It's over. This was Shiller's only thought. These mutants are the best at handling family matters. Or rather, all comics about mutants are centered around family matters, without exception.
In other comics, the main storyline involves superhero teams fighting against evil forces, but only the mutant series of comics have Professor X and Magneto's relationship as the main line.
All comics can be summarized as: either they are both evil, starting a mutant dynasty and facing challenges from rebels; or they are both kind, jointly fighting against a crisis; or one is good and the other evil, fighting fiercely. Even if their relationship is distant, they're definitely not strangers but in a cold war.
When Charles and Erik are alone together, they are ruthless with few words. But when they're together, the dialogue can be long enough to fill pages, as they rehash their old stories.
Seeing this universe's Magneto looking a bit dazed, Shiller quickly stepped forward to stand in front of Charles and said, "Where are the Batmen?"
"They did come here," the elderly Professor X said. "They asked me to help reverse the state of the Kingdom of Dreams. I can't do it. To completely drive out the Power of Death, we must awaken that powerful presence. But I can't shake him at all."
Charles understood and turned to Shiller, saying, "It seems our ideas are the same. To save the Kingdom of Dreams, we need to rely on the power of the dream god."
"Can you not awaken him?"
Charles shook his head and said, "He doesn't fully belong to the Spirit Domain, but is a mysterious existence, and sleeps very deeply. I've tried probing many times, but he has no response at all. This is likely beyond what I can do."
Shiller sighed, not expecting things to be this complicated. But he understood what Charles was saying. The Sleep Demon is not merely a creature within the Spirit Domain; like Lucifer, it is an existence in the realm of mysticism, which doesn't completely overlap with Charles's area of expertise. He can see it but may not be able to influence it.
"Where did Batman go?" Shiller asked.
"Over our place," Professor X gave an answer that surprised everyone.
"You mean you sent them to..."
"It wasn't us. It was Eternity," Scarlet Witch stepped out and said, "They approached Eternity and had Eternity take them over there. They might be trying to find mages."
Shiller couldn't help but cover his forehead. That's why Batman's strong subjective initiative can be troublesome. In just a short time, he's crossed worlds.
But soon Shiller realized something seemed off. Batman went to Marvel to find mages, which would inevitably lead to Greed's Strange in that universe. Why hasn't Strange contacted him?
Just as he thought of this, a voice call notification popped up in the Battleworld communication list. Shiller hurriedly picked it up, and Strange shouted from the other side, "What the hell! What's wrong with your tower?!!"
Shiller paused, then thought, indeed. The fastest way for Strange to find Greed wasn't to send a message via Battleworld but to go directly to the tower. But now, the tower is in a boiling state, and the party downstairs is of Morbid. Strange must have been elbowed out as soon as he entered.
This was truly Anatoli cleverly using a chain tactic, with Batmen traveling solo across long distances. No, Anatoli didn't even make a move; he just showed up slightly, and that directly propped the Batmen over to Marvel. If it's too coincidental, even gods would lose.
Shiller sighed and said, "Let's go over there for a trip."
This time they couldn't be in the dream. After all, there's no Kingdom of Dreams over there, they still had to go physically. The selection was somewhat streamlined. Joseph had no Battleworld qualification, besides, he's too young. After a series of battles, he's already very tired, so he was sent back to rest. Jack also needed to recuperate, so he stayed back.
Shiller, Constantine, Charles, and Bat Cat, three people and one cat, could travel freely between Battleworld. Thus, the rescue team set off again, meeting in Greed's Marvel Universe.
The teleportation point of Battleworld had been moved to Crux. Once they landed, they saw countless starships busily traveling between planets. Obviously, the new capital was beginning to take shape.
However, the group didn't have time to look at the scenery. They boarded a starship dispatched by Strange and arrived at the new Capital Star of the interstellar council. The construction here was already quite nice. Although it was still somewhat behind Earth, the Capital City was lush with greenery, enclosed in an ecological greenhouse, tall buildings dotted between, giving quite an Avatar-like feeling.
When they entered the Councilman's office, Strange was looking quite troubled. When he saw the agent's young face, Strange got stunned. But he clearly couldn't reminisce old stories, and urgently walked over saying, "Was the neighboring world destroyed? Why did the Batmen all collectively come here???"
Strange was visibly stressed. Shiller suspected he didn't dare let Nick know this news, otherwise, Nick would explode on the spot. That's over a dozen Batmen, and they were top hands surrounding the Primary Universe Batman. They've rushed over here in a group; this wasn't a house invaded by cockroaches, this was like a house invaded by a pack of Sabretooths.
"Where are they now?" Shiller asked.
"In Legion's mind," Strange said, "they can only operate in the Spirit Domain now. And you know how messy the Spirit Domain is here. The Dream Dimension is still being repaired, if they went in there, their equivalents would definitely want to fight me."
Only then did Shiller recall, due to the previous great war, Marvel's Dream Dimension, which is Dream Power Doctor Strange's domain, suffered significant damage. Dream Power Doctor Strange was still repairing it, and the construction site is likely very dangerous.
Strange's pressure doesn't just come from the possibility of Batmen causing trouble here, but also from their unstable condition. If anything happens on their side, no one can bear the responsibility.
"Where's Loki?" Shiller asked. He was referring to the God of Stories, Loki. If necessary, they could ask the God of Stories, Loki, to stash Batman inside a book; that should be absolutely safe.
"Let me take you to meet them first." Strange said.
The group once again entered the Spirit Domain, but this time it was Charles's Spirit Domain. Charles led them into Legion's Spirit Domain. It was an incredibly vast world, and since all those personalities had been released, it felt somewhat empty.
Charles led them to the city center. In a very European-style house, they found David stoking the fireplace. Charles hurried over, but before he said anything, David pointed to the back door. They quickly rushed over.
Primary Universe Batman was sitting at a table in the backyard, talking with Arkham Batman. Seeing the two of them, Shiller breathed a sigh of relief.
"Ah, he's come to see us," Primary Universe Batman seemed completely unsurprised. He nodded at Shiller and then said to Arkham Batman, "I won."
Arkham Batman shook his head a bit helplessly, while Shiller squinted at the two of them. Arkham Batman looked at him and said, "You got here faster than we expected. Didn't encounter any problems?"
"My biggest problem was that you guys can run so well," Shiller said frankly. "How did you manage to run so far?"
"That should be the question we ask you," Primary Universe Batman said. "Let's not talk about what Bruce did, nor the Black Death Emperor's invasion. Where did those Outer Gods go? And why couldn't the Supreme Magician contact you at the first moment?"
Shiller opened his mouth and said, "That's not important; as long as you're safe."
"I'm afraid you'll have to give us an explanation," Arkham Batman said. "And only you would give us the explanation."
Shiller pondered, realizing it was true. Expecting Arrogant or Greed to tell this story is a bit much; little truth comes from those two's mouths. And Batman certainly shouldn't miss this story, though now it seems more like a shocking gossip.
Shiller mulled over for a while on how to summarize it concisely, before finally saying, "Lucifer and The First Lantern are in a cold war, and a hot war may soon break out. I'm just watching the drama."
Even with Batman's wisdom, he couldn't understand this highly summarized and abstract statement. Primary Universe Batman pointed to a seat across and said, "No rush; you can take your time."
"Though you're not rush, I am," Shiller said. "The entire Multiverse Justice League is waiting for you to go back. Are you sure you want to hear me tell a story here?"
"It's a very obvious fact that the story you want to tell is likely the most important cause of our current situation, and will also be the most important trigger for future circumstances, right?"
Shiller was really a bit impressed with Batman. Even in such a predicament, his foresight was still sharp, his thinking remained agile, and most importantly, he was still so patient. Just unsure if they'd regret wasting time hearing such a surprisingly mundane saga once it unfolded.
So Shiller could only start from the beginning. Of course, he basically skipped matters related to himself, focusing more on the grudge between Anatoli and Lucifer, and their current situation.
Despite summarizing it as much as possible, he still ended up telling it for quite some time. After all, this story was really quite long. And the two listened very patiently. After he finished, Primary Universe Batman commented, "It's indeed a magnificent story."
Shiller widened his eyes, full of "Are you kidding?" He looked at Arkham Batman, who was also deep in thought, then after a while said, "It really is quite astonishing."
The two of them turned to look at Shiller. Shiller, in disbelief, said, "What's so astonishing about it?"
"The divine enigma, the fallen angels' battle, sacrifice and liberation, isn't that astonishing enough?" Primary Universe Batman said.
"You're Batman; you should see through phenomena to grasp the essence."
"Merit your detailed explanation."
"In essence, it's just that neither God nor Lucifer, those two stubborn ones, could beat The First Lantern, that unbeatable stubborn one, right?"
"It's really worth all the effort I spent finding The First Lantern," Primary Universe Batman sighed again. "This perhaps is the triumph of man over fate. Hearing how he saved Gotham, I really want to meet him."
Shiller slapped his forehead; how could he forget Batman was also a stubborn one? Even having empathy for them.