Batman originally wanted to speak to Zatanna when she was depressed and persuade her to give up. After all, Batman's purpose of coming here has been achieved, and he didn't think Zatanna's plan could succeed.
Unexpectedly, Zatanna suddenly pushed him away, and then said energetically: "In this case, I want to see what kind of secrets this mysterious Professor Schiller hides? What does he have?"
weakness?"
"If an extremely evil curse falls into the hands of such a person, something terrible will definitely happen. I must stop it all!"
Looking at the determined expression on Zatanna's face, Batman, who had just been hugged by Zatanna, felt that he was not very good at speaking now.
Unexpectedly, Constantine coughed twice and said: "Xiao Zha, you can see that this professor is not an ordinary person, otherwise we will still..."
Constantine also wanted to leave. Although he didn't get the Cursed Soul this time, he got Batman's handle. He returned with a full load. His goal was basically achieved. Anyway, he didn't think Zatanna's plan could be achieved.
success.
But Zatanna glared at him and said, "Do you think I'm the same as you? I won't aim to retreat."
After saying that, she walked up to the light balls again, looked down at the building blocks in her hand, and said: "Building blocks? Let me think about it... No, no, no matter what, it is wrong to lie to children, but exchange should be possible.
Bar?"
After saying that, she pulled over another memory light ball. This memory light ball was smaller than the other light balls. The screen unfolded and Zatanna constructed a scene of a children's room.
Then, she said to herself: "This building block should be a very important thing to the young Schiller. If I exchange it for an umbrella, he will exchange it with me, right?"
After saying that, the young Schiller appeared in the memory space. At this time, a female teacher who looked exactly like Zatanna came in. She held a building block in her hand, then squatted down and looked at the young Schiller.
His eyes said: "Children Schiller, do you want this building block?"
The young Schiller looked into Zatanna's eyes and nodded. Zatanna showed a gentle smile, touched his head, and said, "Can you exchange your umbrella with the teacher?"
The young Schiller turned his head and glanced at the big umbrella he was holding behind him, then looked at Zatanna again, and then shook his head.
"Why don't you want to switch with me?" Zatanna still squinted her eyes very gently and said with a smile: "It's not raining today. You can safely play with building blocks in the house without going out. Come on, give me your umbrella."
I……"
Schiller took a step back slightly and shook his head again, but his eyes stayed on the building blocks in Zatanna's hand. Zatanna felt that this might be the most promising round, so she moved her hand again.
Passed it forward.
Unexpectedly, Schiller quickly took the blocks from her hand and ran to the corner.
Zatanna's eyes widened and she seemed a little angry. She immediately took two steps forward and said, "How can you steal something? This is wrong. Children must be polite!"
But the young Schiller who was hiding in the corner, holding blocks in one hand and an umbrella in the other, just kept staring at her. Zatanna wanted to take a few steps forward, but she was afraid of irritating Schiller.
She had no choice but to reset the scene again. This time, she did not reach out so far forward and grabbed the blocks tightly, not giving Schiller a chance to succeed. Then, she and Schiller glared at each other like this.
Three hours.
Of course, it was three hours in the memory space, and about 20 minutes had passed in the soul buffer zone where Zatanna and the others were.
Finally, the screen went out, and Zatanna chose to give up. She stood there a little dull and said: "I really don't understand, how can such a young child have such a strong concentration? He stared at my movements.
For three full hours, as long as I loosened my fingers a little and lost my mind, he would snatch the blocks away..."
"Many autistic children have higher concentration than their peers. If they are deficient in one aspect, they will be particularly good at another aspect," Batman said.
Zatanna's face looked very tired, not only because it took too much power to reset the scene multiple times, but also because anyone who encountered Schiller would feel a kind of mental torture.
Batman saw Zatanna's expression, and he knew that Zatanna's emotions were being stretched into a string, and it was a little too tight now, and it might break at any time. It was not a good idea to stimulate her at this time.
Sure enough, he heard Zatanna murmur to herself: "I must solve this curse. I have such a responsibility. This is my destiny..."
"What a hell of a fate!" Constantine, who was lying on the ground recovering his strength, raised his voice and said, "Why don't you understand that those elders who said these words to you don't really want you to save the world, but
I just want to use you to save them!"
"Constantine!" Zatanna almost screamed: "Do you think I will become someone like you? I am different from you. I will definitely use my talents to protect the world. I will never
Let yourself go down that path!"
Constantine closed his eyes, his chest rose and fell weakly, and he said: "Perhaps your desire to protect the world is true, but the person who originally established this goal for you and taught you methods and skills has never been
I don’t really want to protect the world…”
"Are you talking about my father?!" Zatanna's voice had broken, and she said fiercely to Constantine: "No matter what, what my father and I did was to protect others! Not
like you!"
Constantine did not refute this at all. He just took out a cigarette and took a puff, and then said: "In seeking justice and protecting others in the magical world, have you done something wrong? We are just a group of cursed wretches.
, don’t think of yourself too great.”
Batman saw Zatanna's somewhat distorted face. Through the conversation between Zatanna and Constantine, Batman guessed that Zatanna, who was born into a famous family, may have been indoctrinated since she was a child to use her powerful talents to save and save the world.
The concept of protecting this world.
Perhaps the people who instilled this truth into him had impure intentions. Perhaps their intentions were simple, but they were not consistent with the facts.
Constantine has emphasized countless times that magic talent is like a curse, constantly forcing people to fall into the abyss. Zatanna seems to think that she will be the exception, but Constantine is very pessimistic about this.
"You should save more strength, Xiao Zha, save some strength to protect yourself, instead of driving yourself crazy in the pursuit of so-called justice like now."
Zatanna's expression moved for a moment, and Batman saw a hint of vulnerability in that moment, but it quickly disappeared.
This female magician, who always has a playful smile on her face, is always as focused and energetic as she is performing on stage.
But first he heard the news about the extremely evil curse and rushed to Gotham non-stop. Then he spent a lot of strength and energy to arrange the fog that blocked Gotham's spiritual world. Finally, he found the flaw in the memory space.
Not smooth……
This series of blows made Zatanna feel very anxious. It seemed that there was always a voice in her heart urging her, telling her that if she couldn't solve this problem alone, there would be serious consequences. As long as she didn't
Try her best, if she makes any small mistake, the world will be destroyed and mankind will perish.
And Batman understands this emotion deeply.
Batman is not a person who is very good at comforting people. He could only use his own method to divert Zatanna's attention, so he said:
"If we continue to waste time here, there won't be any additional progress. I think we should return to the real world first. This is the most rational choice."
He looked at Zatanna and Constantine and said, "Both of you are in bad condition. We urgently need a rest. Let's go back first."
Constantine nodded, stood up from the ground, and planned to leave, but Zatanna, who was standing silently, took a deep breath, spit it out, and then said: "If you want to leave, I can
You send it back first, but I have to stay here."
"Even if I can't get the curse medium now, I still have to know how to restrain him. Otherwise, it will be too late when disaster really strikes."
"Xiao Zha, listen to me, there is no point in dragging on, it will cause you a lot of harm." Constantine looked into Zatanna's eyes and said: "I know you still have a trump card, but this doesn't matter.
not worth it."
"There is nothing not worth it. I have already said that I am trying my best every moment." Zatanna was also unwilling to give in. She said: "If you want to leave, I will send you away now, but I will definitely
To find the flaws in these memory spaces."
Zatanna's stubbornness gave Constantine a headache. He winked at Batman and wanted Batman to come over and persuade him. Unexpectedly, Batman came over and said, "Do you think you still have some strength left?"
?If so, then carry out your plan."
"Oh my God, are you crazy?!" Constantine said in confusion: "Even if you stay here for a few more hours, what will be the result? It's just a repetition of these previous failures...
…”
Unexpectedly, Zatanna said: "No, now that things have reached this point, I think we can use some radical methods."
"You mean, you have other ways?" Batman looked at her and asked.
Zatanna sighed and said, "Actually, I don't want to do this. This is beyond the scope of memory modification."
"Now, what you can see is that I am creating a fictitious memory space and implanting false memories into the characters in the memory space. In fact, it will not have much impact on the real memories."
"Because this only changes the superficial level of consciousness and does not touch the deeper parts at all."
"But in fact, spiritual magic can do much more than that. We can go deeper along the path of memory and pry into more secrets there."
Zatanna sighed softly and said: "If we can't get him to hand over the curse medium through this deception, then at least we can get a way to restrain him before he wants to do something.
It’s time to stop him.”
Seeing the look on Zatanna's face and hearing her words, Batman had a very strange feeling, because he saw his past self in Zatanna.
Suspicious, paranoid, and persecutory paranoia, he hopes that everything will act according to his ideas, and that all plans will be documented. For any existence that may be beyond his control, he must find their weaknesses, otherwise he will have trouble sleeping and eating.
Now, Batman has a clear idea of how his current personality was formed. He is driven by anger, revenge and the desire to save Gotham. He desperately wants to be a perfect person, and he is unwilling to do anything that cannot be done.
I feel very anxious about perfection.
So, what is forcing Zatanna to embark on such a path leading to the abyss? What can save her?
Batman suddenly discovered that from the perspective of a bystander, such a person was not lovable. He finally understood why Schiller and the madman who was always laughing kept emphasizing that "people dressed as bats are mentally ill."
Because this kind of person really looks like a mental patient.