69novels Chapter 178 The End and the Beginning
Chapter 178 The End and the Beginning
Chapter 178 The End and the Beginning (The End)
I am Bain.
Some might think that Bain is very likely someone who never gives up.
Some might think that Bane was deliberately biding his time, following Batman's orders, only to turn against him at the last moment.
In fact... Bain did want to do that.
once.
Brainiac lay sprawled on the ground.
"you……"
He turned to look at Bain.
"You willingly let me access your memories," he said with difficulty. "You genuinely wanted to cooperate with me and betray Batman."
"Your memories are real and true, and your thoughts are unwavering and malicious. Such memories cannot be forged by anyone."
Because that's what I think.
Bain thought to himself silently.
He genuinely considered teaming up with Brainiac to stab Batman in the back.
What made you change your mind?
Brainiac asked, "Why... Ahhh!!!"
He was cut off before he could finish speaking by an uncontrollable scream.
Half of his body fell to the ground with a thud, like a melting candle.
"Delaying time is pointless, Brainiac. Pointless questions won't change your fate."
Wonder Woman helped Batman up, and Chen Tao, who was too weak to stand, stood in front of Brainiac.
He felt the world was somewhat blurry, and the other person's voice seemed to come through a thick fog.
"The fact is, I'm standing, and you're down, Brainiac."
Brainiac remained silent.
"Stop wasting your energy. You also have Doomsday spores lurking in this organic body of yours, right? This body is completely disposable to you, so there's no need to worry about permanently turning into Doomsday."
"You were never a being that existed solely on your brain. Whether it's a physical body or a mechanical one, it's both a haven for you and a shackle that binds you. Even if the Doomsday spores turn your brain into stone, you can still control it."
Chen Tao watched quietly as Brainiac struggled to maintain his balance amidst the total burst of the four natural energies, but to no avail.
"My mental blockade against you can't last forever. Once you deal with us and then transfer your thoughts back to your spaceship, it'll be fine, right?"
puff!
A large mass of metal burst forth from Brainiac's body again, mixed with rotting flesh, bones, and a hint of green.
This is the normal result of the four natural energies coming together, and also the consequence if the natural energies on Earth fail to balance each other.
Spiritual energy, bodily chemical energy, and mental power—everything became nourishment, constantly absorbed by the four forces, which then blew the dog's brain out of his body.
Why?
Brainiac stared at Bane, one of his eyes bulging out like a frog's eye, his eyes bulging out of the swollen, decaying blackness.
"I analyzed your memories, your motivations, and your behavioral patterns, and through repeated calculations, I concluded that you would never help Batman."
"He broke your back! He used his mud face to fool you like a fool!"
"And you, you're actually willing to help him?!"
Why?
But Brainiac knew he might never get the answer.
His mouth was severely deformed, half of his face was melting, and he had completely lost his ability to speak.
"Why...?"
He saw Bane lower his head slightly, looking at his hands with a hint of melancholy, before turning his head to meet Batman's gaze.
His expression was deep and solemn.
At this moment, he and Batman were clearly very close, yet it felt as if they were standing on opposite banks of a surging river.
Brainiac looked at the two of them.
He knew Batman was prepared to deal with Bane. Perhaps it was that strange power, or perhaps the other side had simply tampered with Bane's enhancements.
How ridiculous!
A mocking glint appeared in Brainiac's eyes. Batman never trusted anyone; he was always ready to murder his teammates in various ways.
I'm so unwilling to accept this! I'm so unwilling to accept this!
Things shouldn't have turned out this way; he shouldn't be the one who lost!
He is Brainiac, and he has been in countless galaxies...
Forget it.
Recalling the past is of no help to the present. Brainiac suddenly felt a sense of despondency; everything before him suddenly lost its meaning.
"Because I am Bane. Because I am human."
He heard the answer he had been longing for, but even now, it meant nothing to him.
Brainiac felt his thoughts gradually coming to a standstill.
This gave rise to a fear in him, a fear that rippled through his heart like the gentlest morning breeze.
"No! No! Someone please save me!"
But even with such fear in his heart, all Brainiac could feel now was numbness and endless emptiness.
That feeling of emptiness washed over him, making his very soul tremble.
It's hard to describe this feeling in words. It's like the loneliness of being on the verge of death but not knowing what to do. Even fear can't dispel this loneliness that gnaws at his heart, making him long for a peaceful sleep instead.
Brainiac found himself able to speak again. The four forces within him had subsided, but he knew this meant that his mental and physical energy had been completely drained by these conflicting forces, much like a cancer patient whose life force had been completely absorbed by cancer cells, only experiencing a brief resurgence on the last day of their life.
And so, in the end, he regained his ability to speak.
"I don't understand," Brainiac said. "I control life; I hold life in my own hands."
"I don't know how to describe this feeling in Earth's language..." Brainiac said, "...but I'm not wrong."
In the final moments, the collector who had shaken the world uttered such simple words.
"Everything I did was not wrong, everything I did was meaningful." He emphasized again: "I, Brainiac, am not without meaning."
"I'm protecting life," he said. "Those lives that should have gone extinct, I'm preserving them. I'm letting nature take its course, I'm saving them, I'm arranging everything for them."
Then he heard the other person's rebuttal:
"Life cannot be controlled, nor can it be confined in a bottle."
"This spaceship is life itself! I have protected the life forms from countless planets and countless sectors here. I have carefully settled them, eliminating the inferior genes among them, so that they can have a longer history here than they have in nature!"
Brainiac said, yelling at Batman, "I'm right! Right! That's what I mean!"
"This spaceship has no life, Brainiac. This spaceship is just your bottle."
Brainiac was slightly dazed for a moment.
He stared intently into Batman's eyes and actually saw pity in them.
Suddenly, a strong sense of resentment welled up in his heart, an emotion he had never experienced in his long life spanning centuries.
"Help me!"
The super AI said to Batman, "I shouldn't... I shouldn't end here. I haven't fully found the meaning of my existence yet."
He tried to reach out to Batman, but he could no longer feel his own hand.
He looked down and saw his hands and lower body, which looked like weathered, rotten wood.
"How tragic, Brainiac."
He heard the other person say, "I thought you would stick it out until the end."
When Brainiac saw Wonder Woman fly out of the spaceship, he knew she was going to destroy the missiles he was preparing to launch to destroy the Earth.
So Brainiac took one last look at his spaceship, at the worlds he had collected, the worlds he cherished so dearly.
"You...you can't take these cities out of my biological shell...their position cannot be maintained."
"Thanks for reminding me."
He heard Batman say that.
Brainiac remained silent for a moment.
He suddenly sat up straight, but the price was that his lower body turned into dust like crushed charcoal.
"My collection, everything I have, is now yours."
Brainiac said, "Okay... treat them well."
"They'll go back to where they belong," he heard Batman say. "I'll take good care of them."
At this point, Brainiac and Batman no longer seemed like mortal enemies, but rather like two old men chatting in a park.
"And I will also target the mechanical legion you left in the Crimson Realm, the big-headed doll you left in the Batcave, and the robot outside that fought Bane before."
Brainiac heard Batman say, "I will never give you a chance to be resurrected."
Brainiac's eyes dimmed again for a moment.
"Thank you."
He said.
"And," he said, "Darkseid, the Dark Lord Darkseid, is coming to Earth. Continue to protect your world from Darkseid, Batman. That is your purpose, your destiny."
His eyes were fixed on Chen Tao, but Chen Tao could hardly read his true attitude from his eyes.
Is it resentment or malice?
Is it a sense of loss?
Is it relief or schadenfreude?
"My significance shouldn't be determined by..."
But Chen Tao didn't get a chance to let Brainiac hear what followed.
A second after uttering those words, the collector of the universe collapsed backward, his body turning into dust that covered every corner of his spaceship.
Even in death, Brainiac did not leave his ship.
"it's over."
Chen Tao said.
[Warning, warning, Batman, you have located the anchored object: Brainiac's ashes]
[Description: The ashes left behind by Brainiac after his death, embodying his yearning to find meaning in life. Brainiac spent his life trying to define himself, not be defined by others. You might use it to summon Batman from a parallel universe.]
But can something that arises from self-definition truly be something real?
"I am Brainiac. I control life, I control everything!"
[Crisis energy converted: 319]
[WARNING! Downloading a Batman-targeting file!]
【Balleniac】
[Danger Level: A-]
In a dark multiverse, Batman, having exhausted all his trump cards, failed to defeat Brainiac. So he used his final trump card: merging with Brainiac. Thus, the old Brainiac and the old Batman vanished; only Brainiac remained.
Chen Tao was not in the mood to read Brainiac's diary at the moment.
He turned to look at Superman.
At this point, Clark was completely out of Brainiac's control. He stood on the ground, wearing a Superman suit, looking at Batman with a mixture of laughter and tears.
"Batman!"
"What's wrong, Superman?"
"I've lost my powers. I'm no longer Superman."
"What do you mean?"
"My Kryptonian constitution is gone," Clark said. "My Kryptonian constitution, along with the Doomsday spores you cleared away—"
He said, "They all disappeared."
……
……
……
"After being attacked by the infamous treasure hunter known to the world as the Black Manta, local lighthouse keeper Thomas Curry was rushed to the emergency room..."
"Recently, Thomas Curry denied marine biologist Stephen Shen's claim that his son was an Atlantean..."
"But in a world where Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman exist, even stranger things have already been proven..."
deep sea.
Arthur opened his eyes, and his father's dying words echoed in his mind.
How could he do this?
"Arthur, after I die, you only need to do one thing..."
"No, Dad..."
"Tell him I've been waiting for her all along, I've always been here..."
Arthur looked at the man before him and heard his voice:
"My king, please come with me."
……
……
……
"Superman was once the most powerful superhero in the world, but he has been missing for more than two months."
The man in front of them ripped down the Superman poster hanging in mid-air, and behind the poster, Barry Allen struck the same powerful pose as Superman.
He saw the man in front of him turn his head and look at him: "I need to test whether you can be as great as Superman."
……
……
……
Victor Stone sat in his football locker room; his father still hadn't come to his game.
But then, the door creaked open.
He turned around hopefully. But only a little boy walked in.
"Hey, hello, is this Victor Stone?"
The little boy seemed very excited: "Yay! I'm your fan, my name is Billy."
He ran up to Victor Stone excitedly: "Can I get your autograph?"
The steel frame was installed as instructed.
"Your family will be proud of you," he heard the other person say.
……
……
……
Apokolips.
Darkseid stared silently at the planetary projection before him, his face as hard as rock, revealing no emotion.
"Brainiac suffered a crushing defeat, and even died because of it, my master."
The shadowy figure beside him said, "Is this planet really a problem that Steppenwolf can solve all by himself?"
"The Kryptonian has lost his power."
The dark figure heard Darkseid's voice and began to erupt like magma.
"The problem will be solved."
He looked at the shadow beside him, which had a large "S" on its chest.
"And Earth will also get a new Superman."
(End of this chapter)