Superman and General Zod were locked in a violent, world-shaking battle high in the sky. The apocalyptic shockwaves of their clash decimated everything in the vicinity, and searing blasts of Heat Vision sliced cleanly through towering skyscrapers.
The ordinary mortals below were like insignificant ants gazing up at a war between gods, desperately dodging the constant, torrential rain of concrete and steel, doing everything in their power just to survive.
Amidst deafening sonic booms and massive explosions, Metropolis was rapidly being reduced to rubble. Countless lives were lost in the collateral damage. Even Wayne Tower, one of the tallest and most iconic structures in the city, collapsed entirely during the clash.
Batman, driving the Batmobile, was frantically trying to save as many people as he could.
After seeing news reports of an imposter wearing his cowl, Bruce Wayne had immediately driven to Metropolis to track down this fake Batman.
But he never expected that the exact moment he arrived, he would be thrust into the middle of a literal war between gods.
He was, after all, just a mortal man. Faced with god-like Kryptonians, he was nothing more than an ant. He was utterly powerless; he couldn't even manage to save his own employees trapped inside Wayne Tower before it fell.
Perhaps due to the inescapable convergence of the timeline, Gotham's Dark Knight found himself holding a little girl who had just lost her family, standing silently amidst the ash and ruin, staring up at the apocalyptic battle raging in the sky.
Just then, he suddenly noticed a figure materialize right in front of him. The man was wearing a terrifyingly familiar black suit and sported the exact same cleft chin.
For a split second, Batman felt as if he was staring into a mirror. He instantly realized that this was the imposter who had been parading around in his image!
Batman immediately glared at the man and demanded:
"Who are you? Why are you impersonating me?"
Su Mu smoothly repeated the same tragic backstory he had fed to Clark earlier, looking at Batman with profoundly complex, sorrowful eyes.
"Just as I told the others... I am you, and you are me. I come from a parallel universe!"
Naturally, the notoriously paranoid Batman didn't believe a single word of it. But Su Mu didn't expect him to believe it immediately; he was just here for the entertainment.
Su Mu extended a hand toward Batman, his voice dripping with demonic, irresistible temptation.
"My other self. I have experienced exactly what you are experiencing right now. Look at those two aliens. They brought their war to our planet, casually slaughtering countless innocent people. Tell me... aren't you furious?
"I know your heart is burning with absolute rage. But faced with these god-like Kryptonians, you are entirely powerless to stop them. Your strength is pitifully thin. Even if you have mastered every single martial art known to man, at the end of the day, you are still just a mortal.
"So, tell me, young man... I mean, Batman. Do you desire power?"
Batman stared at the man standing before him. The man's appearance was identical to his own, right down to the stubble on his cleft chin. It was as if he were staring at a perfect clone.
Furthermore, during the man's brief speech, he had demonstrated an intimate, almost unnerving understanding of Bruce's own trauma and inner thoughts. This forced Bruce to at least partially consider the absurd claim.
Could this man truly be an alternate version of me?
Normally, a calm and rational Batman would absolutely never accept power from an unknown source, even if the person offering it claimed to be an alternate-universe version of himself. But right now? After watching Wayne Tower collapse into dust and witnessing his employees and countless innocent civilians slaughtered as collateral damage?
The suffocating, crushing sense of powerlessness and the burning, absolute hatred in his heart forced Batman to make a decision.
He reached out and firmly grasped Su Mu's hand!
Seeing Batman take his hand, Su Mu grinned maliciously. He instantly activated multiple abilities at once.
A black Symbiote rapidly slithered up Batman's arm, completely enveloping his body and replacing his standard Kevlar suit, actively flooding his muscles with a continuous, massive surge of raw power!
Simultaneously, a drop of Su Mu's red blood was injected into Batman's veins. Under the absolute, conceptual manipulation of the Reverse Cursed Technique, the blood violently tore apart and flawlessly rebuilt Batman's cellular structure, permanently etching Su Mu's cursed techniques directly into the deepest layers of Batman's soul!
A massive influx of energy surged into Batman's body, fundamentally altering his cellular makeup and elevating his physical vessel to a terrifying new dimension!
A few minutes later, Batman stood up. He looked down at his own hands in absolute, reality-shattering disbelief. The terrifying, god-like power actively coursing through his veins was incomprehensible.
The voice of the "other Batman" echoed in his ear.
"Go. Stop them. Show those arrogant Kryptonians that Earthlings are the true masters of this world!"
Watching Batman hop into the Batmobile and speed toward the epicenter of Superman and Zod's battle, Su Mu felt a profound sense of anticipation.
I wonder what kind of glorious sparks will fly when a super-powered Batman clashes with Superman? Su Mu had given Batman a Symbiote that had spent several hours actively bonding with and siphoning the traits of a Kryptonian. Furthermore, he had conceptually altered Batman's physiology to match a sorcerer from the Jujutsu Kaisen universe, granting him the ability to utilize a Level 3 Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue and Cursed Technique Reversal: Red.
Combined with the massive, temporary energy buff Su Mu had injected into him, the current Batman should be more than capable of beating the absolute crap out of a baseline Superman!
Faced with General Zod, an elite, lifetime-trained military commander and master of Kryptonian martial arts, even though Superman possessed a super-brain capable of rapid learning, he was still hopelessly outmatched in pure combat skill.
BOOM! Accompanying a deafening sonic boom, General Zod's fist violently smashed into Superman's face, contorting Clark's ruggedly handsome features—which were only slightly less handsome than those of the esteemed readers—into a grotesque shape. If Superman hadn't been gritting his teeth, his jaw would have been completely shattered.
Just as Clark was struggling to get back on his feet, the thunderous, roaring engine of a vehicle suddenly echoed nearby.
An incredibly sleek, heavily armored vehicle rocketed onto the scene and screeched to a halt right in front of him. A man clad in a skin-tight, jet-black suit stepped out, his terrifyingly intense gaze locked dead onto Superman and General Zod.
(Author's Note: The Batmobile)
"Batman?
"No... it's the other Batman!"
Even though their physical appearances were virtually identical, Superman instantly recognized the fundamental difference between the two.
The Batman he had met earlier exuded a lazy, detached, and indifferent aura—the aura of someone who had seen too much and no longer cared about anything. But the Batman standing before him now was like a literal shadow born from the darkness. Even cloaked in pitch-black, he radiated the indomitable presence of a true, respectable guardian.
However, even though Superman deeply respected Batman, this was absolutely not a battlefield a mortal could survive.
Clark urgently warned Batman:
"Batman! Get out of here! This isn't a fight you can involve yourself in!"
Hearing Superman's warning, Batman slowly shifted his gaze toward him. While he understood Superman's intentions were good, his heart was still consumed by an absolute, burning inferno of rage.
Rage for the hundreds of Wayne Enterprises employees who were crushed to death. Rage for the decimated city of Metropolis. Rage for the tens of thousands of innocent civilians who were slaughtered as mere collateral damage in the war between two aliens.
At this moment, the fury he had been suppressing finally erupted!
"Do you two think that just because you float above the rest of us, you have the absolute right to casually strip away human lives? To completely ignore our laws and act however you please?!
"Do you think everyone else is just too weak, and that only another Kryptonian is worthy of being called your opponent?!
"No. I'm here to tell you that you are dead wrong!
"You slaughtered tens of thousands of innocent people today. Now... it is time for you to pay the absolute price!"
Clark immediately sensed that something was fundamentally different about Batman's current state. He opened his mouth to say something, but General Zod rudely interrupted:
"Pathetic human insect! I am going to personally slaughter every last one of you right in front of Kal-El! Earth will burn, and it will accompany Krypton into oblivion!"
Violently provoked by General Zod, Batman's patience completely snapped. In a fraction of a microsecond, he vanished from his spot and instantaneously materialized directly in front of General Zod!
Under Superman's reality-shattering disbelief and General Zod's absolute shock, Batman unleashed a devastating punch enveloped in crackling, apocalyptic black-red lightning!
BOOM! A deafening thunderclap erupted as the shockwave completely annihilated the surrounding debris. General Zod was instantaneously launched backward like a cannonball, violently crashing through several towering skyscrapers and rocketing toward the outskirts of Metropolis!
Before General Zod could even process what had just happened, Batman vanished again, appearing right above the soaring General. Utilizing every ounce of his newfound god-like strength, Batman rained a relentless, brutal barrage of punches down on Zod, venting every single ounce of his previous powerlessness and his burning, absolute rage!
Continuous, thunderous booms echoed across the ground. Under Batman's relentless, brutal pummeling, General Zod was violently driven completely out of Metropolis and into an abandoned wasteland.
Seeing this, Superman stood frozen in place, his brain completely short-circuiting. He couldn't comprehend what he had just witnessed.
He was absolutely certain that this Batman was not the "Multiverse Wanderer," but the actual Batman of this universe. But how on earth had he suddenly become this terrifyingly powerful?!
Clark immediately launched himself into the air, intending to rush over and help. But a hand suddenly, casually clamped down on his shoulder.
Faced with this single hand, Superman's terrifying, god-like physical constitution was utterly powerless. He was frozen in mid-air. No matter how violently he struggled, he couldn't break free from the absolute suppression!
Su Mu's lazy voice drifted into his ear:
"This is Batman's fight. You should just stay right here and watch."
Superman snapped his head around and instantly froze in absolute terror. Hovering in the sky behind Su Mu were over a dozen Kryptonian warriors. They were forcibly bound in mid-air by a twisted gravitational field, continuously absorbing yellow sun radiation to generate massive amounts of energy. Yet, the exact microsecond the energy was generated, it was violently devoured by the man standing in front of him!
Just as Su Mu had claimed, he was genuinely using the Kryptonians as living, biological super-batteries, continuously draining them for infinite power!
Clark didn't dare move a single muscle, terrified that he would instantly be added to the battery farm.
Then, he suddenly noticed the environment around them violently warping. Once the space stabilized, he realized they were no longer in the ruined city center; they were standing on the outskirts of Metropolis. They hadn't physically moved an inch, yet the surrounding space had fundamentally shifted. This incomprehensible, reality-bending phenomenon made Superman deeply uneasy.
The lazy voice echoed again:
"It's just a simple spatial manipulation technique. It's really no big deal."
Clark: "..."
Simple spatial manipulation?!
If it's so simple, why can't I do it?!
Between the two of us, who is the real alien here?!
Having successfully flexed on Superman, Su Mu felt incredibly refreshed. He casually pulled an ice-cold bottle of soda out of his pocket dimension, popped it open, and took a sip while enjoying the live entertainment.
After being subjected to a relentless, brutal combo, General Zod finally managed to regain his bearings. He clutched his crotch, his expression twisted in absolute, agonizing pain.
This Earthling had absolutely zero martial honor! He exclusively and ruthlessly targeted vulnerable areas! After taking several heavy blows down below, General Zod swore he had actually heard the sickening sound of eggs cracking.
However, despite being temporarily pushed onto the back foot, General Zod remained absolutely confident. How could a mere Earthling possibly defeat a supreme Kryptonian warrior? He hovered in the air, looking down at Batman arrogantly:
"I admit, you are strong. You have vastly exceeded my expectations. But I am a conqueror of the cosmos! I am a Kryptonian, the most powerful race in existence! I was bred solely for combat. I have honed my senses to absolute perfection. How could you ever hope to be my equal?!"
Continuously applying psychological pressure, General Zod actively commanded his bio-electric aura to truly fly for the first time. He opened his mouth to continue his arrogant monologue, but a terrifying red-and-white singularity suddenly materialized right in front of him and violently slammed directly into his face, instantly drawing a geyser of blood from his nose!
Batman had instantly mastered the absolute essence of Su Mu's combat style, delivering a brutal, face-shattering strike! Feeling incredibly refreshed, Batman looked up at the bleeding General Zod and delivered his iconic line:
"Tell me... do you bleed?!"
(Author's Note: Batman)
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