Martha!!

Li Zu wiped the blood from his nose, and his head cleared a little.

Whether from that near-mad Mental World, where his reason had plummeted, or from the dizziness caused by losing so much blood through his nose.

The children had cried themselves out, and the house had fallen quiet.

It was already afternoon. The sunlight streaming through the huge floor-to-ceiling windows soothed the mind.

He struggled up from the blood-red sofa. Through the glass, he could see a black-and-white spotted cat crouching on a tree branch.

"Meow~"

The cat noticed his gaze, meowed, and jumped down from the tree.

"Damn Batman, damn Harvey Dent, damn..." Joker Lady was still cursing. That was unlike her usual self.

She rarely got angry at anything.

But this time, she seemed unable to restrain the fury in her heart.

Li Zu pushed open the door and walked out. He began to wonder which was more appealing to Joker: tormenting Batman or overturning this broken world.

He left two footprints on the portrait of the Holy Son that had fallen to the ground, its face marked with a twisted crimson smile.

This was a world beyond even a god's power to save.

There was a balcony on the third floor.

Crows pecked at the roof tiles, their shadows stretched long by the setting sun.

Hearing Li Zu's approaching footsteps, they flapped their wings and flew away, leaving a string of harsh caws over his head.

On the balcony stood Li Zu, along with a cat staring at him strangely.

He paid no attention to the cat and simply spread his hands.

A wooden crate appeared out of nowhere and crashed down before him.

He opened the crate. It was completely empty inside.

Li Zu placed Harley Quinn Yoyo's toy in one corner of the crate.

The crate immediately vanished.

Turning an entire living creature into a toy was entirely different from turning only part of someone into a toy.

The smaller a living person became when turned into a toy, the less energy and stamina it cost him. It was like paying in installments: the size of the down payment determined whether things would be easy or exhausting later. But for now, he could not see what advantage a life-sized toy had over one as small as a finger.

Screech—

The sound of a car braking sharply came from downstairs.

A middle-aged man gripped a phone in his right hand and held a pistol in his left.

He immediately spotted Li Zu on the third-floor balcony and raised his gun.

Li Zu obediently raised both hands. "The two children are on the second floor. Don't shoot~"

"Stay right there and don't move!" The sunset glinted off the middle-aged man's glasses. His beard hid the expression on the lower half of his face, but from his voice, he sounded like he was gritting his teeth.

"Of course. I absolutely won't move around~"

Li Zu swore earnestly. He truly had no intention of moving, because the guy downstairs could not possibly make it to the third floor.

Jim Gordon looked grave.

The surveillance footage showed that this guy in a green suit had turned Harvey Dent into a finger-sized toy.

Toyman had once been an obscure nobody because his ability was clumsy and useless.

Whether it was turning lighters into toys or banknotes into plastic sheets, it only amounted to pranks. Besides, he had the temperament of a child without the intelligence to match.

But everything that had happened today had drawn a great deal of attention to this madman.

Harvey Dent was the most corrupt, most insane, and most obsessive man in the city, but anyone could die except Harvey Dent.

It was a compromise everyone had accepted—Batman, Penguin, even the supervillains.

But this man had destroyed that compromise, the one everyone had silently accepted.

Jim Gordon glared at Toyman upstairs with his hands raised, the phone still pressed to his ear.

"I've tracked down Toyman, Thomas!"

"Wait. I'll be there soon," Thomas Wayne's voice came through the phone.

"Let me play the hero for once too, Thomas! That guy doesn't look like much. I guarantee that before he can turn me into a toy, there'll be a few more holes in his head."

Jim hung up, pushed open the heavy iron gate rusted at its hinges, and entered the dark, ominous manor as crows took flight around him.

The first-floor door stood open.

He stepped inside. There were no windows, only the faint light spilling in from the entrance.

It was very dark.

The room was empty, with twentieth-century paintings hanging on the walls.

It looked more like an art exhibition than a private villa.

The light from the doorway happened to shine on the painting directly in front of Jim.

Jim's gaze was drawn to it involuntarily.

What he saw was a group of monsters.

They resembled no kind of demon, but they were certainly not human. They retained only a few human traits. Most stood on two legs with their bodies bent forward, looking like a pack of dogs.

The painting depicted them in a nauseating way, swarming through graveyards and tunnels in packs as they fought over prey. Those prey had faces without eyes. It was horrifying.

Other paintings showed those creatures leaping through open windows at night, crouching on sleeping humans' chests, ready to tear out their throats.

One painting showed them surrounding a witch hanged on Gallows Hill, barking incessantly. The dead witch's face was remarkably similar to theirs.

Jim Gordon felt uncomfortable and mentally exhausted.

He forcibly tore his gaze away from the paintings. Even an ordinary person would surely descend into madness and terror after staying in a place like this too long and looking at those paintings.

The stairs to the second floor creaked.

"Mmmph, mmmph..." Something made muffled noises as if its mouth had been covered. Jim steadied himself and slowed his pace.

At the second-floor doorway, at the obtuse turn leading to the third floor, lay a portrait of the Holy Son.

Bright red paint had given him a bizarre smiling face.

"Mmmph, mmmph..." The sounds came from inside the room.

Jim suppressed his pounding heart, drew his gun, and pushed open the door.

Bang.

Bang.

Bang!!

Li Zu sat on the balcony, listening to the gunfire below.

There had to be a winner. He had hoped that righteous-looking man could take down Joker.

But the screams told him everything.

As expected, Joker had won again.

Rumble, rumble, rumble—the roar of an engine.

On the distant horizon, a black jeep came charging recklessly toward them.

This was a Batman without a Batmobile. His black cape billowed in the wind, and he had heard the gunshots too.

"Martha!!"

Batman roared, "What have you done this time?!"

Li Zu's smile suddenly froze. Things had developed beyond his expectations.

This was the first time.

He grabbed at his hair in frustration. The slight sting in his scalp helped him focus. Batman ignored Li Zu, leaping up and using a rope to pull himself through the window, smashing it as he flew into the second floor.

"Again and again, don't really do this, Joker!" Batman was still roaring.

An argument broke out below, their words revealing the relationship between them.

And the son they had lost together.

The ones who had died in that alley were not Thomas Wayne and Martha Wayne, but young Bruce.

Thomas Wayne had beaten that bastard to death with his fists, while Martha had suffered a mental breakdown after losing her son and become Joker.

Batman's shouts came from right below him, but Li Zu suddenly found his partnership with Joker rather ridiculous.

The one he had encountered was not a real Joker.

"Working with a madwoman who lost her child... no matter how I look at it, I'm the crazy one."

The real Joker could help Li Zu achieve his goal of overturning this broken world. But Martha Wayne was only a deranged woman obsessed with her child. Perhaps she had become highly intelligent after going mad, but she certainly would not help Li Zu do anything. The love between her and Batman also meant that Batman was all she saw.

Two figures fell from the shattered window. Batman used his own body as a cushion, protecting Joker.

The touching bond between husband and wife seemed so dull and meaningless in Li Zu's eyes.

The weather changed quickly. Dark clouds suddenly filled the sky, followed by flashes of lightning and rumbling thunder.

Rain began to fall in a soft patter.

Li Zu stood up.

"Perhaps it's time to leave Gotham."

(End of chapter)