Constantine and Shiller returned to the office of Arkham Asylum, but the Summoning Ritual could not be held in the office. Doctor Brand took them to the basement of the asylum, which could also be considered his magic workshop.
"You've been using magic all this time?" Constantine looked around the room and said, "Although I don't know who you owe, I have to remind you that using magic so frequently is not a good thing. You will pay the price someday."
"You don't need to worry about that." Surprisingly to Constantine, it wasn't Brand who spoke but Shiller.
Brand came in afterward and closed the door. He took the materials from Shiller, checked the box after opening it, and upon confirming everything was correct, he began to set up the Array.
Constantine sat on the side and watched.
The Summoning Array that Brand set up was very basic, and even if Constantine had been looking for trouble, he couldn't find any faults.
He continued to observe this seemingly amiable doctor, amiable compared to Shiller, that is. He himself also had many quirks, such as being a tad too healthy.
Many times mages are eccentric and have a bad temper not entirely because they are insane, but because the constant torment of ailments brought about by the consequences of magic naturally takes a toll on their mental state. Constantine was the same.
Even Zatanna, who did not have to pay a price, always dealt with all sorts of spirits and ghosts, was also affected. Every time she dealt with a supernatural event, it would lead to a long period of emotional downturn.
Yet this fellow Brand appeared plump and content, not only very healthy physically but also seeming quite normal mentally, which made Constantine increasingly curious about him.
It wasn't long before the Array was set up. Shiller gave a small section of a finger bone to Brand, who placed it at the center of the Array. Accompanied by a slow rise of Magical brilliance, Runes flickered like lively notes, one after another, and a strange calling sound rose beside everyone's ears.
However, the Array had been bright for quite some time, and the music had played for quite long, yet there was no sign of activity. Brand shook his head in disappointment and said, "It seems his Soul has been lost. Now, let's see if I can extract his memories from this small piece of bone…"
After speaking, he altered some positions in the Array. The light converged towards the center, and a blurry image emerged within the Array.
It seemed to be from the first-person perspective of a man. In front of him was a dilapidated construction site that was clearly nearing the end of demolition, with only some leftover broken building materials that had not been removed.
He walked forward; an intense noise rang around him, as if something had snapped. Then a shadow fell in front of his eyes, and it looked as if some enormous object had crashed down upon him from above. Immediately after, his vision was engulfed by a sea of red, and the memory abruptly came to an end.
After the power of the magic dissipated, Shiller was still recalling what he had just seen. If one only looked at the surface, it was just a construction site accident, seemingly some object from the roof had fallen and killed the man.
But upon deeper consideration, it did not seem right. Judging by the chaos of the construction site from the man's perspective, the building had likely been completely demolished, with just some trash left on the ground uncleaned—so how could something from above have fallen?
Moreover, even in the final stages of demolition, the construction site should not have only this one worker. Trash needed cleaning, soil required backfilling, and removal of debris needed vehicles. Yet in the man's field of view, no colleagues were visible, nor any vehicles; the view was desolate and barren.
Shiller thought carefully about the details again and realized something was off. The abandoned construction site in the man's vision shouldn't have just been demolished; the trash on the ground showed signs of long exposure and weathering, implying that the events occurred several years after the demolition.
That is to say, a construction worker from the Wardled Construction Team returned to the site after the complete demolition of the junior and elementary sections and died there.
This school really did have secrets. After confirming this, Shiller knew which direction the investigation should go next.
Without hesitation, he pushed Constantine towards Brand and then said, "Since you're writing a book, Doctor Brand should give you plenty of inspiration. You two chat first; I have something else to attend to."
Constantine looked perplexed, but Brand arched an eyebrow and asked, "You're writing a book? What kind of book?"
"Just a novel, but…" Constantine sized up Brand and said, "You can give me inspiration? Horror stories from the insane asylum?"
"Are you a writer of horror novels?"
"It would probably be considered horror by ordinary people, but you're a magician, how could you understand the fear of ordinary people?"
Brand smiled and said, "You underestimate me."
Just as Constantine was about to say something else, he suddenly noticed that the shadow behind Brand was tall and slender, and the darkness was as rich as the backside of light. When he looked back into Brand's eyes, a fine thread of golden pattern fissured in his pupils.
"You... you you you you you... Ahhhhh!!!!"
Shiller went to Wayne Manor, mainly to borrow Batman's computer, which now belonged to Tim.
The computer itself wasn't anything special, it just had access to the Wayne Enterprises information database. The information database of this universe's Wayne Enterprises differed from those of other universes' Batmen; it contained no data on superheroes or super villains but instead primarily recorded the city's reconstruction process and Wayne Enterprises' business information.
But don't think this information wasn't useful. The construction projects of Wayne Enterprises had a profound impact on Gotham. During the renovation process, the number of workers used, industries touched, factories connected, and even large groups collaborated with was countless, and the amount of information collected was massive.
Not to mention, almost all the people now living in the East District's renovation project building had their entire life's information, from birth till now, recorded in this database. Essentially, just by entering some characteristics, one could precisely filter out a target, making it Gotham's version of SkyNet.
The same was true in business. Practically all the business groups operating in Gotham, from multinational corporations to sole proprietors, could have their relevant data found in this database.
Shiller was specifically interested in investigating this so-called Wardled Engineering Group.
After obtaining access from Tim, Shiller quickly pulled up the information he wanted from the database. The records showed that this construction company was founded about 20 years ago, but it remained small-scale until about ten years ago, when the company received a significant investment and won several hot projects, which allowed it to expand to its current scale.
While the largest construction team in Gotham was still Wayne Construction Engineering Group, Wardled had also managed to benefit considerably from Gotham's renovation projects. When Wayne Construction Engineering Group was busy with the East District, they had taken on plenty of projects in the West and South Districts.
Their specialty wasn't in building commercial real estate or neighborhoods but in constructing entertainment venues, casinos, and resorts for the wealthy. During the Gotham Music Festival, several popular resorts along the southern coastline were built by them, projects so lucrative that no thought was needed to understand their value.
However, the data pretty much ended there. In a city as big as Gotham, with construction teams of this scale numbering in the hundreds if not thousands, Wayne Enterprises had great data collection capabilities, but there was no need to be overly fixated on such a small company.
Shiller did not find any records of the Wardled Construction Team building schools, and the company that built the boarding high school years ago had long since gone bankrupt, leaving behind no records of middle or elementary school buildings, with nothing traceable now.
After completing his investigation of the company's overall information, Shiller began to look into the company's legal representatives and shareholders, and one name stood out – Bob, the manager who ten years ago rescued the near-bankrupt construction company from peril.
After pulling up his resume, Shiller found him to be a very capable manager who had led the Wardled Construction Team through many hot construction projects and drove the group to greater heights.
Upon entering this man's photograph into the search system, a group photo popped up that took Shiller by surprise. The person on the left side of the photo was Bob, beaming with joy, and standing beside him was Williams.
How did these two get together?
Shiller continued his search and found that although Bob indeed had led Wardled Group to better and better days through his own abilities, it was Williams' real estate company that had invested in the construction group ten years ago and helped it through its difficulties. Subsequently, Bob was introduced by Williams into the company, where he then oversaw its successful growth.
Shiller also found information on that boarding high school in the database. The school was established over 30 years ago, had relocated once, and moved to its current location about 20 years ago.
About ten years ago, the elementary and middle school sections were shut down due to poor management, or at least that was the explanation given to parents. Shiller found some alumni from the elementary and middle school departments, but there was nothing unusual about them, those who were studying there when the school closed had transferred to other schools.
After the closure, the buildings of the elementary and middle school departments were demolished. There was no indication in the information database of who contracted the demolition, but Shiller suspected it might have been the Wardled Construction Team.
At that time, the company had just received investment from Williams' real estate company, but the funds had only just arrived and had not yet transformed into an increase in the company's scale. Recruiting and bidding took time, and during that period, given the manpower scale of the Wardled Construction Team, they would only likely have been able to take on demolition work of that sort.
However, Shiller felt that everything was not so simple because this coincidence of receiving the demolition work could not explain why, years after the school was demolished, Wardled's workers were seen back at the ruins of the school, and why the location that could previously be recognized as a school's ruins now looked indistinct from forest.
There was a key link missing in the sequence, and just then Pamela brought him good news.