He brought Soren to the Watchtower.
When Soren learned what had happened, he held Clark in pain, then turned to look out the window—towards where Clark Kent was.
His gaze, filled with fury, pierced through Clark like a blade, cutting to his core.
Soren thought it had all been part of Dr. Manhattan's plan...
But he didn't know that everything they had gone through had already been written by fate in advance.
Clark stood outside the window, placing his hand against the glass, resting his palm against Soren's face.
On February 17, 2018, Soren stood atop Tokyo Tower, gazing at Kal-El, who now seemed more like a god than ever before, his expression frozen in disbelief.
"...You were right, Clark."
At that moment, he had already made up his mind to walk a path opposite to Clark's.
On May 13, 2018, an unprecedented super blizzard raged over the Arctic.
Kal-El seized the boy wielding the power of six gods and sealed his mouth shut with freezing breath.
Scarlet heat vision pierced through the boy's skull.
…Time reset here for the 30,891st time.
Clark saved Billy from his past self 16,950 times.
He fought his former self and killed himself 3,940 times.
He took Soren away 10,001 times.
But no matter what he did, no matter how desperately he tried to stop it all, to extinguish this monstrous snowstorm, time moved like a relentless beast, always close behind him, until it finally caught up, tearing him apart, leaving him in shreds.
——The true punishment awaited him here.
He would know everything fate had in store.
He knew they would step by step march towards ruin, but there was nothing he could do to stop it.
Fate wanted him to witness, once again, everything he had done to Soren, live and in vivid detail!
He was bound to the execution platform, with nowhere to run.
December 31, 2018, in the deepest part of the underground base.
Soren and the friends he had met in this hellish world were drinking themselves into oblivion.
He lay happily among them in the narrow storage room, reeking of alcohol, carefree like a boy attending a party on a college campus.
Someone asked him what his New Year's wish was.
He paused for a moment, then carefully took out a photograph he had taken with Clark more than a decade ago.
"I want to go back to that day," Soren said softly.
——That had been, up until now, the happiest day of Soren's life.
All his happiness and love had been drawn with crayon onto the pages of that day's album.
In the hallucination brought on by the alcohol, he saw the teenage Clark Kent standing in front of the Christmas tree, looking up at him.
He instinctively stepped forward, opening his arms to embrace his Clark.
The body in his arms was warm and strong.
He thought he was hugging the Clark Kent from his memories.
Satisfied, he closed his eyes against the other's chest and whispered affectionately, "I love you so much, Clark."
...But Clark, filled with endless sorrow and bitterness, reached out and wrapped his arms around his little star.
How he longed to say, "I love you too."
But from the moment he had embarked on this journey, he had already lost the right to love him.
He was a prisoner burdened with blood debts, still walking his long road of penance.
He was trapped in time and could never return to the past.
He could only bury all his exhaustion, aging, frailty, and pain deep within.
He gently stroking the soft crown of Soren's hair, suppressing his voice as he whispered, "Go to sleep, Soren, I'll stay with you."
——I will always stay with you.
——I will forever stay with you.
——Until the end of the world.
January 1, 2019.
Soren and his teammates arrived in Albania.
Clark had the girl distract their attention, but at the same time, Kal-El was also tracking Hydra's trail to Albania.
In front of Soren, Kal-El killed Whitney.
Tears streamed down Soren's face as he grabbed Kal-El by the collar, trembling, and choked out, "Why, Clark, why! If you hate me, you can just kill me!"
Kal-El looked at him and whispered, "How could I bear to kill you?"
Soren let go of him, staring blankly.
…Perhaps it was in that moment that he realized an unbridgeable chasm of blood would forever lie between them.
That very evening.
Scarlet heat vision ripped his parents away from him before his eyes.
In his despair, Soren evolved.
With a silver greatsword in hand, he forced Kal-El back into the cedar forests of Alaska.
He softly said, "No."
Then, with the determination to die, he pressed the Seven Heavens into his chest.
...Time reset 107,105 times.
April 3, 2019. Time reset 500 times.
April 15, 2019. Time reset 127 times.
April 28, 2019. Time reset 13 times.
May 4, 2019. Time reset 69 times.
June 3, 2019. Time reset 81 times.
November 13, 2019, at the Justice League headquarters in Washington, Soren woke up curled up on the sofa and didn't see any sign of Kal-El.
Anxiously, he searched the small room, calling out "Kal-El" over and over again.
Finally, too tired to continue, he sat at the foot of the bed, wiping his tears as he cried, and slowly fell back asleep.
Clark walked over, picking up the copy of Plato's *Phaedrus* that Soren had dropped on the floor.
He lifted Soren onto the bed, softly reading to lull him to sleep.
"…You must understand, Phaedrus, that the soul itself possesses a kind of divine power… We must never interpret love as a form of conquest…"
March 29, 2020, a Clark Kent from a parallel universe opened the window made of Klyntar steel.
Soren looked at this young and handsome Superman but clung even tighter to the stuffed doll in his arms.
He fiddled with the doll's red cape, with the same stubbornness he'd had since he was a child, and muttered, "...I only want my Clark."