Lantern, Lantern, Lantern, Lantern, Lantern, Lantern, Lantern (Part 1)

"So, what exactly is going on? You said you came into my dream and brought me here? But frankly, this is a bit... hard to understand."

In the Gotham night sky, atop a building, Gordon, wearing a trench coat, swept the hem of his coat back, then put his hands on his hips. He looked at the strange man glowing green all over and said, "He's probably not a local from Gotham, is he?"

Hal landed on the ground, arms crossed, and asked Gordon, "How did you know?"

"Do you know you're like a Green Lantern right now?"

"I am the Green Lantern, I am Green Lantern."

"I'm talking about the green Green Lantern at Green Lantern. If you're a local, you definitely wouldn't be floating in mid-air covered in green light, because we all know that the Green Lantern at the central roundabout get hit by thousands of bullets every day..."

Schiller interrupted Gordon and Hal's conversation, saying, "The cause of this is just as I told you before, and now I'm going to figure out how to resolve it."

Gordon took a deep breath, looking at the enormous monster wreaking havoc in the city, and said, "Thank God, this isn't Gotham in the real world."

"If we don't stop it, it will eventually enter the real world. I've invited you here now to prepare for the destruction of this monster."

"Go ahead and tell me your plan. Whatever it is, I will cooperate. This is for Gotham, and it is for Batman."

Gordon's tone was firm. "No matter what, this eccentric vigilante in the tight suit has saved Gotham's police officers several times. If he's in danger now, I think I should go and save him too."

"I'm talking to you about this in private because I have to teach you how to fight in dreams, Sheriff Gordon."

"Wait!" Hal interrupted Schiller, "Even if this is a dream, we can't just chat here, can we? If that Yellow Lantern Beast really enters the real world, it will cause a lot of damage!"

Just then, the three people standing on the rooftop felt a slight tremor in the ground. The grotesque monster, which was terrifying in both size and appearance, roared, and a massive black tide surged from the horizon, instantly engulfing the city and submerging the entire Gotham City.

"He seems to have been provoked by something?" Hal said, squinting as he floated in mid-air.

"You don't actually think that once those things I mentioned are stitched together, they'll become of one mind, do you? Putting aside the Yellow Lantern Beast and the Yellow Lantern Ring, even the Laughing Egg I mentioned and Batman, the owner of this body, are sworn enemies."

"This monster is only a product of temporary compromise; its body is probably in complete chaos right now."

Just then, Schiller looked up at the horizon and said, "It seems that the other friends I invited have arrived."

A clear "plop" sound reached the three of them, but they didn't see anything fall into the water. Then, there was a soft "whoosh" sound, and in an instant, a huge Penguin leaped out of the sea and bit off a section of the monster's tail with its sharp beak.

Hal opened his mouth wide and said, "Penguin?? Why Penguin?"

"It seems you don't know much about this bird," Schiller explained. "You may see Penguin waddling and clumsy on land, but in reality, these birds swim very fast in the water, are agile, and are good hunters."

No sooner had he finished speaking than the giant Penguin, dozens of times larger than a normal Penguin, dived back under the water, dodging the Fear Laughing Demon's claw attack. Then, it leaped out of the water from the right side of the demon's blind spot and bit down hard on his ribs. The Fear Laughing Demon let out a cry of pain, but when it turned around to continue attacking the Penguin, it found that the demon had disappeared again.

"... Who is that?" Gordon asked.

"That's Cobblepot, Sheriff. I was just about to tell you about this."

"In the dream world, the best way to improve combat power is to fight with the image you are most familiar with in your heart. After you fully release your true self, the coordination between you and the dream will be higher, and you will have stronger power, just like this Penguin."

Gordon squinted at the distance and said, "It does look a little different. I don't think a normal Penguin's beak is that sharp."

As Gordon said, the agile Penguin had a pair of very sharp beaks. Every time it pecked, it made the monster cry out in pain, and if it pecked right at the joint, it could make it wobble a few times.

Schiller was explaining things to Gordon when he glanced back at Hal and said, "Detective Gordon is just an ordinary person, so I need to tell him how to fight. What are you doing here?"

"I..." Hal choked for a moment, but he still said, "But this is also my first time fighting in a dream. I feel that the power of the Green Lantern seems a bit sluggish here. I think I can learn from it."

Schiller turned back and said to Gordon, "Sheriff, you can try it. Relax, and then follow your instincts and imagine what kind of person you should be..."

Gordon took a deep breath and said, "This is a bit difficult."

He turned his head and glanced at the huge monster beside him, then slowly closed his eyes.

Soon, a ripple appeared in the dream, but Gordon himself did not change. Instead, some phantom images began to emerge behind him, which were various large-caliber firearms.

Schiller laughed and said, "Sheriff, it seems your fear of insufficient firepower is quite severe?"

Gordon opened his eyes and looked at the weapons floating behind him. He said a little embarrassedly, "Actually, I've always really wanted to try out these weapons, but unfortunately, even though the police department is already equipped with quite a few heavy weapons, these are still too overpowered..."

Schiller looked behind him, where there were not only automatic machine guns with calibers several times larger, but also something that looked like a missile launcher.

Just then, Hal touched his face, looked up, and said, "Is it raining? It seems like..."

"Oh, wait! It's snowing!" Hal reached out and noticed some snowflakes landing on his hand. He asked, puzzled, "Does it snow in Gotham?"

The instant he finished speaking, a violent storm erupted, and all the newly fallen snowflakes swirled like Blade. Hal had to shield his face with his arm, shouting, "What the hell is this?! How did it suddenly turn into a blizzard?!"

"This is what I'm going to introduce next: the manifestation of willpower has countless forms, and it's not limited to the human form. Natural elements like storms and lightning can also be manifested in dreams..."

"You mean!" Hal shouted through the storm, "This blizzard is also a person???"

"That's right, this is the manifestation of Victor's inner self."

"Victor?" Gordon asked in surprise, "You never knew he was so wild inside!"

"Where there is tranquil snowfield, there is also raging blizzard. The human heart always has many images, but Victor focused on releasing the violent part of his heart, and thus achieved this effect."

"This is also what I want to emphasize: you can find the emotion you most want to manifest by focusing your attention, such as anger, violence, the desire to kill, etc..."

Gordon and Hal both tried it, but neither of them showed any significant change. Schiller guessed that this might be because they were both heroic figures, and they had fewer extreme emotions inside them.

Even though Victor appears gentle and refined on the surface, he is, after all, the precursor to Mr. Freeze and has the potential to become a villain, thus harboring a great deal of violent emotions within him.

On the battlefield, the wind and snow grew stronger. A snowflake fell from the sky and began to spin rapidly, carrying with it a sharp, razor-sharp aura. It then traced a graceful arc as it slashed at the body of the Fear Laughing Demon, instantly leaving a wound on its arm.

Countless snowflakes fell, attacking the monster from all sorts of angles, followed by floating ice crystals.

The ice crystals first lined up in mid-air like soldiers standing at attention, and then shot towards the monster like bullets. Each ice crystal that touched the monster's skin created a large patch of blue frozen material, hindering the Fear Laughing Demon's movements.

"I don't quite understand..." Hal said.

"This is a dream. How can you get hurt in a dream? If what you said before is true, that attacks in dreams are all imagined, then this monster can just imagine that it won't get hurt, right?"

"Perhaps it's like that in your own dream. When you realize you're dreaming, you can give yourself wings or conjure a gun, but this is a dream with multiple people present..."

"In this dream world, any attack or defense is a contest of willpower. If your willpower is higher than the opponent's, you can inflict effective damage on them. Conversely, you may be blocked. That's how it is."

"Okay, I think I understand..."

Hal moved his wrists, and the green light around him grew brighter and brighter. Clearly, the Green Lantern's energy was abundant, and the sluggish and dark feeling had disappeared. On the contrary, because of Hal's strong willpower, the Green Lantern energy began to flourish, and his strength grew stronger and stronger.

"Don't rush, we still have one friend who was leading the charge who hasn't arrived yet."

After Schiller finished speaking, he looked up at the horizon again. At that moment, a sharp cry rang out, and a winged figure appeared above the Fear Laughing Demon's head. Then, sharp claws slashed across the monster's shoulder, leaving three deep wounds.

It was a monster that resembled an owl, with wings on its back, claw-like hands, and countless feathers covering its body. With a piercing screech, countless feathers appeared behind it and then shot towards the Fear Laughing Demon, spraying countless blood flowers on its back.

"I really don't like using this form," Alberto's cold voice came. "But I have to admit that birds' claws and feathers are the best weapons."

"Who is this?"

"You should be familiar with this person, but you don't really know him. But that doesn't matter, Sheriff Gordon. I think you understand the rules here now. Now, you can go and show off your skills."

Hal had already completed a full set of warm-up exercises. Although Gordon was still a little unaccustomed to it, he did not hesitate and headed straight for the battlefield.

Before leaving, Hal looked at Schiller, who was standing still, and asked him, "We're going to deal with this monster, so what are you going to do?"

"You guys don't really think that just by hitting each other like this, you can completely destroy this monster, do you?"

"So what are you planning to do?"

Schiller suddenly changed the subject. "Right now, you're the only Lantern on Earth, right?"

"Well, if we don't count this yellow-light monster, then it really is just me."

"Okay," Schiller replied. Hal watched Schiller's departing figure with a puzzled look, and suddenly he had a bad feeling.