Chapter 938: Exploring Schiller's Past (Part I)
Zatanna's psychic magic, with little to no preparation, no lengthy healing process, no medical records, no records, not even the presence of the patient, the helicopter just carried them to the safe room of the Bat Cave, and Zatana said she was ready.
Batman narrowed his eyes and said, "Schiller isn't here, how are you going to get into his inner world?"
Zatanna shook her head and said, "Bruce, the occult is a little more magical than you think, and you have the impression that the spirit world may be another world hidden under the real world, no different from the real world."
"But in fact, the reason why the spirit world is called the spirit world is because it can communicate with people's souls, and the messengers who can walk in the spirit world can enter people's hearts."
"Then can you peek into other people's hearts at any time?" Batman asked, but it wasn't actually a question, his tone seemed very affirmative, and it revealed vigilance, but Zatana shook her head and said, "No, walking in the spirit world has a huge price, not everyone is Constantine, and a bunch of demons can be fooled into paying for him."
Zatana sighed and said, "Actually, before you and I parted, I had already touched the threshold of magic, and I had tried to travel in the spirit world in my sleep, and at that time, I took the advice of adults as a deaf ear, thinking that I had mastered the most magical powers in the world, and could use them with impunity."
A hint of sadness appeared between Zatanna's eyebrows, and she said, "The price of magic may not be paid overnight, it will permeate every corner of your life, and your life, your future, will slide into the abyss."
"My father's disappearance was not an accident." Zatanna shook her head slowly and said, "This is the price we have to pay."
With that, she stepped forward and looked up into Batman's eyes, she was very close to him, but she felt that she could no longer see through those blue eyes, Zatanna spoke, "I can hear, I can feel, you have too many meaningless fantasies about the occult, promise me, Bruce, never take this step, or you will never look back."
"To control power, to pay the price, to make up for the price, to try to control more power, and to pay a greater price...... That's magic." Konstantin sat down on the couch next to him, and he said, "If you weren't born with this curse, then it's best not to get involved, everything I do is just to save myself."
"Now that we're almost ready, let's get started." Zatana tilted her head, as if she didn't want to talk about it anymore, she took two steps back and said to the two of them, "You'd better find a safe place to sit, when you travel to the spirit world, your body stays where it is, make sure your body is safe, I have heard of more than one unlucky person who came back from the spirit world and his body was eaten by their pets."
The exhaust sound of "hiss" was heard, the door of the safe room was completely closed, Batman, Constantine and Zatanna sat on the sofa in three directions, Zatanna's mouth was chanting a mysterious incantation, and soon, Batman felt a hazy white mist envelop the entire room.
He felt that his body had become lighter, and he had an urge to dance, and he could no longer contain that desire to move, so he obeyed his instinct and stood up, and when he turned around, he saw himself still sitting on the couch.
The other two were the same, but both of them were familiar with it, and Zatanna waved her hand and said, "Let's go, let's find Schiller's soul in the spirit world first, and then enter his memory."
Neither Konstantin nor Batman said anything, just let her carry out the plan, and Zatanna flew into the air, Konstantin and Batman followed her, weaving through a misty space.
The spirit world is not empty, and Batman finds that he can still see the scene in the real world, but it seems to be covered with a layer of mist, and the colors become more brilliant.
He could see that as he swept through the city, countless souls radiated all kinds of brilliance, the neon surface of the building flowed, and the wake brought up by the flight streaked through the light, looking psychedelic and gorgeous.
"You think it's amazing, don't you?" Konstantin flew as he flew
Say, "But the spiritual world is much more dangerous than you think."
"The reason why this place seems so ordinary is because demons don't want to come to Gotham, and if you change cities, you may encounter demons foraging for food at any time, or monsters native to the spirit world."
Batman frowned, and Konstantin then explained, "The spirit world seems to have existed since ancient times, and so are the monsters here, but I don't know why, not only is there no demon in Gotham, but even the nameless monster that should have been born from the power of the spirit world has disappeared."
Hearing Constantine's words, Batman pursed his lips, but at this time, Zatana shouted, "I think, we're almost there! Do you see that spot of light in front of you? That's Schiller's soul, and he's supposed to be in the lab at Gotham University......
"He really should be at Gotham University." Batman spoke, and Zatanna stopped at the top of a building, nodded, and said, "Looks like that's him, let's get closer...... My God, is that the green of all things?"
Batman followed Zatana to the top of a building, and he saw that in the sky above the laboratory building, there was an unknown monster made of vines, which was extremely large and terrifying, and at this time a thick vine was sticking out and inserting into the teaching building.
"It's Schiller that the Green of All Things is going to deal with, so why did he chase him and kill me? Or is there another deal Schiller made with the Green of Everything?" Konstantin asked, somewhat puzzled.
"Alright, don't waste time, our goal is not to be green." Zatanna's hands began to glow, and then, she explained, "I'm going to use psychic magic to invade his soul directly, and I'm going to pick the weakest link in his soul, in short, the weakness of his memory."
"Humans are afraid and hateful, aren't they? Everyone has some bad memories, and in these memories, they have less control over their souls, and we can take advantage of them and make up some special memories or build a scenario in our favor."
"And his reaction in these scenes will affect the action in reality, for example, we can build a scene where he sells his umbrella in destitute and so that in reality, he will voluntarily take out the umbrella and hand it over."
"Or, we can also create a memory of his hatred of the umbrella in a weaker link and let him throw it away himself, which of course will be a bit difficult, so it depends on the situation."
"Is there anything I need to pay attention to when I enter the memory space?" Batman asked.
Zatanna thought for a moment and then said, "Remember, in every memory, there is usually a situation or object that can arouse his emotions the most, and if we want to stimulate his weakness, we must find this object, and the owner of the memory will have more intense emotions in the face of this object, so we can use it to guide the other person."
"Once this item is found, the other party may have an extremely violent reaction because of being poked in the sore spot, at this time, we must quickly find a way out, otherwise, we may face a very terrifying thing."
"Of course, once we get this item, we can use it as a support point for fictional memories, and our first goal is to find it."
"Where will the way out?" Batman asked again.
Zatanna paused and said, "Generally speaking, we will be in places where the other party is more resistant and unwilling to touch, and as long as we can find it, we can get rid of that memory and go to a safer memory space."
"Alright, let's go." With a flick of Zatana's glowing hand in the air, a portal appeared, and the three of them walked in, and then Batman felt that he was in a tunnel full of hazy light.
He didn't need to fly by himself, and the ball of light at the end kept suctioning, but at this time, he heard Zatana let out an exclamation.
"Oh my God! His memory, how could his memory be so confusing??!! Hold on to me! Hold on to me! Otherwise, we will be separated!!
Hearing his shouting, Batman subconsciously wanted to catch her
However, everything happened too quickly, and the ball of light at the end was divided into three, and the huge suction force caused the three of them to be pulled in three different directions.
As soon as Batman stretched out his hand, he was instantly sucked into the ball of light in the center, and then lost consciousness.
It may have been a long time, or it may have been only for a moment, and when he opened his eyes again, Batman felt an intense white light that kept flickering in front of his eyes.
After the initial trance, Batman finds that he is lying in a hospital bed, no longer wearing a batsuit, but a hospital gown.
He got up from his bed and looked around the room, seeing that it was different from the one he remembered.
It was a double room, and it looked a little messy at this time, the bed next to him was crooked, the table between the two beds had fallen to the floor, and the water glasses and miscellaneous items were scattered all over the floor.
Batman frowned, he saw that the bed next to him had the patient's information hanging on the bedside, so he walked over to take a closer look and found that there were a few lines of Chinese written on it.
Batman knows Chinese, he knows almost all the mainstream languages in this world, but the names and messages written on it make him feel strange, and the only information he can tell him is that this seems to be a mental hospital in China.
Batman frowned slightly, he knew that he should be in Schiller's memory now, but why did Schiller go to a psychiatric hospital in China?
At this time, Batman did not feel that the bed next to him was Schiller's, because it was a very typical Chinese name, and it did not seem to be transliterated in English, so he looked around left and right and began to look for clues in the room.
The whole ward is not large, the two beds are against the left and right walls of the room, on the opposite side of the bed, there is a cabinet for storing personal belongings, and in the middle of the two beds is a table, which is now overturning on the ground.
Batman first opened the curtains, but found that the scene outside the window was foggy, and there was hardly any specific scenery to be seen, which he guessed might be because the memory space had not expanded.
Batman then walks over to the overturned table, puts it back in place, and picks up the water glass from the ground.
But at this moment, he found that the bed near him, that is, in the direction of the bed where he woke up, the table top was very smooth, and there was no trace.
But on the other side of the table, there is a very obvious circular trace, Batman looked at the cup in his hand, and after placing one of the cups on the circular trace, the shape of the bottom of the cup and the circular mark completely coincided, which means that this cup has always been placed here.
Batman leaned over to take a closer look, and he noticed that the circular mark was deep on one side and shallow on the other, he paused, sat down on the hospital bed next to the table, and after placing the cup on the circular trace, he turned the handle towards himself.
Then he found that if the cup was filled with water and held up with the handle, it would inevitably cause the bottom of the cup without the handle to rub against the table, so that the circular mark would be deep and shallow on one side.
This clue tells Batman that the patient in this hospital bed may have obsessive-compulsive disorder, after all, judging from the overall depth of the circular trace, this patient is exactly the same action every time he drinks water, otherwise, it would never be possible to leave such a deep trace.
While recalling the patient's series of actions, Batman was suddenly stunned for a moment, and another scene appeared in his mind.
Batman walked over to the bed without a trace and sat down, watching the slightly old walls of the psychiatric hospital peel off, the wooden floors were pulled away one by one and turned into tiles, the table turned from round to square, and Schiller across from him was drinking a glass of water that the gang boss had just brought him.
When Schiller put the cup down, the crisp sound of the bottom of the cup touching the table was deafening, and Batman saw that Schiller flicked the handle of the cup with one finger and turned the handle towards him.
At this point, the length of the cup handle from the edge of the table and the length of the circle mark from the circle of the table completely coincide.