"Damn it, it's been a full forty-eight hours!" Barry paced back and forth on the white stone steps outside the temple, the soles of his non-slip boots scraping against the ground with a screeching sound.
For users of the Speed Force, every second is stretched out into agonizing agony.
Golden bolts of lightning danced restlessly on his shoulders, and several stray lightning bolts struck the beach, burning the scattered seashells into charcoal.
Barry's mind kept replaying the horrific scene in the ruins, the Gotham villains twisted by darkness, and the nightmare monsters.
The Batman Who Laughs's nauseating laughter still scraped against his eardrums.
He always wanted to rewrite the tragedy with speed, but right now, he couldn't even break down this door.
" Queen Hippolyta has been inside for a long time and hasn't come out yet. Has Diana been cured?" Barry rubbed his gloves, his gaze constantly drifting towards the tightly closed door.
Hal leaned against a pillar, the Green Lantern Ring projecting a holographic image of the Earth.
Across the continents, a dark shadow is spreading rapidly, engulfing the remaining safe zones.
Hal stared into the shadows, his blue eyes revealing a deep weariness.
He could feel the energy output of the Lantern Ring becoming sluggish, and the boundless darkness was squeezing his willpower.
His nightmares were filled with images of him being consumed by negative emotions and completely losing his light.
He had to force himself not to think about the possibility of failure.
"Stop wandering around, Barry, you won't save anyone by going in circles." Hal waved his hand to disperse the projection and looked down the steps.
Arthur sat on the edge, scraping the tip of his trident with a whetstone, the grating sound of metal scraping echoing in the sea breeze.
Her long, golden hair was tousled by the sea breeze, and her bronze, deep-sea skin was covered with tiny scratches.
"This seawater smells wrong." Arthur stopped scraping, his nostrils twitching. "There's a rotten, rusty smell. The war on land has polluted this place; the ocean is wailing."
Mera stood behind him, her hands clasped together, watching the distant, undulating waves.
She bent down and placed her hands on Arthur's broad shoulders.
"We'll hold this place, Arthur. For the sake of our people on both sides," Mera said softly. " Orm is gathering his army in the deep sea; he won't let these monsters cross the trench easily."
On the other side, Roy, Mia, and Thaddeus Ross were gathered around several ammunition boxes.
"We have twelve high-explosive arrowheads left." Roy stuck a red-feathered arrow into his quiver, his brow furrowed. "Two magazines of armor-piercing rounds, and all the incendiary rounds are empty. With this much firepower, we can't even fill the gaps between these nightmare monsters' teeth."
"Stop complaining, old man." Mia loaded a short arrow into her crossbow and clicked it shut. "After we've finished with these, we'll use our fists. It's better than sitting here and waiting to die."
Thaddeus Ross placed the longsword across his knees and wiped the dried blood from the blade with a rag.
"As long as the blade doesn't dull, I can keep cutting." She didn't even look up, continuing to sharpen the knife.
Kara floated half a meter off the ground, her red cape fluttering in the wind. James and Lucy adjusted the joints of the semi-mechanical armor at the bottom of the steps, the metallic clanging sounds echoing.
Emiko leaned against the corner of the wall, listlessly fiddling with the bowstring.
Constantine squatted on the beach smoking, the sea breeze scattering the bluish-gray smoke.
Zatanna was flipping through a magic book with pages falling out; the pages were covered in ancient runes.
On the distant black reef, Grail sat, holding the quiet Darkseid baby in her arms.
Barry stopped in his tracks.
"We can't stay here forever." Barry pointed to the sea outside. " The Batman Who Laughs' lackeys will find us sooner or later. Should we keep changing bases? With my speed, I'll lead everyone and fight a guerrilla war to buy time. As long as we run fast enough, they won't be able to catch us."
"No." Hal interrupted abruptly, green light swirling at his fingertips, forming a shield before dissipating.
" Barbatos is completely preoccupied with pulling the entire Light Universe into the Dark Multiverse. Once he succeeds, we'll all die no matter where we run. Delaying him is the best thing for him."
Zatanna closed the spellbook and rubbed her temples.
" Hal is right, Barbatos's very existence distorts reality. As long as he's there, our magic will be completely suppressed."
She pointed to the half-drawn teleportation array on the ground, its golden runes dim and lifeless. "Right now, even the most basic teleportation array is completely stuck, and the spatial coordinates are all messed up. If we force our way in, we might end up being thrown into the core of some star."
Arthur picked up his trident and looked at the two spellcasters.
"Don't you mages have any other trump cards?" Arthur asked.
Zatanna shook her head. "No, this thing is in a completely different dimension from us; its magical source has been completely corrupted."
Constantine spat his cigarette butt into the sand, crushed it out with the sole of his shoe, and looked past the crowd, his gaze landing on Grail in the distance.
"Actually, there's a way." John put his hands in his trench coat pockets, the sea breeze making the hem flutter. "Of our group, only she can rely on the power of the New Gods to avoid being eaten by these nightmare monsters. However, once Barbatos is free, she'll still be finished. Unless..."
"Unless what?" Barry asked urgently.
Constantine pointed to the baby in Grail's arms.
"Unless we reawaken Darkseid's consciousness and use this cosmic tyrant to bite Barbatos to death."
"Impossible!" Barry nearly jumped up, waving his hands wildly in the air.
"Have you forgotten how badly the Anti-Monitor fought Darkseid last time? The Earth absolutely cannot withstand another battle of that magnitude! Do you want to tear the entire Earth apart?"
Constantine rolled his eyes.
"So what brilliant idea do you have? Are you going to try and confuse Barbatos by running laps around him?"
Barry opened his mouth, but couldn't utter a single word for a long time.
Stop dreaming.
A cold, harsh voice drifted from the other side of the reef. Grail raised her blood-red eyes; the giant scythe gleamed coldly in the sunlight.
The surrounding air is distorted due to the residual energy of the Omega Effect.
"I can't hand Darkseid over to you unless you're tired of living. He's still very useful to me. You think you can use my father to shield you from disaster?" She sneered, "Dream on."
The atmosphere plummeted to freezing point.
This terrible idea was obviously doomed to fail, mainly because even if they all joined forces, they couldn't defeat Grail, let alone snatch the baby.
This is a dead end.
Boom boom boom!
Suddenly, the roar of engines filled the sky.
"Looks like you've run into some trouble, guys," a flippant voice came from above. "But we've just found the perfect weapon to solve the problem."
Everyone looked up.
A massive, ruggedly designed spaceship is slowly landing on the beach, sending up clouds of dust.
The spacecraft's hull is covered with dents and seaweed left by the pressure of the deep sea.
The hatch opened, Oliver Quinn stepped out, wearing his green hood, followed by Nightwing, Damian, Mister Terrific, the Plastic Man's egg, and Martian Manhunter.
Inside the spaceship, piles of Nth Metal, resembling small mountains, emitted a peculiar metallic luster.
Oliver patted the hull of the spaceship, his chin raised.
"This is all the remaining stock from beneath Atlantis, but we've riddled it with bullets."
Barry leaned closer, looked at the pile of raw metal ore, and scratched his head.
"We've found the metal, but are we supposed to each carry a piece of raw rock up there and smash it over these monsters' heads?"
Oliver's smug expression froze. He looked at the metal, then at his bow.
"Uh, yeah." He coughed twice and rubbed his nose. "Where are we going to find a furnace to smelt this stuff now? And we have to forge it into weapons."
Nightwing covered his face and sighed.
Damian, standing to the side, rolled his eyes and looked at Oliver with an expression as if he were an idiot.
"We brought the smelting equipment from Atlantis with us, you idiot!"
Oliver slapped his forehead and burst out laughing.
"That's right! It has to be you, kid. I admit, you've become a qualified bat!"
Damian snorted and turned his head away, too lazy to bother with this idiot, but the slight curve of his lips betrayed him.
The beach immediately sprang into action.
Martian Manhunter conjured up a giant arm and carried the heavy smelting equipment out of the spaceship.
Kara's eyes glowed red as she used her Heat Vision to help heat the furnace.
Mister Terrific rapidly typed commands on the control panel, Green Lantern created a conveyor belt to continuously feed Nth Metal ore into the furnace.
"The atomic structure of Nth Metal can disrupt the energy field of monsters from the Dark Multiverse," Mister Terrific explained while tapping on the control panel. "Simply coating the weapon with it is enough to inflict fatal wounds."
The blast furnace operates, melting Nth Metal and casting it into arrowheads, bullets, and sword blades.
Roy picked up a freshly cooled Nth Metal arrowhead, weighed it in his hand, and then put it into his quiver.
He grabbed his binoculars and habitually scanned the sea.
In the shot, a discordant color appeared at the edge of the azure horizon.
Several seabirds froze in mid-air before crashing straight into the water.
The once clear seawater is being rapidly stained with an ink-like black.
Roy put down his binoculars, his voice strained.
"Guys, there's a huge black fog approaching ten nautical miles away. If the weather forecast missed the storm, then we're in trouble."