Heisenberg did not answer Clark. Step by unhurried step, he emerged from the passageway.
As he passed, every robot he walked by turned to face him in unison, their movement so mechanically synchronized that the citizens of Metropolis, slowly making out his form, began to tremble uncontrollably.
Accompanied by the light yet impossibly heavy sound of his footsteps, Heisenberg finally stepped out of the ship. He came to a halt before Clark and appeared before the eyes of Metropolis.
In that instant, countless citizens drew a sharp breath. Heisenberg's greatcoat and the invisible, overwhelming authority he radiated merged soundlessly with the Godfather figure etched into the heart of every American.
They watched as he extended his right hand. A long spear wreathed in dancing flames materialized in his grip.
Before the stunned, awestruck expressions of the people, Heisenberg lightly tapped the butt of the spear against the ground.
BOOM!
In the span of a heartbeat, flames surged outward from the point Gungnir had touched, rippling like water across the city. The fire swept past countless citizens and washed over the countless cameras they were using to film him. Whether watching on screens or standing there in person, everyone recoiled a step.
But the flames that licked across their skin did not harm them.
Just as confusion set in, Heisenberg spoke. He spread his arms wide and offered them all a smile so faint it was barely there.
"I am pleased to have awakened from my slumber. As a gift, I bestow upon you a night of daylight."
The moment his words fell, the blaze that had spread across half the globe shuddered. Then, though the hemisphere where America lay was still deep in night, the sky bloomed with light once more.
Day had broken!
Gungnir did not need to serve as a second sun, nor did any luminous body need to hover in the heavens. As the god who ruled over the great sun and light itself, if Heisenberg willed it, he was the sun.
All across America, people boiled over with fervor. Countless multitudes stumbled from their sleep, looking toward the horizon in stunned disbelief. As for those who had never gone to bed, who were watching Heisenberg's live feed, they simply burst into astonished hymns of praise. Scores of the religiously fervent knelt joyfully on the spot.
What drove them to their knees went far beyond reverence for a god. Many were confessing. They needed to confess, and they did not dare not confess!
As for those who did not kneel before Heisenberg...
Take the citizens gathered right around his ship, for example. They had long since lost the ability to kneel. Heisenberg's power went far beyond the simple, brute strength Superman had demonstrated. The daylight that acted upon the very rules of reality had drained them of all strength. They could only stare at him in a stupor, and the image of Heisenberg would likely never vanish from their minds again.
Thousands of kilometers away, inside the President's war room, the President of the United States rose to his feet in a daze. With a trembling right hand, he gently placed it over his heart.
"God bless America... but how do we treat a true god?"
Behind Superman, the officer in charge, standing closest to the ship, looked around in alarm, his eyes wide. There was clearly no sun in the sky, yet everything he could see appeared as it would in broad daylight! He saw the soldiers behind him putting down their weapons with trembling hands. He saw more than a few police officers bending at the waist. He saw the citizens regain the strength to move, but that strength only allowed them to lower their bodies further.
Turning back, the officer looked at Heisenberg. His eyes were filled with fear and repentance. Had he really spent those last ten minutes attempting to surround and attack a true god? God above, was this man the sun, or was he You, Lord? He said, Let there be light, and our world had light! But what did he ultimately want?
His heart laden with countless fears, the officer gripped his phone tightly. The situation had long since spiraled beyond his authority to decide. Right now, he was no different from any other bystander. Because even if he gave the order to attack Heisenberg, no one present would obey.
At the same time, across this ancient land once claimed by God, countless powerful figures raised their heads.
Diana, who had just been escorting Lois into her home, had yet to say goodbye when she turned toward the outdoors in delighted surprise, basking in the utterly warm daylight.
In Wayne Manor, Bruce, who had been chatting with Alfred, shot to his feet in shock and sprinted toward his cave, toward the control console that operated his company's three satellites.
Out in the ocean, a heavily tattooed, brawny man surfaced in astonishment. Tens of thousands of meters beneath him on the seafloor, a red-haired princess departed the royal palace in alarm, racing straight toward the sea surface that had no business shining at this hour.
Inside the palace, the heir to the throne jolted awake from his slumber. Using the sunlight as his pretext, he rallied his followers, spreading his heretical claim that the surface dwellers meant to kill them all with a daylight weapon. He wanted war.
Yet his ever-calm advisor merely looked upward with worry. On a day when the Seven Seas were still not unified, the land had gained a new power! Had another member of that ancient pantheon, whom Amazon and Atlantean had once challenged together, awakened? He worried, for he wanted peace.
On Paradise Island, which the advisor had alluded to, the queen gazed at the sky in pleasant surprise. Within the ubiquitous sunlight shining through the night, she sensed vast, immeasurable divine power, and within that power, a spirit of utter invincibility. She rejoiced, believing that her gods had returned!
Unlike the queen, a being of cold metal felt no delight from this divine light. Hidden away in a Metropolis apartment, the cyborg's mind flashed with unending alarm messages. Once, his thoughts had piloted his flesh, but now, his steel body was overriding his thinking. His new form was afraid, and that meant the Mother Box in his storage unit was afraid too.
In Star City, a wealthy young man stripped off his green attire in a stupor and set down his bow. He walked out of his secret room and into his home, looking with concern at his sister, who was bathing in the sunlight. She was thrilled by the sudden daylight, but as her brother, all he felt was worry.
Yet the many who walked upon evil in Gotham did not share his concern.
Penguin irritably drew his curtains shut. "Freaks and monsters always show up like this, and they always vanish the same way. And Gotham? Gotham is always Gotham!"
Riddler looked up at the sky in excitement. "What can make the night as brilliant as day? My riddles have just gained one more!"
Deathstroke, as ever, drew his blade. Sunlight would not become an obstacle to his killing.
And the Joker...
The Joker's smile was radiant and delighted. "How beautiful..." he murmured. Stepping to the drumbeat only he could hear, he danced in the sunlight. No one dared interrupt his excitement and joy. And so, he spoke the words that came from the heart. "I love it when the world becomes extraordinary... no matter what kind of extraordinary it is."
Reaching this part of his song, he drew the pistol that had accompanied him for so long and casually blew the head off a nearby follower. Looking at the extraordinarily abnormal bloodstain in the sunlight, he found the color of the blood extraordinarily vivid. One of his favorite colors~~
As for Heisenberg, long since the focus of the entire world, he put away his spear, stepped past Superman, and faced all the expectant eyes trained on him.
He spread his arms as if embracing the whole world and nodded to everyone watching him.
"I have returned!"
"AAAAAHHHHH!!!"
"Oh God, oh God!!!"
"Unbelievable!!!"
"My sun!"
"My Lord, You have returned!"
"I never thought I'd live to see this day, I never imagined it, I truly never imagined it!!!"
"AAAAAHHHHH!!!"
One single sentence. Every person who could see Heisenberg went wild with ecstasy. No one knew why they were so beside themselves with excitement!
Why, indeed?
Listening to the din that completely engulfed Metropolis, listening to the excitement enveloping the entire planet, feeling every last thing upon this world, Heisenberg smiled a smile of profound understanding.
Perhaps it was because this body's origin made him feel as though he had found a home in the DC universe. Or perhaps defeating an enemy who had nearly killed him had rekindled his passion for battle. At this moment, standing upon this Earth, Heisenberg felt even more gratified than when he had returned to his homeworld Earth.
He finally understood. After he had abandoned his past life and rebuilt an independent version of himself to send back to his own timeline, his heart had briefly lost its place to belong. But now, in this vast multiverse teeming with countless lives and stories, when he returned to the DC world...
He was home.
He gently pressed his palm downward. An intangible warmth brushed over everyone like a spring breeze. The people howling in exhilaration were drawn in by this energy and gradually quieted. Following the warm sensation wrapped around their bodies, they looked toward the sun at the center of the crowd.
And when Heisenberg deemed the world quiet enough, he lowered his arms and slid his hands into the pockets of his dress trousers. The greatcoat behind him billowed in the wind with a sharp, snapping sound. Then, under the reverent gazes of all, he spoke softly.
"I am gratified that, after ten thousand years of slumber, humans still exist upon this Earth, and that you still exist. So from this moment on, I am pleased to announce to you, the fortunate ones: you have me once more."
As his words faded, countless pairs of eyes went wide. No matter what thoughts had previously occupied their hearts, none could now hide the inexplicable sense of blessed relief rising within them. Even they did not know why they should feel so excited.
Amid their exhilaration, which was approaching its breaking point, Heisenberg extended his right hand and pointed at the Kryptonian fortress behind him. "I awakened from there, and so it shall be my new dwelling. I will not leave you again."
"AAAAHHH!!"
"GOD!!!"
"I can't believe it, Metropolis is blessed beyond measure!"
"DEAR GOD!!!"
The citizens' vocabulary had long since run dry. No matter how worked up they were, they could barely string other words together. Listening to their emotionally charged shouts, Heisenberg waited with a smile. This time, the noise continued for a long while, only gradually subsiding when the people fell silent of their own accord.
Heisenberg stood at the center of the crowd, but his gaze was fixed beyond the sea of stars. The people looked at him, and at the vast world and brilliant light reflected in his eyes. What they did not know was that Heisenberg's vision had already transcended them, taking in the entire world as it was now.
Suddenly, it was as if all his abilities had been elevated. An endless, inexhaustible torrent of divine power streamed from the part of him that belonged to godhood. Faith from all living things lifted his sight higher and higher, as if he had crossed over the present, over that time, to meet the gaze of an infinitely distant past and future.
In a trance, he faintly understood: this was the vision of a god. The vision of God. The vision of Satan. The vision of the One-Above-All. The vision of Gaea and Pan. It was also his future vision—the vision of Heisenberg.
And so, he nodded to them all.
The instant he nodded, those who a second ago could not make him out suddenly saw Him standing right in front of them. They faced the light before them and strained to see His face.
And He, meeting their longing eyes, spoke softly.
"I am Heisenberg."
/-\
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