When Bruce opened his eyes again, he found that he had already left that Mental World and returned to the Batcave in reality.
He checked the time in the surveillance room and discovered that although he had experienced so much in the Mental World, as if a long time had passed, time in reality had seemed frozen. Only after he emerged did it begin flowing again. From entering to leaving, and then having Stephen resolve the trouble, the entire process had taken no more than ten seconds.
"Feel like a long time passed?" Seeing the startled, uncertain look on Bruce's face, Stephen guessed with experienced ease. "That is how the world of Spirit Forms works. There is no meaningful comparison between the flow of time there and the flow of time in the Material Universe."
Bruce nodded, unsure what to say for a moment. He only felt uncomfortable all over, physically and emotionally. But whenever he tried to identify the source of it, everything became vague again.
His body felt somewhat heavy. The sensation was like recovering from a serious illness after being bedridden for a long time, then getting back on his feet for rehabilitation—the heaviness and discomfort one felt during recovery. Movements that had once been effortless now felt distinctly difficult.
At the same time, the heaviness of his body made his mental state feel somewhat weightless, as though a smaller soul had been stuffed into his trained, powerful body, immediately creating a sense of burden.
Bruce guessed that this was a minor aftereffect of that procedure, something he would need to slowly adapt to.
"This is for you." Stephen tossed Bruce a golden hollow sphere that looked as though it had been forged from some unknown metal. Relying on his body's reflexes, Bruce caught it in one