the invisible force trapping him. His eyes flared with heat vision, striking the spellbook in Lana's hands.
The book caught fire instantly. Lana screamed as the flames licked her skin and she had no choice but to drop it. Clark didn't pause. He dropped from the sky and struck her in the chest with a crushing blow. Although she had protected her vital areas with magic, the impact still drove the air from her lungs and sent her crashing to the ground in a spray of blood.
Clark hovered above her, his eyes burning crimson as he watched the woman he had once cared for lie broken and unmoving.
Lana managed a bitter, mocking smile.
To Clark anything meant nothing unless it made him stronger.
Chloe, injured and struggling to rise, called out in desperation "Clark don't do this! You know who you are!"
Clark's crimson gaze did not soften. He turned toward her.
Chloe lay on the scorched earth, pain etched into every breath as she reached toward him. "You are Clark Kent. If you cross this line you can never go back to who you were before."
But Clark's voice was hollow and distant as he replied that Clark Kent was dead, then unleashed heat vision upon her.
At that moment Lois arrived. She landed and immediately chanted a complex spell that made the ground beneath Clark shift into unstable quicksand while she hurled a tractor toward him. She also opened a portal.
The tractor was obliterated in a blast of heat vision. But the portal safely transported Lana away and then, together with Chloe, Lois used teleportation magic to escape.
Clark broke free from the magic beneath him and thundered toward where they had vanished, his crimson sight burning brighter with hatred. He bent down and grasped the scorched remnants of the spellbook, pages charred and brittle.
Magic he thought, angry light flickering in his gaze, our war has only begun.
Far from the ruin of the farm, Lana coughed up blood as the portal spit her out. Chloe supported her, bruised and breathing hard.
Lois looked at Chloe uncertainly. "Is that you, Madeline, or Chloe Sullivan?" she asked, having heard Chloe's plea to Clark and wondering if the witch had surrendered control.
Chloe shook her head with a weak shrug. "It's still me," she said, explaining that emotional connection had been their strategy to distract Clark. "Clark lost himself because of family. I hoped using our bodies might trigger something inside him."
Lois coughed again, steadying herself. "I hope you thought that through while you were being burned," she said dryly.
Lana, known by some as Lady Russo, pulled herself into a chair, face pale and breathing unevenly. Near her, Nell had been forced by magic to play a piano endlessly until his raw fingers bled. Once Lana broke that spell, he stood with empty eyes and walked away.
"The purpose of our return is greater than this," Lana said with effort. "The Witch Mother has made our magic stronger so we won't suffer backlash. We have a mission. Chloe, you will investigate and gather information about magic in this era. Avoid Clark at all costs. He has become driven by wrath and rage."
Meanwhile, at the Kent home, Jonathan and Martha Kent waited anxiously for Clark and Adrian to return. It was already eight o'clock in the evening.
"I've already called the Peters and Chloe's parents," Jonathan said wearily, "but neither Clark nor Adrian is with them. It's unthinkable that both boys vanished at once without a trace. Something has gone terribly wrong."
"What if," Martha said with a tremor in her voice, "it's tied to what Clark was researching? He said he was looking into witch culture."
"He was doing it for Lana," Jonathan said, worry tightening his brow. "Maybe that's where they are."
Martha nodded, and Jonathan set out for Nell's Farm alone, concern driving him into the night. As he drove, he listened to the radio.
"A fire broke out at the Metropolis Selin Club," the news announced, "resulting in seven fatalities and six injuries. Investigators say the club is known as a gathering place for mystics and ritual practitioners. Officials suspect an out‑of‑control ritual caused the blaze."
Jonathan stared out at the darkening clouds as that report ended. Mysticism and fire he murmured, a heavy dread settling in his chest.
When he reached Nell's Farm the sight left him speechless. Flames consumed what had once been open fields. Smoke roiled into the night sky. The ground looked as though it had been bombed.
A terrifying thought struck him.
Could this have been done by Clark or Adrian?