Chapter 3729: Crisis in the Dark City (Part 3)

First, rule out Death Angel Paul. What this guy has done can hardly be considered the actions of Batman. Then, what about that kid named Tony from the original plot—could he be Batman's successor?

In the original work, Tony is Bane's son, which barely qualifies him as someone whose parents are dead, and he is also the leader of the resistance. In the original story, he was the one who stormed the cathedral to rescue that broken Batman, and he seemed like a decent person. Perhaps he really is Batman?

Shiler felt that the young man in the jacket he saw running past him earlier should be Tony. Judging by the smell of blood he caught, that kid shouldn't have been able to get far. Therefore, should he turn back now to save Tony?

Because this was merely a conjecture without evidence, Shiler could not be entirely certain he was right. Thus, he decided to use the method of exhaustion: save this one first, then go up and save Death Angel, then go save Tony. Out of the three, he would surely hit the mark eventually.

Shiler glanced at the rack before him. He truly could not fathom the principle behind it—how it could keep someone alive while separated from their limbs, with a gaping hole in their skull, yet still capable of normal thought. What kind of advanced technology was this? Was Death Angel Paul some sort of great scientist?

Shiler looked left and right, finding a toolbox nearby. He took out a wrench, walked toward Batman, and said, "I'll state this beforehand: I have no idea how this thing he made works. I can only try to dismantle it. If it hurts, just bear with it."

Then, Batman watched with his own eyes as he began to bash the iron rack violently with the wrench.

"No! Wait!" Batman shouted.

Clearly, he shouted too late, or perhaps Shiler's strength was simply beyond imagination. With three "bang, bang, bang" strikes, one side of the support snapped, and the entire rack tilted and collapsed to the right.

Batman fell heavily to the ground. The long, ugly spine also twisted. Fortunately, he fell forward; although he broke his nasal bone, the glass jar containing his brain remained intact.

After snapping that side, Shiler began to smash the iron chains securing Batman's torso, breaking them in a few strikes. Now, Batman was no longer restrained, but since he lacked limbs, he could only lie there on the ground.

"The situation is getting a bit out of hand," Shiler said. "This should count as successfully rescuing you, right? But I can't carry you like this. Is there any way to reattach your head to your body?"

"The spine... you have to... the spine..."

Because his nasal bone was broken, blood was trickling into his trachea, making it difficult for Batman to speak clearly. At this moment, movement came from the cellar entrance; clearly, the pursuers had arrived. Shiler didn't intend to dawdle, so he grabbed the wrench and smashed it down onto the thick spine.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

After three strikes, the center of the spine was smashed to pieces. But only after smashing it did he realize there was no way to pull it out of the body—there was a fixation device installed at the neck. Shiler thought for a moment, deciding that the head was more important than the body, so he simply picked up Batman's head from the ground and ran out, carrying the segment of spine still attached to it.

As soon as he rushed out, he bumped into the limping Death Angel and the cult members behind him.

Upon seeing what he was carrying, all the words Death Angel had prepared died in his throat. The footsteps of the other cult members also faltered.

Seeing so many people in front of him, Shiler reached for his gun, but the speed at which they charged was too fast; within seconds, they were in close-quarters combat range.

Shiler retreated a few steps, instinctively reaching for his punch-dagger, but with a gun in one hand and Batman's head in the other, he had no hands left for a melee weapon. Since they had already charged, he had no choice but to swing Batman's head like a flail.

Bang!

He smashed the head of one cult member askew. Shiler swung again violently, knocking down two more who rushed up behind. He fired two shots in that direction, successfully breaking through a path.

He rushed out along this path, but suddenly, as if thinking of something, he turned back to glance at Death Angel.

The wounds on the man's body had only been simply bandaged, and this exertion caused them to start bleeding again. However, since only one bullet had entered his abdomen, there appeared to be no immediate danger to his life. Shiler hesitated slightly, then left, still carrying Batman's head.

He rushed out of the cellar, only to find a battle erupting above—the red-robed cult members and the black-clad warriors were locked in fierce combat. He saw Lady Shiva among the crowd. Lady Shiva also noticed him.

She had just wanted to rush toward him when she saw what he was carrying, and she took half a step back.

Shiler was busy wondering if Lady Shiva could be Batman. After all, in the comics, she counted as a righteous character. Although the gender didn't match, those were minor details.

"Are you alright?" he asked her. He had to confirm that the shots he fired wouldn't be the death of her.

But upon hearing this, she took another step back, even abandoning what she was about to say, and turned to run toward the group of warriors.

Seeing her agile pace, she didn't look like she was in trouble. Shiler felt relieved. He knew the lethality of a handgun was actually limited; if it didn't hit a vital organ, the chances of survival were high, and these people weren't ordinary folks anyway, so they likely wouldn't die.

Shiler searched the area, but didn't see Tony. He guessed that the boy might have been captured, but not brought to the cathedral; he might be locked up in some branch base. He would have to go back to yesterday's location to look.

Shiler left quickly. Lady Shiva stared at his back, speechless for a long time. Watching the battle in the field, she suddenly shouted, "Stop!"

Both sides stopped quickly. Although they stood on opposite sides, the tense atmosphere had dissipated. Soon, a tall figure in a red cloak emerged.

"What's going on? Why does that guy use a gun?!" Lady Shiva stepped forward to question him. "You told me Batman doesn't use guns. I took three whole shots from him!"

"Me too," Death Angel said with a gloomy face. "Who knows what kind of monster he is?"

"Did he take Batman away?"

"He only took the head."

Lady Shiva opened her mouth and said, "He fired the moment he saw me; I didn't have time to give him the nano-equipment. With only a head, how is he going to resurrect Batman?"

"He never intended to resurrect Batman at all," Death Angel said. "That rack was smashed down, and the spine was brutally broken. Is that how you rescue someone?"

Lady Shiva fell silent. Then she said, "What do we do now? We must find a way to get Batman's head back. Only he can perfectly control the nano-equipment, and only the hatred and killing intent in his heart can stop these interdimensional intruders."

"I'll send people to search for him," Death Angel said. "But you'd better not count on Batman being alive. He just used his own head as a meteor hammer to smash three people."

"Batman will persuade him," Lady Shiva said firmly. "He will gain his trust and make him find a way to resurrect him. And I will find a way to get the nano-equipment to him, then there will be no problem."

Carrying Batman's head, Shiler returned to the street where he had seen Tony earlier, but he didn't see anyone there, and the corpses on the ground weren't the ones left from last night.

Shiler had no choice but to find another house; he needed to rest and, more importantly, clean the bullets he had dug out earlier.

This time he found a building that looked like an inn. Walking inside, he found it not only empty but also clean. He found a room, walked in, placed Batman's head aside, sat on the bed, and began to clean the bullets.

Quite some time had passed, and much of the blood on the bullets had dried and jammed into the crevices, which could lead to a misfire. Shiler had no choice but to go to the inn's backyard, where he found a bucket filled with rainwater. He put the bullets in the bucket to wash them clean, then proceeded to reload them.

Batman woke up from his coma. Shiler had used him as a weapon, which gave him a concussion, causing him to pass out; he had only just regained consciousness.

"Where is this?" he asked.

"Likely not on your neck."

Shiler said while carefully reloading the bullets. He had specifically controlled the angle when firing, so most of the bullet heads hadn't touched bone and thus hadn't deformed, making them reusable after reloading.

"Who exactly are you? Why did you come here?"

"I'm here to save Batman."

"But you only saved his head."

Shiler glanced at him and said, "I don't think you count as Batman, so saving just a head isn't bad."

"You don't think I'm Batman?"

"I asked you if you were. You said you once were. I asked you again if you are now. You said you don't know. So why should I think you're Batman?"

The other party seemed a bit stunned by such simple, straightforward logic. Shiler then added another jab: "But that's not the main reason. The main reason is that you actually let yourself be turned into this. Batman shouldn't be this weak; the Batman I know is ridiculously strong, capable of defeating an entire city's criminals in one night."

A trace of fear suddenly flickered in those murky blue eyes. Shiler captured this keenly. He chuckled inwardly: Got you.

The Broken Bat has seen the Arkham Batman, Shiler thought. This proves that the Arkham Batman did indeed break into the cathedral and rescue him, but the mission still failed. Thus, the possibility that this Batman is not Batman has increased.

It was just that Shiler still couldn't be sure how the Arkham Batman had rescued this Batman. So he asked again: "Do you know Lady Shiva?"

"... I've heard of her. In the era when I was still Batman, she was the world's number one assassin, once serving the League of Assassins."

"On my way to save you, she came after me. Earlier, I saw her again near the cathedral. The League of Assassins' warriors and that bunch of red-robed cultists were fighting each other."

"What did she say to you?"

"Nothing important. She said she wanted to defeat the Saint's Cult and restore order to Cat Getan. After saying that, the League of Assassins started fighting the Saint's Cult."

"Perhaps we can cooperate with her," Batman said. "They both want to rule Cat Getan; we can use that to make them kill each other."

"Not interested," Shiler said. "The first thing I need to do now is save Batman. Everything else can wait."

Batman's lips moved, as if he wanted to say something. This subtle expression didn't escape Shiler's eyes either.

Sure enough, this Batman knew that Lady Shiva had the nano-equipment that could save him. This proved that someone must have used this method to save him before. Whether it was Robin or the Arkham Batman, at least one person had taken this route, but they had failed.

This proved that the Batman who obtained the nano-equipment had, just like in the original plot, dragged this city into an even deeper abyss. The rescuers likely never expected that after all their hard work, they wouldn't be rescuing the persecuted Dark Knight, but a complete lunatic. This was the main reason for their failure.

And now, what puzzled Shiler was: since Batman had once obtained the nano-equipment, how did he end up back in the cathedral basement, returning to his original victim state?

?? Bang