Boom—
Matter churned in space, as if the universe itself had roared. Liu A'dou was fast—faster than ever before—but compared to the coronal mass ejection ripped from the sun, he was barely keeping pace.
An unknown lightwave had already carved a path between the Earth and the sun. Even if the source was destroyed, the channel wouldn't disappear. Liu A'dou knew—there was no other way. He had to stop it himself.
Kaitou Kid versus the sun's full-force punch.
This monstrous solar flare was like a slap from the sun to Earth's face, surging toward it with world-ending force. And once the flare passed, the path would vanish. Vandal wasn't dumb enough to keep inviting the sun to wreck Earth—this was a one-time thing. But this one time held enough energy to incinerate half the planet.
Worse, the flare moved almost as fast as light. In this race, Liu A'dou had no advantage. So they met—halfway between Earth and the sun.
"Burn, Ultimate Microcosmos!" Liu A'dou saw the terrifying energy coming like a tsunami. It was massive. He wanted to curse out loud—he was just trying to help Themyscira find the Pandora gem. Did it really have to go this far? "Crystal Wall—!"
No hesitation. Liu A'dou unleashed a burst of golden light, just as bright as the flare itself, forming a crystal wall stretching 1,000 meters wide and tall right in front of him.
Impact.
The enormous wall shook violently—but it held. At least for now. Liu A'dou didn't know how long it would last.
'That damn Vandal... not even a bark, and he pulls this off in silence.' If it weren't for the divination, and that random Icelandic restaurant owner, humanity might've been finished. With zero intel, not even the Justice League could have responded in time. Half the planet might've already turned to ash.
Vandal had spent decades preparing, collecting resources, planning with extreme patience. He only launched this extinction-level plan after locking all his precious treasures in his bunker, fueled by endless money and obsession.
Liu A'dou had managed to buy Earth a few minutes. But what the hell was he supposed to do with all this power crashing into him? Gritting his teeth, he braced against every square millimeter of impact—it was brutal.
The power of the flare was like all of Earth's nuclear weapons detonated together. But unlike a nuclear blast where the shockwave ends in seconds, this solar flare delivered continuous energy—minute after minute. Liu A'dou was being roasted alive.
Even the crystal wall had started to ripple like liquid. It swelled and pulsed, looking like it could shatter at any moment. The flare kept pushing forward.
Then he heard a sound—not from space, but from inside his body. His bones, muscles, and organs were all screaming. Sure, his strength was decent now—he'd grasped the Ultimate Microcosmos—but he was still human. His mind had limits. His stamina had limits.
He'd held the flare back for four minutes, delaying Earth's destruction. But the force hadn't weakened. It still burned as fiercely as ever. Liu A'dou didn't know how much longer he could last. He'd rather be hit by every nuke on Earth in one go than go through this slow roast again—it was pure torture.
Thankfully, Superman had arrived. He flew in at light speed too, though it still took him a few minutes. That's the reality of space—in the cosmos, even light speed feels like crawling.
"What's happening?" Superman put an earpiece on Kid.
"Just help me hold it back. I don't think I can keep this up much longer," Liu A'dou's teeth were chattering. He'd been hanging on for nearly ten minutes, and the Ultimate Microcosmos was squeezing every drop of strength and focus out of him. Thankfully, after repairing the moon earlier, his Microcosmos had grown a lot stronger—otherwise, the flare would've already broken through the crystal wall.
With Superman joining in, Liu A'dou's burden lightened a lot. At least now he only had to maintain the crystal wall while Superman pushed.
"We need to figure out how to cut off the flare's energy." The crystal wall was blocking it, but the channel itself was still open. The energy just kept surging forward along that path.
"No backup energy behind it?" Superman asked. If this was the only wave, maybe they had a shot.
"Just this one. The path from the sun's side was already used up. It only sent out this one wave, and no more will come. But even this one is insane." The sun may have just thrown a punch, but that punch was massive—as if it combined the Nile, Amazon, and Yangtze rivers into one unstoppable flood. There was no end in sight. No one knew how to deal with so much raw energy. At this rate, Liu A'dou figured he'd give out long before the energy ever did.
Superman activated his super vision. Cold sweat formed on his brow. In cosmic terms, this energy wave was barely a blip. But to humanity, it was the end of days.
"I'm afraid besides blocking it… I've got nothing," Superman said.
Liu A'dou grit his teeth. 'Damn it. The crystal wall's starting to crack.' Compared to the real scale of the universe, he was still way too weak.
Meanwhile, down on Earth, Batman had already calculated the flare's endpoint: Mount Rushmore.
At this moment, the four presidential faces were glowing with eerie red light. Batman used sonar to scan them—and found they were completely hollow inside.
"The internal structure was altered decades ago. This enemy's been planning for a long time," Batman muttered.
"Total opposite of me," Iron Man had arrived too. He'd run the same calculations, but seeing Batman crouched there analyzing without acting finally pushed him over the edge. He didn't hold back—just fired straight at the presidents' faces, blasting the internal machinery.
Batman was speechless. So reckless… didn't Iron Man consider triggering a chain reaction?
But Iron Man wasn't as cautious as Batman. He'd already entered the hollowed monument and shut down the machine. "That flare's residual wave is still there. Looks like we haven't solved the problem," he said—and then fell silent.
Because he saw a gem. A breathtakingly beautiful gem that stirred something strange in his heart. It felt like despair… or maybe hope.
The Pandora gem. If Liu A'dou were here, he'd have stashed it in a heartbeat. The divination had been right—Vandal Savage, the castle's owner, had hidden it here for some evil purpose. He'd used the gem's special properties to lure the solar flare, aiming to wipe out humanity.
"Jarvis, calculate how to disrupt this spectral band." Tony wasn't ready to give up.
Batman, on the other hand, stood before the gem. "Pandora gem…" Liu A'dou had asked him about it before—he recognized it instantly. Of course, Batman wasn't guided by feelings. He'd deduced it.
Kid had been looking for this gem. And now he'd been the first to rush off into space. Clearly, it was all connected. That meant this had to be the Pandora gem.
And how did Batman know Kid was the first to act? Because Superman had contacted the other Justice League members before leaving—and Kid wasn't on Earth at the time.
Jarvis couldn't calculate anything. The spectrum was just too strange. But Batman had another idea—maybe the gem could be used again to alter the path of the energy.
Still, whether it was Batman or Iron Man, neither of them had any time to spare.