Diana led the way, carrying the Sword of Hephaestus, with Arthur and Hal on either side. Barry patrolled and kept watch, while Grail, who had just formed a temporary alliance, carried the giant scythe that was taller than her and walked at a leisurely pace at the very back.
The streets of Star City have been completely reduced to ruins.
The broken steel bars pierced the gray sky like the skeleton of a monster.
From time to time, several nightmare monsters covered in pustules and with twisted limbs would dart out from the pile of rubble.
"Laugh--"
Grail didn't even stop walking. With a casual flick of her wrist, the huge scythe left a dark red afterimage, cleaving a nightmare monster that pounced from the side in two from head to toe.
Green, putrid blood splattered on the crumbling walls, emitting a sizzling, corrosive sound.
She didn't even glance at the pile of rotting flesh; all her attention was focused on the gray-skinned baby in her arms with its eyes closed.
Hal Jordan, standing on a figment of a green skateboard, floated half a meter off the ground as he slowly approached Barry Allen.
" Barry," Hal nudged the Flash's shoulder with his elbow and lowered his voice, "To be honest, Darkseid was already repulsive enough, but I never expected he was even uglier as a child than he is now."
Hal stroked his chin, brazenly eyeing the baby in Grail's arms.
"Do you think the other side sacrificed their looks to gain strength?" Hal raised an eyebrow, his tone full of teasing.
Barry scratched his red hood, his lips twitching.
Gotham is gone, Metropolis is destroyed, and the Justice League is more than half dead or wounded. How does this guy still have the mind to study Darkseid is ugly or not?
" Hal, please, just shut up." Barry sighed, taking half a step to the side, trying to distance himself from this foul-mouthed Green Lantern.
However, Hal had no intention of shutting up.
He hovered in mid-air, arms crossed, and continued muttering, "And you know what, even though Grail shares the same rock gray tint as her father, she gives me a completely different feeling. She's like a dark version of Diana —hot and sexy."
"Whoosh--"
An extremely sharp, piercing sound suddenly rang out without warning.
Hal felt a tingling sensation on the top of his head.
A massive, dark red scythe grazed past his materialized green shield, the powerful gust of wind from its blade severing several strands of his golden hair.
The scythe flew over Hal's head, pinning a nightmare monster, which was about to spit Venom, ten meters away to a load-bearing pillar.
Hal touched his forehead, where his skull had almost been ripped off, and swallowed hard.
He turned around and looked at Grail was walking at the very back.
Grail raised her right hand, her five fingers grasping, and the war scythe flew back into her hand as a blinding red light.
Those pure, blood-red eyes glanced coldly at Hal, as if looking at a corpse.
Hal chuckled twice, raised his hand, and made a zipping gesture over his mouth.
He had just turned his head back when he met Diana's gaze.
Wonder Woman gripped her shield, her silver-grey eyes filled with warning, and the tip of Sword of Hephaestus drew Mars across the ground.
Hal shrugged, raised his hand again, gestured to his mouth as if it were a zipper, and fell completely silent.
Arthur Curry, walking on the left, slung his trident over his shoulder and sneered, "Serves you right."
Hal's anger, which he had just suppressed, suddenly flared up again.
He dared not provoke the demigod Diana, nor did he want to fight Grail, that crazy woman, but he absolutely could not swallow his anger towards Aquaman.
"That's still better than you sleeping with a fish!" Hal retorted without any politeness.
Arthur stopped in his tracks, veins bulging on his bronze skin.
He whirled around, slamming the golden trident in his hand heavily onto the cracked asphalt road.
"Bang!"
The ground was smashed into a deep crater, and debris flew everywhere.
"I've said it so many times, it's a rumor!" Arthur's voice boomed like a roar, a tsunami-like pressure surging towards Hal's face. "You damn bastard, if you mention it again, I'll shove the trident down your throat!"
Hal curled his lip, completely disregarding Aquaman's threat.
He stuck out his tongue and made several exaggerated faces, the Green Lantern Ring on his finger flashing dangerously.
Come on, let's fight!
Hal thought to himself that it would be quite stress-relieving to use the Green Lantern energy to materialize a giant frying pan and slap it on Arthur's face.
Arthur gritted his teeth, his arm muscles tensed completely, and the trident was already halfway raised.
Diana simply turned her head and quietly looked at the two of them.
The oppressive aura emanating from the Olympus gods caused the surrounding air temperature to drop slightly.
Arthur glanced at Diana, then at the dilapidated ruins around him, and swallowed his anger.
He shouldered the trident again and strode forward, not even wanting to show Hal the back of his head.
A flash of electricity struck Barry as he moved closer to Hal.
" Hal, do you know how annoying you were just now?" Barry complained in a low voice, his blue eyes full of helplessness.
"It's nothing." Hal snapped his fingers nonchalantly. "Most people can't beat me; at worst, they'll get a beating. Besides, if a beautiful woman beats me up, that's a bonus."
Barry gasped, staring at Hal as if he were an alien monster. Lightning crackled beneath his feet again, sending him flying five meters away.
"I never expected you to be this kind of person, Hal." Barry's voice was filled with disdain.
Hal didn't bother to reply; a massive industrial park ruin appeared ahead.
A crumbling sign hangs on the dilapidated iron gate: Queen Industries.
This is the entrance to the Star City underground base, their last refuge.
The group slowed down.
Just as Hal was about to make a joke about the security system in this dilapidated factory, an extremely strong smell of blood entered his nostrils.
Barry was the first to stop.
On the red Speed Force suit, the golden arcs of electricity no longer circled steadily, but instead darted wildly like startled snakes.
"Can you smell it?" Barry's voice was strained, his hands clenched into fists.
Diana gripped her shield tightly, the Sword of Hephaestus held horizontally in front of her, her muscles taut to the extreme.
The tip of Arthur's trident glowed with a light blue light.
Hal's Green Lantern Ring projected a large fan-shaped scanning beam, sweeping across the collapsed factory gate in front of him.
Even Grail, who was at the back, stopped, her scythe carving a deep trench in the ground, her blood-red eyes fixed on the shadow ahead.
From the shadows of the factory came the ear-piercing sound of chains dragging on the concrete floor.
Splash... splash...
Four figures emerged slowly from the darkness.
The one on the far left wore a twisted green battle suit, with a symbol on his chest resembling a deformed bat, surrounded by nauseating dark green energy— the Dawnbreaker.
The one on the right, half of its body is cold machinery, and its red electronic eyes flash with an inorganic light— the Murder Machine.
The one on the left in the middle is a monster of exaggeratedly large size.
Its gray, rocky skin was covered with sharp bone spurs, making it look exactly like Doomsday — the Devastator— wearing a Batman cape.
And walking right in the middle was that nightmarish figure.
A black leather jacket, pale skin, and eyes tightly covered by a metal goggles covered in spikes.
He held several iron chains in his hands, and at the other end of the chains were four pale children dressed in Robin uniforms, their cheeks torn to their ears.
The Batman Who Laughs.
Hal's green light swept across the Devastator's hand.
In that enormous hand covered in bone spurs, something was being held.
It was golden, with an antique pattern, and thick, sticky blood was still dripping from its edges.
Doctor Fate's helmet.
Barry took a half step back, his face pale.
Doctor Fate was maintaining the base's magical defenses. Now that his helmet is here, all the survivors and ordinary people in the underground base are gone!
The Batman Who Laughs grinned, its row of sharp, inhuman-looking teeth opening and closing with a grating, grinding sound.
"You did a really beautiful job." The Batman Who Laughs's voice sounded like fingernails scraping across a blackboard, carrying a chilling pleasure.
He released the chains, and the Robin Hounds lay on the ground, letting out Beast -like growls at the Justice League.
"The three of me from the Dark Multiverse have fallen at your hands."
The Batman Who Laughs slowly stepped out of the shadows, its leather boots making a crisp cracking sound as they slammed into the broken glass.
The piercing visor swept over everyone present, and finally, the unseen gaze fixed on the gray-skinned baby in Grail's arms.
Baby Darkseid seemed to sense something, and his tightly closed eyes shifted uneasily.
"No need to celebrate." The Batman Who Laughs spread his arms wide, like a stage actor taking his final bow, his lips curving into an exaggerated smile.
A chilling laugh echoed through the ruins, penetrating everyone's ears.
"Their demise was planned from the start. Through them, I saw the limits of each of your strength, your fears, and the weaknesses you couldn't let go of even in death."
The Batman Who Laughs tilted its head, its pale chin raised.
"You've won a few battles, but you haven't won this game yet. The Devastator, it's our turn."