Lights, Lights, Lights, Lights, Lights, Lights, Lights (Part 2)

In the deepest reaches of Batman’s mindscape, the battle raged on. The black tide summoned by the Fear Laughing Demon had become an obstacle to itself, because the aquatic birds could attack the monster’s legs from beneath the surface.

The Penguin Cobblepot had transformed into was far more than capable of attacking with its beak. Whenever he flapped his wings, he churned the water into vortices that closed in on the Fear Laughing Demon. Whenever one of those vortices struck it, the legs supporting its body were dragged in one direction, throwing off its balance.

Whenever it staggered, Alberto, flying overhead, would tuck in his wings and dive, slamming viciously into one side of its body. Even if it did not fall, the immense monster would be left swaying for quite some time.

The blizzard in the field and Gordon’s suppressive fire dealt the greatest damage to the monster. Bullets, along with snowflakes and ice spikes as fast as bullets, struck the beast without pause, tearing open its flesh and forcing it to spend much of its energy simply healing.

Green Lantern Hal primarily played crowd control. While attacking the monster with Green Lantern energy, he discovered that he was somewhat helpless against its lower half—the Parallax portion. Parallax seemed to possess a special layer of defense capable of resisting Green Lantern energy. No matter how Hal attacked, it remained utterly unmoved.

The monster was ugly, but its build was undeniably well suited to dealing with a siege. Its lower body had a centipede-like, multi-legged structure, along with a long tail, making its center of gravity relatively stable. Even if one of its legs was injured, it would not fall easily.

Its upper body, meanwhile, was humanoid, with two absurdly thick arms. Every time it swung one, the airborne combatants had to dodge. If they took a hit, it would hurt badly.

"His head. His weakness is his head." Cobblepot’s voice rang in everyone’s ears. Soon, Victor’s voice followed. "In dreams, we don’t need to speak from nearby. We can communicate through thought alone, like this."

"I agree that its weakness is its head. Whenever we try to get close, it shields that spot with its arms."

"I’ve been aiming for a headshot all along!" Gordon said, crouching atop a skyscraper. "But its head is too well protected. I can’t find an opening!"

"I’ll feint and draw its attention. Find an opportunity to attack its head!" Alberto’s voice came from the air. As soon as he finished speaking, the wind roared as he rapidly circled the monster, forcing the Fear Laughing Demon to keep turning its head in search of him.

Cobblepot also kept attacking the monster’s lower body, leaving it unable to turn around and forcing it to defend itself in haste. Victor seized the opportunity, condensing a massive crystal of ice in midair and firing it toward the monster’s head.

The ice crystal appeared behind the Fear Laughing Demon, forcing it to turn its upper body and use an arm to shield the back of its head.

But at that moment, Gordon in front of it was in position as well. An absurdly massive missile shot from its launcher and, almost instantly, arrived before the Fear Laughing Demon and crashed into its tiny head.

With a BOOM, the monster let out a piercing scream. Its body began trembling violently. Clearly, the attack had worked.

And it had done more than work on the surface. It had been a tremendous help, because another war was raging inside the monster as well.

Just as Professor Schiller had predicted, Parallax, The Laughing Egg, and Batman could never coexist peacefully. The Laughing Egg was the native resident of this mindscape, and Batman was its primary opponent. It had brought Parallax in intending to join forces with it against Batman, allowing itself to escape smoothly afterward.

But Parallax was an extremely chaotic creature. Reasoning with it was difficult. In the mindscapes of its previous hosts, it had always been alone. It had no desire to share territory with anyone. Even though The Laughing Egg had let it in, it immediately turned around and bit this guide, intending to devour The Laughing Egg and monopolize Batman’s mindscape.

And Batman could not possibly permit two monsters to run rampant within his mindscape. Neither The Laughing Egg nor Parallax was anything good. Batman had no desire to cooperate with either of them, so both were his enemies.

The Laughing Egg wanted to escape, Parallax wanted to monopolize Batman, and Batman wanted to destroy them both. As a result, the three sides fought separately inside the Fear Laughing Demon.

Originally, The Laughing Egg held the advantage. Even before hatching, that malformed and bizarre embryo possessed terrifying strength. Parallax and Batman could only barely withstand its attacks.

But the attacks from outside could still help turn the tide. A heavy blow struck the Fear Laughing Demon’s head—the part occupied by The Laughing Egg—inflicting severe damage on it at once.

This had also been part of Batman’s plan. He knew that once this monster was born, the two Jokers and Professor Schiller could not possibly ignore it. They would certainly find a way to attack it.

The monster consisted of three parts: the head controlled by The Laughing Egg, the upper body controlled by Batman, and the lower body controlled by Parallax.

Whenever an attack approached its head, Batman controlled the monster’s arms to block it. But this was not to protect The Laughing Egg. It was to send a signal to those outside—the head was the monster’s weakness.

Batman believed that the people outside would understand his hint. Sure enough, they used a brilliant round of cover and feints to inflict severe damage on The Laughing Egg.

The head controlled the coordination of the monster’s movements, and its injury weakened the monster’s control over the wills within its body. Batman seized the chance to break free. After the monster screamed, yellow scales spread over its upper body, while the black coloring and bat patterns gradually faded.

Very quickly, the Fear Laughing Demon became a Parallax with The Laughing Egg’s head. All bat-related elements vanished completely from its body, while Batman appeared above Gotham.

He looked around. Apart from the person who looked like the green light in a traffic signal, whom he had never seen before, he quickly guessed the identities of all the bizarre figures around him.

Batman did not attack immediately. Instead, he went to Gordon and asked, "Have you seen the two Jokers?"

"Jokers? What Jokers?"

"Who brought you in here?"

"Oh, Schiller. Why?"

"Where did he go?"

"He said he had something to do."

Batman narrowed his eyes. He guessed that Schiller was planning something big, but he had no idea what method Schiller intended to use to reverse the current situation.

Just as he pondered that question, he suddenly heard a crisp click from within his mindscape.

It sounded somewhat like a door lock being opened, and somewhat like the connection between the compartments of a cargo truck. But after that sound, Batman looked toward the horizon, where mist churned like a sea of clouds.

Gray Mist surged in swiftly, swallowing the entire city in an instant. Batman recognized it as the ability Schiller had used during the battle of Living Hell.

Yet this mist did not damage anything on the battlefield. It was as though it were merely natural fog, arriving silently and departing silently.

Gray Mist rose and rolled between the buildings, as if the entire city had suddenly floated into a sea of clouds high in the sky. And the Fear Laughing Demon, now without Batman, paid no attention to the mist that had caused no harm.

But soon, the mist grew thicker and rose higher, until even the tallest buildings in the city were submerged.

The Fear Laughing Demon sensed that something was wrong. After a sudden dash, it coiled around Wayne Tower in the mindscape like a centipede and crouched on its roof.

The Gray Mist beneath its feet climbed upward like a parasite clinging to bone, changing from faint light gray into dense dark gray, while its lowest layer became pitch-black.

No one knew where this fog had come from, but everyone sensed an indescribable mystery and danger within it.

The mist filled the entire mindscape, occupying every area, including the sky. Within the heavens, a mirage-like Shade appeared and disappeared.

Batman looked up and saw what seemed to be a towering High Tower. He carefully examined it from top to bottom and discovered that it was at least three hundred stories tall.

As the mist grew denser, the shape of the tower became more solid, until it condensed into a complete entity. A Tower of Babel that pierced the clouds descended into the center of Gotham.

Everyone’s attention fell upon the enormous High Tower. Under their gazes, its summit continued to build itself upward. Bricks and tiles piled up, beams and pillars rose to support them, and in the span of a moment, more than a dozen new floors appeared.

When the Fear Laughing Demon saw the tower, Parallax’s keen instincts made it feel immense danger. It flew rapidly toward the tower as Batman’s voice rang in everyone’s ears. "Stop it."

At once, birds shrieked, wind and snow raged, and machine guns thundered—but none of them could match a single black figure.

Batman’s pitch-black cape fluttered through the Gray Mist. He flew at incredible speed without any equipment, even faster than Green Lantern.

He rushed before the Fear Laughing Demon and swung a slap at it. Invisible force sent the huge monster tumbling head over heels. Clearly, when it came to willpower, no one could compare to Batman.

The others all rushed forward as well, besieging the monster and forcing it back from the High Tower. As the battle grew more intense, the Towering Babel became taller and taller, until it pressed against the barrier between the deep and surface layers of consciousness.

Completely disregarding the barrier’s resistance, the High Tower continued rising, breaking through layer after layer of dreams. It rose from deep consciousness to surface consciousness, then followed the soul out of the body. Like that terrifying black tide, it crossed the sky, crossed the atmosphere, crossed the barriers of the ordinary universe, and extended into the endless, mysterious cosmos.

At that moment, Schiller’s voice echoed through the mindscape. He said, "Everyone, prepare yourselves…"