Chapter 218: The Killing Joke!

Dark Multiverse—Earth Negative Twenty-Two.

Gotham, midnight.

For once, the gloomy city was not suffering beneath its usual cold and irritating rain.

Quite the opposite.

It was burning.

Within this hellish world of flames, Commissioner Gordon had been dissolved with acid. Catwoman, the Penguin, and other villains had their throats slit, while police officers were hanged from streetlamps.

There was crying everywhere.

Screaming everywhere.

Except for one person…

The Joker was laughing with absolute joy and satisfaction.

Because he had accomplished all of this in a single day.

He had destroyed everything Batman treasured.

And he had captured the man himself!

Outside the screen, countless viewers felt their scalps go numb.

Asgard!

The emotionally sensitive Loki could not prevent himself from trembling!

This was nothing like Superman fighting Doomsday.

Nor was it like the Dawnbreaker summoning abyssal monsters with his power ring, or the Merciless and Murder Machine destroying cities through overwhelming combat power!

This human hell had been created by nothing more than a clown with white paint covering his face!

Loki drew a deep breath.

He might not be particularly powerful, but his judgment was extremely sharp!

He could tell that the Joker could not fly.

He possessed no overwhelming strength.

His eyes did not fire beams, nor could a single breath from him freeze the world!

He was merely an ordinary human!

And that was precisely what made him even more terrifying.

It was impossible to imagine how insane this man truly was!

Especially that laughter…

Inside the villa.

For the first time since becoming Iron Man, Tony felt that his mind might not be as strong as he had believed.

What kind of hellish place was the DC Universe!?

Even its normal universes did not seem particularly normal, while the darkness within its other worlds was completely beyond reason!

If Tony ever went there, forget becoming a superhero.

He probably would not survive long enough to finish a single season of a television series!

Was everything finally over?

No.

This was nowhere near enough to satisfy the Joker!

He brought the restrained Batman into the alley behind the theater.

At the very place where Thomas and Martha Wayne had once been shot, he intended to force Bruce Wayne to relive the agony buried within his memories!

In the next second, the Joker shot a married couple in front of Batman while their child watched!

The crimson blood looked no different from what Bruce remembered from that night.

Even the child standing nearby had become completely paralyzed with terror.

Bruce stared blankly at the scene. Indescribable pain surged from the depths of his heart, threatening to tear apart his soul and rob him of breath!

At that moment, the Joker walked toward the child with a cheerful smile.

He gently blew against the girl’s face.

In the next second, pale green mist surrounded her. The terror in her eyes transformed into madness, while the corners of her tightly closed mouth gradually spread into an exaggerated grin.

She began laughing excitedly.

Under the influence of the Joker toxin, the girl had become a Jokerized child!

“No!”

Batman released a heart-wrenching scream and struggled violently!

“No?”

“No to what?”

“Was that not enough?”

The Joker revealed an expression of sudden realization before asking cheerfully:

“How could the Joker possibly refuse a request made by Batman?”

And so, every family in Gotham consisting of two parents and one child was brought to that alley to experience the same fate as the Waynes.

Gotham.

“Haha… Hahaha… Hahahahaha!”

“How entertaining!”

“I never knew the little Bat could make such a wonderful expression!”

In the DCEU World, a different Joker released the same maniacal laughter.

But in the next second, he violently overturned the table and roared hysterically:

“How dare he!”

“How could he do that!?”

“No one is allowed to humiliate him like that except me!!”

Yes!

Even another Joker was not permitted!

Even another Batman was not permitted!

Supernatural World.

Dean and Sam simultaneously sucked in cold breaths.

They did not know whether the Batman on the screen would suffer a mental breakdown.

But if they continued watching, the two of them felt they certainly would!

What kind of mind could invent such a method of psychological torture!?

It was incomparably cruel!

Even the demons of Hell would probably admit defeat before this man!

Arkham Asylum.

Rather than feeling satisfied by Batman’s suffering, the Penguin, Black Mask, and the other villains swallowed nervously, terror filling their eyes!

Motherfucker!

The Joker truly was capable of anything!

Was he not afraid Batman would completely abandon his final boundary!?

Only now did they fully understand.

As long as they continued living in Gotham, that ticking time bomb might implicate all of them at any moment!

And from beginning to end, none of them believed Batman would truly lose.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The tragedy of Thomas and Martha Wayne was reenacted again and again, while the Jokerized children stood nearby, clapping and cheering.

Their shrill laughter continuously echoed within Bruce’s mind. Like a rolling snowball, it grew larger and larger until it finally snapped the final thread of his sanity.

He released a roar unlike anything before, screaming the Joker’s name as he tore free from the chains restraining him!

Crack!

In the blink of an eye, he snapped the Joker’s neck!

On the beach!

Bruce released a long breath and loosened his tightly clenched fists.

Although the version of himself on the screen had crossed his final boundary, Bruce felt a strange sense of relief.

Moments earlier, he had even found himself wondering whether, if something like this happened, he should take revenge on Harley Quinn.

Fortunately, he had regained his senses.

Dark Knight World.

Bruce pressed his lips together, his expression complicated.

The Joker had been killed.

Batman, who had sworn never to take a life, had personally killed him.

At that moment, an oath once believed to be as strong as steel had become as fragile as paper and was torn completely apart.

Perhaps this was exactly what the Joker had wanted.

He had won.