John frowned and thought for a moment. The tall Black Man scratched his crew cut. The muscles under his Green Lantern Uniform bulged, but he had none of Arthur's honest-guy vibe.
"So that means the Lantern Group is probably unreliable too. This Cosmos seems to revolve around Earth, and those Alien forces just jump when that fake Justice League—those impostors—tell them to."
At this point, John let out a helpless sigh:
"Hal used to tell me every time he got drunk that the Lantern Group is basically the Cosmos version of the Gestapo. Those little blue Dwarves are each just two strokes short of a Xiaohuzi, and 99% of Aliens don't give a damn whether Earth lives or dies... looks like he was right."
Kendra spread her hands and flexed her wings a bit: "Then Sena Gang is off the table too. Even if its Ruler is still Xiara, you're right, we can't count on Aliens."
So after going in circles, in the end everyone's gaze still landed on Diana.
Now only her proposal remained—contacting the personified existence of the Magic Concept, the Inverted Man, and having him bring them back from the Multiverse level.
Everyone's understanding of the Magic World was inferior to hers; the only one who could veto her plan was herself.
But Diana was very confident. She believed her plan would work. She'd seen Deathstroke deal with the Inverted Man many times, and she'd personally gone through the Teleportation of the Dream Country.
Even if this really was the Sixth Dimension, the Main control room of the Multiverse, even if Papetua had once hidden here, it was still inside the Multiverse.
Compared to her past self, in just these few days Diana had learned a lot of new knowledge. About high-level Concept existences and Parallel World theory, she understood far more than before.
Let alone Magic. She might not be a Caster, but she grew up on Paradise Island, received Royal Family education, and had been exposed to all kinds of Divine Art and Magic Creatures. Ordinary Amazon Warriors couldn't be compared to her.
On top of that, lately Deathstroke and Bo Bo would occasionally give her extra lessons, and acting together with them she'd picked up some new ways of thinking.
She knew there was a kind of Magic that didn't require the user to master any Magic basics. Even Ordinary people could perform it with a bit of preparation.
That was the Demon Summoning Technique.
It often went like this: some clueless kid or a desperate housewife finds some weird book in a bookstore or an old house Attic, its pages full of fancy red text and illustrations, the lines dotted with horned, bizarre beings.
The book doesn't just describe the power rankings of various Demons and the organizational structure of Hell; it also records some "deliciously tempting" stuff. To sum it up:
"Want everything in life to go your way? Want to step onto the peak of life? Want the people you hate to die horribly?"
"Contact us now! Be among the first 100 viewers to call our hotline today and you'll also receive a gift from Hell, at a 50% discount!"
"Don't just sit there drooling, act now! At exactly ten past midnight tonight, right in your own basement! Use chicken blood to draw a Pentagram, light the candles, and our field agent will provide door-to-door service!"
At first glance it sounds like you're making a killing. Fifty percent off, right? Is Satan not bleeding money on this deal?
Most people get lost in the power and beautiful scenes described in the book and never consider that even at a 50% cost, the currency of that trade is the Soul. Half your Soul falls into the Demon's hands...
In Constantine's words, you'd be better off just dying outright.
Right now, there wasn't a single Warlock among them. Using Magic to contact the Inverted Man was impossible; the only option was to Summon a Devil and have the Devil do it for them.
Hell and Heaven both belong to high-level Planes. If they used themselves as bait to Summon a Hell Demon King, it should be doable.
Since that's the case, they'd contact Mackenzie, call her over, then let Batman handle negotiating terms with the Demon, and she herself should come out fine.
Batman listened calmly as Diana finished explaining the plan. He pinched his own chin, a bit unsure.
It wasn't that her method was unworkable, and he wasn't afraid of bargaining with a Devil. What he was unsure about was whether this Diana was really the genuine one.
It's not like Diana hadn't been smart before; it's just that her sword usually moved much faster than her brain.
But now she could actually come up with this kind of indirect leverage plan, and from the sound of it, she was planning to scam a Hell Demon King in the process. Was this something she'd picked up from Deathstroke?
Batman had no idea what Deathstroke had been teaching Diana, and he couldn't compare it to her past experiences, so he wasn't fully certain about her identity.
But at that moment, he saw her fiddling with the Mental Shield Device she'd been assigned earlier instead of wearing it, and a familiar Silver gleam flashed at the back of her neck.
He knew she was the real deal. Deathstroke had handed all the X Metal to her; that couldn't be faked.
With X Metal in Diana's hands, plus the X Metal shell John still had from back when Batman gave it to him, smashing them together would generate a resonance that could be conducted to every corner of the Multiverse. No need to contact any Hell Demon King.
Back when the Totality hadn't yet fallen to Earth, the Justice League had held a meeting to discuss whether to keep it or not.
At the time, if they'd decided not to let that "comet" land, they would've had John fire the X Metal shell to destroy it.
But the result of the meeting was to let it land, hoping to find a way to stop the Multiverse from bleeding, never expecting it would lead to all this Destruction Legion trouble.
And that shell was still on John right now.
Batman explained the improved plan, and John pulled the little shell out from his Lantern Ring. Diana let out a breath of relief.
If she weren't completely cornered, she wouldn't be willing to make any kind of deal with the Hell Demon King.
"But if they collide, our position will definitely be exposed." Diana put on the Mental Shield Device and took off the silver disc from the back of her head.
It had been trembling the whole time, as if Deathstroke were urgently trying to tell her something, but there was no pattern to it—no Morse code, nor any signal she knew.
What did Deathstroke mean by this?
Batman took the shell about the size of a pear, and the thin disc the size of a coin. Of course he immediately noticed that they were trembling too.
Whatever Deathstroke was doing, he wasn't transmitting information.
Colliding X Metal paired with Psychic Ability could be used to transmit information; if Deathstroke wanted to find a Psychic on Earth it wouldn't be hard at all. Even if Megan was unwilling to go with him, he could easily look for Villains like Queen Bee or the Thinker.
This was the benefit of being a Mercenary: Deathstroke could speak with both Heroes and Villains, something no one in the Justice League could compare to.
As a member of the Justice League, let alone cooperating with those people, if Batman or Superman even appeared in their line of sight, the other side would either run or fight to the death. They wouldn't give them any chance to talk.
Even if a Villain agreed to cooperate, Batman would still suspect they had ulterior motives. At least in his experience, those guys all had their own schemes.
That was why Batman wanted Diana to form the Dark Justice League and rope Bo Bo in—he valued Bo Bo's network.
That Gorilla, as the owner of the Forgotten Bar, knew many Black Wizards, and even among Demons there were quite a few he could talk to.
Unfortunately, before the plan could take shape, it was messed up by Deathstroke.
Pulling his thoughts back, Batman's expression didn't change much: "Even though this looks like a shipping container, it's actually a permanent fortification, set up to the standards of the Hall of Justice. I trust it can hold them off for a while."
Ron pinched the corner of his eye, floating above the ground: "As long as Deathstroke moves fast enough, we'll be safe."
"He's always been fast." Barry cut in: "He's the fastest Ordinary person I've ever seen in action, though I'm still faster. I'm the fastest man in the Multiverse."
John felt there was some kind of double meaning in Barry's words, like he was making himself sound bad? But he didn't dwell on that:
"Whether Deathstroke is an Ordinary person or not, we can argue about later. The question now is… are you sure he'll react immediately and come help us? Can we really place all our hope on a Mercenary?"
"We can." Diana gave a definite answer, almost without thinking.
This wasn't the first time Deathstroke had helped the Justice League. Even the Old Deathstroke from the Main World's past had always been very clear-headed when it came to matters of great importance.
Barry kept running as he shouted: "It's fine, I've got a great relationship with him, he's a good guy."
Ron had never seen Deathstroke's thoughts, so it was hard for him to comment. At the same time, because Deathstroke had once saved him from the Tuning Fork, he still owed him a favor.
So the Mars People, as always, turned his gaze toward Batman, waiting for his decision.
John wasn't wrong: if their position was exposed and Deathstroke didn't pick them up in time, they'd be in big trouble.
Batman thought for a moment. Right now Thomas should be moving together with Deathstroke. Thinking of how Deathstroke had brought his father back from an external timeline, Batman couldn't quite figure out what the man was really after.
He never trusted anyone. But now that Thomas had been resurrected, did that mean there wasn't that much of a problem with Deathstroke?
What would Joker say?
Batman's gaze shifted to his own shoulder. Others thought he was just looking at his cape, but only he knew that wasn't the case.
His condition was far more serious than Diana imagined. In his eyes, the number of people present was one more than everyone else could see.
Joker had been wriggling back and forth in front of him the entire time. While everyone was discussing just now, Joker had even been leaning on his shoulder humming a lullaby…
"Sleep now, sleep now, pff, my dearest Bat, hehe… Mama's hands will always… hehe… rock you…"
The lullaby, laced with weird laughter, made Batman's skin crawl, and Joker really was grabbing his arm with both hands, gently rocking it.
He knew that lunatic's appearance was a hallucination, but after the song Joker kept talking, as if he were still alive.
"Oh, my pointy-eared old friend, do you think I'm an honest guy? I vouch for Deathstroke, let him give it a try. Or are you scared of dying? Afraid of our reunion? Hahahahaha… Come on, put your hands together, like you're clapping, that's it, perfect…"
Batman raised both his hands, but his jaw was clenched tight, his eyes twisted with strain, like he was resisting something.
Under Joker's influence, he forgot he still had to search for True Superman, and he was rummaging through his own memories, trying to recall what he had forgotten.
"Huu…" After a moment, he let out a breath of relief and shook his head, handing the two X Metal devices in his hands to Diana: "You do it. I'm going to prepare the defenses."
With that, he flipped his cape and stepped out of the Divine Speed Bullet Time Domain, disappearing into the nearby darkness.