In The DC World With Marvel Chat Group

Chapter 271: The Fearful Laughing Demon (2)

Question: What is scarier than waking up and finding yourself in another time period?

That would be waking up and finding yourself in Gotham.

So what is scarier than waking up and finding yourself in Gotham?

That would be waking up and finding yourself in Gotham with Batman and the Joker fighting in front of you.

What is scarier than finding Batman and the Joker fighting in front of you?

That would be finding two Jokers fighting in front of you.

What is scarier than finding two Jokers fighting?

That would be finding three Jokers fighting.

What is scarier than finding three Jokers fighting?

What is scarier than finding three Jokers fighting while Batman watches?

That would be finding Batman teaming up with two Jokers to beat up another Joker...

Because in such a situation, it must be Laughing Batman, the editor's father, who has come...

At the edge of Batman's consciousness, such a battle is taking place. However, they are not facing the Laughing Bat, but a monster that resembles the Joker but is slightly different.

Its limbs are long and thin, barely supporting its body, but it remains standing, and its head is an egg-shaped gray object with a terrifying smiley face on top.

At this moment, the grinning mouth is filled with blood on its teeth, while Jack is covering his hand, blood flowing from it.

Just now, this monster broke free from the operating table and bit Jack.

Jack's injury is not severe, only leaving a bite mark on his wrist, but it indicates a very dangerous thing: this dangerous entity deep within Batman's consciousness is likely more than just a simple Joker.

He was able to escape the attacks of Joker Schiller and Joker Jack, and even fought back, which suggests that his strength is likely greater than it appears. Most importantly, he is currently just an embryo.

Everyone has a sense of foreboding about what this laughing embryo will hatch into, including Batman himself. He never realized that such a terrifying thing was lurking deep within his own mind.

On the edge of Batman's dream, Gotham remains dark and stormy. The wind howls, the rain pours relentlessly, and the night grows darker and more profound. Two Jokers, a laughing egg, and Batman all stand above the city.

The battle is intense. Joker Jack wields a knife, leaving deep wounds on the slender limbs of the Laughing Egg, while Joker Schiller's fighting style leans towards magic, using an invisible power to control the movements of the Laughing Spawn.

Batman stands motionless, but he is not merely observing. He is engaged in a struggle with this monster for control over the dream.

Indeed, this monster with deformed limbs and a large mouth on its head possesses almost the same authority as Batman within the dream. Batman must exert all his efforts to resist its attempts to seize control of the dream.

Originally, before Batman learned the truth and before the laughter egg was extracted, both Joker Jack and Joker Schiller had some power to control the dream. But once the two main players appeared, control of the dream shifted completely to them. Now, the two of them are still locked in a hidden battle, attempting to gain complete control over the dream and the realm of consciousness.

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To Batman's surprise, it seemed that he was not dealing with an enemy, but himself. Each time he exerted force, he felt an awkward sensation of arm-wrestling with himself, as if his left foot and right foot were tripping each other up, his left arm and right arm entangled, trying to strangle each other.

Batman had never faced such a situation before, so he initially suffered setbacks. Thunder roared through the dark sky of Gotham, and several lightning bolts narrowly missed the other two Jokers. Clearly, the Laughing Egg was using the power of dreams to disrupt their actions.

Fortunately, perhaps due to the embryo not yet hatching, despite its madness and aggression, it lacked much rationality. It acted like a newborn following its instincts, a weak and premature infant. Even the young Batman quickly regained the upper hand.

One Batman and two Jokers started pressuring the deformed monster relentlessly. The unhatched embryo was evidently unable to withstand the assault from two Jokers and Batman.

In the midst of the stormy night, the cold wind wailed, and the rain beat against their bodies like a relentless barrage of bullets. Even Batman, in such fierce winds and rain, struggled to maintain his balance. His cape was constantly pulled backward, rustling in the wind and rain.

He seemed to hear a tender voice wailing, interspersed with faint, maniacal laughter. The sound echoed in Batman's mind, stirring up feelings of sorrow and anguish, as if he himself were walking towards death.

Finally, he realized it, confirming that the terrifying and deformed monster before him was none other than himself, a certain persona deep within his consciousness, a part of him. And when that persona faced death, it experienced the same fear.

Amidst the heavy rain, Batman slowly sank to his knees, as the fear seeped into his mind, causing his entire mental space to tremble.

No one in this world is immune to the fear of death, especially when faced with their own mortality. A dark emotion began to surge within Batman's heart.

In the midst of the wind and rain, the hair of Joker Jack and Joker Schiller became wet from the rain and were blown by the wind. When Schiller looked up, he saw the end of the sky—a thin black line emerging at the edge where the sky met the earth. Soon, ripples appeared. Jack slapped his forehead and said, "Uh-oh! Looks like we're in trouble!"

However, in a mere instant, that thin line of ripples closed in, unleashing a terrifying tidal wave of darkness and fear.

The attack and provocation from the Laughing Egg caused the dark tide lurking deep within Batman's consciousness to surge forth, transforming into an irresistible onslaught, engulfing everything at the edge of the dream.

In almost an instant, the Laughing Egg at the forefront was consumed, its elongated limbs powerless against the onslaught of the horrifying wave. Within a moment, the monster's limbs were eroded, leaving only a smiling egg floating on the surface of the sea.

Schiller and Jack began to flee, until the violent black tide crashed into the outskirts of Gotham in the dream, reducing it to ruins. Eventually, the tide subsided, but the world had already been utterly destroyed, with the dream's edge riddled with wounds, and the Laughing Egg nowhere to be found.

Standing at the shifting edge of the dark tide, Jack erupted into maniacal laughter. He said, "I knew Batman wouldn't let me down! This is him, this is him! Hahahahahahahaha!"

"This is his darkness, his fear that belongs to him alone..." Jack opened his arms, speaking like a reverie. "This is Batman, this is his inner self..."

However, the overwhelming black tide did not completely come to a halt. Countless vortexes formed on the surface of the tide, spinning faster and faster until a towering waterspout surged upward.

Numerous small waterspouts began converging towards the center and merged into one enormous tornado. This colossal waterspout swept the entirety of Gotham at the edge of the dream into its vortex.

The two clowns standing at the edge of the dream could only barely withstand this terrifying force.

All the black tide's waters transformed into massive tornadoes, continuously ascending, breaking through layer after layer of dreams.

Upward, ever upward, the tornado formed by the black tide resembled a sharpened blade, progressively piercing through the dreams of the deep subconscious, until it reached the barrier that separated the surface consciousness from the deep consciousness.

More and more of the black tide surged upward, causing the entire realm of consciousness to tremble. Gotham in its countless layers of dreams collapsed nearly simultaneously. After a brief silence, the barrier of the surface consciousness was shattered.

Even after reaching Batman's surface consciousness, the black tide did not cease but continued to surge upward, bursting forth from his physical form along with his soul.

While Bruce remained unconscious, an intangible force of terror shot through his body, piercing the heavens.

Standing before the office's floor-to-ceiling windows, Schiller suddenly turned his head, squinting his eyes as he gazed toward the outskirts of Gotham City. Simultaneously, numerous enigmatic forces within the cosmos sensed this irresistible tide of fear.

It was a completely abstract power, invisible within reality, yet individuals with special perspectives and spiritual awareness could perceive its ability to dismantle the world.

The tornado formed by the black tide, after breaking through Bruce's body, did not abate but continued its ascent, soaring into higher altitudes.

Beyond the skies of Gotham, beyond the skies of the East Coast, surpassing the entire continent of America, until it reached the Earth's atmosphere and ventured into the realms beyond.

Within the vast and mysterious expanse of the cosmos, a black sword rose, ascending into higher celestial domains, breaking through all barriers until, in the depths of the starry sky, a mysterious presence suddenly sensed this spine-chilling dread.

Just as Bruce's consciousness gradually broke free from the black tide and emerged from the layers of dreams through the hole created by the black tide's tornado, taking control of his body once again, he heard a distant yet deep voice resounding in his ears:

"Amidst the dark day and bright night,

Evil and corrupt, they fear my divine light,

Incinerated by terror's blaze, those who oppose me meet their demise,

Fear is the source, and Sinestro's authority shall rise!"

"Intelligent life has been identified. Earth's Batman, you possess the power to instill profound fear in others. Welcome to join the Sinestro Corps!"

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