Meanwhile, in Gotham City.
As the Boom Tube created by the Mother Box disappeared, General Zod stood amid the ruins of S.T.A.R. Labs. He turned toward Fiona and gave her a grim nod.
Seeing the General's signal, Fiona glanced toward her convulsing kinsman in the distance. His arm was broken, and after being exposed to Earth's atmosphere, his teammates were helping him back to his feet.
Fiona turned back to Zod.
"Have them send Dru back. I'll personally investigate the whereabouts of the codex."
The moment she finished speaking, Fiona vanished like a whirlwind, the dust kicked up by her departure immediately obscuring the surrounding area.
Zatanna choked on the dust. She waved a hand to clear the air while grabbing Enchantress's hand.
"Sister Witch, did you see where that Kryptonian went? Don't let them continue damaging Gotham. Otherwise, when Boss Axel comes back, neither of us will be able to explain ourselves!"
"I understand. The Lord is not known for his patience."
Enchantress narrowed her eyes at Zod.
"In any case, the two of us must drive the Kryptonians away, or simply take their heads!"
She immediately spread her hands.
The already gloomy Gotham sky suddenly rumbled with thunder.
Violent lightning snakes began dancing through the clouds.
General Zod instinctively looked upward.
His expression darkened.
"Damn wizard."
Zod's reaction was understandable.
Throughout the universe, Kryptonians were notorious for their poor resistance to magic.
During Krypton's most glorious era, the period of its great expansion, Krypton had indeed conquered and destroyed numerous civilizations whose power systems were based on magic and sorcery.
But there was an important prerequisite.
Those victories had come at an enormous cost.
Countless Kryptonian warriors had died during those campaigns, sacrificing themselves to establish Krypton's former glory.
Why had Krypton relied on artificial reproduction for so long?
Wasn't it to produce capable soldiers more efficiently, soldiers who were willing to sacrifice everything for their world?
Most Kryptonian soldiers had been created with an ingrained sense of absolute loyalty to Krypton, established through the technology and genetic information contained within the codex.
As for whether Jor-El's El family, with him serving as the head of Krypton's Science Council, possessed similar genetic conditioning, that remained open to interpretation.
Regardless, among the surviving Kryptonians, including General Zod himself, that sense of duty remained deeply rooted.
They believed their willingness to sacrifice for Krypton came naturally from within.
Even after witnessing the ruins and fragments left behind by Krypton's destruction, they were still prepared to do everything possible to restore their civilization.
However, even though Zod was willing to sacrifice himself, he now understood something clearly.
His remaining forces could no longer afford unnecessary losses.
If sacrificing several soldiers to exhaust the enemy's magical reserves would guarantee the codex, or if such sacrifices were an unavoidable requirement for obtaining it, Zod would not hesitate.
After all, once he possessed the codex, he could create as many Kryptonians as he needed.
But Earth's current situation was far more complicated than he had anticipated.
Jor-El's son had allied himself with Earth's strongest forces, making Zod increasingly pessimistic about the mission's chances of success.
Even if that powerful force and the Son of Krypton were currently absent from Earth, having been transported to some unknown galaxy for a vacation, the two mages they had left behind were still more than capable of making his forces suffer.
To be precise, this was only possible because Zatanna and Enchantress were currently operating without restraint.
Kryptonians were not completely helpless against magic, but their resistance amounted to little more than having a fighting chance.
Enchantress wielded ancient magic, much of which involved curses that Kryptonians had difficulty resisting.
Zatanna's backward-spoken magic was even more troublesome.
Within only a few words, her spells could affect space and time.
Especially now, with Zatanna's father still not rescued and no one pursuing her over supernatural debts, she could potentially unleash enough power to tear apart a small portion of reality itself.
Without these two, even a powerful mage like Shazam, despite his mastery of physical and elemental forces, would have difficulty gaining an advantage against General Zod.
As for the Flash and the other heroes, if Zod had not yet been exposed to Earth's yellow sun, fighting them would still be relatively straightforward.
In short, Zod's experience as a general allowed him to understand the battlefield immediately.
His enemies were no longer limited to Clark, as they had been in the original sequence of events.
With the mission's chances of success uncertain, he was even less willing to waste the few Kryptonian lives remaining to him.
So when Fiona signaled that she intended to continue attacking the two mages, Zod immediately understood what she was planning.
He raised his hand.
His right fist clenched.
The gesture stopped Fiona in her tracks.
Zod took a deep breath before slowly walking toward Zatanna.
The moment Zatanna saw him approaching, the hairs on her body stood up.
She nervously took two steps backward before Enchantress caught her.
"Don't scare me!"
Zatanna shouted nervously at Zod, although there was little force behind the threat.
"If you scare me, I might use dangerous magic. Please don't scare me. I don't want Boss to scold me when he comes back!"
"What?"
Zod froze for a moment.
He genuinely could not understand how this mage managed to be both powerful and so timid.
Are you some kind of baby dragon?
Although he silently mocked Zatanna's behavior, Zod still took a deep breath and forced a gentle smile.
The moment Zatanna saw his smile, she shuddered.
"Don't smile, please! Otherwise, I'll use magic!"
"Uh..."
Zod nodded awkwardly and immediately withdrew the uncomfortable smile.
His expression returned to its usual cold neutrality.
He then addressed Enchantress, who appeared somewhat more mature than Zatanna and was standing in front of her.
"I am General Zod of Krypton. I bear no hostility toward Earth, and my actions should make that clear."
"Although my flagship is stationed near the Moon, I have no intention of activating its main cannon."
"Although my soldiers and I entered your city, our target was the Apokoliptian warrior."
"Throughout the battle, I did not intentionally target your people."
"As for the Earth civilians who died in the aftermath, I sincerely apologize. However, those casualties were unavoidable. That warrior from Apokolips was exceptionally powerful."
At that point, Zod swallowed.
He was not accustomed to speaking gently, and after only a few sentences, even his tongue felt awkward.
Behind him, Fiona's expression became increasingly strange.
As Zod's adjutant, she was certain this was the first time she had ever witnessed him speak in such a restrained manner.
Even when Zod's coup had failed and he had been captured, he had never shown any willingness to speak softly to Krypton's elders.
Yet now...
Fiona swallowed and watched Zatanna and Enchantress with even greater vigilance.
Enchantress tilted her head after hearing Zod's explanation.
She exchanged a glance with the equally confused Zatanna.
After a moment, Zatanna licked her lips and whispered,
"You don't have to explain so much. I understand what you're saying, but I only know magic. I can't tell whether you're telling the truth."
"If you really mean us no harm, I can ask Mr. Alfred to speak with you."
"When Boss isn't here, he's the patriarch, so what he says goes."
"If he believes you, I can lower my guard. If he thinks you should die, then I'm sorry, but even though I haven't killed many people, I'll have to find a way to deal with you."
"So, are you really here with good intentions?"
"If you are, I'll go get Alfred and let him speak with you."
Zatanna shrugged and gave a small chuckle.
Enchantress nodded in agreement.
In her eyes, she was currently an international fugitive who had lost her territory after being pursued by villains and had been forced to seek refuge on the Lord's land.
Naturally, she did not believe she had the authority to make such decisions herself.
After hearing Zatanna's response, General Zod considered it for a moment before nodding.
"Very well. I can meet with the gentleman you mentioned."
"However, I will decide where the meeting takes place."
"I will not go anywhere else. We will stay here."
"You cannot hide it from me. There is a Kryptonian spacecraft buried beneath this ground, and it very likely contains information that is useless to you but extremely important to me."
"That is the reason I came to Earth."
"If you want to negotiate with me, then that will inevitably be part of the discussion."
"So we will talk here."
Zod's words carried a clear underlying intention.
Talk here.
If they reached an agreement, he would take the spacecraft.
If they failed to reach an agreement, they would fight.
He would not abandon any possibility of recovering the codex.
Even while at a disadvantage, he was unwilling to allow Krypton's reputation to be diminished.
At the same time, he remained deeply concerned about the potential casualties.
Enchantress could sense the hostility beneath his words.
Zatanna, however, interpreted his attitude much more favorably.
"Hehe, where we talk doesn't matter. If you want to stay here, then stay here."
"Anyway, I'll make sure Grandpa Alfred is safe."
"Wait here. I'll call him and ask whether he is willing to meet you."
With that, Zatanna happily pulled out her phone and called Alfred.
The call was answered almost immediately.
"Zatanna, what did you and the Kryptonian discuss?"
"All the drones near your position were destroyed by the battle's aftershocks. We can only observe you through the satellites now, so we can't hear what you're saying."
"Nothing much, Grandpa Alfred."
"The Kryptonian's attitude is pretty good. He wants to meet you."
"I think it's safe. Kryptonians just have incredible speed and strength, right? They don't have any particularly strange abilities."
"Sister Enchantress and I will be fine."
"What do you think, Alfred? Do you want to come over?"
"Oh?"
Alfred was slightly surprised.
"If this Kryptonian truly has peaceful intentions, then what about the one who disappeared?"
"I still need information about him. We've been searching ever since he vanished, but we haven't been able to determine where he went."
"Even after gaining access to global satellite systems, we haven't found a trace of him."
"How about this? I'll come over immediately."
"Ask the Kryptonian to wait there."
"The masters and young masters aren't home, so it doesn't matter where I meet him. The manor isn't any safer than the city right now."
"I'll be there shortly."
After giving Zatanna his instructions, Alfred ignored the worried looks from the other senior members of the manor.
He contacted Floyd and Victor before putting on the nano-battlesuit Bruce had specifically prepared for him.
Once they were equipped, the three of them, the first people to receive the battlesuits, left the manor and flew toward Burnley District.
Just as they were approaching the area, near the Kryptonian landing craft in Burnley District, the soldier who had previously been writhing in agony had already been carried inside by his comrades.
The landing craft immediately sealed its hatch and expelled Earth's atmosphere, recreating a Kryptonian environment within the ship.
His comrade removed the damaged armor from his body and prepared to place him inside the landing craft's emergency medical system in an attempt to repair his destroyed arm.
But just as he was about to activate the device, the soldier's convulsions suddenly stopped.
He grabbed his teammate's wrist.
Then he opened his eyes.
"Wait."
"No, this feeling is wrong!"
"Send me back to Earth!"
"Damn it! I was in unbearable pain just now, but I also felt incredibly fulfilled!"
"I can feel it."
"My body is evolving."
"Every single cell is evolving!"
"By Rao, the codex must be nearby!"
"It must be the codex responding to me!"
"I am getting stronger!"
"Unimaginably strong!"