American comics: From Hogwarts to God on Earth

Chapter 361 What? Luther is dead too?

In this universe, criminal syndicates are no longer villainous organizations hiding in the shadows in the traditional sense, but have become the de facto ruling group on this earth, maintaining absolute order in this world through violence and intimidation.

Besides the core members like the evil counterparts of the Justice League Seven, the Crime Syndicate also includes Firestorm,

In addition to their counterparts, Atom and others also recruit a large number of ordinary people as tools to maintain world stability.

This is also one of the reasons why Rune sought out the clown in hopes of cooperating—he wanted to eliminate all members of the criminal syndicate, but was too lazy to deal with the ordinary people who had joined the criminal syndicate.

Perhaps these ordinary people have their own reasons for joining the criminal syndicate, or perhaps they simply admire those powerful individuals, but Rune is too lazy to delve into it and simply leaves it to the clown to handle.

But in the clown's eyes, he's just a fool who seems to have a little bit of ability and wants to overthrow the criminal syndicate's rule.

In this world, Luthor is a superhero with the powerful superpower of gaining the abilities of his enemies by killing them. Before this, Luthor had already killed the villain Zamza and obtained the powerful Seven Gods, but what was the result?

"He's dead," the clown said with a laugh, laughing so hard he almost fell over, as if the dead man were his enemy.

But Rune frowned.

Is Luther dead?

"You've seen his body?" Rune interrupted the clown's laughter and asked coldly, but the clown just smiled and refused to say more.

So Rune chose to read Harley Quinn's mind.

brush!

In the blink of an eye, Rune appeared mysteriously in front of the smiling girl, using his mental abilities to their fullest extent.

As for why not read The Clown's Heart—

The Joker's mind is one of the most complex, unstable, and destructive areas in the DC Universe. His mental world is completely contrary to common sense, highly erratic, and full of paradoxes and twisted jokes.

In the comics, Martian Manhunter and other psychic abilities did indeed read his mind, but the result was...

Martian Manhunter himself suffered a severe mental shock and even temporarily lost his mind-reading ability. Other psychic individuals suffered from severe headaches and temporary loss of abilities, while others suffered mental trauma and long-term psychological scars.

Martian Manhunter even stated that the Joker is one of the few enemies he would not want to face in public combat.

Rune doesn't believe his telepathic abilities are superior to Martian Manhunter's. This superhero is the strongest telepath on Earth and one of the strongest telepaths in the universe, so Rune naturally wouldn't attempt to read the mind of this criminal prince's counterpart.

Even if he is a hero in this universe, it doesn't matter.

A fragment of Rune's consciousness escaped from her temple like white smoke, seeping into her ear canal and knocking on the memory door behind the skull. And behind that door lay vibrant patches of color—

The colors red, black, and blue form the background of Harley Quinn's inner world. They are thick like paint used by an artist, and these color blocks are screaming and laughing wildly.

A cheap perfume scent wafted over, cloyingly sweet. Dogs made of cotton candy barked at Rune's consciousness, but when Rune's consciousness expressed a desire to taste them, the dogs immediately whimpered and ran away.

Rune shrugged. After all, he was a Gotham local, so it was quite normal for him to want to try the cotton candy dog.

This is Harley Quinn's surface consciousness, not touching her memories. Therefore, Rune can only keep delving deeper into it. As a result, the colorful hues fade, the perfume scent begins to disappear, and gray and black tones begin to dominate. The smell of disinfectant and the rusty smell of blood fill Rune's sense of smell.

Meanwhile, fragments of memory, like shattered mirrors, began to appear in the air—imagery representing memories Harley didn't want to recall.

Rune's consciousness looked at the largest fragment, which showed only a smooth floor, a cold fence, and a pair of feet wearing worn-out leather shoes.

A familiar voice, smooth as a mirror yet possessing a deadly magnetism, leaked out from it.

"Tell me, Harley, isn't madness like—gravity? All you need to do is—give it a gentle push!"

The perspective of this fragment began to rotate rapidly, and Rune, who was watching this fragment of memory, easily sensed the emotions of the person who remembered it, a mixture of extreme fear and something even more terrifying—obsession.

This is clearly the scene where the clown transformed Harleen Francis Quezel into Harley Quinn.

Rune continued forward, observing these fragments of memory.

"This world has gone mad! Bruce Wayne doesn't want me anymore, waaaaah—"

"Gotham needs bats, not damn owls!"

"But isn't this fun? Come on, let's have a good time!"

Soon, Rune found the memory fragment he wanted—it wasn't large, only thirteen seconds long.

Amidst the shards, large patches of pale skin were exposed, and two hands were tugging at a bodysuit. The sound of a television played in the background, but it was completely drowned out by Harley's shrill voice as she exclaimed, "This is so hard to wear! This uniform is so tight!"

"Hehe, you can wear something looser—"

Just then, the television suddenly became louder—meaning that the following news had left a deep impression on Harley, so much so that she remembered it so well that she could still hear it again.

"—No official statement has been released yet, but multiple pieces of evidence suggest that an execution may have taken place here. It is believed that the person executed was Lex Luthor, the notorious criminal who previously carried out a series of bombings that resulted in dozens of casualties—"

"Luther is dead?"

The memory began to replay, and Rune frowned, continuing to scan his surroundings, trying to find other information that could corroborate Luther's death.

In this world, Luther belongs to the side of justice and is incredibly powerful, even being called the only superhero. Rune doesn't believe he would die so easily.

As Rune had predicted, apart from the television broadcasts, newspaper articles, and a few scattered bloodstains at the scene, there was no evidence to prove his death.

After exiting Harley Quinn's memories, Rune smiled: "Luthor isn't dead."

He is definitely still alive, just imprisoned.

Harley Quinn's eyes widened. In fact, only a moment had passed. In her observation, this strange magician who had inexplicably appeared in their safe house had simply teleported in front of her, and then, after a little over a second, said that Lex Luthor was not dead.

This doesn't make sense, does it?

Just as she was about to ask, an explosion was heard outside the shelter.

"Great, we have more guests!"

The clown squinted and burst into laughter.