"What on earth are you saying?" Red Robin mumbled, only to snap awake when Lilith shouted at him. This ancient demon spoke incredulously, "If I weren't a demon, I would think you were bewitched. What are you going on about?"
"Art." Red Robin averted his eyes towards the seemingly infinite flames that weren't actually there. He extended a hand and placed it on the edge of the podium, "The art of deconstructing life that you do not understand."
"To make the unwanted offerings, to abandon the blood of those who crave it, to turn the eternal life into a brief candlelight, to... No, no! It's not complete!"
Red Robin looked around, raised his voice, "Something is missing. This painting is missing a corner!"
"Wake up, Tim!" Lilith shouted at him. "You're bewitched. I command you to wake up."
In an instant, an ancient demonic force spread outward. Red Robin held his head in agony and, weakness taking hold of him, he half-knelt and clutched his head, "Don't disturb me, I am trying to find the missing corner of this magnificent artwork..."
"Who's the devil here? Can you snap out it?"
"I understand now! I got it!" Red Robin suddenly rose, leaning on a nearby chair. He stumbled up to the podium and looked upward.
The three enormous Gothic windows showcased an array of complex patterns beyond ordinary comprehension. But Red Robin wasn't looking at windows themselves; he was looking at the sky outside.
"What on earth are you doing?" Lilith roared.
"Shush..." Red Robin raised his finger in a hushing gesture. "Can you hear it? The flapping of wings..."
He gazed at the window with a focused stare, oblivious to the passage of time, until the darkness of the night grew denser, and the moonlight was completely obscured by clouds.
A soft clattering sound filled the air, which wasn't a figment of Red Robin's imagination, but an actual noise.
Lilith, looking up at the sky through Red Robin's eyes, saw the clouds were being torn apart by spiraling currents. They were winds stirred up by the flapping wings of bats.
Thousands of bats flew over Fog City, blocking out all light. In the pitch-dark church, the youth's pupils were ablaze with radiant light.
The flicker of a torchlight flashed across Master of the Dark Night Jim's eyes. With screams, blood, and fires filling up the entire mansion, a cluster of bats flew over Jim's head, transforming into Bennett's human form. He suddenly looked out of the window.
Upon seeing the endless swarm of bats flying like dark clouds towards the horizon of London, he gasped.
After a brief stupor, Bennett turned to Master of the Dark Night Jim, "We've been fooled! They are targeting London! We need to go back!"
Master of the Dark Night Jim made his way to the window in two or three strides, standing thunderstruck as he watched the army of bats in the sky. He cursed loudly, casting a worried look back at the mansion before speaking.
"We can't leave the Yosergi Family. They've guarded Merlin's blood for generations. If the vampires get to it, they might become even more powerful."
Just then, Deadman Boston sprinted over from the mansion's side door "Did you see? The Blood Clan has launched a massive attack on London, the second Bloodline War is about to begin!"
"There is no such thing as the Blood Clan War anymore..." Jim shook his head, "the Grand Mages are heavily wounded, the Magic Realm is in ruins, we can't even organize proper resistance."
"But we cannot give up on London." Deadman Boston murmured, "You know what would happen to the world if they turn all the Londoners into the Blood Clan."
Jim sighed, "You two take the survivors of the Yosergi Family, I have to return to Maya to find some friends who can help."
"What about Zatanna?" Bennett asked.
"She's strong, but she can't participate in the battle until she wakes up, take good care of her."
Jim's teleportation portal had already opened, but at this moment, another portal opened faster. The white-haired Master Andrew and Lady Shangdu emerged from the newly opened portal.
"Bad news, Jim," Andrew quickly walked up to Jim, "The people from the Great Mage Alliance plan to renegotiate with the demons."
"Renegotiate? Isn't that a good thing?" Jim asked with a hint of surprise.
"But the way they get the demons to sit down and talk isn't by forcing them, it's by selling themselves!" Andrew said gritting his teeth, "They are willing to accept an unfair treaty, just to get power again, some are even willing to sell their souls for a power that doesn't reach a tenth of their original."
Jim cursed harshly, after breathing deeply several times he finally calmed himself down and then said, "John was right, they are a bunch of idiots!"
Lady Shangdu stepped forward and said, "Some of them were half beaten to death by their creditors and had to resort to begging for power from demons."
"But many of them are reluctant to give up the brilliance of the Magic Realm. Do you think that if they lose the Magic Realm, they can accept living like office workers, going nine to five just to fill their stomachs?"
"It is easy to move to luxury from thrift, but hard to move to thrift from luxury." Deadman Boston sighed, "How can we expect many Mages who move through teleportation to return to the days of using public transport?"
Andrew also let out a sigh, "I must admit, the Grand Mages are deeply immersed in the Magic Realm, we hardly communicate with the ordinary world anymore, spending all day in our Mage Towers commanding our apprentices, hardly anyone bothers with managing industries in the ordinary society."
"After the spatial cracks of the Mage Towers fell, most of the properties disappeared. If we return to the common world, we can only become beggars. But I still cannot accept kneeling before demons for power."
"Is there no other solution?" Jim asked, sounding on the brink of collapse, "The Magic Realm has been around for so many years, has no one predicted today's situation and came up with a solution?!"
"Of course there are solutions, but hardly anyone is willing to try." Andrew said with a bitter smile, "We still have quite a bit of power left, some energy-containing artifacts were rescued by apprentices, but compared to the past, what I squandered was a mere drop in the bucket."
"I don't want to kneel to demons, but I don't want to beg on the streets either, so I have to conserve my power."
Andrew turned around, sighed heavily, and said with a tone of exhaustion and a hint of relief,
"Thank goodness I'm not one of those crazy young mages. I used to research energy-efficient Arrays, but when energy was abundant, I never dug deep. So the Arrays weren't very efficient."
"Now, these old bones need to be an apprentice again, I hope that ingenious apprentice called Bruce Wayne, with his intelligent academic mind, can teach us how to make perfect use of what little power we have left."