Chapter 1729: S: The Apocalypse Event (32)

"How on earth did things end up like this?!!!"

In the office of Desaad at the Apokolips Scientific Research Center, the purple-robed Desaad roared in fury. The messengers and guards could only huddle against the wall, trembling, not daring to utter a single word of defense, clearly having suffered at Desaad's hands before.

"Why did the First Starport disintegrate? Why did His Majesty Darkseid feel the chaos in the Apokolips force field? And what on earth is the disaster currently happening on the surface?!!!"

"My lord, please calm your anger!" A civil official close to Desaad knelt down and said, "We have already sent people to investigate."

"Investigate? The disaster is already affecting His Majesty Darkseid, and you are merely investigating?!!!" Desaad reached out, and a golden whip of light coiled around his subordinate.

The subordinate grabbed the whip around his neck in agony, kicking his legs in a desperate struggle. Desaad threw him against the wall and said coldly, "I want to see this resolved immediately! His Majesty Darkseid's dignity shall not be provoked by anyone!"

The subordinate clutched his neck, gasping for air, and stammered, "Yes, yes, Granny Goodness has already sent the Female Furies to the surface to investigate one of the anomalies..."

But Desaad suddenly narrowed his eyes and asked, "Did His Majesty Darkseid call her over as well?"

"It seems not. His Majesty Darkseid appears to have issued the order to her via transmission."

Desaad's expression grew even gloomier. He knew what this meant. Darkseid was telling Desaad that he was very disappointed, and even more so, he was reminding Desaad that if the Prime Minister of the God-Kingdom could not maintain the order of the entire nation at all times, then perhaps dividing power among others would be a good alternative.

Desaad understood this hint, but he would never allow anyone to share his power. He took a deep breath and shouted, "Kanter, go find Kanter."

"Um, my lord, Kanter previously followed Viman to Earth to execute a reconnaissance mission and has not yet returned."

"Useless!" Desaad cursed. But finally, he pondered for a moment and said, "Have Mantis take the Parademons to resolve the other incident site... Never mind, have Kalibak go as well, to be safe. Remember, I want a resolution, no matter the means. Immediately quell the chaos. Whoever dares to make me lose face before His Majesty Darkseid again..."

The tone of Desaad's final words was chilling to the core. His subordinates, who knew their superior was the most sadistic torturer in the entire universe, fled the office at top speed.

As Darkseid knew, two massive anomalies had appeared on the surface of Apokolips. Even more terrifying was that the Apokolips force field could not invade these two eerie regions. For the people of Apokolips, terror had been resurrected.

The first eerie region was located on the shallow surface of Apokolips. A terrifying, colossal beast had descended from the sky. She possessed peerless defense, indestructible attack power, and a savage, devouring nature. The moment she landed, she destroyed an entire prison city.

Just as Little Bruce had deduced, the deep and shallow surfaces of Apokolips were entirely prisons and testing grounds. The shallow surface was divided into approximately four thousand zones, each containing countless prison cities, also known as Apokolips Fortress Cities.

The Fortress Cities possessed towering walls, intended to prevent residents who had not been fully brainwashed from escaping. All residents of the Fortress Cities were intelligent beings abducted by the Apokolips army from across the universe. They were kept there to perform extremely heavy physical labor, not to create value, but to exhaust their physical strength and spirit, allowing them to be more heavily influenced by the Apokolips force field and brainwashed more quickly.

Most residents who were successfully brainwashed would enter the laboratories on the deep surface, where endless, agonizing experiments awaited them.

They were like experimental materials, transported to different laboratories based on their individual qualities. Some became subjects for human modification experiments; the luckier ones could undergo mechanical modification to become the lowliest Parademon soldiers or "the lowly." Certain individuals with extremely resilient spirits were sent to the research center at the core, to be personally brainwashed and controlled by the high-ranking officials.

The Fortress City was the first stop for alien captives arriving on Apokolips. Although the rule was harsh, because the brainwashing effect of Apokolips was 100% achievable as long as one stayed long enough, the guards didn't care how the captives lived in the Fortress City. Even if they formed societies to resist, it didn't matter; as long as they didn't leave the Apokolips force field, there was no possibility of resisting the brainwashing. Eventually, they would all bow before the great His Majesty Darkseid.

Therefore, there was a certain social order among the residents of the Fortress City. Although it was still as strict as a prison, it was divided into different classes and groups. People of the same class had normal lives and social interactions. Although the labor was extremely heavy, the lives that could survive under such oppression were themselves sufficiently tenacious and resilient.

From the perspective of the residents in the Fortress City, disaster suddenly descended one day.

A colossal beast appeared outside the Fortress City. Compared to her volume, which was the size of a star, the Fortress City was like a toy under her feet. This monster seemed extremely hungry and had lost her reason, eating everything she could see along the way.

The monster came very suddenly, and her speed was very fast. The lord of the Fortress City knew that reinforcements from His Majesty Darkseid would not arrive quickly, so he could only organize the defensive forces in the city to resist, but it was far from enough.

"Today, I have gathered you here to tell you good news! You are about to have the opportunity to fight for His Majesty Darkseid!"

A green alien equipped with a mechanical exoskeleton stood in the center of the high fortress, speaking to the dense crowd of alien captives within the high walls. "You will be able to go outside the high walls for the first time and fight against powerful enemies! Victory and glory belong to Darkseid!!!"

"Wier, did you hear that? We will get weapons. This must be a good opportunity." A blue-skinned alien looked at his companion and said, "We must escape from here and then take revenge on this damned Darkseid. He destroyed our home!"

His companion's expression seemed somewhat dazed, but he still nodded. However, at that moment, a guard from the Fortress City rushed to the top of the fortress and said to the lord who had just finished his speech, "It's bad, my lord! That terrifying giant beast has changed course. It's coming toward us!!!"

"Damn lowly people, pick up your weapons! You will gain the glory you deserve in this battle! Die for Darkseid!!!"

Before the lord could finish his words, a rumbling sound came from afar. The violent shaking caused almost all the alien captives below to collapse to the ground.

Immediately after, the earth began to crack. The fragments of rock and soil ejected from the shattering ground were enough to tear apart any alien captives who didn't run fast enough.

When the huge shadow descended, the captives looking up only saw a single scale.

That was merely a tiny scale on the giant beast's foot. Before the lord could let out any roar of anger or terror, with a subtle sound of shattering, an entire Fortress City was crushed as brittle as a biscuit falling to the ground.

Another, even larger Fortress City had prepared for resistance early. The residents here had arrived on Apokolips earlier and had long been brainwashed by the Apokolips force field, their minds filled only with fighting for Darkseid.

In this special emergency, they had donned mechanical equipment in advance, held cannons or laser weapons, gathered into formations, and shouted slogans of "Long live Darkseid" as they charged toward the terrifying giant beast.

However, numbers meant nothing in the face of such extreme differences in size and power. Large swaths of the army were crushed by a single falling foot. For the captives in the city, the tall, insurmountable walls didn't even need to be struck; they simply ceased to exist after a single step.

Just then, a special army flew through the air. Leading them was a man wearing armor of dark and light green, with horns like a scarab beetle on his forehead and chin. Following closely behind was a tall male with black hair like a lion's mane. Both had ferocious expressions and typical New God features.

Their size was considered tall among humanoid beings, but compared to this terrifying giant beast that was almost the size of a star, they were still insignificant. They looked at such a huge monster without much fear, and the man in the green armor leading them said:

"Who on earth brought this big guy here? I really should have a good talk with that old hag. She sent that group of women whose heads are only filled with killing to watch the starport, and she actually let such a big thing sneak in. Desaad won't let them off!"

"Stop talking nonsense, Mantis." The New God with the lion's mane said, "Hurry up and hack this guy to death, then report back to His Majesty Darkseid. I don't want to look at that Desaad's face anymore."

The man called Mantis revealed a cold smile and said, "I really don't understand what these stupid races that desperately evolve their size are thinking. They really think size can crush everything? That monster that once evolved itself into a living planet wasn't hacked into pieces by me?"

After speaking, the violent roar of a boom tube sounded in Mantis's ears. He accelerated to the limit almost instantly, wanting to use the best method he had ever used to deal with giant monsters to deal with the terrifying giant beast in front of him.

The bloodthirsty smile on Mantis's face as he whistled past grew stronger. He had already seen the scene where he punched through the body, followed by the eruption of divine power, cutting this slow and clumsy big monster in half.

During his high-speed flight, he threw a punch. Divine power condensed at the tip of his finger; upon contact with any object, it would turn into a sharp blade of light, shredding all targets in front of him.

The next second, divine power erupted. Violent storms whistled out, and endless blades of light shredded space. But there was no blood, no screams, only terrifying silence.

Mantis stood stunned on the spot, a roar of disbelief echoing in his heart: "Impossible!! How is it so fast?!!!"

When the shadow covered his head, Mantis pulled away at high speed almost instantly. But within the zero-point-several seconds he was flickering his position, he felt himself being grabbed.

The giant claw pinched him as if he were a grain of sand. Instantly, Mantis was slammed fiercely against the ground—left, right, and then another ten thousand times for good measure.

When Mantis woke up again, he found himself being held over a deep abyss of a mouth. During the uncontrollable fall, a scream of agony echoed, and the terrifying giant beast, after chewing a few times with a crunching sound, left only one sentence in a tone of disdain:

"What a weak god."