"Bruce, get out of the way, I'm speeding up!!" Superman's voice suddenly rang out.
Bruce Wayne didn't even think, immediately doing a lazy roll to avoid it.
A red and blue blur streaked through the air, slamming into Fault Insurance, pinning it against the wall with the help of Qingshui and Diana.
"The reactor's in its chest!" Qingshui yelled.
Superman reacted immediately, grabbing Fault Insurance's head with one hand and punching its chest with the other.
Promethium could resist almost any attack in the universe, but there were always exceptions. The defensive capabilities of a single piece of Promethium couldn't reach the universe's upper limit. A piece of Promethium placed before a multiversal-level terrifying entity like Darkseid could be erased by a single Omega Beam.
Superman wasn't Darkseid, but Superman's combat power not only had a very high lower limit but also an ridiculously high upper limit, even capable of crushing the universe in some comics. His lower limit relied on sunlight, his upper limit on willpower. The energy emitted by a single star, the sun, theoretically couldn't create such a terrifying being with such a high upper limit.
Now, Superman was experiencing a small surge of power.
A grating metallic screech echoed as Superman punched a hole in Fault Insurance's chest. The Anti-Superman Armor on Superman's body wasn't as hard as Promethium, and under the repeated heavy blows, the armor's arm section was already severely damaged, revealing Superman's fist.
*"Bang!"*
A cloud of Kryptonite smoke ejected from Fault Insurance's shoulder. Although the Anti-Superman Armor on his body protected most of Superman's body, a small section of his arm was still exposed to Kryptonite radiation, weakening his strength.
"I've got this!" Diana shouted, using the Lasso of Truth to bind one of Fault Insurance's arms. She then flipped up, clamping Fault Insurance's head between her legs, raised the Sword of Hephaestus high with her right arm, and thrust it into the opening Superman had created.
Immediately afterward, sparks flew, and Fault Insurance finally stopped moving, the red light in its eyes disappearing.
"Phew…" Qingshui panted, hands on his hips. Most of the internal components of White Knight had been destroyed by Fault Insurance's nanobots. Qingshui had been driving the Puppet with his own Chakra until now. In most cases, using Chakra Threads to control a Puppet saved Chakra, but Fault Insurance was too powerful. Qingshui was forced to increase his Chakra consumption to enhance White Knight's performance, only then able to restrict Fault Insurance alongside Diana.
But now, it should be safe… Safe my foot!
Qingshui's expression suddenly changed drastically, and he reached out again to press down on Fault Insurance's arm. The red light on the latter's face also reignited.
Backup battery activated.
No way, buddy! Again?!
Diana also reacted quickly, pulling on Fault Insurance. But it was too late. A red energy ray squarely hit Batman. He didn't even have time to speak before instantly vanishing from the spot.
Huh? I worked so hard for so long, and you still died? Qingshui was a little disbelieving. Everyone knew Superman was DC's favorite son, and Batman was DC's favorite dad. And this incident, with The Flash sacrificing himself at the beginning, suggested it shouldn't be a truly fatal situation, so how could this happen? Could it be that this universe was a special one, destined to become a universe without Batman? Or was it because his arrival changed everything?
Fault cleared.
The red light in Fault Insurance's eyes quickly turned blue, and the alarm was disarmed.
"Bruce said he injected this thing with a virus called compassion, and now it seems this thing has no compassion at all." Diana sighed softly. As a warrior, she could accept the departure of a comrade.
"Perhaps this robot already had compassion for Bruce." Superman didn't look happy either, but he didn't appear overly sad.
"That gun was an accidental creation of ancient Kryptonian technology. Long ago, the Kryptonians, in their study of parallel universes, created this gun. Anyone or anything hit by it would be erased. But in reality, Kryptonian scientists speculated that the gun simply transported the target to another parallel universe, unable to bring it back."
"So Bruce isn't dead, just temporarily vacationing in another parallel universe?"
Qingshui looked enlightened.
With Batman gone from this world, Fault Insurance had effectively completed its mission.
"Yes."
Superman put away the Teleportation Gun that Fault Insurance had set down, watching as the latter steadily walked away.
"Well, that's fine then. We can go home, wash up, and get some sleep. He'll be back on his own after a while."
Qingshui stretched and followed behind Fault Insurance.
"Watt, I never thought that for someone who argued with Bruce the most, you'd trust him even more than I do," Superman said to Qingshui with a sigh. "I'd like to ask you, and everyone in the Justice League, to study this gun. Let's all find a way to bring Bruce back from the parallel universe."
Qingshui's eyes lit up, but then he turned back to Fault Insurance, which was slowly opening its leg thrusters.
That Teleportation Gun was impressive, but anything involving parallel worlds sounded incredibly difficult to research.
Fault Insurance, on the other hand...
The Arc Reactor, and all the Batman black technology inside, plus that Promethium outer shell...
These were all good things! And he actually had a chance to crack the technology and significantly enhance his own abilities.
Oh, and Batman's Anti-Superman Armor "accidentally" dropped here too. As a good friend, a close comrade-in-arms in the league, shouldn't he take good care of it for him?
"Ahem, Clark, you're right! But that guy's trying to escape! We can't wait for Bruce to come back only for this thing to target him again, can we? I suggest we deal with it now!" Qingshui declared righteously, looking utterly devoted to Bruce's well-being.
Although it was highly probable there were no nanobots left, this thing was still a tough nut to crack. It would be best to rope in Superman and Wonder Woman.
He estimated Wonder Woman's divine power had mostly recovered by now.
Wonder Woman nodded in agreement, clenching her fists. "Being beaten by this thing just now was quite frustrating. I'm going to beat it back now, and ideally, tear it to shreds!"
"Alright then." Superman looked at the figure spewing plasma exhaust, swinging its arms, and flying into the sky.
...
Over an hour later.
On the Arctic ice cap, large sections of glaciers were shattered, with traces of battle everywhere.
And Fault Insurance, at this moment, had been torn to pieces.
To prevent these components from being collected and used by bad guys, Qingshui, harboring thoughts of Batman, had no choice but to take them back, becoming the bad guy... using them himself.
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