Passing through curtain after curtain woven from darkness, the Batman Who Laughs emerged into an immensely vast, empty space.
Although a spiked visor encircled his head, it did nothing to obstruct his sight. Inspiration vision allowed him to see hallucinations corresponding to reality.
Looking up, he saw a colossal forge that towered from floor to ceiling, filling the entire space. Its exterior had no fixed color, shifting almost every instant. Searing energy radiated faintly from around it, distorting even the breath leaving his mouth.
Beneath the forge, a black dragon wound around its four leglike pillars, carefully surviving in the tiny sliver of space left after the forge had occupied the rest.
The arrival of the Batman Who Laughs drew the dragon's attention. Its breathing was heavy, with sparks and black smoke occasionally pouring from its nostrils, only to vanish moments later. The bottom of the forge seemed to be constantly drawing heat out of the entire space.
"How magnificent!"
The Batman Who Laughs grinned, gazing at that inconceivably great creation as he spoke with a chuckle.
The black dragon expelled another mouthful of thick smoke, its maw full of sharp teeth slowly opening and closing.
"This is the World Forge. It can gather the hopes and fears of the world and use them as raw materials to forge new universes without end."
"Ooh, how impressive."
The Batman Who Laughs clapped his hands and praised it loudly, as though he were merely watching a wonderful play.
The dragon shifted its neck irritably. It found his disrespectful attitude utterly intolerable, but remembering that he was its own chosen agent left it rather helpless.
The origins of the Batman Who Laughs seemed simple, but in truth, he had been born through the dragon's behind-the-scenes manipulation. Only by combining Joker's madness with Batman's