The others looked down at the pool filled with the hallucinogenic liquid, only to find that the various metals they had thrown in earlier had vanished. Instead, Peter's body was twisting with psychedelic light, and his eyes were flashing with a metallic sheen.
Jerome's eyes widened in surprise as he walked over to Peter. He leaned in, sniffed, and clearly detected the scent of the Dionysus Factor. He grabbed Peter's hand and, producing a small knife from seemingly nowhere, appeared to be intent on cutting open Peter's palm.
Peter, frightened, tried to pull his hand back but, seeing that Shiller showed no emotion, knew that Jerome didn't mean to harm him, so he allowed Jerome to hold onto his hand.
As Jerome brought the knife to Peter's palm without applying much force, the tip of the knife touched his skin and melted instantly. The metal turned into a pool of liquid and merged into Peter's body.
Peter blinked a few times, unable to comprehend what had just happened, as it was not of his doing. He took a deep breath and focused on the palm of his hand. A moment later, a small piece of black metal emerged, clearly part of the knife that had just been absorbed.
What was this? A human steel furnace? Peter was confused. He felt as though he could control his skin, so he took another deep breath. A silver-white glow surfaced on his skin and quickly formed a new Spider-Man suit.
Cobblepot walked over and touched the suit, then said, "This looks like the metal piece that's in Alfred's mind, the one that Thomas found in the wreckage of a spaceship in Africa."
"That's Nth Metal," Shiller interjected. "It has many magical properties, but most importantly, it's incredibly durable, practically indestructible."
"You must have absorbed five types of metals and now possess their abilities," Shiller said. "Think back carefully and see if you have any additional memories."
What Shiller was actually referring to was the most special of the five metals, namely Bat Gold. Theoretically, this metal should be connected to Batman and injected into him by an Owl Priest as the final key to open the door.
However, it might have been that the slightly inaccurate mix of metals catalyzed by Amber Gold underwent some sort of mutation, and all the metals were absorbed into Peter's body. But since Peter was not Batman, it was uncertain what the Bat Gold could bring him.
Peter closed his eyes, recalling carefully, then suddenly showed signs of pain, but quickly relaxed again. He said, "I saw a lot of different scenes, seemingly from ancient times, with a group of people dressed like birds worshipping incessantly. Then there were bats and a giant furnace..."
At the mention of the furnace, Shiller reacted, knowing the close relationship between Barbados and the World Forger. This furnace was likely the World Forge; he hadn't expected Bat Gold to be connected to it. Could it be a metal stolen by Barbados when he fled from the World Forge?
In the DC World, there are ten types of metals, the first five of which were fed to Batman during the Metal event to open the gateway to the dark universe. The tenth became the key to reversal.
Each of the five metals has its own mystical characteristics. Some origins are described explicitly, like Nth Metal, which is said to be a rare metal produced in the cosmos, similar to Vibranium, and used by advanced civilizations to create the outer shells of spaceships, known for its indestructibility.
But the origins of some magic-related metals are never clearly detailed, like Bat Gold. Its properties and functions are strange, capable of amplifying Magic Energy. Shiller had speculated whether this metal might be related to the Inverted Man, but now it seemed that the memories carried within this metal suggested it could be a treasure of the World Forger.
Now that Peter had absorbed it, it should mean that he has similar powers. Shiller pulled out the unused candle, broke a small piece off and handed it to Peter.
Peter was initially clueless, but the moment he touched the candle, he widened his eyes in shock as he felt a massive Energy flow into his body.
As he covered his body with this energy, he nearly turned into a flowing mercury light, shining brightly.
Peter felt as if he could use this energy to do something, but at the moment, he was at a loss. He had seen many books on the occult and Magic during his time with the black sun and knew of the existence of Magicians in this world, but he lacked the energy then and didn't know how to use magic.
Now that he had the energy and knew the appearance of some spells, for some reason, he just couldn't cast them. He thought it might be because theoretical knowledge was insufficient, but it wasn't appropriate to experiment here. He needed to return to the Black Sun to study it carefully.
For someone with a scholarly personality like Peter, not being able to research a new topic right away was agonizing. He had wanted to leave immediately, but he then heard Shiller asking Jerome about what really happened here. Peter was also curious about the truth and decided to stay and listen attentively.
Beyond the story of Martha and Thomas, there was also a tale to be told about Jerome. It mainly involved his experiences after joining an insurance company as an investigator.
In fact, he had no real schemes. Just like the saying goes: after beating up Batman, even Joker has to go shopping and cook dinner. After all, he wasn't a wealthy man. Without work, how would he have money to live?
Jerome, due to mental health issues and low education, was rejected by many official companies and didn't want to get involved with the Mob. He could only find jobs that required intellectual work, straddling the line between the law-abiding and the criminal.
Previously, he had been doing false accounting for a financial agency company and got to know a colleague who later switched to an insurance company. The operations of this insurance company were also shady; in short, they duped people into buying insurance but never paid out. There were various means to avoid payment: either declare the accident as purposely caused or simply intimidate clients into cancelling their contracts.
When Jerome's financial agency was taken down, he had nowhere else to go. Thus, he gladly accepted a job at the insurance company through a referral from that former colleague. He was quite skilled at the job, especially in fabricating evidence, and he solved many problems for the company, quickly earning a promotion and becoming indispensable.
Around the same time, Gotham City began experiencing a rash of abnormal incidents, with many people dying in brutal accidents while numerous eyewitnesses claimed they were killed by monsters.
Some of these people had bought insurance from the company Jerome worked for, and naturally, it fell to him to deal with these cases. At first, he didn't believe in the existence of real monsters, thinking that someone was deliberately spreading rumors to make his company pay out more money.
But as he investigated, Jerome began to realize something was amiss; he discovered that this city indeed harbored an evil god. However, he did not yet know that the perpetrator was Little Bruce.
It was Jerome who zeroed in on Bruce Wayne.
As mentioned before, Jerome wasn't like his brother; he was a born sadist who hid it well. Not only did he attend a prestigious university, but his credentials were also impressive, which made it easy for him to get a job at Wayne Enterprises.
He hadn't initially targeted Bruce. He just wanted to add a stint at Wayne Enterprises to his resume, which was a considerable achievement during this time, given that the company was the dominant force in the industry.
Then he met Bruce Wayne.
Jerome was an excellent pretender and quickly became friends with Bruce. Both young, talented scientists, they got to the point where they shared everything with each other. That's when Jerome began to notice something off about Bruce.
Combining this with the ongoing monster attacks in the city, Jerome thought Bruce was being controlled by the evil god, so he decided to stage a drama, play the hero, and gain further trust from Bruce.
Jerome was a genius in many ways; he had already noticed abnormal brainwave patterns in those controlled and attacked by the monsters. So, he developed a machine called the Brain Wave Impact Device, which, once used on those under evil god's control, would completely disrupt their brainwaves and trigger the outbreak of corruption.
Jerome tricked Bruce into the factory at just the right moment and hit him with the device. He didn't expect Bruce to not be one of those controlled; the blast revealed Bruce's true form, and the myriad tentacles nearly scared Jerome to death.
Even so, Jerome, with his twisted devotion, didn't abandon his plan. He left the device running; its range covered half of Gotham, easily enveloping the city's central area.
What he didn't know was that, other than Bruce, there were other contaminated creatures within its range. They immediately went berserk, and the anomalies hidden within many buildings erupted, leading to the disaster 20 days ago.
"Arrogant" was an apt description for Jerome, because when Bruce found himself in trouble due to the Brain Wave Impact Device, the first person he thought to seek wasn't Jerome but his brother, Jerome.
In fact, Bruce had interacted with Jerome way less than he had with that damned insurance investigator. While Bruce may have had some common topics with Jerome, he considered Jerome a threat, so when big trouble struck, he instinctively turned to his nemesis.
When Jerome realized something was wrong, he turned off the machine, but it was too late. The entire city was already undergoing anomalies, and he had to scan the city's brainwaves again, discovering the most severely affected hotel and rushing over, only to find that Jerome had also arrived, both of them stumbling into different dimensions.
Jerome knew Jerome would come, so he managed to use his advantage of being in the past to contact Jerome. Despite their reluctance to work together, they had no choice but to begrudgingly cooperate.
However, Jerome knew much more than Jerome did, as he had been investigating Little Bruce and had also found out that Gotham Cathedral knew about Martha's plan.
In this universe, Little Bruce hadn't become Batman, and Jerome hadn't become the public figure of Joker. However, during his investigation of the anomalies, Jerome realized there was something unusual about himself; his body had resistance to certain anomalies and healed very quickly.
Jerome wasn't a scientist but eventually realized that the problem lay in his blood. With the information he gleaned about Martha's plan, he believed that the mysterious Dionysus Factor with self-healing powers existed within his own body.
He kidnapped a hematologist and after extracting and refining his blood, he indeed isolated a green, mysterious substance, which matched the green metal mentioned in the clues left by Martha at Gotham Cathedral.
Jerome wanted to rule the city, not destroy it. He knew that saving the city meant following Martha's plan to gather the metals that could open the portal. With the Dionysus Factor in hand, he entered the hotel and finally followed the guidance to the Underground Ancient City.