Doctor Doom released his grip.
Even though Bruce managed to remain calm, he was still an ordinary human being. He couldn't help but take a deep breath.
Doctor Doom, staring at Bruce in front of him, said nothing more. Instead, he turned and walked deeper into the castle, signaling the guards to lower their weapons.
Doctor Doom believed this bat before him would become a tremendous asset. However, relying on a single individual was never his style.
He had already thought of an old acquaintance who would be particularly suited to handle this situation.
Doctor Doom's adoptive son had ended up beside the Bat.
"To be honest, just now I thought my father was going to kill you," said Christopher Vynard, Doom's adoptive son, with a touch of awe as he looked at Bruce.
In his memory, everyone who had ever entered Latveria without permission had either been torn to pieces by Doom's army or personally executed by Doom himself.
Bruce was probably the first unauthorized visitor to Latveria to survive—superheroes not included, of course.
Those people often had their own life-saving tricks and powers that could rival Doctor Doom's.
Even so, they were smart enough not to tread into Latveria without cause. After all, Latveria was a sovereign nation, and it had long signed non-aggression treaties with other countries.
"My name is Christopher." Doctor Doom's adopted son was quite different from him—he didn't carry Doom's overt arrogance. Rather, he had the noble demeanor of someone raised in refinement from a young age.
That alone was enough to intimidate many who met him.
But not Bruce. For him, this meant nothing. He simply nodded at Christopher.
"I'm Batman."
Hearing that name, Christopher raised his eyebrows. He knew exactly what that name signified.
Latveria may be sovereign, but that didn't mean it was cut off from the outside world. Christopher was well aware of the name Batman.
"Dude, I don't know if you're serious about using that name or if you have some other reason—but I like you." Christopher clearly admired someone bold enough to call himself Batman.
In every sense of the word.
"Come with me. I think my father wants to have a proper conversation with you. And I'd also like to know what exactly we just went through."
Christopher led the way.
He brought Bruce before his father—more accurately, to Doctor Doom's throne.
"Father."
"Perhaps you could tell me—what exactly did we just experience? Why did a planet suddenly appear above Latveria, and why did those damn insects invade my territory?"
Doctor Doom sat on his throne, scrutinizing Bruce with sharp eyes.
Bruce said nothing, his gaze locked on the man on the throne.
The two stared at each other in silence. Christopher feared that at any moment, his father might lose his temper and kill the man before him outright.
Doctor Doom stood up from the throne and walked slowly toward Bruce, eventually stopping in front of him.
"Father, he might have important intel for us," Christopher said nervously, trying to interject.
He was afraid Bruce would die right then and there.
Monarchs were often unpredictable, their expressions and moods shifting at a moment's notice, making it impossible to discern their true intentions.
Doctor Doom glanced at Christopher.
Christopher immediately fell silent and said no more.
Doctor Doom snapped his fingers lightly, and a chair materialized behind Bruce.
"Sit." Doom took his own seat first, then gestured to Bruce.
Batman, without hesitation, sat across from the ruler of Latveria, ready to converse.
"Now, can you tell us exactly what happened?"
"The multiverse is collapsing."
Bruce's words immediately shocked Christopher, but Doom didn't appear surprised. He merely rested his face on one hand as he sat.
"I had a feeling."
Doctor Doom was confident that if those superheroes truly intended to use that planet to destroy Latveria, they wouldn't have done it in such a crude way.
Never mind whether they could bear the consequences of provoking Latveria. Just getting past the scrutiny of other nations would have been impossible.
Which meant this had to be a covert operation, one directly related to the planet hovering above his castle.
What kind of crisis would compel Mister Fantastic, Iron Man, and Namor to all appear on his land at once?
Moreover, the object above his castle looked far too much like the planet beneath his feet.
"So… which world are you from?" Doom asked Bruce directly, showing no hesitation.
"I'd rather know what you plan to do," Bruce replied, showing no fear over Doom discovering he wasn't from this universe.
For someone who ruled a nation with an iron grip and wielded extraordinary power, it was far too easy to deduce that Bruce was not native to this universe.
"There's a saying I rather like—crisis often comes hand-in-hand with opportunity." Doom didn't hide his intentions. He saw more than just catastrophe here.
And he firmly believed that this kind of event was inevitable.
Bruce remained silent in response to Doom's overwhelming arrogance.
Yet sometimes, it was precisely the arrogant ones who could carve out a new path in the face of the extreme.
Bruce then laid out nearly everything he knew to Doctor Doom.
Once he received the information, Doom could hardly sit still. This was something that affected the entire multiverse. As he had said, the crisis was immense—but so was the opportunity.
More importantly, if the multiverse truly collapsed, then Latveria, the Earth under their feet, and even the woman he loved would all vanish into nothingness.
That was something Doctor Doom could never allow.
"Do you intend to stay here and assist me—or return to your universe and fight your own battle?" Doom stood up and extended the olive branch to Bruce.
The man standing before him was indeed worthy of Doctor Doom extending his hand.
Bruce shook his head and handed a small device to Doctor Doom.
"What I need is a way to stop all of this from happening. If you discover a method that's different from everyone else's, contact me. I'll come back." As he spoke, Bruce's figure had already vanished before the monarch of Latveria.
Christopher was a bit surprised. He hadn't sensed any magical fluctuations, yet that man had disappeared into thin air right before their eyes.
"Was that magic?" Christopher turned to his father, hoping to get a clue from Doctor Doom's response.
"No, he merely has a device that allows him to traverse parallel universes," Doctor Doom replied, looking down at the small communication device in his hand. He could feel the energy on it belonged to another universe.
However, this energy could only be used for communication — it wasn't capable of locating the universe of that Bat.
It looked more like something the Bat had taken off from a complete device.
Earth-1610.
Bruce returned to his meditation chamber, and by now, an hour had passed since he had left.
But this journey clearly hadn't yielded a proper way to resolve the multiversal collisions.
The Illuminati's earlier actions had indeed seemed like a feasible solution when facing lifeless planets, but how many planets would be completely slaughtered by those machines?
Or rather, how many Earths in how many universes still had countless humans, countless lives?
These were all outcomes they couldn't predict.
As he stepped out of the meditation chamber, Bruce already had the outline of a plan. But whether it would actually succeed, he couldn't be sure.
Yet before he could act on his plan, the alarm he had planted in the city started echoing throughout the Batcave.
It was the kind of alarm that only triggered when the city began manufacturing weapons capable of easily destroying the world.
Clearly, Reed had already begun his operation upon returning to the city.
Jessica and Gwen also woke up at that moment. The piercing alarm was even more prominent in their ears. They opened their doors and looked out at the hurriedly running figures.
They exchanged glances, unsure of what was happening. But anything that could make the Bat this tense was certainly no small matter.
Without hesitation, they quickly suited up and followed, hoping they could assist the Bat.
"Stay at home," Bruce said, leaping straight into the already prepared Batwing.
Leaving behind just that one sentence, he piloted the Batwing out of the Batcave and vanished into the sky.
Jessica and Gwen could only watch as the Batwing disappeared from view. They didn't even get the chance to ask Bruce what had happened.
Moreover, Bruce seemed different — as if he had experienced many things they didn't know about, as if he had witnessed countless deaths and destruction.
But was something like that even possible?Could it be that Bruce had done something during that time and was keeping it hidden from them?
Given the Bat's personality, they knew anything that could make him this nervous had to be a major issue.
"Gwen, I'll check the Bat's destination and try to disable his remote monitoring. You go and get that aircraft from the warehouse," Jessica quickly delegated the tasks as she ran to the control console and began operating it.
Gwen, meanwhile, was momentarily stunned. She knew the Batcave had a lot of equipment, but she never imagined it had other aircraft too.
As Jessica operated the console, a warehouse door slowly opened in front of Gwen, and she couldn't help but be amazed by the Batcave's hidden treasures.
After all, what appeared in front of her wasn't just any ordinary plane — it was a highly valuable F-22.
"Cool," was all Gwen could say. I mean, who keeps a top-tier fighter jet in their personal warehouse?
Bruce, unaware of what was happening in the Batcave, was flying toward the city. Jessica, having spent so much time by his side, had indeed improved — she successfully disabled his internal monitoring in a short time.
Bruce was heading to the city at full speed because he had already guessed that Reed must have discovered something.
Otherwise, Reed wouldn't have begun mass-producing those devices — devices that, once launched at Earth, could easily destroy everything.
One hour earlier.
At that time, Bruce had just returned to the Batcave. Reed and the city AI were attempting to scan the remnants of the Bat's program to see if they could recover any data.
No matter how they scanned, they couldn't detect the alterations Bruce had made, which frustrated Reed.
The city AI, however, reassured Reed, telling him not to worry about it. The more important matter now was to understand why the Bat had them research those time travel devices.
When a super-genius meets a super-intelligent AI with limitless computing power, the entire world becomes transparent before them.
And the universe is no exception.
They quickly noticed something was wrong.
Not to mention, Conqueror Kang had already explained what was happening across the multiverse — all signs indicated that universes were destroying each other. It wasn't just their universe but many others as well.
Looking at the data projected by the city, Reed stroked his chin and said,
"So, the universes are colliding and trying to destroy each other?"
"Yes," the city AI replied with a cold, emotionless voice — and that gave Reed another idea.
"Then, why don't we destroy another universe before they destroy ours?" Reed's eyes lit up as he looked at the city AI. He had already thought of a way to deal with everything.
(End of Chapter)
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