Sex is an inescapable topic for the human race, and naturally, it is also an unavoidable subject for serial killers. In the victim selection process, gender is an extremely important factor, and in most cases, it is the most important factor.
However, according to Shiller's understanding of Jonathan Crane, he was disinterested in the topic of sex. He even dismissed it as a lower and primitive expression, believing he should pursue something nobler and purer.
Jonathan was an anti-instinctualist; he dressed as a Scarecrow essentially to transform himself into a symbol, that is, "non-human."
He believed such a state was a sublimation for him, elevating him above all ordinary life and even allowing him to harm ordinary people with a clear conscience, harboring a judgmental attitude towards them.
Therefore, the core of this case was actually in conflict with Jonathan. Jonathan saw himself as different from ordinary people, and since he had disguised himself as a Scarecrow, he would not dress the victims as Scarecrows either.
Especially since these victims were law enforcement officers, whom he despised most, he wouldn't elevate them; he thought they were unworthy.
But Shiller knew these cases were done by Jonathan, and he had smugly presented a paper within the club, expounding thoughts similar to what Jenna had perceived.
Once more, a leopard can't change its spots. A person's character doesn't change easily, especially for a natural-born anti-social like Jonathan. He wouldn't suddenly act against his character unless absolutely necessary, and he certainly wouldn't boast about it; he'd rather keep it hidden.
This made Shiller suspect something was amiss.
Speaking again of the Nigma serial murders, this case was even more bizarre. When Gordon inquired about the case, Shiller's condition wasn't as bad as it was now, and he believed that the case was connected by one person's life trajectory.
But now, when he looked at these photos, certain images began to flash in his mind, and he realized many details he hadn't noticed before.
Shiller spread out the photos again, stared at the last totem case for a long time, and his brow never unfurrowed.
It's not enough, Shiller thought. The curse's deterioration wasn't rapid enough. His condition hadn't plunged to the rock bottom, his empathy wasn't pushed to the limits, and some things lurking deep underwater hadn't been detected.
After trying for a long time, Shiller finally gave up. He put down the photos and instinctively looked around, his gaze suddenly resting on Brand's face.
Brand had a bad premonition.
Sure enough, he heard Shiller say, "An Outer God can influence a person's mind, right?"
Brand didn't know why he asked, but he nodded anyway.
"Can you do it to me?"
"What?"
"Like what you do to others, to my brain."
Brand was clearly taken aback, and it seemed Shiller's question even fried Nyarla's CPU.
"No, that's not it," Brand said. "Mental disorders are a sequela from humans acquiring too much knowledge, it's not my attack method."
"Yes, but you can cause such aftermath, right?"
"Uh…" Brand was indeed stumped by his question and after thinking carefully he said, "I can, but you must look at me directly."
"How should I look at you directly?"
"I don't know."
Brand responded, leaving Shiller stunned and the two stared at each other in silence for several dozen seconds before Brand spoke.
"I really don't know. I've shown almost all my forms in front of you, but you haven't encountered any problems, so I don't know how you should look at me."
Shiller was silent for several dozen seconds before saying, "So, I'm immune to you?"
"Otherwise, how could you borrow my power?" Brand retorted. "If you went crazy just looking at me, you wouldn't have my debt. You gained my power without going mad, which is a much greater force than just looking at me."
"Then why can I obtain your power without going mad?"
"I've been observing you to get the answer to that question."
The two were silent again for several seconds until Shiller suddenly had a revelation. He said, "The one who owes you isn't me, but the Soviet, so the one who might be immune to you is him, not me."
Brand thought it over and said, "It's not impossible, but the body you use is his; I can only find this body."
"No, this body is mine," Shiller wasn't surprised; he didn't know his own origins, and after all, God would probably be higher than him—it was normal not to know what God had done.
Shiller thought and said, "The problem must be in his soul, to be precise, he himself was a person… I don't know how to say it, but the reason he didn't go mad may be because he believed that all knowledge in this world can be understood and studied, so he didn't feel the collapse."
Brand didn't speak, seemingly conceding to this speculation. Shiller continued, "But I'm different from him; perhaps if I had seen what he saw originally, it might have affected my sanity. What did he see originally?"
"My true form, he found my true form to negotiate."
"How did he find you?"
"Can I not say?"
Shiller narrowed his eyes as he stared at him.
"Do you know that the Outer Gods hide deep within the stars?"
Shiller nodded his head.
"The stars flicker before the eyes of the human race in a certain cyclical pattern. Unfortunately, it was when I flickered that he discovered me. He created a super telescope, a blend of science and magic, and saw me with a single glance."
"Then did he trick you into coming down so he could slaughter you?"
"To be precise, he didn't exactly trick me," Brand said through clenched teeth. "Come on, a human actually saw my true form. If you were me, could you resist responding to him?"
"Now do you appreciate how valuable curiosity is?"
"Yes, it's too valuable."
"Back on track," Shiller thought for a moment before adding, "Do you know where that super telescope he had made is?"
"I know, but you probably can't get to it."
"Where is it?"
"In the sun, Nyarlathotep said. The sun itself is that super telescope, more accurately described as a giant laser cannon. It fired and struck my homeland, nearly shaving off the surface of several neighboring stars that were close to me."
Shiller was increasingly convinced that his original self was Anatoli; only he would do such a thing. The stars called out to him, and he answered with cannon fire. When he stared into the abyss, the abyss panicked and sprinted away with a train.
Shiller could at most create a loud alarm and throw it into the other's house to give them a wake-up call, but Anatoli always made a dramatic physical exit.
Recalling the past when Shiller researched all issues related to himself—put pleasantly, it was Anatoli engaging in verbal jousts; put bluntly, he was punching first to avoid a hundred punches. Debates turned into full combat in less than 30 seconds, with the opposition leader earning a three-month hospital stay.
But when Shiller asked about how to use this giant telescope, Brand was clueless and said he couldn't be expected to know all the details of the laser cannon—he was the one it had fired at, after all!
At that point, Shiller knew he had to take some special measures. Conveniently, it was now night, time to sleep.
Watching Shiller walk away, Brand felt an increasingly ominous premonition growing inside him.
That night, Nyarlathotep experienced for the first time in his life being hit by a fully insured semi-truck in his dreams. The moment he saw the Joker jumping down from the truck, Nyarlathotep's CPU started smoking.
This was an expansive, boundless snowfield, with nothing but vast whiteness between heaven and earth, almost devoid of any other substance.
What was particularly striking was a shattered black hole appearing between heaven and earth, with half of a vast truck protruding, and inside, the Joker stamped his feet and breathed out visibly, cursing the cold weather.
At the edge of the white expanse, a vast shadow rose, between endless darkness and chaos, and countless eyes settled on that tiny truck.
From the passenger side, Shiller stepped down.
The moment his eyes met with Nyarlathotep's true form, the dream shattered instantly.
Shiller bolted upright in bed, intense pain as though his brain was being crushed. His face turned deathly pale instantly, cold sweat streaming down his forehead.
The curse took advantage of his weakened state, dropping his body temperature to a dangerously low threshold, scales spreading down his spine and nearly covering the upper half of his skin.
At that moment, Shiller found himself in an endless wheat field.
The intense pain in his brain made it impossible for him to concentrate; his vision swayed, blurry and filled with fog.
The wheat was tall like a wall; Shiller pushed through the wheat, stepping onto the soft ground, feeling his feet almost sinking in. The ground did not feel like a field, but more like a marsh or a whirlpool.
He continued forward, looking up to only see the wheat stalks that encircled his head and fell downward, and the blue sky segmented by the stalks.
As Shiller struggled through endless stalks of wheat, he saw blood starting to appear on the ground, his vision growing more and more faint, with bloody images flashing before his eyes.
A man was stripped of his uniform, his chest ripped open, all organs removed. His skin was peeled away, and hands stuffed straw inside, the same hands cradling this straw-stuffed corpse, placing it on a huge cross.
Shiller parted the last layer of wheat to see this massively enlarged towering cross before him, the man's head turning toward him, no eyeballs, just empty sockets of straw staring at him.
Two trails of blood tears streamed down from the sockets.
Within Shiller's view, the masculine features gradually softened, the black hair grew longer, and the giant corpse strung on the cross transformed into a female—elegant and beautiful, yet lifeless, with more blood seeping from the straw crevices, every drop carried resentment.
Suddenly, Shiller plummeted.
When he opened his eyes again, he found himself heavily fallen back onto the bed, realizing what details he had missed earlier.
Gender, something that shouldn't exist in these two serial killer cases, yet it had abruptly appeared in them.
In the Scarecrow case, victims had their reproductive organs removed. In the Nigma case, the last victim was penetrated from below upward.
She loathed her reproductive organs, Shiller thought, a woman regretting her past, using this destructive method to remind herself not to make the same mistakes again.
She hated not just the organs themselves, but what they represented—reproduction. She resented having offspring—
Had her offspring betrayed her?