When Bruce rushed into the room, Shiller had already vanished. The period of darkness this ti was so particularly long that Bruce, lacking night vision, hadn't seen how Shiller had left at all.
The office had more than one door. The extended period of darkness was enough for Shiller to exit through any of the doors. Bruce knew this, so rather than chasing after him in panic, he began examining the room.
In the pitch black, Bruce held a miniature flashlight, observing the state of the scene. There wasn't much to investigate in reality, Bruce had already seen everything from the window. The only valuable things in the room were the chair, the corpse, and traces of blood all over the floor.
There was just too much blood. The intense sll of blood made Bruce feel sowhat dizzy. At that mont, he noticed a trail of blood footprints on the ground.
He went over to take a look and found that they likely belonged to a man's leather shoe, perfectly matching Shiller's shoe size.
Yet Bruce felt this was a trap. He knew Shiller had abilities far beyond the average person. He didn't need to walk to leave, so why would he leave footprints?
Maybe it was just another one of his tactics to divert attention, but Bruce could only follow this clue. Besides the pursuit of justice to apprehend the killer, Bruce felt another kind of urge.
He had witnessed Shiller's cri first-hand. This wasn't like before when he suspected what Shiller might have done, but due to Shiller's sneaky thods and expert deflection, had no leads to pursue.
He had seen with his own eyes exactly how Shiller had killed a man, how he'd cruelly deprived a person of their life.
In other words, Shiller no longer had any excuse to absolve himself of his cris.
Following the footprints, Bruce pursued further. He saw the line of blood footprints leading up the staircase, all the way to the top floor of the psychiatric hospital. The higher he climbed, the more confused he beca, as next to the bloody footprints, there were even more blood stains.
It wasn't like the traces of blood drops from the clothes of the murderer. The amount was just too huge. It seed that Shiller had been bleeding all the way.
This seed absurd to Bruce, how could Shiller bleed? He was nothing more than a mist. Who could make a mist bleed?
However, when he reached the top floor and opened the door at the end of the passage, he confird he wasn't seeing an illusion. Shiller stood before him, pallid and covered in blood.
He stood by the window pane. As the moonlight shone on his dark suit, Bruce saw that most of it had been stained dark red. The bloodstains were clotting, one layer on top of another.
At this point, Shiller's face was very pale without a trace of blood color on his lips. From excessive blood loss, he seed to be on the verge of unconsciousness,
Yet, there was no pain or weakness in his eyes, instead, there was a morbid look Bruce had never seen before, an hysterical emotion that he couldn't understand.
Next to him, three chairs were neatly arranged, the previous three victims sitting upright on them. They were facing Bruce, their heads raised, looking towards the ceiling of the room.
Bruce didn't understand the strange posture they were in. Their empty eyes seed to be staring at sothing, yet also appeared to see nothing.
"You're here," Shiller's voice sounded when he spoke, and Bruce felt it was entirely unfamiliar. He couldn't help but think, the man in front of him wasn't the professor he knew at all.
"I know, you've always thought that multiple personality disorder was an excuse murderers used to escape guilt," Shiller's voice was very light, seemingly skimming the surface, and slightly tender. It wasn't harsh, but completely different from the usual him.
"Do you still think so?" Shiller asked.
"Who are you?" Bruce walked in, stood opposite to Shiller, with only a few ters of distance between them.
"Perhaps he never told you, those nurous personalities you t before, they can't exactly be called personalities..." Shiller's voice seed sowhat weak, as if they were never landing solidly. He said: "Each personality represents a trait, the Shiller you were most familiar with, represented arrogance."
"The Shiller you've chosen before, was originally arrogant, but after being chosen by you, he beca insane."
"And ..." Shiller looked at Bruce and said, "I represent the 'morbid' personality."
"Morbid..." Bruce's voice began to deepen as he shifted into Batman's state of mind. He asked, "Why are you injured?"
"Why do you think I can't be wounded? Because you've seen so magic before?" Shiller suddenly revealed a disdainful smile, he said, "Your eyes tell that you've once been envious of this kind of power, but it disgusts ."
Shiller slowly raised his arms, elevated his tone, and said, "The most thrilling part of a gamble is that the prey can harm you too, danger is always present and there's always a possibility to bleed or get injured. That's the essence of hunting."
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