Starting With Batman

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Here are 20 chaps to heal your wounded souls.

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Even among the "dead," few truly understand the full extent of the Dreamwalker's abilities.

TL Note - To those that are confused, refer to the chapter titled "He's Batman"]

His primary power, as seen earlier, is the creation of a dream realm entirely under his control. Within this realm, he is invincible, able to rewrite the laws of reality at will, twisting the very fabric of the world around him. Anyone ensnared in his dream can do nothing but submit to his manipulation.

However, this realm is a construct of Dreamwalker's own mind. It's as though he built a virtual room within his consciousness, then forcibly drags all nearby participants into his self-created domain. Within this space, he is the absolute master, the creator, and others cannot resist or escape—they are at his mercy.

But this trick proved ineffective against Moon Knight, so Dreamwalker resorted to a different approach.

As the saying goes, if the mountain won't come to you, then you must go to the mountain. Since he couldn't drag this white-cloaked warrior into his own dream realm, Dreamwalker decided to invade Moon Knight's mind instead.

Everyone harbors a nightmare within them, a manifestation of their deepest fears, an illusion born from the darkest recesses of their psyche. These nightmares are powerful enough to drown a person in terror, rendering them helpless.

Dreamwalkers excel at finding these hidden fears. He can locate the nightmare buried in the deepest, most protected corner of someone's mind, and force them to relive it endlessly until they break.

And Dreamwalker delights in this process.

The moment he entered the mind of Moon Knight, he was immediately struck by a scent that was both intoxicating and familiar.

Dreamwalkers, who have explored countless nightmares, recognized this scent instantly. It emanated from the depths of Moon Knight's heart—a fear far stronger than what he had encountered in most others. This was an ultimate nightmare, one so extreme that ordinary people couldn't even begin to fathom it.

Moon Knight, known to the world as Marc Spector, had lived almost his entire life trapped in a waking nightmare. His childhood was marred by a tragedy when, in a moment of negligence, his younger brother drowned. Wracked with guilt, Marc received no comfort from his family. Instead, his mother turned her grief and anger on him, blaming him for the death, and subjecting him to years of abuse.

As an adult, Marc joined the military and later became a mercenary. He endured countless physical and psychological traumas, his hands stained with the blood of both enemies and innocents. Even in death, Marc found no peace; he was resurrected by the moon god Khonshu to serve as his agent, the curse of his violent life continuing beyond the grave.

Dreamwalker was captivated by the scent of this nightmare. It was the ultimate form of suffering, the likes of which he had rarely encountered. The sheer intensity of Marc's torment was almost unfathomable. Any ordinary person would have long since succumbed to madness under such relentless agony.

But just as Dreamwalker was about to trigger this nightmare, everything changed in an instant.

The overwhelming pain and horror vanished, as if the dark clouds that had loomed over Marc's mind were suddenly torn apart. All the torment, the blood-soaked memories, the curse of eternal servitude—they all disappeared without a trace.

In their place, the terrifying nightmare transformed into a series of mundane, almost comical fears—forgetting to bring homework to class, being punished by the teacher, getting pranked by a classmate, struggling to find a job, and working endless overtime once employed.

Dreamwalker was utterly bewildered.

Where had the extreme nightmare gone? Where was the immense terror he had just sensed?

Then, out of nowhere, Dreamwalker felt a light tap on his shoulder.

"What the...uh!"

As he turned around, he was greeted by the sight of a man in a white suit with a hood standing behind him. Before he could react, the man swung a staff at his face, striking him with a force that made his head spin.

The impact left Dreamwalker's mind reeling, momentarily stunned.

Wait a minute, am I not in control of this dream?

Throughout his countless invasions into the dreams of others, Dreamwalker had always been the absolute master. This was the first time someone had turned the tables on him within the dream realm.

"Hasn't anyone ever told you that it's rude to spy on someone else's dreams?" the man in the white suit sneered.

This was Steven, the second personality of Moon Knight, known for being the most talkative of the three personalities.

Charlie had just pressed the "personality switch" button.

Immediately afterward, before Dreamwalker could regain his bearings, another hand grabbed him from behind, yanking him close, only to deliver a powerful punch to his face, sending him sprawling once more.

This time, it was Marc, the main personality of Moon Knight.

Charlie was equally surprised to discover that he could control two personalities simultaneously. Or more accurately, he could use the personality switch button to alternate control between the two at will. While one personality was under his direct control, the other seemed to operate automatically, even coordinating with him for a seamless combo attack.

This unique capability was likely possible only because they were in Moon Knight's dream—within his own spiritual domain.

Dreamwalker had made a grave error by attempting to invade the mind of someone as mentally complex and fractured as Marc Spector. The spiritual realm is Moon Knight's domain, and even without the added strength of spiritual attributes, it's a dangerous proposition to invade the mind of someone with severe dissociative identity disorder.

So, with both personalities working in tandem, Moon Knight launched a relentless assault. Dreamwalker found himself pummeled through a series of bizarre and rapidly changing scenes. One moment he was in a bustling city, the next he was in a scorching desert, then a schoolyard, followed by a war-torn battlefield—each transition as disorienting as the last.

Dreamwalker was utterly confounded.

First, he couldn't understand how his opponent could fight back so fiercely in the dream realm. Normally, those trapped within a dream had no power to resist his control.

Second, another question gnawed at his mind.

Why was this person still functioning as two separate entities within the dream?

In all the dreams he had invaded, everyone had only one self within their mental world. There had never been an exception.

So, if the man in the white suit is Marc's "ego," then who is the man with the hood?

And if the man in the hood is the true self, what's the deal with the white-suited figure?

Dreamwalker's mind was spinning out of control. The rapid shifts between scenes made his head throb, as if his soul was being torn in two. He couldn't comprehend how this bizarre individual could endure such a chaotic nightmare on a daily basis.

But the worst was yet to come.

Marc's personality kicked Dreamwalker squarely in the chest, sending him tumbling backward across the landscape. When he finally regained his footing, he was horrified to find himself standing amidst a sea of skeletons.

The battlefield was a desolate wasteland, with piles of bones and skulls stretching as far as the eye could see. Hollow black eye sockets stared at him from every direction, as if yearning to devour him whole.

An unprecedented fear gripped Dreamwalker's heart. He desperately tried to flee, but a pale hand shot out from the pile of skeletons, grabbing his ankle. From the mass of corpses, a figure emerged—wrapped in tattered white cloth like a mummy. Its face, hidden beneath a hood, was pitch black, as if staring into the void itself...

"Ah!"

The world spun again, the scene shifted, and they were back in the command room of the mothership.

The agents in the command room had witnessed only a brief standoff between Dreamwalker and Moon Knight. But then, suddenly, Dreamwalker let out a strangled cry, staggering backward as if he had seen a ghost. The agents couldn't fathom what had caused him such terror.

"Impossible, this can't be... What's going on with your dream!?"

Even though he had retreated just in time, Dreamwalker's head throbbed with pain, his mind reeling from the experience. He began to wonder if invading this freak's mind had been the worst decision of his life. If he had stayed in that dream a moment longer, he couldn't even begin to imagine what would have happened to him...

And then, he froze.

As if struck by lightning, Dreamwalker's eyes widened in absolute horror. Reflected in his gaze was a scene more terrifying than anything he had ever conjured in his own nightmares.

A giant figure rose from the ground, its head towering above the sky. The colossal body was draped in a shroud-like robe, its neck absent, leaving only a vulture-like head suspended above where the neck should have been.

The sky darkened, turning to night, with countless stars dotting the heavens. A crescent moon hung in the sky, its silver light casting an eerie glow. Moon Knight stood on the bridge, his body bathed in the moonlight, his cape billowing as if moved by an unseen wind. Behind him loomed the giant bird-like figure, a nightmarish sentinel.

Dreamwalker was paralyzed with shock.

He quickly realized from the awed and terrified expressions of the agents in the command room that they, too, could see the enormous shadow looming behind Moon Knight.

"No...impossible!"

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