The gloomy River Styx, with its faint sounds of weeping, was filled with various terrifying beings.
Eric was oblivious to this; after all, the entities he saw in his mind and the substances his consciousness extended to were far more terrifying than these.
His gaze pierced through layers of mist, and Eric saw a woman riding a tall horse towards the River Styx not far from the bank.
The woman on horseback, wearing a red and gold battle suit and adorned with a white wedding veil on her head, was galloping towards the river.
Eric's face filled with astonishment when he saw her face.
Is this Wonder Woman?
Why would she appear here?
No.
After seeing her face, Eric immediately dismissed that idea.
This was Wonder Woman, but probably not the Wonder Woman who traveled from the future.
He could tell from her slightly flamboyant demeanor and slightly younger face.
She should be the Wonder Woman of this timeline.
But why would Wonder Woman appear in the Underworld, and look like a runaway bride?
Staring at her familiar yet somewhat unfamiliar face, Eric propped his chin with his right hand and fell into deep thought.
By the time Charon's boat reached the other side of the River Styx, Wonder Woman on horseback was already nearing the riverbank.
Bang!
The moment Eric stepped off the boat, he suddenly heard a gunshot.
With the sound of the gun, Wonder Woman fell from her horse.
Eric looked at Wonder Woman, who lay unconscious on the ground not far away, and began to wonder how there could be a gun in this ghostly place.
Since he couldn't understand it for now, he simply put the matter out of his mind.
Activating his super speed, he swiftly picked up the younger version of Wonder Woman, who lay unconscious on the ground, and vanished from the spot before the pursuers could discover them.
She was very likely the key to his escape, so he certainly wouldn't let her go easily!
Meanwhile, the future Wonder Woman, located in Metropolis, was napping at a table.
Continuous high-intensity work, while not physically tiring, had left her mentally exhausted.
Once she fell asleep, she returned to that unforgettable scene from her childhood.
Diana had known a truth since she was a child: immense power lurked within secrets.
For it was not the known that shaped the world, but the unknown, and the fear of them.
She had understood this truth even before she was twelve years old.
She knew where the nine necromancers went on The Hunter's Moon (the first full moon after the autumn equinox each year, which is large and bright, making it ideal for hunting) on Themyscira.
Although little Diana was very curious, her mother, Queen Hippolyta, forbade her from asking.
She said that as Diana grew into an adult woman, she would eventually uncover these secrets.
But Diana, with her intense curiosity, would of course not suppress it.
Precarious and active, little Diana was different from other children in one respect—she was incredibly resourceful.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
Stepping on the decaying fallen leaves covering the forest floor, and guided by the clear moonlight, little Diana walked towards the witch's sacrificial forest.
She wore a gray cloak that covered her entire body, moving through thickets of vines taller than herself.
From time to time, the sharp and somewhat irritating chirping of crickets echoed through the forest.
"If I were made of mud, I should be intimately connected with these plants and insects, so they wouldn't block my way," she murmured softly.
At the same time, she used the branch in her hand to push aside the vines that blocked her path.
She had marked the forest; where the witches walked, a shimmering, phosphorescent substance would be revealed.
It clung to the grass, emitting a glowing green light.
Following these lights, she could avoid losing track of the witches.
Leaping over a fallen tree that blocked the path, Diana quickened her pace.
It was already late at night; if she returned too late and her mother discovered she had secretly snuck out to watch the witches' ritual, that would be terrible!
Anxiously, she climbed a tall tree, looking at the path created by the green luminescence.
There were two winding labor paths on the highest peak, formed by people treading on them when the island was born; these two paths extended outwards and converged deep within the dense forest.
The end of the green luminescence was at the intersection of the paths.
"It looks like there's still a long way to go. I should have brought something to ride, a pony or a griffin? Whatever it is, as long as it makes me walk faster!" Diana muttered softly.
A pony or a griffin, just thinking about it. For now, she could only rely on her own two feet to walk.
"Heave-ho! Heave-ho!"
After more than half an hour of travel, Diana finally approached her destination.
Before she even got close, she heard strange singing.
It seemed to be an odd melody sung by witches.
And the crackling sound of burning flames.
Filled with intense curiosity, little Diana climbed a tall tree.
From the highest point of this towering ancient tree, she could see beyond the concealing thicket and discern what the witches were doing.
Biting a corner of her cloak to keep herself from making a sound, Diana successfully climbed to the highest point of the ancient tree.
She cast her gaze towards the witches.
The sight before her startled her greatly!
She nearly fell from the tree.
At the intersecting paths, behind the concealing thicket, Diana saw the witches dancing and singing.
They were in groups of three, completely naked, holding hands and dancing together.
Around them were lit torches, and the witches performed strange movements, appearing grotesque and somewhat terrifying in the flickering firelight.
As they danced, the witches' bodies seemed to merge in strange and impossible ways.
Their limbs twisted with the syllables they chanted.
Like intertwined, naked mannequins.
Eerie yet possessing a certain beauty.
They chanted a single syllable: "Hecate! Hecate! Hecate!"
Little Diana's hair suddenly stood on end. She stared at everything before her, utterly stunned!
The bizarre and terrifying scene completely shattered her understanding of the world for the past dozen years.
Sweat beaded on her forehead, the sweat of terror and shock.
Diana realized she was witnessing an anomaly that should not be seen by anyone.
She was completely unprepared to accept these horrifying sights.
"Huff! Huff!"
She breathed softly, and sweat dripped from her forehead.
In the center where the witches danced, there was a wooden barrel.
As the witches danced and chanted, the lid of the barrel gradually loosened.
It seemed as if something inside was about to burst out.
First, liquid, a yellowish, viscous fluid, continuously overflowed from within.
As if it were an endless, thick broth.
Broth!
Little Diana thought of that word.
Then, two hands emerged from the barrel.
Slender hands, stained yellow by the fluid, yet still radiating beauty.
The hands wore exquisite bracelets, dangling in the night.
Diana admitted, they were the most beautiful hands she had ever seen!
Even her mother's hands were not as beautiful as those; they seemed like hands that did not exist between heaven and earth.
"Gurgle! Gurgle!"
Liquid continuously gushed from the barrel, making an unsettling "gurgling" sound.
Diana covered her mouth, desperately suppressing her agitated emotions.
She feared she would cry out and be discovered by the witches before her, and the unspeakable, terrifying entity about to emerge from the barrel.
As the witches' chanting grew louder and their twisted, swaying limbs moved with greater amplitude, the sacrificed entity in the barrel finally emerged.
Young Diana watched the sacrificed woman, seemingly from another world, appear from the barrel, desperately covering her mouth to remain silent!
It was a female with three heads, her lower body in the barrel, her upper body exposed, her three heads gently swaying, accompanied by the slippery liquid flowing down her body, forming a bizarre image.
The crowns on her heads were moon-shaped, stacked upon each other, jingling slightly as the night wind blew.
Although it was a very beautiful crown, it did not give a pure and comforting feeling.
Instead, it caused discomfort at first glance.
"Grab her!"
The entity named Hecate, born on the Hunter's Moon, pointed a finger towards Diana's hiding place, emitting a chilling sound.
"Ugh!"
Wonder Woman, startled awake from her dream, suddenly lifted her head, gasping for air.
"Did you have a nightmare?" Zatanna asked Wonder Woman, offering her a glass of orange juice.
"It looks like it wasn't a very pleasant dream," Supergirl Kara said as she walked in, followed by Green Lantern.
"It certainly wasn't a pleasant dream."
Wonder Woman stood up, a hint of gloom flashing in her eyes.
"Dreams are a reflection of reality. If I'm mentally exhausted and clueless about something, I usually get inspiration in my dreams."
Wonder Woman shrugged, telling the two who had entered.
"I thought Amazonian warriors like you generally don't dream, since you're usually gifted and don't seem like the type to be easily defeated by weakness," Green Lantern said to Wonder Woman.
"I am a human who lives towards death, not an emotionless god."
Diana asked Green Lantern, "How did you two get back from Gotham?"
"Although Supergirl and I aren't magic-users or part of the Justice League Dark, we thought if we could help a little, it would be better than us doing nothing in Gotham," Green Lantern explained to her.
"Doing nothing?"
Wonder Woman frowned, "Isn't Batman being targeted by the League of Assassins right now?"
"That's right."
Kara picked up the orange juice Zatanna had prepared for Wonder Woman and began to taste it.
"But he doesn't want us to interfere."
Kara's tone was somewhat displeased.
"Hmm, that's consistent with his style and personality."
Wonder Woman nodded. Just as she was about to drink the orange juice to calm herself, her gaze fell on the glass and she found that all the orange juice had disappeared.
Wonder Woman: "?"
Zatanna had been deep in thought. After the others finished talking, she said to Wonder Woman, "The mages in the magical world, in addition to being turned into chunks of flesh due to backlash, have also suffered attacks from another force."
Zatanna shared a piece of information she had received with the others.
"Another force?"
"Yes, the other party is holding several torn pages of a book, trying to find some magical clues."
Zatanna frowned and said, "If the mages don't cooperate with him, their fate will be quite miserable."
"You don't know the identity of the other party?" Wonder Woman asked.
"No, because any mage he has come into contact with has ended up in a bad way."
At this moment, Clark, whom Zatanna considered "another force," grabbed a man by his collar, his eyes gleaming with a reddish light.
"I know you're a mage. Don't hide your identity from me, because that will only make you suffer more."
The aggressive Clark gritted his teeth and threw the man against the wall.
With a bang, the man's body hit the wall, let out a painful groan, and then crashed to the ground.
Sizzle!
Red Heat Vision shot from his eyes, instantly cutting the furniture in front of him in half.
Standing in front of the man, Clark grabbed him and showed him a torn page he held in his hand.
"What kind of magic is this? Where does it come from?"
Clark showed the man the torn page from the spellbook he had picked up from Lana.
"I... I don't know!" The man said, blood flowing from his mouth, his breathing labored.
Facing this ghost-like man, he tried to recite a spell, attempting to use magic against him.
But as soon as the spell left his lips, he felt a searing pain pierce into his mind.
The next second, a fleshy tumor emerged from his mouth.
Disgusting and unbearable, the tumor continuously spewed out, forming a long, tumor-like mass.
Then his body began to convulse rapidly, his legs drawing together and fusing with the growing red tumor-like mass.
"Hoarse! Hoarse!"
The mage's throat emitted painful and incoherent sounds, his clothes tore open, and he gradually transformed into a monster composed of a red fleshy ball and tumor-like growths.
Sizzle!
Clark's eyes emitted Heat Vision.
"Crack!"
He instantly cut the other party in half.
The ruthless and merciless Clark continued to use Heat Vision to slice the red monster, cutting it into pieces in a few strokes.
"Magic backlash?"
After using Heat Vision to dispatch the opponent, Clark frowned.
When he was looking for these mages, he had heard them repeatedly mention this term.
He shook his head, glanced at the monster that had turned into a pulpy mess, and then turned to fly away.
Whoosh!
He accelerated continuously in the air, and the white clouds in the sky scattered as he rushed through them.
Feeling the whistling wind in his ears, Clark flew towards his next destination with an expressionless face.
He was now completely consumed by revenge and anger!
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