Thea waited until no one else was within earshot before explaining. "You're a god now too. You should be able to sense the universe's joy—it wants to evolve further, and it needs the Dark Multiverse's rules to complete itself."
Superman nodded. She continued. "An offensive right now is certainly possible. But if the entity inside the Dark Multiverse gets angry enough to detonate the whole thing, it would block the current universe's evolution. Once the two universes begin fusing, though, he loses that option—and that's when I make my move. That's the situation in a nutshell."
Superman flew off, still dazed and only half-understanding.
Over the next month, Earth was blanketed in the shadow of Batman. Every few days, some bizarre variant crawled out to make its presence felt.
There was the Speed Force Batman from before—he called himself the Red Death.
There was the Dawnbreaker, who had returned bearing the First Lantern's dying curse. This Green-Lantern-ring-wielding Batman was the mortal enemy of every Lantern alive, capable of extinguishing the emotional energy inside their rings, making him a consistent high-threat against the Corps.
There was Bryce Wayne—a female Batman who had used genetic engineering to make herself amphibious. This version had spliced in vast quantities of Atlantean DNA and now commanded the power of the ocean. She called herself the Drowned.
And finally, the Murder Machine—a Batman who had merged himself with technology, capable of controlling every electronic device in existence. Of all the Dark Knights, he posed the greatest threat to Earth.
The grueling war of attrition began.
The Dawnbreaker racked up early victories. Green Lanterns and Yellow Lanterns alike suffered losses. But his winning streak ended abruptly when a hundred and fifty Kryptonian warriors showed up. Diminished versions of the original or not, they were more than the Dawnbreaker could handle. He narrowly avoided capture only by running.
The Drowned was devastatingly effective. Earth had precious few heroes suited for aquatic combat. Only Aquaman and Mera could serve as the main force, supplemented by other heroes where possible—barely enough to hold even.
The Red Death was the worst of them all. His speed exceeded the Flash's, and his intellect wasn't even a contest. Even with the Flash family's three speedsters plus Reverse-Flash fighting together, they were soundly beaten.
Fortunately, Superman's global surveillance made all the difference—tracking movements, relaying intel in real time. Through ambushes, counter-ambushes, traps, and more traps, they managed to maintain a fragile stalemate despite being comprehensively outpaced.
The Murder Machine proved thorny in a different way. He attempted to seize control of every human weapon system through the internet. Bruce intervened at the last moment, and while the Murder Machine's methods were formidable, Bruce had acquired technology far ahead of its time from Brainiac's ship. Combined with a god's intellect, he drove the cyborg out of the digital battlefield.
A month of blood and fire raced past. On the morning of that day, the clock read half past nine—yet the world remained shrouded in total darkness. Not because something was blocking the sun, but because the entire multiverse had turned to night.
Inside the Hall of Justice, every superhero, Lantern, and Kryptonian stood geared up and ready to march into a battle that came along once in ten thousand years.
Thea and Diana were absent. They had their own final enemy to face.
Both had formally withdrawn from the Justice League. Thea's seat passed to Oliver Queen—with Green Arrow's seniority, filling a decision-making elder's role was more than appropriate. Diana's seat went to her protégé, Wonder Girl Cassie Sandsmark.
Bruce, too, had officially stepped down. Batman II, Damian Wayne, took over—though as a young member, he held no decision-making authority, same as Cassie.
With the three founding veterans retired, the remaining leaders with full decision power: Superman, the Flash, Green Arrow, Aquaman, and Hal Jordan. Five.
Plus a half—the Sandman, Daniel Hall, serving as on-site consultant. Though he himself had no idea when that title had been dropped on his head.
Deep in the Underworld, Thea and Diana were making final adjustments to the Underworld Tower.
Under the natural course of events, the Dark Multiverse should have invaded the main universe in a process that was nearly irreversible.
The Tower changed everything. With the highest access authority, this super-civilization device—capable of adjusting multiversal frequency—began to hum.
The main multiverse held its original frequency steady. Simultaneously, the Tower shifted the Dark Multiverse's frequency, pulling it closer so the main multiverse could devour it.
Back at the Hall of Justice, the heroes were assembled and ready to deploy. A pre-battle briefing was in order—reviewing protocols, discussing strategy. Normally Bruce's department, but he hadn't shown up today. Understandably. When the enemies on everyone's hit list were all Batmen, standing in front of the crowd and delivering a rousing speech would have been... awkward.
Since Bruce was absent, Superman stepped into the role without hesitation. As the greatest superhero alive, after more than a decade of service, his standing today was beyond question.
Following an impassioned address, he turned to Daniel for deployment details.
"The teleportation has elements of randomness, but also of inevitability—the universe's will shapes the destination. We can only make minor adjustments." Daniel conjured a shimmering, seven-hued portal. Beyond it lay the Dark Multiverse.
"Could we end up in a scenario where we're completely hard-countered?" Superman asked, ever cautious.
This was Daniel's moment to shine. He snapped his fingers. "Already handled. We'll enter through the former Batman Who Laughs' world first. The death-solidified rules there can serve as a staging ground and field command post. Our odds are excellent."
Nobody had anything else to add. One by one, the heroes stepped through the portal into the world of the Batman Who Laughs.
"Bring down the deepest nightmares, and the whole world weakens enough for our multiverse to devour it."
Everyone knew who "the deepest nightmares" were: the four Dark Knights still standing.
Daniel bent his head over the task at hand. Intra-universal transport was far simpler—Dream power alone was sufficient. He read the tangled threads of world-information, sensing and sorting.
Suddenly, he called out: "I see it—the Drowned's world! Who's going in?" Even as he spoke, a water-blue portal shimmered open at his side.
Aquaman let out a booming laugh and strode forward. "I will! That fight of ours isn't over yet!"
Mera wasn't about to let her husband charge in alone. This time, the two of them would face the Drowned together.
Heroes suited for oceanic combat were painfully scarce, but fortunately the villain side had capable people too.
Under Thea's promise to resurrect his father, Black Manta—imprisoned in Atlantis for years—had agreed to join the fight. He followed the couple to the portal.