Peter was utterly bewildered after hearing all that, hardly understanding anything. Even though he was not interested in occult studies, he still wanted to know what was going on. Why were there two Constantines? What was their relationship? What were they discussing with Dr. Sophocles?
Peter knew he couldn't figure it out on his own, but he knew he had a powerful helper. Therefore, he returned to the black sun and asked his question in the most devout manner possible.
Soon, a ton of knowledge was crammed into his head. Peter sighed in pain, sat on the ground, and struggled to digest the complex occult knowledge.
When he had reviewed most of it, he realized that all this knowledge was about John Constantine.
Constantine was special.
This was what all the information was trying to convey. As for the reason, it probably stemmed from the feud between heaven and hell.
In short, in the world where Constantine existed, countless universes shared the same Heaven and Hell. The struggle for followers between Heaven and Hell took place not in a single universe but in all universes simultaneously.
However, due to certain factors, Heaven and Hell could not turn the human world into a hot battle zone, but their cold war never stopped. There were wars of faith, information, and countless proxy wars.
This situation continued for a long time until one day, an archangel from Heaven and a demon king from Hell decided it couldn't go on like this. They should sit down and compete in a more civilized and fair way.
This method was Constantine.
Constantine himself was a black box for gambling. His soul was given special permissions. Neither the demon king of Heaven nor Hell can open the box to check the power components inside. They could only bet blindly.
In simple terms, no one in Heaven or Hell knew how much power others had lent to Constantine, or the specific content of their contracts. Everyone signed and lent blindly.
When Constantine died, the black box would be opened. The person who bet the most would take everything, including Constantine's special soul and what others had invested in him.
This was a large-scale gambling competition jointly held by Heaven and Hell, with Constantine being nothing more than the poker table.
To ensure fairness, no one was allowed to forcibly infuse power into Constantine's body. It had to be done with Constantine's consent.
But how could angels and demons not take advantage of loopholes?
They first used their influence in the human world to create troubles for Constantine. For instance, they might instigate demons or clergy to cause disasters, prompting Constantine to solve them. In order to save people, Constantine had to borrow power from them and naturally agree to sign contracts with them, accept their power, so angels and demons had a legitimate opportunity to place bets.
The reason angels and demons were repeatedly deceived by him was that they were simply placing bets.
Shiller realized this before Constantine did because he had once tried to repay Constantine's debts on his behalf, something Constantine had never thought of doing.
Constantine was always reneging on his debts. Most of his work in this half of his life were about figuring out how to do it. In all universes, no Constantine planned to honestly repay his debts, and no one would repay his debts for him. Shiller was the first.
Shiller repaid for him. Therefore, at the moment of repayment, he discovered that Constantine didn't really owe anything. He was merely a pawn used by Heaven and Hell for their own gambling.
Of course, no one voluntarily told Shiller this. They pretended to have accepted the energy Shiller paid, but Shiller found out that when he repaid Constantine's debts, he essentially took Constantine's place. The angels and demons could place bets on him now.
As for how he found out, it's necessary to mention the occult knowledge about this universe that Shiller studied in the French manor.
Actually, this was not Shiller's first encounter with the occult. His first encounter was much earlier than anyone would have thought. That happened in his previous life.
In Shiller's thought palace, there exists a special group. They are not doctors or professors, and they have nothing to do with psychology. They usually didn't appear in the corridor of the high tower, but were scattered in various rooms.
This group of Shillers shared a common property - they were from the magic side.
There was no magic in the world of Shiller's previous life, but this doesn't mean that Shiller couldn't study the occult. Or rather, he was destined to study the occult because the things happening to him could no longer be explained scientifically.
His autism in childhood interfered with the use of his abilities, and his busy youth left him no time to investigate what his great power was all about.
When he had finally achieved a higher social status and had a more stable life, he was able to begin studying what was so extraordinary about himself.
Normally, no one could have imagined being thrown into this world by God, so Shiller's first suspect was his genes.
In his working environment, there were many excellent scholars, including many geneticists. After conducting a series of investigations, Shiller found that it was unrelated to this.
Then came the inquiry into mental issues, but he was a psychologist himself. He was aware that his abilities had far exceeded the scope of delusions from schizophrenia and genuinely existed in this world.
After investigating all the possibilities on the science side, Shiller had to doubt, even reluctantly, that there might really be magic in this world.
So, after achieving great accomplishment in the field of psychoanalysis and research, he chose to follow the same path as Newton and began studying theology.
Shiller spent about five years traveling around the world, delving into history, religious studies, theology, mysticism, and folklore, mainly to find records that related to his abilities.
In the end, he found nothing.
There was much matching information, but verifiable evidence was scarce. Nothing was concrete and certain until Shiller's plane crashed, leaving it still a mystery.
As this was the longest and most extensive intelligence collection work in Shiller's life, and the thinking required was completely different from academic research and scientific investigations conducted before, specific personalities were dedicated to this kind of research.
They had to abandon the previous rigorous, professional, and evidence-based research method and employ a more abstract method, relying heavily on association and subjective idealism. As a result, a group of personalities were born.
Of course, idealism has always been the enemy of scientific research. Doctors abhor the statement, "I don't want what you think; I want what I think." Therefore, these personalities rarely appear in the High Tower. There are rooms specifically customized for them in the High Tower, which match their attributes.
For example, the Professor Shiller in the Hogwarts Room is one of the magic-related Shillers. His main research direction is the magic image that appears in famous literary and film works. His personality code is usually understood as "Magician".
Of course, there are also representatives of philosophy and history "PhD", social folklore "Investigator", religious studies and theology "Bishop", and some more abstract ones like "inspiration", "fallacy", "balance" and so on.
It was they who found that after Shiller repaid Constantine's debt, his own existential status changed, thus deducing the general direction of the matter. After subsequent confirmation with Lucifer, it proved that this was indeed the case.
When Shiller planned to change his identity, these personalities, who had nothing to do with psychology, let alone the science side, finally surfaced to control the body at the surface consciousness.
Also, after confirming the linkage between the two universes, Shiller got his new origin story in both DC and Marvel. The keywords of the origin story are Magician, PhD, Investigator, and Bishop.
But it was not just Shiller who deduced the truth. In his DC Universe, the now healthy and free Constantine, who found himself utterly unable to contact any angels or demons, also realized that Shiller replaced his status as the wildcard wagered by Heaven and Hell.
The merged Earth's Constantine came to New York to hide from Doctor Sophocles, while Shiller arrived on the merged Earth to avoid his universe's Constantine.
It still holds that, regardless of Batman or Constantine, aside from what they've been through, they are not regular people. Just because they are physically and mentally healthy does not mean they can become universally friendly good people.
Then Doctor Sophocles received a call from the merged Earth's Constantine.
"Who are you?!" He sounded very angry, saying, "Why are you investigating me? Why did you dig up this number? Do you know what it represents?"
"It represents a mistake you once made." Shiller's tone was slow, still contained a strange rhythm, sounded like a devout prayer.
The voice on the other end stopped abruptly, and after a while, Constantine said, "You don't understand. I had no choice."
"I understand, of course." Shiller pressed one hand on the stone slab, looked serious, his eyes were dim, like listening to a believer's confession, he said, "You had no choice when it happened and was it the same after it was over?"
"I feel guilty, but you, or any demon or angel behind you, have no standing or qualifications to accuse me of this, because you are the instigators."
Without waiting for Shiller's response, Constantine continued, "Listen, do me a favor; I need to summon a city, but I have no relevant experience. You need to go to the library at All Souls College, Oxford University and help me look into a missing town's supernatural case."