"However, you don't need to worry. To prevent this from happening, I have specially prepared some magic equipment."
Darian said, reaching out into the void and pulling out a dazzlingly red pair of oversized underpants out of thin air.
[Item: Superman's Red Underpants (Superman fashion item, the pioneer of wearing underpants on the outside)]
Darian pinched the two corners of the underpants and handed them over to Clark.
He said with a rather smug tone: "This piece of equipment has already been enchanted by me in advance, stacked with various defensive spells. Once you suffer an attack on a magical or mental level, the magic will automatically trigger to help you block the attack. It was tailor-made specifically for you."
The material of these underpants was extremely sturdy, similar to the fabric of Clark's Superman suit, and wouldn't break no matter how much they were tossed around, so they could completely withstand multiple enchantments.
However, Darian didn't add any fancy magic to them; they were all exclusively defensive magic designed to resist magical damage, equivalent to a piece of equipment fully stacked with magic resistance.
For Clark, whose physical attack and physical defense were already maxed out, there was simply no piece of equipment more suitable than this.
Besides, handing these underpants over to Clark could also be considered returning them to their rightful owner.
Clark looked down at the vibrant red underpants in his hand, his expression somewhat subtle.
"Why is this piece of equipment a pair of underpants? Could it be that you want me to wear it underneath?"
If he really wore this equipment, everyone present would know he was wearing red underpants underneath; just thinking about it made him feel completely uncomfortable all over.
Darian chuckled and said: "Rest assured, you don't need to wear them underneath."
Clark let out a sigh of relief: "That's good."
"You wear them on the outside."
Clark's expression froze instantly.
He shook his head hurriedly, his tone full of resistance: "No way, no way, this look is too weird. Who wears underpants on the outside?"
Bullshit, you in the comics wear them just like that.
Darian patted his shoulder and earnestly persuaded: "These underpants must be worn on the outside to activate their effect, and wearing them like this can also make you look friendlier, so people won't be afraid of you just because your power is too strong."
The corners of Clark's mouth twitched.
Are you sure it doesn't make me look more like a pervert?
"I think Darian is right; these underpants really suit you."
"Right, this is equipment specially crafted for you by Darian. Don't let down Darian's kind intentions."
"Wearing underpants on the outside sounds very fashionable."
"Clark, you must prioritize the big picture."
The other members persuaded one after another, seemingly considering it for Clark.
But from the wildly upturned corners of their mouths, it was clear they were barely holding back their laughter.
Bruce spoke expressionlessly: "Clark, to avoid repeating last time's mistakes, I suggest you'd better wear them. The upcoming crisis concerns the safety of the entire Earth, and not a single mistake can be made."
"O... Okay then."
Since his external brain had spoken, Clark had no choice but to resign himself to his fate.
Darian didn't play favorites and turned around to distribute some magic equipment to the other members as well.
It's just that the enchantment strength of these pieces of equipment was far inferior to that red pair of underpants; most could only cast magic three or four times before their durability would be exhausted, becoming scrap after being used up.
When everything was ready, The Seven didn't delay and set off directly toward Coast City.
According to Bruce's judgment, Parallax was looking for Hal to exact revenge, and the landing location was most likely Coast City.
The other members had no objections whatsoever.
Whatever Batman said, you just had to blindly believe it.
Clark took the lead in rushing out of the atmosphere, opening the chat group's video sharing in space to act as the reconnaissance position for the entire team.
At the same time, Amanda Waller reported the news of Parallax's impending invasion level by level.
After hearing the briefing, the higher-ups were completely numb.
First an alien army, then Angels and demons, and now another Universe-level monster.
What kind of sin did Earth commit?
But on second thought, this was actually an opportunity—just right to let the public see, just right to let the public see that their government wasn't just a background prop.
Orders were passed down layer by layer, and various departments quickly entered a wartime state; even the mushrooms gathering dust in the warehouses were dragged out, re-inspected, and kept on standby.
Not long after, Clark's super vision captured unusual movements.
In the video feed, a pitch-black mass was surging toward Earth from deep space, with yellow light faintly visible inside.
As the distance rapidly closed, its full appearance gradually became clear.
Parallax!
Its image was not the same as in the comics.
In the comics, it was an insect-like creature with multiple pairs of joints and a segmented body.
But what appeared in the video at this moment was more like an outrageously large octopus with a round head, beneath which churned countless tentacles condensed from black mist, each hundreds of meters long, twisting and rolling back and forth, giving off an indescribable, unfathomable vibe.
As Parallax continuously approached, its body almost filled the entire screen.
Looking out, it was at least several thousand meters wide, far more massive even than the deep-sea behemoth Karathen.
Seeing this scene, the members of The Seven were almost rendered speechless.
Bruce stared intently at the screen, his brows slightly furrowing as he said in a deep voice: "Clark, try to intercept it and don't let it get close to Earth."
"I'll try."
At this moment, Clark was wearing a handsome red-and-blue battle suit, yet outside on the bottom he wore a pair of red underpants.
Putting this way of dressing on anyone else would 100% get them treated as a pervert, but draped over Clark, there was unexpectedly an indescribable sense of harmony.
Of course, this had a certain connection to his extremely high-model face.
Without another word, Clark's figure turned into a blur, charging straight toward Parallax.
Parallax also detected Clark's existence at the very first moment.
It stared at the red and blue figure rushing over, a hint of excitement and greed appearing on its face.
"Such a powerful physical body, simply the perfect vessel."
Parallax itself was the embodiment of the emotion of fear and required a host to parasitize in order to make itself even stronger.
It had just broken free from Abin Sur's seal and hadn't been able to find a suitable vessel, never expecting to run into a perfect physical body so quickly.
"Human, I grant you the qualification to become my host. You will obtain all of my abilities; by that time, you will be the most powerful existence in the Universe."
Parallax's voice penetrated the vacuum environment, eerily transmitting to Clark's ears, its tone carrying a condescending arrogance.
Physical rules and whatnot simply didn't exist.
"I refuse."
Clark decisively shook his head and refused.
Are you kidding? Even without Parallax, he could walk sideways across the Universe.
What's more, his own power was the most powerful; going to borrow someone else's ability, wasn't that weakening himself?
"This is not up to you to refuse."
As Parallax's voice fell, several tentacles reached forward simultaneously.
Amidst the churning black mist, they flanked Clark from all directions, attempting to wrap his entire person within them.
But space was Clark's home turf, because here he was closer to the Sun, and the energy he could absorb was even more abundant, directly maxing out his buffs.
Clark exhaled a blast of extreme freezing breath, a torrent of white frost gushing from his mouth, colliding head-on with those rolling black mist tentacles.
The extremely low temperature instantly froze the black mist, and the tentacles turned into rigid icicles in the blink of an eye.
Immediately following that, Clark glared with both eyes, and crimson heat rays swept across. Two high-temperature beams cut through like sharp blades, cleanly severing those frozen tentacles and shattering them into countless pieces.
Clark's speed did not decrease in the slightest. His entire person turned into a red and blue meteor, weaving through the shattered ice debris. Clenching his right fist with fully stored power, he smashed it fiercely onto Parallax's round, bulging big head.
The terrifying force directly blasted half of Parallax's face to pieces, the black mist bursting apart, dragging that head backward as well.
However, in merely the blink of an eye, the churning black mist gathered back together.
Parallax's blasted-off half face quickly recovered as before, and the broken tentacles also re-condensed into form, as if nothing had happened.
Parallax opened its large mouth and spat out a huge yellow energy ball toward Clark.
Heh--ptoo!
Clark didn't dodge, meeting it with his right fist to directly blow up the energy ball.
The yellow light burst open, and the Impact spread in all directions. Large patches of residual energy lingered around Clark, attaching themselves strand by strand.
This energy carried Parallax's origin—which was the emotion of fear—like invisible needles trying to pierce into the depths of Clark's mind and disrupt his sanity.
The next moment, magic runes flashed faintly on Clark's red underpants, instantly dispelling that invading fear energy completely clean.
Clark's eyes regained their clarity, unaffected in the slightest.
The red underpants happened to make up for his shortcomings of low magic resistance, directly ushering in an epic-level enhancement.
Now Clark lacked nothing at all.
"It's really useful, but this look..."
Clark looked down at his red underpants with a somewhat complex expression.
It wasn't because the look was too bizarre, but rather because he found that he seemed to be starting to get a little used to it.
This was quite terrifying.
"It can actually resist the erosion of fear."
Seeing that Clark had no reaction, Parallax was somewhat surprised.
But it immediately let out a sneer: "In that case, let your fear be transformed into my nourishment. For a powerhouse like you, your fear will definitely allow me to become even stronger."
As the words fell, Parallax suddenly opened its mouth, making a sucking motion.
Immediately, a surge of yellow energy gushed out from within Clark's body, drawn by some kind of traction and sucked into Parallax's mouth.
Parallax laughed aloud: "Hahaha, even a powerful person like you will have things to fear. Let me see what your fear actually is... Uh, afraid of killing people by using full strength?"
Its laughter came to an abrupt halt.
What the hell kind of bizarre reason for fear was this?
What it didn't know was that Clark never dared to unleash his full power.
To Clark, the entire Earth was like a thin sheet of paper, which would tear if he used even a little force, so he always subconsciously held back his strength, terrified of accidentally beating an enemy to death.
But now that this fear had been sucked away by Parallax, Clark's self-seal was completely broken, and soul-devouring red light bloomed in his eyes.
Clark: (O dish O)
Parallax: (O _ Q)
It seemed to have done a very foolish thing.
The next moment, Clark's figure kept flickering around Parallax.
It wasn't teleportation; his speed was simply too fast.
Whenever Clark paused to manifest, it was accompanied by a violent wave of attacks, basic attacks mixed with all sorts of skills, frantically greeting Parallax's body.
Under Clark's full-firepower state, Parallax had no way to resist at all. Holes constantly exploded across its massive body, and the black mist surged frantically.
However, every time it was blasted apart, it could re-condense its form within a very short time, completely unaffected.
Clearly, the effect of physical attacks wasn't great.
However, just as Clark couldn't do anything to Parallax, Parallax likewise couldn't do anything to Clark.
Its fear erosion completely lost its effect in front of the red underpants, and physical attacks landing on Clark didn't hurt or itch at all.
The two fought for a long time without making an ounce of progress, falling into a stalemate for a moment.
Seeing that it couldn't take down Clark, Parallax immediately shifted its target, looking toward the blue Planet in the distance.
"After I absorb the fear of those humans on that Planet, I'll settle accounts with you."
Parallax chose a tactical retreat, deciding to go to Earth first to strengthen itself a wave, and come back to look for Clark's trouble after upgrading.
Its massive body suddenly turned direction, wrapping itself in black mist and flying toward Earth.
Clark's expression changed, and he immediately chased after it, slamming a fist onto its body and blowing open a large hole.
But Parallax completely ignored him, letting its body be pierced through. The black mist churned a few times to return to its original state, and its speed didn't decrease in the least as it continued to close in on Earth.
When Parallax approached Earth, the Military also detected its trace.
The Commander decisively issued an order: Drag out my fu... the nuclear bomb, and fire at the alien hick!
Although the power of a nuclear bomb would be severely attenuated in space, it was still much better than detonating it on Earth and bringing about a series of uncontrollable side effects.
The Rocket carrying the nuclear warhead dragged a tail flame as it rapidly ascended into the sky. After completing disintegration and acceleration at high altitude, it rushed all the way out of the atmosphere.
Seeing this, Clark hurriedly pulled back a distance.
He didn't know whether he could withstand the power of a nuclear bomb and the nuclear radiation, but it was better not to court death.
There was no need for precise aiming; Parallax's body was so massive that it was hard to miss.
The nuclear bomb directly struck Parallax's body, detonating thunderously on its surface, and the blinding light burst open in space.
However, before the light had even dissipated, boundless black mist rushed out from the center of the light.
Parallax was unscathed, not even reducing its speed by half, directly penetrating the atmosphere as the black mist churned and gradually covered the entire sky of Coast City.
The nuclear bomb had no effect.
When the news was transmitted back to the command center, everyone's expressions changed drastically.
This was humanity's strongest killer weapon, yet it had zero effect?
The shrill air raid sirens resounded through the entire Coast City, and the broadcasts on the streets repeated the emergency notification over and over again.
"Mandatory evacuation is now in effect. Everyone immediately evacuate from the streets! I repeat, everyone immediately evacuate from the streets!"
The people on the streets ignored it, raising their heads one after another to look at the sky-blocking Parallax, and quite a few people even took out their phones to take pictures.
This was the unique sense of relaxation belonging to the people of America.
*******************************
Enjoyed the action? Drop a review, fire off a comment, and send those Power Stones rolling! Your support keeps the updates coming fast—let's keep the momentum going! 🔥