"Those who dared to resist were killed," Harvey Dent corrected.
"The others who didn't resist were gathered by this world's Batman, forming the League of Fear, spreading fear throughout the world. The more fear, the faster this world descends into darkness, and the stronger they become. Firefly and Killer Croc's transformations are all due to this."
Barry was silent.
He hoped to save this world and didn't want his own world to become like this.
"We continue, let's go find Batman."
Shimizu watched Killer Croc walk away in the distance, his footsteps causing the ground to tremble, and took the initiative to command.
"He's in Arkham, Robin and another me are there too."
The three of them moved again.
"The ground… it feels like it's pulsating, like a heart."
The gates of Arkham Asylum were open, with a gap blasted into them.
Harvey Dent stepped forward and picked up two Batarangs.
The two Batarangs were basically the same shape, but one was a matte black, and the other was a rusty bronze.
Shimizu led Barry through the gap, looking at the familiar yet unfamiliar scenery.
It was like returning home.
The tremors underfoot became more and more obvious, and suddenly, a loud noise came.
Two-Face was stunned for a moment.
"We need to speed up."
The three quickly passed through the cells.
In them, Poison Ivy, the Joker, Bane, and many other villains had died in their cells. Many of the bodies had already rotted, even turning into skeletons. Their identities could only be determined by their clothing.
And at the lowest level of Arkham Asylum.
This was originally supposed to be the place where the most dangerous criminals were held, but it had been converted into a huge plaza, or rather, an altar.
Batman was using a gun to fire a grappling hook with one hand, dodging and weaving through countless thick, black tentacles.
Many of the tentacles opened their hideous maws, frantically tearing at him, and some could even spray venom and black lasers.
If the armor he was wearing on this trip hadn't been plated with a large amount of promethium alloy, giving it super-strong defense, and if his other preparations hadn't been sufficient, he might have really crashed.
But now, the goal had not yet been achieved.
In the distance, a door identical to the one Shimizu and the others had come through was lying quietly on the ground, located in the very center of the altar.
Looking closely, the altar was in the shape of a bat.
Roots of slightly different tentacles were extending from the door, probing into the void and the earth, constantly rising and falling, like a maw constantly drawing nutrients from this world.
Cthulhu Batman stood in the air above that door, the back of his neck connected to a tentacle, and his armor was also sprouting tentacles all over.
These tentacles were the main force fighting Bruce Wayne.
As for Jason and Javoni, they were also connected to a tentacle at the back of their necks, hanging unconscious in mid-air.
Cthulhu Batman wanted to transform them into his Robins.
Outside the portal in the dome, Shimizu and the others also saw this world's Harvey Dent and the Ventriloquist.
The Ventriloquist was tied to the wall, his mouth gagged. The dummy Scarface on the ground only had half a head left, and its two eyeballs kept rolling, but without a mouth, it couldn't speak.
This Two-Face's lower half of his face was destroyed, making him look even more terrifying than the one next to Shimizu.
"You've finally come, brother," the alternate Harvey said to his counterpart.
"Where's Batman?"
"The two Bats are fighting down there, but your one is weaker. When his armor runs out of power, he'll end up like those two Robins."
The alternate Harvey opened the door and pointed to the fighting scene below.
"I can't interfere in battles of this level, let alone with this."
The alternate Harvey pointed to a faint black tentacle behind his neck.
The tentacle seemed to extend from the void, almost imperceptible.
"The closer you get to here, the more obvious it becomes. That dark being has almost completely devoured this world. Every negative emotion, like fear, that is born from everyone will be collected by it and turned into nourishment."
"Batman, as its chosen agent, has the power to control a portion of the power it has collected in this world. If I go down there, I might immediately be controlled and become like him, completely and utterly corrupted by the darkness. In fact, the whole world is almost there, but people like me with dual personalities can take turns enduring the darkness."
Saying this, the alternate Harvey sighed again, looking at Shimizu and Barry, he said:
"Unfortunately, I'm almost at my limit… If possible, I hope you can free Bruce. He shouldn't be like this, but you have to take something from him first, a Batarang made of an unknown metal."
"Are you and him close?" Harvey Dent said to his counterpart.
"Before he died in that alley, I and him as a child were the best of friends. Before Old Thomas used his life to exchange for Bruce's, I, as the Gotham City prosecutor, assisted Old Thomas in eliminating those criminals… Yes, before becoming Two-Face, I was Old Thomas's Robin."
Now it was Harvey Dent's turn to be silent.
The other world's him would actually be Batman's Robin?
Even an old Batman.
"Who's Bruce? Don't tell me it's that wealthy man… He's Batman!" Barry quietly put his mouth to Shimizu's ear, his eyes wide, as if he had discovered some shocking secret.
"Ah, yes, everyone thinks this not-so-secret secret is a big secret, but it is indeed a secret. To avoid offending that narrow-minded bat, you better not reveal this secret."
Shimizu said to Barry in a tongue-twister.
"I understand that!" Barry nodded excitedly.
His identity as the Flash was also ostensibly separated from Barry Allen.
"Batman is about to give out," Harvey Dent suddenly said.
In the plaza, Batman finally had nowhere to hide. He was about to be caught by a group of tentacles and could only rely on his flexible movements to delay as much as possible.
Shimizu and Barry exchanged a tacit glance.
Lightning representing the Speed Force quickly spread over both of them.
"Whoosh!" The air exploded with a deafening roar, and the two disappeared in front of the two Harveys in the blink of an eye.
At the same time, Batman was doing a lazy donkey roll, trying to dodge an oncoming black tentacle.
The next moment, a red lightning flashed past…
