Chapter 3836: The Nameless Bat (17)

"Batman... you're crazy..."

Mount Olympus, below the throne belonging to the God of War. Ares, with a huge hole blown in his chest, leaned feebly against the armrest of the throne, staring at Arkham Batman with bloodshot eyes and saying: "You damn lunatic... you will pay the price for your brutality!"

Arkham Batman toyed with the colorful gemstone in his hand, looking at this person in front of him with a calm gaze. Ares slowly reached out and took off his helmet. Arkham Batman's movements paused, and he also reached out to take off his mask.

"Diana won't forgive you." Ares said, "She was even worried about your safety when you were doing all these terrible destructive acts... You have completely failed her!"

"I don't need anyone's forgiveness, nor do I need anyone's concern, and I don't care who I have failed." Arkham Batman said, "The greatest gratitude and respect I can give her is to lock her up before I enter Mount Olympus."

"Why on earth would you do this?! You... cough cough... cough cough cough..." Ares was already weak to the extreme. All his divine power had been absorbed into the gemstone by Arkham Batman using a strange machine. Other gods on Mount Olympus had also failed to escape the poisonous hand—the stronger ones would become weak like him, while those who weren't strong enough to begin with could only welcome death.

"I don't have time." Arkham Batman said, "I have ruled the Federation, completely controlled the Justice League, and have reliable allies outside the universe. This also means that anyone who dares to take action against me must think they have more to rely on than I do. If this is true, they will definitely take action against Wonder Woman and Superman."

"Then you shouldn't have taken action against the gods! We would have protected Diana!"

"You wouldn't." Arkham Batman said, "You would only drag her down, making her distracted when she fights for Earth."

"So in order to control her, you destroyed her home?!"

"Mount Olympus is not her home; Themyscira is." Arkham Batman said coldly, "It is precisely to protect her home that I must take action against you."

Before this, Ares didn't know what had happened on Earth, so he felt baffled by these words from Arkham Batman. But Schiller had a feeling, deducing some things—

Arkham Batman is racing against someone.

Although Arkham Batman is considered a relatively radical one among Batmen, he is Batman after all. Generally speaking, he wouldn't behave like a tyrant whose mind was washed away by the power of plunder. Even if he really were like this, he would try his best to cover it up, rather than being like he is now—locking up the Justice League first, then rushing into Themyscira, and finally killing his way up to Mount Olympus.

If there were enough time, he would adopt some gentler methods. For example, he would try his best to persuade Wonder Woman, and even if he couldn't persuade her in the end, at least he would have tried, rather than explaining nothing like now and locking up the Justice League members directly. Even the Justice Lords might not be this reckless.

The disadvantages of doing this are obvious: Wonder Woman will definitely have opinions, and Themyscira will even view him as a deadly enemy. It would be fine if all the gods of Mount Olympus were wiped out, but if a few were left, they would constantly find trouble for him in the future. How could Batman not be clear about these? But he still did it, which proves that he had no other way.

Arkham Batman is so urgent, besides wanting to obtain magical power, it must be that he sensed something. He felt someone was causing trouble in the dark, and judged through the details that this person causing trouble in private was difficult to deal with.

Then, thinking of the conflict between Arkham Batman and Wonder Woman—that is, the diplomatic incident between the United States and the Amazons—it is not difficult to see that pushing the diplomatic relationship between the two countries to the current state might not be what Batman wanted.

It is possible that someone pushed the deterioration of the diplomatic relationship between the two countries behind the scenes, and the purpose was to divide Batman and Wonder Woman.

Schiller thought of the first incident that led to the deterioration of the diplomatic relationship between the two countries: that is, Arkham Batman missed the routine visit to the Amazons because he went to visit other countries.

It must be said that this kind of diplomatic demonstration method is a bit low-level, looking like the kind that real estate developers would engage in, and it really doesn't fit Arkham Batman's political struggle level.

Of course, subsequent diplomatic-level events might be that Arkham Batman sensed he had been pitted, so he followed the plan, deliberately expressing strong dissatisfaction with the Amazons' reaction, and then took the opportunity to protect the Justice League members in the name of control, rushing into Themyscira at the fastest speed and killing his way up to Mount Olympus.

Although it looks a bit absurd, this move is actually fighting poison with poison. The mastermind wanted Arkham Batman to deal with the Amazons, thinking that this would alienate Wonder Woman and Arkham Batman, but Arkham Batman directly copied Mount Olympus. Comparing this, the Amazons who were only cold-shouldered diplomatically seem to be much luckier.

In fact, this is the best way. Because Wonder Woman Diana doesn't like Mount Olympus at all. In this universe, she and Ares are not deadly enemies, or rather they didn't get along before, but later their relationship was quite good. She only had this little attachment in Mount Olympus; as long as Arkham Batman didn't kill Ares, even if he copied Mount Olympus, Wonder Woman wouldn't form a deadly feud with him.

On the contrary, wiping out the Greek gods directly can perfectly demonstrate Arkham Batman's strength. Then turning back to look at the unscathed Amazons and Themyscira, Wonder Woman will definitely feel: "It's really great that you are so powerful and yet so love peace."

Simply put, if Arkham Batman looked like he was going all out to rectify Themyscira, Wonder Woman would definitely be dissatisfied. So as long as Wonder Woman understands that if Arkham Batman were really going all out, he could directly cause Ragnarok, it would prove that he is actually quite merciful to the Amazons and Themyscira, and Wonder Woman wouldn't be so dissatisfied.

The fact is also true. Arkham Batman didn't even move a hand to beat any Amazon resident, and even grabbing the key was done with the help of Schiller's power, using a non-violent and clever method to achieve the goal. Comparing this with the encounter of the gods of Mount Olympus, Schiller almost thought Diana was his true love.

The first moment Arkham Batman killed his way up to Mount Olympus, he drove his broken car and crashed into Zeus's palace, crashing Zeus and his lightning away for dozens of meters. By the time Zeus reacted, Arkham Batman had already activated the energy absorption device, drained more than half of his divine power, poured it into the gemstone, and then used this gemstone to blow Zeus half to death, using Zeus's own lightning spear to nail him to the throne.

After taking away all of Zeus's divine power and life force, Arkham Batman killed his way all the way. Goddesses like Hera and Artemis couldn't withstand the gemstone explosion at all, basically losing their ability to act after one blast, and it didn't take much effort to finish them off later.

Even the relatively strong God of War and the God of the Underworld who arrived later couldn't beat Arkham Batman who had absorbed so much divine power at all. Even if he didn't use this divine power on himself, the Batmobile that could crash even Mephisto and Zeus, and the successive explosions, were enough for them to drink a pot.

These two gods didn't die. The God of the Underworld ran back to the Underworld after being drained of almost all his divine power; the God of War didn't run, but Arkham Batman didn't intend to kill him either, just drained all his divine power and most of his life force, and then let him go.

Because Arkham Batman came too suddenly, the gods on Mount Olympus had no preparations, and Schiller was a good road-blocker, which led to none of them running away except the God of the Underworld. Mount Olympus could already announce its destruction.

Watching one island of gods after another fall, Schiller felt nothing. The Greek gods really didn't do proper business, but if they were like Asgard, truly assuming the responsibility of the masters of the Nine Realms, protecting the living beings within their territory, Batman would definitely give them the respect they deserved.

But Mount Olympus really did nothing; not only that, they had added quite a lot of trouble to humans from ancient times to the present. Biasedly, they didn't put humans in their eyes either, and the protection of their own divine realm was simply a mere formality, as if they had never thought about what to do if someone rushed in and killed them.

They didn't have the pressure of the Ragnarok prophecy on their heads, leading to them not caring about their own safety at all, and they didn't have their own army and starships like Asgard; in short, they couldn't do anything, and living was just wasting entropy.

In the case that Arkham Batman needed energy, it was only natural to take them as the first target.

After cleaning up Mount Olympus, Arkham Batman didn't leave immediately. He picked up the axe of the God of War he had picked up before, handed it to Schiller, and then said: "Take this, give me one."

Schiller gave him a question mark with his eyes. Arkham Batman didn't want to say more, just stepped back a few steps, leaving space for Schiller to take action.

Schiller was slightly hesitant. He gripped the axe and said: "This isn't some trap you prepared to renege on the debt, right?"

"I assure you it's not, it's me letting you do this." Arkham Batman said, "If you really don't feel at ease, we can sign a contract to ensure that I won't pursue your attack behavior this time."

Schiller probably already knew what he wanted to do, so he sighed, put away the moonlight power, and instead used the divine power belonging to Ares that was stained on the axe itself, and slashed toward Batman.

Gotham's night was heavy.

Wonder Woman looked at Schiller and Seeing Natasha standing in front of her and said: "So, you want me to believe that all this might be someone playing tricks behind the scenes, and not entirely Batman's fault? Is this some new method you guys intend to persuade me not to act rashly?"

"I am just stating a fact to you, ma'am." Schiller said calmly, "The only reason I am telling you these things here is that I believe that even in this situation, you have the rationality to distinguish the facts. Do you?"

Wonder Woman stared at Schiller who was speaking, and just stared at him silently for dozens of seconds, before moving her gaze away, nodding slowly and saying: "I have doubted... because that doesn't look like Batman, doesn't look like President Wayne, doesn't look like that great politician who turned the Federation into a monarchy within a year of being elected."

"Very good." Schiller nodded slightly, "I only have one question now—what kind of person can make Batman get the time of a routine visit wrong?"

"I'm very sorry, but I really don't know." Wonder Woman said.

"Boss!! Boss!!!" A deafening roar came from outside the door, followed by chaotic and heavy footsteps. A group of agents pushed open the door and shouted at Seeing Natasha: "The President has been assassinated! He is currently in the medical center! Mr. President wants to see you!! Hurry!!!"