While they worked to break the deadlock, another corner of the multiverse was already engulfed in all-out war.
The elite forces of the Seven Lantern Corps clashed with the Dawnbreaker.
His power could snuff out emotional energy and reconstitute it as nightmares—a tidal wave of malevolent constructs crashing down on the Lanterns.
The accelerating fusion of the two multiverses had finally allowed the Lanterns to access most of their abilities. The Red Lanterns charged in first, as always. Atrocitus led his handful of subordinates in a relentless push through the Nightmare Constructs.
But the Dawnbreaker was a hard counter to their rings. Atrocitus not only failed to reach him—he found himself surrounded on all sides. If Saint Walker hadn't pulled him out, he would have died buried in that endless tide of nightmares.
"Much as I hate to say it, this one requires the combined power of all seven Corps to defeat!" Sinestro raised his left hand, ring aimed squarely at the Dawnbreaker.
The other Corps fell into formation. Green, Blue, Violet, Red, Indigo—and finally, a very reluctant Orange.
Seven colors of light converged into a single beam, a dazzling pillar of rainbow radiance that struck the Dawnbreaker head-on.
"You should all die! You are all enemies of emotion!" This Batman—chosen by an unknown ring—stared at the incoming beam as though facing his parents' killer. His ring seemed to possess limitless energy, and he single-handedly fought back against five hundred Lanterns.
"Where is his ring getting all that power?" Hal Jordan couldn't wrap his head around it and turned to Sinestro.
Sinestro shot him a look. "How should I know!"
"He's siphoning emotional energy from this parallel universe. If we don't defeat him soon, this universe will explode." Indigo-1—usually so quiet as to be nearly invisible—spoke up suddenly.
Sinestro glanced at her. "That came from her, didn't it?"
Indigo-1 knew the "her" meant Thea. She nodded.
"Always so theatrical..." Sinestro scoffed, but his psychic energy was already pushed to the breaking point. His ring ran at maximum output.
Through sheer numbers—five hundred against one—the seven-colored beam gradually overwhelmed the murky green glow of the Dawnbreaker's nightmares.
"Not enough! Push harder!" Hal kept one eye on the enemy while rallying his comrades.
Then, under Sinestro's bewildered-contemptuous-nostalgic gaze, Hal raised his voice and began reciting the Green Lantern Oath.
"If the White Lantern were here, this would be a lot easier. What's taking that guy so long?" Sinestro asked Indigo-1.
The Indigo Tribe's teleportation network was extremely effective. Virtually all troop movements in this campaign depended on them.
Indigo-1 made a brief contact with the rear, then shook her head. "Rayner is still struggling to acclimate to the emotional atmosphere here. The Dark Multiverse is suppressing him heavily. He needs more time."
"...Tell him to hurry, or he'll be collecting our corpses!" Atrocitus snapped.
The Dark Multiverse weathered its first wave of assault reasonably well. Aside from the Drowned's suicidal detonation, every other front had held.
Observing it all, Thea remained silent for a long while.
Team Flash was having a hard time with the Red Death. She prepared to send reinforcements.
The Seven Corps held a slight edge over the Dawnbreaker. Once Kyle Rayner entered the fight, that edge would become decisive.
Superman and the Kryptonian warriors had been completely routed by the Murder Machine. This Batman—fused with a machine—had manufactured an endless mechanical army. Every soldier carried a knockoff kryptonite dagger, and the Kryptonians were getting demolished. If Martian Manhunter hadn't arrived in time, casualties would have been catastrophic.
The Dark Multiverse wasn't just seven evil Batmen, either. Countless parallel worlds had their own horrors—one where Scarecrow had become king of the world and blanketed the globe in fear toxin, another where Two-Face's laundry detergent business had gone nationwide and expanded beyond the Solar System.
Heroes were scattered everywhere, stamping out these nightmares-made-real. Heroes with moral codes fighting villains who had none. They lost more than they won. The situation was far from ideal.
Thea nodded to Diana. The warrior goddess appeared in the Batman Who Laughs' world in full battle regalia.
Clang! Clang! Clang! She struck her shield with her sword, each impact ringing through the darkness. An aura of courage pulsed outward, reaching every corner of the Dark Multiverse. The heroes' morale surged. The villains flinched.
Her message was simple. She was challenging Barbatos.
Both of them operated at multiversal scale. Barbatos, at the apex of that tier, was stronger than Diana. But if he allowed her courage to keep saturating this realm, his forces would crumble. He had to answer.
He knew Thea had further plans in store, but his options were thin. Ever since the link between Bruce and the Dark Multiverse had been severed, he'd been on the back foot.
His body stirred in the deepest abyss. A mountain-sized form stepped across spatial distances to stand before Diana.
Black hood. Massive bat wings. Skin the color of dead iron. At this level of power, weapons were almost irrelevant. Without preamble, he swiped a claw at Diana from thousands of meters away.
The warrior goddess maintained her normal size. Shield up to block, she redirected the force outward while simultaneously slashing at Barbatos's palm.
A sharp clang—like striking solid metal. The Sword of Hephaestus, reforged and enhanced with rare materials time and again, failed to leave so much as a scratch on Barbatos's skin.
He let out a soundless laugh. His right hand shifted from a grab to a slap, while his left swung in from the other side—swatting at her like a mosquito.
Diana coolly gauged the gap between his two strikes. She lashed out with her lasso, looping it around Barbatos's right pinky finger, then swung like a pendulum to dodge the clap. She vaulted onto his forearm and sprinted upward along his arm.
White, semi-translucent flames wreathed her body—the Fire of Justice. It burned cool but eternal, never flickering, never dying.
A trail of fire began scorching Barbatos's arm. He answered with a blast of sonic force.
The shockwave was overwhelming—an impassable wall of compressed air. Diana charged straight into it. The instant she made contact, her ears filled with static. The noise was powerful enough to rattle her divine body to its core.
She swayed like a skiff in a hurricane. But her Godhood of Perseverance kicked in—ignoring all impediments, overcoming every discomfort, driving her forward along her intended path.
Seeing that the gap between them wasn't insurmountable, Thea finally relaxed.
Daniel approached her. The Sandman candidate honestly couldn't tell anymore whether all of this was his trial or whether he'd simply been conscripted into Thea's personal errands. In too deep to back out now, all he could do was keep completing his tasks.
"You got everything?" Thea asked.
Daniel nodded with visible irritation. With a flick of his wrist, he produced a metal mountain over a hundred meters tall. "Every scrap of Nth Metal in the entire multiverse is right here."