Batman, Let Me Ask You: Sincerity or Falsehood

I am Barbatos.

I remembered Gotham City.

Perhaps many people did not know that the position of Lord of the World Forge was merely a divine office I seized after murdering my master. Strictly speaking, the Dark Multiverse Dragon was more like my species than a divine office.

More precisely, I am the God of Bats. I am the darkness of Gotham City.

From the moment I was born, my fate had been firmly bound to Gotham City—or rather, to Batman.

The Over-Time Stream.

History.

Cause, process, result.

The timeline.

These orderly things were like Gotham City's granite sculptures or exposed steel rebar, creating the illusion that the entire world was governed by strict order.

But anyone even slightly clever should have known that the entire world was actually built on gunpowder and fuses. Beneath its roiling undercurrents, flammable and explosive dirty kerosene even welled up naturally.

At the moment I was born, I saw the dangerous nature of this world with perfect clarity. Terrified, I shrank back into my creator's palm like a ball of startled black shadow.

Only many years later did I realize that the terrifying sight had been a tool my master and creator used to frighten me. From the moment I was born, I had been a puppet in the World Forger's palm.

He manipulated my actions, my attachment, my fear, my dependence, and the evil thoughts I absorbed.

I had once pitied those creatures, and then he took that pity away without hesitation.

I had once felt fear, but that was soon discovered as well.

Like a gardener pruning a sapling that had grown crooked, all it took was a snap, and I would never feel fear again.

Every part of this had been under the World Forger's control.

And so I finally realized...