For some reason, compared to the killing intent rolling off Deathstroke, the way Bat Owl was completely at ease instead made people's blood run cold.
Diana walked to the back of Deathstroke's chair and rested her hand on the backrest; she was starting to run out of ideas.
It wasn't like she'd never seen Self-healing Ability Users before—she'd fought monsters like Doomsday—but this one was different. The guy's previous corpse was still lying on the floor to the side, yet it was like he had an endless supply of clones.
But these weren't clones; it was some ability related to Magic, and for the moment she had no clue.
Su Ming felt her movement.
But his gaze still stayed on the enemy across from him. He had removed his armor as well, now talking to the other man in an all-black suit.
Diana only saw Deathstroke raise his hand toward the opposite side, making a "please" gesture.
"Tell us your story."
The other side clearly wanted to talk, so he might as well give him that chance and see whether he could talk himself into a corner.
The more he knew about the enemy, the more solutions Su Ming could come up with.
Given how utterly fearless this guy looked, and the way he called the few members of the Justice League "old friends," he probably wouldn't mind talking about his past.
Sure enough, Bat Owl nodded, conjured a bottle of wine with a casual raise of his hand, poured himself a glass, and began to talk with the cup in his hand.
"First off, let me be clear: I'm not Batman. You can call me Bruce, but I have my own codename in the Magic Realm. I'm called Match Malone."
A faint, almost imperceptible light flashed in Su Ming's eyes. He nodded. "Match Malone, not a bad codename. But in the Magic Realm, people call me the Supreme Mage."
Mackenzie behind him almost burst out laughing. Supreme Mage, seriously? Giving himself a codename like that was really embarrassing. And he even said it out loud with a straight face. Did he actually enjoy the thrill that came with this kind of secondhand embarrassment?
Bat Owl raised one eyebrow but said nothing; his eyes, however, were full of obvious disapproval.
He knew this Deathstroke was the Inverted Man's agent, possessing almost endless Magic Power, but the man himself was just a targeting system for Magic. Without the Inverted Man, he couldn't cast a single spell, let alone claim to understand the principles behind Magic.
How did a half-baked Warlock like that have the nerve to call himself Supreme Mage?
Su Ming saw the look in his eyes and only smiled as he waited for him to continue. So what if Bat Owl didn't approve? In the end, The Ancient One had said it best.
Whoever has the biggest fist is the Supreme Mage.
Just hearing the codename Match Malone was enough for Su Ming to pinpoint when he'd become a Mage. Once he learned a few more details, he could make a plan and then send him on his way.
In earlier comics, Match Malone was a small-time punk in Gotham who later developed into Bruce Wayne's "ordinary person" alias. When Bruce needed to act while hiding his identity, he would use the fake identity Malone instead of Batman.
Many people thought Match Malone was Batman's alias, but he wasn't. He was Bruce Wayne's alias—that's a huge difference.
The Bat Owl in front of them had clearly abandoned the Batman persona and lived on solely as Malone.
This was another kind of extreme case, but not a unique one.
In the Dark Multiverse there's another world where that world's Batman defeated almost all his enemies but overlooked the one who could endure the longest: Penguin Man.
When he finally looked back, he discovered Penguin Man had already surpassed Falcone and turned Gotham into a city where the entire population were gang members.
Men, women, old, young—everyone worked for Penguin Man. Under those conditions, Earth shifted toward a giant-corporation system and there was no stopping it.
In that world, Batman gave up his Dark Knight identity and never appeared again from that point on.
Taking his place, Gotham saw the rise of the "Ma Long Gang," engaged in every illegal activity imaginable—more ruthless and darker than Penguin Man's subordinates, wiping out Penguin Man completely using underworld methods.
They continued to parasitize the Dark Side until their boss, Match Malone, dominated the world and turned Earth into a giant corporation…
That Match Malone was not Batman.
A "normal" Batman should live like a Bat—just like in the Main World, where Batman is the true self and Bruce Wayne is the fake identity.
In abnormal worlds, Bruce is the real one, while Batman and Match Malone are both fake identities.
In an extreme case like the one in front of them, Match Malone is the real one, while Bruce and Batman are both fake identities.
It sounds like a tongue twister, but that's baseline behavior for someone mentally ill. Their self-perception tends to have obstacles that normal people can't wrap their heads around.
For ordinary people, "identity" might mean social status or something like that, but for a patient like Bruce, it's about how he's supposed to see himself and what kind of person he decides to become.
After the N52 reboot, the codename Match Malone reappeared in the comic Batman: Arkham City, in which Batman was up against Dr. Hugo.
And once he knew Bat Owl called himself Match Malone, Su Ming also learned where the branching point in time had appeared, and from there he found what made this world different.
Su Ming didn't show anything on his face. He just stared at the somewhat dim floor of the room; the cement surface already looked a bit old, exposing fine gravel in the concrete.
His attention seemed fixed on that, and as for the story Ma Long told afterward, he mostly just nodded and casually echoed along, without any particular reaction.
"So how's the Justice League in your world doing?" he suddenly asked.
"They're doing very well, and very obedient." Bat Owl set his glass on his knee and said, "I merged the Owl Council with the Justice League. With two powers combined, the world couldn't be better."
"So you replaced Barbatos and became a god?" Su Ming pressed him with another question.
Bat Owl's face showed a thoughtful expression. After a moment, he lifted his brows and revealed a smile: "You can understand it that way. I am the God of Mankind."
Diana and the Justice League members all frowned. Batman shouldn't be like this.
To prevent Superman from becoming the God of Mankind, they'd already fought a civil war once. Now this Bruce had become the God of Mankind of a Parallel Universe—that was simply inconceivable.
Su Ming didn't find it strange. In the current DC Universe, what can't happen? Batman has already fused with Joker into the Laughing Bat; is it really too much to have a Match Malone version of the God of Mankind pop up?
So he was much calmer than the others, just pinching his own chin: "Mm, the God of Mankind, huh? Then you're definitely not just waiting for us to come listen to you brag. What do you want?"
"The Laughing Bat wants me to help him find the Bat Gold and Amber Gold of the Main World. That was the condition for him bringing me here. I did it, and then that cooperation ended right there." Bat Owl extended his hand and pinched a Dharma Seal, projecting a hazy, illusory image. "So what I want now is to cooperate with you, to kick him out of the Main World. As long as you're willing to serve under me like the Justice League of my world, all of us can protect Earth together and find a way out of the current Multiverse crisis."
Mackenzie leaned idly on her long sword, carelessly examining her fingernails: "Sounds good. You can think about it. Wasting time on these little things is worse than finishing fast and going to find Lucifer."
In fact, she was very subtly hinting that they could agree first, let Bat Owl go deal with the Laughing Bat, and the Justice League could sit back and reap the fisherman's profit.
As long as they found Lucifer, no matter which one of the two survived their clash, to the King of Hell they'd be nothing more than insignificant dust—something he could wipe away with a raise of his hand.
Su Ming got her hint, but he didn't intend to act according to the Queen of Pain's way.
Because this wasn't something easy to explain to others; the goodwill and reputation he'd farmed with the Justice League earlier could easily be lost if he played it wrong, and that wasn't in his interest.
So he simply uncrossed his legs, braced both elbows on his knees, leaned his body forward, and stared into Bat Owl's eyes: "So what you're saying is, you're here to negotiate terms?"
Bat Owl perhaps didn't grasp the deeper meaning of that sentence. He just lifted his glass from a distance: "Exactly, Deathstroke. I'm here to negotiate terms."
"Heh, if you'd said from the start that you were here to negotiate, I'd have understood..." Su Ming laughed, his right hand slowly rising as he snapped his fingers. "Inverted Man, Realm of Death."
A vortex appeared under his feet, sucking him and the chair together into a writhing passage.
Su Ming likes negotiating terms, and normally he doesn't mind others coming to negotiate with him either.
But the Dark Knight Order is an exception.
Whether it's Bruce, Batman, or Match Malone, those three personalities share a common point.
And that is—they're all liars!
Today he can sell out the Laughing Bat, and tomorrow he can sell out Deathstroke. Without the Justice League's lofty ideals as insurance, in front of his next partner, betraying his previous one is as easy as drinking water.
Expect Deathstroke to listen to his bullshit? Have you lost your mind?
Having heard enough intel and eliminated a large number of possibilities in his mind, Su Ming was sure he'd seen this little trick of reviving no matter how many times he dies somewhere before.
Standing in a black-and-white world, with black ashes in the sky drifting down slowly like goose-feather snow, he patted his shoulder and got up from the chair.
Walking toward that black-and-white spiraling tunnel, he sighed: "Now that I've seen through your hole card, what are you going to use to negotiate with me?"
Once through the door, the dull space was still the same as ever. 'Death,' dressed like a Gothic Girl, was sitting on the sofa, using a little comb to brush the fur of a teddy bear.
"You seem to be getting more and more familiar with my place." Death showed a warm smile, hugging the stuffed toy tight and stretching her legs comfortably on the sofa. "But this behavior of teleporting to an Advanced Plane is extremely dangerous. Aside from my Kingdom and the Sleep Demon's realm, if anyone else even slightly blocks you, you might get erased by the rules of the world."
Su Ming smiled and nodded at her. Naturally he knew this. In the Magic Realm there was a famous Genius Level Mage called Mr. E, who used to be an old friend of Constantine's.
Egged on by Zha Kang, he used Magic to peer into the Garden of Destiny, trying to help Zha Kang find a clue. Sneaking a look at the correct answer sounded like a great idea.
However, the eldest brother of the Endless Clan was probably not someone easy to talk to. Mr. E's eyes didn't see anything clearly before they vaporized right there in their sockets; at the time Constantine only smelled something like using a lighter to burn nose hair.
And that was that. Mr. E's sight was erased at the level of Concept and could never be restored.
Ever since his eyes were vaporized, the man went insane.
And Constantine claimed it had nothing to do with him; it's not like he'd forced Mr. E to look.
Of course, the outcome was easy to guess. Mr. E has now joined the Cold Flame Association and become one of its four big bosses; his only wish for the rest of his life is to dig out Constantine's eyes, soak them in a jar to stomp on, and make him unable to live yet unable to die.
"Enough about me. I came here just to ask: someone is using Magic to keep rewinding their own time stream, having already dodged death twice. Are you going to intervene, or not?"