Loki and Talia both felt the ground tremble. Talia pressed her back tightly against the corner of the wall to steady herself, while Loki let out a low groan of pain as the shaking jostled his wounds.
"Ugh..."
"Are you all right?"
The moment Talia finished asking, a boom sounded as something at the end of the corridor collapsed. She immediately rushed to the railing and looked over, only to see a thick vine thrust up from the ground and punch a hole through the ceiling above the cellar.
"We can get out now," Talia said.
"It's dangerous outside." His tone was still irritated.
"It's more dangerous to stay trapped in here." Talia lifted her skirt and went to inspect the lock on the railing. This kind of cellar used the most ordinary padlock. She straightened the wire from her earring and slipped it inside, discovering that she could pry it open as long as she hooked the lock cylinder.
But that would take time, so Talia said to Loki, "If anything falls down, help me hold it off. I need to pick this lock."
Talia got to work. Focused as she was, she failed to notice the flash of magical light in Loki's eyes as a spatial rift opened somewhere nearby.
Above the cellar, the guests each displayed their own skills, avoiding the vines bursting from the ground in their own ways. Some took directly to the air, while others leaped through the sky and landed atop the thick vines.
At that moment, the Tree Council revealed its true form. Countless phantoms of towering trees appeared above Gotham.
Tourists who had still been dancing at bars in the middle of the night cried out and flooded into the streets. Those with phones or cameras pulled them out to take