It was as though he had been bewitched. Superman instinctively turned his head and found himself staring into a pair of dark, hypnotic eyes, swirling with an unnatural, magnetic allure.
Unconsciously, he released the grip he had on Gregori.
Gregori's pupils glowed with an otherworldly light as he spoke in a seductive, commanding tone, "Kill him." He pointed directly at Avery.
Without hesitation, the entranced Superman turned back toward Avery, his eyes lighting up with twin beams of scorching heat vision aimed straight at him.
"Troublesome," Avery muttered under his breath, swiftly sidestepping to evade the attack. The searing beams shot past him and struck a nearby tree. In an instant, the thick trunk—large enough for two people to encircle with their arms—snapped and crashed to the ground, raising a cloud of dust.
Now under Gregori's control, Superman pressed the attack, engaging Avery in a fierce exchange of blows. Each strike caused shockwaves, their clash both powerful and relentless.
Meanwhile, Gregori wasn't about to let this golden opportunity slip away. He aimed the energy cannon at Avery's direction, ready to fire. Yet caution tempered his aggression; he remembered the spatial sealing array still active in the area.
His innate prudence made him reconsider. Instead of risking the cannon's energy being contained or manipulated, Gregori decided to dismantle the array first. Once the seal was broken, he could use spatial magic to escape should things turn unfavorable.
Lowering the cannon's output slightly, he aimed at the array's core within the sea and fired.
Boom!
The array shattered almost instantly under the blast. Due to the reduced energy, the resulting waves weren't as catastrophic. Even without Avery's intervention, the coastal buildings remained largely unscathed.
The fish in the sea, however, weren't as fortunate.
Nearby, a broad-shouldered, golden-haired man holding a trident—Arthur Curry, King of Atlantis—stood watching. The spray of dead fish and seawater drenched him, prompting him to shut his eyes in irritation. With a deep breath to contain his rising frustration, he wiped his face clean.
Then, his patience snapped. Volk
Raising his trident, Arthur leapt into the fray, determined to avenge the innocent fish whose lives had been senselessly lost.
Of course, Aquaman wouldn't engage Gregori in a fight over something as trivial as avenging the fish. The real reason was far more serious: Gregori's blatant disregard for others' lives firmly established him as a threat. Naturally, stopping him from further destruction was imperative.
As a result, Gregori's hopes of launching a surprise attack were predictably dashed.
Cunning individuals like Gregori are experts at assessing situations. Under the silent watch of the deep night sky and the abyssal sea, Gregori quickly realized Superman wouldn't be able to stall Avery for long. Reluctantly, he abandoned any thoughts of lingering further.
He knew that staying any longer might mean he wouldn't be able to leave at all. Worse, he suspected Avery had laid deeper traps, lying in wait for him. Knowing his opponent's devious nature, Gregori decided it was best to return to his headquarters to regroup and strategize.
Thus, the spatial wizard made his move. Just as Aquaman's trident was about to strike and the Batman who is piloting the Batplane, was preparing to take him down, Gregori exchanged a calm glance with his would-be attackers. Then, his figure vanished entirely from the scene.
Meanwhile, Avery found himself in a momentary predicament as he confronted Superman. Wizards are not known for their physical defenses, and Superman, with his immense physical strength, was undeniably a formidable combatant.
However, Avery wasn't without options—especially when facing an opponent who, under someone else's control, had temporarily lost their full awareness.
Drawing upon his expertise in illusion magic, Avery obscured Superman's vision, making him believe that the empty air ahead of him was Avery himself. Superman attacked the illusions furiously, repeatedly striking at nothing. Often, his overpowered punches left the muscular man stumbling in mid-air, precariously close to falling into the sea.
Avery had no interest in toying with an innocent people, nor did he harbor any resentment for Superman's unintentional interference, which had indirectly allowed his quarry to escape.
Gregori's decision to flee had been correct. Superman didn't hold Avery back for long. Breaking the other wizard's hold over Superman wasn't an insurmountable challenge, but it wasn't an easy one either.
Avery had been at his rank much longer and, with an entire wizard tower under his command, he possessed a deeper understanding of magic. Gregori, aware of this disparity in their foundations, took precautions. To prevent Avery from turning the controlled Superman against him, Gregori not only used ocular magic to dominate Superman but also sealed off his sensory perception.
This was a psychological sensory blockade. While ordering Superman to attack Avery, Gregori simultaneously hypnotized him, convincing him that he could neither see nor hear anything. Although Superman's ears and eyes were fully functional and unsealed, he truly experienced blindness and deafness in his mind. This effectively shut down the two easiest pathways for Avery to invade his consciousness.
However, Avery wasn't entirely without options.
This wasn't his first encounter with Superman. But at that time, Superman was still Clark Kent who is living on a Kansas farm with his adoptive parents.
Under the watchful eyes of Batman and Aquaman, Avery summoned a dagger he had confiscated long ago after eliminating members of Gregori's organization.
This dagger was made of kryptonite.
In the blink of an eye, Avery, wielding the dagger, appeared behind the alien trapped in the illusion. Without a sound, the blade's sharp tip plunged into Superman's lower back.
Both Batman and Aquaman were stunned by this move, as was Superman himself.
For the former two, it was the shock of seeing Avery decisively resort to such a lethal weapon. For Superman, however, it was the agonizing realization of what had just struck him.
"Kryptonite… How do you know about this?"
Snapped out of the illusion by the pain, Superman immediately recognized the material of the blade. A flicker of doubt arose in his mind. After all, he was the only Kryptonian on Earth.