Chapter 4612: Day of the Brightest (78)

The side effects of the crystal were a comic book setting. Although Schiller had known before that Anatoly had left him a massive mess, he hadn't known what this so-called "misfortune" actually entailed. Was it that everything he wanted to do would fail, or that everything he succeeded in would have side effects? He had even wondered if it involved some metaphysical, fate-related issues.

Now he knew; it wasn't that profound. It was just plain, cosmic-level bad luck. And it didn't seem to matter which universe he was in; he was equally unlucky everywhere. Perhaps this was a case of quantitative changes leading to qualitative ones.

"Is there a way to lift it?" Schiller asked.

"If it had only been used once or twice, yes," Reed thought for a moment. "But we traveled through hundreds of thousands of universes to collect what we needed, so it's probably beyond saving."

Schiller sighed, deciding not to dwell on it. He asked, "How did you know Anatoly was back?"

"I guessed," Reed said, looking quite pleased with himself. "If he hadn't returned, the personality traits appearing before me wouldn't be yours. Greed must have gone off to watch the show, right?"

Schiller was surprised again. He said, "You know about him and Lucifer too..."

Reed revealed a reminiscent expression. "He didn't have many friends and was always a loner. Even in the old Skrull Empire, there were few people he could talk to. We had similar lines of thought in certain areas, so we were close. Sometimes he would drink, and when he was drunk, he would talk about these things..."

"Then why didn't you mention it before?"

"There was no Franklin before," Reed rolled his eyes. "It's not that I couldn't time travel without him, but with him, even if I caused a paradox, he could fix it so the universe wouldn't be destroyed."

"So you only met the Anatoly of the past recently? Then why didn't he mention you to me?"

"You were just a child when you were with him, weren't you?" Reed said. "It's normal that he wouldn't tell you these things. After all, we weren't doing anything good."

"I'm really glad you have that kind of self-awareness. It would be even better if you hadn't dragged Franklin into it."

"He's not like you," Reed said. "You aren't cut out for cosmic structural studies, but Franklin is a genius. That must be an inheritance of my and his mother's intelligence..."

"Alright," Schiller interrupted him, "look at this."

He gave Reed the data collected by Batman and some of Stark's additions. Schiller swore that Reed hadn't even looked at the data for three seconds before saying, "The problem lies in the way the portal was opened. You should go check what he did to open the portal to the Dark Multiverse."

Schiller didn't quite follow Reed's train of thought. He asked, "How can you tell?"

"If the portal from the Dark Multiverse to the reality universe were so easy to open, why wouldn't Barbatos, the true master of the Dark Multiverse, have easily invaded reality?" Reed spread his hands. "Because he couldn't. The door isn't that easy to open. Bruce used a special method, likely involving some rituals I don't understand."

"... Metal," Schiller said slowly.

He realized that Bruce had likely utilized the power of the metals, because in the comics, the way Barbatos invaded reality was by placing metals on Batman, then opening the portal.

And as Barbatos's most trusted subordinate, it was impossible that Barbatos hadn't taught him this method. He must have expected Bruce to open the portal. And Bruce had indeed used this method to open it, but whether the end of the portal was the reality universe Barbatos craved or a giant flypaper, that was another matter.

Metal... metal... Schiller ran through the list in his mind. Which metals were needed to open the door? Actually, not many, it was just that the process of finding them in the comics was a bit complicated. Schiller thought carefully; actually, only one metal was troublesome, and that was Amber Gold.

This item was supposed to be in the hands of the Court of Owls, making it one of the simpler metals to find, but unfortunately, the Court of Owls in the universe where Pride resided didn't exist. That made it the hardest metal to obtain.

And as for why the Court of Owls didn't exist, that went back to Pride's vacation. But regardless, the person who took action was Lucifer; he had erased the Court of Owls from existence entirely, meaning there were no relics, and thus no Amber Gold. So where did Bruce get it?

It wasn't impossible to get it from other universes, but whether metals from other universes would work in this one was questionable. And since Bruce himself was an angel who could freely enter Heaven to see Lucifer, the simplest method was actually to go ask Lucifer for it, essentially entering a cheat code to conjure it.

"He wouldn't be trying to get Lucifer to fish him out, would he?" Schiller had another bad premonition.

He didn't have time to chat with Reed anymore and hurried back to Strange's office. The two mages hadn't finished talking, but Schiller didn't have time to wait for them. He knocked on the door, pushed it open, and said, "Stop talking, come with me."

Both were puzzled but didn't ask questions, following Schiller to find Legion and using him to communicate with Batman.

Schiller organized the situation as he knew it, but greatly omitted the cause and effect, saying directly, "The Cold War is likely coming to an end."

Strange was full of question marks: "What time is it, and you have time to imitate Churchill?"

"I mean, the Cold War between the First Lantern and Lucifer is likely coming to an end—it could turn into a hot war at any moment. Because they might run into each other in front of the Source Wall."

Batman was clearly caught off guard, but Schiller didn't want to explain further. He looked at Strange and said, "Gather the people now, we're leaving directly. If we're late, we'll be waiting to fight the War of the Fallen!"

Strange and Batman realized the severity of the situation and immediately went to call for people. Strange called a group of mages, and the mutants also called Magneto and Polaris, followed by Legion and his personalities.

On the way back to DC, Schiller couldn't help but sigh at how unlucky Batman was; it was as if the curse of the crystal had fallen on him, with bad luck linked in a chain.

Heaven was as peaceful and serene as ever. Michael hadn't enjoyed such a leisurely life in who knew how long. He didn't have to worry about a Joker suddenly popping out of the holy spring, nor did he have to listen to Bruce recording songs using the echoes of the sanctuary dome; the whole world was bright.

But clearly, the First Light of Creation intended to add a bit more brilliance to his bright life. When Lucifer walked in wearing that leather jacket, Michael still couldn't help but roll his eyes hard.

The Archangel Lucifer skin had been worn for less than two days. After annoying Gabriel, he never wore it again, and from then on, he and Bruce were known as the two great heart-troubles of Uriel—not a single day did he wear a uniform to work.

"Do me a favor," Lucifer leaned over to his desk. "Schiller sent me a message to adjust the compatibility; it's possible that people from the neighboring universe are coming over. I have things to do..."

"What are you going to do?" Michael adjusted the interface and glanced at him.

"Someone hung themselves on the Source Wall," Lucifer said. "If I don't go fish them out, we'll lose another Archangel."

"Can you hang yourself up there?" Michael said. "And then when God comes looking for you, he can hang himself up there too..."

"You're truly furious," Lucifer sneered. "You could hang yourself, and I wouldn't."

"Do you think I don't know? This thing was created by God to prevent you from running to the construction site he hasn't finished yet to play. You don't even know how many times you've been hung up there..."

"Why did he tell you that again!" Lucifer was annoyed.

"Alright, let's talk business. What is the neighboring universe doing again? Do they want to come over here and fight a battle too?"

"I don't know. Maybe it's to deal with the Black Lanterns, preparing in advance or something." Lucifer shrugged.

Michael waved him away: "Stop swaying in front of my eyes. Hurry up and go."

"Then you must get it right," Lucifer said as he walked out. "If there's a compatibility issue and the universe crashes, don't expect me to fix it for you."

Then, Lucifer arrived near the Source Wall. Seeing that string of candied haws, he was stunned for a moment.

Bruce had told him about the plan when he came to see him, and it sounded like just another thing, but seeing it with his own eyes was far more shocking. And Lucifer could see the data level of things; in his eyes, it was several types of forces nested layer by layer, but each one happened to jam the other. It was like a programmer looking at a strange program error and marveling at it.

It seemed that he was the only one who had listened seriously to the cosmic structural studies class. Just for that point, Lucifer had to fish him out.

However, the situation was a bit troublesome now, because all the programs were jammed against each other, and trying to extract one of them individually required some ingenuity. If it wasn't handled well, the whole thing could collapse. Although it wasn't impossible to fix, it would be a bit embarrassing. Lucifer didn't want to be written into a song by Bruce, so he stood there thinking.

It was like solving a math problem; this problem required some cleverness, and the calculation was not small. While Lucifer was standing there calculating, he saw a group of people coming from afar.

Justice League? Lucifer was a bit surprised. They arrived quite quickly.

That group of people was the Multiversal Justice League. Lucifer wasn't surprised they could find their way here, but arriving this quickly was indeed a bit unexpected.

Lucifer decided to step back and observe first to see how they would handle it. If they could figure out a way to dismantle the Earth, he wouldn't have to do it himself. Although this problem was a bit difficult for him, the superheroes had the power of the plot; one was a science major, one was a liberal arts major, it was still different. Maybe they could win by a surprise move.

Just at this moment, Lucifer noticed the person leading the Multiversal League. In fact, it was hard not to notice, because generally speaking, the leader should be all black with two pointed ears, rather than the shining light bulb he was now.

"The First Lantern? Batman actually dug him out?" Lucifer marveled.

But just as he was watching the show, the light flickering around the First Lantern suddenly dissipated. He stood there in the pitch-black universe, staring straight at Lucifer.

It was a face Lucifer was very unfamiliar with; he was sure he didn't know this guy. But for some reason, the moment he saw those blue eyes, a sense of familiarity washed over him.

However, he quickly attributed this familiarity to another reason. He manifested his form from the void, flapped his wings to arrive in front of the crowd, stared at the First Lantern, and said coldly, "Where did you get the pendant on your neck?"