Arkham Batman felt that Night Owl was a bit off.
This morning’s first class was Magic Theory. The professor specifically emphasized that the content taught today is very important, which is the guidance in the engraving and honing of Magic Runes. Every Batman was very interested in this, listening intently, but Night Owl was constantly distracted.
During the break, Arkham Batman turned to Primary Universe Batman and asked, "What did you do to him? It’s only been two days, and why does he look so out of sorts?"
Primary Universe Batman pursed his lips and smiled, saying nothing. Of course, he knew why Night Owl was so out of sorts; because he thought he was cursed.
After several days of studying, most of the Batn had a certain understanding of magic. Thus, they realized that curses do exist and are even more magical than they imagined. A skilled Black Magician can curse a stranger they’ve never t without preparation. All kinds of black magic curses were potent; so could seriously injure a person, so could make soone restless, and so could even kill directly.
When deciding to use the movie set to deal with Night Owl, Primary Universe Batman had already thought of the entire plan.
To lure this cunning and evil guy into the trap, ordinary ans would not do. The chanism in that secret room was tolerable in the movie, consistent with the intelligence level of small wizards in the movie and friendly to the audience’s IQ, but it was too simple for the Batn.
Even when Primary Universe Batman upgraded the door lock to a smart lock, it still seed inappropriate, hardly like sothing an extrely cunning Black Magician would create under the eyes of the Supre Magician.
Primary Universe Batman didn’t know the script, so he wasn’t sure if this secret room was really made by Saphire or if there was another hidden agenda. Anyway, he personally felt it illogical, so he privately modified the script.
In his setting, this secret room wasn’t Saphire’s real base at all. He deliberately set up such a place in the castle and placed very shallow puzzles to entrap the Supre Magician.
He cast a very powerful curse on his notes; once contaminated with this curse, there wasn’t much ti to live. His goal was to lure the Supre Magician and use the curse to kill him.
This thod, although not very brilliant, was at least ruthless and barely aligned with Saphire’s character, making Night Owl believe it.
By now, he probably thought he really was cursed, losing all initiative and only being able to choose to cooperate with Saphire. But Saphire was yet to co to him; besides sending a letter to mock him once, there was no more news, as if he had vanished from the world. How could Night Owl not panic?
Although the Batn learned magic quickly, they were still a distance from being true masters, not to ntion curses being a very niche magic technique. Applying and lifting curses both require specialized study, and the school doesn’t have this course, leaving the Batn without a source of specific knowledge. Night Owl himself had no way to deal with the curse.
And the next stage ca for Primary Universe Batman - Knowing that Saphire ignored him, there is no professor proficient in curses at school, and the timing of the curse’s outbreak is unknown, in a desperate situation, who would Night Owl turn to?
After lunch, Primary Universe Batman and Arkham Batman went up to the east tower’s top to look down. As expected, they found a hurried Night Owl on the corridor bridge. His direction was obviously towards the school hospital.
"He really went to see Doctor Shiller." Arkham Batman couldn’t help but say, "Now the doctor will be more annoyed with him."
"Let’s go; we also have to do more while he’s not around." Primary Universe Batman said.
Night Owl almost slamd open the hospital door. Doctor Shiller, coming out from the office, thought he was crazy.
"What’s wrong with you?" Shiller opened the Magic Barrier and let Night Owl in.
Night Owl paused, knowing he was acting unusually which might be detected by Shiller, so he strived to suppress his emotions and said, "I feel a bit uncomfortable."
"I just examined you yesterday, and there was nothing wrong with your health." Shiller turned and walked into the ward. Two newcors were having stomach issues from the environnt, and he had to prescribe them so anti-diarrheal dicine.
"But I really do feel..." This ti Night Owl wasn’t faking it. Since learning he was cursed, he felt uncomfortable all over.
"There must be a priority." Although Shiller’s tone was still gentle, it was clearly tinged with impatience. He said, "This could likely be a psychological issue. Wait for in the office, and I’ll talk to you once I’ve finished here."
Night Owl had no choice but to enter the office. Those few minutes felt like sitting on pins and needles as he scoured the floor’s seams. After a while, Shiller finished his work and ca in, seeing Night Owl almost at his limit.
He sat down opposite Night Owl and said, "Relax, your anxious voice is loud enough to hear through one side wall. Now, tell what’s going on?"
"I... do you think I have anything unusual?"
"As I said, you are excessively anxious now. Is there a problem with your studies? Or are you having issues getting along with classmates?" Shiller had already determined it was the latter and even knew who the culprit was, roughly imagining what thods they used. What he couldn’t understand was why Night Owl ca to him - didn’t he seem to be in cahoots with Primary Universe Batman? How is this different from a year-end pig rushing into a butcher’s house?
"I’m not anxious," Night Owl said, "I think sothing’s wrong with my body. Can you help check it?"
Shiller pretended to take out a stethoscope. He was quite familiar with this routine since Stark’s anxiety was severe, often with somatic responses. Even though he could upgrade into an Iron Demon God, he would spend nights doubting whether cancer cells were rapidly spreading inside him, experiencing initial cancer symptoms. So Shiller had also learned so internal dicine diagnostic approaches.
Of course, he only scratched the surface—listening to the heart rate with a stethoscope, checking the eye fundus, tapping the knee, and so on.
He was just about to follow through with this process when Night Owl shouted and said, "That’s not what I an. I an... don’t you know any magical thods?"
This stumped Shiller. He really didn’t know any. As a campus doctor, he was dragged into this by Strange, and if there was any use to him, it was probably using the gray mist as a last resort. But when it cos to magical healing thods, any professor here could outperform him.
However, out of responsibility, Shiller still asked the gray mist in his heart: "What’s wrong with him?"
"He’s fine," said the gray mist, "his body is quite healthy, no problems found."
Shiller didn’t want to reveal the gray mist in front of Night Owl, so he cleared his throat and said, "Like I said, I examined you before, and there’s nothing wrong."
"With magic checks?"
"Yes." Shiller nodded. This couldn’t be considered a lie; the gray mist is an Outer God, belonging to the sa mysterious side as magic.
"Then why don’t I feel anything?"
"Uh, magic is like this, unlike scientific examinations that require so many instrunts." Shiller recalled the scene of Wanda examining others, and then said, "Just a point of the finger will do."
Night Owl was dubious. He said, "But that was yesterday’s check. Can you check again today?" Because he encountered that letter last night, the previous results definitely wouldn’t count. So he wanted Shiller to check him with magic again to see if he had a curse within him.
"Well..." Shiller thought for a mont. He felt that Night Owl might have been tricked by Primary Universe Batman and the others, who might have done sothing small that caused his current anxiety.
But given what Shiller knew about Batman, normally Batman wouldn’t do sothing like poisoning soone, Bruce excluded.
So probably nothing would co out of the check, but if he said there was nothing, the other party would definitely be more anxious. Although he stood on the opposite side of Night Owl, for the sake of his duty as a campus doctor, and to prevent Night Owl from becoming overly anxious, Shiller had to relieve Night Owl’s anxiety.
So he nodded and said, "Stand up."
Night Owl stood up. Shiller said to the gray mist in his heart, "Help make my eyes flash a light."
Night Owl watched Shiller’s actions closely, then noticed a mysterious light flash in his eyes, and his expression changed slightly.
"Sit down first." Shiller said.
"How is it?" Night Owl asked.
"Did you eat sothing bad recently?" Shiller chose the safest way to ask. After all, even Batman needs to eat, and saying a disease cos from the mouth is the best reason.
"So it’s problematic?"
"I can’t say there’s nothing at all, it’s just that I can’t quite understand it." Shiller sighed. He maintained the principle of not lying as much as possible in front of Batman. What he said was also factual; without the gray mist’s help, his eyes aren’t X-ray vision, so he couldn’t see clearly.
Night Owl’s heart slowly sank. He leaned forward, staring into Shiller’s eyes, and asked, "Do you know what the anomaly is?"
Hearing him ask this, Shiller knew that Primary Universe Batman indeed made a move. He must have used so thod to make Night Owl feel like sothing was wrong, but what his follow-up plan was, Shiller didn’t know. Shiller decided to play it vague.
"As I said, I can’t understand it." Shiller shook his head and said, "In magic, what I’m skilled at is mixing potions; I have no profound knowledge in other areas, so I fear I can’t help you."
The changes in Night Owl’s expression were quite obvious, hard for Shiller to ignore. As expected of Primary Universe Batman, playing against him really maxes out the pressure, Night Owl truly knows how to pick opponents.
Night Owl left sowhat dazed. However, as he was about to leave the office, he saw the Magic Plants and Animals Atlas on Shiller’s desk. He just glanced at it and didn’t care, since Shiller had already said he could mix potions, and needing to look up raw material atlases was nothing unusual.
Suddenly, it was as if Night Owl thought of sothing. He quickened his pace and returned to the library as fast as he could. He opened the secret room and took away Sapphire’s notebook.
He rembered during his Magic Theory class, the professor ntioned that a curse needed a dium. The caster and the victim might have never t, but they can form a connection through certain items. The item creating this link between them is the dium of the curse. The dium is not the kind of personal item as people might imagine but so very rare magical materials. The more vicious the curse, the more sinister the materials required.
If he couldn’t tackle the curse directly, then he could investigate through the dium. Sapphire had already written on the letter that the curse would only affect those who touched the notebook, indicating that the dium might be on the notebook.
Night Owl looked the notebook over thoroughly but couldn’t figure anything out. He thought that so exceptionally special materials might only manifest their effects under a certain light, so he turned off the light in his room. Once the light was off, blue fluorescent traces appeared on the notebook’s cover, forming a very complex magic array. Night Owl’s eyes widened instantly.
anwhile, Strange, who had co to the library to unlock the secret room, looked puzzled at the empty desk: "Where’s the notebook that the prop team put here?"
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