The Death Knell

The icon on the cross closed its eyes and bowed its head. There was no sound in the quiet street, but inside the church, a story was told by the priest.

It happened in Gotham hundreds of years ago. No one knows whether it is true or not. Even the priest himself is not sure. After all, his family has long declined and the things passed down are very limited.

But the stories in the Bible happened earlier, so do some people believe them differently?

Sometimes the authenticity of the story is not important, what is important is the thoughts and concepts it contains, and Paul, who is dying soon, also wants to hear the truth about himself and the city.

It's a story about madmen, vampire bats, betrayal and deceit.

Everyone knows the history of the development of the New World. Hundreds of years ago, some people crossed the ocean from Europe to North America and built a small town on the east coast. This was the predecessor of Gotham.

At first everyone worked together, and although life was difficult, it was better than living under a European monarchy.

But the dark foreign land slowly changes everyone.

Gradually, it turned into a city. A nobleman recruited various villains to form an army, and gradually took control of the city. Later, by paying taxes to the British king, he obtained the position of colonial governor.

It was a man named Raphael Arkham, who went crazy after drinking water that looked like red wine. He always laughed and committed all kinds of evil deeds.

For example, they imprisoned residents and tickled their soles to make them laugh to death; or they hung people on crosses and inserted reed tubes through their eyes to suck the residents' blood.

After the prisoners were tortured to death one by one, Sir Arkham would pretend to wipe his tears and say that he just wanted to make a joke with people. Killing was not his intention, he just wanted to make life more colorful.

Today's Arkham Asylum is the mansion where he used to live. It was also called the 'Vampire Castle' a long time ago.

The residents can't even escape, because all the ships in Gotham are under the control of Governor Raffi, and the wilderness outside the city is full of hostile Indians, and the troops in the hands of the Governor are all perverts with playful smiles. murderer.

They can only crouch in the darkness, waiting for their tragic fate to come, waiting for the fatal joke to be their turn.

There are always heroes who will stand up at critical moments.

Edmund, the ancestor of the Wayne family, was originally a descendant of a noble family in England. The family fell during the political struggle, and he, as the last survivor, was about to be thrown into prison. At this time, someone pretending to be a jailer rescued him and took him with him. Arrived in the New World by ship.

The person who rescued him was a fighting priest from around Jerusalem, the kind who held a Bible with a rosary wrapped around his left hand, and sometimes a sword and sometimes a torch in his right hand.

That man's name was Bakar Van Ley, the ancestor of today's Jean Paul.

Originally, Edmund was just an ordinary noble young master. Although he was not a weak scholar with no power, he was not a warrior either. The reason why Bakar saved him was because he was interested in the orphan's noble status and his ability to fight in the army. When all is said and done, it's time to take over Gotham.

Anyway, for the king, it didn't matter who ruled an overseas colony, as long as taxes were paid on time, but the only rigid requirement was noble status.

The Order of Saint Dumas that Bakar serves is a branch of the Knights Templar after the split, the most fanatical branch.

The Great Colonial Era has been around for some time. The fleets of Spain and other countries were transporting gold ship after ship from the New World to Europe. Everyone was jealous when they saw it.

So his religious order also wanted to get a share of the pie in the New World. They chose Gotham because the Governor of Arkham there had a reputation as a vampire. As a church, if they eliminated him, they would immediately gain the support of the people.

When the time comes and Edmund's noble status is used to deal with the King of England, the Order will be able to use Gotham as its base, grow infinitely in North and South America, spread its faith, and then launch another crusade to purify the entire world.

To put it simply, it means to kill all the heretics and heretics. In 1700, about 400 million people would have been killed. Even if there were already front-mounted muskets and artillery at that time, this was still not a small number.

But if people don’t have ideals, what’s the difference between them and salted fish?

For this lofty and sacred goal, Bakar started the mission as the most devout believer, but he was already old at the time, and armed struggle often meant that he was afraid of young people.

So he began to train Edmund during the long voyage, teaching him to use various weapons, fighting skills, to infiltrate or to endure pain.

Not to mention, that young nobleman was really like a reinforcement sent by God. He learned at an alarmingly fast speed. No matter what fighting skills he knew, he could master them as soon as he saw them. Even when the ship was halfway through, he was still floating in the air. When he was on the ocean, he could board the passing islands and catch bats with his bare hands.

There was a bat cave on that island. Because Bakar told him that going to the New World was to deal with vampires, Edmund was very obsessed with studying bats. He even felt that he had turned into a bat.

In order to show his strength and incompatibility with his inner demons, he made a long whip out of the skins of hundreds of bats, and even called himself the King of Bats.

During the long voyage, some people on the ship died from the storm, some died from scurvy, and even encountered a windless zone where many people died of thirst. But in the end, the master and the apprentice arrived with a small group of paladins from the order. North America and sneaked into Gotham.

Here they fought an arduous struggle with the Governor of Arkham. They first secretly connected the masses, and then carried out some covert sabotage, and used actions to attack all aspects of the Governor's arrangements.

Finally, when the momentum was established, they launched a workers' and peasants' uprising, captured the governor's castle, and liberated the entire Gotham.

Before his death, the Governor of Arkham laughed maniacally and cursed Gotham City, saying that his blood would choose a successor and lead the entire city to the darkest madness.

Ancestor Wayne didn't care. He stabbed the governor through the chest, then kicked him into the dry well in the center of the castle and fell to death, just like Leonidas kicked the Persian envoy.

Gotham ushered in new developments and had a peaceful few months of good times.

After years of underground struggle, Edmund has become a more qualified leader, and many locals support him.

In addition, many people in Gotham are Puritans. For the extreme ideas of Bakar's group, they prefer Sir Wayne's various policies.

After the common enemy was eliminated, a gap existed between the two victors.

Bakar wants Edmund to give up half of Gotham City to the Order. They will use half of the tax revenue to recruit troops, build fortresses, and unify North America first, such as killing all the Indians.

But Sir Wayne, who inherited the post of governor, disagreed. He believed that everyone should live in peace. Now many people don't even have enough to eat, but they have to fight for God's sake? Does the one in heaven take care of food?

What's more, the Puritan pastor's statement is different from Bakar's statement. God never said anything about cleansing America.

The fanatical believer Bakar felt that he had been deceived. He was Edmund's teacher. He taught the young man all his skills and experience. Why did he disobey after the incident was completed?

traitor! Anyone who is unwilling to sacrifice for the Order is a traitor!

So he announced that Governor Wayne had been infected by a vampire and was a giant bat transformed into a spirit, and called on all God's people and monsters to go to war.

Of course, there were many people who believed in him, so the two factions started a civil war in the city.

But as mentioned earlier, boxing is afraid of young strength. When there was not much difference in the strategies and tactics of both sides, it was Edmund who finally killed Bakar during the duel between the leaders of both sides.

On behalf of the colonial government, he seized the property of the Order and began to run the city patiently. Later, more big families emerged in the city, all products of that era.

But after all, he was forced to have no choice. He actually didn't want to kill his teacher, but the teacher was too crazy, and his belief in God was frightening.

So he didn't eradicate the problem, let go of the teacher's family and children, and even let them live in Gotham.

However, after the mission failed, the Fan Lei family also lost the support of the cult. The surviving widow and children had no business acumen at all, and their family fortunes declined rapidly.

The Wayne family had been secretly helping the Van Ley family until Bruce's great-great-grandfather died suddenly without leaving any last words. Since then, no one in the Wayne family has known to help another family.

The Fan Lei family was like a wave in the sea, disappearing into the black sea of ​​Gotham, and even the noble surnames were abandoned.

Now, childless and alone, Jean Paul is the last member of the Van Ley family, and a priest from another declining family who secretly works for the Order of Saint Dumas tells him about this past incident. story.