Chapter 440 - 439: Punch Out the Earth

A massive new sinkhole yawned open before everyone’s eyes.

It was the aftermath of Fenric’s punch.

When he struck Superman earlier, the blow had landed in the air. All the destructive force was absorbed by Superman’s body, and only a fraction of the shockwave leaked out. No one could accurately gauge how much power Fenric truly held.

But now—

Everyone knew.

This was power capable of shattering the world itself.

No wonder even Superman, with a body of steel, had vomited blood and been hurled into space by Fenric’s fist. The thought alone was terrifying.

Worse still, the earthquake triggered by that strike hadn’t stopped. The tremors continued to spread outward.

Bzzzzzz!

The ground quaked violently.

Far away, houses collapsed one after another. Countless civilians fled in terror as the earth roared beneath their feet.

Batman’s face hardened. "Ronan! Stop it! You’re hurting innocent people!"

Fenric exhaled slowly and replied, "Sorry, Bruce. This isn’t something I can just stop. This is a real earthquake."

As he spoke, he released his Indestructible Demon Body. The drain on his stamina was immense—only a few minutes of use and he already felt dangerously depleted. If he had kept it active for twenty minutes, he doubted he would even retain ten percent of his combat power.

The Justice League stared at him in shock.

Bruce demanded, "If you knew your strength could trigger earthquakes, why didn’t you hold back?"

Fenric glanced at him indifferently. "I did hold back. Otherwise, do you think the earth beneath your feet would still exist?"

Hiss!

The four heroes collectively drew in a sharp breath.

Was he implying that, at full strength, he could break apart the entire continent?

The idea was almost unacceptable—but none of them dared to doubt him. Fenric’s terrifying power spoke for itself.

And in truth, he wasn’t exaggerating.

That last punch had only been fifty percent of his power. When he once struck the Phoenix Girl with ten percent of his strength, he had leveled all of New York, sinking it beneath the waves.

"Enough standing around," Fenric said sharply. "The Mother Box wasn’t destroyed. Its energy is still warping reality. Find it—fast. If the fusion completes, this world is finished."

He added, almost as an afterthought, "And Clark isn’t dead. I only knocked him into the atmosphere. He’ll be back soon."

The League snapped out of their daze and rushed toward the ruins of the sinkhole.

Cyborg, linked to the Mother Box by the accident that created him, was the first to sense it. He descended into the rubble and soon retrieved the device, battered but still pulsing with alien energy.

Beside it lay the broken body of Steppenwolf.

He was a pitiful sight. His armor shattered, one horn snapped off, his massive frame torn and battered. If not for his status as a New God, with a body far sturdier than those of Earth’s deities—and the Mother Box shielding him from the worst of Fenric’s blow—he would already be dead.

Even so, he looked half-ruined. Any ordinary man would have perished a dozen times over.

But the League ignored him.

They all knew the truth: compared to Fenric, Steppenwolf was nothing. Even at his peak, he wouldn’t last a single round.

"Victor, can you separate the three Mother Boxes?" Bruce asked.

"I’ll try." Cyborg extended his arms, reshaping them into connectors that latched onto the fusing Boxes.

His body convulsed. A grimace twisted his face as waves of pain tore through him.

"Victor! Are you alright?" Diana called.

"I... can handle it," he gritted out, forcing himself to hold steady.

The others fell silent, watching him with grave expressions. Everything now depended on him.

Meanwhile—

Far above the planet, in the cold void of space, a figure drifted endlessly toward the blazing sun.

It was Superman.

Bathed in solar radiation, the black energy enshrouding him began to fade. The twisted features softened. His vitality returned, and his mind cleared, piece by piece.

His eyes snapped open.

For a long moment, he simply stared at the sun, then turned toward the distant blue orb of Earth. Confusion clouded his face.

Who am I? What am I doing here? How did I end up in space?

Questions echoed in his soul. Slowly, fragments of memory returned. His death at the hands of Doomsday. His resurrection by dark energy. The madness that drove him to harm mankind. And finally—Fenric, the terrifying human who had sent him hurtling into the void with a single punch.

Clarity returned. Superman clenched his fists, then turned back toward Earth, streaking through space with renewed determination.

Back below—

Crack!

The sudden sound made the League flinch. They turned toward Fenric, only to see Steppenwolf dangling limply in his grasp, his neck twisted at an unnatural angle.

Fenric let the corpse drop without a flicker of emotion. "Don’t stare at me like that. He was trying to recover in secret. I ended it."

Bruce swallowed his words and turned quickly back to Cyborg. "Victor, how is it? Can you separate them?"

"Yes," Cyborg said through clenched teeth. "But it’s dangerous. I’ll need someone with immense power to help."

All eyes turned, almost instinctively, to Fenric.

Fenric: "..."