A bolt of lightning suddenly appeared above the head of Barbados, the Dark Source, swift as a violent wind and fast as thunder, crackling and striking him on the top of his skull.
Barbados yowled, hunting for the one who struck him. When he looked up, he saw an angel with several pairs of dazzling wings appearing in the darkness.
Under the fury of Uriel, he completely forgot the rule forbidding angels from interfering with cosmic affairs. He wanted nothing more than to strike this damned dragon with lightning. Luckily, Gabriel quickly realized something was wrong and pulled him back, leaving a dumbfounded Barbados looking around in confusion.
A being like Barbados naturally knew about the existence of Heaven and sure enough, he knew that an angel had just swooped in and slapped him.
But why?
Wasn't he on good terms with the angels? Barbados painstakingly searched through his memories. He seldom interacted with angels, only occasionally seeing them while aiding the World Forge. He hadn't engaged with them recently, so how could he possibly have angered them?
What was going on with that angel?
Pondering his actions once more, Barbados felt a pang of guilt.
The saying, "If you have a clean conscience, you do not fear ghost knocking on your door," crossed Barbados' mind. All of his deeds were unscrupulous. Even though he lacked morality, he understood the principles of the cosmos' balance between yin and yang. His constantly polluting the bright universe with his dark power was indeed upsetting the balance.
Did he get caught?
Reflecting on it, Barbados felt that was highly possible as one's family knew one's deeds. Recently, he had come up with more audacious plans and had started to implement them.
For many years, Barbados had been attempting to invade the Light Universe but hadn't had much success.
The reason was somewhat like a game named Spurarton, popularly known as "Squid Painting the Floor". The players of a team could only hide in their own colored paint, and if there was no paint, they would be exposed.
As the source of darkness, Barbados was invincible when hidden in dark energy. No one could locate him, nor could they attack him.
If an area lacked dark energy or had a very small amount, Barbados would have to physically go there. While his physical form was not weak, it was far from invincible.
Hence, Barbados needed necessary "paint" before going anywhere. However, to paint, he needed to be there. To go there, he needed to ensure safety by painting first. This formed a vicious cycle.
Previously, Barbados had tried to solve this dilemma by integrating the Judas Cultists, allowing the Court of Owls to gradually pollute the Light Universe with his dark energy on a small scale.
In effect, each Gotham infiltrated by dark energy was actually a stronghold for Barbados, allowing him to monitor or move freely.
However, the Court of Owls was merely human. They couldn't directly wield Barbados' dark energy. Even the Talons they birthed only managed to use it indirectly. At the end of the day, humans were too frail.
Devoid of supernatural powers, they could only resort to crude methods like mixing sand into building materials. It might take decades to corrupt a single city.
Whilst decades did not mean much to Barbados, once Gotham was corrupted, contaminating other cities would become harder. Humanity's developmental stages dictated that modern cities had no need for large-scale demolition and reconstruction. Hence, crude methods were no longer effective.
This resulted in Barbados being able to continually establish strongholds in one Light Universe after another. Even after many years, these strongholds never expanded, barely providing enough room for his fingernail. At this rate, it would take forever to bring all the Light Universes under his control.
After much time and effort without progress, Barbados finally decided to change tactics.
It wasn't viable to keep targeting the Light Universe, as the followers he managed to lure and nurture there were too weak. A few decades of cultivation might only make them slightly stronger than average humans.
One could sense this from the way Barbados treasured the Bruce of Schiller Universe; he had failed to cultivate any worthwhile strong followers. He was powerful but dared not wield that power, and couldn't do so either.
Then it dawned on Barbados: why was he only focusing on the Light Universe?
He turned his gaze to his own domain ¬– DC's Dark Universe.
The boundaries between DC's Light and Dark Universes were not very clear. If asked for a clear rule, it would be that everything that transpires in the Dark Universe eventually falls into darkness until there is complete corruption and decadence. That was the endless darkness brought by Barbados.
Also, due to the influence of the robust Dark Source energy, creatures living in the Dark Universe were generally stronger than their Light Universe counterparts. Over the years, a batch of powerful beings had accumulated.
Barbados' energy couldn't infiltrate the bodies of the denizens of the Light Universe, but those in the Dark Universe didn't have this problem. Born, growing, and dying under this energy's influence was just part of their life. They were natural containers.
So why not imbue his energy into them and have them invade the Light Universe?
The more Barbados thought about it, the more satisfied he was with his plan.
The inhabitants of the light cosmos have a natural incompatibility with him. Forcing them would not only waste energy but could cause many brutal incidents for these frail creatures, attracting attention from all quarters.
Barbados is currently in a phase of quiet prosperity, and doesn't want to reveal his intentions just yet. Thus, every time he pays the Court of Owls, it is done surreptitiously and frugally. He turns a blind eye to the laziness of the Owls, knowing that it is a flaw of his own.
However, if he uses the life from the dark universe instead, he would have none of these troubles. He can forcefully inject power, maximize any enhancement, and even if those sent over die, the explosion of the dark energy within them would contaminate the land and instantly establish a small base. It is a profitable deal, no matter how you look at it.
Furthermore, these people grew up in the dark universe. The darkness of their universe not only made them powerful but also remarkably loyal. They hoped to bring more pain and darkness to others more than anyone else and were way more useful than the inconsistent Court of Owls.
Moreover, there is always a flow of people between the light and dark universes. As long as he finds the right loophole and sends small groups over at a time, it would very hard to attract any notice. Once they are on-site and dispersed, they become even more covert.
This was all completely unnoticed. The long-stagnant invasion could now proceed again. Barbados immediately started his actions without giving it more thought.
His actions were in two parts. One was to pick from his current plate, and the other was to find loopholes on the plate to facilitate the delivery to the other side.
Both of these were carried out in the Dark Source, unbeknownst to Barbados, there was a mysterious entity that has been lurking in his stronghold for a long time.
Was it Bruce Wayne?
Even though Bruce did come later, when it came to causing mischief, he was far from the best.
The one who had been lurking in Barbados's base for a long time was naturally Nyarlathotep.
Rather, he wasn't lurking there, he never left. Ever since Schiller had delivered a huge bell to Barbados and successfully lured Nyarla here, Nyarla never left the Dark Source.
Later, the prying and attacks felt by Barbados from the outside world were actually Nyarla's feints. Inclusive of the continuous pulling and harassment, all in order to make Barbados believe that Nyarla was the hand outside the balloon, aggressive and threatening.
What Nyarla was actually doing was not as crude or brash; he was a delicate artist. As the dragon in the balloon and the giant hand outside fought, he silently sent a molecule through the balloon wall into the Dark Multiverse.
That was Little Bruce's universe.
A certain Batman had become a follower of Nyarlathotep, but he was still Batman. He still had the energy of Barbados within him, so he and his Gotham blended unnoticeably into a group of dark universes, appearing even darker and crazier than the others, not attracting any attention.
Barbados, busy dealing with Nyarla's threats, didn't notice the new entrant in his pile.
After this, Barbados began to select capable people from the Dark Multiverse—he chose Little Bruce.
Nyarla was a god adept at disguise, under his careful dressing, Little Bruce seemed very good-looking. Young, talented, chaotic, and crazy enough, it would be strange if he didn't catch Barbados's eye.
As soon as Little Bruce became aware of Barbados's existence, Nyarla immediately knew that Barbados was planning something.
This time he didn't grab some popcorn, find a good spot, and prepare to watch the commotion like usual; he promptly informed someone — Schiller Rodriguez.
Even though there was an idea of inviting him to watch the fun, it was another agreement between Schiller and Nyarla —
As the author of the Book of the Dead, Schiller didn't release this encyclopedia and ancestry of the Outer God broadly. Instead, he gave it to Nyarla and let Nyarla decide who could understand the knowledge of the Outer God.
Then Nyarla would notify Schiller at the first sign of Barbados's action.
This deal seemed a bit unfair. There weren't many opportunities to deal with the God of humor fairly. Nyarla found the Book of the Dead very interesting, and was very fascinated by it. Schiller should have asked for an overwhelming price, take a huge chunk of Nyarla's wool.
But Schiller thought, gaining even more knowledge and power was just like adding tiles to a new house. But before that, a more lethal problem must be solved — the latrine was leaking.
No matter how beautiful or impressive the new house was built, it wouldn't be suitable for living if there was one or even a few piles of shit bouncing in the house. So it's better to build a bit slower but ensure the robustness and safety of the latrine.
Even if he couldn't defend against all, he must defend against the largest one.
After being notified by Nyarla, Schiller hurried to the scene immediately. Upon learning of Barbados's recent moves, he understood that the gear which would ultimately lead to the explosive overflow of the cesspool had slowly started to turn.