American comics farmer: start by adopting the villain savior.

Chapter 185 Who can resist a dancing pumpkin head?
The dramatic events of Christmas Eve finally subsided completely with the arrival of dawn.

A thick blanket of fresh snow gently covered the earth, quietly burying the scorched earth and scars left by yesterday's fierce battle, allowing the world to return to a pristine and tranquil state.

but
As a few remaining fragments of magical light flickered like fireflies, the tranquility was quietly broken by subtle fluctuations in a small patch of space above Kent Farm.

A tall, slender figure appeared gracefully in the crisp morning air, accompanied by ripples in the space.

She still wore that signature magician's gown, which accentuated her elegant figure.

The newcomer stretched his slender limbs forcefully, shaking off the oppressive feeling left over from the otherworld.

Then he took a deep breath of the crisp, clean air of Smallville on a winter morning.

A look of relief and comfort, like returning to familiar surroundings, spread across his face.
"The farm environment is so much better; the air smells so free."

Habitually casting her gaze upon the familiar scenery surrounding the farm, she tried to find the soft outlines of those rolling hills in her memory, her tone carrying a sense of homecoming:

"Green mountains and clear waters, tranquility and peace. This is so much more comfortable than that polluted dimension filled with the stench of sulfur and echoes of curses..."

Her contented smile froze the next second, her face as if sealed by ice and snow.

"?!"

Zatanna was stunned.

All he could see in front of him were several familiar hills that should have been part of the Smallwell Mountains, but they had vanished without a trace!
It was as if it had been wiped away by an invisible giant hand.

Instead, there was only an immense expanse of snow, stretching unhindered to the horizon, merging seamlessly with the greyish-white skyline.

"Where...where's my farm?!"

Zatanna's voice trembled with shock, almost as if she had mispronounced a single syllable when casting the teleportation spell:
"Such a huge farm?! And what about those mountains in front?!"

Which dimension did this scene transport her to?!

"..."

Just as she began to seriously doubt her life, and even subconsciously raised her hand, her fingertips gathering a faint glow of tracking magic, preparing to recalibrate her coordinates...

"The farm is here, Miss Magician."

A familiar voice, tinged with a slightly helpless smile, sounded behind her, calmly cutting into her panic, "And, if I may remind you, this is my farm."

Zatanna turned around and saw Locke standing by the farm, wearing an apron with flour on it, as if he had just come out of the kitchen.

Behind me, there was still that familiar farmhouse, barn, and fenced-off courtyard.

Everything on the farm remained intact, with wisps of smoke rising from the chimneys and the sweet aroma of roasted corn filling the air.

"What...?" Zatanna finally breathed a sigh of relief, her ample bosom rising and falling with her breath. She gave Locke a reproachful glare. "You scared me to death! So the farm was still here..."

Smoothing out non-existent wrinkles on her forehead, she tried to regain the composure of a great mage.

But my gaze couldn't help but drift back again to that eerie place, separated from the tranquil farm by only a thin line, seemingly reaching the horizon.
The intense sense of disconnect made her lips twitch, and she couldn't help but complain:
"I say, Mr. Farmer, no matter how you look at it, this scene is ridiculously bizarre!"

"What's this in front of your house...?"

"Is it connected to some vast Siberian plain?"

Or perhaps...

His eyes lit up, as if he had suddenly thought of a very likely explanation.

Wearing high heels, Zatanna slowly stepped forward, a mischievous smile on her face. She extended her slender, gloved finger and tapped Locke's muscular chest, teasingly saying:
"Tell me honestly, are they your brothers?"

"Let me guess, this time it's Dior who's turned evil, isn't it?"

"Why didn't you tell me you could come and help?"

As she spoke, she sighed with a rather mature air.

He seemed saddened that he couldn't come to help.

We arrived too late again and missed out on getting a front-row seat.
Cough
First row of helpers.

"."

"Hearing you say that..."

Locke slapped Zatanna's restless hand away from his chest with an annoyance, and said speechlessly, "Did you come here to clean up the mess? Repair and restore this piece of land to its original state?"

"Uh, actually"

Zatanna's expression stiffened, her momentum weakened, and her gaze drifted towards the devastated battlefield ruins. "Restoration illusions or spatial folding disguises? I'm quite good at those."

"Or perhaps, sending some energetic young people into the Sahara Desert or something..."

"Hey"

Seeing Zatanna's desperate attempt to save face, Locke's stern face couldn't hold back any longer, and the corners of his mouth turned up slightly, revealing a smile that was amused.

"Alright, let's go." Too lazy to argue with Zatanna any longer in this freezing weather, Locke interrupted her increasingly absurd suggestion, turned around, pushed open a fence, and gestured to the side, "It's cold outside."

"How about we go inside and grab a coffee first?"

The familiarity in his tone masked the subtlety of the earlier joke.

The last vestige of subtle tension between the two naturally dissipated.

Zatanna readily agreed and immediately put the grand plan to restore the mountain out of her mind.

She followed Locke with a grin, and naturally reached into Locke's apron pocket to take out a freshly baked cookie.

While stuffing the cookie into his mouth without a care for his image, he mumbled a complaint:

"That's more like it! I'm almost frozen stiff."

"By the way, why can't we add a teleportation spell to the farm's barrier? We could just think of it and go back to the farmhouse or teleport to the barn..."

"Is there such a convenient kind of magic?"

Locke asked a cooperative question and walked towards the farmhouse.

“That’s right!” Zatanna swallowed the biscuit and perked up. “I usually move around like this in my own home. I just need to set up the runes and record the coordinates.”

"From the study to the kitchen, from the bedroom to the laboratory, even the stairs were omitted..."

“Is that so?” Locke agreed. “Mr. Zatara must be very happy.”

"why?"

Zatanna blinked. When her father was a traditional magician, he had always opposed her using magic for convenience.

"He must be very proud that his daughter is such a talented magician."

"Imagine an old-fashioned gentleman who values ​​tradition and the rituals of life, opening his door to find that the spatial structure of his daughter's house has been folded up."

"I wanted to find a quiet corner to read, but I discovered that every room door had turned into a random teleportation point... I stepped into thin air and was sent into the toilet by a rune."

"Wow~"

"My daughter is truly a professional magician; she even creates surprises everywhere in our home."

"He would definitely say that."

"It's not that exaggerated!"

Zatanna retorted, but her voice lacked conviction. She nudged Locke's arm lightly with her elbow, somewhat embarrassed and angry. "What I called was... spatial optimization! It's just a phase anchor teleportation rune. What's so difficult about it?"

"is it?"

Locke raised an eyebrow, mercilessly exposing the truth:

"Who accidentally sent me to the West Coast last time?"

"Accident!"

Zatanna tried to defend herself, but her voice involuntarily weakened, "Besides, didn't I use teleportation magic to send you to the building later? You were perfectly fine..."

"Alright, great magician." Seeing the magician's discomfiture, Locke couldn't help but chuckle. "At least on this farm, let's stick to the most primitive methods for now."

"Sometimes we focus too much on the result and overlook the beautiful scenery along the way."

"."

Following behind Locke, I glanced at the surrounding scenery.

Well, a world covered in silver is indeed beautiful.

Zatanna, still unconvinced, muttered under her breath:

"...It's clearly because you don't understand the advantages of spatial folding and expansion techniques..."

but
The slight upturn of her lips betrayed the relaxed moment she was enjoying walking along this path.

And so, one after the other, the two chatted about lighthearted and trivial matters.

Only after passing through the warm glow of the farmhouse's porch did the harsh winter and the eerie emptiness outside temporarily disappear behind me.

"Sister Zatanna!"

As soon as she stepped into the warm and noisy living room, a small figure rushed over and came right up to Zatanna.

Salafir tilted her little face up, her dark eyes filled with excitement at seeing a familiar face.

"Sarafil!"

Zatanna's face immediately lit up with a warm smile. She naturally bent down and gently ruffled the little boy's soft, slightly curly black hair, her voice filled with affection, "Have you missed me these past few days?"

"Yes!" Salafir nodded vigorously, then, as if recalling some remarkable achievement, eagerly reported with a touch of pride, "I've learned all the previous magic tricks."

"The disappearing thumb trick, the disappearing coin trick, the disappearing ribbon trick."

"Oh, I see. Our little magician is improving so quickly."

Zatanna's smile deepened, filled with encouragement. "Then when I have time later, I'll teach you a few more fun little tricks, okay?"

"it is good."

Salafir nodded vigorously, then, as if remembering some important news, eagerly grabbed Zatanna's cold hands and led her to a corner of the living room like a prized possession, announcing in a childish voice filled with mystery and excitement:

"Sister Zatanna! I have a secret to tell you!"

"I have a little brother! Two of them!" He held up two tiny fingers, emphasizing the number, and pointed to the baby basket in the corner of the living room:
"One is named Virgil, the other Dante! They're right there!"

"A new...brother?!"

Zatanna's relaxed and cheerful smile froze instantly as she looked in the direction Salafir was pointing.

really
Then I saw two babies lying side by side, with striking silver hair.

"."

As her gaze darted back and forth between the baby and Locke, Zatanna's mind involuntarily conjured up a melodramatic Korean drama.

Disappeared for months without a trace, then suddenly returned with two babies...

Her gaze toward Locke immediately became complicated, carrying a hint of disbelief and a faint resentment. Her red lips parted slightly, as if she were about to utter two words.

"What kind of look is that?"

Locke interrupted her impending daydream, rubbing his temples, and explained this situation—which defied all common sense—in the simplest way possible:
"Don't guess. They fell from the sky."

"hehe…"

Zatanna crossed her arms and let out a meaningful chuckle. The meaning conveyed in her eyes was crystal clear:

Do you think I'd believe something like that that's meant to fool a three-year-old?

"."

Knowing that arguing with an imaginative magician would only make things worse, Locke simply gave up on verbal explanations.

He reached for the remote control on the coffee table, clicked on the old-fashioned television in the living room, intending to use the most credible external information to prove his seemingly absurd yet absolutely true innocence.

"...Breaking news. The town of Smallville, Kansas, was hit by another rare meteorite impact last night."

On the television, the female anchor of the Metropolitan News Channel was delivering an urgent news report in a clear and articulate voice:
"According to experts from relevant departments who reviewed historical records, there have been multiple meteorite records in the Smallville area before, the most recent including the meteorite showers of 1989 and 1997..."

The scene shifts to a serious-looking expert against a simulated star chart.

He said solemnly:

"According to joint confirmation from the meteorological department and the military, what happened last night was a brief meteorite shower, the first since 1997. Fortunately, most of the meteorites burned up completely upon entering the atmosphere, with only a few fragments causing localized damage..."

"Primarily ground destruction in the uninhabited mountainous region east of Smallwell."

Next, a blurry animation appeared on the screen, showing several points of light entering the atmosphere with specific trajectories.

The news report concluded with interviews with several eyewitnesses.
You could even see an excited middle-aged woman speaking into the microphone: "I saw it! A huge fireball streaked across the sky and landed in the mountains over there!"

The sound of the television echoed in the living room.

"Did you hear that?" Locke turned off the TV, looked at the astonished Zatanna, and shrugged. "Official certification, it really fell from the sky."

Zatanna looked at the TV screen, then glanced at the two silver-haired babies in the baby basket, finally fixing her gaze on Locke's face, which screamed "I'm helpless too." She opened her mouth, but after a long pause, managed to utter a sentence:
“...You Smallwells...the 'things' in the sky…”

"Isn't this a bit too much?"

It's no wonder she sounded doubtful.
after all
What kind of meteorite could be so precise as to flatten just a few mountains?

Yet it did not affect the nearby farms and towns at all.
It's important to know that a meteorite capable of instantly shattering several mountains could theoretically wipe the entire Smallville off the map with its shockwaves.

No matter how you look at it, it looks like the hills were deliberately blasted from the inside.
"correct."

"This middle-aged woman looks exactly like Mr. Rong En, doesn't she? Is he exhausted? That huge green patch on his skin gives him away." Pointing at the woman on TV who was talking incessantly, Zatanna complained, "She's not very professional."

Looking at the magician before him, whose eyes still held a flicker of doubt, Locke's mind echoed with the last words Martian Hunter had uttered in that flat tone before he left last night:
This is the cleanest solution, Mr. Kent. People only believe what they want to believe, and in Smallwell, people believe in meteorites. —Ron Jones

But this guy in front of me is no ordinary person.
Locke couldn't help but chuckle. He didn't respond, but instead steered the conversation back to where it all began, saying softly with a smile:
"The one who cries is Dante, and the one who doesn't cry is Virgil."

Ok
Zatanna's curiosity ultimately prevailed over her urge to criticize, or rather...
She didn't really want to press the matter further.

Walking to the baby basket, Zatanna bent down and carefully observed the two little ones.

Dante was smacking his lips in his sleep.

Virgil, on the other hand, stared with those overly calm blue eyes.
even
She looked back at him, without the slightest fear in her eyes.

"Wow…"

Zatanna couldn't help but let out a soft gasp of surprise.

As a magician, she could clearly sense the potential hidden within the two infants.
Completely different from Salafir and the gods, yet possessing the same profound and powerful potential.

"You've found two amazing little guys again."

"A very special, very ancient magical bloodline."

She furrowed her carefully drawn eyebrows slightly, trying to discern the essence of that power.

“It’s like…” she hesitated, tentatively offering a guess, “some kind of high-ranking… half-demon?”

"Is that so?" Locke stepped forward noncommittally, gently brushing Dante's soft silver hair, and chuckled, "But I think they're more like lost angels."

"."

She let out a small sigh.

Salafir, who had been silently watching from the sofa armrest, unconsciously pouted, her big, dark eyes filled with obvious disappointment and a hint of barely perceptible jealousy.

Although I also really like my younger brothers.

But seeing Zatanna's attention...

It's a bit... somewhat... that she was drawn away by the new younger brothers so quickly.
"Humph."

A mocking snort came from the corner.

Shen Du, who had appeared out of nowhere, crossed his arms and glanced sideways at his elder brother with his golden eyes, his tone undisguisedly sarcastic:
"Brother, if I may remind you, you are already six years old."

"You actually get jealous of two babies who can't even speak, who just lie there drooling and need help to poop? That's... infuriatingly childish. Even the low-level dragon spirits in the Dragon Court would probably laugh at your pathetic jealousy."

"?!"

When her secret was exposed, Salafir's face instantly turned red.

He glared angrily at Shen Du, but racked his brains and couldn't find any powerful words to refute this cruel fact, so he could only pout in grievance.

Locke keenly sensed his son's subtle mood.

This is not just a psychological feeling.
Nonsense, the uncontrollable, slightly emanating magic behind him was almost turning red and about to explode because of this little guy's jealousy.

In the true sense of the word.

Locke knelt down beside Salafir, looked him in the eye, and gently ruffled his hair with his large hand.

"What's wrong, Salafir?" he asked gently. "Do you feel neglected?"

Salafir lowered his head and gave a soft "hmm".

"But look."

Locke smiled, pointed to the baby basket, and said in a way that Salafell could understand:
“They’re just two little babies who can’t do anything right now, they can’t even sit up. They can’t work in the fields with me, build snowmen with Clark, read books with Dio, or sit around the table eating Martha’s blueberry pie.”

“They could only lie there all alone, doing nothing but sleeping and crying, how pitiful…” Locke’s voice carried a perfectly timed hint of regret: “When you were their age, you were like that too, Salafir.”

"Although."

His tone rose slightly, carrying encouragement and expectation:
"They won't stay like this forever."

"They need time, nutrition, and love to become as strong and smart as you."

"And by then..."

"They also need you, their grown-up older brother."

"Take them to explore every corner of the farm, tell them about Dio's secret hideout in the windmill, protect them from tripping over the fence, and keep them from being frightened by the curious little animals..."

"!!!"

Listening to her father's words, Salafir imagined the scene.

He proudly led his two little brothers on an adventure on the farm...

The hurt in her eyes gradually faded.
Instead, a budding sense of responsibility and a faint expectation have taken its place.

When Salafir looked at the baby basket again, her eyes couldn't help but burn with desire.

These are my brothers, who, besides my animal friends and my sister Kayla, are the only brothers I can play happily with.

Watching the little guy whose mood changed from gloomy to sunny in an instant, faster than flipping through a book, Zatanna, standing to the side, couldn't help but cast a smiling glance at Locke.

Locke responded with a helpless shrug.

Shen Du was somewhat speechless; his elder brother was far too easily fooled.
"Oh, right." Breaking the momentary silence, Zatanna seemed to suddenly remember something, and looked around the living room. "Where are Dio and Clark? I haven't seen them anywhere."

"Clark works as a photographer in the morning and volunteers at a nursing home for Christmas in the afternoon."

"As for Dio..." Locke hesitated for a moment, seemingly unwilling to delve into the specific reasons why his eldest son went to Gotham for Christmas, and vaguely said, "Now..."

"He should be 'handling business' in Gotham."

"Oh~"

Zatanna drawled out her words, revealing a knowing expression.

Looking for a younger girlfriend.
"That's really unfortunate."

"I also want them to see the Christmas presents I prepared."

She shrugged, a hint of regret in her voice, and then gracefully removed her signature top hat.

Under the curious gaze of Locke and the children, he reached his hand into the seemingly empty hat.
A gift box was slowly pulled out?
"Wow!"

Children's attention is always easily drawn to novel things.

Salafir, like a kitten attracted by a cat toy, cried out in surprise and eagerly rushed forward, squatting down next to the gift box and staring at it intently.

Zatanna placed the gift box on the carpet, skillfully untied the ribbon, and opened the lid.

The inside was lined with soft purple velvet, and on top of that velvet, several...

A small, bright orange pumpkin?

Before anyone could ask any questions, Zatanna snapped her fingers.

The next moment, the pumpkins seemed to come alive, their stems twisting nimbly like tiny top hats, their round bodies swaying gently.

It clumsily yet lively hopped out of the box.

Then, they lined up in a row on the carpeted floor, and funny and cute smiling faces appeared on their bodies. They began to sway left and right, dancing a charmingly silly dance.

"This is... a dancing magic pumpkin?!"

Salafir exclaimed in delight, her eyes fixed on the energetic little creatures, her earlier slight annoyance long forgotten.

Even Shen Du, who was pretending to be indifferent, had a hint of barely perceptible curiosity flash across his golden eyes.

Who could resist a dancing pumpkin head?
But looking at the pumpkin head bouncing on the floor, Locke felt a flutter in his body.

"A dancing pumpkin?" he asked curiously. "Where did you get it? I remember it's Christmas now, almost two months after Halloween."

".Ha ha"

Zatanna chuckled dryly, her eyes darting around. "Some unspeakable magical dimension?"

"."

Looking at Zatanna beside him, who was gloating over the popularity of her gift, and then at the pumpkins on the floor that were still bouncing around tirelessly.
Or perhaps it's a pumpkin that has been sealed with a few low-IQ little devils.
Locke smiled helplessly.

He flicked his finger, injecting a wisp of lightning energy into the pumpkin.

This adds an extra layer of protection to the Magician's seal.

Hopefully, Dior and Clark will like this gift.
-
"Let's not even talk about where you got that pumpkin head?"

"Miss Selena," Dio said speechlessly as the beautiful young woman presented him with a pumpkin head as if it were a treasure. "Today is Christmas, not Halloween."

"Why would I hang this at the club's entrance?"
-
[PS: The next update will be in the morning, everyone go to bed early.]

[I'm currently organizing the story and setting of the Spartan Twins; it should be released in the next day or two.]

Happy National Day everyone!

[There will be extra updates irregularly during the National Day holiday]

(End of this chapter)