Crimson Embers Chapter 37: Is it in vain that you can call me brother-in-law?
"That bastard is fierce."
In the loop core that finally quieted down, Zha Kang kept wiping his cold sweat.
The male wizard was filled with fear at the moment. When he saw Dr. Bluebird holding off three Kryptonians without losing any health, and fighting back and forth with the three bosses of the Ultimate K Team, he realized that the damn Mason had created another tricky thing this time.
This guy is still restless even after retirement. He is like a dangerous black hole, attracting all the dangerous things in the parallel world system to him.
Pooh!
If I continue to get involved with Mason like this, sooner or later I will lose ten years of my life... no, at least twenty years!
Fortunately, it seems that Mason has already prepared weapons to restrain strong enemies. Judging from the scene of Dr. Bluebird being exiled just now, even if his people don't come, Mason estimates that the opponent will be seriously injured and will have no power to resist.
However, the effectiveness of this tactic is based on the premise that Dr. Bluebird does not have a violent and murderous intention. For a strong man of this level, it would only take a thought to eliminate the members of Team K.
Even Mephisto looked a little inferior in front of Dr. Manhattan, but after calming down, Zack quickly noticed another thing.
He glanced at Mason, wondering what the things he had just used to exile Dr. Manhattan were.
Being able to be used to separate such beings from the physical universe is by no means ordinary, even when used in conjunction with a miracle machine. Perhaps that means Mason has paid some kind of high price.
Zha Kang pursed his lips and glanced at Hei Qiyi, a big boss who was also on the magic side. The latter's expression was almost identical to Zha Kang's, and he obviously also noticed this detail.
The two looked at each other, and without making too many guesses, they moved forward to see Mason's current condition.
Being attacked by Dr. Bluebird's energy would definitely leave terrible sequelae. Tony Zero's incurable cancer was caused by this. Fortunately, Mason's Suicune physique and water body's self-purification prevented him from falling into a sickly state.
At this moment, the captain was picking up the wreckage of the fallen Universe Master Power Armor on the ground with a miserable look on his face, his face full of heartache as if he had lost his best collection.
This is normal.
Anyone would feel sad if a collection of this level was destroyed in their hands.
"Can't you just spend your retirement time in peace? Do you really want to scare us to death?"
Before Zack could speak, Barbara, who had transformed into a "brother-protecting demon", stepped forward in a power suit and started scolding Mason. When she rushed out just now and saw Dr. Manhattan's invincible figure, Barbara's heart sank, thinking that she and her companions came too late to save her brother.
But the facts prove that the captain is still the captain who plans before taking action. The excellent guidance of the Bat-Family makes him never fight a battle without confidence.
"Thank you, sister, and everyone, for troubling you this time. If you didn't come, I would have to invite Uncle Tun to join the battlefield, and this would have saved me from owing him a terrible favor."
Mason put away the remaining silver X-metal in his hand, smiled at Kite Man and Zha Kang, and touched the heads of Harley and Quinn who came over to him. He looked at the core area of the loop where the battle had not lasted long but was still in a mess, and said to the others who gathered around him:
"Although in my imagination, only Ciri would be enough, but thank you for coming all the way here to admire my heroic victory over another powerful enemy."
"Just blow it!"
Damian, who was also stroking the half-broken samurai sword with a look of heartache, raised his head and said with disdain:
"How badly did you get beaten up just now? If we hadn't arrived in time, do you think you could have escaped from the oppression of that terrifying blue guy?
It may take less than a second for someone to kill you , but we fought for seven full seconds for you... You should be grateful and at least say "thank you" and "thank you for your hard work" to us.
Also, you see, I sacrificed my best weapon to save you, I think you should compensate me for my loss!"
"That's your best weapon?"
Mason squinted his eyes and said:
"Are you sure you want to say this in front of a master blacksmith? Do you want me to 'test' your knife? Although I was beaten badly, I also saw with my own eyes that you used that knife and it broke before it even touched Dr. Manhattan. Why do I feel like you came here specifically to make trouble?
You are deliberately looking for trouble, right? "
"whispering sound"
The madman curled his lips when his little plan was exposed, but still raised the hilt of his knife and ran towards the group of Mason family craftsmen who were walking into the core area of the loop shoulder to shoulder and laughing.
Hey, I'm sure to get a chance to eat with Porcelain Master today. It's a rare opportunity to see so many great craftsmen gather together. This might be the last time I can get some good stuff.
"You better get that shit done!"
Black, who had just swallowed the beam from Dr. Manhattan in one gulp and was now a little bloated, said to Mason coldly:
"This star is going through a very strange disintegration process. I can feel it pressing on the sacred timeline, causing it to groan miserably. Perhaps in a few minutes the entire timeline will collapse.
That’s a good thing for me, but not necessarily for you.”
"Don't worry, this thing is easy to stop."
Mason waved his hands, panted a few times, and said:
"Tony Zero gave me all the blueprints. Now that Dr. Manhattan, the core of the loop, has been exiled, we only need to cut off its backup energy source to terminate the loop.
They designed it with this exact situation in mind, but they haven't been ."
"Analog loop? What's that?"
Ciri beside Mason asked in surprise, and the others were also confused, but Frog and Perfect Ultron looked at each other. It was obvious that these two extraordinary guys had guessed the truth of the matter.
The captain didn't intend to explain. With the help of Ciri, he walked towards the energy projection of the circulation core, where the core module controlled by Dr. Manhattan was suspended in the air. It was the main control device of the entire spherical space of the circulation core. Harley and Quinn also ran up, one grabbed Mason's wrist, and the other looked at Ciri vigilantly.
But the hunter no longer cares about this.
After coming back to life, she no longer had eyes for anyone else. When she looked at Mason, her moist and affectionate eyes made Harry grit his teeth in anger.
Behind these four people, the Mason family, who had experienced the whole process, explained to others everything they had discovered on Hope Star, including the truth about the thirteen simulation cycles.
This cruel and bizarre fact left everyone around stunned.
"So, without our knowledge, in this special plane where it's hard to tell truth from falsehood, the universe has repeated this doomsday thirteen times?"
Zha Kang rubbed his brow and said:
"But is it really possible to travel back in time on such a large scale in the material world? It's not that I question this truth, but it's a bit too..."
“It can be done.”
The big bald frog figure whispered:
"If Dr. Manhattan connects himself to the origin of the universe, he can use the disturbance of space and time that occurs when the origin of the universe vibrates to accomplish this.
It's like the power of the universe against itself.
But the price is that the Heart of the Universe will become increasingly weakened due to self-conflict in each cycle, which makes the power of each plane to resist the impact gradually weaker when the impact of each cycle occurs.
And even if it is a simulated loop, each startup will disrupt the plane structure...
It is their actions that have turned the parallel world system into the chaos it is today. Everything has been disrupted, with disorder occurring simultaneously at the levels of time and space, making it impossible for observers like us to be immune to this distortion and change.
No!
It was me who didn't notice.
Perhaps my wiser companions have noticed, and that is why they allow me to meddle in these matters."
“The concept of an absolute point in time has therefore shifted.”
Hei Qiyi said with a blank expression but a cold voice:
"Christine's inability to be resurrected may also be related to their misdeeds."
"No, Stephen, your wife's inability to be resurrected has nothing to do with all this. Although they are bad guys, they should not bear all the blame."
Perfect Ultron corrected:
"Their destruction of the sacred timeline has, in a sense, weakened the concept of absolute time points, which is equivalent to helping you in disguise.
Under normal circumstances, your attempt to resurrect Christine on that occasion would have failed at the outset.
You won’t have the opportunity to cross an absolute point in time.”
“So I should thank them?”
Black Qi asked indifferently, Perfect Ultron shrugged and did not continue the topic, but others were whispering about another thing at this time.
"So, what Dr. Bluebird said just now is that he hopes that the boss will complete this one and only real cycle, and then use our fusion plan to nip all tragedies in the bud before anything happens?"
The kite flyer widened his eyes and said:
“Why doesn’t this sound like a bad thing? When the boss and we started doing good things, it was before the third impact. In the first two impacts, most of the fragile worlds were destroyed.
If the boss can go back to the time before everything happened, doesn’t that mean…”
"That doesn't mean anything!"
Zod, who was always rational, interrupted Kite Man's description and emphasized:
"If Mason really did that, it would mean that our fates would change, we would no encounter him, our worlds would survive but our lives would no longer have any intersection.
Batman and Catwoman won't get together so easily, Barbara will still sit in a wheelchair and feel sorry for herself, Kite Man will continue his life as a third-line villain in Gotham, and there is no way that Kondo and Zuckerberg can truly reconcile, and Bucky will do dangerous things to mess up his relationship with Bruce Wayne.
And I...
I wouldn't have met Kara, and I would still be locked up in that damn laboratory. Maybe until the day I die of old age, Grandpa and Martha would also...
No!
That's not what we want to see!
Absolutely not! "
"That's right."
Ertong said coldly:
"Our lives have become better because we met Mason. If Mason really did that, it might be a good thing for those worlds, but for us..."
"The question now is what Mason thinks."
Zha Kang blew out a smoke ring in annoyance, turned around and looked at the captain who had already climbed into the main control cabin with the help of the three girls, and said in a hoarse voice:
“What would Mason do?
Will he choose to sacrifice the time he spent with those who he has never met for those who have never met him? We and those worlds have been placed on both ends of the scale, which one will weigh more?
I can be sure of Mason's choice in other matters, but I dare not make a judgment on this matter.
You all know what kind of man our captain is.
You all know how much regret he has in his heart..."
"Mason!"
Barbara was startled and ran towards the main control cabin wearing her power armor.
Her scalp was tingling as if an electric current was surging in her heart. The tingling feeling told her that she might lose her brother in the next second.
Although she and Mason had only been legal siblings for a few months, there was no doubt that Mason Cooper already held an extraordinary position in her heart.
"Stop him! Harley! Don't let him start that thing!"
Barbara screamed.
The others also reacted and rushed over here. Even the arrogant Damian threw out a grappling hook and jumped over to stop Mason from doing anything stupid.
Mason is a member of the Bat-Family. He cannot be so selfish as to only want to fulfill his own moral principles.
He has given enough to the universe, and no one and nothing has the right to ask him to give away the last bit of warmth he has.
Harley and Quinn didn't move.
Because they had just discussed this issue with Sweetie, Ciri did not stop Mason.
The Hunter is permanently bound to Mason Cooper on the existential level, and even if Mason really starts the cycle and intends to complete a universe rescue from beginning to end, she will always be by his side.
Even at this moment, Ciri still had some dark thoughts in her mind.
If Mason really did this, maybe Harley and Quinn would...
"Hey! You have such a weird smile on your face!"
Harry suddenly grabbed Ciri's wrist and screamed:
"Are you thinking of doing something bad?"
"Ah? No!"
Ciri was shocked and denied it repeatedly, thinking that Harry was crazy about everything, so how could she be so sensitive about this kind of thing?
But the next second, the hunter suddenly raised her head, unsheathed the sharp blade in her hand and stabbed it into the air above her head. She felt the vibration of space, but the sword hit nothing.
"Ha, we caught up!"
Amid Barry's laughter, the speed force channel opened, and the speedster who rushed out kicked away Ciri's blade, and then the eldest master and Tim who rushed out afterwards posed in a coquettish posture in the air.
The two men performed a relay juggling act with Tim, who landed first, lifting the young master into the air. Grayson then pulled out a special sharp weapon and stabbed it into the backup energy source of the main control cabin in front of them.
"here you go!"
Barbara cheered as she ran over, but then she heard Mason shout angrily:
"I'm almost stopping it! What the hell are you doing? You idiot, the self-destruct sequence is activated now, run! This place is going to explode!"
The captain is not joking.
Such a sophisticated device was so roughly inserted with a foreign object by the young master, which directly led to the energy out of control in the main control cabin.
Dangerous sparks jumped out from every corner of the complex spherical space, and the sense of danger caused by the terrifying energy fluctuations made everyone present startled.
Fortunately, there is no shortage of people who can teleport here.
Ciri, Black Strange and Zha Kang cast spells at the same time, and two seconds later they moved everyone to the surface outside the circulation core hall of the End Star, even bringing out Tony Zero, who was drinking happily and relaxedly hiding nearby.
With a loud bang, brilliant light spurted out from the core area of the End Star close to the center of the earth, just like the magnificent scene when the Death Star fired, piercing through the special space where the End Star was located and the edges of other planes.
Then the solidified time here began to move again, reconnecting with the sacred timeline of the outside world.
Rorschach covered his heart and groaned, as if he had aged a dozen years in an instant. Tony Zero was even more miserable. He had died seventeen years later and was now rapidly approaching the end of his death.
But this guy who has seen many evolutions of stars is quite free and easy.
"Look at that era for me! It must have been beautiful, but it doesn't belong to me anymore. Perhaps it never belonged to me in the beginning... We are just a group of cowards immersed in the past. Since we didn't have the courage to touch the future, it is necessary to accept the punishment of the future.
Good luck, Mason."
After realizing that death was inevitable, he smiled and poured the last glass of wine into his mouth, then stood up and casually brushed his hair, called out to Mason, then bowed to thank him, turned around and walked into the energy stream that exploded behind him.
"Look what you've done! He could have lived."
Mason turned around and glared at the young master.
The latter shrugged, played with the Nightwing fighting stick in his hand, and said in a relaxed tone:
"While we were running in the Speed Force tunnel, Barry said he heard the conversation going on here, and I just did what I had to do, Mason.
I stopped you from doing something stupid."
"Do you really think I would abandon you and go back to the place where it all originated, to save the entire universe by myself at the cost of losing everything I have?"
The captain asked back expressionlessly:
"Do you think I'm really such a cold and selfless person?"
"Whatever you say."
The young master gave a meaningful smile.
Like a true hero, he held the smiling Barbara's arm, and in the background of the circulating core constantly emitting energy streams, he patted his brother-in-law on the shoulder and said softly:
"We all know what you'll do, but we don't want you to leave, Mason, blame it all on me, hate me all you can.
I don't care.
No matter how much you hate me, you still have to call me brother-in-law, right? "
