Using his super vision, Clark swept across Gotham City at dozens of times the speed of sound, searching for the samurai- and ninja-like figures Victor had described.
He refused to miss a single street.
Every block, every alleyway, every station and intersection fell under his gaze as he raced through the city. Thanks to the protective biological force field surrounding his body, the citizens of Gotham remained completely unaware that someone was running past them at speeds that should have shattered windows and injured pedestrians.
To them, nothing unusual happened.
But for Clark, the city blurred into a massive grid of moving images as he searched relentlessly.
More than ten minutes passed.
Then finally, he found them.
Clark slowed and slipped behind a group of passengers at a train station, blending into the crowd.
Near the platform stood a large team of nearly a hundred men. They wore gas masks that covered their faces, and curved samurai swords hung across their backs. Their clothing resembled traditional samurai armor, but their posture was stiff and mechanical, like machines designed only for killing.
The cold aura radiating from them made ordinary people instinctively keep their distance.
Their strange appearance only intensified the fear.
Passengers on the platform quickly backed away, whispering nervously and avoiding eye contact. When the tram arrived at the station, no one dared board it alongside them.
At the center of the group stood a middle-aged man in a perfectly tailored suit.
He carried himself with the natural authority of a ruler. Every step he took was elegant and composed as he boarded the tram with a cane in hand.
The masked warriors followed silently behind him.
Like attendants serving an ancient king.
Several of them carried a massive box-shaped machine onto the tram.
Clark's eyes sharpened.
"That must be the Ra's al Ghul Victor mentioned."
He immediately pulled out his phone and called his brother.
"Destroy the city?" Clark muttered under his breath, clenching his fist as he watched the group.
…
Meanwhile, deep beneath Wayne Manor in the Batcave, Bruce worked quickly.
He mixed the powder he had collected earlier into water inside a sealed glass container. Then he used a controlled heat source to evaporate the solution.
Inside the testing chamber, several bats served as experimental subjects.
The moment the vapor filled the glass box, the animals reacted violently.
They shrieked in panic.
Fear spread instantly among them, triggering uncontrollable aggression. The bats lunged at each other in a frenzy, biting and tearing wildly.
Blood splattered across the glass.
Flesh fragments scattered everywhere.
Within less than thirty seconds, several of the animals were already dying.
Bruce clenched his fists as he watched the horrifying result.
His deduction about the enemy's plan had become painfully clear.
"They want Gotham to collapse into destruction through fear," he said grimly.
"Chaos. Madness. People killing each other."
If a handful of bats could descend into such brutal violence in seconds, the implications were horrifying.
"If the same thing happened to the millions of people in Gotham…"
Bruce couldn't finish the thought.
It would be hell on earth.
Still, something about the plan bothered him.
There was only one stolen microwave generator, and its operational range was limited. They couldn't replicate multiple devices quickly.
Once the toxin vaporized and spread through the city, even members of the League themselves would be exposed.
Bruce's eyes narrowed.
"Unless…"
Unless someone transported the microwave generator rapidly through the city.
If they moved it fast enough, they could spread the vapor across large areas before anyone realized what was happening.
And then the attackers could watch the chaos unfold from a safe distance.
Bruce suddenly understood the next step of their plan.
…
Back in the manor's reception room.
Victor answered Clark's call.
"Found them," Clark said quickly. "High-rail tram station on the north side of the city."
Victor disappeared before Clark even finished speaking.
The station wasn't far from Wayne Manor.
Ten seconds later, Victor arrived.
He saw Clark leap upward and smash the steel rail line above the tram tracks.
Clang!
The heavy metal track twisted and broke under Clark's strength.
"You're not going anywhere now," Clark said firmly as he landed and clapped the dust from his hands.
He didn't fully understand the enemy's plan yet.
But stopping villains from carrying out their operation was always the right move.
Inside the tram, the sudden tearing sound echoed like thunder.
The passengers and warriors looked upward in shock as they realized the tracks ahead had been destroyed.
Ra's al Ghul's expression darkened.
The chilling aura radiating from him made the surrounding air feel heavy. Even without speaking, his presence carried the authority of someone accustomed to deciding life and death.
He had lived for more than seven centuries.
The weight of that time had forged a terrifying presence.
The warriors behind him slowly drew their swords.
Steel scraped against steel as dozens of blades emerged.
Their eyes locked onto Victor and Clark with ruthless hostility.
"Everyone, run!"
"Killing!"
The civilians on the platform screamed and scattered in panic.
It was obvious this group wasn't merely a troupe of eccentric cosplay enthusiasts.
Victor glanced briefly at the fleeing crowd.
Then his body vanished.
He shot forward like a cannonball.
Boom!
The tram wall exploded inward.
In an instant, large holes tore through the metal panels as if they were paper. Glass shattered everywhere, spraying across the cabin like razor-sharp blades.
Victor appeared inside the tram.
His body collided with the surrounding warriors like a steel battering ram, sending more than a dozen people flying violently through the air.
"Where is the Lazarus Pool, Ra's al Ghul?"
Ra's al Ghul's pupils shrank slightly.
For the first time, surprise flickered across his face.
"Kill him!"
The warriors roared and rushed forward, slashing with their swords.
Victor stepped forward without even glancing at them.
A wave of overwhelming energy burst outward.
The tram interior shook violently.
Warriors were hurled backward like broken dolls, smashing through windows and flying outside. Some landed heavily on the platform, coughing blood.
Others, seemingly indifferent to pain, struggled back to their feet and charged again.
"If you don't want to get hurt," Clark said while blocking the tram entrance and knocking a man unconscious, "it's best to stay calm."
"How do you know that name?"
Dozens of his followers had already been seriously injured.
Ra's al Ghul stared at Victor intensely.
He drew the hidden sword from inside his cane.
The blade trembled like a striking serpent as it lunged toward Victor's neck with lightning speed.
Clang!
The sword struck Victor's skin.
And shattered instantly.
The alloy blade broke apart under the violent energy surrounding Victor's body. The fragments flew away, while Ra's al Ghul's palm split open from the impact.
Before he could react, Victor stepped forward.
His hand clamped around Ra's al Ghul's throat.
Victor lifted him effortlessly into the air.
"Answer my question."
Victor's voice was cold.
"In terms of combat skills, you may be among the strongest humans on Earth."
He tightened his grip slightly.
"But in front of me…"
"You're nothing more than an insect that has lived a little longer than usual."
Ra's al Ghul's body possessed enhanced strength and speed thanks to centuries of immersion in the Lazarus Pool.
But against Victor, that power meant nothing.
"The Demon's Head does not yield to threats."
Even with death looming inches away, Ra's al Ghul sneered.
Fear never appeared on his face.
"Is that so?"
Victor narrowed his eyes slightly.
He already understood the kind of person standing before him.
People who lived long enough often lost their attachment to life. After centuries of resurrection through the Lazarus Pool, Ra's al Ghul's mind had long since been eroded by its influence.
Life and death meant little to him now.
"What should we do, Victor?" Clark asked quietly after knocking out another warrior. "He doesn't seem afraid of dying."
The assassins around them had been subdued easily, but Ra's al Ghul's expression still held no trace of fear.
Clark felt uneasy.
This man wasn't pretending.
It was as if his own life truly meant nothing to him.
"I know your past, Ra's al Ghul."
Victor suddenly released his grip.
Ra's al Ghul dropped to the floor, coughing violently while clutching his throat.
Victor looked down at him.
His voice carried no emotion.
"You studied alchemy. You mastered medicine and traveled across the world."
"You once believed in humanity."
"Until you discovered the Lazarus Pool."
"And the man you saved murdered your wife."
Ra's al Ghul froze.
More than seven hundred years ago, he had discovered the Lazarus Pool in Arabia. During that time, he fell in love with a woman named Sora.
A dying prince from a nearby kingdom sought his help.
Unable to cure the prince through medicine alone, Ra's al Ghul used the Lazarus Pool.
The prince was resurrected.
But the Lazarus Pit magnified the darkness already inside him.
The mad prince murdered Sora.
The king refused to punish his son. Instead, Ra's al Ghul was imprisoned with his wife's corpse and tortured.
"You were betrayed," Victor continued calmly.
"And you lost the person closest to you."
"That's when you changed."
"How do you know this?" Ra's al Ghul shouted.
The incident had occurred more than seven centuries ago.
Everyone who witnessed those events was long dead.
No one in the world should know.
After escaping imprisonment, Ra's al Ghul traveled across continents learning martial arts and swordsmanship. Eventually he returned and annihilated the kingdom that had destroyed his life.
Then he founded the League of Assassins.
His goal became the purification of a corrupt world.
"It doesn't feel good to lose someone you love," Victor said coldly.
"Shut up!"
The buried memories exploded in Ra's al Ghul's mind.
For the first time, the calm ruler lost control.
He charged forward with a furious punch.
Victor slapped him aside effortlessly.
Ra's al Ghul crashed onto the floor, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth.
Victor looked down at him.
"And I know something else," he said quietly.
"You have a daughter."
"Her name is Talia."
"You love her more than anything."
Ra's al Ghul's expression changed instantly.
For the first time since the battle began—
Fear appeared in his eyes.
"Tell me where the Lazarus Pool is," Victor said as he lifted Ra's al Ghul into the air again.
His eyes were terrifyingly cold.
"Or you'll experience losing a loved one all over again."
"No matter where she hides…"
"I will find her."
"And I will make sure she dies in agony."
Ra's al Ghul could calmly plan the deaths of millions.
But he loved his daughter.
In the future, he would even hope Batman might marry Talia and inherit control of the League.
"Victor…" Clark said quietly.
He felt slightly unsettled by the icy expression on his brother's face.
But he believed Victor was only acting this way to save their father.
Victor had no intention of harming innocent people.
However, Talia was not innocent.
As Ra's al Ghul's daughter and a high-ranking member of the League of Assassins, the blood on her hands was beyond counting.
"I guarantee," Victor said slowly, "not a single bone of your daughter will remain."
He raised his palm.
A beam of energy blasted downward.
Boom!
A burning hole the size of a bowl melted through the station floor.
Molten iron dripped like liquid fire. The ground beneath cracked open as rock turned into glowing magma, leaving a shaft more than ten meters deep.
Scorching steam filled the air, carrying the sulfurous scent of hell.
Victor spoke again.
Each word colder than the last.
"Even if you still have the Lazarus Pool…"
"You'll be powerless to save her."
"Just like your wife Sora who died in front of you."
....
Join my P*atreon for 100 premium chapters ahead of the public release.
Link: pa*treon.com/MysticVerse (Remove the *)
Free members also get 2 advanced chapters for free.