piratefiction Chapter 510 Don't Scold Me! Turns out, Darkseid is the biggest!
Chapter 510 Don't Scold Me! Turns out, Darkseid is the biggest!
Chapter 510 Don't curse me! It turns out I, Darkseid, am the biggest clown!
Lex Luthor took two steps back. All the tricks he had left in the central push tower had been neutralized by Night Owl. He was still trying to launch a counterattack, but he was already at his last gasp.
"It's no use, Lex. I don't intend to kill you—at least not yet," Nite Owl said. "Unlike Luthor in our world, you're an excellent scientist, and I admire you. I need someone like you, and that's why you're still alive. You still have value, and you should be grateful for that."
The night owl's voice was deep and hoarse: "Originally, I planned to bring Lucius Fox from your world as well, but unfortunately, taking him away rashly would definitely touch a nerve with Batman, so I can only take you, who is relatively less valued by Batman."
Luther was not going to be swayed by the other party's instigation; that was too low-level. However, the more nonsense Night Owl spouted, the more advantageous it would be for him, so Luther did not interrupt the other party's speech.
Instead, he deliberately turned to Greer beside him, as if to entice Night Owl to continue speaking, and said, "Darling, I don't know why you would listen to Night Owl again. To be honest, I always thought Nightwing told me that we were on the same side."
"Dick? He's a great lad, very delicious." Greer's eyes sparkled red, reflecting off her slightly obsidian-colored skin, which resembled that of her father, Darkseid.
"But he still made a mistake... Never, ever take a woman's promises seriously, right?"
"Batman had Dick use his promise to help kill Darkseid as leverage to try and persuade Greer to work for him," Night Owl interjected. "And at that time, Greer and I had a little... misunderstanding; she thought I would abandon our cooperation by considering Darkseid an ally."
Night Owl didn't finish his sentence, but he had indeed considered abandoning Greer, and Greer had indeed betrayed him without hesitation by cooperating with Batman. Night Owl even imprisoned her...
But none of that matters. When it comes to important things, there are no permanent enemies, only permanent interests.
They easily let bygones be bygones. What's best for them is the only driving force behind their actions.
They moved on from this matter very quickly, and now they act as if nothing happened.
"But there's still one thing I don't understand, you..." Luther wanted to continue, but he was quickly interrupted by Night Owl.
"Alright, enough nonsense. Lex, I'm sure you've noticed too, you're trying to summon that 2000-plus Green Lantern Corps that you and I captured together and then modified, right?"
"Night Owl said, his voice dripping with sarcasm."
"You must not understand, you hid this legion in my universe, and now you're trying to summon them to protect you, but there's no response at all, is there?"
Even this was exposed, and Night Owl was finally satisfied to see a panicked expression on Luther's face.
"Yes," he said. "I didn't lie to you about that. You are capable of modifying those Green Lanterns with Doomsday Cells and Parasites, and in both of those modifications, you are far more skilled than I am."
"Even I couldn't skip the most basic deconstruction of the DNA of these two organisms and directly become thoroughly familiar with their modification methods, just like someone who was mediocre in math in junior high school but suddenly became proficient in advanced mathematics in high school."
"But the problem is, even if I can't compete with you for control of this army, it doesn't mean I can't make you lose control of it."
Night Owl said, "Using the Green Lantern ring to create an alternate dimension for hiding? That's an old trick of the Green Lantern Corps. Even Hal from our world mastered it a long time ago."
He said, "It was too simplistic and too careless. If it were me, I wouldn't have covered my troops so hastily."
(Note: Night Owl here refers to the cowardly version of Hal Jordan in their world, who died in this book from a suicide attack on Planet Oa under the control of the first Lantern Man.)
Luther lowered his head, humiliated by the victor's taunts, and muttered to himself, "You're right, I was too careless, too arrogant."
"So it's all over, Lex. Let's be dignified. After it's all over, I think we'll still be working together for many years to come," Night Owl said. "I've prepared a comfortable place for you to be under house arrest. You can..."
"No, not yet."
Then Night Owl heard Luther's voice. He frowned and immediately used the device on his arm to check if the anti-space jump device inside the entire propulsion tower was still activated, and then it showed that everything was normal.
"I admit I was careless this time, but luckily I had developed a habit, a habit I formed after being disgusted by Batman once."
As Luther said this, his face darkened the next moment.
When he talks about this habit, he always thinks of the time when Bane, indiscriminately, slapped him across the face. The feeling of being completely fooled by the mud-faced man was absolutely awful.
But...
Now~
puff!
"Luther" is leaking air.
He deflated like a balloon, his face melting like wax. Of course, the Clayface main body couldn't control his clone from that distance; therefore, these Clayface cells were entirely manipulated by Luthor himself, just as Batman had once used Clayface to leave himself an empty shell in place.
After being hit by this move, Luthor said he didn't want it, but somehow he had secretly learned it. Even the mud-face cells on his body were cloned by him, rather than being a direct gift from Batman.
"Don't think you're the only one who can remotely control androids to traverse those dangerous places you can't easily reach." Luther mocked loudly as he controlled his clone to dissolve. "You did win a round, but you think everyone else is a fool. Lex Luther isn't that easy to kill."
His true form never stepped into the push tower, just like Night Owl's remote-controlled robot. Luther never expected that this seemingly insignificant move would save his life and give him a second chance.
He let out the standard, wicked grin of a villain: "Heh heh heh, things aren't over yet, Thomas, old friend!"
"I'll be back soon, I promise, and that will be your end!"
As the evil villain finished speaking, Mudface Luther collapsed to the ground with a thud, turning into a large lump of uncontrolled mudface cells.
Night Owl and Greer stood silently in place.
"What do we do, you clever idiot?" Greer said. "Luther's gone."
She seemed both defiant and indifferent.
"He can't escape," Night Owl said in a muffled voice.
He walked to the Owl computer next to the push tower, quickly typed in a long string of characters, and soon gained root access. He then issued commands to the Owl computer.
"Connect me to Lafriz of Orange Lamp, Despair Demon, Lady Styx, Alfred, and his secret society of supervillains, as well as Dr. Ivo and his Amozzo."
(Note: Here, Night Owl refers to the evil version of Alfred in their universe, i.e., the Outsider.)
(Note: Lafriz, the King of the Orange Lanterns, killed all creatures that attempted to use the Orange Lantern's energy, causing them to lose their physical form and become the embodiment of the Orange Lantern's energy, thus becoming his subordinates. This ghostly legion, together with him, became the Orange Lantern Legion. His personality is as extremely greedy as the embodiment of the Orange Lantern's emotions. He himself is a warthog-like creature with many tusks.)
He quickly rattled off a long list of names of various factions, doing so in front of Greer as a warning to her not to have any other ideas.
Greer's smile faded this time.
Amorozzo? Dr. Ivo? Lafriz, the king of the Orange Lantern Corps? And the Super Villain Secret Society?
When did they form an alliance with Night Owl and become his allies?
Gretel had never heard of these people before. Night Owl had kept many things from her, and the "unknown" is often terrifying and intimidating.
Night Owl is very good at manipulating these things; he's almost as good at manipulating fear as Batman.
Controlling a person does not necessarily require the direct use of magic or technology, or even telepathic superpowers.
Psychological manipulation and the intimidation of fear are also methods to prevent others from acting rashly.
He hadn't put enough effort into deterring Greer before, which led to her defection. Night Owl won't make the same mistake twice.
See that? Greer, I'll let bygones be bygones, but if you dare to play any tricks now, I have so many trump cards that you don't even know about. Are you sure there isn't one of them that I'm using against you?
So... listen to me.
"...Great Lady Styx, my ally, I have something to entrust to you... Yes, hunt down Lex. He betrayed us, and you must capture him alive. I can only be at ease entrusting this task to you; the others are just a bunch of murderers... Despair Demon will cooperate with you... Don't want to cooperate with Despair Demon? He's just an assistant; you are the leader... What about the Push Tower? Don't worry, I've already made arrangements..."
"...Despair Demon, I need you to let go..."
"Dr. Ivo, the time has come for your Amorobot to shine. Your robot must take the place of the Despair Demon in guarding his tower..."
"...Lafriz, I agreed to your request that we not have to guard a power tower like the Galactic Golems, but the situation has changed..."
"...No, of course I'm not breaking my promise. Haven't you always wanted the Impel Down and the Heart of the Planet? If you're willing to let Lady Styx guard the Impel Down, then after everything is over, the Impel Down you'll be yours. Deal?"
"make a deal."
Night Owl hung up the phone expressionlessly.
"Laffertz, that greedy warthog. What use is a push tower to him? It's useless; a single push tower is just scrap metal. But he just wants to possess it. Foolish."
Night Owl shook his head.
Then he turned to Greer, who had witnessed everything, and said, "Get ready to go. It's time to set sail."
He paused, then opened his palms to the air in front of him. At this point, the owl's voice finally began to rise, which at one point made Greer think it was an illusion.
"Raise the sails! Set sail! March towards a free future!"
"No more danger, no more crisis, the chance to escape this dark fate... is just around the corner!"
……
……
……
"So, what's the plan?"
Darkseid asked Batman and the telepathic channel he created.
Since Batman made such a confident statement, the Lord of Apokolips thought it was worth listening to.
"A special kind of explosive made by the Guardians of the Universe." Then he heard Batman say seriously, "But it requires a charging time to hit."
If Batman had mentioned explosives, Darkseid might have had some doubts, but upon hearing the Guardians of the Universe emerge, Darkseid had no more doubts whatsoever.
He knew about Batman using the dead Guardian of the Universe as a grenade—even though he had been holed up on Apokolips, that didn't stop him from secretly spying on what Batman was doing in the universe.
Darkseid himself had clashed with the Green Lantern Corps on Planet Oa. How could he not have noticed such a big thing happening on Planet Oa?
It was with these foundations that Darkseid finally made up his mind.
"How much longer?"
He asked in a low voice.
"About two minutes, not short, but not too long either." After receiving Batman's exact number through telepathy, Darkseid heard Batman's voice again.
"I will use something called the Death Treasure: Golden Sphere to create a golden portal behind you. This thing will activate faster than the sonic boom you create. You must leap backward into the golden portal in an instant to avoid being affected by the violent blast wave."
He heard Batman say, "This kind of explosion will at most weaken the Anti-Monitor; I reckon it will be difficult to actually kill him."
Chen Tao spouted complete nonsense, making up things that didn't exist with great conviction, which Darkseid listened to with rapt attention.
"But even that's enough. We need to push the Anti-Monitor out of our universe, then close the door and release Superman Supreme, so that he sees the Anti-Monitor before he sees us... and then gamble that Superman Supreme won't come back to kill us first."
Darkseid didn't listen to the latter part at all. As far as he was concerned, he either had to escape or carry out Batman's plan. What to do next was something he would have to consider after he had a chance to catch his breath.
Does he really think Darkseid is having an easy time going head-to-head with the Anti-Monitor? Although he feels that the Anti-Monitor is slightly weaker than when it invaded the Batman universe before... that may be his imagination, but in any case, he is almost at his breaking point.
"Alright." The Lord of Apokolips readily agreed to Batman's plan. He roused himself, his eyes focusing into purple Omega Judgment, an attack capable of sending people into infinite parallel universes. This Judgment attack collided with the white ray fired by the Anti-Monitor, then dissipated, followed by an even more intense clash of energy.
"Drink!" The rays emanating from Darkseid's eyes were as thick as buckets. With another head-on collision with the Anti-Monitor, the ground beneath their feet cracked like tofu.
"Damn Batman, how much longer?"
"It'll be here soon."
Chen Tao responded via telepathic link, making a face as if he was holding back a bowel movement, while secretly estimating how much energy Darkseid had expended in this head-on confrontation with the Anti-Monitor, and whether the exhausted Darkseid was capable of evading his ambush.
A minute passed quietly, and Darkseid was already panting heavily, something almost impossible for the Lord of Apokolips.
"How much longer?"
"84 seconds." Chen Tao said for a while longer, then continued to make the expression of holding back a bowel movement.
Darkseid clashed with the Anti-Monitor once again, their hands gripping each other as they wrestled like two gorillas.
"Are you done yet???"
Okay, okay.
Seeing that Darkseid was starting to get angry, Chen Tao quickly said that time was up.
Immediately afterwards, a golden portal lit up behind Darkseid.
"Very good."
Darkseid immediately abandoned his confrontation with the Anti-Monitor, throwing himself backward and leaping through the portal. He knew Batman was about to unleash his trump card, allowing him to continue his plan of watching from the sidelines...
He appeared on the face of the anti-surveillance person.
Darkseid's eyes widened: ? ? ? ? ?
The anti-monitor was also stunned for a moment, then he didn't hold back and punched Darkseid in the face, making his face look all over. His obsidian-like face was twisted and his neck was bent at 130 degrees, making it look like his head was about to fly off.
However, such injuries were no match for Darkseid. He struggled to his feet, but before he could speak, a loud bang was heard.
Darkseid felt a sharp pain in his back.
(End of this chapter)