Chapter 1438: Chapter 971: Battle for the High Tower (Part 5)_1
When Batman woke up again, a dim halo appeared in front of his eyes. He rubbed his eyes with his hand, then looked at his own palm. There were still scars from the grazes and many pieces of grit on it.
He remembered, when he saw Shiller being swallowed by a giant sandworm, he jumped onto the back of the sandworm, grabbed the pointed horns on top of the sandworm's head, and punched the sandworm's eye. In pain, the sandworm immediately burrowed back underground.
The underground passages that the sandworms use were already excavated. The huge bodies of the sandworms, when traveling through the passages, left some gaps at the edges, thus, Batman was not thrown off.
However, swiftly traveling through the extremely narrow gaps, Batman was grazed in many places. In the end, when the sandworm leapt out of the ground once again, the hard soil hit Batman on the head, making him unconscious.
Remembering all this, Batman made an effort to open his eyes. He saw that on the wall in front of him, two torches were lit. The entire gaps in the broken bricks were covered with moss, and some puddles remained on the cold floor.
Just as he was sitting up, he heard a familiar voice behind him, "You're awake, how do you feel?"
Batman turned around to see Shiller standing behind him. Batman squinted and asked, "You're alright?"
"Of course I'm fine. When that sandworm bit me, I realized that it didn't tense its muscles and didn't bite hard. There were gaps between its teeth. It seemed like it didn't intend to eat me, so I didn't hide." Shiller shook his head while looking at Batman and said,
"I've said this before, you should quickly regain your sanity and not stay in those traumatic memories anymore. I am not a weak and innocent victim who needs you to rescue..."
"So, where are we now?" Batman asked in a hoarse voice. Shiller shook his head, "I don't know."
After that, he looked up and inspected the room. This was a very typical prison cell. Three walls are built of black stone bricks, while the wall facing forward was a metal grate. On the grate there was a small door with a large lock hanging on it.
On the inside of the walls, two torches were used for lighting. In the faint light, two straw mats thrown on the ground could be seen. Beneath the straw mats, there seemed to be some bloodstains.
Shiller glanced at Batman's face and shook his head, "Alright, considering your poor mental state, I'll do it."
After he finished speaking, he half-kneeled down, felt the edge of the straw mat and then said, "This should be a vine plant from hell. After going through some processing, it's made into a straw mat. Judging from the vegetation on that slope where we were before, we are probably far away from where we landed."
"The entire straw mat is about two meters. But this is hell, so, the demon that was once confined here should be a small-sized species, quite similar to the human form, completely different from those demon soldiers we saw on the battlefield."
Shiller lifted up the straw mat and looking at the bloodstains underneath said, "Judging from the direction of blood flow, if a humanoid was lying here, then it should be because the wound on his back burst open and blood seeped into the mat beneath him, flowing to the ground."
Shiller exhaled deeply, coughed twice. Batman had finally become slightly more conscious. He glanced at the straw mat that Shiller had thrown aside and then said, "There is some unidentified animal tissue in the gaps, it looks like it's leftover from a wound."
After he finished speaking, he also squatted down, looked at the gaps in the straw mat, took a pinch of the bloodstain on it with his finger and said, "It looks like it's a scar left by a whip. After lying on the straw mat and rolling over, the wound split open, fresh blood flowed out, seeping into the ground."
"Therefore, we can confirm that this is a prison cell and a small-sized demon species that had been ruthlessly tortured was once held here," Shiller followed up on his statement.
"Listen, Batman, you should realize that the situation we are in now is not optimistic. Before you benevolently rescue those other conscientious personalities, shouldn't you first think of a way to rescue the two of us?"
Without raising his head, Batman said, "This bloodstain has accumulated here, looks like, it has already lost the capacity for movement. And this, the scratch on the ground here, should be where this demon was dragged out by someone..."
"This means this is not an unmanaged prison, there must be prison guards managing this place, and that sandworm might be their means of capturing people. The slaves that are caught would be held here."
"Judging from the traces of the small demon being dragged, the demon that dragged it was also not big. At least, it wouldn't be much bigger than this small demon. Otherwise, it could have simply lifted this small demon up, therefore, not leaving any traces on the ground..."
"The guards managing this place might have keys. As long as we can subdue them first, we can..."
At this point, Batman looked up to see Shiller. He saw that Shiller was leaning against another wall, seated with moss from the wall rubbing on his suit.
Batman noticed that Shiller's breathing frequency was off. So, he asked Shiller, "What's the matter?"
"An allergic reaction. Don't worry about me, keep on talking." Shiller said while taking deep breaths. Yet, Batman squinted and said, "Regardless whether it's a psychological stimulus or physiological allergy, after being removed from the allergen, the reaction should not be so strong."
Batman did doubt Shiller's allergy symptoms. If before, he was always trapped in a city full of broccoli, he might have been really weak. But now, it was hell and they had been away from the allergen for so long, still having such a strong reaction, it made Batman suspicious.Shiller kept his head down the whole time, so Batman couldn't see his face. Just as he was about to question him further, he heard a series of footsteps from the doorway. He immediately whispered to Shiller, "Stay here, don't move, distract them."
Finishing his sentence, he used the adjacent wall corner to leap onto the door edge, positioning himself perfectly within the blind spot of the entrance.
After a while, a demon with dark green skin and long fangs opened the prison door. Just as Batman and Shiller had anticipated, this demon stood a little over two meters tall, had two big feet, and very long arms. He resembled a gorilla overall.
He sneered, twisted his fangs, and opened the prison door. He seemed puzzled by the absence of one of the prisoners. The moment he stepped into the cell, a shadow suddenly fell behind him.
Batman reached out and strangled the demon, then used the sharp edge of his hand armor to slit his throat.
The blood that splattered made Batman frown. Shiller, who was sitting in place, seemed to have recovered somewhat. He coughed twice before speaking, "Are you wondering why a demon of Hell can also be killed by cutting the throat?"
"Cough cough, all things in the universe are created by God, and God's creative mindset is always consistent, with no major aesthetic changes. Therefore, whether it's heaven, hell, or the world, the appearance, characteristics, and abilities of living beings don't differ much."
"The operating laws of Hell, Heaven, and the human world are also basically the same. Different races and forms always involve consistent infighting and competition. To some extent, Hell is even better than the human world."
Batman glanced at the corpse of the prison guard, then pulled out a key from the guard's waist. He walked over to the cell door, took a look outside, then said, "I didn't hear any patrol footsteps, we should be able to leave here now."
"You can go out first, but I have to stay here for a while," Shiller replied, still looking down.
"What happened to you?" Batman stared at Shiller and asked, "This doesn't look like symptoms of an allergic reaction."
Shiller's shoulders were trembling a bit, but it wasn't due to weakness. He simply kept on coughing and then said, "Don't worry about it, if you need my help, just say it. I think I can..."
He was halfway through his sentence when Batman turned and left, leaving only one sentence echoing in the empty cell, "I'll go take a look outside."
"...Always like that, isn't he?" Shiller was panting and murmuring to himself, "No, you can't deny the results of my teachings. We all know what he was going to become..."
Shiller's shoulders started to tremble once more, but it was indeed not due to weakness or cold. His head was still down, his face obscured by the shadow. But if one were to look closely, they could see the corners of his mouth raising high beneath the shadow.
Batman, who had left the cell, followed the narrow prison passage all the way to the ground. Standing in the shadow of the doorway, he looked outside. Batman noticed that this seemed to be a mine with various demons moving amongst the mountains.
There were uniformed overseers and scarred slaves in shackles. The underground prison where Batman was located was behind a mountain, so he could not see the whole mine.
Batman stood at the door, observing the patrol routes of the guards. The guards here didn't seem very professional, their patrol seemed more like a formality. The group of five guards strolled aimlessly, their minds elsewhere.
As a result, Batman easily bypassed the guards, reaching the other side of the mountain. He climbed up the timber frame of the mining equipment to the halfway point on the mountain.
Then, he took the mine elevator to the top of the mountain. From there, the entire structure of the mine was in clear view. The mine had three major mountains, five smaller hills, and mining machines scattered across the skyline.
The demons mining here were not all of the same race. Some had green skin, some red, some had two legs and two arms, some were like oversized fleas.
The most conspicuous part was a mining gate built with hundreds of logs. There was a string of characters in the language of Hell written on it. Batman couldn't read them, but the connected letters looked like Latin, which phonetically translated to "Tunston Mine".
Batman memorized the map of the mine in his mind, while formulating a reliable escape route. This wasn't difficult, as most of the demon guards were shirking their duties. The intensity of the patrols was even less rigorous than those at the gangster mansions in Gotham's North District.
Seeing the giant sandworms crawling on the sandy ground of the mine, Batman knew that they were likely the mine's way of capturing slaves. The mine owners would control these sandworms, which traveled through the sandy deserts of Hell, swallowing stray demons and bringing them back to the mine to become mining slaves.
These giant sandworms were strong and fast. If they couldn't be dealt with, escaping would only lead to being easily caught again.
Just as Batman was contemplating a solution, he suddenly saw a very familiar figure among the line of slave miners. Batman exclaimed:
"Alfred??!!!"
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone