The Mightiest Man

In Short

This science fiction story depicts a post-alien-invasion Earth struggling to contain a human collaborator who has been granted godlike, lethal powers as a reward for his treachery. After the aliens are defeated by a natural biological blight, the "mightiest man" remains, holding the world hostage through his ability to induce agony or death from afar. The narrative follows his trial and his eventual, desperate neutralization by a lone lawyer. It has endured as a grim study of human vulnerability and the thin line between justice and survival.

The Story

The world has barely recovered from an alien occupation, a nightmare from which Earth was saved only by the intervention of fungoid spores that attacked the invaders’ neural centers. Among the survivors is a man who had willingly bartered the human race for personal gain. Gifted by his former masters with immortality and the ability to kill or paralyze anyone on the planet at will, he is arguably the most dangerous being alive. When he finally surrenders in Belgrade, he does so with the arrogance of a man who knows he is beyond reach.

Following his arrest, the traitor is put on trial, but the proceedings are a farce. He treats the courtroom as a playground, murdering a lawyer who dares to question him and forcing world leaders to perform grotesque dances to satisfy his sadistic whims. He explains that his invulnerability is absolute: he cannot be killed, and his biological regeneration is so rapid that even physical trauma is temporary. He openly mocks the court, laughing at his own cruelty while the spectators are held in a state of paralyzing fear.

The turning point occurs when an anonymous lawyer realizes that, despite his immense power, the traitor remains biologically human. Crucially, he is subject to sleep. The lawyer deduces that while the traitor’s consciousness can command global death, it is not omniscient; it cannot defend itself while the traitor is unconscious. The lawyer stalks the hotel where the man is kept, bypassing the guards, and finds his target asleep. With a steel skewer, he performs a brutal, methodical lobotomy, destroying the traitor’s intellect while leaving his body alive.

The trial concludes with the traitor as a vacant, mindless husk. However, the victory is shadowed by a terrifying realization: the man’s regenerative abilities are still active. His destroyed brain tissue may heal, and his thumb, previously severed by a mob, has already grown back. Faced with the reality of this "malignant immortality," the court reaches a grim decision. To ensure the safety of the human race, the man is sentenced to life imprisonment, with the specific, recurring mandate that he be guillotined once every month. It is a desperate, ongoing cycle of violence intended to keep the monster permanently lobotomized and powerless, acknowledging that as long as his heart beats, the threat of his awakening remains an existential shadow over humanity.

How It Unfolds

The aftermath of the invasion Earth is left reeling after alien conquerors are driven away by a natural fungal blight. A human collaborator, who betrayed his species for power, remains behind as the sole possessor of the aliens' lethal abilities.

A reign of terror The traitor travels through Europe, using his powers to torture world leaders and mass populations for his own amusement. He eventually turns himself in, treating his legal trial as a cruel, performative joke.

The realization of vulnerability An anonymous lawyer observes the traitor’s behavior and identifies a fundamental flaw. He realizes that the man’s power is a product of his conscious will and that he must eventually fall asleep.

The quiet execution The lawyer infiltrates the traitor's quarters at night and performs a lobotomy while the man sleeps. This renders the man mindless, though his body remains biologically persistent and capable of regeneration.

The cyclical sentence The court decides that a permanent death is impossible due to the man's regenerative power. They sentence him to a lifetime of monthly beheadings to prevent his brain from ever healing enough to regain his terrifying faculties.

The People

The Traitor He is a man of average intelligence who traded the human race for a reward of immortality and remote-control lethality. He is defined by his sadistic glee and his total lack of remorse. His arrogance is his primary weapon, yet his reliance on the biological necessity of sleep becomes his ultimate downfall.

The Anonymous Lawyer Quiet, patient, and observant, he acts as the protagonist of the resistance. Unlike the panicked world leaders, he remains cool-headed, searching for a technical vulnerability in an apparently perfect defense. He is willing to commit a brutal act of violence to secure the future of the species.

The Chief Justice Representing the formal structures of human law, he is humbled by his own powerlessness. He is subjected to the traitor’s whims—forced to dance in agony—and serves as a symbol of how easily the "mightiest man" can reduce the pillars of society to twitching, broken victims.

In Its Own Voice

The mouse, the lowest form of life: the fungoids, the air of Earth swarming with millions of their spores, attacked the monstrous bodies, grew and entwined within the gray convolutions that were their brain centers.

This passage describes the unlikely biological weapon that finally liberated Earth from the alien ogres.

He thrust it through a half-opened eye and rotated it, methodically reducing the soft brain to formless mush.

This is the clinical, violent moment when the lawyer neutralizes the threat by stripping the traitor of his consciousness.

It was decided he should be guillotined once a month as long as he lived.

This final sentence captures the bleak, pragmatic horror of the story’s conclusion.

What It's Really About

The story centers on the terrifying intersection of absolute power and human frailty. It poses an uncomfortable question: what does a society do when faced with a threat that cannot be killed but must be stopped? The narrative argues that justice, when stripped of the ability to actually eliminate a danger, descends into a cycle of perpetual, state-sanctioned violence. It also explores the theme of the "banality of evil," where the traitor is not a grand, philosophical antagonist, but a petty, spiteful man who happens to be gifted with weapons he doesn't deserve. The story suggests that survival often requires the abandonment of moral high ground, replacing it with a grim, mechanical necessity that haunts those who must carry it out.

Why Read It Today

This story is a lean, punchy piece of mid-century science fiction that skips the lengthy exposition often found in the genre, moving instead with the speed of a thriller. Readers who appreciate stories that pivot on a single, clever observation—the "chink in the armor" trope—will find the lawyer’s deductive process satisfying.

It is worth noting that the prose reflects the era’s bluntness; the violence is described with a cold, almost detached clinicality that may startle modern readers. There is no sentimentality here, and the ending is profoundly bleak. If you are looking for a heroic victory, you will not find it; the ending is a haunting, cyclical nightmare that lingers long after the final page. The story is perhaps best suited for those who enjoy speculative fiction that leans into the darker, more unsettling implications of power. It serves as a stark reminder that even in the face of impossible, godlike threats, the most effective weapon remains the cold, hard logic of biology. It is a quick read, but the final image of the state-mandated monthly execution leaves a heavy, indelible mark on the mind.