On the highway leading out of Chicago...
By now, the highway no longer existed.
Whether it was Alex's battle axe or the Hive's spatial fissures, their power was beyond imagination. The highway had long since been destroyed by their battle.
Even now, their battlefield had shifted in the blink of an eye from the highway leading out of the city to a vast, empty wilderness with no one around.
The "Fang of Destruction" swept across, once again tearing the Hive's body apart.
But the Hive healed itself in an instant. Then it raised its arm and threw a punch. In front of its fist, a gap in alternate-dimensional space opened, and violent energy from the dimensional space was drawn out by the "Hive," forming a terrifying energy storm that blasted toward Alex.
Naturally, the storm was blocked by the "Absolute Domain," and could only rage outside the domain.
A dazzling flash of light appeared. The earth shook violently, and then tons of dust were blasted into the air amid the flames.
Inside the "Absolute Domain," the ground beneath Alex's feet remained completely intact, like an isolated island in the middle of an ocean.
Once the flames and thick smoke outside the domain had completely dispersed, the ground across an area measured in square kilometers looked as though a layer had been scraped away, leaving the ground beneath Alex's feet nearly a meter higher than the earth outside the domain.
Dust filled the sky.
Before the dust had completely settled, Alex locked onto his opponent through the fire of his mind and took a step forward.
Relying on his incredible speed, Alex created a clear cone-shaped ripple through the dust that filled the sky.
When his figure emerged from the ripple, the thick smoke and dust were swept away.
Right in front of him was the "Hive."
The "Fang of Destruction" erupted with red-gold electric light and whistled toward the "Hive."
The hair on David's body was blown backward by the fierce wind generated by the attack.
The Hive's eyes, glowing with brilliant multicolored light, widened. Instead of retreating, it advanced, and several spatial fissures suddenly appeared around its body.
Under the Hive's guidance, energy from the alternate-dimensional space extended through the fissures in the form of strands of light, wrapping around its hands.
The Hive reached out and grabbed the blade of the "Fang of Destruction." It used the light wrapped around its palms to resist the blade's cutting force, then suddenly lifted and swung it aside.
Alex let out an "Eh?" The "Fang of Destruction" was knocked away from its original point of impact and slammed hard into the ground.
The enormous impact drove most of the axe head into the hard ground.
The Hive took the opportunity to kick Alex away from the "Fang of Destruction."
It pressed its advantage.
It stepped on the handle of the "Fang of Destruction" with its toes and instantly appeared above Alex. The moment it clenched its fist, the strands of light around it suddenly tightened.
Then it brought down a punch carrying devastating, earth-shaking energy toward Alex.
Alex remained calm. He drew circles with both hands, outlining a "Yin-Yang" pattern in front of himself.
The Hive's fist immediately veered to the side and passed by Alex.
Ancient martial arts. Taiji. Redirecting four ounces with a thousand pounds.
The ancient martial art from Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings caused the Hive's punch to miss.
Alex did not bother retrieving the "Fang of Destruction." He used "Mind Transmission" to appear beside the "Hive." While the Hive had used the wrong amount of force and had yet to adjust, Alex erupted with dark-red flames, and the "Hercules Bracer" on his wrist lit up.
Divine Power Output 200%!
Tenfold Strength Amplification!
Alex kicked up. The instant his toes rose, a heart-stopping whistle rang through the air.
The Hive had only just managed to turn its head and look when its body was kicked apart by Alex.
BOOM!
A terrifying shockwave shot into the sky, punching through cloud after cloud high above. One after another, holes appeared straight through the clouds before they finally dispersed.
The Hive's shattered body fragments suddenly began spinning like a storm. It started to reassemble and attempted to open an alternate-dimensional space to escape temporarily, planning to reappear once its body had finished reforming.
But this time, it could no longer open an alternate-dimensional space, as though no such dimensional space existed in this world.
Reality Distortion!
Alex used this ability to alter reality, preventing the Hive's spatial stealth from working.
At the same time, Alex contracted the "Absolute Domain." The "Absolute Domain," which could cover an entire city, shrank until it was only three meters long and wide, forming a sphere.
Naturally, the Hive was inside this domain sphere.
The Hive was still reassembling. It had already formed a face, and the Hive seemed to realize something, because obvious panic appeared on that face.
And it spoke, "Wait. Do you want the ability to travel through the stars?"
"Do you want a much longer life?"
"I can share this knowledge with you."
Alex's eyes lit up. He smiled as he sent his "Thermonuclear Rays" into the "Absolute Domain," allowing them to continuously collide inside the spherical domain, repeatedly bouncing and refracting until they destroyed piece after piece of the "Hive."
"Too late, when I told you to submit obediently, you should have listened."
"Since you chose to resist, there's only one possible outcome."
Inside the "Absolute Domain," the Hive screamed, "NOOOOO!"
Unable to enter the alternate-dimensional space and sealed inside the "Absolute Domain."
On top of that, with the "Thermonuclear Rays," whose tens of millions of degrees of heat could trigger a chain reaction and produce a nuclear explosion, the Hive could not think of any way to escape.
Now it regretted coming to this planet, but who could have imagined that on such a remote and primitive planet in a corner of the Milky Way, there would be such a terrifying and powerful lifeform.
At this moment, after continuously bouncing and refracting, the rays inside the "Absolute Domain" had become so dense that there was almost no room left to dodge.
Alex suddenly triggered the chain reaction. The "Thermonuclear Rays" underwent a qualitative change, and the "Absolute Domain" erupted with blinding light, as if a sun had appeared.
Within the unbearable glare, Alex clearly sensed that the Hive's fire of the mind had disappeared.
Completely. Thoroughly. Without a trace.
It disappeared within the spherical nuclear-explosion zone that existed only within a three-meter diameter.
Then, under Alex's control, he sent the nuclear-explosion energy sealed within the "Absolute Domain" out of the atmosphere.
Only after sending that mass of nuclear energy into space did he release the "Absolute Domain."
Immediately, the humans on the ground looked up at the sky and saw a dazzling light appear overhead. Accompanied by faint, muffled sounds like thunder, the light reached its peak before quickly dimming.
It was another fifteen minutes before the sky returned to normal, though patches of residual light could still be seen.
After the Chicago reporter stood stunned for a moment, he hurriedly raised his microphone and said, ["Ladies and gentlemen, Homelander seems to have eliminated the lifeform from outer space."]
["And he appears to have carried a very terrifying amount of energy into space and detonated it."]
["But because I can't see Homelander right now, I'm unable to interview him and confirm it."]
["No, wait."]
["It's Homelander. Homelander is back."]
["He's right up there. Quick, get the camera on him."]
Soon, viewers around the world could see a black dot appear on the screen.
As the black dot rapidly grew larger, a figure finally landed on the ground.
Once the figure straightened up, the red cape fluttered like flames under the sunlight, the black suit outlined in gold by the sunlight, and a confident smile appeared on his handsome face.
Then the whole world heard Homelander say one sentence.
"It's all over."
The reporter's whole body trembled. After a moment, he excitedly shouted, ["Ladies and gentlemen!"]
["Did you hear that?"]
["Homelander said it's all over!"]
["That terrifying alien lifeform has been killed by him!"]
["Homelander saved us!"]
["He saved the Earth!"]
["He is a true superhero!"]
At this moment, the whole world erupted.
No matter where they were, upon hearing the news, people excitedly shouted and cheered.
Amid countless cheers, Alex shot into the sky. After pausing briefly in midair, he tore through the sky and flew away, leaving only a cloud trail cutting across the heavens for the people watching the screen.
———
"NOOOO!"
The Black Skeleton, parasitizing the Secretary of Defense, let out a shrill scream.
Through the invisible connection between it and the "Hive," it could clearly sense that the Hive had disappeared.
It was not the only one who sensed the Hive's death. The other alien creatures sensed it as well.
This dealt them a huge blow.
Although they would not die just because the Hive had disappeared.
But once they died, they could no longer be reborn within the Hive's body.
Like those "pioneers" who bravely explored the unknown, they would die silently in the depths of the universe because they were too far away from the "Hive."
The moment they thought of this, the alien creatures completely lost their will to fight.
On top of that, countless of them had been killed or injured during the battle just now, leaving only one-tenth of their original numbers. They no longer wanted to fight and scattered in all directions.
The Black Skeleton did not flee. Instead, it became even more violent.
But its opponent was Angelina, Angelina after receiving the "She-Hulk Enhanced Gene."
Thus, after taking several punches from Angelina, the Secretary of Defense's body was severely damaged.
The Black Skeleton knew that this body could no longer be used, so it instinctively detached itself from its host.
The Secretary of Defense immediately stopped breathing.
The Black Skeleton wanted to slip into the underground sewer, but it was wrapped in a mass of shadow. Angelina used her ability to control shadows to capture the Black Skeleton.
She looked around and eventually found a trash can and threw the Black Skeleton inside.
The Black Skeleton formed a vocal organ, "I am the commander! You can kill me, but you can't treat me like this!"
Angelina said expressionlessly, "Why would I kill you?"
"You're more useful alive than dead."
Then she put the lid on the trash can.
The trash can immediately began banging loudly, but no matter how the Black Skeleton struggled, it could not break free.
For the rest of its life, it would spend its days in a laboratory.
The other alien creatures were either dead or had fled.
When Maeve dropped her long sword, its edge already chipped and damaged, and looked around, she could no longer find any other enemies.
She caught her breath and said somewhat uncertainly, "Did we win?"
Starlight dropped onto the ground. At this point, forget about firing a surge of light, even a tiny spark was beyond her.
The Electric Man jumped up excitedly, "I'm alive! I'm alive! I'm going to get a hundred million dollars, tax-free!"
Cindy and Ryan sat back-to-back on the floor of a supermarket.
"I can't move. Go get me a bottle of water?", Cindy said between breaths.
Ryan shook his head, "Don't ask me. I don't want to move either. I still want to eat ice cream."
The Ice Princess and the Element Woman supported each other and sat down on a roadside bench.
"I want a vacation. A long vacation. I don't want to fight anymore for the next year," the Ice Princess said as she looked at the dozens of ice sculptures nearby.
The Element Woman from Russia nodded in agreement, "Me too. I want to go home. I thought I was going to die here."
"Regardless..."
"We won."
"We won!"
At this moment, roars rose one after another.
Only then did the Ice Princess and the others remember that besides the alien creatures, there were also large numbers of Chimeras on this battlefield.
These New York residents brought here by Levin now had no target and began looking toward the superhumans at the scene.
A Chimera that looked like a crocodile but had mantis-like scythe blades charged recklessly at Angelina.
But Angelina grabbed it by the neck with one hand.
"No way."
Inside the supermarket, Chimera after Chimera surrounded them with fierce looks.
Cindy could not help letting out a groan.
Ryan shakily stood up and shook his head, "Don't do this to me. I'm still just a kid."
"I've already worked overtime today."
At this moment, a wild roar rang out through the streets of New York.
"Druid" Levin.
He had transformed into a bear-man and was roaring toward the sky.
The roar attracted the Chimeras' attention. All of the creatures looked toward Levin, then, as though intimidated, began gathering around him.
Levin looked toward Angelina, "I'll take them away first."
The "Druid Potion" Levin used came from a variation of the Chimera Project, allowing him to act like the king of beasts among the Chimeras and intimidate them.
With that, Levin turned and left.
As soon as he left, the Chimera group followed him.
In the blink of an eye, only a devastated stretch of street remained.
Still tightly holding the trash can, Angelina found Cindy and Ryan, "Let's go back."
"Hooray!"
Ryan cheered, "I want ice cream! I want a whole truckload!"
"Aren't you afraid you'll make yourself sick?", Cindy said as she struggled to stand, "I just want a cup of coffee."
"Ice cream or coffee."
"Have as much as you want."
As Angelina spoke, she handed the trash can to the people who had come to meet them. Then she deactivated her "She-Hulk" state, put on the "Shadow Cloak," and got into the car.
After they left, the army, police, and medical personnel flooded into the streets, and the Federation began cleaning up the aftermath.
———
[Several Days Later]
[New Jersey]
[Inside a Motel]
On the television, a reporter stood on the New York street where the battle had previously taken place, holding a microphone as he said, ["It has been three days since that shocking battle."]
["We can still see traces of the battle. Countless people were killed or injured in that battle."]
["So far, we have been unable to determine an exact number."]
["All we know is that New York, Chicago, Washington, and other places were attacked."]
["Among them, New York and Chicago suffered the most severe damage."]
["But regardless, the disaster has passed."]
["And we should all be thankful that we have Homelander."]
["No matter what happened in the past, no matter what misunderstandings there were."]
["But this time, the facts have proven that we are fortunate to have Homelander."]
["With this superhero, our Federation, and this planet, will fear no challenge."]
["Let us cheer for Homelander."]
["He deserves it!"]
The television was turned off.
Frenchie put down the remote and took a bite of ice cream, "Now that Homelander has become the hero who saved the world, are we still going ahead with our plan?"
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