Arkham Knight wiped the blood off his face, took a light breath, reloaded his gun, and turned to ask Doctor Strange, "How are you?"
"Not much magic power left, perhaps we should consider retreating." Doctor Strange seemed a bit ragged at this moment, paler than before, with his fingertips trembling slightly; a sign of exhaustion.
In front of them lay a ground full of corpses, all criminals converted into vampires by the Doomsday Army Base. Normally, these would be excellent material for necromancy, but Doctor Strange had not raised them.
Of course, this was due to the monster currently loitering in the great hall of the Doomsday Army Base. He had the highest priority control over vampires. Even if a vampire's corpse was controlled by a necromancer, he could still use blood magic to drain the blood from the corpse and form new Blood Puppets.
Looking inside from the main door, a half-human, half-bat creature lingered in the hall, reaching nearly four meters tall, covered in black fur, with thick upper limbs and disproportionately shorter lower limbs, but equally muscular.
It bore a bat's head and eyes, along with teeth that gleamed with a blood-red light. Behind it were a pair of giant bat wings, shadow energy swirling between its arms and neck.
After Arkham Knight and Doctor Strange had arrived, the creature had not yet escaped. The two had been dealing with the converted vampires outside, making a bit of commotion, which resulted in one side of the hall's walls being smashed, allowing the creature to come out.
At that time, they knew they had been duped by Constantine, but worried about the creature getting out, they went ahead with a bold face.
As it turned out, the two could hardly deal with the creature—not because it was too powerful, but because it knew too many types of magic. Every collision was a new trick, and before they could exhaust its repertoire, they were both worn out.
The main issue was that Doctor Strange could not hold on. He was already injured and had not fully recovered. Although the life force of the vampires he'd killed earlier had brought him some relief, it wasn't enough to sustain him in a fight of this intensity.
Moreover, his pride in his necromancy was curtailed by the opponent's blood magic, and the opponent could also draw strength from blood. Continuing the fight this way would mean a loss instead of a gain from this dungeon.
Arkham Knight did not care much about retreating, but he thought if they could take down this monster, perhaps Doctor Strange could bring it back to life, which would mean a huge gain for them.
Doctor Strange, of course, understood that if they could do it, they would acquire the most powerful enforcer, and he might even be able to find a way to take the creature out. That would mean they wouldn't have to fear those counterparts hunting him down anymore.
After pondering for a while, he shook his head and said, "Just the two of us might not be enough, but if our two teammates also come, there might be hope."
"I think we could ask Batman for help," Arkham Knight suggested, "The Justice League should be free by now. If they could help us take down this creature, it might give us an advantage against the vampires."
Doctor Strange didn't know much about Batman, after all, he was from another cosmos, and had not much interaction with his own counterparts. He had heard that Batman was a formidable guy, but didn't know the extent of his capabilities.
However, Doctor Qi Yi's observation suggested that Arkham Knight was strong; having heard that he was Batman's ward, Batman must be impressive too.
When Arkham Knight received the communication, the Justice League was still in a state of chaos.
First, Green Lantern disappeared in a flash, and then The Flash vanished in a flash. Other than the few who claimed to know the truth but could not tell it, the rest were baffled.
Batman browsed the message content and came up with a plan. He looked at Zan and said, "I know you're not Zan. Whatever your identity or plan may be, you'd better not interfere with the Justice League's actions."
Zan sat down without saying a word, while Jenna looked at her brother with some suspicion. She had felt something off ever since Zan came back, but she thought the transformation into a vampire might have left him depressed, causing the odd behavior.
Now, it seemed like things were much more complicated than she had imagined.
Batman led the other members of the Justice League away; they returned to the hall. Batman did not elaborate on the previous situation but announced that The Flash was indeed the betrayer and then started arranging for everyone to deal with the vampire problem.
Batman decided to personally lead the team to handle the vampiric creature, for he had learned from Arkham Knight that it was Constantine who had sent them there. This meant Constantine might regard the creature as the key to fighting the vampires.
Batman knew the importance of leaving professional matters to the professionals. Although Constantine was unreliable, he was indeed an expert in magic. If he deemed the creature important, Batman wanted to ensure this aspect of the plan was foolproof.
To prevent any issues, he brought along Wonder Woman and Superman. Wonder Woman had intended to lead teams to various cities to tackle the spreading problem, but considering Superman might be needed as an offensive player and that Batman required protection, she ultimately opted to join Batman's team.
Everyone now deeply realized that they could not afford to be alone, for that was The Flash—they stood no chance if he suddenly burst out from the Divine Speed to bite them.
Martian Manhunter and Cyborg had no intention of leaving the Justice League Hall. Not being adept at direct combat, they remained as the command hub. Aquaman wanted to return to Atlantis for reinforcements, taking the Magic Twins with him.
Before everyone departed, Jenna could not hold back and approached Zan. Leaning against the doorframe, her lips trembling, she asked, "Is my brother still alive?"
Shiller nodded.
"Where is he?"
"His soul has been protected," Shiller replied, "I hope you understand this is a good thing because if he were controlling this vampire body right now, you might already have been bitten by him."
"Impossible, he would never hurt me!"
"Vampires aren't as simple as you think."
Jenna immediately realized there was more to Shiller's words. She took a deep breath, a whirlpool of questions stirring in her heart, but in the end, she asked a most astute question.
"It's not about the bloodsucking, is it?"
Shiller nodded.
Jenna seemed to understand a bit more.
In fact, if vampires simply transformed humans into creatures that fear sunlight and drink blood, the catastrophe wouldn't have escalated to what it was today. The crux of the matter is that it turns people evil.
The Flash could be said to be the Magic Twins' best friend within the Justice League because The Flash was also very young and had plenty of time. They often chatted together, snacked, and played games.
At the same time, The Flash and Green Lantern were also very close, a kind of closeness that Jenna found a bit hard to fathom. These two had little in common regarding backgrounds and experiences, and their hobbies and interests seemed quite different, yet they inexplicably got along well.
Jenna was very clear that if it were the real Barry, he would starve himself before biting Hal and certainly wouldn't force Hal to take the blame so maliciously.
This meant that The Flash's personality had been altered, which might be the truly terrifying aspect of the vampire lineage.
A person's appearance is his, his abilities are his, his background and experiences are his, but if only the personality is no longer his, how is that different from having a different soul?
This led Jenna to think that, aside from the physical transformation, there must also be soul corruption; otherwise, it would be impossible to explain how the superheroes were turned into evil criminals.
This meant that to revert the transformed superheroes back, the physical aspect was not the most important; cleansing the soul corruption was the key.
Or in other words, whether or not the body is transformed is irrelevant. Even if one must drink human blood, there were many ways to sustain that, and fearing the sunlight wasn't a big deal—it could always be resolved.
As long as the contamination in the soul could be removed, then controlling a vampire's body had its benefits. At the very least, someone bitten once couldn't be bitten a second time.
But how to cleanse soul corruption?
Jenna was utterly clueless about this, as there was no concept of magic on the planet where she was born, and the mystic culture was nowhere near as rich as on Earth. This was their weak link.
But thinking of the soul, this clever girl suddenly remembered a conversation they once had when Superman jokingly said, "You two are truly soulmates."
The Magic Twins indeed possessed such an ability; they could communicate mind to mind, not just in perfect harmony, but could actually transmit emotions and feelings very clearly to each other.
If she could connect to her brother's soul, could she figure out the extent of his contamination?
Jenna thought this was highly probable. She needed to find a way to get this stranger controlling her brother's body to take her to her brother.
The good news was that this guy didn't seem to dislike her, but the bad news was that she didn't even know his name. How was she supposed to communicate with him?
After some thought, Jenna decided to forgo pondering and directly asked, "Can you take me to find my brother's soul?"
Then she added, "Don't misunderstand, I just feel that, if I can contact his soul, I might be able to understand what kind of corruption the vampire lineage brings upon the soul."
"Do you think there's something wrong with my soul?"
Jenna thought back to their previous soul communication and then shook her head—she hadn't noticed anything unusual.
"I'm a vampire too."
Jenna's eyes widened. She understood Shiller's implication but still couldn't help confirming, "You mean you've been turned into a vampire too? Your soul has been corrupted?"
Shiller nodded.
After being directly identified, Shiller stopped pretending. His face lacked any lively expression, mostly devoid of emotion, and occasionally even a bit vacant.
Looking at this familiar face, Jenna inexplicably saw another person. He looked about their age, but the difference in aura was substantial.
Jenna scratched her head and said, "I didn't feel anything unusual about your soul… wait, doesn't everyone get corrupted? Why is there such a discrepancy?"
Jenna clearly was someone who loved to think. Although Aquaman was calling them to set out, she pondered this question the whole way—It seemed not everyone turned into a vampire became evil and cruel, so why was that?
Just as they were leaving the Justice League base, Shiller suddenly asked Jenna a question.
"How many legends about vampires have you heard?"