amaotonovel Chapter 4619 The Day of Brightest Day (78)
Chapter 4619 The Day of Brightest Day (78)
Chapter 4619 The Day of Brightest Light (Seventy-Eight)
The side effects of the crystal are a setting in the comics. Schiller knew Anatoly had left him a huge mess, but he didn't understand the specifics of this so-called "misfortune." Was it that he couldn't accomplish anything he wanted, or that accomplishing something would have side effects? He even wondered if it involved any mystical or fate-related issues.
Now he understands that it wasn't so profound; it was simply bad luck at the level of the universe's will. Moreover, it seems to be unrestricted by any universe; the bad luck is equal everywhere. Perhaps this is a case of quantitative change leading to qualitative change.
"Is there a way to undo this?" Schiller asked.
“It’s possible to use it only once or twice,” Reed said after thinking for a moment. “But we’ve traveled through hundreds of thousands of universes to get everything we wanted, so it’s probably hopeless.”
Schiller sighed, deciding to stop thinking about it. He said, "How did you know Anatoly was back?"
“I guessed,” Reed said with a hint of smugness. “If he hadn’t come back, the personality I would have seen wouldn’t be yours. Greed was probably just watching the show, right?”
Schiller was somewhat surprised again. He said, "You also know about him and Lucifer..."
Reed looked on with a nostalgic expression. He said, "He didn't have many friends and always kept to himself. Even in the old Skrull Empire, he had very few people he could talk to. We were similar in some ways, so we got along well. Sometimes he would drink, and when he had too much to drink, he would talk about these things..."
"Then why didn't you mention it before?"
“Before Franklin existed,” Reed rolled his eyes and said, “It’s not that I couldn’t travel through time without him, but with him, even if my time travel caused a paradox, he could fix it for me and prevent the universe from being destroyed.”
"So you only recently met Anatoly from the past? How come he's never mentioned you before?"
“You were a kid when you were with him, weren’t you?” Reed said. “It’s normal that he wouldn’t tell you these things. After all, we weren’t doing anything good.”
"I'm glad you have this awareness. It would have been even better if you hadn't dragged Franklin into it."
“He’s not like you,” Reed said. “You’re simply not cut out for studying the structure of the universe, but Franklin was a genius. He must have inherited that from me and his mother…”
“Alright,” Schiller interrupted him, “look at this.”
He gave Reed the information Batman had gathered, along with some additional information from Stark. Schiller swore that Reed hadn't even looked at the information for three seconds before he said, "The problem lies in how the portal was opened. You should look into what he did to open the portal to the Dark Realm."
Schiller was a little confused by Reed's train of thought. He asked, "How did you figure that out?"
“If the passage from the Dark Realm to the real universe is so easy to open, then why didn’t Barbatos, the true master of the Dark Realm, easily invade the real universe?” Reed spread his hands and said, “Because he couldn’t. The door isn’t so easy to open. Bruce used a special method, which may involve some rituals that I don’t understand.”
“…metal,” Schiller said slowly.
He realized that Bruce had likely used the power of metal, because in the comics, Barbatos invaded the real universe by placing metal on Batman and opening a portal.
As Barbatos' most trusted subordinate, Bruce couldn't possibly have escaped being taught this method. Barbatos was undoubtedly counting on Bruce to open the portal. And Bruce did indeed open the portal using this method; however, whether the portal's end led to the real universe Barbatos so desperately desired or a sticky mouse trap remained uncertain.
Metals…metals…Schiller silently ran through his mind. What kinds of metals were needed to open the door? Actually, not many were needed, but the process of finding them in the comics was a bit complicated. After thinking about it carefully, Schiller realized that only one metal was particularly troublesome: amber gold.
This metal should have been in the hands of the Court of Owls, making it one of the easier metals to find. However, the Court of Owls in the universe where Pride resides no longer exists. This made it the most difficult metal to obtain.
To understand why the Court of Owls didn't exist, we have to go back to the arrogant holiday. But regardless, Lucifer was the one who ultimately destroyed it; he wiped the Court of Owls out of existence, meaning it never existed before. Therefore, there couldn't be any relics, and Amber Gold was gone. So where did Bruce get it from?
It's not impossible to get it from other universes, but whether metals from other universes would work in this one is questionable. And since Bruce is an angel, he can freely enter and leave Heaven to see Lucifer. So the simplest method is actually to ask Lucifer for it; he can just type some code in the console and it will appear.
"Does he want Lucifer to bail him out?" Schiller had another bad feeling.
He had no time for idle chatter with Reed and quickly got up to return to Strange's office. The two mages hadn't finished talking, but Schiller was already impatient with them. He knocked on the door, pushed it open, and said, "Stop talking, come with me."
Both of them were a little confused, but neither asked any questions. They followed Schiller to find Big Qun and used him to start communicating with Batman.
Schiller summarized what he knew, but greatly omitted the cause and effect, and said directly: "The Cold War is probably coming to an end."
Strange was completely bewildered: "What kind of time is this to be imitating Churchill?"
"I mean, the cold war between the first Lantern and Lucifer is probably about to end—it could turn into a hot war at any moment. Because they might run into each other in front of the Origin Wall."
Batman was clearly caught off guard, but Schiller had no intention of explaining further. He looked at Strange and said, "Get the men together now, let's go. If we're late, we'll be fighting the Fallen Angels!"
Strange and Batman realized the seriousness of the situation and immediately went to call for backup. Strange called a group of sorcerers, while the mutants called Magneto and Polaris, followed by Legion and his various personalities.
On the way back to DC, Schiller couldn't help but sigh at how unlucky Batman was, as if the Crystal's curse had struck him, with misfortune seeming to come in one after another.
Heaven remained as peaceful and serene as ever. Michael hadn't enjoyed such a leisurely life in who knows how long. There was no need to worry about a clown suddenly appearing in the holy spring, nor to listen to Blues recording songs using the echoes from the cathedral dome; the whole world was bright.
But clearly, the first light of creation intended to add even more brilliance to his already luminous life. When Lucifer walked in wearing that leather jacket, Michael couldn't help but roll his eyes.
Lucifer the Archangel skin was only worn for less than two days. After angering Gabriel, he never wore it again, and from then on, he and Bruce were known as Uriel's two greatest threats—never wearing the uniform to work.
“Can you do me a favor?” Lucifer leaned closer to his desk. “Schiller messaged me, asking me to adjust some compatibility settings. It’s probably because someone from another world is coming over. I have other things to do…”
"What are you going to do?" Michael asked, glancing at him as he brought up the interface.
“Someone has hung himself on the Origin Wall,” Lucifer said. “If I don’t go and get him, we’ll lose another archangel.”
“Could you hang yourself up there too?” Michael said, “so that when God comes to you, he can hang himself up there as well…”
“You’ve really lost your mind,” Lucifer scoffed. “Even if you hang it up, I won’t put it up.”
"You think I don't know? This thing was created by God to prevent you from going to his construction site before it was even finished. You've been stuck on it countless times..."
"Why is he telling you this again!" Lucifer exclaimed angrily.
"Alright, let's get down to business. What's that other universe up to now? Do they want to come and fight us here too?"
"I don't know. Maybe it's to prepare in advance for dealing with the Black Death Emperor." Lucifer shrugged.
Michael waved his hand at him: "Stop hanging around in front of me, go on your way."
“Then you absolutely have to get it right,” Lucifer said as he walked out. “If there’s a compatibility issue and it crashes the cosmic card, I won’t fix it for you.”
Then, Lucifer arrived near the Origin Wall. He paused for a moment when he saw the string of candied hawthorns.
Bruce had mentioned the plan when he came to him, but it sounded rather unremarkable, nothing compared to the awe-inspiring reality of seeing it firsthand. Moreover, Lucifer could see things at the data level; in his eyes, it was a series of nested forces, each one precisely blocking the others. It was like a programmer marveling at a strange program error.
It seems that only Bruce paid attention in his cosmology class. For that reason alone, Lucifer has to be rescued.
However, the current situation is quite troublesome because all the programs are stuck together. Extracting just one of them requires some thought. If it's not handled properly, the whole thing could collapse. It's not that it's unfixable, but it's still a bit embarrassing. Lucifer didn't want to be written into a song by Bruce, so he stood there pondering.
It was like solving a math problem, one that required some clever thinking and involved quite a bit of calculation. As Lucifer stood there calculating, he saw a group of people approaching from a distance.
Justice League? Lucifer was somewhat surprised. They arrived quite quickly.
That group was none other than the Justice League from the multiverse. Lucifer wasn't surprised they found him, but the speed at which they arrived was indeed somewhat unexpected.
Lucifer decided to step back and observe their actions. If they could figure out how to dismantle the Earth, he wouldn't need to lift a finger. Although this problem might seem difficult for him, the superheroes had the power of the storyline to help them—one was a science enthusiast, the other a humanities enthusiast—they were different. Perhaps they could pull off a surprising victory.
Just then, Lucifer noticed the leader of the Multiverse Alliance. In fact, it was hard for him not to notice, because normally, the leader should be completely black and have two pointed ears, not this shining disco ball.
"The first Lantern Man? Batman actually dug him up?" Lucifer exclaimed in amazement.
But just as he was watching the spectacle, the light emanating from Genie Ace suddenly vanished. He stood there in the pitch-black universe, staring straight at Lucifer.
It was a face that Lucifer didn't recognize; he was certain he didn't know this guy. But for some reason, the moment he saw those blue eyes, a sudden sense of familiarity washed over him.
However, he quickly attributed this sense of familiarity to another reason. He materialized from the void, flapped a wing, and appeared before the crowd, staring coldly at the first Lantern Knight, saying, "Where did you get that pendant around your neck?"