In a dim basement in Gotham, a man in a trench coat and stubbly beard let out a deep sigh. The young girl sitting across from him swept her red hair behind her ears and spoke.
"Is this troubling for you? If it is, you can take me back. I think you've done more than enough, Mr. Constantine."
"It's not about that," He sighed again: "Call me John. Barbara, I've missed the only window to take you to a hospital. It's too late now."
"Look on the bright side, at least I'm not partly paralyzed." Barbara grimaced, "In this city, demon possession isn't a big deal."
"If it were just Gotham, I might agree with you, but haven't you noticed? In this new city, fused with Gotham, there's a group of incredibly troublesome individuals."
Constantine sat in the corner, reached for a cigarette, hesitated, then tucked it back into his pocket. Shaking his head, he exhibited a frustrated expression.
"You don't seem as in control as you claim," Barbara remarked, a mysterious sparkle in her eyes, a hint of unnatural paleness in her youthful, lively face.
"This is an enormous trouble, kid, but I'll figure it out."
Despite his assertion, Constantine did find it quite vexing. He wouldn't admit to having made a mistake, but things just had not gone as planned.
When Constantine went to save Barbara, he discovered that she had been hit in the side. Though he wasn't a doctor, he could tell the wound wouldn't be lethal, but would certainly cause disability.
From a magician's perspective, extracting the bullet and healing the wound should not be a big deal - magical energy can save all kinds of decay.
But this is only true for magicians. After years of evolution, the magic transaction system in DC has matured. The sources of power used by Constantine were all held by rigorous contracts.
The demonic entities and other magical abilities that Constantine summoned using his flame double were all permitted by these contracts. Self Healing Power was among them, but was only allowed for healing Constantine himself.
If one wanted to heal someone else, they must make another contract with either a devil or an angel. Constantine and the person being healed would have to pay the price together. If the recipient was not a magician themselves, they may have to pay even more.
However, this also depended on the difficulty of the healing. Major costs were often required to pull someone back from the brink of death. To devils or angels, other wounds would be considered minor and could be healed without a great price. They may at most cost some good fortune or lifespan.
Keeping this in mind, Constantine planned on summoning someone to heal the wound. Heaven and Hell both advertise extensively in this aspect, so it didn't matter who he called upon.
Constantine was too proficient in this aspect. He drew a random dialing array and made the call. Someone quickly picked up and projected a tiny piece of power and consciousness onto Barbara.
But at that instant, Constantine felt he was being watched.
His intuition had saved his life more than once, making him the perfect candidate for this career. The moment he became a target, Constantine immediately shifted locations with the still unpossessed Barbara.
He assumed it was just a casual look from Heaven or Hell, but it turned out to be a human disaster. Constantine moved to his safe house in Gotham. Just when he thought of communicating with the demon in Barbara again, a group of monks in yellow robes knocked on the door of the safe house.
Again, Constantine was well-experienced. He never believed anything that happened to him was a coincidence or accident. Even if it was, there must be devils behind it manipulating the probability. So he shifted location with Barbara again.
Yet, his opponents always found him quickly. Constantine didn't have time to ruminate over why. This time, he had no choice but to confront these strange mages head-on. Even he didn't have enough energy to transport an ordinary person multiple times in such a short period.
Just as Constantine predicted, the other party had no intention of negotiating. Despite Constantine and Barbara both stating they were collaborators, and that neither of them was kidnapping or hurting the other, the mages still charged forward shouting "Traitor summoning demons".
Constantine was baffled. The source of their energy was devils too, wasn't it?
What era is it? Some still attack heretics because they cooperate with demons. So, which mage in this world doesn't cooperate with demons?
Having no choice, Constantine had to carry Barbara and run. These opponents were no pushovers. A tiny misstep could result in downfall. He needed to be cautious.
But Constantine wasn't stupid, he noticed that anytime he tried to communicate with the demon inside Barbara, his location would be immediately exposed. It led Constantine to speculate that the opponents could detect demon energy.
So he took Barbara to their last refuge and temporarily sealed the demon consciousness within Barbara using a seal.
The mages seemed to have run into some other trouble and hadn't followed yet. However, this didn't mean the problem was resolved. Quite the contrary, the hardest part had just begun.
Constantine now understood there were also mages in the new city. He needed to figure out their backgrounds. To put it bluntly, he needed to find out who their contract partners were.
It was not hard to see that these mages were organized, and the most troublesome part was that organized magicians in this world usually bring massive disasters.
They pander to the ambitions of Heaven and Hell, often being the vanguard responsible for their expansion into the human world. If it's not profitable, neither demons nor angels would lend such power to so many people.
Although the demon inside Barbara could not communicate for the moment, Constantine's own phone line was still working. He could actually ask the demons to investigate in Hell.
What he did not tell Barbara was that he faced another trouble - a nosy historian and folklorist was investigating him.
This traced back to an unsolved case he left behind in England when he was young. The specifics were a bit complex, but it triggered waves in both mundane society and the mystical world, a turning point in Constantine's life.
It wasn't unreasonable to revisit old matters. Before this, Constantine had also discovered that the demon who had caused havoc previously had returned to the world. He wanted to handle it himself but Doctor Sophocles appeared and disrupted his plan.
It wasn't an issue if he couldn't investigate openly, but Dr. Sophocles somehow got information and pointed the spearhead directly at Constantine.
So the mysterious guest in the fog didn't even invite Constantine. He just arrived in New York on his own because he really couldn't stay in England anymore.
Dr. Sophocles' investigative abilities were outstanding. Even details from decades ago could be dug up, the information tracked down was even more detailed than what Constantine experienced himself at that time.
Constantine's intuition saved him once again. Later, he confirmed from the guest in the fog that he held a significant position in mundane society.
All Souls College, Oxford University, is heralded as the crown of Oxford. It doesn't accept ordinary undergraduates or graduate students; only scholars who hold significant positions in academia are allowed to join.
And as a magician, Constantine knew that it was the ivory tower of the mystic world. All scholars who claimed to study philosophy and theology were actually people from the mystic world, like him.
Not only are there gifted souls like Constantine in this world, there are also scholars who have already realized the existence of mystical powers in their world and devoted themselves to the complicated research of mystic studies, theology, and religious studies as ordinary humans.
The world's government agencies also need such people to explain all kinds of mystical events that occur on this world. Without a doubt, All Souls College at Oxford University is the authority of mystic studies in ordinary human society.
Mages have been above ordinary human society since two centuries ago, now they are like the rats in the ditch. Constantine dared not gamble his social status that Dr. Sophocles won't turn his past record upside down.
Constantine chose to come to America to lay low, while checking through the devil about what kind of person Dr. Sophocles was. But before he could worry about the man's academic background, he was stuck here with Barbara.
Before coming to New York, Constantine suspected that Sophocles had cracked the array of him communicating with the demons. This wasn't surprising. Many years ago, he played the same move. He was young and naive at that time, didn't erase the traces thoroughly enough. Given some time, these theoretical masters could always crack it.
If he does not change his phone number, Constantine would likely be caught by Sophocles once he makes a call. But to change his phone number under such circumstances would be quite difficult.
But changing the phone number requires him notifying the demon, and notifying the demon requires making a call, making a call requires changing the phone number, otherwise he would be caught. An unending loop.
However, there was a simplest solution — Constantine could open a portal and go directly to Hell.
Communications with demons might be intercepted, but if he teleported in person, the chances of getting intercepted would be significantly lower, as Constantine had his own base at the Hell Edge, a place not just anyone could go to, most magicians couldn't.
Constantine sighed and told Barbara, "Leaving you here now isn't very safe. The demon energy inside you could go out of control at any time. I want to take you to a relatively secure place, but I believe you should let your family know first."
Barbara sighed as well. It wasn't that she didn't want to call her father, she knew Gordon must be going out of his mind right now, but the signal of the phone was interfered by the teleportation magic that Constantine used, so she couldn't get through at all.
Constantine withdrew the magic energy, and Barbara called Gordon, telling him she wasn't missing or kidnapped, but just had to follow a magician to his base, to prevent the energy that was originally used for healing from losing control.
Barbara gave a series of explanations. Disregarding how much Gordon understood, Constantine really couldn't wait anymore because the group of mages were chasing them again.
This time, he didn't have the energy to move Barbara around in the human world. He waved his hand and teleported with Barbara to the Ghost Record Prison, settling her in his own cabin.
The next step was to go to Hell, talk to the demons personally, and resolve this series of troubles.
After a flash of light, Constantine appeared in Hell. The familiar dark red surroundings, the rising dust on the burnt umber ground, the rising smoke in the distance, the demons as always…
Wait, where are the demons?