HBWnovel Chapter 689 Listen to me: Batman can always save everyone!
Chapter 689 Listen to me: Batman can always save everyone!
Chapter 689 Listen to me: Batman can always save everyone!
Chen Tao's biggest worry was actually only one thing:
The Emperor Joker disregarded everything and immediately detonated the "bomb" he left behind as soon as he sensed Barbatos dragging the entire universe. Although Chen Tao still didn't know exactly what the bomb was, it must exist if the Emperor Joker wanted to recreate the death of his family.
Only when Barbatos actually managed to rip the entire universe of Earth 1 off the trajectory of the positive matter universe like taking a bite out of a cookie and throwing it into the dark multiverse did Chen Tao finally feel relieved.
Despite the numerous unexpected events, the worst-case scenario ultimately did not occur.
After confirming that William was still alive, he immediately began searching for the Emperor Joker's bomb to prepare for defusing it. Naturally, he immediately noticed that Parallax Morhal was in a bad state.
Just as Chen Tao was about to check on Parallax Mohal's current situation, the nanobots he left in the World Forge conveyed to him a sense of destruction through the telepathic connection of the Metal Spirit...
He had originally left these robots near the Batman Who Laughs's cage. The destruction of these nanobots meant that the Batman Who Laughs had escaped from Barbatos's cage while he and Barbatos were away from the World Forge.
The Bat Who Laughs certainly knows how to pick good opportunities. If it weren't for William's incident, Chen Tao might have had the time and energy to set some traps for him and make things less smooth for him. But now that William's matter has made him too preoccupied to handle things on behalf of Barbatos, Chen Tao simply doesn't have the energy to manage things on his behalf.
He knew that the Batman Who Laughs could escape at any time if he wanted to, but he still wanted to persuade Barbatos to come back as the leader of the Dark Knights. So he planned to use some perverse methods to prove his abilities to Barbatos, but for some reason he suddenly ran away.
However, the Batman Who Laughs' escape wasn't entirely smooth sailing. Although Chen Tao and Barbatos had left the World Forge, the Dark Knights were still stationed there on Barbatos's orders.
If the Bat of Laughter wants to stay in the Forge of the World and continue to be Barbatos's dog, then when Chen Tao and the others return, they will still be able to see the Bat of Laughter. At that time, Chen Tao can directly make Barbatos look like Cao Cao brought Liu Bei to see Lü Bu and call him godfather. Big Ears will whisper in Barbatos's ear, and the Bat of Laughter will still be locked up again. Maybe he can even kill him, which would be even better.
If he doesn't intend to continue working for Barbatos and just wants to run away, that's fine too. He should first overcome all obstacles and defeat his former subordinates, the members of the Dark Knights, who are guarding the World Forge.
This could buy some time, and if Chen Tao was fast enough, he might still have a chance to catch Kuang Xiao again.
Chen Tao's attention to the Batman Who Laughs lasted only a few seconds before he quickly turned his attention back to what the Batman Who Laughs had done. After realizing that Hal had been transformed into a human bomb, the first thing he did was to tie up the first Lantern Man lying next to him tightly.
With the help of Barbatos' dark matter energy, the divine power formed by the fifth dimension directly embedded the body of the first Genie into a dark purple cube, leaving only his head sticking out.
Chen Tao waved his hand and did the same to William Hand.
The feast that the Emperor Joker prepared for him on the Moon in the universe of Earth-1 was only for three people. After confirming that Parallax Mohal was the bomb, Chen Tao naturally chose to restrain the other two people as soon as possible to prevent the Emperor Joker from playing another game for him after defusing the bomb.
The Joker loves doing this kind of thing: actions not aimed at a specific goal, but at achieving a certain state. "Keeping Batman busy" is exactly the type of thing the Joker enjoys.
"How did you get here? Also, this universe has been moved." Chen Tao heard what Hal said. Hal was indeed amazing. Even though he was trapped here by the Emperor Joker, he still figured out the fact that the entire universe had been moved.
So Chen Tao didn't waste any more words and went straight to Hal, asking, "Have you figured out how he made you self-destruct?"
Chen Tao had just finished asking that question when he followed Parallax Mohal's gaze and looked down at the small, sleeping spirit on his chest.
"This thing is completely connected to my life, but the little thing is very weak now, so weak that it's about to die. The Emperor Joker must have wounded it with the Black Death Emperor's death power."
Parallax Mohal said, "This is a game played specifically for you, just like the Joker has done countless times before."
"I know," Chen Tao said.
He placed his hand on Hal's chest, gently kneading it, and through the muscles and bones of the other's chest, he could feel the dying spirit of the White Lamp beneath his heart.
He had no intention of following the Emperor Joker's line of thought. Instead, he reached out to the First Lantern and William beside him. They had been embedded with cube-shaped dark matter cosmic energy and were firmly controlled or protected. Chen Tao tried to move them directly from this Earth No. 1, but failed.
"It's no use," Parallax Morhal said. "I already figured it out."
While trapped, he slightly twitched his body, and then a white, semi-transparent chain appeared from the void in front of his chest, directly connecting Parallax Morhal, the first Lantern, and William.
"Imperial Joker had long anticipated that you would simply abandon me," Parallax Mohal said.
"We'll get the potentially injured hostages to safety first before rescuing you," Chen Taotian shamelessly corrected. "I'm a superhero; I would never abandon anyone."
"Whatever, the most important thing now is for you to figure out how to restore the White Lantern Spirit in my chest to its former life," Hal said. "Normally, it's normal for the White Lantern Spirit to be weak, but it's strange that it's slowly dying over time."
"After I entered the current timeline of the main universe, the hypertime stream has instilled in me all the history of the timeline after midnight. Yes, that's right, I know about the darkest night and the brightest day. But even if what's on my chest is a defective product of the dark multiverse, merely a projection of the spirit of existence in the main universe, it shouldn't violate the essence of the spirit of existence."
He said, "Spirits of existence are either cleaved to death by the Black Death Emperor's blade or severely injured while still alive, but this slow decay seems to be being absorbed by something else..."
"I also discovered that it is simultaneously absorbing all the life force of the Spirit of Existence."
Chen Tao frowned. To be honest, his mastery of the emotional spectrum was quite ordinary. Not to mention compared to the original Lantern, an old monster who created the emotional spectrum billions of years ago, he was far inferior to the Green Lantern, Parallax Morhal, who specialized in willpower energy.
But even he could see that something was wrong with the Spirit of Existence. How could the Emperor Joker have such a profound understanding of manipulating the emotional spectrum?
Is someone helping him? Could it be the original Lantern Man himself? But what would he be after?
He glanced at the first Lantern Knight beside him, secretly raising some concerns in his mind, but the known information was too little to draw a conclusion.
Chen Tao's thoughts raced through his mind in an instant, but his most important task now was to figure out who the Spirit of Existence was connected to. He had a vague, uneasy feeling about what might happen if it was the Emperor's Joker...
"All the energy in my body is now completely fused with the spirit of the White Lantern. Even the Parallax Demon under my control has been connected to the White Lantern as a bomb that can be detonated," said Parallax Demon Hal. "So I can't sense the location of the White Lantern at all. Only you can do it."
"I'm not good at understanding the emotional spectrum. Please teach me quickly..."
"I'll teach you, use the heart of the ring to sense," Parallax Mohal said eagerly from the side. "Use the ring, don't search directly, use your heart to communicate with the green energy of willpower, and you will be able to find the location of the connection to the white light."
As they were talking, faint characters resembling holographic projections lit up above Hal's head. At this moment, Chen Tao and Hal both realized that the final explosion time was now down to the last 15 minutes.
The timeframe for the explosion had been hidden since Hal first saw it, but now it's starting to reappear, whether it's sensing Chen Tao's arrival or for some other reason.
Both of them were in a hurry, but there was no use in being anxious.
Hal began to spout some abstruse idealistic ravings, which Chen Tao considered completely illogical, but he now had no choice but to refer to this feeling.
So when Chen Tao focused his mind and did as Parallax Mohal said, he did indeed sense the location of those white lights.
Ever since he sensed those white lights, Chen Tao's heart sank.
Parallax Morhal, seeing Batman's silence and unsure of his situation, urgently asked, "Did you sense it? Listen to me, I told you not to force those emotional spectrum energies..."
"I found it."
Parallax Mohal was secretly delighted: "Then what are you waiting for? Quickly destroy this thing that's absorbing the White Lantern's energy, and then stop the White Lantern on my chest from dying!"
"I can't."
Chen Tao's mind was filled with all sorts of thoughts, which would burst forth from his head and then be quickly destroyed and disappear.
"What does 'cannot' mean?"
Parallax Morhal was getting increasingly anxious.
"The Emperor Joker has bound the White Lantern spirit within you to the entire Earth 1."
Chen Tao took a deep breath and then said, "All life on Earth 1 has been corrupted by the Black Death Emperor's death power. The reason they haven't turned into Black Lantern corpses is entirely because your White Lantern power is supplying them with energy."
Chen Tao said, "Once the white light on your chest, the spirit of existence, stops supplying life energy to all living things on Earth, then the power of the black light will immediately create a pitch-black night here."
"At that time, all living beings will fall under the control of the Black Death Emperor. And I guarantee that if I were the Emperor Joker, I would make a deal with the Black Death Emperor. I would not let these Black Lantern Corpses continue to foolishly infect others in this universe and give me a chance to save them. Instead, I would directly break through space, enter the Black Death Emperor's domain, and then have the Black Death Emperor send them to true death, turning the entire Earth into a dead land."
Chen Tao said, "If I still want to save all life on this Earth, I'll have to ask the Death Sister of the Infinite Family for people, but that's simply impossible!"
He stood there expressionless: "And I'm also certain that if I summon Barbatos now, the Anti-Monitor Dragon will be ready and will quietly deliver a nasty blow to Barbatos, at least preventing Barbatos from helping. I understand, this is the game the Emperor Joker wants to play with me, a classic two-choice game."
Chen Tao reached out to the white links that extended from Parallax Mohal's chest. These links bound the first Lantern and William Hand next to him, tying the three of them together.
He attempted to sever the connection using his fifth-dimensional divine power, but immediately stopped as soon as he made his move.
The Emperor Joker had anticipated this action. Once he severed the connection, the White Lantern Spirit on Parallax Mohal's chest would immediately cease activity, which would be equivalent to killing all life on Earth 1.
The Emperor Joker used this method to block all possible paths for Chen Tao, forcing him to choose between William Hand and the lives of all living beings on Earth 1. Whichever Chen Tao chose would bring the Emperor Joker to a climax.
As the Emperor Joker predicted, a normal Batman would make a choice when faced with such a dilemma, a choice the Emperor Joker had been waiting for, and the kind of struggle the Joker loved to see.
"I want to save them all."
Parallax Malcolm heard Batman say:
"No one will die today, because I am Batman."
He stood there, like a flame burning fiercely in the shadows.
"What do you plan to do?" Parallax Mohal asked. "I'll do everything I can to help you."
"Tough it out."
Then he heard Batman say, "It's not just white light that can control life; the red of all living beings can too."
He heard Batman say this, and the next second, as Batman opened his palm, countless purple lantern rings, carrying the red power of the Crimson of All Beings, flew densely into outer space.
"First, turn everyone into two-headed monsters with purple lantern mania, then summon Barbatos."
"What's next?" Parallax Morhal asked.
"Next step? The next step is a fight to the death."
He heard Batman say that.
"The Emperor Clown has set a trap to catch me. Let's see if you'll break a tooth, or..."
A piece of my flesh was bitten off.
(End of this chapter)