amaotonovel Chapter 4538 The Darkest Night (66)
Chapter 4538 The Darkest Night (66)
Chapter 4538 The Darkest Night (Sixty-Six)
In fact, Gotham's bad reputation is long gone. Even before Brainiac's arrival, Gotham had already significantly improved its image through tourism. After Brainiac's government was established, although its control over Gotham was not strong, the place didn't cause any major trouble. Furthermore, its strong economy and good accommodations even attracted a number of migrant workers.
Few of the younger generation know how Gotham earned its once formidable reputation. Even if they've heard that the city used to be a mess, they assume it was all the work of the mob and that things improved after Brainiac purged them.
The older generation had some understanding, but frankly, all East Coast cities were like that back then. Gotham wasn't great, but was Imperial City any better? Was Miami any better? Not to mention Chicago. They didn't take it seriously at all.
This has led to Gotham's dark ages fading into the past, rarely being discussed or valued anymore.
So when something strange happened in Gotham again, no one realized that the location of the event might exponentially increase the danger of the whole affair.
Take the rules of tabletop role-playing games as an example: some very cunning tabletop game hosts will deliberately embellish the names of certain location options, making them sound like harmless places, in order to entice members to choose them. If they were all called "So-and-so Mouth," no one would choose them.
Because everything that happens in a similar location is highly susceptible to change. Going to other places might at most result in encountering two fish-men, but coming to a place like this means you have to consider the possibility of having dinner with Kroos.
Gotham is a place like that. Don't be fooled by the event's name; it might not seem like the final battle, but rather just a side event or quest. The location itself can have a huge impact, and a wrong choice could bring the main culprit out of the way.
The real culprit is already here. It's just that the occult isn't something you can understand by cramming at the last minute. Just reading the ancient texts would take years, and these lunatics clearly don't have that patience. They only roughly understood what was going on before they immediately assembled their group and started acting. This led them to fail to realize that a blood tide is not an event created by a simple entity.
These people continued to pour into Gotham, beginning their investigation into the location of that incredibly creative and beautiful corpse. Gotham's coastline isn't long, so a thorough search would suffice. Soon, a small team made their way there.
Clearly, this team was unprepared. They even climbed directly onto the cliff and looked down. Even Schiller felt dizzy just looking down from there. Unsurprisingly, these men replicated Hugo's fall, becoming part of the bloodbath.
This caused the blood tide to grow even larger. And, quite coincidentally, photos of the mutated blood tide were leaked. Others saw it and thought, "Isn't it even more beautiful?" So they became even more eager to see it for themselves. Then, several unprepared squads perished there, becoming part of the blood tide as well.
Most of these people were enthusiasts on a whim, not true experts. But their deaths were not without significance; besides expanding the scale of the blood tide, they also had a subtle impact on the battle between the Black Death Emperor and the Cursed Shekun.
Both sides share a common characteristic: they cannot gain power through human sacrifice. The Great Old Ones are self-explanatory; they are not demons and do not feed on human souls, so the number of deaths is meaningless. The Black Death Emperor is the source of death power and does not need any external replenishment. It seems these people died in vain.
However, as the saying goes, anything is possible in Gotham. Especially within the sphere of influence of the Great Old Ones. These dead formed a relatively independent "phenomenon"—the blood tide.
Within the Cthulhu Mythos, madness possesses power. It's not that madmen are inherently stronger, but rather that the madness born from forbidden knowledge beyond human comprehension overflows from the human mind and is transmitted to their fellow human beings, stimulating their psyche.
After the blood tide formed, the corpses injected with the clown virus solution began to convulse more and more rapidly. Some were even able to get up on their own. Although they still couldn't move freely, they looked like they were alive.
The crucial turning point came when those who were truly prepared made their move. Like Harley's team, although they initially knew nothing about the Great Old Ones, they were able to acquire considerable intelligence and knowledge through the Gotham University Library, understanding the origins of madness and developing some defensive methods.
Furthermore, their defenses against mental pollution were very high; even with their sanity depleted, they could still move freely. They quickly reached the vicinity of the cliff. Although they hadn't yet directly confronted Zhu Xiekun, they were close.
Meanwhile, the Black Death Emperor was still engrossed in his role-playing game, battling the Great Old Ones in the mental realm for three hundred rounds, completely unaware of what was happening outside.
When he ran out of death energy, he summoned the living dead to drain his power. However, the living dead he summoned were caught by the madmen who were about to kick down the door.
The madmen couldn't tell if it was a corpse or not; they only knew these people were different from them, behaving very strangely. They didn't detain the undead, but instead watched as the undead, drained of their death power, collapsed to the ground, powerless. They attributed this to a voluntary sacrifice by followers of the Great Old Ones.
To learn more about the Great Old Ones, they captured a zombie to interrogate it. But they obviously couldn't get anything out of it. So, in a fit of anger, they detained all the zombies, wanting to see if the gods would be enraged by the loss of their offerings.
It wasn't until he failed to draw upon the power of death several times in a row that the Black Death Emperor realized something was wrong. However, he was unwilling to give up, because he had already figured out some tricks in the spiritual world. So he had no choice but to summon a larger number of living corpses to draw upon his power.
There were simply too many coming; even the madmen couldn't stop them. But Brainiac wasn't one to be trifled with. After sealing off the cliff, anyone who approached was immediately taken away, leaving no chance whatsoever.
The Black Death Emperor wasn't stupid; he figured out that the food delivery hadn't been delivered because it had been blocked. So, he made a huge mistake—he gave the undead on the coast some more death power, sending them to break through the blockade and bring the food in.
First, the undead were injected with the clown virus and couldn't move for a while because they didn't have enough energy. But with the power of death back in their hands, they came back to life. But these weren't undead controlled by the Black Death Emperor; they were more like a postmodern clown gang.
From the moment they awoke, they had completely forgotten the Black Death Emperor's orders. Breaking the blockade, welcoming the believers—who cares! I have my own important business to attend to! Where's Batman? I'm asking you, where's Batman?!
The resurrected undead were silent again, the blockade couldn't be broken, and the power of death was absent. The Black Death Emperor was puzzled: What on earth is happening outside? How did Brainiac sever my connection with the undead?
Although he didn't know, he wasn't without other options. If the delivery couldn't come in, he'd just go out and get it. He could accept that the other zombies wouldn't listen to him, but surely Hugo wouldn't disobey him?
The Black Death Emperor's consciousness is currently projected into Hugo's mental realm. As long as he resurrects Hugo again, he can control Hugo to leave, and then he will be free to roam the world.
Furthermore, he has already grasped some of the principles behind the mental corruption of the Great Old Ones. In other words, even though Hugo is now corrupted, the Black Death Emperor can still find a way to resurrect him, or at least control his physical activities.
Without hesitation, the Black Death Emperor used his last remaining power of death to resurrect Hugo, who had become a monster. Little did he know, this monster was no longer just Hugo.
Gordon, standing outside the cliffside cordon, was assigning tasks to his subordinates. Brainiac had given them a strict order: they had been on high alert for the past few days to prevent the Black Death Emperor's deliveries from getting in to replenish his energy.
Having just finished arranging tonight's shifts, Gordon vaguely felt a slight tremor beneath his feet. He instinctively turned around, then froze completely in place—a blood-red tsunami was descending from the sky. The surging waves were not seawater at all, but endless, mutated, and twisted human limbs.
Gordon was trembling so much he couldn't even speak. He thought he'd seen it all in his years in Gotham—but this was something he'd never seen before!
But that's why he's been able to stay in Gotham for so many years. The moment he saw this scene, a flood of memories rushed back to him. His next instinctive action wasn't to run or scream, but to pick up his phone and dial Schiller's number.
"Schiller!!!" Gordon's roar echoed through the sky, "I told you not to dump corpses into the lake!!!"
Schiller held his phone, somewhat speechless. He rarely felt wronged. This was clearly one of them. Although he wasn't entirely innocent this time, what did it have to do with the lake? The lake in front of his house didn't even connect to the sea.
He thought it was fine, but others didn't. Harley and Jason, who had witnessed everything from the side of the cliff, gaped. "My God, what is that thing?!"
"This is the blood tide you wanted?!" Jason exclaimed incredulously. "You didn't tell me it was alive!"
“I don’t know either!” Harley scratched her head. “That’s the most densely populated area in the East District. We can’t let this thing into the city! We have to stop him!”
Jason rubbed his eyes hard, but forced himself to calm down. He said, "We definitely can't do it with just the few of us. Let me think, let me think... I've got it!"
Harley looked at him, and Jason said, "Do you remember the lake in front of Professor Schiller's house?"
"You mean..."
"Those monsters dwelling down there, they're practically locals, aren't they? Gotham needs a Batman, it's time to stand up and protect our home!"
At this moment, Schiller was standing at a distance, observing the situation through binoculars, and said to Brainiac, "Make sure to plan the route carefully, keep him at a distance, and then bring out Lucy. Don't let Lucy get contaminated."
"Don't worry. The guards will drive those zombies north along the coastline to the least populated northern district. Superbody will be waiting for him there."
"What about Novi? Has she passed away? We must ensure that the Black Death Emperor drains the death power from her body before she can be perfectly resurrected."
"Professor Frith has already taken her there."
Schiller nodded, about to put down his binoculars. Suddenly, another enormous object entered his field of vision.
"...What is that???"