"This is a setup," Bruce concluded. "We have been flustered by the chaos on Mercury, and there is ample evidence to prove that the chaos was created by Circe. Once the news of her death is heard, we must send someone to investigate."
"Because as long as we can confirm that the one who died was the real Witch Circe, the crisis on Mercury can be considered resolved. Under the pressure of continuing passive defensive, we may be eager to confirm this."
"Knowing that the other side has the ability to control minds, sending someone is not safe. It's best for one or a few of us to go to Earth personally to check. Who do you think we will send?"
The others looked at each other before finally setting their eyes on Diana. Bruce nodded and said, "Diana is the natural choice because she is proficient in magic and has some understanding of Circe. She's the one most likely to determine if the witch is really dead."
"But once she leaves, the magical power we finally replenished will plummet once again, and the success rate for the behind-the-scenes manipulator lurking on Mercury to cause chaos will increase significantly."
"Lure the tiger out of the mountains?"
"It's more than that." Bruce shook his head and said, "Diana going back to Earth alone means she would be without any support. Do you remember the story about the Magic Goddess she told us before?"
At his words, the others frowned. Clark softly briefed Oliver, while Bruce continued, "I suspect that the Magic Goddess Hecate may have already awakened in advance. Her target is Diana."
The rest weren't fools either. Following this line of thought, Arthur said, "If it's Hecate behind all this, it could be a plan to kill two birds with one stone."
"She first creates chaos on Mercury to engage all our attention. Then she leaves evidence on Mercury pointing to Circe. While we are busy investigating, she, on the defenseless Earth, attacks and kills Witch Circe."
"At this moment, by releasing the news of Circe's death, she lures Diana to investigate. Once Diana steps onto Earth, Hecate can either trap her or kill her. In this way, she eliminates two targets at once and remains completely hidden, without exposing any flaws."
"There's just one question." Clark raised a finger in doubt. "Why would she want to kill Witch Circe?"
"It's part of her power," Diana sighed. "She divided her power into five parts, giving them to five girls known as the Witch's Hour. Circe was one of them."
"If it was not necessary to kill to retrieve the power, maybe it was Circe who was after this power. In the child abuse case, didn't Circe say she was looking for a girl? Perhaps she wanted to consume these powers before Hecate, which enraged Hecate enough to want to kill her."
"So, you're saying that the one hiding in Mercury Base was actually the Magic Goddess and not Circe? Where did she get the power of Circe from... oh, Circe's power comes from her, I almost forgot that," Oliver smacked his forehead and said.
Diana nodded, staring at the cube in her hands. "Indeed, Witch Circe's power is easily recognizable because it is different from almost all other magic powers. It is a special kind of witchcraft, but not only Circe can use that power. Hecate, the origin of witchcraft power, can naturally use it too."
"In that case, we cannot send Diana to investigate," Clark said. "If the enemy wants us to do so, then we must not do it. We cannot let her succeed."
"But someone must go to investigate this case," Bruce said. "Don't forget, Lilith predicted that a tragedy would occur tonight, and Circe's death can certainly be described as tragic. So who made it so tragic?"
Then they all thought of another point in Lilith's prediction - that the tragedy happening tonight would be related to Shiller.
"Do you think it was Shiller who did it?" Oliver frowned deeply and said, "I'm not saying Shiller is incapable of doing such a thing, but why would he do it?"
"I don't understand either," said Diana. "Circe indeed was involved in the child abuse case, which would make Professor Shearer very angry, wanting to kill her isn't strange, but how did he know that Circe was on Earth, and how did he find Circe who could use magic, and succeed in killing her?"
No one could answer these questions.
Now they understood why Bruce said they must investigate because the series of events was too coincidental.
Shiller's mental state had suddenly deteriorated. Circe had died in a tragic event related to Shiller. They deduced that Hecate might have awakened early and was behind all this mischief.
She caused Shiller's mental state to deteriorate, manipulated him back to Earth, used her power kinship with Circe to help Shiller find where Circe was hiding, and cruelly killed her, luring Diana back to Earth while reclaiming two parts of her power.
If in the above conjecture, they replaced Shiller's name with anyone else's, the reasoning would still hold.
But the issue was with the name Shiller.
No one here believed that Shiller could be so easily manipulated by Hecate.
So why and how did Shiller kill Circe?
Arthur snapped his fingers, drawing everyone's attention, and then said, "Since we all think it's unlikely for Professor Shearer to be easily controlled by someone, all of this could very well be him going with the flow. Regardless of what he wants, he certainly won't harm us."
"Then how about we pretend to know nothing? Continue to defend on Mercury and protect Diana well. Let's leave Earth's stage to Shiller and that Magic Goddess, and see what they are up to."
Arthur's words were a revelation to Clark, who then said, "Right, although we are all very concerned about Professor Schiller due to personal feelings, if we return to Earth now, it seems we are more likely to cause more chaos than help. It's better to hold our position on Mercury, at least ensuring the safety of all teachers and students."
They all understood that Bruce's proposal to return to Earth to investigate was actually driven by the need to protect Schiller, who was involved in it; otherwise, they really wouldn't care if Hecate killed Circe or not—good riddance, as far as they were concerned.
However, Circe's death, Schiller's loss of control, and the possible existence of Hecate meant Schiller was now entangled in the witchcraft battles among the witches. Of course, the Justice League could not ignore Schiller's wellbeing; naturally, they would go to Earth, or at the very least, try to retrieve Schiller.
That was the moral imperative, but in reality, by getting involved in the power struggle between Hecate and Circe, it should be Hecate and Circe who would be unfortunate, not Schiller. If they returned to Earth to take part, they could end up being unlucky as well.
It's not that they didn't want to help, but before helping, they had to see who they were up against.
If it were the usual Schiller, that would have been fine; although he was rather serious and strict, he was good to everyone in the Justice League and could distinguish friend from foe in a brawl—ensuring no one got hit by friendly fire.
But now, Schiller's consciousness was so clouded that he might be sleepwalking. Who knew if he was on a killing spree down there. If they went now, other than potentially increasing his kill rate per minute, what benefit would there be?
It would be better to wait here and see how the bold and audacious Magic Goddess would meet her downfall.
Bruce stepped forward and patted Arthur on the shoulder. If a team were full of calculating members like pieces of honeycomb coal, it would be easy to fall into a matryoshka-like trap of endless predictions.
At such a time, Arthur's relatively straightforward and direct thinking became a precious lifeline. No matter the enticement or the calculation, remain steadfast, with strategic resilience running high.
Thus, the members of the Justice League set aside the situation on Earth and began to focus on fortifying Mercury's defenses once again. Bruce continued to adjust the surveillance cameras' setup, Oliver and Arthur grouped and led students on patrols and night watches, while Clark hovered above Mercury, ready to strike any irregularities with his laser vision. Diana enhanced the magical defenses, leading Zatanna and Lady Shangdu to place detecting Magic Arrays everywhere, not missing any slight energy fluctuations.
The violent typhoon continued to ravage America's East Coast. Without the protection of Gotham's overcast skies, the Gothamites barely emerged from the scorching summer heat only to suffer a once-in-a-decade typhoon disaster. Households barricaded their doors and windows; almost no one dared to move about on such a night.
A figure in a black suit stood in front of the attic window.
The reflection on the glass before him was not that of Schiller's figure but rather a lithe and graceful woman.
The candle flickered, and the face opposite Schiller's pale visage was unexpectedly that of Circe.
Schiller cracked a smile, his complexion pale, his lips chapped, and his golden vertical pupils reflecting the cold light of the nighttime sky. The smile looked bizarre to the utmost.
"Welcome, Miss Witch. How do you feel?"
"You're mad!! Mad!!! Let me out now!!!"
Yet the reflection of Circe seemed very aggrieved. She reached out, hitting the glass, but that was merely an illusion—the real trap confining her was not the glass, but Schiller's psychic battlefield.
Everything had to start from three hours earlier.
Circe was dead.
The receiving curse she left with Schiller became the death knell for her. Schiller's mental condition plummeted to rock bottom, and the curse escalated to the extreme, which also meant that he and Circe were nearly reaching a state of mind-meld.
The last time, her feigned death to escape from Scarlet Witch did not come without a price. Her body had been completely destroyed, but thanks to the power of witchcraft, her soul managed to escape and was preserved. Without a body, however, she could hardly do anything.
Unable to stray too far from the place of her death before her physical form was reconstructed, she'd been hiding in Gotham recently, using spirit possession on ordinary people to gather materials to rebuild her body.
And just as the reconstruction work was nearly complete, lacking only the final step, Schiller, following the power of the curse, found her.
Even though Schiller's capabilities were greatly diminished because of the curse, his body itself possessed the power of his past life, which, even weakened, still equaled a normal person's abilities. Meanwhile, Circe's soul hadn't fully integrated with the body she had crafted, leaving her even less powerful than an ordinary person, and she was no match for Schiller.
The body she had nearly finished rebuilding became the first flag to fall.
She had to abandon this body once more and moved to one of the ordinary people she had previously possessed.
Those possessed by her weren't chosen at random—they were individuals who had once embraced her power, allowing her to possess them smoothly in a short time. So she sought out the same type of child abusers who had, like Williams, once been seduced by her and had found many children to sacrifice.
First came a man; Circe wanted to use his physical strength to fight Schiller, but she couldn't adapt to a male body nor knew how to unlock muscular restrictions, and she quickly lost, becoming the second flag to fall.
Then, she thought of using social order, so she found a high-profile woman at a gala, betting that Schiller wouldn't dare to make a move in public.
But what Schiller had once excelled at was driving a panic-stricken lamb from the flock, following its trail until it was utterly exhausted, laid out on the chopping board, ready to become a live fish.