Chapter 281: Plot Twist (Part 1)

A mass of gray light appeared before Batman's eyes, followed by Schiller's voice. Just like before, he seemed to be able to see what Batman was thinking. Schiller said to Batman, "I pulled everyone's consciousness into the dream, and then attracted the Lantern Rings by amplifying their emotions in the dream..."

"But a Lantern Ring must have the host's consent to recognize its master. After their consciousness was pulled by me into the deep dream space, the Lantern Ring would discover that the body they found had no consciousness. To find the host's consciousness, it must enter the dream. But the Lantern Ring itself cannot enter; only its power can."

"This way, these people didn't actually wear the rings, but only obtained the blessing of the energy within the Lantern Rings. I fused these energies together to build a new lantern furnace in the dream world, creating a brand-new Lantern Beast..."

"But likewise, this is limited to the dream space. This gray Lantern Ring has no physical form, so it won't take effect in the real world. Once your dream wakes up, everything will be as if it never happened."

"Or one could say, this is not a recognized new Lantern Ring, because it is just a dream we had."

"Then what is its use?" Batman asked.

"Right now, the Laughing Egg you are battling can use the dark energy deep within your heart to nourish itself, and even infinitely accelerate the speed of its hatching. Yet you have almost no power to draw upon."

"If this continues, the monster that hatches from this egg will occupy your body after killing you, and even run into the real world."

"And the gray Lantern Ring, having absorbed the energy of several Lantern Rings, can provide you with the energy to contend with it..."

Batman slowly reached out his hand, and the mass of gray light flew toward his hand. Before he put on the ring, he asked, "I heard Hal say that every kind of Lantern Ring represents an emotion. Then what does this ring represent?"

"Formless and qualityless, hard to distinguish between true and false, all-encompassing... Chaos."

The moment the gray Lantern Ring touched Batman's finger, his entire person was wrapped in layers of gray mist. The gray giant dragon that flew out from the lantern furnace let out a low roar that shook the entire consciousness space, flapped its wings across the sky, and arrived above Batman's head.

Batman suddenly felt a mysterious link appear between him and that dream dragon. With a thought, the gray giant dragon flew toward the Fear Laughing Demon.

The dream dragon guided countless gray mists to follow behind it, while behind the Fear Laughing Demon was an endless black tide. When the two forces collided, they formed an extremely bright point of light like a cosmic explosion, followed by countless huge ripples spreading out.

This massive and shocking battle situation was no longer something one or two people could influence. The consciousness of all the others retreated to the edge of the dream.

Because the power of the Lantern Rings was swallowed by the gray mist, the light on the few people also disappeared. Victor's tone was quite relaxed, and he said, "Fortunately, it didn't last long. In fact, that power gave me a strange feeling..."

"What feeling?" Schiller asked him.

"It felt like something was peeping at me, or rather, it wanted to control me, wanting to make a certain emotion in my heart erupt."

"This is very normal, because Lantern Rings come from the emotional spectrum. The emotional energy in your heart can complement the energy of the Lantern Ring..."

"Hey, I say, what exactly is going on?" Hal walked over, interrupting the conversation between Schiller and Victor. The green light on his body also disappeared.

Hal's tone carried a bit of panic. He said, "What did you do to me? Why did my Green Lantern energy disappear?"

"I just absorbed all the energy in the ring you are currently wearing. You can go back to the lantern furnace to recharge later."

Hearing that this power wasn't permanently lost, Hal breathed a sigh of relief, but Schiller's next words made him fall into silence: "Don't you think you rely too much on this energy? Is it you controlling it, or is it controlling you?"

At this time, the battle on the field became increasingly scorched. The way of fighting had shifted from physical combat that could be clearly seen to a more mysterious contest of spirit and willpower.

The gray mist representing Batman and the black tide representing the Fear Laughing Demon stirred up a spindle-shaped tornado in the center of the battlefield. Batman and the main body of the Fear Laughing Demon were coming and going in this huge tornado, engaging in a spiritual confrontation.

From the current situation, Batman was still at a disadvantage, because not only did he have to suppress the monster's actions and attack the monster's main body, but he also had to divert a portion of his power to suppress the monster trying to crawl out of the embryo. Batman's keen intuition told him that once this monster truly hatched, it would be all over.

Thus, a wisp of gray mist tightly entangled the hand that had just reached out and tried hard to press it back into the shell, while another portion of thin mist wrapped around the eggshell, constantly thickening the outer wall of this embryo.

And just as the battle reached a stalemate, a wisp of gray mist followed the constantly rotating tornado and touched the tail end of the Fear Laughing Demon's entire body. At this moment, Batman, linked to the gray mist consciousness, felt an emotion transmitted into his mind.

It was a brainwave containing information, but it was very chaotic. Batman deciphered the information this brainwave wanted to convey, which was roughly: "I am Parallax, I want to cooperate with you..."

Batman quickly deduced what was going on. Clearly, Parallax had never wanted to cooperate with the Laughing Egg.

Although Parallax was a chaotic creature, its way of thinking was completely different from humans. However, due to its characteristic of being unable to act independently, it actually had a long time interacting with humanoid intelligent beings, and their coordination was considered tacit.

Parallax could be seen as a symbiont in another sense. If there was no host, it could not stay in the real world for a long time. It must reside in the body of a Yellow Lantern host, and the Yellow Lantern host must have independent wisdom and consciousness to move freely. Therefore, it was very accustomed to interacting with the host's spirit in the host's consciousness space.

But when there was a third consciousness in the host's mind, Parallax would definitely feel uncomfortable, just like a pet dog could share a house with its owner, but could not accept a neighbor's dog living there too.

Not to mention that this neighbor's dog had also suppressed its consciousness, seized control of its body, and installed an ugly head on it.

This ancient creature representing fear was surprisingly angry. No matter how it would get along with this host in the future, right now it just wanted to work with the host's consciousness to kill this monster that had snatched its territory.

Batman and Parallax communicated constantly through the gray mist, but human orderly thinking and the thinking of chaotic creatures were completely on different lines. They communicated for a long time, but only reached a preliminary cooperation intention. As for how to do it, there was still no clue.

And at this time, Schiller's voice sounded in Batman's ear:

"The use of the Gray Lantern Ring is not just about drawing the energy within it, but more importantly, using the power of dream rules."

"The power of dream rules?"

"That's right, which is the so-called 'wishes come true'."

"I know, in a dream, wishes can naturally come true. But you and the Laughing Egg are both the masters of this dream. You are two sides of the same existence. You want to make him die with a wish, and he also wants to make you die with a wish. At this time, you two can only compete in willpower."

"But still the same sentence, he was dug out from your body. You are him, and he is you. So theoretically, you have the willpower he also has. If this stalemate continues, you cannot completely erase his existence, and he cannot completely erase your existence."

"So?"

"I connected my dream with your dream, and used my Mind Palace and the energy of other Lantern Rings to create the Gray Lantern Ring. This ring represents my consciousness space."

"That is to say, when you use this gray Lantern Ring, it is equivalent to my willpower and your willpower being superimposed together. This way, you have enough status level to erase the existence of this embryo..."

Batman narrowed his eyes. He understood Schiller's words.

Originally, his battle with this Laughing Egg was like a person's left hand and right hand arm-wrestling. Because they were the same person, their strength and willpower were not much different.

The Laughing Egg could mobilize the dark side within Batman's body, just like it was the dominant hand, stronger than Batman in muscle strength, but not by much. So when Batman drew the energy of the Gray Lantern Ring to resist the black tide, the two fell into an evenly matched stalemate.

And at this time, if Batman and Schiller's willpower were superimposed, it was like a kitchen knife appearing out of thin air after the left hand pressed down the right hand, chopping off the right hand, providing the key factor that could decide the battle.

The few people watching from the sidelines suddenly saw that the spindle-shaped tornado began to grow larger and larger. The black tide and gray mist became increasingly sparse, allowing everyone to see the situation in the middle.

They saw that the cracks on the embryo on top of the monster's head, which was confronting Batman, began to grow larger and larger. That pale hand was tentatively reaching out, and soon the front half was completely extended, followed by the elbow and upper arm.

"What's going on? Is it going to hatch?? Has Batman fallen into a disadvantage??"

Schiller shook his head and said, "Batman is letting it hatch. He can only do so, because the eggshell of that egg is not only a restriction on that monster, but also its protective cover. If it only extends one hand, Batman's attack probably won't cause fatal damage to it. He must wait for the cracks on the eggshell to become larger."

While speaking, one arm of that monster had completely extended, followed by the head. Batman saw a pale head appearing, wearing steel-spiked goggles on its eyes and grinning with a wide mouth. At this moment, it was rubbing its head against the mucus film inside the embryo, just a little bit away from completely crawling out.

Just at this moment, the entire consciousness space began to vibrate. Gray mist, condensed as if it were solid, descended from the monster's head. The moment it touched the hatching monster, the monster's image began to disappear out of thin air.

It was as if this monster had been frozen into a picture printed on paper, and then, starting from the head, it was erased bit by bit.

But this monster immediately reacted to what Batman was going to do. It began to resist with all its might. The speed of erasure became slower and slower. At the same time, it kept struggling to break the shell, and the hand that had reached out began to tear the film on top of its head.

But just at this moment, Parallax gave this monster a backstab and began to compete for control within the body. The Laughing Egg's movements stagnated for a moment due to Parallax's interference. Just in this moment, most of its arm and half of its head were erased clean.

Everything happened silently, but everyone could see the intensity of the battle. Hal almost held his breath, fearing that the movement he made would affect the battle situation.

The gray mist on the monster's head became increasingly dense. Batman closed his eyes and focused his attention, exerting his own willpower to the maximum. The gray mist extended into the eggshell along the cracks where the monster broke the shell and began to erase its body.

Parallax kept interfering with that monster, making its movements pause from time to time. Soon, the arm exposed outside the eggshell and most of the body inside the eggshell were erased clean.

Just at this moment, the monster, realizing there was no hope, let out a scream similar to loud laughter, and then the entire dream began to collapse.

《Fairy Wood Romance》

"He is at his wit's end. It seems he wants to perish together." Schiller's tone remained calm, without any urgency of the coming crisis. He turned his head to the others and said, "Follow me into my Mind Palace first. In case this place collapses, I will send you out."

After the figures of the few disappeared, only Batman and that monster remained in the entire dream space.

Finally, Batman and Parallax joined forces to launch a fierce attack. After the monster's last remaining half of its head completely disappeared, the dream began to collapse comprehensively.

And Batman, who had exhausted all his spirit and willpower, did not see that the yellow body of the Fear Laughing Demon, except for its head, began to shrink continuously, and then drilled entirely into the eggshell left by the Laughing Egg that had not been completely destroyed.

The gray ring on Batman's finger flew off his finger on its own and flew toward the high Tower of Babel in the center of Gotham.

At the same time, an egg emitting yellow light, riding the turbulence of the dream, floated to the entrance of the high tower.

Schiller put on the gray ring and felt the chaotic consciousness coming from the egg. He paused for a moment, but still let the egg enter the high tower.

Then Schiller raised his arm, and the gray mist became dense to the extreme.

Just at the moment the dream completely collapsed, Schiller's voice came: "Return to reality."

The entire high tower, along with the gray mist filling the sky, completely disappeared from the collapsing fragments full of turbulence. ===== CHAPTER 282 =====