Chapter 63 You gave it as a gift to your beloved

In the pitch-black basement, a quill pen scratched across a piece of parchment:

"Record: Superman No. 118. Name: Kal-El."

"The origin of the story is a prophecy. People say that destiny is a very dangerous thing..."

"Knowing the future usually means becoming a slave to fate."

"It means we will eventually become the very things we fear."

"No matter how we struggle... the only thing that brings about our destruction is ourselves."

After writing the final word, a young and vigorous hand put down the quill, picked up a nearby teacup, and took a large gulp. A few drops of water spilled onto the deep red, fur-collared pajamas worn by the owner of the hand. He paid no heed, raising his head instead to look at the moon outside the window, and muttered to himself, "Have we already reached number 118..."

The moonlight illuminated his pitch-black hair and eyes of a blue so piercing they scarcely seemed human. Leaning back in a soft, luxurious high-backed chair, he let out a soft chuckle:

"Monster."

It remained unclear who precisely he was referring to.

***

Elijah stood on an expanse of empty land, looking dazedly at the scene before him. Ahead of him lay a city dripping with cyberpunk aesthetic, where bizarrely shaped skyscrapers stood in rows like fish scales, glowing aircraft and airships hovered overhead, and high-speed trains roared past. The deserted streets were patrolled by fully armed soldiers holding guns, and a gigantic, perfect circular red Omega ($Omega$) symbol hung suspended above his head, resembling an impending apocalyptic judgment.

This was clearly not Metropolis.

Rather, it was some city in a parallel universe... and judging by the style, it was very likely Gotham.

But where was Ophelia? Where was Ophelia, who should have caused all of this? Elijah tried to use his yellow power ring to call the ring on Ophelia's hand, but there was no response. This sudden turn of events cast a shadow over his face; the only thing he could do right now was to piece together the sequence of events from the beginning.

First of all, Ophelia's abilities had changed without warning, much like another child growing taller during puberty. She had done nothing out of the ordinary every day—just eating meals and basking in the sun—when suddenly she seemed capable of carrying people across parallel universes. Still, Elijah felt that this superpower must have evolved from her original abilities. Just as she used to summon parallel-universe Spider-Men only when touching Spider-Man, the parallel universes 'locked onto' by her should likewise be related to individuals affected by energy waves.

The three people present at the time were Elijah, Bruce Wayne, and Black Lightning.

The only person among them connected to Gotham City was Bruce.

So... could the entry point to finding Ophelia and returning home be the Bruce Wayne of this cyber universe before his eyes?

Pondering this, Elijah tentatively summoned the Book of Destiny bound to him from the void. The silver-glowing book landed in his left palm, and Elijah's human appearance faded away accordingly. He let out a breath, having no intention of opening the book, and took a small step forward toward the overpass leading into downtown Gotham.

Yet this tiny movement acted like the triggering of a security mechanism, causing the humanoid yet inhuman guards wandering the street to halt their steps in unison. Immediately afterward, hundreds of thousands of bright red eyes and gun barrels emerged from the darkness, coldly locking their aim onto Elijah's body.

...

Elijah's breath hitched slightly. He was beginning to think that holding a glowing book under the cover of night in a bizarre city was not a good idea.

The next moment, as if hearing a silent command from afar, those zombie-like guards began to surge forward from the head of the bridge like a tidal wave. Staggering and out of their minds, their movements in firing their weapons were exceptionally crisp and decisive. Bullets fell like a torrential rain. In his panic, Elijah had no time to retrieve his yellow power ring; a silver-white chain extended from the cover of the Book of Destiny, colliding thunderously with the gunfire like a ferocious beast. At the same time, three identical-sounding yet differently toned voices of astonishment rang out from the end of the chain:

"What's this?"

"Where's this?"

"Why are we here?"

Bob's three heads chattered away amidst the hail of bullets. Simon, who was similarly bound to the Book of Destiny and summoned by Elijah, used them as cover, hid beneath the tail of the three-headed dog, and chanted a spell in a bizarre language: "—!!"

The head of the guard at the very front exploded with a bang, scattering flesh and blood all over the ground. Simon looked at this scene almost in terror, turned his head sharply, and asked Elijah: "Are they living people?!"

"No, they aren't." Bob's second head answered him, sniffing the air and saying in a deep voice, "I smell that this soldier is already brain-dead."

Bob's third head immediately followed up with a question: "Boss, where are we?"

Elijah answered despondently, "I'd like to know that myself."

In the midst of the battle, he had rapidly retreated beyond the city limits. However, the guards' offensive did not pause, and their numbers were endless, carrying a distinct air of determination to grind the intruder into dust. Fighting and retreating, Elijah stepped with both feet across a damp, muddy riverbank and the flagstone path beyond it until his back struck an iron gate. That heavy, ancient door creaked and swung open from the outside—it was unlocked.

Elijah withdrew his gaze from Gotham in astonishment, turned his head to examine the gate, and after a moment could not help wearing a peculiar expression—he realized he might be only a step away from the truth.

Just as he was thinking about finding the Bruce Wayne of a parallel universe, speak of the devil and he appeared:

Behind him lay the legendary Wayne Manor.

Before Elijah could immediately set off to walk into the manor, a tall figure carrying a kerosene lamp hurried out from the depths of the castle-like structure. His face hidden in shadow, he wore a pair of red fleece pajamas that reached his ankles, underneath which were a wrinkled white shirt and blue pajama bottoms.

The newcomer's build gave Elijah a sense of familiarity. Then, the man finally reached the outside of the manor gate, illuminated by the light, set down the kerosene lamp he was holding, and shouted loudly at the guards outside: "Go back, Omega! He is not an intruder, he is my guest!"

A low, buzzing whisper swept through the endless ranks of soldiers—not any language spoken on Earth, but resembling the hum of operating machinery. A few seconds later, the red light in the eyes of the guards at the very front flared brightly. They nodded to the master of the manor, then reined in their aggressive impulses and retreated silently into the gloomy, eerie city just as they had come.

The master of the manor, clad in red fleece pajamas, held his lamp and watched them vanish into the dark, sinister city like a school of fish entering the sea. Only then did he let out a sigh of relief, turn his head to look solemnly at Elijah, and after a pause of several seconds, say in an indifferent tone: "...Hello."

At this point, his face also came into the light, and after Elijah took in his appearance, his gaze drifted uncontrollably to the tuft of curly hair on top of his head.

Very familiar.

Extremely familiar.

It was identical to the curl on the forehead of that respectable superhero in Metropolis.

...That is to say, did every Superman in the parallel universes have to have a curl on their head?

Was it that Superman had to have a curl, or that only those favored by the curl could become Superman?

Perhaps because Elijah had stared at his forehead for too long, the dark-haired youth in pajamas sighed, turned slightly to the side, and spread his arms in a gesture of invitation: "Come in. Let's not stand here challenging Omega's patience; even if I have an agreement with him, he doesn't always care about saving face for me."

"Omega is Batman?" Elijah made a bold guess based on the various factors he had observed thus far, "And you are the Superman of this universe?"

"...I am not Superman," the master of the manor said flatly. "You see me living in this manor, can't you confirm my identity? I am Bruce Wayne."

The man who claimed to be Bruce Wayne, yet possessed Superman's curly hair, walked indoors and reached out to turn on the electric light. Elijah saw no butler or anyone else; he seemed to be living here entirely alone.

"Please sit down, traveler from a strange parallel universe. Let us talk," the master of the manor leaned against a spacious high-backed chair, clasped his hands in the dim light, and said, "Who are you? And why have you come to our world?"

Elijah stared at him steadily for a moment, then slowly surveyed his surroundings. No one could deny the magnificence of this manor, which had stood for many years and been renovated through generations; yet its beauty was hidden beneath an indescribable air of antiquity and decay, like a fragile painting preserved in a museum that would vanish into thin air at a single gust of wind. Its master was the protagonist within that painting, a lingering ghost haunting the mortal realm, perhaps because he had wandered alone in the castle for too long, leaving behind only deep weariness and indifference in those blue eyes.

Elijah was certain he had never met such a 'Bruce Wayne,' yet he said with absolute certainty:

"You know me."

Hearing his words, the eyebrows of the manor master twitched slightly. He picked up the teacup in front of him, took a sip, and asked with detachment: "What makes you say that?"

Elijah casually replied, "You helped me persuade Omega to leave, but you don't look like someone who's all that eager to help others."

At his words, the manor master's expression flickered for a fraction of a second, as if he had taken a punch to the face. He darkened his expression and remained silent for a long while before finally conceding: "Yes, that's right, I've met you—Destiny. Actually, I'm quite glad you could appear before me again. Many years ago, you entrusted me with a task; I once thought I would never see the day when I could report the results back to you. Now it seems fate is exceptionally partial to the two of us."

He pushed himself up by the armrests of the chair and asked, "Would you like to know what that task was?"

Elijah remained seated without moving and countered, "How can you be certain I don't remember this?"

"...People often say that knowing the future makes one a slave to fate, and even you are no exception," the manor master said. "I read about your future in that Book of Destiny of yours.

"It mentioned that you divided your divine authority into four parts and entrusted them to four 'people' you trusted most. One is the Eye of Insight capable of prying into thousands of threads of destiny, which you embedded in the center of a piece of rotting flesh cut from your own body. Another is the power to travel through time at will, which you entrusted to your most loyal friend. A third is immense magical power, which you buried deep within a glowing soul. And finally, the power to travel across parallel universes..."

At this point, the manor master's voice paused briefly before continuing: "You initially gave it as a gift to the person you held dearest."

Elijah: "???"