Hal began with shock, then soon shifted to complaint.
Shiller sighed and told him, "I can explain this later, but right now there's something major that might need your attention."
"Major problem? What major problem? And why are you here? What's happening?"
Hal was full of questions, but Shiller had no intention of answering his flurry of inquiries. Instead, he said, "Weren't you going to Gotham? It's unfortunate to say, but you wouldn't get to Gotham by continuing down this road."
"Impossible," Hal denied flatly.
"The map said that if I continue ahead following the road signs, I'll reach Gotham..."
You could try.
Hal extended a finger, motioned a running gesture, then 'swooshed' out of sight. A moment later, he 'swooshed' back in front of the road sign.
Watching Shiller and the road sign reappear, Hal was confused. "Sure, the Earth is round," remarked Shiller, "but I don't think you ran fast enough to circle the globe."
Hal, despite his bravado, knew something was amiss. He asked with a grave expression, "What's happening? I need a reasonable explanation."
"Forget what you perceive as 'reasonable'," Shiller advised, crossing over the road barrier and walking towards the road sign. "You are currently in a dream."
No sooner had he finished speaking when Hal noticed the post supporting the sign. It began to enlarge within his sight, becoming a towering, imposing structure amidst a charred landscape. Hal looked up and asked, "What is this?"
"Come with me, I will explain everything," Shiller said, leading Hal away. Hal's brown eyes were filled with questions. "What is this place? Some kind of illusion created by you? Who are you? Are you associated with Yellow Lantern?"
Shiller sighed again, "Let's start from when the Yellow Lantern appeared. I won't explain what happened before."
"You knew about the Yellow Lantern? Oh right, you're not ordinary either. But I never heard of any Lantern ring capable of erasing a city."
"Because it wasn't a Lantern ring that erased the city, it was me."
"Stop kidding around," Hal spat out with disbelief.
"That's Gotham! One of the major cities on the East Coast. How could you possibly vanish it in an instant? That would incite widespread panic. Why haven't I seen it in the news?"
"Gotham hasn't disappeared in the real world," Shiller explained. "You cannot see it because you entered a dream the instant you set foot on this road."
"As for why I did it, it's because I have a certain duty…"
Shiller sighed again, more than he usually does within several months combined, as events were somewhat beyond his expectations.
His original plan with Jack was to delve into the edges of Batman's consciousness to eradicate any potentially hazardous elements. The process was complicated but the goal was clear, to extinguish any possibility of the Laughing bat.
In the process, Shiller faced any Joker or Batman that stood in the way, determined to use any means to prevent the absurd Laughing bat from intruding upon his life.
Just when things were coming to an end, everything went smoothly. They successfully reached the edge of Batman's dreams, identified the embryo that could hatch into the Laughing figure, and were close to eliminating it.
Yet unexpectedly, the unsettling experience unleashed a dark force from deep within Batman's soul, erupting violently and hurtling through the cosmos.
Such pure terror, unmatched within the cosmos, naturally attracted attention—namely the Yellow Lantern ring, or the embodiment of fear within the Emotional Spectrum, the Yellow Lantern Beast "Parallax".
All the lantern beasts of colored rings in the universe are extremely powerful beings, and so is Parallax.
However, Parallax is also an experienced creature, the normal power of fear is not enough to attract its attention. But the real problem lies in the fact that the fear in Batman's heart is one of the purest forms of fear in the entire DC Universe. To Parallax, this is an irresistible temptation.
Thus, with the arrival of the Yellow Lantern Ring, a dreadful creature also descended. This creature was the Yellow Lantern Beast known as Parallax.
"Parallax?" Hal asked, confused. "I've heard from my predecessors in the corps that every corps has a Lantern Furnace and a Lantern Beast. They mentioned once that the beasts, born of each different emotion, are extremely powerful. However, they rarely descend to earth..."
"You're saying that someone in this city has aroused the fear power and invoked the arrival of the Yellow Lantern Beast? This could be problematic..." Hal's expression became more serious as he realised the severity of the situation.
"I hadn't thought of this because, according to the timeline, it shouldn't be possible, because you just..." Shiller turned his head to look at Hal as he spoke.
The reason he hadn't been worried about the Yellow Lantern Ring was that, according to the conventional timeline, Hal had just become a Lamp hero while the founder of the Yellow Lantern Corps, Sinestro, should still have been a Green Lantern. Sinestro wouldn't betray the Green Lantern Corps and wouldn't create the Yellow Lantern Ring if they hadn't fallen out.
When the tide of darkness began to rise, Shiller didn't consider the role of the Emotional Spectrum and assumed that no lantern ring capable of harnessing fear existed in the universe at that time. However, they suddenly had the Yellow Lantern Ring.
After some retrospection, Shiller concluded that it's possible for the Yellow Lantern Corps' appearance in this universe to be premature, given all its alterations.
"But, you still haven't said, what's the situation in Gotham? Where are we now?"
"Don't worry, I was just getting to that."
"The arrival of the Yellow Lantern Ring and the Yellow Lantern Beast is not the gravest danger. The most significant danger is the host that the Yellow Lantern Ring and the Beast wish to inhabit, a host containing an egg that's desperately trying to escape."
"An egg? What is it?"
"I don't mean to scare you, but I have to tell you, once it hatches, it becomes a creature so powerful that even if all the lantern corps joined forces, they wouldn't stand a chance against it."
Just as Hal was about to rebut, Shiller continued, "However, it is still just an embryo, significantly weakened and on the brink of death."
"However, just at that moment, the Yellow Lantern Ring and the Lantern Beast arrived. One was desperate to escape, and the other was determined to infiltrate. Can you guess who ultimately won?"
"Well, it must be the Lantern Beast, right?"
"No, they both lost, and Batman won doubly. Now, he possesses both the Laughing Egg and the Yellow Lantern Beast."
Shiller explained once more, "Originally, Batman could have relied on his will to reject the Yellow Lantern Ring. But the nearly dead egg inside him saw the Ring as its only chance for survival."
"Thus, while Batman was preoccupied with the Yellow Lantern Beast, it manipulated his consciousness space to accept the Yellow Lantern Ring. Following which the Yellow Lantern Beast entered Batman's body following the Yellow Lantern Ring, and now, they have become one."
As Shiller narrated their story, the two of them entered the Tower of Heaven. Then, amidst the changing lights and shadows, Hal found himself on the top of a skyscraper. Below him was the entire city of Gotham.
They finally arrived in Gotham. But there was no joy in Hal's heart, for when he looked up, he saw an indescribable creature standing in the sky above Gotham.
It had a multi-segmented, multi-footed lower body like that of a yellow centipede, combined with a pitch-black upper body marked with a bat pattern. The head bore nothing but a large, bright red mouth, devoid of eyes or any other facial features.
Then, Shiller's voice resounded:
"The Yellow Lantern Ring, Parallax, Batman, and the Laughing Egg are mixed together, and I call it..."
"Fear Joker."