Afterwards, everything went smoothly. Dark Strange, due to The Ancient Ones hunting him across various universes, found the situation to be urgent. He wouldn't be too fearful if it were just one Ancient One, as he had absorbed the power of many counterparts through sleepwalking. But the situation suggested that there would be a whole group of them.
Who can stand a chance against a group of Ancient Ones? Especially when eighty percent of them were retired Ancient Ones who had reached the stage of great perfection—just the thought put immense pressure on him.
Dark Strange prepared to seize more power while also preparing to escape. Therefore, he had to start exploring distant universes. On one hand, the nearby resources had been depleted by him, and he needed to go farther to find more power. On the other hand, if the situation worsened, he could hide in the outskirts.
Which universe could be more remote than the one Shiller was in?
Dark Strange didn't have many options, and it didn't take him long to find this place. He planned to start with fighting Strange from this universe while the local Ancient One was absent. However, he found out that Strange wasn't there either.
He was desperate to replenish his power, so he started causing problems at the Karmatige Magic Academy. He figured that since Strange from this universe created such a school, he must care about the students. If the students ran into frequent troubles, he would definitely come back, providing a feast for Dark Strange.
But clearly, he wasn't the biggest troublemaker at the school. Harley, a true Gothamite, was almost driven crazy by his wild use of magic. She opened the Necronomicon to stimulate herself, to gear up to deal with the hidden culprit.
To prevent Harley from messing up his plan, Shiller had to let the Gray Mist communicate with her. This led to Nyarlathotep having limited choices when he arrived. Since Harley, the one with the highest inspiration, clearly bore the old mark of the Nameless Fog, he could only choose the next best option, Bruce Wayne.
It was too late when Dark Strange realized that causing trouble at the school was futile. By then, the news of the magic contest had already spread, and most people had made urgent contracts with their Demon Gods. Dark Strange would be discovered as soon as he appeared in their minds, so his only choice was Barry, who was from out of town and hadn't got familiar with any Demon Gods.
At this stage of the plan, although there were some minor issues, the overall structure remained the same. The only unexpected thing to both Shiller and Nyarlathotep was that Batman truly lived up to his reputation as the most stubborn character in the DC World. In the nightmare Nyarlathotep initially engineered merely as an interlude to entice humans, Batman insisted on catching a glimpse of the knowledge of the Outer Gods.
This detail led to a slight deviation in the final result of the plan—the alarm rang ten times louder than Shiller expected.
But this outcome was not entirely unexpected. One could say that this was a super plan filled with Shiller's style, involving two universes, an entire Gods System, and numerous well-known characters.
But at this stage of the plan, when Shiller meticulously examined his plan, he realized that everything was indeed different from when he first arrived.
Firstly, Bruce Wayne, the arrogant star student, from the perspective of an observer, it was clear that Bruce guessed part of his plan and fueled it.
The arrival of Little Bruce seemed suspicious. If he really wanted someone who wasn't well-versed in psychology, why didn't he just get a baby? He could also retaliate against Shiller for pushing Aisha onto him in the first place—Bruce now was definitely capable of that.
Secondly, Bruce teamed up with Strange before Shiller to tamper with the Magic Stone, teleporting Little Bruce and his companions to another universe. Although the result was the same, a passageway had been created between the two universes—an extra gain.
Each Shiller doesn't usually explain before starting a plan. That means Bruce might have figured it out from their casual chats and some initial actions of the plan, then he fueled it to speed up the process.
The other surprise came from Loki. He suggested that Harley contract with the Great Shadow Cision. Shiller speculated that the key to this suggestion wasn't Cision, but the Scarlet Witch Wanda.
Shiller believed Loki could tell, even without seeing a soul status, that Harley was not from this universe based on her actions. Hence, making Harley touch the Chaotic Power meant attracting Wanda's attention. Loki hoped for a chemical reaction between the two.
Helen was kicked out too, which must have been Loki's doing. At least Loki could have stopped it at that time, or he could have left with her.
Loki knew Helen too well. She was a disciple of greed. Back in the Time Management Bureau, she was ogling all the time machines and gemstones with green eyes. People can't even imagine how much she could gain from a trip to another universe.
Next, we need to talk about Jarvis. He wouldn't think it was a coincidence that Wanda suddenly gained another vision. As a robot that could be updated at any time and living in a universe touched by the Unscrupulous Quartet, Jarvis was used to the idea that everything was part of someone's plan.
So he promptly comforted Wanda, giving up the chance to have her hold him while crying, and swiftly brought Wanda to Stark.
When they found out that Wanda had gained another vision, both Stark and Nick realized that if this had nothing to do with Shiller, they'd eat their hats!
They didn't waste a second, promptly organizing a group of people to observe the situation of the other universe just to be safe. They included ordinary people, mutants, old, young, men, and women - all in case Shiller might find a use for any of them in one of his many plans.
As expected, the strange metallic condition witnessed in Gotham offered considerable inspiration for human scientists. The long-stalled field of enchantment materials science found a new approach: to search for a type of solid magic first, then alloy it. This was much more controllable than randomly pouring energy into metals.
Reviewing the whole plan, Shiller realized he was no longer the only one pushing people forward by creating a multitude of tasks. Now, it seemed that when he started this train of action, everyone else had hitched their wisdom and foresight to the front, adding more milestones to a plan that could already achieve many of its objectives.
Shiller's main goal was to call Barbados to bring Strange over. Firstly, this would allow The Ancient One to search for the mastermind causing Strange's safety concerns. Secondly, it would help solve the inadequate teacher resources at Gotham Magic Academy by utilizing the Supreme Magician's extensive experience to build a magical defense network for DC Earth.
In addition, after learning that there might be a complete Cthulhu Mythos, Shiller wanted to probe the depths of the Outer God, gather more intelligence, and take care of the mastermind who was hunting all the Supreme Magicians.
By showcasing the learning results of Karmatige Magic Academy at the fighting convention, DC World's children would be able to test their magic skills in the energy-abundant Marvel World, becoming pillars for the development of the magic realm.
Lastly, but most importantly, because the development on the DC side was relatively slow and hadn't yet reached the level of a Multiverse, Shiller hoped to expose key DC Earth figures to the existence of other universes, demystifying the Multiverse. By doing so, in case of a multiverse invasion in the future, the time used to recover from the surprise could be minimized.
There were other minor objectives, like training Robin, aiding Batman from the Prime Universe to increase his power to face the Darkseid crisis, and helping Gotham from the Prime Universe to reconstruct, along with many long-term targets. However, these objectives weren't as significant, no matter their success or failure.
But with their wisdom and foresight, those who had partly understood the plan were no longer reserved or clueless like before.
They fully trusted Shiller, believing he could make the train run fast and well. So, they cast aside all their doubts and boarded this train with their most agile responses.
Not only was the journey unhindered, but when the train whistled through valleys, over lakes, and finally stopped at the destination, each carriage flowed with honey and wine in celebration. The songs grew louder, and the dances more vigorous.
Although sitting in his office, Shiller felt as if he were on a snowy field. The campfire of past travellers, once fuelled by a meager amount of wood, now flourished due to him adding in more and better logs.
What made him feel warmer was the emerging stopovers. They brought their logs and fell in love with the flame, wanting to lend their own warmth to the ambiance.
What a great ideal that "a crowd can gather logs to light a huge fire!" It can warm up the hearts of desperate passers-by in an otherwise desolated and freezing land, gaining their trust, and adding valuable logs to the communal flames to burn away all the cold and darkness, and what could be more worthy of being tall and upright, proclaiming journeyed birds have flown miles from a radiant sun, and becoming a new sun.
Shiller rose from his couch, raising his glass. He toasted the crowd, and they also stood up, some with such bright eyes, some in confusion, but they all celebrated and toasted with Shiller.
"It looks like you're going to achieve quite a lot," said Strange with a slight grin.
When everyone gazed into Shiller's eyes, they saw that his gray pupils had turned barren, concealing endless morbid emotions —— a craving for manipulation, a pursuit for art, a yearning for hunting, an obsession with violence...
In a flash, the warm celebratory atmosphere dissolved, making the place feel like a hunting ground where numerous monsters reveled, bursting out from Shiller's pupils like a tidal wave.
They heard the celebration of the abyss.
Bruce was the only one daring enough to look into those eyes, and Shiller also gazed back at him, raising his glass, asking with a smile,
"What is the essence of manipulation?"
Before Bruce could utter a word, Shiller drained the last drop of wine from his glass, sighed in pleasure, and mused,
"The spark that sets off the maniacal party of psychopathic killers, sadists, mind-controlling maniacs and twisted artists is ——'Love'."