Inside the reception room, there was another guest besides Victor.
The second man wore a blue hood that hid most of his face. He sat stiffly on the sofa, his posture reserved and awkward as he held a cup of hot coffee with both hands. Every few moments he apologized politely to the elderly housekeeper for the inconvenience of breaking into someone else's home.
Clark clearly felt uncomfortable being treated like an honored guest after entering the manor without permission.
"Who is the other one?" Batman wondered silently as he watched from outside the window. "Another person with the same kind of special abilities?"
Suspicion lingered in his mind.
Batman quietly withdrew from the window and returned to his bedroom. A moment later, Bruce Wayne emerged again wearing his usual casual clothes and walked toward the reception room on the second floor.
After witnessing the destructive beams of energy Victor had unleashed before, Bruce had long abandoned the idea that the young man relied on hidden technology.
If modern technology had already advanced to that level, Wayne Enterprises would have been out of business years ago.
"Master."
Bruce pushed the door open and entered the room. He gave Alfred a small nod of acknowledgment before turning his attention toward the two visitors.
He was just about to test whether the young man had truly identified him.
"You're moving too slowly."
Victor stood up abruptly, frowning slightly.
He had already noticed Batman spying through the window earlier but chose not to expose him. After all, it would have been rather impolite to drag someone through their own window after breaking into their house.
"Mr. Bruce Wayne," Victor said calmly. "Can you tell me where the Lazarus Pool is?"
"The Lazarus Pool?"
Bruce's brow furrowed instantly.
He had never heard that name before.
"Where in the Middle East is the headquarters of the League of Assassins where you trained?" Victor asked again.
Seeing the confusion on Bruce's face, Victor quickly adjusted his question. Perhaps Batman didn't know about the Lazarus Pool yet, but that didn't matter. The pool should still be located at the League's headquarters.
"Training? League of Assassins?"
Bruce's expression shifted subtly.
He had indeed trained somewhere during his years abroad.
But it hadn't been called the League of Assassins.
"I've only heard the name League of Shadows," Bruce replied cautiously.
Victor sensed the subtle tension in the room. Bruce's eyes briefly flicked toward Alfred before returning to him.
"League of Shadows?" Victor repeated.
That name sounded vaguely familiar.
Ra's al Ghul.
The master assassin known as the Demon's Head.
He was the founder of the League of Assassins and a man who had lived for more than seven hundred years thanks to the Lazarus Pool hidden somewhere in the Middle East. Over centuries, he had accumulated immense wealth and built secret organizations around the world, believing it was his duty to purge humanity's corruption.
The League of Shadows was probably just another branch of the same network.
Clark glanced back and forth between Victor and Bruce, feeling increasingly confused.
League of Assassins. Ra's al Ghul. League of Shadows.
The flood of unfamiliar names made his head spin.
How did Victor know all of this?
But there was no time to ask.
"Please tell us, Mr. Wayne," Clark said sincerely. "This is extremely important to us."
Bruce studied the young man carefully.
Us.
Clark wore a blue hood, faded jeans, and a brown coat. The material looked inexpensive, and Bruce could detect the faint scent of hay lingering on him.
It suggested a rural background—probably a farm.
Yet the tone Clark used placed him on equal footing with Victor.
Which raised an unsettling question.
Did he also possess the same kind of terrifying power?
…
Meanwhile, at Gotham Harbor.
Cold ocean waves crashed against the rocks like shattered snow.
A massive cargo ship had docked silently at the pier.
From its gangway descended a tall and slender man who appeared to be in his middle years. A neatly trimmed beard lined his chin, and his short hair stood sharp as steel needles. His eyes were calm yet filled with an overwhelming presence.
He wore an impeccably tailored suit.
The man carried himself like someone who had ruled for centuries. His gaze seemed to hold the weight of countless historical eras, and his demeanor radiated quiet authority.
Nothing in the world appeared capable of surprising him.
Behind him followed dozens of masked warriors dressed in dark combat attire. Each one moved with the controlled precision of a trained killer, their silence heavy with discipline.
Though their heads remained lowered respectfully, their eyes burned with devotion as they followed the man.
It looked less like an escort.
And more like a pilgrimage.
Several of them unloaded a massive machine from the ship—one weighing several tons.
It was the microwave generator stolen from Wayne Enterprises.
"Proceed," the man said calmly.
His voice carried the quiet coldness of a king passing judgment.
"Let us destroy it and cleanse the world of another festering wound."
His eyes drifted toward the decaying skyline of Gotham.
"Just as we once did to Rome and London."
Ra's al Ghul raised a hand with a cold expression.
The warriors immediately moved to carry out the order.
…
Back inside Wayne Manor.
Bruce stood silently for a moment before answering.
"In a remote border region of an ancient eastern nation," he said slowly, recalling the memory. "There are snow-covered mountains and isolated monasteries."
Victor listened carefully.
For some reason, Bruce had the strange feeling that Victor understood the situation even better than he did.
When a tiger desperately needed something, it was wise not to provoke it unnecessarily.
Bruce chose his words carefully.
"Where exactly?" Victor pressed.
He already knew the general area, but he needed the precise location so he and Clark could fly there immediately.
"If you're looking for Ra's al Ghul…" Bruce said slowly, his eyes flashing with memory. "I killed him there."
The man disguised as a monk had possessed incredible swordsmanship. Bruce had struggled against him in their duel.
But when the League attempted to destroy Gotham, Bruce ignited the building's gunpowder stores during their confrontation. The resulting explosion engulfed the temple in flames, burying Ra's al Ghul beneath a sea of fire.
Bruce himself had barely escaped alive.
The only person who survived the destruction besides him was his mentor—his teacher and friend—who had helped him escape.
"Ra's al Ghul can't be dead."
Victor spoke without hesitation.
"He has access to the Lazarus Pool."
Ra's al Ghul was one of Batman's greatest enemies in the future. There was no way he would die permanently at the hands of Bruce Wayne before Batman had even fully begun his career.
Even if he had died, his followers would simply throw his corpse into the Lazarus Pool and resurrect him again.
"If he didn't die…"
Bruce's eyes suddenly brightened as a thought struck him.
"Then he might be in Gotham right now."
Two days earlier, Wayne Enterprises had reported the theft of a powerful microwave emitter designed for military use. The device could vaporize large bodies of water during wartime.
Bruce had attempted to track it down, but the thieves had executed the operation flawlessly. After seizing the equipment, they vanished into the darkness over the ocean.
And today he had discovered someone pouring mysterious chemicals into Gotham's water system.
It was impossible not to connect the two events.
Bruce explained everything he had discovered.
If the League of Shadows was still active, defeating such a large force of highly trained warriors alone would be nearly impossible. His previous victory had relied heavily on luck.
This time the enemy clearly had a carefully prepared plan.
Bruce could not gamble Gotham's safety on blind confidence.
Perhaps this time he needed backup.
"The League of Shadows once tried to destroy Gotham," Bruce said grimly. "They likely haven't abandoned that goal."
"The chemical being poured into the water system is probably some kind of compound that activates when vaporized. They intend to release it across the city."
He looked toward Victor.
"They could trigger their plan at any moment."
"Tomorrow. Tonight."
"Maybe even in the next second."
"In Gotham…" Victor murmured, raising an eyebrow.
He glanced at Clark.
The clue he thought had been lost had unexpectedly reappeared. Instead of searching blindly across the Middle East, the target might already be here.
"As long as we find Ra's al Ghul," Victor said calmly, "we'll find the Lazarus Pool."
Clark's eyes lit up.
That meant the problem finally had a clear solution.
"But how do we find him?"
Victor answered immediately.
"This old man who's lived for centuries has an enormous ego. On the eve of destroying Gotham, he won't bother hiding himself."
"He'll definitely be surrounded by a group of samurai or ninja."
"Hundreds of years?" Bruce's eyelids twitched.
The young man seemed to know far more about Ra's al Ghul and the League of Shadows than he did.
If someone had told him earlier that a man had lived for centuries, he would have dismissed it immediately.
But after witnessing Victor's power…
Living for hundreds of years no longer seemed impossible.
"Samurai… ninja?"
Clark nodded thoughtfully.
"I understand."
Without asking Victor how he knew all of this, Clark memorized the information instantly.
Then he vanished.
A powerful gust of wind swept through the room as he shot out of the manor at incredible speed.
"Where did he go?"
Bruce narrowed his eyes.
Clark had disappeared so suddenly that it felt as though time itself had frozen.
"He's searching the city," Victor replied calmly. "Looking for Ra's al Ghul."
Victor walked toward the window and gazed out over Gotham.
It was only nine o'clock.
There was still plenty of time.
As long as they located Ra's al Ghul and forced him to reveal the location of the Lazarus Pool, the next step would be simple.
All he needed was the water.
....
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