dmims Chapter 1025 The Hanged Man's Deal with Batman and the Dragon
Chapter 1025 The Hanged Man's Deal with Batman and the Dragon
Chapter 1025 The Hanged Man's Deal with Batman and the Dragon
The upside-down man let out a loud laugh.
The sound was very strange, like a machine mechanically mimicking the laughter of other creatures.
The laughter reminded Chen Tao of Brainiac—in fact, many years later, it still horrified him.
"Neither you nor the Void Hand know what I truly want."
Do you think I would act for the sake of obtaining Hecate's magic or some so-called position of Lord of Magic that is only useful in your world and utterly useless outside of it?
The Hanged Man said, "You want to fix me? No, I plan to devour the whole world, that's what I want. Your negotiations have failed miserably. I initially thought you were going to give me Antarctica."
Chen Tao realized that the Hanged Man was tempted. Rather than devouring the entire DC multiverse, the Hanged Man preferred to merge with the goddess of magic, Hecate.
No, saying they are integrated into one is too narrow a view. They are like the yin and yang of Tai Chi, opposing yet unified.
They should have been one person, but out of fear, Hecate kept him outside the DC multiverse and refused to become one with him. From the moment of his birth, the Hanged Man lost the right to have a place in the DC multiverse and was forever incomplete.
His instinct was to strive to become a complete whole; simply devouring and killing Hecate would only allow yin to overpower yang, not achieve a unified balance for the Hanged Man.
In the comics Chen Tao had seen in his previous life, the Hanged Man did indeed kill Hecate, but so what? Hecate's power and status were all inherited by the witch Cersei, and after Diana defeated Cersei, she also gained Hecate's power.
Hecate's power and status never reached the Hanged Man. In the process of killing Hecate, the Hanged Man was like a thirsty traveler in the desert who saw water and desperately rushed towards it, trying to drink it down.
But there was a large hole in his stomach, so no matter how much Hecate he drank, it would leak out. He spilled Hecate all over the floor. Diana took a piece, Cersei took a piece, but the Hanged Man himself didn't get any.
As the "yin," he cannot truly digest the "yang" aspect through brute force. Killing Hecate brings him nothing but the pleasure of drinking water and the illusion of successfully devouring her.
Therefore, when Chen Tao proposed the concept and suggestion of balance to the Hanged Man, he completely captivated him.
But here's the problem: "How do you plan to help me balance the power between Hecate and me?"
Chen Tao heard the question and was about to answer when he heard the Laughing Bat suddenly interject, "I can give you Antarctica."
Chen Tao suddenly turned his head to look at him.
"Oh oh oh, it looks like a very strong bidder has emerged," said the Hanged Man. "While balance is my top priority, I wouldn't be opposed to a perfect plan that would allow me to devour a portion of the DC multiverse."
"I think we need to discuss this," Chen Tao said calmly to the Hanged Man.
The Hanged Man shrugged, making a gesture of complete acceptance as he hung upside down.
When Chen Tao turned his head, the instant his back was to the Hanged Man, his face darkened like a volcano about to erupt.
Veins bulged on his forehead, and the Bat of Mad Laughter's self-serving actions made his face look ferocious.
"What the hell are you doing?!"
Chen Tao was beginning to regret his cooperation with the Batman Who Laughs. The pressure from various powerful enemies, such as the Void Hand, Perpetua, Hecate, and the Hanged Man, made him want to seek the Batman Who Laughs' help. But he should have known that the Batman Who Laughs would bite him in the back at a crucial moment.
The Bat of Laughter could not be allowed to live. Chen Tao almost instantly felt murderous intent towards the Bat. His extreme desire for control made him unable to tolerate the Bat of Laughter being by his side any longer. Now he had to try to kill the Bat of Laughter. The Bat of Laughter was constantly adding unexpected events to his life, and things could not proceed.
But at the same time, he also had a strange feeling. The Batman Who Laughs' suggestion to give Antarctica to the Hanged Man was his secretly prepared plan B.
Yes, that's right. The Bat Who Laughs was in the same boat as him. The moment Chen Tao decided to face the Hanged Man, he had already made a plan: if the Hanged Man disagreed with the balancing plan, Chen Tao would use a second method to reach an agreement with the Hanged Man.
The plan was to sell out Antarctica, but not the Antarctica of the main universe. Chen Tao wasn't stupid enough to give up a part of the entire DC multiverse to the Hanged Man. That would be like cutting off a piece of his own flesh to satisfy the wolf's appetite, which would make the already weak DC multiverse even weaker.
The lost Antarctica is not merely a piece of land on Earth, but an entire piece of history related to Antarctica; a single move has far-reaching consequences, altering the entire course of history.
Anyone with a basic understanding of geography should know that the Earth's crustal movements originated from the earliest supercontinent, Pangaea, which then dispersed into several continents.
If Antarctica were to disappear, the entire history of Earth's crustal movement would be altered.
But even though he can't send it to Antarctica in the DC main universe, he can send it to another Antarctica.
That's right, Dr. Manhattan.
Simply put, Dr. Manhattan is currently the strongest and most terrifying person in the entire DC multiverse. He reigns over the entire DC multiverse like an emperor, but he doesn't participate much in the events of the DC multiverse itself.
But it also has a bottom line that cannot be passively protected, namely the Watchers universe, which makes things very interesting.
As we all know, when there is factional strife, the smartest way is to directly target the emperor. Isn't Dr. Manhattan supposed to be aloof and independent, occasionally participating in major events in the DC multiverse, and then always protecting himself and remaining aloof?
Chen Tao already had a plan to fool the Hanged Man. If he tried to take Antarctica from the DC main universe but instead attacked Antarctica from the Watchmen universe, then Chen Tao would soon see how the Hanged Man was suppressed by Dr. Manhattan.
But he hadn't told anyone about this plan, and the fact that he'd now revealed it before him suggests that—
"Why not?"
Chen Tao looked into the eyes of the Laughing Bat. At that moment, neither of them spoke, but no words were needed. Just by looking into each other's eyes, they knew that they were thinking the same thing.
Their thoughts were so in sync that they not only came up with the same method, but they also didn't communicate in any way in front of the Hanged Man.
They all unanimously communicated solely through eye contact, which wasn't just taking advantage of the Hanged Man's blindness—at least when it came to the BOSS fight.
In the final stage, before countless eyeballs sprout from his body, the Hanged Man is completely naked, with no design whatsoever to allow him to see.
Well, they not only bully the blind, but they also prevent the leakage of information during communication to the greatest extent possible.
However, this feeling of mutual understanding made Chen Tao feel somewhat uncomfortable.
"No."
He spoke to the Bat of Laughter, saying, "I have other methods. Unless absolutely necessary, I would never, in principle, sell out a part of my world for no reason."
Even as the sound continued to echo, the Bat of Laughter met his gaze once more. At that moment, both the Bat of Laughter and Chen Tao understood the murderous intent in his eyes.
"Wow." Chen Tao's murderous intent was so undisguised that even the Hanged Man noticed it.
He let out a surprised exclamation, like a bystander, and then, in the next moment, Chen Tao suddenly sprang to his feet.
"It seems your opinions require a fight. Fine, then I'll reluctantly watch you fight for a while until a final winner is decided—"
"Hey, isn't this interesting?"
"Forget it, you know you can't handle me." The laughing bat retreated, while Chen Tao pounced on him.
He knew, of course, that the Batman Who Laughs wouldn't be so easy to kill. If the Batman Who Laughs were really that easy to kill, he would already be a corpse by now.
But Chen Tao at least intended to kill the body that the Laughing Bat was currently in beside him, or at least to destroy the body's ability to move. He couldn't tolerate such a variable if the other party became uncontrollable.
As for the other purpose, Chen Tao now wants to test just how powerful the Batman Who Laughs really is. Chen Tao means to see how well the Batman Who Laughs controls the Manhattan Bat's body.
Faced with an enemy who is "enraged" or feigns rage to test him, who is infinitely close to a sixth-dimensional god, to what extent can the Batman Who Laughs mobilize the power of the Manhattan Bat to resist the Batman Dragon and prevent it from being cut into eight pieces?
Every encounter is an opportunity to gather intelligence. Chen Tao needs to know just how much power the Batman Who Laughs has now. Although they are of the same mind in their current goal of seizing the Magical Sovereign position in the DC Multiverse, this time it was indeed the Batman Who Laughs who acted on his own initiative, attempting to seize control of their alliance.
Chen Tao's attack was entirely justified.
In an instant, as he raised his hand, countless super-time-overwriting strikes pressed down on the laughing bat before him like an invisible weight.
The invisible, heavy, and immense weight of history, like wind pressure, bent the back of the laughing bat, causing it to collapse to the ground with a thud.
But then he laughed wildly and stood up unharmed, as if the history that had happened to him had never existed.
He grinned and got up from the ground again. Just as he stood up, his head fell off his neck and shattered into dust. But after a flash of blue light, his head reappeared safely on his neck.
And this is the history that Chen Tao created, leaving the deepest mark on Kuang Xiao's body.
And those that were far more egregious—those that destroyed half his body, shattered his legs, shattered the universe, and obliterated his entire being—
They were all somehow immune to the Laughing Bat.
Chen Tao backed down.
That's truly remarkable.
He thought to himself silently.
The Batman Who Laughs has acquired some ability that he cannot understand, but which must be related to the Manhattan Bat. Overwriting in the timeline is no longer meaningful to him.
The only possible overwrite was decapitation, which posed no threat to the maniacal laughter.
Chen Tao calmed down. He was right. Once he realized that he couldn't deal with the Laughing Bat, he should look for a breakthrough in other directions instead of continuing this meaningless battle.
His aura changed slightly, and the maniac laughed to know that he didn't intend to continue fighting.
Seeing that the other party had lowered their defenses, Chen Tao felt even more annoyed.
Damn it, why is the Batman Who Laughs so compatible with me? This feeling of knowing each other's limits made the sense of losing control in his heart roar desperately, but reason told him that he could neither do anything to the Batman Who Laughs now, nor did he need the Batman Who Laughs' follow-up plan.
So if he can't capture the Laughing Maniac and completely manipulate him, he can only accept the Laughing Maniac's presence here and work with him as a collaborator to achieve his goals.
He then turned his gaze to the Hanged Man.
"Alright, so what method do you plan to use to help me achieve a balance between Yin and Yang?"
"A container, a container."
Chen Tao told the Hanged Man, "Actually, I have been secretly keeping a large portion of the flesh and bones of Superman Supreme. I need Zatanna's help, some magic, Hecate's power, and Wonder Woman's help to create a vessel for you that can hold the power of both you and Hecate through the Crimson of All Beings."
The upside-down man scoffed.
"Don't make me laugh. What kind of container could hold both me and Hecate at the same time? Not even the flesh and blood of Superman Supreme."
The Hanged Man said, "This container is impossible to make."
"Let's try it first. If it doesn't work, I have a spare container."
"Really? What is it?" The Hanged Man seemed to have become slightly interested.
"I."
Chen Tao said.
The Laughing Bat grinned maliciously from the side.
What a coincidence, Batman and the Dragon.
"Yes, I can help you achieve a balance of Yin and Yang within my body. I am the one who has resolved the greatest crisis in the DC multiverse since the beginning of the infinite timeline."
I now bear the manifest destiny of the DC multiverse. There is almost nothing I cannot accomplish if I set my mind to it. Only when the dark side of the DC multiverse rises will it suppress me. But given a climax in the DC multiverse's superhero destiny, I can help you achieve your wishes and goals, or rather, the DC multiverse can help you achieve your wishes and goals. I will become the embodiment of the DC multiverse's will.
The Hanged Man stroked his chin, hearing Batman Dragon say to him, "If you can help me defeat the Void Hand, I can help you become whole. After that, whether you leave the DC multiverse or whatever, it will be none of our business. Deal? This deal?"
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