I became light in American comics.

Chapter 654 The Black Hand

The Black Hand, or perhaps not so much the culprit behind the Darkest Night, is a prophetic event. While it may appear that the Black Hand resurrected the dead and summoned the Black Death, it was all ultimately a matter of destiny.

Even if it wasn't him, someone else would have done it; it's just that he was the most suitable Black Lantern Messenger in the eyes of the Black Death Emperor.

In the original Darkest Nightmare manga, the Black Lantern Guardians even refer to Blackhand as the Black Lantern Beast, comparing him to traditional Lantern Beasts like the Ion Shark and Parallax. And Blackhand, having gained the power of the Black Lantern, indeed displayed abilities far exceeding those of ordinary Lantern Beast leaders, possessing combat strength on par with the Death Lantern Beasts.

However, in a general sense, some believe that Black Death Emperor is the true Death Lantern Beast. It's just that because death is a special spectrum, its combat power far exceeds that of the regular Seven Lantern Beasts.

Even without transforming, Shen You's punch was clearly not something an ordinary creature could withstand. The black hand had already begun to disintegrate while the person was still in mid-air, and when it landed, it had already smashed into a black, gooey mess of flesh wrapped in black mist.

But it only lasted for a moment. Before he could even get up, his severed limbs began to writhe uncontrollably, as if driven by some unseen force. The shattered flesh reassembled, and the broken parts of his body seemed to be stitched back together under the guidance of those wisps of black energy.

He quickly stood up again, swaying, his eyes bloodshot and staring straight at Shen You.

"What is that?" Zero frowned. "I think I already saw him..."

"Dead? It seems so." Shen You nodded.

He had read the original Darkest Night comic. At the beginning of the comic, Black Hand was not yet dead. The power of the Black Death Emperor came to him, and everything started with him. He became the first Black Lantern in history, resurrecting all the dead, including all the superheroes who had been resurrected, creating the world-ending event "Darkest Night".

So when Shen You launched the Blacklight Search project, he naturally also searched for the mastermind. He knew the mastermind's real name was William Hand, and that he came from a family that ran a funeral home in the coastal city. With these clues, he was able to rule out all people with the same name, and he quickly identified him.

The problem was that he then discovered William Hand was already dead.

Records show he had been dead for many years, along with his family. William Hand had been operating as a Green Lantern criminal under the alias Black Hand for years, until one day he suddenly attacked his own family, killing them all. He then shot himself in the head in his old house, where corpses littered the ground, committing suicide.

Just in case, Shen You took some time to look for his body, but found nothing.

The Hand family cemetery contains only the bodies of the family members he killed, but not William Hand himself.

Until now.

"He died many years ago," Shen You said. "What we are facing now is an emissary chosen by the incarnation of death, something that has returned from the underworld."

Black Hand straightened up, his sinister gaze sweeping over them.

"Take them down and extinguish that light."

"Light and life are enemies. Extinguish them and give them darkness."

"All things, life, all return to death."

"Yes, my master."

Black Hand raised his filthy right hand.

"I don't like you, so..."

A dark whirlwind opened, and the ground trembled uneasily, as if something was struggling beneath. A rotting body slowly rose, hollow and engorged with blood, waving its decaying arms, which burst open in countless tiny holes.

"You will all eventually become like me," he said.

A large army of black-lighted corpses.

"This feels disgusting," Zero said unhappily. "Denigrating life, blaspheming the dead, he's the worst of all the guys I know."

"You think you can extinguish my light with just this little skill?"

The lead Black Lamp Corpse roared and charged forward. On his right hand, on a finger so decayed that the bone was exposed, was a jet-black lamp ring. Death energy formed a force field, which lashed out with his claws.

But Zero didn't dodge or evade; instead, he launched a flying kick straight at the zombie. The blow struck the zombie squarely in the forehead, sending its head spinning like a football being powerfully struck, flying a considerable distance. The headless body continued to lurch forward a few steps due to inertia before collapsing weakly to one side, landing on the ground, black blood gushing from the severed neck.

"It's still 20,000 years too early, isn't it?" Shen You shrugged, arms crossed.

As Zero spoke, he delivered two punches that knocked down two opponents, followed by an elbow strike that finished off another. He then said with displeasure.

"Don't steal my lines, newbie."

"Ha, it's because you're so uncreative, senior," Shen You reminded him. "And be careful, these things aren't so easy to knock down."

"Um?"

Zero turned his head to look. Sure enough, he saw the head that he had kicked away spin out, disappearing and disintegrating in mid-air as it was enveloped by a cloud of black mist.

At the same time, a wisp of black energy emerged from the severed part of the headless corpse lying on the ground. The black light energy filled in, and the rotting flesh and fragments recombine, instantly piecing together the shape of a twisted head.

"What is this?" Zero asked in surprise.

"I told you, these things aren't going to fall down so easily," Shen You said.

"So what if it's this?"

He took two steps back, and light energy burst forth from his body, transforming into a light bullet that blasted outwards. A Black Lantern Corpse crashed into it head-on, instantly pulverizing into dust.

"Try to heal this yourself, you bastard."

But the next moment, another cloud of black mist appeared. In that eerie darkness, countless particles seemed to reassemble out of thin air, reconstructing bones and flesh, with pitch-black liquid surging in the blood vessels, and withered flesh covering the entire body.

In the blink of an eye, the black-lighted corpse had returned to normal, tilting its head to look at him.

It's as if it's saying, "As you wish."

"Hey, these things are really unkillable." Zero exclaimed in surprise.

That wasn't an ordinary attack. The burst of light energy tore it apart from the inside, the cosmic energy it contained destroyed it at the molecular level, and it even contained a certain amount of purifying energy that could effectively eliminate the negative effects.

But it still didn't work.

This made him start to feel a little tricky.

"That's not it, it's just that you need the right method." Shen You said, holding up a hand. "Like this, for example."

He snapped his fingers lightly.

A deafening roar erupted, followed by a burst of scorching white light, like a dragon soaring into the sky. A large swath of black-light corpses was engulfed in the light, their bodies instantly torn apart and reduced to dust.

A beam of white light shot into the sky, scattering countless particles. When the light curtain dissipated, only a deep pit emitting black smoke remained on the ground, not even a speck of dust was left.

"What!?"

The Black Hand yelled.

"No! No, no... What did you do to my family!?"

(End of this chapter)