Chapter 115

In a wide and somewhat dim room, damp water droplets condensed on the stone walls. Hundreds of candles were fixed on the walls at different heights. Huge silk ribbons hung down from the high ceiling supports, leaving intertwined shadows on the ground.

A huge conference long table was placed in the center of the room. At this time, several people wearing masks were sitting on both sides of the round table, watching the picture on a screen.

This is the conference room of the Court of Owls.

The Court of Owls is a mysterious organization in DC comics. It has been active in this city since the early days of Cat Getan's existence. In some comic versions, it is described as an organization maintained by the founders of Cat Getan City or their descendants, and is the Dark King of Cat Getan City.

Of course, there are more comic versions that designed more conspiracies for this organization, such as the Cat Getan City Court of Owls actually belonging to the world-class Parliament of Owls, while the Parliament of Owls is an organization under the Dark God Barbatos.

But regardless, this organization has existed in Cat Getan for a long time and has been secretly manipulating this city.

Members of the Court of Owls will only gather together because of conspiracy plans related to Cat Getan City, and this time is no exception.

Of course, this was their original purpose, but the situation is different now, or rather, when they saw a huge black monster jump out from the monitoring equipment on the Talon's belt, the nature of the whole story underwent a complete change.

And the speed and impact of this change were really beyond everyone's expectations.

During the time Cat Getan City was changing, the Court of Owls was not without attention, but the problem lies in the fact that any organization of a parliamentary nature, when deciding on a certain thing, needs to go through a series of discussion meetings and member expressions. The Court of Owls is no exception. Regarding the recent changes in Cat Getan, they need to investigate, collect evidence, analyze, and then vote.

That's right, this damn evil organization is also damn rigorous. Their case-handling efficiency is much stronger than the Cat Getan Police Department.

But in short, after reacting for a period of time, the Court of Owls finally found the mastermind behind this change in Cat Getan from the clues.

The Court of Owls actually doesn't worry about this change in Cat Getan, because this city actually hasn't developed in a better direction. No one wants to save this city from the root. On the contrary, it has brought huge benefits to this city, which is actually in line with the interests of the Court of Owls.

What they cannot accept is that someone is manipulating and influencing this city more precisely in a darker place. Once such a person appears, the Court of Owls must eliminate them.

So, the Talon found his target, that university professor who looked plain and unremarkable, Schiller Rodriguez.

Originally, everything was going very smoothly. The Court of Owls also felt that they would still kill one opponent after another in the cradle like before, but all of this began to become different from the appearance of that black monster.

It is not strange that the Court of Owls would install monitoring equipment on the Talon. They were originally a conspiracy organization that monitored the entire city, but they never imagined that the next big show would directly shatter everyone's worldview and cause the purpose of this meeting to undergo a fundamental change.

At this time, Schiller, who was still entangled with Venom Batman, also felt a bit tricky. The battle between symbiotes is not like what he once saw in movies, where two giant monsters beat each other.

Symbiotes, as a factor organism, their battles take place more at the micro-level, which is to devour each other's symbiote factors. This is like changing from a one-on-one duel to a legion war.

Schiller is not unable to fight this kind of battle, but he is facing a crazy Dark Batman. Venom Batman doesn't care at all how many symbiote factors he will lose, just frantically attacking, wanting to bite more from the gray mist.

There is no way to talk about any tactics with this kind of crazy enemy. Defense will only make oneself lose more, so Schiller also had to start frantically devouring. The two symbiotes began to devour each other without any fear.

This kind of battle has no firelight or sound. Everything is like being shrouded in a mysterious and silent atmosphere. Tangible things began to gradually become intangible in this crazy mutual devouring. The pulling of mucus and mist made all this look more like a battle of light and shadow. And under the silent appearance, there were screams, chaos, and crazy battles that ordinary people could not see.

And the Court of Owls is not ordinary people. They indeed possess certain dark powers that ordinary people don't have.

Therefore, when facing this silent yet noisy battle, the Court of Owls, who had never seen such a creature as a symbiote, could only understand it as a more high-level manifestation of occultism within their own worldview.

This battle occurring at an invisible level made it easier for them to associate with certain sources of dark power. Unlike ordinary people, the Court of Owls can realize that this world is not as simple and peaceful as it looks. They know that more great and dark powers are peeping at everything in the universe.

The forms of Venom Batman and Gray Mist Schiller are really too easy to make people associate with certain trans-dimensional demon gods.

The huge black bat carries terrifying dark power. Even through the screen, one can see the huge black tide surging from Batman's dark side. Just looking at it makes people feel suffocated and terrified, as if being strangled by the neck.

And Schiller, that huge sun rising from the gray mist, looks like a black hole that devours everything. Those ancient and bizarre mist patterns add a solemnity full of religious ritual sacredness in weirdness and absurdity, which is really hard not to make people associate with something.

The infinite possibilities displayed by the unique race of symbiotes make the changes of these two people look completely unlike a whim.

Actually, the Court of Owls' judgment was not wrong. The symbiote race itself was born from a cosmic demon god, and the two fighting at the moment are both outstanding among the symbiote race.

If possible, please allow Schiller to solemnly introduce a special enthusiastic netizen to the Court of Owls—

The Oldest in the Seventh Universe, the Satan of the Universe, the Lord of the Abyss, the King in Black, the Master of the All-Black Necrosword, the Decapitator of the Celestials, the stepfather of Gorr the God Butcher, the soul friend of Thor, the headache generator of Thanos, the ultimate nightmare of the three major cosmic empires—the God of Symbiotes, Knull.

Well, although the story of Knull told before sounds a bit weak, in reality, this demon god who forged the All-Black Necrosword has a not-low level among the demon gods of the Marvel universe, and his battle record is also ranked high. His special descendants, although they cannot be counted as independent cosmic demon gods, at least count as direct relatives.

You have to know, in this era, most famous villains haven't fully debuted yet, let alone those demon gods who transcend the Earth level. But the battle between these two people seems to have suddenly skipped countless power levels, directly changing the level of the battle from street fighting to a cosmic event.

Can the Court of Owls not be startled?

Therefore, the theme of this meeting changed from whether to interfere with Cat Getan to whether to withdraw from Cat Getan.

After all, they were completely unaware of this change, and didn't even know why Batman, whom they strictly monitored, suddenly became like this. They also didn't know what the result of this battle would be? Cat Getan destroyed? The entire Earth destroyed?

But at least, they determined one thing: before figuring out why Batman and this professor suddenly jumped from ordinary people living on the ground to cosmic-level demon kings, it is better not to make any drastic moves.

Slu.

And what makes them feel even more worried is that the changes of these two people were too sudden, without any precursor. The Court of Owls didn't discover that this city was invaded by any mysterious power.

If these demon gods are organized and have long infected many people in Cat Getan, then who knows how many such people will be in Cat Getan City?

If they send out the Talons, and they poke one and it explodes, poke one and it explodes, then by the time Cat Getan City is filled with a bunch of cosmic demon gods, what will the Court of Owls play with!

If every Cat Getan citizen has this combat power, the Court of Owls won't even have the chance to run home and cry while holding Barbatos's thigh.

Originally, Schiller brought Venom to DC because he had seen the plot in comics where Venom filled in the aging bones and nervous system for his host Eddie. He felt that perhaps Venom could be used to treat Mr. Freeze's wife in the same way, but before he could do so, Venom ran onto Batman by himself.

Batman is not something that can be parasitized by anything. You are a stinky outsider from Marvel, and you still want to run to our Cat Getan to beg for food?

Thinking like this, Schiller discovered that the offensive on the opposite side seemed to have weakened. The gray mist bypassed a building again. Schiller restrained his figure, stood on the edge of the roof of the highest building, and looked down.

That black bat composed of mucus suddenly began to fly crookedly, as if it was fighting with itself, pulled by an invisible force.

In the mind of the black bat, another battle became more intense.

Wave after wave of black tides covered the sky and the earth. The consciousness of Bruce's own personality was like a lone boat in a storm, crumbling.

Even Bruce himself didn't expect that his dark side would be so terrifying.

Also joining forces with him to fight the enemy was the miserable Venom's consciousness. He still hasn't figured out until now how he poked a hornet's nest again.

Barely resisting another wave of black tide, Bruce said to Venom: "Don't you claim to be an extraterrestrial creature?!!! Why is the will of you extraterrestrial creatures so fragile?!!!"

Venom was almost pissed off. Is my will fragile??? Why do you humans like to create so many storms in your brains???

Extreme survival in the consciousness world, right???

Venom was really aggrieved. The first host he encountered when he debuted was Deadpool.

Deadpool's brain was simply like it had been stirred by a thousands-of-revolutions eggbeater. He could grow anywhere, but his brain didn't grow.

Venom was like swimming butterfly in a cesspit. Deadpool's brain, although not very dangerous, was disgusting, especially disgusting.

Venom was driven a bit crazy by him. After finally staying on an ordinary person for a while, he couldn't resist the temptation and ran onto Stark.

Stark's brain was not chaotic anymore, but this damn rotten person's brain had an average of more than 3,000 thunderstorms every day. Tornadoes and sandstorms blew him so hard that even his mother wouldn't recognize him, almost blowing Venom's skull off.

Venom, who was shaken off Stark at that time, simply had a sense of celebration of escaping death.

Then, he was locked in a jar and hungry for a long time, and finally found a chance to run out. Venom was still happy because as soon as he entered Bruce's body, he found that this seemed to be a rich second generation with a good brain, and his brain didn't seem to turn as fast as Stark's, but instead was full of irrelevant data like ward beds, prison rooms, etc.

Venom, full of longing for a happy life, thought he had happily drilled into an egg. Just when he was drooling at the yolk and preparing to swallow it in one bite, the egg "clicked" and hatched a Tyrannosaurus rex. Venom's head was almost bitten off.

Venom could know from his genetic information that the universe is so big, and it's not just humans who are a race. Why is he so unlucky? Why did he just happen to fall to Earth??

How can humans be so outrageous? If one day, he could also compile the gene pool of symbiotes, he must tell all his compatriots: Stay away from humans, safety first. Finding a host is not standardized, symbiotes shed two lines of tears.

But aggrieved is aggrieved, complaining is complaining, the battle still has to be fought. Venom said to Bruce: "I can stimulate your emotions. You must have an extreme emotion now to suppress this dark emotion."

Thanks to Stark, Venom's logic system came from this genius cursed by knowledge. His thinking is very clear now, even clearer than Bruce's. After all, Bruce is confused by being in the situation, while Venom is very clear that if you want to defeat this dark emotion from the dark side, Bruce must stimulate enough positive emotions.

"Then what are you waiting for? Start quickly," Bruce said.

"The problem is I can't find your positive emotions!!!!!!"

Venom roared: "Where did you hide them?! Hurry up and dig them out!!! That's our life-saving straw!!!"

Venom was washed over by the black tide again. He said somewhat brokenly: "What is there to hide about this!! You bunch of stupid humans!!!"

Bruce opened his mouth. He didn't even know how to answer Venom's question. It sounded very absurd, but even an alien creature capable of peeping into the human heart couldn't find his positive emotions.

"You must be fast!" Venom's tone was very much like Stark's at this time, obviously this genius had brought him a great influence.

"Your kind of dark emotion seems to carry some other power. Once it erupts completely, your hometown, which is the city we are staying in now, will definitely be completely destroyed! Nothing will be left!"

Bruce pursed his lips and dodged the attack of dark consciousness again.

Destroy Cat Getan? This sounds perhaps very crazy, but it is also very reasonable. This crazy city should have been destroyed long ago. What is there to be nostalgic about here?

His mind floated with Alfred's face. He remembered the expression of the old butler when he sat in front of the hospital bed, and then remembered when he was in the pitch-black living room, wiping that old telephone alone, humming those pleasant tunes in his mouth.

This didn't exceed Bruce's expectations. If there was only one person he was nostalgic about in this city, it must be his butler Alfred. If there was only one place that made him feel nostalgic, it was Wei En Manor where Alfred was.

Soon. His memory began to be hazy, as if returning to Wei En Manor. He pushed open a door like every ordinary morning.

But what surprised him was that behind this door was Cat Getan's pitch-black rainy alley. Detective Gordon called him a tight-clad freak for the first time. They worked together to solve cases, investigate and track, and then the detective in a trench coat and the Batman in a cape, on the roof of the Cat Getan Police Department, they talked about justice, talked about the future of this city.

When the night was deep, Batman turned and left. When he returned to the manor, in the flickering dim candlelight, an old friend was already waiting for him. Batman and Harvey sat on the sofa. They talked about many things, as if there were endless topics, talking eloquently like a mentor and friend. Bruce had already felt vague about the principles he talked about, but the tacit understanding between the exchanges was still very clear.

Soon, he was shuttling through the lights of Cat Getan's high-rise buildings again, embracing and kissing Catwoman, falling into a beautiful dream.

Those tossed gauze curtains, knocked-over wine glasses, scattered wine, every night that was both gentle and crazy, those passionate kisses that made a bat's cold body temperature dyed with enthusiasm, that lover full of passion who made him feel incomparably fascinated, told him stories about jewelry and castles that Batman would never be interested in. In his memory, he listened incomparably seriously, but in his view, Catwoman's eyes were brighter than the gems she tried her best to describe.

The rustling sound of the pen falling on the paper sounded. Bruce seemed to have returned to an exam scene. He looked at those classmates of his scratching their heads in the exam room, perhaps feeling amazed, or perhaps feeling helpless.

Then, he painted wall paintings with those people, watching the pitch-black paint flow down the wall, spontaneously forming some mysterious patterns he had never seen before, like the door of a time machine.

He passed through this door, and time shuttled forward rapidly, pushing forward bit by bit in his dream-like memory, and then began to retreat rapidly. All people and things returned to their original positions like a movie played backward, until returning to the place where a black sun rose. He heard a familiar voice say to him: "Welcome to Cat Getan."

Venom watched the consciousness space begin to tremble. Strong light shone out from some broken cracks. He cursed secretly and quickly began to thread the needle in Bruce's emotions, wanting to guide these fragmented positive emotions together.

A little light gradually rose, and then gathered into a more dazzling ball of light.

The counterattack of the black tide was more violent, like black ink soaking the entire world. The consciousness space began to spread with a black ocean, and the surging giant waves covered the sky and the earth.

Bruce, who had already withdrawn from the memory space, floated above the black tide. Through the layers of black waves, he saw a little boy lying curled up at the deepest part of this black ocean. That was him, Bruce Wei En.

Soon, Schiller saw that huge bat composed of mucus fall to the ground. Those mucus began to slowly recover, and then all shrank back into Bruce's body.

Schiller jumped off the roof and stood in front of Bruce. Bruce climbed up from the ground, or rather, now controlling his body was Venom.

"Did you succeed? What is going on?"

"You have to ask that woman who ran to your house and stole that jar."

The woman who stole the jar? Schiller thought, there is only one female thief in all of Cat Getan with this ability. Could it be Catwoman?

"I shouldn't have believed Stark's bullshit." Schiller said: "He told me his symbiote must live in a mansion worthy of the status of the world's richest man, so he used those strange instruments of his to make a diamond jar, and guaranteed to me that this thing has both aesthetics and practicality."

"Then I should thank him."

In an instant, black mucus erupted again, only this time Venom turned into the initial form, which was that big mouth full of fangs and a bright red tongue.

"Then how did you run onto Batman?"

"Don't you think communicating in the human way is too slow? Don't waste my time," Venom said.

"Your tone reminds me of a very annoying guy."

Venom separated a tentacle of mucus, and the gray mist also slowly dispersed a cloud of mist. The moment the symbiote factors touched, both sides exchanged countless information.

The gray mist said in his mind: "... a woman with cat ears... just like that car... the necessary process of human reproduction... not allowed to watch... he also can't figure it out..."

"Alright, I know..." Schiller covered his forehead. He already knew what was going on. He said: "Don't tell me the details, Bruce is purely asking for it."

Then Venom grinned with that big mouth and laughed, saying: "You can never catch me again! Hahahahahaha! I am free!! I want to eat everyone's brain here!! I..."

"I said before, before considering the problem of eating, you might have trouble to deal with..."

Venom just wanted to answer him, but felt his consciousness being suppressed again in an instant. He roared unwillingly: "No! Damn human! Rotten person!!"

But in the end, the mucus still retreated into the body. Bruce shook his head and said: "Did it succeed? What is going on?"

"You should go ask that glutton in your body."

"I'm not referring to this, he already told me who he is and what to do. I'm referring to... why did I lose control? What's going on with those terrifying negative emotions? Why... where did those darkness come from?"

"It seems you have already discovered it," Schiller said: "The darkness hidden in your body is very terrifying. Although it has never lost control before, once it loses control, you might destroy everything."

"What exactly is that?"

"That is Batman, don't you know?"

"Batman? Then who am I? No... no... impossible!" Bruce covered his eyes and squatted down. He knelt halfway on the ground, appearing very painful. He said: "Impossible... I am Batman... I am Batman..."

"You think you have become another you, but in fact, this is just an appearance."

Schiller's thoughts began to drift somewhat. He began to gradually recall the Batman he knew in those comics. His voice also began to appear more and more ethereal. He said: "Batman? You are somewhat different from him. Indeed, he doesn't just pursue darkness."

"He is extreme darkness, and also extreme light, using extreme darkness to govern this hopeless city, and then using light to prevent the destruction that this extreme darkness might bring."

This sounded more like a sigh from Schiller. Bruce's voice was full of exhaustion. He said: "I originally thought I didn't need those. I am the avenger in the dark night. I don't need any useless emotions that might shake my belief. I am not that ridiculous Bruce, that powerless, unable to save and change anything, little Bruce..."

Schiller was also hearing such an obvious tremor in his tone for the first time. Bruce's tone was almost shaking to the point of being unable to finish the last complete word, or perhaps, he was unwilling to say it.

This was the first time he said what he had been avoiding—that night, those two gunshots, those two people falling in a pool of blood, and that little boy named Bruce Wei En who was powerless.

He originally thought that little Bruce was buried forever in that night.

So when he realized that he was still like that little boy, holding unrealistic fantasies about this world and the pleasant memories like movies that night, it was as if all the hatred and efforts driven by hatred over the years were like self-deceiving escapes.

Facing that little boy who lost his parents brought Schiller more intense emotional fluctuations than facing Batman. He stopped being a bystander who stayed out of the matter and gave advice for the first time, but said like a real warning: "... even Cat Getan has daytime."

Bruce's Adam's apple moved. He took a deep breath, as if suddenly injected with some vitality. He stood up, somewhat trembling. This cold wind of Cat Getan's night blew on his Batman armor, bringing a tremor that no one could hear.

He walked slowly to the edge of the roof, somewhat limping.

Standing there, he saw a glow appear on Cat Getan City's skyline. A golden thin line, like the opening of heaven and earth, cut open the thick darkness.

Bruce had never seen Cat Getan's sunrise.

He suddenly discovered that even in such a dark and gloomy city, the moment the sun rose, that light breaking through the darkness was still the glorious brilliance he had never seen before.

The darker it is, the more shocking the light is to people's hearts.

Bruce closed his eyes. He slowly closed the fingers of one hand, as if holding this light that cut through the darkness.

Soon, Bruce took a deep breath and opened his eyes. The glow of the sun was contained in his eyes, and the arc of light on the horizon left a brilliant golden color in his pupils.

No one knows that he had briefly seen that little boy lying under the black tide in the consciousness space. Only after seeing him did Bruce understand that he always regarded those happy memories as the reward he first obtained for his painful life. Therefore, whenever he gained a little happiness, he always wanted to repay it with ten times the pain.

He was so eager to escape these happy memories, just as he instinctively avoided pain.

He wanted to become Batman. What he had to accept was not only these pains and darkness, but also that he had always been that little boy, always looking forward to that movie, always yearning for that light.

Just like that dark night many years ago, without the expectation of light, there would never be a desire to integrate into the darkness.

"Who am I?"

He said softly: "Who am I?"

The light of dawn would not give him an answer, but he already had the answer in his heart. He said: "I am Bruce Wei En..."

"I am Batman..."

His tone began to become light and slow: "... I am, Batman."

A silent and heavy oath fell in his heart, like a heavy stone tablet, standing tall under the scouring of the black tide.

From today on, there will only be one Batman in this dark city, and that is Bruce Wei En, and also Batman.

From today on, he will bear the dark authority from this crazy city of Cat Getan, and then hold the sharp blade of light like dawn.

He will stand above this living hell. The cold wind cannot penetrate his armor, and the fire cannot melt his heart.

He will disregard any criteria, fear no guilt, take dawn as the boundary, take dawn as the signal, be in the darkness, heart toward the light, forever toward the light.

Bruce thought, he will be the dawn of Cat Getan.

He will be—Batman.