Chapter 3874

Upon hearing the phrase "a higher position," Darkseid's heart gave a violent jolt. This was a feeling he had not experienced in many years. He had to admit that the warnings he had given himself in his heart were completely ineffective. Batman was indeed very skilled at offering others a condition they could not refuse.

Seeing Darkseid's expression, Batman knew he had bet correctly.

To call it a bet was not entirely accurate. He still remembered a long time ago, around the time he sent the little birds to the universe where Schiller was, he had once written a letter to Schiller asking about Darkseid. At that time, the professor had attached a psychoanalysis of someone like Darkseid to his reply. This had allowed Batman to gain every advantage in his subsequent confrontations with Darkseid.

If one were to summarize the analysis, it could be divided into two main points: one was Darkseid's mental world, and the other was Darkseid's personality. Although they sounded somewhat similar, they were actually two completely different parts.

Darkseid was a New God. Setting aside the grievances between the New Gods and the Old Gods, in short, looking at it from a cosmic level, his birth was relatively late; he belonged to the latecomers who surpassed the predecessors. Precisely because of this, at certain times, his pursuit of status was greater than his pursuit of profit.

It was just like the "old money" and "new money," the hereditary families and the nouveau riche among the human population. After the latter accumulated a certain amount of capital and rose to power, they were inevitably going to sacrifice some interests on the road to seeking status for themselves.

Although status itself was a kind of interest, sometimes there were dilemmas, and people like Darkseid would definitely choose status, not hesitating to give up some easily attainable interests for it.

In the world of such people, what provided them with mental satisfaction was the process of constantly climbing upward. Although there were many things to enjoy after climbing to the top, the mental stimulation those things brought them was actually far less than the pleasure provided by the achievements gained step by step while struggling to climb.

Many people themselves did not realize this point. They would find that after a certain day, or even after a certain hour, their lives suddenly became empty: no goals, no direction to move forward, and they could no longer feel that kind of excited and ambitious vitality. The whole person seemed to have suddenly died.

They viewed this as a kind of failure, but in reality, it was excessive success. It was just that those who could not make accurate judgments might head down a wrong path because of this emptiness. By then, it would be a true failure.

Darkseid was actually this kind of person too. He climbed all the way up, defeated the Old Gods, became a New God, conquered planets, established domains... until one day, he began to enter a kind of emptiness where there was no higher to rise.

There was a ceiling in everyone's world. Sometimes it was not that you had climbed to the end, but that you had just touched the highest level you could touch. Darkseid was just about like this. He was already invincible within the Apokolips domain, and high-level civilizations like the Guardians of the Universe did not dare to easily pull his whiskers. If it weren't for someone meddling, the little blue men would never fight Darkseid to the death.

Of course, he had not completely conquered the universe. But what he possessed now was actually no different from what he would possess after conquering the universe. The universe was his living room, and no one would come to touch his bad luck.

Conquering the universe was still his goal, but this goal suddenly became empty. He sometimes could not help but think about what to do after conquering the universe. Could he enjoy this peak power for a long time without feeling bored?

Darkseid felt he could not, but he also had no better way. The universe's plate was only so big, and opponents were one fewer for every one he beat. Even if he won them all, could it be that his long life would end here, unable to go any further?

Until one day, he came into contact with the Battleworld.

Actually, it couldn't be considered contact; it could only be said to be hearsay. Because previously, a renowned cosmic fighter, Starfire, had some conflict with his son, Kalibak. Starfire was captured by Desaad and had her brainwaves read; although she escaped later, some information in her brain caught Desaad's attention. Eventually, this information was handed over to Darkseid. This was the first time he had heard of the Battleworld.

For a platform that allowed communication between counterparts in the multiverse or even intelligent life between two great worlds, it was impossible for Darkseid not to be interested. He ordered people to look for news in the universe and tried countless times to find where this place was, but unsurprisingly, they all failed.

Until today, when Batman brought it up again. This made Darkseid realize that this platform was not just for playing small games; it would profoundly affect the landscape between the multiverses. Batman had long been prepared, and the situation in the multiverse was about to undergo a huge change.

Darkseid, who had long felt bored with the goal of conquering the universe, felt like an engine that had long since cooled down being refilled with fuel when he thought about being able to participate in the multiverse hegemony. Just like when he faced the Old Gods for the first time in his youth, a rumbling roar came from his chest. The last time he experienced this wonderful feeling seemed to be thousands upon thousands of years ago.

This was Darkseid's mental world. And his personality was also one of the reasons he could not refuse. Perhaps he and Batman were not so similar originally, but because Batman and the Joker fought a great battle on Apokolips before, turning this place into a Gotham domain, Darkseid was tricked in a big way and almost turned into Batman. A part of his personality became similar to Batman's.

Of course, it was definitely not the part about the heart of justice; it was more likely the negative factors in Batman, such as the intense desire for control, such as that somewhat overly vigilant "precautionary study."

In his view, a storm was brewing in the multiverse, but he knew nothing about it and could not control it, which was simply the most terrifying thing in the world. So even if Batman didn't offer him any generous conditions, he would still cooperate—just to stick his hand into the soup and stir it.

In summary, even if Batman didn't come in person and didn't bring friends, just by sending him a message, Darkseid would reply. What's more, this time Batman was so sincere, what reason did he have to refuse?

"When will the Lanterns rebel?" Darkseid asked, walking down from the steps with his hands behind his back. But he was not asking Batman; he was asking Desaad. Obviously, this was also one of their alternative plans to crush the Guardians of the Universe. It wasn't used before because there was no certainty, but if there were Batman and Green Lantern working from the inside and outside, then it would be easily obtained.

Desaad bowed to him and then said, "Respected Your Majesty, within this week alone, there have been sacrifices in 30 sectors due to the Guardians of the Universe's erroneous mobilization orders, and the number of people added together has already reached more than 200."

Even though Darkseid had long expected it, he was still shocked by this number. The Lanterns were not Parademons that could be created by the millions at will; although they had superpowers once they put on the rings, how to use the power of the Lantern rings required training, and many surface creatures simply could not fight in space, and it would take at least a month or two of fighting to gain some insight. The cost of talent training was terrifyingly high.

The Green Lantern Corps had about 7,000 people before the war, and there might be less than 6,000 left now. Don't look at the fact that there were seven Lantern Corps; some Lantern Corps had only one person, and some had only two or three kittens, which meant that all the Lantern Corps added together were no more than tens of thousands of people. Dying 200 people in a week due to command errors was already an unforgivable mistake.

Darkseid couldn't help but turn around to look at Desaad and said, "Even like this, they still haven't rebelled?"

He appeared very dissatisfied. Desaad of course knew what this Dark Lord meant: If you had said earlier that the Guardians of the Universe's operations were so outrageous, would inciting the Lantern Corps still need Batman's help?

Desaad wiped the sweat from his forehead and said, "Although the number of casualties is high, because the front line is stretched too long and the information exchange between the various Lantern Corps is slow, many troops cannot reconcile their accounts. If placed in various local troops, these losses are still acceptable. Therefore, although the soldiers and middle-level management have complaints, they have not reached the point of mutiny."

Darkseid understood immediately. The Guardians of the Universe must have done it on purpose: they did not allow the Lantern Corps to exchange battle reports, and the Lanterns were fighting such a large-scale cosmic war for the first time, with no professional personnel for communications at all. Everyone was fighting their own battles in a daze, and being able to fight the Apokolips Legion to a draw was entirely dependent on the emotional spectrum energy being too powerful, and there were enough able-bodied men in the universe; otherwise, they would have collapsed long ago.

Moreover, the relationship between the Lantern Corps was not good either. Yellow Lanterns and Green Lanterns were mortal enemies; could one expect these two Lantern Corps to communicate with each other and exchange information?

Dozens died on the Green Lantern side due to command errors, and dozens died on the Yellow Lantern side; both sides felt it was acceptable, but added together, it was not like that.

"Give them more pressure," Darkseid said. "Let the spies we mixed in blow more wind. Don't those justice fighters love to say things like 'cast aside past grievances, sincere cooperation'? These things actually still need me to teach them! Foolish to the extreme!"

"They didn't notice the losses brought about by command errors, also because the pressure you gave on the frontal battlefield was not enough," Batman said. "Once the war situation becomes intense, even the loss of one or two people is unacceptable. By then, they will naturally be full of complaints. I will let Hal take the lead and gather the leaders of several Lantern Corps together for a meeting, and they will naturally discover what good deeds the Guardians of the Universe have done."

"Having this alone is not enough," Darkseid turned to look at Batman and said. "They might complain, they might disobey orders, but they will not besiege the Guardians of the Universe."

"This requires me to give a push," Batman said. "Resentful emotions will gradually accumulate, but the endurance of intelligent life is stronger than anyone thinks. Most Lantern rings only look for good people, and even until death, they can keep enduring. So we need to find a way to detonate their emotions."

"What do you plan to do?"

"Tragedy is destroying something beautiful for people to see. I have already created a near-perfect war hero, 'Hal Jordan.' Now what I need to do is to use an unprecedented battle to push him onto the altar, and then, destroy him."

"You need me to cooperate?"

"That's right. Stand out, and when the army is pressing down and on the verge of collapse, Hal will propose a duel with you. You agree to his duel request and indicate that if he wins, you will withdraw the troops."

"And then..."

"His Lantern ring will lose power at the critical moment when he is about to defeat you, and he will be killed by you. You only need to say regretfully, 'You are a hero, unfortunately, the Guardians of the Universe only want an obedient dog,' and then turn and leave."

The moment Darkseid's eyes met Batman's, he even felt that the Omega Beams in his eyes were stung by his coldness and darkness. Looking at Batman's pitch-black cape, Darkseid couldn't help but think, sometimes, he really couldn't tell who the Dark Lord was.