The Primary Universe Batman's first reaction was that Night Owl had exploded again. However, his keen hearing and judgment told him that this explosion was somewhat different from Night Owl's previous explosions.
Before he could react, a familiar figure was blown away by the explosion, flying directly over the corridor bridge. Turning his head, he saw it was Night Owl.
He slowly turned back, and when he saw the figure standing up from the explosion's smoke, emanating a fierce killing intent, he couldn't help but swallow.
The Arkham Batman was covered in blood, with wounds made by fragments from the explosion, but he stood up as if nothing had happened, holding a glittering gemstone in his hand.
"Oh my god!!!" Wanda was the first to notice the anomaly here. She quickly flew over and rushed in front of the Arkham Batman, asking, "What happened? How did you get hurt?!"
While she used the power of Scarlet to heal the Arkham Batman, other professors gradually arrived. From another direction, the Hippo Goddess found the once-again-unconscious Night Owl.
"I don't know what happened," Arkham Batman said, "We had a minor conflict and argued a bit, and then he reached out to me. But for some reason, he suddenly showed a painful expression, and then the explosion happened..."
The professors exchanged glances, their expressions heavy. They all knew about the explosion in the Magic Forest, even though they publicly stated it was due to a riot of magic elements. Everyone knew it was these Batmans causing trouble.
At that time, Night Owl was the most severely injured, and they thought he was the victim. But now it seemed that wasn't the case—the explosion was caused by him.
Wong hurriedly went to find Strange. Strange, upon hearing of another explosion, especially near the castle, felt his head buzzing. He summoned Mephisto and berated him fiercely:
"I warned you, Mephisto! The terms for allowing you to operate within the castle's boundaries were that you would never harm the students! How dare you! How dare you!!!"
As Strange's eyes began to glow with magic light, Mephisto quickly shouted, "It wasn't me!!!"
"You still dare to argue?!!!"
"No! The explosion in the Magic Forest was indeed my doing, but that was part of a plan I researched with Shiller. If you don't believe me, ask him!" Mephisto hurriedly explained, "The explosion in the school truly wasn't my doing. What benefit would I gain from blowing up the school?!"
His decisive words caused Strange to waver. Mainly, Mephisto had no motive—blowing up the school would delay filming, impacting the release schedule and his ability to gain fans.
Mephisto was more eager than anyone to have the film completed quickly because his major scenes were concentrated in the later parts. The sooner the movie shoots, the sooner he gains fame. He had no reason to delay the filming progress.
Mephisto felt utterly wronged: Head of hell, notorious demon leader, how could he one day be falsely accused by someone?!
Just as he thought this, there was another "boom." The two immediately stopped arguing and flew rapidly towards the source of the sound—this time, it was on the lawn, and Night Owl lay there again.
Strange was about to fly over but paused, surveying the students around him, who were all displaying shock. Amongst them, he spotted a familiar face and promptly pulled Gwen out from the crowd:
"Gwen, did you see what happened just now?"
Gwen nodded and said, "We were just walking along the edge of the lawn when we suddenly heard an explosion from over there, and then saw that person fly out."
Gwen pointed at Night Owl lying there. Mephisto quickly ran to Night Owl and conducted an inspection—since he was under Shiller's disguise, no one doubted him—and he shook his head at Strange.
Strange went over and used magic power to examine Night Owl's body but found no signs of energy rampage. However, the surrounding environment's destruction was indeed due to magical surges.
It had been mentioned before that the materials used to construct the castle were all magical materials. Physical explosions couldn't possibly cause such destruction. Only magical explosions could damage the magical school buildings. But if it wasn't Mephisto, what caused the explosion?
Strange's suspicion towards Mephisto was evident. He coldly told Mephisto, "Don't come over in the near future. Wong, take this student to the Meditation Room."
Mephisto opened his mouth but eventually said nothing, retreating to a spot unseen by students, where he slowly disappeared—he left school entirely, returning to his Hell Dimension.
Night Owl was taken to the Meditation Room. The Meditation Room is completely isolated from the outside world, essentially like a small dark room. However, this wasn't to punish Night Owl, just a safety measure, requiring him to stay there temporarily.
The two explosion incidents left some people in the school anxious. A rumor spread from the senior students: someone said Night Owl had engaged in a forbidden contract but couldn't control the power, which led to the magical surge.
The school's atmosphere is quite good; if this was just a baseless rumor, surely some professors would step forward to reprimand the gossipers. This had happened several times before. But this time the professors remained silent, which lent credibility to the rumor.
In their hearts, the professors knew the rumor was true. While the students couldn't see it, the professors certainly could—Night Owl had evidently obtained Mephisto's power.
However, in previous times at Kamar-Taj, there were indeed talented students who contacted the Demon God at a young age, and even several great mages who became professors followed this path. So they couldn't reprimand Night Owl and could only pretend not to know.
Strange convened another assembly for the entire school, repeatedly emphasizing the dangers of contracts. This time, most people listened—after all, if the rumors were true, then wasn't Night Owl the one who lost control of his magic due to prematurely contracting with the Demon God? Indeed, violating the contract was very dangerous; no one wanted to become a walking bomb. Most students became more compliant.
Except for Arkham Batman.
On the night of the explosion incident, he entered a strange dream. In the dream, he saw magma, ashes, and souls struggling in agony in Hell.
He floated above the abyss, watching everything expressionlessly. Compared to the figure on the distant throne, he seemed more like the master here.
"You were the one behind the explosion, weren't you?" Mephisto's voice sounded in his ear, "You really hold grudges."
"I never hold grudges," Arkham Batman replied as he looked at him, "I usually take revenge on the spot."
Mephisto was left speechless. Arkham Batman indeed got his revenge fast—Night Owl just blew them up once in the Magic Forest, and he retaliated by bombing Night Owl twice, casting a huge blame on Night Owl and Mephisto, leading to Mephisto's banishment and Night Owl being locked up in solitary confinement as a negative example.
To Night Owl, being bombed or locked up wasn't that fatal. The real issue was being seen as a negative example—this meant the Supreme Magician and the Professor, and all students destined to become Grand Mages in the future, would know him as reckless and foolish.
The mages in this universe do not discriminate against evil. More accurately, many of their contracted entities are devils considered evil by the public. Some things they do don't appear very righteous. Quite a few of them are bad eggs.
But they do discriminate against stupidity. Magic is a game for the intelligent. If you're not smart enough, being fooled means you might someday be tricked by the Demon God into betraying Earth's interests. No mage would tolerate such a person's existence.
This made it impossible for Night Owl to receive help from any Grand Mage in his subsequent studies. Students wouldn't associate with him either. Plus, the Supreme Magician would definitely see him as a burden, excluding him from the Human Alliance.
Mephisto wasn't much better off. The Supreme Magician knew Mephisto might not have done this, but a devil tricked into taking the fall deserved to be banished.
Mephisto couldn't swallow his indignation. So he came to find Arkham Batman the very night. Even though his avatar has now left Earth and he couldn't do much, he still managed to annoy Arkham Batman in his dreams.
"You used to feel extremely guilty, that guilt almost destroyed you. Is the person you felt guilty about doing well now?" Mephisto asked Arkham Batman.
"He's doing well," Arkham Batman replied.
"Stop deceiving yourself. You know that the damage you caused him can never be undone. Your failure to acknowledge this, is it out of unwillingness or subconsciousness?"
"It's none of your business."
Mephisto laughed and said, "I can't leave this universe, perhaps I'll never be able to touch him. So there's no need for you to guard against me; I couldn't possibly use him as leverage against you. To me, an alien existence, you can completely open your heart. I won't betray your secrets."
"A devil?" Arkham Batman said dismissively.
"Your talent is impressive," Mephisto said, "If the two of us signed a contract, you wouldn't be defeated so easily like that fool. Once you become my Angel Envoy, you will possess the most powerful force in the cosmos. You could even go back to the past and reverse those tragedies or erase his memory so he no longer hates you. How about it?"
"More than that, I'm curious about how you appeared in my dream," Arkham Batman said.
"Just a small trick," Mephisto looked at his fingers, "the Magical Defense Network can indeed block most forces, but Earth can't entirely avoid external energy exchanges. If it's just a small bit of energy mixed with other energies, the Supreme Magician turns a blind eye. Even if you complain, he'll only advise you to strengthen your will against devil temptations."
"I don't need to strengthen my will," Arkham Batman said, "Let me answer you—you're in my dream because I deliberately allowed you in. You can loiter here because I want to find the energy channel of communication between the Hell Dimension and Earth."
Mephisto froze. He looked at Arkham Batman in disbelief and said, "You want to find the Hell Dimension's path? You can't be planning to enter the Hell Dimension, are you?! Stop dreaming. The Hell Dimension is my territory; no one enters without my permission. And you're just an ordinary human without a contract, where do you get the power for dimensional travel?!"
Suddenly, Mephisto heard a teeth-jarring sound, as if something was tearing the space. He turned sharply, and with a "boom," the dimensional space above him was directly shattered. A space rift, similar in size to a Suspended Ring Teleportation Gate, appeared above Mephisto's head.
A Batmobile, emanating magical glow all over, charged out of the space rift, crashing straight into Mephisto's waist.
"Bang!!"
"Ah!!!!"
The Metal Armor reflected Hell's roaring flames, and the dark cloak fluttered in the ashes. Arkham Batman walked over to the overturned Mephisto, squatted down slowly:
"Now, who is the Angel Envoy?"