newbobooks Chapter 682 Our Minds Unite! Lord Barbatos!
Chapter 682 Our Minds Unite! Lord Barbatos!
Chapter 682 Our Minds Unite! Lord Barbatos!
The Dark Knights, strengthened by Barbatos, are not weak; in a sense, they are already part of Barbatos.
But for Chen Tao, these members of the Dark Knights were the solution to the problem. Barbatos had only strengthened them, not changed their nature. Not only did Barbatos not expect Chen Tao to arrive so quickly, but Chen Tao himself did not expect it either.
Of course, Chen Tao had also thought of other things, such as...
"Get out of my world's furnace!"
Despite Chen Tao's kind advice and polite manner, Barbatos launched into a tirade of curses.
Chen Tao understood the other party's anger. Now, whoever appeared in the World Crucible brought not only himself, but also the mad dog Emperor Joker and his allies.
He forcibly dragged Barbatos into the battlefield against his will.
But understanding does not equate to empathy.
Within the cage of the World Forge, the Bat who laughs continues to struggle to break his own seal, but he is already attempting to take control of the enemies outside the Forge.
He is now trying to seize control of the Forge Gate. He is carefully using the authority that Barbatos once gave him to bypass the other party's willpower and pry open the Forge Gate. The Bat who laughs intends to use the opening of this gate as his bargaining chip, but then he senses that the gate opens before they can control it.
As the Emperor Joker and Brainiac filed in, the Batman Who Laughs gleaned only one piece of information from his own failed scheme:
"Everything is going according to plan."
He laughed wildly, his face turning somewhat ugly as he watched the mockery delivered in his usual tone.
"Don't you consider the possibility of being threatened by the enemy at all?"
He muttered to himself, "You intend to send Barbatos directly to face these enemies?"
No one understands Barbatos' current state better than the Batman Laughing. Although Barbatos looks weak and has suffered serious injuries, these are far from fatal. Apart from no longer possessing the Anti-Monitor Dragon, his strength has not actually decreased significantly.
Barbatos's occasional timidity was simply due to cowardice, not weakness.
According to the Batman Who Laughs's speculation, although he is currently terrified of these characters outside, if he were to actually let them into the World Forge, Barbatos could single-handedly drive them all away, at most suffering some ordinary injuries.
Barbatos was scaring himself. Even the Batman Who Laughs, an "ordinary" person who didn't possess the power of the sixth dimension, could predict the outcome of the battle, but Barbatos refused to suffer even the slightest injury.
His mindset had completely transformed into that of a gambler who left the table and vowed never to gamble again.
Although such vows to stop gambling are often broken after they are made, at least at the beginning they are still made to look like it is true.
This was also the point that The Batman Who Laughs originally predicted Batman Dragon would exploit; he thought Batman Dragon would use Barbatos's inexplicable fear of his enemies to blackmail him, for example:
"Lord Barbatos, you don't want the Emperor Jester and these enemies to storm into the World Forge and besiege you, do you? So you must give me some power to help me save William Hand."
A style similar to this.
The Laughing Bat knew what William Hand's situation was.
Even while imprisoned, the Batman Who Laughs' intelligence remained as sharp as ever.
He knew that the Emperor Joker had presented Chen Tao with a poorly executed version of the family tragedy, a repetitive and unoriginal piece of art that was meant to elicit laughter, but which had precisely hit Batman Dragon's Achilles' heel.
The Batman Who Laughs guessed that when Batman Dragon sent William Hand out, he must have prepared an escape plan for him. But he didn't know why none of these plans were activated, and instead, William Hand was captured by the Emperor Joker.
The Emperor Joker has definitely laid a trap for William Hand. If he recklessly rushes in, Batman the Laughing is 200% certain that Batman Dragon will be killed.
But if we borrow Barbatos's power, and utilize the circumstances that this Emperor Jester has not considered, we might be able to easily overcome this crisis.
Like a little horse crossing a river, what is a turbulent river for the little horse is probably just knee-deep for Barbatos, the elephant.
To break the deadlock, Batman Dragon must rely on Barbatos's power; he must control this elephant who is unaware that he is an elephant—
Barbatos never went all out; he always pinned his hopes on Batman Dragon or the Dark Knights he had enhanced. He never considered that Parallax Morhal could achieve such a feat, and that he could have done even more brilliantly if he had gone all out.
In this era where no sixth-dimensional deity exists, it is undisputed that the number one being of our time, Barbatos, has managed to rise to such a state, a feat that is unique in the entire history of the multiverse's trans-time flow.
No matter how cowardly or strong he may be, Batman did not follow the path envisioned by the Batman Who Laughs.
If you expose the powerful enemy that Barbatos has imagined, and make Barbatos realize his true level of power in the world's melting pot, how can you persuade Barbatos to give him the power to help him save William Hand?
Inside the furnace.
Barbatos's eyes were almost red.
He had painstakingly kept these enemies out of the world's melting pot, but now his efforts had been completely wasted.
Enraged, he planned to attack Batman Dragon.
With Barbatos's roar, the entire world furnace trembled in response to the call of the furnace master. A large amount of magma surged up like a tidal wave, and in the most decisive flame, Barbatos, wreathed in flames, swung his claws fiercely at Chen Tao.
But Chen Tao's words stopped Barbatos's attack.
"You need a Barbatos dragon, you need a cooperating god. And I am the best candidate."
Barbatos originally wielded the Anti-Monitor Dragon, and his most powerful phase was when he joined forces with the Anti-Monitor Dragon in the Forge of the World to fight against Hal and Superman Supreme.
But Barbatos misunderstood the reason for this power, attributing it to the influence of the Anti-Monitor Dragon, which is why he is so resentful of its betrayal.
"You're willing to accept my power? You're willing to embrace dark matter energy and become my follower?" Barbatos was overjoyed, but he received a firm rejection from Batman Dragon:
"No, I will not become anyone's believer. I will only borrow your strength. Our relationship is equal. We are no longer master and servant, but like friends and brothers."
Barbatos's mind couldn't comprehend this relationship; he was a dragon of the dark multiverse, and he had never had friends, much less brothers.
The only two brothers he had ever met, the World Maker and the Anti-Monitor, set a bad precedent for Barbatos, causing his understanding to deviate from that of normal people.
"So you're unwilling..."
"I didn't say I didn't want to." Then he heard Batman Dragon's voice, speaking to Barbatos in a very ambiguous and suggestive tone.
"I could be a dragon of the Dark Multiverse, or I could be the dragon of Barbatos. Our positions are connected, do you understand?"
This connection was forcibly taken from Barbatos by Batman's Dragon. Barbatos's face darkened; he was getting impatient. But just as his patience was about to break again, Chen Tao saved him.
"Come on, let me prove it to you. As long as you stop preventing me from using your power, I can help you completely drive the Emperor Jokers and their ilk out of the World Forge without you lifting a finger."
Barbatos was somewhat tempted.
Although Batman refused to let his power be infused into the other man and completely transform him into a whip weapon that submitted to him, it seemed acceptable that he could drive out the Emperor and the Joker by simply borrowing some of his power.
Barbatos was already somewhat disappointed with the Dark Knights. Batman had only temporarily fooled him. Once he realized what was happening, a single glance was enough for him to see how Batman had fought against the Knights after being strengthened by him, and then he appeared silently behind him.
Does this mean that anyone other than Batman could do these things and easily defeat his carefully enhanced henchmen?
Of course not. The Dark Knights' abilities are basically the same template as the Justice League members. Even a master like Chen Tao, who is skilled at beating up his teammates, had to put in a lot of effort to target and defeat them. The next time he wants to target them, he can't use the same methods again. This is definitely not something that just anyone can do.
However, Barbatos now believes this to be true—this misunderstanding only benefits Chen Tao.
Barbatos was almost completely bewildered by Chen Tao, but he quickly realized what was happening.
"Wait, didn't you let the Emperor and the Joker in too?"
"But I saved you from dire straits. Regardless of how you got there, just tell me whether I saved you or not."
Chen Tao said, "We can't keep dwelling on the past; we should look to the future. Put the Emperor and the Joker into the World Crucible. Back then, I was your enemy, but now I'm your ally."
Barbatos continued to sneer.
He no longer bothered to refute Batman Dragon's unscrupulous sophistry, but the following points still held merit:
He now has to face both Batman Dragon and the invading Emperor Joker.
What? Make peace with the Emperor Joker and hand over Batman's Dragon in the Forge?
Are you kidding me? If a robber breaks into your house and claims he only broke in to catch a dog, would you believe him? Even if he's telling the truth, how can you guarantee he won't stab you?
Therefore, for Barbatos, when enemies break into the World Forge, he has only one option: to fight.
But now Chen Tao has offered him another option: to wage a new proxy war.
Barbatos likes agents, and this offer alone is enough to attract him. No one understands Barbatos better than Chen Tao.
The power of habit is so terrifying that, after years of dormancy, finding a proxy had almost become an instinct for Barbatos.
So he accepted.
"Make your move, Batman Dragon." He looked at his opponent with a hint of mockery. Even with Batman Dragon's power, Barbatos didn't think Chen Tao could suppress the Emperor Joker and his allies, but the problem was...
Chen Tao's gaze was leisurely.
The moment Barbatos nodded, he had already gained access to a vast amount of dark matter energy.
Although these powers were not his, through the status of the Dark Multiverse Dragon and the use of 29% of the fifth-dimensional divine power of the Bat Mite, this vast energy, as immense as stars and eternal night, was already under Chen Tao's control—temporarily.
Chen Tao lowered his eyes.
the first.
Barbatos underestimated himself.
He watched as Barbatos once again disappeared into the darkness. After acquiring a new agent, Barbatos had habitually hidden himself.
If this weren't the melting pot of the world, Barbatos's lair, Chen Tao even doubted that the other party would have left this area without a second thought.
second.
Chen Tao thought to himself silently.
The Emperor Joker would never want to see Batman Dragon captured here.
He wanted Batman to escape, he wanted Batman to think he had found a way to save William Hand, and then rush over only to arrive too late.
In the family tragedy, the Joker deliberately planted a bomb that killed Jason Todd, who was half-dead from being beaten with a crowbar, just before Batman arrived. Based on the Joker's past behavior patterns, Chen Tao could easily deduce a piece of information:
As long as he doesn't appear in front of William Hand immediately, William Hand will remain in a state of "being half-beaten to death by a crowbar" instead of "being blown up by a bomb."
He was able to buy himself some time only because the Joker's obsessive pursuit of perfection would lead him to achieve a comedic effect like "Batman is just a hair's breadth away."
But these comedic effects are contingent on Batman being able to reach the place where his Robin was blown up.
If Batman is captured before he can reach Robin, then what's the point of the show if the actor is gone?
From this we can infer that...
"Barbatos, my brother, listen to me..."
"Who's your brother... Okay, you tell me."
"From now on, I want you to silently recite seven impossible things."
"What do you mean?"
"1. A Batman who can transform into Batmen from other parallel universes."
Barbatos heard Batman say, "2. Barbatos who works with Batman."
"You mean..."
"3. Find the first Lantern Knight to find the mother."
"4. Parallax Morhal, the creator of the perfect world."
Then he heard Batman say something.
"5. The Supreme Little Superman who got what he wanted."
"6. The retired Batman Dragon."
Barbatos felt the endless dark matter cosmic energy being drawn upon by Batman Dragon. He pulled a crowbar from his pocket, and the energy gathered on it, causing space to tremble and making him appear like a god.
In the shallows of the World Forge, the Emperor Joker had already sensed the power unleashed by Batman Dragon, and a sinister smile crept across his face.
"7...I can defeat the Emperor Joker and all his allies all by myself!"
The devastating energy wave erupted from the depths of the World Forge, deliberately guided by the Emperor Joker, striking the unsuspecting Anti-Monitor Dragon in the face, then piercing through Brainiac's body. Barbatos saw Batman turn around and whisper to him:
"Lord Barbatos, our minds are united."
For a moment, Barbatos was somewhat dazed.
(End of this chapter)