"I won't allow you to start slaughtering people here!"
"Justice will be upheld by me!"
After sending Homelander flying, the white figure shouted. The next second, he shot after him.
"Why?!"
Above the ocean, the white figure clamped a hand around Homelander's throat and squeezed hard. Homelander's face twisted in pain as he forced out the question.
"Why? What a childish question!"
"Why would you think I'd agree to a world where there are two people who can fly in the sky?"
"Buddy… you're in my way."
The white figure grinned savagely. His words bypassed the air entirely and went straight into Homelander's mind.
"In your way?"
Homelander's eyes widened.
And in the next heartbeat, everything connected in his head—the sudden plane "accident," the fully armed hijackers with M16s, the people in the crowd who led the insults, Freeman showing up with an island the moment Homelander decided to abandon the plane…
And the reporters filming him from every angle.
And those clowns who all turned on him at once…
"They're all your people!"
"You set me up…"
Homelander finally understood. His eyes flashed with a starlike glow.
"You think?"
The white figure stared at Homelander's glowing eyes and raised two fingers.
"You really love using heat vision, don't you? Asshole."
The voice stabbed straight into Homelander's skull again—then those two fingers snapped forward, jabbing right into the source of that light.
"AAAH!!"
Agony detonated behind Homelander's eyes. He screamed so hard it felt like his throat would tear.
"Goodbye, Homelander."
The white figure kept his grip on Homelander's neck and shoved him straight down into the sea.
"You can pray for The Deep to control a few hundred thousand salmon to come save you…"
"Oh—sorry. I almost forgot."
"The Deep is on Disaster Island saving dolphins right now~"
"He doesn't have time to save you!"
The taunts became arrows, echoing inside Homelander's mind and sinking deep—right into his heart.
"Ghh—"
Homelander tried to breathe, but the second he opened his mouth, seawater poured in.
Bzzzt…
With everything he had left, Homelander blasted heat vision, forcing the white figure's fingers away. Then he kicked hard—straight into the white figure's chest.
He clawed upward, swimming for the surface.
"Hey—where do you think you're going?!"
Right as Homelander was about to break through the water, a voice rang inside his mind again.
The next second, a brutal force yanked his cape from behind—
—and dragged him back down.
"You bastard…"
Homelander cursed in his head, but he couldn't break free. The gap between them was too big. Too hopeless.
"I'm not the bastard. You're the bastard…"
"And now, in the whole world's eyes, you're the one behind everything."
"You're a demon. You're a devil."
"And me?"
"I'm the angel who destroys devils."
"A true god."
Jovian's voice kept flooding Homelander's mind. He wasn't just destroying Homelander's body—he was tearing apart what was left of his will.
"When you're dead, I'll remember to leave a bottle of mixed baby formula at your grave~"
"You unwanted brat who never got a single ounce of mother's love."
The words came like a demon's whisper, pounding his skull over and over.
"What are you still waiting for?! Even Stillwell doesn't love you!"
"Admit it~ In this world, no one truly belongs to you, and no one truly loves you!"
"You're just an accident from a lab."
"A tool made to print money."
"A slave of Vought."
"From the day you were born, you never had a choice. Not once."
"But now—at least now—you can choose one last thing. No one can stop you."
"That choice is: go die."
Deep underwater, Jovian moved behind Homelander, locked both hands around Homelander's head, and held him there.
His voice didn't stop.
It kept pouring in.
"…"
Homelander couldn't fight Jovian's strength.
And worse—
He didn't want to anymore.
He sank to his knees in the sand on the ocean floor, shoulders trembling with something that wasn't rage anymore.
"Please… tell me…"
"What… did I do wrong?"
Homelander asked Jovian.
He wanted an answer from someone stronger than him—someone truly at the top of this world.
An answer that had haunted him his whole life:
Why did a kid who tried so hard to be loved never earn the real love of his "mother"?
"You didn't do anything wrong…"
"You were just too weak."
"In strength."
"And in your heart."
That was Jovian's final answer.
"Thank you…"
Homelander's face softened. Understanding flickered across him, and he managed a faint, relieved smile.
"You're welcome~"
Jovian shook his head, then suddenly tightened his hands.
Crack.
Homelander went still—eyes open—silent forever, like General Zod.
"Advanced gene detected. Fuse?"
The system's prompt sounded inside Jovian's head.
"Of course."
Jovian answered without hesitation. The most important reason he'd come to this world was to take Homelander's power—heat vision.
Only someone with heat vision could be a true Freeborn.
"Fusing genes…"
"Fusion complete…"
The moment the system finished, Jovian felt it—his hearing and vision sharpened dramatically.
But none of that mattered compared to the real prize.
Jovian smiled.
Then his eyes ignited with a crimson glow.
Bzzzt…
Endless beams poured from Jovian's eyes, punching up through the sea and spearing into the sky!
One beam—then another—then another—then another—
The light stuttered and carved through everything overhead, shredding whatever it touched.
"This is Reporter Ronan!"
"We're on the front line of the battle between Freeman and Homelander!"
"Heat vision is firing nonstop from the ocean—that's Homelander's heat vision!"
"God help us! Freeman has to defeat that devil Homelander!"
Reporter Ronan kept talking, voice shaking with urgency as he prayed that Freeman would win—finally put down the monster who'd fooled America for decades.
"Freeman! Freeman! Freeman!"
Nobody knew what was happening beneath the waves, but the beams that kept erupting from the ocean told them how terrifying the fight must be down there.
A tight, suffocating tension wrapped around everyone staring at their TVs.
And without even thinking, they screamed the hero's name.
Boom!
BOOM!!
The helicopters didn't dare fly too close to the ocean.
Because every so often, the sea would heave and explode into waves dozens of meters high—
proof of how brutal the battle "down below" was.
That "battle" lasted an entire hour…
When Jovian decided the timing was just right, he hoisted Homelander's mangled corpse and flew up toward the surface.
Right before breaking through the water, Jovian seemed to remember something.
"Shh~"
He lifted a finger to his lips and looked at the sea creatures nearby, signaling that this was a secret—
a secret nobody was allowed to tell.
Splash!
The surface burst open.
The man in the white suit rose into view.
No doubt about it—
It was Freeman.
"FREEMAN!!!"
Every survivor of Homelander's attack threw their hands into the air and screamed his name with everything they had.
"I won."
Freeman held Homelander's body, but there was no joy in his eyes.
Only a quiet emptiness.
"He… he used to be my idol."
"I truly didn't know he was this kind of person."
"It hurts…"
Freeman faced the cameras, sadness laid carefully across his expression.
"Freeman—driven by justice in his heart, by true justice, by the people—he chose to defeat his own idol with his own hands! My God… what kind of spirit is that?!"
The reporters praised him relentlessly, wiping tears from their eyes.
"I hope he can be buried with respect. He did a lot of terrible things, but he also saved a lot of people. There's no doubt—at least once, he really was a hero."
Freeman spoke to the cameras with a grieving face.
"Freeman chooses forgiveness for Homelander's sins—my God! What incredible greatness! Let us sing for Freeman's greatness!"
The reporters kept cheering.
"Freeman is too great—he's the real hero, a god among men!"
"That kind of heart is something we should all learn from!"
"He's amazing! I love you, Freeman!"
The same people who once screamed I love you at Homelander now screamed it at Freeman instead, like they'd simply traded idols.
And the dead—
the wounded—
the ruined—
No one wanted to bring them up.
Everyone wanted sunlight.
Nobody looked into the dark.
So after Homelander died, the world sang hymns for Freeman.
From this day on, there would be no more Homelander.
Only…
Vought.
"WTF!"
Stillwell clutched her head, unable to accept it. It felt like the entire world had flipped upside down.
"I'm sorry. But I had no choice…"
A-Train stood there holding a baby in his arms, apologizing to Stillwell.
Before Stillwell could say another word, A-Train vanished from the room.
"The fuck… what is wrong with this world?"
Stillwell rubbed her forehead and sank into her chair.
Everything felt unfamiliar.
Vought didn't feel like her Vought anymore.
And The Seven didn't feel like her Seven.
Because now, everything belonged to—
Stillwell stared at the live broadcast.
It all belonged to the man the media wouldn't stop praising.
The man who defeated Homelander.