Chapter 25: Children's Animation.jpg

There was only one thing left to do: experiment with magic.

Elias was a complete novice in this regard. Although the Spider-Men referred to the Lantern as "The Prophet," the Book of Fate—an object they feared and treated with wariness—had been used by Elias as a screwdriver until just a few days ago.

This convinced him that he shouldn't simply chant spells in front of others.

Consequently, he declined the Green Lantern’s help ("I’ve dealt with plenty of evil alien mages."), politely refused the Spider-Men’s request to watch ("It’s my first time being this close to 'Fate'! You ask me what 'Fate' is? Uh, never mind, I was just talking nonsense."), closed the living room door and curtains, and sat down opposite Ophelia.

Then, cradling the book, he attempted to read aloud the mysterious strings of characters.

To his surprise, there were phonetic annotations in English next to them, even if, for Elias, it was merely transitioning from one kind of strangeness to another.

"et draconi qui est... uh, relinquens?"

Was that how it was read?

The room was silent.

Elias guessed he shouldn't pause in the middle. He tried again: "et draconi qui relinquens!"

"Oh, I missed a word."

He realized the problem as soon as he finished, studied the spell twice more, and tried again: "et draconi qui est relin—hiss!"

The superheroes outside couldn't wait any longer. They knocked on the door and asked, "Lantern? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine!" Elias called out, raising his voice. He then pressed a hand to his mouth, contemplating the letters in the book.

There was nothing wrong with the spell.

He had just been reading too fast and accidentally bit his tongue.

...

Honestly, after failing several times in a row, Elias began to question Batman. Are you really sure the Lantern is a mage? Is the last mage who had to study swordsmanship because he kept biting his tongue while chanting still alive?

About twenty minutes later, the Spider-Men waiting outside finally felt a faint magical fluctuation emanating from Elias’s home. This force acted upon their bodies, making them realize that a connection to the way home had been established.

However, this connection had barely surfaced before it vanished in the blink of an eye, much like a signpost just placed at a crossroads being blown over by a sudden gust of wind.

Immediately after, the Lantern pushed the door open and stepped out. "The spell is a bit long. I need time."

That made sense, the Spider-Man thought. After all, no matter how powerful a mage was, they required plenty of practice when encountering new magic. The Lantern had likely just been testing the safety and efficacy of the spell.

"You don't need to worry about Ophelia," they reassured Elias in turn. "We planned ahead; she can handle it if it takes a little longer. Batman said this is a profound magic that requires a lot of energy for many mages to learn, but it’s very convenient to use—it doesn’t require those complex rituals or props—which is why we chose it as our first option."

Moreover, Batman had considered that the future Lantern or Elias might face similar situations more than once. A convenient spell that could be applied repeatedly, much like a parent shouting "Noooo" at children attempting to do something fatal, could provide everyone with a sense of security.

He really was quite experienced.

But then again, Elias was certain that as long as he could successfully chant the spell, he could make it take effect immediately, even if auxiliary measures like phrasing, pronunciation, and gestures were non-standard. From that perspective, the Lantern was indeed a talented and powerful mage.

—However, thinking of his still-throbbing tongue, he realized he still preferred to just use his hands rather than waste time chanting spells.

**

While Elias was at home struggling to connect with his magic to wake Ophelia, on the other side of the Earth, Gale had finally reached his destination. He landed in a small city in northern Australia; it was just past seven in the morning when he got off the plane. A wave of stifling heat, unique to the grassland climate, rushed toward him. As far as the eye could see, there was vast, uninhabited wilderness covered in low, emerald-green shrubs. A winding, narrow path snaked through the brush, leading from the airport to the city center.

When an amphibian scurried across the asphalt and, startled by passing vehicles, panicked into the nearby grass, Gale thought to himself: His father would like this place.

Because there were so few people.

His departure this time had been rushed, and he had very little luggage. He rented a car near the airport and headed straight to the city. After entering, Gale didn't linger; he went immediately to the hotel he had pre-booked, rushed into his room, and collapsed onto the bed, eyes closed, without even changing his clothes.

Anyone unaware would have thought he hadn't slept for weeks.

Sleep after the exhaustion of travel came quickly, or perhaps the Dream Lord had offered a little help. However, Gale didn't see him in his dreams this time. As soon as his consciousness, used for perceiving reality, dissipated, he found four playing cards floating in front of him.

Spades, representing [Plot].
Hearts, representing [Evaluation].
Clubs, representing [Adaptation].
And Diamonds, representing [Fan-creation].

Having learned his lesson from flipping over the Spades last time, Gale chose the Clubs without hesitation.

Let’s see what kind of tricks the editorial department could pull to make money!

After the Clubs card flipped over, Gale didn't see a comic book. Instead, a television appeared before him, with a beanbag chair placed not far from the screen. The surrounding environment was dim as usual, with only the flickering light of the TV, giving it the feel of a home theater.

Before Gale could inspect it further, the animation on the screen began to play automatically. He hurriedly sat down on the beanbag, fearful of missing a single detail.

—If Black Lightning saw this scene, he would say Gale had never been this focused during class.

"Ding-ding-dong~"

A rhythmic, upbeat opening theme and the colorful words "The 'Fate' Family" filled the speakers. As the show started, the camera focused on the sunny city of Metropolis.

Gale judged in his heart like a professional film critic: Not bad. Both the cheerful background music and the bright color palette were worthy of its "all-ages" market positioning.

A male voice, sounding suspiciously like a Teletubbies narrator, introduced the modern city before the viewers in a lighthearted tone:

"Metropolis, just like New York, is a bustling city on the American East Coast, birthplace of the world's most famous superheroes..."

The camera gave a few close-ups of passersby. Gale was relieved to find they weren't "Q-version" or chibi-style. Although the characters had inevitably undergone a certain degree of "cutesification"—for example, the Superman on the promotional poster had a square jaw and an inverted-triangle torso—at least they hadn't turned into bean-eyed cartoons.

"...And in this extraordinary city, there lives an ordinary family."

The picture suddenly flashed, panning quickly from the skyscraper-filled city center to the impoverished Suicide Slums, then focusing on a window of a dilapidated, brick-red building.

The narrator said: "The master of this house is named Elias, Elias Esposito. Male, unmarried, yet he has two children. We still do not know how he managed to do this. Mr. Esposito is under a lot of pressure; he is preparing for his job interview this morning—"

"Gale!" A sudden, terrifying roar interrupted the narrator. A red-haired, blue-eyed man in his pajamas, stubbly-bearded, hair disheveled, with dark circles under his eyes, looking as if he hadn't slept all night, shoved the door open with his blocky-shaped fingers. His face, as square and straight as Superman's, was covered in soap foam he hadn't rinsed off. "Your teacher, Black Lightning, called me for the third time this week to say you didn't go to school yesterday!!"

Gale, watching the TV outside the screen, was startled—the voice actor sounded exactly like Elias. He couldn't help but stand up and interrupt the show: "Excuse me, pause! Can you pause? Dream Lord? Are you there?"

The Dream Lord was not there.

However, a remote control fell from the sky and smacked Gale on the forehead, leaving him dizzy and causing him to tumble back into the beanbag chair. He didn't have time to complain, quickly raising his arm to press the pause button on the remote.

The TV screen froze at the moment the inverted-triangle-shaped Elias, draped in pajamas, rushed out of the bathroom in a rage.

Gale stared at the image, his mouth stretching wider and wider. A few seconds later, he couldn't help but bury his head in the sofa to hide the smile on his face. He lay on the floor, gripping the sofa cushion tightly, taking deep breaths repeatedly. He managed to barely control himself, but when he looked back and saw his father’s expression, which looked like he was about to transform into a monster, he burst out laughing:

"What is this!! I really should let him see this himself."

Elias was a very composed man in reality. After all, he was of a certain age and wouldn't be as jumpy as a young kid; even when he was disciplining Gale or scolding someone in anger, he appeared very self-controlled. Clark had once compared the Lantern to a volcano about to erupt, but regardless, that volcano hadn't truly erupted in a long time.

The animation, however, magnified parts of his personality, making him look more gloomy, irritable, and aggressive, like some dark, strange bird with all its feathers puffed up. Especially since he spoke with a weird accent and his grammar was a total mess, yet his voice was deep and pleasant, perfectly matching reality...

Anyone who knew Elias, and those who had read the comics first, how could they hold it in!

In any case, Gale couldn't.

He played the "Old Father Scolding" segment on loop several times, enjoying it more each time, feeling that his conditioned reflex of being intimidated when Elias was angry had largely disappeared. And though he had only watched the beginning of the animation, a thought rose in his mind that made him itch with anticipation:

I want to see the audience reviews!!

Why isn't there a real-time comment feature!

Thinking that the Hearts card representing [Evaluation] wouldn't be available to flip until this time tomorrow, Gale felt like he wanted to have a word with the Dream Lord.

Look at this yourself; is this setting reasonable?

Making teenagers addicted to sleeping and failing to make progress!

But no matter how he protested, the Dream Lord’s anti-addiction measures were set in stone.

Gale had to continue watching with regret.

In the animation, Ophelia soon appeared. Her head was only as high as Elias's shoulder, her blue eyes were very large, covering almost half her face, her red hair was smooth, she was dressed neatly, and she wore a smile, appearing very well-behaved. "He's not home, Dad."

The camera flashed back quickly to the night before the story started, Ophelia's memory:

Gale, wearing a black mask and a backpack, grabbed a bedsheet and jumped from upstairs to run away from home, engaging in a fierce battle with Ophelia, who was poking her head out of the window—the battle consisting of throwing pillows at each other.

The flashback ended.

Elias didn't seem surprised by the answer, only sighed deeply, reached up and grabbed his hair, making his already spiky red curls even more disheveled.