Shadow of the Beautiful World

Arkham Asylum sounds like a healing facility. Not really, this building, located in one of Gotham's worst slums, was once the place where the Gotham City government imprisoned those dangerous mentally ill criminals.

More than ten years ago, after Gotham's economic turmoil, many abnormal criminals emerged in this city. Most of them had signs of schizophrenia and it was difficult to be convicted by law, but the police could not arrest them. Putting it back into society in this way, the Arkham Asylum once became a shelter for these scum.

Bruce's father, Thomas Wayne, was once a very famous surgeon in Gotham. He occasionally went to the Arkham Asylum to give psychological counseling to those criminals, and his wife, Martha Wayne, was Thomas' best friend. assistant.

They would still come and work at Arkham Asylum on a regular basis until they were killed.

All in all, the dilapidated, burnt and collapsed buildings in front of Merlin's eyes are definitely a place with complicated senses for his good friend Bruce.

As for Merlin, the dilapidated building in front of him was also a complicated place.

It didn't take him much time to find a tunnel leading to the ground in the ruins of the Arkham Asylum. Judging from the remaining traces around the tunnel, this tunnel probably existed before the establishment of the Arkham Asylum. exists.

In other words, when the city government decided to build this madhouse, perhaps it was to cover up some secrets that have long existed in the darkness of Gotham City.

Definitely something to do with the Court of Owls.

Merlin walked silently in this spiral tunnel leading to the underground. He didn't need his spirit vision to feel the cold aura attached to the tunnel in front of him. It was like a haunted underground fortress. In China, such a place will always be daunting.

And on the stone walls on both sides of the downward tunnel, those delicate and eerie owl sculptures seemed to confirm Merlin's guess.

Dick, how are you doing?

With a communicator in Merlin's ear, he asked as he walked down.

Call me Grayson, thanks.

In the night, the first-generation Robin Grayson, wearing his own blue combat uniform, looked at the peaceful neighborhood around Arkham Asylum. He put the weapon in his hand on his waist, and then responded softly:

It's very quiet here, and there doesn't seem to be anyone else.

What about the two boys?

Merlin asked again:

Are they honest?

fine.

Grayson looked left and right, and he replied:

I separated them in two areas. As long as they don't meet, they can complete the monitoring task very well.

Well, be careful.

Merlin says:

An attack from that elusive court of owls could come at any moment.

Um.

Grayson responded, and Merlin hung up the communication and continued to go underground.

The tunnel in front of him was so deep that it was beyond imagination. From Merlin's senses, he seemed to have come to a position nearly 100 meters underground, and the surrounding temperature also dropped more and more violently, like a natural cold cellar.

If it's purely for secrecy, there's no need to dig so deep.

Merlin touched the cold rock sculpture at his hand, looked at the stone door at the end of the tunnel, and said:

It's either a shelter, or it's for storing certain things. Well, things that can't be stored at room temperature.

His fingers were on the hilt of the silver sword behind his back, and his other hand was hanging down by his side. Facing an unknown secret organization that has been hiding for more than 200 years, it is necessary to be vigilant.

Under the appearance of the city of Gotham, there is a strange atmosphere everywhere. This is not a normal city at all.

I don't know how Bruce survived.

Merlin was hidden in the shadows, and he quickly rushed into the tunnel in front of him. There was no light source at all 100 meters underground, but the darkness couldn't block his sight. Around the silent hall in front of him, Merlin saw The owl sculptures placed like works of art, each of which has a different shape.

And compared to normal owls, the sculptures around Merlin looked evil, full of a weird feeling in the dark.

My badge is vibrating, there's magic around here.

The moment he stepped out of the hall, the wolf head pendant hanging on Merlin's neck vibrated strangely. The pendant left by the white wolf was alerting his new master that there was danger related to magic nearby.

Interesting.

Merlin drew out the silver sword Vlad behind his back, and he stood there, looking around.

Although he was in hiding, his arrival seemed to have touched an invisible magic switch. Just now, the closed eyes of those owl stone statues all opened at this moment.

At this moment, the strange temperament of those vivid stone sculptures is even stronger. If ordinary people see these sneaky owl stone statues in the dark, they will definitely be scared crazy on the spot.

Pretending to be a ghost is a trick that can't be put on the table.

Merlin reached out and tapped the sapphire pendant on his chest, and the breathing mask that Carol dropped quickly covered his face. The air in the tunnel smelled fine, but Merlin seriously doubted that there must be something hidden in the air here. Some kind of neurotoxin, paired with those terrifying stone owl sculptures around, would definitely scare an intruder.

Swish Swish Swish Swish

At the moment when the breathing mask injected pure oxygen into Merlin's nostrils and mouth, in the darkness of the hall, eight figures wearing leather armor and holding weapons appeared around Merlin like the most skilled ninjas.

They all look like ordinary people, but the armor on them is very strange.

Those ancient and exquisite armors are full of patterns and carvings related to owls, and on the heads of these 8 attackers, there are full-face helmets that look like owls, and their gauntlets look like they are made of metal , The fingertips of those gauntlets are more like sharp pointed cones, and they can disembowel ordinary people with just a light grasp.

And under the black lens of the owl helmet, even the gaze of these warriors was as gloomy as the surrounding air.

In the vision of the spirit vision, the life activities of these warriors are very strange. Merlin could feel the life force in their bodies, but that life force was not as active as normal people at all. Instead, it felt stagnant like ice water.

Their movements are also very strange, and they don't have the soft feeling when ordinary people act. On the contrary, they are like marionettes, or robots manipulated by some kind of program, with a slightly blunt With a gesture, they pulled out the sabers from their backs in unison.

But judging from the way they held their knives, these guys should all be fighters who are good at fighting.

swish

The silver sword in Merlin's hand was placed horizontally in front of his body. He looked at the strange and indifferent owl warriors around him. He stretched out his left hand and hooked them.

It's like provocation.

The next moment, 8 warriors in the darkness rushed towards Merlin at the same time. At this moment, the weapons they swung blocked all the space for Merlin to dodge from all directions, as if they wanted to completely kill the intruder in the first wave of attack. kill.

Facing those sharp knives, Merlin shook his head.

He went up to him without dodging, the silver sword in his hand hummed, and the black mist wrapped around the blade of the sword made the edge of the silver sword scorching hot under the infusion of magic power.

Sword Dance!

As soon as Merlin made a move, he took out the most advanced swordsmanship he had mastered so far. When his wrist was flipped, the silver sword danced around his body into a dangerous windmill. A happy blacksmith strikes iron.

The 3 sabers slashed into Merlin's body from behind, but the light feeling, as if cutting into the air, meant that these owl warriors didn't hurt Merlin at all.

On the other hand, when Merlin's first wave of sword dance was closed, the 4 warriors in front of him were already covered in bruises, and the 2 unlucky ones were cut off on the spot by the sword dance with an astonishing speed.

They should just die.

No matter how tough a warrior is, having his head cut off means death.

But no!

Under Merlin's slightly surprised gaze, the two headless corpses that fell on the ground, like the headless horseman in a horror story, got up unsteadily, groping around for their heads, trying to find them After that, they roughly put their heads on their necks, as if they had completed regeneration.

hell! Those two guys' heads weren't theirs at all, they put each other's heads upside down.

But even so, they still recovered the same mobility as before in the next moment.

And Merlin also noticed that the wounds of these warriors did not bleed at all, instead, there was something similar to black quicksand.

It turned out to be an alienated undead.

Merlin let the warriors around him wield their sabers and slashed at his body frantically. He put away his silver sword indifferently. After knowing the true identities of these warriors, he understood that the slashing with sharp blades was of great importance to these warriors earlier. As far as dead undead are concerned, it makes no sense.

He also finally understood why the Owl Court dug out such a huge underground palace 100 meters underground.

They obviously want to better preserve these powerful minions of the undead. You must know that no matter how carefully a corpse is handled, it will rot quickly at room temperature. decline.

Try this.

Merlin took out two milky white crystal bottles from his pockets with both hands, and smashed the crystal bottles on the ground with malice on his face. With the sound of the crystal bottles breaking, the milky white liquid splashed in the darkness, those scattered The liquid sprinkled on the bodies of the surrounding owl warriors began to burn crazily like the fastest fire oil.

Flaming holy water, the trump card that Merlin's nominal mentor White Wolf used to deal with the undead in the Middle Ages.

In the burning of those scorching flames with magical power, these undead warriors are like dry wood thrown into the fire. They burn too fast, and in just an instant, the negative energy in their bodies is extinguished by this The holy water of extreme positivity ignites and begins to burn from within.

For ordinary people, even dark heroes like Bruce, these undead warriors are destined to be difficult to deal with. They are not afraid of bullets or destruction. As long as the negative energy in their bodies is still there, they can be resurrected continuously. In addition, these warriors have preserved their martial arts during their lifetimes in a special way, which makes them more effective in combat.

But unfortunately, what they met this time was a demon hunter who specialized in slaying demons and eliminating demons, and who was not afraid of physical attacks at all.

I like to see you burn.

Merlin stood in the burning flames. The sparks caused by the negative energy ignited were not like ordinary flames, but like dancing fireworks, with a gorgeous feeling.

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

He took a step forward, hooked his fingers, and Merlin held the saber that fell on the ground. He swung his hand and nailed an owl warrior who was rolling on the ground, trying to extinguish the flames, to the ground. Like a steel stake.

Dead, go back to your grave.

Merlin chanted a chaotic prayer, and nailed the eight warriors on the ground one by one in the darkness. Those boiling silver-white flames illuminated the gloomy hall.

After a while, the silvery white flame dissipated little by little, and the dead who had been awakened in violation of the laws of nature seemed to be relieved. Merlin vaguely heard the faint voice of thanks coming from the air.

He walked to the sabers, knelt down, and rummaged through the ashes left by the warriors.

A few seconds later, Merlin twisted a small piece of strange metal from the ashes in front of him with his black-gloved fingers.

This thing is only the size of a finger, and its texture is soft, just like sterling silver, it can change its shape when it is pinched lightly. Because of being burned, the surface of this metal is covered with a layer of black ash, but this cannot cover up the metal's brilliance. eccentric nature.

Merlin could feel that the metal implanted in the bodies of those warriors contained a strange vitality. It was these metals that injected the cursed vitality into the dead, so that they could still maintain clarity after death. With a strong sense of combat and a small amount of reason, these carefully kept corpses can play exquisite and dangerous coordination.

What's this?

Merlin curiously played with the metal in his hand, he said:

It looks precious

He looked back at the seven piles of ashes behind him. A moment later, Merlin held 8 pieces of metal in the palm of his hand. As he curled his fingers, the 8 pieces of metal were quickly squeezed into a whole piece.

And the stagnant life energy contained in it was also fused together without hindrance.

interesting.

Merlin put the metal into the magic pocket, and he crossed the edge of the hall, ready to continue searching inside. At this moment, Damian's voice sounded through the communicator.

Merlin, we've been attacked, and a group of 'claws' are attacking us. We can't kill them, do you have any suggestions?

Use fire.

Merlin replied:

Or bombs, the intense flames can confine them, but they're still a threat until they're incinerated, so don't hold back.

In addition, after they are killed, they will leave some cursed metal. You collect it, but don't mess with it. There is a curse attached to the metal, and only a wizard like me can lift it.

I mean, let the other two Robins take care of themselves, and you will supervise them.