Chapter 123

Only three or four minutes after Mike left.

Inside the SUV, Bardi felt something strange. His entire body reacted instinctively, resisting an external force—magic. His blood surged wildly through his veins, his body rejecting the intrusion with an almost violent intensity.

His skin, smooth and pale like polished jade, was suddenly marred by bulging blue veins, twisting like coiled serpents beneath the surface. His fists clenched, his expression sharpened into something fierce, and every muscle in his body tensed, brimming with raw, unrestrained power.

But then, a suffocating sensation overtook him.

He felt as if he were submerged in deep water, surrounded by magic pressing against him from all sides, making it hard to breathe.

His sharp gaze shifted to Raven, his eyes glinting coldly.

"Someone is using magic—teleportation magic," Raven said calmly.

She wasn't surprised by the spell's effects. To her, this level of magic was unimpressive, far weaker than her own. She could teleport across entire star systems if necessary, distances measured in light-years rather than miles.

Then, before Bardi's eyes, a black vortex materialized in front of the car.

It spun violently, rippling the air around it, distorting space with its gravitational pull. The vortex led somewhere unknown, its swirling darkness revealing glimpses of a distant landscape, a barren stretch of land, a lonely forest standing beneath the night sky.

A portal.

Without warning, the SUV lifted off the ground, suspended in midair as if caught by invisible hands, and was pulled toward the vortex.

Bardi reacted instantly.

Without hesitation, he moved to grab Raven, intending to break through the car door and escape. His arm wrapped around her waist, muscles tensing.

But before he could act, Raven stopped him.

"No need," she said, her tone calm, though her expression was slightly unnatural.

Bardi was too close.

In that split second, he had nearly carried her out of the car entirely. She could feel his solid, powerful chest pressing against her, the warmth of his body radiating through his clothes. The scent of him—clean, sunlit, and strong—momentarily filled her senses.

It was unexpected.

Almost immediately, Bardi hesitated.

His eyes flickered with thought, then he nodded and released her.

Raven was more knowledgeable about magic than he was. If she wasn't alarmed, then this situation was something she could handle.

Still, the fact that his body instinctively resisted magic so violently troubled him.

A thought formed in his mind.

If possible, he needed to learn magic, at least enough to counteract its effects on him.

The SUV, still wrapped in magical energy, hurtled into the black vortex. Space twisted, rippling around them as the swirling portal rapidly shrank, collapsing into a single point before vanishing entirely. The air shimmered faintly in its wake, like heat distortion rising from pavement, before settling into silence.

And just like that.

The car was gone.

Strangely, the few pedestrians nearby gave no reaction to the event.

Not a single person noticed that an entire vehicle had just vanished into thin air.

They continued walking as if nothing had happened, oblivious to the anomaly.

Inside the car, Bardi relaxed slightly, though his body remained primed for action.

"Your enemy?" he asked, his voice level.

The tension in his muscles eased, and the veins that had bulged across his jade-like skin gradually receded. But his energy remained coiled, ready to explode into action at any moment.

Raven frowned slightly, her dark purple lips parting as she hesitated.

She wasn't entirely sure.

If this was Trigon's doing, it was weak—too weak.

Finally, she said, "My enemies… shouldn't be this weak."

Bardi remained silent.

Weak? Perhaps by her standards.

But to him, anyone capable of using teleportation magic wasn't to be underestimated.

Even scientifically, teleportation of this nature was equivalent to opening a controlled wormhole, something Earth's technology was centuries, if not millennia, away from achieving.

Magic… it truly was something beyond reason.

A different system of power altogether, separate from science yet equally profound.

The SUV passed through the vortex and landed hard, shaking upon impact.

But neither Bardi nor Raven was affected. They remained seated, unmoved by the turbulence.

Bardi reached for the door handle and stepped out.

His boots sank slightly into the soft, damp earth.

Looking up, he saw an open landscape, rolling plains stretching far and wide.

Tall trees stood in the distance, lined in neat rows beneath a breathtaking night sky. The air was fresh and crisp, untouched by industrial pollution. The scent of earth and plant life filled his lungs, carried by the wind.

It was beautiful.

The grass beneath his feet, the wide-open wilderness, the vast expanse of stars glittering overhead, it was a place of untouched nature, pure and unspoiled.

Something about it eased his mind, even if only for a moment.

Bardi tilted his head upward, his sharp gaze scanning the constellations.

There—Ursa Major.

Like a massive spoon hanging in the sky.

Following the two bright stars at its edge, he traced a path outward, five times their distance until his eyes landed on the North Star.

Polaris. The guiding light of the northern hemisphere.

From there, he identified other constellations, using their positions to calculate their current location.

His mind worked rapidly, analyzing angles, distances.

Then, he had his answer.

They were on a small, uncharted island in the Atlantic Ocean.

More than 3,500 kilometers from Manhattan.

The nearest landmass? The Azores—500 kilometers away.

Bardi exhaled slowly.

In an instant, they had traveled 3,500 kilometers.

Magic constantly redefined his understanding of the world. This was essentially wormhole transportation, a feat that defied conventional physics.

Raven opened the car door, preparing to step out. Just as she lifted herself from the seat, she hesitated for a moment, then turned back. Opening the SUV's storage compartment, she took out every piece of chocolate inside, stuffing them into her cloak.

Then, she immediately unwrapped a long chocolate bar, took a bite, and chewed it slowly as she stepped out of the car, coming to stand beside Bardi.

With her hood pulled over her head and her face partially obscured, only her delicate chin was visible beneath the shadows. If not for the fact that she was holding chocolate in both hands, chewing away, she would have looked like a mysterious sorceress.

Instead, she looked like a hamster, nibbling with serious concentration, her dark purple lips pressing against the chocolate, taking small bites, savoring the taste.

"We were teleported to an unknown island 3,500 kilometers away."

Bardi glanced at Raven, his expression slightly puzzled.

He had never known she liked chocolate. Had she ever mentioned it?

Raven simply nodded, continuing to chew, the rich aroma of chocolate lingering between her words.

"The entire island is covered by a magical formation," she said between bites. "It's a sealed space, reinforced by a strong, bright flame effect. A containment ward."

The moment Raven stepped onto the grass, she could feel it, the intricate structure of the magical formation woven into the land itself.

Bardi scanned the area.

Activating his enhanced vision, he tried to pierce through the barrier, but his sight was blocked. The island was entirely enclosed within the magic circle.

The surroundings were eerily quiet. The only disturbance was the salty sea breeze bending the tall grass under the night sky. Beyond that, nothing stood out just an endless expanse of stars.

He couldn't see the magic circle's structure.

But he could feel it.

A constant pressure, subtly restricting his body's natural responses.

It put him on edge.

Raven paused mid-bite, observing Bardi's stance.

"Very weak," she said plainly.

To her, the magic here was laughably simple. Even with most of her power sealed, she could easily break through this kind of barrier.

Bardi remained silent, his expression unreadable.

But he didn't lower his guard.

Weak or not, he never underestimated an enemy.

To him, every battle was all or nothing, either he killed his opponent first, or he was killed. That was the only way to fight.

Then—

A thick gray mist suddenly swirled in the distance.

It gathered rapidly, coalescing into a massive form.

Within seconds, a giant humanoid figure loomed in the sky, composed entirely of mist, stretching across half the horizon.

The figure's upper body solidified, taking on a defined shape.

A bowtie at the neck. Sharp facial features, clearly visible through the haze.

Bardi's eyes narrowed.

A cold glint flashed in his gaze.

Zatara.

The legendary magician.

Zatanna's father.

Towering in the sky, Zatara's massive mist-formed face looked down at them, his presence oppressive and commanding.

"Devil," his voice echoed, rumbling like distant thunder.

"Trying to escape?"

***

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