Chapter 1708: S: The Apocalypse Event (11)

"I can feel the power flowing within his body; he may have awakened some kind of ability."

Helen frowned as she looked at Barry, who had fainted and was being held in Spider-Man's arms. Her eyes shimmered in the pitch-black room. Although she could no longer use the divine power of the Aesir, Helen still possessed the various innate talents of Doomsday, including a sensitivity to power brought about by her instinctual appetite.

"The human body is very fragile, so when you awaken certain powers, there will be some aftereffects, such as hunger, lethargy, or even fainting. This is a manifestation of powerful energy reshaping your physique."

"Oh!" Spider-Man let out an exclamation of sudden realization. He nodded vigorously and said, "Yes, yes, yes! When I awakened my spider-mutation abilities, I was incredibly hungry. My aunt's wrists would ache from cooking, and my uncle said back then I felt like I could gnaw on the table at home."

Then he looked down at Barry's overly youthful face and said, "This child might have awakened a superpower too, but I don't know what kind of ability it is. We must leave here as soon as possible and take him to a safe place."

Helen's attention, however, was on the magic circle on the floor of the room. She stared at the circle for a while and then said, "I heard my father talk about Batman. I originally wanted to go to Wei En Manor to find him, but I didn't expect him to be away. His butler heard I was the daughter of his friend and kept me for afternoon tea."

"Aisha happened to be there at the time. She led me into Wei En's study, where I found some books about magic, mainly concerning dark legends, dark energy, dark magic circles, and so on—in short, darkness. Batman might be investigating the truth behind this dark city."

Spider-Man's heart immediately tightened. He looked at Helen and said, "So, this city has become so terrible because of magic?"

Helen walked to the center of the magic circle and said, "There is some kind of dark power influencing this city, and that is the source of my sudden burst of appetite. This thing is exceptionally powerful and pure; it smells delicious."

Helen swallowed involuntarily. Spider-Man walked over and gently patted her arm, saying, "Now is not the time to think about that. We must find a way to leave here, otherwise that boy might be in danger."

Helen glanced at Barry, then at the magic circle, and then back at Barry. She already had a hypothesis in her mind, and then she said, "Barry most likely absorbed the mass of dark energy that triggered my appetite. He needs to battle it within his heart and control it, otherwise, there is a possibility he will lose control."

"You're right. We must get up there quickly. It's best to find him a safe place. In case he can't pull through, we must also have emergency handling measures."

After finishing, Helen let out a long breath. She wanted to revert to her true form and jump out by smashing through the ceiling; after all, she had already sensed that there was a considerable amount of dark energy in this room. Even if she were to eat it, she could be half-full, and if it all surged into Barry's body, the probability of him losing control would be very high.

Regardless of what plans his teammates might have now, if energy of this magnitude were to erupt here, it might sweep across the entire Americas, and by then, a truly catastrophic disaster would have been caused. Matters have their priorities, and Helen felt that the limit had now been reached.

Just as a wild glint flashed in Helen's eyes, she discovered a wisp of mist drifting before her. She immediately recognized the source of this aura, and before she could excitedly shout that name, Harley's figure appeared within the room.

"Finally done. I should rest for a while too; being a messenger is just too tiring," Harley said with a long breath. "What a coincidence, you guys are here too?"

"Why did you come here?" Helen still appeared somewhat vigilant; she hadn't forgotten that Harley had opened the Necronomicon behind her back.

Harley shrugged and said, "Someone told me to come here." After she finished speaking, her hand flipped, and a massive black book appeared in her hand, but what Helen noticed was the gray mist condensing around the book when it appeared.

Helen suddenly widened her eyes, her gaze full of shock, then she blinked and abruptly turned her head to look at the magic circle, a look of realization appearing in her eyes.

Stealing electricity again?!!!

Helen gradually understood everything, so she said very decisively, "I don't think it's too late for us to go up now. Although this room isn't that safe, it can serve as a temporary stronghold. Aisha and I will be responsible for guarding the door. Spider-Man, you place Barry in the middle of that magic circle, and we'll just wait here for him to wake up."

"But..."

"It's not necessarily safe on the ground right now either. Barry, who hasn't fully mastered his power yet, is still very fragile. Aren't you afraid that after returning to Cat Getan, he'll be blown into pieces by a grenade?"

Spider-Man opened his mouth slightly; he remembered the monsters surging out in the corridor, but then thinking about the situation in Cat Getan, it was really hard to compare which side was worse.

Besides, he also understood the principle that critically ill patients shouldn't be moved casually, and he didn't understand magic-related matters. What if he moved someone carelessly and ended up doing more harm than good?

Thus, he followed Helen's instructions and placed Barry in the center of the room, which also happened to be the center of the magic circle.

Helen walked calmly into the circles at the corners of the magic circle, erased the footprints that had damaged the array, and revealed the true appearance of the magic circle. Helen carefully noted down all the runes and then said to the others, "According to the original plan, Aisha and I will go guard the door. Spider-Man, you come too; leaving Harley alone is enough, she and Barry are friends."

Spider-Man was somewhat uneasy, but Harley waved her hand at him, signaling "leave it to me," so Spider-Man followed Helen and left.

"Activate this magic circle, Harley, it's not difficult." A line of text formed by gray mist appeared on the Necronomicon. Harley was just about to negotiate terms when another line of text appeared on the Necronomicon: "The stolen electricity... I mean, I'll share half of the power obtained through completely legitimate means with you."

"I want sixty percent."

"Deal."

"Hiss... I asked for too little!"

Harley bared her teeth, but she didn't act coy. Instead, she looked at the magic circle with a burning gaze. Before long, she said, "It really is a summoning circle, but it needs at least six sacrifices to activate. Let me think about how to modify it..."

About ten minutes later, Harley stood in the center of the magic circle, clapped her hands, and said, "Done. I don't know if my blood will work."

After speaking, she used the boning knife she was clutching to slice open her palm. Fresh blood slowly slid down like dew dripping from a leaf in the early morning, but when it landed on the ground, there was no sound. Harley lowered her head and saw the ground beneath her feet turn into a vast ocean.

Endless darkness filled the room. Harley couldn't even be sure if she was still in the original location, or if she had traversed space because of the ritual and arrived at another mysterious but dark place.

Suddenly, she heard endless whispers. Harley desperately covered her ears and said, "How come there are some here too? Damn it! It's too noisy, shut up!... Wait, who is that? That, isn't that Bruce? How could he be here?"

Just as Harley's gaze turned toward a small figure floating in the darkness, little Bruce also turned his head to look at her. The darkness erupting from those deep blue eyes made Harley break into a cold sweat instantly.

Bruce opened his mouth without uttering a single human word, but the terrifying, noisy whispers caused the scene in Harley's eyes to start showing double images. She heard a thought: "Take me away."

Harley instinctively reached out, and upon feeling the sensation on her palm, she used all her strength to pull both her hand and her consciousness back.

"Bang!"

A figure descended from the sky and fell to the side of the magic circle. Harley opened her eyes in the darkness and met little Bruce's blue eyes, which were now swirling with secret scripts and dark power.

"I succeeded..." little Bruce stood up unsteadily, his eyes appearing somewhat dull due to not focusing. His voice sounded like it came from very far away. Harley sat on the ground somewhat weakly and asked, "What did you succeed in?"

"I absorbed the dark power there and used it to wash away the Outer God's mark. I reneged on Nyarlathotep's debt. Even though he is still watching me, before I obtain knowledge from him next time, he cannot scramble my brain again."

Harley gasped. She stared at little Bruce and said, "Although I'm not normal either, so I might not have the standing to say this to you, I still have to say, you're a bit too crazy!"

"You used the knowledge of one Outer God to analyze another Outer God, summoned him over, then went to another dark space with a powerful entity, and then used his power to renege on an Outer God's debt. You..."

"That's not important. I succeeded." Little Bruce looked at Harley and said coldly, "Gods? Just stupid tools."

"I really don't know whether to call you fearless because of ignorance or simply arrogant." Harley shook her head lightly, but at this moment, the Necronomicon beside her displayed another string of text: "Tell him our plan."

Harley hesitated for a moment, but upon seeing the expression on little Bruce's face, she understood that this guy probably didn't just treat gods as tools; if there were a chance, he would definitely cook a god into a dish.

Thus, Harley told little Bruce about her and the Necronomicon's plan.

The magic circle was activated once again. Their consciousnesses floated in this dark space again. It was still filled with whispers; clearly, Nyarlathotep believed that the mysterious dark entity had deprived him of the Elder Sign he had bestowed upon his believers, and now the two of them were at odds.

The attributes of Outer Gods meant they were a huge trouble; at least until the master of this world took action to expel them, they could annoy any existence to death.

"It seems they are both busy now." Little Bruce revealed a cold smile and said, "Then what are we waiting for? Let's eat."

The Necronomicon flew into the air, the gray mist partially revealing its existence, but it carefully controlled itself, not letting the aura of the Nameless Mist leak out, and then it began to follow its instinct, devouring the power in the dark space in large gulps.

Immediately after, a familiar scene occurred. The gray mist didn't just focus on eating itself; after letting him digest the roughest and grittiest part of the dark energy, it fed the most refined energy to Harley.

Although Harley possessed crazy wisdom, she was still just an ordinary person after all, and her soul couldn't withstand that much energy. So, when her soul strength approached the limit of awakening, the gray mist began to transmit the endless dark energy to Helen.

Still the same saying, Schiller stealing electricity wasn't for his own use, but to leave others with no electricity to use. He shearing the sheep wasn't to knit a sweater, he just liked watching the sheep run naked.

The greed that finally caught this sheep didn't care whether the energy he brought was wasted or not; just gorging on it was enough.

When Helen was also full, Schiller began to use the most refined energy to strengthen Barry's soul, helping Barry resist the dark energy he had absorbed at the beginning. Gradually, Barry, who had been fleeing for his life in his own consciousness space while being chased by powerful dark energy alongside the Speed Force, began to have a chance to fight back.

Schiller tried to send this kind of energy to Spider-Man, but perhaps because the souls of the two universes weren't compatible, Spider-Man couldn't absorb this power, so the remaining power was given to Aisha, and in the end, Aisha also ate until she was stuffed.

Finally, after Schiller had gorged all the children until they were about to vomit, Kante, who had followed the signal to the underground labyrinth and restarted the equipment, was almost blinded by the dazzling light that appeared on the screen at that instant.