Zan was slammed onto the ground and let out another scream of agony, the Arkham Knight inherited his father's interrogation style quite well, swiftly and crisply breaking all four limbs of the young man in the purple tight suit.
Dick inhaled sharply, but wasn't particularly surprised, after all, Jason from any cosmos was never an easy opponent, the Moonlight Wash had no effect, Strange frowned slightly, seemingly feeling it was a pity.
As the Arkham Knight was loading bullets into his gun, he said, "I ask, you answer. Hesitate for a second, and you get one more bullet."
"Give up, I won't..."
Bang!
"Ahhhh!!!"
Writhing powerlessly on the ground, Zan watched as a limping Constantine came in, grinning bitterly.
"Who sent you?" the Arkham Knight asked.
Zan just screamed without answering, then another shot followed, and by then the young man was visibly losing consciousness, the horrific pain completely taking over his brain.
"It's... it's..."
Just as Zan was shaping his mouth to speak, a blood-red flame burst from his chest, burning him to a char in an instant.
"Don't bother," Constantine said. "A transformer can't defy their father, any intent to reveal secrets about their kin triggers a fatal curse."
Zan kept screaming, evidently not dead, but continued burning might make that uncertain, Shiller looked towards Dick, who shook his head saying, "I do have magic powers, but I don't know to cast spells or how to break curses."
Shiller then looked towards Doctor Strange, who was already circling Zan, just about to speak when Constantine interjected, "I have a way to lift such a curse, but it's best you don't ask him any more..."
"No, hold on," Doctor Strange suddenly interrupted, "I can feel his soul, which means if he dies now, I can summon him back, and then curses will be no use."
The others had a realization, of course, they had a necromancer among them, capturing a vampire, as long as they let him die once, they could use the necromancer to summon him back, and the summoned undead creatures have no secrets from the summoner.
"Put him out of his misery," Doctor Strange said, looking up slightly.
The Arkham Knight took out the sniper rifle again, loaded the bullet, and then aimed at Zan's head.
Just then, Zan, who had been only writhing and wailing, suddenly went berserk and lunged at Doctor Strange like a madman.
Doctor Strange was caught off guard by being too close and took a swipe at the shoulder, but in a moment of urgency, a golden candelabra flew over like an arrow and pinned Zan to the ground.
By then, the young man had stopped moving completely, turned into a blackened corpse; Doctor Strange clutched his wounded shoulder, gasping with pain.
Khonsu healed the wound with Moonlight Power, but Doctor Strange's condition did not improve, the shoulder still marked with three black traces, clearly some kind of toxin or curse.
As Doctor Strange raised his arm slightly, his eyes widened in shock, "His soul is gone! How can this be?!"
He looked up, searching around, but Shiller knew he wouldn't find it.
Because just as Doctor Strange mentioned killing Zan and then summoning him back, an almost invisible light flew from Constantine's hand, entering Zan's body, causing the young man to go mad.
And after the young man died, Constantine appeared to be smoking, but with the act of smoking, he took a small bottle from his pocket and captured Zan's soul inside.
"A soul is necessary for summoning?" Shiller asked Doctor Strange.
"Theoretically, yes. The soul is a medium for casting spells, so the stronger the entity's soul, the stronger it will be when summoned back, plus memories reside within the soul. Without a soul, how would he know who he once was or who transformed him?"
"Doctor Strange has a point, what they want now is not combat power, but intelligence, so if Zan is resurrected without a soul, just an empty shell, it would be meaningless," someone said.
But Shiller apparently didn't see it that way, he said, "Can you revive his body?"
"I can, but there will be differences from a living person."
"Such as?"
"Like paler skin, no body heat, and fear of sunlight..." Doctor Strange trailed off, realizing the futility of his words—after all, the man was already a vampire.
Shaking his head, he added, "It's not that simple without a soul; it's just a corpse. Although I can manipulate it with magic, it would be very inconvenient to move, at least not able to use any of his abilities from when he was alive."
"With a soul, he could use his abilities from before?" Dick said, surprised.
"Not only can he use his abilities as a superhero, but he can also use vampire magic," Doctor Strange said proudly. "If I hadn't been injured, the power could have been as strong as two-thirds of what it was when I was alive, but now it's probably only half."
"That's incredible," Dick said. "I've never heard of such magic."
Not only had he never heard of it, but Constantine hadn't either. If that were the case, wouldn't it be akin to transferring copyright?
It was the resurrected person who had obtained the copyright to the magic, but it was the necromancer who could actually harness this magic power. If he collected more corpses, wouldn't that mean he'd essentially own the copyright to all magic? Was there any justice in that??
But maybe it was because magic operated differently in the Marvel Universe; Doctor Strange said he could do it, and he even demonstrated with a few vampires he had summoned earlier.
He wanted to see if the summoned undead vampires could bite people and transform them as normal vampires do, but with no one available to test this, he had to abandon the idea.
Under Shiller's direction, Doctor Strange summoned Zan's body, but it was clear to see that Zan's eyes lacked pupils, indicating that his body was devoid of a soul.
Doctor Strange spread his hands and said, "I am now using magic to maintain the stability of his body, but without a soul, once my magic power is cut off, the body will collapse in an instant. Controlling him like this, he can't really do much, especially in my current state."
Having said that, he made Zan's body take two steps. These steps were rather human-like, but Arkham Knight placed his hand in front and Zan fell down.
"I generally won't bother controlling a soulless body," Doctor Strange said. "It means I can't use any abilities bound to his soul, and I have to expend more power, which is not worth it, so the control is not proficient."
"Does it have to be his own soul?" Shiller asked.
For a moment, everyone turned to look at him. Doctor Strange paused briefly as if he understood Shiller's idea. He said, "No, it doesn't have to be his soul, any soul would do. However, it's difficult for an ordinary person's soul to control another person's body—that wouldn't be very coordinated."
Shiller smiled and said, "I happen to have such experience."
In fact, the process of Shiller's family division was far more complex than it appeared because High Tower was an entire soul, and all personality traits were just fragments.
There's a reason for the saying "one hole for one radish." The world's rule is that one body is paired with one complete soul. Any damage to the soul could lead to permanent paralysis or complete coma because an incomplete soul cannot control a complete body.
Thus, for Shiller to use one two-thousandth of a soul to control a complete body was nearly impossible, especially when that body was somewhat different from their original one.
But the twist was that Shiller had already switched bodies once before.
He was thrown by God into another world, where the bodies were different from his original one, possibly also the reason for Shiller's persistent poor mental state. But regardless, his soul was suited for taking control of unfamiliar bodies.
Later, when he wanted to divide the family, he had to address the issue of controlling a whole body with just a small soul fragment. One solution was that Battleworld was different from the outside, allowing such an absurd occurrence without inviting punishment from universe administrators.
The second was that usually, Shiller was just a fragment controlling most actions, with more than half inside High Tower being idle—a core in trouble and eight cores just watching. They were already accustomed to such a situation.
So after shaping a new body, and after a short period of adjustment, they were able to fully adapt. It could only be said that Shiller was born with a body ideally suited for spirit possession.
"You mean you have a way to enter Zan's body?"
"I don't have a way, but you do, as you are a mage," Shiller said. "I have a plan that will let us find out what is exactly happening inside the Justice League—and even who the hidden vampire inside the Justice League is—without actually entering their sight."
"Are you telling me there's only one?"
"Of course not," Dick countered, "If vampires have managed to get in touch with the Justice League, it's not possible they would only transform one young hero. There must be a traitor among the seven elders."
"Oh, I see," Doctor Strange nodded and said, "We can use this kid's body to return to the Justice League. On the one hand, we can find out what exactly is happening inside the Justice League right now, and on the other hand, we can get in touch with his superior."
"Although this guy couldn't disclose who his superior was before he died due to the curse, if we see it with our own eyes, it won't count as him revealing it."
"Exactly, if you have such magic…"
"Of course I do," Doctor Strange said. "Even if I didn't, wouldn't a hidden camera do the trick?"
However, Arkham Knight shook his head and said, "I'm afraid that will be difficult. The Justice Hall has a counter-surveillance system set up by Batman. Our cameras could be detected by him. It's better to use magic."
"So, sir, do you have a way to put my soul into this body?" Shiller looked at Doctor Strange and asked.
Doctor Strange hesitated slightly and said, "I'm surprised that you would trust someone you've just met not long ago. If I'm not mistaken, you are a player as well?"
Doctor Strange magically masked the word "player," making it sound like he just coughed. Shiller nodded and Doctor Strange continued, "No wonder, then our interests are aligned, and even if something goes wrong, it's just a loss of points at most."
"Do you need to prepare anything?"
"No need," Doctor Strange shook his head and said. "Come with me, it will be quick."