Lantern Rings had always been one of Lucas's greatest concerns.
Because once these things appeared, they represented far more than simple power.
Orange, yellow, green, indigo, blue, and violet were not the real problem.
The truly critical ones were Black and White.
Black represented Nekron, the embodiment of death.
White represented the Life Entity, the incarnation of existence itself.
Both were multiversal-level beings. Even as a Saiyan, Lucas had no confidence that he could grow fast enough to deal with them head-on.
"Why didn't you come back sooner?"
"If you had come back earlier, Lois wouldn't have died."
Clark continued repeating the same sentence over and over.
"Clark, wake up!" Lucas shouted, frowning deeply.
A Red Lantern Ring continuously excavated the deepest rage within its host, relentlessly corroding rational thought.
Very few beings could coexist with it like Atrocitus, whose natural state was rage itself—making the ring nothing more than a power amplifier.
"No! I'm completely awake!" Clark roared.
"Lois is dead! She's dead!"
"I know," Lucas said, trying to stabilize Clark's emotions.
If it had been anyone else wearing a Red Lantern Ring, Lucas would have knocked them unconscious immediately and torn the ring off without hesitation.
But Clark was different.
If Clark were fully overtaken by the Red Lantern, the consequences would be catastrophic—far beyond simple collateral damage.
Calming him down was the best possible outcome.
"You don't understand!"
Clark clutched his head as the Red Lantern Ring erupted with intense crimson light.
Lucas immediately realized what was happening.
The Red Lantern Ring was wrestling for control of Clark's consciousness.
And judging by Clark's agony, the ring was gaining the upper hand.
Lucas clenched his teeth and made his decision.
He would subdue Clark by force.
To be honest, if circumstances were different, Lucas truly did not want to fight Clark.
In the DC multiverse, Clark was a central anchor of reality, the chosen figure favored by forces that transcended existence itself.
In simpler terms: Clark was a man who could crawl out of his own grave even after death.
But there was no other option now.
Rather than gambling on Clark resisting the Red Lantern's corruption, Lucas would knock him down and forcibly remove the ring.
As for the fact that removing a Red Lantern Ring replaced the wearer's heart—and that removing it would normally cause instant death—
Others might fear that.
But Clark?
Let him sunbathe for a while.
This was a man who had survived ground zero of a nuclear explosion and recovered under sunlight.
Losing a single organ was hardly an issue.
If necessary, he could be placed back into a Kryptonian ship and have his biological organs reconstructed.
After all, Kryptonians were powerful at the cellular level—organs were secondary.
The moment the decision was made, Lucas erupted with power, instantly raising his combat output to its peak.
His leg muscles bulged violently.
With a thunderous stomp, his feet crushed two deep imprints into the alloy floor as he launched himself toward Clark like a bolt of lightning.
Still lost in grief and rage, Clark failed to react in time.
Lucas's fist smashed directly into Clark's face.
The impact produced a dull yet deafening boom.
Clark's head snapped back violently as Lucas stepped forward again without pause.
Facing a Kryptonian empowered by a Red Lantern Ring, Lucas dared not relax for even a fraction of a second.
As his first punch landed, his second followed immediately.
But in the next instant, crimson light flashed across Clark's body.
A red energy shield materialized around his head.
Lucas felt as though his fist had struck cotton.
However, Lucas knew Red Lantern Rings far too well to be fooled by such a defense.
The moment the red energy assumed it had blocked the blow, a new form of power erupted from Lucas's fist.
This energy possessed terrifying penetration.
It smashed through the red energy barrier and slammed directly into Clark's face.
The punch drove Clark straight into the metal deck.
The energy detonated on impact, crushing the reinforced alloy floor into a crater nearly half a meter deep.
The entire Kryptonian mothership shook violently.
Yet Lucas did not stop.
He knew that two punches were nowhere near enough to restrain a Red Lantern Superman.
His fists fell like a storm of artillery fire.
Each strike carried explosive energy, and the angle and pattern of detonation changed constantly, denying the Red Lantern Ring any chance to adapt.
This was no exaggeration.
Among all Lantern Rings, the Red Lantern was one of the most combat-oriented.
If Clark were allowed to recover his footing, ending this fight would become exponentially harder.
Lucas's assault was relentless—dense, unbroken, and laced with feints and layered force.
Even with a Red Lantern Ring, Clark was completely suppressed, unable to counterattack.
This was the result of nearly two months on a hell planet, enduring hundredfold gravity, while fighting seven, eight—sometimes more than ten monsters simultaneously.
Even an amateur would emerge as a master after surviving that.
The massive Kryptonian mothership trembled continuously beneath Lucas's iron fists.
"No… this isn't enough."
Lucas could feel that his attacks were landing, yet Clark's life signature barely fluctuated.
"That's it. I'll have to go all out."
For the first time, Lucas truly understood the frustration villains felt when fighting Clark—the sensation of battling an unkillable cockroach.
If he didn't escalate, this would drag on endlessly.
Boom!
A terrifying aura erupted from Lucas's body.
The energy coating his next punch became almost flame-like in its solidity.
Clark sensed the danger instantly.
The Red Lantern Ring flared with unprecedented power, forcibly sharpening Clark's consciousness while erecting a reinforced energy barrier.
The ring was, quite frankly, miserable.
It had just found a perfect host—only to immediately provoke an even more terrifying opponent.
Now the host couldn't handle it, so the ring itself had to step into the fight.
But Lucas's punches detonated one after another, and under his precise control, all the explosive forces converged and slammed into the raging red energy layer.
Even energy personally mobilized by the Red Lantern Ring was shattered piece by piece by Lucas's chained detonations.
Faced with the incoming fist, the Red Lantern Ring felt utterly wronged.
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T/N:
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