Chapter 3741: Crisis in the Dark City (Part 15)

But what surprised everyone even more was the other figure stepping out of the Batmobile. Shiler opened the car door, stepped out, pulled his hat down over his head, and pulled a handgun from his coat.

"Long time no see, Owlman," he said, looking at Owlman, who was sitting on a chair suspended in mid-air. "Isn't it strange? Why I would appear here?"

"It's you." Owlman narrowed his eyes as he looked at him. Now he was certain that the Shiler in front of him was the same agent who had been queued into the same instance dungeon as him last time.

He had just opened his mouth to say something when he saw the dark, hollow muzzle of the gun already aimed at him.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Shiler fired three shots in succession. Owlman flipped backward to hide behind his chair. He instinctively turned his head to look at The Batman Who Laughs, only to see a powerful figure, radiating an indescribable sense of oppression, leap high into the air and land. Before The Batman Who Laughs could swing the iron chain in his hand, a fist with a metallic sheen had already smashed down.

"Boom!"

The gaunt, pale figure was sent flying directly. The Arkham Batman pressed the attack, following up with another punch that sent The Batman Who Laughs flying into mid-air, before slamming his elbow down hard. With a "Crack!", ribs shattered. The Batman Who Laughs spat out a mouthful of blood. The Arkham Batman threw another punch, and the teeth of The Batman Who Laughs were scattered everywhere.

Owlman swallowed hard.

He hadn't been hiding for long; the moment he turned his head back, he saw Shiler's fist graze the side of his head. He dodged to the right, and Shiler delivered a side kick, sending him flying.

"Wait!" Owlman shouted. "We can talk about this!"

"Bang!" Shiler fired a shot into Owlman's chest. The bullet pierced through his lung, leaving him momentarily speechless. Realizing the opponent truly intended to kill him, he scrambled up from the ground and pulled out his batarangs.

The Dark Monarch Batman nearby also stood up, cracking his knuckles. Just as he was about to pick a suitable target, he noticed another person stepping out of the Batmobile, possessing the most classic Batman image. Owlman recognized almost instantly that it was the Main Universe Batman.

In the blink of an eye, three batarangs flew out. The Dark Monarch Batman roared, jumped down from mid-air, and became embroiled in a fight with the Main Universe Batman.

The last figure to step out of the car seemed completely out of place in this world, pale enough to be turning transparent. But the moment he stepped onto this land, endless darkness and chaos spread out.

A massive black tentacle suddenly appeared, coiled around the empty air, and slammed it hard against the ground.

"Boom!"

A semi-transparent phantom was caught in the tentacle and smashed into the ground, letting out a scream. The owner of the tentacle revealed a pale smile, and his bloodless lips moved imperceptibly: "Caught you."

The moment that phantom was smashed into the ground, the church where Batman and Shiler were located trembled violently.

This interrupted Batman's chanting. He had to look up and say: "What's wrong? An earthquake???"

Shiler, however, suddenly started laughing and said: "The plan worked."

Batman looked at him. Shiler recalled the time when the Agent had brought Greed and Pride to find him.

The memory bank of the Tower of Thought was vast, categorized, and as deep as the sea. Turning left upon entering, there was a librarian's office. The Agent knocked on the office door with Greed and Pride, and a similarly young Shiler opened the door.

He looked plain and unremarkable, and the student-like black-rimmed glasses he wore made him look even less conspicuous, just like the kind of nerd one could see at the library entrance every night.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"A bit of trouble," the Agent said. "Let's go inside to talk."

After a while, the Agent looked at the other and said: "That's how it is. We might need you to go up and stall for a while so we can go get reinforcements."

"I see," the other pushed up his glasses and said. "That's no problem. And according to what you said, I already have a rough idea of how to break the deadlock. But I'll say this first: I'll only go for a while. Once you solve the matters in the real world, swap someone else in."

"No problem. If your 'inspiration' in the occult wasn't the best fit for dealing with this bizarre situation, we wouldn't have come to bother you," the Agent said. "And don't talk too much nonsense with that Batman; they are all occult-blind."

"Like you?"

"Like me."

Watching Inspiration take the elevator up to the surface of consciousness, the Agent began to delegate tasks. He said: "Even though we are in an instance, we can still use the Dream Realm to reach our respective bodies. I'll be responsible for finding the Batman of the Arkham Knight universe, Pride will find the Main Universe one, and Greed will find the Evil God Batman. Any questions?"

"I thought you would come up with some brilliant solution," Greed couldn't help but complain. "Turns out it's just getting reinforcements."

"Heh, if you two could go yourselves, I wouldn't need to find Batman," the Agent said while walking down. "The current situation clearly shows that those involved in the game cannot break the deadlock, so we must think of ways from outside the board. Who told them to use off-board tactics first?"

The three headed to the Dream Realm to borrow a path. The Agent surfaced from the consciousness of his own body and then felt an unprecedented sense of peace.

Ever since surfacing with Pride and Greed, he understood a bit why the Superego didn't allow multiple normal states to surface. In the past few hours, he had wanted to punch himself countless times to make himself shut up.

Shiler once again passed through the Dream Realm and arrived at the Arkham Batman's universe. He landed in Cat Getan, the weather was still gloomy, but he didn't hear any gunfire. As soon as he walked out, he saw a group of National Guard soldiers patrolling the street.

"It seems this universe is governed quite well by Mr. President," Shiler thought. Then a car stopped in front of him, and the driver opened the door for him, saying: "Mr. President is waiting for you on the top floor of Wei En Tower."

Arriving at the office door of Wei En Tower, the Agent pushed the door open. Arkham Batman walked up to shake hands, but Shiler didn't even extend his hand, looking directly at his face and saying: "You saw the message I sent you using the Domain System. I've also found other teammates. Call the Flash, we're going to the Main Universe to assemble."

Arkham Batman was noncommittal, standing in place and scrutinizing him: "You're a bit different from the old friend I know."

"Then you can redefine your definition of an old friend. Stop the nonsense, let's go." It wasn't that the Agent had any issues with him, but he had been annoyed by those two people earlier. Since Arkham Batman insisted on bringing it up, don't expect him to give a good look.

Arkham Batman walked forward quickly, soon walking shoulder-to-shoulder with Shiler, who was in front. He didn't look sideways either, just reached out to straighten his tie and said: "You remind me of those annoying FBI agents."

"My pleasure."

The two arrived at the underground garage. Arkham Batman entered the preparation room next door, put on his Batman gear, and then they sat on the left and right of the Batmobile. The atmosphere inside the car was silent for a moment.

"I thought another you would come to find me."

"He has another old flame."

It wasn't that Arkham Batman didn't hear the sarcasm in his tone, but he couldn't help asking: "Are you talking about Professor Shiler?"

"Aren't you?"

"It seems you two don't have a very good relationship."

"Because he just manipulated my left brain to punch my right brain. Should I have a good relationship with him?" Shiler tilted his head and glanced at Arkham Batman.

"My relationship with other Batmen isn't very good either."

"You deserve it."

"Thanks."

They picked up the Flash, but instead of heading immediately to the Broken Bat's universe, they went to the Main Universe first. After arriving at the Main Universe, Pride and the Main Universe Batman, as well as Greed and Cl-Bat—the little Bruce from before—were already waiting in the Batcave.

"Let's take my car," Arkham Batman said. "How are we getting there? Still using the Speed Force?"

Pride shook his head and said: "Don't rush, the driver is on the way."

No sooner had he finished speaking than a massive truck rushed out, slamming head-on into Batman's beloved mechanical dinosaur model. A green head poked out from the driver's seat, tilted its head toward the truck, and said: "Get in!"

Shiler looked at the stunned Arkham Batman and said: "Didn't you say to take your car? Get in."

Arkham Batman sat back in the Batmobile with some hesitation, and the others got in as well. Then he drove the Batmobile into the truck's cargo hold. Jack, who was driving, stepped on the gas and dashed straight into the Dream World.

"Absurd," Arkham Batman commented.

"Who is more absurd? The Joker driving or the Batman riding?" Shiler asked.

"One is more absurd than the other," the Main Universe Batman chimed in.

The truck drove through the dreamy and beautiful Dream Realm, and the people sitting in the back could even hear the little tune Jack was humming. Not long after, the car stopped. Appearing before everyone was a pitch-black crack.

"Thanks, Jack." Pride took two tickets out of his suit pocket, handed them to him, and said, "Tickets for the latest play starring Ms. Selina Kyle. If you don't have time to watch it, you can entrust Brainiac to help you sell them; one can sell for 500 points."

"I won't go," Greed said to Cl-Bat. "Come play at our place when you have time. The Sanctum provides comprehensive tentacle maintenance services, guaranteed to satisfy you. Bye-bye."

Thus, Shiler and the three Batmen got back in the car. The Batmobile drove all the way into the dark spatial rift. After a long ascent, the car landed steadily outside the side door of a large cathedral.

"There's a bizarre thing," Cl-Bat suddenly spoke up. "A spectral entity. Listen to me, drive straight through here. He can't run."

Arkham Batman slammed on the gas, and the engine roar sounded. The car rushed out like an arrow from a bow, crashing through the cathedral walls and tables and chairs, leaving the ghost that was originally hiding in the light and shadow nowhere to hide.

The ghost caught in the tentacle gradually took form. His upper body still had the appearance of Bruce Wei En, but his lower body was like roots, each root entwined with a building in Cat Getan. If one looked closely, in the entwined cathedral, the Batman using the Azrael body and Shiler were also looking out the window.

Dark energy surged in Cl-Bat's eyes. In his eyes, countless black magic runes swirled around this ghost-city Batman. It seemed this Batman was using some kind of forbidden black magic ritual to merge himself with the city. And all the residents in this city had become sacrifices for the ritual.

The moment the tentacle began to tighten, the opponent let out a fierce scream. But Cl-Bat quickly noticed there was another Batman in the corner, his hands crossed in a strange shape, muttering to himself.

"Why is there another one doing black magic?" He swung a tentacle over with some impatience. The ritual was interrupted, and the opponent was sent flying. But the monsters he had summoned from the spatial rift had already surged out.

"Get the people out first," the Main Universe Batman shouted.

A tentacle lashed out at the cathedral entwined by the roots. The Batman and Shiler inside the cathedral were knocked down directly. Accompanied by a "Crack!", the two fell heavily to the ground.

Seeing that their side had completely suppressed the opponent, Shiler was just about to say something when The Batman Who Laughs, beaten until his head was covered in blood, crawled up from the ground and roared at the Batman using the Azrael body: "Look at them! These righteous people from the Light Universe! Batman! Do you know why Azrael was willing to cooperate with us?! Because I told him the truth about the Dark Multiverse!"

"You are abandoned pawns, sacrifices! The cities in your universe, the residents in the cities, were destined to be destroyed from the moment they were created. And they, these lucky ones born in the Light Multiverse, were born to enjoy the stable life you will never enjoy. Do you think this is fair?!"

"Do you think they traveled thousands of miles to play the savior out of the kindness of their hearts?! They just don't want you filthy dark ones to drag down their universe! The Creator is never fair. No matter how hard you try, your universe is destined for a tragic end, destined to be bloody, miserable, and dark. Don't you want to change all of this?!"

The Batman using the Azrael body seemed very shocked. He instinctively looked at Arkham Batman. Arkham Batman remained silent. Then he turned his head to look at Shiler.

Just in time to see Shiler raise his gun.

"Bang!"

The Batman Who Laughs lay down again.

?? Peaceful ===== CHAPTER 3742 =====