Battle of Living Hell (Part Two)

Batman didn't linger in the stairwell for long, because he knew that if he were discovered by the local inhabitants and attracted too many pursuers, given the terrifyingly complex architectural structure, he might not be able to escape.

So, following his deduction, he found another small door, crawled into the intestinal passage, and then went up two more floors. He went out through another door and found that his deduction was correct. This was another rooftop, and on the side of the rooftop was another small door. Through this passage, he could reach another building. The entire Living Hell spread out layer by layer in this architectural structure until it covered the entire area. People here could reach every corner without leaving the building, just like a huge Hive.

This was truly astounding, even to Batman.

He had systematically studied architectural engineering and structural engineering. Even so, this bizarre and strange architectural form was beyond his comprehension. In his previous understanding, any building must be designed to reflect the combination of function and aesthetics, which is also the meaning of the existence of architecture.

Gotham's Living Hell is like trampling human architecture underfoot. It's an architectural marvel spontaneously constructed by a group of ordinary people who know absolutely nothing about architecture. It's filled with a lot of chaotic and disorderly illegal constructions. The original building structures have been almost completely destroyed. All sorts of conduits are haphazardly crisscrossed in every building. The water and electricity systems are a mess, and pollution treatment is barely even done.

But it truly achieves a combination of architectural function and aesthetics; yes, Batman believes there is a certain beauty in it.

Before he could delve deeper into this Hell within Hell, he heard a soft sound coming from upstairs, like metal scraping against a stone slab.

Batman looked up and saw a figure standing on the roof of the building next to him. That building was also part of the Living Hell, but it was taller. Batman was standing below, in the shadows at the base of the wall, and the person upstairs didn't seem to have noticed him.

He took two more steps forward and got a clearer view of the situation on the building, where it seemed there were two people facing off.

Judging from their clothes, neither of them were natives of the Living Hell, which made Batman very curious. Who else would come to a dark Slums in the middle of the night like him?

So he found an angle and threw something in his hand with force. It was a Batarang, but it was equipped with a listening device. The Batarang flew "whoosh" and hit the wall of the building, getting stuck in a gap near the roof. Batman put on his headphones and could clearly hear the voice on the other side.

But the two men didn't seem to have any intention of speaking. The one standing near the edge of the roof was tall, with a sharp arm blade on his forearm. He charged straight at the other man, who vanished in an instant and reappeared behind him.

Batman blinked, confirming that this wasn't a hallucination; the person had simply vanished and reappeared out of thin air.

Immediately afterwards, he heard a very familiar voice come from his earpiece. "I knew you guys would show up sooner or later."

That was the voice of his Psychology Professor, Schiller.

The other person's voice seemed to be using a voice changer, sounding somewhat high-pitched. He said, "You should have thought about this day from the moment you offended us. You can think about your last words now."

Batman shifted his feet, confirming that it was his university professor, Schiller. His first instinct was to help, but Schiller's words quickly made him stop, for there seemed to be a bigger secret between them. He heard Schiller say, "You don't need to keep pretending. I know you're not my enemy in Metropolis."

The man didn't answer and continued charging towards Schiller. Under Batman's unwavering gaze, the university professor who claimed to be an ordinary person did indeed disappear for a moment and then reappear.

During that brief pause in the Assassin's movements, Schiller said, "Perhaps I should call you... Claw?"

The man opposite him stopped what he was doing. He gently clenched his fingers, turned the arm blade on his arm, and then said, "How did you know?"

Then he added, "However you know it, there can only be one King of the Night in Gotham, and that is the courtroom."

"You don't need to repeat your ideas to me. I just want to tell you that you've come to the wrong person," Schiller said.

The claw seemed to receive some command. It instantly increased its speed, and its arm began to shimmer. Then Batman saw Schiller's figure suddenly disappear, and a cloud of gray mist appeared in place. Immediately afterwards, gray mist began to spread across the entire rooftop, mixed with some black particles.

Batman suddenly felt a bit short of breath, and an extreme excitement spread from his heart. He felt that he was starting to lose control completely. Batman knelt down and grabbed his throat with both hands, his veins bulging.

"Who are you? Who are you?!"

"Who I am?"

"Who I am?"

"What exactly am I..."

"I am Batman!"

"I am Batman..."

The voice in the hallucination became clearer and clearer, gradually taking over Batman's mind. He was almost hoarse from shouting, and he felt a consciousness beyond his control taking over his body.

As the fog thickened, Batman suddenly fell to his knees, black Slime erupting and enveloping his entire body. Then, a massive black monster leaped onto the rooftop.

This was an unexpected turn of events for neither of them on the rooftop. Schiller recoiled instantly, then stared at the black monster. He whispered, "Venom? How did you get out here?"

But it seemed that the monster had lost its mind and was charging madly at Schiller.

Schiller didn't have time to think. He transformed into a cloud of gray mist and retreated quickly. When the monster reached Schiller, it seemed to regain some of its senses, or rather, the Venom's consciousness had taken over.

"I'll eat your brain!" Venom said.

Schiller opened his mouth, then suddenly realized that something seemed off about the Venom's shape. What was with those two pointed ears on its head?

Could it be that he...?

Then Schiller said to Venom, "I think you might have a bigger problem to deal with before you even think about eating..."

"What?" Venom was stunned for a moment.

Then Venom felt a violent surge of dark emotion erupt from his host's body, and the terrifying black tide caused Venom to lose control of his body almost instantly.

In the short life of this Symbiote, he had never experienced such terrifying and intense dark emotions. Normally, Symbiote that feed on emotions would devour any emotion and would not be afraid of their food.

But now, Venom seemed to be swallowed up by a terrible flood in an instant. He lost control of his host and all his cells without even making a sound.

Soon, Schiller watched in disbelief as Venom's form changed. Originally, Venom's form was more similar to the liquid armor he had on Stark.

Now, Venom's armor remains intact. He lets out a somewhat painful roar, and the black monster struggles to kneel down, then the Slime on his body begins to reform.

Pointed ears, fangs, and wings—a bat symbol gradually emerged from his chest, and a pair of enormous bat wings spread out from his back. The Venom Bat instantly took to the air and swooped down towards Schiller.

Schiller transformed into Gray Mist to avoid the impact, but the bad news is that the Venom Bat is likely out of control.

Even if he were to guess, Schiller could glean some clues. Although he didn't know how Venom ended up in Batman's body, who was Batman? The epitome of the dark side of the entire DC Universe. The Symbiote couldn't possibly control such a person; on the contrary, it was very likely that it would stimulate the darkness hidden within Batman's heart.

The Symbiote's consciousness may have been directly trapped, and the body is now controlled by an out-of-control dark bat.

This is a huge problem. Batman was originally just a mortal, relying more on his intelligence. But the Symbiote is an extremely unreasonable entity in the Marvel Universe. The stronger the host, the stronger it becomes, and vice versa.

It allows the host's potential to be fully developed and directly converted into combat power, and it goes without saying how much potential Batman has.

The Venom Bat in mid-air was undergoing astonishing changes. Its body began to grow larger and larger, and the black Slime expanded endlessly. Countless tentacles made of black Slime wrapped around the monster like a cocoon.

Spikes began to appear on his body, and under the moonlight, a monster more than ten meters tall with huge spiked wings appeared in the sky above the Living Hell.

It was an extremely terrifying black bat. Its entire body was jet black, except for a silver bat symbol on its chest. Its eyes, like those of Knull, the creator of the body, emitted a flame-like light, making it appear ferocious and terrifying.

Schiller looked up at the enormous monster, then asked the Gray Mist in his mind, "Are you sure you can fight?"

"I just don't like fighting, not that I can't! I'm going to beat him up!!!"

As soon as Gray Mist finished speaking, Schiller's Gray Mist form began to change.

The gray fog began to thicken from its initial thinness, and as it Gray Mist, a circular sun composed of countless strange fog patterns slowly condensed and rose from the fog.

Countless Gray Mist, like scattered solar particles, spread out from the densest center, resembling menacing Shade and unseen tentacles.

This eerie sun, composed of gray mist, gradually grew deeper and darker. The mist condensed more and more, and its color became increasingly dark. Under the moonlight, yet another enormous and terrifying monster was born.

This parasitic race, born of chaos, raised in chaos, and destined to return to chaos, is forever filled with a bizarre and terrifying beauty. When these two enormous monsters appeared in the sky above the Living Hell, the moonlight became even brighter.

Soon, they became entangled, swiftly traversing this eerie city that seemed to be alive.

The bright moonlight, the massive, twisted city behind it, and the countless tangled wires forming the Web together created a backdrop that, like the battle itself, was eerie, chilling, and magnificent.

A huge full moon rises, and mist and Slime fly past in front. Buildings backlit by the moonlight become pitch-black silhouettes. Layers of power lines, tall garbage bags, and countless broken bricks and tiles are surrounded by cold moonlight that pulls black and gray as it rapidly shuttles through the city.

The floating plastic bags froze in mid-air for a moment, like jellyfish coated with cold light. Countless aluminum cans flying in mid-air were also frozen, turning into shimmering fish in the frozen tide. In an instant, a giant wave swept past, and a silent storm tore everything apart. Wood planks fell as dust settled, and metal rose with a shimmering light.

The scene recedes rapidly, the view passing through the chaotic interweaving of the supporting structures of the buildings, climbing along the power lines to the top, where the enormous city, viewed from above, resembles the gaping maw of Abyss.

Then, the speed of the descent caused ripples in the wind at the edge of the field of vision, and the fog and Slime spiraled faster and faster, while the moonlight grew brighter and brighter.

In an instant, time stood still, the moonlight paused, and the sound of the wind froze. All the points of light were frozen in mid-air, rotating around countless rays of light. As they got closer and closer to the center, it was finally clear that the two forces had collided silently, and millions of factors rose up to form a huge Mushroom cloud.

In the silent explosion, there was no light or sound, only an eerie stillness. Then, a surge of brainwaves erupted, and countless sharp cries burst forth on the mental level.

In almost a single exchange, the battle at the microscopic level, which is beyond the direct observation of humans, had already entered its tens of millions of rounds.

In the blink of an eye, the first clash ended, and the battle, visible only by the moonlight, began again. The moonlight cast countless dark Shade across the city, like the curtain of an opera, drawing back the boundary between gray and black.

Tonight in Gotham, silence and sound waves play in unison, stillness and conflict dance together, a black tide rises from the Living Hell, and the city screams.

Under the moonlight, atop the silhouette of a dark building, a figure dwarfed by the monster finally collapsed in extreme fear and chaos, its last words spoken into the earpiece. "Cannot return... cannot return now..."

"... The Court of Owls must not return at this time!!!"

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