Marvel: A Lazy-Ass Superman
Chapter 540: Fierce Battle
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Jean Grey held Void frozen in midair with one hand!
Around her other arm appeared distorted, disintegrating afterimagesâan annihilation power she rarely used. Clearly, Phoenix was no longer holding back.
Naturally, Superman and Quicksilver werenât about to waste such an opportunity. But neither of them relied purely on speed to send Void flying again, ruining the opening Phoenix had finally secured.
Appearing beside Void, Superman raised his right hand like a blade. High-frequency vibrations produced overlapping afterimages.
This was the ideal attack method for a speedster facing an opponent with an indestructible body: molecular vibration strikes that pierced through the gaps between molecules.
The reason he had stopped instead of using the technique while moving at super speed was simpleâSuperman still wasnât accustomed to maintaining two different velocity states simultaneously within the speed domain.
Seeing this, Quicksilver immediately copied him. He flashed behind Void at an angle and performed the same technique.
Perhaps Supermanâs strike wouldnât target a vital point.
Quicksilver, however, had no such reservations.
The X-Menâs earlier defeat had already ignited a sense of shared hatred within him.
As for Phoenixâ
She was aiming to erase Void completely.
The killing intent was overwhelming.
With the three attacking simultaneously, even a being with the power of a million exploding stars would be dragged into destruction.
Of course, Void had no intention of waiting to die.
And his survival instinct was terrifyingly strong.
Faced with what was nearly certain death, he suddenly exploded outward.
Shadows darker than night and black tendrils erupted violently in all directions, blooming like a monstrous flower and blasting away everything nearby.
Superman, Quicksilver, and Phoenix were all forced back.
Even the rooftop where the X-Men had originally gathered was obliterated along with several upper floors of the building beneath it.
The sheer force of the eruption was horrifying.
Fortunately, Storm had already evacuated the others. Otherwise, casualties would have been severe.
---
After that outburst, Void looked even less human.
The three attackers suffered little actual damage.
Quicksilver had reacted quickly enough to retreat first.
Phoenixâs own powers instinctively protected her, and even Void struggled to break through the Phoenix Forceâs defenses.
Superman simply tanked it head-on with his invulnerable bodyâand was pushed back a far shorter distance than the others.
At this point, Void barely resembled the Sentry anymore.
His entire body had been consumed by strange black shadows, abandoning even the shape of a human.
He resembled a beast.
Or perhaps some indescribable thing that should not exist in this world.
Without hesitation, Superman charged again and threw another punch.
But by this stage, Voidâs movements had become increasingly impossible to track.
He seemed to suddenly appear elsewhere, with no visible transition from one point to another.
Yet this wasnât teleportation or blinking through space.
It was something strangerâa distortion in perception itself.
Sometimes Void had clearly already moved, yet elsewhere Supermanâs punch would still appear to connect with the "afterimage" left behind at the original position. Though separated physically, the two locations remained causally linked.
Still, attacks delivered this way were far less effective than landing a real punch directly to the face.
So with Quicksilverâs support, Superman continued chasing Void and striking him again and again.
Phoenixâs pursuit, on the other hand, looked pitiful in comparison.
She could only trail behind the three speedsters eating their dustâor rather, just Superman and Quicksilver now, because Voidâs movement style had become something even stranger than super speed.
As for the other mutants and mages, surviving without becoming liabilities was already their best contribution in a battle of this level. Launching meaningful attacks was nearly impossible.
Scarlet Witch still tried setting additional magical traps.
But after the first trap succeeded, Void seemed able to perceive her magic directly, avoiding one trap after another.
The other mages fared even worse.
Some traps were too weak to survive a casual flick from Void.
Others dealt damage that he simply ignored outright.
---
The more inhuman Void appeared, the harder it became for Quicksilver to fight him.
At first, he could still feel solid impacts from his punches.
Now he couldnât even describe what he was hitting anymore.
Superman felt the same.
Not only could he no longer truly injure Voidâ
Void could no longer truly injure him either.
At this point, Void felt like a nonphysical existence detached from reality itself. Pure physical attacks had lost their meaning.
If Cyclopsâs optic blasts could hit Void now, they might produce miraculous results.
But Superman had no opportunity to slow down and coordinate with the X-Man.
And considering his poor relationship with the X-Men in the past, there was no guarantee theyâd even listen to him.
As for using telepathy to communicate?
Superman never even considered it.
The battlefield was packed with mutants and mages, while Sentry/Void himself possessed telepathic abilities. It was like an environment flooded with radio signalsâeveryone could transmit, receive, and intercept.
For an outsider unfamiliar with such abilities and lacking technological assistance, trying to communicate that way would practically amount to announcing his intentions directly to Void.
So Superman could only place his hopes on someone elseâ
Scarlet Witch.
Her magical traps were actually very well concealed, but to beings like Superman and Void, they stood out like flames in the dark.
During one exchange, Superman was knocked flying near Scarlet Witch. Taking advantage of the moment, he left her a single sentence:
"When itâs time to use magic, donât hesitate."
Then he rushed back into battle.
Calling it "close combat" was no longer accurate.
The scope of destruction had become vastly greater than before.
The tendrils and shadows controlled by Void behaved like extensions of his limbs. Though individually weaker than his fists and kicks, each still carried thirty to forty percent of his strength.
Terrifying enough.
Unfortunately for Void, his opponent was Superman.
These strange attacks could guarantee contactâbut not actual damage. They mostly succeeded only in wrecking the environment.
At the same time, the sheer number of tendrils and shadow-whips made it difficult for Superman to close in on the core body and plant a proper punch into that shadow-covered face.
Every attempt ended with him being whipped away.
Then an opportunity finally appeared.
The angle was perfect.
As if his frustration had finally ignited, Superman suddenly roared and charged forward with reckless, boar-like ferocity.
This time he didnât throw a punch.
Instead, he turned his entire body into a cannonball and slammed directly into Voidâs chestâ
Driving both of them straight into one of Scarlet Witchâs prepared magical traps.
"Now!" Superman shouted.
At the same time, he shot Quicksilver a lookâthen glanced toward the X-Men.
Trusting him instinctively, Quicksilver rushed to where the X-Men had gathered and immediately saw Cyclops preparing to remove his visor, intending to blast both Superman and Void away together.
But that weak, squirt-gun-level attack wouldnât do anything to Void.
And Cyclops lacked the courage to truly unleash his full power.
Quicksilver hurriedly stopped him.
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