Batman originally intended to speak up when Zatanna's spirits were low, persuading her to give up. After all, Batman's purpose for coming here had been fulfilled, and he initially didn't believe Zatanna's plan would succeed.
Unexpectedly, Zatanna suddenly pushed him away, and said with a strong determination, "In that case, I have to find out what kind of secret the mysterious Professor Shearer is hiding. What is his weakness?"
"The Curse of Evil in the hands of a man like this is bound to create horror. I have to stop this from happening!"
Seeing Zatanna's resolute expression, Batman, who had just been embraced by Zatanna, felt it wasn't the right time to speak.
Unexpectedly, Constantine coughed a few times and said, "Little Zha, you have noticed too, that the professor isn't ordinary, shall we just..."
Constantine had the intention to leave. Although this time he didn't get the Spirit of Curse, he had obtained a leverage over Batman, thus he had also accomplished his purpose. After all, he didn't believe that Zatanna's plan would succeed either.
Yet, Zatanna glared at him and said, "Do you think I'm like you? I won't aim for retreat."
After she finished speaking, she approached the orbs again, looked down at the building block in her hand and said, "Building block? Let me think…no, it's not right, it's wrong to deceive kids, but exchanging should be fine, right?"
After that, she pulled over another memory orb which was smaller compared to others. The screen opened up and Zatanna constructed a scene of a children's room.
Then, she mumbled to herself, "This block should be very important to young Shearer. If I use it to exchange for the umbrella, he should agree to it, right?"
After speaking, a young Shearer appeared in the memory space, and a teacher identical to Zatanna walked in. Holding a block in her hand, she bent down, looked into the young Shearer's eyes and said, "Young Shearer, do you want this block?"
Young Shearer nodded at Zatanna. Zatanna smiled tenderly, patted his head and said, "Would you like to exchange it for the umbrella with the teacher?"
Young Shearer glanced at the large umbrella he clung to behind his back, looked back at Zatanna, then shook his head.
"Why don't you wish to exchange it with me?" Zatanna squinted her eyes, smiling sweetly. "It's not raining today. You can safely play with blocks inside the house and don't have to go outside. Come on, give me the umbrella…"
Shearer stepped back slightly, shook his head again, but his gaze stayed on the block in Zatanna's hand. Zatanna sensed that this might be the most hopeful round, so she extended her hand once more.
Unexpectedly, Shearer snatched the block from her hand quickly and ran to the corner of the wall.
Zatanna glared at him angrily, appearing somewhat upset. She immediately took two steps forward and said, "How can you snatch things away? That's wrong, children should have manners!"
But young Shearer, who was hiding in the corner with his block in one hand and the umbrella in the other, just kept staring at her. Zatanna wanted to move forward, but was scared of provoking Shearer.
Having no better option, she reset the scene again. This time, she didn't extend her hand much further and firmly held onto the block, denying Shearer the opportunity to snatch it. Then, she and Shearer glared at each other for three hours.
Of course, it was three hours in the memory space. In the Soul Buffer Zone where they were, only about 20 minutes had passed.
Finally, the screen turned off, and Zatanna decided to give up. She stood there, feeling a bit dazed and said, "I really don't understand how a child as small as this can have such intense concentration. He watched my movements for three hours, he snatched away the block as soon as my fingers slackened..."
"Many children with autism have higher concentration levels than those of their peers. They excel in one area while lacking in another," Batman offered.
Zatanna's face looked extremely weary, not only from the numerous resets draining too much of her energy, but also because anyone who faced off with Shearer would feel a mental torment.
Batman noticed Zatanna's expression. He knew that her emotions were like a tautly drawn bowstring, on the verge of snapping. Agitating her at this point wouldn't be a good idea.
As he expected, he heard Zatanna mutter, "I must solve this curse. I have that responsibility. It's my destiny…"
"A hellish destiny!" Constantine, lying on the ground to recover his energy, raised his voice: "Why don't you understand that the elders who said this to you, don't really want you to save the world, but use you to save themselves?!"
"Constantine!" Zatanna screamed, "Do you think I'll become someone like you? I'm not like you, I will definitely use my talent to protect the world. I absolutely won't let myself end up on that path!"
Constantine closed his eyes, his chest rose and fell faintly. He said, "Perhaps, your desire to protect the world is genuine, but the ones who initially established this goal and taught you the methods and skills never truly wanted to save the world..."
"Are you talking about my father?!" Zatanna's voice broke, she yelled back at Constantine fiercely, "No matter what, both my father and I do things to protect others, unlike you!"
Constantine didn't rebut her. He only to pulled out a cigarette and took a puff before saying, "Are you mistaking something by seeking justice and protecting others in the magic realm? We are just a bunch of pitiful souls cursed. Don't think too highly of yourself."
Batman saw Zatanna's twisted face. From Zatanna and Constantine's conversation, he deduced that Zatanna, being born into a prestigious family, might have been instilled with the idea of safeguarding and protecting the world with her powerful talent since she was very young.
Perhaps, those who instilled this principle into him did not have pure intentions. Or perhaps their intentions were pure, but not consistent with the reality.
Constantine had stressed countless times that magic talent was akin to a curse, relentlessly pushing people into the abyss. Zatanna seemed to think she would be the exception, but Constantine was very pessimistic about it.
"You should save some strength, Little Zha, enough to protect yourself, instead of driving yourself insane on this so-called path of justice, as you are now."
Zatanna appeared visibly taken aback, Batman saw a fleeting moment of vulnerability, but it quickly vanished.
This woman magician, who always sported a slightly playful smile on her face, was always as focused and vibrant as if she were performing on stage.
But first, she had heard the news of the Curse of Evil and rushed immediately to Gotham. Then she exhausted a great deal of power and energy to arrange the fog that blocked the Spirit Realm of Gotham. Lastly, the matter of finding weaknesses from the Memory Space didn't go smoothly...
This series of setbacks had caused Zatanna to feel extremely anxious, as if a voice was constantly urging her that if she couldn't resolve this alone, there would be serious consequences. If she didn't give it her all, even the slightest misstep would result in world destruction and the extinction of the human race.
And Batman understood this feeling quite well.
Batman was not someone particularly good at comforting others. His only option was to divert Zatanna's attention, so he spoke:
"There would be no further progress even if we continue to stay here. I believe we should return to the real world first. That is the most rational choice."
He looked at Zatanna and Constantine, "Both of you are not in good condition. We urgently need to rest. Let's return."
Constantine nodded and rose to leave. However, Zatanna stood still. After a deep breath, she said, "If you both want to leave, I can send you back first, but I must stay here."
"Even if I cannot seize the Curse Medium now, I must find out how to restrain it. Otherwise, it will be too late when the disaster really arrives."
"Little Zha, listen to me. There's no point in dragging this out. It's going to hurt you," Constantine said, looking into Zatanna's eyes. "I know you still have some tricks up your sleeve, but it's not worth it."
"Nothing is unworthy. As I said, I'm doing my best every moment," Zatanna was just as reluctant to back down, "If you want to leave, I can send you away now, but I have to find the flaws in these Memory Spaces."
Zatanna's stubbornness was giving Constantine a headache. He signaled Batman to come to persuade her. But to Constantine's surprise, Batman said after coming over, "Do you think you still have the strength? If so, then carry out your plan."
"Good heavens, have you both gone mad?!" Constantine exclaimed, "Even if you stay here for a few more hours, what can you achieve? Nothing more than repeating the same failures..."
Unexpectedly, Zatanna interjected, "No, things have come to this point. I think we can use some more aggressive methods."
"You mean, you have other methods?" Batman asked her.
Zatanna sighed heavily. "Actually, I don't want to do this, as it goes beyond memory alteration."
"What you see now is me creating artificial Memory Spaces and implanting false memories into the characters within them. This doesn't really affect the actual memories drastically."
"Because this is only tinkering with the superficial layer of consciousness, it doesn't reach the deeper levels at all."
"But in fact, Mind Magic can do much more than just that. We can follow the path of memories to deeper levels, to uncover more secrets there."
Zatanna sighed again, "If we can't fool him into giving up the Curse Medium, we should at least find a way to restrain him, to prevent him from doing something when he wants to."
Seeing the look on Zatanna's face and hearing her words, Batman felt a very strange sensation because he saw a reflection of his past self in Zatanna.
Distrust, paranoia, and delusions of persecution. Hoping for everything to work as per his plan, having contingencies for every situation, he had to find vulnerabilities in anything possibly beyond his control, otherwise, he wouldn't be at ease.
Now Batman clearly understood how his personality had come to be. He was driven by anger, vengeance, and the desire to save Gotham. He was driven to be perfect and felt extremely anxious if he couldn't do something perfectly.
So, what was pushing Zatanna to walk this path to the abyss? And what could save her?
Batman suddenly realized that from an onlooker's perspective, such individuals lacked charm. He finally understood why Shearer and the always laughing madman insisted that "the one who dresses up as a bat is the madman".
Because such people did indeed appear to be quite deranged.