Chapter 175: Allen Rescues Batman Bruce
Parading so many Bruces around naked in public was essentially the same as exposing Batman's identity to the world.
Besides, how would they even explain the concept of the Dark Multiverse to the public? It would only incite greater panic.
"Strange... Why hasn't he shown up yet?"
Allen looked at the Dark Knights with confusion on his face.
By all rights, the Bat God Barbatos should have stepped in to rescue his subordinates by now. There was no way he'd just sit back and watch.
These seven Dark Knights were among the top combatants of the Dark Multiverse. As the vanguard of the invasion into the Prime Material Universe, they wouldn't give up so easily.
"What's going on!?"
Doctor Fate suddenly exclaimed, "I sense a spreading darkness!"
As he spoke, a black dot appeared behind the Dark Knights, slowly expanding into a black hole.
It was deep and utterly black—an abyss with no end, exuding a terror capable of devouring everything.
"What a surprising universe... You actually managed to defeat my vanguard."
A deep, echoing voice rang out from within the black hole.
A dark figure sat upon an obsidian throne, draped in a pitch-black cloak, like the embodiment of night itself.
It was the Bat God—Barbatos, sovereign of the Dark Multiverse.
The overwhelming aura of darkness, antiquity, and destruction left the members of the Justice League breathless.
For heroes who had encountered Old Gods before, Barbatos's power felt far beyond any deity they'd known.
Shazam, in particular, could clearly sense that Barbatos's power level surpassed that of the Seven Gods within him by several magnitudes.
Clack!
Allen pulled up a chair, plopped down, crossed his legs, and said bluntly, "Wendy, let Batsy go. Put on some white stockings and let me take a photo. I'll pretend nothing ever happened."
"..."
Barbatos fell into a moment of silent contemplation, trying to recall who this man in front of him was.
He searched his memories thoroughly—yet found absolutely nothing.
Singularity of the Multiverse!
A phrase surfaced in his mind.
Instantly, Barbatos took this man far more seriously.
He himself was a multiversal singularity and knew better than anyone how rare such beings were.
Though there weren't many multiversal singularities, they weren't exactly unheard of either—several were even recorded on the Source Wall.
Encounters with beings of this level within the multiverse were usually just high-dimensional projections into lower dimensions.
In fact, Barbatos couldn't even be sure whether he'd be able to kill such an entity.
For all he knew, this person's future self might be watching this moment from within the realm of time itself…
Or perhaps he'd mastered the laws of causality, subtly influencing the final outcome through other means.
"Let him go?"
Barbatos flatly refused. "Bruce is the spatial anchor. I can't just release him so easily."
Of course, beings at the level of multiversal singularities would eventually have to clash to determine supremacy.
"As long as I control the anchor point, I can continuously send in more Dark Knights. The Batmen of the Dark Multiverse will drown your world like a flood."
Barbatos issued his threat.
There were countless Prime Material Universes—he didn't need to destroy this one. Just scaring them off with a word was enough to ensure his reputation for future conquests.
His words left the Justice League tense and anxious.
Even the current Dark Knights had been difficult enough—if an entire army arrived, they'd likely be wiped out in moments.
They silently waited to see how Allen would respond, all while mentally preparing to mobilize every force available to deal with the crisis that threatened to engulf their entire universe.
"Holy crap, I didn't expect you to be this underhanded," Allen muttered. "Tell me, do you also have a Dark Superman army hidden somewhere?"
"Indeed. My armies far surpass your imagination," Barbatos replied with calm arrogance.
After all, the Dark Multiverse didn't just produce Batmen who survived to the end. Plenty of other hero-turned-survivors existed too, many of whom could lead armies of their own. Barbatos just favored the Batman variants due to his own nature.
"Boss, is it too late for me to switch sides now?" Allen asked, blinking innocently, with a hopeful look on his face.
"..."
Barbatos was momentarily dumbfounded.
He had fully expected some dramatic speech or fierce resistance… and instead got this utterly shameless surrender.
So much so that the Justice League members nearly tackled Allen on the spot—if he actually defected, they wouldn't hesitate to imprison him themselves.
Barbatos sneered, "You defeated my Dark Knights. Do you think I'd actually take you in?"
"Man, villains have gotten too smart these days. Same old tactics just don't work anymore," Allen sighed. "Guess I have no choice but to play my trump card."
"Trump card?" Barbatos raised an eyebrow. As he suspected—this guy had a contingency plan.
"You know what this is?" Allen asked.
"My right hand?"
Allen raised his right hand, and Barbatos looked confused. Was there some hidden trick?
"Wrong."
Suddenly, Allen's armored right glove lit up with flowing multicolored light. With a sly smile, he said, "Ever since the Court of Owls started laying their traps, I've been thinking of ways to respond. After thinking it through, I realized there's probably only one set of artifacts powerful enough—and they're next door in Marvel: the Infinity Stones."
As he spoke, six glowing gems emerged and embedded themselves on the surface of the armored gauntlet.
The six Infinity Stones radiated with dazzling brilliance, each hue representing a different fundamental force:
Power, Space, Time, Reality, Mind, and Soul—each one alone could make its wielder a supreme force in the universe. These were treasures over which countless factions had waged war for ages.
At this moment, Barbatos's expression shifted.
He stood from his throne, peering through the black hole, trying to verify the authenticity of the stones.
Among the gathered heroes, quite a few had heard of the Infinity Stones.
But hearing was one thing. Seeing was another.
Several felt the stirrings of greed. Constantine, in particular, began to think about ways to steal them.
"Even with all six Infinity Stones, you've only reached a cosmic-level power. It's still not enough to defeat a multiversal-level being like me," Barbatos said gravely.
And he wasn't wrong. Infinity Stones existed within individual universes and ceased to function once that universe was destroyed.
As powerful as they were, their dominion was limited to their native universe—they could not harm Barbatos, whose essence existed beyond such limitations. He remained composed—his only regret was that he failed to conquer this universe.
"Who said there are only six Infinity Stones?" Allen chuckled darkly, "Heh heh heh…"
He raised his left hand, revealing another gauntlet—with six more completely different Infinity Stones.
"In truth, there are twelve Infinity Stones in total. Once you have one, they begin to attract the rest."
Allen explained, "The gold one is the Ego Stone, formed from the will of the Infinity Goddess. The red one is the Anthos Stone, representing wisdom. The pink is the Rhythm Stone. The black one is a borrowed Plot Continuity Stone from Deadpool. As for the white and blue ones... they're something else entirely."
"Say no more. You can have him," Barbatos immediately interrupted and released Bruce.
He actually knew a bit of the secret behind the Infinity Stones.
The six in the right hand represented the material body of the Infinity Goddess. The six in the left hand represented her consciousness.
He had heard of the Ego Stone and Anthos Stone before.
Anyone who knew of all twelve stones was clearly no ordinary being.
Previously, Barbatos had been confident enough to spar for fun. Now, he had no interest in testing anything further.
A frail and barely conscious Bruce fell out of the black hole, looking like a withered old man—his life force having been drained to maintain the dimensional passage.
Normally, during such an invasion, the Dark Knights would have used more people as human batteries to stabilize and expand the portal.
Bruce's condition wasn't too serious, though. A soak in the purified Dionesium at the Batcave would restore him in no time.
At that moment, the black hole shrank and disappeared.
The Dark Knights had clearly been abandoned by Barbatos.