The Judge and the Ibis Priests

As expected, good fortune favors the cheerful boy.

Allen just wandered around and actually found Bruce.

At this moment, Bruce was lying weakly by a spring pool, his expression haggard and weathered, his spirit utterly depleted.

"Batsy, you need to pull yourself together."

Allen stepped forward to comfort him, saying, "Come on, try harder. Push when you poop. It's okay if you can't get it out, at least let out a fart."

Bruce slowly regained consciousness, too weak to even lift his eyelids. He said with difficulty, "This place is very dangerous, leave quickly."

"You've been rewarding yourself so much these past few days, no wonder you're so weak."

Allen said with disdain, "Overexertion leads to ruin. You can't force these things."

"..."

Bruce rolled his eyes upward, feeling depressed and thinking he might as well just die quickly.

"He's already rolling his eyes after just a few words," Allen chattered on. "Batsy is such a kid, so temperamental."

Uh...

Bruce immediately fainted from anger, likely wanting to pass away peacefully.

"Someone call an ambulance! Batman has died from overindulgence!"

Allen looked around, seeing no one respond. He stood up and looked at the spring pool, stroking his chin. "It seems he drank the Amber Gold. In the end, he couldn't prevent the major event."

The next second, Allen's expression gradually broke into a brilliant smile.

"A female Batsy drowning ghost, that sounds exciting just thinking about it."

Boom!

At that moment, a tunneling engineering vehicle burst through the wall.

Through the cockpit glass, they could see Tim driving, accompanied by Stephanie and Damian.

They had roughly located the position using a tracking device and then called for an engineering vehicle to clear the way.

It was clear that the Court of Owls' lair was equipped with signal jamming devices, making it difficult for them to find the location.

"It's Master and Allen!"

Opening the car door, Damian and Stephanie stepped forward to help Bruce up.

While waiting to get into the vehicle, Tim immediately activated the signal enhancement device.

After all, Dick and Jason were nowhere to be seen.

The dashboard immediately displayed two moving red dots, and they quickly drove the engineering vehicle to meet them.

Within fifteen minutes, they encountered Dick and Jason, who were wandering around like headless flies.

"Evacuate."

The tunneling engineering vehicle smashed through walls and burrowed through roads, completely disregarding any established routes.

"Being a superhero really is expensive."

Allen rolled down the car window and said to everyone, "I'm heading off first. Don't wait for me for dinner."

In an instant, Allen vanished, cloaked in invisibility.

The focus of the "Five Young Heroes" was on Bruce. As for Allen, they couldn't control him.

In a secret monitoring room within the Court of Owls' lair.

A group of judges, all wearing owl masks, watched the monitors showing the Bat-Family safely evacuating.

Of course, they had no intention of stopping them during the entire process. If they had, the Talons would have been deployed en masse, and not a single person would have escaped.

"The first step of the ritual is complete. We must report our success to our great master."

Among those present were another group of people, or rather, another group of beings.

They were clad in black robes, their monstrous and terrifying faces vaguely visible, resembling a humanoid race evolved from amphibians.

These were intelligent beings who lived hidden deep underground, followers who worshipped the Bat God, calling themselves the Ibis Priests.

"The rest is up to us."

The First Judge nodded slightly.

The first step was just the beginning. The next step was to gradually guide Bruce to fulfill the predetermined ending.

The reason they didn't kill Bruce was that he was the key to the portal to the Dark Multiverse. If he died, all their efforts would be in vain. Thus, they allowed the "Five Young Heroes" to rescue him.

Of course, this was all part of the plan.

"But a variable has already appeared. Can you control the direction?"

The variable the Ibis Priests were referring to was Allen, a character they had never anticipated.

There were countless superheroes in the world. For the Court of Owls, entrenched in Gotham City, to carry out their plan was wishful thinking. If Superman or Wonder Woman intervened, it would lead to different outcomes.

The organization on the higher level, the Parliament of Owls, had been providing cover all along, deliberately creating numerous incidents to keep the superheroes occupied.

The previous incident in the Akhenia region was naturally their masterpiece, intentionally drawing the Justice League away, thus giving them time to trick Bruce into drinking the Amber Gold.

"Are you referring to me when you mention a variable?"

At some point, Allen had already entered the monitoring room.

Instantly, silence fell.

Can't you just play by the rules?

We villains have a meeting, create some mystery, and build up the plot beforehand. Why are you coming out and causing trouble?

The Owl judges were stunned.

The Ibis Priests were equally bewildered.

"Don't let him escape, kill him immediately."

With a single command, hundreds of Talons surged forward.

If they let him escape and the secret was leaked, everything they had done would be in vain.

"Blade Killing Array, activate!"

In an instant, twelve sword shadows unfurled, blooming in all directions.

The sudden, specialized attack caught the Talons at the forefront off guard. They watched helplessly as the sword shadows pierced through their bodies, their forms stiffening for a moment before breaking into pieces.

"Gotta bounce."

Seeing that there were still hundreds of Talons remaining, Allen decisively issued a threat: "You guys don't play fair, you like ganging up, right? I'll call the Justice League and the Avengers to deal with you."

He vanished into stealth, disappearing without a trace.

At this moment, the Talons regrouped to protect the Owl judges and Ibis Priests, preventing them from being ambushed by a return attack.

The judges and priests were merely flesh and blood; they had no means of self-defense.

"You didn't fall for it even with that."

Allen deactivated his stealth, realizing he hadn't actually left. He couldn't help but sigh, "People nowadays are harder to trick. The world has changed, and people's hearts are not what they used to be."

"You've overlooked a crucial point," Allen said seriously. "This official, Commander Zuo, isn't just skilled with a blade."

With that, he flicked his cape, and a dense barrage of shurikens rained down like a storm of pear blossoms.

Even with the Talons forming a human shield, some shurikens still managed to hit the judges and priests.

"Ah! My eyes."

"My mouth is injured."

"A piece of my face is gone."

Screams erupted. Those who could still wail only had minor injuries; many lay completely incapacitated.

"See ya, don't bother seeing me out."

This time, Allen's disappearance occurred while everyone was already huddled behind the Talons, slowly retreating towards the exit.

In the minds of the judges, their previous thoughts on how to deal with him now seemed impractical.

This guy's thinking was so unconventional, could he really fall for the traps they had set?

The answer was like quantum mechanics, existing in a superposition of jumping and not jumping.

It took them a full two hours to activate their emergency plan, escape through a secret passage, and even take any portable supplies, decisively abandoning their base.

Don't try to challenge a madman's bottom line; they don't have one.

Especially a madman who can turn invisible, perhaps lurking for a day and a night just to put a firecracker in your toilet to scare you when you're using it.

In reality, Allen had already made his escape and had now rendezvoused with everyone in the Batcave.