American comics: From Hogwarts to God on Earth

Chapter 482 Batman Retires?

Barry brought Rune to Batman's side for an absurdly short time, which startled the others around Batman, but Rune also immediately sensed the real problem with Batman.

Batman was lying on a hospital bed in a small clinic, his eyes closed, his brows furrowed, his lips pale, and his breathing weak.

Bruce's clothes had been completely removed, revealing a dense network of wounds on his body. His skin had turned an unnatural, glowing green due to poisoning, and the veins on his wrists and other areas were bulging and visible to the naked eye.

Among those standing beside him were Dr. Leslie, Catwoman, and Alfred, but Raven was not present. Perhaps after being appeared to by Sannomiya in a dream, Raven made a phone call to Alfred or someone else?

Rune was guessing what was going on in his mind, but his hands were moving quickly. He didn't use magic to examine Bruce first, but instead used the power of the Dream Stone to put Batman into a deep sleep before conducting the test.

"What happened to Bruce?" Barry was the first to ask. He looked at Bruce's wounds and wondered for the umpteenth time why Batman insisted on not becoming a superhuman.

Batman has plenty of ways to become a superhuman if he wants to. For example, green light rings, yellow light rings, and even kryptonite, with prolonged exposure, can grant superpowers, and Batman has never lacked kryptonite.

Bruce and Luther estimated that they had collected at least 90% of the world's kryptonite.

Catwoman's lips were pressed into a thin line as she gripped Batman's hand tightly, as if afraid he would escape.

Alfred stood to the side holding tissues, so that the future matriarch of the Wayne family could wipe away her tears.

Dr. Leslie looked at Rune with suspicion, clearly not trusting this supernatural power—or rather, Rune himself.

Especially since Rune looked so young and handsome, he didn't fit Leslie's image of a white-haired potions master at all.

"Don't worry," Rune replied in a deliberately relaxed tone, "The poison in Bruce's body isn't fatal. The reason you're having trouble treating him is because a magical force is attached to him. Although this magical force is weak, it's of high quality and difficult to remove—"

After all, it was magic from Sannomiya, and even a trace of it would be enough to make someone suffer. Moreover, if Rune's guess was correct, the previous Batman should have been tormented in his dream.

This is a unique ability of dark magic; it excels at torment, both physically and mentally.

However, Rune was kind-hearted and couldn't bear to see Batman suffer, so he let him fall into a deep sleep first.

Leslie interrupted Rune, "Can it be cured?"

"Yes," Rune nodded. "But besides magic, he also carries some complex poisons—"

"We detected that these compound poisons are not lethal, but they will gradually erode his bodily functions—" Leslie's expression was quite complicated. "If Bruce doesn't receive treatment by tonight, he may completely lose his identity as Batman."

"The person who poisoned him must hate Bruce to death, right?" Rune still had the leisure to joke at this moment.

As we all know, Bruce is Batman's mask, and Jason wants this man to live with the mask on for the rest of his life, never being able to be his true self.

But Lune knew that even if Bruce really became an ordinary person who couldn't do strenuous exercise, he would definitely use an exoskeleton or even create a robot to continue acting as Batman and patrol Gotham at night.

He might even break through his limits and regain that human-limited physique through training. This isn't impossible, just like Bane's Brokeback Mountain—cough cough, back-splitting attack—it was initially very effective, but later Bruce could be back-splitting in the morning and still be fighting criminals in the afternoon.

When others exclaimed that this was unscientific, Bruce would only say: Because I am Batman.

This is the treatment DC's favored son receives, or you could explain it as Batman possessing the Dionysian factor.

Rune wanted to continue telling some hellish jokes about parents, alleyways, cows, and orphans, but Barry gave him a light nudge with his elbow.

Rolling his eyes, Rune could only get down to business, "Okay, but I hope you all think this through, this might be a good time for Batman to retire."

"Let's think about what Batman would face if he were successfully cured?" Rune continued softly, "He would have to patrol Gotham day after day, facing supervillains like the Joker, Poison Ivy, and Mr. Freeze, or in events where a single mistake could lead to the destruction of the universe."

"Is this really the future Bruce wants?"

This statement immediately made most of the people present fall into deep thought.

"But what if we turned him into an ordinary person with limited physical abilities?" Rune said enticingly, conjuring up a vision of the future with the others. "Alfred would gain a well-behaved young master, Selena would get a fiancé, and perhaps Catwoman could even retire with Batman—"

"But—but—" Barry interrupted, trying to say something, but only managed to utter two words before lowering his head.

He wanted Batman to come back to life; Barry missed and needed that suspicious, difficult hero who always managed to turn the tide.

But what about Ah Fu and Catwoman? They also need a respectable person who is willing to continue the family bloodline and a gentle and handsome husband.

Barry told himself he couldn't be so selfish.

In the end, Barry couldn't say anything of any useful information.

The others were clearly struggling as well, especially Catwoman, who knew that Batman's nightly patrols were as futile as Sisyphus pushing the boulder, serving almost no purpose other than adding wounds to the man she loved.

Finally, Leslie took a deep breath and said sternly, "No matter what, this decision cannot be made by us. This is not our future, it's Bruce's future!"

This statement finally made the others realize the truth.

"Please extract the magic power from the master's body as soon as possible—" Afu said solemnly.

The Flash volunteered, saying, "I can go find Wonder Woman or Superman; their herbs or medical pods should be able to treat simple physical poisons."

"Okay, hurry back." Rune said, then focused on his work, not even noticing when Barry left.

If it were just ordinary magic, Rune could easily absorb it all without needing to concentrate so much. But Sangu's dark magic is different.

This magic was of frighteningly high quality, almost forming a semi-solid entity. If it were forcibly pulled out, it might sever several of Batman's aortas, leading to massive internal bleeding. Therefore, Rune had to extract this dark magic with extreme care.

Fortunately, after being baptized by the black hole, Rune's magic manipulation skills became more and more proficient, so the difficulty was not too great. As the magic was extracted, it quickly turned into twitching tentacles in the air.

This made Leslie's eyes widen.

However, while Batman's condition is being treated, Gotham City is becoming beyond saving—