Chapter 613: Angel and Demon Torment Each Other
Decoding the Void
Linda had indeed seen the black cube, the Mother Box, more than once and had even touched it.
"Did you learn these bizarre symbols from inside it?"
Luke shook his head. "I created them myself. The mathematical system of Apokolips is too complex, so I innovated upon the existing foundation and invented a set of operations specifically for calculating spatial distance."
Linda exaggerated, "These strange symbols can be used to calculate space?"
"The symbols themselves are meaningless; the key is what I assign to them. Each symbol represents one or more mathematical theories. Combined, they yield a new theory. A theory is a rule. Using them to analyze the concepts of space and time is simpler and easier to understand."
Simpler? Easier?
Linda opened her mouth but chose to remain silent.
Barry leaned in, asking curiously,
"Boss, can these characters really calculate the exit's location?"
"No."
Barry: "..."
"I'm calculating the operational rules of the Void, not the exit."
"And then? Can you find the exit after that?"
"I don't know."
Barry: "..."
"What are you doing, joking around at a time like this?"
"I'm not joking. Figuring out the operational rules is just the beginning. There's something much harder ahead."
The two fell silent, then both shook their heads.
Time flowed silently. Two hours passed in a flash. Everyone was on the verge of a mental breakdown, casting anxious glances at Luke. Finally, the young man, who had been calculating on the ground, put down his pen and walked over with a few pages covered in characters.
"From now on, you must follow my instructions. Remember, no matter what I ask you to do, there can be absolutely no disobedience."
"Do you understand?"
As he spoke, he looked directly at Carter Hall and Hasshett. The latter said coldly,
"Just tell us if you're going to torture us. Don't make excuses."
Luke shook his head, divided the silk thread into four parts, and handed one to each of the four.
"Hold the spool of thread and stay put for ten minutes. You must not move at all."
He then took the other end of the threads and walked into the gray mist of the Void. Four threads connected from four directions to Luke's body. Everyone held a rangefinder to measure the thread's extended distance.
Gradually, the atmosphere became eerie.
The rangefinder in Linda's hand quickly reached three kilometers, while Carter Hall's and Barry's were only slightly over two kilometers.
The four people watching this phenomenon opened their mouths wide, their expressions priceless.
Hasshett couldn't help but complain,
"What in the hell is going on?"
Linda glared at him fiercely, and he quickly shut up, not daring to move.
The threads continued to stretch, but the speed slowed down. When Linda's reached six kilometers, the number on the rangefinder stopped. Linda began reeling it in as Luke instructed. The threads held by the others were still lengthening.
The bizarre scene made their hair stand on end. No one could explain what was happening.
"Maybe we're inside a gigantic octopus's stomach," Carter Hall half-joked, but received only silence. Seeing this, he too closed his mouth and continued controlling the thread.
Unconsciously, the thread in Barry's hand also stopped, then Hasshett's. Only Hawkman's, Carter Hall's, kept increasing, passing seven kilometers and still going.
Soon after, a vibration sounded ahead. Luke emerged from the gray mist, clutching the four threads, each pulled perfectly straight.
The rangefinder readings were: 900 meters, 1,500 meters, 2,200 meters, and 8,000 meters.
Visually, Luke was only fifty meters in front of them, but the actual distance separated them by thousands of meters. Barry clutched his hair, completely bewildered.
The experienced Carter Hall and Hasshett were equally astonished, their mouths agape.
"Luke..."
"Don't speak. Stay right where you are."
Luke dropped three of the threads, keeping only the 8,000-meter one. With his eyes closed, he walked back and forth and side to side in a strange rhythm. Suddenly, his body vanished. Two seconds later, he reappeared, and the taut thread fell to the ground.
Luke opened his eyes and signaled to Carter Hall. The latter quickly reeled it in. 8,000 meters, 7,000 meters, 6,000 meters... the number dropped sharply, only stopping at 200 meters.
Two steps away, yet thousands of meters away.
"..."
The air was so quiet a pin could drop.
Luke offered no explanation. He walked back to his original position with the strange pace, picked up the three threads on the ground, and after tugging at them a few times, tossed them away resignedly.
"The space in the Void is constantly in a state of contraction and folding. The 8,000-meter thread existed in a different, folded space, which is why it remained taut. If my calculations are correct, the exit is located in one of those folded spaces."
Barry swallowed hard and asked hoarsely,
"Boss, you know how to get out?"
Luke shook his head.
"Not yet. I need at least thirty more tests to get a preliminary result."
The Torture of Opposites
Luke was facing the greatest test since his rebirth, and things weren't much better for Clark's team.
The two monsters now facing them were different from the last. They spoke incoherently, but they could state their names. Judging by their behavior, they seemed to possess self-awareness but had gone mad for some reason.
The Demon, over five meters tall, wreathed in hellfire and as strong as a giant, alternately proclaimed itself the Abyss Tyrant and screamed the name Caesar. The four-winged Angel, whose head was crowned with a halo, kept muttering about Galileus and Gabriel. They hadn't heard of Galileus, but Gabriel was a famous Archangel.
Diana whispered,
"Something feels off here."
J'onn replied, "Their minds are very confused. They keep asking who they are."
Clark asked, perplexed, "Why would the Colosseum have an Angel? Aren't Angels supposed to be on humanity's side?"
Diana and J'onn exchanged glances, speechless.
Based on the results so far, the crystal spheres were likely the containers that sealed them!
Sealing a Demon was understandable, but an Angel?
The more they thought about it, the more their skin crawled. The faces of the three heroes were grave, as if they had uncovered a shocking conspiracy.
The existence of Demons had already been confirmed by Luke, but Angels were another matter.
According to scripture, the meaning of an Angel's existence was to protect humanity against Demons. They were the embodiment of peace, justice, wisdom, and courage, representing truth, goodness, and beauty in the world. But the scene before them subverted all prior knowledge: an Angel, representing light, was sealed in the Colosseum, and even worse, it had shared a body with a Demon.
Angels and Demons are incompatible, like fire and water.
Yet, the Council of Eternity deliberately crammed them together. Why would they do that? A whim? A dark sense of humor? Or intentional torture?
After much thought, the last possibility seemed the strongest.
The Gods and men of the Council of Eternity were doing it on purpose: putting two completely opposing life forms into a single shell. The power of light burned the Demon, and the power of darkness polluted the Angel.
For thousands of years, they had been tormenting each other relentlessly. The thought alone was horrifying.
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