"Why are you all here?"
Bruce gave Darian a death stare.
Needless to guess, he knew this was definitely Darian's doing again.
Darian chuckled, "I just returned to Gotham City, and it just so happens Barry is also in Gotham, so I decided to call the members of The Seven over for a barbecue party. Diana happened to be nearby, so she dropped by. Clark and Lois went to Los Angeles for work, and Arthur has already gone home; it's too much of a hassle to go back and forth, so he didn't come."
Bruce frowned, "How come I didn't receive any notification?"
Darian shrugged, "Well, you know now."
Bruce: "..."
He couldn't be bothered to bicker with this guy, so he reached up and took off his mask.
Anyway, his identity was no longer a secret within The Seven, so there was no need to hide it.
Bruce unceremoniously picked up a skewer of grilled meat and started eating, asking in a deep voice, "What exactly happened in Los Angeles last night?"
This matter couldn't be hidden at all.
The battle last night had overturned a large area of the city, and the commotion was outrageously loud; it had gone viral all over the internet as soon as dawn broke.
Someone had captured blurry photos of the high-altitude confrontation. In the image, three figures stood in the air; on one side was an Angel with pure white wings, and on the other was a demon wrapped in black energy. The two, who should have been mortal enemies, were actually standing on the same side, joining forces to attack the person in the middle.
Soon, someone recognized the figure in the middle; it was the Superheroes who had stopped the invasion of General Zod.
Public opinion instantly exploded.
Most people still stood on Darian's side; after all, he had saved Metropolis and even the whole World, so his standing as a good guy was beyond doubt.
The Angel and demon who had attacked him were naturally classified into the villain camp.
Of course, there was another main reason: Mammon looked truly hideous, and one look told you he wasn't a good guy.
In this era of judging by appearances, Mammon was firmly nailed to the villain position based solely on his looks, and Gabriel was affected as well.
Because Gabriel's religious recognition was too high, churches everywhere issued statements overnight, distancing themselves at light speed, stating that Gabriel was absolutely not an Angel of Heaven, but a disguise used by an evil demon from hell, and this was all a conspiracy by Satan.
It's estimated that even Gabriel didn't expect that his Angel status had been revoked by the believers.
Darian said casually, "Nothing much, it's just that Gabriel felt humans had failed God's mercy and planned to assist the Son of Satan in descending to the human World, turning Earth into a new hell. So, I stepped forward, fought Gabriel and the Son of Satan alone, and successfully saved Earth once again."
This statement carried too much information, leaving Bruce stunned.
He frowned, "Gabriel, isn't that a fictional character in religious legends?"
Darian shook his head happily, "No, Gabriel is real. Not just him; Heaven and Hell are both real. Good people go to Heaven after they die, and evil people go to Hell, so the two sides are constantly competing for quotas."
"Then God and Satan..."
"Are also real."
Bruce took a deep breath, feeling a headache coming on.
He had only recently witnessed aliens, and now Darian was telling him that Heaven and Hell were both real.
Was this still the World he knew?
Bruce was silent for a few seconds before asking, "How do they compare to Clark?"
Darian didn't hesitate, "In pure physical combat, Gabriel and the Son of Satan probably aren't Clark's match. But if magic is used, Clark would be completely defeated."
In fact, with the huge commotion in Los Angeles last night, Clark, who possessed super hearing, naturally noticed it immediately.
At the time, Clark contacted Darian in the group chat, asking if he needed support, but was flatly refused by Darian.
On one hand, he didn't want to lower his contribution to the mission; on the other hand, Clark's magic resistance was too low.
Gabriel and Mammon were both magic-side existences, naturally countering someone like him who had high physical defense but low magic resistance.
Let alone helping, if things went wrong, he might suddenly jump to the enemy camp, be controlled by the opponent's magic, and turn around to launch an evil group attack on Darian. That would make the situation even worse.
Darian sent Clark to the outskirts of the battlefield to protect people and avoid being caught in the crossfire.
Otherwise, with their destructive power, even if Constantine had evacuated some people in advance, a large number of civilians would still have been involved.
"Even Clark is no match for them."
Hearing this, Bruce's brow furrowed even tighter.
Clark was the powerhouse of The Seven; if even he wasn't a match, then the other members didn't even need to be mentioned.
But upon further thought, if Darian could face and defeat the combined forces of Gabriel and Mammon, didn't that mean Darian's true strength was even greater than Clark's?
How much strength was this guy hiding?
Bruce felt secretly relieved.
With his brain, it wasn't hard to figure out that Darian had been digging a pit for him from the start, just waiting for him to jump in voluntarily.
If he had foolishly gone to the door wearing the anti-Spider-Man armor, the outcome would be imaginable.
Bruce immediately made a decision: until he had absolute certainty, the anti-Spider-Man armor would have to be renamed the anti-Superman armor.
Clark: "..."
Darian comforted him, "You don't have to worry too much. God and Satan have set up a barrier in the human World. Except for those two big shots, no Angel or demon can descend to the human World in their true form. Last night's situation was just a special case."
Bruce immediately grasped the main point, "You mean, Satan himself can come to the human World at any time?"
The Son of Satan had caused such massive destruction without even fully descending; if his father, Satan, came to the human World, what would happen?
Darian waved his hand, "Don't worry, Satan is a pacifist and won't do anything dangerous to the human World."
Bruce: "..."
A pacifist Satan? You've got to be kidding me.
Darian's words didn't make Bruce relax at all; instead, they made his nerves tighten even further.
For someone like him who always kept a backup plan, this gap in strength that was beyond his control made him feel extremely uneasy.
Bruce said in a deep voice, "We need to recruit more powerful forces. Relying only on the current members is far from enough."
Darian nodded in agreement, "You're right. It's not great that The Seven has only had six people. We should at least find one more to make up the number."
Bruce asked, "Do you have any recommended candidates?"
Darian nodded, "There are a few backups, but it will take some time to find them."
In DC comics, there were seven main members of the Justice League.
Besides the members of The Seven, there was also a Superhero named Martian Manhunter; they were all initial members of the Justice League.
Later, after the entire Universe was rebooted, this initial member, Martian Manhunter, became Cyborg.
Since this Universe contained most of the Justice League members, it shouldn't lack Martian Manhunter or Cyborg, though it was unclear if they had appeared in this timeline yet.
If that didn't work, he could just find a certain green-clad Superhero.
That's right, he was talking about Green Arrow, the DC version of Hawkeye.
Darian had Ultron check the data: the heir to Queen Industries in Star City, who had gone missing at sea five years ago and had only recently returned, taking over the family business again, staging a classic 'Dragon King Returns' scenario.
All of these could be candidates for The Seven, more than enough to fill the last spot, or even recruiting them all wouldn't be impossible.
Who said The Seven could only have seven people?
"Wait, I seem to have forgotten someone... Oh well, it doesn't matter."
Darian didn't dwell on it, reaching out to distribute the freshly cooked regular meat skewers from the grill to everyone, while picking up a particularly oversized grilled wing for himself.
The skin of the grilled wing was golden and crispy, the edges slightly curled, and grease slowly seeped down the texture. The aroma was several times richer than the regular grilled meat nearby, and as soon as he held it up, it drew the attention of everyone present.
Barry stared straight at this skewer, "What kind of meat is that? It smells so good."
"Angel meat."
Barry: (°—°)
[Grilled Angel Wing: After consumption, permanently increases Spirit attribute by 10 points, permanently grants flight ability.]
This was the Angel wing from the mission reward. The wings contained pure holy energy, which ordinary flames couldn't cook through; it was only because Darian used Hellfire that he was able to roast it.
"Holy crap, this effect is powerful."
Seeing the effect after cooking, Darian clicked his tongue in surprise.
He couldn't wait to bite off a large piece. The fragrance instantly spread in his mouth, the taste far surpassing ordinary grilled meat by who knows how many grades.
Darian chewed and nodded in admiration, "As expected of an Archangel's wing, the taste is truly impeccable!"
He suddenly felt some regret.
If he had known Gabriel was this delicious, he would have cut off all the remaining wings at that time.
Darian completely ignored Barry's eager, longing gaze, eating the entire skewer of grilled wings clean, not even sparing the bones, biting them directly and swallowing.
[Spirit 75 → 85]
After finishing the grilled wings, Darian's Spirit attribute was greatly improved.
He remembered that he still had unallocated free attribute points. After pondering for a few seconds, he immediately added all 15 free attribute points to the Spirit attribute.
Now he had many skills bound to the Spirit attribute, and using skills and the ultron armor required a large amount of mana support. If the mana wasn't enough, he would run out in a few moves during high-intensity combat.
As Darian finished adding points, the panel refreshed instantly.
[Attributes: Strength 115, Agility 75, Constitution 75, Spirit 100]
With this, both Darian's Strength and Spirit attributes broke through the 100-point mark, making him a true practitioner of both physical and magic combat.
Counting the bonus effect of the Sin of Pride skill, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call him a Kryptonian who had mastered magic.
In the future, when encountering enemies, he would throw magic first to test the depth. If magic couldn't gain an advantage, he would only be able to have his eyes glow and slowly rise into the air, letting the enemy truly feel the beauty of the numbers.
Except for Bruce, everyone else was quite satisfied with this barbecue party.
Darian decided on the spot that he would hold barbecue parties here every once in a while to strengthen the bonds between teammates.
Bruce immediately objected, stating that this was his private territory, not a barbecue pit.
However, the objection was invalid.
Because The Seven was a democratic organization, any major decision had to be voted on, and one person couldn't make all the calls.
Without any surprise, Bruce lost one vote to the three votes on the field, and Wayne Manor directly became the exclusive barbecue pit for The Seven.
Bruce was furious, but helpless, and could only vent his anger on Barry, who had also voted in favor, by raising the special training plan he had tailor-made for him to the highest level.
Training items included, but were not limited to, strafing with a Gatling gun, Bruce personally launching sneak attacks at any time, and burying various traps where Barry lived...
Obviously, Darian's participation in these training items was inevitable.
According to Darian, the inspiration for these training items came entirely from a Superhero in Marvel called Quicksilver.
Quicksilver's speed was clearly the fastest, and in his eyes, the outside time was almost equivalent to stationary.
The result was that such a speedster often fell for enemy sneak attacks, and his most embarrassing performance was not even being able to dodge bullets, directly being sacrificed and forced offline.
Barry's ability was highly similar to the other guy, and to avoid repeating the same mistakes, he had to practice instinctive evasion reactions.
That is, before the brain even realized what happened, the body would take the first step to activate superpowers to avoid danger.
Darian even specifically gave this special training plan a name, called the Barry Sacrifice Training Plan.
Pietro: A familiar feeling.
However, in terms of training intensity, Barry's situation was much more difficult than Pietro's.
After all, Pietro only faced sneak attacks from many HYDRA agents, while Barry had to face Bruce, this Batman.
You have to know, this old schemer Bruce could even sneak attack Clark repeatedly, let alone Barry, who had already been analyzed by Bruce and entered the execution stage.
Darian could only silently wish Barry good luck in his heart.
After the barbecue party ended, Darian didn't stay long at Wayne Manor, turning to find an empty, uninhabited space in the suburbs, intending to try out the newly acquired flight ability.
Following Darian's operation, a mass of soft holy light energy immediately surged from his back, rapidly condensing into a pure white wing in the air, looking almost identical to Gabriel's wings.
With a slight thought, the wing flapped gently twice, and a steady lifting force wrapped around his whole body. His feet slowly left the ground, and his whole person floated up lightly.
He test-flew at a high altitude, and it was very smooth to control, with no feeling of unfamiliarity or stagnation.
Darian was very satisfied.
With this wing, he wouldn't need to rely on equipment to fly freely in the future, making traveling and fighting much more convenient.
"But the problem is, why is there only one wing? Is it because I only ate one wing?"
Darian looked at the single lonely wing behind him, his mouth twitching.
Although one wing didn't affect the flight effect, the appearance looked unusually discordant, as if the other wing had been chopped off.
If someone saw this, wouldn't he be given a title like the One-Winged Hero?
The more Darian thought about it, the more he regretted it.
If he had known, he would have cut off Gabriel's other wing no matter what.
If that didn't work, plucking off that pair of black wings from Mammon to make up the number would also do; one black and one white would be much more pleasing to the eye than being single like this.
***************************
Thoughts on where the plot is heading? Let me know in the comments! If you're enjoying the ride, please leave a quick review and toss a few Power Stones my way. Every bit of support means the world! 🙌