The vampire elder pointed to the ongoing slaughter of humans in the distance, his expression fawning as he said, "It won't be long before the entire [Chicago] becomes a paradise for our [Smokeshifter Sect]."
"You've done well."
The vampire named [Smokeshifter] had a satisfied look on his face… no, it would be more appropriate to call him a demon now.
After the transformation from that [Blood Sacrifice], this vampire's consciousness had already been completely occupied by a demon from the [Hell Dimension].
And like the "Blood God" who was killed earlier, this Smokeshifter demon was also one of Lilith's seven [Demons of the Night].
He was also the last of the seven to be "summoned."
As the [Centennial Conference] drew nearer, Lilith had to speed up the progress of her plan.
"Hmm?"
Just then, Smokeshifter seemed to notice something and suddenly looked up at the distant night sky.
There, a humanoid creature wearing a blue bodysuit and draped in the Stars and Stripes was streaking across the sky at a speed of Mach 2 or higher.
It was none other than Homelander!
After flying over the battlefield, Homelander deliberately hovered in mid-air to survey the situation below.
Then he went straight to a defense line that was about to fall.
Zzz…!!!
Heat vision, powerful enough to melt steel, erupted dazzlingly.
It directly cut dozens upon hundreds of vampires charging forward in half.
...
[Detected collectable souls, sub-dimensional soul count +1, +1, +1...]
[Reputation +8, +6, +13...]
...
"Everyone, look, it's Homelander, we're saved."
"That's right, Homelander, quickly kill these vampire bastards!"
At that moment, whether they were police officers, soldiers, or terrified civilians in the rear, all felt a sense of relief after surviving a disaster when Homelander appeared!
However.
Just as everyone was guessing that Homelander would directly start a massacre and teach these vampires a lesson, he turned his head and said to the police officers and soldiers in front of the defense line with a look of disgust:
"Hey, can you guys do me a favor… get the hell out of this area, because you're really in the way here."
Σ(⊙▽⊙"a???
Huh? Something seems a little off about this development?
The crowd that had just been cheering suddenly went silent, each standing in place looking at each other, at a loss.
Zzz—
Homelander pressed his hands against a vampire rushing towards him, then directly activated his heat vision to split it in two.
Blood splattered out, staining a large area of his suit red.
Homelander's eyes flashed with a dangerous red light, and he looked at the crowd behind the defense line again, urging impatiently:
"What, are you all deaf?"
The crowd behind the defense line finally reacted, realizing that Homelander wasn't joking with them.
So they didn't bother waiting for their superiors to officially issue a retreat order, and they turned around and ran with their weapons.
There was no other way.
If they didn't run, they might really be killed by Homelander!
Since the last time at his birthday party, when Homelander gave a "sincere outpouring" to the camera.
What was puzzling was that his approval rating not only didn't drop but rose instead, successfully surpassing [Starlight] and returning to the top of the "Most Popular Hero Ranking" specially created by [Vought International].
At the same time, his fan base also increased significantly by 11%!!
According to a post-event public opinion survey.
Over 80% of supporters said they liked Homelander's domineering, unapologetic, and courageous style of speech.
This was the Homelander they wanted to see?
And so…
From that day on, Homelander, as if discovering a "New World," decided to be his "true" self.
He no longer needed to put on a kind, fake smile for the camera, for those stupid X's he regarded as ants.
He was going to be the one and only Homelander in heaven and on earth!!
Zzzzz—
Homelander slowly stepped forward in the direction of the vampire army.
And with each step he took.
It meant that dozens, hundreds of vampires were cut in half by heat vision.
For Homelander, killing these things wasn't much harder than killing chickens.
The entire block quickly became a hellish scene of mountains of corpses and seas of blood.
Just then.
A cloud of gray smoke flew rapidly from the rear of the vampire army, and then directly enveloped Homelander.
Strands of smoke seemed to have a special ability to confuse the mind and directly corrode the human soul, immediately causing Homelander to feel an inexplicable chill.
At the same time, Madeline's figure strangely appeared before his eyes.
Her face still retained the two charred holes burned by heat vision before her death, and she staggered towards Homelander.
"John, why did you kill me?"
"Come to hell with me… I'm so lonely here!"
Listening to the familiar voice ringing in his "ears," Homelander's face finally changed, "Madeline, you… how the hell are you still not dead?!"
Zzz—
A heat vision erupted dazzlingly, directly blasting Madeline's inhuman head.
But the next second, her head strangely returned to its original state and pounced directly on Homelander, "Come to hell with me, don't you like drinking milk… there, I can let you drink your fill!!"
WTF???
Homelander waved his hands in horror, trying to push Madeline away, but his palms couldn't touch her body at all.
As if it were made of smoke.
But what was truly strange was that Homelander could clearly feel the tearing and gnawing from Madeline's nails and teeth.
Waves of phantom-like, insubstantial, but soul-piercing pain made him feel like he wanted to die.
"Help… help me!!"
In desperation, Homelander subconsciously asked for help from the "other self" in his brain.
[Go, go reap the ultimate pleasure from death…]
That magical voice echoed softly in his mind again.
Immediately afterward, the purple rune on Homelander's forehead, symbolizing Slaanesh, suddenly lit up.
Boom—
In an instant, unparalleled psionic power swept out, directly washing away the gray smoke enveloping Homelander.
At the same time, the Smokeshifter in the distance spat out a large mouthful of ink-like black blood, and the six ghostly eyes on his forehead, wide open like a spider's, also closed.
That's right.
The gray smoke just now was the source of power he released.
It could confuse the target's mind and devour their soul in fear.
"Damn it, that guy is actually a demon proxy?"
The Smokeshifter looked at Homelander's location and felt an unprecedentedly powerful pressure from the purple light on his body.
It was that mysterious force that protected Homelander's soul at the critical moment.
The Smokeshifter was quite self-aware, knowing that once his soul attack failed, he would no longer be able to contain Homelander's slaughter.
So he decisively instructed the vampire elder beside him, "Leave here immediately, that guy is not someone we can deal with."
The vampire elder's face changed drastically when he heard this, and he said almost pleadingly, "Lord Smokeshifter, these people are all your loyal believers, you can't give them up so easily… puff!!"
The most ⊥ new ⊥ small ⊥ say ⊥ is at ⊥ six ⊥ 9 ⊥⊥ book ⊥⊥ bar ⊥⊥ first ⊥ hair!
However.
Before he could finish speaking, the Smokeshifter directly smashed his head to pieces with a claw.
Idiot.
Since you don't want to leave, then stay here forever!
Before leaving, the Smokeshifter took another deep look at Homelander in the distance, and then his body turned into a wisp of gray smoke and floated away.
"Hmm???"
At this time, Homelander, who had just regained consciousness from the "illusion," suddenly discovered that he was already covered with a large number of vampires.
They were trying to attack him in various ways.
But whether it was sharp claws or sharp teeth, none of them could cause any damage to Homelander's steel-like hard skin.
"You bunch of bastards, how dare you try to hurt me… I'm Homelander!!"
Homelander immediately attributed all the humiliation he had suffered in the illusion to these vampires.
So he immediately used his hands and feet, one punch for each little friend, dismembering all the vampires on his body.
Σ(⊙▽⊙"a???
Huh?
So… refreshing?!
And in this process, Homelander noticed an abnormality.
That was, almost the instant he killed each vampire, he would feel a surge of extreme pleasure.
And this feeling was exactly the same as the stimulation he felt at his birthday party!
Killing these things is so great?
[Don't doubt it, this pleasure is the reward you deserve.]
That magical voice sounded again.
Homelander also knew that now was not the time to delve into this issue, so he leaned his upper body slightly forward (tactical lean back) and directly activated his heat vision to start a new round of crazy slaughter.
...
[Detected collectable souls, sub-dimensional soul count +1, +1, +1...]
[Reputation +6, +6, +6...]
...
A few hours later.
After killing all the vampires, Homelander flew straight home, washed all the blood stains off his body, and then lay naked on the sofa, recalling the terrifying scene of encountering Madeline's "illusion" during the battle earlier.
Even in retrospect, Homelander still felt a lingering fear.
"Is it a mental attack? But why can I clearly feel her attack, but I can't touch her body?"
"Also, what's with that extreme pleasure?"
"Why can't I feel that feeling when I kill vampires before that voice appears?"
Obviously, this battle brought Homelander a new way of thinking.
He couldn't help but start to guess whether the voice that often sounded in his brain was 'another self'?
Or was it like Madeline, a special medium similar to a ghost?
Or maybe… [God]?
"Sir, it's up, it's up again!!"
Just then, his female assistant Ashley Barrett suddenly rushed in nervously.
"Who gave you the guts to enter my room without knocking?"
Homelander scolded with displeasure, but he didn't show any intention of getting up to cover up his good buddy.
"Oh, sir, I'm… I'm sorry, I didn't know you were… cough cough!"
Ashley Barrett quickly turned around when she saw this and said awkwardly, "Then I'll come back later."
Who would have thought that Homelander seemed to have guessed something and stopped her, "Wait, what do you mean by 'it's up again'?"
"That's right, sir, just as you guessed at this moment."
Ashley Barrett turned around and pointed to the data on the tablet, saying excitedly, "Just now, your number of fans has increased by another 16 percentage points!"
"What?"
Homelander stood up in disbelief, pointed at her, and asked uncertainly, "What did you say… say it to me again!!"
"I said, your number of fans has just increased by another 16 percentage points."
Ashley Barrett said word by word, "The public very much likes your heroic performance in [Chicago] slaughtering… uh, I mean handling that vampire incident."
"The number of male fans in the entire Northeast has increased dramatically by 66%. They say you are a well-deserved hero, a more powerful human guardian than the [Avengers]!!"
"Yes! Yes! Yes! I knew it."
Homelander clenched his fists tightly, with an extremely excited look on his face, and said boastfully, "See, how correct was my choice to pick this supernatural event at the time!"
"People have finally realized that I am more powerful than those damn Avengers… oh ho."
"That's right."
Ashley Barrett said with certainty:
"Because the previous few vampire incidents all caused great civilian casualties, and that group of so-called Avengers never showed up from beginning to end, so now everyone regards you as the only two experts in handling supernatural events."
"Huh? What do you mean by only two?"
Homelander, who was immersed in the aura of glory, keenly captured the focus in her words.
There is someone more awesome than me, Homelander?
"Uh… I guess you still remember Spider-Woman, right?"
Ashley Barrett was afraid of angering the fickle man in front of her, and said cautiously:
"Because of her brilliant performance in the supernatural war in [Hell's Kitchen] before, she left a very deep impression on the public, so recently, her online popularity has been consistently high."
"However, her area of activity seems to be limited to [New York], and for some reason recently, she hasn't appeared for some time."
"So, I believe your rating will surpass hers soon…"
"Spider-Woman?" The Homelander frowned slightly, asking with some doubt, "Is her approval rating higher than Starlight's?"
"Of course."
Ashley Barrett answered without even thinking, "That bitch Starlight… ahem, I mean, while Starlight's popularity and approval rating are very high, she can only rank second in the list of the public's favorite female superheroes."
"And the one ranked first is Spider-Woman!"
