Chapter 277: Fear Laughing Demon (Part 3)

"Wait, but..."

In an apartment in Coast City, a man in a flight jacket is talking to himself. He puts his hands on his hips and paces in the room, saying: "I know, I know, it's my duty, but..."

"Alright, if things are really like what you said, then I'll go over there, but I think you guys are making a bit of a fuss."

"When I just joined the Green Lantern Corps, you once told me that the Green Lantern Corps is the most powerful among all the lantern corps in the lantern world, and I also felt this point. I don't quite understand what makes you so nervous..."

"... Alright, if you must do this, I won't object. After all, Earth is also my hometown, and protecting it is my responsibility."

"Do you have the specific location of that yellow lantern's descent? I was sleeping just now and didn't feel anything unusual."

That man scratched his hair. His brown hair looked a bit messy, just as he said, he had just woken up and was still a bit sleepy.

"What? Cat Getan? How could it be in that ghost place? Alright... it's not surprising. What did you say yellow lanterns represent? Oh, fear. The environment there is indeed scary enough."

"I'll use teleportation to go over and take a look now. If things are really as serious as you said, then I'll deal with it as soon as possible."

"Listen, now, I, Hal, Hal Jordan, am the only Green Lantern on Earth. I can't let my hometown lose face. If I ask for support before even starting to fight, that will seriously lower my image in the lantern corps, right?"

"Oh, yes, I know, you mean well, and I also know that the Yellow Lantern you mentioned might be hard to deal with, but you have to trust me, trust my willpower. During the time I've been a Green Lantern, I've performed quite well, right?"

That man who called himself Hal put his hands on his hips and said: "You know, not all Earthlings have my ability to accept and willpower. Although I haven't accepted the power of the lantern ring for long, I think I have no problem dealing with these troubles on Earth..."

After a while, he sighed, then touched the pet dog at his feet and said: "Sorry, it seems I can only take you out for a walk later. I have some things to deal with, but you have to believe me, I'll be back soon..."

Saying that, a green light flashed, and Hal's figure disappeared. However, he didn't appear directly in Cat Getan when he appeared again, but appeared on a highway in Blüdhaven. He stood on the highway and looked at the sky, saying somewhat confused: "... What's wrong? Did I get lost?"

The climate in Blüdhaven was very good, and the weather was very clear, so even in the daytime, one could see the stars through the sky. Hal judged the orientation and found that he shouldn't have gone wrong.

If according to the normal orientation, when he teleported here, he should have stopped exactly under the sign at the entrance of Cat Getan, and now there was a straight highway here, and there was nothing.

Where did such a big city go?

Hal turned around twice in place, very confused. He thought, perhaps there was a problem with the direction of the stars. This was not impossible. After all, every time a lantern ring descends, it will produce some anomalies. So he teleported to Blüdhaven again, and then bought a nearby tourist map.

Walking to Cat Getan along the tourist map, Hal didn't feel any trouble, because he was now a lantern knight who inherited the Green Lantern ring. There was no problem with physical strength, and walking was fast. Moreover, the distance between Blüdhaven and Cat Getan was not far.

But he became more and more confused holding this map and said: "Damn it, isn't it written here? As long as you walk here, cross the pine forest on the right, you can see the tallest building in Cat Getan, Wayne Tower... where is the tower???"

Crossing the pine forest planted on the side of the highway on the right, Hal didn't see anything, but a faint smell of alcohol came from the air. Hal thought this was the smell of alcohol left by someone's camping party and didn't care.

He continued to walk forward and walked a long distance before finally seeing an indicator sign.

And what made Hal a bit strange was that a person was standing under the indicator sign, holding an umbrella in his hand. Hal walked over and asked him: "Hello, I want to go to Cat Getan, may I ask if I should keep walking along this road?"

That person shook his head and asked: "You are Hal, right? Hal Jordan?"

"You know me?"

"I not only know you, but also know your identity. You are a pilot, and also the owner of the Green Lantern ring, a Green Lantern, right?"

When he heard the first half of the sentence, Hal was already very confused. He was not a big star, it was impossible for any ordinary person to know him, and when he heard the second half, he narrowed his eyes, looked at the man and said: "Who are you? Why do you know about the Green Lantern?"

"Don't you remember that when you just got the Green Lantern ring, you once posted a post on a forum related to aliens, and only one person replied to you, that is me..."

"You are that... my God! I sent so many messages to you, why didn't you reply to me?!"

Hal's tone was shocked at first, then turned into a complaint.

Shiler sighed and said to him: "I can explain this to you later, but now there is a big trouble that might need you to deal with it."

"Big trouble? What big trouble? Why do you appear here? What on earth is going on?"

Hal's state was full of question marks, but Shiler didn't intend to answer this series of questions, but said to Hal: "You are not going to Cat Getan, right? I am sorry to tell you that even if you keep walking along this road, you won't be able to reach Cat Getan."

"Impossible." Hal directly denied this statement.

"It's written on the map, as long as you see the traffic indicator sign and then move forward, you can reach Cat Getan..."

You can try.

Hal stretched out a finger and waved it, then made a running posture, "whoosh" and disappeared, and then "whoosh" again, and rushed from the other end to the front of the indicator sign.

Looking at Shiler and the indicator sign that appeared in front of him again, Hal was confused. Shiler said: "Indeed, the Earth is round, but I think your speed shouldn't be fast enough to circle the Earth in such a short time, right?"

No matter how lightly Hal took the enemy, he knew that things had changed. His face became serious gradually, and he asked Shiler: "What on earth is going on? You'd better give me a reasonable explanation."

Bidi Pavilion

"Give up all your fantasies about 'reasonable'." Shiler crossed the highway guardrail, walked to the indicator sign on the side of the road, and said to Hal: "Because, you are in a dream now."

As soon as he finished saying this, Hal saw that the pillar supporting the traffic indicator sign became an incomparably huge tower within his line of sight, sitting on a piece of scorched land. Hal looked up, opened his mouth, and then said: "What is this?"

"Follow me first, I will explain everything to you." Shiler led Hal forward. Hal's brown eyes were full of doubts. He chased after Shiler and asked: "Where is this? Is it an illusion created by you? Who on earth are you? Does it have anything to do with the yellow lantern?"

Shiler sighed and said: "I won't explain the previous things to you, let's start from the descent of the yellow lantern."

"Do you know that the yellow lantern descended? Oh, right, you shouldn't be an ordinary person either, but I have never heard of any lantern ring that can make a city disappear."

"Because it wasn't the lantern ring that made the city disappear, but me."

"Stop joking." Hal's tone revealed an incredulous emotion.

"That is Cat Getan! One of the top cities on the East Coast, how could you make it disappear in an instant? How much panic would that create? Why didn't I see it on the news?"

"Cat Getan didn't disappear in the real world. You can't see it because you already entered the dream the moment you stepped on that highway."

"As for why I want to do this, it's because I have a certain responsibility..."

Shiler sighed again. The number of times he sighed today was more than the total of the past few months, because things were indeed a bit beyond his expectations.

He and Jack's original plan was to go deep into the edge of Batman's consciousness, and then dig out and kill that dangerous thing that might exist. The process was very complex, but the goal was very clear. Simply put, it was to strangle all possibilities of the Batman Who Laughs appearing in his life.

In this process, Shiler met a Joker and killed a Joker, met a Batman and killed a Batman. In short, as long as he could stop that extremely annoying Batman Who Laughs from appearing in his life, he would stop at nothing.

In the two stories before the finale, everything went very smoothly. They successfully came to the edge of Batman's dream, and then found the embryo that might hatch into the Laughing One, and almost killed him.

But what was unexpected was that this stimulation caused the black tide deep in Batman's heart to overflow, and with an unprecedented violent attitude, rushed out of his soul and rushed toward the universe.

This kind of purest fear power in the entire universe would of course attract the attention of an existence, that is, the yellow lantern ring, or the attention of the "Parallax", the yellow lantern beast representing the power of fear in the emotional spectrum.

The lantern beasts of all colored lantern rings in this universe are very powerful existences, and Parallax is the same.

But also similarly, Parallax is also a master who has seen everything. Ordinary fear power is not enough to attract his attention, but the problem is that the fear power in Batman's heart is almost the purest fear power in the entire DC source of all universes. For Parallax, this is simply an irresistible temptation.

So, accompanied by the descent of the yellow lantern ring, there was also a terrifying monster, the yellow lantern beast Parallax.

"Parallax?" Hal asked confusedly, saying: "I once heard the seniors in the corps introduce that every lantern corps will have a lantern furnace and a lantern beast. They once mentioned that the lantern beasts produced by every kind of emotion are very powerful, but also similarly, they will not descend easily..."

"Are you saying that in this city, someone's fear power triggered the descent of the yellow lantern beast? This is really a bit troublesome..." Hal's expression became more and more serious. Clearly, he realized the seriousness of the problem.

"I didn't expect this point either, because according to the timeline, this is impossible, because you just..." Shiler turned to look at Hal and said.

The reason he hadn't worried about the yellow lantern ring problem was that if according to the normal timeline, at this time, Hal had just become a lantern knight, then Sinestro, the founder of the Yellow Lantern Corps, should still be a Green Lantern. The two of them hadn't fallen out, so Sinestro wouldn't have rebelled out of the Green Lantern Corps, and wouldn't have gone to create the yellow lantern ring.

When that black tide was rising, Shiler hadn't considered the emotional spectrum problem at all. He thought that the category of fear didn't exist in the lantern rings in the universe yet, but who knew, the yellow lantern ring descended like this.

Shiler reflected that the changes in this universe were already enough, and it was not impossible for the Yellow Lantern Corps to appear in advance.

"But you still didn't say, what happened to Cat Getan? Where is this?"

"Don't worry, I'm just about to say this..."

"The descent of the yellow lantern ring and the yellow lantern beast is not the biggest danger. The biggest danger is the host that the yellow lantern ring and the lantern beast want to parasitize, and there is a... egg fleeing for its life in the body."

"Egg, what is that?"

"I'm not scaring you, but I must tell you that that is an existence that if it hatches, all your lantern corps tied together won't be enough for him to fight alone."

Hal just wanted to refute, Shiler continued: "But fortunately, now he is indeed just an embryo, and his ability to act has been greatly weakened, and he is only one line away from death."

"But just at this time, the yellow lantern ring and the lantern beast descended. One desperately wanted to run out, and the other desperately wanted to squeeze in. Guess who won in the end?"

"Hmm, it should be the lantern beast, right?"

"No, they both lost, and Batman won both. Now, he possesses both that laughing egg and the yellow lantern beast."

Shiler explained again: "Originally, Batman could refuse the yellow lantern ring with his own willpower, but the egg that was almost dying in his body saw the only way to survive."

"So. He took advantage of the moment when Batman's attention shifted to the yellow lantern beast, controlled his consciousness space, and accepted the yellow lantern ring, and the yellow lantern beast followed the yellow lantern ring into Batman's body. Now, they have merged into one."

With Shiler's narration, the two walked into that towering tower, and then, with the change of light and shadow, Hal found himself on the top of a high building. He lowered his head and looked down. Under his feet was the entire Cat Getan City.

Finally arrived in Cat Getan, but Hal didn't have a bit of happy emotion in his heart, because he looked up and saw a monster that was hard to describe standing over Cat Getan.

It possessed a lower body like a yellow centipede with many joints and many feet, and an upper body that was pitch-black and wore a bat pattern, as well as a head that had no eyes, no other facial features, only a bright red big mouth.

And at this time, Shiler's voice sounded:

"Yellow lantern ring, Parallax, Batman, laughing egg mixed together, and I call it..."

"Fear Laughing Demon."

--- Side Note ---

The plot has made a big loop—

It's back again! ===== CHAPTER 279 =====