Chapter 1009: Is This Batman? (Part 2)

"I have some bad news and some worse news. Which would you like to hear first?" In the cryogenics lab at Cat Getan University, Victor looked at Batman and asked. Before Batman could answer, he continued on his own:

"The bad news is that Cat Getan's rainwater and drinking water sources both have problems. The worse news is that the problems with the two are not the same."

Batman furrowed his brow. He looked at Victor, waiting for his conclusion. If it were in the past, he would have personally gone to check the test results or taken samples himself to study in the Batcave. But now, he only hoped to solve this problem with the highest efficiency; the process did not need to be scrutinized in detail.

"I detected a mysterious substance in the rainwater. It is not within any of the composition spectrums currently known to us." As Victor spoke, he walked to the lab bench, picked up a report, and then said:

"In order to study the properties of this component and the special nature of the rainwater, my students conducted many experiments and discovered that this component reacts with metal."

"What type of reaction?" Batman asked.

"It is currently unclear." Victor shook his head and said, "This reaction does not exist on a level visible to the naked eye. We only discovered it when we used a magnetic oscillator to observe the magnetic field feedback."

Hearing this, Batman seemed to think of something. He turned his head to look at Zatanna. Zatanna stepped forward, looked at Victor, and said, "Can you reproduce this reaction process? This is very likely related to magic."

She then explained, "For those without spirit vision, magic is invisible. For example, I can pull a rabbit out of my top hat. You can see the top hat and the rabbit, but you cannot see how the rabbit was conjured, even if I am using a transparent top hat."

"However, it is not without any traces. The vast majority of persistent magical reactions can be observed by humans through magnetic fields. Some people's own magnetic fields are naturally quite special, meaning they have magical affinity, making it easy to attract 'souls' or 'spirits' to parasitize them—what is known as a ghost-attracting constitution."

"The reaction invisible to your naked eyes is very likely presenting as a persistent magical reaction under spirit vision. So, if you can reproduce this process, I might be able to find a clue."

Looking at Zatanna's pale, exhausted complexion, Batman moved his lips, but Clark spoke up immediately: "Miss Zatanna, you look truly too exhausted. Do you really not need to rest for a while?"

"I am very sorry. I broke your portal. If possible, I will compensate you for all the materials. If you are injured or exhausted because of this, you had best go back and sleep first."

"I'm fine." Zatanna pursed her lips, shook her head, and said, "Losing the portal and draining my power are nothing to me. I've undergone training far more rigorous than this. Please believe me, I am a professional when it comes to magic. Let's begin now."

Batman kept his head tilted, watching Zatanna. In her stubborn expression, he saw his former self. Now, he understood a little why Schiller said Zatanna was very much like he had been four years ago.

Right now, Zatanna's emotional state couldn't be called resilient; it was more like excessive obsession. In the realm of magic, she had to prove her professionalism, prove she was omnipotent, and prove she could solve every case in the world. Regardless of her own condition, she was holding on by sheer willpower, refusing to take even half a step back.

One had to admit, viewing such a person from a bystander's perspective, there was truly an urge to suggest they go to a psychiatric hospital to get some medication.

Victor merely glanced at Zatanna without saying anything. He called over a few students to replicate the process of their previous experiment.

It was actually quite simple: place a piece of iron in the magnetic oscillator, turn on the machine, drip in rainwater, and the meter would display some abnormal readings.

Clark and the students helped carry the buckets of rainwater. Batman and Victor watched the readings on the meter. Zatanna's eyes emitted a faint glow, and just as the water poured into the chamber and submerged the iron, she suddenly cried out:

"Stop! That's not it!"

Victor and Batman both turned to look at her. Zatanna said, "I observed some magical reactions... That's right, my deduction is correct. This is a continuous magical reaction, carrying some states of darkness and chaos... Let me see, no, that's not right, the mode of triggering the reaction is a bit off. Can we repeat it once more?"

The experiment was repeated. Zatanna frowned. She conjured a screen in the air, and while writing words and formulas in mid-air with her finger, she said:

"Look here, this so-called continuous magical reaction can also be understood as a long-term activated magic circle."

Zatanna waved her finger, drawing a slightly complex pattern in mid-air, and continued to explain: "First, I engrave the triggered end of the magic circle onto an object, like this."

The pattern she drew slowly lit up and floated above his head. Zatanna waved her hand and said, "This is just a random spell circle I wrote. And now, I'm going to use another type of magic to trigger it."

Having said that, one of Zatanna's fingers lit up, and she continued: "At this moment, the function of this magic circle is just to glow, and the function of the magic in my hand is also just to glow. However, when the two meet..."

Zatanna moved her finger lightly, pointing toward the magic wand. A stream of light flew out. With a "whoosh," a strong wind blew out from the magic circle, blowing Zatanna's long black hair behind her ears.

Furthermore, until Zatanna extinguished the spell circle, this wind kept blowing, maintaining a very stable state. Zatanna reached out her hand and explained: "Look, this is the difference between continuous trigger magic and ordinary magic."

"If I use ordinary magic, it's like this... *Wind Blow! *"

Zatanna focused her spirit and cast the simplest reverse-speech magic. This gust of wind blew toward Batman, lifting the cape behind him, but soon, the strong wind vanished, and Batman's cape fell back down.

"Usually, the magic we use determines its intensity and duration based on the amount of magic power we expend." Zatanna was much more professional than Constantine when it came to explaining magic. After all, she had received the most professional academic education and knew how to explain the principles of magic to others.

"However, if we stop the output of magic power, the magic stops. But continuous reaction magic is not like that. Once the activated spell circle and the elements that trigger the circle are constructed, as soon as the two sides meet, the magic will continue to take effect."

"If that's the case, isn't continuous reaction magic much stronger than ordinary magic?" Victor asked with a frown.

"But continuous reaction magic is also much harder and much more fragile than other magic. It's not as simple as placing two things together and triggering them, then expecting it to work there for a lifetime." Zatanna shook her head and said, "In most cases, the continuous reaction magic cast by many mages is very fragile, requires maintenance, and the effect isn't strong. Plus, the investment is huge. Nowadays, very few people use this kind of magic."

After explaining the principle, Zatanna looked back at the iron piece still in the instrument and said, "The rainwater you just poured in is indeed the element used for triggering, but the metal in this machine is not the correct triggered end."

"The concept of magic is relatively vague and not as precise as scientific experiments. The formula set for triggering in the rainwater likely contains metal, so although this piece of metal is not the correct triggered end, it will still produce some reaction with the rainwater."

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"This indicates that the correct triggered end is metal, but not this type of metal. As for which type exactly..." Zatanna thought for a moment, then said, "In a while, I will enter the spirit realm and cast a tracking spell on the rainwater. Then, by observing its path of travel in the spirit realm, I should be able to determine what the triggered end is."

Having said that, she took a deep breath, completely disregarding her own weak state, and forcibly entered the spirit realm. The rainwater collected in the bucket emitted a burst of light and then vanished.

After a while, a questioning "Hmm?" came from mid-air. After another long silence, Zatanna's figure reappeared. Her complexion was even paler. She gasped, looked at Batman, and said:

"I have bad news and worse news. Which one do you want to hear first?"

Batman looked at her in silence. Zatanna sighed and said, "The bad news is that the triggered end the rainwater responds to is not a single piece of metal, but all the metal in Cat Getan's architecture."

Batman's expression sank immediately. He stood up and looked intently at Zatanna. Zatanna also looked at him and said, "The worse news is that the nature of the entire continuous reaction magic is more malicious than I thought."

"Although I knew early on that this magic leaned toward evil and chaos, I didn't expect that all the triggered metal would unite to form an even more massive magic circle. This is a complex magic I find hard to describe, or rather, this can no longer be considered within the realm of magic."

Zatanna's complexion became even paler, almost devoid of any color. She looked at the ground beneath her feet and said somewhat vaguely, "We are standing on the most intense darkness and evil in this world. Perhaps this is the truth of the Curse of Ultimate Evil."

Zatanna raised her head again, looked into Batman's eyes, and said, "The rainwater triggers the spell circle within the metal, and the continuous reaction magic of the spell circle in the metal forms an incomparably massive vortex, absorbing all the malice in the universe. That is why this place is called the land that cannot be saved..."

"Then, do you have a way?" Batman looked at Zatanna and asked.

Zatanna suddenly fell silent. The atmosphere in the room quieted down. After a while, she took a deep breath and then said:

"Of course, I have a way... I have a way to solve the most terrifying curse in this world. Otherwise, I wouldn't have come here and sought you out. Before coming here, I had already figured out a way."

Batman already had a premonition of what she was going to say next. He saw a kind of tragic heroism in Zatanna's eyes.

Time seemed to return to four years ago, and Batman and the Zatanna opposite him were like looking in a mirror. He thought, perhaps back then, when he stood on the roof of Wayne Tower, he had also worn such an expression.

And before Zatanna could speak, Batman said first, "You don't have to sacrifice yourself, because, in reality, you aren't as important as you think you are."

Seeing Zatanna's expression take a nosedive, Batman finally understood why Schiller had always been so displeased with him back then.

Because right now, the way Zatanna's corners of her mouth turned down, her squinted eyes, and her furrowed brows—as serious as they felt to her—looked just as comical and ridiculous to a bystander.