Chapter 437: The Saint's Eyes
[After the banquet ended, Bruce Wayne quietly asked you about the relic. After twenty days of traveling together, you had come to see him as someone you could trust. So you didn't hide anything—you told him everything you knew and even summoned your Stand before him.]
[Yet Bruce Wayne didn't see your Stand. He merely smiled and said that he too was interested in the Saint's Corpse—but wouldn't deliberately fight you for it.]
[On the night of January 20, 1973, as you rested, a strange series of markings suddenly appeared on the back of your left hand, resembling the Latin letters CRUS. When translated, they meant: "Move your feet." Could this be another effect triggered by the Saint's Corpse?]
[Soon after, a newspaper cleared up your doubts. The photo it carried depicted a mountain whose peak perfectly matched the markings on your hand. If your guess was correct, the Saint's Corpse in your left hand was pointing toward the next body part's location.]
[You began consulting various religious texts in hopes of uncovering the origin of the Saint who had left behind such relics. In this world, a "Saint" referred to someone who could perform miracles even after death.]
[According to Vatican canon law, one who had been confirmed to perform at least two miracles posthumously would be recognized as a Saint. Thus, in this world, many Saints were only officially acknowledged centuries after death—true paragons among humanity. Now that both Lex Luthor and the Church were willing to use a massive international race to locate his remains, it proved how extraordinary this Saint must have been.]
[Furthermore, a Saint's Corpse never decays. Not only devout believers but even ordinary people have long sought such remains. For instance, on August 22, 1640, when England invaded Scotland, it seized the remains of Saint Christopher from the Scottish royal family and venerated him as the nation's guardian. From then on, that small island kingdom rose into a three-hundred-year golden age as the empire on which the sun never set.]
[And among Saints, there are Saints above Saints—those whose remains could bestow a millennium of glory and divine might upon their possessors.]
[By granting you a Stand and even a measure of divinity, the relic in your left hand had already performed two miracles. By Vatican standards, that confirmed it as an authentic Saint's Corpse. An inexplicable thought rose in your heart—you wanted to collect all the relic's parts, to see what would happen. Would it let you return to your original world, to change the fate of being poisoned to death?]
Reading this far, Zhou Ning couldn't help but twitch his lips. So the King of Lanling's goal is to go back to ancient times and be a prince again? How utterly uninspired. Still, the idea of a Saint here seemed somewhat similar to that in Apocalypse World, though not nearly as exaggerated.
In Apocalypse World, those whose strength reached the demi-god level but who had not yet attained the rank of Angel were called Saints. In the lore, the ascetic church's Saint Zacharias had left behind relics that could invoke divine descent and bring good fortune—an ultimate trump card for the Darkland Diocese. The staff he wielded in life became a holy artifact, one of the rare paths by which "Unknown Relics" were formed: sacred remains of a Saint, extremely rare and monopolized by the great divine churches.
Continuing the simulation—
[You soon noticed something else interesting—something you hadn't paid attention to before. There were at least five or six people here seeking the Saint's Corpse. Since you were the first contestant to emerge from the Devil's Palm, someone must have leaked that you'd obtained a relic. Half the eyes in the camp were fixed on you that night—utterly absurd.]
[If your hunch was right, the next stage would bring unprecedented danger. There might already be teams of assassins waiting for you. And no one around you could be trusted—anyone might have been bought off.]
[The following day, the third stage of the race began. The route stretched from Monument Valley across the Rocky Mountains to the finish line at Cannon City—a total of 510 kilometers, with the shortest estimated time being seven days.]
[The entire course wound through the mountains, teeming with wild beasts. But for you and Bruce Wayne, that was hardly an obstacle. You had to admit—fate worked in strange ways. After more than twenty days together, you and Bruce Wayne had become inseparable friends. You even found yourself humming bits of rock music. (You have earned the achievement: Friends IV.)]
[Unexpectedly, the first three days passed uneventfully. But on the fourth night, when you arrived at the marked mountain, you encountered a large group of people.]
[Among them were the current twelfth-ranked contestant, Roman Sionis—the man in the black mask (known in his original world as the DC villain Black Mask); seventeenth-ranked Slade Wilson—the veteran soldier (the DC villain Deathstroke); and nineteenth-ranked Kyle Rayner—the superhero Ion. Joker Knight happened to pedal by on his bicycle, while your old acquaintance George Washington rode in from another mountain path.]
[Seeing this many "Children of the World" gathered in one place, you narrowed your eyes. Perhaps the second piece of the Saint's Corpse was drawing its potential hosts to it.]
[Before long, a sand sculpture emerged from the dunes ahead, holding two objects in its hands—wooden orbs resembling eyeballs. Then, the usually low-profile Joker Knight suddenly exploded with speed, racing toward the wooden eyes.]
[You also dashed forward, but Roman Sionis intercepted you. In a low growl, he demanded that you hand over the Saint's Corpse—the left hand. Sionis wasn't a Stand user, but he was a master marksman, wielding twin pistols with deadly skill, and he excelled in hand-to-hand combat. His black mask also emitted powerful psychic energy capable of manipulating minds. Meanwhile, Slade Wilson was a powerhouse—another gunfighter, with immense strength and an advanced healing factor.]
[As for Kyle Rayner, he was a Stand user. His Stand could manipulate the elements, conjuring blizzards and dark force fields—an extremely troublesome opponent. The three of them were working together!]
[A fierce battle erupted. Since it wasn't raining, you couldn't use your Stand, making a swift victory impossible. But Bruce Wayne no longer held back, unleashing a dazzling array of weapons that stunned even you.]
[Meanwhile, Joker Knight pedaled furiously toward the sand sculpture, rambling about righteousness as he went. He claimed they were collecting the relics so that someone truly worthy could wield real power—to "save" the world.]
[Listening to his sermon, you sighed tiredly and told him that there could be no true saints in this world. Every human had desires; when power and authority were concentrated in one person, the world would only grow worse.]
[Joker Knight ignored your words and kept racing ahead. Yet Bruce Wayne's eyes flickered faintly, as if something you'd said had struck a chord.]
[Just as Joker Knight was about to seize the two eyes, Bruce Wayne's grappling line shot out, hooking the wooden orbs and yanking them into the air. The eyes soared high—one flew straight toward you, while the other drew Bruce's attention. But Joker Knight, furious, punched Bruce with all his might, sending him flying.]
[When Bruce Wayne looked up again, everyone froze in shock. One of the wooden eyes had embedded itself into his left socket, fusing seamlessly into place.]
[Behind him, a silver-white spirit with rabbit-like ears and pink shoulders began to materialize in the air.]
[Around him appeared visions of multiple Batmen—one clad in black armor, another in blue, another in red…]
[And in your own hand, you grasped the other wooden eye. Without hesitation, you pressed it into your right eye.]
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