Space, pitch black.
Broken satellites drifted like a long stream of debris, surrounding the area like a mechanical graveyard.
Suddenly.
From Diana's hand, the Lasso of Truth transformed into a vast net of golden whips, like tens of thousands of intertwined golden serpents. As it locked onto Bardi, her eyes fixed on him, the lasso erupted in a violent riot.
The golden lasso split into countless strands, firing a rain of golden arrows that pierced through the darkness, smashing apart the floating mechanical fragments as they shot toward Bardi.
Bardi's eyes widened. His heat vision ignited, tearing through the dark void with searing red beams, blasting toward the oncoming rain of golden lasso strands.
The shockwave of the heat vision swept through space, colliding with the phantasmal golden lasso arrows. There was no sound, only the intense, continuous bursts of light and shadow. The collision resembled starships caught under a super-beam laser, detonating one after another, casting brilliant flashes across the void.
The scene was magnificent, majestic. From Earth, it appeared as if meteors were streaking across the sky.
As energy collided and exploded, all nearby space debris and satellite fragments were blasted away.
Amid the explosion, the real Lasso of Truth, glowing with golden divine power, suddenly shot out from the blast. Its sharp tip surged forward fearlessly, like a thorn seeking its mark, piercing toward Bardi at high speed.
Bardi narrowed his eyes. His heat vision instantly ceased. At the same time, a blast of cold white breath poured from his lips, like a surging river crashing into the oncoming lasso tip.
In the torrent of freezing breath, the lasso twisted and surged like a golden snake fighting upstream, gathering divine energy, struggling violently against the cold.
But only half a meter from Bardi's chest, the lasso froze solid beneath a thick layer of ice. The divine power was completely neutralized by the icy current.
The lasso hung suspended like a frozen serpent. The frost crept along its length, spreading back toward Diana's grip.
"Damn it!"
Diana frowned. She shook the lasso sharply, divine power rolling through it, shattering the ice into drifting shards as the lasso regained its flexibility, glowing brightly once again.
The same tactic clearly could not restrain Bardi.
But this time, she was not alone.
Simultaneously, behind Hal, the ten insect-like arthropods with their cold yellow exoskeletons twisted and clawed through the vacuum. They rapidly extended, growing larger, each limb expanding to be as thick as half a person. The sharp, icy tips aimed at Bardi from all directions.
Bardi never ignored a single detail on the battlefield. The moment these arthropods reached for him, he shifted sideways, easily evading their encirclement. His hands formed knife edges as he slashed toward one of the limbs.
Using over 70 percent of his strength, Bardi gathered his muscle and energy to test just how powerful these things were.
But to his surprise, the limb was sliced through effortlessly. The cut surface was smooth and flat. Yellow-gray pus, resembling blood, floated out into space.
At that instant, a strange ripple of fear surged through Bardi's mind, causing him to pause for a moment.
The moment his hand touched the arthropod, it had triggered something deep inside him.
Suddenly, confusion appeared in Bardi's pupils as memories flooded into his consciousness.
It felt as though he had been thrown back into his previous life, where he was mediocre, without ambition, without dreams. Just another cog in the machine, working a dull 9-to-5 job, endlessly exhausted, trapped in an aimless, repetitive life.
That crushing emptiness—the soul-numbing monotony of living only to work, without passion, without purpose.
A life of quiet desperation.
A meaningless struggle, giving one's small, insignificant energy to a system that never noticed.
The endless toil of ordinary life. The oppressive grind of being just another faceless human in a crowd of billions.
Human hearts are masters at suffocating themselves.
No fire. No passion. Just existence.
What was the meaning of such a life?
To live servilely, exhausted, afraid to dream.
To flatter the powerful, to live only for survival, for money—how terrifying.
To be insignificant in a world of billions, forgotten, nameless, swallowed by the machinery of life.
This was the nightmare.
A future without hope, without turbulence, grinding away the passion, the dreams, the very will to live.
It was not the future he wanted.
Even if it meant facing the pain of killing the woman he loved, he would never abandon those memories, because she had once stirred the waves in his heart.
And where there are waves, there is life.
Until he came to this world, where he could laugh, cry, and reshape a dull, dreamless world.
He feared mediocrity.
"So… I am here to change this world."
Bardi's eyes snapped back into focus. In that instant, he saw Hal's limbs surrounding him, Hal's insect-like form trying to bind him.
The hem of Bardi's trench coat lifted without wind, his chest thrust forward, his towering figure standing firm in the void, radiating a vast and irresistible presence, as magnetic as a black hole.
His eyes, once clouded, now burned with clarity. Passion surged through his blood like a raging river. A wild smile spread across his face—intense, exaggerated, burning hot.
"Thank you… for reminding me of my fear."
Bardi suddenly burst into laughter, his eyes blazing as he glared at Hal. His figure exploded forward with unprecedented speed, throwing a punch straight at Hal.
"I have conquered the mundane! I have conquered the ordinary!"
"You wasted too much of my time!"
With a fierce grin, Bardi's punch landed cleanly, tearing a massive hole through Hal's chest. Hal's eyes dimmed, his body losing all strength as he drifted weightlessly into space.
In that instant, Diana appeared behind Bardi. Golden divine power surged through her arms. She threw herself onto him from behind, wrapping her arms tightly around him, holding him in place as she flew desperately toward the incoming nuclear warheads.
"Barmulodi, your end has come!"
Diana gritted her teeth, her eyes filled with sorrow as she watched Hal's body drift lifelessly into the void. Still, she clung tightly to Bardi, dragging him with her toward the center of the nuclear blast zone.
But unexpectedly…
Bardi suddenly shifted, locking his arm around Diana's neck.
The position froze Diana in shock. She clung to Bardi's waist, while Bardi's arm locked firmly around her neck. The two of them continued flying toward the nuclear strike zone in this strange, twisted posture.
"Come on, come on! From today onward, let it be the era of nuclear peace!"
(To be continued.)
***
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