Multiverse: Deathstroke

Chapter 111: Ch.110 Batman's Dreamscape (Part III)

Janet leaped off his lap and clung to the ceiling like a spider, disappearing into the darkness that the fireplace couldn't illuminate.

Her limbs bent unnaturally, making a hissing sound as she scuttled away, vanishing into the shadows.

Bruce stood up, alert, and grabbed the fireplace poker as a weapon, searching the room. He was indeed old, but still capable of fighting.

"Come out! Barbatos! Face me!"

The fireplace suddenly went out, and that cold voice echoed again.

"After all this, what did you see?"

"I saw nothing!"

Bruce spun around on the spot, remaining vigilant of every corner. Hiding in the darkness—this was his own best tactic.

"Heh heh, I know what you saw. You saw the bats and birds in the darkness working together. They shaped you into what you are now. You also saw yourself failing in other worlds. You saw your own helplessness, and the empty truth."

Bruce pinpointed the source of the voice and slowly approached the window. There was a reflection on the window—himself.

Only now his body was aged and weakened, while the reflection was of his younger self, his eyes filled with malice, and a dark, unknown energy swirling around him.

The reflection looked at him, grinning sinisterly. "I'm right here."

"You! Barbatos, you're trying to twist my story!"

Bruce tightened his grip on the poker and stood tall, facing him.

"No, I created you. I saw you in the stream of time." Barbatos spread his hands, tilting his head as he responded, "I've always been lurking in the shadows."

Before Bruce could respond, Barbatos started rambling about his plan.

"I saw you dress like me, turning me into a symbol of hope."

"You were a perfect gateway, so I created the Bat Tribe. Then came the Owls—my dark birds. Together they constructed you, your family, your history, your story, your city."

Bruce pressed closer to the window. "No! You madman!"

Barbatos laughed, his smile filled with a peculiar emotion—it was hard to say if it was disdain for Batman or satisfaction at his own success.

"No! I am the Bat!"

Barbatos's image transformed instantly into a bat, flying at high speed and crashing into the glass, leaving only a small red bloodstain.

Bruce pounded his fists against the glass, hitting it repeatedly until his hands were a bloody mess. But the window remained unyielding. Barbatos appeared again outside in the darkness, watching Bruce struggle with interest.

"You are nothing. I will escape." Bruce hammered at the glass in a frenzy.

"When you chose the Bat as your symbol, we became inseparable. You can't escape. We've spent decades together in your nightmares. You have no hope."

Darkness and fear were the Bat's power, and he was the god of darkness, the god of the Bat.

Barbatos reached out, touching the glass calmly as he spoke, "I just showed you a few worlds, and there are countless stories in the darkness. Those Dark Knights, they are the real you. They are stronger, closer to the gate."

"No..." Bruce shook his head, refusing to believe this.

"Why not?" Barbatos spread his cloak, projecting images of the Nightmare Batmen slaughtering their own universes. Each one possessed immense power, enough to destroy worlds: "Without my help, you would amount to nothing."

"No!"

"Look at me! Look at them!"

"No!"

"Caw..."

The window was as unbreakable as ever, no matter what he did, he couldn't escape. He had found the way out, but lacked the strength.

He stepped back, unable to bear it any longer. In the other worlds, the Batmen who gained power lived, while those who rejected Barbatos died.

He couldn't tell what was real anymore.

Countless worlds had been destroyed, countless people had died. He knew those were versions of himself from the once infinite universes, and he believed this was the truth.

Those universes had been destroyed, dissolved.

He didn't want to see anymore.

Just as Bruce was on the verge of despair, the reflection in front of him shattered. A black-glowing greatsword plunged straight into the reflection's head, causing the glass to dissolve into smoke.

Outside the window was a stormy sky, endless darkness in the distance. There was no path, no familiar Gotham—only the garden below Wayne Manor.

"Demacia!"

A strange battle cry echoed from afar. He couldn't understand what the word meant, but he felt it was a chance.

Yes, the window was open now, and he still had something important to do. With a running start, the elderly figure leaped out of the window. A cape suddenly materialized behind him, and he soared into the distance.

"Are you sure we got the right guy?"

Diana, wearing a transparent oxygen mask, questioned Slade, who floated beside her. They were all drifting in the void of a cosmic rift. Black spires larger and taller than those in the Prime World loomed around them, with countless heroes from different worlds bound to them.

This was an anchor point in the Dark Multiverse, used by Barbatos to bring the universes closer through its connection to the Gotham anchor point in the Prime World.

"Absolutely. My sword and armor are vibrating with resonance. He's our Bruce. Only he has such high levels of heavy metals in his body."

Slade replied to Diana, adding a dark joke as he continued to break the chains on the spire with his greatsword, freeing Bruce completely.

"But he..." Barry tilted his head, searching for the right word, "looks a lot older."

"Right, he's spent decades in a nightmare. Under the influence of dark energy, his body aged accordingly. It's a minor issue."

Barry made a face of disbelief. This looked like someone who was about to die of old age—how could that be a minor issue?

Slade cut down another hero, the aged Superman from the Prime World, who had also been deceived and hung on the spire.

Even though Batman had left a coded warning for the Justice League, the others weren't smart enough to decipher it. Barbatos took advantage of that, and Superman, walking into the trap, ended up being ambushed and strung up on the tower.

"Alright, get them onto the ship, and let's get out of here. There are countless villains from different worlds patrolling around. They've all joined Barbatos."

Slade shoved a Bat-oxygen tank into Bruce's mouth and signaled Barry to hurry up.

Their mission on Blackhawk Island hadn't gone as smoothly as planned, but sometimes logic fails where fists prevail. Diana and Slade, with Barry's speed, were as powerful as half the Justice League. The entire Blackhawk Squadron had been knocked out and captured.

Slade found the Ultima Thule, where Detective Chimp and Raven had escaped to from the Oblivion Bar. They were trying to understand the truth of the ship. With their help and the warship's AI calculating the gravitational waves across the Dark Multiverse, Slade and the others had obtained the coordinates of the anchor points.

Afterward, they modified a small Blackhawk transport plane, equipped it with a cosmic treadmill, and Barry brought them here.

Now that they had rescued their targets, it was time to get out of here. In the distance, Slade could see a few specks of light heading their way, and they were certainly not friendly.