"Bruce Wayne!!!"
Lucifer's roar echoed through Heaven. He stormed into the rune adjustment room and confronted Bruce. "How did you broadcast my childhood anecdotes for all and sundry in Heaven to know? Michael was just laughing at the fact I was once slapped by a fish while trying to catch it. That was such a long time ago!"
"I didn't publicize it," Bruce replied calmly. "The other day, while I was modifying the runes of Holy Power, archangels like Raphael, Remiel, Uriel, and Michael grew concerned about my overwhelming workload and organized a group visit to check on me."
"I was deleting some antiquated runes at the time – yes, the ones you left behind from your childhood. You have no idea how much trouble they caused me."
"I had been working all day when Michael, empathizing with my workload, rallied the other Archangels to assist me with the deletion. They unavoidably saw the contents of those runes while we were working."
"In truth, you should blame God for this. Most of the contents on these ancient rune discs are not actually runes, but rather God's parenting logs, documenting everything you did as a child."
Lucifer's eyes widened slightly in disbelief. He had paid little attention to such matters before his escape from Heaven, and even less so after. Hence, he had never meticulously examined the rune discs.
He walked straight up to Bruce's console and flipped through the rune discs one after another. Almost every event from his childhood was recorded in these discs.
Lucifer, not a human, had memories from the moment of his birth. Unlike human children who scarcely remember anything from before the age of three or four, he remembered his childhood quite well.
Even so, he didn't expect God to have even clearer records of those days. The content on the rune discs ranged from the first time his feathers molted to the day he dug up an earthworm at Eden's river. If Lucifer were to write a diary himself, he wouldn't have been able to be this detailed.
In the end, Lucifer fell silent.
"Runes weren't initially intended to showcase power. All words and symbols were originally for note-taking." Bruce looked up at the densely packed rune discs and said, "The complex composition of runes that even humans and angels find difficult is actually just God's most convenient method for taking notes."
"But because there is a chasm of existence between him and all his creations, we struggle to read even the words he casually noted down, let alone comprehend their true meanings."
Bruce turned around to face Lucifer and said, "Even if we could read them, these memories recorded in the runes are not ours to share. I have only deleted these runes from the frame of power, but all the information is still there. If you wish, I could obliterate them completely."
Lucifer's hand shook slightly as he lowered his eyes and asked, "When was the last time God checked on them?"
"Three months before you returned," Bruce answered.
"No, don't delete them," Lucifer replied instinctively. He took a deep breath and added, "But don't let anyone else see them, especially my siblings. No angel but you are allowed in this room henceforth."
"Moreover, I might..." Lucifer sighed, but still said, "I might need to leave Heaven for a while. Reach out to Michael if there are any issues."
Lucifer walked to the doorway, then turned around to look at Bruce and said, "…You have been working here for many days. When you have the time, go see your professor. I will leave now, goodbye."
After Lucifer left, Bruce gave a slight smile. With Lucifer around, who vastly surpasses any other angel and is unpredictable in character and temperament, it was hard for him to make any moves. Upon Lucifer's departure, manipulating Michael, the paragon of virtue, would be considerably easier.
Michael's behavioral patterns were much more comprehensible than Lucifer's. The differences between them were like night and day.
Lucifer, filled with leisure and zest for life, would be present wherever there was fun. If there was none, he would create it himself. There was no fixed pattern to his actions. He could play both the good guy and the bad guy or be both the armed warrior as well as the scheming puppet master from behind the scenes. Bruce understood this type of individual all too well.
On the other hand, all of Michael's actions aimed at maintaining stability. His moral standard was high, believing both the means and ends must be just. As long as there was a worthy cause, he would not interfere. Furthermore, due to his upstanding moral ethics, he would never resort to deceit or ambush to catch others off guard.
Even at a glance, it was apparent who was easier to fool. As soon as he had seen off Lucifer, Bruce finally started his big fishing venture.
Bruce needed a knowledgeable Constantine, equipped with practical experience, to help him update the fundamental rules of the runes. But there was an inevitable issue: the professional expertise of countless Constantines across countless Universes varied immensely.
In Bruce's estimation, his Universe's Constantine, being younger, had relatively basic professional skills. Although he had mastered the art of chicanery and negotiation, he lacked depth in academic research.
If that was the case, Bruce should look for an older version of Constantine. But the problem was that a younger mage could pay more and thus possessed more power. As they got older and their bodies deteriorated, they had fewer and fewer resources at their disposal, their souls's value decreased, and so naturally, their powers declined.
If Bruce were to bring an elderly Constantine, he would have sufficient knowledge but lack power. Then wouldn't he still lack the means of practice?
Thus, he needed to find a Constantine who struck the perfect balance, one who not only possessed impressive knowledge of rune studies but also had the vitality and strength to perform various experiments. Simply put, he needed someone capable of withstanding Bruce's relentless mental and physical demands.
Modifying the foundational rules of any discipline is already an uphill task, let alone creating an entirely new basic discipline from scratch. It's a challenge far beyond the capabilities of any human.
Among all beings in the universe, perhaps Batman might be the only one with such audacious ambition to embark on the impossible. In order to keep pace with Batman, Constantine would undoubtedly need to demonstrate unparalleled capabilities.
As a result, Bruce started in the rune adjustment chamber, continuously altering the rules of some commonly used summoning magic arrays. This was the bait for his fishing expedition.
This method had several benefits: firstly, only Constantines with rich theoretical knowledge and refined academic skills could discover the changes in the runes, and possess the ability to use the new runes to form arrays in a short time. This immediately ruled out a group of too young or academically unsophisticated Constantines.
On the other hand, as the runes were changing so rapidly, for every change Heaven made, Constantine had to tirelessly update the use of the runes around the clock. And every time the structure of runes changed, Constantine had to re-infuse strength into them to test their usefulness.
These conditions made it evident that only Constantine, in his prime and overflowing with power, would have the rigor and energy reserves to accomplish these tasks. The younger and older Constantines, with their relative lack of vitality, would find it almost impossible to keep up with this rigorous rhythm.
Furthermore, any Constantine willing to keep up with Bruce's antics must have confidence in their level of rune research and a certain level of obsession with runes studies. Otherwise, why the insistence on using Heaven's rune lineage?
This is akin to a character development game changing its power ranking three to four times a day. One minute a character could be the perfect humanitarian card, the next they can be reduced to a warehouse manager.
Under such circumstances, you'd need to train a team of characters to tackle instances in the game. This would definitely require substantial in-game farming and spending on rare items. Only experienced players with a deep obsession with the game could handle it. Casual and indifferent players would have long abandoned the game.
Only the young, healthy, and intelligent fish had the qualifications to bite the hook Bruce had thrown. As for Constantine in the Prime Universe, he was certainly not outdone. After a thorough understanding of the current situation, he also begun to entertain another idea.
Standing in the centre of the magic array which had been changed countless times, he gazed at a rune thoughtfully. After a while, Jason who was yawning and stretching his body walked over, squinting sleepily at him, "You've stayed up for two nights in a row. Isn't it done yet?"
"Heaven perhaps wants to completely update the rune rules." Constantine spoke in a slightly hoarse voice, "This Angel, who keeps altering the rune rules, seems to be exploring a universal underlying rule... Interesting, very interesting."
"He wants to establish a body of study," Constantine mumbled to himself, crinkling his brow, "But as far as I know, none of the Archangels specialize in runes and power application. These superior beings who were born noble would rather be slapped by fish in the Garden of Eden than devote a second to contemplate how to better utilize their holy power."
"Isn't that alright?" Jason spread his palms out, saying, "They're angels. Using holy power is as simple as eating and drinking to them. It's us hapless humans who need to come up with all sorts of methods to efficiently utilize energy."
"But the problem is, they've been compromising for all this time, why suddenly remember to change it now?"
Constantine pondered for a while and then spoke in an almost unbelieving tone," A new Archangel has been born?...This is an opportunity, a brilliant one!"
Observing Constantine's quick steps towards the materials table, an perplexing Jason asked, "An opportunity? What opportunity?"
"If I get the chance to influence the understanding of rune structures of this newly-born Archangel, then I can leave my own mark in the newly established rune studies discipline and the underlying rules of runes. If I am the one who prints the textbooks, won't I have the liberty to make whatever backdoor deals I please?"
"Isn't that just underhanded?" Tim, who had just walked in, stared at him remarking.
"What do you guys know? Silly kids, put in a little effort for a month, and enjoy a lifetime of happiness. Ah, the good days of the magic realm are on the horizon!"
"Friends, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. If we can seize this opportunity, holy power will likely be the most important pillar of the magic realm for thousands of years to come!"
In the conference hall at Gotham Magic Academy, Dr. Strange was drumming on the blackboard, excitedly declaring, "The gods of your world are currently updating the underlying rules of a certain system, and if we can interfere with him, influence him, or even control him, then the people who have mastered the rules will become us."
Strange supported himself on the conference table with both hands, looking around at everyone, "Do you understand what this means?"
"This means that you and the magic realm of your universe are going to take a different, but equally powerful path from us. We use power, while you use rules."
In Strange's eyes, a storm named Ambition was swirling, it enveloped the entire room as he spoke,
"By using rules to attract power, and using power to change rules; borrowing money to build a gun, using the gun to steal money - friends, the good days of the magic realm are coming!"