"Why are these paths so hard to walk on?!"
Li Jie walked second in line, holding his gun rather nervously and trying not to look at the abysses on either side of the path.
"Because this is how he sees it in his subconscious," Jason Blood explained patiently, taking over as Etrigan withdrew to concentrate on studying Tang poetry. "Deep down, he believes the road to answers must be rough and treacherous, fraught with danger, so the dream created this path."
"Brilliant! He really ought to learn to relax!" Li Jie carefully jumped onto a stone slab. "Otherwise, we could all be home by now."
"Dun-dun, dun! Dun-dun, dun..."
"Stop doing the theme from The Terminator!"
Li Jie turned and shouted at Wilson, but Batman, who led the group, said nothing. The uneven stone slabs beneath his feet seemed to pose no obstacle whatsoever. His black silhouette kept advancing, until, with everyone else panting like dogs, an altar finally appeared at the end of the path.
It was not a stone altar in the traditional sense, but a bizarre structure woven from solidified darkness and flowing starlight. At its center, a golden cocoon pulsed slowly like a heart, each contraction sending ripples through the surrounding abyss.
Raven was wrapped inside the cocoon. Images flickered constantly across its surface: the remains of a city filled with burning ruins, purple lightning raging through the clouds, lava flowing down the streets, shattered spires piercing a blood-red sky.
"Um..." Some of the group stared at the sight in silence, others in shock.
"Batman, is this..."
Li Jie racked his brain for a moment. "Are you dreaming about the fall of Berlin?"
"This isn't Berlin. I've never seen this place."
"That's the child's dream. Her own power clashed with Sandman's and forced the dream out,"