Batman: "Lord Barbatos, I'm Here to Save You!" (A 5,000-Word Chapter)

(666. This chapter title is worth commemorating.)

When Parallax Hal pulled his head out of the sand, he was greeted by the scorching sun.

Under the blinding sunlight, he saw an endless desert, with a few sparse cacti nearby.

This was Earth-18.

It was a world where all superheroes had become Western cowboys, and the superhero team was the Justice Riders.

It was an unremarkable world. Aside from its Western style, none of its superheroes were particularly powerful. The Batman here was "Bat-Whip," a Western version of Batman skilled with a whip.

Hal had fallen out of the time-space portal, landing here by coincidence. This was the current point in the Over-Time Stream. Parallax Hal had succeeded, and his injuries were completely within an acceptable range.

Hal examined his injuries.

His condition could hardly be called good. First Lantern had plundered a portion of his Anti-Matter Universe energy, which meant he had permanently lost part of his strength.

The all-out battle against Barbatos and the Black Death Emperor, who was empowered by Barbatos, had greatly depleted Parallax Hal's stamina. He had continuously created temporal rifts to tear apart the Over-Time Stream while also fighting Brainiac. Aside from those extraordinarily powerful metal tentacles, Brainiac's psychic power had also been constantly trying to invade Hal's mind.

To conserve energy, Hal had not used any other power. He had resisted the psychic invasion purely through willpower, leaving even his will somewhat fatigued.

But all of it had been worth it—

"I'm safe!"

Barbatos had already escaped.

Although Parallax Hal did not know that his greatest threat had now fallen into a miserable siege by several people through Emperor Joker's alliances and counteralliances, leaving him no time to worry about Hal, Hal still let out a long sigh of relief.

He crawled out of