[Comprehensive Yingmei] I cover this earth

Chapter 163 The Eye of the Secret Star 03

"It's time," said Hawthorne. "I'm leaving soon."

He looked at Amos who was hiding in the trench, and said with a smile, "How about it, my proposal? I worked so hard to get to this deep sea, you won't let me down, will you?"

Amos seemed to tremble a bit when he heard the words, and then he immediately shook one of the exposed tentacles flatteringly, and let out a cry of unknown meaning.

Falling into Hawthorne's ears, the chirp was automatically translated.

"Everything, according to your wishes. Pleasure."

"Okay," said Hawthorne, "you'll get our signal when everything is arranged."

After speaking, he looked at Bruce, who was in deep thought, and said, "I'll take you back, during this time..."

He hesitated for a moment, but said, "You can contact Abrael more."

Bruce was slightly taken aback, as if suddenly realizing something, and looked at Hawthorne.

However, the latter has disappeared.

Bruce felt a very strong sense of dizziness, and the next second, he realized that he suddenly appeared on the roof of an office building in the Metropolis, which was the roof of the building where they had found Clark and Ian before.

Bruce staggered and almost failed to stand still. After realizing the current situation, he quickly closed his eyes to let the dizziness fade away.

He knew very well that this journey cost him almost half of his sanity bar.

He had to go back and get a good night's sleep.

The Chaoying around were startled by the sudden appearance of Bruce, and quickly surrounded him.

"Are you okay?" Zatanna asked with some concern, and Constantine put a middle finger under Bruce's eyelids and asked, "Can you still recognize the numbers? What is it?"

Bruce slapped away the middle finger in front of him, and said to everyone, "... something big is about to happen."

……

After everyone explained the cause and effect, Bruce first went to the forest and found that the Pope was no longer there, so he went back to Gotham directly.

He drove to the door of the Secret Star Church, and as expected, he did not encounter any obstacles, except for the Penguin who happened to be praying.

"Mr. Wayne." Oswald nodded slightly at him as a gesture.

"I'm here to see His Majesty the Pope," Bruce said.

Oswald showed his usual slick smirk: "This way, Mr. Wayne."

Before entering the underground corridor, Bruce took another look at Oswald.

I don't know what this once influential figure in the criminal kingdom will look like after the belief in the secret star disappears.

As soon as he entered the Mysterious Star Cathedral, he felt an almost pervasive, extremely uncomfortable feeling of coldness, like a certain frequency that resonated with the heartbeat, one after another, it almost made him feel like needles were being pricked in his internal organs, and there was a dull pain .

The degree and level of this kind of pollution is so high that it has even surpassed those old favored ones who once disturbed the peace of the human world.

Bruce has no doubt that if the current pope is allowed to leave the cathedral and go to the human world, the casualties will probably be no less than that of any cosmic-level super villain.This is a pollution that no spell can suppress.

But at this moment, the source of the turbulent pollution was sitting quietly in front of the church, right under the imprint of the secret star.

His face looked a little pale, and the golden lines running up his neck were more lush and dazzling at this moment, almost covering half of his face in gold.There was still a gold-encrusted candle floating beside him, and the warm and crystal-clear wax tears dripped down, turning into green smoke and disappearing under the endless starlight.He closed his eyes, his expression was peaceful, but there was a faint sense of serene death lingering around him.

"Bah."

With a soft bang, a candle beside him suddenly went out.

He opened his eyes and looked at Bruce.

Bruce couldn't see any emotion in those gray eyes at that moment.There is no emotion even if it is staged or pretended.

He just looked at him so quietly, as gentle, calm, and lonely as ever.

Yeah...alone.Bruce suddenly thought that after so many years, the pope lived alone in this empty and vast main church.Even if there are believers who come to worship, to him, they are just passers-by who come and go.

"He told you?" said the Pope.

Bruce was keenly aware that there was a little tiredness and helplessness in his voice that was not obvious.

"You mean His war with the old days?" Bruce asked.

"War?" The Pope smiled softly, "We are on the same front, Bruce, you don't have to test anything."

"Sorry," Bruce said, "It's just a habit."

"I know that you have never trusted me." The Pope said, "It's okay, I also know that I am not worthy of your trust. I am different from them."

Bruce didn't speak.

He suddenly noticed that something was wrong with the Pope today.

He no longer spoke ambiguously, and no longer beat around the bush, he just stated calmly, as if all the calculations he had had no longer existed and were not important anymore.

Maybe the pollution is just too bad.

Or maybe he was indeed crazy.

"You should have also noticed that whether it is a messenger, a singer or a warrior...their prayers are just a last desperate struggle for life." The Pope said, "However, who cares how much they really believe in the gods? ? If you really have faith, why do you pray to Him at the end of your life?"

The so-called not burning incense in leisure time, but holding Buddha's feet temporarily, is like this.

Bruce looked at him and asked softly, "Are you taking the initiative..."

"Initiative?" The Pope interrupted him, shaking his head lightly, "It's not even a matter of initiative."

He was silent for a long time, as if lost in memory, and then continued: "I have been consecrated as the Holy Son since I was 14, and I became Pope at the age of 17. In the same year, I launched a jihad and almost flattened that continent. .They thought I could communicate with the gods, so they brought me out of that place, let me become the Son of God, and receive education..."

He chuckled lightly and said, "But I was faking it. I was just trying to escape from that place, but they all believed it...they believed it, they turned their awe-inspiring gazes on me, and their faith was in me Condensation, so one day, I can really communicate with the gods."

The Pope looked at Bruce, with almost morbid fanaticism in his eyes: "If you have ever experienced anything like mine, you will understand that the attention and reverence of all eyes is a poison, an addictive poison. .As long as you are infected once, you will never escape again in this life... Do you know how many gods I have served in my life? Good gods, evil gods, evil gods...it doesn't matter what it is. Ha, this sounds like blasphemy Words, isn't it? But if they really love their children, why would they suddenly disappear one day and no longer respond? Why would they give you everything you want without hesitation, but when you can't do without Take his moment, and take it all away lightly?"

Man is but the plaything of God.But he is still willing to be God's most loyal dog.

Bruce sensibly kept silent as he listened to his quizzes, whose logic was almost muddled.

Maybe it's because the pollution is getting out of hand, Bruce thought.

"I can't do without them, I can't do without them." The Pope murmured, "It must be that the believers' beliefs are not pure enough, they should look at me, they should look at me...you don't understand , you'll never understand."

After a moment of silence, Bruce said: "He asked me to communicate with you more before everything is ready. I just want to know, what form is your last operation going to take? He said that you are needed... 'assist'."

The Pope laughed lowly.

"The gods want me to give up everything I desire the most...it doesn't matter, as long as I'm useful." He said, with an almost pathological fanaticism in his expression, "as long as they..."

……

That night, as Bruce left the church for the last time, he looked back at the Pope, who was still sitting there alone.

The Pope didn't tell him why he lost his composure that night and uttered those crazy words that didn't make sense.

There is still a fog about the pope's past.

Bruce suddenly realized—maybe, that part of the past will go to an end that no one will know about together with Star Nest.

They will disappear into the cracks of history, never to be named again.

That was the last time he saw Abrael.

……

The moment he walked out of the main church door, he heard the sound of collapse.

A space suddenly cracked behind him, those standing giant pillars collapsed, and the running universe seemed to be at a standstill.

With the withdrawal of the pope's power, the hall that once housed countless miracles finally ceased to exist in this void.

Bruce didn't look back, he didn't watch this final self-destruction, he just walked forward.

He has never felt that this corridor is so long, as if he has exhausted his life and has not yet reached the end.

Oswald saw Bruce come out and stepped forward: "Did you hear anything? It seems that something has collapsed."

There was a little bit of surprise in his expression.

Bruce was silent for a moment, then smiled, and said, "Maybe you're hallucinating, Mr. Cobblepot, I didn't hear any collapse."

After finishing speaking, he walked out of the Secret Star Church.

At this time, it was completely dark.

The stars are twinkling in the night sky, like countless eyes looking at the earth.

He felt a strange force erupting from not far behind, perhaps mixed with his familiar aura, but under the huge impact like a wave, he only felt that his eyes were suddenly covered by a piece of gold, and his thoughts fell into a short-lived chaos.

The pace of time is stuck in the mud.

He turned around slowly and with difficulty, looking at Gotham's Mystic Church.He saw a warm, holy light emanating from the spire, so strong it almost stung his eyes and brought tears to his eyes.

The light was still shining and spreading, and after the strong light gradually got used to it, Bruce saw clearly what the light source looked like.

That is a tree.

A giant golden tree.

Familiar golden vines grew densely, climbing towards the sky.The soft branches are intertwined and spread out in all directions, and the golden light spots linger around, like a grand and dreamy dream.

Oswald staggered and ran out of the church, shouting in a hoarse voice: "What happened—!?"

His voice became more and more unclear, as if he had lost all his strength, he knelt down on the ground with wide-eyed eyes, and opened his mouth. There was a golden, gas-like, and fluid-like thing in the five sense organs that was driven by an invisible force. Pulled out, turned into a slender thread, and stretched towards the golden giant tree.

At this moment, he seemed to have turned into a root of this giant tree.

Bruce saw countless golden roots sticking out from all over Gotham, connecting to the giant tree.

At the same time, in every part of the world, people seem to be lost in the streets, looking up at the sky.The believers of Mystery turned into roots, using all their beliefs as nutrients, continuously providing vitality to the giant golden tree.

The branches spread in all directions, and time lost its concept at this moment, as if it was a moment, and it seemed to be as long as eternity, and the golden light everywhere was dazzling.

The branches of the golden giant tree turned into a net, completely covering the surface of the earth.

It's like a huge protective film that can protect an entire planet.

Bruce looked at Oswald, who had completely lost consciousness, and answered his question softly:

"...He has come."