Chapter 629: The Past Like Morning Stars (Part 2) (Patreon)

In DC World With Marvel Chat Group : Table of Content/Chapter List

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Let's start this tale by recounting the plan that had its origins on the road during Schiller's vacation, a plan that was disrupted by Talon when he damaged the car.

Schiller considered himself a highly tolerant individual, and by tolerance, he meant treating every personality equally. It wasn't just about containing personalities with negative traits forever. Since he had already let the violent Moonlight Schiller roam free during his time in Marvel, it seemed only natural to allow the disturbed Schiller to do the same in DC.

Initially, Schiller hadn't made this decision. He intended to put everyone to work while dealing with the Owls, including resolving the petty conflicts in Gotham, particularly involving Batman.

Schiller told Batman the truth; he had indeed arrived in Metropolis, and his first stop for investigation was the Anderson Mental Hospital. The reason was simple, driven by his professional curiosity. He wanted to see if there was anything worth borrowing from Arkham Asylum.

His infiltration process was similar to Batman's, and he eventually found his way to Isabella's room. From a letter left behind by Isabella, he discovered the truth about this mental hospital.

Once he knew this, Schiller realized it was the perfect opportunity to release some dangerous personalities for a breather. After setting the deranged Schiller free, he orchestrated a series of murders involving those connected to the secret experiment: the bank president, the CEO of Pailo Company, the CEO of Snow Mountain Company, and the female head of the experimental base.

During these murders, Schiller left clues to guide the investigation, notably involving the janitors and cleaning agents. The carefully crafted surveillance footage showed a figure in janitorial attire on the rooftop, leading Batman to investigate the janitors. This inevitably led him to Snow Mountain Cleaning Company.

Batman would also discover that to transport the corpses, they had to use the large containers used by the cleaning crew. With Batman's intelligence, he would undoubtedly notice the issue of transporting corpses in plastic containers: the odor.

Once he decided to investigate the smell of the cleaning agents, he would inevitably come across Pailo Chemical Materials Manufacturing Company, a supplier to Snow Mountain Cleaning Company.

With the information gathered about Snow Mountain Cleaning Company, Pailo Company, and the lead involving the bank president, Batman and Lex would undoubtedly put their heads together and uncover the shady dealings between these three key figures.

However, these companies' financial records would appear perfectly normal. The Owls had been lurking in the shadows for too long, and they were experts at this. At this stage, the only remaining clue was Pailo Company's desire to renovate the Western Suburb Mental Hospital.

This was indeed unusual because renovating such a hospital required an extensive process. Compared to the Western Suburb, Metropolis had plenty of other suburban locations to choose from. Batman would surely realize that Pailo Company's choice of that mental hospital was not random.

After guiding Batman, Schiller had another thread to set up: guiding Kayla. Upon understanding from the letter that there might be a KGB agent who died at the hands of the Owls, Schiller knew that if Kayla found a lead, she would not stand idly by and would come to investigate.

Schiller didn't have any specific leads to bring Kayla to this place. He had planned to start his murders when Kayla got involved. However, to his surprise, Kayla's involvement happened almost seamlessly with the timeline he had in mind.

In Schiller's plan, there was no room for Constantine and Angela. However, their absence wouldn't make much difference in the end. Schiller would either die in a shootout between the Owls and KGB or in the building's explosion during their confrontation. The outcome was essentially the same.

Schiller had employed a similar strategy in Marvel. When he died there, Iron Man and Captain America had united against external threats, causing major trouble for the global demon gods. If he died again in DC, his friends would unite against the Owls.

More importantly, involving Batman in this situation would ensure that during Schiller's hospital stay, he wouldn't have the time to return to Gotham and engage in disputes with Lex and Clark, thus allowing Schiller to enjoy a peaceful vacation.

Of course, as with all his previous plans, there were various other objectives beyond the primary one. These included making the Owls pay a small price for their car bombing, deceiving Batman to make him realize that fighting was not the solution, and taking the opportunity to ask Death of this world why he couldn't die when he wanted to.

Schiller had learned from a dream god that members of the Endless Family were aware of his intention to flee this world. It was impossible to hide such a plan from ordinary people, and it was even more unrealistic to conceal it from these conceptual gods. Therefore, he intended to ask Death directly about his unique situation and why he couldn't die.

DC's Death personality was somewhat weaker, appearing more ethereal. However, she possessed wisdom and could communicate, as confirmed by the dream god. Moreover, the dream god had told Schiller that Death witnessed the death of every individual. So, when Schiller died, she would hear his questions.

Conceptual gods like them didn't have the concept of being too busy. They were nearly all-knowing and all-powerful. If they noticed something unusual about a person and chose to pay attention, they could certainly answer the questions, unaffected by the volume of inquiries.

Unfortunately, when Schiller experienced Death in this state, these gods would undoubtedly send him to the best hospital, where the most skilled doctors practiced. These individuals were experts at combating death, and even though Schiller had pushed his physical limits to the extreme, he still couldn't die.

This cycle continued for a long time, leaving Schiller wondering whether it was the doctors' exceptional skills or, like in Marvel, some special power preventing him from entering Death's domain.

In Marvel, it was understandable that Death didn't accept him because Schiller had initially crossed over to DC in this body. According to fate, after crossing over, his soul had traversed the Source Wall to enter the Marvel world. Therefore, his soul's foundation might be in the DC world, making it reasonable for Marvel Death to refuse him.

However, the fact that DC's Death didn't accept him was baffling. This made Schiller contemplate where the original Schiller's soul had gone before his arrival. As he had mentioned to others, all the personalities in his Temple of Thought were facets of his personality, part of his soul, and the entire Temple of Thought was his soul.

Hence, there was no possibility of the original Schiller disguising himself as a personality hidden within his Temple of Thought. Just like one person's soul couldn't be concealed within another person's soul, a document could be placed within a system, but an entire system couldn't be placed within another system.

So, had the soul of the original Schiller, who had once been a KGB spy, truly vanished? As Schiller thought about this, he systematically searched for his soul to find any anomalies, but everything in the Temple of Thought appeared normal, and the personalities were functioning as usual.

Lost in thought, Schiller lowered his gaze to the large hole at his feet. If there was anywhere he couldn't control, it would be the subconscious beneath the conscious mind.

Even someone like Schiller couldn't claim to have 100% control over their own subconscious. In fact, if the subconscious were completely under control, existence itself would lose its meaning.

Every time Schiller entered Dreamland through this portal, there was a momentary blackout in the middle. It wasn't a map loading; it was his subconscious at work. Since Schiller hadn't imposed any specific control over his subconscious, it remained shrouded in darkness.

With this in mind, Schiller decided to explore the secrets hidden within his own subconscious. He hoped to find clues to his original Soul, something perhaps undiscovered that his subconscious had noticed, but his conscious mind hadn't.

In general, a person's subconscious is a treacherous realm filled with chaos and disorder, beyond the control of rational human thought. However, Schiller didn't mind delving into it. Firstly, he had confidence in his inner strength, and secondly, he had a ship.

Schiller first visited the Dream Realm, where he summoned the Ship of the Underworld. Then, he navigated through the portal and into the pitch-black abyss of his own subconscious.

There were no discernible directions here, only intuition guided his way. Schiller embarked on this journey alone, without any other personalities accompanying him, silently rowing the boat forward.

Time held no meaning in this place. Perhaps an hour had passed, or maybe centuries. Finally, amidst the infinite darkness, Schiller discovered something peculiar.

It was a gray Feather.

Its relatively bright color stood out in the pitch-black depths of his subconscious, like a lighthouse on a shoreline. Schiller spotted it from a distance, yet he hesitated to approach.

As he rowed the boat closer, the Feather unexpectedly drifted towards him. Initially wary, Schiller felt no malevolence from it. Eventually, the Feather reached the boat and landed in Schiller's hand.

Upon closer examination, Schiller found nothing extraordinary about the Feather; it was just a Feather, slightly larger than a domestic goose's feather and gray.

This puzzled Schiller greatly. Even if he hadn't found anything significant, stumbling upon such an odd item was still preferable. But when had this item entered his subconscious?

Based on Schiller's control over his world of consciousness, he would have detected anyone entering his consciousness, including the subconscious. Otherwise, he wouldn't have allowed the portal to remain open for so long.

Schiller thoroughly searched his memories but was confident he had sensed nothing unusual. Then he realized that the only time he would have had no control over his consciousness was during his time-travel.

If anyone had manipulated his subconscious during that moment, it could only have been the original Schiller's Soul. But why leave a Feather?

Back in the Temple of Thought, Schiller felt perplexed. He hadn't sensed any unique properties in the Feather. The mystery deepened, but Schiller wasn't too disappointed. These were side objectives, and their completion was a fortunate accident, or their failure didn't matter.

Seeing that Death remained unresponsive and the enigmatic Feather in his possession, Schiller decided to end his pseudo-death state. He instructed Grey Mist to slowly repair his body, pulling himself out of the brink of death.

Suddenly, the lights in the emergency room dimmed. The doctor who emerged found Bruce and Lex waiting. Without waiting for their questions, the doctor said, "The patient is out of danger. We'll transfer him to a regular hospital room and wait for him to wake up."

In the ordinary hospital room where Schiller slowly regained consciousness, the first person he saw wasn't Bruce or Constantine but another blond man.

Schiller didn't recognize this man, but he was strikingly handsome with golden hair that sparkled. As he entered the room and saw Schiller, he spoke before Schiller could ask, "Schiller, what's going on? I couldn't reach you on your telephone, so I sent Demon and Hound to find you, but they didn't return."

The man assessed Schiller, who lay in the hospital bed, and continued, "Well, if the pressure got too much, you didn't have to go to the hospital. Why did you push yourself to this extent?"

Schiller extended a hand, stopping him from speaking, and asked, "Hold on, I have a question. Who are you?"

The man's expression turned surprised, and he looked at his reflection in the window, then said, "Wait a minute, when was the last time you saw me, as a man or a woman?"

With that, his form shifted, transforming into a beautiful golden-haired woman. She flicked her hair and said, "Do you recognize me now? Humans are quite troublesome; it seems you must look identical, or you won't recognize each other."

"Still don't recognize me? Did I use this male form before?" She changed back.

Schiller was somewhat speechless, watching the transformations. He asked, "Does it have anything to do with appearance? Did someone tell you that I've lost my memory?"

The golden-haired man inquired, "When did this happen?"

"Just now."

The man paused, then said, "I'm Lucifer Morningstar, Lucifer Morningstar. Does that ring a bell?"

Before Schiller could respond, the door to the hospital room suddenly swung open. Constantine, looking tired, entered and said, "Schiller, I've avenged you, and you..."

He and Lucifer Morningstar, standing in the center of the room, locked eyes.

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Next Chapter >>Chapter 630: Schiller Is Really a Good Person (Part 1)