The last terrorist's scream was cut short by Homelander's laser beams, which swept across the battlefield like a scythe of incandescent light. His head turned, and the twin lances of crimson and violet energy carved a line of absolute destruction through the rubble, bisecting wreckage and bodies alike with indifferent ease.
For a moment, there was silence, broken only by the crackle of a hundred fires. The media drones hovered, their lenses capturing the eerie stillness. Homelander floated in the center of the carnage he had wrought, chest heaving not with exhaustion, but with a deep, ecstatic breath. His work was done. The pests had been exterminated.
Then, he slowly turned. His gaze, no longer filled with the feral glee of the hunt, had become something far colder, something ancient and possessive. It fell upon the other members of The Seven. His team. His allies.
"The pests are gone," he announced, his voice a calm, layered chorus broadcast to the entire world. He floated higher, a messianic figure against the smoke-filled sky. "But the rot… the rot remains."
His eyes locked onto Stormfront, who was watching him with a triumphant, adoring smile.
"You," Homelander's voice was laced with a chilling disappointment. "You wanted to build a new world with me. A master race. But you still think like a soldier. You think of armies, of nations, of control." He let out a soft, condescending laugh. "There is only one nation. There is only one master race. And its population is one."
Before Stormfront's smile could even falter, he struck.
BOOM!
A concentrated blast of pure energy, more powerful than anything he had ever unleashed, slammed into her. The sonic boom shattered windows a mile away. Her scream of shock and agony was instantaneous as she was driven into the earth like a meteor, her body blasting a crater dozens of feet deep.
"Homelander! Are you insane?"
The voice was Starlight's. The cold, righteous logic the Void had gifted her shattered like glass. This wasn't order. This wasn't cleansing. This was madness. She stared at him, her heart pounding with a terror that finally overwhelmed the alien influence in her mind.
Homelander turned his head slowly, his gaze pinning her in place. "Crazy?" he mused, drifting toward her with a terrifying, deliberate grace. "No. I'm finally seeing clearly. All my life, I've played the part. Chasing fame, begging for the love of ants. For what? To protect them?"
He gestured dismissively at the ruined landscape. "You... with your pathetic light, your hope. Did you really think you mattered? You're a battery. A symbol. An empty, pretty little lie. What value do any of you have, except to stand in my shadow?"
His Void-twisted mind had one simple, overriding imperative now: eliminate any and all potential threats to his absolute supremacy.
Faced with this unhinged god, Starlight's survival instincts took over. The bright sun overhead was her only advantage. She drew upon it desperately, pulling in every photon, her entire body igniting with a brilliant, golden aura that pushed back against the encroaching gloom. She rose into the air, a lone star challenging a black hole.
"You have to be stopped!" she cried out.
Countless rays of light gathered at her palms, compressing into a single, blinding beam of pure solar energy that shot toward Homelander. It was the most powerful attack she had ever produced.
The beam slammed into an identical lance of violet-red energy that erupted from Homelander's eyes. The two forces met with a deafening, high-pitched scream of tearing reality. A blinding sphere of clashing power expanded between them, incinerating the ground below and sending out waves of crushing force.
Starlight gritted her teeth, pouring every ounce of her being into the attack. The muscles in her arms trembled violently, and a trickle of blood ran from her nose under the immense strain. But it wasn't enough. The solid, relentless amethyst of Homelander's beam began to push back, causing her golden light to flicker and sputter.
Maeve! Anyone! Help me! The thought was a silent, desperate scream.
As if in answer, a roar of pure fury echoed from the crater. Stormfront erupted from the earth, her biomechanical armor cracked and smoking, her face a mask of incandescent rage. "You dare?!" she shrieked, unleashing a storm of corrupted black lightning at her former lover.
At the same time, Queen Maeve, seeing Starlight's beam falter, let out a warrior's cry and launched herself at Homelander's flank, her fists glowing with kinetic energy.
The battle for survival had become a battle royale.
A-Train, watching the chaos unfold, threw his head back and laughed, a high, unhinged cackle. This wasn't betrayal; this was the ultimate competition! A true contest of the gods! He became a blur of blue lightning, zipping around the periphery, taking potshots at everyone, his only goal to sow more anarchy.
Black Noir, ever the predator, simply melted back into the deepest shadows, his corrupted form observing the maelstrom, waiting for the perfect moment to strike at the eventual, weakened victor.
The terrorist base had become a playground for mad gods.
In Times Square, the cheering had long since died. A billion phones were still recording, but the faces behind them were slack-jawed with horror. A child, who moments ago had been celebrating his favorite hero, began to cry in his mother's arms. The beautiful illusion had been irrevocably shattered.
High above, Marcus watched the glorious, self-destructive chaos. This was better than victory. This was validation. He had not just defeated them; he had made them unmake themselves.