"I have bad news and worse news. Which one do you want to hear first?" In the Cryogenic Lab at Gotham University, Victor asked Batman, not waiting for Batman to answer, he continued:
"The bad news is, there are issues with both Gotham's rainwater and the drinking water. The worse news is, the problems with each are not the same."
Batman furrows his eyebrows, looks at Victor, waiting for his conclusion. In the past, he would have personally examined the test results or taken samples to the Batcave for analysis, but now he simply hoped to solve the problem as efficiently as possible without getting into the nitty-gritty.
"I detected a mysterious substance in the rainwater that doesn't belong to any known elements." Victor says while walking to the table, picks up a report, and continues:
"To study the properties of this substance and what makes the rainwater special, my students did many experiments and found out that this substance reacts to metal."
"What kind of reaction?" Batman inquires.
"It's currently unclear." Victor shakes his head and says: "This reaction isn't visible to the naked eye. We found it when we used a magnetic oscillator to observe the magnetic feedback."
Hearing this, Batman seemed to understand something. He looked back at Zatanna. Zatanna steps forward and asks Victor, "Can you reproduce the reaction? It could be related to magic."
Then she elaborated: "For people without magic vision, magic is invisible, like pulling a rabbit out of a hat. You can see the hat and the rabbit, but you can't see how the rabbit came out. Even if my hat were transparent, the result would be the same."
"However, it is not entirely undetectable. Most continuous magic reactions can be detected by humans through a magnetic field. Some people naturally have special magnetic fields, or magic affinity, and are prone to attracting 'souls' or 'spirits.' That is so-called ghost-attracting physique."
"Your invisible reaction may be a persistent magic reaction under magical vision. So, if you can reproduce this process, I might be able to find a clue."
Looking at Zatanna's exhausted and pale face, Batman starts to speak, but Clark beats him to it: "Miss Zatanna, you look quite tired. Shouldn't you rest?"
"I'm very sorry that I ruined your portal. I will compensate you for all the materials. If you're hurt or exhausted because of this, it would be best if you went to sleep."
"I'm okay." Zatanna shakes her head and says, "Losing the portal and draining my energy doesn't mean much to me. I've undergone more rigorous training. Please trust that I am professional when it comes to magic. Let's get started."
Batman gazes at Zatanna. In her stubborn expression, he sees a reflection of his past self. Now he seems to understand why Shiller said that Zatanna reminds him of what he was like four years ago.
Zatanna's current emotional state is not so much resilience, but rather, an excessive obsession. She insists on proving her proficiency and omnipotence in magic, resolving all cases worldwide regardless of their own state, insisting on never backing down.
He admits that watching people like this makes him want to suggest they take a visit to a mental health clinic.
Victor only glances at Zatanna and says nothing. He calls a few students to reproduce the experiment they had done earlier.
It's simple really. They place a piece of iron in the magnetic oscillator, turn on the machine, drop in the rainwater, and the screen displays some abnormal readings.
While Clark and the students transport the buckets of rainwater, Batman and Victor observe the screen readings. Zatanna's eyes glimmer with light. As the water flows into the hull and engulfs the iron, she suddenly shouts:
"Stop! Something's wrong!"
Victor and Batman both turn to look at her. Zatanna says, "I observed some magic reactions...that's right, my assumption was correct. It's a continuous magic reaction that carries some dark and chaotic traits...Let me see, no, no, the reaction trigger isn't right. Could I see it happen again?"
After the experiment was repeated, Zatanna furrowed her brows. She conjures a screen in the air, writing words and formulas in it, while explaining:
"Look here, what are called persistent magic reactions, can be understood as a long-term activated magic array."
Zatanna moved her finger, drawing a slightly complicated pattern in the air and continued, "First, I engrave the triggering point of the magic array on an object, like so."
The pattern she drew slowly lit up and floated above her head. Zatanna waved her hand and said, "This is just some random array that I wrote, and now, I'm going to use another kind of magic to trigger it."
After saying that, a finger of Zatanna's lights up, she continues, "Now, the function of this magic array is to emit light, and the magic in my hand also serves to emit light, but when the two meet..."
With a flick of her finger, Zatanna pointed at her magic wand. A streak of light flew out, and with a "whoosh", a gust of powerful wind blew out from the magic array, tossing Zatanna's long black hair over her ears.
Moreover, the gust kept blowing until Zatanna extinguished the magical array, maintaining a very stable state. Zatanna extended her hand and explained, "Look, this is a Continual Reaction Magic spell, different from ordinary magic spells."
"If I use ordinary magic, like this.… Wind, gust forth!"
Zatanna focused her spirit and unleashed a simple Anti-language Magic spell. The gust filed towards Batman, sending his cape flying, but the gust quickly dispersed, and Batman's cape fell back.
"Normally, the magic we use is determined by the amount of magic power we utilize, which decides its strength and duration." Zatanna was far more proficient in explaining magic than Constantine. After all, she had received the most comprehensive academic training and knew how to explain the principles of magic to others.
"However, if we stop the output of magical power, the magic will cease, but Continual Reaction Magic is not like that. After constructing a good active Array and triggering the Array's elements, magic will remain in effect indefinitely once the two meet."
"So, doesn't that make Continual Reaction Magic much stronger than ordinary magic?" Victor inquired with a furrowed brow.
"But Continual Reaction Magic is much more difficult and fragile than other types of magic. It doesn't mean that you can just settle the two things and expect it to work forever after activation." Zatanna shook her head, "In most cases, many magicians' Continual Reaction Magic spells are very fragile, requiring maintenance, and the effect is not strong. Considering the large investment, there are very few who would use this type of magic now."
Having explained the principle, Zatanna looked at the iron piece still in the device, and said, "The rainwater you just poured in is indeed an element for activation, but the metal in this machine is not the correct activated party."
"The concept of magic is relatively vague and not as accurate as scientific experiments. The activation formula set in the rainwater may well include metal, so although this piece of metal is not the correct activated party, it would still react with the rainwater to some extent."
"This indicates that the metal, but not this type of metal, is the right activated party. As for which one…" Zatanna pondered for a moment, then said: "Join me in the Spirit Realm later. I will cast a tracking spell on the rainwater. Then, by observing its critical path, we should be able to ascertain what the actual activated party is."
After finishing what she was saying, she took a deep breath, regardless of her weak state, and forcibly entered the Spirit Realm. The rainwater collected in the bucket emitted a glow and then vanished.
After a while, a doubtful "Hm?" came from mid-air. After a long silence, Zatanna's figure reappeared, her face even paler. She then gasped and looked at Batman, saying:
"I have bad news, and even worse news. Which do you want to hear first?"
Batman looked at her silently. Zatanna sighed and said: "The bad news is that the activated party targeted by the rainwater is not some specific piece of metal, but all the metal in Gotham's buildings."
Batman's face immediately darkened. He stood up and attentively watched Zatanna. Zatanna also looked at him and said, "The worse news is that the nature of the entire Continual Reaction Magic spell is far more malicious than I thought."
"Although I knew that this magic was more geared towards evil and chaos, I did not realize that all the activated parties, the metals, formed an even larger magic array together. This is a complexity of magic that I find difficult to articulate. It's as if this no longer falls within the realm of magic."
Zatanna's face turned even paler, almost drained of all color. She looked down at the ground and muttered ambiguously, "We are standing on the darkest and most evil platform in the world. Perhaps, this is the real Curse of Evil."
Zatanna raised her head, looking into Batman's eyes, and said, "The rainwater triggers the Array in the metal, and the Continual Reaction Magic from the Array in the metal forms an immense whirlpool, sucking in all the malice in the cosmos. That's why this place is called a land beyond salvation…"
"So, do you have a solution?" Batman asked Zatanna.
Zatanna fell silent suddenly. The room quieted down. After a pause, she took a deep breath, then said:
"Certainly, I have a solution...I have a way to break the world's worst curse. Otherwise, I wouldn't have come here and sought you out. Before coming here, I had already figured out a solution."
Batman had a feeling he knew what she would say next, with a tragic heroism in her eyes.
It was as if time had reverted to four years ago, and Batman was looking in a mirror as he looked at Zatanna opposite to him. He thought, perhaps, he had worn the same expression when he stood on the roof of the Wayne building.
But before Zatanna could speak, Batman said first, "You don't have to sacrifice yourself because you aren't as important as you think you are."
Seeing Zatanna's rapidly changing expression, Batman finally understood why Shiller could never stand him.
Because Zatanna's downturned lips, squinted eyes, and furrowed brows, as serious as she felt, looked ridiculous to an outsider.