The helicopter had barely lifted off before it was dragged out of the sky. Victor Kent intercepted Lei Xiaogu mid-escape, pulled him from the aircraft like a rag doll, and delivered him straight to Wayne Manor in Gotham. What Bruce chose to do with his newly acquired prisoner—who also happened to be Victor's inconvenient future father-in-law—was Bruce's problem now.
Victor and Clark didn't linger after that. They raced back to the small-town hospital at top speed, urgency tightening both of their expressions.
Even though Victor now possessed the Dionysian Factor, something capable of restoring life itself, the idea of letting their father die even briefly still felt wrong. The real danger wasn't Jonathan Kent's body—it was what his death would do to Martha. Neither son could bear the thought of their mother collapsing under unbearable grief.
"Mom, we're back."
The hospital room door opened just as the clock on the wall struck noon. Victor and Clark stepped inside, both breathing slightly harder from the speed of their return.
Clark immediately scanned the hallway outside with caution. After confirming no one was watching, he shut the door behind them, locked it, and pulled the curtains closed across the window.
What was about to happen in this room was not something ordinary people should see.
"Is that the spring water you said could detoxify your father?"
Martha stood beside the hospital bed, her eyes still red from crying. When she saw the stone test tube in Victor's hand, hope flickered across her tired face.
"Something like that, Mom."
Victor approached the bed and looked down at Jonathan's unconscious form. His father's skin still carried the faint heat of a stubborn fever, and the medical monitor beside him beeped with slow, uneasy rhythm.
"Dad's going to wake up soon," Victor said calmly. "Strong and healthy. Like nothing ever happened."
He noticed Keira still standing quietly in the corner of the room. Victor didn't bother asking her to leave. Instead, he uncorked the stone test tube and gently tilted it over Jonathan's forehead.
Dark green liquid metal dripped from the container.
Victor stopped halfway through the pour and kept the remaining portion in reserve. If the dose somehow failed, he wanted to have a backup. Pouring everything at once would leave them with no second chance.
The shimmering metallic liquid touched Jonathan's skin and immediately seeped into it, flowing through flesh as smoothly as spring water soaking into soil. Within seconds, it vanished beneath the surface and spread through Jonathan's body.
Keira's lips parted slightly as she watched the impossible scene unfold.
If rumors of Lazarus water were exaggerated, then what she was seeing now could only be described as a miracle. The substance looked like something capable of reversing age and pulling the dead back from the edge of the grave.
One second passed.
Then another.
Three seconds.
More than ten seconds slipped by in heavy silence.
Everyone in the room held their breath.
No one dared speak.
Suddenly Jonathan's chest heaved.
"Gah!"
He sucked in air violently, like someone bursting out of a suffocating river after being held underwater. His eyes snapped open and he jerked upright with a startled gasp.
The heart monitor beside the bed erupted into steady, energetic beeping. The sharp scent of disinfectant filled Jonathan's nose as he looked around in confusion.
His wife.
His two sons.
And a strange young girl he didn't recognize.
"Hey… where am I?"
Jonathan rubbed his head slowly, his expression groggy as if he had just woken from a long, heavy sleep.
"Jonathan, do you feel anything wrong?"
Martha's voice trembled with relief as tears slid down her cheeks. She leaned forward anxiously, examining him from head to toe.
"Wrong?"
Jonathan flexed his arms experimentally while both of his sons watched closely.
His eyebrows lifted in surprise.
"Yeah… something's definitely wrong."
Victor's hand immediately tightened around the remaining Dionysian Factor. If the poison hadn't been completely neutralized, he would pour the rest in without hesitation.
Then Jonathan grinned.
"My body hasn't felt this young since I was thirty," he said, stretching his shoulders with visible delight. "Honestly, I feel like I could head over to Old Bourne's ranch right now and apply for a job as a cowboy."
"You scared me to death, Jonathan."
Martha smacked her husband lightly on the shoulder, half laughing and half crying in relief.
Clark let out a long breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. Overcome with happiness, he clapped Victor hard on the shoulder.
"That's amazing."
"Mom, you should still take Dad for a full check-up later," Victor said with a faint smile. Even though everything looked perfect, he wanted to eliminate every possible risk.
"You're right, David," Martha agreed immediately.
Jonathan gradually began remembering what had happened before he collapsed. His gaze drifted around the room with thoughtful confusion.
Something extraordinary had clearly occurred while he was unconscious.
His attention eventually settled on the unfamiliar girl standing nearby.
"By the way… who is this young lady?"
Jonathan looked between his sons curiously. All three of them appeared close in age, which made him wonder if they were friends.
…
After undergoing a thorough medical examination, Jonathan Kent's health stunned every doctor in the hospital.
Not only had the poisoning completely vanished, but his physical condition now rivaled that of a man barely in his thirties.
One physician became especially excited when he heard that herbal medicine had been used during the detoxification process. He eagerly asked if he could study the plant responsible for the miraculous recovery.
Victor declined smoothly.
He explained that the formula belonged to a tribal tradition whose rules strictly prohibited sharing knowledge with outsiders. Faced with cultural restrictions, the doctor had no choice but to reluctantly drop the subject.
Jonathan and Martha were discharged later that afternoon. The couple returned home immediately to prepare dinner that evening.
Kayla had been helping throughout the crisis, and Martha insisted on inviting her over as a gesture of gratitude.
The opportunity to visit the Kent family home—and spend time closer to Victor's parents—was something Keira accepted without hesitation. She left soon afterward to prepare for the evening.
Meanwhile, Victor and Clark remained at the hospital.
The two brothers stood outside another ward and looked through the glass window into the room.
Inside, doctors were desperately attempting to save a middle-aged man whose heart rate had suddenly plummeted. A defibrillator discharged again and again against his chest, but the erratic heart rhythm refused to recover.
"Victor…"
Clark spoke hesitantly as he watched the scene unfold.
Victor didn't even let him finish.
"Don't even think about it."
Clark fell silent immediately.
"The rest of the spring water metal is for Mom," Victor said calmly.
"I…"
Clark struggled to argue, but the words wouldn't come.
During Keira's investigation into why the long-extinct Devil's Flower had suddenly reappeared, she had also uncovered information about the man currently dying in that hospital bed.
Once all the details were connected, the truth became painfully obvious.
"He was expelled from the mainstream scientific community," Victor said coldly. "All because he published a paper that made claims everyone else thought were insane."
"He spent years trying to reclaim his reputation through research."
Victor's tone remained flat.
"Honestly, it's an inspiring story."
He looked through the glass with distant eyes.
"But he shouldn't have dragged my family into it."
The man inside the ward had been one of the key figures responsible for triggering the accident that nearly destroyed the Kent family.
Victor had no intention of lifting a finger for him.
"I won't kill him," Victor said quietly. "But I'm not saving him either."
Clark sighed helplessly.
Without intervention, the outcome was obvious.
The man inside the room would die within minutes.
"It's a pity that such a brilliant genius would die here."
A smooth voice suddenly spoke from behind them.
Both brothers turned as a tall man in an immaculate suit approached slowly down the hallway.
Lex Luthor.
He stopped beside them and glanced through the glass at the medical team still fighting unsuccessfully to revive the patient.
Then he shook his head regretfully.
"Lex? What are you doing here?" Clark asked in surprise.
"I never realized a genius was hiding in this town," Luthor replied calmly.
"I came to visit him today, but it looks like I arrived too late."
Behind the glass wall, the doctors finally stopped their attempts.
"At 3:46 p.m., the patient is deceased after unsuccessful resuscitation."
The official declaration echoed through the room before the medical staff quietly stepped away.
A nurse gently covered the body with a white sheet.
"One step ahead makes someone a genius," Luthor murmured thoughtfully. "Ten steps ahead makes them a madman."
"Dr. Hamilton."
He lowered his head slightly, as if paying silent respect to the dead man.
"Do you agree with Dr. Hamilton's research?"
Victor's gaze shifted toward Luthor.
It was obvious that Luthor hadn't come to the hospital merely to pay respects.
Hamilton's reputation in this town was well known. Even people who had never met him had heard rumors about the strange scientist living alone in an RV deep in the woods, obsessively studying meteorites.
Luthor turned toward Victor with a faint smile.
"You grew up here, didn't you?"
His eyes glinted with curiosity.
"Then you must have noticed that strange things started happening in this town after the meteor shower."
....
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