The end game [Zhongyingmei]

Under Krishna's gaze, the dark-haired girl stood there, precariously.

Her cheeks turned the color of snow, her eyes widened slightly in fear, like a puppy kicked in the stomach, and her long hair hung down her side like wet seaweed.

The young doctor smiled and held out a hand to her, beckoning her to place it in his.

He waited patiently for a while, until the five trembling slender fingers lightly stayed there, like a vigilant bird.

Dr. Krishna gently took her hand and led her towards the darkness ahead.

"During the days you were away, many things happened in the laboratory," the doctor's tone was soft and light, drifting into Sisley's ear, "Do you know them, 001?"

The five fingers in his palm twitched slightly, grabbed his skin nervously, and let go like an electric shock.

—————The mask-like smile on Krishna's face froze for a moment.

In the darkness, his voice remained the same.

"It seems that you know, 001." He said softly, "But I think there are many things you don't know... For example, I saw the test subject that you helped escape."

——————The girl's hand trembled suspiciously.

"……do not you remember."

Krishna paused, and laughed softly, "In this case, it's okay to tell you, I saw 002, and it's doing well—if the companion next to it has the ability to save it."

————————The hand on his palm trembled again, this time because of fear.

"They found something that I didn't want to be seen, 001," Dr. Krishna's voice became clearer as if knowing what she was going to ask, soft and indifferent in the darkness, "so That experimental product is going to be destroyed, unfortunately, I thought it would learn smarter."

——————You want to destroy him?

"........."

Sisley's lips moved silently.

She suddenly didn't want to hear any answers, even before she thought so, her throat was too dry to speak.

"Are you going to destroy me?"

Sisley finally asked softly.

Krishna's palm seemed to freeze.

She looked up at the doctor's profile, waiting for his answer.

That princely face was completely submerged in the darkness, and he was not smiling. His chillingly cold eyes fell on her, as if ice water was pouring from his head.

After a few seconds, Sisley heard his answer.

"You bother me, 001, and sometimes I think, if only you could be less perfect."

Dr. Krishna said softly, "If you want an answer, according to the lab's guidelines, maybe you will."

—————His pulse was very steady when he said this sentence.

But a few seconds ago, Sisley's fingers had touched his skin, and that faint but real touch could not be hidden in front of her.

For a moment she even had an intuition that the Doctor had no power over her in this matter.

"And now? Are you going to take me to where I was destroyed?"

Sisley stumbled and followed the young doctor's calm pace in the dark, her five completely icy fingers resting on the palm of his hand.

After a pause, she asked in a low voice.

"Don't say such stupid things, 001."

Maybe because he heard the poor temptation in her words, Krishna's voice returned to the smile, and his tone was very understated, "I won't kill you so soon. Well, stand here. "

————— In the darkness, the doctor let go of her gently.

The rich scent of orange blossoms hit Sisley's face immediately, and she took a breath unexpectedly, and the cold and fresh scent poured in. Just as she bent down and coughed, a burst of white glare broke into her eyes.

"I don't think you've forgotten where this is?"

Krishna, standing not far from her, asked softly.

"........."

Sisley stepped on the cold tiles, which were obviously clean to the touch, but what happened in this corridor happened one after another, as clear as yesterday.

—————Those gunshots, blood, panting and painful cries echoed in Sisley's ears. At that time, she thought she was running towards freedom, but in fact, she just ran headfirst from one trap into another, which was even more dangerous. A desperate cycle.

The coolness climbed up to her brain along her spine, causing her to freeze in place for a while, unable to move.

Admiring the expression on her face, Dr. Krishna smiled slightly.

"Oh, 001," he sighed with a sigh after laughing enough, "I just need to look at you to know: at this moment, your emotions are perfect."

In her gaze, Krishna smiled and clapped his palms.

"I haven't had time to tell you a lot of things, 001, our world has changed a lot... How are you doing in the outside world?"

"...This has nothing to do with you."

Sisley answered with heightened vigilance while getting out of that terrifying state as quickly as possible.

"You want to protect them, 001."

Dr. Krishna didn't care about her weak resistance, his dark eyes fixed on Sisley's expression, and said softly.

"I knew you wouldn't let me down. The outside world taught you a lot of new things. I can see that."

The young doctor elegantly took out the magnetic card from his pocket, and brushed it lightly on the door of the laboratory; he rolled up his sleeves and buttoned them all the way to his forearms.

"Okay," Dr. Krishna put the magnetic card back into his pocket when the device at the door turned green, "We have been delayed for too long. From now on, you and I will not waste another minute."

His dark eyes looked at Sisley, and his eyes seemed to be smiling slightly.

...

At the same time Mephisto woke up from the bed, the sirens in the Batcave also rang violently.

The feeling of being cut off is like running water slipping through the fingers. No matter how tightly the palm is held, the real touch cannot be grasped.

———————I don’t know when, the torrential rain poured down, flooding the Wayne Manor outside the window, leaving only the sound of thunder.

The originally beautiful face of the purple-haired woman was distorted by rage and fear, showing a kind of extreme terror like a beast. The red ribbon bared its fangs and claws and converged into a wriggling river behind her, like a scarlet hell.

The archangel also opened his eyes as cold as ice and snow in an instant, and the wings of the holy spirit spread out in an instant, and the holy light appeared, exuding a destructive aura from above.

————A pair of hands stretched out from behind, grabbing the red ribbon of the purple-haired woman and the wings of the archangel at the same time.

The blond man was unmasked, his face pale as paper, his blue-gray eyes in the darkness like strange, gleaming obsidian.

The steady stream of calm emotions coming from him slightly cooled down the thoughts of the other two Sisleys who were filled with rage and panic.

—————Don’t disturb father.

Ken calmly reminded Mephisto and Gabriel who were about to rush downstairs.

"........."

Compared to Mephisto, it was Gabriel who reacted first.

The archangel suppressed the roiling killing intent in his heart, pulled out the invisible lantern, lit it, and covered Ken and Mephisto in it.

Almost as soon as the flame of the lantern burst into flames, a burst of hurried footsteps appeared outside the room.

With a bang, Sisley's door was knocked open by Dick from the outside. The black-haired young man lost his usual smile when facing his sister, his clear blue eyes were frighteningly cold, and the gun in his hand was steady. Aim steadily.

Bruce appeared in front of the door, and he still had the damp and cold smell of the bat cave.

Neither Mephisto nor Gabriel had ever seen such a stormy expression on the old father's face.

"She's not here." Dick approached him quickly and reported in a low voice, "...There is no sign of struggle, maybe I missed some information."

"No," Bruce replied after a moment of silence, as if talking to himself, "you probably didn't miss anything."

———————As Dick said, this room is still the same as it was before Sisley disappeared.

There were messy, rolled creases between the pillows, a half-empty water glass on the bedside table, a warm scent of vanilla in the air, and a white ribbon was left on the sink— — is the one Sisley uses the most.

If it weren't for the fact that the location of the bracelet disappeared without a trace, Batman would even think that his little daughter just went downstairs and was playing outside at this time.

—————As in a dream, his greatest fear came true again.

When his precious little daughter magically returned to him for the second time, the darkness that coveted her would not stop.

The infrared device outside her window showed no sign of being activated, and there was nothing in the surveillance camera. It was a high-tech product of Wayne Manor, and only the diamond bracelet sounded the alarm.

"What's going on?" Tim also hurried up the stairs, his hair still standing on his head that exploded in sleep when he dozed off, "Is everything okay——"

"Sisley is gone."

Dick glanced at Batman standing beside him, interrupted Red Robin, pulled him aside, and lowered his voice.

However, Bruce no longer cared about their conversation. He hurriedly past the two sons and headed downstairs, all the way back to the library.

"Master Bruce, Miss Sisley——"

Alfred was already waiting there.

The old butler's face was pale and his eyes were gloomy.

"I checked, she's not here."

Bruce said it as succinctly as possible.

Dark thoughts churned in his mind, and his fists tightened on his sides, until the sharp pain signal was transmitted to the brain, and Bruce slowly let go of his palms.

"Miss Sisley is still waiting for us to rescue her, Master Bruce."

The silver-haired old butler silently watched Bruce's bloody palm, and reminded him in a rather tactful tone.

But at this moment, all Batman could think of was the plausible warning that the demon quietly issued.

"She will be taken."

Standing in the sunny courtyard, the lips of the non-human creature opened and closed, spit out a creepy ballad.

"She'll be torn in two."

——————A strong intuition attacked Bruce. This feeling has saved his life countless times and allowed him to find the flaws of those super villains in Gotham City. At this time, it is reminding him that the demon must be know something.

"Alfred, there is one thing that confuses me."

Bruce said suddenly.

"I've been by your side, Master Bruce."

The silver-haired old butler looked at his cold side face and responded slowly.

"Do you think that demon will answer my call?"

Bruce turned his head and slowly asked the question hidden in his heart.

—————— There are many ways to summon demons, even the ones that Bruce can think of for the time being, are lighting candles in front of a mirror, cutting palms with a knife, and lighting them with girl's long hair and sage .

But whether this sacrifice will be responded to or not depends entirely on the devil itself.

The rain outside the window blurred the iron-gray sky, and thunder and lightning flashed and roared above the sky, like the muffled howl of wild animals.

"Whether that devil is a profiteer who raises prices on the spot, a despicable villain, and a ruthless villain," Bruce paused when he said this, "or does he have a friendship with Sisley that does not exceed the limit, I just need to A question, and the answer can be guessed."

"........."

The room fell silent.

The silver-haired old butler's meaningful eyes swept across lightly, and collided with Batman's in mid-air.

After a while, the old butler nodded slightly, agreeing with Batman's words.

"Yes, Master Bruce," Alfred whispered, "I think so too."

Receiving his gaze, the silver-haired old butler bypassed Bruce and came to the classical clock that hides secrets. He leaned forward and pried open the glass cover of the clock that was originally used to tell the time, revealing the contents inside.

————— Putting on rubber gloves, Alfred held the dimly lit knife and handed it to Bruce.

Holding it in his hand, Bruce spread his left hand and pressed the blade towards his palm.

The pain that touched the soul came from above, but the seemingly rusty blade cut through Batman's skin in an instant, causing blood to roll drop by drop into the silver bowl Alfred brought.

The evil and ominous atmosphere broke through the invisible air in an instant, and the lights in the library flickered for no reason, as if some mysterious existence penetrated the shadows and was about to appear in the world because of this bloody sacrifice.

When it was about to reach Bruce, the evil aura froze suddenly.

Abaddon descended suddenly from the shadows, grasping the demon of a different class from himself in his pale palms, tearing them apart like paper.

"Did I allow you to covet him?"

he asked angrily.

The blood of the low-level demon burst in an instant, without even a wail. Its blood exuded a strong bloody smell, but the person concerned directly responded to the old father's call regardless of the cold black blood dripping from his fingertips and chest. .

Abaddon could feel the pause in the call, and Bruce and Alfred could feel it too.

When the Lord of Hell stepped out of the summoning circle, Bruce and Alfred who was standing across the room exchanged glances calmly.

—————He won the most important 50% of the opening bet.

—————The demon answered his call.

"Good afternoon, sir." Standing in front of him, this handsome non-human creature bowed slightly, "Is there anything I can do for you?"

"Sisley is missing." Bruce interrupted him directly, "I know you must understand what happened, tell me."

The demon standing before him fell silent.

When the lights came on again, Bruce finally saw the unusualness of this creature: Abaddon's face was pale, his eyes showed a manic blackness, and although he was smiling, that smile had frozen into a mask , thinly concealing his true emotions.

"The humble and disgusting beings will always covet treasures," Abaddon said softly, "especially those rats who think they are the treasure diggers. They are short-sighted but full of disgusting determination."

In the blink of an eye, Bruce's brain was running fast, and several clues were hooked up by him, some from Clark's message, and some from Sisley herself, forming a conjecture that made him feel unbelievable.

——————Clark once mentioned that there is a miniature model of Wayne Mansion in the laboratory.

If it was an eye, was it that eye that took Sisley?

"Tell me more." Bruce said in a deep voice, "What do you want?"

The lord of hell stared silently into the old father's steel-blue eyes, and made a "sorry" gesture.

"I smell 'evil'," he said in a low voice, "sweet, hovering over a certain bedroom——that mouse didn't take her away, it landed beside Zhenbao."

Above Wayne Manor, where Bruce and Alfred couldn't see it, Abaddon could see the dissipating mass of evil.

Abaddon, who took time out of his busy schedule to respond to the old father's sacrificial ceremony in the washroom of the New York Temple: His fist is hard.jpg

"........."

————— In Bruce's mind, the second clue was also matched.

The smell the demon described was "sweet," and Batman had heard that word elsewhere not too long ago, when Clark had messaged him describing the humanoid insect in the lab.

Just as Abaddon was about to say something, the Lord of Hell suddenly felt that the trigger alarm placed outside the door trembled, sending a message silently.

He only had time to nod hastily in the direction of the old father, raised his hand to destroy the blood, and prevented other demons from following the smell, and stepped into the darkness of teleportation.

"Cain?"

It's the little spider banging on the door, "Are you resting? We have to go!"

"I'm resting, my friend," Abaddon said in his usual voice, still sounding gentle and weak, "please wait a moment!"

Ankle-length black hair accompanied by huge goat horns slowly retracted from the head of the handsome young man in the mirror until the former stopped by the ear and the latter disappeared; the shirt dripping with blood was replaced by Cain's clean and tidy Abaddon walked to the sink and washed his hands very carefully, washing away all the cold black blood.

Finally, he put on the black contact lenses again, and then opened the bathroom door.

The little spider waited outside the door, and when he saw Abaddon coming out, he reported to him what happened just now.

"Mr. Mage and another Mr. Mage went to check on the crisis I felt, and they said we can pass if we want to see!" Peter said unpreparedly, "Do you want to see, Cain? But You have to be prepared, the structure of that place makes me dizzy, so I may have to take you——” he put the accent on these words, “——to go back.”

"I'm ready," the dark-haired young man showed a usual melancholy smile, and said softly, "Sorry."

...

When everything in the outside world is in turmoil, the god on earth is ignorant of everything.

He was still somewhat immersed in the faint worry that "Claude was about to die", even though the human male colleagues accepted the truth quite well after learning the truth, and even used this as a joke.

"Hey, Clark," Cloud pushed back his glasses, "at my funeral, if you brought me a bouquet of white carnations instead of comic books and game consoles, I'd be so pissed that I'd sit right out of the coffin."

Clark:?

Clark fell into a tactical silence, "..."

"Is this joke not funny?" Claude glanced at his expression, "Or am I driving it too early?"

"...You drove too early."

The god on earth had no choice but to respond.

He received a friendly slap on the shoulder, and the human male colleague simply took off his glasses, and his blue-green eyes looked straight in Clark's direction.

"Hey," Claude said quite solemnly, "If I die unfortunately, you must not blame yourself."

Before Clark could say something he disagreed with, he took the first step and blocked Clark's words.

"Listen, more than ten years ago, I was able to escape from this ghost place, it was already the result of being blessed."

Having said that, Claude paused.

"I was lucky at the time," he said, "but I could have been less lucky—that's normal. I just want you to understand that, because you're not the god of luck, are you?"

In this tone of atmosphere, Clark had no choice but to nod honestly.

"Look." The human male colleague clapped his hands expectantly, "Isn't this the end?"

"...I will remember to pick the latest manga for you."

Clark was silent for a long time before he bluntly responded to the previous joke.

—————The friendly light hammer of the human male colleague fell on Clark again, as light as a gust of wind on his shoulder.

"That's right." Cloud laughed loudly. "Life needs more humor! Of course not the Gotham kind of humor, but you get the idea."

"........."

Clark understood.

His friend is tortured by Gotham's humor every day, competing with every purple suit and green hair, dark circles are getting heavier day by day, and his temper is getting worse day by day. Of course Clark understands.

"No Gotham humor," he murmured, fearfully.

"I know."

Claude patted him on the shoulder, "Then let's talk about something else."

"Did you really not hear me calling you before?"

Clark heard the human male colleague ask.

Following this question, he backtracked his thinking a bit.

—————————The fresh orange blossom fragrance seems to be still in the nose, as light as a butterfly fluttering its wings, and the doctor is standing in the shadow, with countless candle lights flickering, like cold eyes.

"...I really didn't hear it." Clark whispered, "To be honest, I only smelled a smell of orange blossom, and then the lights lit up the black tower, and then I saw Dr. Holding a candle, he asked me questions there... My head was dizzy, and I answered his questions involuntarily. It was not until later that something stabbed me hard many times that I got out of that state Get out."

"But there are no candles in the tower, except the one the Doctor was holding."

Claude's voice sounded dry, and he continued, "I've never smelled any orange blossom scent either."

The god of the world fell into tactical silence, "..."

Claude didn't say a word, "..."

Clark and his human male colleague glanced at each other, feeling a chill from the bottom of their hearts.

"God." Claude sighed dryly, "Wow."

Before Clark could say anything, the human male colleague suddenly raised a guess.

"You said, could this be hypnosis?"

Looking at him, Claude asked slowly.

"...Hypnosis?" Clark subconsciously repeated the word.

————Is it what a psychiatrist will experience?Or the one with coins dangling on the TV?

Claude seemed to see through what Clark was thinking, and he shook his head.

"You keep mentioning the word 'fragrance', but I'm pretty sure I haven't smelled it, and I'm just as sure it's reality on my side—the candles in the tower don't burn automatically Yes. So I'm thinking—"

The blue-green eyes of the human male colleague stared straight at Clark with extremely sharp eyes.

"Could the scent you mentioned be the medium for hypnosis?"

Clark: "..."

Clark: Meringue Pupil Earthquake.jpg

This determined question, like a thunderbolt, split into the world and the god completely regained his clarity of mind.

"...But, hypnosis can do it, you and I are in the same place, but see a completely different scene?"

Clark couldn't help asking in a low voice.

"Normally, of course not," Claude affirmed his doubts, "but——this is something I haven't figured out, because——"

He stopped talking, but fell into deep thinking.

Clark's brain froze when asked these two questions, "..."

———— The scent of orange blossom in memory is cold and fresh, blurring the distance between reality and manipulated illusion.

——————The dream witch is even less likely to deceive him, Clark himself can see clearly, if he is a few minutes late when facing Claude, Claude will really die quietly from that curse, then It is true.

The sound of their footsteps echoed in the black tower. Clark took out the communicator and sent a picture to Bruce over there, while continuing to think about the possibility of "hypnosis".

"Clark, look at this."

The human male colleague's footsteps stopped suddenly, and his voice came to Superman's ear from above. Clark glanced over there and found that Cloud's hand was pointing to a certain relief on the wall of a black tower.

The inner walls here are all carved with distorted human bodies. After seeing people who were beheaded, burned, thrown into pits, and accompanied by poisonous snakes again and again, Clark has already developed a certain feeling for this horrifying and realistic carving style. A kind of resistance, even able to subconsciously ignore them.

——————The location Claude pointed to was two naked human bodies. They seemed to be tied to a column, accepting the fate of being roasted by the fire.

"...What do you want me to see?"

Clark asked with some difficulty.

"Here," Claude frowned uncomfortably, "look at this pillar—it looks too flat and self-contained, which doesn't fit the usual realistic style of sculpture here, so I'm thinking -"

The god of the world walked over, took over the position of the human male colleague, and pressed the edge of the pillar relief with his fingertips, bit by bit.

The feeling of looseness was conveyed to his palm. Under Clark's shocked gaze, he took out the "pillar" with his bare hands. At this moment, it was lying in Superman's palm.

————— It turned out to be a black cylinder, hidden in the relief.

From Clark's facial expression, he could see what he was thinking, and Claude interrupted his thoughts first.

"I observed it on the way here," the human male colleague subconsciously pushed the non-existent glasses, and was stunned when he touched the air, couldn't help laughing, and finished the sentence, "Only The lines of the relief here seem to be completely closed."

"There is a password on it, but the text looks strange," Clark first gave Claude an appreciative look, and then frowned, "It looks like a dead language."

"Whether it's a dead language or not, it's impossible for me to know it."

Claude also came over and tried to identify it, and then his face collapsed for a second.

"Stand back a little." Clark said suddenly.

Claude:?

The human male colleague didn't understand what he meant, so he took a few steps back obediently, a few meters away from Superman.

After confirming that there was no sound of water in the cylinder itself, Clark held his breath, turned his palm into a knife, and sliced ​​off the head of the cylinder with his bare hands.

In an instant, several poisonous needles ejected from the cylinder, all pierced on Clark's steel body, and he was lightly shot down; a dark green poisonous gas also emitted from it, which was ignored by Clark again.

"All right."

The god of the world said in a normal way, while taking out the contents of the cylinder, he walked down a few steps and returned to the human male colleague.

"so good."

Claude muttered with tears in his eyes, "Is this the thrill of violent decryption? The next time the newspaper organizes a collective room escape project without you, I won't go at all."

"...I can't afford to pay for the damage to public property." Clark said with a smile, "Okay, let's go there after the poisonous gas clears. Let's take a look at this first."

He handed the thin paper to Claude, who blew up the candlestick in his hand a little brighter, and then lowered his head to read the words on the paper.

———————Different from the cylinder outside, the English handwriting on this piece of paper looks frantic and sick, the ink is a little fuzzy and dim, and it seems that a long time has passed since it was written.

"The cataclysm came without warning, and our people died one after another after being infected."

The first sentence on this piece of paper provides a huge amount of information.

Claude was silent for a moment and continued to read.

"Desperation is spreading, the air is full of poisonous germs, but if you can't go out, you will die of hunger, or before that, you will be swallowed by infection and become a mummified corpse."

"If there is a god in this world, why didn't the god rescue us from here?"

"...wait a minute, didn't the other superheroes show up?"

Clark heard something wrong, and asked hesitantly, "If there were superheroes, no matter what, the masses would not die in such a large number."

Claude touched the material of the page.

"It's a modern technology." The human male colleague analyzed, "The paper is smooth, the fibers are invisible to the naked eye, and the jagged edges of the grid printing here... It looks like you and I are in the same era."

The god on earth and the human male colleague glanced at each other, keeping this question in mind, and Claude continued to read.

"We're all going to die. I'm going to die too."

"Our civilization is on the verge of destruction. In just a few weeks, only a quarter of humanity survived. Our mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters, and relatives connected by blood are all dying one after another, becoming a shriveled body. Thin body. What is that? Why did they die in such a miserable way? I tried to lift my dead wife from the bed, and she turned into a puff of smoke and scattered in my arms. I even Couldn't piece together my wife's body."

The handwriting is a little empty here.

"Only one tenth of the survivors remain."

"For some reason, I'm not dead yet. Ever since my wife and mother died, I've been feeling extreme numbness from morning till night. I'm sitting where I am. I don't want to eat or drink. If death comes, let it come."

"The survival data of the survivors dropped from [-] million to [-] million. The power and water were cut off, but I still didn't die."

"What is death? What is existence? How many days have you not eaten? Does it all matter? I am sitting in my wife's ashes, with waves of nothingness playing in my head."

——————— Clark glanced at the paper from the direction of Claude's shoulder, and was surprised to find that the handwriting on the paper, from the beginning of sickness and madness, gradually turned into a fairly regular handwriting .

This handwriting looks similar to the notebook they found before, full of the same regularity, as if it was written by a machine instead of a human.

"The number of survivors kept dropping. But the rate started to slow down."

"It's been a month since the cataclysm, and I haven't slept, eaten or drank. In fact, none of it matters. I feel like I've lost my human traits and appeals. This morning, I stood up and looked at myself in the mirror. , went out for the first time."

"The street is not as empty as I imagined. There are a few people like me wandering on it. I and they looked at each other calmly, knowing very well that we feel the same at this time."

"That nothingness... the endless nothingness. The peaceful nothingness. It doesn't seem so bad to stay where you are because it doesn't matter anymore."

The end of the handwriting shows the neatness of the typography, and it stops abruptly in the last gap.

"........."

Claude was silent for a while, and handed the paper back to Clark next to him.

"Jesus..." he sighed stiffly, "what the hell did I just read?"

"........."

Clark patted him on the shoulder sympathetically.

Clark: I don't understand, but I'm shocked.jpg

"Claude." The god on earth read out the name of his human male colleague, and got a puzzled look from the latter.

"You said this record," Superman shook the paper in his hand carefully, "could it be here... the origin of everything?"

"Cataclysm?"

Claude asked.

Clark nodded.

"Assuming they are in a parallel world." His throat was dry and his chest tightened. "These living people, in order to be able to live——"

"—Maybe it is in this world that the source of their crimes has been opened."

Claude quickly followed up with this sentence.

"........."

The candlelight was faint, the god on earth and the human male colleague looked at each other, and both of them couldn't help turning pale.