Chapter 59: Flowing Backward into the Sea
2023-10-23 Author: Rowing Without Oars 233
The disaster struck without warning.
In their sleep, people heard a thunderous roar, a sound like the sky itself was cracking open. The next moment, Gotham's water barrier ruptured. Tons of floodwater surged violently into the city like a furious tide, striking buildings and roads with unparalleled power. Massive waves churned and rose, creating a tsunami-like torrent.
"The subway entrances are flooded!"
That was from the subway's control center.
"The pumping system isn't responding, and the pressure reduction system is out! We need power!"
But the Power Bureau was also helpless at this moment. The staff were scrambling like ants on a hot griddle, but all the machines were completely unresponsive. Every screen before them was occupied by a domineering purple-red display, with a green question mark in the very center.
"Commissioner, it's that lunatic called the Riddler!" someone shouted in despair. "He's hijacked all the machines, we can't do anything!"
The priest in the church raised the cross on his chest, closed his eyes, and began to pray.
"Oh God, forgive us our sins..."
...
Batman used his grappling hook to ascend to a rooftop. He saw the flood sweeping through the streets near the coast, vehicles, stalls, and sidewalks being washed away, looking from above like tiny leaves spinning in a vortex.
The windows of buildings were shattered by the force of the water, and the deluge invaded the interiors like a monster. Streetlights, signs, and trees were uprooted, and the sounds of collisions and collapses were continuous.
"Master Bruce? Master Bruce, are you still there!?"
Alfred's voice came through the headset.
At that moment, Batman had just used his grappling hook gun to rescue two trapped citizens from a sealed room. He crouched on a gargoyle as a light rain began to fall, landing on his cape and mask.
"It's my fault, Alfred."
He looked down from his high vantage point at the floodwater furiously pouring into the city's districts.
"I caught Nygma, but I couldn't stop him. I never thought he would be this insane. I miscalculated, this shouldn't have—
What the hell!?"
Right in the middle of their conversation.
In an instant, an incandescent radiance erupted. A pillar of light shot straight into the clouds, and a Red-Silver Giant suddenly materialized above the flooded coastline.
The blinding light forced Batman to raise an arm to shield his face, his cape fluttering in the frenzied wind.
And when he focused his eyes to see clearly, the pupils beneath his mask couldn't help but constrict slightly.
It was the being known as "Ultraman."
But at a time like this, what was he doing here?
Many people had noticed the commotion. In truth, a fifty-meter-tall giant appearing over the urban area, accompanied by a light so piercingly bright it was difficult to ignore, was hard to miss.
It was just that the situation was critical, and everyone was too preoccupied with saving themselves; no one had a spare moment to stop and think.
On the gargoyle, Batman narrowed his eyes.
What is he going to do?
The next moment, he saw the giant cross his wrists before his chest, clenching his fists.
In a daze, it seemed to Batman as if the entire sky flashed.
As if thunder from an unknown source tore through the heavens, the world flickered before the giant.
The Giant raised his hand.
Towards the sea, towards the water that was ravaging the city like ten thousand stampeding horses.
It was as if he had issued an irresistible command.
Batman's pupils contracted.
He was not a man easily startled. No matter the time or situation, he could always think calmly, always able to find a way out even in the most impossible of circumstances.
But at this moment, even he had to admit that he was well and truly astonished.
A word he thought he would never believe in surfaced in his mind.
A miracle.
The rushing, uncontrolled, ravaging seawater, that scene of world-ending destruction, froze.
The surging seawater abruptly stopped in mid-air, the mass of water churning eerily and tumultuously in the sky.
In short, it was an anti-physics spectacle that would make Newton himself rise from his grave.
The flood was instantly cut off in its tracks. Only then did people gradually find the time to look toward the breach.
One by one, they too froze in place, their expressions cracking with disbelief as they witnessed the incomprehensible scene.
"God..."
Some citizens had already knelt unconsciously, their heads tilted back, feeling the impact of the world-shaking scene, a shock that ran from their eyes to their very souls.
Even the priest walked out of the church, staring blankly at the Red-Silver Giant who had single-handedly stopped the flood.
Suddenly, he felt the cross on his chest had lost its luster.
Ultra Barrier, a psychokinesis-type skill derived from psychic power.
In the Land of Light, the one most skilled at this move was Senior Jack, an instructor at the Ultra Dojo. He had used this move in his own series, creating a barrier with psychokinesis to forcefully push back a tsunami that nearly submerged Tokyo.
Long before his rebirth, when Orin Vale saw this scene on TV as a child, he was completely blown away, feeling that this Ultraman was absurdly strong. After his rebirth and mastering psychic power, he also learned this move—but of course, he was still no match for his senior.
Although Jack was nicknamed the 'Bracelet Hanger', his mastery of psychic power was actually top-tier in the Land of Light. And even someone as strong as Jack found his energy critically low after pushing back the tsunami, unable to fight and disappearing on the spot. Orin Vale certainly didn't have his senior's abilities.
Fortunately, Gotham wasn't Tokyo, and this small flood was not on the same scale as the tsunami his senior had faced. The one Senior Jack faced was an epic tsunami caused by the combined power of a Tsunami Monster and a Tornado Monster, which he pushed back all by himself, washing away the two monsters in the process.
What Orin Vale faced now was merely a rift in the water barrier, created by a bored lunatic who had detonated a bomb at a critical point.
At this level, even with his half-baked Ultra Barrier, it was, quite literally, a trivial splash.
Orin Vale changed his hand gesture, raised both arms, and activated his psychic power again.
The next moment, the countless gazes focused on the coastline witnessed an even more shocking scene.
The suspended seawater, the waves that filled the sky, moved with a wave of the giant's arms as if by command—
—and flowed backward into the sea!
It was as if some great, higher-dimensional being had pressed the rewind button on this disaster.
The ravaging flood suddenly rolled back. With a torrent a hundred times more rapid than when it came, it recoiled like ten thousand stampeding horses, like a vast army from the sea that, after encountering an invincible barrier, had thrown down its armor and fled.
The people on the scene were survivors of the calamity. Soaked, they walked onto the streets—families holding each other tightly, a father picking up his child, a couple clinging to one another—all eyes converged on the immense silhouette in the sky.
It was just like the shock of the ancient Israelites witnessing the Red Sea part before Moses.
The gales ceased, the downpour subsided, and the raging sea returned to tranquility.
The giant in mid-air lowered his hands, his form gradually turning transparent until it vanished completely.
It was like an epic dream.
(end of chapter)