Clark reached out and gently took the old woman's wrinkled hand. Her skin was thin and fragile, the veins standing out beneath it like pale blue threads. For a moment nothing happened, and Clark wondered if the strange feeling he had sensed earlier had simply been his imagination.
Then, after only a few seconds, his vision blurred and the world around him dissolved.
It was as if reality itself had cracked open. In the blink of an eye, everything in front of him changed into something terrifying and unfamiliar. The peaceful surroundings vanished, replaced by a nightmarish landscape that looked like the aftermath of the apocalypse.
The sky above burned with a blood-red dusk that covered the horizon like a wound. Skyscrapers were shattered and torn open as if some enormous force had punched straight through them. Entire blocks had collapsed into rubble, and fires raged across the city, sending thick columns of black smoke spiraling upward like pillars reaching toward the sky.
People were running everywhere.
Thousands of terrified civilians fled through the streets in every direction, their desperate screams echoing through the ruins. The cries blended together into a horrifying chorus that clawed into Clark's ears like the wails of the damned.
A massive ravine split the ground like a scar carved by a giant hand. Clark suddenly felt a violent pain explode through his entire body, as if he had been struck by a falling meteor. His body lay at the very end of that trench, broken and unmoving.
He tried to rise, but nothing obeyed him.
Clark realized he couldn't control this body at all. He could only lie there helplessly, staring upward while struggling to move even a finger. His vision felt locked in place, as if he were trapped inside someone else's perspective.
Whoosh!
A figure descended slowly from the sky.
The man had black hair and wore a sleek black combat suit covered in intricate dark-gold patterns that seemed almost alive. His physique was tall and powerful, his body perfectly balanced between strength and grace.
He stopped half a meter above the ground.
The gravel scattered across the street suddenly lifted into the air by itself, floating around him like fragments caught in orbit around a planet. The air trembled under the pressure radiating from his body.
The sheer presence he carried felt overwhelming, like a divine being stepping down onto the mortal world.
It was suffocating.
"David?"
Clark's eyes widened in shock.
The man hovering in front of him was unmistakably his brother. Yet something about him felt unfamiliar and frightening, like a distorted reflection of someone he knew.
Clark felt like he was dreaming. He could only watch the scene unfold while trapped inside this strange viewpoint. He couldn't move, couldn't speak, and couldn't change anything.
"Clark, look around you."
David's eyes glowed faintly with a molten red light, like lava simmering beneath stone. He slowly shook his head, his expression calm yet filled with disappointment.
"I didn't want things to turn out like this," David said quietly. "But you kept pushing me. You left me no choice."
"What does that mean?"
Clark's mind spun with confusion.
Had David really done all of this? Had his brother somehow destroyed the entire city?
His thoughts raced uncontrollably. Maybe the two of them had argued. Maybe Clark had tried to stop him. Maybe their conflict had escalated until everything spiraled out of control.
"Wait… this place…"
Clark stared around at the ruined skyline.
"This is Metropolis!"
In the distance, the iconic Daily Planet building stood partially collapsed. The massive golden globe that once crowned the rooftop had been ripped free and hurled through several nearby skyscrapers before crashing into the street below.
The sight made Clark's chest tighten.
"Did the thing I feared actually happen?" he thought. "Did David lose control of his power and fall down a dark path… forcing me to stand against him?"
His heart trembled with uncertainty.
As if responding to that thought, Clark suddenly felt the emotions of the body he was inhabiting. A violent fury surged up from deep within his chest, so intense it felt like a volcano about to erupt.
"Brother," the future version of Clark growled, "you need to be corrected!"
With a furious roar, he launched himself into the air.
His body shot forward like a missile, wrapped in a freezing aura. His fist surged toward David with unstoppable force, like a god charging toward another god on the battlefield.
Whoosh!
A golden rope streaked through the air like lightning.
It wrapped tightly around Clark's waist in an instant.
At almost the same moment, several glowing green chains formed out of pure energy. They coiled around his body like serpents before enormous crystalline spikes slammed into the ground, anchoring the chains firmly in place.
Clark's forward momentum stopped abruptly.
The force pulling him back was immense.
His body had been flying forward like a cannonball only moments ago, yet now it halted midair, sending a violent shockwave bursting outward across the surrounding streets.
Only a few inches remained between him and David.
David hovered calmly in place, his expression unchanged, his eyes steady and unblinking.
"It's you who needs fixing, brother," David said.
"Who's helping David?"
Clark was stunned.
The future version of himself twisted his head back in anger. Following that motion, Clark finally saw the two figures restraining him.
One of them was a tall, breathtaking woman with the presence of a warrior goddess. She wore a crown and a gleaming armored battle suit, and her stance was firm as she planted her feet into the shattered pavement while gripping the glowing golden rope with both hands.
On the opposite side floated a brown-haired man dressed in a green luminous uniform. The casual smile that normally hung on his face had vanished, replaced by a grim look of concentration.
An emerald ring on his hand shone brilliantly as streams of green energy extended outward, forming the chains and spikes that pinned Clark in place.
Both of them were straining.
Their teeth were clenched, muscles tense, as they struggled to restrain the raging future Clark like two hunters trying to hold down a charging bull.
"David's allies?"
Clark's heart pounded.
Were they partners in whatever darkness David had embraced? Or were they somehow under his control?
Before he could process the thought any further—
Boom!
David moved.
His figure vanished in a blur of speed.
The next instant, he appeared directly in front of Clark and drove a punch forward with the force of a falling meteor.
Clark's body crashed violently into the ground.
A massive crater exploded open beneath him, more than ten meters deep. The shockwave rolled through the surrounding streets like a tidal wave, shaking nearby buildings and shattering windows for blocks.
Crack!
"What do we do?"
A deep, steady voice echoed from nearby.
A grappling hook shot into the wall of a damaged skyscraper. A dark shape swung down from above, cutting through the smoky air like a shadow.
The figure landed quietly.
His long black cloak spread outward like bat wings before settling around his shoulders. His face was partially hidden by a mask, and his cold expression carried an oppressive aura that kept others at a distance.
There was something about him that felt heavy and dark, like the endless storm clouds that hung over Gotham City.
Even in this chaotic battlefield, his presence was unsettling.
Clark stared at the man in disbelief.
He had already begun questioning whether the future he was seeing was real, whether his brother had truly descended into darkness. But seeing this bat-like figure standing beside David suddenly shook Clark's confidence even more.
The man looked nothing like a hero.
In fact, he seemed completely cut off from anything resembling warmth or light.
If this was the kind of person David surrounded himself with…
Could David really still be walking the right path?
"Clark," David said quietly, frowning slightly, "our parents would be heartbroken if they saw you like this."
He raised one hand slowly, as if preparing to act.
Crack!
The vision shattered.
Clark's consciousness snapped back to reality.
The room came back into focus around him. Across from him, Cassandra jerked her head slightly, her eyes widening in shock.
For a moment, confusion flashed across her face.
She had intended to look into Clark's future, yet what she had just seen was something else entirely. Instead of witnessing Clark's destiny, the vision had revolved around David.
Why had she seen that?
Did Clark's future somehow revolve around his brother?
Or had the vision shown her something far more complicated?
Cassandra blinked, still stunned, while David looked just as puzzled.
"David, you—!"
Clark suddenly jumped to his feet, his expression shaken.
…
A massive smokestack towered above the ground like a stone pillar.
The chimney was enormous, stretching dozens of meters across. Frost now covered nearly its entire surface, forming a thick layer of ice that glimmered under the faint light.
Standing beside it was a small figure.
Shien slowly pulled his hand away from the frozen structure, his face filled with intoxicated satisfaction. At his feet lay more than a dozen factory workers, each of them frozen solid into grotesque ice sculptures.
Their faces still carried the expressions of terror they had worn at the moment the cold consumed them.
The entire chimney had been frozen from the inside out.
Shien could feel the strange cycle happening inside his body. Every time he absorbed enough heat, his power surged upward to a completely new level.
The process repeated over and over.
Cold spread outward, then warmth returned, only to be drained away again.
Finally, a heavy fullness spread through his body, similar to the feeling of eating too much.
Shien stopped.
Right now, he felt unbelievably strong.
His eyes drifted toward the ground nearby, where more than a dozen brass bullets lay flattened against the concrete.
Those bullets had been fired at him earlier.
Now they couldn't even leave a scratch.
Shien bent down and picked up a crowbar that one of the factory workers had tried to use as a weapon.
Creeeak!
A horrifying metallic screech filled the air.
The crowbar twisted slowly in his hand, bending like soft clay under the crushing pressure of his grip.
"It's still not my limit."
Shien grabbed the warped metal with both hands and squeezed harder. The steel warped further, bulging and folding between his fingers as if it had turned into mud.
Seeing that sight, Shien's face lit up with uncontrollable excitement.
He burst into laughter.
Modern civilization was built on steel. Bridges, buildings, vehicles—almost everything relied on it.
Yet now he could crush steel with his bare hands.
Nothing in the world could stop him anymore.
The police certainly couldn't.
From this moment forward, the entire town was his playground. He could do whatever he wanted with it.
"What should I start with?"
A twisted grin appeared on his face.
Maybe he could find a beautiful girl and ask if she wanted to feel the strength of his steel-like arms.
Then suddenly—
A figure appeared in his mind.
"David."
The name left his mouth like poison.
Yesterday, that guy had done nothing more than glance at him and say a few words, yet Shien had fled like a coward.
The memory burned with humiliation.
"Do you think you're tough?"
The resentment in his voice grew thicker.
Thinking back to how he had run away in front of several people, Shien's chest filled with uncontrollable anger.
"I'm not the same person anymore."
A few football players meant nothing now.
With the strength he possessed, he could fight an entire armed army.
Leaving behind the frozen corpses and lifeless sculptures scattered across the power plant, Shien clenched his fists and began walking toward Kent Farm.
His face was dark with determination.
"I promise you'll regret doing that to me, David!"
....
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