Shiller received the necklace and put it away. Getting Anatoli to wear this thing won't be easy, but you have to give it a try, otherwise it would seem like he's not putting in any effort. But the problem now is, where do we find Anatoli?
He left in such a hurry, didn't even say what he was going to do. Originally thought he was going to find Lucifer, but he didn't go to Heaven at all, now no one knows where he is.
Shiller thought carefully. The situation now is that Anatoli doesn't want to find Lucifer, asking him to get those unlucky souls off the Origin Wall, then he definitely needs to think of a plan himself.
He is the First Lantern, meaning he can use the power of the Emotional Spectrum. But the problem is, the power of the Emotional Spectrum is not quite enough, it may not necessarily be used to get people off the Origin Wall. Before Anatoli left, he already studied the Power of Seven Lanterns, it was obvious from what he said that it wouldn't work.
Actually, as someone who understands the plot and setting, the best way to interfere with the Origin Wall is to find the Black Lamp Power, because this has been depicted in the original comic, the power that successfully helped people off the Origin Wall, and is the easiest to obtain among all powers. But as luck would have it, the Black Death Emperor himself has also been hung up, so this path is also not feasible.
No way in Heaven, no door in Hell. Anatoli's remaining choices are not many. Considering his previous style of doing things, Doctor would most likely choose a big-force approach, blasting the people off in one shot is the fastest way.
The cannon is not difficult to build, the harder part is the cannonball. Using materials from the Real Universe definitely won't work, most likely need higher-level energy. Although the Emotional Spectrum is high-level, whether it's higher than the Origin Wall is unknown, best to find an external power.
Looking like this, the choice is only one. Shiller thought for a moment, first sent a message to Constantine of his universe.
"How's Nyarla doing recently?"
Constantine replied with a question mark, then sent back a reply: "I'm busy with a global signing tour, haven't seen him in a long time. But if he doesn't show up, it should mean everything's fine."
"Can you make a call to Brand for me? Thanks."
Constantine probably did as asked, but after a while he replied: "He's not answering the phone, probably busy."
"I advise you to find him," Shiller said. "A bit later and you might lose your sponsor and source of inspiration."
"What?!"
"Call me when you find him."
Shiller waited for a while, and Constantine directly sent a voice message: "What the hell, Brand is not in the office, heard from the head nurse he skipped work. I did a ritual to summon Nyarla, but he didn't respond. What's going on?"
"Have you asked Brand why he came to Gotham?"
"Does he need a reason to go somewhere?"
"He came to hide from his enemies," Shiller told him. "Now it seems the enemies have found him."
"What?!" There was disbelief in Constantine's tone, "How could Nyarlathotep have enemies?"
Shiller hadn't understood this issue either. Back then Brand told him he came to Gotham to hide from enemies, he didn't grasp the meaning. Later when he knew Brand was Nyarla, he understood even less. Who are the enemies of an Outer God? King in Yellow?
However, after learning that Anatoli borrowed Nyarla's debt, everything became clear.
This may sound ridiculous, but the fact is, Anatoli is the type of person who uses borrowing as a means to identify soft targets. If he can borrow once, he can borrow a thousand times, as long as he succeeds once, he gets another ATM. Five-star review this time, next time when there's trouble, come again.
And Nyarla, happens to be the kind of Outer God who never hesitates to spend some power for entertainment. From the moment he got interested in what Anatoli was going to do and planned to get involved, he stepped into an abyss. Anatoli, a man who lets Outer Gods experience "when you gaze into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you".
Existences like Nyarla, including many devils and mysterious beings, are like casinos – they're not afraid you borrow money, they're afraid you don't gamble; they're not afraid you borrow a lot, they're afraid you're not tempted. They will generously lend money to gamblers, let them taste the sweetness, all in one go, lose everything in the end. This tactic has been effective for thousands of years.
However, obviously, Anatoli is the kind of person who took Wall Street's money, first privately constructed a nuclear bomb, then assassinated the president, and finally claimed all of Wall Street's wolves were his angel investors.
Shiller didn't know, after Anatoli blew up Gotham, how many creditors Lucifer went to trouble. As a result, after Shiller returned to this world, no creditor came knocking for a long time.
The feather presented when borrowing was not just a guarantee, it was more like a red mark. And Lucifer was like that unreasonable parent – "If you didn't lend him money, how would he go gamble?"
There are very few creditors who survived Lucifer's blow, Nyarla is one of them. And he's also smart, hid where Anatoli "died". Lucifer wouldn't easily venture into a place that evokes memories, so he naturally avoided being expelled.
Therefore, the enemy Nyarla was hiding from was actually Lucifer. No matter how powerful Outer Gods are, Lucifer is still the biggest local boss, going head to head is unwise, best to avoid his edge.
As for Lucifer being unreasonable, it's just his nature. Even back then God couldn't argue with him, so nobody else could. God created the cosmos, partly to keep him happy, when he's not pleased, he throws a few toys, who can stop him?
In conclusion, now that Nyarla is quiet, it's mostly because Anatoli got to him. In Doctor's view, surviving Lucifer's big attack must mean there's still plenty of profit to be made. This is true gold that remains after a storm, not to squeeze some oil and water is a loss.
Although for now, there's no sight of Lucifer and Anatoli meeting, but seeing Anatoli battle Nyarla is also satisfying. Shiller asked, "Did Brand take leave or suddenly disappear?"
"Seems like he disappeared suddenly in the middle of work." Constantine was evidently investigating too, he said, "But he had time to grab his coat when he left, probably wasn't kidnapped."
"Then he probably heard the wind and ran." Shiller thought and said, "Can you still observe the stars?"
"My connection with him is not that close, you'll probably have to find that Batman." Constantine said.
Shiller knew he meant Evil God Batman, that's the one with many tentacles, and even named each of them Little Bruce. Though Shiller didn't know if he's been hung on the Wall, hopefully not.
He sent a message to the other party, who quickly replied with a few exclamation marks, indicating he hadn't been hung up on. He sent another message asking, "Can I go to the Prime Universe?"
He then explained, "The Primary Universe Batman usually wouldn't let me go over, because I'm too deeply involved with the Outer Gods, and my power has a certain level of contamination, and I don't really like going there."
"You can come over," Shiller said, "Remember to control your power, come to this address to find me."
It wasn't long before the Evil God Batman arrived. But this time, there were no tentacles, except for his slightly pale face, he looked no different from a normal person.
"Nyarla is out of contact," the Evil God Batman said, "The stars have already obscured; I can't see them at all. This is quite unusual."
Shiller understood. These Outer Gods ran quickly, and Nyarla was quite loyal, not forgetting to take his hometown with him when he ran. But he still confirmed once more, "Is there nothing left?"
The Evil God Batman nodded and said, "Not to mention observing the stars, even the tomes can't be opened; the texts on them are all blurred. Some followers are showing symptoms of amnesia, completely forgetting the name of their lord."
"The retreat was quite clean." Shiller remarked. But he quickly thought of one more thing: it's not just DC that has Outer Gods; Marvel has them too, and the stars they observe are the same, the same group of Outer Gods projecting across different universes, and the endpoint seen by following the projection is the same.
Therefore, Shiller sent a message to Star Lord in the universe where Greed resides, which is Peter Quill.
"Are you there? Take a look at the stars?"
"What stars? A newly released game?"
"Are you awake?" Just as Shiller sent this message, Star Lord's voice message came through.
"You send me a message at three in the morning asking if I'm awake? What do you think?"
"That you can receive messages from me at three in the morning, there must be quite a few new game releases, right?"
Star Lord was speechless. He said, "What on earth do you want?"
"Get out and look at the night sky."
"Are you crazy? Why would I... oh, those stars. What's wrong with them?"
"You go and take a look, and you'll know. Would I harm you?"
"Haven't you harmed me enough?" Star Lord said, but the sound of him walking out the door could be heard. He has a special connection with the stars, and once he looks, he can see deep into the stars.
He was silent for a long time, then said, "What the heck, I can't see anything. Where did they go?"
He paused for a moment and then continued, "Usually, I don't even have to be staring at the night sky; as long as I lift my head at night, I can hear them whispering in my ears, constantly sending me squad invites, damn it, I can't even block them. What's going on today?"
"Congratulations, you can have a long period of peaceful days ahead. Watch the stars more."
After hanging up, Shiller sent another message to Doctor Strange: "Anything from the Eye Demon?"
"What?" Strange also seemed to be not awake, "Who did you say?"
His call came quickly as well. Shiller said, "Do you know where the Eye Demon is?"
Strange immediately became alert; he said, "Why are you looking for it?"
"The Outer Gods might be in trouble, find it."
After hanging up the phone, Strange immediately went to search. Considering he is now the Speaker of the interstellar council, he mobilized the interstellar council and the Holy Sanctuary and looked for a long time, but found nothing.
Not found in this universe, he then contacted other multiverses. Other multiverse Doctor Stranges also did not find it. Coincidentally, the Eye Demon was invading Earth in one universe, meant to be a plot of killing The Ancient One, but halfway through, the Eye Demon fled hastily.
And some universes' Doctor Stranges had also ventured to observe the depths of the stars, and when they went to observe again, they found that they couldn't see anything anymore. Either the stars have changed contact numbers, or they've run away.
With those messages, Shiller confirmed that the stars indeed seemed to be temporarily hidden, meaning they are no longer projecting to these two Great Worlds. Unless they can go directly to the Cthulhu Universe in Love Craft or other horror authors' writings, otherwise they should be unable to contact the Outer Gods.
Anatoli probably wouldn't run directly to the Horror Universe. Shiller immediately thought of whom to call. He dialed the phone number of Professor X in the universe where Greed resides.
"Hello, Professor? How's Reynolds?"
"Who?"
"Robert Reynolds, the wielder of a million constant star power."
"Oh, him, he's been practicing controlling his energy in a special controller... what the f***?! Where is he?! Erik!!! Erik!!!!"