Mist shrouded the land.
After spewing out a massive amount of seawater, Karathen was also unsummoned by Kevin and returned to his original position.
Aside from the giant crater left by Karathen's landing, there was nothing left to prove Karathen had ever been there.
However, Karathen's mission was complete.
Just as Zod said.
In this battle, Kevin never thought of letting Karathen fight Zod.
Are you kidding? Don't let Karathen's enormous size and hard shell fool you.
Compared to a Kryptonian, his body is no different from a cake!
Zod could easily pierce Karathen from inside out, making holes all over his body, without much effort!
Enough to make Karathen experience the pain of being riddled with machine gun bullets.
If Karathen had fought Zod, that would likely have been his end.
Therefore, Karathen had only one goal when summoned here by Kevin.
To carry a large amount of seawater in his abdomen and on his body, and when summoned by Kevin, to spew out all the carried seawater, allowing Kevin to instantly create a field advantageous to himself.
This was Karathen's other purpose.
It's a pity that 'Ocean' cannot sign a contract as a summoned creature with Kevin's abilities, otherwise Kevin could directly summon 'the Sea', which would be much more convenient and faster than using Karathen as an intermediary.
However, these minor details don't need to be considered.
The key is that Kevin successfully transformed the field here into the form he desired.
"Is this what you wanted to do? Disappointing."
Unlike Kevin's relaxed demeanor after his scheme succeeded, Zod showed clear disappointment.
Even with the dense mist obstructing his vision, his X-ray vision could easily pinpoint Kevin's location.
His powerful cardiopulmonary capacity also allowed him to hold his breath, avoiding the inhalation of water vapor in the air.
So Zod completely failed to understand why Kevin had expended so much effort to transform the field into this state.
In his eyes, Kevin's actions were simply a waste of effort.
"Yes, this is what I wanted to do, but haven't you noticed? You've already fallen for it, Zod."
Kevin continued Zod's words, finally exhaling as he spoke to Zod.
He seemed to relax, and Zod also saw Kevin's seemingly relaxed appearance.
Fallen for it?
Fallen for what?
Zod still didn't understand what Kevin was saying until he felt countless tiny water droplets adhering to his nose and mouth, and probing deeper.
Zod indeed wasn't breathing.
But unfortunately, he had opened his mouth just now to speak to Kevin.
Moreover, his eyes, ears, and nose, these exposed orifices, were completely undefended.
When the mist turned into water and entered Zod's body, Kevin's goal had already been achieved.
"Damn it!!"
The unusual sensation in his nostrils, ear canals, and mouth made Zod realize Kevin's plan.
He chose not to continue fighting Kevin, bending his legs and attempting to fly high into the sky to escape the mist field Kevin had set up.
However, just as Zod began to take off, an extremely powerful resistance came from his ankles.
He looked down to see that the mist wrapped around his ankles had, at some point, turned into solid ice, shimmering with incomprehensible patterns.
That was the power of [Magic Rune Attachment] and defensive magic runes; these two magic runes attached to the ice could enhance the ice's adhesion and solidity.
The ice currently wrapped around Zod's feet was harder than the hardest known metal on Earth.
Of course, this doesn't count the strange alloys from Marvel and DC.
Although this level of hardness still couldn't trap Zod, the key was that in this mist-condensed field, the chains of solid ice Kevin created were virtually endless!
At the same time, the mist blocked the sunlight, indirectly weakening some of Zod's strength.
Kevin's objective, from beginning to end, was firm: to delay Zod.
Then, to destroy the opponent's body from within!
Knowing what Kevin intended to do, Zod began to exert all his strength to try and break free from the ice chains Kevin had created.
His eyes shot out scorching rays of light, like a sharp sword, cutting through all the thorns that bound him.
However, there was too much mist here; as soon as one set of solid ice chains was destroyed, another would emerge, making Zod's progress extremely slow.
And as Zod tried to break free, Kevin also manipulated the entire mist field to move with Zod, constantly ensuring Zod remained at the very center of the mist.
When Kevin felt the water vapor he created combine with a part of Zod's blood, he knew this battle was about to end.
"Kryptonians, your bodies are indeed strong, but unfortunately... you are still carbon-based life forms, and the most abundant substance flowing in your bodies is still 'water', and coincidentally..."
Kevin extended his hand towards Zod: "...I am the King of the Ocean!"
As if delivering a final judgment, Zod's nostrils and mouth began to spew out the water that Kevin had just infiltrated.
At first, it was clear water and some fluids from Zod's mouth.
But in just two short seconds, the water turned crimson; what flowed out was no longer water, but Zod's blood!
"Ahhhhhh!!!"
Zod roared loudly, trying to fly higher to prevent Kevin from controlling the blood in his body.
But unfortunately, he couldn't.
He could only watch helplessly as the blood drained from his body.
Kevin was right; Kryptonians are actually similar to humans, at least their body structures are very similar, and the most abundant substance constituting their bodies is also water!
So when Kevin found a breakthrough and controlled the blood in his body, Zod's defeat was already a foregone conclusion.
The blood gathered more and more, flowing faster and faster, and Zod himself began to weaken.
His skin began to shrivel, his body became dry, and the flame of life in his eyes gradually extinguished.
"Although I've already said this to your adjutant once, I still want to say it again... Well, farewell, Kryptonian."
Finally, amidst Kevin's farewell, the light in Zod's eyes completely vanished.
His body, like a dried corpse, plummeted from the sky.
After eliminating Zod, the first thing Kevin did was to check his skill points.
Only after confirming a large sum of skill points had been credited and Zod was truly dead, did he collapse to the ground, his legs giving way, panting heavily.
Kevin and Zod's battle seemed to end very easily, but in Reality, if there had been even a slight mistake, Kevin would not have been able to kill Zod.
If Kevin's physique was still level five, he would certainly have had his neck distorted by Zod.
If Kevin had not learned the form changes of water magic, he would not have been able to hold Zod, nor would he have been able to turn water into mist to penetrate Zod's body.
If Kevin had not leveled [Aquatic Creature Summon] to level five, he would not have been able to summon Karathen and create this mist field on land.
Even, if Zod had been more cautious, not thinking about fighting Kevin, but instead quickly disengaging from the battle and flying far away when he sensed Karathen's appearance, Kevin would have had no way to catch him.
But fortunately, there are no 'ifs' in Reality.
Kevin once again successfully altered the plot; he killed Zod, saving this universe, which was originally destined for destruction, from its fate of demise.
The skill tree was also very generous, giving Kevin quite a few skill points.
Eliminating Zod and saving the Flashpoint Universe from its doomed fate combined gave Kevin a total of twenty skill points.
This compensated for Kevin's previous loss of skill points from upgrading the [Ocean Lord] series of skills, as well as the 'loss' from leveling [Aquatic Creature Summon] to level five.
It was a great harvest.
"But it still feels a bit stingy; I saved the Flashpoint Universe, a universe that shouldn't even exist, so couldn't you give me more?!"
Kevin grumbled in his heart.
But it was just a slight complaint.
Having skill points is always better than having none, and... Kevin can earn even more skill points next.
Don't forget the Genesis Engine is still above Metropolis, and there's another Genesis Engine on the other side of Earth; if he can destroy them all, he's sure to get some more skill points.
"No... wait... I don't think I need to destroy them..."
Just thinking about the Genesis Engine, Kevin remembered the operating system on Zod's arm, used to control the Genesis Engine.
Directly using the operating system on Zod's hand to shut down the Genesis Engine would be much more convenient than running back and forth across the two ends of the Earth to destroy them.
And he could also keep the Kryptonian spaceship for Kara to use.
With that thought, Kevin quickly ran to Zod's corpse, lifted his wrist, and prepared to operate it.
But when Kevin lifted Zod's wrist, preparing to operate the alien device, he realized... he didn't know how to use Kryptonian technology.
"Alright, it looks like I'll still need Kara."
With most of the Kryptonians now extinct, the only one who could understand Kryptonian technology was Kara.
So, to shut down the Genesis Engine, he would still need to find Kara.
...
With Zod dealt with, everything else was just cleanup.
Because the Genesis Engine in Metropolis had already caused a certain degree of damage to Metropolis, Kara had no choice but to destroy it.
Kevin arrived a step late; when Kevin found Kara, she had just destroyed the battleship above, enduring the pressure from the Genesis Engine.
Fortunately, Kara could still use the device left on Zod's wrist to shut down the other Genesis Engine.
That was also part of a Kryptonian battleship; if it was kept and modified, it could still serve as a spaceship to leave Earth.
But Kal-El of this universe was dead, so Kara might not be in the mood to leave Earth.
"I'm sorry."
When everything was over, as Kara and Kevin looked down at the ruins of Metropolis from above, she suddenly spoke to Kevin beside her.
Kevin said nothing, turning to look at her.
Kara continued:
"I could have destroyed it earlier, but I hesitated because I needed it to take me off Earth... I'm sorry."
"I'm not the one you should apologize to. I'm not from this world; I don't care about these things."
Kevin replied somewhat indifferently.
Perhaps having experienced so much, the deaths of these people in Metropolis now didn't cause much emotional fluctuation in Kevin.
After all, looking on the bright side, compared to the entire Flashpoint Universe being destroyed in the original movie, only these people dying was nothing at all.
Even compared to the Metropolis in a parallel universe, the damage suffered by Metropolis here was far less than that of the Metropolis in the parallel world.
So Kevin truly didn't care about these things.
If Kara wanted to apologize, she shouldn't apologize to Kevin.
"..."
Kevin's answer silenced Kara.
There was a moment of quiet between them before Kevin asked:
"You're not planning to leave Earth anymore?"
"Kal-El is... is gone. I have no reason to leave Earth anymore."
"Then, do you want to come with me?"
Kara suddenly froze.
Kevin calmly said:
"Consider it helping me complete an experiment. I want to take someone back to my universe."
This was not a spur-of-the-moment decision by Kevin.
After Barry was severely injured and unable to recover in the future, Kevin had thought about taking Barry back to his own world, or traveling to the Marvel world, to help Barry recover.
It was also an opportunity to see what would happen if he truly took a plot character out of a dungeon universe for an extended period.
Kevin hadn't forgotten Wolverine's agreement to go on an adventure with him.