"Damn it! They're coming up, let's get out of here!"
As he spoke, Constantine started packing and running out. The other two, hearing his anxious tone, were also somewhat panicked. In their eyes, Constantine's magical abilities were their only guarantee of safety. After all, those searching for them were all armed, while they were unarmed. If they were caught, the consequences would be unimaginable.
Constantine led them out, through the seventh-floor corridor, and into an vacant room at the end. The distance of this room from the other side's staircase exit gave them a chance to stop and discuss a plan.
Meanwhile, the ghost released by Constantine didn't flock to the crowd downstairs but floated aimlessly along the sixth-floor corridor. Upon reaching the window at the end of the corridor, it drifted out and descended to the first floor.
Batman, who was on the first floor searching for the Joker, suddenly noticed a green light behind him. He turned sharply, throwing a few Batman darts at the sight of the ghost.
The Batman darts passed through the ghost's body. Batman kept his cool, pulling out a small flash bomb and throwing it at the ghost. After a burst of white light, the ghost didn't retreat but slowly transformed into Constantine, glowing with a faint red light.
"Don't shoot! This is my Ash Avatar. Listen, there are two idiots I can't describe well enough. They want to escape from here and have provoked a mob riot. We're currently hiding in the room at the southeast end of the seventh-floor corridor. You'd better hurry up and get them out of here. They're driving me mad!"
Before Batman could respond, the avatar disappeared, and Constantine, who was still in the room, suddenly lost color in his face, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. He started coughing up blood, then vomiting foul muck.
In between bouts of vomiting, he struggled to say, "My ghost has been killed again, and I've suffered a magical backlash. Quick! Get me out of here!"
When he finished speaking, Hugo sneaked up behind him, picked up a vase from a table, and struck him hard at the back of the neck.
With a crash, Constantine lay motionless on the floor. Hugo discarded the remains of the vase and said to Jonathan, "No more magician tricks. Let's get out of here."
Jonathan glanced at the unconscious Constantine on the floor, expressed no hesitation, and followed Hugo out of the room. They ran downstairs.
Not long after they left, the door was kicked open, and a mob rushed in.
Seeing the person sprawled out on the floor, they instinctively wanted to shoot. At this moment, Constantine moved. He crawled out of the pile of filth and held up his hands. "Don't shoot! It's me!"
"Constantine?" The mob leader, a fisherman, recognized him. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm just a mental patient. I'm here for treatment."
"Stop bullshitting, how much did you indulge again?" It was clear that the fisherman was familiar with Constantine's habits. Feeling the scrutiny, Constantine cleared his throat, wiping off the filth around his lips. "Not much...just maxed out my painkiller dosage, then went to sleep, that's all."
The fisherman slowly holstered his weapon and motioned to his gang, "Let's go, don't bother with him."
"Could he be the one who made the mischief?" Someone from the behind asked.
The fisherman turned his gaze back to Constantine, who gave him a toothy grin.
With a scoff, the fisherman said, "He's a junkie who overdosed. Not even the druggies in the East district will accept him. Forget about him, let's go."
As they left, Constantine conjured a cleaning spell for himself and the floor, then summoned a green ghost to monitor the gang's movements downstairs.
Constantine himself began to stroll downstairs with his hands in his pockets, humming a tune. Just as he was turning the corner onto another stairwell, he felt something hard pressed against his back.
Alfred appeared out of the shadows. Constantine slowly raised his hands saying, "Don't shoot, I can explain."
"Batman and I have absolutely no illicit relations. He doesn't like men, and he's a germaphobe. I admit, I've tried a few times, but he never fell for it. I promise to keep a distance from him and never mention that I'm English again."
Constantine ran through all his explanations. In the moment that Alfred was stunned, the Constantine in front of him turned into ash, slowly falling onto the ground.
In a shadowy corner of the first floor, the incandescent Constantine Avatar solidified. With the successful diversion, Constantine takes a sigh of relief about to leave, when he heard a sharp whizzing sound behind him. Instinctively, he dodged to the side, but was still grazed by a sharp dagger on his back.