Chapter 304

Batman entered the room first, Gordon followed behind; the scene inside was truly bizarre—besides Schiller, standing in the center holding an umbrella, a golden-haired man who looked like a debauchee had a black book floating in his hands, Jason Dick and the two boys, Little Slider, sat slumped on the floor at the far end of the room, and on the right side stood a strange altar.

After they entered, Schiller walked over to the demon he had slammed against the wall, studied it, and said: "This must be Mrs. Sanchez."

Gordon frowned in confusion. "Mrs. Sanchez? But she's already dead."

Constantine stepped beside the monster; chains flew from the book in his hand and bound the creature. Gordon turned again to look at the children lying on the floor. "Can someone explain what the hell is going on?"

"Enough." Schiller raised his voice and tapped the floor with his umbrella. "Alright, one at a time. Start with you."

He pointed at Jason and Dick. Dick stared at the umbrella that could slam a monster into the wall and not even pry it loose, swallowed hard, then obediently began his account.

"... wo days ago, I came to this school. The first day was normal—I packed my things and went to bed. But because I was on a new bed, I couldn't sleep. At midnight, I got up and saw my roommate had wounds on his back..."

"When I woke up, I asked him what happened, but he gave me a terrified look and said nothing. I grew suspicious, so I started watching—and noticed many students had similar wounds..."

"I figured someone was abusing them. During class, one of my classmates wasn't praying properly, so the teacher said he had to go to the confessional. He looked terrified—I'm sure they abused him in there."

"So I deliberately made a small mistake, got myself locked in the confessional..."

"And then?" Batman asked.

"... woman came in. She said her name was Mrs. Sanchez, the school's headmistress. She threatened me—said even if I was a Wayne foster child, I still had to obey her, or she'd make me regret it..."

"I asked her if she was abusing the children. That angered her. She said disobedient kids deserved to be hanged..."

"Then she whipped me with a cane. The wounds were identical to my classmates'. That damn woman's a sadist—she..."

Before Dick could continue, Batman stepped beside him, lifted his shirt. Dick's back and waist were covered in fresh, deep bruises—some already turning black. Batman's expression darkened. Dick barely seemed to care and went on.

"She was about to keep whipping me, but someone called out from outside—said Mr. Cooper was looking for her. She left..."

"I figured I had to expose her true nature and rescue my classmates. So while she was gone, I picked the lock on the confessional door and followed her secretly..."

"She met Mr. Cooper on the fourth floor. I'm agile—I climbed the pipes to the balcony and eavesdropped outside their room..."

Dick clenched his lips, voice tinged with disbelief. "I heard Mrs. Sanchez and Cooper had a deal."

"What deal?"

"It seemed Cooper's son had died. He wanted to resurrect him. Mrs. Sanchez is a witch. They talked about making a pact with a demon—Cooper gave her a lot of money, and she'd help him bring his son back..."

"They mentioned sacrificing children to the demon—how many sacrifices would pull Cooper's son's soul back from hell. They spouted a bunch of terms I didn't understand, but that was the gist..."

"I thought they were insane—this sounded like pure nonsense. But then they argued. Mrs. Sanchez made objects in the room fly. I was terrified—and accidentally made noise."

"She immediately noticed me. Luckily, I ran fast enough to escape. I realized—if what they said was true, every student here was in danger. Mrs. Sanchez planned to sacrifice them all to the demon. I had to stop it..."

The Great Luo of All Worlds

"And you two? How did you end up here?" Schiller turned to Jason and Little Slider. Jason and Little Slider exchanged glances. "We were hanging out at Batman's base. It's fine, but after a while, it gets boring..."

"Earlier, our friend Tire told us boarding schools are kids' prisons. He said this one up north was different, but we were still worried. Since we had nothing better to do, we came to check on Dick."

Dick sighed, rubbing his forehead. "I was planning to sneak out and contact Batman. But they snuck into the school and got caught by the key keeper."

"Mrs. Sanchez seemed to be short on sacrificial victims, so she locked them in the basement. I had to figure out how to rescue them..."

"Speaking of the key keeper," Gordon scratched his head, puzzled. "Where is he? I didn't see him downstairs. He couldn't have left that fast."

"Obviously, he's in league with the demon. Didn't you notice he kept trying to lead us to the seventh floor?"

"Uh..." Gordon paused. "So the seventh floor is a trap? But how did they know we'd come?... Oh—they called the police. So they deliberately reported us to lure us here, then led us to the seventh floor to kill us. But why? Does Mrs. Sanchez hate the police?"

"She wants to sacrifice you to replenish her own power. She knows she can't beat me."

Constantine lit a cigarette. Instantly, it was knocked from his hand by a batarang embedded in the wall. Batman stared at him. "Don't you see there are children here?"

Constantine made a helpless face. "Fine. Now it's my turn."

"I won't introduce myself. Suffice to say, my previous residence was a psychiatric hospital. I was wrongfully imprisoned—I'm not insane. For various reasons, I was locked up there."

"A few days ago, a mob boss named Harry Cooper pulled me out. He wanted me to use occult methods to resurrect his son."

"Wait—didn't Dick just say Cooper was hiring Mrs. Sanchez to resurrect his son?"

"Clearly, the person he hired was useless." Constantine glanced at the monster bound to the wall.

"Cooper told me the previous witch he hired was greedy—he couldn't afford her price, so he decided to switch."

"Cooper told me the previous witch's method was to sacrifice thirteen children's souls to hell on a full moon night, in exchange for his son's soul."

"When I heard that method, I knew exactly who he'd hired."

Constantine glanced again at the monster. "In witchcraft, there's a branch that specializes in using children's souls for cultivation. I call it 'Ghost Mother.' As far as I know, in today's occult circles, there's only one Ghost Mother: Laurentina Sanchez."

"When I heard Cooper had gone to her, I nearly laughed myself sick. Laurentina's a fraud! She knows no number of children's souls can pull Cooper's son back from hell. No one can steal back what the devil has claimed."

"But Cooper's an outsider who knows just enough to believe her. He gave her a fortune and even arranged for her to become headmistress of this boarding school—so she could get to the children."

"When I learned all this, I wouldn't let her succeed. So I confronted Laurentina, ordered her to stop her scam and leave."

"She said she'd consider it. But behind my back, she set traps and altars here—waiting for me to come looking for trouble, so she could ambush me."

"Sure enough, after I arrived, she used the altar to summon a demon's shadow, fused it with herself, and became this monster..."

"So how did Cooper die?"

"Laurentina cursed him to death. He stopped funding her and no longer trusted her. As the boy said, they had a huge fight. After they parted, she used a curse to kill him."

"Are you connected to the recent serial killings in Gotham?" Batman fixed Constantine with a stare.

"Serial killings?" Constantine blinked. "Whatever that is, I don't know. I've only been in Gotham a few days..."

"Constantine, you know..."

Schiller turned around, stepped in front of Constantine. Constantine met his gaze. "... hat?"

Schiller lowered his head, slowly slid his hand down the umbrella's handle, then gripped the middle.

*Bang. Constantine was knocked backward by the upward swing of the umbrella. Lying on the floor, just before passing out, he saw Schiller standing with his back to the light, the umbrella planted firmly on the ground, saying:

"I don't believe a single word you said."

————Extra Notes————

He's here! He's here!