Most of the people on the battlefield were barely hanging on. Under the relentless hunt of the Nightmare Phantom, they continuously turned into white light. Those who were strong enough sensed the existence of the Power of Dreams and entered the Dream Dimension the moment they came into contact. However, there were exceptions. Stark was one of those who neither got injured nor got sucked into the Dream Dimension.
It wasn't because he was lucky, but because of his special nature. The Iron Demon God is not a simple Demon God, but also a kind of mechanical creation, or rather, Electronic Life. He can mechanize himself, even transforming his thoughts into something akin to logical commands. Without emotions, with no survival needs, he is naturally unaffected by guilt and hunger. Although Moonlight and Hunting can still cause some harm, overall, he can withstand it.
Stark found the Main Universe Batman who was rescuing people. The latter was in a precarious state. To save people, Main Universe Batman endured the Psyshock, relying on Hell Armor to withstand several blows, successfully saving many. But his own condition had deteriorated significantly.
Stark pulled him back and gave him an injection. Before he could say anything, Main Universe Batman asked first, "What were you guys doing?"
Stark initially wanted to explain that it was an accident, but Main Universe Batman seemed to have already guessed it, so he could only sigh and say, "Doom mentioned it to me before, but I didn't think they'd really dare to do it."
With Main Universe Batman's questioning, Stark recalled what happened about two days ago. At that time, the Batman squad from the Dark Multiverse had already been inside for a day, and defenses had been set up on their side. Stark, Doom, and Reed were all there.
Upon learning about the situation within the dimension, Doom thought for a moment and said, "So right now, that place is filled with very terrifying monsters. The other side can't get the Infinity Gem, and we can't enter either?"
"Yes. The team they sent in hasn't come out until now. You have to know that it was several Batmen, and they were superpowered Batmen. They all failed, so you can imagine how terrifying it is inside."
"Then why not release the monsters?"
"What?"
"Batman won't choose to give up. He will definitely call in a large army to confront us. As long as we release monsters at that time, he can be completely wiped out."
"But that will also get us wiped out! A whole team of Batmen couldn't handle it; who on our side can?"
"That doesn't matter. Our army is larger than theirs, isn't it?"
Stark shook his head, apparently thinking this idea too crazy. But Doom didn't seem to insist either; seeing Stark not respond, he fell silent too.
However, he clearly wasn't as easily swayed as he appeared. Coincidentally, another person thought the same way as he did, and that person was the Main Universe Mr. Fantastic.
After returning to Battleworld, Main Universe Doctor Strange had been sighing deeply. Mr. Fantastic also knew that the Main Universe's performance in this war had been utterly disastrous. If they didn't do something soon, they'd be rendered irrelevant, and their status in the Multiverse would plummet, making them targets of ridicule.
They desperately needed a major victory to restore the Main Universe to its rightful status. And upon hearing about the monsters in the dimension that even Batman couldn't defeat, Mr. Fantastic made the same judgment as Doom—this was an excellent opportunity to weaken Batman's power.
The two hit it off almost instantly. They might lack morality, but they certainly could do math.
Currently, Marvel's forces outnumber DC's. Assuming Marvel's forces are 10, DC's would be roughly 7.
If they orchestrated a calamity that equally decreased both sides by 5, 10-5=5, and 7-5=2. Then, Marvel's forces would be more than twice as large as DC's—how wonderful!
If the disaster's force were slightly greater, instantly reducing each side's forces by 9, leaving Marvel with 1 and Batman's side in deficit by 2, wouldn't that ensure victory?
After such precise calculations, they decided to make one decisive move in this battle, striving to deplete all of Batman's forces. Their chosen method, which they excelled at, was an explosion.
When the two armies faced off, energy blasts would certainly fly around. Instead of letting missed shots go to waste, a machine could collect and compress them, then directly detonate to ensure hardly anyone could escape.
Indeed, there were the exceptionally strong ones whom no explosion could kill, but then they'd just blow open the dimensional rift, releasing the monsters. First injure them with an explosion, then let the monsters harvest them.
If there were still those unafraid of the monsters, they'd directly utilize the Power of Dreams to draw them into the Kingdom of Dreams, trapping and gradually eliminating them. How grand and useful a plan was this!
They themselves felt their calculations were precise, so they saw no need to consult others. Just act.
Normal people might find it tiring to do bad deeds, but these two never felt they were doing anything wrong. They thought of themselves as noble citizens, doing things that benefited the cosmos, fueled by a tremendous motivation that had them create the machine in less than two days.
In fact, they weren't hiding it from anyone, using Stark's lab. But since scientists from other universes were also using the resources, the Central Universe being rich and providing abundant resources, their machine didn't stand out, so Stark paid no attention.
JARVIS discovered it and reported to the command center and Stark. Yet, it was the same; no machine built by this group of scientists was entirely safe, all involved explosions to varying degrees. With countless warnings sent recently, the command center was numb and didn't respond in time.
The result was their operations went unusually smoothly, achieving their strategic goal—Batman's forces, which were already few, were reduced to barely one-tenth after such an explosion.
Currently, most of the superheroes on their side don't have counterparts anymore, the ones left are unique, or those who came but aren't strong enough are already rare. Even the very strong ones have few counterparts left, barely numbering fifty in total.
Although Marvel has also suffered great losses, all the young heroes are wiped out. Polaris from the Central Universe survived only because she learned a trick from her dad in advance, transforming into a magnetic field to save herself before dying. Even the likes of Quicksilver, who ran fast, escaped the explosion but couldn't evade the subsequent Nightmare Phantom attacks, not a single one remains.
There are only a few old-timers among the mutants, while The Avengers' Hulk and Iron Man survived to some extent; even the genetically modified people couldn't withstand this intensity and have mostly returned to Battleworld.
However, fortunately, since Asgard is at war and humans are providing support, the current situation is relatively good, so Asgard's forces have remained intact, retaining part of humanity's strength.
Moreover, Marvel's scientists have suffered minimal losses, Mr. Fantastic and Doctor Destruction are still in the rear, Stark and Strange are alright, the mages from the Central Universe protecting Earth are also safe, and the magical school and its students are unharmed, ready to be a formidable force if necessary. Furthermore, Spider Man, thanks to his Spider-sense, moved away early and successfully survived.
So, Reed and Doom's strategic goals have indeed been achieved. Let's not worry about how many allies were lost; just say if the opponents are almost dead.
The Primary Universe Batman obviously realized his troops are severely lacking, accurately speaking, the structure is wiped out, these remaining people can't fight on the front lines.
He currently relies on two things, one is Manhattan Batman and the Super Body, the other is the Dark Multiverse Knight Order which hasn't reported any death.
If he guessed correctly, Injustice Superman should have entered the dimension, so now the goal is to buy him time to rescue the people. Therefore, the monsters outside must not go back, because Injustice Superman is not strong and absolutely can't defeat these monsters.
"Bruce," Primary Universe Batman said, "the Batmobile wasn't handed to you for nothing, you'd better do your part."
"Here I come," Bruce said, "you told me to investigate but didn't say where, I've gone around the cosmos."
"They're now at the dimensional gateway. You need to find a way to hold them off, absolutely don't let them go back."
"No problem," Bruce said, "I'll take care of them."
"I didn't ask you to deal with them, I only…"
The communication was cut off. Primary Universe Batman didn't know where Bruce got his confidence. Suddenly he recalled that he hadn't told Bruce the Nightmare Phantom's morbid psyche possesses superpowers, highly aggressive, impossible to communicate with. Well, now he knows where that confidence came from.
And Clown Hero brought back truly good news: he took down Night Owl. Primary Universe Batman already knew, because Night Owl is currently swearing in the group.
Bruce and Jack had already reached the dimensional gateway, but their timing was unfortunate because they arrived during the aftershock phase of the earthquake—Phoenix having lost her physical body is going berserk.
That wave of explosions basically destroyed all of Phoenix's physical bodies, some relatively powerful ones also went mad under subsequent psychic attacks. Provoked, Phoenix directly lost control; now the entire universe space is a sea of fire, even those with a breath left, their ashes can certainly be canned.
"Burned so fiercely, those Nightmare Phantoms should have been dealt with, right?" Bruce said, rubbing his chin.
"Heh heh." Jack chuckled noncommittally.
Bruce unfurled his wings, wanting to fly closer for a better look. In the next second, countless fragments flashed before his eyes: the faint breath of a little girl, Dick's disappointed gaze at a certain moment, raindrops falling on Jason's arm, Alfred's old hunchbacked silhouette, the scar on the Professor's neck...
Bruce gasped for breath; before he could expel these visions from his mind, he saw a figure in a prince's outfit beckoning to him. Looking kindly and approachable, an overwhelming desire to confide filled Bruce's chest. He instinctively flew toward that direction...
Then he suddenly woke up, realizing he was just a step away from the burning sea.
Bruce "whooshed" to fly away. The instant he pressed the communicator, he rapped a genuine East Coast rap to Primary Universe Batman.
"Then you don't want the Batmobile?" Primary Universe Batman asked.
"Do you guess why I need the Batmobile?"
"Don't you want to use it at the wedding to pick up Selina?"
"Isn't the premise that I have a wedding?!"
"What are you afraid of? Death only means returning to Battleworld," Primary Universe Batman said, "Selina once accompanied you through the time you were Batman, the Batmobile is also your shared memory. She deserves to have the most perfect wedding in the world, wouldn't you say?"
Bruce took a deep breath, gritted his teeth, and said, "Just you wait."