"My Lord Kalibak, the fortress's defense matrix has been activated. But to be safe, should we immediately initiate super-space communications to report to the great Darkseid?"
"No, there is no need to notify him!"
Kalibak ground his teeth.
Toward Darkseid, he felt a pathological worship mixed with extreme inferiority.
But Darkseid never valued him; he wasn't even permitted to call Darkseid "Father" in public.
This was the deepest humiliation in his heart.
"He never looks at me properly! He took Desaad, he took Granny Goodness! Yet he left me here like a watchdog!"
"Now, some death-seeking reptile dares to invade Apokolips. This is my chance!"
Kalibak raised the beta club high and roared at the sky.
"I will personally rip out this invader's spine! I will hang his head on the fortress gates!"
"When my father returns, he will see my bravery! He will know that Kalibak is the strongest warrior on Apokolips!"
"Pass down my orders! The first and second Parademons legions are to take flight! Heavy Destroyer tanks are to assemble in the plaza!"
Kalibak strode outward.
"I will go and crush him myself!"
...
Above Apokolips.
Homelander held the mother box in one hand as he charged out from a blue vortex.
Just as he broke free from the tunnel's pulling force, the Boom Tube behind him quickly snapped shut, dissolving into a few energy afterimages in the air.
Homelander hovered thousands of meters in the air.
He didn't act immediately, but instead narrowed his eyes slightly, surveying this legendary hell-Planet.
There wasn't a hint of green, nor any soft colors representing life.
As far as the eye could see, there were sharp black buildings, giant fire pits spewing magma, and slaves working densely on the ground like ants.
"What a hellish, rotten place."
After a casual quip, Homelander flipped his wrist.
A Super Master Ball appeared in his palm.
He tossed it forward casually.
"Come out! Ego! Super Ego!"
Bang! Bang!
Two flashes of light streaked through the void.
After the white light dissipated, a blue brain several meters in diameter and a tall figure in a red and blue suit appeared simultaneously beside Homelander.
Ego and Super Ego.
"master." Ego's mental fluctuations echoed respectfully in the air.
Super Ego stood with his hands at his sides, floating quietly, waiting for instructions.
Suddenly, his blue neural tentacles danced restlessly in mid-air, and the light on the brain's surface flickered with high frequency.
"master..." Ego's tone was filled with surprise, "This Planet... is very unusual. The energy structure here violates the laws of natural cosmic evolution as I know them."
"Oh? Tell me about it," Homelander asked.
Ego did not answer immediately.
His mental power spread out like an invisible net toward the ground below.
Crack!
Accompanied by the sound of breaking rock, several pieces of black ore faintly flowing with dark red patterns broke free from the Planet's gravity, flying straight into the sky to hover before Ego's brain.
Ego extended several of his finest glowing tentacles and pierced them into the black ores.
In the blink of an eye, the hard matter decomposed and reorganized under Ego's divine power, turning into a stream of microscopic particles that were absorbed into the furrows of the blue brain.
"Incredible..."
A hint of unconcealable wonder leaked through Ego's voice.
"This should be the omega ore mentioned by that cyborg. But I must correct one thing: it is not a naturally formed mineral."
Ego suspended one of the energy cores in front of Homelander and explained:
"This is essentially a solidified form of divine power."
"The methods of this being called Darkseid are truly astounding. He has imprinted his own will onto the energy known as Omega and fused it with the entirety of Apokolips in this materialized form."
"This power has become the cornerstone of their entire civilization's development, whether in architecture, energy, or weapon development."
"Because of this, Darkseid can exert absolute control over everything on this Planet. As long as he stands here, he is omniscient and omnipotent."
"Furthermore..." Ego's voice carried admiration, "this Omega power is very miraculous; its energy level is extremely high. To some extent, its energy level is even purer than the Infinity Stones."
"I sense at least four types of rules within this energy: Destruction, Creation, Space, and Time."
"Sounds like good stuff. Can I seize this power from Darkseid for my own use?"
This was the question Homelander cared about most.
"Regrettably, master." Ego decisively poured cold water on the idea.
"This power is tightly linked to the rules of the current Universe," Ego explained. "Just as the Infinity Stones become ordinary rocks when they leave their original Universe, once you take this pure Omega power back to our Universe, it will immediately lose all its properties."
Homelander's gaze turned cold. "So after all that analysis, you're just talking nonsense?"
"Please allow me to finish, master!" Sensing Homelander's displeasure, Ego immediately quickened the frequency of his mental fluctuations.
"I have an alternative plan..." His tone carried a hint of seeking credit.
"I can use my assimilation ability to fuse my own divine power into this omega ore, making it adapt to the physical rules of our original Universe. This way, we can develop abilities similar to the Omega Effect."
"The difference is..." Ego added rigorously, "this power won't be infinite like Darkseid's. It will become a pure consumable. These fused ores will be gone once they are used."
"Consumables?" After hearing this, Homelander wasn't disappointed; instead, he gave a light smile.
"As long as the quantity is large enough, what does it matter if they are consumables?"
He looked down at the massive Planet beneath his feet, which was several times larger than Earth.
"Ego, I remember that assimilating Planets is your specialty, right?"
Ego's brain visibly jolted.
"Master means..."
"Assimilate this Planet for me." Homelander pointed at Apokolips below, his tone flat.
"Take all the omega ore on the Planet, fuse it, pack it up, and bring it with us!"
Upon hearing this command, a burst of intense blue light erupted from the surface of Ego's brain.
Excitement.
Uncontrollable excitement.
Since losing his original body and being left with only this fragile brain core, Ego had been in a state of extreme insecurity.
This feeling of being 'naked' made every second he spent outside the master ball an ordeal, though he hadn't shown it due to his pathetic shred of self-esteem.