-:Binge:-
Because of a stupid glitch, the chapters got messed up and this wasn't uploaded. Apologies. Thank you for making me aware of this, OverkillBills.
....
"Where did he go?"
Batman looked around, his eyes no longer on Dr Manhattan but on the tall man's figure.
"What happened?"
Shazam rubbed his head. The terrible shock wave threw him off.
'That blue man was terrifying!'
Even the most powerful superhero on the planet recognised it.
The beacon of light on Earth, the son of Krypton...
He also had weaknesses.
Like kryptonite, like magic, like ... kindness.
But the power that Dr Manhattan had displayed was almost despairing.
The Justice League had never met an enemy like him.
No flaws, no vulnerabilities, nearly invincible.
"Was that Clark just now?"
Super Girl hesitantly asked.
She saw a raised dark red cloak and the fiery rays spewing from his eyes.
That reminded Kara of Superman.
"The Superman I know wouldn't be that violent."
Batman shook his head.
When the man appeared, a murderous wave swept across Mars.
This wasn't something Superman would do.
"Hal, are you okay?"
Barry, who was watching the battle, saw that the fight was over and rushed up to help his good friend to his feet before saying...
"Luke, his name is Luke Cavill. He's also a Kryptonian."
"Maybe none of you know him, but Luke once helped me stop the great crisis of the destruction of the universe!"
"Like Wally, he was probably deleted from the timeline by that blue man!"
"Only Diana and I remember some things!"
Hearing the Flash say this, Batman's eyes suddenly sharpened.
As always, he aptly caught the keywords.
'Kryptonian!'
'Another mighty Kryptonian!'
'How many Kryptonians are there in this universe?'
Batman felt that the destruction of Krypton was simply a lie.
'From General Zod to Kara...'
'There's also the Super Kryptonian H'el and the Bottle City of Kandor.'
'It seems that a Kryptonian would pop up every now and then!'
Batman had a headache and even a slight sign of a rise in blood pressure.
The increase in Kryptonians meant that there were more targets to monitor and more people to be vigilant of.
It's exhausting work!
"Flash, can you tell me more about ... Luke?"
Batman deeply sighed, then asked in a hoarse voice.
"Luke? Ah ..."
Faced with the brains of the Justice League, Barry behaved like a student called into the office by the Principal.
He told them all about what he had seen at the Marvel studio.
It's not like it's a secret that needs to be hidden.
"Another multiverse?"
Batman finally couldn't keep his indifferent tone and showed a hint of surprise.
He looked out over the empty battlefield, worry surfacing in his deep eyes.
...
...
Turning back the clock to 3 minutes ago.
The superheroes on Mars could have seen this scene.
The tall man's aura was like a volcano erupting, his fiery eyes spewing light.
The dark cloak was raised high, and the hard fist swung. It instantly broke through the space-time dimension.
Time was like a complicated line curled backward, while space became a thin sheet of folded and twisted paper.
The matter was annihilated, shattered, and then formed a vacuum of nothingness!
The only thing that remained intact was the quantum body of the blue man.
The tidal wave of blue energy was like a mountain of light, but it all parted and disappeared in front of Superman's iron fist.
Boom!
A loud, silent boom in the void!
The whole multiverse was shaken!
The seemingly slow process actually took no more than Planck time.
Superman's fist smashed into Dr Manhattan's head, hard.
The quantum body, which was neither material nor energetic, was like a watermelon that had been pierced by a bullet.
It burst into flames and was reduced to nothing!
Thick darkness enveloped Dr Manhattan.
This was the future he saw, the ending he saw.
'My death!'
"I see."
Dr Manhattan suddenly said.
For the first time since possessing his quantum body, he could clearly feel the threat of death.
Superman's iron fist, which seemed to contain some kind of power, stubbornly prevented his torso from reorganising.
'Death?'
Dr Manhattan sensed an aura similar to divine power.
If a more appropriate word was used, it might be 'rule' or 'authority'.
His consciousness drifted in the sea of quanta, struggling to dominate matter, to dominate particles, to restore that one body.
After becoming Dr Manhattan, he wouldn't age or die.
Pain, weakness, fear … these basic human feelings were forgotten.
Even Ozymandias tried to kill him with the energy of the Intrinsic Field Subtractor at that time.
Dr Manhattan didn't feel like he was in danger.
But this time, it was different.
This Superman was from another universe.
Had strength beyond common sense.
'Can't reorganise the body from the current timeline, then go to another ...'
Dr Manhattan decided to follow the curled-up timeline to avoid Superman's next attack.
His mind transcended space and time, gaining the possibility of infinite quantum changes.
Thus, existing on all timelines, above all points in time.
"You're thinking too highly of yourself, Doctor!"
Luke took a step forward and was the first to rush into the curled, fragmented space-time.
The bio-force field was fully open. Using the Silver Superman card that could pull an entire galaxy, he easily enveloped this space-time and took it to an alternate timeline.
The Justice League world was changed by Superman's older cousin!
...
...
In another timeline.
After Luke left, Superman stepped out of his small town in Kansas to become the hope of Metropolis.
Lex Luthor took over Vought Enterprise.
Everyone had a bright future.
Later, Superman met Batman, becoming best rivals and best friends.
Then Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Cyborg, Aquaman ...
They teamed up together and formed a group.
Justice followed, and bigger villains followed.
Darkseid, the monarch from the planet Apokolips, tried to take over the blue planet.
Everyone went through a crisis, some heroes sacrificed themselves, and some heroes saved the world.
Many villains and the Justice League played cops-and-robbers.
The cycle of routines went on and on.
Until the Crisis on Infinite Earths arrived!
...
...
In less than a second, the reorganisation of Dr Manhattan's quantum body was complete.
But when he opened his eyes, what he saw was darkness.
The multiverse was constantly collapsing and disintegrating.
It was as if the furnace was burning out and about to be extinguished.
One Earth after another was swallowed up, destroyed, and trillions of lives died.
"This is?"
A hint of doubt flashed in Dr Manhattan's indifferent eyes.
'I came to that point in time?'
Before he knew it, Superman's fist had crossed time and space.
Along with it came Luke's deep voice --
"This is the Crisis on Infinite Earths! This is the day the multiverse will restart, the day the parallel worlds will die out!"
Bang!
The hard fist, once again, shattered Dr Manhattan's quantum body and returned his consciousness to darkness.
Luke stood steady in this space-time; he could feel the multiverse gradually collapsing, about to be swallowed up by an extremely frightening force.
The stars trembled, and everything wailed.
It was as if the universe was ending.
'The Crisis on Infinite Earths has begun. '
Luke thought to himself.
The source of all this happened tens of billions of years ago.
The immortals of the planet Maltus formed an extremely high-class super-ancient civilisation.
Among them, there was a scientist with twisted desires, Krona.
This man had to explore the forbidden secrets, the origin of life and the universe, despite the opposition of his compatriots.
Krona's pursuit of knowledge led to a huge disaster affecting the multiverse.
The antimatter universe was born -- it was a complex world that was diametrically opposite to the positive matter multiverse.
Its existence had also led to the fragmentation of the positive matter multiverse, giving rise to the concept of 'parallel universes'.
The Immortals of the planet Maltus had responded to the crisis by researching and harnessing the power of the emotional spectrum to create the Green Lantern Corps.
Then, other Lantern Corps were born.
This was the ancient legend recorded in the Book of Oa.
Luke wasn't only aware of this secret; he was also aware of the protector of the positive matter multiverse, called the Monitor.
The keeper of the antimatter universe was called the 'Anti-Monitor'.
The Anti-Monitor had always wanted to devour the matter universe, thus weakening the Monitor's power and making himself the only one in existence.
Now, his wish was coming true.
Millions of parallel universes were being swallowed up and destroyed.
The power of the Anti-Monitor had reached its peak, standing at the apex of the multiverse.
As long as he used the Antimatter Cannon again, destroying all the parallel universes in one fell swoop and devouring this unimaginably terrifying energy...
It was quite possible, then, that the Anti-Monitor would push open the doors of the Omniverse.
Be aware that after the outbreak of the Crisis on Infinite Earths...
Even Darkseid, under the pressure of survival, cooperated with the Justice League.
It was evident at this point how frightening the Anti-Monitor was.
Luke used his Super Vision to take in the destruction of the entire multiverse.
He saw superheroes from various parallel universes struggling to resist but unable to do any damage in the face of the immensely powerful Anti-Monitor.
'Solve the trouble for my little cousin, and get the Anti-Life Equation in the process. '
Luke lightly thought so.
The reason why the Anti-Monitor was so powerful was mainly because of that terrifying equation.
loneliness + alienation + fear + despair + self-worth ÷ mockery ÷ condemnation ÷ misunderstanding x guilt x shame x failure x judgment n=y, where y=hope and n=folly, love=lies, life=death, self=dark side.
It was said that this Anti-Life Equation was a transcendental mathematical formula.
It could engulf any substance and manipulate any life.
It was the most dangerous weapon in the multiverse. Once possessed, it could manipulate others at will, influence their thinking and submit to the user of the equations.
Even multiverse-level beings couldn't defend themselves against it.
The Dark Lord of the Apokolips, Darkseid, had always wanted it.
The Anti-Monitor, who held the Anti-Life Equation, was at his most powerful state.
Not even the Spectre, who personified The Avenging Wrath of God, couldn't judge.
The landscape was, of course, limited to this story.
In several major events since then, the Anti-Monitor, who had lost the Anti-Life Equation, was captured by Nekron and crafted into the total energy source for the Black Lantern Corps.
The momentum kept coming down, to the point where he could even blow Dr Manhattan's head off at will.
The dark cloak slightly swung up.
In the next moment.
Luke appeared in the Antimatter universe.
At this point...
The superhero was exhausted.
The voice of the Anti-Monitor shook the universe --
"Today is the last day of the matter multiverse! Your world will die, as will those who have tried to stop me! Do you hear that bell ringing? That will be the last sound you will ever hear!"
Superman covered his head in pain as he heard the prayers, the prayers, and the panic of the multiverse and saw the terrible sight of a planet burning, releasing its light and heat, and finally returning to nothingness.
"I'm going to save ..."
The majestic Heat Vision struck the Anti-Monitor's armour without even leaving a scratch.
"You can't save anything, Superman."
The huge figure standing in the Antimatter universe stomped down with a terrifying force that shattered the heavenly bodies.
The energy shield held up by the many superheroes broke in an instant.
"I will make you witness with your own eyes how your world is destroyed!"
The Anti-Monitor roared, ready to activate the Antimatter Cannon.
The Flash struggled to stand up. He wanted to sacrifice himself and destroy this terrible weapon that destroyed the Positive Matter Cannon.
'I have to use Speed Force, I can do this!'
"This time, there's no need for you to sacrifice yourself."
Luke appeared in front of the Justice League.
Exhausted and weary, Superman saw the dark red cloak.
Memories hidden in his heart were immediately awakened, and various scenes came flooding in.
"Cousin ..."
In the end, all the memories were turned into an address.
"Leave it to me."
Luke didn't look back but took a step forward.
The fluttering cloak seemed to cover the whole multiverse.
The tall and straight figure was like a huge celestial body, stretching across the crowd's field of vision.
"Are you ..."
The Anti-Monitor didn't even finish his sentence before a punch came blasting through.
The former was at the most satisfying and peak moment of his life. How could he bear such a provocation?
The power of the Anti-Life Equation, transformed into a blinding light that illuminated the multiverse, enveloped Luke with the intention of corrupting and controlling him.
But the Tenth Metal in the latter's body erupted with a brilliant silver glow, the power of the Source, tenaciously resisting the violent erosion of the Anti-Life Equation.
With a grip of Luke's palm, a stellar celestial object shrunk into a round ball, which he squeezed and slammed hard into the Anti-Monitor's armour.
The collision between the positive and antimatter universes seemed to have been crushed by a rumble of thunder.
Every living being in the parallel universes could feel a terrifying aura sweeping over them.
The Anti-Monitor fell!
Devouring the Anti-Life energy of numerous parallel universes wasn't enough to give him security in the face of the tall, expressionless man.
"It's not just the end of the multiverse, but your end."
Luke quietly said.
He looked down at the fallen Anti-Monitor and severely stepped on him.
...
...
"The timeline of the past had actually been taken over by Superman."
Dr Manhattan's consciousness still existed. He witnessed how Luke killed the creature in the armour.
The Anti-Life Energy spilt out and was directly absorbed by Superman.
'The future! Superman won't find me in the future!'
Dr Manhattan forcibly broke away from this point in time and travelled to a more distant future.
When his body reorganised, he opened his eyes.
This time, Superman's iron fist didn't attack.
But Dr Manhattan heard a chilling, frantic laugh.
Hahahahahaha --
The laughter was as dark as Owlman's and as crazy as a madman's.
The mere sound of it sent chills down one's spine.
"Which timeline is this?"
Dr Manhattan walked on a desolate planet, his sight only able to see the results but not the process.
However, the blue man soon knew the answer.
A slender bat-like black shadow enveloped the multiverse.
In front of him, there was a woman.
That was the mother of the Multiverse, Perpetua.
She was an all-powerful god standing in the Sixth Dimension, and she was the being who created everything.
The three sons of Perpetua were the World Forger, who created the Dark Multiverse, and the Monitor and Anti-Monitors, who Luke had killed.
This all-powerful cosmic-level goddess of creation was originally sealed within the Source Wall by her son.
Later, the Source Wall broke.
However, Perpetua was successfully unsealed by the machinations of the Batman Who Laughs.
The One Who Laughs was from Earth-22 in the Dark Multiverse, and he was one of many Batmen.
One day, he contracted a virus after killing the Joker.
So, Batman and the Joker, two sides of a coin, fused into one.
After transforming into the Batman Who Laughs, he engineered the extermination of his bat family by killing Nightwing, Red Hood, Red Robin, and Batgirl.
And transformed his son, Damian, into the beastly, maniacal Dark Robin with the Joker Virus.
After committing all these heinous acts, Laughs turned on the Justice League.
It was a bloody and brutal story.
After finally killing all the targets he could inflict violence on, Laughs was recruited by Barbatos to join the Dark Knights as one of the seven Nightmare Batmen.
Laughs had now become the most powerful being in the multiverse through countless plots and plans, and the 'everything is within expectation' plug-in.
As long as he defeated Perpetua, the goddess of creation, whose power hadn't been restored yet...
Laughs could take over the multiverse and create and destroy the world as he pleased.
"Soon, the Batman Who Laughs will kill Perpetua. When she dies, he will create a Nightmare Universe, where there would be no place for us."
The discussion of the Justice League reached Dr Manhattan's ears across a great distance.
"Another multiverse about to fall into extinction, waiting to be restarted again! The future is surprisingly like this!"
Quantum life had no emotions, but Dr Manhattan still felt sad.
Whether it was the past or the future.
The fate of the multiverse was too dark.
"Perhaps Superman's numerous changes are part of the multiverse's reset."
Dr Manhattan suddenly looked up at the two ethereal projections standing in a higher dimension, filling the multiverse.
The Batman Who Laughs, and Perpetua.
"Everything is like a story that was constantly being redacted. We are all characters in the book, and as such, we can't step outside the plot."
Dr Manhattan seemed to figure out where the mysterious force that made Superman's story different each time came from.
That was the higher world of the goddess of creation.
The greatest secret hidden in the depths of the Omniverse.
"You already knew that, didn't you?"
Dr Manhattan turned back to the tall man who had crossed time and space to catch up again.
"Yes."
Luke, who had the Superboy-Prime card, was staring into the void.
He was like the presenter facing the camera or an actor filming a scene.
"Every restart of the multiverse is the end of a story."
Luke was explaining like he was reading some kind of narration.
"Popular superheroes and villains are preserved, adding more detail and setting to start a whole new life."
"Unwanted characters, gradually marginalised, become background boards, and no longer appeared."
"Doctor, this is the truth of the multiverse."
"Everyone is a puppet on a string and won't even remember each time they got erased or rebooted."
Dr Manhattan was silent. He fancied himself a quantum observer...
Observing the changes in everything and the world from an elevated perspective.
Unbeknownst to him, other creatures at higher latitudes were doing similar things in a similar way to himself...
"What do you want to do?"
Dr Manhattan asked.
All the grudges seem so insignificant when placed in front of the great event of the Multiverse's demise and reboot.
Since fate ends in darkness, surely Superman would do something to stop this awful ending.
"Shut that guy up who keeps making that ugly laugh ... take over this multiverse instead of Perpetua."
Luke lightly said.
"Where do you get your confidence from?"
Dr Manhattan was very confused.
Luke was a multiverse level at best. He had no chance of winning against the equally powerful Batman Who Laughs and Perpetua, who was once an Omniverse level being.
The power of the Tenth Metal's origin, part of the power of Death, the 'fourth wall' power of Superboy-Prime...
Even if everything was combined, it would be impossible to overcome two strong opponents.
"It might be close on my own, but with you, it might be different."
Luke said with a smile.
"Aren't we enemies?"
Dr Manhattan was even more puzzled.
He didn't seem to be able to use the logic of human behaviour and analyse the other party.
"You banished me once, and I beat you to death twice, so we're even."
Luke waved his hand graciously and spoke in a compelling tone, "Do you want to see this multiverse die out? Then you'd have to go back to the Watchmen universe and face Ozymandias again. That quiet and boring life."
"Stay here, and you can witness all kinds of exciting stories."
For the first time, a humane look emerged from Dr Manhattan, and his eyes lit up with a glint.
He was moved.
"What else can you give me besides that?"
Dr Manhattan asked quite bluntly.
"A job."
Luke snapped his fingers.
He didn't pay attention to the Batman Who Laughs and Perpetua, who were engaged in a fierce battle.
Even without Dr Manhattan's help, through the influence of time travelling downstream, they could surely unite the superheroes to defeat the other party eventually.
This was the destined end of the story.
What Luke wanted was to adjust it a little and add his own part.
The loss of beings such as the World Forger, the Monitor and Anti-Monitor, and the Goddess of Creation, Perpetua.
This multiverse was tantamount to being without a manager, leaving many positions waiting to be filled.
"I have the means to ignite the World Forge. If I can defeat those two guys. Then, I will need a forger, a watcher, and an order-keeper."
Looking at Dr Manhattan, Luke offered his fee.
"Which one would you like to be? Or are you interested in all three jobs?"
Dr Manhattan didn't speak, quietly considering.
Above the higher dimensions, the battle between Laughs and Perpetua intensified.
At present, the former seemed to have the upper hand.
Hahahaha --
That scary, crazy laughter echoed in every corner of the multiverse.
"Which one are you going to let me deal with?"
A moment later, Dr Manhattan asked.
For a quantum being with no normal biological, or emotional needs, there was indeed nothing more tempting than an all-encompassing view of the multiverse.
Besides, he was curious as to what was behind the Omniverse.
"How about Perpetua?"
Luke looked up at the slender black shadow.
"I hate that guy's laughter. It's too harsh and ugly."
Dr Manhattan nodded as a burst of blue light dissipated and moved to the Sixth Dimension.
And Luke disappeared and appeared in front of the laughing bat.
"A new face? Kryptonian? Superman? Do you need me to tell you the story of how I slaughtered Metropolis?"
Laughs, who had already reached the apex of the multiverse, wasn't surprised to see Luke.
After all, everything was within his expectations.
He instantly learned everything about this new face from the timeline of the past.
'Superman's older cousin?'
'Established Vought Enterprise?'
'Lex Luthor's godfather?'
All kinds of information poured into Laughs' head. In a tone of someone who saw through everything, he mockingly laughed, "No matter where you come from, no matter how strong you are, the Kryptonian can never defeat the 'Batman'. That's the iron law."
"Hahahahahahaha. Killing another Superman would be so satisfying!"
Luke listened quietly and waited until the Batman Who Laughs was again, emitting that chilling and maddening laugh.
He clenched his fist, strode forward, and swung it out!
That was a full-powered swing!
A multitude of Superman cards rolled into one, bursting with unparalleled force!
Luke's fist pierced straight through the barrier of the Sixth Dimension.
The multiverse, which was turning into nothingness and darkness, seemed to have been blasted by a strong light that illuminated everything.
The slender figure of the laughing bat, like a melted candle, became distorted.
He smashed against the Source Wall.
Then, he heard an indifferent voice from above --
"Keep laughing!"