Hearing Batman's nonchalant description, Loki's reaction at this moment was identical to Amora the Enchantress's reaction earlier when she heard the rolling thunder:
"Impossible!"
That sacrificial magic circle was something even he—the most powerful sorcerer in Asgard—could not break. Furthermore, it was a circle given to him by a powerful entity he had searched all Nine Realms to find, after he first used trickery to trap Thor in the Realm of Silence and briefly ruled Asgard during Odin's "Odinsleep."
That was a Dimension Lord! An entity whose power was almost on par with Odin, the All-Father!
That sacrificial circle had been drawn with the blood of superheroes, and its ultimate sacrifice was Thor, the God of Thunder himself. The circle itself was simply not something a mere mortal of Midgard could comprehend!
Amora the Enchantress knew all of this, which was why her face had turned pale as she screamed that it was impossible, fleeing for her life with Skurge the Executioner the moment Thor appeared.
Loki was only staying here because his physical body was not in Midgard, and what remained was merely a projected illusion.
It was like expecting a brainless single-celled organism to overturn Einstein's theory of relativity—a single-celled organism wouldn't even possess the concept to understand relativity, let alone overturn it.
Yet for Batman, it had been as effortless and natural as eating or drinking.
"Nothing is impossible," Batman said. "Because I am Batman."
At this moment, countless people around the world watching Eddie Brock's livestream couldn't help but open their mouths in awe, whispering in admiration.
The vast majority of them were teenagers, both male and female.
Originally, Iron Man, Tony Stark, high-profile declaring his identity to the whole world, combined with that suit of iron armor every young boy dreamed of owning, was already cool and impressive enough.
When Captain America appeared, most eyes were immediately drawn to that living legend.
Now, however, apart from a small minority, the vast majority of people focused their gazes on Batman, staring at this expressionless man clad in black bat-armor.
Even though night had fallen, Batman stood there shining as glaringly as the sun.
As a result, many people failed to notice that beyond Batman's words, the dialogue between the superheroes contained an immense amount of information no less shocking than Batman breaking the magic circle.
For instance, the "mutants" mentioned by Wolverine, the fact that superheroes had already existed for a long time, and S.H.I.E.L.D.
"Good, Batman, good!" Loki praised loudly. "I spent years preparing for today, never expecting a guy like you to ruin it midway."
"Brother, hurry up and say a few words to your savior. Your time is almost up."
Loki spoke to Thor, and as soon as he finished, his eyes rolled back, his body slumped, and he collapsed.
A police officer summoned his courage, stepped forward, and knocked him conscious with a rifle butt to the head.
Loki was gone. The person waking up was the unlucky young husband who had been possessed by Loki. He groaned in pain, clutching his head as he propped himself up, only to see countless dark gun barrels aimed at him the moment he lifted his head.
Whoosh!
He reflexively raised both hands high into the air. In America, when pointed at with guns, one either drew their weapon to shoot back or raised their hands high; choosing one of the two was guaranteed not to be wrong.
Moreover, the ones pointing guns at him were a squad of police officers.
"Officer, I don't understand what happened!" the young husband shouted anxiously with his hands raised high.
In his memory, he was sitting on the sofa in his home apartment just a second ago, holding two M16 rifles in his hands, only to appear in Times Square the very next second.
The memory during the period he was possessed by Loki was a complete blank.
Captain George Stacy of the Manhattan Police Department exchanged a look with his assistant, Auggie. Earlier, Batman had mentioned that one of the traits of Loki's interference was a blank memory.
The young man's reaction right now confirmed that point once again.
"Cuff him," Captain George Stacy said.
His assistant, Auggie, gave a look to the officers nearby. Soon, two brave officers stepped forward, pinned the young man down, and cuffed his hands behind his back.
Loki was gone, that much was true. But as the person who had been possessed by Loki, Captain George Stacy still had to follow proper procedure; at worst, they would release him later.
Without minding his subordinate officers escorting the guy away, Captain George Stacy stepped forward to Batman and nodded at him:
"Thanks to you, Batman. I'll handle the rest."
Batman also nodded to Captain George Stacy, extending one hand with his palm facing up, as if asking for something.
Without hesitation, Captain George Stacy pulled a voice recorder from his coat pocket and placed it in Batman's palm:
"This is the audio recording of everything we talked about with Loki."
"Thank you," Batman said.
"The one saying thanks should be me," Captain George Stacy chuckled, making light of a grim situation. "If you hadn't been secretly helping out from start to finish, today's situation wouldn't have been settled this easily."
"Still, there's something I don't quite understand—you even anticipated that Loki would call the police?"
It turned out that before Loki arrived at the scene, Batman had already contacted Captain George Stacy in advance to prepare the voice recorder, even predicting Loki's idea of calling in a large crowd of police officers!
Even being surrounded by police—a scenario that seemed extremely tricky in the eyes of superheroes—had long been foreseen by Batman!
"Just a bit of psychological deduction," Batman said.
Captain George Stacy shook his head repeatedly. Then again, if this guy could reverse-engineer a magic circle and pull Thor, the God of Thunder from myth, out of nowhere, deducting the personality of a God of Mischief was hardly a big deal.
"According to the law and the actual circumstances, Quake needs to be locked up in the Raft to be monitored while awaiting legal judgment."
"The same goes for Ms. Lucia, as well as them..."
Captain Stacy pointed at the surviving Latverian criminals as he spoke:
"You can leave now. I'll handle things here."
Batman took a deep look at Captain Stacy, choosing to trust that the Manhattan Captain could handle everything properly.
Times Square had been turned into complete ruins. Surrounding high-rises that were meant to collapse had collapsed, and aside from the giant crater Thor had dug out, the ground was covered in dense, spiderweb-like cracks.
Chunks of concrete, rebar, bricks, and corpses lay piled here and there. A thick reek of blood, burnt stench, and dust mixed together in the air.
Captain America took the lead in guiding his squad away. Jack Monroe looked like he had a lot to say to Batman, but he choked it back down and left alongside Cap.
The armor on Iron Man had long been scrapped; wearing it offered no power and only felt exceptionally heavy, so he also departed with the Avengers one after another.
Iron Man didn't strike up a conversation with Batman either; now was clearly not the right time or place for casual banter.
The Fantastic Four left even ahead of Captain America.
Soon, the only ones remaining on the scene were some members of the Justice League, alongside Wolverine, Blade, Black Knight, Thor, Vulture, and a few others.
"Let's go." Batman took a glance at Times Square without saying much more, taking the lead as he guided everyone toward Bat Island.
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