Chapter 3541: Interstellar Speed (Part 1)

"What kind of place is this?" Kara shook her head, looking in every direction, stroking the walls with her hand and observing the marks her fingers left behind.

They were still heading downward. They didn't know how long they had been walking, but the temperature began to rise, becoming so high that even a Kryptonian found it somewhat unbearable.

Kara could clearly feel that this was definitely not just a mine for energy transport pipes. They had already passed three or four experimental levels, and the equipment used for extracting energy didn't require so many scientists.

"My biological father once worked here," Clark said, "as a scientist in geological exploration and core energy research."

"That's not surprising; Uncle Jor was always an expert in this field," Kara said, shaking her head slightly, "but I've never heard of this place."

"This is a secret project, known only to the House of El," Clark said. "It is a legacy left behind by the Kryptonians of the previous era."

"Are you talking about the Krypton race?"

"Yes. The House of El of the previous era made thorough preparations. They anticipated every situation that might occur on this planet, and so, they prepared this."

The two stopped in front of a passage at the very bottom. Kara saw a raging fire at the end of the passage and simultaneously felt a surging energy.

The two flew in together.

Appearing before Kara was what he called the Heart of the Star—a fusion reactor as incomparably huge as an independent planet, appearing right beneath their feet.

Yet this scorching, surging fireball did not exist independently. On its surface, a massive mechanical shield with an extremely complex structure, almost covering the entire core, was flashing with a metallic luster.

"Earth has a theory called the Dyson Sphere theory," Clark began. "The main concept is to extract solar energy by building a mechanical shielding zone above the sun, thereby facilitating production and construction."

"For humans, this is still a utopian theory, but the House of El has already achieved it."

Kara stared blankly at the scene below. Even now, in her field of vision, every piece of machinery, small as a black dot, would be dozens of stories high if it appeared beside her.

This was an unimaginable technological greatness. Compared to it, this stellar heart beating inside the planet was merely a primitive and rugged spectacle.

"Incredible," Kara evaluated.

The two continued to walk downward along the outer platform. Kara couldn't help but ask, "You just said the Dyson Sphere is used to extract energy to facilitate further construction. Then what is the House of El building by extracting core energy with the Dyson Sphere?"

Clark did not answer, but Kara soon found out.

They followed the platform to the very bottom, where countless energy pipes led in one direction. Flying in that direction, an even more magnificent machine appeared before them.

Kara was dumbfounded and whispered:

"This is..."

"A planetary engine."

Oliver hung up the phone, turned his head to Lex beside him, and said, "Helen is ready on her end. Let's begin."

Lex nodded. He walked out the door, picked up his phone, dialed a number, and said, "Ms. Zatara, prepare to activate the full defense mode of the magical defense network. You must ensure that the gravitational fluctuations caused by the upcoming battle will not affect Earth."

"Okay, I understand. God bless Earth."

Then he turned to Oliver and said, "The full defense mode will be activated in three minutes, and governments around the world are on high alert. From here on out, it depends on Helen and Clark."

Helen had already arrived at the original location of Mercury. Here, the fireball that should have been incomparably dazzling was close at hand, though at this moment it only emitted a faint light.

A small black shadow was constantly striking the black shield. Every one of his impacts caused the energy ripples of the shield to oscillate. Fortunately, the shield remained firm, and the opponent had not been able to cause any damage to this star.

But this situation would not last long. They could not continue to drag this out.

Helen let out a roar, and the incomparably huge figure of Doomsday appeared beside the sun once again. She stretched out her claws, raised her head, and charged directly at H'el.

The giant beast's mouth, full of sharp teeth, bit toward the small figure, but was nimbly dodged by the opponent. The terrifying vertical pupils turned slightly, just happening to capture H'el's figure.

Zzzzt—

A laser hit Helen's neck, instantly scorching the scales black. Fresh blood sprayed from the cut soft flesh, and Helen let out a cry of pain.

"Damn it, this is much more intense than Superman!"

Helen cursed, but the wound began to heal rapidly, and the newly grown scales began to shimmer with a metallic luster. When the laser hit again, most of it was scattered, and a small portion could no longer penetrate the defense of the scales.

Helen threw another punch.

H'el did not dodge or evade; he crossed his arms and actually crashed into the fist. When the two fists, with a huge difference in volume, collided, it was Helen who retracted her hand in pain.

"Hiss..."

Accompanied by Helen's sharp intake of breath, the scales on her arm exploded layer by layer, flesh and blood flew everywhere, and in the deepest part of the wound, even white bone was exposed.

The wound began to heal again at an astonishing speed. However, this time, H'el took a deep breath and exhaled a freezing breath, as if setting off a massive ice storm in space.

Half of Helen's body was frozen. She struggled with difficulty to get rid of the influence of the freezing, but it was extremely difficult, and she used all her strength to barely retract her elbow a little.

Knowing that this wouldn't work, facing H'el's follow-up punch, Helen did not choose to dodge but adjusted the angle of her body.

H'el smashed a punch into Helen's left cheek, directly knocking her flying. With the help of this force, Helen smashed heavily into the solar shield.

The sun continued to erupt with surging heat. With the help of the high temperature of several thousand degrees, Helen quickly got rid of the influence of the freezing, her arm began to self-heal again, and she began to use the sun's temperature to continuously raise her body temperature until it reached the same level as the sun's surface.

At this time, Doomsday had turned into a giant beast of fire. Beneath the newly grown scales, it seemed as if lava was flowing, and the cold vertical pupils had also turned into a fiery scarlet.

Helen roared again and stretched out her claws to pinch at H'el once more. H'el flashed to the side, and a glimmer of light flashed in Helen's eyes.

She predicted H'el's landing point and sprayed a mouthful of fire along his movement trajectory. If this mouthful of fire breath, which was like a solar storm, were fully taken, he would lose a layer of skin even if he didn't die.

The fire breath swept past; after the ice storm came the fire storm. The bright particle stream first gathered together and then exploded outward, and the sky of Earth lit up for a moment as a result.

But H'el, who had landed, revealed a playful expression. He was completely unharmed and even moved to the other side at high speed.

Helen paused, then realized that the opponent was truly teleporting. In other words, his movement method was not running over at extremely high speed, but direct short-range teleportation—falling directly from one point to another.

Helen bared her teeth; this guy was even more troublesome than she had imagined.

Even the Flash, who possessed the Speed Force, had a movement trajectory; as long as one was powerful enough, one could even grab the Flash out of the Speed Force.

But if it was teleportation via space, it meant he was invincible during the teleportation process. How could one fight this?

It just so happened that they were relying on the sun. Helen could obtain energy from the star, and H'el could too, but the opponent's efficiency in obtaining energy might be higher than hers.

Thinking of this, Helen no longer maintained her original massive size. A loud noise came from between her bones and muscles, and she began to undergo an emergency evolution directly.

Although it looked like a big change, it was only a matter of a few seconds. The frenzied H'el took this opportunity to attack her, but Helen easily dodged them all.

Evolution complete. Helen's size shrank to only about five meters, and accompanying the reduction in volume was a drastic concentration of mass. Helen rushed forward fiercely, and the gravity around the sun was even disrupted.

The two figures collided fiercely again. On H'el's body, a psychic barrier suddenly lit up.

After separating, although she failed to cause any damage to H'el, Helen knew that this method was effective. Now, H'el probably couldn't take one of her blows with his physical body alone.

Helen accumulated strength again. But just as she was about to launch an attack, she felt her head suffer a heavy blow.

With a "buzz," Helen's vision went black, and her movements appeared to lag for a moment.

Taking this opportunity, H'el pressed forward, and the strength he had accumulated for a long time erupted all at once.

First, a "bang" punch smashed Helen onto the shield, followed by a series of punches. The scales on Doomsday's body surface could not withstand this violent impact and shattered one after another, her entire chest becoming a bloody mess.

Helen gritted her teeth, turned over, and took a deep breath, the reactor on her chest lighting up. But H'el seemed to have anticipated her movements and dodged the breath with another flash.

He broke her defense, but she couldn't hit him. A ball of fire seemed to be suppressed in Helen's heart.

The wound on her chest healed rapidly, her bones and muscles surged again, countless sharp thorns grew out, her entire upper body suddenly expanded, and dazzling light began to brew in her eyes.

Zzzzt—

A laser shot out from Doomsday's eyes. The attack, which was countless times faster than the breath, finally hit H'el, but it could not penetrate the opponent's psychic barrier.

Helen herself, because her size had become smaller, was grabbed by the opponent's telekinesis and thrown onto the shield again.

H'el seemed to treat Helen as a stone used to attack the solar shield, constantly grabbing her and smashing her against the shield.

Although Doomsday could evolve infinitely, it required large-scale adjustments after a truce. The evolution that could be carried out during battle was always limited, and for a time, she fell into a complete disadvantage, being beaten so hard she could barely fight back.

Just when she was in a dilemma, she heard Oliver's roar in her earpiece:

"Helen! Get ready!!!"

Helen turned her head sharply. A red and blue light suddenly appeared in front of her, followed by a darkness that briefly lost all light.

After a sound with low volume but extremely intense vibration appeared in her ears, a behemoth suddenly appeared on the originally blank orbit of Mercury.

Countless towering buildings reached into the clouds, still able to glimpse the prosperous appearance of many years ago. The engine that had just undergone a jump had not yet fully cooled, and the entire planet's surface was flashing with bright red fire—

That was Krypton.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 3542 =====