Thea thought about the name for a moment; she had never heard of it. It was likely just another mental patient or something similar, so she didn't pay it much mind. She nodded immediately, indicating it was fine—they could contact her whenever they had time!
Three nights later, Thea arrived at the agreed location on time.
Lyla Michaels was once again the one to receive her. Thea figured Amanda was probably off in Hong Kong training Oliver again.
"I haven't thanked you for saving me last time yet!" Lyla, a mature and charming woman, greeted her with a smile. It was worth noting that the two agents who entered the base with them in Coast City had died on the spot. Lyla being alive was entirely because Thea had lent a hand for the sake of their acquaintance.
Thea immediately indicated it wasn't worth mentioning; for her, it was just a matter of convenience anyway. If her mana had been stronger back then, she wouldn't have left the other two agents to die either.
The two walked into this hospital exclusive to A.R.G.U.S. Strange-looking patients passed by them from time to time. Some thought they could fly; others felt they were stones and wanted to smash their heads against the wall. It felt as if everything had returned to Arkham Asylum.
Passing through several checkpoints and entering the underground facility, Thea finally saw the patient she needed to treat. "Hm? You guys think this is a mental illness?"
The woman before her was petite, her skin ghastly pale. Blue-purple blood seemed to flow continuously through her visible veins. The woman was firmly tied to the bed with ropes; her body twisted occasionally, eyes rolled back white, foaming at the mouth. At a sudden glance, she did look a bit like a mental patient.
But looking at her pale face and the sharp, claw-like fingernails on her hands, it looked more like she was suffering from some kind of curse.
"Sister Lyla, why does this patient have such long nails... don't you guys cut them for her?" Thea asked, pointing at the woman's chicken-claw-like fingers.
Lyla ran around the world constantly; this was her first time seeing this patient. Feeling a bit embarrassed, she immediately summoned the person in charge to question them. A.R.G.U.S. pays you so much salary, yet this patient's nails are almost longer than her fingers! Is this how you goof off?
"We're innocent! Miss Lyla, we hold her down and cut her nails every day, but they grow incredibly fast! We can't help it! If you don't believe us, we have video proof!" The person in charge was a fat woman weighing over two hundred pounds. Hearing Lyla's question, she cried out repeatedly about the injustice, swearing to the heavens that she absolutely hadn't neglected her duty—it was the patient growing them too fast.
"They can grow this long even when cut daily?" Thea didn't speak, but Lyla stared at the fat woman with an unfriendly expression. This woman looked fat-headed with big ears, her face glistening with oil. Where did the money come from? She must have embezzled it.
The fat woman's expression was extremely vivid, as if she had suffered a massive grievance. She slapped her chest loudly, insisting they had cut them every day recently.
Lyla sneered. Hmph, cutting them every day recently? That's only because we notified you three days in advance! To avoid making a scene in front of Thea, an outsider, Lyla suppressed the anger in her heart, planning to deal with her properly later.
Thea didn't care how much money they embezzled; she just wanted to finish the mission quickly. "Do you have the patient's brain scan report?"
The fat woman stammered, unable to speak. Lyla was thoroughly enraged! Are you kidding me? Such a reasonable request—just looking at the films—and you can't produce them? Did you not take them at all? You reported up the chain that this woman was crazy, but actually, you didn't treat her at all, right?!
"Listen to my explanation..." Observing her expression, the fat woman realized Lyla was about to explode. She immediately used an agility inconsistent with her body shape to pull a stack of films from a drawer on the other side. "There seems to be a layer of shadow in this patient's brain; our detection equipment can't distinguish it at all."
Lyla snatched them over. Taking a close look, the fat woman really hadn't lied. Whether it was the angiogram or the head CT, all showed a mass of ink-like black shadow.
"Thea, take a look." Lyla flipped through them all once and handed them to Thea.
Thea flipped through them, thinking to herself: Unless this fat woman sold the new equipment and bought old equipment from an Indian hospital to make up the numbers, these images indicate this woman has major issues! Even Harley Quinn, as crazy as she is, has scannable brain blood vessels. This pitch-black mass... is this even human?
Since science couldn't be counted on, she could only use magic to solve it! Although Thea consciously used less magic in her daily life, she still had to use it when necessary.
She opened the Eye of Horus and scanned the patient's brain. The instant her gaze contacted that mass of black energy, a large amount of scattered memories followed her line of sight and entered Thea's mind.
Sacrifices, fresh blood, large numbers of villagers dying of illness, distant mountains... chaotic and disordered memory fragments impacted Thea, causing her to involuntarily take a step back.
"What is that?!" As if a signal had been triggered, Thea's prying with the Eye of Horus provoked dissatisfaction from the monster inside the woman. A mass of mist-like magic power rapidly spread to the surroundings. The relatively alert Lyla immediately pulled out her pistol and shouted sternly.
A beat slower than Lyla, the fat woman also reacted. "Ghost!" she screamed, scared into hiding under the hospital bed. But helplessly, she ate too well on normal days; she was short and round. Her head and upper body barely squeezed in, but her huge backside was still sticking out, practically begging to be kicked.
With the diffusion of the monster's magic power, the lights in the entire underground area went out one by one. Several armed guards rushed in from outside the door; as for whether they were there to protect Lyla or the fat woman, it was unknown.
"Enchantress? What kind of crappy name is that!" It took Thea some time to process these memories. Having experience brainwashing others often, she discarded meaningless trivia and tried her best to find memories with times, places, and people, then combed through the opponent's entire life trajectory. The result left her speechless. This one was actually a pure mage-class enemy! And if she remembered correctly, she was the boss in the Suicide Squad movie, right?!
This was the only magic-class enemy Thea had faced in so long. Thea didn't dare to act rashly. Judging from the memories, the opponent had lived for hundreds of years. Theoretically, her magic power was much greater than Thea's, only it seemed her operation of it wasn't very agile.
At this moment, the Enchantress wore a crescent moon headdress, her body pitch-black as ink. Messy hair draped over her shoulders as she curled up in the corner of the room, staring dully at Thea. She knew her own suffering; her slumber had been interrupted by June Moone. June Moone was an ordinary person without a trace of magic. Possessing her body was actually painful for both of them.
Now provoked by Thea's Eye of Horus, she was forced to reveal herself before others without being prepared at all. Her plan hadn't even started, and it seemed there was already a possibility of going off track.
Thea was wary of her profound magic power, while the Enchantress's body was stiff and her magic operation sluggish. It was like two predators circling each other—both wary, neither daring to strike first. The scene fell into a stalemate for a moment.