"In such a cold winter."
"Leaves turn yellow."
"The sky is gray-blue."
"I take a walk on a winter's day."
"If I stayed in Los Angeles, I would dream of California."
"…"
The Mamas & the Papas' "California Dreamin'" played on the car radio.
Accompanied by the song, Eric drove his car speeding down the road.
Many cars were parked by the roadside.
After their minds were controlled by Brainwave, most drivers still had the good sense to park their cars by the roadside, which prevented serious accidents.
Since there were no other vehicles on the road, he could drive unimpeded to his destination.
…
The scene in Metropolis was quickly discovered.
Zatanna Zatara, who was performing magic at the Grand Theater, was showing her black top hat to the audience below.
Dressed as a magician, with black stockings on her thighs, she wore a confident smile on her face.
She waved her left hand's magic wand, pointing it gently at the hat.
A lively rabbit suddenly jumped out of the hat, which had been empty.
After pulling the rabbit out of the hat by its ears, Zatanna smiled slightly and gently flipped the hat over.
Then she shook the hat a few times, and a group of colorful butterflies flew out of the hat.
The entire stage of the magic show was instantly occupied by colorful butterflies.
The audience below, seeing such a wonderful magic show, did not stint on their applause, cheering and clapping.
Wearing the magician's top hat, Zatanna looked up and waved her hand upwards.
The butterflies flying in the sky immediately turned into various colored ribbons and fell down.
The cheers of the audience below grew louder, and the smile on Zatanna's lips became brighter.
Although she had a lisp from wearing braces as a child, Zatanna possessed extremely high magical attainments, and under the training of her father, John Zatara, she quickly mastered a great deal of magical knowledge.
In terms of backward-speaking magic, her strength might still be insufficient compared to John Zatara, but in terms of the reserve and utilization of magical knowledge, she had gradually caught up with her father's footsteps.
After John Zatara was injured by Owl, he recuperated at home for a period of time, then suddenly disappeared.
So Zatanna embarked on a journey to find her father, and to make a living, she pretended to be a magician on the road, performing magic for audiences.
Although it appeared to be magic on the surface, it was actually accomplished using her backward-speaking magic.
Only in such occasions could she freely display her magical talent without being suspected or feared.
Although her initial purpose in performing magic was to earn money, performing "magic" on a stage watched by thousands of people had now become her favorite activity.
"Thank you very much! Thank you very much!"
Zatanna, standing on the stage, bowed to the audience in gratitude.
But the next second, the applause of the audience, which had been fervent, suddenly died down.
The applause went from incredibly enthusiastic to dead silent within a few seconds.
Everyone looked at Zatanna on the stage with a strange gaze.
The adults sat motionless in their seats, staring blankly like wooden figures.
The children sitting next to the adults also noticed their parents' strangeness, squirming uneasily in their seats, calling out to their parents, trying to wake them from this eerie state.
Zatanna was about to show her next magic trick—taking a lively pigeon out of the hat.
But the moment her right hand touched the pigeon, her expression immediately became serious.
She took the pigeon out of the hat and found that the previously lively pigeon had blood flowing from its eyes and mouth, and was completely dead.
Zatanna, with a shocked expression in her eyes, looked at the dead pigeon in her hand.
After hearing the children's voices from below the stage, she turned her gaze.
She found that the adults below were sitting blankly in their seats, as if they had lost their souls, their eyes hollow and devoid of any vitality.
"This is…!"
Zatanna was startled and took a few steps back.
She could feel an invisible energy wave affecting the entire theater, a powerful mental control that made it almost impossible for ordinary people to resist.
What was that?
Mental control targeting the brain?
Filled with confusion and shock, Zatanna walked to the audience in front of the stage and observed the adults with their blank expressions.
She reached out her hand and checked for any abnormalities in their bodies.
She silently chanted a spell, and backward-speaking magic was instantly unleashed.
The moment the magic wand was pointed at the man's head, a pure white energy beam connected to his sea of consciousness.
This was a mental probing magic performed using backward-speaking magic, capable of sensing the emotions in the mind of the person being probed.
She hoped to use this method to figure out what had happened.
But unexpected events followed one after another.
The moment the backward-speaking magic was cast, a mass of black, sludge-like substance emerged from inside the person's head.
At first, it was a single tentacle, then a continuous emergence of black, slimy, tentacle-like entities.
Zatanna was horrified and took a few steps back.
The entire mass of viscous, octopus-like stuff directly crawled out of the man's head.
And the unlucky man, on whom Zatanna had performed the probing magic, had his head directly burst open by the enormous monster.
His body was also crushed into a paste by the monster, which was full of tentacles!
Zatanna took a breath and raised the magic wand in her hand.
"This was not in my plan!"
Zatanna, holding the magic wand, shook her head. A beam of magical energy concentrated on the tip of the magic wand, aimed at the viscous and terrifying monster.
She had never seen such an entity; it was extremely terrifying and unsettling, and just one look would make one feel as if a part of their sanity was being drained away.
"Indeed, my father once told me: there are always supernatural entities, and if you can't concentrate fully, then magic will give way to—terror!"
"Hmph!"
With an angry shout, Zatanna struck the newly born mass of tentacle monster with the magic wand in her hand.
The magic energy beam, possessing powerful destructive force, instantly severed a tentacle that was swinging towards her.
But the next second, the seemingly intelligent tentacle slammed onto Zatanna's arm with a thud.
The magic wand was instantly knocked away, and Zatanna also uncontrollably stumbled backward.
Whoosh!
A spinning longsword slashed towards the monster's tentacle, instantly severing the tentacle that was continuing to attack Zatanna.
Then a figure leaped onto the theater stage, holding a shield and a longsword, and with one strike, severed the tentacles that were wildly swinging in the air, making a fierce whooshing sound.
After the woman in red and gold battle armor, with a heroic and dashing demeanor, leaped onto the stage, she brandished her shield and longsword. Blood splattered, instantly suppressing the formidable and terrifying monster into a disadvantage.
"Zatanna Zatara?"
Wonder Woman, who arrived at the critical moment to save the day, severed the tentacle that had entangled her for a moment, then frowned and asked her.
"I am."
"An unexpectedly surprising magic show! Are all your magic shows this successful? Is this the part where you pretend to cut someone in half?"
Wonder Woman started complaining to the young Zatanna the moment she entered.
Although Zatanna didn't know this woman, she retorted without showing weakness: "Excuse me, my show isn't over yet!"
With that, she made a strange shape with her index and middle fingers of her right hand and fiercely pointed them at the wildly attacking tentacle monster.
"Burn, you rascals!"
A ball of fire generated from her hand and rushed towards the monsters.
Bang!
The fireball, carrying immense heat, collided with the monster's body, causing a huge explosion.
Sparks flew as the flames, upon contact with the monster, were directly repelled!
"Hera above!"
Wonder Woman, seeing Zatanna's reckless action, exclaimed and quickly rushed in front of Zatanna, shielding her from the oncoming flames.
Bang!
The flames struck the shield and splattered all around.
Moving her shield aside, Wonder Woman raised the longsword in her hand and, with an angry shout, slashed at the opponent.
The sound of the steel divine sword colliding with flesh rang out.
After cutting off an attacking tentacle, countless tentacles surged up, instantly coiling around her body.
Some individual tentacles even touched her ample upper body.
"Damn it!"
With an angry shout, Wonder Woman swung the magic sword in her hand, slashing downwards.
Zap!
As Wonder Woman was caught in the tentacles' harassment, a red laser beam shot over, precisely severing the monster's tentacles.
Kara, in her red Supergirl battle suit, rushed over.
"It seems you two can't handle these troubles very well!"
The red Heat Vision from Kara's eyes, like a hot knife through butter, instantly severed all the flailing tentacles.
Then another green light and shadow rushed in, and Green Lantern used his power ring to create a large green sphere, enveloping the tentacle monster and lifting it sharply upwards.
Boom!
The monster, encased in the green sphere, directly broke through the theater ceiling and flew into the air.
Accompanied by a deafening roar, the sphere containing the tentacle monster exploded in the air.
"Ahem, so in the end, it was the invincible Green Lantern who solved the problem."
After dealing with the monster, Hal slowly descended from the sky and said proudly to everyone.
Zatanna, standing beside him, stared at them in astonishment, "You…who are you?"
"Your not-so-close friends in the future."
Wonder Woman casually replied, then complained to Zatanna: "Sister, you just almost killed an entire theater full of people with a magic spell you summoned."
"This is the result of magic corruption."
Zatanna looked at the still unconscious crowd below with some shock.
"I used backward-speaking magic to probe the entity in the other party's sea of consciousness, and as a result, I suffered a backlash, giving birth to such a monster. Magic…is just that dangerous!"
A complex light gleamed in Zatanna's eyes, "But this monster, born from the magic backlash, seems to be related to the entity I saw in the other party's mind."
"Of course, I already have some suspicions."
Wonder Woman looked at the tourist in the front row who had died tragically after the monster crawled out of his brain, and asked Zatanna: "Do you know Eric Kent?"
-------------------------------
I've already uploaded over 40 chapters of this story on Patreon.
If you're enjoying it and want to read ahead, feel free to check them out here:
[patreon.com/TripleCrown07]
Thanks a lot for your support, it really helps me keep going.