Shiller finished reading Martha's note, which also documented how she used the power of the Evil God to remodel two locations.
These two locations were not chosen randomly; both are related to the mysterious Underground Ancient City. The midpoint of the line connecting Wayne Manor to the Wayne Hotel is precisely where the Ancient City is located, meaning these two buildings are equally distant from the Ancient City.
As for why this was done, Shiller found the answer in the latter part of the plan—Martha wanted to switch times.
Martha's ambition was even greater than he had imagined. She didn't simply want to delay matters by 20 years and then resolve them after 20 years. She wanted to delay for 20 years and then have someone from 20 years in the future come back to directly erase all losses.
After becoming a Follower of the Evil God, she had a way to affect the time nodes of a particular region in this separate cosmos, but not by direct control. Instead, she employed a sleight of hand, a bait-and-switch.
The current timeline can be seen as 0, the past timeline as -1, and the future timeline as +1.
The sum of all times in all spaces on the current timeline must always be 0, meaning it must always be the present, neither anchored in the past nor fixed in the future.
This is normal because for all linear-time beings, every minute and second they experience is the present. The past and future are not substantial to them; they are not tangible. Therefore, bringing spaces from the past and future would seriously violate the laws of the cosmos and result in severe consequences. Universe administrators strictly guard against this, and clearly, Martha had no capacity to disrupt it.
But she had another method. If the sum just needs to equal 0, then she just needed to create a section of -1 and another of +1, and the two would add up to 0. The same principle would apply for more distant times.
This means that neither the hotel where Shiller, nor the one where Peter was, actually existed in the present. The true present should be the day between the difference of the two hotels. It's just that this 0 was replaced with -20 and +20.
And now, Wayne Manor was the same, after the successful experience with the hotel, Wayne Manor was changed to -20 years and +20 years—Martha wanted that -20 years.
As long as this pattern was used to anchor a location from 20 years ago, people from the future could enter this space and change something there, thereby affecting things 20 years ago and giving those people a chance to turn things around.
But according to Martha, there was also a problem: the times could not be aligned perfectly and would result in both time points increasingly converging until they completely merged, so the opportunity had to be seized before the merger.
Shiller thought back to his and Peter's encounter with the time at the hotels and realized that the zero point was off by some tens of seconds. This might have been the calibration error Martha spoke of and ultimately the culprit for the two time points inexorably drawing closer.
But there was a much larger margin for error over 20 years. Martha mentioned in her letter that the Four Families and Falcone each had their plans, aiming to use the 20 years of inheritance to execute their breakthrough strategy.
All these images flashed through Shiller's mind, and he roughly understood what they intended to do.
He sighed inwardly but still pocketed the letter and hurried downstairs. Alfred's head indeed hadn't moved; as Shiller stepped out of the back garden's door, he turned to look at the aged butler one last time.
Shiller dashed toward the big tree in the garden, found the cellar entrance as quickly as possible, and jumped in; he followed the footprints to the rendezvous point and saw immediately what Jerome was holding in his hand.
It was a piece of shimmering metal.
It was still covered in Alfred's blood and brain matter.
Shiller sighed, asked no questions, said nothing, and simply stated, "Let's go."
Jerome looked back at him but ultimately also remained silent, and the group set off towards the Ancient City in silence.
Shiller soon felt the shifts in time, clearly heading towards a place 20 years in the past, the predestined endgame designed by Mr. and Mrs. Wayne along with the Four Families.
Jerome seemed to fully understand the map, leading the group through countless turns to arrive at the gates of the Ancient City.
When Shiller entered God's Temple, he saw Peter immersed in an enchanting liquid in a pool, and he sighed again but said nothing.
"Sorry, but I'm afraid I'll need to borrow your companion. I assure you he won't die," Jerome said smiling at Shiller.
In just a glance, Shiller realized he was facing the true Joker. It was no longer necessary for Shiller to discern, as Jerome produced a jar of green liquid—Shiller recognized it to be the Dionysus Factor, something only the Joker could handle unscathed.
They approached the altar at the very front of the pool, surrounded by exactly five vacant spots, each one marked with a different pattern in different colors.
Jerome was the first to place the piece of metal extracted from Alfred's head onto the gold-patterned spot.
Jerome placed the green liquid in his hand onto the green-patterned spot.
Cobblepot's blood-red leg oozed a wine-red liquid, which he collected in a glass bottle and then placed onto the wine-red-patterned spot.
Finally, everyone turned to look at Shiller.
More precisely, at the head of Gordon that Shiller held in his hands.
"The final metal is in my head," Gordon said. "Open up my head and take it out."
"Let me guess, you each represent a backup plan set by the Four Families," Shiller sized up the others, "Over the course of 20 years, one person searching for one kind of metal, then assembling them together to summon a great dark entity."
At this point, the Jerome brothers no longer intended to hide anything; they nodded, only for Shiller to say, "Did you ever consider that this plan might have been tampered with, that there's a traitor among you?"
"Impossible," Cobblepot said. "It's precisely because we were anxious about faults in the plan that they made the younger generation do it - we've never directly encountered the Evil God ourselves."
"But you've still been contaminated."
"We've been contaminated on purpose," Jerome revealed as he lifted up the hem of his shirt, showing the red wound with tiny granulations inside. "This is a cultivated, controllable contamination that, aside from enhancing our survival capabilities, also prevents us from being contaminated a second time and helps to suppress the metal inside us, that stuff isn't something ordinary people can just handle."
"Excellent," Shiller commented. "Then why am I here?"
"We'd very much like to know that too," Jerome stared at him. "You weren't supposed to be a variable in the plan, but given your value, we didn't stop you either."
"As a matter of fact, I received an SOS," Shiller said. "A friend who trusts me asked me to find him in room 1905 of the hotel. Guess who that was?"
"Bruce Wayne? He's a part of the plan too, his duty is to keep that Evil God busy. Though we don't know why, the Evil God is very interested in him."
"So, he's the one who's dealt with the Evil God the most?"
"You could say that," Jerome replied.
"Since he's involved with you, he didn't actually need to seek my help, but since he did, it means he no longer trusts you. This proves there may well be a mole among you."
The atmosphere among everyone stiffened. Cobblepot spoke first, "Impossible, we all double-checked..."
"Who can guarantee anything when it comes to the Evil God?" Shiller sighed, placed Gordon's head on the table, and said, "Whether you believe it or not, I know far more than you do."
"The thing inside James's head is not the fifth metal," Shiller declared. "From the moment he took on the mission, he fell into a trap set by the Evil God, it's a complete fraud. If you use what's in his head for the Array, all your efforts will be wasted."
The others looked at each other, not sure who to believe. Shiller was indeed the only variable, but this eccentric could also be a puppet of the Evil God.
"We won't believe you," Cobblepot said. "The Evil God is best at misleading people, appearing in various forms to win trust. Our elders paid a huge price for this, my own mother is still trapped in a mad delusion, I won't believe you."
"Then give me my person back," Shiller didn't intend to discuss further and walked towards the pool; the Jerome brothers exchanged glances, their faces revealing a menacing look.
Peter lay quietly in the pool, his eyes closed as if in a beautiful dream. Shiller wanted to fish him out, but the Jerome brothers pounced on him and pulled him away.
"Can't kill him," Gordon suddenly said. "The blood of a stranger might contaminate the pool, let's not make things worse."
"You're having that old problem again," Jerome complained. "All right, let it be then. I'm going to open up your head."
Shiller was tackled down but seemed to have no intention of standing back up. He sat where he fell, but took out the clock by himself.
"If I'm not mistaken, this is the fifth metal you're looking for, left by Martha," Shiller guessed. "She seemed to figure out through some means where the Evil God would tamper, so she took precautions in advance. Believe it or not, it's up to you."
Shiller threw the clock over, hitting Jerome who caught it, but couldn't see anything unusual about it from the clock. The metal used to make the clock seemed like the most ordinary metal.
Contrarily, the piece taken from Gordon's head emitted a faint fluorescence, consistent with all the other metals in appearance.
They really just gathered around and started to study it.
Shiller really couldn't stand it anymore and whispered, "I'm starting to understand arrogance now."
Everyone turned their eyes towards him as Shiller sighed again and said, "I really don't understand why, with 20 years to prepare, your elders didn't think to go to England to invite an expert to guide you. Have you even studied a smidgen of arcane theoretical knowledge?"
Shiller rambled in frustration, "Everybody dares to make plans, everybody just executes them. Didn't you ever think, not even one of your elders is a Magician? Without any, where did you get the courage to rely on your own imagination against the Evil God?"
"Don't you realize, magic is a very precise thing with mature theories developed over many years, a set of its own rules and processes, a very rigorous system," he continued.
"Even if those things seem like instinct to a Magical Family, they represent a formidable barrier of knowledge to you normal people, daring to act without understanding anything; even with 20 years, not bothering to go to some school to study a little, you'd be weirdly successful if you did manage."
"Go ahead, place whichever one you want," Shiller waved dismissively, "Anyway, neither is going to work, you place whichever you prefer."