"I have watched thee for a long time. Thy darkness is pure, thy will like flint, and thy desire for order resonates with mine."
"Thou hast already don the night as a robe; I grant thee moonlight as a blade. When the moon rises, thou shalt exist; as long as the moon endures, thou shalt endure. The pact shall be made, and thou shalt become my walker on earth..."
The Moon God Khonshu seemed completely indifferent to exactly how many souls resided within Peter Parker's body, speaking on his own accord with a kind and benevolent voice.
But Batman interrupted Khonshu's voice at that moment.
"No."
A single, simple word, low and powerful. Khonshu's voice paused, and in the next moment, cold moon-fire ignited within the empty sockets of the hawk skull.
His tall, thin figure suddenly grew massive and majestic. The gigantic hawk skull almost obscured the entire upper space of the Egypt Hall, and the white mummy wrappings danced wildly with his movements.
"Dost thou reject a god?"
The overwhelming pressure made the air inside the Egypt Hall almost solidify, making it impossible to breathe.
Khonshu's voice was no longer benevolent; it was filled with the majesty belonging to a deity.
The pressure was like a toppling mountain or an overturning sea, but Batman was a solitary reef standing immovable amidst the waves, his voice remaining low and powerful.
"I reject the contract."
Batman looked up at the giant Khonshu without yielding half a step. In fact, in the short dozen seconds since Khonshu appeared, he had already found a way to counter this deity:
Blow up the moon!
As a Moon God, if the moon—the very symbol of his significance—ceased to exist, Khonshu's power would inevitably be severely suppressed, perhaps even causing him to fall from his divine pedestal over time.
Unlike the gods of Olympus, those guys were less like gods and more like a group of primitives with various divine powers.
Zeus is not equivalent to lightning itself; he is a ruler who uses lightning.
Even without lightning, he would still be the King of the Gods, because the foundation of his power is the order of rule, not the natural phenomenon itself.
The deities in Egyptian mythology are different; they are the embodiment of concepts.
For instance, the Sun God Ra is not a "god who possesses the sun disk"; He is the sun itself.
If the sun vanished, Ra would die or fall into slumber, because his existence is bound to the sun.
The Moon God Khonshu is the same. The ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani) clearly records:
"Khonshu is the Moon, the Moon is Khonshu; the two are one, indivisible."
The Moon God Khonshu could see that inside Peter Parker was Batman, but He could not gain insight into what Batman was thinking.
Even so, when Khonshu looked into those cold eyes staring back at Him, He sensed the scrutiny and danger contained within them.
For a god, this was simply an intolerable act of blasphemy.
However, a month and a half ago, Khonshu had foreseen the darkness and turmoil into which this world was about to fall. He urgently needed an agent in the mortal realm to protect this world.
He had searched across the entire world and ultimately selected Batman as his target.
"You observed me for a long time?" Batman looked at the majestic Moon God and asked, "Since when?"
The moment he heard Khonshu say "I have watched thee for a long time," Batman thought of something.
Ever since he traveled to this world, no matter the weather during the day, once night fell, the stars were sparse, and the bright moon hung high.
The night at Oscorp Tower, the night at the F.E.A.S.T. shelter, the night he infiltrated the Adirondack Mountains, the late night he secretly assisted Tony Stark against the Iron Monger, the crescent moon at the New Mexico Gamma Base...
Until today, when Batman tracked that group of thieves, he was similarly favored by the moonlight.
Except for the artificial rain Batman created two days ago to prevent Max, Dillon, and Morbius, and the rain that fell the night after the Oscorp Tower incident concluded.
Even earlier, on the night the Green Goblin, Norman Osborn, blew up the Manhattan Police Station, dark clouds had covered the sky, yet the clouds quickly dispersed with Batman's movements.
Everything seemed premeditated.
Sure enough, as Batman continuously recalled the night sky from every nocturnal operation, the Moon God Khonshu spoke with majesty:
"The night of August 13th."
That was the very night Batman had arrived in this world.
"You possess all my information?"
Batman's voice remained low and powerful, but the look he gave Khonshu had completely changed.
If all of Batman's secrets were under Khonshu's gaze, then Hydra would no longer be Batman's greatest threat in this world. Instead, it would be Khonshu, representing all other gods and potential observers.
"No."
Khonshu shrank his massive hawk skull, which had occupied nearly the entire Egypt Hall, returning to his original appearance.
"I am not omniscient."
After speaking, seeing that Batman was unmoved and seemed to distrust Him completely, Khonshu thought for a moment and spoke again.
"I know that thing from beyond the heavens lodges within thy body, but its weakness has exceeded my expectations."
"Things such as this... thou hast too many secrets unknown to me." He was referring to the Venom slumbering within Batman's body.
Batman did not care whether Khonshu was telling the truth.
True or false, once Batman returned to the Batcave, he would immediately establish a plan to counter the entire Egyptian pantheon and, in passing, launch an investigation into the mythological systems of other civilizations in this world.
If necessary, Batman would proactively blow up the moon and replace it with a giant artificial satellite.
However, Khonshu's words did answer the question of how He knew Peter Parker's body held two souls: one was Batman himself, and the other was naturally Venom.
"What is your purpose?"
Looking at Khonshu, with his hawk head and human body condensed from moonlight, Batman questioned him as if he were just an ordinary person.
"Darkness will surge like a tide; heroes are still in embryonic form." Khonshu completely disregarded Batman's questioning tone. "The war of the future is not a war of power, but a war of existence."
Khonshu needs Batman; Batman does not need Khonshu. Batman determined this fact in an instant.
However, after traveling to this world, Batman—who originally rejected superpowers, fearing he would become addicted, lose control, and cause catastrophic consequences—had unavoidably accepted Peter Parker's body.
Then, due to the symbiotic characteristics of Venom, after taking it in as Robin, Batman once again unavoidably came to possess Venom's power.
The reason Batman hadn't tried to awaken Venom since returning from New Mexico was partly because he was too busy, and partly because Batman found he had faintly developed a dependency on the powerful strength the symbiote brought.
Batman would always consider the worst-case scenario. He had already witnessed his dark multiverse counterpart, The Batman Who Laughs; he could not allow himself to become a similar existence.
"It is not me you need, but an agent." Batman looked at the Moon God Khonshu. "Maybe I can provide you with a suitable candidate."
Khonshu's sharp hawk beak slowly opened, as if smiling.
"Daredevil Matt Murdock? The darkness in this child is stained by scars; his light is born of scars. Beautiful but fragile, like dew under the moonlight—beautiful yet fleeting. His order relies on human law... and laws will rot."
"He would be a qualified Moon Knight, but only that."
Batman looked into the empty sockets of the Moon God Khonshu, slowly enunciating a single word:
"No."
"My candidate is—Venom."