Chapter 42 You're not going to beat me up like you did to Galle, are you?

Ophelia sneezed the entire way.

Originally, Elijiah wanted her to carry two people in flight, which would save on travel expenses while doubling as practice for mastering the Yellow Lantern ring. True to the plan, Ophelia did take off—it was just that her flight path exhibited a somewhat erratic oscillation.

"Achoo!"

The ring's glow flickered out, and free fall ensued.

Before Elijiah could rush over to catch her, she managed to right herself, using the ring to propel herself back up to her previous altitude.

"Achoo!"

Another bout of free fall.

Then a return to normal altitude.

A few minutes later, Ophelia even managed to find a rhythm to it, bobbing up and down, up and down, which reminded Elijiah of a game he used to play many years ago called *Flappy Bird*—her flight pattern was identical to the little bird in the game.

"Dad—Achoo!" Ophelia, having mastered her new skill, extended a hand toward Elijiah and declared, "I'll fly you to New York!"

"..." Elijiah imagined the thrilling hazards of that journey and decided he simply could not afford to lose that much face. He quietly and tactfully declined. "No need. You go ahead; I'll keep an eye on you from behind."

"But aren't you unable to use your Yellow Lantern ring right now, Dad? How are you going to fly?"

Elijiah was currently serving as the Grim Lantern. Because he needed to be ready to cast spells at a moment's notice, he had to keep the Book of Destiny in hand, and this "program" known as the Book of Destiny conflicted with the Yellow Lantern ring; the two could not operate simultaneously.

An Elijiah without the Yellow Lantern ring genuinely could not fly. Or rather, perhaps there was a spell that could make him float, but Elijiah didn't know it. However, where there's a will, there's a way. To save on travel expenses and avoid being dragged across the sky by his surrogate daughter like a trigonometric waveform, Elijiah's brain operated at high speed before locking its gaze onto the family dog.

Bob: ?

Elijiah observed the dog with a solemn expression. As everyone knew, Bernese Mountain Dogs were Swiss draft dogs, and Bob wasn't just any ordinary dog—his build was a size larger than the typical Bernese Mountain Dog, and when he lay flat on the ground, he genuinely resembled a small, furry hill. Surely a dog of this size wasn't just large for nothing?

You raise a dog for a thousand days, you use a dog for a moment. Elijiah pinched Bob's front paw and asked, "Do you know how to pull a cart?"

Bob's eyes lit up, and he barked with excitement, "Woof!"

He wagged his tail and began circling Elijiah, as if searching for something. Elijiah recalled the connection between Bob and the Book of Destiny and tentatively pulled the book out. Bob immediately lowered his head, nudged Elijiah's hand with his snout, and said,

"That's the one."

Damn it.

Because this dog looked so much like a regular dog, people always forgot he could speak human language.

Bob's sudden outburst in Book-of-Destiny-speak startled Elijiah slightly, but he didn't let it show. He composedly placed the Book of Destiny atop Bob's head and casually asked, "And what's next?"

"Next, it depends on what style of sleigh you prefer!" Bob—whichever number Bob he happened to be—enthusiastically replied. "Speaking as a dog, I recommend the Santa Claus special edition: classic gold and red color scheme, complete with snowflake and tiny star special effects!"

***

Uh, wouldn't that be just as humiliating? What was the difference between that and being dragged into the sky by Ophelia?

"No colors, and no special effects," Elijiah said. "Give me the most basic model."

"Oh, look at him, he's still the exact same as before," Bob muttered to his other head. "How boring."

Elijiah gave him a stern look. Bob flattened his ears and grinned ingratiatingly, "Alright, alright, the basic model it is! You're the boss, we listen to you!"

With that, he picked up the Book of Destiny in his jaws and began to run in a straight line into the distance. As his speed increased, the Book of Destiny in his mouth seemed to melt. Under the influence of momentum, it transformed into straight mercury-like threads scattering into the air. These threads first slowly expanded to the thickness of a finger joint, then gradually intertwined, and finally morphed into countless silver-white chains. The front ends of the chains vanished into the fur ruff around Bob's neck, while the rear ends connected to an utterly unremarkable silver-white carriage complete with a canopy and seating.

Bob came to a halt, puffed out his chest, and said, "Boss, please take your seat."

Ophelia watched the entire process with wide eyes and instantly decided the Yellow Lantern ring wasn't as appealing anymore. "Dad, can I—"

"Next time, let Bob take you on Santa's sleigh," Elijiah said. "Today's focus is still on practice."

Ophelia reluctantly pulled her gaze away from the carriage, gripped her Yellow Lantern ring tight, and rocketed up into the sky first.

***

Miles away, Superman withdrew his gaze, smacked his lips, opened his WhatsApp group chat, clicked into Bruce Wayne's direct messages, and sent a message:

[Just happened to see the Grim Lantern taking his kid out. Did you used to teach Robin how to fly across rooftops like that too?]

Bruce Wayne: [...?]

The CEO of the neighboring city was shocked wide awake right in the middle of a board meeting. After pondering speechlessly for a long time, he replied: [Dick taught me.]

Of course, Nightwing, with his circus background, was a master of acrobatics. He had selflessly shared that knowledge with Batman, who in turn passed it down to the subsequent Robins.

Perhaps they had run and glided along the exact same pathways. When the Robins first stood atop the edge of a tower to overlook the city's nightscape, their expressions were probably identical to Ophelia's just now—eyes wide with wonder as her feet left the ground outside Elijiah's front door.

Clark flew cross-legged amidst the clouds, propping his chin on one hand, and spent a moment smiling foolishly at the distant image of Elijiah's carriage, charmed by the scene in his imagination.

Whether due to advancing age or something else, he found that compared to when he had first become Superman a few years ago, he now yearned even more for a complete family. His adoptive parents, Jonathan and Martha, were growing older by the day; Clark Kent's peers around him were getting married and having children one after another. Lois was the sole exception—she was a staunch non-conformist who had decided to pour her life's energy into the pursuit of uncovering the truth and fighting against corruption.

To be honest, Clark felt he wasn't nearly as resolute as his friend Lois.

From the very first day he arrived on Earth, from when he was still an ignorant and clueless infant, the sense of isolation that made him feel entirely out of place with those around him had wrapped around him like a silkworm cocoon. When Clark stayed by his parents' side, this hollow loneliness in his heart was masked by love, allowing Clark to gradually forget it. He grew into adulthood like any ordinary child, went to school, made one or two friends he would lose touch with after graduation, and later left his hometown for an unfamiliar city to become a world-famous superhero.

From the day he put on the cape, Superman was born to Earth. Superman's world was vast and broad; he had many like-minded companions, numerous trustworthy teammates, and people who were willing to love him and never stopped looking up to him. Yet in the places they couldn't see, Clark Kent's world was growing smaller and smaller. Clark had very few friends, and his companions with whom he could share every secret could be counted on one hand. As for someone to walk hand-in-hand with through the rest of his life?

—He had never even considered the question.

Subconsciously, Clark held a pessimistic notion.

He felt there was no need to dwell on it: no human being could spend a lifetime side by side with a Kryptonian.

Therefore, the concept of home remained abstract and hazy to him. When he occasionally pictured his future family, it felt like a peasant imagining an emperor holding a golden hoe—both impractical and absurdly ridiculous. Nor could he expect much suitable advice from Superman's peers, for reasons too numerous to recount, even with Clark's exceptional narrative abilities. When all was said and done—Superman was Superman, and Clark was Elijiah's neighbor... wait, Clark was Clark.

Until Elijiah appeared in Metropolis.

To be fair, much as Clark liked the family, he couldn't call them a model household in any positive sense. Not only was their internal dynamic far from harmonious, but it was also filled with all sorts of absurdities, surpassing even his most ridiculous imagination. But at the same time, Elijiah Esposito was a very genuine "person." Whenever Clark thought of him, his first reaction wasn't the Yellow Lantern ring, nor the Grim Lantern and the Book of Destiny, nor those complicated factional relationships, but simply the day they ran into each other in front of the supermarket.

That day, Elijiah was holding Ophelia in one arm and pushing a shopping cart with the other, possessing the kind of unflappable composure that suggested even if the sky fell, dinner still had to be eaten.

Considering that just the day before, Ophelia had summoned four or five Spider-Men, that level of calmness was almost admirable.

Then Clark suddenly realized that the person most likely to understand Clark Kent was walking right beside him, living in that very same city. Other superheroes operated as omnipotent champions, revealing their mortal sides only when driven to their absolute wits' end; but Clark Kent was an ordinary man whose life was a total mess, and he only became Superman when he chose to try his best for the sake of others.

Elijiah, on the other hand, was accustomed to walking, leaving the ground only when absolutely forced to.

Beyond that, if Elijiah had taught Clark Kent anything at all—

"If I ever have a child in the future, I will certainly never let my co-habitant fly around with her while she has a cold."

He watched as Ophelia sneezed in mid-air, tumbling down in a parabolic arc, while Bob dragged the carriage and rushed forward like a fire-rescuing hound to catch her, shaking his head with an expression of disapproval.

***

Elijiah and Ophelia arrived safely in New York. He looked hesitantly at his adopted daughter, whose sneezes were worsening due to the high-altitude cold air, and said, "I really think I should just send you back home first."

But Ophelia was already having too much fun. Not only did she refuse to go home, but she also grabbed Elijiah's hand, shaking it back and forth as she pleaded, "No—Achoo!—Dad, since we're already here, I want to visit Avengers Tower."

Using her Yellow Lantern ring, she had conjured a matching yellow-and-black uniform for herself, complete with a small cape just like Elijiah's, though without the hood; instead, the upper half of her face was concealed by a black domino mask. Elijiah, meanwhile, maintained his non-human appearance with no distinct facial features, having casually thrown on the most expensive suit in his wardrobe before leaving the house. For the two of them—along with an enormous dog—to appear openly on the streets of New York naturally drew the attention of countless passersby. Yet the reason Elijiah was still standing there quite calmly in place was simply because...

The streets of New York featured far too many creatures stranger than them!

A major metropolis truly lived up to its name; looking around felt like a riot of demons and monsters, making Metropolis look like a rural village by comparison. Seeing a multi-story-tall, moving Transformer standing ahead, a smartly dressed bipedal gorilla crossing the street behind them, a burly man wearing a Hatsune Miku head-covering staring down at his smartphone on the left, and a young man in a tight Spider-Man suit raising his hand to take a selfie on the right, Elijiah told Ophelia, "Fine. We'll just take a single look at the logo on top of Avengers Tower."

For some reason, it felt rather like taking a daughter to an amusement park.

Hearing him speak, the Spider-Man who had been strolling past just moments ago suddenly took a few steps backward, returning to Ophelia's side. He rubbed his chin, lowered his head to eye the little girl's gear, and asked, "Pardon the interruption, but are you a real Yellow Lantern or a fake one?"

Ophelia looked up at him as well and retorted, "Are you a real Spider-Man or a fake Spider-Man? Achoo!"

The Yellow Lantern light blinked out.

Seeing this spectacle for the first time, Spider-Man couldn't help but curve the corners of his mouth beneath his mask, saying with a straight face, "Looks like a fake. I heard members of the Sinister Corps never get beaten by the common cold."