Chapter 2235: The Battle of the Two Cities! (66)_1

Barbados has been feeling rather vexed lately.

No need to delve into his origins. As a Dark Dragon, his primary job at this stage - and every stage, really - is to invade the cosmos.

Not too long ago, while busily invading a universe, he suddenly felt an enormous alarm clock blaring in his ear, buzzing around his head.

That was the day he came to know of a peculiar being named Nyarlathotep.

Who is Nyarlathotep? Where is he from? What can he do? Is that even his real name? Barbados knew nothing.

Despite being trapped in the dark universe, he was once a high-ranking general under the Third Party's command and was savvy enough to at least find some background information about others. Yet, no matter how hard he searched, he found no discernible details about this Nyarlathotep - it looked like he simply didn't belong to this world.

Something from beyond the Origin Wall had snuck in?

Barbados initially suspected as much, but it follows that if the Origin Wall didn't serve as a barrier, more entities aside from Nyarlathotep would have flooded in. Therefore, it seemed this being had already been hiding in this universe and just recently surfaced.

But if he reached out immediately upon revealing himself, what was his intention?

Barbados took a considerable amount of time trying to figure this out, only to discover that Nyarlathotep's actions carried no ulterior motives. He was simply meandering.

Having sensed Nyarlathotep's power in the tremendous alarm that had rung out, Barbados did in fact become embroiled in some friction with him. To be accurate, it was unilateral on Barbados' part, wanting to attack Nyarlathotep, but failing to land any hits. Conversely, Nyarlathotep didn't retaliate.

There were some energy clashes and exchanges between the two, but they ended fruitlessly, resulting in no significant outcomes.

What irritated Barbados the most however was that Nyarlathotep just wouldn't leave.

Indeed, from that day on, a shadow loomed above Barbados within the depth of the dark multiverse, the place imbued with the origin of all darkness.

Nyarlathotep did nothing but squat there, watching Barbados work.

This reminded Barbados of his days working under the Third Party. To give some context, Barbados was essentially a recycling station back then. The good parts from the shattered universes would be salvaged and kept on a plate, the rest, Barbados would consume. That was his job.

Back then, the Third Party would squat next to the forge, crafting galaxies while watching Barbados consume derelict worlds. The sense of belittlement Barbados felt then was considerable, it was as if he were a mere dog.

Subsequently, he betrayed the Third Party, devouring him and successfully becoming the master of the dark multiverse, but now another had come to squat by the side and monitor his work.

He did indeed long to invade the bright multi-universe, and had been relentlessly working towards that goal, but his exertion of efforts in this undertaking was one matter while another party squatting like an overseer and scrutinizing his work was an entirely different issue.

If he was treated as a dog before betraying his master, and remains treated as a dog after the betrayal, then what was the point of the treason?

The more Barbados thought about it, the more his anger grew. He mustered all he could to try and attack Nyarlathotep, hoping to blast this unfortunate matter out of existence. However, he then realized they seem to exist on different planes. His attacks couldn't hit Nyarlathotep's true form.

To put it more accurately, Nyarlathotep did not belong to this world they were encoded differently. Though their power bore similarities and could intermingle, they couldn't harm each other's true bodies. They could only glare at each other impotently.

After struggling for half the day and bearing no fruits, Barbados gave up, considering letting him be since none of his attacks could actually hit him.

But then frustratingly, not long after, another entity that looked remarkably similar to Nyarlathotep arrived. One glance at it and you knew it was his kin.

This one merely stood next to Nyarlathotep, also not moving a muscle, just watching Barbados. From Barbados' perspective, this entity was even more abstract than Nyarlathotep, at least with Nyarlathotep, one could make out a vague humanoid shape, whereas this new one was nothing more than a bunch of suds.

Barbados tried to examine this suds-like entity and finally confirmed that they indeed emanated from the same place. After fruitlessly attempting to attack, Barbados realized he still wasn't able to inflict damage.

Barbados also tried to communicate with them, soon discovering an impasse—they spoke entirely different languages.

Barbados learned that these alien deities—a name he gave to the racial group of these two oddball beings, implying foreign gods—communicated by directly dumping a deluge of information into your brain.

This method, however, has a caveat. If the target is a weaker life form, as their brains lack any real protection - the same goes for their soul - these outer gods can dump as much information as they please, with the extent of understanding or comprehension varying per individual. Once understood, they then have to devise a way to relay the information back, thus completing the communication.

But when dealing with powerful beings like Barbados, who clearly have defensive abilities against attacks on their consciousness and soul, establishing a communication channel for consciousness and soul is extremely dangerous as the other party could potentially invade through this channel and completely shatter your sanity or even replace you. Hence, such channels are permanently closed and will never be opened.

And judging from the outer gods' grotesquely abstract appearances, anything they try to force into others couldn't possibly be considered good. Daring not to open such a channel, Barbados was left with no means of communication.

This led to the outer gods only able to communicate via this channel instead of speaking, while Barbados who only knew how to speak, absolutely refused to communicate using this channel, leaving both parties with no overlapping communicative methods.

Thus, the number of strange beings squatting in the origin of darkness became two, stationed on either side as if two guardian deities, each day just watching Barbados invading universes.

But then, a crazy thing happened. A few days ago, another misfortune showed up, similar to the previous ones but even more abstract — a clump of fog.

Upon waking up and discovering fog in his dark cosmos, Barbados initially thought that his home was haunted. Even now, he cannot confirm whether this thing is also an Outer God.

The other two, as abstract as they are, at least have some form or shape. Isn't this clump of fog a bit too much like a natural phenomenon?

Guess what, they couldn't be traced, couldn't be fought, or even communicated with. Now, those squatting above the darkness became the big three bosses, creating an unexpected bustling atmosphere with sunrise, sunset, and the numerous stars in the otherwise empty darkness.

Barbados was speechless. What the hell are you three doing here? If you've got nothing else to do, could you maybe clean up your village? What brings you here?

Unfortunately, these three Outer Gods are like elusive projections. They are uninteractive, uncommunicative, merely existing like natural phenomena but untouchable.

Barbados had tried everything. These three damn things just stood there, motionless, and he was left alone as if he was being isolated and bullied at his own home. Where could he go to seek justice?

Forget it. Just let them look, Barbados gave up. He realized that the existence of these three entities is different from other intellectual creatures, probably more like natural phenomena. It's better to devote his time to his own endeavors than quarrel with them.

Barbados was still busy with his grand plan of invading the bright multi-universe. His specific method was to have the Court of Owls find Batman and use Batman to open the gate for the dark multiverse invasion.

Since Barbados had been focusing on the Court of Owls, he picked up immediately when the Pelican Priest from New City called him.

However, after Barbados answered the phone, he needed to focus his attention to take a look. But when he concentrated and gazed that way, he found the channel was blocked. He couldn't see anything.

Fortunately, it was quickly cleared up. Barbados opened the viewing channel intending to check on the progress in that universe. However, as soon as he looked, something banged right into his eyeball.

Blinking, Barbados squinted his eyes, "Holy shit, isn't that Joker?!"

In an instant, Barbados was livid. What the hell was the Court of Owls in your universe thinking? Using Joker as a sacrifice? You think I'm Batman?!

You can't throw shit into the wishing well just because you asked for a wish from the turtles in there!

Get out! Get out of here right away!

Barbados was annoyed beyond words by those three things hovering over him. He had no time or mood to see what was happening in that universe. He kicked Joker back the way he came, completely shut down the channel, and blocked the Pelican Priest's phone number.

It didn't occur to Joker that he would get an opportunity to leap directly in front of the puppet master. This was a big deal.

Ten minutes later, the agitated voice of the Joker echoed throughout the Batcave.

"He's that——big! Wings that——long! I wouldn't hesitate to say longer than the Americas! Talons that resemble golden eagles! Golden eagles, you know??!"

"His cloak is made of darkness. Underneath the hood is a very vulnerable face. Though I didn't get a clear look, the eyes full of haunting fire couldn't be more eviler!!"

"Moreover, Batman, do you know? There are not just one of them, but four!! Four puppet masters!!! They want to manipulate Gotham, manipulate you, manipulate me, and they've already begun to do so!!"

"The one in the middle is tall, long, and thin, surrounded by masks and countless tentacles. No matter what angle you look at it, it looks different. The one on the left is comprised of huge bubbles, everywhere are bubbles, each of which contains many sickening and dizzying scenes."

"The one on the right-hand side, well, I have no idea about the right one! I don't even know if that can be considered a creature. It looks like an endlessly rolling fog, seems like it exists, yet it seems like it doesn't."

Batman approached the cell where Joker was held, grabbed his left hand which was gripped on the rail, and pulled his arm out. Joker continued his pantomime with his other arm.

"The four of them form an evil council. The one looking like a dragon is their leader. They squat in a place full of darkness. Eh, devoid of any light, planning a secret invasion here. Batman, you need to..."

Joker, watching Batman roll up the sleeves of the arm he pulled out and stick a blood-drawing needle into the skinny arm, jumped up as if he'd been massively insulted.

Joker was immediately offended, jumping up and screaming: "I'm not one of those junkies! I didn't do drugs!!!!"

"Hey, don't listen to him. All the junkies say the same thing. This guy definitely took something."

Bruce, from the cell next door, gestured with his thumb pointing to Joker, his hand rested on the rail outside.

Joker quickly turned and glared at him.

Bruce smiled at him.

Joker's screams abruptly stopped.