Zatanna walked up to Constantine, squatting down before him, she looked into his eyes and said, "I know you're not as evil and heartless as you appear to be, and that's why your soul is immersed in profound sadness."
She gently extended her hand, lightly touched Constantine's forehead, then said, "But now you need to rest; no devil will haunt your dreams anymore. Sleep, John…"
As she softly whispered, Constantine slowly closed his eyes and his breathing gradually steadied. With a sigh, Zatanna quietly said, "Alright, now it's all up to me to sort everything out."
"Curse of Evil, chaos in Gotham, Hell, and Heaven…" Zatanna stood up and turned to leave, murmuring these words.
But the very moment she turned her back, Constantine swiftly rose and choked her from behind, pinning her down to the ground.
Zatanna struggled desperately, shouting, "Constantine!! You madman!! Let go of me!!!"
Amid her struggle, she caught sight of Constantine's mad eyes, telling her she was mistaken.
She had always believed that Constantine became so evil and insane because of magic. That the curses the devils put on him confused his mind, or that the endless nightmares drove him insane.
But now, the flames of madness burning in his eyes were telling Zatanna, magic was not the dye for his madness, and it couldn't even be considered as the kindling. He was a madman first, and then a magician.
Lack of oxygen gradually made Zatanna lose consciousness. When she stopped resisting, Constantine, panting heavily, stood up. Although he now had a young and strong physique, and the pain was far from him, he still felt extremely weak as if his soul was eternally incomplete.
He reached out, touched Zatanna's utility belt, and opened it. Inside were only some magician's trinkets but for Constantine, it was enough.
Instead of performing magic in the Batcave, he left with tottering steps and came back to the basement where he used to stay as if being urged by something, moving as fast as possible.
This was the so-called "Spirit World Rift" which provides the best casting environment for magicians. Constantine arranged the playing cards on the ground, drew patterns with a chalk, and ignited the wheat with a lighter.
He knelt on one knee in the center of the magic array, about to mutter incantations. This was his most skilled method of summoning Demons.
When he was halfway through the chant, Constantine didn't sense any demon's aura, so he gave up the incantation, stood up, and found the broken bottle shards he had shattered earlier in a corner of the room. He picked it up and returned to the center of the magic array.
Then, he cut his own palm with the broken bottle shard. As fresh blood dripped onto the charred wheat, Constantine began to recite the incantation again, but still, there was no response.
At first, he could hear some distant murmurs, but after adding his blood the surroundings became eerily silent.
Constantine sat on the ground; he should have foreseen this. Neither angels nor demons would be fooled a second time.
Previously, he was repeatedly able to borrow powers from various entities without repaying them simply because of 'sunk costs'.
Initially, when Constantine hadn't entered the mystic world yet, all magicians repaid their debts honestly, so the demons were unguarded. They never expected that a weak human would dare to default on their debt.
The demons were overconfident because they knew that human willpower was weak. If a human dared to default on a debt, all they needed to do was to slightly harass them in their dreams or inflict some painful curses, and they would certainly beg to make amends.
The demons didn't expect that Constantine not only had no fear of the pain but also looked forward to it in hopes that it would lessen his guilt. He wished the Devil would come more often and welcomed every torment inflicted.
So, some demons fell for his tricks. After they lent power to him, they got defaulted on. At this point, some other demons who didn't receive the news also lent their power to him.
Constantine found the first batch of demons and told them that if they didn't lend him more power, he would dedicate his soul to others to repay the debt.
The demons were reluctant to lose their invested power and didn't want his soul to fall into the hands of their competitors, so they lent him more power again.
After amassing more power, Constantine could summon more powerful demons, borrow more power, and continue snowballing his plan until he became one of the most powerful magicians in the mystic world.
Eventually, he had borrowed from almost all the angels and demons.
The more sins he had, the more tempting his soul became. Everyone wanted his soul and didn't want it to fall into others' hands. So, every time he was in danger, they would lend him a hand.
If they didn't, or if they didn't lend him power when Constantine was in trouble, not only would they lose all their initial investments, but they would also not get his soul in return. What's worse, they would irresponsibly sponsor their competitors. Nobody wanted to suffer such losses, and this was the reason why Constantine could borrow endlessly.