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Chapter 197: You Are Irrelevant V

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"Ahem," The Batman Who Laughs tidied up his clothes while giggling, "Very very naughty. How can I allow you rats to escape again?" As he spoke, he pulled out a dark metallic card.

He waved it around, messing around with it. Much to his surprise, however, nothing happened, "Not working? Barbatos, this is a dissapointement."

He was absolutely unhinged, going as far as talking like that about the one who gave him the dark cards, a set of cards forged out of Cosmic Metallurgy. 

Cosmic Metallurgy is a material found in the Dark Multiverse with interesting properties, capable of manipulating reality to its whims, to a certain limited extent of course.

Barbatos was a special being. He was the one to reveal the rest of the Dark Multiverse to the Batman Who Laughs and his plans to go after the true Multiverse as well. 

Believing him to be the ideal Bat to help him, Barbatos made the Batman Who Laughs the spearhead for his plans to drag all of creation into darkness.

Barbatos also known as the Bat-God was a being created by the World Forger to consume the universes which fall back decayed. He claims to be the bat that Bruce Wayne saw through the window the night he became Batman.

Barbatos's tale was the kind of tale that would entertain Ian. In the earliest days of existence, before the Multiverse became reality, a spark of potential created matter and anti-matter. 

After that, two siblings tasked with monitoring creation came to be. Along with them, though, came a third being known as the World Forger. Unlike the others, it was set to watch over creations that would exist in the future. 

The World Forger made its home in the Forge of Worlds, a hidden place inside the sea of possibility that would later be renamed the Dark Multiverse. 

For eons, he created universes based on the hopes and fears of every living thing. 

While the most stable universes became part of the main Multiverse, The Forger would dispatch its dragon to destroy the unstable worlds so their energy could return to the Forge and be used anew. 

The name of that dragon was Barbatos. Eventually, Barbatos' lust for destruction led him to kill his master and steadily corrupt the Forge of Worlds. Because he was no longer doing his job, the unstable worlds persisted beyond their time and became part of the Dark Multiverse.

Such a sweet tale would surely attract Ian's attention. His mercy towards all beings sought to heal the said universe for no price whatsoever. 

This is why the Rose unit which basically consists of his lovers was there. His target here was something they wanted as well, and his blessing would allow them to achieve their task without the need for him to get involved.

The problem for the Dark Multiverse was that the girls were invisible even for Barbatos despite beings its ruler, a sign of how many preparations Ian did to make sure nothing goes wrong.

All they had to do was to bury the black Rose rings in four specific spots, then Ian can start his plans.

Ian had handed them his four black Rose rings, leaving him with only one ring, "Almost there..." He murmured as he was feeding the Mother and Father boxes his Death forces. 

He was almost on the brink of taking absolute control over them. It took a very long time, especially when considering he was using the Forever Force to create an accelerated domain around him.

However, "However, these things are finally done." Ian happily smiled as he caressed his vast white wings. He had finally taken control of Lucifer's wings.

They were by the far the thing that took him the longest to control. It wasn't even close which is understandable with how broken the wings were.

"It really feels like if I flap them around, the universe would break," Ian murmured as he used them as a pillow to relax.

"It would if your control isn't perfect." Dr. Manhattan warned as he himself played around with the negative side of the Multiverse in his hand. 

His powers went from being from the positive side of the Multiverse to enveloping both the positive and negative side, a feat achieved by few. He was already monstrous, but now...

"Your growth is accelerating," Dr. Manhattan noted as he scanned Ian, "Is it a natural thing? Or is something changing outside of our awareness?"

"I don't know. I want to say it's natural, but I'm still unsure because there is a lot I don't know. I can say though that it's been happening since my powers awakened, so I'm leaning on it being natural." Ian responded.

What he didn't tell Dr. Manhattan however that it's possibly because he's recovering. 

When the dark mirror dimension was completely broken, it was very hard to progress, but as it started recovering, the mirror dimension's reflective capabilities became more effective, thus allowing him to quickly recover.

Ian stood up, flapped his wings, and suddenly he was in another universe. Lucifer's wings were more broken than he first believed as he basically acquired Multiversal travel.

This was the ninth universe Ian visited in his studies with Dr. Manhattan, but this one was a bit strange, "It's a bit similar to the situation in Earth 3."

"Just much more advanced." Dr. Manhattan continued in his stead.

This universe was glowing red, seemingly consisting of only red dust flying about. It was completely destroyed, and Dr. Manhattan of course knows how "Negative energy."

That's all he said, but Ian knows very well what took place here, 'Is it the Anti-Monitor? The brother of the world forger... Hmm, I was wondering why he didn't target me or my universe yet... Is he afraid of me?'

He attributed a certain percentage of his brain power to think about that while he brought out his staff and allowed it to devour the negative energy all around.

'Hmm, not bad. It strengthened many things.' He felt not only the energies in the vessels growing stronger but also the staff itself growing and evolving.

'I kinda wanna visit the fifth dimension. Last I remember, it was a dimension with a bunch of creatures capable of reality warping. Good place for charity I bet.' Ian nodded to himself before flapping his wings.

It's been a very long time since he received any charity worth celebrating, so Ian was quite excited as his clutches came upon Earth-38.

He appeared right on Earth, and right away, his cosmic awareness spread out, sensing everything through it, 'He hasn't arrived just yet?' 

Ian shrugged, deciding to have a small vacation while waiting for his driver to arrive. He remembers his name to be something like Mister Nxyjalnsfujdfdnvv whatever whatever. He is a resident of the fifth dimension, so Ian expects him to gracefully take him there.

Dr. Manhattan also prefers to keep himself mostly out of the equation which is why his interaction with Lucifer annoyed him a lot. He had to interfere.

He'd rather just follow Ian around and observe him, and he'll definitely not involve himself too much in Ian's goals.

Ian retracted his wings and made his way to a nearby coffee. He waited for his order as he chatted with Dr. Manhattan.

It was like the people walking about didn't notice his wings or his sudden appearance, nor did they see Dr. Manhattan's odd blue form. Magic is very convenient.

"Do you miss? Your old normal life?" Dr. Manhattan asked, finding Ian's psyche to be very interesting. He feels human yet a monster at the same time. Then again, everything is relative.

"My life was never normal, but no, I don't miss my old life at all. This is much more interesting, and I seem to be a very curious being because I have this deep desire to know the unknown."

Ian kept tapping on the table, lost in thought, "Yes, this is where I belong. What about you?"

"I do not. This is how I should be. How I was. How I always want to be." Dr. Manhattan responded.

Their casual conversation was soon interrupted by the arrival of a few individuals. Alien detection technology is extremely advanced in this world because they had to deal with aliens for a very long time.