Angel Yan teleported from Earth to the Krypton Empire.
Zod sat behind his lavish desk, eyes sharp and piercing, his expression immaculately composed.
Golden sunlight streamed through the windows, bathing the great Emperor in its glow. The interplay of light and shadow carved his features into hard, angular lines.
When Angel Yan stepped inside, she found Holy Kaysha and Heavenly Sovereign Hexi perched in Zod's lap.
Zod set down the gold pen in his hand—inkless, purely ornamental—and clenched both fists. His brows knotted into deep, parallel creases.
A few seconds passed. The tension in his brow gradually eased, and his focused gaze began to drift, as though some sorrowful memory had surfaced unbidden. He seemed to lose himself entirely, unable to steady his thoughts, and let out a long, heavy sigh.
Hexi, her face flushed a deep rose, leaned against him, lips slightly parted, breathing in soft, shallow gasps.
"Yan. You're here?"
Zod tightened his arm around Hexi, then spoke.
"Your Majesty." Angel Yan bowed.
"Yan, starting today, you're to return to the Angel Legion."
Zod said it lazily. He'd just finished an enormous battle, and right now, he had no particular ambitions.
After all, he had literally sculpted into existence Holy Kaysha, Heavenly Sovereign Hexi, Angel Leng, Angel Zhui, Angel Moyi, Angel Fanxing, Angel Lingxi, Angel Kaila—and more besides.
Thanks to the Mind Stone, Zod had discovered that these artificial beings were nothing like the collectible figurines he used to craft. They were practically alive—like Vision, imbued with genuine life.
"Understood."
Angel Yan had no objections. After her arrival, Zod had used the Mind Stone to reshape her from the ground up. She felt far more vivid now, more present—though whether that was real or just her imagination, she couldn't say.
Once he obtained the Soul Stone, he could refine the process all over again.
After all, the Soul Stone was the only treasure in existence truly capable of conjuring a soul from absolute nothingness.
Every member of the Angel Legion carried Kryptonian soldier genetics. Their clothing and armor had been forged at exact one-to-one scale—vibranium, proto-kryptonium, and adamantium.
Their blazing swords, likewise.
They also carried Angel-type mutant genes, granting them an additional pair of wings for flight.
Combined with their inherent Kryptonian ability to fly in a vacuum, the result was remarkably faithful to the source material.
"Zod, what are you working on?"
Liang Bing strolled into Zod's laboratory.
"I'm researching the Plasma Spark Tower."
Zod didn't even turn around.
The Krypton Empire's scientific capabilities had rocketed to a universe-class tier after they'd strong-armed the Kree Empire into surrendering a massive haul of researchers and equipment. It was finally enough to meet Zod-His's demands.
It also made Zod feel he could, at last, fulfill a fantasy he'd harbored for a very long time.
What would happen if Kryptonians absorbed the light of the Plasma Spark Tower?
The Plasma Spark Tower referred to the energy core of the Land of Light.
Also known as the Plasma Sun Tower, its importance was comparable to that of a star. After the Land of Light's original sun exploded, its scientists developed the tower as a replacement energy source—and it was this very energy that caused the "humans" of the Land of Light to evolve into superhumans. The Ultramen.
Originally, the scientists had intended it as nothing more than an artificial sun. But a certain alien had taken an interest and secretly tampered with the tower. The moment it was successfully activated, every living being on the Land of Light evolved into an Ultraman.
One had to wonder whether that alien regretted it to the bone.
After all, in a single stroke, it had created tens of millions of Ultra Warriors.
Krypton.
The most important planet in the Krypton Empire—the world Zod-His had designated as the homeworld. Its population was small, primarily because Zod-His was determined to preserve the purity of the Kryptonian bloodline.
He had even developed an atmospheric weather system to shield the planet from all manner of unknown cosmic radiation, ensuring nothing could affect the life forms within.
Because of this, even though the Krypton Empire had conquered thousands of inhabited worlds, not a single one of those subjugated species had ever laid eyes on a true Kryptonian.
That was about to change.
The moment Zod-His completed his research on the Plasma Spark Tower and its light blazed to life across Krypton, hundreds of Kryptonians lifted their heads.
They were Kryptonians of every profession, created by Zod-His using the genetic templates stored within the Genesis Codex. With his super-vision dialed down to the cellular level, Zod watched their bodies begin to change under the Plasma Spark Tower's radiant energy.
Benign changes.
Not just the Kryptonians carrying soldier genetics—those in research, civilian, political, and leadership roles were all undergoing the same beneficial transformation. They were growing faster. Stronger.
Since no alien had tampered with the tower, the Plasma Spark naturally wouldn't turn Kryptonians into Ultramen.
A safe, stable source of solar energy.
"Let's hope there are no red suns in the Marvel universe."
In a single act of atomic manipulation, Zod willed ten thousand Plasma Spark Towers into existence, spreading them across every region of Krypton.
He then artificially restructured the planet's magnetic field and gravitational pull, calibrating Krypton's gravity to ten times that of Earth.
The native biosphere began a mass extinction under the new conditions, but after Zod-His reengineered the microorganisms, new species rapidly emerged, adapting to Krypton's harsh environment.
Zod-His then issued a decree: all Kryptonians departing the homeworld were to don specially forged Kryptonian armor.
They already possessed bio-electric fields, of course—but better safe than sorry. Armor was the prudent choice.
The Kryptonian armor was forged by Zod-His from vibranium, proto-kryptonium, adamantium, shock-steel, atomic alloy, and Uru metal. In terms of sheer defensive capability, even Gladiator might not be able to breach it.
Etched into its surface were the runic inscriptions Zod-His had extracted from Mjolnir, granting the wearer the same dominion over wind, rain, thunder, and lightning that Thor commanded with the God of Thunder's hammer.
Additionally, each suit housed a Mind Ward Stone at its core—a fragment Zod-His had separated from the Mind Stone itself—designed to shield Kryptonians from telepathic control and psychic influence of any kind.
With this armor, even if a Kryptonian was unfortunate enough to encounter a red sun, its radiation would be fully blocked, and their powers would remain intact.
The Kryptonians, naturally, obeyed their Emperor's decree without question. None dared voice dissent.
A few hundred Kryptonians at once—Zod felt that was enough. Any more, and he risked attracting unwanted attention. Someone might start wondering why Kryptonians were so impossibly powerful.
Every one of these several hundred could hold their own. Setting aside the majority who carried non-military genetics, the rest were more than capable of leading troops into combat.
Zod had also tracked down Gladiator and obtained a sample of his genetic material for study, hoping to clone a member of Gladiator's species.
If he could pull that off, they'd be truly unstoppable.
As for common soldiers—Zod pondered for a moment, then decided to look for his breakthrough through the Hulk.
/-\
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