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"I knew you'd meet me here one day." A staccato, breathless voice suddenly rang out from the darkness, a voice that seemed to be suppressing a smile. A figure wearing a riveted mask and bound with black chains rose from the darkness and walked out, exposed to the only light.
His mouth, painted bright red like a clown's, with its teeth exposed, gave him the terrifying look of a hyena tearing through flesh. His voice still echoed in the air.
"It's just that I didn't expect this day to come so soon. Is it because of the guidance of the person behind you? I hope you like the little gift I just prepared for you. After all, I think that experience is so wonderful that it's worth reliving it, isn't it?"
"You shouldn't extend your plans to this universe." Bruce's eyes became solemn, and he stomped back and forth on the spot, always looking at the person opposite him named the Laughing Bat.
"I'm not the only one eyeing this universe. Hasn't it been targeted for a long time? Do you think your current universe is still your own? Don't fool yourself. It already belongs to someone else! This is the fact, and it's irrefutable.
Since you can accept the rule of others, why can't you accept your own rule? Although you are from another universe, you and I are originally a community." The Laughing Bat chuckled, revealing the point that Bruce was most reluctant to admit.
Although Luke had delegated many matters in this universe to him and the Justice League, that was simply because it didn't make sense to overstimulate them and deplete the universe's potential and resources. In reality, even they knew that Luke and his team were the true rulers of the universe. They possessed the power and confidence to take over at any moment.
They called him a collaborator, but to Bruce, that was more like a nice way of saying "employee." The only good thing was that Luke had indeed given up all rights in matters other than psychic powers.
"I can see into your heart. You don't want to start a war with that guy, but you need to make him feel fearful, and the power to burn yourself together at the critical moment. That's why you are looking everywhere for possible great power, right?
"Why not choose us? You've witnessed our power in your dreams, even glimpsed a glimpse of Barbatos's. We know all the secrets of this universe and can guide you in gaining the power to protect your own world! Just join us! You'll gain the power to protect it all!" The Laughing Bat's words were like the devil's whisper, bewitching Bruce directly from within.
Bruce's expression did reveal struggle and hesitation, but soon he seemed to have figured something out and calmed down again.
"You're lying!" Bruce pointed out the Laughing Bat's deception coldly.
"I don't bother to lie to you." The smile on the Laughing Bat's mouth widened a little.
"Perhaps, but we all know that those who make deals with the devil never have a good ending. It may seem like your wish can be fulfilled, but is that wish truly what you want? And the price you have to pay behind it is what the trader least wants to see.
"I know myself well, and I know the Joker pretty well, too. As a combination of both, no matter how tempting your words may be, I cannot believe you," Bruce said firmly. He had clenched his fists, not intending to continue communicating with the Laughing Bat.
Both he and the Joker are very good at perceiving and deceiving people, especially the Joker. He seems to have an innate talent. He can naturally grasp the weaknesses deep in a person's heart and happily use various means to release them from the deepest part of their heart, making them become like him, throwing off all the spiritual, moral, and bottom-line shackles, unfettered and free!
Bruce also has similar talents, but he is better able to control himself. But even so, he dare not believe that he can stick to himself under the long-term bewitching brainwashing of the Laughing Bat.
"What a pity." The Laughing Bat's voice was very sad, as if he was about to cry at the next moment. His emotions fluctuated violently, and the darkness around him seemed to come alive, with a deformity like a pustule.
"Why don't you join us? The universe will be destroyed sooner or later, and your so-called protection is meaningless. We can destroy all the universes and then recreate a brand new world with our own rules!
To achieve this goal, we need the strength of each of us! Now, we need your strength, Bruce! You in this universe can lead us to success and achieve our final perfect form!
You can't escape it, Bruce! Join us, be us, be us! It's your destiny!"
The Laughing Bat finally burst into tears, but soon he wiped the tears that flowed down the skin under the mask with a smile. With his final roar, dark swellings like abscesses exploded in front of everyone present with an onomatopoeic sound of blister bursting, revealing one figure after another with strange costumes, but figures that were particularly familiar to Bruce.
The Red Death in a Barry-style red battle suit.
A cold figure with a helmet, merciless and iron-fisted.
The Alfred Protocol Killing Machine has been transformed into metal, stripped of many emotions, and its mind has been intelligentized.
A set of lantern rings represents the spectral power of will, the Dawn Lantern.
A drowned undead spirit that appears to be a female and exudes a strong smell of sea water.
And standing behind them is the terrifying monster called the Ravager, which has all kinds of bone spurs on its body and can bring endless pressure to people with just its mere figure.
The Dark Knights, recruited by the Bat Who Laughs, met Bruce in a magical way in a place of nothingness.
"Those are merely projections of their memories. They were projected with the help of your spiritual power. They are not their true selves. It's clear that your dark side provided considerable assistance.
You need to abandon the concepts that bind you, and you can also use your own power in this spiritual world to find some helpers for yourself. Fighting is not a big deal, but it involves a struggle for control of this spiritual world.
Stephen's voice traveled quickly and rapidly through the mind link to Bruce, but the next moment, the mind link in his hand was suddenly severed by a black sickle, and his connection with Stephen was instantly severed. In the final moments, the only thing he could vaguely grasp was the will of Stephen's guidance, which was to make his wishes come true.
The black sickle was bound by a ball of black liquid and held in the hand of the Laughing Bat. On the sickle, human faces were vaguely struggling to emerge. Each face made Bruce feel very familiar and shocked.
Because that was his face! From childhood to adulthood, every negative emotion he experienced was reflected on his face. The most iconic one was the terrified face he wore in the well when he was young.
The sickle held in the hand of the Laughing Bat is his dark side!
It is precisely because of this that the Laughing Bat is able to lurk in his spiritual world and act tyrannically.
"I've already chased away the person who was in the way. The fog is all around us. Even if you're close, a single inappropriate movement can instantly put you and him at an unreachable distance. Even if he can find his way back here, everything here should be settled.
To be honest, he brought you here, catching me off guard. It would have only taken a moment longer for me to completely erode your spiritual world and easily lead you into the embrace of darkness. But the situation is not bad now. Without your helpers, you can't do whatever you want in this world. It seems I have the upper hand. I'm feeling a little bored for a moment. Perhaps I should guide your helper back?
The Laughing Bat licked the blade of the sickle with its tongue, and its laughter became increasingly wild.
"I have more than one helper." Bruce recalled what Stephen wanted to say to him, and naturally thought of one trustworthy person after another in his mind.
Wonder Woman, Superman, Martian Manhunter, Barry Allen, Green Lantern Hal Jordan, Aquaman Arthur. And the last unexpected figure with purple skin - Thanos!
"Wow! You really didn't disappoint me! I love your struggles and the days when I fought against you! Come, let's say hello to our old friends. You can slaughter the mortal enemies of this world again! Even though it's just a projection. But it's good to have a preliminary battle first to warm up."
The Laughing Bat's laughter paused, but then the corners of his clown-like mouth couldn't close no matter what. He exuded an emotion of extreme joy and surprise, and almost couldn't wait to declare battle.
The first to launch the attack was the Ravager who gave people a great sense of pressure and was standing behind the Laughing Bat and others. He almost roared and rushed out like a tank, attacking Superman.
"Clark, you hypocrite! Seeing you again makes me sick."
"Oh, my Diana! I love you, but I have to kill you again!" The Merciless Iron Fist wearing the helmet of the god of war Ares came up to the fully armed Wonder Woman Diana.
As for the rest, the Red Death found Barry, the Dawnbreaker found Hal, the Killing Machine found the Martian Manhunter, and the Drowned Undead rolled up a sea of death and took away Aquaman Arthur.
In the end, there were only three people left on the field, or should I say four people: The Batman Who Laughs and Bruce, Thanos and the dark side of Bruce who was no longer in human form.
"I don't have the gem." Thanos looked at his own hands, as if they were not projections but real, and cast a questioning look at Bruce.
"I'm sorry, I can't materialize them here. Although I should be omnipotent here. But in fact, I'm very fragile." Bruce did not regard Thanos as a puppet projection without wisdom and emotions, and apologized sincerely.
"I can sense that you are in pain, kid! But I want you to know that pain and death, survival and choice, are the paths that life must go through and cannot be avoided." Thanos looked at the black sickle in the Laughing Bat's hand, reached out and patted Bruce's shoulder, then leaned over slightly, swung his arms and took the lead in charging forward.
Boom!
The surrounding mist shook and dispersed, and the building trembled as if it was about to collapse. The Laughing Bat cried out, and Thanos grabbed his head and smashed through layer after layer of wall, finally falling to the ground, a mouthful of blood foaming.
"Come on, we are the only ones left." Bruce walked forward and said to the black sickle that fell to the ground.
Under Bruce's gaze, the metal sickle slowly melted into a ball of black filthy water. Just by looking at it, Bruce felt that his thoughts and will were washed away by a torrent of negative emotions. It seemed to have a mysterious power that gave it extreme polluting properties. It was hidden before, but now it completely erupted.
This power is strange yet familiar.
Soon, a thin figure gradually emerged from the sewage. That familiar face looked very much like Bruce Wayne as a teenager. Or perhaps it was simply him as a young man, before he went out to travel, and was deeply trapped in fear and pain.
The black dirty stream meandered up the young Wayne's body and turned into a black suit.
"You're not me. Who are you?" Bruce stared at the eerie younger version of himself. Every bit of him seemed incredibly familiar, yet his senses kept reminding him that it wasn't him! In his own spiritual world, Bruce chose to listen to the advice of professionals, trusting his own feelings. Even though those feelings had nearly cost him his life before, since Stephen hadn't warned him, it meant the advice still held true.
"I am you. Everything you don't want, everything you suppress, everything you always want to make us disappear." Young Wayne grinned, his smile was bright, but it gave people a sense of evil and uneasiness.
"If you were me, I'd have been influenced by you by now, right?" Bruce's willpower was in a state of crisis at this moment. Even if the person in front of him had done nothing, he was already finding it difficult to resist. This also made Bruce realize that the other person must not be his dark side! If his dark side was so strong, he should be grateful that he had maintained his bottom line all these years and not fallen into depravity.
"I'm simply borrowing some external power under the guidance of my own self in another universe." Young Wayne's smile grew even brighter. "It favors me very much and regards me as its contractor and resonator. I can sense its presence and borrow a certain amount of power from it."
At this moment, Stephen, who was trying to follow the senses in the fog, suddenly looked up in a certain direction in the fog and said with a bit of a broken heart, "Abyss?"