The breeze blew through the yard, and the air was filled with gunpowder smoke and the rich smell of blood.
Homelander's pair of red combat boots stained with blood stepped on the soft soil of the small courtyard.
The violent airflow made Lynn's white hair slightly messy, but the cup of coffee in his hand was held extremely smoothly, without even a trace of ripples.
The distance between the two was less than half a meter.
As long as Homelander is willing, even if he exhales slightly, he can crush this frail old man into a pulp.
But Lynn didn't back down.
He still looked at the bloody god with calm eyes.
Then, Lynn's dry lips trembled slightly and slowly spit out two words:
"John."
These two words, as light as a breeze, set off a Category 12 hurricane in Homelander's mind.
He suddenly froze on the spot.
The despairing dark red light in his eyes flickered violently and uncontrollably, and then went out completely.
John.
In this world, anyone who knew his real name would have been killed by him long ago.
Vogelbaum, Madelyn, Stan·Edgar... All those who participated in Underground Laboratory Project and knew his "human" side have all turned into withered bones in the ground.
Why does this old man Asia know this?!
Homelander narrowed his eyes dangerously and his pupils contracted violently.
He began to search frantically in the massive memory bank.
Soon, the cold and cruel memory fragments from decades ago overlapped with the wrinkled face in front of me.
A white coat that smelled of disinfectant.
A low-level researcher who always stands in the corner with his head down recording data.
A bystander who slipped through the net by chance during the hellish laboratory massacre that year.
"It's you..."
Homelander let out a low roar from his throat, and his tall and burly body leaned forward slightly.
The desire to kill roared in his body.
This old man is a witness to that humiliating history in the past, and it is a blasphemy against his identity as the "true God".
One shot of Heat Vision can completely erase this memory from the world in just a tenth of a second.
But when Homelander's eyes met Lynn's eyes again, his killing intent was stuck.
Why not be afraid?
Why didn't you ask for mercy?
There was no fear of death or hatred of monsters in those eyes.
It was kind of... looking at a lost child.
Homelander's breathing suddenly became a little rapid.
He was a little surprised to find that he had suppressed the urge to destroy.
Ever since he discovered that everyone around him was cheating and betraying him, ever since he crushed those hypocritical smiling faces with his own hands, his emotions had completely gone out of control.
He became irritable and crazy, like an active volcano that could erupt at any time. Just now in White House, he even killed his only biological son without hesitation.
But now, under the gaze of these cloudy eyes, his restless and violent heart miraculously felt a rare calmness.
This made him feel incredible.
Lynn looked at Homelander whose expression was constantly changing, and the smile on his face became even stronger.
Even after being injected with Original Compound V and John, the longing for emotion in his bones has not changed at all.
Lynn put down the coffee cup in his hand, and with a slight clicking sound from his bones, he slowly stood up from the rocking chair.
Under Homelander's stunned gaze, Lynn turned around, pulled out a somewhat rusty folding iron chair from the old wooden table, and placed it opposite his rocking chair.
Then, he patted the dust on the chair and pointed to the chair.
"Sit down."
Lynn's voice is gentle, like an elder entertaining tourists who have returned from afar.
Homelander looked at the simple iron chair, and then at the old man who sat down on the rocking chair again with a relaxed posture.
The world-destroying demon god who had just destroyed half of United States unexpectedly bent down, put away the Stars and Stripes cloak that symbolized invincibility, and actually sat down on the rusty iron chair.
The huge body was huddled on a small chair, which looked a bit funny.
The courtyard was so quiet that only the rustling of leaves in the distance could be heard.
Lynn looked at Homelander, who was sitting opposite him, without beating around the bush or making any pretense.
He picked up the cup of cool coffee, took a shallow sip, and broke the silence first.
"Don't rush to kill me, John."
Lynn stared at the bloody god in front of him and said gently, "Because, I come from another world."
Lynn quietly looked at Homelander sitting opposite.
After saying the words "I come from another world", Lynn was already mentally prepared.
He thought that the crazy demon in front of him would laugh scornfully, question whether he was a madman, and even stab him through the head with Heat Vision because he felt he was being played.
However.
"I believe you."
Homelander's voice is deep.
Lynn's hand holding the coffee paused slightly, and a trace of surprise flashed in his eyes.
"You can't lie, old man."
Homelander pointed to his ears and then his eyes, "My Super Hearing can hear the sound of blood flowing in each of your blood vessels. My X-ray Vision can see through the frequency of your heart beating. When a person lies, adrenaline will surge and the heartbeat will speed up involuntarily."
He leaned on the rusty iron chair and looked into Lynn's calm eyes.
"But your heartbeat is as steady as a stone, without fear, without pretense... you are telling the truth."
After confirming this absurd fact, Homelander suddenly laughed at himself.
He lowered his head and looked at his hands stained with blood. His voice became a little erratic, as if he was caught in some distant memory.
"Actually... during those years in the underground laboratory, during the countless nightmares that were so cold that it made people crazy and the pain that made people despair, I often thought this way."
This man who had just declared himself "the only true God" in front of the whole world was now huddled on a simple iron chair, speaking as fragilely as a homeless child.
"I often wonder, in some parallel world that I can't see, I am just an ordinary child? There is no Vogelbaum, no Compound V, and there are no those cold glass walls."
Homelander's eyes were slightly red, and a smile uglier than crying appeared at the corner of his mouth.
"In that world, I have a warm home, a mother who can cook for me, and a father who can play ball with me. I don't have to be a bullshit Superheroes. I just need to be obedient and they will love me..."
He took a deep breath, his voice carrying a hint of bitterness that was difficult to conceal.
"Those beautiful fantasies were my only sleeping pills in that hell. They accompanied me through countless nights when I wanted to die. However, I would always wake up from my dreams. When I opened my eyes, what I saw were still those cold needles and hypocritical smiling faces. In the end, I realized that it was just a sad fantasy after all."