Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics-Chapter 5553 - 579: Blackest Night (68)

On the gloomy horizon, a low dragon’s roar suddenly echoed. The massive shadow of a grey dragon appeared and disappeared among the clouds. The ring on Shiller’s finger emitted a faint dark light. Under everyone’s gaze, the dragon abruptly crashed toward the ground.

The crowd instinctively screamed and ran into nearby buildings to hide. However, the enormous figure did not stop at the surface but passed directly through. The grey fog pierced into the Earth Core like a needle. In that instant, the entire Earth bounced on its orbit. Some ancient and mysterious existence had finally awakened.

People were astonished to find white light emerging at their feet, resembling rain falling from the ground to the sky. The power belonging to the Black Death Emperor, which had already escaped the Blood Tide and was preparing to exit the universe, was also entangled by vines formed by the white light dots. Clearly, this momentary delay caused him to lose the best chance to leave.

To escape the entanglement of the white light, the Black Death Emperor exerted all his strength. He could abandon all the strength he invested in this universe, but he definitely couldn’t return life force to his consciousness, or it would be akin to suicide. Thus, he had to start drawing energy from the walking dead around him.

The walking dead, captured by Brainiac and taken over one by one by him, fell, including Noel. For some reason, the Black Death Emperor seemed unable to kill them again completely, only able to drain their power, reverting them to a corpse state.

Brainiac breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, Shiller had another plan; otherwise, clearing away the power of death would have been troublesome. However, what exactly was hidden in the Earth Core? Something that could entangle the Black Death Emperor who was eager to leave?

Apparently, it wasn’t just that. As the white light emanating from underground grew stronger, the surface began to tremble continuously. Many people were shaken down, but Brainiac was unaffected. He realized that this trembling only happened in the human soul, akin to how only humans could see a solar eclipse in a mystical sense, while Brainiac could not.

The good news was that the buildings wouldn’t be destroyed; the bad news was that humans themselves fell into chaos everywhere, with many getting hurt. Brainiac had to quickly dispatch ambulances.

But this also had some benefits. A kind of abundant life force was infused into these hollow bodies. The abandoned walking dead regained consciousness. They might have come back to life, though still not quite accustomed to their bodies.

By rights, since the plan had succeeded, all this should have been over. Yet leaning against the rooftop door, Shiller sharply sensed that the vibration which should occur in the soul was beginning to manifest on the physical level—like he realized something, he opened the rooftop door, rushed downstairs quickly, and contacted Victor through Brainiac.

Fortunately, Victor wasn’t far from here. He also was looking for Shiller. The two met beside Gordon’s police car.

"God, what’s going on?!" Victor yelled at him, "That Spirit of Existence shouldn’t..."

"Won’t!" Shiller replied, "Someone’s doing something else! It’s very likely the Justice League!"

"Damn it, I knew that it had to be..."

Before he could finish speaking, another violent shake occurred—this was definitely not happening on the soul level, as to the naked eye, a massive tsunami rose along the coastline.

The tsunami subsided in an instant, but this solidified Shiller and Victor’s certainty—this was definitely the work of the Justice League because only Arthur had such a Water Control Ability.

This scene played out on coastlines all over the world, naturally witnessed by Brainiac as well. He hurriedly said to Shiller, "I know what they’re trying to do, but I don’t know exactly what they want to do. Do you think..."

"Do you think we’re still in the Solar System?"

"What?" Brainiac seemed extraordinarily shocked, saying, "What did you say?!"

"Imagine they had a crazy plan, wanting to fool the entire human race. What would they do? Not only the Black Death Emperor could use the Sun."

"Yes, you can too." Victor looked at Shiller and said, "Didn’t you also utilize the Old Day Dominator..."

At this point, he came to his senses, saying somewhat shocked, "You used the Old Day Dominator, and someone used you."

"Exactly," Shiller said, "that total solar eclipse in a mystical sense shrouded the entire human consciousness. It means that whether or not the Sun is truly there, humans cannot see it. Without the Sun as a reference, we have no certainty of our current location."

"But Brainiac can see..."

"He’s the easiest to fool," Shiller said, "Electronic Life doesn’t possess real senses; everything is just a program’s simulation. Lex Luther is in the computer room maintaining the system; a tiny tweak in the program could lead to his cognitive confusion."

"My God," Victor said, "But the people on Krypton will eventually find out Earth is gone, right?!"

"Have you noticed someone missing?"

"Who?"

"Mad Hatter. Hugo made such a big fuss on Earth, but the Mad Hatter, who was supposed to return with him, vanished quietly. Moreover, he even has a stronger and more direct hypnosis ability than Hugo."

"They took him to Krypton?!" Victor said with widened eyes, "So they covered up everything, so no one there noticed Earth was missing. But what I still don’t understand is how they managed to take Earth away?"

"How did Krypton come over?"

Victor was speechless. He thought for a moment and then said, "The planetary propulsion system is an incredibly intricate thing..."

"And our Mr. Bruce Wayne conveniently has an even more intricate brain. Superman and the Superman among Supermen are his people. They can completely dismantle that system quietly and efficiently."

Victor rubbed his head vigorously: "The key is, how did they install this thing on Earth? How could Brainiac not notice?"

"There’s someone else who has been missing for a long time."

"...Barry Allen?"

"That’s right. Who’s chasing him within the Divine Speed? Nobody knows because no one can enter the Divine Speed. Naturally, whatever he says is what it is. The so-called infection of the power of death becomes the best excuse to cover things up. With so many components, it’s been plenty of time for him to come and go several times."

"Where did they install it?"

"Earth Core," Shiller sighed, "because when the Spirit of Existence awakens, the power it releases will allow them to start the machine."

"Okay. I have to admit, using the cognitive blind spot of the Old Day Dominator to fool everyone is a great idea. But the question is, where exactly do they want to send Earth?"

Shiller shook his head and said, "Surely someone must be facing bad luck."

At this point, the ground suddenly shook again. Victor, quick on his feet, fired a shot to freeze both him and Shiller against the ground, preventing them from falling. The earthquake wasn’t strong, didn’t damage buildings, but still knocked many people over.

No one knew what had happened. The sky was always dark. The white suspended rain continued to fall, as if the uprooted beehive and the moved ant nest. Ordinary people had no way to discern what exactly had transpired.

This bizarre plan sounds absurd, yet it actually utilizes a very simple principle. Stars are landmarks in the cosmos; most civilizations rely on the position of stars to determine their location. Once the stars are obscured—more accurately, when all celestial bodies that can replace the Sun don’t emit light to human eyes—then the human race is unable to use its senses to determine Earth’s position in the universe.

If at this time, Earth silently undergoes a shift, ensuring life on the surface is unaffected, the human race has no way to judge whether its position has changed.

The initial tremor was the horn of departure, and this time it seems to be the finale of this earth-shattering magic trick. The earth’s surface stabilized, the churning seawater fell back into the ocean. Tides quietly changed, clearly they had not only abandoned the Sun, but the Moon’s whereabouts were unknown as well.

Brainiac became quiet, perhaps due to whether or not he had started a free-for-all with Lex Luther. For ordinary people, it was just a minor earthquake. They quickly adapted and went about their business, unaffected.

Then Victor raised another question—how are they keeping Earth warm?

The answer is actually simple. Just like Victor used dense ice to create a shield, other energies can achieve similar effects. The most abundant energies they have are Green Lantern energy and power of darkness. Considering the pollution of the power of darkness, it’s likely to be Green Lantern energy.

"Hal hasn’t been idle either," Shiller said as he got into the car, "his utilization of Green Lantern energy has reached a new height. Otherwise, it would be difficult to craft Earth’s shield quietly."

"There are clues," Victor said, "just as you said, Krypton’s technology is at their disposal. When designing the planetary propulsion device, they must have studied related shield technology. This can certainly be applied to Earth."

"It’s more than that. If it were just this, it wouldn’t take so long," Shiller frowned, thinking as he spoke, "I suspect they intend to use this thing to break through some constraints."

"Constraints?"

Before Shiller could respond, Brainiac resumed communications, his tone markedly distorted. Clearly, he hadn’t gained the upper hand in the free-for-all with Lex Luther, or perhaps he had only barely escaped.

"Do you know where we are?" Victor asked the question he was most curious about.

"Good question," Brainiac said, "I don’t know either."

"What good are you?" Victor couldn’t hold back, "Justice League secretly installed engines without your knowledge, pushed Earth without your knowledge, and you don’t even know where it went. You might as well be a genuine mysticism genius!"

"No, this precisely means our situation is extraordinary," Brainiac said, "this cannot possibly be normal universe space. I haven’t found any familiar stars here; the surrounding space is filled with unusual energy. I dare say, those madmen brought us to a very dangerous place."

"Black Death Emperor shouldn’t have had them working overtime," Shiller said, "this is the consequence."

"I don’t think this is the end," Brainiac continued, "I even suspect that some people should be in an even more dangerous situation than we are, only they don’t know it yet."

The Spirit of Existence’s reaction began to gradually weaken. Clearly, it only awakened briefly and was about to fall into slumber again. As the white rain gradually ceased, Black Death Emperor could finally withdraw from this terrifying cosmos, at least, so he believed.

Yet as he made his way back, trying to follow the traces of death back to his old lair, he discovered he couldn’t move.