"Professor, you're not one of those who shuns medical treatment, are you? Anyone with a basic knowledge of first aid knows your bleeding has reached a critical stage, and you need to get to a hospital immediately!!!"
"Oh, wait, is there a hospital in Hell? But you should at least stop the bleeding first!" Clark was almost incoherent with anxiety. He reached out to Shiller, ready to fly, but hesitated for fear of aggravating Shiller's wounds.
Then he stood silently, covering his face, and muttered, "I just don't get it. I hate seeing people get hurt, especially you, Professor."
Clark dropped his hand, and with his deep blue eyes fixed on Shiller, Shiller could see red rims, as if Clark's eyes were red suns rising from the depth of the ocean. Choked up, Clark spoke:
"You've been tortured, haven't you? How could they do this to you?!! How could they do this to a kind professor who has always cared about the poor?!! How could they be so cruel??!!"
Clark covered his eyes again, speaking, "....I'm sorry, I'm a little emotional, but I'm just so upset. If I were sitting next to Martha right now, I would surely be sobbing."
Shiller opened his mouth to reveal his plan, but he found no appropriate moment to butt in since Clark truly looked like he was about to burst into tears.
Shiller touched his lips with his finger, then turned his head away from Clark's gaze, taking a deep breath and diverting his attention elsewhere, but his face looked paler than before.
"Maybe I'm naturally sensitive, but I feel sorrowful for every person who suffers, especially my friends and mentors. Professor, when you were in Metropolis, you comforted me during my bouts of sadness and anxiety."
"Then, when I was struggling with a lot of issues, your letters helped me a lot...." Clark's voice faltered, his lower lip twitching and his Adam's apple bobbing incessantly as though he were choking.
After a deep breath, he turned to Batman and roared, "Batman!!!!!"
"Hold on, Clark, there seems to be a misunderstanding here. This is our plan, for I need to merge..."
"Is this what you call your vaunted superhuman strength?" Batman flew up to Clark's face, staring into his eyes, "Without your born strength, you are nothing, your combat skills are pathetic."
"You emotionless freak!" Clark bit back, "Your advanced skills are all used for persecution, you damned obsessive!"
"Yet your less superior skills never really protect anyone." Batman retorted defiantly.
Touching his forehead, Shiller could feel his fingertips twitching. He turned to return to the tower.
At this moment, however, he heard a 'click'. It sounded as if someone had snapped their fingers.
Instantly, the sky of Hell darkened with clouds, and a pair of giant golden eyes blinked. All the surviving demons fell to their knees, chanting "Satan".
A large pair of grey wings stirred up a whirlwind. Lucifer, with his golden hair, appeared above the tower. Shiller squinted and smirked satisfactorily.
Lucifer hovered in the air, looking around without any visible emotions. He turned his gaze to Shiller.
Seeing Shiller's condition, Lucifer's pupils contracted but quickly returned to normal. He then slowly descended to Shiller. Just as Shiller was about to speak, Lucifer flashed a smile, saying: "I've got something interesting for you."
Lucifer reached out his hand. In it, a golden orb materialized and inside it was a face Shiller recognized - that of Constantine.
What surprised Shiller, however, was that it was only half of Constantine, with only the left side of his face, yet he could still speak.
"Shiller, I know that you are intent on leaping into Hell to taste my debt in retaliation for the abundance of broccoli you've created. All this was your plan, to make me feel guilty."
Staring at Constantine's face, Shiller let out a vile grin and said: "True, but even if I had revealed this plan to you earlier, you would still feel guilty because you are a good person, and I am a psychologist."
"...Let me guess how you feel now," Shiller began to take steps on the narrow staircase, as if dancing on the edge of a cliff, he said with a cheery tone reserved for autumn harvest:
"Pain, guilt, confusion...you remember all the friends who have paid with their lives for you. Without the physical pain, your guilt for them is like a knife, constantly cutting your heart."
"At the same time, you can no longer use physical pain to numb yourself, because your healthy and young body came at the expense of my soul."
Suddenly, Shiller stopped. He looked at Constantine and said: "Seeing me standing here just fine should make you quite angry, right?"
"All of this was nothing more than a sham. I pretended to help you pay off your debt and descend to Hell, but in reality, all the demons have been fooled by me."
"I promised them I would pay off all your debts, but now, they've all been blown away by the helicopter engine I arranged, and my strong willingness to repay them is unfulfilled because they no longer have the opportunity to collect."
After saying these words, Shiller looked into the distance where a few still surviving Big Devils were huddled together, looking this way. Feeling Shiller's gaze, they backed off. Shiller said with a grin, "I guess those who have the chance to collect probably no longer wish to do so."
"I didn't give anything, yet made you feel like a knife was cutting your heart for so long, Constantine, did you find my prank amusing? Would you like to try it again?"
Shiller spread his hands and said: "It's just a joke between friends, I'm sorry if it's made you this miserable..."
Shiller was staring at half of Constantine's face, but he didn't see any expression of anger on Constantine's face. Instead, Constantine closed his eyes, showing an extremely pained expression, and said:
"I'm sorry for the unnecessary damage my inappropriate prank caused you. Maybe you won't believe me, but I never intended to harm any of my friends."
"You haven't paid the price because you have the ability to manipulate these demons, but not all my friends have that power..." Constantine's voice trembled a bit when he said, "If this had happened to someone else, maybe I would never see him again."
"And all of this didn't mean anything noble. It was just a childish and ridiculous prank." Constantine gasped and trembled as he exhaled, he paused and said: "Thank you for being so powerful that I didn't have to pay a greater price."
"But believe me, I've already received enough punishment. Not just the torment in my heart, that's far from enough, far from being enough to alert me not to make such a foolish mistake again."
Constantine opened his eyes and looked at Shiller with his only one eye: "I've torn my soul into two halves, erased the memories in one of them, turned it into my brother Thomas, then handed over my body to him."
"From then on, the healthy, young, and energetic Constantine you created is no longer me, the beyond redemption jerk, but the excellent, cheerful, and no haunted past... Thomas Constantine."
Shiller stood there, dumbfounded.
"...What did you say?!!!!!"