In a slightly dim meeting room, a few people sat by a round table where Strange occupied the head seat, holding a stack of documents. He stood up and gestured to those on his left and right, to whom they responded with a nod.
Sitting next to Strange, Shiller raised his hand and placed it on the table, saying, "The reason for convening everyone this time is due to the Honorable Supreme Mage from other universes having remarks about the magical situation of this universe. At the same time, all of you should be curious about the conditions of the magic realm in other universes. Professor Strange will explain everything in detail."
Strange nodded, stood up, paced in front of the conference room and began to tell about how his universe in the Marvel world, the Holy Sanctuary, Kamar-Taj and the entire magical realm worked.
Because the situation was quite complex, Strange spoke for a good forty minutes before almost finishing. His explanations weren't very detailed, but just an overview of the structure.
In attendance, besides those from the magic realm such as Constantine, Zatanna, Master Andrew, and Lady Shangdu, there were also three leading figures of the Justice League, Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman. Green Lantern Hal and Green Arrow Oliver were there too, and even ordinary folks like young Falcone, Cobblepot, and Mayor Roy of Gotham City, were all gathered around the conference table.
After all, the establishment of a Magic Academy in Gotham meant that the situation in the magic realm was closely related to these people. Except for Bruce, Roy, and Alberto, who partially understood what Strange had narrated, the rest were utterly confused.
The main reason being, if Strange had only lectured about economics, most of them would have understood, and if he had only lectured about the magic realm, most of them would have comprehended that as well. But when he combined both topics, it created a kind of disordered beauty, like grafting a leek onto an apple tree, which left many people somewhat dumbfounded for a while.
They digested the information for half an hour before barely understanding a part of it. Then Strange stood in front of the table, rolled up the documents in his hand, and knocked on the table, saying, "Wake up, friends, humanity is about to be destroyed by your own hands. Why are you not worried at all?"
"Now that the magic realm has experienced a calamity with a sharp decline in the number of people, do you think the demons and angels will accept a reduction in their income? It's foreseeable that they will contrive ways to lure more humans into this con."
"But they won't admit it's their fault. They have a good excuse: that human mages have killed so many of themselves, so it's only natural for them to replenish their believers. They may even demand compensation from us."
"How can we allow them to bully humans like this?" Green Arrow Oliver slapped the table and stood up, saying, "This is outrageous! Is there no one who can enforce regulations?"
It was also Hal's first time hearing about this situation in the magic realm. He pursed his lips and said, "I don't mean to talk out of turn, but why would mages wait until the situation worsened to this extent before reacting?"
"They're not even fully aware of it yet," Constantine turned his head and said. "To my knowledge, something like middle school sorcery clubs has started becoming popular in London, as well as some graffiti featuring the Mother of Darkness trending in the community schools. Even though I know it's not a game for children, there isn't much I can do."
"Haven't you all noticed what caused this entirely passive situation?" Strange laid out a question.
Suddenly, everyone below began to answer haphazardly. Some blamed the cunningness of demons, others the irresponsibility of angels, and some argued that it's human nature to fall. Strange listened to this with a helpless expression.
"Haven't any of you noticed the biggest difference between our two magical realms? — My Earth has a magical defense network."
The room was instantly quiet. Everyone turned their gaze to Strange. Among them, a few smart ones had a realization. Bruce was the one to break the silence, "Could you elaborate?"
"In ancient times, Earth's Grand Mage exhausted all his energy, even sacrificed his own life, to build the earliest magic defense network. The greatest function of this network is to prevent any Demon God from peering into Earth at will."
"Is your defense network robust enough to kill all the Demon Gods?" asked Constantine.
"On the contrary, it's potent enough to wipe out all humans."
The room abruptly fell silent. Strange stood upright, raised his chin slightly, and coldly said, "From the beginning, the mages' aim in establishing this network was to die along with all the inhabitants of the Earth."
"Of course, the Demon Gods can easily attack this magic network, but they are very aware that once the mages can no longer resist them, we will directly detonate the Earth's magic defense network. We'll take all humans down with us. They won't gain anything."
"Human faith is special, we have value." Strange lowered his head slightly and said, "Human uniqueness is itself the most important resource we can use. We must make all life forms other than humans realize that pressuring humans will only lead to destruction and nothing else."
"It's difficult to destroy these powerful beings, but it's easy to wipe out the human race." Strange turned his gaze back to the table, continued, "As long as you make them realize that you could destroy yourselves at any moment, how dare they be so arrogant?"
Looking as the atmosphere in the house quieted down, the first one to speak was Bruce. He coughed into his fist and said, "Building a shield for Earth is not just for these purposes. In case of an alien invasion, it can be used as the last line of defense."
"That's true," Hal spoke, "The cosmos isn't as safe as imagined."
"We don't necessarily have to detonate it, do we?" Clark leaned forward and said, "Like a nuclear bomb, its greatest value is the deterrent force when it hasn't exploded."
Shiller silently shifted his gaze, and upon seeing his expression, Clark gave him an apologetic grin. He even pulled at his arm, leaving Shiller no choice but to shake his head helplessly.
"But how do we put a shield on Earth?" Zatanna scratched her head with force and said, "If the human mages from the flourishing times united, it might be possible, but with all the injuries and deaths now, what's left are people fighting on their own and not uniting."
"Since it's not to forcibly block the Demon Gods, the shield does not necessarily have to be made using magic." Constantine rubbed his chin and said, "As long as it's a deterrent, a grid that can destroy Earth can do."
"The problem is that we can't let ordinary people know." Diana frowned and said, "That would cause panic. To have both concealment and a certain level of protection, only magic can achieve that."
"Not necessarily." When Shiller spoke, all eyes fell on him, but Shiller turned to look at Hal.
Hal blinked, and Bruce rolled his eyes and said, "Indeed, we do have a particular type of energy that is very convenient for constructing the Earth Defense Network. It's very concealed and protective."
"You mean Green lantern energy?" Diana exclaimed in surprise, after thinking for a moment, she said, "I saw Hal use this energy when constructing the space station, it does indeed meet the requirements for constructing a defense network, but where are we going to get so much Green lantern energy?"
Hal stiffened for a moment, then shrugged and said, "I'm afraid we don't need to get any more Green lantern energy."
"What do you mean..."
With a "swoosh", the whole room was swallowed by green light, and a mountain-like Green lantern energy crystal was brought out by Hal.
Then, Hal crossed his arms and stared at Shiller, "Don't tell me you thought of this day long ago."
Everyone's eyes turned to Shiller again, and Shiller's expression remained calm. He said, "To be thought of before everyone else is not my intention."
Quite euphemistic, but also very straightforward, Constantine laughed at Shiller and said, "We'll try to catch up to half of your brilliance, Professor Shiller, but just for the next time."
"What's all this about?" Strange said in some surprise, "Is it so hard to say 'thank you' and 'it's thanks to you'? And what about me?"
Bruce stood up and shook hands with Strange, looking at him with his blue eyes, and said sincerely, "Although you have said in the past that you are not being modest, I must say that you are unduly modest when it comes to pinpointing the key issues."
Alberto quickly stepped over to Strange and shook his hand forcefully saying, "Your wisdom and experience will bring salvation to Gotham and the entire magical realm, Honorable Supreme Mage."
The other people took turns to shake hands with him, Strange was as busy as a spinning top, and only after everyone left because they were preparing for the Magic Defense Network did he let out a sigh and shrug at Shiller, "In my life, I have never heard so many complex adjectives, they each have more than seven letters, right?"
"At least twelve." Shiller stood up and waved at Strange, "Even though we need to build a defense network, we can't delay enrollment. Seems like they're all very busy, we need to handle some miscellaneous matters ourselves."
Strange followed Shiller into another room, which looked like a room in the castle specifically for sending and receiving letters, with several very heavy dark brown writing desks and a massive bookshelf that spanned an entire wall, filled with letters.
"These are all the acceptance letters we need to send out, now we need to put them into envelopes and attach them to the messenger, and deliver them to the accepted students."
Strange nodded, not understanding what could be explained about such a simple process, but quickly Shiller led him into another room through a door.
As soon as he entered the room, Strange was stunned because, throughout the entire Gothic cathedral, there were tens of thousands of bats.
The bats were densely hanging on the dome of the pointed ceiling, and some were swirling around in the air. One of the bats brushed past Strange's head, causing him to stumble forward, and then another bat hit him in the face.
"Boom!"
"Ah!"
Strange danced like he had been electrocuted, then zipped back into the other room. He looked in horror at the hall full of bats and shouted, "These aren't the messengers, are they?!!...Why bats???"
Shiller, standing in the midst of all the bats, appeared somewhat helpless. He sighed and said, "You may not believe it, but out of all the creatures in this city that haven't gone crazy after being enchanted, only bats can be used, so we have to resort to this."
"What about the owls? Isn't that what the magic school in your Tower of Thought uses?"
"There are people here allergic to owls; let's not mention owls."
When Strange saw the box of bat-shaped envelopes, bat-patterned sealing wax, and the bat-shaped dolls that come with acceptance letters, which Shiller had moved from the bookshelf, he stared at Shiller as if he had never met him before.
"Don't look at me like that, I don't know why he is so fond of bats."
"Who?"
"The rich man who sponsored the entire school, the school you see, even the entire city was built by him - it's my student you met earlier."
"Hiss..." Strange gasped.
"If you really can't stand the image of bats, you can stand there, and then I..."
"No, I was wondering, if I can make more bat toys for him, can he sponsor The Sanctum?"