Just discharged from the hospital, Constantine was in his office, researching Arrays. Books of all kinds were scattered across the floor, and he had made a mess on the open space with his drawings. Around him, various materials were piled up haphazardly, and jars containing peculiar products from different creatures lined the walls.
When Shiller and Xi Wana came in, Constantine, without looking up, said, "If you need something, go find Professor Zatara. I'm busy."
"How's your leg?" Shiller asked.
Constantine, startled by the question, spun around and ended up sitting on the floor with a thud. Seeing that it was Shiller, he relaxed, sat where he fell, and patted the hem of his magician's robe saying, "What brings you here? No classes lately?"
"Most students are moving dormitories; too many had taken leave." Shiller said, "So I simply took a few days off myself."
Constantine nodded, silent, and began to reorder the Array Runes that had been scattered when he fell.
"How many days have you not slept?" Shiller asked.
"Only about two days," Constantine said with a yawn. "I need to hurry up and finish this part. Can't delay it any longer."
Shiller turned to see Constantine's office desk littered with his notes. Picking up a notebook, he glanced at it and saw it was a record of Runes conversion.
The entire magical realm's system of Runes had been restructured. Bruce had made many alterations, and the Arrays that Constantine had researched were now unusable without conversion. He had been busy with this task for some time.
Shiller noticed a small wooden stick tossed aside by Constantine and said, "Why do you also have one of these?"
Constantine paused, then looked at Shiller, who was equally taken aback, before remembering that Constantine could no longer use magic. Without a Magic Wand, what else could he use?
The Magic Wands developed on the DC side differed from those on the Marvel side. Marvel's wands were akin to pre-made meals, designed for Little Wizards with no cooking skills, while DC's were more like lithium batteries, capable of storing energy for Grand Mages in need of a power recharge.
Therefore, there were strict limitations on the use of such wands in DC, generally circulating within Bruce's circle of acquaintances. The power stored within the wands was essentially wool shorn from Barbados, over which Bruce had supreme administrative rights.
In fact, it was as if Bruce was lending to these magicians, except that they didn't have to repay him and no price was needed. The condition was that they had to use this energy for good, such as academic research or teaching.
The power Constantine was now using was of this kind.
Constantine stared at Shiller, his face expressing a clear "how dare you ask why I'm using this."
Without dwelling on the topic, Shiller pointed at Xi Wana and introduced, "Meet the new head of Gotham Magic Academy."
"I'm not quite the new head yet," Xi Wana said modestly. "I heard you are a Magician?"
Constantine muttered under his breath before saying, "I used to be, not anymore."
"Do you know about the Rock of Eternity?" asked Shiller.
Without hesitation, Constantine nodded, then with a puzzled look, asked, "Why do you ask about that place? It's unlucky."
"Unlucky? How so?"
"Of course, because that Shazam is so annoying. Oh, I forgot, he's also a Grand Mage, one of those people. Probably only I find him bothersome."
"What do you mean?" Shiller pulled up a chair and sat down, while Xi Wana simply sat on the floor. Both of them looked at Constantine expectantly.
Not understanding their interest, Constantine's gaze swept back and forth between the two. Xi Wana sighed and briefly recounted her past experiences to him.
After hearing her story, Constantine scoffed and said, "That sounds about right. Typical of that fellow."
"Do you know him?"
"Who in the magical world don't I know? Or rather, who doesn't know me?"
"Have you ever had any dealings with him?"
Waving his hand, Constantine replied, "He wanted me to be his successor, but I refused. Then the guy started spreading rumors about me in the magical world. That's when my trouble with the mainstream magical community began."
"Go on."
Constantine thought back and began, "This was decades ago. I was just starting out and stumbled into the Rock of Eternity while looking for fragments of the Eternal Star..."
As Constantine recounted, Shiller and Xi Wana learned about his history with the old Shazam from decades past.
Constantine had been a youngster then, only seventeen or eighteen years old, but due to his exceptional Magic Talent, he had come into contact with magic as a child and gained considerable power.
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But as most people said, he was a freak and didn't follow the path of many young mages by studying under a Grand Mage, nor did he recklessly squander his power and end up killing himself. Instead, Constantine was more interested in magical artifacts.
To be precise, he cared more about the carriers of magic, such as magical tools, arrays, and methods of casting, rather than the power itself. However, because his talent was exceptionally outstanding, his soul possessed an unusual allure to devils, making him quite powerful even then.
Of course, he later realized that this was merely a gambling game for the devils – he was the table, which is why they favored him exceptionally.
Back then, since no one guided him, everything was a process of independent exploration, and the necessary materials were not readily available, Constantine was like that Dora and Monkey, venturing out every day. He had virtually traveled through every large and small magical world, including the Rock of Eternity.
The Wizard Shazam was a long-life, having lived for tens of thousands of years, and had thus accumulated such immense power. When Constantine visited, he wasn't after Shazam's power at all; he was merely looking for materials to make magical tools. But Wizard Shazam didn't see it the same way.
He believed that this unusually talented young man was the successor sent to him by the heavens, always talking about Constantine inheriting his power. Constantine refused, and the two parted ways on bad terms.
At this point of the story, Xi Wana couldn't help but ask curiously, "Why didn't you do it?"
"Why should I do it?" Constantine was puzzled as well, "Why should I accept his power? I am not without my own, and if I desired, I could obtain power a hundred times more formidable than his within minutes. Why should I need his?"
"But no one complains about having too much money," Xi Wana said.
Constantine waved his hand and said, "Do you think taking his power comes without a price? Impossible!"
Xi Wana was startled and then asked, "It comes with a price? But he's not a devil or anything of the sort."
"How do you know he's not?" Constantine seemed a bit frustrated with Xi Wana's stubbornness, "Why do you think he hides in that out-of-the-way place? Is it because he doesn't like the splendid magic towers and the swarm of Mage Apprentices around him in the main world?"
Xi Wana had never considered this perspective, "Isn't he there to cultivate or something?"
"Is that what he told you? And you believe that?" Constantine said with disdain, "Haven't I told you before, the essence of magic is indebtedness. Do you have to run a hundred miles before taking out a loan at the bank?"
"So why is he there?"
"That old man is hiding from his creditors there!"
After recollecting for a moment, Constantine said, "I've forgotten who his creditor is, but seeing as he's lived so long, he surely owes quite a lot. The magical world has too many such people."
"Although most of the mages in the main world have died, the majority of them were young people. Yes, even people like Master Andrew are considered young. Many of the old immortals hide in some remote corner for thousands of years without showing themselves, and no one knows whether they are still alive."
"These people mostly have no significant talents, skills, or ambition, living a lifetime just to survive longer. They plan to live off their old gains, squatting in one place for tens of thousands of years. Shazam is clearly one of that kind."
"Otherwise, why would he need an heir with all that power he carries? Why can't he emerge and stand up for justice himself?"
Xi Wana felt as if his filters had been completely shattered.
"Then, then, you could also take his power…"
"I already said it comes with a price," Constantine rolled his eyes heavenward, "What's this talk about finding an heir? Isn't that just money laundering? If he transfers his power to someone else, and then fakes his own death, the debt is wiped clean."
"When he's revived later, he'll go after the unfortunate soul who inherited his power and retrieve most of it, claiming to be their benefactor under the guise of being in dire straits. 'If you don't give me a million US dollars, you're an ungrateful wretch,' he'd say."
Xi Wana was left with his mouth agape.
"To me, it's clear he didn't choose you not because you were tempted, but purely because he saw you were not naive enough to be easily deceived. You don't still think of him as a treasure, do you?"
"When he invited me, it was because he saw the strong power within me. If he was reborn later, not only would he not lose anything, but he might even come out ahead. I certainly wasn't going to fall for that trick," Constantine said with a sigh, his annoyance apparent.
"That guy indeed lived a long time, and he had considerable clout within the Grand Mage Alliance. Because I didn't fall for his trick, he spoke ill of me behind the backs of other Grand Mages, claiming my talents were too strong and my intentions dubious, suggesting that I would become a major threat in the future. This led to a prolonged period during which magical families and Mage Apprentices were constantly causing trouble for me."
Constantine darkly said, "You always say I don't fit in and keep blaming me for betraying teammates, but it's not like I chose to be a fringe figure in the magical world, at least not at that time."
"But back then, Shazam held the sway. What could I do? Most magical families refused to do business with me, no one would share information when I sought it, and if I didn't want to engage in crooked ways, how could I possibly survive?"
"So being a magician is a must, then?" Xi Wana asked.
Constantine looked puzzledly at Shiller, who shook his head and said, "The headmaster is just a regular person without any magic talent."
Constantine understood and said, "Having magic talent is not a blessing, it's a curse. Having magic talent means the devils like you, and you can't refuse."
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