Clark, who was studying angel wings, noticed that Bat Cat suddenly jumped out of his arms onto the floor. The black cat dug its long sharp claws into the ground, arching its body and causing the hair on its back to stand on end. A continuous "hissing" sound came from its throat.
A pair of hands grabbed the black cat around its waist, hoisting it up off the ground and into an embrace. Shiller petted the Bat Cat's head, but Bat Cat continued to struggle desperately, attempting to leap out of Shiller's hold.
"Hey, Professor, don't hold it like that. It doesn't like people touching its tail. Here, give it to me." Clark walked over and extended his hand to Shiller. In that moment, Bat Cat suddenly calmed down, frantically signaling Clark with its eyes as if it wanted him not to come over.
However, no matter how good Clark's eyesight was, he couldn't possibly understand a cat's subtle eye signals. It was difficult for humans to interpret any meaningful information from a cat's facial expressions, let alone from a black cat with an almost inscrutable face.
Shiller scratched Bat Cat's chin, and instinctively, the cat tilted its face upwards. But the very next second, it began struggling again, shivering uncontrollably.
"Professor, I'm sorry for ruining your bookstore," Clark, scratching his head, said, "I'll try my best to tidy it up, but I'm afraid we'll have to call Bruce to repair it."
Having finished his sentence, Clark peeked over his shoulder towards the corner of the street, saying somewhat nonsensically, "Just a moment ago, he left in a hurry. his car was almost speeding. I wonder what he's in such a rush for..."
Hearing these words, Bat Cat's eyes widened. It let out a "meow", but its uniquely raspy tone made its yowl sound more like a terrifying scream.
Clark's gaze immediately fell upon Bat Cat's face. The cat furiously blinked at Clark. Having kept Bat Cat for so long, Clark had come to understand some of its behaviors. So, he repeated his previous sentence: "His car was almost speeding. I wonder what he was rushing off to do..."
"Oh!" Clark exclaimed, as if just realizing something, "Before he left he said... he was going to... write a paper?"
Clark noticed that Shiller's face lightened up a bit at this, but then he froze again, as if he didn't understand why he would have such an instinctive reaction.
Shiller let out a sigh and looked over Clark's shoulder, asking, "What's the deal with that winged guy lying on the ground?"
Clark scratched his head, turning around and responding, "Actually, I don't know either. The rambling magician was throwing bombs into the bookstore. I think he's a bad guy. My dad always taught me that anyone who doesn't take good care of books is a bad person."
"He threw a few invisible air bombs that nearly hit you and the little girl who was just here. He was acting just like a terrorist. He said he wanted to summon something and after a while, this so-called angel showed up."
Clark shook his head, looking somewhat helpless, "The scammers these days really are getting less and less inventive. The Bible clearly states that when an angel appears, holy light will descend and they absolutely won't harm children. But this angel is somewhat..."
Clark looked a bit distressed, recollecting that when he flew above the clouds, he saw the angel messing around in the stormy sky over Gotham but not making any headway. His common sense told him that a real angel wouldn't be so incompetent.
Shiller walked past Clark to confront the angel face-to-face. Upon seeing his face, he was taken aback as the angel bore an uncanny resemblance to Master Ancient One. Was this the movie version of Gabriel?
But then again, Shiller figured, even if this was the movie version of Gabriel, he wouldn't expect him to be beat up like this right from the start. If his memory served him right, even the movie version Gabriel was a cunning villain. So why did he come to Gotham, especially when Constantine had already passed away?
Shiller didn't waste words on the matter. To Clark's astonishment, he snapped his fingers and a halo appeared above his head. To even greater surprise, he took off the halo.
Shiller held the halo and asked, "Hello, is anyone there? Can someone help me figure out who this guy is?"
Once he had finished speaking, Shiller stared at the halo, and a moment later, a faint light began to glow in its center. An indistinct shadow appeared, and a soothing neutral voice said, "Hello, to identify the lineage of a member of Heaven, please use the Sacred Chant Magic Array."
"Is there a simpler way?" Shiller asked.
"You can also use Holy Light."
"Even simpler."
"...Smack him with the halo."
"Thanks."
"Bang!"
Just as the angel was about to get up, he was knocked down by the halo. The halo let out a faint radiance and with another "bang", the figure of the angel disappeared, leaving behind only a feather glowing with soft light, slowly falling to the ground.
Shiller went over, bent down to pick up the feather, looked at it for a moment, and then looked back at his devastated bookstore.
As Clark approached, just as he was about to ask something, Shiller had already turned around to walk back into the bookstore, picking up the phone that had fortunately survived the disaster, dialing a number.
"Hello, Lucifer?... Oh, nothing much, I just wanted to say, I think I have your feather. Do you have time to come and pick it up?"
"No, nothing much. I just plucked another feather from Gabriel. I think it has more collectable value than yours, so you can take yours back... That's it, bye."
With a "click", Shiller hung up the phone, then he softly muttered, "Three, two..."
"Shiller!!! What nonsense are you talking about?!!! Don't try to trick me!! How could you have Gabriel's... Damn it, why is this bald chicken shedding its feathers everywhere?!!!!"
With a "whoosh", the feather in Shiller's hand disappeared. Although Lucifer didn't show up, it seems that Gabriel will not have a peaceful time for a while.
Having dealt with the problem at hand with utmost patience, Shiller could no longer tolerate his own filthy state. He rushed back to Rodrigues Manor as quickly as he could, took a bath, changed his clothes, and finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Previously, the terrible environment near the bookstore made it impossible for Shiller to fully concentrate. Back to the manor, he finally had the time to carefully assess the chaos created during Sloth's shift duty.
Actually, Shiller had guessed that letting a personality trait characterized by laziness take charge would definitely stir up some trouble. But so far, he felt that besides being slightly shocked at the post-battle ruins in his mind, the mess was still somewhat bearable.
Shiller calmly started to browse through his past memories...his calmness only lasted for about ten seconds because as he was recalling, a rotten pig ear appeared in his mind, and, horrifically, the letter that came with the disgusting pig ear was being held by his hand.
Shiller shivered. With a "swoosh", he stood up from the sofa and started shouting,"Merkel! Merkel! Where are you? Quickly remove the mailbox. Rodrigues Manor will never need a mailbox again!!!"
As Shiller was shouting, he was spinning around on the spot, but there was no response from Merkel, so he started to get restless again. Hence, he quickly went towards the garden, since at this time, Merkel should be trimming the hedge.
Through the window near the garden, Shiller indeed saw Merkel's figure. So, he quickened his pace to walk towards Merkel, but in the next second, he was tripped up by something on the ground.
Shiller steadied himself and looked down. To his surprise, it was a piece of metal part. Instantly, Shiller stepped aside, moving away from it, but he still saw a slither of rotten flesh on the side of the metal part.
Following the rolling marks of the parts on the soil, Shiller turned around and saw a freshly dug pit. Just then, a fully armored Butler Merkel, with gloves on, dragged a gruesome doll over and threw it into the pit.
Shiller gasped for breath, but immediately covered his mouth and nose, directed his gaze towards Merkel and asked, "What the hell is this?!"
"I have no idea either. According to Alfred, it seems to be a doll made from limbs by a madman after his killing spree. It doesn't have any issues with climbing over the walls of the manor. Oh Lord, this is the third incident I've had to deal with and it's disgustingly sickening!"
Shiller rushed back into the room with utmost speed, pointed his hand at the location of the doll from behind the glass, and shouted loudly at Merkel, "Don't tell me you buried this thing in my garden???!!!"
With a puzzled look, Merkel looked at him and said, "But in the past, I handled the problem of the garden being invaded by digging up the earth... oh, right, normally, I should have burned it, but since the metal parts can't burn, I just buried it directly."
Shiller held his forehead, feeling somewhat suffocated. Therefore, he turned around and walked back without looking at the horrific sight. After taking deep breaths until it felt like all the air in the room had been sucked out, Shiller finally managed to somewhat compose himself.
"It's okay, it's okay, there are many psychos, there are always a few who are unhygienic, germophobia is a sickness; I am a normal person, I can't argue with them..." Shiller murmured softly as he headed towards his bedroom.
Two minutes later, Shiller, wielding an axe, went over to the mailbox in front of Rodriguez Manor.
Just as he lifted the axe, he suddenly noticed that the little flag on the mailbox was up, indicating that someone had put something into the mailbox.
But the hand wielding his axe had already swung down, "crack" the mailbox dropped to the ground. With a "bang", the metal door of the mailbox that fell onto the ground was knocked open, and a stack of papers dropped out.
Shiller didn't pick it up with his hands. He just wielded the axe and flipped open the stack of paper.
Then he discovered that the top was a sample journal in which his article was published. Lying in this mailbox that once contained a rotten pig's ear, no one knew for how long this poor magazine had been there.
Shiller slowly reached out his hand to cover his heart, then he looked at the other papers on the ground.
It was today's newspaper. As soon as Shiller flipped open the sample journal on top, he saw the front page headline reading...
"Serial killer strikes again in horrifying murder spree, ear cut off in the first case, eyes gouged out in the second, perpetrator's brutality far beyond imagination! Citizens are urged to stay vigilant..."
Shiller took a deep breath; suddenly, his expression became blank.
The next second, the elevator doors of the Tower of Thought opened, and Arrogant, dressed in a black suit, rushed towards a room, hammering on the door and shouting as he went.
"Morbid! Someone's plagiarized your research achievements!!!"