"So you deliberately gathered the souls of these sinners on this boat to hand over to Shiller for execution, while drawing the sacrificial array underneath the hull to offer these souls to the demons,"
Oliver said thoughtfully, but he still felt somewhat bewildered. After all, the numerous threads coming together were indeed difficult to sort out.
Shiller laughed, leaning back against the railing of the deck, with his hands resting on top of it. "You might not believe me," he said, "but Arrogant is a lot better tempered than I am. He can ignore being seasick for once or simply choose not to go out to sea, but I couldn't."
"I might choose not to go, but you can't stop me from going. Prohibiting my passage comes with a toll."
Oliver did not understand the logic at all. To him, this new personality trait of Shiller seemed even more insane, lacking in the most basic logic.
"You can divide this issue into three parts," Shiller continued. "First, regarding the ocean, most of it is being investigated by the professors you're familiar with, and the clues ended at the Dakotazo."
"After extensive investigation and speculation, I believe the ship came for me, but I did not board it willingly because I knew they'd be unable to resist inviting me someday. Sure enough, I received an invitation. Batman's monitoring devices installed over the sea had detected the ship on its way to the East Coast."
"At the same time, Gotham's social structure was at a point that required change; the order of the mob was in jeopardy, and it was time for these once dominant mob bosses to bow out."
"We had already planned to arrange a disaster to cut off their way out. 'All Things Green' came at just the right time, destroying their last hope, and sure enough, they were forced onto the boat."
"Then there's the magic realm. Although the initial disaster killed many mages, as they say, 'the taller ones stand up in a calamity.' Most of the casualties were grand mages, and many of the unscrupulous apprentices rolled away with their inheritance, spreading around the world within a year and causing numerous incidents."
"Members from the Forgotten Bar, led by the Master of the Dark Night, have been roaming the world in recent years dealing with similar cases and bringing the criminals to justice. After some time, most of the issues had been resolved," Shiller explained.
"Certain too-sly exiles from the mystic world heard from the esteemed experts of All Souls College that the notorious Dakotazo, causing a stir in ordinary society, was not a ghost ship, but rather connected to the mysterious Atlantis."
"Investigations revealed that Atlantis was once a splendid terrestrial kingdom and even after sinking to the ocean floor, it remained as idyllic as an underwater utopia. This ship was traversing above the Kingdom of Atlantis, and boarding it offered a chance to reach Atlantis."
"By this time, most of the exiles of the magic realm were cornered, and upon hearing this rumor, the vast majority hurriedly made their way to the East Coast, ready to take a gamble."
"The last part involves the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Their involvement in Mexico is an indisputable fact, but agents alone were not sufficient; the Penitent Cartel was our actual target," he clarified.
"To draw this largest transnational drug trafficking group into the fray, Cobblepot had his people offer a high bounty for drugs – high price, high volume. Naturally, some would take risky chances, and the Penitent Cartel would not pass up the fat piece of flesh at their lips."
"But the best poppy-growing region of Guazhou had already been taken down by you guys. They were desperate to ship out large quantities of drugs, and underhanded work would clearly not be fast enough. Inevitable conflicts with your side would arise, and coupled with the FBI's divide and conquer strategy, your downfall was bound to happen."
"But defeat was only temporary. Choosing to retreat would naturally lead someone else to follow. The Penitent Cartel, wanting to have it both ways, drove you out so that on one hand they could transport drugs in large quantities, and on the other hand, they planned to kidnap or kill you as leverage against the FBI. These were their main targets for the near future, absolutely crucial to their operations. So whether it's those transporting drugs this way or those following right behind you, they would certainly be the best of their bunch."
"Just like that, we've assembled three groups of criminals: the long-established but unrepentant mob bosses rooted in Gotham, the leftover magical menaces causing trouble around the world, and the most ruthless killers from the largest Mexican-American drug trafficking organization – over 200 people, all brought onto the ship."
"Wait a second," Oliver interjected. "There are only a little over 200 people on this ship. Are you saying they're all brought here by you?"
Shiller nodded with a smile.
"They haven't disappointed us," Shiller continued. "Amongst these 200+ individuals, we indeed gathered the souls of 99 sinners, as you mentioned. I'm responsible for the executions, the Dark Night Squad for the collection, and the demons for receiving the goods."
"But what I don't understand is how this benefits us?"
"Firstly, obviously, if we just kill off these 200 people, there might be some wrongfully accused. But if we go one by one, we'll surely miss a lot of those who deserve death. Disposing of harmful trash and maintaining a healthy social environment is everyone's responsibility."
"However, as the saying goes, trash is misplaced resources. Simply eliminating them wouldn't compensate for the harm they've inflicted upon the world. Instead, it's better to utilize them one last time to initiate a better method of dealing with demons in our long-term trades," Shiller argued.
With a snap of his fingers, Shiller proclaimed, "From now on, the method of trading power with demons in our cosmos will no longer involve offering one's own soul or organs. Instead, we'll offer the souls of sinners to them in exchange for power."
"This means that a new profession will be born in this cosmos – the Sin Hunters. They'll sign contracts with demons, gaining the Demonic Eye that sees through the weight of the soul, embark on hunting the embodiments of evil, execute the sinners, offer up their souls, and obtain power."
"As can be foreseen, they will be the most powerful magic powers in our cosmos in the future. Besides, since modern laws fail to hold the innate crazies accountable for their misdeeds due to their cunning, let the demons judge the weight of their sins directly at the soul level. There may be omissions, but there will be no false judgments."
"This wave nearly wiped out all of the good hands of the Penitent Cartel, significantly easing the pressure on Mexico, but once we are without external enemies, the fangs of certain individuals will inevitably be bared, and Mexico's situation will continue to deteriorate until those oppressed can no longer survive, sparking a true revolution of blood and fire."
"The Federal Bureau of Investigation also suffered heavy losses, but that's also a good thing. Let them stop worrying about superprisons and special case investigations. A transcendent organization like S.H.I.E.L.D. should have appeared here long ago. I believe that after Amanda and Nick have a talk, they'll know what to do when they come back."
"So what's the deal with Atlanna?" Arthur asked. "What do you know about the Queen?"
Shiller shook his head and said, "I hardly know anything. The only reason I could deduce that the killer was Atlanna is because I have some understandings beyond the facts. However, deducing backwards from this conclusion, it must be that someone, while Atlanna was asleep, transferred his power to me."
"There aren't many people who know the secret of Atlantis and have the ability to steal this power, and the Queen of Atlantis, Atlanna, is the prime suspect."
"As for the specific details of the trade I once had with Atlanna, it's actually not important. The Queen must have been thinking of killing two birds with one stone—using this power to weaken Atlanna while also weakening me, inciting a struggle between the two of us, to the benefit of Atlantis."
"So what did you just do?" Arthur asked again. "Atlanna seemed to be in a lot of pain, and his power suddenly weakened significantly."
"That's the key part of the plan." Shiller withdrew his arm and walked to the very front of the deck, looking down at the seawater.
The others did not understand what Shiller was doing. They followed him and looked towards the depths of the ocean, just like he did, and then they noticed that beneath the ship appeared one dark whirlpool after another.
A certain Dark Power was leaking from the Array below the ship, purposefully flowing in a specific direction, like the most agile swarm of fish in the sea, ceaselessly heading towards the deepest parts of the mysterious ocean.
At the bottom of the Mariana Trench, Hal and the other two floating in the water also noticed this abnormality. More and more water above their heads began to turn dark, reaching a point where not even the light from Batman's flashlight could penetrate.
"What is that?" Hal asked.
"I don't know, but it makes me very uncomfortable," Clark said, taking a deep breath. "There is a heavy concentration of Dark Power inside; they seem to be converging on a certain point."
"Let's go have a look," Batman said.
He realized what this power was. Although he had limited knowledge of the mystic world, he is Batman after all. His investigations had shown that the Dark Source pointed to in countless myths and legends could all refer to the same name.
"Barbatos..." Batman solemnly uttered the name.
Hal, leading the other two, moved toward where the darkness was converging, and then they saw that the golden light seeping through the cracked ground was being continuously entangled and devoured by the Dark Power, with Atlanna's screams emerging from underneath.
"What is that?" Clark, with keen eyes, noticed a pattern in the place where the golden light was densest. It looked very complicated and was made up of many Runes, with elements of goat hooves and feet in the middle.
"Is that a Curse?" Hal, who had some understanding of the topic, yet still puzzled, said, "It looks like some kind of demon's Curse, wait, those Dark Powers seem to be converging into this Curse."
"Atlanna has been ambushed," Batman saw through everything, saying, "Atlanna has been hit with a Curse, and this Curse will attract Dark Power to continuously converge here, which is very likely to consume him."
"But why would Atlanna be cursed? Wasn't he always asleep?"
"For that, we would have to ask Shiller."
"What's going on here?" Oliver leaned over the edge of the ship and asked, "What is this power? Where is it going?"
"Of course, it's to give Atlanna a big surprise," Shiller said, propping his head up with One Hand. "Though we provided these 99 sinners' souls for a trade test, it's still normal; trade can be exchanged for things."
"What did you exchange for?" Oliver had a bad premonition.
"A curse, one written by a Demon King. Of course, it is not any potent death-inducing Curse. To kill Atlanna, there's no need for two Demon Kings to make a move. It's a beacon."
"A beacon? Leading to what?"
"Barbatos' Dark Power." Shiller's smile grew cold as he finally bared his fangs, "Barbatos should have noticed something was wrong by now."