Soren, eyes brimming with tears, stared hard at Clark's face, his jaw clenched so tightly from the suppressed pain and rage that his teeth ground audibly beneath his skin.
"Give him back," Soren suddenly cried out, gripping Clark's collar tightly and throwing his head back to look at him.
He screamed with all his might, "Give me back my Clark!"
Tears rolled down his cheeks, one after the other, like raindrops, as he sobbed, "Give him back… I want my Clark! Give me back my Clark! Please, give him back to me!"
Clark's heart ached as though it were being sawed back and forth.
He felt both pity and bitter amusement—how had he and Soren reached this point?
They had once been so deeply in love.
They had met, known each other, and fallen in love without a care in the world.
Where had they gone wrong to end up like this?
"It was you who killed him, Soren," Clark said in a low, agonized voice. "Clark Kent was killed by your own hands."
Soren, in a frenzy, began to struggle violently.
He bit down on Clark's neck, trembling as he sobbed, "You're lying! Clark isn't dead… he's not dead!! Give me back Clark!! He's not dead… he can't die… he's Superman!"
Clark softened his skin, allowing Soren to tear into his neck, blood and flesh flowing freely.
How could this little Soren hurt him?
Clark couldn't bring himself to use the Heaven's Gate to banish Soren forever into the dark multiverse.
How else could he let Soren cause him pain?
At most, he could let him gnaw on him like a cornered, desperate beast with no way out.
Clark lifted him gently into the air and rising slowly, his voice calm: "I am Superman."
At tens of thousands of feet in the sky, Clark crushed Soren's Excalibur once again.
Before them, a sonic boom portal appeared like a towering water spout stirred by a tornado, shredding the clouds around them.
Within the swirling silver-gray currents, Iron Man's red-and-gold anti-Superman armor and the enormous form of the Hulk came barreling toward them.
Superman looked on with indifference, confident that his strength had reached an unprecedented level—there was no one left in the universe who could defeat him.
But what he didn't anticipate was that just as Iron Man and the Hulk's fists connected with him, a figure faster than even his super speed snatched Soren from his arms.
The only force in the universe faster than him was the Speed Force.
Fury erupted within him, his eyes blazing red as he turned to see the red blur.
—Barry Allen!
In the slow-motion stream created by their immense speed, where time appeared nearly frozen, Superman and the Flash chased one another.
Barry Allen carried Soren, sprinting as fast as he could.
Just as Superman's hand was about to seize his throat, Barry hurled Soren into the sonic boom portal.
A mere femtosecond later, Superman had Barry by the throat.
Furious, Superman slammed the Flash toward the ground, roaring, "How dare you betray me!"
Barry's leg broke from the impact, and a look of unbearable pain spread across his face. "Superman… you've killed too many…"
Superman stood over him, his gaze cold, and without a word, twin beams of scorching heat vision shot from his eyes, aimed straight for the Flash—only to be blocked by a massive green dome.
Superman glanced upward toward the green protective shield.
Hovering above him was Hal Jordan, who had long since donned the yellow power ring, but was now back in his Green Lantern uniform.
Hal strained, his Green Lantern ring projecting a shield strong enough to withstand Superman's heat vision.
Veins bulged on his forehead from the effort, but Superman's fury only intensified, threatening to incinerate everything.
"You too, Hal?" Superman asked coldly, his voice icy.
Hal Jordan's ring emitted a cone of emerald light, which transformed into an enormous, sky-covering net before Superman. "I'm sorry, Superman. I agree with much of what you've done, but if it means killing Barry, I can't stand by."
Superman raised his hand, gripping the green net that was closing in on him, and with a single, violent pull, the interwoven lines of light snapped apart.
"Then you'll die with him," Superman said.
Hal Jordan remained silent.
The Anti-Superman armor and Hulk closed in, launching themselves at Superman, who hovered in mid-air.
At the same time, Green Lantern once again condensed a massive arrow, as tall as a building, from his power ring and aimed it at Superman to take him down.
Superman, now fighting three at once, snapped the Green Lantern's arrow in two with his bare hands.
Under the relentless assault of the Anti-Superman armor and Hulk, he was slammed into the mountainside, crashing into the streets below.
Ordinary civilians, who had not yet been evacuated, panicked and rushed out of their homes, fleeing in terror from the godlike powers descending from the skies.
Superman, filled with rage, glared at the Anti-Superman armor.
In such a densely populated area, he couldn't unleash his full strength, so he was forced to hold back, engaging them with only a fraction of his power.
Inside the armor, Tony Stark conversed with his AI butler. "Quick, scan the area. Any civilians injured?"
"Sir, no civilian casualties have been reported yet, but if you continue fighting here, the probability of civilian casualties will be one hundred percent."
"Shit!" Tony cursed.
One of his red solar gauntlets had already been destroyed by Superman's blow.
He had no choice but to continue attacking Superman with the other gauntlet. "Find a way to lure him away."
"—Sir, that will provoke Superman into attacking you with full force."
"We don't have any other choice!" Tony growled, maneuvering the suit to evade Superman's twin beams of heat vision.
The gold-and-red armor was already battered in the blink of an eye, with 74% of its structural integrity compromised.
Superman delivered another powerful blow, slamming into the chest of the suit.
Even though the armor was equipped with a perfect shock absorption system, Tony Stark still felt the intense vibrations inside and coughing up blood from the impact.