Chapter 139: Your Greatest Evil
"H'el! You let my mother die!!"
Jor-El's furious cry echoed through the entire Fortress of Solitude, causing the snow-covered mountains outside to tremble and release avalanches. Inside the hall's corners, an array of particle beam weapons, ion beam weapons, magnetic particle beam weapons, charged particle beam weapons, neutral particle beam weapons, and over ten different kinds of energy beams that had existed on Krypton since ancient times, all fired beams of various colors at H'el.
The intense Kryptonian atmosphere, controlled by Jor-El, surged toward H'el. The red sun radiation cannon fired its intense red rays, bathing H'el's black-clad figure in light.
*Crackle, crackle, crackle...*
The multicolored beams pierced the air, impacting H'el's black suit, creating beautiful reaction patterns that dissolved and absorbed into the suit's electromagnetic field. Even when they hit his exposed skin, they left no marks or burns.
H'el had already adapted to the Kryptonian atmosphere and the effects of the red sun. All the known weaknesses of Kryptonians were ineffective against him.
"Jor-El, you are as weak and selfish as ever, lacking the determination and courage needed to admit the fact that you caused your mother's death," H'el sneered. Extending his hand, he generated a biological magnetic field that distorted all the weapon beams. All the beams bent under the pressure of his magnetic field, becoming twisted and useless.
He clenched his fingers into a fist, and all the weapon beams compressed into a lump of scrap metal. Explosions resounded throughout the hall as the beams were crushed.
The trembling Fortress of Solitude now bore the weight of billions of tons, firmly suppressed, unable to shake before H'el's might.
"Why! Why didn't you save her? You could have prevented her death. You even called her 'Grandmother' before. Why did you let her die in agony!" Jor-El's anger contorted his face, the tearless projection flickering with uncontrollable, painful emotions. The entire projection appeared ghastly.
In his confrontation with H'el, Jor-El had lost the moral high ground that had previously allowed him to maintain his dignity as the renowned hero scientist of Krypton, the pride of the House of El, and the beacon of hope for Kryptonians. Now, in front of him, he had witnessed his mother being driven to death by his own actions, and the emotional part of his remaining electronic information consciousness was on the brink of collapse.
He knew that H'el could have detected and saved his mother in an instant.
But he hadn't done so.
H'el had no interest in provoking Jor-El to the point of causing Nimda's death. He recognized that Nimda's deep attachment to Krypton and the honor of the House of El was too strong for her to accept her son's decision not to rebuild Krypton, which ultimately led to her demise. This turn of events was beyond H'el's expectations.
"And have you ever thought about saving the common people of Krypton, just as you didn't consider it before?" H'el's gaze bore down on Jor-El with a sense of pity.
H'el believed that he owed nothing to anyone. When he had rescued Nimda from Brainiac-7 and restored her to full size, she hadn't shown any gratitude. Now, Jor-El had taken it upon himself to blame H'el for not saving her.
"Ha-ha-ha-ha! H'el, by exposing my actions, aren't you trying to make me realize my selfish nature? Stripping me of all my achievements and honor on Krypton in the name of judgment in front of everyone, aren't you trying to bring me down from my pedestal? Making me live with the guilt of causing my mother's death, tearing apart my sense of morality, aren't you trying to push me into the abyss, branding me as a heinous criminal?"
"I've lost everything! You've succeeded, ha-ha-ha-ha-ha... I admit it. I am a person filled with arrogance, vanity, hypocrisy, arrogance, and selfishness buried deep within. So, what now?" Jor-El roared with a clanging voice, his eyes glaring at H'el with unwavering reason. The lights in the hall flickered irregularly, casting eerie shadows on his face that resembled countless crawling centipedes.
In this moment, he appeared like a resurrected demon under the erratic lighting.
"You're wrong, Jor-El. Your greatest evil isn't arrogance, vanity, hypocrisy, arrogance, or selfishness. It's your willingness to harm others, especially after gaining the power and privileges of Vice-Dean, using every justifiable means to make life difficult for anyone you can, all for the sake of your own sense of achievement and satisfaction. This version of you is truly heinous," H'el said, his gaze filled with even deeper compassion.
Even though Jor-El had come to understand his own nature, recognizing his own flaws and having his subconscious behaviors exposed, he still hadn't grasped that his true heinousness lay not in those few traits he shared with every ordinary person but in his penchant for making life difficult for others – a trait that encompassed all evil inclinations.
No one understood Jor-El's behavior within the system better than H'el. It was only within the confines of the system that one could truly comprehend the complexity of causing distress to others.
Selfishness, greed, arrogance, hypocrisy, pride, baseness, hatred, jealousy, resentment, animosity, loathing, suspicion, fear, indifference, self-importance, fear of being inferior, competitiveness, frustration, blame, shifting responsibility, contempt, sarcasm, rejection...
It was H'el who had elevated Jor-El to the position of Vice-Dean, primarily by exploiting this inclination in him.
Similarly, it was Jor-El who, by any means necessary, tried to obstruct H'el's plans, even going as far as attempting to send him into deep space to meet his demise. If Jor-El had applied the same principle of making life difficult for himself, consistently aligning his actions with his beliefs, he could have been a saint.
In that case, even if H'el had truly perished in deep space, Jor-El would have no regrets. However, unfortunately, he had never made things difficult for himself.
No matter how he adorned himself with the grand goal of continuing Krypton's legacy, he couldn't hide his true actions. With a sinister smile on his face and eyes filled with both rationality and righteous hatred, Jor-El responded, "I admit you're right, but what does it matter, H'el? You've created a monster in me, and you will soon be plunged into inescapable despair. I will make you taste the bitterness of regret."
In that moment, Jor-El transcended normal rationality. "Do you want to rebuild Krypton here at the center of the universe – Earth? You will experience utter despair!"
°°°
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