American comics: Praising the sun, starting from Gotham!

Chapter 364 A World Without Xiu'en: The Savior Forgotten Amidst Cheers

The silver device hovered in front of Xiu En.

It is a creation of reason, a possibility squeezed out by dozens of the world’s brightest minds.

It is also an almost obsessive, clumsy guardian, preparing the last safety rope for his disobedient family members who are about to plunge off the cliff.

Xiu En reached out and grasped it in his palm.

It feels cool to the touch, yet has a reassuring weight.

He simply looked up and said, "Thank you, Bruce, my friend."

Bu watched as Xiu En pressed the stabilizing anchor onto the chest of his Golden Crow Armor. A flash of silver light, and the anchor instantly merged into the golden armor, becoming an inconspicuous mark.

After doing all this, Bruce closed his visor.

He did everything he could.

What followed was war and trial.

On the high platform, as these three chess players who had determined the fate of countless universes finally reached some kind of truce agreement, the battlefield below had already entered a state of extreme intensity!

The Allied Forces easily tore through the seemingly impregnable defenses of the Council of Kang!

Superman, like a golden god, swept across the land with his heat vision, turning countless advanced autonomous turrets into molten iron!

The Green Lantern's massive fighter squadron, alongside the Asgardian thunderstorms, blasted hordes of Kang's clones from different timelines into dust!

Victory seems to be just around the corner!

However, at that moment, the remaining highest-ranking members of the council, the progenitors, roared!

"Since everything is coming to an end!"

"Then let us offer the grandest funeral to this era!"

At the very core of the City of Time and Space, the First Throne erupted with a dark red light! A power even more terrifying than the Time Beast's previous devouring of time and space surged forth from it!

This force rapidly coalesced into a singularity above the throne, which continued to collapse inward!

[Time Singularity Bomb]!

This is the Kangzhi Council's ultimate trump card, a strategy of mutual destruction!

Once detonated, the entire City of Time and Space, along with all its heroes, villains, gods, and even this graveyard of time, will be devoured by this singularity!

"Warning! S-class causality weapon detected!"

"Retreat! Everyone retreat immediately!"

Bruce's hoarse roar echoed across everyone's communication channels.

But it was too late.

In that desperate moment when everyone's thoughts were almost frozen.

On the high platform, the blue deity finally made a move.

Dr. Manhattan raised his right hand.

He stretched out his palm towards the singularity from a great distance.

The black singularity, which embodies the concept of termination, begins to decompose.

Its all-consuming gravity was reversed.

Its law, which symbolizes the end, has been rewritten.

The pitch-black color faded to a deep blue.

The energy of destruction was reorganized into life.

Finally, the singularity transformed into a butterfly with blue wings of light, fluttering gracefully before dissipating into the gray void.

"It's really beautiful."

Lucifer exclaimed in genuine admiration, his face filled with fascination.

However, at the same moment that Dr. Manhattan resolved the crisis, Bruce pressed his final button.

The dozens of Batmen from the multiverse who had been waiting in the backstage simultaneously unleashed their long-prepared trump cards at the Origin Kang, who was stunned by the loss of his backup plan!

A torrent of data, composed of logical paradoxes derived from observing Xiuen, instantly invaded the mental networks of all Kane variants like a virus!

"Erase the failed concept of Kang! Now!"

"Ahhhhh!"

Continuous screams emanated from the high and mighty Time Lords!

But just before that logic virus was about to format all that existed in Kang.

On the high platform, Loki also moved.

"Now!"

He strode directly in front of Xiu En and pressed the small doomsday clock, which was emitting time fluctuations, against Xiu En's chest!

"Shuen!"

"Don't----!"

Ivy's scream and Bruce's roar rang out at the same time!

But it's all too late to undo the damage.

In Bruce's eyes, filled with shock and pain, reflecting the golden flames—

Before Loki's face, a mixture of sorrow and hope, tears and smiles—

Amidst Ivy's desperate cries as the vines on his shoulder vainly stretched out, only to futilely pierce through his gradually fading body, Xiu En's body was gradually swallowed up by a layer of pure white light, starting from his feet.

He felt no pain.

He just felt like he was getting lighter and lighter.

The last thing he saw was the bewildered faces of the Allied heroes.

It was Lucifer's amused smile.

It was Dr. Manhattan's calm, still blue eyes.

Finally, the golden light engulfed everything.

His existence has been erased.

That all-consuming pure white light came quickly and went quickly.

When the light faded, the few progenitors Kang who had been roaring in despair, along with their logic-erasing virus, had vanished without a trace.

The First Cause Throne, which stood in the center of the battlefield, seemed to have been weathered for billions of years, silently turning into the finest gray dust that drifted into the void.

The Council of Kang, this terrifying empire that was like a malignant tumor in the multiverse, was erased from all timelines at this moment, from its origin to its end.

The war is over.

Someone, I don't know who, was the first to snap out of that dazed state and let out an uncertain cheer.

"Did we win?"

Immediately, more people cheered.

"We won! We won!"

"Kang is gone! He's completely gone!"

Superman descends from the sky and embraces the other heroes.

Tony Stark opened his visor and gave Captain America Steve Rogers a hard high five!

Hal Jordan used green light energy to launch one of the most spectacular victory-celebrating fireworks ever into the sky.

Countless heroes from different universes and races embraced each other, cheered, and released the immense pressure that was almost crushing them from the protracted war.

The multiverse has been saved.

This is the greatest victory that deserves to be recorded in all of history.

only----

While everyone else was celebrating, some people felt a strange emptiness that defied description.

Bruce Wayne stood before the portal, quietly gazing at the sea of ​​celebration before him.

He knew he should be happy, but he just couldn't feel happy.

A sense of irritability and disappointment, which came out of nowhere, spread through his heart.

He looked down at his palms.

There, lying quietly, was a silver device controller shaped like a ship's anchor.

What is this?

Bruce frowned.

His brain was thinking, and the armor's systems were analyzing data at a rate of trillions of times per second.

The analysis revealed that the device was highly technologically advanced, involving causal laws concerning the coordinates of existence that he had never encountered before. Its access was set to the highest priority, even exceeding his own vital signs.

Very important.

This thing must be extremely important.

but----

What is it used for?

And for whom was it prepared?

No matter how he tries to recall it, that related memory is like data that has been permanently deleted.

This feeling made him very uncomfortable.

It felt like I had lost something very important to me.

The same sense of emptiness also appeared in another tiny life.

That golden, always vibrant sunflower was now floating aimlessly in mid-air.

She didn't know why she was there.

She had only a vague idea: she was waiting for someone.

Waiting for someone who always feels warm and cozy, loves to eat all sorts of strange things, can be silly sometimes, but has a smile as beautiful as the sun —

----who?

She couldn't remember.

She felt as if a piece was missing from her heart. A very important place that had once been filled with sunlight was now empty, and without the sunlight, it was so cold that she wanted to cry.

She flew around and around the cheering crowd.

None of those people had a scent she recognized.

The person she was waiting for wasn't here.

High on the platform, Dr. Manhattan gazed at the jubilant ocean below, his blue eyes remaining calm as still water. He turned his head and glanced at the God of Mischief beside him, whose expression was complex.

"To exchange the disappearance of one being for the continuation of all existence. Is this what you wanted?"

Loki did not speak.

He looked into the distance, at Bruce's hand, which was trembling slightly as he gripped the anchor, and at the golden sunflower that was drifting aimlessly through the crowd.

He won.

He fooled everyone, including the high-ranking administrators of the universe, with a grand deception spanning tens of thousands of reincarnations, finally securing a chance for this damned story to reach tomorrow.

However, looking at that perpetually empty seat in the heroes' celebration banquet, he couldn't smile at all.

"Let's go, someone will clean this up. This story has nothing to do with me, a conman."

He said in a low voice, preparing to leave the stage.

Meanwhile, in another corner of the battlefield, Lucifer stood with his arms crossed, a satisfied smile on his face.

"To avoid being forgotten by the world in exchange for the credit of saving the world. Interesting."

The ruins of the City of Time were eventually abandoned in the graveyard of time.

Through the thousands of stable portals opened by Bruce Wayne, the surviving Allied Heroes, exhausted but incredibly excited, returned to their original gathering place, the Dawnwood Realm.

There was no sun in the sky above the Ximu Realm at this time, but the basic rules of the sun left over from the creation of the world made Ivy subconsciously condense a new sun to illuminate this world.

The news of victory swept across the sky of this newborn world like a golden storm.

Under Afu's impeccable coordination, a celebration party far larger than the previous one officially kicked off in the boundless sunflower field in the center of Ximu Realm.

This time, there were no uninvited guests, and no damned doomsday prophecies.

Tony Stark generously contributed his treasured finest vintage, each bubble bursting as if telling the story of the rise and fall of a civilization.

The aroma of roasted whole lamb from Asgard is incredibly enticing, and Thor and the Stone Golem are fighting over the last leg, drawing good-natured laughter from those around them.

Barry Allen and several other speedsters competed to see who could remove the wine glass from the top of the three-meter-high champagne tower that Alfred had built himself, without the tower shaking at all.

Diana and Carol Danvers clinked glasses with smiles, their divine radiance and cosmic energy mingling so brightly that even the new sun in the sky paled in comparison.

Everywhere there was laughter and joy, everywhere there were hugs and tears of survivors.

Everyone is fully enjoying this hard-won victory.

This was a perfect celebration banquet.

However, beneath the joyful clamor unnoticed by everyone, a strange sense of emptiness quietly settled in everyone's heart.

It's like there's always something missing.

A golden sunflower floats blankly above the party.

She didn't like the smell here.

It's too noisy and too chaotic.

The various scents belonging to different people mingled together, making her feel dizzy.

She instinctively wanted to find a shoulder to lean on, a shoulder that smelled of sunshine.

But she couldn't find it.

The comfortable tarmac where she could always land safely was gone.

She flew around and around the cheering crowd.

She saw Bruce, the always serious-looking man in black armor, standing alone in a corner, repeatedly rubbing a small gadget in his hand that she couldn't understand. His expression was one of confusion and frustration, completely out of place with the joy around him.

She saw the noisy tin man with a small mustache, who was laughing loudly, but his eyes always inadvertently flashed a blank look as if he were searching for something.

She also saw the big, blond man with a bright smile, while eating his roast lamb leg, unconsciously call out in an empty direction, "Hey! Buddy! This is super delicious! You should have a bite!"

Then, upon discovering that there was no one in that direction, he scratched his head in bewilderment.

She didn't understand what these people were doing.

She felt that what she was looking for was not here.

So she turned around, dejected, and flew slowly alone towards the deeper, quieter forest of the Ximu Realm.

Behind her, a black figure, almost blending into the shadows, followed with elegant steps.

The forests of Ximu Realm are very quiet.

A tiny sunflower landed on a giant mushroom. Its flower head drooped listlessly, and it felt empty inside.

What exactly am I?

She knew she should be a plant, and that she was Ivy's alter ego.

But why didn't I grow out of the soil? Why am I an energy being? Why can I fly?

Furthermore, she looked at her own body, at the petal-like leaves made of light.

Why is it a sunflower?

She clearly preferred those vines, with their intricate, resilient roots that could firmly grip the earth. It was the feeling of using those vines to entwine something, to protect something, that gave her peace of mind.

What are sunflowers used for?

Chasing the sunlight?

But isn't the sunlight of this world hanging in the sky? Why did I have to grow up to look like this?

Just as she was lost in confusion about her species, a voice with a playful smile rang out uninvited behind her.

"Are you lost, lovely sunflower?"

Sunflower was startled and turned around to see a demon whose smile made her feel somewhat uncomfortable.

Lucifer was leaning against a tree, watching her with great interest.

She immediately raised her leaves alertly.

Lucifer pointed to the beautiful world she and something else had created together, then asked casually, "This world is called the Dawnwood Realm, isn't it?"

Sunflower didn't understand, but still nodded subconsciously.

Lucifer's smile deepened.

"So, lovely sunflower, have you ever thought about this—"

"Why is there a character 'Xi' in the Ximu Realm?"

,,