louisehourcade Chapter 396 "Things can't get any worse, can they?" "Nonsense!"
Chapter 396 "Things can't get any worse, can they?" "Nonsense!"
Chapter 396 "Things can't get any worse, can they?" "Nonsense!"
[Crisis energy converted: 465]
[Your current Crisis Energy Units: 1894]
For every Batman, the influence of his father Thomas Wayne and his mother Martha Wayne on his life is undoubtedly enormous.
In the main universe, they possess the finest qualities in the world. They are righteous individuals and moral exemplars. They passed on their kindness to their son Bruce, ultimately creating Batman, who never lost himself in the darkness.
But in some dark multiverse, they weren't such good people...
In that universe, Bruce Wayne's parents were the leaders of the Court of Owls, who ruled Gotham with bloodshed and terror. When Bruce was eight years old, he began killing with the help of his butler, Alfred.
His father told him, "No problem, son, you can kill whoever you want, because you are Thomas Wayne's son."
Therefore, from a young age, Bruce Wayne became a complete gamer, treating everyone except Thomas, Martha, and Alfred as NPCs in the game.
As he grew older, the entire city of Gotham became Wayne's playground. To find more fun, he dressed up as a giant bat and vented his chaotic emotions on the streets.
He forced people to dress up as clowns in front of him, forced them to laugh, and then stabbed them to death one by one with his specially made batarangs.
He even killed someone for the reason that he didn't eat beef; he believed in a certain truth:
The strong can do whatever they want to the weak, and in all of Gotham, and even in the United States, no one is more powerful than the Wayne Enterprises. Countless criminals and superpowered villains have submitted to the Wayne Enterprises, which controls every aspect of Gotham and radiates outwards from Gotham to the whole of America.
There was once a man named Lex Luthor who tried to rebel against the Wayne Enterprises, but the next day his address was flooded by a large number of villains who chopped off his head in just a few hours and placed it on Thomas Wayne's desk.
Luther's head was then hung on the Dripping Beast of Gotham's Tower of Wayne as a reminder to everyone not to oppose the Wayne family.
Wayne Enterprises maintained its dominance for many years, and Bruce Wayne played his game for many years as well. Until one day, that powerful dominance was destroyed by another, even stronger force.
A monster calling himself Superman flew in from the sky; even the blades of the Claw Assassin couldn't pierce his skin. Those once-powerful super-criminals—Mr. Freeze, Poison Ivy, Lightning Bolt…
They were utterly defeated by the monster called Superman. Even when Thomas Wayne finally activated an Amazonian woman named Diana Prince, whom they had brainwashed and controlled, and an Atlantean man named Arthur Curry, they still couldn't defeat the devil called Superman.
When Superman emerged from the nuclear explosion, the entire world submitted to the new hegemon.
No matter what methods were used, Superman could not be stopped. He simply broke through the defenses of the superpowered individuals surrounding Thomas Wayne time and time again. Finally, in a place called Crime Alley, he cornered the Wayne couple.
Soon, Thomas Wayne's head was hung on the dripping beast, while Martha was dragged to hang herself on a lamppost, and Superman used her pearl necklace to hang her alive in a ditch corner of Crime Alley.
The other Martha comfortably moved into the same luxurious room as the original Martha, inheriting all the jewelry and clothes. The entire Wayne Enterprises was destroyed, and only Bruce Wayne escaped Earth, activating a wormhole for a space jump and flying into space.
So, from the day his parents died, Bruce finally grew up. From that day on, he never smiled again.
The spaceship's automatic search program for habitable planets took him to a place called the War World, a desolate place inhabited by savage aliens.
After witnessing the incredible physical prowess of these aliens, Bruce Wayne finally realized that true power lay not in humanity itself, but in the aliens.
He realized a truth: there are limits to human capabilities!
Therefore, he stopped being human!
He spent several years in the war-torn world, constantly conducting experiments in an attempt to transform himself into a real alien.
He kept failing; no alien bloodline could be successfully transplanted into his clones, and the experiment reached a stalemate. Until one day, he found an alien boy who had killed a bull-mammoth and his mother. They had lost the protection of their tribe and were exiled to the wasteland.
Bruce used the alien boy's blood for his experiments.
He succeeded. He gradually changed his appearance and lineage. He was called Mongo by the alien natives. He once again experienced the joy of having great power and doing whatever he wanted. But he could no longer laugh, no matter how bad he was...
He still loves his parents.
He returned to Earth and pretended to join Superman's ranks. After a long period of investigation, he finally discovered something called Kryptonite. Using this special weapon against Superman, he backstabbed him and then fought him.
Their battles spanned the entire Eurasian continent, causing trillions of deaths and injuries.
Superman is dead.
However, the balance of the Eurasian tectonic plates was also destroyed by their battle. Bruce Wayne could only helplessly watch as the entire planet turned into a turbulent volcanic region, or watch as those continental plates sank into the sea.
But so what? Survival of the fittest. Both his father and the superman who destroyed his family with overwhelming force taught him this lesson.
In the end, Mongo, piloting the Warworld, gazed at the impending destruction of Earth, with countless Earthlings kneeling before him. They were the strong he had chosen, and therefore entitled to live.
That's how things should be, isn't it?
Chen Tao quickly skimmed through the introduction to the Bats of War, and then he soon realized something.
The Bat of War can manipulate the world of war, and if he's not mistaken...
However, he has no time to think about that right now.
Chen Tao looked at Mengo, who was in front of him and whose chest was beginning to show an unfinished circular icon. Although he was confident that he would not be surprised by anything, his expression was still somewhat unpleasant.
Of course, of course, Mongo is not a Black Lantern Corpse. According to the prophecy, William Hand will be the first Black Lantern Corpse to appear in the entire universe. Therefore, Chen Tao can be sure that the current Black Death Emperor is far from reaching the state of spreading death throughout the universe in the darkest night, and is almost about to descend upon the material universe.
However, with Mongo as his vessel, the Black Death Emperor is no longer the same as when he first tore open space and peered into the material universe as a giant skeleton, powerless against it.
"Mongo... I really underestimated you."
Chen Tao thought to himself.
When he saw Mongo running around with half of the pale blue soul mask of Carona on his head, he immediately realized that Mongo could no longer fully control his body.
He used his own body as a bargaining chip, enticing Carolina to increase his bets. Just like in the stock market, Carolina had already invested too much in Mongo. When he saw the Black Death Emperor, he might have backed down because he didn't want to fight him. However, Mongo increased his leverage, and with the temptation of potentially bypassing the Black Death Emperor, completely controlling Mongo, and thus directly releasing himself, Carolina went all in, and ended up getting trapped.
Carona had assumed that "Mongo had surrendered to me," but to his utter surprise, he had indeed surrendered, but not just to one person.
As for Chen Tao, he vaguely guessed what Mungo wanted to do, and subsequent events indirectly proved his guess. Mungo may not be sure if Batman was finished, but it didn't matter. Whether he sold the vulnerability behind him to Batman or to Sinestro, it made no difference to him.
For Mongo, it would be a success if his own death could lure out the Black Death Emperor and balance the power of Carona.
So Chen Tao followed Meng Ge's lead and did as he was told:
Given the current situation, it wouldn't be a good thing to let Carona completely take over Mongo's body.
Trouble is trouble. The problems Gan caused in the comics after Calona's resurrection were no better than those involving the Black Emperor. (i.e., the Green Lantern event)
Preventing either of them from completely controlling Menggo is advantageous for both Chen Tao and Menggo.
Besides that, there was an even more important reason. He secretly used his finger to open a small section of the crimson space of all living beings, and then communicated with the killer crocodile deep within:
William Hand is ready and waiting to be called upon.
Chen Tao touched his chin.
Carona was exceptionally adept at self-preservation. Even though he knew the Black Death Emperor might pose a threat to reality, when his immortal soul was banished to the world of the dead by his colleagues, he still managed to save his life by describing the material universe to the Black Death Emperor, thus arousing the latter's interest in invading the material universe.
People like Caronna don't fight for anything.
Like the first Lantern, if he knew that the Darkest Night was going to happen, he might be persuaded. But for a character like Calona, unless his own interests are threatened, he would never go all out.
Therefore, we must corner Carona and force him to accept our terms.
"Your talent for manipulating fear is unparalleled compared to Sinestro. I could have killed you, Batman, but given your past actions, I can still give you a chance."
Meanwhile, Mongo, not far away, continued rambling on, carefully observing Batman and Sinestro's positions as he spoke.
Because he had just died, while the side controlled by Carona was still alive, Mongo's heart began to beat again, and even the large hole in his chest began to gradually heal.
If a normal person had been stabbed in the back by Chen Tao's supersonic Kryptonian hand chop, their heart would probably have been sliced out. However, Mengo is over two meters tall, and his heart is about the size of a cow's heart. Such a wound was not enough to send his limbs flying.
He tried to sow discord between Batman and Sinestro with words, but the direction of his attack quietly shifted to Achilo, who was already showing signs of retreating not far away.
When facing a pack of wolves, the best course of action is to strike and kill the weakest one to prevent others from reaping the benefits, and then formally determine the victor.
"Damn it."
Seneca groaned beside him.
Although his understanding of the Darkest Night was almost entirely derived from Abinsu, and Abinsu's understanding of the Darkest Night came from the riddles of the Riddler of Atositas, so much of the content was ambiguous and vague, even Sinestro, as stupid as he was, could not fail to recognize the Death Emperor's power of death.
What are you saying? The other half of Mongo's face is almost turning into a skeleton!
He took a deep breath; he knew it was time to discuss cooperation with Batman. He quickly took flight, turned, and approached Batman.
"Batman, listen to me, Mongo—"
But before he could finish speaking, he saw Mongo launch a sudden attack.
Sinestro instinctively created a barrier, his preconceived notion that Mongo was trying to attack him. He had to protect Batman; their interests were aligned when facing the ultimate nightmare that could very well create the darkest night.
However, the attack veered off course in mid-air, sending Achille, who was watching from the sidelines, flying backward.
Achille was no fool. Despite the sudden attack, he tried his best to block it, though he couldn't completely block it, and only suffered minor injuries.
Minor injury.
Immediately afterward, Seneca saw Achille rapidly being consumed by the power of death, turning into a corpse on the spot. His gray body turned white, his pupils became cloudy, and then, baring his fangs, he stood behind Mongo, emitting a sharp and terrifying hiss.
Senesto's face turned extremely ugly.
"Damn it, that power of death has taken control of them."
Sinestro took a deep breath: "That was the prophesied darkest night!"
Then he paused, realizing he sounded somewhat flustered, and forced his voice to become calm:
"But from what I understand, the deceased's master wanted to fully come into reality, and he needed a host to spread his will. In the prophecy, that host was an Earthling, and Mongo wasn't qualified. So for now, things are alright."
He said, "Without a host, things shouldn't get any worse."
"nonsense!"
Then he heard Batman's voice, and then, to Sinestro's utter bewilderment, he saw a living person being pulled out of a portal that opened beside him by Batman:
"This is William Hand. The Black Emperor killed him. The darkest night is about to begin!"
Sinestro: "Huh?"
(End of this chapter)