There lies a huge abyss traversing through Hell, termed as the "Hell within Hell," or by some as the "Abyss of Eternal Darkness".
In the deepest part of the abyss, atop a steep cliff, stands a massive palace. Here resides Beelzebub, an ancient Demon King of Hell.
Many demon generals serve under Beelzebub, but compared to his peers, he is not overly militaristic. Every few hundred years, Beelzebub cosplays for various reasons, calling them together for celebrations. Now, after the festivity, the abyss seems somewhat desolate.
Walking down the long corridor of the palace, made of obsidian, past the flames arising between the skulls of sheep, up the stairs laid with the carpet woven with sun god patterns, one can reach Beelzebub's throne hall.
A tall demon guard leaned at the door, dozing off, suddenly a roar echoed from the throne hall.
"... Why is there always a 'why?'!! Are you intentionally looking for trouble, Batman?!! Just do as I say!!!"
The guard shuddered, dropping his spear. He bent curiously to peek through the crack of the door into the throne hall, after picking up his spear.
In these recent days, Batman's name has frequently emerged amidst the Demon King's roars, but he has yet to make his appearance.
The demon guard observed for a while, realizing Beelzebub's Majesty seemed to be responding to a believer's prayer.
Indeed, Beelzebub was on the phone with Batman, and this was already the fourth prayer call he received today.
Not that Beelzebub didn't have any human followers, but ordinarily, he could respond to their verbose prayers with a mere thought. Since most human believers sought his blessings and power, he usually agreed, considering what they asked for was a mere trifle of his power.
However, Batman was different. He sought not power, nor protection, but knowledge.
Across history, there were always such oddballs. Beelzebub had granted numerous secrets to his followers before. But the followers would typically want only the answer; for instance, would they succeed in doing something, the authenticity of a historical event, or the real truth behind the war between angels and demons.
What was deemed secret knowledge by humans were mere memories for Beelzebub, which he could effortlessly provide answers for.
However, Batman was uniquely set apart. He wanted not only the answer but also the process. Getting only an answer doesn't cut it.
While asking Beelzebub about the future of something, he was not focused on whether the future was good or bad. Beelzebub suspected that Batman doesn't even believe in his judgment about something's future. What mattered to Batman was how Beelzebub made his judgments.
Of course, Beelzebub explained to him that the life forms of humans and demons are different, as are their statuses. For a demon like Beelzebub, time is not linear, so he could naturally see certain aspects of the future.
However, Batman was determined to comprehend the principle behind nonlinear temporal prophecies, the difference between human and demonic life forms, and the meaning of status. Often, Beelzebub's answers would trigger countless new queries from Batman.
Beelzebub roared at him, "You don't need to understand magic too clearly!" Yet Batman countered with, "But if you don't understand the principle, how can you be sure your answer is correct?"
Beelzebub tried to convince Batman through action, like making a prediction and then waiting for it to come true. But Batman would question, even if it works this time, what about next time?
Without a comprehensive reasoning process, how could there be confidence in the consistency of the outcome?
This theory truly stumped Beelzebub. The power he possessed and everything he could accomplish was innate; he had never wondered about the source of his power or how it operates.
Batman further played the devil's advocate: "If you do not understand the principles behind all of these, someday when this power is lost, you wouldn't even have a way to recover it."
Of course, Beelzebub wished to declare emphatically that "This power will never disappear." Over the millennia, he has always believed so. He would always be the Demon King of Hell, a being superior to all others in the cosmos.
However, Beelzebub's confidence wavered following Beelzebub's death.
According to his understanding, the three Infernal Kings of Hell should not die. They are the pillars of Hell, destined to exist as long as the entire cosmos. Yet Beelzebub disappeared without a trace.
It's hard for Beelzebub not to feel threatened. Even if Batman doesn't devour him again, what ensures that another entity won't pose a threat to his existence next time?
All intelligent life forms have the instinct for survival, and those with emotions are inevitably subject to fear. Beelzebub disappeared too easily; his immense power and his status, comparable to Beelzebub's, were of no help in protecting him. Why?
Once this thought crossed Beelzebub's mind, it was hard to stop him from contemplating. If one day, he had to face a madman like Batman, with his power and status aside, what else would he possess?
If one day his power and status were to disappear, would he just stay put, ignorant, waiting for danger to descend, powerless to help matters?
Thinking about his predicament, Beelzebub thinks it's likely. He has no idea where his power comes from. If it's generated naturally, would it always generate? If it's bestowed upon him, would it always be bestowed?
These questions, like a magical curse, swirled around in Beelzebub's head. Every time Batman whipped up a new question, questions Beelzebub had never considered, the curse intensified.
When a Demon Lord starts pondering the origin of his power, he inevitably exercises his immense strength, which comes as naturally to him as an instinct, to trace the cosmic origin with a perspective surpassing that of humans.
Unfortunately, Beelzebub's rank was high but not high enough. Despite how he utilized his unique perspective and immense power to explore the cosmic mystery, he could never accurately pinpoint 'how all existence came to be.'
This made Beelzebub feel irritable and even somewhat self-destructive, but Batman kept pestering him with phone calls, asking questions that sounded simple but no one could answer.
Gradually, Beelzebub was no longer so angry. after all, if a mere human could be so persistent, going as far as to make dozens of harassing calls to their god daily just to understand the answer to a question, wouldn't his irritable deity demeanor seem foolish in the human's eyes?
Although, Beelzebub felt that in Batman's eyes, all life forms are probably stupid, because he's overbearingly intellectual.
When Beelzebub seriously memorized and understood the questions Batman asked and the explanations he blurted out, Beelzebub found that this human was astoundingly smart.
Batman was able to directly answer many questions that humans couldn't figure out, and understand daunting wisdom that humans couldn't understand, through his horrific understanding ability.
He might be the smartest person in the universe, Beelzebub thought.
Then perhaps he could use Batman's wisdom to unravel the cosmological mysteries he couldn't comprehend.
Yes, this would be beneficial for him, Beelzebub thought, not every Demon Lord has such an intelligent Pope, he should seize this opportunity firmly, there could even be the chance to achieve a breakthrough.
With these thoughts, Beelzebub felt some heat brewing within him.
But at this moment, Batman wasn't calling him as frequently as before.
Beelzebub could only sit in his throne hall feeling doubtful and suspicious, until one day, he couldn't help but ask Batman: "Why haven't you been praying lately?"
He tried to control his tone, so as not to sound like a crazed woman checking every five minutes, but what Batman said made his heart sink.
"I feel that those questions might be too difficult for a Demon King. After all, you're far from the essence of the cosmos."
"However, in recent academic discussions, my teacher recommended someone for me. I'm planning to fly to the West Coast to ask Lucifer."
Beelzebub felt like his heart was being tightly squeezed, as he clearly knew Lucifer, as god's favorite son, can truly be called omniscient and omnipotent.
At this moment, Beelzebub didn't fear Batman not answering, he was scared he actually would.
By then, would there be any room left for his deity?
Beelzebub held a pessimistic view on this, so he immediately told Batman: "It's not worth the effort to trouble Lord Satan for such a minor matter. What was that Runeton language you mentioned the other day… Jealousy? Hatred? That's Azazel's domain, I'll ask him later."
"Oh, that." Batman's nonchalant tone came from the other end, "Tim has already cracked that topic, however…"
Beelzebub's emotions were like a roller coaster, he immediately asked: "However, what?"
"It's nothing, just some personal stuff."
"As a Pope, you should be more devout to your god, isn't prayer meant for you to tell your god all of your troubles?"
"Okay, actually, it's about some problems within my psychic battlefield. I've split some personality traits recently, I've been researching how to get them to cooperate, but as you know, the human psyche is very fragile, so I ran into some minor issues during my research…"
"What issues?" Beelzebub's tone contained a hint of schadenfreude, Batman, so you're having a rough day too?
"It's hard to say." Batman's tone seemed reluctant, he was silent for a moment, then said, "Why don't you come take a look inside my mind?"
Beelzebub didn't find this invitation strange because many humans would summon their demons into their bodies in order to gain more power.
Beelzebub was even a bit surprised. Batman was willing to let him enter his body? Many humans were resistant to this.
But the opportunity was hard to come by, Beelzebub really wanted to know, just what is so special about this human called Batman.
So, Beelzebub made up his mind, he said to Batman: "I'll give you an incantation, just recite it completely and I'll be able to enter your soul to check the situation. Don't worry, there's no soul problem I can't solve."
Batman recited the incantation, and Beelzebub successfully entered his soul—only to be drowned in an infinite flood of shit mountain codes.
"Help me fix the program until it can be used, thanks."
"Oh...shit...what is this..."
"Right, this is a closed system, you can't leave until it's fixed, I have other work to do, bye."
"Batman!!! Batman...ugh!!!"