Chapter 1281: Double Lonely Shadows (End)_2

"No, no, no, you're misunderstanding me, Batman! I will make him speak, of course I will! But if he's too weak to talk from the pain and blood loss, you can't blame me..."

Joker kept his smile, stepping away from the camera, and moved behind Shiller, gripping Shiller's neck with his hand as pale as a ghost's claw, he then released him.

Suddenly, he pulled out a crowbar from behind the chair. Batman's pupils contracted, but the Joker merely weighed the crowbar in his hand and said: "When I was crushing that little bird's bones, I didn't think of this fun toy. But good things always come in handy, right, Batman?"

With that said, amidst Joker's sharp and cruel laughter, the crowbar heavily fell on Shiller's shoulder.

The scream Batman expected did not happen. Instinctively, he lifted his eyes to look at Shiller.

In an instant, he understood that Shiller had shut off all his senses, retreating into extreme rationality, just as during their previous tests of each other.

Condensing all extreme emotions into something higher, overlooking oneself and others.

"Listen, Batman, I only have time for 15 sentences, because I keep my promises even more than this madman does."

"One sentence for each nail, I won't say more."

"Which means if you don't understand, I won't repeat it."

Shiller spoke quickly, as if reciting a spell. The crowbar heavily hit him, but it didn't affect his tone at all.

"People often talk about telepathy. It's not entirely impossible, but the precondition is that the two people must be very alike."

"When thoughts resonate, psychic worlds can communicate."

"We belong to the same type of people. Nobody in the world is more similar to each other than Batman and Shiller."

"When we are face to face, it's like looking in a mirror."

"Batman is always lonely. This path doesn't need companions, but you have to understand me to save me."

"Close your eyes and understand our similarities."

"Explore your psychic world, find the road to another you in the temple of your soul."

Batman had already closed his eyes. Because the tranquil but actually fluctuating tone of Shiller's voice had already led him to see his lonely self.

"Down, down more, down again. See the darkness, see the light."

"Follow the light, keep marching forward..."

Shiller spoke faster and faster, and the Joker's face behind him became more and more ferocious. He knew that everything he couldn't accept was happening. So, he swung the crowbar faster and faster. Shiller could see the hand of death waving at him, but the weaker the spiritual fluctuations, the clearer the path.

"Find me, find me..."

"Find yourself, find yourself..."

"Find the hope you've been longing for..."

In an instant, an infinite white light engulfed Batman and when the light disappeared, a huge tower suddenly emerged from the thick fog.

Following the voice in his heart, Batman soared into the sky, merged into the dense fog, and then like an agile bat, landed at the top of the tower.

This sudden development had caused the audience in the theater to rush out of their rooms. Bruce, who had just reached the parapet of the balcony, seemed to sense something and turned around.

In an instant, from the dense fog, Bruce saw a pair of eyes glowing like torches.

When Batman's experienced eyes met those slightly innocent blue eyes, countless fragments of memory took him into a dreamlike world.

Reformed criminals walking the straight path, Gotham gradually restoring order, the sun that falls after the clouds disperse, the city crystal-clear as a diamond, and the tears falling from the eyes of all the Gothamites...

Countless fragments blew past his ear like the wind, until finally, a light lit up within the slowly floating stars.

The hand writing on the blackboard stopped, and the teacher turned around to see the exhausted young man, sleeping soundly like a baby in a cradle.

In that moment, Batman understood Shiller. He understood how he had steered another him from another cosmos and Gotham onto a path that differed drastically from the darkness-- a path of light.

By the time the dazzling sunlight had shone on this bat accustomed to the dark, the never dispersing clouds of Gotham, like his unwavering conviction, the incessant rain, like his tears brimming in his eyes.

When Batman saw the hope of light arriving, nothing could stop him from saving and guarding this hope.

In the next second, the endless darkness gushed out from Batman's wings. The tremors of the two souls grew stronger, the rhythm became more consistent, as if a symphony reaching the climax.

The primordial darkness of the cosmos instantly engulfed the tower.

In reality, Shiller, who is tied to the chair, suddenly raised his head. But at that moment, the Joker's dagger had already slit his throat.

All of a sudden, Shiller's expression completely changed. The Joker ran to his front like a madman, using his skinny hands to strangle his neck.

Shiller opened his mouth, but the voice that came out was not his own.

"You can't kill me... because, I am Batman."

The Joker widened his eyes. He tightly strangled Shiller's neck, shaking him back and forth and screaming: "No! No! Batman!! How could you!!"

Just then, Batman's lips, which had been drawn downwards, slowly rose. Although his eyes remained serious, clearly, the other soul had returned.

When the expressions of two souls were reflected on the same face, nothing was more harmonious. Dual shadows formed from loneliness.

"Joker, your disorderly chaos and madness have robbed so many people of too much... Today, you will understand the taste of loss!"

Shiller's tone remained as soft as a feather, his words elegant and polite, with no hint of madness.

But he suddenly raised his unhurt hand. The equally pale and skinny hand tightly gripped the wrist of the Joker's knife-wielding hand. The immense restraining force coming from it was more like a ghost hand dragging people into hell.

"Today, you will lose——" Shiller raised his tone, belted out the name as if singing a lament: "——Batman!!!"

"Crack!"

The hand gripping the wrist exerted a decisive force, the dagger cut open the artery on Shiller's neck, and blood sprayed out.

The blood calmly fell down like a red ribbon, fell on Joker's face, wiping over his eyes, gentle as a mother's hand.

In the blood-filled red eyes, all there was was fear and disbelief.

Witnessing the life ebbing away from the man in front of him, the man who represents madness itself, the eternal nightmare of Gotham — the Joker, let out a terrified scream he had never before:

"Shiller!! You madman!!!"