Silence, the deepest silence.
Only when the wind cuts through the long corridor, stirring the flickering candles, a faint sound emerges from the boundless stillness.
With a soft "click" echoing like a bell toll, Shiller gently placed his wine glass on the table, sighed lightly, and said: "'There is no savior in this world, nor do we rely on God or the emperor. To create happiness for the human race, it all depends on us."
Lucifer remained in place with the same expression, seemingly lost deep in his memories.
"Did he shock you?" Shiller asked. "Or perhaps this is, in fact, your greatest humiliation. He infuriated you, therefore you refused to mention him to anyone, even me."
The fingers that Lucifer had placed on the table gradually clenched, the knuckles gripping the handle of the wine glass began to whiten.
"He didn't wait for your or God's mercy, he didn't resent your indifference, he treated all these as if they were nothing, he was not even disappointed in you."
"Arrogance, arrogance, arrogance," Shiller mimicked Lucifer's tone. "What we cannot accept the most is when we measure others by ourselves, yet they turn out to be more noble than us."
"Enough."
Shiller, unusually silent after Lucifer spoke, temporarily restrained his instinct to attack everyone equally and sat quietly with Lucifer.
"Or perhaps he is even nobler than you imagine."
After a long while, Lucifer finally spoke. "I don't know how many times I've complained about God to him, perhaps he pieced together the truth from my sporadic words, but he always remained silent."
"I thought he didn't agree with my views, but not until then did I realize, he was showing me that waiting for someone's mercy after their rejection is the most foolish step."
"What we want, we have to fight for ourselves. Giving up, waiting, and then complaining, they are all forms of avoidance. We must move forward, always face problems head-on, it's the only way to solve them."
"What truly shocks me is that he not only had no hope that I would be mankind's savior, but he even arrogantly wanted to become my savior."
Lucifer turned to Shiller again and said, "He hopes that I can directly face the problem, so he brought you back here."
After some contemplation, Shiller understood.
When Lucifer initially said to him, "Child, don't be afraid," God's solution to the problem was also to take away his soul, which means, Lucifer's soul is precisely the representation of his fate.
So only when he comes back, can Lucifer truly solve the problem.
But then Shiller suddenly wondered, Lucifer had once been an archangel, which means he did return to Heaven after his trip to the human world and became an angel, has he accepted his fate?
As if knowing what he was thinking, Lucifer said: "At the time, not really, but it was all about give and take, it's always been like this between us."
"Then the Fall of Angels..."
Lucifer's face changed instantly, gritting his teeth he said, "I didn't intend to go to war originally, I thought I could just sneak into Hell, but he kept encouraging me to engage in the Fall of Angels, just so he could take advantage of my absence during the war to borrow money using my feathers!"
Shiller held his forehead, now he understood, that's why when Greed suggested Lucifer should start World War II, Lucifer left without looking back.
With this, the course of events became clear.
Shiller speculated that the original Shiller may have realized that saving the Soviet Union at that time wasn't worth it before he died.
After he came to this world and realized there were more powerful forces, he thought, could he free all mankind through different means, if he chose a different path?
According to Lucifer's description of the power's magnitude, this was not impossible, the worst case scenario would be creating a heaven.
Supporting humans isn't difficult; all the means of production needed by humanity compared to a power that could destroy a universe was trivial. Even if the building materials were borrowed, they could still achieve complete communism, right?
Shiller guessed, this could be the plan of the original Shiller. According to this plan, he encouraged Lucifer to wage the Fall of Angels, and while the owner of the feathers was busy with the war, he took the feather to borrow money everywhere, always borrowing never repaying.
Lucifer's feathers were indeed useful. After all, who would not know of him as the first light? Plus the information about the powerful beings Lucifer gave to the original Shiller, with each loan he was sure to succeed, every pluck a handful of feathers.
However, as the plan progressed, the original Shiller perhaps discovered certain leads.
In short, the resistance to saving the DC World didn't come from within, but rather from outside the wall. As long as Batman's story needed to continue, then Gotham, this grand stage, could never be dismantled.
In other words, it is almost impossible to resolve the unsolvable Curse of Evil by directly combating crime. As long as this universe is designated as a normal one with Gotham in it, then Gotham cannot possibly be saved.
In other words, even if the original Shiller truly built a paradise on earth, Gotham would still be plagued by crime, the lower classes would still suffer and be poor, otherwise where would all the criminals who fought against Batman come from?
Obviously, the original Shiller refused to accept this arrangement.
Shiller guessed that the original Shiller probably used the power originally intended for creating a perfect world to solve certain issues that were completely unsolvable before, like Joker and Doomsday.
But just doing this should not be enough to exhaust so much power. Shiller felt that after his arrival in this universe, Gotham swiftly saw the light of dawn. It was very likely that the original Shiller used this power to violate the rules, thereby giving Gotham the possibility of salvation.
Previously, Shiller had his doubts. Along the way, he felt the Gotham in which he existed was running on easy mode, nearly devoid of the detrimental happenstance events that litter the storyline of most comics.
In the comic books, Batman, despite his every effort to improve Gotham, would inevitably encounter various obstacles and troubles. Even seemingly improbable incidents, from a probabilistic point of view, would unfold, and all would be for naught.
Although he is Batman and inherently incapable of saving Gotham, Shiller had after all been transformed into the Joker, and it didn't necessarily mean he could save Gotham. Therefore, this out of the ordinary smooth progression might indeed be related to the massive explosion in Gotham caused by the original Shiller.
Any being capable of formulating such a groundbreaking plan was unlikely to act without investigating the so-called Curse of Evil. He must have had some intelligence to act on.
With this in mind, the smooth progress of Gotham's transformation was no coincidence. All these fortuitous occurrences were meticulously calculated.
At this point, Shiller remembered something else and asked, "Could it have been God who informed Dr. Anatoli of the supreme beings in the other universe?"
Lucifer came out of his reverie and contemplated before responding, "I'm not sure about the universe you ended up in, but God sent you there, so He should know."
"It could very well be," Shiller murmured, lightly tapping the armrest with his fingers.
"What did the supreme being tell you?" Lucifer asked curiously.
"He said that the doctor is still alive."
"Is he important to you?"
"I guess so."
"Wait." Lucifer seemed to have realized something. Staring at Shiller, he asked, "Is this some sort of shocking news? You've only been back in this world for a few years, has the doctor aged a lot?"
Shiller shook his head and remained silent. Lucifer squinted and after taking a sip of his drink, put his glass down and said, "You have already successfully forced the truth out, can't you talk about your experiences?"
"It's meaningless." Shiller seemed lost in thought about something else and his attention was somewhat dispersed, he then added; "You have returned to heaven, are you an angel now, is this also a demonstration of some kind of destiny?"
"Yes, and it is because of you." Lucifer sighed and said, "To some extent, I can understand God. In places where he can't oversee, everything operates according to the rules, and what I could avoid was limited, in the end, I end up back on the original path."
"But you can also choose to leave Heaven now."
"Yes, but that might mean facing another destiny."
Lucifer continued to gaze at Shiller with great interest, asking, "What happened in the world you went to? You thought that the doctor was dead, so you were interested in the news that he was still alive."
Shiller didn't deny it and nodded, "The situation is complex, but indeed that is the case, and I want to understand the reason behind it."
"Tell me about it, I may be able to help."
"Never mind, the story is too long, how are the preparations for Battleworld?"
Lucifer was a bit reluctant to drop the subject, but once he realized he couldn't get Shiller to speak more, he resignedly said, "It's okay. Those gigantic beings you brought over, I have temporarily placed them in the extra area."
"Can their illness be cured?"
"Those parasites aren't the main problem, but the strength of their bodies is quite impressive. Owen is working on it, and it should be solved in a few days."
Shiller had already stood up, clearly not intending to stay for long. He hadn't come to extract the truth today, but Lucifer still voluntarily spilled it, didn't he?
However, this truth is not particularly significant. In terms of probability, if a low-probability event happens to you once and then again, it is not proof of your luck, but rather evidence that there is more than meets the eye, as this is not a low-probability event.
If Shiller in his previous life having special abilities can be explained as him being the chosen one, then him experiencing the crossing over as well, proves that there is something amiss with him.
Before he left Lucifer's palace, they both stood in front of the main gate, surveying the azure blue Earth not far away. Shiller let an umbrella support his hands and looked at Lucifer, saying, "Will you miss him?"
"Sometimes." Lucifer replied nostalgically, "But I can always see him again in the subtle changes on the Earth of that universe."
"From a divine perspective, loss is not a momentary ending, but a long discovery. It's an opportunity to find more traces of his existence in the future and a ticket to a new adventure."
"You eventually managed to get your savior fix," Shiller laughed, looking down, and added, "You sorted out the Court of Owls in a way that left everyone stunned."
Lucifer silently stared at Earth, reflecting on every pulse of the ley lines, every bustling city, and then he said, "You're right. The most unacceptable thing for us is indeed salvation by others. It makes us feel more insignificant. You have to first bow in order to look up to the greatness of others."
"But what's most awe-inspiring is that, compared to the great things they've done that have impacted us, they might take even more pride in the changes we've made."
"Because this process isn't about defeat and setbacks, but about the most beautiful thing the human race can offer - legacy."
"The most precious thing in legacy isn't knowledge or skills," Shiller also looked at the Earth and added.
"But the infinite hope they cast upon you, that's the real secret to breaking free from predetermined fate and possessing limitless potential."