Make sure to check my Patre.on out if you want to support me and want to read advanced chapters: Patre.on.com/voidness75
[30 Chapters in Advance on Patre.on]
...........
Chapter 89: The Way Of Blood VII
...........
"Oh??"
She refers to herself as Harley Quinn?
"Harley Quinn, huh? Would it be worth it? Spending any amount of time training her? You did say she's a lunatic after all."
"Normally not, but I was kind of like her, so I can pretty much predict her actions. I think she can easily be tamed. You'll easily make her obedient with a few techniques."
The most terrifying thing about their conversation was their calmness while speaking about a human as if she were nothing but livestock.
"Hmm, I'm not really interested in her now. You can do what you see fit. If she's a spy from Joker, then feed her the information we want him to know. That may actually be advantageous to us."
Layla nodded in understanding as Ian added, "Wait..." He contemplated something for a while, "She could be useful. Teach her the workings of the Roses and some of the things that go in the dark, especially the bloody side. I'll be taking her with me soon on an adventure."
"Huh? Again? Well, the last time you went away, you brought with you some crazy magical nonsense, so why not?"
Ralf was, in actuality, quite excited as Ian thoroughly made use of all the magical knowledge he acquired, instructing Raven to lay down some protection wards around most of the Roses' bases.
Raven wasn't necessarily experienced in that field, but Ian was though he had little to no magical energy.
Ian's life simply consisted of spending time with his team, mostly Selina and Ivy. Raven mostly stayed in her room, just studying magic, and only sometimes joined Ian to study it with him. She was understandably working hard to learn more about magic, dark magic, and sealing arts to be specific.
Rarely does Ian have to personally take care of problems for the Rose family. Usually, the henchmen are more than enough to get rid of any annoyances, but there are special cases.
After all, Gotham is still not entirely peaceful. The crime rate may have gone down significantly, but Ian knows that treating the disease that is the darkness of Gotham will take a long time.
A lot of people still die daily. New criminals still give committing crimes a shoot in hope of riches or similar things. Crime still hopes to run amock, alas, the Roses are way too strong.
And now there was trouble that the Roses couldn't take care of themselves. In fact, this new problem was an enemy of Batman as Ian got the word they fought before.
It's harder not to be found out by the Roses in Gotham. It's hard to stay discreet when any of the people walking past you could be one of them. They are the receptionist in shops, wandering people in the streets, and the old man lying beside the trash. They're everywhere, and they're watching.
So when the target heard Ian's approaching footsteps, it wasn't much of a surprise. The target was tall, incredibly tall far above Ian, and that says a lot considering Ian is 6.4 feet tall.
However, that was still not the oddest thing about the target because none can look at him and think him nothing but a monster. Standing at around 7.7 feet tall with scaly skin, a grey-ish stony skin that looks incredible was a villain known as Killer Croc.
Ian gazed into the monster's eyes, undisturbed by the smell all around. He was in the slums after all, amidst the trash.
"Too bad. If you had even a sliver of reason in you, I would gladly take you in, and perhaps even treat you to the best of my abilities... Unfortunately."
Ian shook his head in disappointment as the monster started growling, his saliva dripping on the dirty water of the slums like an acid, evaporating what it touches.
Killer Croc jumped to his feet and started approaching Ian with a roar. Those approaching steps soon turned into running, shaking the earth beneath him.
"Hmm?" Just as Ian's staff and sword appeared in his hands, something strange happened. He sensed danger coming, not in his way but directly at the monster.
An ivy beam passed right by him, directly hitting the monster in a matter of seconds, giving a bit of brightness to the dark slums.
Even a Bahamut as big and strong as Killer Croc failed to react and resist, ending up being nothing but a scripture of ice, tumbling backward.
From the darkness of the slums walked a bizarre figure, a man adorned in what looked like a white-ish suit. An anti-bullet vest was worn on top of the suit.
His head was protected by a glass helmet, showing his bald head, and dark orange glasses, masking his eyes.
The first thing Ian did after that was walking towards the frozen body, sending off his staff to his dimension and leaving only the Kryptonian sword.
He held the silver-ish sword with both hands before bringing it down on the body with enough force that it stabbed through it like butter, making the strange man flinch in a bit of terror, yet even more determination surfaced on his face. Only then did Ian gaze at the uninvited guest.
He expected a staring contest against the uninvited danger or fun he could argue. Against his expectations though, the man performed a full bow, his expression strained and somewhat nervous, "I'm Victor. Some call me Mr. Freeze. P... Please help me, and I'll do anything you want no matter what it is."
"Oh... Ok, follow me." Ian being Ian just looked at the man strangely for a second before instructing him to follow.
A brief conversation on the way made it clear why the man sought help. All Mr. Freeze cares about is saving his sick wife, Nora.
After the gifted scientist's wife contracts a rare terminal illness, he put her into cryostasis. However, Interference from his company's corrupt owner leads to Victor Fries being transformed by his own technology, becoming what he is today.
"Hmm, I see. I'll have to do some investigation first before making any decision. You should understand my concerns, right?" Ian sat on the seat of his car, the backseat to be specific. Victor sat beside him while the driver drove back home.
Seeing Victor nodding repeatedly and even letting a sigh of relief, Ian continued, "But well, if you actually created those weapons, and you're as smart as you claim to be, then I don't see why not... I have to wonder though, how did you know that I may have the means to cure her?"
Victor's mouth opened and closed, seemingly hesitant, but in the end, he chose to be honest, "I deduced it. The phenomenon of the breath of salvation followed directly by organized moves and actions to take over Gotham gave me a few clues... Among other things that made my deduction firmer."
"Hm, I see. I guess it's easy to deduce as we didn't really hide our traces. Then again, why would I? Anyway, bring your wife to the main base, the Cat's rest.
I have something that could possibly cure just about anything, but you'll need to study it. I will fund all of your research, the cure one, and the projects you'll work on in the future... If the results of the investigation were to my satisfaction of course."
The man just nodded, seemingly not having much reaction though Ian could faintly detect a few tears slipping down his face. Not even his tight glasses could stop them from showing his overwhelming emotions. His lips were trembling, making him unable to say anything.
'Well, that's an unexpected surprise.' Ian looked through his phone, finding a message he's been expecting for so long, a very simple message stating, 'The information has been decoded. The owner and the location were found.'
He waited for those words for a while. He knows the Roses' influence in other cities is not high, so finding what he desires would be hard, so instead, he accepted charity from a very distinguished organization.
In fact, Selina personally took it upon herself to retrieve that charitable donation while she was stealing Kryptonites.
The donation of information was of course not stolen, there is a reason why the word donation is written here. That piece of information was just copied... Copied I must stress.
Ian must say that this piece of information was the most important thing he acquired to date. It does state the location of something desired by even the gods after all, if they can make use of it of course.
Well, what is it? It's The...!