Fear Laughing Demon (Part 2)

Q: What was scarier than opening your eyes and discovering you had transmigrated?

It was opening your eyes and discovering you had transmigrated to Gotham City.

So what was scarier than opening your eyes and discovering you had transmigrated to Gotham City?

It was discovering that Batman and Joker were fighting right in front of you.

Then what was scarier than discovering Batman and Joker fighting right in front of you?

It was discovering that two Jokers were fighting in front of you.

What was scarier than discovering two Jokers fighting?

It was discovering that three Jokers were fighting.

What was scarier than discovering three Jokers fighting?

It was discovering that three Jokers were fighting while Batman stood off to the side watching.

What was scarier than discovering three Jokers fighting while Batman watched from the side?

It was discovering that Batman had teamed up with two Jokers to beat the hell out of another Joker…

Because whenever that happened, it probably meant the editor’s real daddy, Wei Yixiao, had arrived…

At the edge of Batman’s consciousness, just such a battle was taking place. Yet what they faced was not The Batman Who Laughs, but a monster that resembled Joker without quite being the same.

All four of its limbs were thin, elongated strips that seemed barely capable of supporting its body, yet it remained standing. Its head was a gray egg, and on that egg was a horrifying smiling face.

At that moment, its gaping mouth was full of blood-stained teeth. Nearby, Jack clutched his hand as blood streamed from it.

Just moments ago, the monster had broken free from the operating table and bitten Jack.

Jack was not badly hurt; there was only a bite-shaped wound on his wrist. But it foretold something extremely dangerous: the thing lurking deepest within Batman’s consciousness might not be merely a simple Joker.

It had escaped the joint assault of Joker Schiller and Joker Jack, and had even wounded Jack in return. That suggested it was far stronger than it looked. Most importantly, it was still only an embryo.

What would this laughing embryo hatch into? Everyone had a bad feeling, including Batman himself. He had never realized that something so terrifying was hidden in the depths of his heart.

At the edge of Batman’s dream lay the same pitch-black Gotham City. Violent winds and torrential rain raged without end through the night. The rain grew heavier, the thunder louder, and the night darker and deeper. Two Jokers, The Laughing Egg, and Batman all stood above the city.

The battle had reached a stalemate. Joker Jack wielded his dagger, leaving bone-deep cuts across The Laughing Egg’s long, thin limbs with every strike. Joker Schiller fought more like a mage, using an invisible force to control The Laughing Egg’s movements.

Batman stood still, but he was not merely watching. He was fighting the monster for control of the dream.

That was right. This malformed monster, with limbs twisted out of shape and nothing but a huge mouth on its entire head, possessed nearly the same authority as Batman within the dream. Batman had to exert all his strength to resist its attempt to seize control.

Originally, before Batman learned The Truth and before The Laughing Egg had been dug out, Joker Jack and Joker Schiller each possessed some control over the dream. But once the two rightful masters appeared, control returned entirely to them. Even now, they continued battling in an unseen realm, each trying to completely take command of the dream and the space of consciousness.

What surprised Batman was that it felt as though he was not fighting an enemy, but himself. Every exertion carried the awkward sensation of arm-wrestling himself, like his left foot and right foot tripping each other, or his left and right arms tangling together in an attempt to strangle one another.

Batman had never encountered anything like this, and he suffered badly at first. Thunder boomed above dark Gotham, and several bolts of lightning nearly struck the other two Jokers. Clearly, The Laughing Egg was using the dream’s power to disrupt their movements.

Fortunately, perhaps because the terrifying embryo had not yet hatched, it was mad and violent but lacked much reason. It acted on instinct like a newborn infant—an especially frail premature one. Even the young Batman quickly regained the upper hand.

One Batman and two Jokers steadily closed in on the malformed monster. This unhatched embryo clearly found it difficult to withstand the attacks of two Jokers and a Batman.

The cold wind wailed through the night, and the driving rain lashed against their bodies like a barrage of bullets. Even Batman had trouble keeping his footing in such fierce wind and rain. His cape was constantly yanked backward, snapping loudly in the storm.

He seemed to hear a childish voice wailing, mixed with faint, crazed laughter. The sound echoed through Batman’s mind, filling him with grief and sorrow, as though he himself were walking toward death.

At last, he realized it. He confirmed that the terrifying, malformed monster opposite him was actually himself—someone within the depths of his consciousness, one of his personalities, one side of him. And as that personality faced death, he felt the same fear.

In the torrential rain, Batman slowly sank to one knee. That fear traveled through their consciousness into his mind, making his entire mental space tremble.

No one in this world was unafraid of death, especially when their own death was unfolding before their eyes. A dark emotion began to surge within Batman’s heart.

In the wind and rain, Joker Jack and Joker Schiller’s hair was soaked and blown wildly about. When Schiller looked up, he saw a thin black line appear at the edge where heaven and earth met. Then it began to ripple. Jack slapped his forehead and said, "Uh-oh! Looks like we’re in trouble!"

In the blink of an eye, the thin rippling line had already rushed before them. It was a black tide that blotted out the sky, radiating an aura of terror.

The assault on and provocation of The Laughing Egg caused the black tide buried deep within Batman’s consciousness to surge forth. It became an irresistible, raging wave that swept across everything at the edge of the dream.

Almost instantly, The Laughing Egg at the forefront was swallowed. Its long, thin limbs could not withstand the horrifying tide. In mere moments, the monster’s limbs corroded away, leaving only a smiling egg floating upon the sea.

Schiller and Jack began to flee. Only after the violent black tide had battered Gotham at the dream’s edge into ruins did it slowly subside. But this world had already been completely destroyed, and the entire edge of the dream was riddled with holes. The Laughing Egg had vanished without a trace.

Standing at the edge of the churning black tide, Jack burst into crazed laughter. "I told you Batman wouldn’t disappoint me! This is him, this is him! Hahahahahahahaha!"

"This is darkness that belongs to him alone, fear that belongs to him alone…" Jack spread his arms and murmured as if in a dream. "This is Batman. This is his heart…"

Yet the black tide that had crushed everything did not stop completely. Countless whirlpools formed across its surface, spinning faster and faster until towering waterspouts rose into the air.

Countless small waterspouts began converging toward the center, merging into one enormous tornado. The gigantic vortex swept the entirety of Gotham at the edge of the dream into itself.

The two Jokers standing at the dream’s edge could only barely withstand that terrifying force.

All the waters of the black tide became a colossal tornado, rising continuously until it broke through layer after layer of dreams.

Higher, and higher still. The tornado formed from black waters was like a sharp sword, piercing through the dreams of the deep consciousness layer by layer until it reached the barrier between the surface consciousness and the deep consciousness.

More and more black tide surged upward without pause, and the entire space of consciousness began to shake. Gothams across countless layers of dreams collapsed almost simultaneously. After a brief silence, the barrier of the surface consciousness was breached.

Even after the black tide reached Batman’s surface consciousness, it did not stop. It continued surging upward, racing along his soul and bursting from his body.

Before Bruce had even awakened, an invisible and terrifying force shot through his body and surged toward the heavens.

Schiller, standing before the office’s floor-to-ceiling window, suddenly turned his head. He narrowed his eyes toward the outskirts of Gotham City. At the same time, many mysterious powers throughout the universe sensed that irresistible black tide of fear.

It was an entirely abstract force. Nothing at all could be seen in reality, yet those with special sight and spiritual perception could feel its devastating power.

The tornado formed from that black tide did not cease after bursting through Bruce’s body. Instead, it surged toward even greater heights.

It crossed the skies above Gotham, crossed the skies above the East Coast, crossed the skies above the entire American continent, until it reached the atmosphere—beyond Earth.

Within the vast and mysterious universe, a black sword rose. It ascended into higher starfields, broke through every barrier, until, in the deeper reaches of space, a mysterious presence suddenly sensed that heart-shaking fear.

Just as Bruce’s consciousness gradually broke free of the black tide and rose through the hole carved by its tornado, floating up through layer after layer of dreams to regain control of his body, he heard a distant, deep voice echo beside his ear:

"Black day boundless, white night bright,

Wicked foes, beware my light,

Fear’s flames burn, those who oppose me die,

Fear is the source, S.H.I.E.L.D. authority!"

"Intelligent Life identified: Batman of Earth. You possess the ability to instill immense fear in others. Welcome to the Sinestro Corps!"