"Some truths do not humble. They enlighten."
---
Metropolis, Two Days Later
The city still breathed smoke.
Its skyline was fractured — glass towers now half-shadow, half-light — yet somehow, Metropolis endured.
At the heart of the ruins, the Justice League gathered.
Superman and Lois stood beside Wonder Woman, Batman, Aquaman, Green Arrow and Flash as cleanup drones hummed in the background.
Emergency ships hovered above the river, hauling away fragments of the Black Zero — what remained of Zod's war machine.
King stood above the wreckage, silent and unapproachable, his eyes tracing the Kryptonian runes engraved across the hull. The alien symbols flared and dimmed, like dying neurons of a once-living god.
Finally, he spoke — his voice carrying across the open air.
"This vessel carries knowledge older than humanity. It must not be buried. It must be understood."
Superman frowned. "By who? Star Labs?"
King turned slowly — and from behind the League's formation, Lex Luthor stepped forward.
He was wearing a simple black coat, his usual arrogance muted but not gone.
Every League member tensed, except King, whose expression didn't change at all.
"Luthor will handle it." King said.
The air went still.
Batman's eyes narrowed. "You're trusting him with alien technology?"
Lex gave a small, amused smirk. "Even gods take risks, apparently."
Wonder Woman stepped forward, hand on her sword. "He's the last man who should be given this power."
Luthor's smirk faded, and for a heartbeat, the arrogance dropped. He looked genuinely uncertain — even small.
"I have to ask," Luthor said quietly, looking up at King, "why me? Why would you trust me of all people? You could give it to him"—He pointed at Superman—"or to your League, to Star Labs or destroy it outright. Why me?"
King's gaze pierced him, calm and infinite.
"Because your obsession is dead." King said.
The words struck like thunder, not in volume but in finality.
Then, without waiting for a reply, King turned — and in a blur of motion he vanished.
Only the echo of his voice remained in the wind.
"The rest is yours."
The Meaning of Words
For a long while, no one spoke.
The ruins of the city buzzed distantly — helicopters, sirens, the soft hum of a world returning to life.
Superman finally broke the silence.
"Lex… what did he mean by that?"
Luthor stood still, staring at the space where King had disappeared.
His eyes were unreadable — not the cold gleam of envy they once held, but something deeper.
He finally turned to face them, voice steady but subdued.
"When I was young," Luthor began, "I wanted to save the world. I believed I could — that my mind could outpace chaos itself. Every invention, every discovery… it was all for humanity. To make sure we never bowed to anything again."
He paused, glancing at Superman.
"Then you arrived."
Superman said nothing.
"You were everything I feared we'd become enslaved to — strength without end, ideals wrapped in alien flesh. You became my nightmare of dependence. My obsession."
His voice faltered slightly. "I thought — if I could destroy you, I could save mankind."
Lois stepped closer, listening carefully.
"But when he appeared," Luthor continued, "when King stood before us — I saw it. The scale of things. You, me, gods, Krypton, Atlantis… all of it, just sparks under an eternal flame."
He gave a short, bitter laugh. "Do you know what that kind of clarity feels like? When you realize the thing you've hated, feared, or envied… is nothing before something greater still?"
Superman's eyes softened. "You stopped fearing me."
Luthor nodded slowly.
"Yes. Because what is there to fear in you, Superman, when there exists him? The certainty of his strength burned away my obsession like a fever. I can't hate you anymore. There's no point."
He looked back at the Kryptonian wreckage. "All that's left now is work. Understanding. Building something better. Maybe that's what he meant when he said it was mine."
Batman, still skeptical, crossed his arms. "Or maybe he's testing you."
Luthor smirked faintly. "Then let him test. I don't intend to fail."
The Departure
The League watched as Luthor's team — scientists, engineers and containment drones — began to secure the Kryptonian debris.
Every fragment was sealed in quantum field containers, each tagged under King's authority, marked with a simple symbol: ∞
Superman turned to Lois.
She smiled faintly, brushing dust from his suit.
"He really trusts people to change, doesn't he?" She said.
Superman glanced toward the space where King had vanished.
"He doesn't trust people," He said softly. "He believes in inevitability. Maybe he saw this coming."
She looked at him, curious. "What — Lex changing?"
Superman nodded.
"Or the world learning to stand beneath the weight of gods… and still call itself human."
As the wind rose again, a faint shimmer cut through the air — the afterimage of King's energy signature flickering across the skyline, like the memory of sunlight through glass.
---
Later that night, deep within LexCorp Laboratories, the wreckage of the Black Zero rested under containment fields.
Luthor stood before it alone, the facility silent.
He placed a hand on the Kryptonian metal and whispered, almost reverently:
"Let's see what dreams your dead world still carries."
For the first time in years, his eyes didn't burn with envy or rage — but with curiosity.
Far above, in the thermosphere, King stood once more at the Watchtower's edge, watching the Earth spin below him.
His gaze lingered over Metropolis — the city that refused to die, the man who refused to break and the mortal who chose clarity over pride.
"Good," He said quietly. "The balance begins."
And with that, the stars bent around him and he was gone.
Read 40 chapters ahead on P.A.T.R.E.O.N
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