"Is there a way to determine his location?" Shiller asked as he lowered his head to inspect the Glock.
"The Kingdom of Dreams isn't a plain," Charles said, "but rather a structure composed of countless dream bubbles, a discontinuous form. Even if we know the location, we can't directly enter Jack's dream; we need to jump through numerous dreams."
"How do we jump?"
"Dream core," Charles said, "Each dream bubble has a core, the key element that forms the dream. Breaking the core will wake the dream, allowing us to jump to the next. Typically, each dream's core differs, like the various themes people dream about, whether school life or family. We must analyze what triggers these dreams; that will be the dream core. But things are different now."
"The Black Death Emperor has invaded the Kingdom of Dreams, many dream bubbles are polluted. This means these people are experiencing nightmares. The core of the nightmare is surely related to death, which lowers the difficulty of our search."
Just as Shiller was about to ask something, Charles continued, "I know, saying it's related to death is too abstract, as death is a mere concept. However, the master of this Power of Death seems to have a fondness for corpses. So, the core of the dream lies within a corpse that carries the Power of Death. To find that specific corpse, kill it, and we can leave the dream."
Shiller walked towards the door with the others following behind, and Charles continued to explain, "I can't sense any consciousness within these Powers of Death, indicating the master isn't directly controlling them. The situation is caused by the spontaneous action of the Power of Death. In the cosmos, all forces exhibit a convergence effect, where fine forces gather to form matter. Among all the corpses, there must be one most powerful, and that's the core we're looking for."
Shiller nodded, "Save your energy, leave the path clearing to us."
Bat Cat jumped onto Charles's shoulder. They stepped out of the house, and the corpses, like zombies from all kinds of artistic works, rushed at them at the sight or scent of living beings. As soon as they stepped out, the corpses on the street surrounded them.
The Power of Death did not only contaminate humanoid creatures but also transformed animals and plants into terrifying forms. But Shiller was unfazed, raising his gun and firing.
BOOM!!!!!!
The Glock 19 in his hand had become the Colt Python prepared for him by Wonder Woman. In the real world, this gun is overkill, but in the Kingdom of Dreams, it's just right, as the power of darkness incredibly strengthens their bodies, and without a tank main gun, it's uncertain physical means would affect them.
The flames and noise turned into advantages. Fire has some suppression effect on the Power of Death, and the noise attracts more zombies. Not to mention, the auto-homing and burst-fire features of the bullets. With six anti-aircraft guns firing simultaneously, even Diablo would be hit here and there.
With that shot, Shiller felt an unparalleled thrill, not because of the corpses blown to pieces, but because no one in the team commented on the gun's performance.
No one was shocked or questioned, as if it were perfectly natural for Shiller to pull a tank main gun from his pocket and blow everything in front of them to bits. They calmly accepted everything.
Even Constantine reacted swiftly. As a massive number of zombies surrounded them and a gap opened, he rolled into the crowd, knelt on one knee with his hand on the ground. A deep, hoarse demon language echoed as raging flames from Hell spread out from him. The heat wave swept like a tornado, scattering the zombies, while Shiller blew them to pieces.
Joseph was about to do something when Charles placed a hand on his shoulder and whispered in his ear. Joseph pondered as he looked at the handgun in his hand.
It was the training gun he used at the Justice League's underground shooting range, an ordinary old pistol. But soon, the barrel began elongating, the grip broadened, turning into a beautiful anti-materiel sniper rifle in his hands.
He lovingly stroked the scope, raised the gun to aim, but was stopped by Shiller. Shiller silently took the sniper rifle from him and demonstrated how to properly set up the gun.
BANG!!!!
A bullet precisely hit a zombie's head. Shiller handed back the gun to Joseph, who learned quickly. Mimicking Shiller's posture, he set up the gun, but this time, his bullet did much more than just hit the head.
Joseph's psychic ability is unrivaled in the comics, and the bullet formed from his powers produced a railgun effect.
He raised the gun, aimed, and fired. With a boom, a five-meter-wide clear path was carved out, with an incredible range of five hundred meters. Everything in its wake was leveled, buildings sliced in half, and zombies melted, leaving nothing but faint traces of light.
No one exclaimed or praised, and they charged down that clear path. Countless zombies rushed in from both sides, as hellfire surrounded Constantine, and the heat wave tornado lifted them into the sky, with Shiller constantly shooting to reap them.
"Right side!" Bat Cat shouted, "Look at that big guy!"
They all looked over there, and a gigantic undead creature, about three stories high, roared as it charged out. Constantine shouted angrily, "Get out of the way!!!"
Everyone evacuated the scene immediately. Constantine raised his left hand high; his black hair swayed without wind, and the cross pattern on the back of his hand flickered faintly. As he slammed his hand on the Bible, a dazzling light descended from the sky.
Boom!!!!!!!!
This was a real orbital strike. The gigantic undead was completely enveloped by the holy light, emitting a violent scream, and the power of death transformed into thick black smoke, continuously releasing from its body.
The scene before their eyes began to distort, the dream bubble teetered on the edge of breaking. Charles, with quick reflexes, waved his hand and brought everyone to the place the undead was. In the next second, a familiar dizziness came, as if awakening from a big dream, and they had arrived at the next dreamscape.
This place looked like a primeval forest but was still polluted. Trees, shrubs, insects, mammals had all turned into undead creatures but still weren't a match for the team. They quickly paved a way to the center of the forest, breaking the dreamcore formed by giant mantises.
The dreams that followed became increasingly bizarre. As they ventured further into the center of pollution, the number of undead increased. Initially, they were only plants and animals, but later even abstract things like houses could transform into undead to attack them.
Charles explained, "In the dream, houses may look like buildings, but that's not necessarily the case. Like how children sometimes imagine elephants as houses, it's all based on one's imagination in the dream. If the dream's owner believes the house is alive, it can be polluted by the power of death and transform into a zombie-like thing."
The next dreamscape quickly confirmed this, as they found themselves inside the stomach of a whale, which had been turned into an undead creature. It was a rather perilous situation. Surrounded by intense power of death, they couldn't exert effective power to counter it, like Constantine's hellfire and holy light, or the physical damage caused by Shiller's gun.
Though Joseph's shot broke through the stomach wall, it agitated the whale thoroughly, causing the stomach to overturn violently, forcing them to struggle amidst the churned stomach acid, unable to release their powers effectively.
However, the team was strong in its comprehensive configuration. Bat Cat was not only Batman but also a cat, knowledgeable about all fish in the world—although whales are mammals, they are marine creatures after all—he actually knew what the whale's digestive system was like and led everyone out through the whale's esophagus, killing the undead whale from the outside.
"We're very close now," Charles said, "the next challenge is to tackle Jack's own dream. There might be things inside that you're very familiar with."
Shiller raised an eyebrow and said, "Gotham?"
"Not just that, it's probably an undead Gotham."
Shiller sneered, "Any mutated Gotham is a weakening of Gotham, the creator is a fundamentalist."
"If that's true, Jack wouldn't be easily trapped," Charles reminded, "he must have encountered a tough opponent."
Shiller understood. However, as they leaped into Jack's dreamscape and saw such a scene of decay, he was somewhat surprised— it was not only an undead Gotham but also an extremely desolate and decayed city.
"Indeed, it's Jack's nightmare," Shiller said, "It seems Bruce's renovation of Gotham failed. Gotham went bankrupt and turned into a dead city like Detroit."
"Where would he be?" Charles asked.
Shiller seemed to be searching the memory bank, the noise in the tower made it a bit hard for him to focus, but soon, he found a clue. Bruce's renovation of Gotham started in the East District, where the cluster buildings were the first step to improve the lives of people in the East District, and the entire East District's renovation began from a place called Living Hell.
"That way." Shiller pointed in a direction, and the group charged toward it.
The decaying unfinished building was filled with a dense atmosphere of death, bloodstains in the corridor extended all the way up the stairs. A slightly heavy panting sound came from downstairs, a tall and thin dark shadow appeared where there was light at the stairway entrance.
Jack looked up, his silent blue eyes in the darkness were somewhat familiar. He took a deep breath and tried to stuff his intestines, which were spilling out from a ripped abdomen, back inside. The wounds corroded by the power of death healed very slowly, and his pursuer had clearly already disregarded the Joker Virus.
If back then they hadn't entered Bruce's consciousness and dug out the Laughing Egg representing darkness, what would have become of Gotham? This was the only nightmare Jack ever had, yet unexpectedly, today, the power of death found a loophole.