UGB Chapter 1138 The Laughing Bat: Hovering on the Edge of Good and Evil
Chapter 1138 The Laughing Bat: Hovering on the Edge of Good and Evil
Chapter 1138 The Laughing Bat: Hovering on the Edge of Good and Evil
The Batman Who Laughs had actually seen through Batman Dragon's scheme.
He forces himself to become a hero who saves the world, and then uses this behavior to hold himself hostage, thereby achieving a complete distortion of the Batman Who Laughs's main personality.
But the Batman Who Laughs can't lose either, because if he does, Batman Dragon will become the victor and the new DC superhero.
The second Dr. Manhattan in the multiverse.
If the Batman Who Laughs wins, it's at best a slow death. But if Batman Dragon wins, he's finished immediately. So, compared to that, it's better for him to win, giving him more room to maneuver.
At this moment, the battle between the Batman Who Laughs and Batman Dragon has reached its climax. They fought all the way from the downstream to the upstream of the timeline, crossing countless different time points. The Batman Who Laughs saw that at the beginning of everything, in the azure space, there was a giant white hand.
"That's the hand of Papetua, the creator hand of his race, rushing here. They intend to annihilate this universe because we are insatiable, unless I kill them first."
The Batman Who Laughs felt a deep sense of unease, but he still spoke the words a hero should: "Their arrival is because villains like you have been using Crisis Energy to help themselves seize power, sacrificing the past or future to empower the present. But Dr. Manhattan's departure has allowed me to reconnect our histories. The remaining task is simply to destroy you, and then let—"
"Keep the universe moving forward? In perfect harmony, come on, we all know I'm more powerful than you, so it's virtually impossible for you to defeat me. But if you actually did win, what would become of this universe? Without a reboot, almost all the superheroes of the main universe and the villains willing to fight for the multiverse would die."
The Batman Who Laughs agrees more with what Batman Dragon said; these are his lines!
He felt as if he had been torn in two, one part of him righteously united with the enemy like a hero, while the other part completely agreed with what Batman Dragon said, and even wished he could be the villain who was about to destroy the multiverse.
The Batman Who Laughs was secretly delighted. He even began to try to guide this split thought, attempting to create a secondary personality on top of his primary personality, just as he had done before. By creating a secondary personality and then eliminating it, the Batman Who Laughs could regroup and become himself again. This was a good opportunity to break free from the influence of Batman Dragon.
But no matter how the Batman Who Laughs tries, he is completely unable to continue to split his personality as easily as before. He is solidified by some force, like a piece of solidified amber.
Circumstances have pushed you to this point, whether you like it or not, my friend. You are now the hero who saves the entire DC multiverse, so you can only follow the script and route I have planned for you, even though you know that the end of the road is an abyss of losing yourself.
"We are willing to die so that our descendants may survive and become better than us—"
—
"Ahhhhh, for the children! How interesting. Come on, heroes of justice, it's time to look to the future and find hope. Now give it a try, Bat of Laughter, but remember to watch out for what happens if you win. See if the Hand of Creation will forgive this world."
The Batman Who Laughs did as he was told, even though it was Batman Dragon who asked him to do so. But he never forgot the threat of the Creator Hand. The Batman Who Laughs never doubted that he would fail, and therefore, in his heart, the Creator Hand was an opponent he would have to face sooner or later.
Then he focused all his thoughts on a possible victory.
In that history, the Batman Who Laughs defeated Batman Dragon, and almost all the Justice League members and villains willing to fight for justice were wiped out. The Batman Who Laughs was not controlled by Batman Dragon; he remained himself and gained access to all the crisis and anti-crisis energies in the entire DC multiverse. He also gained the power of Doctor Manhattan, and he is now the only god in the DC multiverse.
Even the legendary Perpetua couldn't compare to him. He transformed the entire world into a laughing paradise, with countless laughing Robins and Prometheus's giants mixed with Martian Manhunter's genes becoming his soldiers. The surviving heroes and villains had their memories erased and were thrown into the darkest and most twisted Dark Multiverse he created, where DC...
The most painful crisis in the history of the multiverse will be repeated again and again, constantly creating crisis energy and anti-crisis energy for him. These forces are continuously absorbed into the body of the Batman Who Laughs, propelling him to unprecedented heights.
Then all of this was destroyed before the maintainers of order. The horrified and enraged Hands of Creation killed him and then obliterated him. The entire corrupted DC multiverse, in an instant, with a soft "poof."
All the stories, crises, and counter-crisis energy have turned to ashes.
"What?!" The Batman Who Laughs was utterly shocked, speechless for a moment. This power stemmed directly from Doctor Manhattan's ability to glimpse the possibilities of the future, information that Batman Dragon had fully shared with him.
Does his desire to rule the entire DC multiverse necessarily lead to the destruction of this world? Or is this merely Batman Dragon's intimidation?
He heard Batman Dragon still spouting lines that only villains use, threatening him, the righteous hero.
"History won't work, principles won't work, nothing will work. What matters is survival and victory. This has been true in the past, and it will always be true in the future. Now you only have two choices: you continue to fight me in vain, and the Hand of Creation will become stronger than both of us and obliterate this Universal Judgement; or you surrender, and I will find a way to stop the Hand of Creation from destroying the DC multiverse, and then I will give you a brand new world, a Gotham City, safe and happy. Don't you understand?"
"If you join me, everyone will—"
"No!"
The Batman Who Laughs refused. Even knowing it led to an abyss, he was determined to rush forward and take another gamble. He was fully confident he could break free from Batman Dragon's control. His ambition would not cease; he would play the hero of justice, destroy Batman Dragon, and then break through the intimidation Batman Dragon had created in him. As long as he devoured one of the Origin Hands, he could "win, win, win, win!!"
The shouts of Batman: Dragon and Batman Laughing blended together, making it impossible to tell who was actually shouting "Win!" The sounds exploded together, creating the most terrifying duet in the DC multiverse.
The Batman Who Laughs swings his chains and strikes Batman Dragon, uttering lines he himself doesn't believe.
"Not for this moment or the next, but for something greater than yourself, a dream about who we are, who we can become, a dream that transcends time and space and connects us all together —"
Those words, seemingly real yet unreal, dreamlike yet illusory, have blurred the lines between good and evil in the laughing bat's mind; all of this lingers within him.
He had no choice but to move forward, and there was nothing he could do but move forward.