American comics: Praising the sun, starting from Gotham!

Chapter 362 Betting on a New Path Through Ten Thousand Failures

At this moment, Bruce's command also reached the main body.

Xiu En raised his head, his gaze passing over the gray dust in the void, landing on the gray figure on the throne who remained silent. He reached out and scratched his chin.

Bruce's instructions were simple.

Since he has already mobilized the allied forces across all dimensions to forcefully press in and turn the entire City of Time and Space into the battlefield hub, it would be pointless to have Xiu En stand on the periphery to hold off the gatekeepers.

Moreover, there's now a blue giant on the chessboard that even Bruce can't understand, and he needs Shuen to enter the core eye of the storm to adapt to changing circumstances.

"Cancel the perimeter surveillance and proceed immediately to the core venue." This is the original text.

However, Xiu En did not rush to turn around and rush into the melee; he still had one question left to ask.

He looked at the God-King Kang, who had fallen slightly silent due to his frustration with his omniscient vision, and spoke casually, "Alright, old sir. We need to wrap up our conversation. I have to rush to another event now. Before I leave, please do me a favor and tell me directly what you mean by the doomed ending you mentioned?"

Lucifer also turned his interested gaze to the throne, seemingly waiting to see if this most ancient being could maintain his dignity in the face of the vast unknown.

After a long few seconds of silence, the ancient voices resounded once more from the void beneath the throne.

That means the rules weren't just broken.

The world I see is a river. All things eventually converge, that is the ironclad rule of fate.

And you, that blue presence, you are not in the river.

It was as if Shenjun Kang had seen through Xiu En and pierced through the barriers of countless times and spaces with his gaze.

He is outside my causal chain; his existence transcends the probability of my interference. If he insists on shattering the laws here, this space, and everything within the Council of Kang, may face absolute annihilation.

"Ugh, it's that same brain-burning nonsense again, just like those physics problems."

Xiu En pursed his lips.

He understood half of it, which was the phrase "absolutely zero".

That means Loki brought in a super bomb, intending to vaporize the entire table and its foundation, just like his new trick.

"This sounds like a good way to completely cure the problem?"

Lucifer: "Turning everything into nothingness, even our obnoxious mix of villains, sounds beautiful, doesn't it?"

"We'll talk about whether it's beautiful or not later."

Xiu En raised his right hand in front of Shen Jun Kang and waved it relaxedly.

"Then we'll take our leave, old gravedigger."

"Being with you isn't so bad, at least you help clean up the trash. If you have time, you can go visit the orphanage in Gotham. Just get some sunshine and stop staying in that dark place all the time. If you don't like the food, there are some freshly baked cookies at Afu's place."

Lucifer rubbed his forehead when he heard this farewell greeting, which sounded like an invitation to visit.

"Sun God, can't you see that this gentleman has completely lost the worldly desire for food?"

Lucifer sighed, "But I was also pleased to enjoy this interesting game. Farewell, sir, and I hope your throne doesn't collapse anytime soon."

Upon hearing the farewell words of these two uninvited guests, Divine Lord Kang remained unmoved on his throne, only letting out a calm sigh that drifted to the edge of their consciousness.

Go ahead. Variables. If this desolate road will eventually be torn apart, then I'll sit here and watch. Let's see what kind of ripples you'll create.

He gave up trying to stop him.

For an old man who has seen through the ending and is already lifeless, what could be more tempting than witnessing an unexpected collapse?

"That was a pretty decent thing he said. It sounded much better than the poem he recited at the beginning."

The sunflower shook its golden flower head in disdain, and a thought entered his mind: "Don't think you can do whatever you want here like Arkham Asylum. That place is now a huge mud pit where all sorts of monsters fly! You'll suffer! Watch your step!"

"How can this be considered suffering? This is about witnessing a blockbuster!"

Lucifer straightened his hair beside him.

"Hurry up and open the door, or I'll miss the exciting scenes."

19

"Okay, okay, I got it!"

A portal appeared, leading to the very core of the Time-Space City, where countless dimensional forces were intertwined!

Xiu En stepped sideways and entered, forcefully pulling Lucifer, who was still admiring the throne, into the golden space as well. The two crashed into the vortex ahead without hesitation.

At that very moment, a gray dust storm, seemingly from nowhere, slowly rose around the throne, which had been empty for countless years. It was as if it were playing a sedative for the dying dynasty.

After passing through the portal, Xiu En found himself in a metropolis where the technology tree had been pushed to its extreme.

The towering architecture connects to corridors crisscrossing the turbulent flow of time, with neon lights and runes forming a network of light throughout the fortress. This is also the main hall where Loki's First Cause throne is located.

As soon as he landed, Xiu En keenly sensed the gunpowder smell in the air.

It's not just because there are so many people, it's incredibly complicated!

At the edge of the hall, tens of thousands of dimensional heroes forcibly brought in by Bruce were forming assault formations. Superman, Green Lantern, and other elite forces had already crushed the futuristic security guards throughout the corridor.

At the very back of the group, atop a floating Batmobile, Bruce coldly issued orders to encircle and annihilate them through a megaphone, clearly leaving them no room to retreat.

Deeper into the hall, a group of the highest-ranking members of the original Kang or parliamentary variants, who had clearly just recovered or crawled out of the turbulent currents, were frantically deploying defensive weapons to block the attack.

That was a bunch of high-level firepower networks whose details were completely unknown, blindly unleashing their firepower into the air, showing signs of mutual destruction.

But on that real high platform, no firepower or even sound dared to approach even a fraction of a second.

Dr. Manhattan is suspended there.

He quietly observed the expression on Loki's face.

"Is this the bargaining chip you're seeking in the void? To break this locked structure, you need a power that completely rewrites the very essence of particle existence."

Loki smiled. "Otherwise? Those mediocre people are trying to change the owner of this old house with their fists. But I know very well that we don't need to demolish this house; we need to replace it with something that never existed."

The dazzling arrival of Shuen and Lucifer immediately attracted the attention of Bruce and the two opposing forces at the front.

The army marched out in full force, the evil god retaliated, and at the critical moment, all the gods confronted each other.

At this moment, no amount of small talk could conceal the murderous intent that was about to double.

Xiu En looked at all these giants present, whose intelligence and divine status were overflowing, and stroked his chin.

The situation looks terrible.

He decided to strike first!

Shu En crushed the wreckage of a guard robot, his golden pupils locking onto Loki at the end of the stairs.

Lucifer walked about half a body length behind Shuen, the King of Hell scrutinizing the being that emitted a blinding blue glow with great interest.

The surrounding din of battle seemed to be silenced the moment the three stared at each other.

Even Bruce, who was commanding countless dimensional heroes to annihilate Kang's remnants from afar, temporarily suspended his firepower suppression on the core ladder because he was wary of the unreadable high-dimensional energy field on Manhattan.

Xiu En stopped in his tracks.

"explain."

He only had two words.

But the burning sense of threat was right up to Loki and Sylvie's noses.

Sylvie gripped her twin swords tightly, staring warily at the living sun, her breathing rapid.

But Loki gently patted her wrist, gesturing for her to step back. The god of stories, who always reveled in deception, had none of his usual arrogant, irritating, fake smile on his face.

His face showed a chilling weariness.

It is a kind of rust that cannot be washed away even after hundreds of millions of years.

"Put down your fire, Shuen."

"If you really want to burn this place, along with all its possibilities, to the ground, I'll accept it."

19

Xiu En remained noncommittal, still staring at him.

Loki slowly rubbed his fingers together in front of his chest.

"Bruce's plan was perfect. The army was assembled, divided and surrounded, and you were used as a surprise force to lure and capture God King Kang. Every step was so precise that even the laws of time were incorporated."

Loki pointed to the Batmobile formation standing ready in the distance.

"But I did this behind his back! Even behind your back, not because I like messing up the script."

"I've seen this perfect script 7,400 times in previous loops. Every time it's executed, the ending is complete collapse. Bruce will die, Superman will die, and the millions of troops gathered here will be torn to pieces."

Xiu En raised an eyebrow slightly.

Loki looked at Doctor Manhattan, who had been standing quietly in place, gazing at the emptiness.

"You see yourself as an uninvited guest who doesn't belong here, someone who can tear up all the scripts, right?"

Loki then handed the reins back to Shuen.

"You think I tricked you into becoming my henchman today. But the truth is, in this hopeless game—"

Loki increased the volume.

"We've made tens of thousands of mistakes together. It's this bond built from sharing life and death experiences!"

Xiu En had no recollection of any past reincarnations.

What do you mean by dying side by side tens of thousands of times?

Xiu En retorted directly.

"Have you left your brain in the cracks of time to become muddled? I only believe what I remember right now, in this very second."

"But this is the cruelty of time. Your present is built upon the countless times of our blood and bones being annihilated. Every time we choose to violently uproot the Council of Kang, the altered void will attract even higher-ranking cosmic harvesters. Every time we compromise or retreat, the time-space correction will cause the Dawnwood Realm and Gotham, which you cherish, to turn into black water along with dust!"

Loki gripped his staff tightly.

"So I crossed all the points in time that were already bound by established narrative frameworks. I made a deal with him in this blind dimension where no observers existed."

"This is a substitution rule that breaks away from Marvel and DC."

At this moment, the blue god finally lowered his head and spoke.

"He didn't hesitate to dissect his own story, which had already led to his godhood. He traded all the concepts of his own existence for me to understand this complex linear world. And now I understand."

Xiu En felt his breathing quicken slightly. This guy wasn't lying; there was no way he could fake such extreme exhaustion.

Xiu En's intuition made him instinctively want to trust the other person.

Lucifer, unusually, refrained from his sarcasm.

"Oh, a self-betrayal of going through tens of thousands of cycles just to bring the story's ending to life. It seems I have to take back all my previous assessment of you as someone who only knows how to lie."

"You don't need to know how miserable we were in those failed attempts."

Loki tossed his scepter to the ground, seemingly oblivious to the anti-magic anti-aircraft guns still poised to fire in the distance.

He walked alone to the very front of the platform, close to Xiu En.

"I know that even at this last moment, your uncertainty can still render everything a lie."

Loki bowed his head sincerely and spread his hands.

"If we take the meaning of that charlatan old man, Shenjun Kang, the reason he's eager to keep watching is because you're the only unknown variable."

"I tried to fill this funnel with my own life. It didn't work. The only way to stop this cycle of despair is for Manhattan to rewrite the fundamental particle sequence of this nexus. But before that, we must tear down all the time barriers on our side and expose the entire council's time core!"

"He could fail with just a little external intervention."

"I have no other requests."

"Now, this is the only chance. This is the closest, and perhaps the only, way to survive."

Loki's request even made Sylvie turn her face away.

He begged Shurn not to trust the superficial relationships of friend and foe, or even Batman's supposedly bet on a counterattack plan, but to place the final gamble of tens of thousands of failures on this one moment.

Shuon gazed at Loki, feeling the desperate gamble of this suicidal man and the terrifying pressure hidden in his eyes. The sunflower on his shoulder tucked its outward-swaying leaves. A strange clarity swept through the sun god's heart.

Tens of thousands of times — no wonder I always feel annoyed by this conman but can never bring myself to actually kill him.

This isn't just about beating up a few bastards and then going home to eat cookies.

"You'd better make sure your method really solves all the problems. I don't want to be woken up again and run to some random place to do this kind of work."

"You better promise!"

This sarcastic remark can be considered his tacit permission.

A relieved smile finally appeared on Loki's tense face. He was preparing to signal Doctor Manhattan to begin the final step of the substitution—

"Shuen! Don't trust him!"

A black figure, as ghostly as a midnight phantom, appeared directly below the platform from the command vehicle behind the allied forces in the distance via a short teleportation channel!

It's Bruce Wayne.

He was clad in the latest heavy anti-divine armor. His gaze was fixed solely on Xiu En!

His voice, amplified by the megaphone beneath his mask, resounded across the high platform as the sternest warning!

"Get away from him! Now! Immediately!"

This unexpected turn of events caused the atmosphere, which had just eased, to tense up again.

Sylvie immediately stepped in front of Loki, and Lucifer's smile vanished instantly, replaced by a scrutinizing gaze as he looked at the uninvited mortal.

"Bruce? What brings you here?"

Xiu En frowned.

"Shouldn't you be directing from the back?"

"If I don't come soon, you'll be sold off by a conman, leaving you with nothing but bones!"

Bruce's voice was filled with suppressed anger and deep worry. As he spoke, he moved to Shum's side, separating him from Loki.

"Just fifteen minutes ago, I discovered an unusual data loss in the reports from the dozens of technical advisors of the Cross-Border Guardian Alliance."

"One version of myself in another world, a version of myself even more radical in research, used the core principles of the Doomsday Clock as a model to replicate a miniaturized but equally deadly causal weapon. I warned them to stop this insane research immediately."

Bruce looked at Shuen: "I suspect he stole it. And the only person who used that weapon was you, Shuen."

Bruce's voice crackled with barely suppressed rage: "His substitutionary particle architecture is a trap! A final, mutually assured destruction trap that requires you, an existence not even in the story, as a sacrifice to activate it! Don't trust him!"

He turned his head, his gaze through the tactical goggles piercing Loki.

Bruce stared intently at Loki, saying each word carefully, "I checked all the surveillance footage, all the records! Before and after that weapon disappeared, the only one with the ability and motive to steal it from under the noses of dozens of Batmen without anyone noticing was you!"

He turned to Shuen again.

"Shuen, do you understand? I suspect he stole that weapon to use against you at the last minute! To use against the only variable here, the one even he couldn't predict! He's gambling, but he's not gambling on trust; he's gambling on having a foolproof way to wipe you, this uncontrollable variable, off the chessboard after he's used you up!"

"Don't believe him!"

Xiu En remained silent.

He looked at Bruce, who was anxiously shielding him behind him, and then at Loki, who was facing him and whose face had become even paler under Bruce's accusations, but whose eyes did not flinch.

He only felt a headache.

He's right.

In the midst of this standoff, Loki unexpectedly spoke up.

He admitted it.

He met Bruce's fiery gaze and readily admitted everything.

"I did steal the weapon."

"And its intended user is indeed you, Xiu En."

Upon hearing this, even Lucifer couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. He had originally thought that Loki would use his silver tongue to fabricate a hundred reasons to defend himself. He never expected that the other party would admit it so readily.

"Because, in those tens of thousands of cycles of failure, I tried every method."

"Every time we think victory is in sight, an even higher, invincible entity descends like a scavenger and wipes us and our world away. It's as if the universe itself doesn't allow us a good ending."

"It took me three thousand cycles to figure out that the coordinates of every time the Cleaner descends are locked onto you."

"Because you are the only singularity. The only light in this universe shrouded in destiny that attracts moths."

He raised his hand, and a device, no bigger than a palm and shaped like a twisted clock, appeared in his palm.

"So, yes, I stole it."

"I'm prepared to use Dr. Manhattan's reshaping of this place to extinguish your light."

"By erasing your existence in this moment, we can fool those high and mighty universe administrators and buy ourselves, and you, a chance to potentially reach tomorrow."

He looked at Xiu En, his face, which always wore a fake smile, now showing an almost pleading expression.

"But I also ask you to believe me."

He put away the device, his voice trembling slightly with excitement.

"Long, long ago, on a ruin, there was a little blue monster who should have frozen to death in his cradle."

"It was you who warmed him with your light."

"It was you who gave him the chance to live."

Loki's eyes glistened with tears.

"My birth was accomplished with your help."

"So! How could I possibly harm you?"