"Aaaaaaaaaaa!!!"
The screams from below sent a shiver down both Batman and Natasha who were in the room.
About a few minutes earlier, Batman used his own blood to lure Gluttony away. Natasha went to the emergency blood bank and found blood bags. She poured all of them at the staircase of this floor.
Gluttony was indeed attracted, allowing them to catch a breath. After a brief discussion, they decided to continue upward.
Batman explained, "Although the upper floors might be more dangerous, it's clear that hesitating or going up and down the stairs repeatedly is the most dangerous, as that might repeatedly alert Shiller."
"And from my understanding of Shiller, if this game is not completely chaotic but has rules to follow, the difficulty would be unimaginable. If we stay in one place for a long time, bad things are likely to occur."
Natasha agreed with his judgment and added, "We can't completely believe what Shiller said earlier. No one ever guaranteed us that any rule would be reliable. He seems like an ally, but what if he's a trickster?"
"So, it's best to infer the rules ourselves and not to easily believe anything Shiller says, even if it's our teammate Shiller."
Batman nodded and sighed, "Now, the other Batman and Shiller are together. I suspect he has been fooled."
Natasha took out bandages from the medical bag she was carrying and while bandaging Batman, asked, "How do you think Shiller will trick him?"
"Mislead." Batman could say the answer almost without thinking. He said, "Shiller will not tell 100% lies and will not tell 100% truths. He will tell part of the truth, but hide some of the most important truths. That's enough for the other Batman to pay in blood."
Natasha glanced at the floor, she understood that Batman was implying that the previous scream was most likely from Beihan.
"My younger self was more obsessed with thinking and persistently chasing the truth. Once I started reasoning, I would easily get engrossed and forget about the danger I was facing in the real world." Batman said in a low tone, "I guess he would make the same mistake. He might think he has found a safe place to reason the truth. After staying there for a while, he is found by some dangerous guy."
"Then we must leave here as soon as possible." Natasha shook her head, "Even if I'm not a great detective, I also know that with more than one Shiller in the building, there is no safe place at all."
"Nice to see you again." The voice of Shiller was once again heard by the pair. Batman and Natasha turned their heads to see the semi-long-haired reflection appearing on the window glass again.
"Want to talk about my other personalities?" asked the semi-long-haired Shiller in a very relaxed tone, "One of them has captured its prey. It took him by surprise."
"What happened to the other Batman?" Natasha's brow furrowed.
"Don't worry, he's not dead, just probably going to have a hard time." Shiller shrugged in the reflection and said, "You'd better leave here quickly, or don't blame me for not warning you."
After bandaging Batman's wound, Natasha's arm injury had almost healed. She casually wrapped it with a bandage, and they set off quickly.
And Shiller's voice was still echoing in their ears.
"There are four noteworthy personalities. They are all different, some are strong, some are weak, but all of them represent primal desires."
"Hunting represents Man's desire for pursuit, Art represents Man's aesthetic desire, Gluttony represents Man's appetite, and Torture represents Man's desire to inflict pain."
"Wait a minute." Natasha interrupted, "I can understand the first three, the last one... normal people shouldn't have it, right?"
"On the contrary, everyone has it." Sighed Shiller before adding, "The urge to make others respond is actually the instinct for torture. Humans spend their lives seeking attention, making others understand their need for emotional fulfilment, and they change others' behaviour to satisfy themselves, which is essentially torture."
"Sounds like something a baby would do."
"Exactly, babies manipulate others to meet their basic needs by crying, but as they grow older, this manipulation becomes subtler. The needs evolve from basic survival resources to money, power, and emotions."
"But the fact that we are happy because others change their attitude or method for our needs, that is the instinct of torture at work."
"No need to discuss the essence." Batman interjected, "Talk about their behavioral patterns."
"The pattern lies in the essence."
When their figures disappeared at the end of the corridor, another figure stumbled into the preparation room they had just been in. From the silhouette, it was Beihan.
In the pitch-dark preparation room, Beihan reached out for something and only when the moonlight flashed through the window outside, did Beihan's face become visible.
From above Beihan's right eye to his left jaw, down to his left clavicle, all the skin had disappeared, becoming a bloody mess, with his blood soaking half of his shirt.
He quickly found the first aid kit, not to bandage, because bandaging was of no use for wounds of this magnitude.
Beihan quickly found the alcohol inside for disinfection. He poured it down along the wound from the top of his head and used a lighter he had just found nearby to light a flame.
"Whoosh," The flames burning on Beihan lit up the entire room. Until blood from biting his tongue flowed out of his mouth, he only let out a low groan.
The fire burned for about several tens of seconds, and Beihan started rolling on the ground immediately, taking off his shirt to suppress the flame.
The amount of alcohol he poured was not much, so the fire was put out quickly. At this point, his skinless wound was charred, but the bleeding had successfully stopped.
The shadow of Shiller once again appeared behind Beihan in the reflection. Beihan, standing and panting in place, slowly clenched his fist.
"You're not as angry as you thought you were," Shiller's voice echoes in the room. "And you're terrified and confused because of that."
Beihan's lips tremble.
"You find yourself not angry enough at my absurd behavior, but it's not because I'm not wicked enough. It's precisely because I'm too wicked."
"It hurts, doesn't it?" Shiller's hand is again on Beihan's shoulder, lightly touching his wound as if, "It's because you know how much it hurts that you understand the pain that fish went through before dying in your hallucination."
"The agony she went through that you personally experienced has soothed your anger." Shiller's hand lies on Beihan's neck and covers the wound on his neck. Although Beihan doesn't feel the touch, he has an illusion that the skin there is being re-knitted.
"You've realized that not everyone in this world is imprisoned by conscience, unable to use violence to curb violence. You've seen how I dealt with my enemies in the cruelest manner, you've felt how cruel I could be, and that made you feel exhilarated."
"I didn't," Beihan took a deep breath and denied, "I will never feel exhilarated by cruel behavior."
"Batman, look ahead, open your eyes and watch."
Without realizing, Beihan raises his head, looking straightforward. He hears Shiller saying: "On that day, you saw your parents fall, smoke still coming out of the muzzle of the shooter's gun."
Beihan's hands start to tremble because he really sees two corpses in the dark corner of the room, and another shadow, a shadow he will never forget, holding a gun with white smoke rising from the muzzle.
Then suddenly, Beihan sees the man's hat fall off, revealing his face. The last time Beihan saw this face was on the news about Joe Chill's early release for turning state's evidence. The anger he felt when he saw that news resurfaces.
But the next second, Joe Chill's skin starts to peel off from above his right eye, as if an invisible hand is tearing his skin away, bit by bit.
The killer lets out an unspeakable scream. His mouth opens wide, his eyeballs almost rolling out of the socket, but his skin is still being torn off bit by bit, until the bloody muscles are exposed.
Beihan knows how much it hurts, how terrifying it is. He sees how blood vessels, nerves, and tendons melt under the skin, how blood pours out like a waterfall on the exposed nerves, and how every scrape is like a punch to the brain.
He knows completely and clearly how much it hurts.
When the irresistible excitement overflowed from his heart, Beihan felt an incomparable sense of despair.
He slowly kneels on the ground and when he lowers his head, he sees Joe Chill's half-torn face in his hand.
His clenched fist makes a hole in the bloody skin, but it's not enough. An almost uncontrollable excitement makes him tear the skin into pieces.
He wildly tears, kneads, crushes.
Pieces all over his hand, blood all over his hand. A cold gust of wind blows, followed by a stronger gust.
Suddenly, Beihan sees blindingly bright light but he doesn't have the time to take in the view before his eyes. He just sees Joe Chill standing in front of him, intact except for his face.
Beihan, like a crazed man, rushes up, thrusts his hand into Joe Chill's gaping mouth, tears open his mouth, pulls off his lower jaw, then sticks his hand into his eye socket and almost tears apart his skull.
Beihan roars in fury, hitting with his fists again and again into the already split skull until his hands are cut by the sharp bone fragments and blood oozes out.
Until he is completely exhausted, the anger fades, and only sadness fills his heart.
Suddenly, the wind stops.
In his blurred vision, there's no longer that dark alley, nor the hospital room, but a straight corridor and rows of tidy bus seats.
The scenery outside the window ceases to go backward, outside the opened bus door, the sign of the fourth station gradually appears.
Sunlight comes in from the window outside, falling on Beihan who's sitting on his knees.
He looks down with a confused face. The corpse under him is not Joe Chill, or even a human at all.
It's a goblin with purple skin, pointed ears, and fangs. Its skull has been completely crushed, the pieces of bones still stuck in Beihan's hand.
Shadows cover Beihan's vision again. He raises his head and sees Shiller's face.
Beihan blinks lightly, seeing a faint glow in his vision. In the sunlight, he sees Shiller's suit turning deep blue and sees the white temples for a moment.
Beihan staggers to his feet. Shiller reaches out his arms and holds him, saying, "You're not sick. This is the last of your obsessions... at least you executed him in your dreams."
At the front, Batman and Natasha wake up. They turn their heads and see Beihan lying tightly in Shiller's arms, his chin resting on his shoulder, slowly closing his eyes.
The two look at each other and sigh simultaneously.
"He's beyond saving now."
"I think so too."