The World Forger Cannot Be Backstabbed by His Own Creation, But Now

"What are you planning to do?"

Looking at Swamp Thing, whose body appeared to have been half-rotted away by some external force yet had fallen into a state neither living nor dead because of the power of The Black—or rather, The Green—Thomas Wayne was already beginning to regret leaving First Lantern's control with him.

The situation was obvious enough. They had escaped one wolf's den only to enter a tiger's lair. If First Lantern still hadn't decided what he wanted to do, then Swamp Thing, who now stood before him with a hungry look in his eyes and was somehow obeying this Future Batman Terry...

It seemed as though Terry intended to use him to make little bear cookies.

Old Terry beside him was grinning wickedly as well. To gain old Thomas's trust earlier, the old man calling himself Future Batman Terry had removed his cowl.

Thomas read a trace of pity on the other man's face, making him look like some ancient demon king preparing to feed a young girl alive to a bear.

Thomas silently pressed a hand against the spot on his lower back where his nonexistent Utility Belt should have been.

When they had just been moving through this region of The Black, he had used that enormous severed limb to hack apart the fly monsters. During that process, he had secretly picked up three spores from the strange creatures and hidden them behind his lower back. He was already considering which direction to throw the three spores to create confusion, then escape in the chaos.

"Put that down, Thomas. You don't really want to do that."

But while old Thomas's mind was frantically plotting escape routes, he heard the other man say, "Stop fiddling with your three spores. I absolutely don't mean to threaten you,