Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics-Chapter 4567 - 3649: Injustice League (1)

A dusky yellow sunset. Then screams, blood, and mad laughter, the roars echoing in his ears. The scent of blood kept drifting into his nose. Something was being chased by endless malice. A leap from the towering building...

Batman awoke with a start.

He took a few rapid breaths, but soon threw off the blanket and sat on the bed rubbing his face vigorously.

He had a nightmare again. Certain fragments always repeatedly appeared in his dreams. Batman had to admit that Superman occupied a far more important place in his life than he had expected. The day the tragedy happened became a common nightmare from which neither of them could escape.

Superman was about to go mad. Batman knew this.

With a "bang," the door was opened. Batman was not surprised to see those cold, pale blue eyes.

"When will they come?"

Batman looked up at him. At that moment, his eyes seemed devoid of emotion, but something was brewing beneath the icy surface, exuding a chilling malice and madness.

"I don't know," Batman said, "I have no way to be sure. Besides, they wouldn't be willing to help you."

"They must help me." Superman stared at him intently, "As long as I can go back to the past, I can save Lois, it's a piece of cake for them. They must help me!"

Batman slowly closed his eyes. He knew Superman had stepped into an irrevocable trap.

Revival, rebirth, returning to the past, reversing the tragedy.

No. Nothing in this world comes without a price. Batman thought. When they were resetting their universe, they retained the memory of the outsiders, perhaps waiting for a fish to bite the hook.

Batman had much to say. He wanted to tell Superman that indeed they could easily reset the universe's time, but they would never use this power to help you. He also wanted to tell Superman that even if they could go back to the past, they might not be able to save Lois, and everything might not turn out well.

But looking at his crazed expression, Batman found himself unable to say anything.

When he discovered in another universe that time could actually reverse, wasn't he also shocked by the grandeur of such power, and wasn't he, too, tempted by the thought of going back to reverse the tragedy? How could he blame Superman?

But they were a group of madmen. Batman realized very clearly. They cast their universe into the river of time like they were skipping stones. This is no rational method. They couldn't take this risk.

Batman saw deeper into the issue. That universe could use this trick because they were united, mad together as one.

But his universe couldn't. Superman wanted to use their power to go back and save Lois, Batman wanted to use their power to go back and save his own parents. And what about Wonder Woman? Green Lantern? The Flash?

Everyone desired this power. This would eventually lead to an extremely terrifying tragedy. Batman would not allow this to happen.

But he knew there was no way to stop the already mad Superman. He could neither persuade him with words nor stop him with actions. He could only wait.

They failed the mission in that universe.

In countless cycles, Batman had also led the rebel army or made small moves behind Brainiac's back while he was fending off other invaders.

But time was too tight. The potential this nearing-crazed artificial intelligence showed was unimaginably huge, even scarier by several magnitudes than the one they were facing now. They ultimately couldn't succeed.

Battleworld wouldn't care about universe resets. Time wasn't reversed, it always moved forward. Naturally, the mission failed due to overtime.

Before leaving, they invited this universe's Justice League to solve their Brainiac problem. However, it was Superman who extended the invitation this time, not Batman.

But Batman was well aware that Superman genuinely didn't want to collaborate.

What he wanted was that power to reverse the past. With that power, no tragedy or enemy would be a problem anymore.

He wanted to trap them here, force them to hand over that power. Just like he once killed the Joker, ruling Earth with violence and power.

Failure did not teach him a lesson, but the once-tasted sweetness made him even crazier. By the time Batman wanted to stop it, everything was already too late.

He had made a completely wrong decision. He shouldn't have released Superman. Batman thought, it's not that he's shirking responsibility. If anyone had to be accountable for Superman's madness, it must be that universe's Justice League.

They had done something to Superman's emotions. For a long time, Superman's emotional changes were not right. He had become a real iceberg, even Batman found it hard to shake.

This resulted in seeing time reverse again, his emotions exploding in an instant, setting off terrifying waves that completely destroyed the bottom line of rationality. He no longer cared.

They did it on purpose. Batman knew.

This is a trap. A trap targeting an emotionally unstable Superman.

For a person deeply traumatized, a chance to go back in time and reverse tragedy is enough to lose one's sanity. They've been laying the groundwork for so long, keeping their plans a secret until the final explosion, all to drive Superman mad with greed for this kind of power.

Blind his eyes with greed, then use his power and madness to kidnap others in this cosmos, forcing them to open the door and let the wolf into the house.

They succeeded. Batman sighed heavily in his heart. He knew what kind of reckless and stupid plan the Injustice League had devised during his break.

They want to invite the Justice League under the guise of opposing Brainiac, find ways to defeat and imprison the weakest among them, then threaten those with the power to reverse time to force them to work for him.

They think they can then use the power of time unscrupulously to reverse every tragedy they want to recover.

Everyone is greedy.

When they didn't know such power existed, they persuaded themselves to accept tragedy, allowing time to heal wounds, turning misfortunes into the past, striving to live well now, and gaining courage to face the future.

But when they know everything can be undone, the world looks completely different to them. Faced with past discontent, they can endlessly change it.

But what would be considered good?

Revive Lois, and Superman can live happily with her again. But what if one day danger lurks again? He would still choose to use this power to save her.

What if they have a conflict someday? Would Superman also want to go back in time and change certain things to prevent the conflict?

What if they argue someday? Would he also want to go back and rephrase the wrong words he said?

Endlessly reversing the past will continue to lower people's standards of tragedy, from the loss of life at first, to the failure of certain developments, to fleeting negative emotions.

They will not choose to accept, only wanting a redo.

This is absolutely not a survival mode carbon-based life forms can accept. Those cosmos people have assurance in controlling it, but this cosmos cannot. Impossibility is impossibility, there's no middle ground of trying.

Gravely mistaken. Batman thought. But he really couldn't stop it anymore.

Batman had never hoped so much that the unreliable Justice League he complained about countless times in his heart could be a bit reliable this time, stopping these brainless fools from making everything a mess.

Batman returned to bed, speechless. Superman stood by the bedside. He said, "You can lead the Rebel army to deal with Brainiac, restore Earth's order. I don't care anymore."

After speaking, he waved his cape and turned to leave.

Batman pressed his arm against his eyes. His mind was full of the dream he just had. Joker's laughter, the screams of the crowd, played endlessly in his mind until he drifted back to sleep.

Inside the base, members of the Justice League and Injustice League sat together. It wasn't the first time; since Brainiac's invasion began, the two sides had temporarily ceased fighting and cooperated.

The original Justice League camp was missing Green Arrow Oliver because he had unfortunately died in the process of opposing Superman's regime. And in the Injustice League, there were many well-known criminals, such as Scarecrow and Bane, and Hal, who first turned into Yellow Lantern, then reverted back to Green Lantern.

Superman sat in front of everyone. He stroked the wedding ring in his hand. Wonder Woman noticed the motion. She was the first to speak, "Batman once borrowed the strength of the Justice League from other universes to defeat you, Superman. You can too. If they defeated Brainiac using time reversal tactics, then we can do it as well."

"Playing with time is extremely dangerous," The Flash had to speak up, "It brings unpredictable consequences."

"But they didn't have any accidents," Wonder Woman said, "They even reversed time not just once, but many, many times, so helping us here to reverse once isn't a big deal."

The Flash remained silent, clearly not in agreement.

"How is Batman doing?" Green Lantern asked.

"He's resting," Superman said, "I just learned that he still needs rest."

"He just wants to oppose you," Wonder Woman said, "He's always been that kind of person, disregarding your situation, disregarding Earth's situation, just opposing you for the sake of opposing you."

Wonder Woman placed her arms on the table, saying, "Clearly he also strikes down criminals, yet he only blames you for killing Joker; clearly he's also summoned the Justice League from other universes, yet he passively resists your intention to ask others for help."

"Now Brainiac's army is pressing down, and other universes already have successful experiences in using time reversal to combat Brainiac, yet he refuses to stand up to help you persuade them to assist. To me, you are simply too kind to him."

Many standing with Batman glared at him angrily. But Batman chose to avoid them, and they had no way of confronting him.

Suddenly Wonder Woman reached out and held Superman's hand, saying, "Don't worry, I'll always stand by you. Superman can use people from other universes to defeat you, then you can certainly leave him behind. We can talk to them. They will assist you. They must assist you."