DC: A New Beginning-Chapter 72: Unknown

"Hello?"

"Can anyone answer me?"

"Are you sure you want to leave this decision to me?"

He tapped his earpiece, which was completely silent, then took it off and turned the switch on and off twice.

He put it back to his ear but still heard nothing.

"I only crushed the mask with the video transmission function, right?"

Viktor looked around with a puzzled expression.

"Don’t tell me Lex Luthor put signal-jamming equipment inside his own safe house too."

"Wait."

Viktor suddenly looked at the crowd of bawling, crying little kids in front of him, and his brow slowly tightened.

If the signal had never managed to transmit back ever since he entered this safe house...

That female secretary’s words just before she pulled the trigger were still nagging at him.

Viktor began slowly backing away until he was level with the gate, then he slowly raised his hand.

The sound of crying in his ears suddenly disappeared as if someone had pressed the mute button.

A helpless sigh suddenly came from right behind Viktor.

"They’re just a group of kids; they should have the right to survive."

’Who...’

Viktor was stunned, and every muscle in his body tensed up instantly. He tried to spin around fast to face whoever it was, and then realized he couldn’t move at all.

This was different.

It felt like every muscle, every cell in his body, even the tiniest parts of him, were completely frozen. He couldn’t even contract his pupils.

Viktor’s mind went into a complete panic. He had never allowed a completely unknown threat and dangerous presence to stay in his blind spot for this long.

Even the cold sweat that should have broken out across his forehead was locked inside his pores.

However, the person who had arrived didn’t kill him from behind.

He simply walked quietly past Viktor’s side, looking at the children who, at some point, had also all been frozen completely still.

The figure walked blatantly into the edge of Viktor’s peripheral vision.

A powerfully built figure, more than a full head taller than him, with some wrinkles on his face and graying temples. He wore a completely black combat suit, with a silver "S" symbol on his chest.

The man turned around, and the look in his eyes as he stared at Viktor was completely cold and emotionless.

"What were you going to do to these kids just now?"

The sensation of being locked in place suddenly lifted.

The full force of Viktor’s power erupted all at once.

He shot backward, leaving the room while glancing at the Reverse Flash, who, for some unknown reason, hadn’t given any warning.

Then Viktor saw something even more terrifying.

Reverse Flash was standing silently beside the giant hamster cage that held the Flash, his left hand pressed against his right elbow, and his right hand’s thumb and index finger pinching his chin.

Reverse-Flash was completely frozen, like a statue.

What really shattered any hope Viktor had was the sight of the Flash, who should have been running nonstop in the hamster cage.

Even the Flash was frozen in place and locked in a perfectly standard running pose, surrounded by his golden speed force energy.

Viktor stiffly turned his head.

The gray-haired man in the black suit was quietly floating in front of him. He was in the same position as when Viktor killed Lex earlier.

The man looked down at Viktor with a completely expressionless face.

"I don’t know how you came to be in this world. I originally wanted to quietly wait for this world to reset, but you suddenly showed up, and even planned to harm a group of kids."

The man in the black suit raised one hand, and his palm descended slowly toward Viktor.

Even though there was no longer the feeling of being frozen, and the man’s attack wasn’t fast, Viktor knew he wouldn’t stand a chance if the man wanted to erase him.

Viktor knew clearly there was absolutely no way out if this person wanted to erase him.

It wasn’t a time stop and yet even the Speed Force hadn’t been enough to avoid being frozen in place by this Superman.

This kind of power that had never been heard of before was genuinely terrifying.

Viktor’s mind raced.

Even though Superman in front of him didn’t have a thick beard, and the way he looked at Viktor was more like looking at a stranger and an enemy...

’What if it was the same person?’

"Why did you save me back then?"

The man’s palm, which was about to fall on Viktor, paused. He seemed surprised, and his eyes narrowed slightly.

He leaned closer and studied him carefully.

"I believe this is our first meeting. There have been many parallel universes in the past, but in none of them should you exist."

After saying this, the man simply looked at him quietly. Those weary eyes showed no hint of what he was thinking.

Viktor let out a sharp breath.

"I had no intention of killing those children. I was only going to pretend I never saw them."

"I don’t know whether you’re familiar with Lex Luthor, but given what he said before he died, I couldn’t simply ignore it. Bringing children who are parallel counterparts back to my world could pose a potential threat."

Superman looked at him. The thoughtful look in his eyes disappeared, and the corner of his mouth curled up slightly.

"That’s not actually how you truly feel. Even though what you said is true, you’re hiding your real thoughts. Perhaps you just think it’s a hassle."

Viktor pursed his lips together and was about to say something more, but then he noticed his figure seemed to become slightly transparent and faint for just a split second.

He blinked, but when he looked again, it seemed like an illusion.

Superman’s expression was no longer as calm as before. He looked in the direction of the Flash with a complicated expression.

Viktor seemed to suddenly understand something.

"This world is never going to reset."

"What did you say?"

Superman’s expression finally showed some emotion.

Viktor became even more certain of his guess.

"The Flash who belongs to this world is already dead."

"For some unknown reason, the Flash from this world swapped places with the Flash from my world."

Viktor kept his voice as calm and slow as he could while secretly hiding the tracker behind his back.

"The Flash from this world had some kind of unknown mental breakdown and died in our world. And the reason I came here with Mr. Thawne was precisely to save the Flash who belongs to our world."

Superman seemed not to have considered this at all, and his brow furrowed deeply.

"This shouldn’t be. It wasn’t supposed to happen like this."

Click.

Viktor quietly activated the locator.

A reverse portal instantly opened up behind Viktor and shot his entire body into it in an instant.

But in the very next second, Superman shook him to his core one final time.

The travel through the portal should have been extremely fast. At least fast enough that even Viktor’s own reaction speed couldn’t observe it.

However, Viktor now realized that between the two worlds, there was a tunnel that looked like dazzling, colorful starlight.

Suddenly, a powerful hand appeared completely out of nowhere in front of Viktor and physically jammed itself into the portal between the two worlds to forcibly block it.

Viktor’s body was being torn in opposite directions by both worlds at once, and his body simply couldn’t withstand the pulling force of two worlds ripping at him from both sides.

In the Batcave, the Bat-computer data began to glitch, with strange, unfamiliar data overwhelming the preset programs.

Superman had half his body pushed into the space portal, staring coldly at Viktor.

"Where do you think you’re going?"

Then, Superman reached out with one arm and grabbed Vktor’s ankle.

The strength in that grip was beyond anything a normal person could even imagine.

The strength in his hand was unimaginable, making Viktor feel like his leg bone was as fragile as a normal being compared to the man’s grip.

The overwhelming flood of abnormal data kept crashing into the computers in the Batcave until it let out an overloaded electronic explosion sound.

The space-time portal could no longer hold itself together.

Suddenly, it shattered silently into nothing, and the chaotic darkness completely swallowed both Viktor and Superman.

...

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