If you Like this story! Check out my other stories! Solo leveling in Westeros.
&
If you wish to read more or simply support me than check out my patreon at
"https://www.patreon.com/FrenzyAren"
You can Get Access to 3 More Chapters OR 7 More Chapters if you want !
/-\
"Listen, I know you're powerful, Arthur," Batman said, voice calm and composed. "But you don't poke a hornet's nest unprepared. Not like this. Not yet atleast." His eyes stayed fixed on Arthur. "Darkseid is extremely dangerous. Maybe not to you, but to Earth."
Arthur didn't argue. He simply inclined his head slightly, acknowledging the truth in the warning.
"I'm aware," he replied. "That's exactly why I won't rush this." A faint, confident calm settled into his tone. "This one requires patience. I'll play the long game."
Batman studied him for a moment longer, the way he always did looking not just at the man, but at the possibilities around him.
"It sounds like you already have a strategy," Batman said.
Arthur raised one hand and turned his palm upward.
The shadows responded immediately.
From the darkness a ring appeared, his shadow ring, resting above his skin as if gravity no longer applied to it. Violet light pulsed from its surface, dark and cold, veins of living night crawling across it. The glow painted Arthur's fingers in faint amethyst hues.
A small smile touched his lips.
"I do," he said. "I'm expanding my Corps. Across the universe."
Batman's gaze dropped to the ring, then lifted back to Arthur's eyes without a word.
"They'll protect," Arthur continued. "They'll save worlds, stabilize conflicts, do the things the Green Lanterns are supposed to do." The smile sharpened, just slightly. "But they'll also do something else. Quietly and constantly."
Batman's jaw tightened. "Interference."
"Disruption," Arthur corrected. "Darkseid's supply lines. His vassals. His long-term schemes. I won't confront him head-on, not yet." He closed his hand, and the ring dissolved back into shadow. "I'll siege Apokolips piece by piece. Force by force. He'll notice. Of course he will."
Arthur met Batman's eyes again.
"And when he does," Arthur said, "he'll realize I know him. How he thinks. How he plans. And that knowledge will bother him far more than any open challenge."
Batman considered this, mind already simulating outcomes.
"That approach has merit," he admitted. "It keeps the fire away from Earth."
Arthur nodded once. "That's the idea."
He paused, then added evenly, "Darkseid is cruel. Spiteful. It wouldn't surprise me if he lashes out here anyway." His eyes flicked briefly toward the cavern's distant opening. "But I've prepared for that too."
Batman said nothing, but his shoulders eased just a fraction.
Arthur exhaled, the moment settling.
"I should leave," he said. "Thanks for listening to what I had to say, this was a good talk."
Batman didn't respond immediately. His silence wasn't dismissal, he was deep in thought.
Arthur turned and began to walk away, boots echoing softly against stone. Just before the shadows claimed him, he spoke again without looking back.
"As I said, this is only the beginning. My goal is to kill the real one. Eventually." His voice softened, losing its edge, gaining something human. "And I know what's on your mind, Bruce."
Batman's head lifted slightly.
"I'm still just a man from this planet," Arthur said. "I have a family here. I love. I doubt. I want things. I feel anger and hope like anyone else." A pause. "You have nothing to fear from me. I don't seek worship nor do I want praise."
The shadows thickened around him.
"I'll always stand on the side of humanity," Arthur finished quietly.
Then he stepped forward and vanished.
The darkness folded in on itself, leaving the Batcave exactly as it had been.
Batman remained where he was, alone again with the hum of machines and the drip of water. He stared at the place where Arthur had stood, long after there was nothing left to see.
After a while, he spoke to no one.
"I honestly don't know if he's human anymore," Batman muttered. His voice was softer now, unguarded. "And yet…"
He turned back toward the Batcomputer, cape settling around him.
"…it feels like he's more human than most of us at times." A brief pause. "Much like Superman."
His fingers hovered over the keys, unmoving.
"Sometimes," Batman added quietly, "I can't tell whether men like them are what I should fear… or what I should be grateful for."
The Batcave offered no answer.
****
PLANET QWARD -
Qward was in a silence of abandonment, of a world that had long since been stripped of purpose and left to rot in the shadow of its own legacy. The terrain stretched endlessly beneath a blackened sky, broken spires and ruined constructs.
yet at the heart of it stood a construct very much alive, The Shadow Lantern Central Power Battery.
Once, this had been the beating heart of the Sinestro Corps, the Yellow Lantern Central Power Battery, fed by fear, roaring with malignant light. Yet now from within, a deep violet-black radiance pulsed slowly, rhythmically, like a cosmic heart.
That glow was the only light on the planet.
Arthur hovered before it, cloak of shadow trailing behind him. His boots never touched the ground. His eyes glowing softly violet were locked on the colossal construct with intensity.
The battery drank from the Emotional Spectrum.
Constantly.
Arthur exhaled through his nose, arms folding for a moment as he studied the way the energy flowed threads of will, fear, rage, hope, compassion, love, death all of it brushing against the battery's event horizon and being siphoned away into shadow.
"…It really is easy to manipulate now," he murmured to himself.
His voice echoed faintly across the empty world.
"Balance matters," Arthur continued, thoughtful rather than arrogant. "And I'll admit… I may have sabotaged the other Corps just by letting this exist."
He raised one hand slowly toward the construct.
The shadows responded instantly.
Violet-black sigils ignited across the surface of the Central Power Battery, the glow shifted it was subtle but unmistakable. The constant pull weakened, steadied, restrained.
Arthur clenched his fingers slightly.
The battery resisted.
He smiled faintly.
Then pushed.
The siphoning force adjusted, recalibrating itself with a sound that rippled across the planet.
"There," Arthur said quietly. "Fifty percent absorption rate."
He tilted his head, eyes narrowing as he assessed the result. After a moment, he scratched the back of his hair, expression almost sheepish.
"…I don't know if that's still acceptable, honestly."
A beat passed.
Then he chuckled softly.
"At least I'm being thoughtful about the others... This should be an improvement to them."
The humor faded as his gaze hardened again.
Arthur's eyes flared violet light intensifying until it cast long, distorted shadows across the ruins. He lifted one hand and began to move his fingers with precision, tracing shapes in the air that did not belong to any known language.
Command gestures.
The Shadow Central Power Battery reacted violently.
A ripple tore outward from its core, space itself warping like disturbed water. The glow surged and then fractured.
From the heart of the battery, rings emerged.
One after another.
Dozens.
Hundreds.
Shadow Rings, each forged of condensed death-energy and emotional equilibrium, rotating slowly in the air like a haloed storm. They hovered beside the battery, perfectly aligned, each one pulsing with terrifying potential.
Arthur's lips curved into a satisfied smile.
"Good."
He raised his arm and swept it outward.
The rings responded as one.
They lifted, following the motion of his hand as if bound to his will alone, forming vast, spiraling formations above Qward's dead sky. Their glow painted the ruins in shifting violet hues, turning the abandoned planet into something almost… reverent.
Arthur opened his palm, voice carrying power now, commanding and absolute.
"Go," he said.
The rings trembled, eager.
"Find those who do not kneel to fear," Arthur continued, his voice deepening. "Those who have stared into death and did not look away."
His fingers curled slightly.
"Find those who can wield ending without becoming monsters. Those who understand that order is not mercy… but it is not cruelty either."
The rings pulsed brighter.
"Seek souls who can carry judgment without corruption," Arthur finished. "Who can stand at the edge of annihilation and choose restraint."
Then he thrust his palm forward.
The rings launched.
They tore through the sky like a meteor storm of living shadow, vanishing into space in every direction each one carving its own path across the universe, hunting for a bearer worthy of the power they carried.
The echoes of their departure faded, leaving Qward silent once more.
Arthur lowered his hand.
He looked up at the empty sky, the glow of the Shadow Central Power Battery reflecting in his eyes. A calm, satisfied smile settled on his face.
"Now," he said softly, almost to the universe itself, "we wait."
/-\
If you Like this story! Check out my other stories! Solo leveling in Westeros.
&
If you wish to read more or simply support me than check out my patreon at
"https://www.patreon.com/FrenzyAren"
You can Get Access to 3 More Chapters OR 7 More Chapters if you want