Chapter 1674: Bruce Wayne and the Magic Stone (End)

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The director's office at Rodriguez College erupted in applause. Constantine clapped and laughed, supporting Bruce's shoulder with one hand, laughing so hard he almost slipped under the sofa. He wiped away tears of laughter and said to Bruce, "The more Space you understand, Bruce, the more bat dolls you need. Schiller, you need to prepare a warehouse soon."

"To make up for my misfortune?"

"Both of your misfortunes." Zatanna shook her head. "Is there anything more ironic in this world? A unique Master Psychologist meeting a unique Bruce Wayne who's bad at psychology. You should find a counter to exhibit him—the only Batman in Space who will ever miss an assignment."

"He's definitely not the only one." Bruce shook his head in disagreement. He took a cigar from the box, lit it, and said, "We'll always find another who doesn't submit assignments. I thought it would be this one."

"You think he'd be worse at it than you." Schiller snorted, extinguishing the first burned-out cigar, then took the second one from Bruce and leaned forward, letting Bruce light his cigar. "That's why you brought him here."

"Sorry, my mistake."

"Less sincere than bat dolls. Don't point at me to prepare a warehouse for them; they shed fur."

"Absolutely not."

"They shed fur."

"Oh God, are you sure digging open this mountain will let us find the key?" Barry, panting, collapsed onto a small valley made of books. Little Bruce and Harley weren't in much better shape; they were already exhausted halfway through digging.

Demon texts were large and heavy tomes. The authors, influenced by Demons, evidently saw the length of books as an important measure of how much favor they had from Demons. They desperately wrote every trivial matter from birth to old age in those complex characters, and there were plenty of such people.

This made the mountain of books much harder to dig than imagined. Halfway through digging, Barry even thought, maybe the answers are hidden in the book contents themselves, then was startled by his own thought.

"Seriously, let's just use a grenade, just one," Harley bent over, supporting her knees and sighed. "No matter what's going on, I've never done such heavy work in my life. I'm exhausted!"

"What's the heaviest work you've ever done?" Barry asked curiously with a smile.

"Moving corpses, four of them, no more."

Barry closed his mouth.

But after almost half an hour of effort, the three children finally dug through the enormous mountain of books and found a key in the central bottom area of the book mountain.

"You're a genius, Bruce!"

Barry cheered. Little Bruce exhaled, wiped the sweat from his forehead, glanced at Barry, and surprisingly didn't mock him.

After using the key to open the door, they found an ordinary basement corridor with a bit of light at the end. Barry, holding the still-burning candlestick, walked at the front and saw a brightly lit room at the end of the corridor.

This room was almost half the size of a grand auditorium. Barry thought, but the Magic College's grand auditorium can hold two thousand people.

As they entered the room, Little Bruce and Harley looked up. It was a huge hall with four supporting pillars in the center, intricately carved with beautiful patterns. The front wall hung with magnificent blue curtains adorned with golden patterns.

The most eye-catching feature was the circular Magic Circle painted in the center of the grand hall. It was an extremely complex Magic Circle composed of thousands of runes, making anyone dizzy just by looking at it.

At the very center of the Magic Circle was a circle with a radius about the width of an arm. It seemed like something should be there, or maybe after completing the Magic Circle, something might appear there.

Harley squinted her eyes. Having attended classes at the Magic College for a few months, she had a basic understanding. After looking around the Magic Circle, she said, "This is a protective Magic Circle based on Holy Power, but it's been damaged. The runes here have been erased."

"Are you saying the Magic Stone has been stolen?!" Barry exclaimed in surprise.

"No." Little Bruce shook his head. He could also understand Divine Power Runes. "It's not just one defense protecting the Magic Stone. The moment the protective shield's Magic Circle was damaged, the container holding the Magic Stone was concealed. It says so on the Magic Circle."

"So do we need to restore the protective shield's Magic Circle or find the container holding the Magic Stone?"

Little Bruce looked around the pillars, thoughtfully examining the patterns on them. Suddenly, he paused and said, "No, that's not right. The patterns here are hinting at how to open the protective shield."

"If we solve the protective shield according to these hints, the final layer of protection won't activate, and the container won't be concealed. We'll successfully obtain the Magic Stone."

Little Bruce abruptly turned back to look at the missing corner of the massive Magic Circle. He stared at it for a while and said, "And the person who damaged this Magic Circle didn't use this method..."

"Could it be other students...?"

"Students couldn't do it!" Little Bruce said confidently. "It requires immense power, magical power. To be precise, it needs astonishing Holy Power!"

"Clack, clack, clack."

Footsteps came from behind the curtain on the wall. The three children all turned their heads to look in the direction of the sound.

A hidden door on the wall slowly opened, and a cloaked figure appeared behind the wall. Barry instinctively shouted, "Professor Rodriguez?!"

"No, it's not him!" Harley cautiously pulled Barry back. The person in front of them, though similarly tall and slim, was clearly not the Professor Schiller they knew.

When the cloaked figure removed his hood, everyone froze. Both Harley and Barry simultaneously exclaimed his name.

"Roy?!"

"Is this your other pawn?" Schiller turned his head to Bruce and asked.

Bruce didn't hide it. He nodded and said, "A few days ago, Roy found me and said he wanted to study some Green Lantern energy to see if he could find a way to deal with Gotham's traffic jams."

Strange frowned slightly, and Bruce looked at him, signaling with his expression. Then he said, "That's it. He knows this will provoke the sorcerers. No matter which world, the majority of sorcerers believe magic shouldn't be too involved with ordinary society. It's not something ordinary people can utilize."

"In a sense, that's true." Constantine took a puff of his cigar, exhaled deeply, and said, "Besides, I can't think of how Green Lantern energy could help alleviate traffic jams."

"Obviously, Portal."

"God!" Constantine exclaimed, almost throwing the cigarette out. He rolled his eyes and looked at Bruce. "Are you kidding me?! Sorcerers haven't even luxuriously started using Portals yet, and he wants to use Portals to transport cars?!"

"So he's just an ordinary person." Bruce nodded. "Ordinary people's little brains often come up with such crazy ideas."

"This won't work." Strange shook his head. "Even in the Space I'm in, which doesn't lack magic energy at all, it's hard to invest on a large scale for civilian use. On one hand, these energies are limited and should be used in more important places. On the other hand, they're too unstable; ordinary people are too fragile."

"But Gotham people are clearly not like that." Bruce sighed softly. "They're the only beings in Space who aren't at all fragile and have no idea how precious certain things are. If something can make their lives better, they'll smash through any obstacles in their way."

"So you made a deal?" Schiller lightly tapped the cigar in his hand.

"Yes, a deal."

"Miss Harley, you should be clear about whom you're ultimately standing with." Roy's eye contact fixed tightly on the three children as he said, "Are you going to delve deeper into the magical realm and never return? Have you decided to take on the future of the magical realm?"

"No matter what, this isn't why you appeared here to steal the Magic Stone!" Barry angrily waved his fist, staring at Roy. "I used to agree with what you said on TV, that Gotham should be changed by Gotham people themselves!"

"I'm planning to change Gotham that way." Roy took a few steps forward to the other end of the magic array, facing the three children. "You've seen how much Gotham has changed. Tourism will be the most important opportunity to change its economic system. I have to deal with the traffic problems before the music festival starts. I have no choice."

"What exactly are you going to do?" Little Bruce frowned and asked.

"Give me the Magic Stone." Roy turned his gaze to Little Bruce's face and said, "Did you break the magic array?"

"Yes, it was me. I arrived here before you did."

"But you shouldn't have been able to."

Roy gave a cold smile, lifted his chin, and took a step forward. "How clever you children are, just like your father. Bruce Wayne should be your father, right?"

"He isn't."

"Then it must be Thomas Wayne and Martha Wayne."

"Don't mention my parents!"

"But that's exactly their lifelong wish." Roy took two more steps forward, almost crossing the magic array to stand in front of Little Bruce. He stared intently into his blue eyes and said, "They worked their whole lives just to change Gotham. Now they're about to succeed."

"Roy, you should calm down." Harley picked up the shotgun from behind her and aimed it at Roy.

"Who exactly should calm down?!" Roy turned his cold face to Harley and said, "All of you have come to the Inner World to build the magical realm of your dreams. Does anyone remember how the real Gotham climbed out of the mire? If so, why can't I take what I want?"

"Sorcerers? Ha." Roy let out a disdainful snort. "They can't do anything that contributes to the world... Give me the Magic Stone!"

"You made a deal with Angels." Little Bruce looked Roy in the face and said firmly.

"It was Angels who made the deal with me." Roy abruptly turned his head to stare at Little Bruce.

In an instant, Little Bruce saw a pair of blue eyes in his ordinary eyes, bluer than the sky.

Little Bruce felt like a heavy hammer had hit his head. He took a few steps back, shaking his head vigorously. Roy pressed forward step by step, looking at Little Bruce and saying, "I should have let him control you to come here. Only you can find the concealed container. You're as smart as your father."

"Boom!"

Harley immediately fired the shotgun, but a shield of light composed of Holy Power appeared beside Roy, completely blocking the bullet. Barry was stunned.

"Roy, you're insane!" Harley's voice carried a hint of panic. The situation was entirely unexpected, and she couldn't be sure if it was part of the trial.

"Give me the Magic Stone!"

Little Bruce took a deep breath, then looked into Roy's eyes and said, "I don't know where the container is!"

"But you can open the Magic Circle!"

"I need time!"

Roy stopped his steps, slightly raised his head, and looked coldly at Little Bruce. "…You better hurry."

Little Bruce immediately signaled the other two. He then said to Roy, "I need the two of them to help."

"You don't..."

"If you still want to know where the container is, listen to me." Little Bruce walked toward the center of the Magic Circle and said, "Otherwise, find your dumb Angel overhead and die here!"

Roy stood silently watching them. After a moment, he said, "You better give me a satisfactory result."

"We will."

The three gathered in the center of the Magic Circle. Barry looked at Bruce and said, "You really aren't going to..."

"I can find a way out." Little Bruce said, giving them an eye contact that implied the latter part of his sentence: "I can find a way to leave here."

Then, the three began to meticulously modify the Magic Circle, with Little Bruce directing the other two. Harley occasionally offered suggestions, and Barry, though nervous, worked quickly.

In less than ten minutes, many runes in the center of the Magic Circle were altered. Roy asked gloomily, "How much longer?"

"Step back a bit. We're about to activate the Magic Circle."

"Don't play tricks on me..."

"With Angels helping you, are you worried we'll escape?"

Roy silently took two steps back. Little Bruce finished drawing the last rune, and instantly, golden light spread from the center of the Magic Circle.

But the container didn't appear. Little Bruce gave Roy a malicious smile and said, "We're going to find the container. Goodbye!"

In the next second, their figures vanished into the golden light.

"He understands Divine Power Runes, so he knows the container wasn't just concealed but teleported. Naturally, he would think that since this Magic Circle can teleport the container, it can teleport them too. This is the best way to escape."

Bruce's voice echoed in the room. Constantine asked puzzled, "So where did they teleport to?"

The image on the screen began to flicker violently, and the magic power became unstable. Just as Constantine and Zatanna stood up, the image suddenly reappeared.

The three children fell from mid-air, crashing heavily onto the red-brown carpet. Behind them was a quaint Zen Room. Schiller's eyes widened slightly.

While Constantine and Zatanna were baffled, Strange stood up, looked at Bruce, then smiled and stepped into the screen with his arms open, saying,

"Welcome to—Kamar-Taj Magic College!"

[Read at www.patreon.com/shanefreak, and thanks for the invaluable support!]

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Next Chapter =>Chapter 1675: Bruce Wayne and the Secret Chamber (Part One)