That had been too close.
Meddling with a soul like that, an awakened, complete SSS-ranked existence, was not something one walked away from casually. If not for Bane's soul resisting from within, acting as an anchor and a second blade pressing against Adoni's control, Bruce knew the outcome could have easily been reversed.
The one who would have shattered. Would have been him.
Bruce straightened slowly, still breathing hard.
Beside him, Bane did the same.
For a brief moment, neither spoke. They simply stood there in the ruined battlefield, two figures catching their breath, shoulders rising and falling in quiet synchrony. In that instant, the age gap between them vanished entirely. There was no senior and junior, no patriarch and outsider, just two men who had survived a battle that should have killed them both.
Bane was the first to break the silence.
He turned his head slightly and looked at Bruce.
"…Thank you," he said quietly.
