American comics: Starting with Luke the Maker

One by one, small octopuses of various colors hatched from the splashed liquid, launching indiscriminate attacks on all life forms around them like facehuggers. As the epicenter of the liquid, Steppenwolf received special attention.

The bodies of these octopuses were filled with slippery mucus, reducing friction while also making their bodies exceptionally tough. Especially the sharp teeth covering their undersides, which, after blooming like chrysanthemums, bit down heavily on Steppenwolf's armor. Some smaller octopuses, when close to his face, used their suction cups to firmly grip his skin, relentlessly probing into Steppenwolf's eyes, mouth, and other orifices with their tentacles.

Crunch, crunch.

Steppenwolf's armor was being chewed out with marks by the octopuses' sharp teeth, the smooth surface covered with pits and bumps, some corroded by the liquid, others bitten out by teeth. Even the metal used by Apokolips to forge divine weapons couldn't completely defend against the octopuses' tearing.

Feeling a burning pain on his skin, Steppenwolf's hand grabbed an octopus clinging to his left cheek, its tentacles working together to pry open his eyelid and stab into his eye socket. Two others were fighting against his clenched teeth.

An octopus, along with splattered blood, flew off Steppenwolf's face, the suction cups on the thrown octopus's tentacles still carrying a piece of flesh. The wound seemed to further provoke the octopuses, which were previously wriggling and running on the ground, now hopping and jumping, lunging at Steppenwolf as if teleporting.

Steppenwolf waved his hand around him, creating an impenetrable [wall], constantly knocking away the octopuses that lunged at him, but others still surged forward one after another. A whale would explode into blood if struck by Steppenwolf's fist, but these octopuses seemed unaffected, shaking their heads after bouncing a few times on the ground before charging again.

Zooming out, the entire fleet had fallen into complete chaos. The soldiers of Apokolips were almost instantly met with disaster. The ship's defenses were breached without any effect, followed by mental distortions, and those whose bodies hadn't yet distorted directly attacked their companions.

Internal strife.

Ship cannons roared.

The massive fleet was rapidly collapsing from the inside out at a destructive pace. Close-range fleet weapons fighting each other left almost no one unscathed, and brilliant fireworks lit up the dark starry sky, pushing towards the fleet like a wave.

Steppenwolf's mothership was spared from attacks by other ships, but its situation was even worse. A massive octopus was clinging to the outside of the mothership, and the elite soldiers Steppenwolf had brought were almost completely annihilated in this short period, leaving only Steppenwolf, the Apokoliptian fleet commander, alive.

But Steppenwolf's condition was also dire, endlessly, more and more octopuses almost formed a pile, pressing him down tightly. And new octopuses were constantly lunging from all directions, joining the pile.

The terrifying devouring power constantly weakened Steppenwolf's stamina, and even more terrifying, and even more unbearable for Steppenwolf, were the whispers constantly echoing in the depths of his mind.

Noisy, yet seemingly containing great mystery.

Steppenwolf knew he should block out this sound, but the seductive mystery forced him to keep listening. His mind was being corroded bit by bit.

His thoughts gradually shifted from resistance and vigilance to listening. He didn't even feel anything was wrong with the entire reversal process. Even though his intuition was still frantically sounding alarms, a mental wall that blurred his senses blocked the dangerous warnings from his body and sensory organs.

In the mysterious and blurred chaotic sounds, Steppenwolf remembered his current master, Darkseid.

Apokolips was a planet full of evil deeds. They were born with great power, vigorous life, and accumulated powerful technology. Since the birth of Apokolips, they had conquered countless worlds and civilizations, storing powerful technologies from conquered civilizations all over the universe. The forces that could compare with the strength of Apokolips in the entire universe were few and far between.

They admired power, especially the mysterious power that was born with the universe and transcended the universe. They tried to master that power and further enhance their strength, conquering, crushing, and destroying all obstacles in their path.

They were the New Gods of the new era!

Whether it was his brother, Zonnus, known as the strongest New God of Apokolips, also known as Yuga Khan, or his son, Uxas, the new king of Apokolips, also known as Darkseid after succeeding the throne, both father and son were walking this path in person.

Yuga Khan wanted to explore the power of the Source Wall, but it ended in vain, and he himself was trapped on the Source Wall. But no one on Apokolips shouted the slogan to go and save him.

The second son, Darkseid, after snatching the power of the Omega Effect from his brother, began his journey to find other powerful forces.

Of course, Darkseid did not covet the power of the Source Wall. He knew that his power was not as good as his father Yuga Khan, so his goal, from beginning to end, was in another direction.

Darkseid was fortunate that he successfully found an extremely powerful force that could rival the Omega Effect, the Anti-Life Equation!

This power allowed Apokolips to successfully become the incredibly powerful New God race it is today, possessing countless life puppets and powerful servants. No one can truly resist Darkseid's power. With this power, he rose up and truly snatched power from his mother and relatives.

He, Steppenwolf, joined Darkseid and obeyed his orders precisely because he realized this.

He obeyed the strong, the ultimate victor!

But this didn't mean that Steppenwolf was loyal to Darkseid. Without external forces or opportunities, he might serve Darkseid forever, conquering world after world for him, destroying civilization after civilization, only to increase cannon fodder while also searching for those possibly existing mysterious forces.

But now, his thoughts were involuntarily diverted: why couldn't he kill Darkseid and replace him, becoming the new king of Apokolips?

No, no, no, Darkseid's strength was too great. He also possessed two earth-shattering forces, the Anti-Life Equation and the Omega Effect. He couldn't cope with one, let alone Darkseid, who could mix the two.

Absurd and bold thoughts arose in Steppenwolf's heart, but they were quickly extinguished by his own rationality and fear of Darkseid. He didn't want to die.

What are you afraid of? You have already obtained my power, you don't have to be afraid of him anymore! You will successfully defeat him! Punish him! Make him kneel before you and respectfully call you master. Don't you want to see this scene happen? Oh, you shook your head, but your heart is more honest than your body! You want to do this, you want to do it madly and eagerly! You want to return everything he has done to you, the humiliation he has done to you, one by one. Stop struggling, come into my arms!

You will gain the power you dream of, and you will achieve the wish you have been dreaming of! You only need to give up resistance, and you can get all of this! Come on, stop struggling! Let us become one, you can use my power as you like!

The seductive voice constantly bombarded Steppenwolf's mental barrier. Under the seductive words that went straight to the heart, a hesitant and struggling look appeared on Steppenwolf's octopus-covered face, and the mental wall was crumbling, as if it would completely collapse in the next moment.

A strange and powerful force was injected into Steppenwolf's body through the octopuses on his body, endlessly. Every minute and every second, he felt himself becoming stronger, and every minute and every second, he felt it was his new life. His body was swollen and aching from the huge power pouring in, but soon, his New God body was constantly collapsing under the pressure, then healing, and then adapting to the new power pouring into his body.

Again and again.

In the end, Steppenwolf even began to like this painful and happy feeling. For a person like him who also pursued power and victory, if only bearing pain could bring him a substantial increase in strength, he was willing to soak in the ocean of pain for a long time.

Therefore, Steppenwolf's psychology of struggle and resistance became weaker, and dense cracks appeared on the mental wall, like glass shattering. The next moment, when Steppenwolf completely gave up resistance, a huge eye suddenly appeared above his mind, like the sun in a planetary system, its light obscuring the sky.

Black marks appeared on Steppenwolf's body, and a complex pattern between his eyebrows was outlined as if by a hot iron wire, flickering with a dark black light.

Just as Steppenwolf was about to completely fall, and his mind was about to be completely distorted and harvested by the owner of the eye, another powerful force, similar to the power of the owner of the eye, suddenly emerged from the depths of Steppenwolf's mind, colliding and fighting against the eye octopus that had entered Steppenwolf's core.

An invisible mental storm raged in Steppenwolf's sea of mind, hurricanes set sail, and tsunamis vibrated. Steppenwolf's sea of consciousness, which was used as a battlefield, instantly entered a doomsday-like scene.

The power imprint pattern on his forehead, outlined with brushstrokes, suddenly interrupted, and fine blood beads seeped out from under Steppenwolf's skin. These blood beads were quickly devoured by the octopuses crawling on his body.

Steppenwolf, whose head was胀痛欲裂, finally regained the sensation of his body. The sense of crisis brought about by the edge of life and death, as well as the feeling of exhaustion from the rapid loss of physical strength, further amplified the fear in his heart.

He felt that he was simply unlucky! He had reorganized his troops and led a large army to carry out a beautiful revenge battle. As a result, he had not yet seen the enemy he had expected, but was attacked by a sudden monster. The heavy losses should be understated, and the annihilation of the entire army might be more realistic.

And this time, what he brought was not only consumable parademons, but also a large number of Apokoliptian people. In any case, his actions this time could be said to be a failure among failures.

He would not have another chance.

Perhaps Darkseid would not kill him, but he would definitely arrange a task that he could not complete and let him die.

The power of that monster was too terrible, specializing in attacking people's minds and spirits. As long as there was a trace of relaxation and mental loopholes, it would be covered and invaded by the other party's ubiquitous mental power, and then accumulate advantages like a snowball, allowing you to fall into the other party's mental trap without realizing it and hand over your soul.

As he approached the other party's vast will, he even had a peculiar feeling that the other party did not care about his strength and life or death, but only regarded him as a marked good prey. The other party only wanted to lure him to fall and corrupt him. As for what he would do after falling and corrupting? The other party didn't care and didn't care. After he died, his soul, as well as all the information and experiences engraved in his soul, would be devoured and digested by the other party as food.

Powerful people like him with strength were very popular with the other party. They were excellent hunting ingredients on the other party's menu.

If it weren't for the sudden appearance of the power inside his body that woke him up, he would definitely fall and corrupt without realizing any abnormality, and eventually become the appearance that the monster wanted.

As for the source of the power in his body that was fighting against the monster, Steppenwolf also had some speculation.

The Anti-Life Equation!

The power that Darkseid engraved on his soul at some point. This may also be the reason why he could not resist any orders issued by Darkseid, even if he did not feel loyal.

Now, the collision of the two forces, although it made his mental world feel a splitting pain, also allowed him to regain his own free will.

Boom!

An axe rotated and flew back from the depths of the void, heavily hitting the deck in front of Steppenwolf. The powerful impact and high temperature instantly blew away a large number of octopus piles. Steppenwolf, whose body was out of shape, staggered to stabilize his body, stepped forward and grabbed his axe. The power contained in the axe instantly replenished his depleted body.

Suddenly, Steppenwolf's gaze looked towards the depths of the starry sky revealed after the mothership was torn apart. A dazzling flash of light, from far to near, smashed towards him.

That was a hammer, a hammer with a dark black hole in the center of the hammerhead that seemed to devour all light and matter, surrounded by rotating halos composed of large galaxies.

Looking at the hammer, Steppenwolf seemed to see a raging galaxy smashing towards him. (End of this chapter)