The two entangled figures crashed heavily onto the ground, and at the moment of impact, the shock on Beihan's face was unparalleled.
For it was Shiller's back that made the grim contact with the ground.
He watched as Shiller's upper back bounced reflexively from the impact, his neck stretching high, then collapsing weakly onto the ground.
Blood gushed out of Shiller's mouth, his pupils dilating with shock, adrenaline pumping in response to his approaching demise, his heart rate skyrocketing.
Beihan scrambled up from the ground, and as he studied Shiller's expression, he saw a twisted exuberance amid the extreme pain.
"Ha ha...ha ha ha..."
Shiller seemed like a strung-out addict, ceaseless laughter producing more blood and visceral fragments from his mouth, but he simply couldn't stop.
Meanwhile, Batman and Natasha had already rushed over. They heard Shiller say, "Why would you think... that madness is indiscriminate attack...?"
His voice filled with laughter, exhibiting manic exhilaration and a hallucinatory glee that turned him into a child, innocent, vile, and indulgent.
The trio paused coldly.
"So you were not mad from the beginning?!" Natasha exclaimed, glaring at Shiller: "You never lost your senses, then you..."
With much effort, Shiller opened his arms, signaling his motives to everyone present through a silent gesture.
Batman turned around; the arena was in total disarray.
It wasn't just the environment, but also everyone's expression.
All present, including them, were perplexed, baffled, astonished...
At last, Beihan composed himself from the initial shock.
If Shiller hadn't gone mad from the start, was his wild indiscriminate attack merely an act, then why did he do it?
The most evident outcome was, regardless of how the first round of this gladiator-style game was set up, Shiller couldn't possibly achieve his goal.
No human torment, no discernment of good and evil, no screams, crying, sorrow, anger, or abuse that should have been present in such a situation...
Everyone was trembling.
Because of the arrival of unprecedented chaos and madness caused by an unnameable, incomprehensible existence.
When the master arrives, it isn't the lambs' strength, virtue, evilness, or their past transgressions that are imposed upon. The only thing they have in common is fear, submission, and respect.
Beihan's expressions became conflicded, for he realized this was Shiller's way to break the stalemate.
"Ha ha...ha ha ha ha..." Shiller started laughing again, but seemed to choke on his own blood, coughing violently, but this only led to more fresh blood being expelled.
Shiller's ribs were almost completely shattered, his spine fractured, only his limbs could barely move. None of his organs were intact, fragments of his ribs stuck in his lungs, yet his laughter continued.
"If a performance… is bound to begin with dullness, then I will make it end with shock." Shiller muttered hazily.
"Batman...look at me..." Shiller, his mouth full of blood, mumbled indistinctly: "Listen...to your heart..."
Half kneeling, Beihan, shocked, looked at Shiller: "So you never lost control, then why did you..."
Shiller struggled to raise a hand, placed a finger on his lips, and looking at Beihan said, "Shhh..."
Beihan fell silent, his gaze fixed, staring straight at Shiller as if witnessing a grand artistic performance.
"Listen...listen!!!"
The sudden rise in Shiller's pitch caused Beihan to stiffen. "What? Listen to what?" he asked.
"Listen...your heart..." Shiller's voice came strained, as if he was gasping underwater. Blood kept gushing from his mouth, making his voice resemble a call from the deep sea.
Beihan, somewhat bewildered, placed a hand on his chest, feeling his own heartbeat and distantly heard Shiller's heavy breathing due to injuries, the gradually lowering heart rate, the slowly fading warmth.
"What is that..." Shiller's words sounded like delirium.
"What did you hear..." He kept asking.
"I..." Beihan furrowed his brows deeply.
"Tell me! What did you hear!"
"Your pain."
"Absolutely wrong!!" Shiller gritted against the pain, propping himself up, the immense surge of energy turning manic. "It's your pain. There's a wound on your heart. It's from a knife..."
Shiller collapsed back again, fingers slackening, he uttered with the last bit of his breath, "That's my knife. It's called 'Guilt'."
"...it is precise, elegant, deadly."
Looking at Shiller's almost completely dilated pupils, Beihan was completely panicked, Batman staggered, Natasha rushed forward, her hand pressed against Shiller's carotid artery.
Ten seconds later, the female agent sounded a sharp alarm: "He's for real!!!"
"Emergency! Prepare for emergency!" Batman bellowed, he immediately pulled out an injector from his bat suit, preparing to administer it to Shiller.
"Oh, dear, how did this happen?" Gem Man's gloating voice rang from the sideline. "The effect of medicine is very limited here, it seems your companion is going to die."
Gem Man casually placed the cage aside, throwing up his hands, declared, "Did you see that? This is what happens when you don't play by the rules. Exciting and thrilling game rules, this is my design... wait, what is that?!"
Gem Man stared at a cluster of dense clouds suddenly surging in from the horizon, much darker than the ones that had previously hung over the arena. Resembling a gigantic abyssal maw, it swallowed the earlier clouds in an instant, sweeping over the entire arena.
The survivors in the cage seemed lost as they stared at their palms, muttering, "It's raining? But here..."
Suddenly, Beihan let out a painful whimper. He gripped his own throat tightly, stepped back twice, and then knelt on the ground.
One hand on the ground while the other was clenching his throat as if trying to stop something from bursting out of it.
"Uh...uh! Ha-ha...no!!!"
"Wait a minute! What the hell is going on here?" Gem Man roared in anger: "Why has the environmental system gone awry?! How did..."
Batman immediately looked down towards Shiller, murmuring to himself, "He's the Joker...he's the Joker! Batman killed the Joker!"
Then he swiftly turned towards Beihan, his eyes unintentionally revealing a shockingly scared expression.
Batman rushed forward one step and yelled at Gem Man: "Heal him quickly! Heal Shiller quickly!! Otherwise, it will be too late!!!"
"Why..." Gem Man felt powerless, clearly something had exceeded his control.
Kneeling at one side, Beihan slowly got up, the whites of his eyes showing as his facial muscles twitched uncontrollably. He slowly stuck one finger into his mouth.
"Heal him quickly!!!!!"
"Healing!!"
With a swoosh, a beam of light descended and Shiller instantly returned to normal.
Beihan fell back as if he had been shot.
"Rumble."
Muffled thunder echoed from the horizon, heavy clouds finally devoured the last ray of light, followed by an expected downpour.
Everyone was thoroughly soaked. Batman's armor shimmered with a cold gleam in the rain, Natasha's red hair clung to her sexy face.
Shiller, having recovered, didn't stand up but spread his arms laying on the ground in the rain. Beihan laid still on the ground like a fish out of water. The people in the cage all huddled in the corners, shivering in the rain.
In the end, only the little boy was splashing through the water, running over and tugging Batman's cape.
Turning to look at him, Batman saw the little boy staring at him silently. The boy gestured for him to come closer. Batman squatted down and the boy whispered in his ear, "Thank you for saving my mom."
Batman looked at him, touching his cheek with his slightly rough hand. The boy asked innocently, "Do you kill people?"
Batman shook his head.
The boy immediately hung his head, clearly looking a little flustered and helpless.
Shiller, who had been lying on the ground feigning death, immediately sat up with a somersault and walked to Batman's side, brushing him aside, patting the boy's head, and asked, "Why do you ask that?"
The boy bit his lip and said, "My dad always hits us. My mom killed him, but she said killing people is wrong."
Shiller looked thoughtful. Just as Batman thought he would say something, Shiller said nothing, but simply patted the boy's head and gathered him in his arms.
Natasha, supporting a limping Beihan, came over. Beihan, holding his throat with his sleeve and coughing constantly, wore a look of pain on his face. The blank expression hadn't entirely faded away.
He gasped, "What the hell just happened? Why does it feel like there's something in my head?"
Beihan pounded the side of his head with one hand, saying, "I seemed to have had the world's most terrifying nightmare. I dreamt that I tore open the corner of my mouth. God..."
Batman turned to look at Shiller. They locked gazes, but with perfect understanding, they remained silent.
At that moment, an enraged roar echoed in from above.
"What on earth did you do?!!!"
Gem Man finally stood up, allowing everyone in the arena to clearly see his full figure. It was a magnified Gem robot giant. When it stood up, it seemed as tall as a towering mountain. When they looked up, they could only vaguely see the edge of its jaw.
"All systems of the arena are out of control. I can't even control the weather. What the hell have you damn humans done?!!"
Batman heard a hint of urgency in his tone, so he immediately responded, "You have messed up your own stupid game. I told you before, your game's design rules show that you have no sense of humor. Shiller was right, discussing human nature with you is completely meaningless."
"What did you say?!!!"
Gem Man, driven to madness, regardless of the consequences, lifted a foot and stomped on the arena. The crowd immediately screamed in terror.
But just as the gigantic dark foot was about to land on the arena, a shrill alarm was heard from a distance.
"Killer devil number 3 has violated rules, first warning, second warning, third warning... Warning disregarded, preparing for expulsion!"
A colossal beam of light shot down from the sky, turning Gem Man to dust amidst his shrieks.
The laser dispersed the heavy clouds, the rain finally stopped.
The bright yellow bus, washed clean by the rain, gleamed under the sunlight. It stopped outside the arena amidst the damp air.
The cage was opened and people briskly moved out, supporting each other. There was no struggle, no insults, only a sense of relief and exhaustion from surviving the catastrophe.
Watching the three ahead of him board the bus, Batman stood at the door, turned back to look at the boy rushing to the arena gate. The boy saw his cape transform into a flowing river of gold in the post-rain sunlight.
After a silence, Batman said, "Killing people is wrong, but don't tell anyone."
The gates to the arena closed. All the remaining survivors were transported back in the light. The bus slowly headed off into the distance, back into the endless thick fog.