Chapter 616

Of course, this opening sounds like the classic line from last time the Gotham Owl suffered a great misfortune, but in this world, one Joker doesn't copy another Joker.

Joker Shiler became Joker Cat, switched up the game—he set up real riddles, of course, and all the answers were "meow meow meow"; in a city of cats, what other answers could there be?

It sounds absurd and strange, but these owl-monsters disguised as cats weren't human—they had some intelligence, but no humanity; this wasn't a toy any Joker would enjoy, and Joker Cat Shiler was just here to go through the motions.

After this group of owls was eliminated, the Dark Owl Priests, still bewildered about where all their accumulated energy had gone, immediately realized they'd lost one home—and promptly decided to protect their other one, so they returned to their base in Metropolis.

Back there, they found no anomalies: the owl statue remained, the cats were still there, and there was no sign anyone had come—clearly, Constantine and Hal had done an excellent job cleaning up, especially Hal, who could use Green Lantern energy to shape objects, even sealing the hole blasted open by Clark and the gap beside the room.

The Dark Owl Priests found nothing unusual, except one priest noticed a cat cage had been opened and one cat was missing—but they never caught cats themselves and couldn't possibly remember every single one; he assumed the cage hadn't been latched properly and the cat had run off, and paid it no mind.

The leader raised his staff high; his hands, like owl talons, were covered in concentric rings of markings, tipped with sharp claws, and he spoke in a shrill voice: "Someone has destroyed our arrangements in the Dream World—we must reclaim our ground!"

As they took their positions, forming a circle around the owl statue, all raised their staffs and began chanting: "Mooliz… Mooliz…"

From the spirit realm's perspective, black flames began burning atop the statue, owl-shaped branches spiraled above it, emitting piercing cries, then dove downward, plunging into the bodies of the cats inside the cages.

After the owls dove down, they indeed vanished into the cats' bodies—but very few appeared in Cat City Gotham; of over a hundred owls sent down, two making it in was already a miracle.

These priests had special methods to sense conditions within the dream; they assumed their spell had malfunctioned, so they adjusted their formations, chanted again, even moved the cages and re-marked their positions—but nothing worked.

They had prepared this plan for a long time, all to obtain the Dream of a Thousand Cats; in their eyes, this plan could not fail—their prior efforts could not be wasted.

Besides, the resistance against them were merely a few cats—not the master of the Dream of a Thousand Cats, nor any stronger deity or demon; if we can't beat others, can't we beat a few cats?

They figured: even if only a few dozen owls made it in, a few dozen owls would be enough to handle a few cats; so throwing in thousands of owls was no problem—they'd accumulated plenty of energy over years in Metropolis, and thousands of owls meant nothing to them.

At first, the battle in Cat City Gotham was not intense; the main fighters were only the true Bat-Cat, Bane-Cat, Crocodile-Cat, and other native feline residents, plus Joker Cat, played by Joker Shiler—Marvel Shiler's White Cat and Clark-Cat remained idle.

This led the Owl Priests to misjudge the resistance's combat strength; by the time they realized dozens of owls couldn't handle these cats, they'd already sunk too much into the effort.

Only two or three owls out of a hundred could enter; to deploy dozens required sacrificing thousands; after throwing in thousands, the battle didn't improve—so the Dark Owl Priests decided to unleash a massive wave of power at once, launching a decisive battle to instantly annihilate the enemy's fighting force.

The Way to Immortality

In the past, this tactic had worked, because the opposition were merely a few cats; even if other Cat City residents dared resist, they couldn't form real combat power—so they gritted their teeth and unleashed ten thousand owls at once, sending hundreds into Cat City.

For Cat City Gotham, these hundreds of owls carried more energy than the giant owl had possessed before—but the battle had only just begun, because Clark-Cat entered the fray.

Even if Superman restrained his power, he wasn't some ordinary minnow that could be shaken; moreover, before entering, Clark had been seething with rage at the cats' suffering—he dove straight down, landed beneath the giant owl, grabbed its claw, and lifted it into the air.

Then the owl became a three-speed ceiling fan blade: first spun dizzyingly, then thrown upward, followed by a barrage of cat uppercuts from above; Clark-Cat gathered his strength, then executed a full Earth throw—"Boom!"—the owl vanished without a trace.

The giant owl shattered into several smaller owls; the priests in the real world saw this and knew it wouldn't do—they'd already paid such a heavy price, and withdrawing now would mean massive loss; they had to pour in more resources, seize the Dream of a Thousand Cats, and only then could they subdue this monstrous cat.

They began channeling maximum energy through the dark statue; instantly, hundreds of owls appeared in the dream world; all Cat City residents were mobilized to resist this darkness—the battle grew fierce.

After holding out for half a day, the Dark Owl Priests finally realized: the disappearance of most owls wasn't coincidence—it was a trap.

At first, they'd been so panicked about their dream arrangements being destroyed that they'd lost their reason; now that they realized it, they immediately planned to cut off energy input and thoroughly investigate what was wrong with these cats.

So far, the losses were still acceptable; though thousands or tens of thousands of owls sound like a lot, they were small in size, so the energy lost was limited; if they cut losses now, they could recover the energy in about a month.

But Constantine and Hal, who had been waiting beneath the room, wouldn't give them that chance.

Constantine hid beneath the room and laid the magical array not because he cared about a few hundred or thousand owls—they were mere mosquito legs to him; his payment for working in Gotham was dozens or hundreds of times greater.

His real goal was to observe how this ritual functioned; giving a man a fish is not as good as teaching him to fish—he intended to understand the ritual's mechanism and directly siphon energy from the statue.

Just as the Owl Priests prepared to withdraw, Constantine confirmed he'd fully grasped how the energy was drawn and stored—he shouted to Hal and burst through the ground.

When Constantine descended, demonic flames rained down—clearly, another of his old friends had just suffered a great misfortune; yet one had to admit, it was damn cool.

As his trench coat settled, flames erupted; Constantine's hands, glowing with magical radiance, swept the air—the ground array rose, and several energy channels, like wind-tossed vines, twisted into ropes and lashed toward the Dark Owl Priests.

Backed by such vast energy, the Dark Owl Priests were utterly unafraid; they formed a formation, raised their staffs, chanted low, dark incantations, and their robes stirred without wind.

Then they were beaten into dogs by the equally energy-rich Green Lantern Hal and the awakened Clark.

Honestly, being served by two titans—Ion Hal and Superman Clark—was already their supreme honor; add Constantine, who'd just sacrificed his old friend, and this combo could stroll across the planet Thanagar and even Thanagar's Dada would cry, "Top-tier tea!"

Unsurprisingly, the priests died on the spot; Superman doesn't kill—but after shedding their robes, these priests no longer looked human; even owls would refuse to be called them.

Their faces sprouted feathers, eyes and beaks resembled owls, but at the neck, they became human torsos; their hands turned into owl talons, legs the same.

The rest of their bodies retained human structure, but many parts were rotted by corrupted dark energy—they clearly purified this dark energy by consuming their own flesh.

They weren't the Aesir gods, born to naturally digest energy like pebbles; swallowing too many pebbles only turned them into monstrous, half-human, half-owl abominations.

Constantine picked up their staffs, one by one, smashing each priest to death; Clark, still furious, pretended not to see him, busy opening cages to rescue the still-living cats.

Shiler, just returned from the dream world, immediately rushed to stop Constantine from killing—extending a hand, he said: "Stop! Leave a little mercy—future days will be better…"

Constantine stood, planted his staff into the ground, and said: "Where are you planning to lock them up? How are you going to make them obediently help you harvest this energy?"

Shiler hurried forward, trying to cover Constantine's mouth; Constantine's words made Hal and Clark stare at Shiler—clearly, this idea was still horrifying.

"Don't listen to him—I never intended to do that!" Shiler immediately denied it; Hal snorted, pretending not to hear; Clark glanced again at the gruesome dead cats, took a deep breath, and convinced himself he was exhausted and hearing things—he heard nothing.

Constantine smiled, swung his staff hard—"Boom!"—he smashed the struggling Dark Owl Priest beside him to death, saying: "You underestimate me too much; after observing so long, I've figured out exactly how it works."

"They're indeed petitioning some mysterious entity for energy, but to purify it, they sacrifice their flesh and souls—that means…"

Shiler and Constantine both looked down at the pile of Dark Owl Priest corpses; Shiler continued: "... they're merely expendables. More owls still lurk deeper in the darkness."

Constantine took a deep breath and looked at Shiler: "Among all my enemies, few have been as cunning as these—sure you want to fight them?"

Shiler lifted his head, gazing at the giant owl statue, and said: "Do you know? I fear enemies with multiple forms the least."

"Because, for every enemy, there's a me."