Chapter Summaries

Batman summoned the Justice League after Constantine warned that the Death Tribulation Flower Mark might threaten Gotham or Earth before the Cosmic Impact arrived. As the League gathered, Orsaga walked through Gotham’s wealthy First Avenue with two tall figures behind him.

• Batman asked Constantine to summon more angels or demons to investigate the Cosmic Impact, but Constantine warned that the mark could bring disaster before the cosmic threat arrived.
• Batman activated the Justice League’s emergency communicator, calling every member to assemble.
• Flash responded first, followed by Superman, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Cyborg, and the other Justice League members.
• Batman briefed the assembled League on the two looming threats, leaving them grim and overwhelmed.
• Orsaga appeared on Gotham’s First Avenue with two tall figures following close behind him.

Orsaga walked through Gotham with Lorgar Aurelian and Conrad Koz, asking them what they thought of the city. Conrad saw Gotham’s black-clad figure as a reflection of his own past on Nostramo, the brutal planet where he had survived alone and eventually imposed order.

• Orsaga strolled through Gotham with Lorgar Aurelian and Conrad Koz, while passersby admired the two imposing men but felt unable to approach them.
• Orsaga asked Lorgar Aurelian and Conrad Koz for their opinions of the city, and Lorgar called it filthy and without faith.
• Conrad Koz described Gotham as a land of suffering and sin, then said its lost yet resolute black figure reminded him of ancient things.
• Conrad Koz remembered growing up alone on Nostramo, where he learned to survive among mutated beasts and brutal inhabitants.
• Conrad Koz recalled conquering Nostramo’s factions and creatures, then building a peaceful, orderly civilization through fear, strength, wisdom, and foresight.
• Conrad Koz looked at Gotham’s black-armored figure and saw a version of himself from another home planet, though time had changed him.

Orsaga summoned Lorgar Aurelian and Conrad Koz to assist with handling powerful figures in the DC and Marvel worlds. At Iceberg Restaurant in Gotham City, Orsaga waited for his meal while Penguin watched from hiding in terror.

• Orsaga explained that he had summoned Lorgar Aurelian and Conrad Koz to deal with targets he would not personally confront.
• The chapter described Lorgar Aurelian's role as a Scarlet Central Archbishop responsible for indoctrinating or erasing those who resisted Orsaga.
• At ten o'clock at night, Orsaga sat at Penguin's private table in Iceberg Restaurant with Lorgar Aurelian and Conrad Koz standing behind him.
• Penguin hid in a dark corner, too terrified to approach Orsaga in his own restaurant.

Orsaga entered the Iceberg Restaurant and took Penguin’s exclusive seat, then used an unexplained power to turn Penguin and his bodyguards into crawling, doglike figures. Penguin fled in terror while Orsaga remained seated with Lorgar Aurelian and Conrad Koz.

• Orsaga arrived at the Iceberg Restaurant with Lorgar Aurelian and Conrad Koz and asked to be taken to the best table.
• A waiter led Orsaga to Penguin’s private seat but could not bring himself to warn him that it was reserved.
• Penguin spotted Orsaga in his seat, slapped the floor manager, and marched over with armed subordinates to eject him.
• Penguin and his subordinates began crawling like dogs as an inexplicable force changed their bodies and minds.
• Penguin scrambled away with his doglike followers while Orsaga, Lorgar Aurelian, and Conrad Koz ignored them.

The Justice League arrived at the Iceberg Restaurant with Constantine’s magical compass and found Orsaga, whom Constantine recognized as the Crimson King. Diana respectfully greeted him and asked why he had come to Earth, leaving the Justice League awaiting his answer.

• The Justice League entered the Iceberg Restaurant, drawing cheers from the crowds outside, while Penguin feared they had discovered his smuggling operation.
• Constantine tried to resume tracking the target, but Superman spotted them and said they had already found them.
• Constantine saw Orsaga and, overwhelmed by fear and awe, greeted him as the Crimson King.
• Diana recognized the Crimson King from ancient accounts and respectfully introduced herself as the daughter of Zeus and Hippolyta.
• Diana asked Orsaga why he had descended upon Earth.

Orsaga reassured the Justice League that he was only passing through Earth when Doctor Manhattan arrived through a space-time disturbance and confronted him. Doctor Manhattan discovered that Orsaga had removed part of his lower body, leaving the powerful newcomer speechless.

• Orsaga told Diana that he was passing through Earth to deal with a troublemaker elsewhere, and the Justice League agreed to accommodate him as long as he did not harm the planet.
• Batman considered asking Orsaga to help avert the coming Cosmic Impact, but a deep blue spatial disturbance interrupted the conversation.
• Doctor Manhattan appeared inside the Iceberg Restaurant, alarming the Justice League and drawing the attention of Lorgar Aurelian and Conrad Koz.
• Doctor Manhattan asked Orsaga whether he was the powerful being influencing his universe, then noticed that part of his lower body had vanished.
• Orsaga criticized Doctor Manhattan for exposing himself in public, silencing him and leaving the Iceberg Restaurant quiet.

Doctor Manhattan thanked Orsaga for helping him abandon some of his emotional restraints, then asked him to spare the universe tied to his past. Orsaga refused and revealed that both Manhattan’s universe and the Justice League’s would merge with others, leaving the heroes to face an approaching upheaval and prepare to fight.

• After failing to restore his confiscated tool, Doctor Manhattan accepted his loss and realized that letting go of old beliefs and emotions had made him stronger.
• Doctor Manhattan thanked Orsaga, who praised his potential and compared him with other versions of Manhattan across different worlds.
• Doctor Manhattan asked Orsaga not to interfere further with the universe he came from, but Orsaga said its merger with other universes was already decided.
• Orsaga told the Justice League and Constantine that their universe would also merge with others, bringing both risks and opportunities.
• Penguin and the other Iceberg Restaurant patrons were stunned by the news, while Constantine relaxed after learning that survival was not impossible.
• Doctor Manhattan sighed and said that they still had to fight.

Orsaga sent Lorgar Aurelian to fight Doctor Manhattan, and their first clash destroyed the universe before they restored it and moved to an empty void. Doctor Manhattan created a Pocket Dimension and launched countless universe-destroying Light Bullets at Lorgar, leaving their battle underway.

• Orsaga introduced Lorgar Aurelian as his subordinate and invited Doctor Manhattan to fight him.
• Lorgar and Doctor Manhattan clashed, reducing the universe and everything in it to fundamental particles while Orsaga and Conrad Koz remained unharmed.
• Lorgar and Doctor Manhattan reversed time and restored the universe, then left for a void to continue their battle away from others.
• Doctor Manhattan formed a Pocket Dimension around himself and Lorgar and created countless Light Bullets from expanding universes.
• Doctor Manhattan accelerated the Light Bullets toward Lorgar from every direction, and Lorgar allowed the attack to approach without resisting.

Lorgar revealed his true form after Doctor Manhattan’s Light Bullets failed to harm him, then launched a dimensional sword strike that threatened even the Sixth Dimension. Doctor Manhattan was trapped in place and began negating the sword shadows through causality as the attack descended.

• Lorgar stood still as Doctor Manhattan’s Light Bullets struck him, and a higher force erased the resulting upheaval to reveal him unharmed inside black flames.
• Lorgar emerged in a towering, inhuman true form, and his presence began dissolving Doctor Manhattan’s control over the Pocket Dimension.
• Doctor Manhattan’s Danger Instinct warned him that Lorgar and his incantation-covered sword could injure or destroy him, thrilling him with a rare sense of danger.
• Lorgar swung his sword, sending black-flame sword shadows across different dimensions and through past, present, and future, reaching as high as the Sixth Dimension.
• Doctor Manhattan tried to escape by creating a Parallel World, but Lorgar’s power anchored him in place, so he used causality to deny the sword shadows one by one.

Lorgar overcame Doctor Manhattan’s causality manipulation by using the faith-filled runes on his sword to freeze fundamental particles, then killed him with a single slash. He took Doctor Manhattan’s head and reflected that his opponent’s power was formidable but his combat experience and technique were lacking.

• Doctor Manhattan tried to erase the cause of Lorgar’s advance, but Lorgar broke through the barriers and closed in with his sword.
• Prayers and murmurs from the runes on Lorgar’s blade released the collective will of living beings and froze the fundamental particles around them.
• The freeze interrupted Doctor Manhattan’s abilities and stopped his thoughts and movements.
• Lorgar cut Doctor Manhattan in two, caught his head, and burned the rest of his body away with Black Flame.
• Lorgar returned to Human Form and concluded that Doctor Manhattan’s lack of combat experience had made the fight easy.

After Doctor Manhattan and Lorgar vanished, Diana and the Justice League rejected Orsaga’s plan to merge their universe into the New Universe and prepared to fight. Ancient One intervened, restrained the League, and revealed she had chosen them as allies to face Orsaga’s trial.

• Darkseid sensed that something was wrong after Lorgar and Doctor Manhattan disappeared, but could not discover what had happened.
• Diana asked Orsaga to spare their universe, and he refused, saying the Old Universe would become part of the New Universe.
• Diana, Batman, Superman, and the Justice League prepared to attack Orsaga despite the power gap.
• Ancient One appeared through a Space Door and bound the Justice League with the Crimson Magic Belt before they could strike.
• Ancient One greeted Orsaga and admitted she had selected the Justice League as allies because his trial was too much for her to handle alone.

Ancient One recognized the terrifying scale of Orsaga’s sealed power while he bound the Justice League and promised Batman a new challenge. Orsaga sent them toward the Dark Multiverse, where Barbatos sensed the change.

• Ancient One used the Crimson Magic Belt, empowered by Orsaga’s proximity, to bind the Justice League, including Superman.
• Ancient One sensed countless layers of barriers restraining Orsaga and feared that seeing his true essence could drive mortals mad and corrupt reality.
• Orsaga told Batman he would introduce him to higher-level power through Barbatos.
• The Iceberg Restaurant’s space and time twisted, carrying the group toward the Dark Multiverse.
• Barbatos sensed the disturbance beneath the puzzled gaze of The Batman Who Laughs.

Barbatos sensed an outsider approaching the Dark Multiverse and brought The Batman Who Laughs to his former master's workshop. The Iceberg Restaurant arrived before them, and The Batman Who Laughs suspected Barbatos was hiding something about the visitor.

• Barbatos sensed an intruder entering the Dark Multiverse and heading toward him.
• Barbatos took The Batman Who Laughs to the World Forger's former workshop on Earth -1.
• The Batman Who Laughs connected the visitor to the Crimson Vortex and the Crimson King's disruption of Barbatos's plans.
• The Batman Who Laughs questioned Barbatos's wary, guilty-seeming behavior as the Iceberg Restaurant approached.
• The Iceberg Restaurant came into view before Barbatos and The Batman Who Laughs.

Penguin and the Justice League witnessed the Laughing Bat as Batman recognized him as another version of himself. After Ancient One secured Batman's agreement to work together, the League's questions about superhero movies made her suspect that Orsaga had brought them into a world where their lives were comic adaptations.

• Penguin watched the Iceberg Restaurant pass through shifting time and space before spotting the Laughing Bat below.
• Batman recognized the Laughing Bat as another version of himself, and the two exchanged an intense, silent stare.
• Batman identified the Dark Multiverse, the Dark Knights, and Barbatos, then agreed to work with Ancient One.
• Cyborg and Aquaman asked Ancient One about Marvel movies and comic-adaptation superhero movies, leaving her alarmed.
• Ancient One looked toward Orsaga and saw him smile with malicious amusement.

Orsaga dismissed Ancient One’s confidence in her foreknowledge and ordered Conrad Koz to kill Barbatos. Conrad drew the Lightless Blade and severed Barbatos’s arm, leaving the enraged Barbatos screaming in the World Forge Workshop.

• Orsaga used his reality-altering ability to make the Iceberg Restaurant’s outer barrier transparent.
• Orsaga ordered Conrad Koz to kill Barbatos and bring him Barbatos’s head.
• Barbatos grew to enormous size and attacked Conrad, while the people inside the Iceberg Restaurant watched in fear.
• Conrad Koz put on his black Metal Armor and drew the Lightless Blade.
• Conrad Koz struck faster than Barbatos could react and severed his arm, making Barbatos scream in pain.

Conrad Koz overwhelmed Barbatos with a slash made from his laser beams, and the resulting clash devastated the area and blinded the witnesses. The Batman Who Laughs died in the blast, but Orsaga resurrected him inside the Iceberg Restaurant, where he joked about whether he should scream too.

• Conrad Koz dismissed Barbatos as weak and criticized his many flaws.
• Barbatos fired two laser beams at Conrad Koz, who seized them and compressed them into a blade of light.
• The Batman Who Laughs fled as Conrad Koz brought the blade down, while Barbatos tore open space with his claws to counter the strike.
• The clash released a catastrophic blast that destroyed the surrounding space, blinded those inside the Iceberg Restaurant, and killed The Batman Who Laughs and Red Death.
• Orsaga twisted time to resurrect The Batman Who Laughs inside the restaurant, where he saw the injured, blinded witnesses and asked Orsaga whether he should scream too.

Orsaga sent 565 participants, including the Justice League, Ancient One, Penguin, and The Batman Who Laughs, into a vast jungle for a lethal faction game. After laying out the rules and broadcasting a cosmic battle overhead, he turned his attention to Constantine and promised him a special punishment.

• Orsaga stopped the screams in Iceberg Restaurant and healed the injured eyes before announcing a competitive game.
• Orsaga named The Batman Who Laughs the opponent of everyone else and sent all 565 participants into separate parts of a vast jungle.
• Orsaga explained that the factions had to eliminate the other side, with location scans every twenty-four hours and supply drops every seven days.
• Superman flew above the trees and saw that the forest stretched beyond his vision as the battle between Barbatos and Conrad Koz appeared in the sky.
• Constantine watched the game from outside, and Orsaga told him he had chosen a special punishment for him.

Orsaga sent Constantine to spend five years cultivating his character in a world he described as more wonderful than Gotham City. Constantine found the place seemingly peaceful, but its talking dog and a man disguised as an elk left him bewildered as he considered which road to take.

• Orsaga reassured Constantine that his training would not involve a straightforward life-or-death crisis and sent him through a Space Door.
• Constantine arrived at a fork in the road and found the surroundings and his magical items apparently normal.
• A passing family’s dog spoke to comfort Pete, while the other passengers showed no surprise.
• Constantine watched one of two mating elk remove an elk-hide disguise, curse him, and ride away on a motorcycle.
• Constantine confirmed the remaining elk was real and male, then studied signs pointing toward Springfield Town, South Park Town, and Crispberry Forest Park.

Constantine arrived in Springfield Town and discovered that its residents and food were as bizarre as its world. After Pete and a Rooster began a catastrophic brawl over who would buy the other a burger, Constantine watched their fight spread across hundreds of kilometers to New York and was left deeply shaken.

• Constantine reached Springfield Town, recognized US dollars and the United States, and decided to get food before investigating further.
• Constantine watched a burger advertisement and was revolted by its depiction of cattle being blended alive into burger meat.
• Pete and a Rooster argued over who would treat the other, then began a violent fight that injured bystanders who tried to intervene.
• Pete and the Rooster fought into the road, where they smashed apart a speeding cargo truck without being harmed.
• Six hours later, Constantine watched news footage of Pete and the Rooster fighting atop the Empire State Building after their battle had crossed hundreds of kilometers and caused widespread destruction.

Constantine hypnotized Pete to investigate his unusual nature and discovered that Pete could wield demonic hellfire after recalling a past life. He concluded that gods and devils existed in this bizarre world, though Pete’s cheap-pizza celebration and a stray dog waiting to be hypnotized left the truth difficult to fathom.

• Constantine disguised himself and lured Pete into a hypnosis experiment by offering him pizza.
• Constantine asked Pete about his unusual traits, but Pete gave bizarre answers about his chin and husky jeans.
• Constantine guided Pete deeper into his memories, causing Pete to open his eyes, speak of Allah and six armies, and unleash crimson hellfire.
• Constantine urged Pete to return to more recent memories, and Pete mentioned his husky jeans again.
• Constantine concluded that gods and devils existed in this world, while Pete ate pizza and a stray dog waited to participate.