Chapter 464: Secrets of the Past (Part 2) (Patreon)

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"Destruction Day, that name is quite peculiar, isn't it?"

"It's exactly what it implies. When he appears, it will be the day of destruction for the entire Earth and even the entire universe."

Bruce and Lex felt their hearts skip a beat, especially Bruce. After walking up, he looked directly into Schiller's eyes and asked, "You have no way to deal with him either?"

"I'm not sure," Schiller gave a vague answer, but Bruce clearly wasn't satisfied with it. However, he didn't press further because he wasn't one to place hope solely on others.

"What is his weakness?"

"I don't know, perhaps he has none." Schiller provided another despairing answer. But at this moment, Clark's steady and resolute voice chimed in:

"That's impossible. Everything that exists in this world must have a weakness. Maybe I can deal with him..."

"Perhaps you can kill him once, but when he reappears, the weakness that worked the first time won't be there anymore."

"He will evolve?" Bruce instinctively caught the key point in Schiller's words.

"Yes, but..." Schiller deliberately dragged out the answer, and everyone's gaze shifted to him. He continued, "It seems someone has found a method to deal with him."

Saying that, he moved closer and looked at the egg.

The egg's shell was opaque, so they couldn't see what was inside. However, they could see the egg slightly trembling, as if it had a heartbeat, but very slow.

"Will Kryptonite affect it?" Schiller mumbled to himself, then looked up at the strange devices emitting Kryptonite light and said, "What kind of formation is this?"

"It seems that someone used a method to seal this egg," Lex approached and pondered, followed by Bruce, who had a serious expression but curiosity in his eyes.

"The situation is not as dangerous as I described because this monster hasn't hatched yet, and someone has already found a way to suppress this egg."

"But he will eventually hatch, won't he?"

Schiller looked at Bruce with a scrutinizing gaze, as he recalled a law in the DC Universe.

In the DC Universe, there is a distinction between light and darkness. In the dark corners, everything inevitably descends into chaos, meaning all bad things will happen.

If this place belonged to the dark corner, then this egg would likely hatch very soon. However, Schiller recalled the time when the Joker Egg inside Bruce didn't hatch either. It was defeated by Schiller's method of justice and ended up being possessed by Parallax.

This meant that the probability of this place being a dark corner was not high. However, that didn't mean a powerful villain couldn't appear in the light corner.

"Destruction Day" was, in fact, Superman's archenemy. In the famous "Death of Superman" comic, he was the one who killed Superman.

The comic "Death of Superman" had a complex history. At that time, DC Comics was struggling financially and needed something to attract more fans to buy their comics. So, they decided to harm their most famous superhero, Superman.

To create enough hype, the comic was named "Death of Superman." For this purpose, "Destruction Day" was designed to be incredibly powerful, easily defeating everyone in the Justice League except Superman and even yanking the Flash out of his speed.

Later, after going to Apokolips, he survived a Darkseid's Omega Beams attack. Eventually, he gained the ability to produce "Destruction Day Spores," infecting Superman and creating "Destruction Day Superman."

In short, he was an outrageously overpowered villain, like many hastily created villains, with his abilities and background not making much sense.

Schiller thought to himself that it seemed the origin story of "Destruction Day" in this place was more complicated than just a Kryptonian scientist's mishap.

In the comic, "Destruction Day" appeared as a complete entity, and though not invincible, Schiller had some ways to defeat or seal him. However, due to his frequent resurrections, it seemed he would never truly die, which made Schiller unsure if he could completely kill him.

But now, "Destruction Day" appeared here as an egg, which gave Schiller some other ideas.

At this point, Bruce noticed some details. He walked to the wall of the underground cavity, touched the slightly damp rocks, and said, "From the state of the rocks, this place was excavated several decades ago, at least twenty or thirty years..."

He muttered to himself, "What happened back then?"

"So, what happened afterward?" in the Manor corridor, Kayla looked at Alfred and asked.

"When I found out that the group called the Court of Owls might want to create a terrible monster to rule over Gotham, I had to consider the danger this monster posed."

"If an uncontrollable super monster were to be created, it wouldn't just threaten the U.S. homeland but all of humanity on Earth. Those lunatics might not care, but I do."

"So, I approached Falcone and explained my purpose to him. At first, he was reluctant to believe me, but he had no other choice..."

"Why?"

"Because in Gotham, people who can do equations are a rare breed, and I graduated from Cambridge University's Mathematics department..."

Kayla was silently speechless, as she recalled what she had seen and heard in Gotham before. She felt that Alfred's words weren't an exaggeration.

"Of course, there was another reason. Falcone and Daniel might have sensed something, but their sources of information were limited. They weren't professional agents and couldn't get much information. At that time, they didn't even know the name 'Court of Owls.'"

"But I am a professional agent and could investigate this matter for them. So, the three of us reached an agreement and cooperated. In the end, we made a mess, but we managed to obtain that egg."

"Oh, I remember. The case file mentions that Gotham seemed to have many malignant incidents during that period. The FBI investigated, but they lost many personnel, and some people caught glimpses of mysterious phenomena, turning the case into a legend..."

"Yes, that group was difficult to deal with, and we paid a considerable price. That's why Falcone absolutely refused to have this egg sealed in Gotham, as Gotham is his territory."

"So you chose Metropolis?"

"We had this egg in our possession for a long time, but we couldn't find a reasonable way to handle it."

By that time, the heat had died down, and I could have returned to Moscow. However, just then, I received news from Moscow that Kim Philby had escaped and returned to Moscow himself."

"While I understand the style of MI6, this situation was beyond my expectations. Obviously, now that Philby had successfully escaped, the list was no longer as important to Moscow. There was no need to carry it back across the ocean."

"But the list remained important to other countries, as possessing it gave them an equal footing with the Soviet Union. Without it, they would always be one step behind. Therefore, Philby's escape did not diminish the list's significance in the eyes of other nations. Instead, they went even crazier trying to find it, to obtain information on par with the Soviet Union."

"The Soviet Union didn't need it, but other countries did. The best solution was to find a place to hide it, so I hid it in Gotham. After the heat died down, I returned to Moscow to seek a way to deal with that egg. But..."

"In the end, I came back to the UK."

"About a dozen years later, my father asked me to inherit the hereditary butler position and go to Wayne Family to become their butler. At that time, I informed Moscow about it, and they saw it as a great opportunity, as Wayne Family was the wealthiest family on the East Coast and even in the U.S."

"So, at first, you were undercover at Wayne Family?"

"Correct, but then something happened. Mr. and Mrs. Wayne passed away." Alfred's expression turned somewhat sad as he said, "Only the young master was left, and I had to raise him."

"At that time, I had already decided to give up my career as an agent."

Kayla nodded, showing that she understood. She said, "Many people think that agents should always be loyal to the mission, but we are also human beings with emotions. We are not machines solely focused on completing tasks..."

Alfred shook his head and said, "My feelings for the young master were not the only reason I wanted to leave the agent profession..."

"Then what was the other reason?"

Alfred fell silent, his expression revealing a hint of hesitation. It seemed he wasn't sure whether he should say it, but in the end, he said, "You're still young and haven't experienced much, so you might not notice her changes..."

"Her? Who?"

"The Soviet Union."

Kayla wanted to ask more, but Alfred chose to remain silent. After a moment of silence, Alfred spoke again. His voice no longer had the same vigor but showed his age.

"Perhaps I am a shameful deserter, or perhaps I just don't want to face certain harsh realities anymore."

"Or maybe I know that when facing those great ideals and glorious times turning to decay, I cannot maintain my composure..."

"But in the end, I chose to bid farewell to the past completely."

"When I returned to Gotham to become the Wayne Family butler, Falcone told me that they had properly dealt with that egg. I am not entirely sure about the details, but ultimately, they sealed the egg in the underground of Metropolis Manor."

"Falcone told me that initially, they only found a place outside Gotham to store the egg. But later, they discovered a falling alien mineral that seemed to effectively suppress the egg's life activity. So, they transformed the place into a massive seal."

Kayla furrowed her brows and asked, "Is this seal strong?"

"I can only say it delays the hatching of the monster. We still have no clue on how to completely eliminate this monster."

Alfred placed the hunting rifle he held down and leaned the barrel against the ground. He looked out the window and said, "That's one of the reasons I brought Bruce here."

"I saw the name of that Professor on the guest list you gave me. I know he is not an ordinary person and has the ability to ensure everyone's safety. I raised Bruce, and I know how astonishingly intelligent he is..."

"If there is only one way in this world to unravel the secrets of this mysterious monster and destroy it, I believe that their cooperation would be the best answer."

Meanwhile, Schiller, who was contemplating in the underground cavity, suddenly heard a foggy voice in his mind:

"Food! So much food! Eat food!"

"Food? Where did the food come from?" Schiller asked with confusion.

"Green stones, smell so good! Let me take a bite!"

"Green stones..." Schiller turned his head and looked at the Kryptonite device closest to him, surprised, and asked, "You eat Kryptonite???"

"Yes! Smells delicious!"

"Why didn't you say that earlier when we were outside?"

"That was not tasty, only the ones here are delicious!"

"But the Kryptonite here is meant to seal this egg..."

"I'm hungry! Been hungry for so long! I want to eat, I want to eat, I want to eat, I want to eat, I want to eat!"

Bruce, who was studying the rock layers nearby, noticed that Schiller's eye contact with the egg suddenly became strange.

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Next Chapter>>Chapter 465: Those Who Were Once Great (Part 1)