What bad thoughts can Batman have?

Chapter 970 Escape to the Watchers Universe! Or, Perpetua must have a weakness, what is it?
Fear makes people lose their minds.

You see, you may have the ability to instill great fear in others, but that doesn't mean you're never afraid.

When you feel helpless, you are just like us, merely a mortal.

Poor Batman Dragon can never believe that his friends or teammates will always try to save the universe on their own, which is essentially a huge arrogance.

You disregard the talents and abilities of others, and are so arrogant that you proclaim yourself a savior. Relying on your knowledge of Dr. Manhattan from your past life, you attempt to predict and guide the actions of a transcendent being. Just how arrogant and ignorant is this?
Now it's time for you to taste the bitter fruit, my friend.

You are now forced to place your hopes on Batman. The Batman of the main universe once mentioned a plan to you, and after hearing the plan, you and Batman erased your own memories together. Therefore, this plan became a plan that neither you nor the Batman of the main universe knew about.

It's a plan that's currently in progress, but everyone involved—from the planners to the implementers to the participants—has forgotten the specifics of the plan. Even though you yourself find this hope absurd, it at least offers you some comfort.

But in any case, right now you are facing a very real and simple problem.

Three times, my friend, three times.

Now that you're using it for the first time, it's not something you can stop whenever you want.

In the endless hell, the demon king Neru suddenly discovered that a large number of human souls had been deposited into his account, as if a payment app had malfunctioned.

Meanwhile, the Demon King Sangu stirred up a tide of magic, eagerly awaiting the arrival of his daughter, a girl named Raven, in his realm after her death.

On the outer edge of the multiverse's trans-temporal flow, the Essence Society's discussions raged on. They included Hera, the Queen of the Gods; the Phantom Stranger; Ganther, the Guardian of the Universe; and Shazam, the Thunder Mage—the most powerful individuals in their respective parallel universes. Of course, there was also the Father of the main universe, from the new creation planet corresponding to Darkseid, a four-dimensional god whose avatars were his own, existing simultaneously in different parallel universes. And then there was the vengeful spirit of God, Ghost, whose gaze fell upon the dying Parallax Morhal and uttered a sigh.

He was once one with Howl, becoming Ghost Howl. But now they are separated and no longer possess each other.

Surrounding the Essence Gathering were the Olympian gods from different parallel universes and the Dark Multiverse, including those from the main universe. Most interestingly, regardless of which parallel universe they were from, all the Olympian gods chose to flee when faced with a significant threat.

Hephaestus, the god of fire and forging, a lame god, may have left Wonder Woman with a large number of weapons before he left, especially his mass-produced Lasso of Truth, due to his consistent personal relationship with her in different parallel universes. But this is the greatest role that the Olympian gods can play in a cosmic crisis.

For countless ages past, the Olympian gods sat high on the clouds, and ever since they stole the primordial magical power (note: from the goddess of magic Hecate), they had not feared even the Anti-Monitor.

But Papetuah is different. She is a being more powerful than them in every way, a being who never inspires people to strive for excellence, but instead leads them to depravity. She is a god who asks you to return to the past, to return to the most basic elements of your nature, and to serve her by obeying yourselves.

The Olympian gods fled; they already had a destination in mind.

After gathering the strength of countless people, they have prepared an escape portal to other universes.

"here you go."

The guardian of the universe, Ganther, nodded.

Of course, he is not Ganther, the guardian of the main universe. He is just a variant from a parallel universe, the most powerful variant, powerful enough to rival the Father. Therefore, he is qualified to join the Essence and stand above the Olympian gods of different parallel universes.

“A brand new multiverse, vast enough to contain us all, and now we have finally established a stable portal to help us get to that world.”

The Essence Society's Ganther patted the shoulder of the figure beside him affectionately: "Well done, Luther."

Standing next to Ganther of the Essence Society at this moment was a bald man, none other than our best friend Lex Luthor.

Huh, which parallel universe loser is this? How did he get into the Jinhua Society? Could he be from the main universe?

In short, nobody believes he's Lex Luthor from the main universe anymore. Nothing's easier than disguising yourself.

"Well done, Lex Luthor number 54!" Zeus, the king of Olympus from some parallel universe, laughed loudly, lightning crackling from his beard. He didn't dare touch Lex Luthor, so he randomly grabbed another white man dressed like an ancient Greek, with an olive branch in his hair and the word "Zeus" engraved on his belt.

Squeak! A burst of electricity flashed, and the "Zeus" with the olive branch stuck in his eye was electrocuted and died on the spot.

It is indeed Zeus, but it is Maxi Zeus. (Note: A Gotham villain, a madman who fantasizes about being Zeus, one of Batman's enemies, whose main weapon is a battery-powered stun cane. The one appearing here is a variant from an unknown parallel universe.)
"Oh, how did this guy die?" Zeus kicked him away without hesitation.

The Essence Society's Ganther ignored the farce around him. The little blue man's face showed a cold expression that was completely different from the main universe's Ganther. But sometimes you couldn't tell whether he was the main universe's Ganther or not. The people of the Essence Society have always been very mysterious. Even Luther from the main universe couldn't figure out their true identities.

"How long until this portal is fully opened?"

he asked.

"About 52 minutes. I'm sorry, I don't know if the universe has rebooted or not, so I can only report the time that my kind of being can perceive."

A voice came from beside Lex Luthor in the main universe, and then a Batman walked over.

According to Ganther of the Essence Society, this Batman should be a fellow countryman of Luthor, from the same universe. However, he had told Ganther that he was going to his own universe to save some people and had temporarily left the single universe where the Essence Society was located. Fortunately, he returned at the last minute. Moreover, this Batman was also an important helper of Luthor. Together, the two of them built this portal to the multiverse, saving them from the pain of drifting in the void.

“52 minutes? Does it really need that long?” Ganther from the Essence Society asked. “It’s alright. We can temporarily resist the timeline reality reconstructed by Batman Dragon. Anyway, we’re about to leave the DC multiverse and will no longer be bound by the hypertimeline.”

"So you mean we didn't reboot?" he heard the Batman, Luthor's fellow countryman, say.

“No,” said Ganther of the Essence Society, “but you’d better hurry, because Batman Dragon only has three more chances to reboot the universe, and then nothing.”

Batman, Luthor's fellow countryman, paused in his actions: "Wait a minute, everything's gone, what does that mean?"

"Literally, the multiverse didn't have a chance to be turned into her super arsenal by Perpetual. Batman Dragon was like a gambler who wanted to go all in on a bet, throwing the entire multiverse onto the table."

This time it wasn't Ganther who spoke, but his Heavenly Father beside him.

"The entire multiverse will either become a realm of death, prematurely bringing about the end of all things, or it will be completely occupied by Perpetua and become her arsenal. There will be no other outcome than these two."

"Is that so..." Luther and Batman fell silent together.

"Speaking of which..."

The Father appeared beside Batman at some point: "I always feel there's a hint of deathly decay about you, but you look alive no matter how you look at it. You know Bruce, I have a theory in my mind right now."

Several members of the Elite Club, as well as Lex Luthor and Batman from the main universe, all knew what the Heavenly Father referred to.

They all knew what the Father had not spoken.

There's a deathly smell about you, like you were just turned into a walking corpse by black light energy, and then suddenly resurrected by white light energy. What exactly have you been doing while you've been away from us?
“I don’t want to discuss this,” Batman said, but Godfather insisted.

“Wait a minute, I think…” Essence Guild’s Ganther was about to speak, but was immediately interrupted by the Father.

“This is more important than we thought, Ganser. I'm not saying we don't trust Luther, I just think Bruce is strange, don't you think? Of all the people here, he's the only Bruce. We don't just have one Batman, we have several Kurt Langstones, for example—”

(Note: Batman with a human face is a zoologist who transformed himself into a giant bat monster to cure his deafness. He was a villain in the past, but is now an anti-hero and a user of the Red of All Beings. He also serves as a knock-off Batman in countless parallel multiverses.)
"But there isn't a single Bruce Wayne. Does anyone have a clue? To be honest, I don't really think Bruce Wayne will come with us, especially since we're not allowing him to bring his planet."

I thought you'd bring back your bat family and your butler Alfred, but it seems you didn't, and you've returned empty-handed. I really can't imagine what you did after your last trip back to your Earth and why you're here now. Ganther probably won't care about these things, but I'm different.”

He leaned closer to Batman, then winked. "I'm different. I once got the short end of the stick with Bruce Wayne, the main universe's Batman. He's your counterpart. You two look so alike that it makes me uneasy. This isn't a personal grudge, but a necessary precaution. I need to know what you've been up to since you left."

Everyone was watching Batman, even Ganser, who had just defended him.

Oh, this is the most dangerous situation.

"Everyone..." Luther began, knowing it wouldn't be appropriate for him to remain silent at this point, even though he was intelligent enough to understand that speaking now would be pointless. But to the Elite Guild, he and Batman were from the same hometown, so it was necessary to help him... especially in this environment where everyone was less than saintly.

Then Luther turned to face Batman.

"Can't you show them, Bruce? I don't believe you didn't do anything either."

Batman stared at Luther, then twitched the corner of his mouth.

"What the hell."

He said.

"I went to save my friend, the only friend I could save." Batman finally snapped, angrily releasing Superman, who was hidden in a magical alternate dimension.

"My universe has been struck by a blackout, and everyone has become a blackout zombie. I can only find my best friend again. Is that answer clear enough?"

When Lex Luthor discovered that Batman had brought Black Lantern Corpse Superman to him, Luthor's expression turned extremely ugly.

The only fellow countryman he acknowledged as a fellow escapee actually brought along his most hated enemy. Even on the verge of escaping to another multiverse, he had to take a look at Superman Clark Kent. This would probably disgust Lex Luthor so much that he wouldn't be able to eat for three days.

Now everyone fell silent. There was nothing more to say. Everyone knew what Batman Dragon had done in the multiverse: he had been outwitting the Black Lantern corpses, but he couldn't retrieve the Bat-family corpses. He could only retrieve Superman, who was still in a Black Lantern corpse state. Batman didn't revive him, which meant he couldn't get a second White Lantern ring. Or did he feel ashamed to face Superman?
That's true. Superman would never agree to a plan to escape to another multiverse. There were countless Olympian gods and hundreds of different villains present, some of whom even had their own planets, but there wasn't a single Superman among them.

Superman Clark Kent wouldn't do such a thing. The only Superman among these people is a black-light corpse that can only howl.

Although Superman, brought by Batman, would still become a corpse after traveling to other universes, no one wanted to point that out. But anyone with a slightly deeper understanding of the rules of the multiverse knows that this is inevitable, because the rules are not interchangeable between different multiverses. Just because the Black Lantern ring can revive the dead in the DC multiverse doesn't mean it can do the same in the Watchmen universe.

The Olympian gods, however, were different. Their magical power did not originate from the DC multiverse, but rather from beyond it. Therefore, even if they escaped to other multiverses, they would still possess their own formidable power.

(Note: Their power originated from an Outer God, the Hanged Man, who resembled the Hand of the Void. Hecate, the native goddess of magic in DC, stole the Hanged Man's power, and then the Olympian gods stole Hecate's power. The Olympian gods were all middlemen in the trade of power.)
"Alright, stop arguing. It'll only take 52 minutes. Open the door, we'll be at our destination soon."

Finally, Luther brought the discussion to a close.

"Go to the Watchers universe."

(End of this chapter)