You Dare Touch My Brother!

"Clark, come out. I know you're back there."

In a Metropolis alley, Eric sighed, turned around, and spoke to a patch of shadow in the night.

"I wasn't deliberately following you, Eric."

Clark emerged awkwardly from the shadows. "I knew you were planning to track down that escaped 'Owlman.' I was worried something might happen to you, so I followed you."

"So you were planning to protect me, Clark?"

Eric looked at his "bargain-bin big brother." "Generally speaking, I'm not usually the one being protected."

"I know."

Clark shrugged. "I'm usually the one who screws things up, but I think one more person means one more bit of strength, right? If everyone walks into the river, the crocodile can't open its mouth."

"I didn't know you could talk in Black slang like Pete."

Eric teased Clark. "Has Pete's Black culture rubbed off on you? You know, lie down with dogs, wake up with fleas?"

"Anyway, Clark, you don't know what we'll be facing next, or what tricks those enemies might have prepared. If you want to play detective as part of a team, go find Chloe and Pete. They'll definitely be more interested than following me around."

After saying that, Eric turned and left.

Clark glanced at the cars speeding past outside the alley. "So... Eric, are you still holding a grudge over the harsh things I said before?!"

Hearing his big brother's words, Eric helplessly turned back around.

"Clark, I have no interest in playing childish house games with you. If you're mature enough, don't obsess over apologies and grudges. It's completely meaningless!"

Clark lowered his head and fell silent for a moment. "I just wanted to help you. I fought those 'Owlmen' before. Maybe I can be of some help."

"Because I pulled you out of the rubble earlier, you want to repay me by helping me? I don't need that, Clark."

Eric spoke impatiently to his big brother.

He had no idea why Clark kept wanting to follow him today.

He had often come to Metropolis alone before, and Clark had never shown any intention of following him. Who knew what had gotten into him today? He just would not stop tailing him.

Was this teenage rebellion?

After hearing Eric's impatient words, Clark let out a breath, seemingly giving up on the idea of following him.

He nodded. "Okay. If you insist, I'll go back. But be careful."

With that, he turned and left.

Only after watching Clark's back disappear did Eric turn around and continue in the direction the "fish that slipped through the net" had fled.

An abandoned sanatorium called "Wifu" stood silently in the night on the outskirts of Metropolis.

Wifu Sanatorium had been used as a tuberculosis hospital in the early twentieth century.

Given that tuberculosis had been considered an "incurable disease" under the medical conditions of the time, it was less a sanatorium than a place to send people to die.

In the sixties, the Roman Catholic Church purchased it and converted it into a psychiatric hospital specializing in criminal patients, but it was later shut down due to poor management.

Eric stood before the enormous statue of Jesus outside the sanatorium, lost in thought.

The Owl Council had made this their secret base?!

Using a place that buried 6,300 tuberculosis patients as their headquarters was certainly an unusual choice.

Following the trail of the owl assassin he had deliberately let escape, he stepped onto the creaking wooden stairs and headed toward the basement.

The pitch-black night was silent. Along with the howling wind came the hoarse cries of sinister birds.

Based on what he had observed the owl assassin doing, Eric opened the hidden door and entered this owls' nest.

Beyond the hidden door lay a deep maze with no visible end.

Obstacles that would have been impossible for ordinary people to cross posed no difficulty for him now.

His X-ray vision could see through thick barriers and spot the end at a glance.

After scanning the area with his X-ray vision, he headed toward the place where the "owls" were hiding.

Black-and-white portraits hung on the white walls he passed, representing those who had been assassinated by the "owls."

Red coffins sat in the gloomy, dim space, representing owl assassins who had fallen asleep and had yet to be awakened.

Wearing a mask taken from a dead owl assassin, Eric passed through these places steeped in an eerie atmosphere.

From time to time, poison that induced hallucinations and fear spread through the maze.

"Welcome to the Owl Council!"

Just as Eric was about to reach the end, a deep voice echoed all around him.

"So you are Homelander?! You possess immeasurable power, a gift as though bestowed by divine authority."

"It seems no one but me would impersonate that name."

Eric raised his head and swept his gaze around the area. In an even tone, he said, "The fear you so carefully planted in this maze hasn't worked on me. I think... if you have no other tricks, I'm about to find you. The final victory in this game of hide-and-seek will belong to me."

"I understand your gifts and know what you are capable of. But Homelander, you underestimate our power, and you have never understood what the Owl Council truly represents. If you continue forward, you will only bring about your own destruction. On the other hand, if you swear loyalty to the council and join the Owl Council, child of talent, you will receive everything you desire."

"Are you trying to recruit me?"

Eric nodded as though considering it. "Then let me say this: I want the entire Owl Council, so that I may use its power for myself. Would you agree?"

Faced with Eric's unreasonable demand, the other side fell silent for several seconds.

"Preposterous! Absurd! Do not mistake our mercy and gifts for fear of you. If you insist on opposing us, then continue! The owl's talons will eventually take your life!"

"Mm-hm."

Eric narrowed his eyes. "Since you refuse, I'll take it myself!"

With that, he stepped forward.

But before he had taken two steps, a stone hand suddenly rose from the marble floor and viciously clamped around his feet.

Eric was immediately trapped as if inside a stone prison, unable to move.

Frowning slightly, he exerted a little force with his feet, broke free from the stone hand, and crushed it beneath his feet.

At the same time, he activated his super vision to locate whoever had ambushed him.

But the next second, a thunderous explosion rang out.

Lightning flashed and thunder roared inside the hidden chamber. Countless blue chains of lightning descended in an instant, dense as a forest, forming a sea of thunder.

Eric was instantly blasted away by the blue lightning chains.

Far more powerful than ordinary lightning, and carrying some unknown chaotic force, the bolts broke through his defenses.

His body slammed heavily into the floor, shattering the marble beneath his back.

At the same time, the temporarily paralyzed Eric heard an enraged roar erupt.

"How dare you!!!"

Smashing through layer after layer of fractured marble walls, Clark struck the trench-coated man hiding in the shadows with a furious punch, blasting him through the marble floor and into the ground.