blogombal Chapter 359 The Green Lantern Corps is Out of Heat, The Current State of the Red Lantern Corps
Chapter 359 The Green Lantern Corps is Out of Heat, The Current State of the Red Lantern Corps
Chapter 359 The Green Lantern Corps is Out of Heat, The Current State of the Red Lantern Corps
You know, just like how every story begins.
Long, long ago, on the planet Rytterbau, located in sector 666 of the universe, was the home of Atositas, the current leader of the Red Lantern Legion.
At that time, his name was Atros, and he was very thin.
Atocitas was once an ordinary psychologist who would cook for his wife and children in his spare time.
But ever since the massacre that destroyed his world, Atochitas's life has been filled with revenge, leaving no room for anything else.
He seemed to be perpetually consumed by anger, never ceasing his fury for a single moment.
Everyone who knows Athocitas says he is a beast captured by rage. If it weren't for a few remaining vestiges of justice that still drive him, he would almost succumb to endless fury, becoming an indiscriminate beast, just like...
Like his colleagues.
"roar!!!!!"
Talia gasped.
As the only human still somewhat conscious among the group who had traversed the black hole and arrived on Ismot, she witnessed a sight she would never forget when she was led into the Red Lantern Corps headquarters—
It wasn't the large basin of slightly twitching, seemingly still-alive, insect-like "food" that Atositas pulled out, but rather what Talia saw in the huge hall: a large number of Red Lantern Legion members wearing restraint collars around their necks, tightly chained to the walls by iron chains protruding from iron holes in the walls.
Each person had a urn resembling a dog bowl in front of them. It seemed that the people who tied these Red Lantern Legion members here had deliberately calculated how far they would have to go to reach the dog bowl, and had specially adjusted their chains to a length that was just about right up to the dog bowl but just a little short.
Therefore, the Red Lantern Legion members, who looked extremely hungry, could only frantically scratch the floor, and then began to roar endlessly like mad dogs. Talia even saw several of them desperately pulling on the iron chains around their necks, even visibly breaking their own necks, but still unable to break free from that mere iron chain.
"This...this..."
Talia took a half step back.
Her father was an ancient man who lived on Earth for 600 years. She had witnessed his body being immersed in that green spring water and then resurrected without a scratch countless times.
She had encountered superpowered individuals, magicians, demons from hell, necromancers who summoned Mr. Skeleton, telepaths, and even gods like the Justice League who walked among humans—they were dragons among men whose power far surpassed that of ordinary superpowered individuals.
She even witnessed what terrifying and powerful thing her lover, Batman, had become.
But even now, seeing those numerous frenzied alien monsters still sent chills down Talia's spine.
"Ah. Please don't mind it."
Atocitas said.
He ignored Talia, who was standing frozen in place, and continued with his actions.
He placed bowl after bowl of insect dishes on the table next to him, the only place where the crazed Red Lantern Legion members were not restrained.
He stretched out a hand, and the red lantern ring on his hand materialized into a mechanical arm and hand that looked very alien. He lifted the unconscious teenage Titan members up, and then shot out a beam of red light, and the red lantern ring materialized into a soft bed on the ground.
"To be honest, I'm not very good at visualizing things, but with a little practice I can do it."
Atocitas said.
He placed each unconscious member on a bed and then thoughtfully covered them with blankets.
Immediately afterwards, healing magic circles prepared in advance by Atositas lit up under each bed.
If such an action were performed by a gentle and kind mother, it might seem heartwarming, but looking at Atositas's scaly face, Talia inexplicably felt that what he was doing was more like an ogre carefully arranging ingredients before putting them into the pot.
Atositas had no idea how disrespectful thoughts were swirling in Talia's mind.
Seeing that Talia showed no intention of sitting down, he did not press her.
He walked to the table, pulled up a seat, and then conjured up a strange-looking piece of tableware out of thin air using his red light ring—a combination of a fork and a knife. He pierced a still-twitching worm, threw it into his mouth, and began to chew it without a care in the world.
"Your timing is quite convenient, it just so happens to be lunchtime."
Blue-purple juice flowed from between Atochitas's sharp teeth, then he licked it clean with his tongue.
"You might say that since every member of the Red Lantern Legion has had their internal organs expelled from their bodies by the Red Lantern Rings, and Red Lantern energy fills our bodies, sustaining our lives, and we no longer have organs for digesting food, what's the point of eating?"
Athocitas said while eating, "But actually..."
"Roar...roar..."
The violent roars came in waves, mixed with a large number of hysterical and incomprehensible howls.
Atos frowned, then stood up. "I'm sorry, guest. This place is relatively new and has few rooms, so we have to keep everyone in the lobby. I spend all my time with them and never thought about soundproofing. I'm sure it's disturbing you."
Talia remained silent, while Atochitas raised his hand and then clenched it tightly.
With his movements, every chain binding the Red Lantern Legion members glowed red, and soon they were strangled one by one until they spat out red blood foam... wait, that wasn't blood foam, but some kind of blood-red fluid that burned like flames.
"That's something that every member of the Red Lantern Corps has inside their body."
Noticing Talia's gaze, Atositas said, "It's the same inside my body; this energy has replaced my internal organs."
Then he sat back down: "Where were we? About food."
"Batman's teammate, before we begin, let me introduce myself. My name is Atositas..."
Athositas first briefly explained his relationship with Batman to Talia. This put Talia somewhat at ease before he continued:
"I think you recognized them as belonging to my Red Lantern Legion by the insignia on their chests, just like mine, when you came in, but you must be curious about what's going on with these Legion members."
Atositas said, "To prevent you from mistaking me for some dangerous enemy or someone difficult to get along with, I'm afraid I must explain to you why they are acting this way."
"After I established the Red Lantern Corps on Ismot, I forged the Red Lantern Furnace Central Energy Battery and began searching for members of the Red Lantern Corps throughout the universe."
"This is not a difficult thing. The Red Lantern Ring will automatically seek out those who harbor great rage and then select them to become members of my legion."
Despite talking incessantly, Atos ate with remarkable speed and efficiency, barely chewing at all.
This is understandable. For the other person, eating is just a formality. Whether they eat a lot or a little, or whether they chew or not, it's all just a formality.
So when he wants to stop eating, he can just do that.
Atositas approached a legion member who was howling incessantly.
He reached out and touched the strange alien legion member, an action that immediately provoked an attack from the other party. The other party opened its mouth full of fangs and bit at Athocitas's hand, but he was quickly slapped to the ground by Athocitas and then choked.
"I am not your prey, you low-IQ beast. If you dare to bite me again, your lesson ends here."
Then, without caring whether the other person could understand or not, he pressed the other person against the wall and slapped them across the face.
The legion member's expression immediately cleared; he sobbed and curled up in the corner.
Having dealt with the rebellious legion members, the other legion members, seeing Atos's example as a warning to others, immediately stopped yelling and instead huddled together whimpering, like a dog that had been scared out of its wits.
Atos materializes a mechanical arm that continuously pours large quantities of insects into the dog bowls of the legion members. When Atos moves a little further away from them, the ropes on the backs of each legion member are loosened to a certain length so that they can reach the dog bowl. Then, the legion member will bury their face directly into the dog bowl like a starving dog and begin to devour it.
"My legion is growing stronger every day, but one problem has always plagued me. Every legion member recruited into the Red Lantern Legion, after wearing the ring, is plunged into a tremendous rage that consumes their sanity and turns them into mad dogs."
"No matter how hard I try, I can't think of a way to keep them sane. They don't have the same ability to materialize as me or the Green Lantern Corps members. Their only way to attack is to open their mouths and spew out the red lantern energy."
They converted that energy into raging, burning blood flames; they possessed no other abilities besides this single method.
As he spoke, Atos continued feeding each legion member his insect-based meal, much like an old farmer feeding pigs. It took him a long time to finally finish feeding everyone.
Atositas turned and walked toward Talia with the empty food bowl in his hand: "Therefore, I tried to feed them. Although the Red Lantern Legion members do not need to eat, I still tried to feed them, hoping that through the feeling of eating they could rediscover the memory of being born as intelligent beings."
Atositas said, "Eating brings peace, satiety, and satisfaction, making us mistakenly believe that we still need to eat to survive, and that we are not the monster now consumed by hatred."
"These are just some attempts."
Atositas said, "In short, I don't know how long you'll be here, but Batman said he'll be coming for you soon, so just stay put. There's food on the table, and I highly recommend you try it."
"All you need to do is..."
Atositas turned his head sharply and suddenly felt the portal that had opened through the sonic boom appear next to his central energy battery.
He turned to look at Talia:
"Looks like Batman has arrived."
"But before you see him," Athocitas said, "I need to see him first to discuss something."
Before Talia could react, Atocitas shot out a beam of red light from his hand, fixing Talia in place.
……
……
……
"Fine, fine, is this how you play it? I just finished dealing with Eclipse, and now Aquaman is causing trouble. I can't do this job anymore. After solving Eclipse, Aquaman and Night Owl pop up. Is this ever going to end?"
"Hal Jordan is the most capable leader in the entire Justice League. Although he's a bit eccentric, compared to other members with obvious personality or strength weaknesses, Hal is definitely leadership material..."
"No, this won't do. After this is over, I'll call Hal Jordan on Planet Oa. If he doesn't answer, I'll go find him myself. He needs to get back to Earth as soon as possible..."
As Chen Tao thought this, he stepped through the sonic tunnel. As the tunnel closed behind him, what came into view was Atositas, grinning with a mouth full of fangs.
"Ah, it's Atositas. You... um?"
When Chen Tao first saw Atocitas, he felt that something was not quite right.
Simply put, Atochitas is a beast that is always angry, but he has a strong enough willpower to control his temper.
But at this moment, Atositas seemed bewildered, not because his eyes had lost their luster like a raped groundhog, but because he lacked the burning rage he once possessed.
This is very unusual, extremely unusual.
Chen Tao lowered his head and even saw traces of food still between the other person's teeth.
What kind of everyday life is this? Does it match the image of a red light lord?
He saw Atos flying over looking listless, and before Chen Tao could ask about the current situation of the young Titans, Atos spoke first.
"Batman, there's something I need to tell you."
"Okay, go ahead."
A question mark appeared on Chen Tao's forehead. Actually, he had just wanted to ask Athocitas what was going on with his aimless state, but Athocitas seemed very serious, so Chen Tao let him speak first.
"Speak, what is it?"
"Oh, is that so?" Athocitas said.
"The Green Lantern Corps is gone."
Chen Tao nearly choked to death.
"What? Say that again?"
"Alright," Atositas said, "To be precise, the Green Lantern Corps has disappeared."
(End of this chapter)