Shiller rose from his chair, grasping his wrist with one hand and flexing it slightly. It was the most significant move he had made all day and it signified his intention to take some action.
However, Shiller simply nodded politely at everyone and said, "I'm feeling a bit tipsy, I'm going to go upstairs to rest first."
Alfred, playing along, came over and extended a hand, gesturing, "This way, Professor."
As Shiller followed Alfred up the stairs and their figures disappeared from sight, Constantine swallowed and said, "Do you think the Apocalypse Star will explode any second now?"
"I think it's likely," Gordon's Adam's apple bobbed as he said, "I know when Shiller personally steps in, usually it's in every situation involving Batman and the Joker's struggle. Which means something is about to be destroyed."
"I think they might team up against Darkseid, who's fused with the Divine Country," Zatanna said somberly. "A god is almost invincible in their own Divine Country, Darkseid is really strong now."
But Harvey squinted and said, "Would Shiller really join this fight? That doesn't seem like his style."
"Think about it, neither Shiller nor Bruce seem to be the combat types," Constantine raised doubt, "They've tortured each other for so long, but never actually fought."
Gordon pondered for a moment, then nodded and said, "If even in such extreme circumstances they don't resort to violence, then using force will never be their choice in any situation."
"Then what are Bruce and Shiller doing on the Apocalypse Star one after another? The current situation can't be solved with negotiations, can it?" Zatanna insisted on her own opinion, saying, "No matter how you look at it, they definitely have to fight before negotiations are possible."
Everyone was debating what Shiller and Bruce were doing on the Apocalypse Star. Although the Martial Faction and the Non-Martial Faction could not agree, they all unanimously believed that the next scene would be epic.
However, against everyone's expectations, the image on the screen froze.
Not because there was an issue with the broadcast, but because suddenly everyone on the tense screen stopped moving.
With an audible intake of breath, Constantine stood up, his voice incredulous as he exclaimed, "The... Kingdom of Dreams!"
"What's going on?" Zatanna asked, looking at him with concern.
"The power of the Kingdom of Dreams has been stolen!!!"
Constantine's voice was frantic. Suddenly he froze in place, his eyes widened in shock, and he muttered dazedly at the air in front of him, "So... so that's how it is..."
He turned suddenly to look at Zatanna, and said, "Do you remember when I told you that Shiller pulled me into his Tower of Thought and...and forced me to consume a portion of his soul energy?"
Zatanna also froze. She recalled that there was such a thing. That day it had rained, she had finished her street magic performance early to look for Constantine, and he had had an expression of being toyed with.
Only after Zatanna had asked in detail did she find out the root cause was the Guilt Knife.
When Shiller had jumped into Hell to clear all of Constantine's debts, Constantine had unhesitantly ripped his own soul in two. Shiller knew better than anyone the pain of tearing one's soul, so he had directly force-fed Constantine a portion of his own energy, originally part of the System, to complete Constantine's soul. Only then could Constantine return to his own body.
Because that energy was manifested as Shiller's own body parts, the incident had left Constantine with an indelible psychological trauma. Even such a despicable person could not accept the idea of cannibalism, let alone eating his own friend.
Constantine closed his eyes and collapsed back onto the sofa, letting out a sigh. After a long silence, he uttered in a sigh-like tone, "Psychologist..."
"John, what on earth is going on?" Zatanna asked in a somewhat anxious tone. The others also looked at Constantine with worry.
Constantine sat still for a moment, then suddenly moved to grab his glass and down the remaining whiskey. He wiped his mouth with his sleeve and tightly gripped the empty glass, saying.
"I should have thought of it... I should have thought of it!"
Then he said in a trembling voice, "If Shiller can cut it apart, he can surely control its form. Why would he manifest it as his own body parts? Why would he let me taste his soul with the first bite?"
Everyone was taken aback. Except for Zatanna, none of them could understand what Constantine was talking about. But soon, Constantine began to explain.
"It was to make me feel guilty!"
In an instant, Constantine seemed to lose all strength and his demeanor turned dejected. He placed the glass back on the table, his fingers trembling as he muttered, "Guilt is a sharp knife... Shiller wields it masterfully."
"What does that even mean? Can you be clearer?" Zatanna was somewhat confused.
Constantine clamped his lips tightly until the corners of his mouth turned white. He clenched his fist and said, "There is something in that energy."
"You're saying that Shiller poisoned the soul energy he gave you?"
Constantine looked up at Barbara. His direct gaze made Barbara feel somewhat frightened. Batgirl retreated a bit as Constantine, his gaze somewhat vacant, spoke."
"It's not poison, but it contains Shiller."
"Huh???"
Constantine banged his fist against his knee forcefully and said: "Didn't I make it clear? I've consumed Shiller's soul energy, and this energy has restructured half of my soul! What does this mean?"
Zatanna suddenly seemed to realize something, her eyes wide as she looked at Constantine and said, "Authority... You have the authority of the dream god! Could it be..."
Constantine closed his eyes and nodded, "Before Morpheus left the Kingdom of Dreams, he gave me the authority of the dream god. Now that half of me is Shiller, it means he also possesses half the authority."
"Hiss..." Zatanna took a sharp breath, her incredulous expression aimed at Constantine, "Doesn't that make him..."
"Or you could say he now has all of the authority." Constantine looked up at Zatanna, "Because I can't use magic anymore, and because he saved me, regardless of why he gave me half his energy, I won't compete with him for this authority. He knows I won't."
"Please don't tell me he planned all of this from the beginning!" Zatanna practically screamed.
Constantine gave a wry smile and said, "Even earlier than that."
Zatanna was completely stunned, then her gaze followed Constantine's to Jack, already passed out on a single sofa.
"Remember what we saw written by him in Shiller's Necronomicon?" Constantine asked.
"You mean the 'Batman Joker Paradox'?" Barbara recalled with a frown.
"Exactly. It mentioned that the strength of Batman and Joker were always equal. So, don't you find it strange that our universe's Bruce has become the Archangel, but one of his corresponding Jokers, Jack, seems to have no reinforcement whatsoever?"
Everyone's gaze fell on Constantine as he lowered his eyes to say, "Jack knows how to freely enter and leave the Kingdom of Dreams. Morpheus told me that it was an experiment between him and Shiller - They made a hole at the closest layer of subconscious. Through that passage, anyone can reach the Kingdom of Dreams."
Zatanna suddenly had a bad feeling. She turned her eyes to Constantine and asked, "What did he do in the Kingdom of Dreams?"
"He built a Gotham."
When Darkseid woke up, he found himself in a dimly lit room - small, cramped, damp. Nothing pleasant entered his nose, and there was barely a trace of light.
Darkseid lifted his arm and froze. The unfamiliar muscular response made him realize this was not his body. This was not the powerful body of a New God that controlled the Apocalypse Star Force Field.
He was in the body of a human boy.
Assessing his form, Darkseid found that he'd transformed into a human child; too skinny and weak. He couldn't figure out the age, but he was so weak that he couldn't even stand.
This is absurd, Darkseid thought. Surely this was some illusion that the bothersome Batman had cast on him.
Yet he was unsettled. What sort of illusion could feel so real? What kind of power could invade a New God's mind to such depth that he couldn't break free from this illusion?
As Darkseid was pondering these matters, he heard heavy footsteps approaching the door. With a bang, the door opened, and the dust it stirred up outlined the shape of the light.
"S'pose you're quite lucky, aren't you, lad? You survived getting thrown off the third floor by that toothless bastard. You're in luck, kid. Lace Mother needs another pair of hands. Let's get a move on, then!"
Darkseid realised he could understand what this man was saying, but he didn't understand what he meant. He tried to use his legs to stand up, using almost all the strength of this frail body before realising he couldn't. It wasn't just his weakness. His hip joint...Darkseid didn't know what it was called, but it would have allowed him to control his lower limbs if it hadn't been broken.
The man at the door paused, made a contemptuous noise through his nose, spat on the floor beside him, and unsteadily ambled in to say, "I had forgotten you broke your leg. What a nuisance. After you earn big bucks for that old dame, don't forget your old man."
Upon finishing his sentence, the man nonchalantly lifted the body Darkseid was occupying onto his shoulder. Even without understanding human anatomy, Darkseid knew that a patient with these injuries shouldn't be moved, otherwise...
"Aaaaah!!!"
Darkseid let out his first-ever cry of agony. He was experiencing real pain for the first time.
The pain perception systems of different races operate in varying ways, but Darkseid happens to be a New God. It cannot be claimed that this race does not experience pain; it is just that as New Gods are extremely powerful, their pain perception systems do not function often.
New Gods can naturally feel each of their cells. When wounds occur on their bodies, it is not pain that warns them, but the visual feedback sent back by their cells. This feedback is a visualized piece of information conveyed directly to their brains.
However, humans, on the other hand, derive most of their understanding of abnormal bodily conditions from the sensation of pain. Therefore, throughout evolution, this part of the system has evolved comprehensively and meticulously. As a result, it genuinely hurts when they get injured.
Darkseid's body is severely weak. Consequently, pain not only incurs physical suffering, but also accompanying nausea, dizziness, and cold sweat. Darkseid could not even describe accurately how he felt at the moment. All he could say is that he had never felt so awful before.
He found himself held by a stinky man, walking downstairs. He saw a bunch of human children, like himself, walking around bare-bottomed. He also saw several adults, similar to the man, walking around looking heavily intoxicated and reeking. Darkseid had absolutely no idea what they were up to.
The man carried him out of the building, and at the moment they exited, Darkseid experienced a sensation he had never felt before, the cold.
There was no forewarning whatsoever in Darkseid's mind. Thus, when he experienced the cold, he shivered severely, then the pain from his wound flared up again because of the shivering. This made him let out a cry of suffering.
Darkseid found himself incapable of controlling his body. The way this body operated was nothing like the ones he had controlled before. His body, without giving any warnings or information, reacted to stimuli.
Darkseid was like the pre-smartphone users suddenly trying to navigate a smartphone designed for seniors. He searched fruitlessly for body data that used to occupy an area of his brain. Now, apart from pain, cold, nausea and dizziness, there was nothing in that region.
Not one bit of information advised Darkseid on which cells to adjust to dispel the sensations. It was akin to a phone repeatedly notifying that a new message had been received. Yet, this phone only had a notification system and no way to check the actual message.
Darkseid's scream choked back into his throat halfway because the man carrying him grabbed him by the neck.
"Behave, and stop howling! Who let you piss off that old bastard?! I'll have you know, I spent two US dollars to buy you, and even tossed in a cigarette for that deadbeat's pig. You better not leave me at a loss…"
Darkseid, though stripped of his mind control and telepathy, could clearly sense that this man intended to kill him.
They crossed a freezing street and entered a radiant room. The moment he stepped inside, Darkseid felt his cold sweat had been boiled off; it was incredibly hot inside.
He was thrown on the floor, and in response to the uncontrolled pain, he screamed out. He saw a corpulent woman, her face heavily made-up, who tutted and said: "No wonder a tight-fisted ghost like you was willing to send him to me. He certainly has a loud voice. Come on, let's negotiate on the share. Don't think ripping me off like last time will happen again."
The woman moved next to Darkseid and turned to yell upstairs: "Boss, bring him up. Be careful not to bump his head, it's rare to find one that isn't stupid."
After the man and woman left together, a teenager came rushing down. Darkseid forced his dizzy eyes to focus and noticed she was a short-haired girl, very thin, but far stronger than him in the body he now occupied.
The girl strode over, wordlessly hoisted him up again and ran swiftly up the stairs, despite her small frame. She threw Darkseid into a room on the second floor.
The moment he entered the room, Darkseid smelt a strange, potent odour. He didn't know what it was, but it only made him feel much worse.
It took a while, lying on the floor, before Darkseid could finally find a glimmer of light in his blackened vision. Then he discovered other children just like him, seven or eight of them, squatting or sitting in the corner of the room.
Darkseid wasn't stupid, he knew that in an unfamiliar environment, he should observe his surroundings and the people in it ASAP, especially in dire times like now when he needed help.
Then he realized, that most children here were missing an arm or a leg, he was actually lucky to be one of the more complete ones.
Most of the children were sleeping. Darkseid was well aware that humans needed sleep. Before his invasion of Earth, he had accessed all the research on humans available on Apocalypse Star.
Some humans had been captured by Apocalypse Star for research, but their numbers were small. Overall, this race had not much to offer for research. For the New Gods, ordinary humans had no merits. Every word in the research report suggested that this race had survived and evolved to this day purely by luck.
Darkseid remembered the information in his mind, then he found many discrepancies. Firstly, humans led quite primitive family lifestyles, which involved mating, procreation, and joint childcare. Human offspring were supposed to be nurtured within families, then why are they here? Is this some special educational institution?
Darkseid kept on pondering about why everything was so unusual while looking for a solution to break out of the illusion. He reckoned a crisis was imminent, so even though his head felt as if it was about to split, he tried hard to think.
However, he quickly found his worries were somewhat redundant. Nobody disturbed him through the night and come morning, a group of rather sturdy teenagers stormed into their room.
They each held two children, placing them onto a handcart outside the door. Darkseid almost died from the bumpy ride, only to find himself dumped on a street corner.
If they intended to dump him, why change locations? Queries filled Darkseid's mind.
The teenager who had brought him there, kicked his ankle, saying, "My mom says you're new, so let me teach you. See that? That's a school gate. Soon, some rich folks will bring their children here for school."
"This is the street where they park their car. Once you see them get out of their cars, crawl toward them, hug their legs and cry. Cry as loud as you can. Just scream about how you are in pain, tired, and hungry. If you don't get money you'll be beaten to death, that kind of thing. If all else fails, grab their trousers, take some change from their pockets. Be smart. This is a good place to work."
Once the teen had finished speaking he left, leaving Darkseid lying on the ground. His condition got increasingly worse with severe bouts of dizziness, making his vision black out every few seconds. He even began to marvel at how humans could survive in such conditions.
That day, Darkseid did nothing because he simply couldn't fathom what the boy had told him. The social order of Apocalypse Star and Earth was completely different - Darkseid was still a farmer, essentially removed from society before his ascension to godhood, so he had no understanding of what being a beggar meant.
By the time he was hauled back into that room, Darkseid felt like he had lost consciousness. He could vaguely hear some noises, but could not see at all.
He found himself moved to another location, this time with a heavier stench. It felt like someone was vomiting next to him, and some heavy objects emitting an odd smell were thrown onto him. After feeling extremely cold and hot repeatedly, Darkseid experienced loss of consciousness for the first time.
After a lengthy void, Darkseid opened his eyes again. This time he woke up in a street corner. The difference was that he was now a female human child, skinny and equally weak.
Luckily this time he could stand, his arms and legs were unbroken and he could even move around. However, Darkseid felt an indescribable pain emanating from his torso. Not exactly pain, but a sensation of irresistible emptiness.
Then came the dizziness, nausea, cold sweat, and the darkening of his vision. Darkseid was fed up with this. He stumbled across the street, where he smelled possibly the most tantalizing aroma of his life.
Darkseid was unable to think much further. The hollow feeling inside drove him towards the smell, and he saw a brightly lit window. Ignoring everything, he ran towards it. He might have heard some dismissive rebukes, but he didn't hear anything.
"Bang!"
Darkseid passed out once again.
Upon waking once more... Darkseid finally uttered his first curse word. But he didn't even have time to discern whether the curse was from Apocalypse Star or Earth, as the sounds that had caused him to lose consciousness kept ringing in his ears.
"Whizz! Bang! Bang!"
A pain in his chest, darkening of his vision, and then another endless void.
Finally, when Darkseid woke up, he quickly found something to shield his body, saving him.
Then he finally understood what the teenage boy meant by "car", and how hard it was.
After losing consciousness three times, Darkseid learned what the emptiness in his body, called "hunger", meant.
He knew that most carbon-based organisms needed to feed, but he truly couldn't comprehend why every body he controlled was hungry. Why was the human race always hungry? What kind of Rice-Bucket Race is this?!
Then he successively learned that both cold and heat could make humans sick. Feeling cold in hot weather could make people sick, and feeling hot in cold weather could also make people sick. When you feel cold but it isn't cold you're sick, and when you feel hot but it's not hot, you're also sick. Basically, humans were always sick.
Next, Darkseid understood a bit about the social rules – there were no rules for humans. The human child he had possessed only did three things – feel hunger, get sick, and die.
When he was on his sixteenth cycle, Darkseid could no longer endure. He felt he needed to do something other than those three things in order to turn things around, or else he would never escape from this illusion.
Then, Darkseid, the tyrant of Apocalypse Star, the child of fate, the supreme New God, experienced the so-called "defeat" in his life for the first time.