The days of being a spiritual mentor in Meiman.

Chapter 4461 Dark Prelude (Forty-Six)
As his towering figure stepped onto the beach, the tourists screamed in terror once more. The resurrected Steppenwolf no longer possessed his former high-tech metal armor. Instead, his skin had turned dark gray, the muscles on his head had peeled away, exposing half of his facial bone, and he emanated a thick stench of decay and coldness, his eyes filled with a dense black aura.

As he walked, the sand beneath his feet gradually corroded, turning a charred black as if it had been scorched. All the vegetation on the beach began to wither, covering an area of ​​thousands of meters. Fish carcasses continued to rise from the sea behind him. Dark clouds loomed overhead, and a cold wind howled.

The roar of attack helicopter engines echoed across the horizon. But the pilot only glanced at it from afar before pulling out his walkie-talkie and shouting, "We need backup! We need backup! That monster has resurrected! Contact the President immediately!"

Not far from the beach, police officers were working hard to disperse the crowd. Seeing the enormous figure approaching, they were terrified, their legs trembling, but they dared not abandon their posts. They could only use their batons to urge the crowd to leave quickly.

The soldiers' vehicles arrived quickly, but they were ordered to remain in place and not advance. They hid behind cover, exchanging tense information. Meanwhile, the monitoring vehicle carrying instruments emitted a constant, piercing siren, indicating that the levels of almost all hazardous components were off the charts.

As the Justice League entered, all eyes were on them. Everyone looked at them with anticipation, but the expressions on the faces of the few who entered were solemn.

The horrific scenes of the battle against Steppenwolf are still vivid in my mind. This number one enemy since the formation of the Justice League has not been dead for long, yet it has reappeared on Earth, which is truly despairing.

Even so, they still had to fight, because facing such a powerful enemy, Earth had nowhere to retreat. Diana took a deep breath, drew Vulcan, and charged towards Steppenwolf.

The closer Diana got to Steppenwolf, the stronger the stench of decay became. Diana could barely breathe. Out of the corner of her eye, she glanced at her arm and noticed that the lividity, which had been suppressed by magic and hadn't spread for a long time, had reappeared.

Her heart sank to the bottom. She was still being corrupted by the power of death, and perhaps one day she too would become such a monster, turning against her own comrades.

No, absolutely not! Diana gritted her teeth, gripping her sword and lunging at Steppenwolf. But as she got so close, the temperature plummeted to a freezing point, making her shiver uncontrollably. It wasn't just ordinary cold; it was a chilling cold that penetrated to the very soul, freezing her life force.

Before her sword even pierced Steppenwolf's skin, he began to stiffen and decay, his whole body trembling.

Ron was the first to notice Diana's unusual behavior; her brainwaves were very off. He quickly turned to Barry and said, "Barry, bring her back right now!"

Barry vanished instantly. In the Speed ​​Force world, filled with blue light, everything was peaceful and serene. But this only lasted until Barry approached Steppenwolf.

The entire Speed ​​Force world seemed to have been scalded open, and some cold, sinister substance was invading. What started as a small black spot expanded into a hole the size of a human figure. Barry took a few steps back in fear, afraid to approach.

Seeing Diana gave him renewed courage, and he gritted his teeth and continued running in that direction. As he approached the black hole, he felt like an insect caught in a massive gravitational vortex, about to be pulled into the deep darkness.

Barry trembled, but he refused to abandon his companion. With a growl, he broke free of his restraints at lightning speed, grabbed Diana, and vanished in a flash.

When the two appeared, their hair and eyebrows were frozen, and they stood there panting heavily. Hal immediately said, "Neither of you should go over there."

Everyone has realized that this power is extremely extreme: either you suppress it, or it suppresses you. Those who cannot suppress it cannot even get close. For example, Diana and Barry, whose divine powers and speed abilities are easily overcome by the power of death. Once suppressed, they will rapidly decay and perish.

Diana's skin had lost all color, and purplish-red lividity had spread across her face, making her look like a dying corpse. This terrified Barry.

“Are you…are you alright, ma’am?” Barry asked, trembling. Although Diana didn’t look alright at all, she waved her hand.

"Barry, your hands!" Diana exclaimed. Barry looked down and saw that the skin on his hands was also fading, turning into the ghastly white of a corpse, and the muscles were gradually losing their elasticity, just like when Diana had first become ill.

He remembered that when he brought Diana back, he had used this very hand to grab her shoulder. Could this thing be contagious?!

“It’s not contagious,” Diana explained, as if she had guessed what he was thinking. “Your hand was extended by the Speed ​​Force and was too close to Steppenwolf, so it was contaminated by him.”

Barry clenched his fists, but didn't feel anything unusual about his movements. This only made it more unsettling, and he hesitated to move.

By this time, Hal had already flown close to Steppenwolf. He was extremely cautious, his entire body enveloped in Green Lantern energy, protecting himself layer upon layer. He knew he was the first to be corrupted, and if the symptoms worsened, he might completely lose his ability to fight; he had to be extremely careful.

He took a deep breath and threw a punch at Steppenwolf. The good news was that he wasn't subdued; the bad news was that Steppenwolf was unharmed.

Steppenwolf looked at him with his completely darkened eyes, a sinister grin spreading across his decaying face, making him even more terrifying. He grabbed Hal's arm and threw him away, the places he touched stinging like needles, as a significant amount of death energy penetrated the green lantern's energy barrier and reached Hal himself.

Hal took a deep breath; it seemed close combat was definitely out of the question. He conjured a green energy projectile in front of him and fired it at Steppenwolf, causing the ground to tremble.

Steppenwolf was knocked back a few steps. Arthur seized the opportunity, raised his trident high, and roared, commanding the sea like Moses parting the ocean. The seawater, like the tentacles of a giant octopus, swept towards Steppenwolf, grabbing him and pulling him into the sea.

Steppenwolf struggled violently, and the chill of death spread out, freezing the seawater into icicles. Arthur then slammed his trident down, sending even more seawater soaring into the sky, forming countless tornadoes along the shore, sweeping towards Steppenwolf in a devastating attack.

In an instant, Steppenwolf was submerged by the sea. Arthur hurriedly activated the power of life evolution, but this time it only weakened a thin layer of power around him, and had no effect on suppressing him at all.

Steppenwolf was incredibly fast, appearing before Hal in the blink of an eye. Its massive fist slammed into Hal's chest; Hal couldn't dodge in time and was slammed into the ground, nearly shattering the Green Lantern Shield.

The blue lightning flashed again, and Barry pulled Hal aside, preventing him from being hit by Steppenwolf's final blow, but both of them were blasted away by the shockwave.

To cover their escape, Victor's eyes gleamed. The Mother Box modification mode activated, creating a deep crater on the beach, teleporting Steppenwolf and almost everything beneath his feet hundreds of meters away. In that instant, Victor plummeted from mid-air.

Ron quickly stepped forward to catch him. Victor, panting, said, "He's different from Amanda, his stats are too high..."

Victor had previously checked Amanda's stats in modified mode. Although he couldn't understand what the stats meant, he knew roughly how high the values ​​were. Steppenwolf was more than a hundred times stronger than Amanda; these stats were growing exponentially.

As a result, the mother box, which could originally be easily modified, now requires far more effort and is extremely unstable. Victor hadn't even intended to dig a hole, but the crater that appeared on the beach was at least a thousand meters deep.

“No,” Victor said. “I can’t do it. If this continues, the power of the Mother Box will get out of control.”

He said with some frustration, "It's not a problem with the mother box, it's a problem with me. My life form doesn't support me making changes at the level of cosmic rules, it's too difficult."

He paused for a moment, then said, "I understand. I have power but no status. The cosmic system is rejecting my attempts to tamper with it. I don't have administrator privileges, and forcing changes might cause program errors."

“Then don’t change it,” Ron quickly said. “No matter how tough Steppenwolf is, it’s still a tangible enemy. If you mess up the universe system, we’re all doomed.”

"It's alright, as long as I don't reach my power limit. What I did just now was too much of a stretch; I should have made fewer changes."

Ron couldn't care less about him anymore, because Steppenwolf charged at Hal again. Although it was unclear whether the wolf was still rational, he clearly knew who posed the greatest threat. He ignored Arthur and Barry, focusing solely on Hal.

Hal's green light energy was visibly depleting rapidly. Diana, who was standing nearby, noticed something was wrong and said to Barry, "Quick, Barry, run to headquarters and recharge Hal!"

“No,” Barry said, “I have to help him move; Steppenwolf is too fast!”

Having said that, he transformed into blue lightning once more, carrying Hal to avoid Steppenwolf's charging punch. Hal, wielding a longsword formed from the energy of the Green Lantern, spun around and delivered a powerful blow, successfully piercing Steppenwolf's chest.

But perhaps the condensed green light energy wasn't enough, and the power of death quickly devoured it. With a "crack," the sword shattered. The wound on Steppenwolf's chest healed rapidly.

"Damn it!" Hal cursed.

Just then, a red and blue figure approached from afar, slamming into Steppenwolf like a cannonball. With a loud "boom," Steppenwolf was slammed to the ground beside him. Clark punched him in the bloody mess of his face; with just that one punch, half of the exposed bone shattered into dust.

Clark, not content with that, unleashed a barrage of punches, nearly smashing Steppenwolf's skull to pieces. In the instant he was airborne, his eyes charged, and a high-energy laser at close range pierced Steppenwolf's skull with a "whoosh."

The Justice League members were stunned. Last time Batman easily defeated Steppenwolf, and now it's Superman's turn?
But clearly, the resurrected Steppenwolf was stronger. He staggered to his feet, his head forever left on the beach, but his headless body could still move. The stench of decay emanating from him was even stronger. Suddenly, a flash of black light.

"Watch out!!!" Diana yelled.