"Bruce... Bruce..."
A distant, low female voice echoed through the darkness, like a vinyl record stuck at the very end, making the whole space tremble, forcing one to realize that both voice and gaze carried power—keen, unmatched, overwhelming.
"Bruce Wayne..."
She kept calling, "These things can't hold you... wake up... wake up..."
When Bruce came back to himself from his daze, he thought the voice he heard was just an illusion. He mumbled something and was about to drift back to sleep when the voice suddenly raised its pitch.
"Bruce Wayne!"
That gave Bruce a jolt. He looked around and saw nothing, so he tested the waters and said, "Who are you?"
"Bruce... look at me... Bruce..."
Bruce opened his mouth, ready to retort, but the sheer power contained in that voice made him realize that pissing her off was not a wise move. So he cleared his throat and asked, "Where are you?"
"Look over here... look over here..."
"Oh, I get it. Right now you don't actually know where you are, so to make me expose your position, you need my gaze to lock onto you. That's a bit old-fashioned, isn't it? Did you license that trick from the Outer Gods?" Bruce simply shut his eyes.
"I said! Look at me!!"
The female voice roared in a low register. A massive power swept across the entire Origin Wall. Bruce had no choice but to open his eyes again and stare straight ahead. "It's not that I don't want to look at you, I really can't see you."
"Don't use your eyes... use your heart to gaze... gaze into the darkness within you..."
Bruce's eyes flicked. "And what darkness is supposedly inside me?"
"They left you here... an endlessly lonely universe... to keep you company with the dark..."
"Ah," Bruce suddenly understood, "on that point you're right, they really went too far. I only did a teensy bit of work, and they treat me like this!"
"Gaze into the darkness in your heart..."
"Uh, my teammates betrayed me too!" Bruce said through gritted teeth. "I was already on the run, and then they sold out my position, got me caught by Batman, and strung up here. I'm just heartbroken..."
"Gaze... gaze..."
Bruce drew in a quiet breath. He thought for a moment, then said, "Here's the thing, I've got a revenge plan that'll make sure the Multiverse never knows peace again. Why don't you come out first and we can talk it over?"
"Look at me... look at me..."
But the scene beyond the Origin Wall was nothing but blood-red. Bruce had no idea which direction to look in, so he could only focus straight ahead. All of a sudden, the red sky-blood receded, replaced by boundless darkness—and a pair of indescribable golden eyes that seemed to contain the entire universe.
Then an incomparably gigantic figure emerged from the dark. She had the shape of a woman, but was gaunt to the point of skeletal, her jet-black long hair blending into the cosmic backdrop. The golden ring-shaped ornament around her neck glowed faintly, making her look at once holy and aberrant.
"Who are you?" Bruce asked.
"I am the Creator Goddess Papetua." Her voice still carried that rolling seismic rumble, as if it filled all between heaven and cosmos, echoing endlessly through infinite space, never to cease.
"Creator Goddess?" Bruce showed a thoughtful expression. "You're the one who created this universe?"
"I created all universes," she said. "Unfortunately, my creations betrayed me. They banished me from the Real Universe, just like they did to you..."
"Then we really are two of a kind," Bruce said with great feeling. "They exiled me from the Multiverse too, left me here with nothing but you to chat with. Sigh."
Then, as if he suddenly remembered something, he snapped his fingers and said, "It's pointless for us to just sit around talking. Why don't we think about how to get back at them? As it happens, there's a hole in the Origin Wall behind me—you might be able to slip through..."
"That is exactly my intention," Papetua said. "But I have been away from the Multiverse for too long. I need someone to scout the way for me..."
"What a coincidence. I'm in the middle of putting together a Dark Knights team. You should have heard of Batman, right?"
"Who is that?"
"Oh, then you must be a very ancient and powerful being," Bruce nodded. "Batman is a rising superhero in the universe, very popular lately. You could say he's got the Multiverse in the palm of his hand..."
"And the Monitor and Anti-Monitor?"
"They're not doing so hot," Bruce shook his head. "Haven't shown their faces in ages, and stopped interfering with the workings of the Multiverse. You know them well?"
"They are my children..."
"Then that must've been a long time ago," Bruce said, thinking as he spoke. "A lot of time has passed since, and the universe has changed a great deal. I'm afraid you really do need someone to probe the lay of the land for you."
"Is this Batman you mentioned really that formidable?"
"How should I put it, I used to be Batman myself," Bruce sighed. "And that's a long story."
"We have all the time we need."
"Ah, sure, you've already been here for so long, a little more won't matter, but my time is limited. I'll just give you the short version," Bruce said. "The primordial source of the universe's darkness is called Barbados. He styles himself the Dark Dragon..."
"Wait, who?"
"Barbados is a mysterious being with huge wings, used to hang around some forge or furnace or something…"
"The World forge's little pet," Papetua snorted, "just a garbage-eating mutt."
Bruce's eyes lit up at once. He said, "What's your relationship with the World forge? Is he your son too?"
"More or less," Papetua said. "I'm the mother of all things; they're the children closest to me."
"Then you're really something," Bruce said in admiration. "It's a pity you've been gone too long. Not to mention you, even your sons have been forgotten. Right now the biggest bad in the Multiverse is Barbados. See that hole behind me? That's something Barbados's people made."
Papetua gave a cold snort and said nothing. Bruce went on, "Anyway, Barbados wants to invade the bright multi-universe, Batman won't let him, so the two of them started fighting."
"Batman is Barbados's enemy?"
"Exactly. But Barbados can't beat Batman, his whole setup just doesn't cut it, so I'm planning to put together a Dark Knights team—use Batman to deal with Batman."
"Who've you found?"
"Well, I didn't even get around to looking for anyone before I got pinned to a wall," Bruce sighed. "You know how hard this is—there's Lucifer, there's Batman…"
"You're an Angel too?"
"Yeah, and that took a lot of work to pull off," Bruce said. "Originally this position was supposed to be Gabriel's. Now I'm Gabriel, but I only took over his rank. I'm not a native Angel, so I don't have that much power. And here I am, nailed up like a trophy."
"I can give you greater power."
Bruce's eyes lit up again. He leaned forward and asked, "Spell it out."
"I want the universe to know who their true mother is," Papetua said slowly. "Those who don't know my name are unworthy of existence. Now, let me see if you're qualified."
The next second, Bruce slammed down onto a freezing cold floor. When he woke again, he found himself on a cold ground, staring at a long, pitch-black tunnel.
Bruce climbed up and started walking toward the end of the tunnel, but it seemed endless. Bruce sighed and stopped walking, simply sitting down where he was.
This Creator Goddess really was something—she'd actually dragged him into an illusion. But he had to thank her; even without using his own backup plan, his consciousness had already slipped free of the Origin Wall. Now he just had to wait.
Papetua seemed in no hurry at all, so Bruce was even less hurried. But Papetua apparently couldn't understand why Bruce wasn't anxious. Very soon, the tunnel's far end began to be devoured by darkness.
Bruce glanced back, then finally got up and started walking forward again, but only just barely faster than the darkness. It wasn't that he didn't want to run; who knew if the faster he ran, the faster the darkness would chase? It wasn't time to show his hand yet.
But even though he didn't speed up, the darkness did. And even as it accelerated, Bruce still didn't. He just stared straight back at it until it stopped right in front of him.
"Why don't you feel fear?" Papetua asked.
"I know you don't actually want to kill me," Bruce shook his head. "You can't even kill me."
"I can kill any construct of the universe."
"Except an Archangel," Bruce said. "Back when I was in Heaven, I didn't do much work, but I did figure out the system backend. All Angels are on the whitelist; there's no method that can erase our existence at the root, or it might crash the entire system."
"But you're not an Archangel."
"I know. I only have the rank, and barely any of the power. But the moment I get erased, Heaven is definitely going to notice. If they find out you tried to kill an Angel, you can forget about ever getting close to the Real Universe. Lucifer won't let it slide."
"You seem quite confident in your own existence."
"Of course. Why else would I go to all this trouble to get myself an Angel identity? It's not something just anybody can pull off!"
"Indeed," Papetua's tone softened. "If you want something, go and get it yourself, instead of waiting for someone's grace. I strongly agree with that."
"So I've passed your test?"
"Not so fast. Tell me about your Dark Knights plan. Perhaps I can help you…"
Bruce had just opened his mouth when he vaguely heard a voice: "Bruce? Bruce? Are you there?"
"Withdraw your power and send me back to my own Spirit Domain," Bruce's voice turned ice-cold. "Or we're done talking."
Papetua seemed curious what had suddenly made him change his face. Suddenly she chuckled softly. "Go."
Papetua and her power vanished without a trace. Bruce returned to his own mental space; his spirit form was still free, not stuck back onto the wall. And the figure calling anxiously to him was Martha.
"Mom!" Bruce shouted. Martha rushed toward him at once. Bruce threw himself into her arms, resting his chin on her shoulder. "Mom, you're here."
"Yes, little Bruce. My God, the moment your dad and I heard you were trapped here, we rushed over. Are you alright?"
Bruce shook his head, and Martha promptly smacked his arm. "You little brat, always doing dangerous things like this. And when that bunch of Batmen grabbed you, you didn't think to run?"
"Mom, did you come to take me home?" Bruce asked, holding her tight.
"Of course," Martha's voice softened. "Even if you'd made the biggest mistake in the world, they still couldn't just dump you here alone! If The Flash hadn't secretly tipped us off, we wouldn't even have known!"
Bruce smiled and said, "You think Batman didn't know The Flash told you? He never planned to really do anything to me. Alright, Mom, let's go home."