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Chapter 267 - Chapter 267: The Puppet King

The acrid smell of ozone and cooked flesh hung heavy in the desert air. Homelander's head swiveled, his eyes glowing like twin crimson furnaces. The heat-vision beams that lanced from them acted as a scythe, carving a grotesque path through the remaining terrorists. Fueled by a jealousy twisted into pure, unadulterated rage by the Void's influence, his power was more devastating than ever.

Screams were cut short as bodies were bisected with surgical, horrifying precision. One moment, they were armed combatants; the next, they were cauterized halves tumbling to the scorched sand.

But the slaughter of their enemies didn't quell the madness simmering within Homelander and his loyalists. Their minds, already warped by arrogance and entitlement, had been shattered and reforged into instruments of pure destruction. Once the last terrorist fell, their glowing, hateful eyes didn't dim. Instead, they settled on the very heroes who had fought beside them moments before: Stormfront, the newly formed team, and Starlight.

"I AM THE KING OF THIS WORLD!" Homelander bellowed, his voice a thunderclap that cracked the very ground beneath his feet. The persona of the beloved hero was gone, stripped away to reveal the monster beneath. He would eradicate any and all threats to his throne, real or imagined. He would burn his supremacy into the very soul of the planet.

Boom!

Stormfront, in the middle of zapping the last twitching terrorist with a bolt of lightning, was blindsided. A fist like a wrecking ball slammed into her side, sending her hurtling into the earth like a meteorite. The impact gouged a crater in the desert floor, kicking up a plume of dust and rock.

"Homelander, have you lost your mind?!" Starlight cried out, her face a mask of disbelief. She stared at the man she once looked up to, now a raving lunatic bathed in the blood of his enemies and allies alike. Had the carnage finally broken him?

Homelander floated down, landing with an unnerving gentleness just a few yards away. He chuckled, a low, grating sound devoid of any humor. "Crazy? Oh, no, Annie. I'm not crazy. For the first time, I'm seeing things with perfect clarity."

He began to walk toward her, his every step radiating menace. "I am the most powerful being on this planet, yet I spent my life groveling for the approval of… ants. Chasing fame. Catering to weaklings. For what? For their love?" His lip curled in disgust. "What do any of you have that's worth my time?"

Faced with this terrifyingly lucid version of Homelander, Starlight had no choice. She planted her feet, calling on her power. Under the brilliant, unobstructed sunlight, her abilities surged. A soft, golden aura enveloped her, growing brighter and more intense until she was a miniature sun. Slowly, she lifted off the ground, a beacon of defiance against the encroaching darkness.

She brought her hands together, focusing every watt of power she could draw from the sky. The light condensed, coalescing into a blindingly white beam that shot directly at Homelander. It was the most powerful attack she had ever unleashed.

But against a Homelander amplified by the Void, it wasn't enough.

His own crimson lasers erupted, meeting her beam halfway. The two energies clashed in a violent, shrieking stalemate, crackling and spitting in the air between them. The sheer force of the collision kicked up a storm of sand and pebbles. Starlight gritted her teeth, every muscle in her body screaming in protest as she poured more and more energy into the blast.

"Help me!" she yelled through strained breaths. "He's too strong!"

She was new to the Seven, still learning the true limits of her abilities. This was beyond anything she had ever faced. She was holding on by a thread.

As if in answer, a thick, jagged bolt of lightning tore across the sky, slamming into Homelander's back. He staggered, his laser wavering for a split second. Stormfront, wreathed in electrical energy, shot forward, converting her incredible speed into raw kinetic force. She spun, delivering a powerful kick that connected squarely with Homelander's chest.

CRACK!

The blow sent him flying backward, tumbling end over end until he crashed into the skeletal remains of the terrorist base, vanishing in a cloud of debris.

Stormfront landed lightly, her eyes cold and hard. "I was willing to work with you," she said, her voice laced with chilling disappointment. "To build a new world, ruled by our kind." She dusted off her uniform. "But it seems you're nothing but a rabid dog. And rabid dogs need to be put down."

She pulled a syringe from a pouch on her belt, a vial filled with a shimmering, volatile liquid. "Since cooperation is off the table, we'll settle for elimination."

With a swift, practiced motion, she plunged the needle into her own thigh. The effects were instantaneous. Her power flared violently, the lightning around her becoming a chaotic, untamed storm, arcing and lashing out at the ground around her. Her strength was skyrocketing.

"Everyone, now!" she commanded.

Her team followed suit. Each of them produced a similar syringe—a Vought-engineered Enhancement—and injected themselves. Shockwave, the team's speedster, stomped his foot, and the ground fractured as a visible shockwave radiated outward. He became a blur, launching himself directly at A-Train, who was just starting to twitch with Void-fueled energy. The others fanned out, each picking a target from Homelander's now-deranged loyalists.

Seeing this, Starlight didn't hesitate. She pulled out the potion she'd been given for the mission, her hands trembling slightly. She had hoped it wouldn't come to this. With a deep breath, she administered the dose. A fiery sensation coursed through her veins, a raw, almost overwhelming surge of power. The golden light emanating from her body intensified, becoming almost too bright to look at.

This sudden, brutal civil war was more than the embedded media could handle. They had been broadcasting what they thought was a triumphant victory. Now, they were on the front lines of a superhuman bloodbath.

"What the hell is happening?" a reporter stammered, his face pale.

"I think we should run," another whispered, his eyes wide with terror. "Homelander… he's not right in the head. He attacked first…"

A quiet consensus was reached. Dropping their expensive cameras and live-feed equipment, they turned and fled, scrambling away from the battlefield as fast as their legs could carry them. This wasn't a story worth dying for.

As the reporters vanished over a sand dune, Marcus, observing from above, finally decided the performance had run its course. He withdrew a small, ornate container from his Warframe's subspace pocket—the Phoenix Breath, an ampule containing a sliver of the cosmic force's power.

"You've all played your parts beautifully," he murmured to himself. "Time for the curtain call."

He crushed the ampule in his fist. The fiery energy washed over his Mag Warframe, merging with its magnetic core. An oppressive, overwhelming aura of pure annihilation radiated outwards, silencing the crackle of lightning and the hum of power below.

Then, he fell.

Not like a leaf, but like an anchor dropped from heaven. He plummeted, a silent, dark projectile aimed at the heart of the conflict.

BOOOOOOM!

Mag struck the ground with the force of an artillery shell. A colossal shockwave erupted from the point of impact, a wall of force and dust that ripped across the battlefield. Friend and foe alike were thrown from their feet, sent tumbling through the air like discarded toys.

"Cough, cough…" Starlight pushed herself up, her ears ringing. The air was thick with a choking cloud of sand, reducing visibility to zero.

"A fine performance."

The voice was calm, resonant, and right beside her. A powerful gust of wind, magnetically generated, tore through the dust cloud, clearing the air in an instant.

And there he stood. In the center of the crater his landing had created stood the Tenno, Mag.

Stormfront, who had just regained her footing, froze. The Tenno Council, silent for so long, had chosen this moment to reappear. And it was her—the very same Warframe that had so utterly and effortlessly defeated her before.

But while she was stunned into silence, Homelander was consumed by a fresh wave of insanity. He clawed his way out of the rubble, his suit torn, his face a mask of fury. His remaining sliver of reason screamed at him that the being before him was danger incarnate. But the Void's corruption roaring in his blood saw only the ultimate challenge, the ultimate validation of his power.

A psychotic grin split his face. "I WILL KILL YOU," he rasped, his voice a low, unholy growl, "now that would be fun, wouldn't it?"

Stormfront and her team stared in horror. What could possibly give him the confidence to challenge this entity?

Two beams of concentrated crimson energy shot from Homelander's eyes as he launched himself into the air, a missile of pure rage aimed directly at Marcus.

Marcus didn't even flinch. He let out a soft, mocking chuckle. "Heh. We've been over this. You're nothing but a toy."

He lazily lifted one hand. In his open palm, a miniature, shimmering black hole appeared—a magnetic singularity. The twin lasers, beams of pure destructive heat capable of slicing through steel, were instantly caught in its pull. They bent, warped, and were twisted into a spiraling vortex of red light, spinning harmlessly in Mag's grasp like a child's pinwheel.

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