221. Chapter 220: The Batman Who Laughs smiles faintly, indicating everything is going according to plan
The Dark Multiverse is the antithesis of the normal Multiverse, hidden behind the Multiverse known to the world.
It is a world formed from the convergence of countless twisted, deformed, and broken universes.
When the DC Multiverse was born, a place like the Dark Multiverse did not exist.
After Perpetua was sealed into the Source Wall by her three offspring in league with visitors from the Omniverse, the World Forger took on the responsibility of forging universes in the foundation of the Multiverse—a place called the World Forge.
When a normal universe was born, the World Forger would allow it to properly separate from the World Forge and enter the Multiverse.
However, in this process, abnormal universes would inevitably appear. From the moment of their inception, their universal rules were incomplete and distorted. Such universes would only breed endless darkness and tragedy, where billions of lives struggled in chaos and disorder.
Allowing such universes to join the sequence of the Multiverse would only create more suffering.
At this time, Barbatos, a pet created by the World Forger, was tasked with the great responsibility of destroying these abnormal universes. By destroying all of them, there would be no more abnormal universes.
But later, Barbatos attacked and killed the World Forger and stopped destroying these abnormal universes. Gradually, these abnormal universes began to sink and accumulate, forming the Dark Multiverse.
Barbatos thus became the master of the Dark Multiverse. After discovering that Batman's characteristics resonated with his own, he began to consider himself the "Father" of all Batmen, giving them special attention and interference.
To this day, Barbatos has been trying to use the Main Universe Batman as an anchor point to open the gate from the Dark Multiverse to the Multiverse, burying all the normal worlds.
This is because when Barbatos himself was created by the World Forger, his sole purpose was destruction. It was his instinct to destroy the normal worlds that had escaped his control.
At this moment, under Barbatos's rule, an interesting "story" was unfolding in a world that didn't even have a designation, and even Barbatos himself was watching with great interest.
"Interesting, hehehe, truly interesting, the Blackest Night..." Barbatos was like someone sprawled on a sofa with beer and popcorn, laughing heartily at a soap opera.
For countless years, Barbatos had been observing one universe after another, watching what tragedies unfolded in them. A few outstanding Batmen would get the opportunity to be recruited by him.
At this time, Barbatos discovered an interesting universe. The Batman of this universe had died long ago. Logically, Barbatos, who was only interested in Batman, wouldn't have paid any attention to such a universe, as it would have been a waste of time.
But when Black Hand fled from the Main Universe to this dark universe, it made Barbatos take notice, his interest reluctantly piqued.
As long as it was related to the Main Universe, he was willing to pay attention.
The course of the Blackest Night event in this dark universe differed from that in the Main Universe.
It was still Black Hand who acted, spreading the Black Lantern Rings, and still the Seven Lantern Corps uniting to fight the Black Lantern Army. However, they suffered defeat after defeat. Each loss meant a loss of personnel, who were then resurrected by the Black Lanterns as zombies to hunt them in turn. This caused the combat power of the Seven Lantern Corps to grow weaker with every battle.
Normally, a person would emerge—in the Main Universe, it was Kyle Rayner, who came from the Green Lantern Corps but could wear multiple rings simultaneously and wield the power of the Emotional Spectrum. After obtaining the White Lantern Ring, he chose to share the power of the White Light of Life with other survivors, eventually forming the White Lantern Corps to dispel the darkness.
Black Hand was also humiliatingly one-shot by the White Lantern entity, the Entity of Existence.
But in this dark universe, the one who obtained the White Lantern Ring was Sinestro, who originated from the Green Lantern Corps and later founded the Sinestro Corps. He chose to monopolize it, refusing to share the power of the White Lantern. As a result, the power of darkness was too great; it killed all the other heroes and turned them into zombies, who then turned to besiege Sinestro, the lone White Lantern.
Nineteen trillion Black Lantern Zombies across the entire universe had slaughtered nearly all life forms, cornering the solitary Sinestro and leaving him with no escape.
Black Hand adored such a universe. He created countless Black Lantern Zombies and watched them hunt all living beings to their deaths.
That's right, this is how it should be! This is a normal world. The living will die anyway, so why not just be dead from the start? Wouldn't that solve a lot of problems?
Black Hand was not a native of the DC World. He was somewhat similar to Knull, the god of the Symbiotes from Marvel Comics, as both were evil gods born from darkness.
The difference was that Knull was born within the universe, while Black Hand was born outside the DC World.
But when Black Hand discovered the existence of the DC World and charged in excitedly, wielding his scythe, he realized he was doomed. He had come to this damn Multiverse, gotten trapped and unable to leave, and had even gradually become a Lantern Entity on the Emotional Spectrum! Such a terrible world, with its countless universes, should all be finished, all destroyed—that, to him, was the correct way!
Black Hand looked down upon the universe, which had turned into a realm of deathly silence and darkness. Watching the countless zombies, he felt incredibly comfortable. He even saw the sole White Lantern, Sinestro, who had now been forced to wear a Black Lantern Ring on his other hand, becoming a twisted being—half his body alive, the other half dead—just to evade the pursuit of the Black Lantern Zombies.
Very good. Excellent. This is how it should be.
Suddenly, Black Hand stiffly turned his head, perceiving an interesting change occurring in a certain universe within the Multiverse.
"Someone... is touching the Emotional Spectrum..."
The corner of Black Hand's mouth twitched, and his skeletal head revealed a distorted expression. Very good. He loved these fearless fools because they allowed him to spread darkness.
At the very least, he couldn't let that damned Entity of Existence and those Lantern Entities of the visible spectrum run rampant.
He glanced again at this universe's Earth. A few stragglers were still clinging to life there, including a woman named Dove who had the ability to immunize herself against the Black Lantern Ring and was protected by the Entity of Existence.
In the Main Universe, the reason Black Hand had been defeated was that the Main Universe's Dove had drawn out the Entity of Existence, which then allowed Kyle Rayner to become that damned White Lantern!
But the prodding from a certain universe in the Multiverse was so frequent and alluring.
Wielding his scythe, Black Hand simply left the Dark Multiverse.
As for this nameless dark universe where he had stayed for a while, it had already become an almost completely dead world.
Even though Sinestro and Dove could still use the White Lantern Ring to resurrect Black Lantern Zombies back into living people, it was too late. The overwhelmingly vast number of deathly Black Lanterns would instantly turn the newly resurrected back into zombies.
"Is that all? How disappointing."
Barbatos watched for a while longer. "A Lantern Entity like that is completely unqualified to help me destroy the Multiverse."
As the pet created by the World Forger solely for the purpose of destroying twisted universes, Barbatos, of course, knew something about the existence of Perpetua. He had even reached a conclusion on how to fight her: completely destroy the DC Multiverse and kill everyone. That would solve the problem to the greatest extent.
It was true that Perpetua was a Creation God who possessed the Seven Forces of Creation, including the Emotional Spectrum and the Speed Force. However, these forces were, in essence, bestowed upon Perpetua by The Source within the Omniverse, to be used for creating the Multiverse.
But after successfully creating the universe, Perpetua, in order to avoid returning to The Source, went so far as to transform the DC World into a cyclical system of constantly erupting crises. From the endless crises within this system, she would continuously acquire Crisis Energy to fight against The Source.
Although Barbatos had never had direct contact with Perpetua, he had witnessed the entire process of the Monitor Brothers using the Cosmic Tuning Fork to call upon visitors from the Omniverse to jointly seal her away.
Back then, when the Monitor found the World Forger to conspire against Perpetua, the World Forger was still pinching him between two fingers while introducing him to the Monitor.
Therefore, Barbatos was one of the few beings in the entire DC World who knew a great number of Perpetua's secrets.
"I must destroy the Multiverse, kill all those damned Superheroes, and stop them from providing a massive amount of Crisis Energy to Perpetua with their world-saving actions..."
Barbatos's enormous figure was concealed by a massive hood. He knew he had no choice. Acting in accordance with the meaning of his birth—to destroy universes—was one thing. On the other hand, if he didn't do this, he would have no way to resist once Perpetua broke free.
Barbatos had no way to contact the beings in the Omniverse for help; he could only rely on himself.
From the looks of it now, a character like Black Hand was completely unqualified to stand by his side!
Not to mention, Black Hand had already been reduced to a Lantern Entity of the Emotional Spectrum, and the Emotional Spectrum was one of the Seven Forces of Creation that Perpetua controlled!
"This guy... he can't be killed, and every confrontation with the Entity of Existence is essentially just creating more Crisis Energy..." Barbatos had a bit of a headache. There were too many troublesome characters of noble origin who were difficult to deal with in this Multiverse.
"Oh? Let's see, Black Hand went to Universe 3... A foreign god has appeared in that universe..."
Barbatos quickly became interested.
"It's been a long time since I've seen you so pleased, my master, hehehe..."
A slender figure emerged from the darkness of the Grand Hall. This was a Batman wearing a spiked visor over his eyes, with exaggerated makeup on his face. His mouth was stretched into a grin that reached his ears, revealing a mouthful of sharp teeth.
The Batman Who Laughs had arrived. "My intuition tells me you've made a major discovery."
"It's not major yet, but I have indeed found someone interesting..."
"It doesn't seem to be Black Hand. I'm guessing it's an outsider like Black Hand, but one who hasn't been assimilated by some power of the Multiverse?" The Batman Who Laughs asked, yet his tone was full of certainty.
"You've been observing Universe 3 as well?" Barbatos asked.
"Not at all. I've been busy recruiting personnel lately, brought in a few good Batmen... But, as you know, it's all part of my plan." The Batman Who Laughs pointed to his head.
Batman always wins. This was a favorite saying of The Batman Who Laughs. It was both a show of confidence in the identity of Batman and an expression of the ambition and desire unlocked by the Joker virus.
Barbatos was noncommittal. He disliked The Batman Who Laughs's style of communication—always seizing every opportunity to test him, treading on the edge of danger. Given The Batman Who Laughs's level of intellect, Barbatos could sense that this was precisely a show of attitude.
But he couldn't deny that the guy was truly intelligent.
The Batman Who Laughs hailed from Earth -22 of the Dark Multiverse. After being infected by the Joker virus, this Batman gained the chaos and madness of the Joker, losing the morals and bottom line that a Batman should have. He was also granted power by Barbatos, possessing a certain ability to rewrite reality.
"The plan will not change. The Main Universe Batman remains our target. However, the guy in Universe 3 might have some effect on us. He just killed the Anti-Monitor and the New 52's Darkseid," Barbatos said.
The Batman Who Laughs revealed a dangerous, yet elegant and noble, smile. He turned his head and, using his secret weapon—the spiked visor he wore over his eyes—his gaze pierced through the membrane of the universe and fell upon Universe 3.
"The God of Xenomorphs, Du Wa... the concept of parasitism... hehehehe..."
Having thought of something, The Batman Who Laughs began to laugh, his movements growing larger and more exaggerated, just like the Joker.
...
Du Wa wasn't certain that he was being observed by Barbatos and The Batman Who Laughs, but he could guess that quite a few individuals were using various methods to gather intelligence on him.
The ability to take out the Anti-Monitor and New 52 Darkseid was enough to astonish even powerful deities, not to mention the incident where Dream went to blockade Apokolips in the Sphere of Gods.
Du Wa only knew that he hadn't come to this Multiverse for sightseeing, but to advance even further.
"He's here!"
Volthoom, inside the Power Ring, shouted in a panic, "I can feel it! The frequency of the black spectrum has changed!"
"Very good, Volthoom. Your constant prodding of the Emotional Spectrum has indeed had some effect," Du Wa nodded slightly.
The Dark Walker appeared silently behind Du Wa. Facing Black Hand, who was entering Universe 3, as a fellow God of Death, he felt immense pressure. "Did you calculate this? Turning Universe 3 into a world of zombies, using mass death to attract Black Hand? I don't believe that just having Volthoom prod the Emotional Spectrum would be enough to draw him here."
Many universes have the Seven Lantern Corps, which are essentially touching the Emotional Spectrum at all times, yet we don't see Black Hand going through them one by one to enact a Blackest Night in all of them.
But now, he had come to Universe 3, which had already devolved into a zombie universe.
"Any method that attracts him here is a good one."
"Then how do you plan to kill a God of Death like him?"
"You're wrong. I never planned to kill him from the beginning. Without the ability to destroy the Emotional Spectrum, it's impossible to kill a high-level Lantern Entity like Black Hand."
Du Wa stared at the edge of the universe, watching the massive shadow that had appeared out of thin air, along with countless Black Lantern Rings.
(end of chapter)