Amidst the ruins, the members of the Justice League gazed up at the platinum meteor that had vanished into the sky, momentarily lost in thought.
The sky over Gotham was clearer and brighter than ever before.
"So... that's it?" Barry Allen scratched his head, the golden electricity surrounding him still a little unsteady. "I mean, Bruce... he, one punch?"
"More than one punch." Victor Stone's electronic eyes flashed, analyzing the remaining energy traces in the atmosphere. "The first punch was pure creative power, directly shattering Barbatos's conceptual core. He pursued it to completely end the source of the Dark Multiverse."
"What I'm more curious about is, what should we call him when he gets back?" Hal Jordan stroked his chin, looking thoughtful. "The Light Knight? The Platinum Bat? Or... a giant walking flashlight?"
Diana ignored Hal's joke; she simply looked up at the purified sky, her eyes filled with complex emotions.
She was gratified by Bruce's ascension to godhood, but deep down, her warrior instincts made her uneasy.
Is this one-time, all-or-nothing power gained through burning truly without any cost?
While everyone was lost in their own thoughts, on another high point of the ruins, Thor was standing leisurely, as if watching a wonderful open-air movie.
'Hmm, not bad, a clean and neat ending,' he thought to himself. 'As expected of my good son, the style and special effects are top-notch.'
A barely perceptible ripple spread through the space around him.
Death Tetiyu returned to Thor's side.
"You didn't even do it yourself." She spoke, her voice soft and languidly teasing, but her gaze was fixed on the depths of the starry sky where the God of Bats had vanished.
Thor shrugged, looking completely nonchalant. "That's so boring. The real Batman beating up the Dark God—that's the kind of drama that suits my twisted sense of humor."
"Are you kidding? I could just chop him to death with one swing of an axe. What's the tension in a script like this—'a mortal ascends to godhood through willpower, bringing hope from despair'? That's what audiences love."
Death chuckled softly, as if it had read his mind.
She stretched out her slender hand, palm up, and three dark Soul Stone, imprisoned within tiny spheres of light, floated out.
The three Soul Stone twisted and struggled, emanating completely different auras of madness: one was filled with despair, fear, and green light; another was a cold, mechanical logic of killing; and the last was pure, all-consuming physical violence.
The Dawnbreaker, the Murder Machine, the Devastator.
"What you want." Death's tone was calm.
Thor's eyes lit up, and he reached out and took it without hesitation.
He grinned from ear to ear, and complex runes of law appeared in his palm, completely sealing the three Soul Stone.
'Hehe, got it!' Thor was overjoyed.
His base, Frost City, is expanding rapidly, and what it lacks most is top-notch management talent.
Earlier, during the initial stages of Barbatos' invasion, he had already conveniently "reclaimed" the Drowned, the Merciless, and the Red Death.
Now, there are three more.
Including the bats that were already in Frost City, he now has a total of seven bats!
Thor had already envisioned the future: to throw all seven of the smartest, and most obsessive, minds on Earth into Frost City to be his "high-level employees."
One is in charge of urban infrastructure, one is in charge of military defense, one is in charge of energy systems, one is in charge of economic planning, and one is in charge of intelligence networks... Perfect!
'With a bunch of Batman working for me, Frost City will undoubtedly become the commercial, technological, and military center of the multiverse!' Thor's imagination ran wild. 'Then, I'll be the most powerful CEO in the multiverse!'
Just as he was immersed in his grand plans, the words of death shattered his reverie.
"You'll probably face considerable trouble once you return to your world."
Tetiyu's tone changed; it was no longer the lighthearted banter of before, but calm and solemn. She did not use any illusions or prophetic images, but simply stated a fact that she had "seen."
Thor's smile faded, and he frowned slightly. "What trouble?"
What can make death itself issue a warning is no small matter.
"Some immense, transdimensional forces are watching you." The tear-like lines at the corner of Death's eye seemed to flicker slightly. "Or rather, they're watching the person behind you."
She was referring to Loki.
Thor's mind raced.
'Interdimensional forces?'
The first person he thought of was Kang the Vanguard who had infiltrated Frost City.
There is no doubt that the Council of Kangs has its eyes on them.
Then there was the Masters of Evil League, which he had previously wiped out.
Behind those guys stood the Red Council, a group of dimensional demons, who were no pushovers either.
'But... these two alone shouldn't be enough to pose a fatal threat to Loki, who is now sitting at the end of time, right?'
That power has already surpassed the Multiverse Level.
Although the Council of Kangs is troublesome, it is essentially causing trouble within the timeline and has no real impact on Loki on the throne.
Those demons in the Red Council are no match for them.
'Could it be... there's something even stronger?' Thor recalled some spoilers from his past life about TVA and higher-dimensional existence.
Although he had doubts, he remained calm.
'When soldiers come, we'll block them; when water comes, we'll dam it.' He scoffed to himself. 'I now possess over thirty kinds of cosmic laws. At worst, I'll go back and call my zither. Anyone who dares to challenge me will be swept aside! Let's see what tricks they're up to.'
While Thor and Death were having a secret, intergalactic conversation on Earth, the battle in deep space of the DC Universe had already come to an end.
Bruce Wayne, the God of Bats, hovered in the cold void, his platinum radiance more dazzling than any star.
Before him stood Barbatos, whose conceptual body was nearly shattered by the first punch.
"No... no..." The evil god let out an ancient and weak roar. It could feel its power being forcibly stripped away and purified by a higher-dimensional law.
Bruce didn't say anything; he simply stretched out his hands, and the creative power of the Tenth Metal flowed in his palms.
He wasn't forging, he was "defining".
Countless chains of light, radiating positive concepts such as hope, courage, sacrifice, and protection, coalesced out of thin air.
These chains are not physical entities, but rather the embodiment of pure laws. They penetrate dimensions, firmly pinning Barbatos's enormous conceptual body to the backdrop of the universe.
No matter how much the evil god struggled or roared, it could not break free from the shackles formed by "possibility" itself.
After doing all this, Bruce's aura became even more intense.
This force radiated outwards, transcending the boundaries of a single universe and reaching countless parallel worlds that were being dragged into the abyss of darkness.
Those Earths on the verge of destruction, drawn by the platinum light, seemed to be grasped by an invisible hand, forcibly pulled back from their descent, and returned to the grand structure of the multiverse.
The collapse crisis was forcibly stopped.
Finally, Bruce gathered all his power, all his will, and all his " Batman " concepts into his hands.
The light coalesced, transforming into a massive, mountain-like, gleaming platinum greatsword capable of ending all darkness.
"Roar--!"
Amidst Barbatos' ancient, desperate, and resentful wails, Bruce gripped his sword with both hands and, with the utmost resolve, brought it down with a thunderous crash!
laugh--
A beam of platinum-gold light shone across the universe.
That nightmare that had haunted the multiverse for countless eras, that dimensional nightmare representing all depravity and despair, was utterly cleaved in two from the very root of its concept by this final, decisive blow.
Barbatos, fallen!