American comics: Praising the sun, starting from Gotham!

Soon after.

Zatana invited Bruce to her place, and also brought Shuen along.

"s'teL og emoh." (Let's go home.)

Zatana snapped her fingers lightly, and the spell, recited backwards, cut through the space of reality.

With a blink of an eye, the eerie, damp bat cave filled with high-tech, cold light vanished.

Instead, there is a warm and luxurious hall filled with Victorian furnishings.

The fire in the fireplace was crackling.

Of course, there's also that intense magical energy fluctuation that even someone completely ignorant about it can sense.

Wow.

This time, he genuinely praised him. He looked down at his trench coat, which he was still wearing, and then at Bruce beside him, who looked completely calm, as if he had just taken an elevator ride.

"This is a magician's teleportation? Much more comfortable than the Batmobile. If you don't consider the lingering force, like being forcibly stuffed into a washing machine and rolled around in it."

"Also, isn't this normal teleportation? How did you end up in Bruce's arms earlier?"

He rubbed his temples; the momentary feeling of being squeezed in space had almost made the medicinal food he drank at Afu's place turn into something else entirely.

"This is Shadow House. Wayne knows this place very well, so I won't go into detail."

Zatana casually tossed her top hat toward the clothes rack in the air.

The hat transformed into several white doves in mid-air, flapping their wings and flying away.

"Welcome, Shuen. But I must warn you, this house is alive. It has a bad temper, especially with guests who have some strange light about them and might scribble all over the place."

As if to confirm her words, the carpet beneath Shuen's feet suddenly rippled like waves, seemingly protesting the guest's shoes, which might have been stained with mud from the Bat Cave.

Bruce walked to the wine cabinet next to the fireplace. The glass door opened automatically, a crystal glass jumped onto the table, and then a bottle of red wine floated in from somewhere and poured him half a glass.

"It seems to miss you, Bruce."

Zatana took off her tuxedo coat.

She walked over to Bruce, took a glass of wine from the same solicitous bottle, and the two clinked glasses. Their tacit understanding was just like that of an old married couple enjoying their time off work.

"Cough cough."

Hugh, completely oblivious to the danger, let out a loud cough and shoved himself into the softest and most comfortable-looking single sofa.

The sofa creaked in protest, clearly unwilling.

"Since there's no one else here—or, of course, you can treat me like that fireplace or a painting—can we continue the conversation we had in the car?"

He scanned the two of them with an extremely gossipy look.

"Sweetheart? Ex-girlfriend? Or...childhood sweetheart?"

Xiu En deliberately drew out his tone, mimicking Zatana's tone from before.

"No wonder you're only not very knowledgeable about magic, not completely ignorant. With such a beautiful and powerful witch by your side, how can you still stay single and become a Dark Knight? Bruce, aren't you being a little too... something?"

"Shut up, Xiu En."

Bruce let out that low growl that strikes fear into the hearts of criminals once more, but it clearly had no effect on the three men present, who merely swirled their glasses in a polite manner.

Zatana laughed heartily, even leaning closer to Bruce and lightly tracing the collar of his suit with her fingers.

"Don't be so serious, sweetheart. Xiu En is right."

Seeing Bruce's ears turn red at a visible speed, Zatana turned her head with satisfaction, feeling that it was worth bringing Hughes along.

She winked at Xiu En, her eyes sparkling with a playful light.

"As for you, special guest. Considering you made this boring afternoon quite interesting, I'll waive your sightseeing fee for today. But any damage you cause here, or your energy attracting any strange things, that's on me."

She pointed at Bruce.

"Put it all on him."

At this time.

The Shadow House suddenly trembled, as if something had broken into the defensive barrier, and Zatana's expression instantly turned serious.

Zatana's wand drew streaks of purple lightning in the air, attempting to reinforce the trembling door of the hall.

The entire movie theater was groaning.

The portraits of past magic masters hanging on the wall covered their ears and hid in the corner of the frames, while the wine bottle that had spilled wine all over the carpet was so frightened that it scurried back into the cabinet.

"This is generally considered absolutely safe, right?"

Bruce was assessing the door's structural limits with a professionally motivated look, while simultaneously pressing his body against an antique pillar that would provide immediate cover.

"This is not normal! The Shadow House rejected my banishment spell! They're completely illogical; it's like they want to uproot the entire house!"

Zatana's forehead was covered in fine beads of sweat. This intrusive method, which was not only ruthless but also seemed to be extremely averse to magic, reminded her of the most unreasonable monsters in the abyss.

At the same time, with his hands in his pockets, Xiu En walked through the corridor that theoretically led to another dimension like a wanderer who was just loitering around someone else's house for no reason.

Thanks to the trench coat that Zatana had enhanced, the usually grumpy Shadow House owner was now ignoring Shu En.

The stairs seemed to slab open beneath his feet, and no goblins jumped out to bite his heels. Even the talkative ghost stewards gave him a wide berth.

"Since no one's providing meals, it's not unreasonable to take a look at the so-called magical backyard, is it?"

Xiu En yawned.

The magical light effects ahead are too dazzling, even more dazzling than my own light, making my eyes hurt. It's better to find a place to get some fresh air.

Or perhaps you could see if the magician has any magical fruits that can grant longevity.

Pushing open the back door, one sees the expensive magical herbs that the Shadow House has carefully cultivated.

The singing mandrake.

Night-shadowed orchids, bathed in moonlight.

They all looked dejected and listless at that moment.

They lay trembling in the mud like quails that had encountered their natural enemy.

Countless ordinary vines grew wildly, even violently tearing through the spatial barrier to squeeze in.

That emerald green color, almost black, is not some magical creation seeking mystery, but rather the power of nature.

They didn't even come in through the door; they simply pushed open the walls of the real space, just like ubiquitous weeds breaking through a concrete road.

"I knew it looked familiar."

With great interest, Xiu squatted down and poked a thick vine that was trying to strangle a magical toad with a finger.

The vines stopped.

It seemed to sense something.

The terrifying pressure that had terrified the living building, Shadow House, vanished instantly.

All the vines stopped attacking the poor magical creatures around them and cautiously surged toward Shuen.

They even avoided Xiuen's skin, only lightly rubbing their tender leaves against the edge of his coat, as if performing some kind of identification scan.

Xiu En could even sense the panic and anger that spanned countless kilometers.

Why is there no sunlight here?

Why can't Gotham sense your presence anymore?

Why... is it filled with the stench of fake magic?

The vines eventually intertwined and coiled in front of Xiu En, and several strange red buds, glistening with dew, bloomed from among the green leaves.

The flower bud trembled and released a spiritual wave carrying a familiar, cool fragrance.

The petals parted slightly, and a woman's voice rang out directly in the air, even drowning out Zatana's incantation in the front hall.

"Xiu En?"