Was this truly a whisper from his future self, rather than a trap set by Batman Dragon?
Truth or falsehood had blurred in this moment. First Lantern could no longer tell the difference.
At this very moment, the only thing First Lantern could see clearly... was the enemy standing before him.
Dozens of enemies...
Dozens of enemies who were certain to appear in the future. First Lantern was still not accustomed to his state after mastering the Light of Creation, so he often saw the current timeline overlapping with the downstream reality of the Over-Time Stream that was forming in the near future.
The feeling was like holding your palm vertically before the tip of your nose, then opening both eyes at once and seeing two entirely different scenes overlapping in your vision.
So in the reality before him, there was only one person.
And First Lantern knew exactly who these enemies that had suddenly appeared were: versions of himself from different timelines, coming to stop him for all sorts of reasons.
"This is Perpetua's scheme." He spoke to the version of himself before him, unsure whether he belonged to the future or the past. "I swear to you, no matter what you experienced, the timeline you lived through was a tragedy created by Perpetua to make you obey her orders and attack me."
He looked at the figure before him, who appeared to be some combination of First Lantern and Aquaman. He held Aquaman's Trident and wore Aquaman's classic soft armor, its surface resembling golden fish scales.
"I know."
First Lantern heard that Aquaman version of himself say, "In my time, I successfully restored Earth-15. But because the timeline became distorted, Earth-15 became an Atlantis civilization. It wasn't what I wanted, but it was better than nothing."
First Lantern