Many people are captivated by Charles's beauty, but Joseph is clearly not one of them. There are many who dare not look into Charles's blue eyes, but Joseph's reasons for not looking should be different from others — staring into the eyes of a mind power user like Charles Xavier, establishing a connection with his brainwaves, gazing into his spiritual world, is akin to facing an Elder God for any mind power user.
Shiller can roughly imagine what he might see. Charles's spiritual body is astonishingly vast. When they first met, it seemed as if he was cradling the entire world in his arms.
"Calm down, child." Charles said, "For a powerful hacker, invading the Pentagon is not difficult; the challenge lies in how to retreat seamlessly without leaving a trace. This is the essence of mental ability, isn't it?"
Well, once these words were spoken, Constantine became alert, and Bat Cat's fur stood on end.
This might sound reasonable, but the key is that if the human brain is seen as a computer, and mind power users are hackers, then the most horrifying aspect is that some incredibly powerful hackers can come and go without a trace. This means you don't know when they arrived, what they changed, or if they've been manipulating you all along. Charles is certainly powerful to this extent and has likely done something like this before; otherwise, he wouldn't have such insights.
One can only say, the appearance of youth has indeed caused some changes in Charles's mindset, as if he doesn't even bother to act.
Joseph, on the other hand, still nodding thoughtfully, was interrupted by Shiller to break this dangerous atmosphere, saying, "Try this."
He handed over a helmet. Although Joseph hadn't worn it yet, he seemed to understand its purpose. He hesitated a bit and said, "I don't really want to rely on external forces; my concern is if I become too dependent on this device, once it's gone, I might struggle to adapt."
"Don't worry, the helmet is quite reliable. Surely you don't have friends who might try to destroy your brainwave amplifier just because they don't want to talk to you anytime?"
Shiller didn't even need to think to know who Joseph had in mind. He patted his shoulder and said, "Just tell your dad it's expensive. He'll take good care of it."
Joseph's concerns were instantly dispelled. Although Deathstroke has many faults, being overly controlling as a father is among them, he might not let Joseph handle such dangerous things, but there's one good point — his love for money.
He once hated Joseph wearing headphones. Joseph knew for sure that he had considered secretly breaking the headphones. However, upon seeing Amazon's shopping history, discovering that those specialized monitoring headphones were exceedingly pricey, even more expensive than their equivalent weight in gold, breaking them would be no different than burning money, which completely dispelled this thought.
Then, there wasn't much else left to prepare. The others all took their seats on the sofa next to the coffee table. Bat Cat jumped onto the table and said, "Close your eyes, empty your mind. Don't open your eyes regardless of what you hear or see. It will arrive shortly."
Everyone complied. Shiller only felt a momentary drowsiness, heard a cat's footsteps and a subtle purring, and was enveloped in warmth, a furry sensation, like he had suddenly fallen into a heap of cats. It seemed the Dream of a Thousand Cats was going well.
Shiller was jolted awake by a loud "bang." Upon opening his eyes, he saw Constantine striking down a shadowy figure with a box. Shiller didn't have time to react; his instincts propelled him forward to draw his gun and shoot.
Bam!
Shiller saw the gun in his hand was his familiar Glock 19. Having equipment made things easier.
One shot issued, the thing on the ground still moved, prompting Shiller to fire again. Upon closer inspection, the thing turned out to be a zombie!
Much like the later zombified Amanda, these zombies had dark gray skin, eyes overflowing with black energy, clearly enhanced physiques, and they bared their teeth, presenting a terrifying sight.
Shiller immediately understood what was happening — the Black Death Emperor had invaded the Kingdom of Dreams!
Although it's uncertain how he managed it, it's likely Batman's evacuation plan encountered a hiccup, causing the Black Death's power to follow them into the Kingdom of Dreams, contaminating it.
This was indeed a major problem, Shiller instantly realized. It's important to know the one mounted on the wall was the actual body of the Black Death Emperor. Bruce's adventurous act had allowed the Black Death Emperor's body to successfully reach the reality universe, meaning he could unrestrainedly output power without being hindered by the universe's barriers.
No matter what, the Black Death Emperor is a Multiverse-level mysterious entity, partially mastering the rules of death and decay. His full-powered output is terrifying.
And it seems neither Batman nor Joker Jack were prepared for this. The full eruption of the Black Death Emperor's power wreaked havoc throughout the Kingdom of Dreams.
Logically, beings mounted on walls cannot move. However, since Batman's consciousness could evacuate, perhaps the Black Death Emperor could, at the last moment, channel all his power here. Good thing he couldn't move afterward, otherwise Batman would've been more than just trapped.
Shiller discovered that he and Constantine appeared to be on the second floor of a house. Sounds came from downstairs; Shiller gave Constantine a look, approached the door with his gun, and peeked towards the staircase.
There, a giant vine pierced through the door panel, shooting inside. Shiller dodged to the side, while Constantine swung an arm, summoning flames from the floor.
But the mutated plant didn't fear fire; Shiller shouted, "Holy Light or Holy Water!"
Constantine didn't hesitate, pulling a wooden cross with a sharply pointed bottom from his pocket, inserting it into the ground, and firmly slapping down a Bible. Accompanied by the flipping of pages and chanting of prayers, a bright and warm energy began to fill the room.
It was apparent that this power did not completely counteract the Power of Death, but the Power of Death wasn't fond of it either. That vine quickly retracted.
Shiller heard some movement again, and he deduced it was the footsteps of a teammate. He opened the door again and shouted downstairs, "Life Force! Charles!"
As soon as the words fell, a dense white light exploded, the entire house collapsed with a roar. Shiller and Constantine fell heavily onto the street. When the dust settled, Charles, glowing all over with white light, slowly reined in his power, while those entities tainted by the Power of Death all turned to ashes under the white light.
"I need more." Charles shouted, "Tell me roughly what kind of power it is!"
"Spirit of Existence." Shiller said, "A Lantern Beast sleeping in the center of the Earth for years, it's the nemesis of the Black Death Emperor!"
Charles could understand, after all, he had encountered Lamp Hero in previous Multiverse wars and knew roughly how this system worked. He slowly raised a hand, the white light grew brighter and formed a faint shadow similar to the Spirit of Existence.
Of course, the appearance was definitely different, but the nature of the power was similar. This wasn't because Charles truly possessed the power of the White Light, but in the Kingdom of Dreams, spiritual power can be transformed into any power; as long as the spiritual power is strong enough, believing it to be true makes it true.
Charles could use certain information to craft a Spirit of Existence with his spiritual power; it wasn't a real existence, just a manifestation of his spiritual power, but it could still restrain the Black Lamp force.
Joseph was completely mesmerized. He hadn't thought spiritual power could be used in this way. His attack means were only to invade others' minds, control their surface consciousness, then manipulate their actions. He had no research on the spiritual world and spiritual power.
"No." Charles said to Joseph, "You don't need to mimic my actions, Life Force is already sufficient. You should leverage your specialty, your medium is your eyes, put the helmet on and see what you can perceive."
Joseph nodded his head. He put on the helmet, concentrated his focus and looked, then suddenly let out a scream.
Shiller hurriedly stepped over and took off the helmet from his head. Joseph knelt on the ground catching his breath, and when he stood up, blood was streaming from his eyes.
"I connected to an immense consciousness." Joseph took a deep breath, "Very, very..."
"What does it feel like?" Shiller asked, "Can you sense anything? Death? Decline?"
"No, absolutely not." Joseph asserted, "Very vast and mysterious, but entirely unrelated to decline or anything. It's just like... like God..."
Shiller and Constantine exchanged a glance, Constantine shook his head and said, "He cannot contact God."
"What about the God of Kingdom of Dreams?"
"You mean the Sandman? But he is no longer the master of the Kingdom of Dreams, right?"
Shiller shook his head and said, "In some sense, he is the Kingdom of Dreams itself."
He turned to look at Joseph again, "Can you communicate with him?"
Joseph painfully shook his head and said, "I can't even look directly at him. Once I do, I will merge with him and turn completely into nothingness."
Charles directly took the helmet over. The Bat Cat behind him meowed and banged into him, causing him to stagger. Bat Cat said sternly, "What do you intend to do!"
"I can give it a try." Charles said after regaining his balance, "I'm sure when I was as young as he is, I was much stronger than him. What he can't do, I may very well can."
This sounded incredibly arrogant, but Charles had the right to be arrogant. He was the most powerful mind power user in the entire Marvel Universe, others might surpass him in some areas or at certain times, but he remained the strongest overall.
"Moreover, I also have an ace up my sleeve." Charles said, "He can't devour me, don't worry."
After saying that, he went ahead and put on the helmet. This time was nothing like Joseph's silent connection; a storm directly swept everyone away. In the eye of the storm, Charles faced the master of the Kingdom of Dreams like a descending god.
After a while, he landed, took off the helmet and caught his breath, then said, "He sleeps deeply; I can't wake him, but I have contacted another consciousness there."
"Who?"
"Jack. He's trapped."