Victor had never encountered such a strange event in his long period of studying the dense ice. Despite a long period of research, he still couldn't figure it out, so he decided to seek the help of Bruce, hoping that his wisdom could provide a solution.
During his visit to the underground cold storage, Bruce noticed that it may not be a hardware issue. He brought along a machine to detect radiation and found out that indeed, some special types of radiation had affected the atomic structure within the dense ice. Following the source of the radiation, Bruce located the source of dark energy hidden underground.
As the trace of the owl had been wiped out, there were no readymade magic arrays. However, Bruce had just visited Magic realm to further study magic theory and had also been an angel in Heaven for a while.
By considering the nature and source of the power, and the possible forms in which it can open a portal, Bruce wasn't long in determining the phone number of Barbados. Though the door has not been opened, the power has already started transmitting through the portal.
In the conference room, Bruce switched places with Pamela. Placing his hands on the giant map, he looked around at everyone in the room and told them his plan. The idea, in summary, was to build the biggest project, using the largest budget, to yield the best results, and strike down all the owls in the universe!
As it turns out, Batman trumps the Owl.
Both the Court of Owls and Judas Cultists are Barbados' subordinates. Barbados needs to use them to infiltrate the Prime Universe, so he must give them his power, without asking for anything in return. All Barbados wants in return is the eroding effect, or the so-called budget.
In government bidding projects, there is a hidden rule - the more flamboyant the proposal, the higher chance it's a scam. And Batman's proposal was extremely well written.
When most of the Court of Owls members petitioned Barbados for power, they essentially said, "We are starting a new project in Gotham, we need to add elements inside it, we beg you, Dark God, for your power," followed by a bunch of overpromising words.
But not Batman. If he truly sets his mind on scamming someone, every detail would be foolproof.
Initially, Falcone led key members from the Twelve Families and reconstructed the Court of Owls, fully recovering its structure comprising regular members, Owl Council Members, the Speaker and the Owl Ritualists, along with Judas Cultists.
Some people may remember that the personality Alberto was originally created by the Court of Owls to disrupt the Falcone Family. This move could be interpreted as going back to their roots, a realignment of their original purpose.
When Barbados received another prayer from the owls in this universe, he was busy dealing with Nyarlathotep and didn't inspect it closely. He assumed the Court of Owls had faced a wave of purges and was now regaining strength. So, when he received a budget request to rebuild their destroyed assembly hall, he didn't think much before transferring over the power.
Now that they have their social venue, they certainly need a church to strengthen the faith of the followers, right? Bruce wrote a twenty-thousand-word document outlining the main doctrine and Bible of the Judas Cultists. Barbados read, appreciating the forward-thinking nature of the Owls in this universe, and approved the request.
Following this, were budget requests for urgently replenishing the personnel destroyed in the last war, post-war analysis meetings, personal training budgets to compensate for insufficient combat performance, and future battle plan meetings...
One after another, proposals and budget requests were sent to Barbados like a barrage of telemarketing calls. Barbados, who was busy fighting with others on the Psychic Battlefield, didn't have the time to go through each one. He had encountered situations of spiked expenditures during the golden age of Court of Owls' development. Looking again, he realized this fairly young universe was indeed at the stage when the Court of Owls should be strengthening. He approved all the requests.
Then came a five hundred thousand-word comprehensive analysis of Batman's weaknesses, stressing the necessary construction of an all-encompassing, multidimensional, city-covering, underground labyrinth of more than two thousand floors. Barbados, overwhelmed by the document's length, approved it without giving much thought to its purpose.
Seeing Barbados's attitude, Batman and the super villains went all out. They laid out any world-ending plans, malevolent ideas, and grand projects to conquer the universe- exploiting the situation as much as they could.
Consequently, budget requests were thrown into Barbados's mind like a snowfall. Barbados was unable to handle this any further. He wanted to order the ritualists to tell the followers to stop being so bothersome. But he was met with feverishly enthusiastic prayers from them, which left him feeling bewilder.
Earning the faith of the Court of Owls members through the Dark God might not be sincere. However, the pauper graduate students sincerely believe in the generosity of their boss when it comes to budget approvals.
While the majority of the members of the Court of Owls are only looking to be a part of something, the genius villains of Gotham are not. They believe in science and the relentless pursuit of truth, never ceasing on their path of enquiry. Their passion is born out of love.
The sunrise over Gotham Bay still brings out a stunning shade of purple from the orange-red edge of the horizon. In the Chief Psychiatrist's office of Arkham Asylum, Arrogant observes the patients rushing to the laboratory and comments to Greed.
"I knew he was up to no good, going over to your place every now and then."
"It's not just my place he frequents. Ever since the elevator was installed in the Abyss, that's where he spends the most time. Why do you think he changed his hairstyle all of a sudden?"
"Sometimes, I feel like I didn't teach him enough."
"You feel that he doesn't reflect much of your influence, but isn't that what you wanted?"
Arrogant falls into silence. When he returned to the Thought Palace, he saw Greed leaning against the railing of the courtyard and smiling at him. He heard Greed say,
"Intuitive understanding, kindred spirits; these are blessings from heaven, like the most beautiful flowers that can grow from a single seed."
Greed looked into Arrogant's eyes and said, "We have all planted seeds in the yard. You have let the most beautiful flower you grew reach everyone's window."
"And you have kept all of them within your own pot."
"That's because I'm Greed and you're Arrogant. I hoard, you showcase, but in the end, I borrowed your light... The flowers look great."
Arrogant lowers his head and bursts into a deep laughter.