*Chapter 225: He Runs, I Chase, His Bones Turn to Ash*

Over there, watching the twisted form of Homelander, Atreus sighed softly and muttered under his breath, “This is why I hate Western horror movies. The second something goes wrong, everyone turns into a monster. No aesthetic at all. Look at The Ring—if you're brave enough, Sadako just goes on maternity leave."

Little did he know, his quiet complaint was overheard by Black Widow.

Feeling her gaze, Atreus chose to... pretend he never said anything.

He shifted his attention to the enhanced version of Compound V. What Vought had cooked up didn't seem all that impressive.

Homelander’s aura was indeed growing stronger after taking the drug, but Atreus face only showed disappointment.

His assessment? "Still not as good as Doomsday."

As a weaker version of Superman, with a disfigured take on Captain America, Homelander’s physical prowess fell short compared to Zod.

They went down different paths—maybe the talent points were allocated differently by the companies behind them. The result was... underwhelming.

Atreus had initially thought that after Homelander powered up, he could kill him and maybe gain some attribute points.

But now, it didn’t seem worth it.

He realized he'd been overly optimistic.

Ever since inheriting the majority of the war god Ares’s soul power, the only beings that could give him attribute boosts were gods. And not just any gods—they had to be different types from Ares.

Looking higher, only Odin or Zeus in their prime, or maybe Dormammu right now, could give him a real challenge. But defeating any of those guys was no simple task. Either they were past their prime, or Atreus wasn’t strong enough to take them on.

Given that...

“Let’s just end this. I’m bored.” Atreus calm words were like a god passing judgment on mortals.

That sense of looking down on the world, the haughty tone, drove Homelander to madness.

Maybe it was the drug, but part of Homelander’s jaw regenerated, and he could finally speak clearly.

“How... how dare you look down on me like that!?” Homelander’s eyes bulged unnaturally, like a frog’s. Those fist-sized eyeballs didn’t belong on a human.

Suddenly, his eyes lost pressure and released terrifying beams of red light.

This wasn’t just laser vision anymore.

The beam, as thick as a person’s leg, was more like a laser cannon.

The searing light cannon tore through the space between them, scorching the air around it.

At that moment, Black Widow’s heart leaped into her throat. To her shock, Kratos didn’t use any spatial magic.

What happened next left her stunned:

The high-energy, high-heat beam poured down on Kratos, but he simply raised one finger, blocking its path.

His fingertip instantly turned black—not from being scorched by the laser, but because his finger had transformed, taking on a molten appearance. What was once flesh became a material similar to obsidian, with faint glowing lines like molten lava running along his knuckles.

The laser cannon slammed into the tip of his finger. Instead of destroying it and blowing off the bald head Homelander despised, the beam split, like a river hitting a boulder, shattering into chaotic streams of red energy. These streams further fragmented into countless energy arrows, which scattered around Kratos on either side.

“He... he blocked it!?” Black Widow’s seductive eyes widened in disbelief.

It was like when Doomsday’s eye beams were blocked by Wonder Woman’s bracelets, equally hard to believe.

No!

Kratos went beyond that, because he didn’t use some overpowered artifact—just his body.

Black Widow also noticed that from start to finish, Kratos hadn’t even touched the golden sword strapped to his back.

Could it be that Homelander wasn’t even worthy of Kratos drawing his sword?

That was... too cool!

Black Widow had been through countless years as a spy, enduring brutal beatings and trials, and had thought she was long past being impressed. Even in SHIELD, nothing ever made her feel particularly moved or dazzled.

Yet this overwhelming display of power stirred a strange feeling of admiration within her.

She didn’t like it, but couldn’t stop herself from locking her gaze on Kratos.

Homelander’s heart shattered.

He had never faced such a terrifying enemy, never imagined that when his super strength, speed, and laser vision all failed, he’d have no way to deal with such an opponent.

Crushed by defeat, his already fragile psyche collapsed. He suddenly turned and ran, crying out as he fled, “Mommy! Save me! Mommy! It’s so scary! Save me—!”

The extreme arrogance turned into extreme inferiority, just like that.

As the leader of the Seven, Homelander’s breakdown was like a death knell, causing the rest of the superpowered team, who had just transformed into monsters, to lose all hope.

They pathetically turned to flee, not even caring about the gaping wounds being left on their backs by their enemies.

“Run? You think you can run?” Atreus face was full of scorn.

If Homelander had the guts to fight him to the death, Atreus might’ve had a bit of respect for him. But running mindlessly in a sealed mirror dimension? It was laughable.

Homelander flew at supersonic speed out of the building, crashing into the shattered mirror wall. In his ignorance, he thought it was just a barrier.

It was, in fact, a barrier—a barrier of space.

Without enough knowledge of spatial magic, there was no breaking through it. When he swung his left fist experimentally, a large chunk of flesh from his knuckles was swallowed by the space.

“Ahh—!”

He screamed and stumbled backward, only to turn around and find Atreus already behind him, matching his speed with ease.

Before Homelander could react, he was hit hard again—Atreus left hand transformed into a molten lava arm, plunging straight into Homelander’s chest and grabbing his heart.

In his final moments, Homelander’s defiance flared again. He lifted his head in anger, and Atreus could see the unwillingness in his eyes, the red flames of fury burning within. He seemed like he was trying to fire one last laser blast.

But no matter how hard Homelander tried, he couldn’t muster the strength for one last shot.

In desperation, he lunged forward, biting—no, gnawing—on Atreus arm. But it was futile. He lacked the strength to leave even a mark on the divine bracers forged by Hephaestus.

In the next second, Homelander’s entire body was engulfed in flames from Atreus hand.

The only thing Atreus left behind was Homelander’s American flag cape.

“Even though I don’t care for this thing, you’re not worthy of being buried with the flag,” Atreus said.

When Atreus returned to the building, the fight was already over.

Black Widow, still doing her job, asked, “What happened to Homelander?”

Atreus casually tossed her the cape.

“He ran, I chased, his bones turned to ash.”

(End of Chapter)