OBS Chapter 4540 The Darkest Night (68)
Chapter 4540 The Darkest Night (68)
Chapter 4540 The Darkest Night (Sixty-Eight)
A deep, mournful roar suddenly echoed across the somber horizon. The silhouette of a colossal gray dragon appeared and disappeared amidst the clouds. The ring on Schiller's finger emitted a faint, dark glow. And before everyone's eyes, the dragon slammed violently into the ground.
The crowd screamed instinctively and ran into nearby buildings for cover. But the enormous figure didn't remain on the ground; it passed right through them. The gray mist, like a needle, pierced the earth's core. In that instant, the entire Earth bounced in its orbit. Some ancient and mysterious being had finally awakened.
To everyone's astonishment, specks of white light appeared beneath their feet, like rain falling from the ground into the air. The power belonging to the Black Death Emperor, which had already broken free from the blood tide and was preparing to withdraw from the universe, was also entangled by the vines formed from those white specks of light. Clearly, this momentary delay had cost him his best chance to escape.
To escape the white light's clutches, the Black Emperor exhausted all his strength. He could relinquish all the power he had poured into this universe, but he absolutely could not return to his consciousness with the power of life force, as that would be tantamount to suicide. Thus, he had no choice but to begin drawing power from the living corpses around him.
The undead that Brainiac had taken and captured fell one by one, including Novie. For some reason, the Black Death Emperor seemed unable to kill them completely again, only draining his power to return them to their corpse state.
Brainiac breathed a sigh of relief. Thankfully, Schiller had another plan; otherwise, eliminating that death energy would have been a real hassle. But what exactly was that thing hidden deep within the earth? How could it possibly hold back the Black Death Emperor, who was determined to leave?
But that was clearly not all. As the white light emanating from the ground grew stronger, the earth began to tremble. Many people were knocked over, but Brainiac remained oblivious. He realized that this tremor only occurred within the human soul, much like how only they could witness a total solar eclipse in a mystical sense, while Brainiac could not.
The good news was that the buildings wouldn't be damaged; the bad news was that people were stumbling and falling all over the place. Injuries were everywhere. Brainiac had to quickly call for ambulances.
But this clearly had its advantages. A surge of life energy flowed into those empty bodies. The abandoned undead regained consciousness. They might have truly come back to life, but were simply not yet fully adapted to their new bodies.
Logically, the plan had succeeded, so it should all be over. But Schiller, leaning against the rooftop door, keenly sensed that the tremor that should have occurred in the soul was beginning to manifest on a physical level—as if he had realized something, Schiller opened the rooftop door, rushed downstairs, and simultaneously contacted Victor using Brainiac.
Fortunately, Victor wasn't far away. He was also looking for Schiller. The two met next to Gordon's police car.
"Good heavens, what's going on?!" Victor shouted at him, "That spirit of existence shouldn't be..."
“No!” Schiller replied. “Someone is doing something else! It could very well be the Justice League!”
"Damn it, I knew they hadn't shown up for so long because..."
Before he could finish speaking, there was another violent shaking—this could not possibly be a shaking of the soul, because a huge tsunami was visibly rising along the coastline.
The tsunami subsided in an instant, but this only made Schiller and Victor more certain of one thing—it must have been the Justice League that did it, because only Arthur has such water control abilities.
This scene played out along coastlines all over the world, and naturally, Brainiac witnessed it as well. He said somewhat hastily to Schiller, "I know what they're going to do, but I don't know exactly what they're going to do. What do you think…"
Do you think we're still in the solar system?
"What?" Brainiac seemed extremely surprised. "What did you say?!"
"Suppose they have a crazy plan to keep it from all of humanity. What would they do? It's not only the Black Death Emperor who can use the sun."
“Yes, you can too,” Victor said, looking at Schiller. “Didn’t you also take advantage of the Great Old Ones…”
At this point, he came to his senses and said with some shock, "You used the Great Old Ones, but someone else used you."
“That’s right,” Schiller said. “That total solar eclipse, in a mystical sense, obscures the consciousness of all humanity. This means that whether the sun is actually shining or not, humanity cannot see it. Without the sun as a reference, there is no definitive answer as to where we are right now.”
"But Brainiac can see..."
“He is the easiest to fool,” Schiller said. “Electronic life forms have no real senses; everything is just a program’s interpretation. Lex Luthor is in the server room maintaining the system, and a small modification to the program could cause him to become delusional.”
“My God,” Victor said, “but won’t the people on Krypton eventually discover that Earth is gone?!”
Have you noticed that someone is missing?
"Who?"
"The Mad Hatter. Hugo caused such a commotion on Earth, but the Mad Hatter, who should have returned with him, disappeared without a trace. And he even possesses a stronger and more direct brainwashing ability than Hugo."
"They took him to Krypton?!" Victor exclaimed, his eyes wide. "So they managed to keep it a secret from everyone there, so no one realized Earth was gone. But I still don't understand, how could they have taken Earth away?"
How did Krypton come to be?
Victor was speechless. He thought for a moment, then said, "Planetary propulsion systems are extremely sophisticated things..."
“And our Mr. Bruce Wayne just happens to have a more sophisticated mind. Superman and Superman the Superman are his men. They can completely dismantle that system without making a sound.”
Victor scratched his head hard: "The key is how they got this thing onto Earth. How could Brainiac not have noticed?"
"There is another person who has been missing for a long time."
“…Barry Allen?”
"Exactly. Who's hunting him within the Speed Force? Nobody knows, because nobody can enter the Speed Force. So whatever he says goes. The so-called infection by the power of death has become the best excuse to cover things up. Even if there are a lot of parts, this much time is enough for him to move them back and forth several times."
Where did they put this?
“The Earth’s core,” Schiller sighed, “because when the spirits of existence awaken, the power they release will allow them to start the machines.”
“Alright. I have to admit, using the Great Old Ones' perception to deceive them is a brilliant idea. But the question is, where exactly are they going to send Earth?”
Schiller shook his head and said, "Someone is definitely going to be in big trouble."
Just then, the ground trembled violently again. Victor reacted quickly and fired a shot, freezing both him and Schiller to the ground, preventing them from falling. This earthquake wasn't strong and didn't damage any buildings, but it still knocked down quite a few people.
No one knew what had happened. The sky remained dark. The white, inverted rain continued to fall, like a moved beehive or a shifted anthill. Ordinary people had no way of knowing what was going on.
This bizarre plan sounds outlandish, but it actually utilizes a very simple principle. Stars are landmarks in the universe, and most civilizations rely on the positions of stars to determine their own location. However, once stars are obscured—more precisely, all celestial bodies that could replace the sun would cease to emit light to the human eye—humans would have no way to determine Earth's exact location in the universe using their senses.
If Earth were to silently undergo a transition at this time, and it were possible to ensure that life on the surface would not be affected, then humanity would have no way of knowing whether it had changed its location.
The initial tremors were the clarion call of departure, but this one seemed to be the final act of this astonishing magic trick. The entire surface calmed down, and the churning seawater receded back into the ocean. The tides subtly shifted; clearly, they had not only abandoned the sun, but the moon had also vanished.
Brainiac became silent, perhaps engaged in a free-for-all with Lex Luthor. To ordinary people, it was just a minor earthquake. They quickly adapted and went about their business as usual, unaffected.
Then Victor asked another question—how do they keep the Earth warm?
The answer is actually quite simple. Just as Victor created a shield using dense ice, other energies can achieve a similar effect. The most abundant energies they possess are Green Lantern Energy and Dark Energy. Considering the corrupting nature of Dark Energy, it's most likely Green Lantern Energy.
“Hal hasn’t been idle either,” Schiller said as he got into the car. “His use of green light energy has reached a whole new level. Otherwise, it would be difficult to create the Earth’s shield so quietly.”
“There are clues to this,” Victor said. “Like you said, they have Kryptonian technology at their disposal. When they were designing planetary propulsion systems, they must have also studied related shielding technologies. This could easily be applied to Earth.”
“That’s not all. If that were all, it wouldn’t have taken this long.” Schiller frowned, thinking as he spoke. “I suspect they’re trying to use this to break some kind of limitation.”
"limit?"
Before Schiller could reply, Brainiac resumed communication, his tone noticeably distorted. It was clear he had failed to gain the upper hand in his free-fighting match with Lex Luthor, and had perhaps only barely managed to shake him off.
"Do you know where we are?" Victor asked the question that piqued his interest the most.
“Good question,” Brainiac said. “I don’t know either.”
"What use are you?" Victor couldn't hold back any longer. "You didn't know the Justice League secretly installed engines, you didn't know they pushed the Earth away, and you don't even know where they pushed it. I think you're the real genius of mysticism!"
“No, that’s precisely what means we’re in an unusual situation,” Brainiac said. “This can’t possibly be normal space. I haven’t found any familiar stars here, and the surrounding space is filled with unusual energy. I dare say those lunatics have led us to a very dangerous place.”
“The Black Death shouldn’t have made them work overtime,” Schiller said. “This is the consequence.”
“I don’t think this is the end,” Brainiac continued. “I even think that some people should be in a more dangerous situation than we are, they just don’t know it yet.”
The Spirit of Existence's reactions began to weaken. Clearly, he had only awakened briefly before falling back into slumber. As the white rain gradually ceased, the Black Death Emperor was finally able to withdraw from this terrifying universe—or at least, he believed so.
But as he retraced his steps, trying to follow the trail of death back to his lair, he discovered that he could no longer move.