DC: Chapter 187/188

Chapter 187

What is freedom?

The feeling of freedom is most intuitive.

To fly.

Flying is freedom. Soaring through the sky with an unrestrained, exhilarating spirit. Every moment looking down at the Earth, feeling the powerful wind sweeping across your skin, hearing your clothes rustle as they cut through the air. Overlooking the land, lakes, oceans, mountains, and forests blanketed in green.

That is true freedom.

Free flight.

So then, at what altitude does one feel most free, where the view is best?

The stratosphere lies around 50 kilometers up. The atmosphere there is dominated by advective motion, ideal for high-altitude flight. Aircraft typically cruise at this level, and for people, it is the most comfortable altitude for flying, offering a clear view of Earth's scenery and the sensation of natural wind against the skin.

Furthermore, the ozone layer in the stratosphere absorbs ultraviolet radiation from the sun, protecting life on Earth. It is also the most suitable altitude for Kryptonians to fly.

In the sky, the sun blazed brightly. The air currents swept Bardi's dark hair back, his white windbreaker flapping noisily behind him. The chill was like cool well water on a summer day, refreshing and pleasant.

Unlike Superman, Bardi did not fly with his fists raised. His hands remained relaxed by his sides as he glided forward. His speed wasn't particularly fast.

Around him was a layer of refractive distortion, caused by his body's magnetic field. As long as he stayed below the speed of sound, he would remain invisible to the naked eye. Standard weather radars would only detect strange distortions resembling thunderclouds, unable to register his humanoid outline.

He passed through several monitored zones.

Pong

Bardi suddenly accelerated in the stratosphere, emitting a sonic boom. White clouds clung tightly to his thighs as he pierced the sound barrier, forming what looked like a skirt of vapor trailing behind him.

He quickly reached his destination.

The border of Greenland and Ellesmere.

This region still belonged to Canada, situated within the Arctic Circle. It was cold, located at a high latitude, with year-round snow, jagged icebergs, and frozen landscapes. The breathtaking aurora borealis here was one of Earth's most magnificent sights.

Long before confronting Trigon, Bardi had dispatched a team to locate Jor-El's Kryptonian scout ship, eventually narrowing it down to this location.

Coincidentally, Poison Ivy had also resurfaced. Bardi sent Raven to retrieve her, while he came to the Arctic to transport the ship back to Metropolis.

Krypton's reconnaissance ships were not just for surveillance. They also housed rooms for the Genesis Chamber, capable of encoding specific genes to create the bioengineered workers, warriors, and researchers Bardi needed.

In the future, Earth would require millions of administrators. They would be created here.

On the glacier's surface, dark green military tents and crates of supplies were firmly secured to the ice. These included the latest sonar detectors, scanning beneath the glacier to pinpoint the ship's location.

The team had not disappointed Bardi. They had scouted the area continuously, day and night, finally locking onto a precise location.

The polar night sky was astonishingly clear. The vast sky felt so close, pressing down, overwhelming in its grandeur.

Suddenly, within the camp, searchers in thick winter coats looked up.

"Look, what is that?"

"A bird?"

"A plane?"

"No, it's the Boss!"

Captain Bernie Jones, a Black man with thick lips, raised his binoculars and spotted Bardi. The white cloak, the silhouette—it was unmistakable. His heart pounded in awe. In the extreme cold, his blood surged, boiling from sheer excitement.

He knew Bardi was strong, godlike even, but to witness him flying from the sky like this was beyond belief. A real, living god.

Snapping out of his awe, he quickly called his team to attention.

They stood in formation, staring upward. Against the clear night sky, a white figure descended, trailing a long sonic boom cloud.

Bardi hovered in the sky, gradually retracting his magnetic field so he could manipulate the internal magnetic response at will and unleash unmatched power at any moment.

He slowly descended. Ice and snow scattered beneath his feet. His windbreaker fluttered down to his ankles.

The subordinates bowed slightly, hearts burning with excitement as they welcomed his arrival.

This divine presence descending from above brought an overwhelming pressure, nearly forcing them to kneel.

Even so, they trembled with excitement, bowing deeply as Bardi passed. Watching his white boots step onto the snow, their hearts pounded.

"Well done."

Bardi gave a quiet word of praise and looked toward the towering glacier.

The compliment warmed their hearts. Their eyes burned with emotion, and they couldn't help but shout in unison, "For Barmulodi!"

The cold particles in the air quivered from the sudden roar.

Bardi smiled faintly and raised his palm to signal silence and allow them to disperse.

In a glacier, such concentrated soundwaves were not a good idea.

"Boss, after several days of investigation, we've confirmed that sonar readings are bouncing off the ice shelf. There's a strong response," reported Captain Bernie Jones, enthusiastically pointing in the direction.

Bardi's eyes sharpened, and he activated his X-ray vision, penetrating layer after layer of ice. Deep below, he saw the 300-meter-long Kryptonian reconnaissance ship.

Seeing the familiar Kryptonian vessel again, his gaze narrowed.

"Wait here for me."

With that casual order, Bardi lifted off once more. The powerful pressure from his body made their hearts race. They stared in awe as he flew off like a god.

The ice-cold air in this region fell below minus 30 degrees Celsius. To Bardi, it merely felt like dipping into cool well water during summer.

He flew to the side, toward an area where it would be easier to access the ship's entrance.

At once, red veins appeared around his eyes as he released his heat vision. A column of burning energy blasted into the glacier, sending up a cloud of steam. A tunnel formed, wide enough for two people to walk side by side.

Bardi maintained precise control over the heat vision, gradually reducing intensity as he neared the spacecraft, stopping it approximately two meters from the hull to avoid damaging it.

His eyes felt slightly warm, a normal aftereffect of using heat vision. As the vitreous humor dissipated the residual heat, the sensation faded.

He floated directly into the tunnel.

(To be continued.)

Chapter 188: Spaceship


Krypton's exploration spacecraft, measuring 372 meters in total length, resembled a sperm whale with a smooth, black surface like that of a beetle.

Bardi gently ran his palm across the hatch. The black, glossy exterior was still smooth as new, and when his fingers touched it, it felt as slick as glass.

He narrowed his eyes, activated his X-ray vision, and observed its details. The hull of the scout ship, combined with his memories, had previously been struck by space meteorites before crashing onto Earth. By the time it arrived here, the metal had already entered a phase of self-repair due to structural fatigue.

Even now, under Bardi's penetrating and microscopic vision, he could see that although the molecular particles had rearranged themselves and undergone recovery, signs of significant fatigue still remained.

Boom...

Bardi's five fingers suddenly formed into claws. His arm muscles bulged with force. In one powerful motion, using his vision as guidance, he stabbed into the hatch like it was tofu. With a twist and pull, he shattered the locking mechanism and forcefully pulled the hatch open.

A burst of Kryptonian atmospheric gas surged outward with a hiss.

Bardi narrowed his eyes and took a step back. He activated the magnetic field of his body, manipulating the oxygen, nitrogen, and cold air molecules of the North Pole to form a blurred defense layer, isolating himself from the Kryptonian gas.

Unlike Superman, Bardi had a far more refined control of his body's magnetic field.

From the moment he learned how to control his magnetic field, Bardi's immense knowledge reserves had allowed him to fully understand the importance of this ability.

He could adjust his internal magnetic field at will, altering it from low to high intensity, enhancing or suppressing biological responses. In the presence of ordinary humans, he could influence the nervous system, endocrine functions, sensory perception, cardiovascular activity, blood flow, digestion, muscular activity, respiration, excretion, and even bone density. Visual and auditory hallucinations could occur, though these effects were involuntary and merely the result of oppressive magnetic interference.

Without resistance, Bardi's magnetic control could force ordinary people to collapse to their knees in excitement, worshipping him like a god.

Those who lacked a concentrated magnetic field of their own could not endure such overwhelming pressure.

Krypton's atmospheric gas, upon contact with his cells, caused his body to weaken, producing symptoms such as cellular suffocation, arrhythmia, stomach cramps, blurred vision, and general discomfort.

Bardi had no interest in enduring such effects.

Whoosh...

With a breath, he drew air deep from his lungs and exhaled a powerful gust into the spacecraft.

This wind carried with it polar air molecules, forming a ribbon-like stream of white vapor that rushed into the ship.

Inside, the dark reconnaissance vessel was filled with a thick wave of air that collided with dull thuds, mixing with Kryptonian gas and sweeping through every accessible space.

As Earth's air continued to pour in, the remaining Kryptonian gas was steadily diluted and forced out through the hatch, venting into the icy tunnel behind Bardi.

The ice cave, which had been melted open with heat vision, suddenly filled with a cold mist that rushed outward like smoke, rising into the sky as though the glacier were on fire.

Once the Kryptonian atmosphere was purged and no abnormalities were detected, Bardi stepped inside.

Beneath his feet was a thick, cold composite steel floor. Deep in the corridor, darkness loomed. The faint white light from outside the hatch cast Bardi's figure in pale blue hues, creating an eerie contrast.

Bardi never deactivated his X-ray vision. His eyes could see clearly in the dark. He swept his gaze across the ship, taking in every feature—dormancy chambers, the Genesis Chamber, the main cockpit, instrument panels, resting quarters, engine room, high-energy ion thrusters, nuclear pulse backup engines. Every wire, conduit, and component was visible.

The dormant chambers and crew quarters were empty. This was an unmanned ship, guided automatically to Earth using superluminal communication controlled by artificial intelligence across light-years of distance.

Inside the Genesis Chamber, two half-formed babies floated within embryonic sacs.

Presumably, they had been intended to mature during the voyage from Krypton to Earth, eventually becoming adults who would gather information for Jor-El.

Jor-El had discovered Earth but withheld this knowledge. Instead, he used his own private resources to build the ship, intending to spread the El family's legacy across Earth.

He treated Earth as personal property—a back garden, a future extension of the El family's glory and its colony.

However, the superluminal remote control system malfunctioned, causing the ship to lose contact mid-journey and crash onto Earth. The two embryos had remained frozen at the midpoint of development.

It was a fully intact reconnaissance ship.

"Very good."

Bardi smiled. This was an incredible gift from Jor-El. With this ship, he could create legions of bioengineered humans, genetically specialized warriors, adjutants, and governors. Millions of subordinates would support his control over Earth.

Scarlet-blue veins formed around his eyelids. He suddenly turned, releasing three beams of heat vision.

Pong

Pong

Pong

Three laser-thin beams struck the defense nodes of three floating weapon drones shaped like cobras. These devices condensed ferromagnetic particles from their tails to form various weapons, capable of generating hundreds of tons of strike force.

They formed piercing spikes. The kinetic energy of these spikes could simulate the pain of being impaled, even to someone like Bardi. These were formidable defense weapons.

In a split second, Bardi's heat vision had penetrated the core magnets of each drone. Their internal magnetic fields were disrupted, and the metallic bodies began to tremble uncontrollably.

Crash...

With the magnet cores destroyed, the drones could no longer maintain their particle clusters. The cobra-shaped defense drones collapsed to the floor in piles of iron sand.

These were only standard defense systems, also capable of maintenance and repair functions.

Then, deep in the spacecraft's dark corridors, laser turrets emerged on all sides—above, below, left, and right.

The ship had entered full automatic defense mode to repel intruders.

Bardi saw this and moved instantly, his footfall creating a sonic boom.

Blue plasma energy beams erupted from the turrets. These beams were hotter than the core of the sun—over 20 million degrees Celsius—and had powerful penetration.

Even with his current strength, Bardi didn't want to be hit by one. A single strike would burn a hole through his body and cause severe pain.

He frowned. In the pitch-black corridor, he dashed forward. Behind him, blue plasma beams blazed.

He reached the cockpit ahead of the barrage.

He had no desire to destroy these systems. They were his now. On Krypton, they might be considered ordinary. But on Earth, replicating them would take decades. They were priceless.

The cluster-gravel defense drones, though damaged, could easily be repaired by manipulating the magnetic field. He didn't mind disabling them.

In the dark corridors, blue lights shot in all directions, punching small holes into the hull, emitting curls of smoke. Plasma clusters pursued Bardi's path through the darkness, illuminating it in a trail of blue brilliance that led to the main cockpit.

Boom!

Bardi's face, bathed in blue light, looked cold and solemn. He smashed the cockpit door with his fists. His hands tore into the thick metal, muscles straining. His back was wide and imposing, his windbreaker stretched tight. With an immense burst of strength, he ripped the door free and flung it behind him, blocking several plasma beams in the process.

Calm and composed, Bardi adjusted the collar of his coat, his gaze settling on the ship's console.

He retrieved two keys from his body.

He inserted the Hera key into the control port of the spacecraft console.

"Hera, take control of this ship."

(To be continued.)