Chapter 1264: Shadows in Pairs (End)

"Zzz—zzz—"

The sound of electricity echoed in the Batcave. Instantly, the huge curved screen lit up, but Batman's hand wasn't on the switch.

The cold screen light shone on the pitch-black cape, turning the bat's wings deep blue. But soon, more bright colors appeared—firefly-like green, blood-like red—alternating on Batman's armor. Light and color danced on the pitch-black cape.

Batman turned his head and saw a familiar face. Green hair combed back, blood-red lips stretched wide, eyes staring fixedly at the screen, filled with indescribable madness and cruelty.

"Joker..."

Batman whispered his name, as if he couldn't get enough of saying a lover's name a thousand times. Heavy emotions flowed out along the tail of the sound.

The huge curved screen was filled with this crazy face. And what was even more daunting was that the skin on the face looked as if it had just been pasted back onto the muscles; the wrinkles and muscle direction when smiling were completely different, like a painted skin.

Before the screen, Batman saw obvious scars on the Joker's neck. The skin seemed to have been peeled off by someone, but then stuck back on.

"Long time no see, Batman. I know, in the days I was away, you had a new love!" The Joker's lips lifted, teeth exposed, and he said, "I only lost the skin on my face, and you changed your heart like this, completely forgetting our past passion!"

"You damn sinner, traitor!" The Joker's tone suddenly rose, but instantly slowed down again: "Oh, damn, what am I saying? How can I say that to the great Batman?"

"Batman will never betray me..." The Joker muttered like a dream: "Of course, of course, we all know this. Outsiders cannot interfere in our affairs. This is our family business, just like you and those birds..."

"Just like the scream he made when I broke that bird's wings! Hahahahaha!... Sorry, I'm talking nonsense again. I didn't just break his wings! I smashed all the bones in his body! He was screaming, crawling, wanting to escape, counting on you to save him... but he died! Died!"

!

"To prevent you from forgetting this, I can only repeat his name again—Jason Todd! The former Robin, the current Robin. Is he still your Robin now? Of course!"

"He forgave you so mercifully and returned to your side, but unfortunately, he will never forget all that, hahahahaha!"

The crazy laughter hadn't even fully slid out of the Joker's mouth when he stopped as if someone had grabbed his throat. Suddenly, he brought his whole face close to the screen and stared fiercely at the person on the other side of the screen:

"Answer me, Batman! You won't betray me!... I heard your answer, so it's all his fault! It's all his fault! It's all Schiller Rodriguez's fault! He seduced you, this damn devil!"

!

The crazy expression on the Joker's face slowly disappeared. Suddenly, he became calm, his eyes filled with philosophical thought. He moved a little away from the camera, only a little, but it allowed Batman to see a pale face through the gap in the upper right corner of the screen.

That was Schiller.

"You say, isn't this interesting?"

The Joker's voice sounded again, his tone containing thought, like a scholar, as if he were putting himself in someone else's shoes, trying to figure out what someone wanted to do.

"When I caught this damn imposter, he wasn't afraid of me at all, and didn't even feel guilty about seducing you... Do you know what he said?"

Batman stood before the screen, quietly watching the Joker's performance. He hadn't seen this kind of performance just once, but each time was more painful than the last.

However, this time, the tragic situation still exceeded his imagination. As the Joker leaned his forward-leaning body backward, the other half of the screen was completely revealed.

Schiller was sitting in a chair, his arms fixed to the armrests of the chair, covered in blood, because at least a dozen steel nails had been driven into his body. Besides penetrating his internal organs, they had also pierced his bones.

Batman's fists clenched instantly, but soon, the Joker's voice sounded again: "Do you think I'm evil? Batman, you are always like this, using the greatest malice to speculate about others."

"Ah oh! This time, I didn't hurt anyone!" The Joker suddenly laughed, put a finger to his lips, and whispered: "... This was his own wish!"

"When I knocked him to the ground and gave his back a hit, he lay on the ground and said to me that I could kidnap him, but there was a condition..."

"When I used him to perform an execution for you, he had something to say to you, but based on the principle of fair trade, one steel nail for one sentence."

Batman's fingertips trembled rhythmically. The Joker's sharp laughter echoed in his ears. After laughing for a few seconds, the Joker said out of breath: "Listen to this vocabulary, fair trade! Sounds like a word Batman would say!"

"What, you say I won't keep my promise? You say Schiller was swindled by me?" The Joker suddenly stretched out a hand to block behind his ear, facing the screen, acting out a monologue of the two talking.

"No, no, no, you misunderstood me too much, Batman! I will make him speak, of course I will! But if he doesn't have the strength to speak because of pain and excessive blood loss, you can't blame me..."

The Joker kept his smile, retreated from the camera, walked behind Schiller, grabbed Schiller's neck with pale hands like ghost claws, and then let him go.

Suddenly, he took out a claw hammer from behind the chair. Batman's pupils shrank, but the Joker weighed the claw hammer in his hand and said: "When I smashed all the bones of that little bird, I didn't think of this good thing. But good things will always come in handy, right, Batman?"

After finishing, amidst the Joker's sharp and cruel laughter, the hammer fell heavily on Schiller's shoulder.

The scream that Batman expected to explode in his ears didn't appear. He instinctively looked up at Schiller's eyes.

Instantly, he understood that Schiller had now blocked all sensory perception and fallen into extreme reason, just as they were when they were testing each other before.

Condensing all extreme emotions into a higher thing, overlooking himself, and overlooking others.

"Listen, Batman, I only have 15 sentences of time, because I keep my promise better than this lunatic."

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

"In other words, if you don't understand, I won't repeat it a second time."

Schiller's speaking speed was fast, almost like chanting a spell. The hammer fell heavily on him, but it couldn't make his tone fluctuate in the slightest.

"The heart-to-heart connection people often talk about isn't completely impossible to achieve, but the prerequisite is that two people must be similar enough."

"When thoughts resonate, the spiritual world can be connected."

"We are the same kind of people. No one in the world is more similar than us, more similar than Schiller and Batman."

"When we face each other, it's like looking in a mirror."

"Batman is always lonely. This path doesn't need partners, but you must understand me, and then you can save me."

"Close your eyes and read how similar we are."

"Explore your spiritual world and find the path to the mind palace of another you."

Batman had already closed his eyes, because Schiller's seemingly calm but actually full of psychedelic ups and downs tone had already led him to see that lonely self.

"Down, down, and down again, see the darkness, see the light."

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

Schiller's speaking speed was getting faster and faster, and the Joker's face behind him was getting more and more ferocious. He knew that everything he couldn't accept was happening, so he swung the hammer faster and faster. Schiller had already seen death beckoning to him, but the weaker the spiritual fluctuation, the clearer that path became.

"Find me, find me..."

"Find yourself, find yourself..."

"Find the... hope you've longed for."

Instantly, endless white light submerged Batman. And after the light dissipated, in the thick fog, a huge high tower suddenly descended.

Following the voice in his heart, Batman soared into the air, merged into the thick fog, and then, like a nimble bat, landed on the top of the high tower.

And such an accident had already caused the guests in the theater to rush out of their rooms. Bruce, who had just rushed to the vicinity of the patio railing, turned his head as if he had felt something.

Instantly, Bruce saw a pair of eyes like torches from the thick fog.

When Batman's eyes, which had experienced the vicissitudes of life, saw those slightly innocent blue eyes, countless fragments of memory took him into that dreamlike world.

Criminals who gradually walked on the right path, Cat Getan gradually restoring order, the sunlight falling after the dark clouds dispersed, the city as clean and clear as a diamond, and the tears falling from the eyes of all Gothamites...

Countless fragments swept past his ears like the wind, until finally, amidst the slowly floating starlight, a point of light lit up.

The hand writing on the blackboard stopped. The teacher looked back, and the exhausted young man was sleeping soundly like a baby in a cradle.

At this moment, Batman understood Schiller, understood how he had pushed himself and Cat Getan in another universe onto another path, another path of light completely different from darkness.

When the dazzling sunlight shone on this bat accustomed to darkness, the dark clouds that never dispersed in Cat Getan were like him wearing armor and holding weapons, and the continuous rain was like his tear-filled eyes.

When Batman saw the hope of light descending, no one could stop him. He wanted to save and protect this kind of hope.

The next second, endless black tide surged from between the bat's wings. The trembling of the two souls became stronger and stronger, and the rhythm became more and more consistent, like a symphony reaching its climax.

That original darkness in the universe instantly submerged the high tower.

Schiller, who was tied to a chair in reality, suddenly raised his head. And at this time, the Joker's dagger had already sliced open his neck.

Suddenly, Schiller's expression changed completely. The Joker ran in front of him like a madman and grabbed his neck with his extremely thin hands.

Schiller opened his mouth, but what came out wasn't his voice.

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

The Joker opened his eyes wide. He grabbed Schiller's neck tightly, shook back and forth, and screamed: "No! No! Batman!"

You how can!

!

"

Just at this moment, the corners of the mouth, which were drooping like Batman's, slowly lifted. Although the eyes were still serious, clearly, the other soul had returned again.

When the expressions of two souls were reflected on the same face, there was nothing more harmonious than this—shadows in pairs.

"Joker, you used disorderly chaos and madness to make too many people lose too many things... Today, you will understand—the taste of losing!"

Schiller's tone was still as soft as a feather, his wording was elegant, his tone was decent, and he had nothing to do with madness.

But he suddenly raised his other hand, which had intact bones, and his equally pale and thin hand grabbed the wrist of the hand the Joker was holding the dagger with. The powerful clamping force transmitted from it was more like a ghost hand dragging someone into hell.

"Today, you will lose—" Schiller raised his tone and spat out the name like a chant: "... Batman!"

"

"Sizzle!"

The hand holding the wrist, with resolute force, the dagger sliced open the artery on the side of Schiller's neck, and blood flew high.

The blood, like a red silk ribbon, slowly fell, landing on the Joker's face, gently stroking his eyes, as gentle as a mother's hand.

In the bloodshot red eyeballs, there was full of fear and disbelief.

Watching the vitality of the man in front of him gradually fade away, this lunatic who represented madness itself, Cat Getan's eternal nightmare—the Joker—let out a terrified scream he had never made before:

"Schiller!"

!

You lunatic!"

!

!

!

!

!

"