The golden Kryptonite shards, along with Jor-El's sharp claws, had pierced into the surface of Bardi's finger. The phalanx embedded itself into the tumor, and thick, foul-smelling blood began to flow out.
The golden Kryptonite shards gleamed with a golden hue amidst the thick, rancid blood.
Inside his finger, deep in the tumor, a compound reaction was triggered.
A weak radiation response radiated in waves from the golden Kryptonite fragments, seeping into his blood and cells, passing through the cytoplasm and nucleus, and directly affecting the genetic information encoded in his DNA.
The unique photon-enhancing genetic factor in Kryptonian DNA immediately reacted upon contact with this radiation.
If one could observe the gene helix, they would see that the photon-enhancing factor in Bardi's genes made contact with the radiation, instantly altering the transcription information. From the stable gene chain of the main body, it bonded with the activated molecular receptor, resulting in a complex reaction.
Rather than destroying it, this compound interaction re-regulated the specific DNA sequence responsible for gene expression, causing the enhancer sequence and the silencer sequence to engage in a massive interaction.
The primary role of silencers in genes is to express negative regulatory elements, which bind with trans-acting factors and inhibit transcription activity.
Under the influence of radiation, the silencer and enhancer photon entered a two-phase interaction. Not only did the silencer inhibit the information-expressing ability of the photon enhancer, but under the radiation of the enhancer photon, it also established a stable chain reaction.
This stable chain reaction completely prevented the body's cells from absorbing sunlight. On the contrary, this minute change at the genetic level led to earth-shattering consequences.
All of this occurred rapidly and Bardi's expression froze.
The compound reaction at the genetic level had already begun, moving faster than the body's neural reflexes, so fast that he had no time to show shock or disbelief. His body froze in place.
There was no way he could mentally accept what was happening, his genetic structure was already collapsing.
Had his genes been stable, the reaction would have simply left him powerless and unable to absorb solar energy due to the locked gene chain.
However, in a state of genetic collapse.
This stable chain reaction, undetectable even by Bardi himself, had already formed within his body, freezing his expression—and killing him.
In an instant, at the genetic level, Bardi died.
It was an utterly horrifying death.
Silent and unnoticeable, completely beyond comprehension.
A fate more terrifying than any form of physical death.
One could imagine that this deepest-level genetic reaction, the complete shutdown of body, nerves, brain, consciousness had occurred too quickly, far too quickly.
Bardi's body stiffened and solidified. His massive form, swollen with sarcomas and monstrous in appearance, spoke of terrifying power yet now stood motionless, like the ugliest sculpture ever carved.
A gust of wind passed through the sky, and silence hung in the air.
Sand and dust swirled up, and with the deep redness of the setting sun, the world became hazy in this silent stillness.
The earth lay barren, and the massive crater below told of the devastation.
Bardi's eyes were frozen.
His figure stood without movement. That rigid, unmoving body, set against the vast and desolate land, the setting sun, and twilight skies, seemed to reflect all the brutality and violence of his past.
Darkness was falling.
Dusk brought with it a sense of loneliness.
On the horizon, the enormous red sun hung low, the last fragments of the dome above refracting one final crimson glow into the sky.
The evening was ending.
Across the barren land, nothing could be seen but emptiness.
Jor-El had brought the battle to an end.
The roaring, earth-shaking sound ceased in an instant.
Heaven and earth fell quiet. In the silence of the wasteland, his body ached with pain.
Jor-El's werewolf form had been shattered. His internal organs were pulverized. The feeling of being torn apart and violently healing all at once was excruciating.
His surface was mangled. His ribs, hard as diamonds, were all broken and sunken inward, piercing into his body. His chest was torn open, exposing a bright red heart still beating. His Adam's apple had been caved in by multiple punches from Bardi. His canine nose was broken and twisted to one side. His eyelids were swollen and bloody, and one of his eyes had been completely destroyed.
It was a tragic sight. Standing amidst the desolate land, at the end of twilight, made the scene even more striking—he stood upright in the fading sunlight, on the most violent battlefield, at the edge of dusk.
He was the victor of this battle!
"Sinner of Krypton! Judgment... is here!"
Jor-El's blood-soaked body stood tall against the last light of the setting sun. His body continued healing, mending the damage. He directed energy into his ribs, reconnecting them. His shattered internal organs regenerated. Even his blown-out eye was reborn.
Boom!
He took a step forward, casting a powerful silhouette against the setting sun. The last rays of light illuminated his torch-like eyes. His roar filled with fury. He clenched his fist—and with one punch, he blasted Bardi's solidified tumor-ridden body into the air. Limbs scattered. His grotesquely frozen head burst into blood in mid-air.
"Come on! Sinner."
He opened his arms wide, raised his narrow canine chin to the sky, and faced the sunset. The hot blood from above rained down on his strong, chiseled body, burning hot against his skin but within his heart, there was sadness.
Everything that had once been Krypton, its disappearance, the loss of everything.
The battle that had stretched from Krypton to Earth.
Both he and Bardi had paid far too much.
Now, at last—it was over.
"Oww!!!"
He roared at the last light of the setting sun. His powerful chest heaved, and the sound burst from the deepest part of his throat, a roar of fury, of sorrow.
The sound rolled across the land and sky, vibrating through the silence, as if all of heaven and earth paused to listen.
His swollen eyelids let a thin stream of moisture leak from the corners of his eyes.
He thought back on the past.
His heart was full of emotions.
His nose stung.
More than anything, it was finally over. The heavy weight in his chest had finally fallen away.
This sinner had finally been executed!
But Krypton—Krypton would never return.
Now.
The sun finally disappeared.
The world plunged into darkness in an instant.
Jor-El suddenly broke into goosebumps, his muscles tensed, and every cell in his body screamed in resistance—resisting the darkness, sending urgent signals to his brain, triggering a deep instinct of death.
It felt like an eagle sensing a serpent, a wolf facing its predator, a primal awareness of a natural enemy.
He stared wide-eyed at the fading sun, his gaze narrowing sharply. His body stiffened, and a sense of horror seized his heart.
As if, in the distant sky, at the edge of the horizon, in the very moment the sun dipped below.
A figure cloaked in darkness appeared.
He emerged the moment the light vanished, when the sun disappeared.
The world was entering the hour of darkness.
That figure stood alone, cold and imposing, as if he had stepped on the sun and cast darkness across the world.
He was tall and commanding, wearing a dark cloak. Beneath the hood, his chin was like carved stone, his facial lines as sharp as a blade.
The wind whipped the dark cloak into a frenzy.
The massive cloak flared behind him like a dark flame under the starlit sky.
"Sinner? Did you save Krypton?"
(To be continued.)
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