Gladiator was just about to refuse when the Mind Stone in Zod's hand flared with a brilliant golden light.
Instantly, Gladiator's eyes glazed over, his gaze turning blank and vacant.
Zod had employed a triple-layered insurance policy on Gladiator: the Phoenix Force, the Mind Stone, and his own vast, ocean-like telepathy capable of covering the entire solar system.
Just like Superman, Gladiator had absolutely zero resistance to telepathy and magic. Coupled with the fact that Zod was wielding universal treasures, controlling him was a breeze.
"Your Majesty!"
Thus, in Gladiator's memories, his position as the First Captain of the Shi'ar Imperial Guard was overwritten. He was now the first Royal Knight of the Kryptonian Empire's Order of Royal Knights!
"Your Excellency!"
"Captain!"
"Lord Kallark!"
The rest of the Shi'ar Imperial Guard was utterly stunned by the scene.
Had "Gladiator" Kallark betrayed the Shi'ar Empire?
No, it had to be that the Kryptonian Emperor had done something to him to cause this.
With a casual wave, Zod teleported the Shi'ar guards to Sakaar, the domain of the Grandmaster, and modified their memories.
Even if the Shi'ar Empire managed to track them down, they wouldn't have the slightest idea what had happened.
"So this is the Royal Knight you found?"
Esdeath asked with keen interest, looking at Gladiator who had been teleported over alongside Zod.
"Yeah. Don't underestimate him. You're no match for him," Zod replied.
An ordinary Kryptonian naturally couldn't defeat Gladiator, who possessed a willpower-fueled cheat. Even with Kryptonian soldier genes, Esdeath was no exception.
Right now, Zod had locked Gladiator's confidence, keeping him in a state of absolute, overflowing self-assurance.
"Then come spar with me," Esdeath immediately said.
Thus, Gladiator turned his gaze to Esdeath.
"Grand General, bring it on."
He was currently in a state of exploding confidence, feeling that after the Emperor, he was number two, and no one else stood a chance.
Who would have thought Esdeath's very first punch would send him flying.
A faster alternating punch followed, leaving no room to breathe. In less than a blink, a flurry of fist shadows slammed into Gladiator's chest. The sheer force of the punch surged in like a tidal wave, and a massive burst of energy detonated right at the center of his chest, blasting his figure backward.
Gladiator flew backward into a floating asteroid field, executing a backflip to land on a massive asteroid.
Esdeath followed like a shadow, closing in at super-speed that seemed to pierce through space itself.
Without dodging, Gladiator circulated his photonic energy. Surging power flooded into his arm and channeled into his right fist.
His fist was enveloped in a golden radiance. Driven by the light, it gradually solidified into tangible flames, burning fiercely in the oxygenless vacuum of space.
He threw a punch to meet her!
The collision of their fists carried earth-shattering, heaven-destroying momentum. The two energies erupted in the forms of light and flame along the asteroid's surface. The asteroid, with a diameter of over three hundred miles, was instantly pierced by the energy and shockwaves, covered in cracks, and finally shattered under the immense stress.
Thick dust billowed from the shattered asteroid, and the hurricane generated by their fist-force churned the debris into chaos. A silent explosion rippled through the vacuum, with countless fragments crisscrossing and piercing through the smoke screen.
Judging by the feedback from their clash, this round seemed to be a draw.
The recoil of the explosion pushed Gladiator into a rapid retreat. His figure quickly tore through the dust wave, weaving between countless rock fragments as he flew backward.
Esdeath used ice to shield her body, blocking the shockwave before giving chase to Gladiator.
Gladiator's offense didn't end there. Two golden points of light suddenly pierced through the smoke screen ahead, like car headlights cutting through pitch-black fog.
The smoke was torn apart, and every asteroid fragment in its path was melted and pulverized! Gladiator's heat vision thrust out like a blade of light, striking without a moment's hesitation!
The heat vision lasers were equally fast and fierce. Esdeath flew backward, unleashing her own heat vision in response.
However, the moment the two beams of golden light touched her, they detonated intentionally under Gladiator's control. Brilliant golden radiance exploded like gorgeous fireworks in the pitch-black expanse of space, and the surging energy and shockwaves instantly swallowed Esdeath.
A searing pain radiated from her arms, and her breath hitched briefly. Esdeath stabilized her form, but as she looked up, Gladiator was already charging at her with renewed, ferocious momentum.
Without a word, Esdeath unleashed her heat vision again, slicing toward Gladiator, only to pass right through him—it was an afterimage. A clone created by combining super-speed with clever techniques and infusing it with energy.
The real Gladiator had already flashed behind Esdeath at an even faster speed!
He raised his right fist high, extracting nearly infinite power from his sky-piercing confidence. Energy poured like a torrent into his arm, making his entire fist look as if it were gripping a miniature sun. Streaks of golden light pierced out from the gaps between his fingers like needles.
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A punch that held absolutely nothing back! Golden light crashed down with the heavy blow, hitting with the force of tens of thousands of tons of explosives detonating at point-blank range.
Esdeath's body was instantly swallowed by the golden radiance. She seemed to transform into a meteor piercing through the starry sky, shooting straight through the entire asteroid belt.
The meteor streaked across the cosmos, flying past Krypton, crossing tens of thousands of miles of space, and plummeting toward one of Krypton's moons like an unstoppable ground-to-ground missile.
Just like a meteor striking the ocean, the surface of the moon, as massive as Earth, erupted with a sky-high wave of dust.
Nuclear-explosion-like smoke and dust rolled outward. After breaking through the atmosphere, an exaggerated crater a mile in diameter was left on the ground.
Boundless energy erupted from Gladiator's body, manifesting as a tangible cyclone swirling around him, his crimson cape fluttering like a banner.
In an instant, Gladiator flew over at nearly the speed of light.
His body and mind turned into afterimages, appearing right above Esdeath's head as if by instant teleportation, and threw a punch straight at her forehead!
Fist force burst forth, instantly blasting another towering wave of dust into the sky.
The shockwave swept in all directions, space trembled, and the entire moon seemed to shudder in response.
Esdeath was now completely incapable of fighting back; Gladiator was comprehensively superior to her in every aspect.
"That's enough."
Zod stopped Gladiator, who was preparing to continue his attack. Esdeath emerged, covered in dust and dirt.
Thanks to her invulnerable Kryptonian physique, she hadn't suffered any injuries, but being pushed around by Gladiator left her thoroughly annoyed.
However, she also knew the massive gap between herself and Gladiator, feeling she could only seek him out again after she became stronger.
Zod comforted Esdeath for three hours, only letting her go after she was reduced to a limp, quivering mess.
After that, Zod began his new project of crafting figurines.
It had been a long time since he added new waifus to his collection, so this time he planned to go big and create a whole batch of people at once.
Zod spoke up. Gladiator looked at him.
"She is the Grand General of the Empire. Her rank is slightly higher than yours, so just listen to her."
/-\
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