Chapter 2591: Falling Gently (40)

Shivana clutched his eye and convulsed on the ground as blood started to surge from his eye socket, and he frantically scratched at his eyelid, leaving behind fine scars.

Within his Spirit Vision, something in his eyes began to respond to the evil power, as if eager to spout forth, while Shivana desperately used his hands to block the fleeing force.

But just like the principle of dilution, the energy of higher concentration will inevitably spread towards areas of lower concentration. The Seven Deadly Sins, stimulated and discontent with staying within the same Energy Core, began to extend their tendrils outward.

Shivana heard a soft thud, and through his extremely blurry vision, he looked up to see a black object in front of him, with Shiller's shoe tips behind it.

It was an umbrella.

The moment he saw the umbrella, Shivana calmed down, not because he didn't want to move, but because he couldn't. The complex yet very clear text on the umbrella captured all his attention.

The moment his gaze landed on the umbrella, he could no longer contain the power of the Seven Deadly Sins in his eyes, which burst forth and surged toward the umbrella.

One evil Shadow after another cheered and leapt toward the umbrella, delighted as if they had found a new home. Shivana screamed in agony, reaching out in that direction, trying to retrieve the power that had already left, but sadly it was in vain.

Shivana's vision on one side gradually blurred and darkened, and he knew he had lost an eye forever, as well as the power to make those damned people who said he wasn't worthy pay the price.

But it seemed as if someone had heard his heart's cry.

"You have never been the master of power, only its servant. Do people look up to a slave?"

Like a whisper from a devil.

"Of course they don't. They will stand on their righteous ground and say you are utterly evil because in their view, 'not contending' is the highest form of justice."

'"You can't have desires, you can't aspire to climb. Only by staying in one place and waiting for others' graces can you show your innate nobleness. Otherwise, it is all evil seizing what you don't deserve."

"Why…" Shivana said through clenched teeth.

"Because they control the narrative." A low chuckle followed, and the voice continued, "Those forces you could never control will only destroy you, leaving them to stand triumphantly on your bones, saying you got what you deserved."

"I want to kill them..."

"But you can't make them admit they're wrong. Before they die, they will still think they have fallen victim to an evil doer, and one day you'll get what you deserve."

Shivana fell silent, knowing that things would certainly unfold this way. He knew the person who said he would never be worthy would also not think they were wrong before their death, only cursing him for being blinded by evil and doomed to suffer retribution.

But why should it be so?

They were the origin of his tragedy. To overturn the tragedy, he made efforts hard for any ordinary person to imagine, yet he could never escape the nightmare of that day. He only wanted everyone to know that no one is born unworthy.

Shivana heard a noisy commotion, as if many people had rushed in. He heard some arguing and erupting in fierce quarrels until eventually, everything returned to calm.

When he awoke again, he saw the white ceiling of a hospital, with a crowd of people surrounding him, looking at him with concerned eyes, the most notable gaze coming from gray pupils.

Shiller was sitting by his bed.

But the first to speak was not the Professor, but another acquaintance of Shivana, Mayor Roy.

"Sedis, what have you done? You said there was something wrong with your eye before, why didn't you hurry to the hospital? Now look at what happened," Roy said.

Someone tugged at Roy from behind, and with visible dissatisfaction, Roy muttered, "But even so, it's not that damn guy's fault that you got hurt. I'll make sure he pays for it."

Mayor Roy, who had come up through the Gangster era, still carried the air of the underworld about him, speaking and acting like a Mob Boss, out of place among the prim and proper professors and students.

Indeed, Shivana looked around to find that those worriedly watching him were all teachers and students from Gotham University.

He reflexively said, "Sorry for troubling you all, the project should still be going smoothly, right? Please go and let the administration know to call the next negotiating project group and push the schedule back..."

"All this and you're still thinking about work," sighed Victor from the other side of the bed, handing Shivana a mirror.

Shivana saw his right eye completely wrapped in bandages, even half his face was bandaged. This result was not unexpected, so he just sighed and put the mirror down.

"The doctor said the tissue in your right eye was already in poor condition, fibrotic, and then subjected to a strong external impact, which caused very serious damage. They had no choice but to remove your right eye to save the left one," Shiller said with a somber tone, and as Shivana listened, he felt the voice growing more and more familiar, and so he stared at him with the one remaining eye.

Officer Clay had gone too far, a student from behind said indignantly, "Even if the serial killer case is serious, they can't resort to torture during interrogation. Principal, you must complain about him!"

"It's not as simple as a complaint," Mayor Roy said coldly, "During the investigation, there was an abuse of force leading to debilitating injury. You'll be seeing him in court soon."

"Don't worry too much," Victor said as he adjusted Shivana's hospital bed. "Several project partners are willing to postpone negotiation times due to your condition; we'll still secure the project in the end."

"As for our own work, we can afford to lose a little time. Take care of yourself, and it's not too late to come back to work once you're better."

"I think the excessive late nights and overtime you've been doing might be one of the culprits worsening your eye condition," Shiller chimed in. "If you continue to work yourself to death like this, you could lose more than just an eye."

His tone was somewhat peculiar, as if hinting at something. Shivana was a smart man; he immediately understood what was being implied and said, "With so much work yet to be done, do you expect me just to watch idly by?"

"Oh, right, John, you're John, aren't you? Could you do me a favor and run an errand for me? In the second drawer on the left side of my desk, there's a folder about missing light coverage on the new campus. We can't delay this—someone could trip walking at night. Could you help me…"

"I don't have time!" The student who was called upon stepped back abruptly, shaking his head faster than a bobblehead, and said, "My girlfriend's getting married, and I need to attend the wedding."

Shivana's gaze then fell on a female student, who also quickly shook her head and said, "I don't have time either, I need to go back for my dad's coming-of-age ceremony."

At that moment, whoever Shivana looked at shook their head—some stared at the chandelier while others counted the patterns on the floor tiles, none daring to meet his eyes directly.

Although knowing this was only maximizing his suffering for his own benefit, Shivana still felt a complex mood wash over him and involuntarily glanced at Shiller.

"Just focus on recovering," Mayor Roy said, patting the railing of the bed with a slightly murderous tone. "I was gone for only a few days, and such scum emerged within the ranks of the Gotham Police Department. I'll need to have a good talk with Gordon. Just you wait."

After speaking, he stood up and left. He hadn't even exited the room before pulling out his phone, with those inside only hearing his voice fading away into the distance.

"Hello? Harvey? Are you busy right now? I need you to come down to City Hall. I have some things to consult…"

Soon, the fresh flowers and gifts from the students piled up at the head of the bed. Not wanting to disturb the Principal, they quickly left, leaving only Shivana lying on the bed and Shiller sitting beside him.

Shivana fell silent.

He wasn't contemplating what had happened that day; he just stared blankly at a bouquet of flowers perfectly bloomed in his arms, his gaze so empty as if he was thinking of nothing.

That was until Shiller waved his hand in front of Shivana's face.

Shivana came back to his senses and, using his one remaining eye, looked at Shiller and asked, "What happened that day?"

"Are you referring to what happened when you fainted?"

Shiller also recalled the incident. He had managed to patch up the last hole in his human disguise in under a second after seeing Shivana collapse, his smile fleeting from his face as he stepped back in feigned shock.

Clay, from his angle blocked by the sofa, couldn't see what happened to Shivana as he fell, prompting him to rush over, only to find Shiller pulling out his phone.

"What are you doing?" Clay glared at him and asked.

"What am I doing?" Shiller feigned surprise and responded, "Someone here has fainted; of course, I'm calling an ambulance."

Clay was taken aback and said, "We don't need an ambulance; there's a police car outside, we could…"

"Do you know what ailment he has? Do you know the state of his condition? What would you do if he died in the police car?" Shiller narrowed his eyes and said, "I can fully understand that you impulsively attacked Principal Shivana, but if you don't even let me call an ambulance, I can only suspect you're trying to silence a witness."

"When did I…"

"Officer, please don't forget you're also a suspect. Just by how unusually fast you responded after Principal Shivana called, I could concoct a reasonable story that you're the murderer."

"For instance, a postman once had to enter the crime scene against regulations to fulfill his duties, which infuriated you. My neighbor, Mr. Piero, spoke a few words in his defense and also made it onto your hit list."

"As a trained detective, you can kill much more easily than we can. You have an electric shock gun and can incapacitate quickly. You're physically strong and can dismember a body swiftly. You're a cop, the profession least likely to raise suspicion."

"So you killed the postman first, destroyed the body, then, after killing Mr. Piero, you dismembered his body and threw it into Principal Shivana's yard. After taking a round outside, you arrived quickly to the scene upon receiving the alert, wanting to know if Principal Shivana noticed any trace of you dumping the body."

"You have no evidence!" Clay roared angrily.

"Neither do you," Shiller said, glancing at the arm. "If you're thinking of convicting me with that, we'll meet in court. But before that, you might want to ask your boss how he feels about botching this up. See if he's willing to sacrifice such a long-embedded undercover position and take this insufficient evidence to court against me."

Clay glowered at Shiller with venom, but Shiller was unperturbed. The ambulance's blinking lights shone through the windows, casting a blend of cold and warm light that moved across Shiller's uneven profile. Through the last gap of the stitched human skin, he poured out his malevolence with abandon.

"It's your usual method of recruiting people, creating incidents, framing and setting traps, driving the victim into a whirlpool where they can't prove their innocence. Then, at their most desperate, they become of use to you," Shiller continued.

"In my younger days, I've had my share of experiences with such tactics, but you wouldn't want to know what I did in those cases turned up during investigations, cases which could be considered stains on my record."