I wiped the blood off my mouth and for the first time in years, no one was fighting.
"It's over" I said as I looked at the ceiling, the smell of blood and rotting corpses lingered all around me, the portals that brought the invaders into our worlds are finally gone, now, now its time to rebuild.
"Batman do you need a doctor? or do you need some potions?" Ruby asked me.
"No" I answered her, the young woman flinched under my gaze, even though we were standing on a literal mountain of dead bodies.
"There's a meeting being held, it's supposed to last for a few days" she told me as she looked around, I've only spoken to her a few times, but from her actions in the past she had proven herself to always be looking at her surroundings, its for that reason that her along with many speedsters are mostly used as messengers and medics on the field.
What they did was anyone that could be saved was either heald on spot or carried back to the medical teams.
The look on the girl's face tells me everything I need to know, something bad is happening.
"...They're saying that the adventurers nearly cost us the war and ...a lot of the gods and guardians are standing guard around their section of the castle, but a lot more gods are threatening to go to war with them if they have to.' she said to me.
"We just ended one war and now they want to start another one!" I yelled.
During the few days of the war, the adventurers abandoned the frontlines and returned to their territory, few people know what's hidden within those lands but anyone with half a brain will immediately realize what's behind those walls.
It's the same thing everyone else is hiding behind their walls, up until now we have only seen young adventurers and that meat two tings either the adventurer's power source is hidden behind those walls or the adventurers elderly and those that are too young are behind those walls.
"Ruby, why is the meeting going to take days?"
"That's the thing, batman, everyone is taking sides. Some people are saying that the adventurers didn't have to save us ad could have abandoned us, others say that it doesn't matter and that because they abandoned their posts more people died than they were supposed to" she answered me.
"Let's go" I said to her as she led the way to a nearby portal.
When legion invaded our worlds regardless of who we were, we fought on but in the end, we all found ourselves here, we lost our worlds and this was our home now, some of us found one or two cities had come with us, others had lost everything, some people found people that had long since died alive here, while others found themselves as the last of their kind.
"Do it" I heard Kirito say to Thor as the thunder god held his hammer inches from the back swordsman's face.
Thor's threats meant little to the adventurer, the adventurers don't die, their bodies break apart and then reform meaning that while a person can slow them down they by no means can be stopped.
I once watched an adventurer be sealed and the rest of the adventurers swarmed the creature that did it, but when they couldn't free the man they just destroyed the cage knowing full well they would be killing him.
"A god for a god Kirito' Salem said to Kirito, as she put herself between him and the thunder god, her voice was hollow and it seemed like if she was inside a tunnel.
"Thor enough, we do need an explanation Salem, when they retreated a lot of the peoples moral dropped and a lot of peoples wills were broken, people that would have still been alive, had they stayed" Superman said to Salem as he placed his hand on Thor's hammer, making Thor lower it.
[
"Superman or are you, Clark?" Salem asked the man of steel in front of her, there wasn't any malice in her question, she genuinely didn't know who was the one standing in front of her.
I could tell that because of the face she was making when she asked the question.
"Superman" he answered.
"Things got bad so we were forced to fall back, I'm not telling you anymore, ts, not my place" Kirito said to superman, who just looked at the Japanese teen.
"I'll tell them, but after this, they have to keep their mouth shut and not ask any more questions," Bor said to everyone as the doors opened, the ancient Asgardian stepped forward.
"I'll only tell you half of whats going on in there, any meeting and such not means nothing" the man spat those words, even though he was talking to everyone present his words seemed directed at thor.
"If any of you break those doors or try to force your way in, you won't just be fighting the eguardians, those up there, the adventurers, but also us the god's none of you ever knew about"
He scratched the back of his head and looked at everyone.
"Magic, souls everything went to hell, not actual hell they all just went out of control"
"We dint just cross one portal, we crossed by two. The first one caused problems, the second one destroyed everything.
One good thing is if you want to use magic, you don't have to chant anymore, the ba thing s good luck getting it to do what you want" Bor said to everyone ut his words only brought more questions.
Kirito and Salem both rolled their eyes, at everyone's confused expressions.
"Look think of the universe as lakes and this place is a planet made of water and all those lakes are coming here, thas what's going on, and before any of you ask yes there are living things coming in with all of the dead souls pouring threw. We kill anything that tries to kill us and we help anything friendly."
"Look none of us will be opening hose door until we fix this mess, so go away, we already have our hands full to begin with" Kirito said to everyone before he turned around and walked back to the adventurer's section, the doors leading into it closing behind him, Bor and Salem.
"Terry?" I heard Ruby say my name.
"From what I understood, there are lots of dead coming in and they're trying to keep them under control, and if what bor said is true, then you didn't open that portal we used to get here, all of the power sources everyone uses went out of control when the Ark crossed the second portal"
I looked at Ruby after I answered her, the young woman's silver eyes still held their innocence, despite everything she had seen.
She turned her head and looked at the gathered people, none of them had left the area, none of them except for a few people.
"They're not going to like this" she said to me.
"Yeah" I answered her and I turned my head to the sky.
"God universal beings, whatever they were all of them were either once Human or something else, long story short they gained so much power that none of them interfered with the mortal realm anymore, hell even gods didn't see them anymore.
People just call them, well them, they're or something similar, because their old names don't matter anymore. Imagine Zeus, observing every other version of himself and becoming so powerful that he could no longer fornicate with every woman he saw, yeah it's exactly like that.
They patrol the Ark's main source of power, the only problem is no one knows how many of them are.
"Ruby, let's go home I need a bath and ruby when I'm wearing the mask call me Batman," I said to her, she didn't say anything, she just reached into her pocket and took out a crystal and teleported us back to what was left of Gotham.
It's always a good thing when the first thing you hear is kids laughing, the old Wain Mannor survived but it's in ruins, old parts of the building sprung up where new rooms were built and so on.
"Bruce" I said and the old man stood over his younger self who was still unconscious, he turned to look at me and he smiled at Ruby when their eyes met.
"It's over" I said to him, neither of us said anything after that, we just listened to the sound of the orphans playing.
Ruby left us both behind and went to do what she usually did, play with the kids, I can't blame her she watched her entire world die, so she does everything she can to distract herself.
I can see the old man's expression change, its something I picked up over the years, anyone else that looked at the old man in front of me wouldn't have piked upon it.
"It's started, with the war over, everyone is starting to build their little groups, humans with humans, Kryptonians with Asgardians and so on, the reason for our unity is broken and if we ever do have peace it's going to be shortlived." he answerd, me without me even asking a question.