The days of being a spiritual mentor in Meiman.

Chapter 3781 Rapid Pursuit (26)

Chapter 3781 Rapid Pursuit (Twenty-Six)

"The Scarecrow?" Batman truly hadn't expected that such classic villains would still have a place in this universe. He never imagined that the one who opened Pandora's box and plunged everything into chaos would be the Scarecrow.

Could all of this be another of his conspiracies?

Batman couldn't help but wonder about his motives. The League of Assassins' assassins died at the banquet, their first target being Elliott. Did Scarecrow and Elliott have a grudge?

Talia stated that the assassin who died was someone she had sent to protect Elliott. Therefore, the Scarecrow might not have intended to kill the assassin, but rather Elliott himself, only failing for some reason.

But Elliott wasn't Batman, nor was he some kind of hero. If he had known Jonathan Klein's talent, he would have been more likely to cooperate with him than to suppress him or put him in jail. There shouldn't have been any conflict between them.

Or perhaps Scarecrow is just an assassin, with someone else behind him. But even Batman can't figure out which faction he belongs to.

As Batman was pondering this, Talia suddenly said into his earpiece, "The Court of Owls has made a move; they've cornered two people on the bridge. I'm sending a helicopter to pick you up."

Talia's helicopter quickly arrived at the rooftop of the new Wayne Tower. In the darkness, Batman looked towards the Gotham Bridge. The lights on the bridge's suspension cables were still bright, but the bridge surface was pitch black. As the helicopter drew closer, Batman spotted a familiar car—Arkham Batman's Batmobile.

A number of people jumped onto the bridge from both ends; their uniforms revealed them to be the Claws of the Court of Owls. Batman quickly shouted to the helicopter pilot, "Stop! Don't come any closer! Right here!"

"It's still quite a distance from the bridge, sir. If you go down from here, you might fall into the sea," the helicopter pilot kindly warned.

“Who said I was going down?” Batman retorted. “I mean, we’re just going to stay here and observe.”

“Aren’t you going to stop them?” Talia said. “The Owl Court shouldn’t be allowed to run rampant in the city.”

“No,” Batman said. “You’d better not get involved either, or I won’t be able to save you.”

"I never expected you to be such a coward," Talia said, quite displeased. "Even if they outnumber us, we have just as many. Or do you not trust the Assassin's Guild's capabilities?"

"As your partner, I'm kindly reminding you not to get involved," Batman issued his ultimatum. "Otherwise, I won't help you if anything goes wrong."

“Bruce Wayne!” Talia roared, raising her voice. “You think the League of Assassins is inferior to the Court of Owls, right?! Then go ahead and cooperate with them!!!”

Talia hung up the call. Batman shook his head: "You can't reason with that damned devil."

With a gunshot, the battle on the bridge officially began. Batman and his agent from Arkham faced at least a hundred Court of Owls' claws. As they drew closer, Batman saw that the leader was Dick.

Jason Todd had just escaped danger, and now Dick Grayson was already trying to embrace the Atlantic Ocean. Batman thought to himself, "Thank goodness there's no Batman in this universe, or I'd be either exhausted or driven mad."

“Mr. Rodriguez, I hope you will think it over carefully. Cooperating with us will only bring you benefits. If you handle such a big case, you will soon become a high-ranking official in the FBI.”

“You mean ‘eliminating clones’?” Schiller’s tone was colder than the night wind in Gotham. He scoffed and said, “I’ve dealt with Bruce Wayne, and he’s not a clone. On the contrary, the real Bruce you’re talking about is more suspicious because he’s hiding his true identity.”

“You wouldn’t believe how legendary his life story is. If you were a journalist, you could make a fortune writing a biography about him,” Dick said. “Framed and sent to a mental institution, he acquired exceptional fighting and detective skills under the tutelage of numerous ruthless criminals and master criminals, gradually taking revenge on his past enemies…”

"You mean Elliott, whom I shot and killed?"

Dick's face darkened. He said, "Without you, this revenge performance would have been truly spectacular."

"You committed the murder at the banquet?" Schiller narrowed his eyes. "You wanted to sow discord between Elliott and the League of Assassins, leaving him isolated and helpless, just like you did back then."

Schiller wasn't speaking to Dick; he was looking at the figure atop the bridge structure—a strong, imposing figure with a Batman-like appearance, his body wrapped in bandages, his eyes gleaming with a chilling light, like a demon crawling up from hell.

“I never expected you to choose to cooperate with the Court of Owls,” Arkham Batman said, looking at the Silent Batman. “Or are you so stupid that you didn’t guess that the murder of the Wayne couple was related to them?”

“That case is long over,” Dick said. “The court trial is over, and the verdict is final. Isn’t it a bit too late for you to try to overturn the conclusion now?”

“Facts are facts, and truth is truth. No matter how much time has passed, lies cannot replace them. You killed the Waynes, used Elliott as a target, and let hatred blind Bruce Wayne, all to cast your shadow over this city once again,” said Batman Arkham.

"So you admit that the person behind me is the real Bruce Wayne?" Dick asked, staring intently at him.

A light rain began to fall again in the night sky. The raindrops landed on Arkham Batman's gauntlets, making the light reflected from the smooth metal surface even colder. He slowly extended a hand and removed his mask.

Dick was stunned when he saw the face under the mask that looked almost exactly like Bruce Wayne's.

The agent chuckled coldly and said, "If you want, I can find you ten or eight Bruce Waynes. What do you think?"

"Bruce, no matter how much you want revenge and to take back everything you have, cooperating with the Court of Owls is the worst decision you've ever made."

“You have no right to judge me,” the Silent Batman said calmly. “I know what’s going on with you. You’re visitors from another universe, here to complete a mission for the Battleworld. You shouldn’t interfere with my revenge plan.”

Dick looked at him suspiciously, wondering what he was talking about. Earlier, when Dick approached the Silent Batman and mentioned that the returned Bruce might be a clone, the Silent Batman agreed and even sought his cooperation. That's why they had cornered the two of them here.

The FBI agent's identity is special; if Schiller were willing to side with them, exposing the imposter would be much easier. However, this agent is clearly a die-hard, which is why Dick brought in so many people, intending to coerce him after failing to bribe him.

But now, Bruce Wayne has appeared before him, and the Silent Batman is completely unsurprised. This proves that the other man anticipated this and knows far more than he does.

Schiller also figured out what was going on.

He already knew that the person at the banquet wasn't killed by the morbid man—the morbid man couldn't even see him.

In the hallucination vision, the more mentally unstable a person is, the more vibrant the colors they display and the easier they are to notice; while ordinary people with little mental fluctuation may only have a very thin line, which is intermittent even if they look very intently, and it is impossible to pinpoint the target.

The assassins of the Assassin's Guild are even more special. They are harder to find than ordinary people because they undergo special training and, in most cases, show no emotional fluctuations; their inner world is even a blank slate. Such people are almost non-existent in Schiller's hallucinations.

Moreover, if it were a normal, pathological state, it wouldn't be so bad, since one could still see some things with normal vision. But at that time, the pathological state had been injected with a large dose of stimulant for manic laughter, so from inside the tower, one could only see hallucinations; the entire scene was blurred, making it even more impossible to see the assassin.

Throughout the entire story, the people who relentlessly pursued him were all madmen, such as the maniac and the clown; their morbidity only caused them serious harm.

As for relatively normal and calm individuals like Batman and the Joker, at most, they could only manage a small cut. This wasn't because Schiller was particularly restrained, but rather because, under the illusionary vision, they weren't easily visible, and it was difficult to strike vital areas.

Such an unexpected turn of events, deviating from the original storyline, could only be caused by visitors from another world. Since it wasn't Schiller, and it's unlikely to be The Man Who Laughs, that leaves the Joker and Joker Man from the main universe who arrived earlier. But even those two are unlikely.

Needless to say, Joker doesn't kill indiscriminately; the Joker in the main universe is more like Schiller, he generally doesn't target assassins, and the Joker in the main universe probably doesn't have the ability to kill a League of Assassins head-on.

So, if the possibility of visitors from another world has been ruled out, why did the original plot change? Why did a plot point that never existed suddenly appear?

The answer is the Silent Batman. It was previously speculated that he might have participated in the Battlegrounds, so the change in the plot is very likely due to a change in his mindset or abilities after participating in the Battlegrounds, which led to the different things he did after returning to his own universe.

In the original storyline, the banquet was just the opening act; the Silent Batman hadn't appeared yet, and the banquet proceeded smoothly. But this time, a corpse suddenly appeared, sowing discord between Elliott and the League of Assassins, and making Elliott suspect the Court of Owls, thus ending their secret cooperation. This is as bad for Elliott as it is for the Silent Batman.

It seems that after returning from the Battle Realm, he decided to act sooner rather than later and eliminate Elliott more quickly. Schiller felt that he had no goodwill towards the visitor from another world and only wanted to solve the problem himself.

Unfortunately, they were a bit too slow, and the two clowns still arrived here, with the Laughing Ones also targeting the area, bringing a whole host of trouble to this universe.

This could completely ruin the Silent Batman's revenge plan, so now he's turning his attention to these otherworldly visitors, even going so far as to cooperate with the Court of Owls to keep them trapped here.

"Stop your condescending charity. I don't need anyone's help; I will carry out my revenge myself," said the Silent Batman. "If you leave now, I may spare your lives."

"Stubborn."

The instant Arkham Batman finished speaking, he was like a black lightning bolt, knocking the Silent Batman away. A whip kick knocked him down in mid-air, followed by a right hook and a downward elbow strike. The sound of wind and rain hitting the slings couldn't mask the cracking of bones breaking.

Dick rushed out as Arkham Batman did, but the moment Arkham Batman turned to look at him, he slammed on the brakes and stopped, taking a half-step back in fear.

Every turn of the metal armor was like a gleaming blade. With a "click," the mask snapped back into place. In the instant of turning, the cloak sliced ​​through the rain.

"boom!"

With one punch, Dick was sent flying, crashing heavily onto the bridge and spitting out a mouthful of blood.

"Hush-hush-"

Through the rain, Schiller keenly caught a few soft sounds, and turning his head, he saw several hand grenades rolling towards him. A bluish mist spread from the ground.

"Fear gas!"