Now the pillar of energy was swirling above his head like a living thing. Shielding his eyes with his
hand, Batman glanced directly into the beam—and felt as if he'd been punched in the gut. A figure was
forming in the light, a human shape with a bloodstained torso and golden horns growing from its head.
What was this? And how was he going to stop it?
He slid two small metallic spheres from his Utility Belt and weighed them in his hand. He gazed back
up at the shifting bull-headed figure in the pillar and felt his blood run cold as its red-glazed eyes
swiveled to skewer him.
Batman's heart began to pound. Needles of fear lanced through his mind. Every nerve ending in his
body jangled as a black hole of terror opened up at the very core of his being, threatening to suck him
in.
Somehow, the bull-headed figure was laying bare the fears that Batman knew and accepted—and it
was amplifying them, till they threatened to overwhelm him.
Batman shook his head violently, trying to deflect the malevolence that engulfed him. There was a
moment of respite, and Batman seized it. He lobbed the two small spheres with unerring accuracy into
the center of the light column.
The phosphor grenades exploded with a flash that lit up the entire cathedral. Just as suddenly, the
bull-headed figure seemed to dissolve as the energy column twisted, then buckled.
As suddenly as it had appeared, it withdrew into the altar and vanished completely.
An eerie silence filled the church, broken only by sobbing and the cries of the injured. In the distance,
Batman could hear the sound of approaching sirens. Jim Gordon had received his message.
The Dark Knight bent to help a woman trapped by broken pews. As he pulled her to her feet,
mercifully uninjured, the vision of the bull-headed figure seemed to linger. What was it? Why had it
done this?