A few cats gathered together to discuss a plan; If Constantine's intent to summon demons was in the real world, none of them would possibly agree.
Apart from Clark, who believes demons are nothing good, the others think the risk is too high because once a demon is summoned, it could cause significant damage to the real world.
But this is Dreamworld, there's no danger of damaging the real world, yet the other cats are still a bit hesitant. Victor, with a frown, asks: "What can be proven by summoning a demon?"
"Theoretically speaking, Dream God Morpheus's status ranks above all demons. Or rather, it's not about status, it's more that any dreaming, intelligent creature can't possess authority exceeding that of the Dream God in Dreamworld."
"Generally speaking, demons wouldn't come to this place for two reasons. One, the Dream God wouldn't allow it, and two, this place is also dangerous for them. If they come here and the Dream God doesn't let them go, aren't they done for?"
"So, if I summon demons here, two things can be verified. If a demon responds to the summoning, it means they're stupid, and I can use them as a reserve when I go back to the real world."
"If they respond to the summoning, and successfully come over, it means that the Dream God's condition might not be too good, and the loss of control over the dream of a thousand cats was not an accident."
"If a demon responds but can't come over, it suggests that the Dream God's position is not vacant, meaning Shiller might be safe. We can play it by ear without having to find him urgently."
"What if no demon responds at all?" Victor asks.
"Generally, that's not an issue. As long as I'm summoning demons, they'll all have to line up." Constantine playfully scraped at the stones in front of him with his claws and said nonchalantly: "My stance in Hell isn't low."
"Now, my soul is in a foreign dream, meaning they don't necessarily need to control my body to claim my soul. If they take me back to Hell from here, my soul will belong to them, regardless of the type of devil or demon, they will be very interested."
"You guys probably don't know this, but even to take an ordinary person's soul, demons must make a pact with them or use some crooked methods. Directly invading Earth is not feasible."
"As for someone like me, a magician, they would have to pay a substantial price to fight me in the real world, but it's a different story in dreams. The mental strength of any demon is always higher than that of humans, and they are well aware of that."
"They will see this as my flaw and eagerly want to divide up my soul. So, as long as I release the news, my summoning formation will be swamped."
"But that's unacceptable too." Clark started: "Won't you be in danger? Doesn't a demon's sacrifice require a sacrifice of a soul or something? This sounds like..."
Victor nudged Clark with his shoulder and said, "If I recall correctly, the guy standing in front of you has summoned demons hundreds of times. Isn't his soul still intact?"
"How do you do it?" Clark asked incredulously, raising his voice: "You didn't give someone else's soul..."
"Of course not. The souls of ordinary people are not as tempting as my own soul. With the souls of ordinary people, you can't invite any strong guys. I can do it simply because I said I would sacrifice my own soul, but that's to trick them..."
"You..." Clark was about to say that lying is wrong, but he thought about it, Constantine was tricking demons, and tricking demons didn't seem quite right. So, he hesitated and didn't speak again.
"Another advantage is that if I really summon demons here, we can totally use their power to deal with Bat Cat. If nothing else, it wouldn't be hard to paralyze all the surveillance and weapons on the ground. Even the weakest kind of demon can cause chaos in the city and divert Bat Cat's attention."
Next, Batman and Victor asked about some details, such as the difficulty of setting up a formation, and the issues of communication after the demon arrives. After discussing for a while, they all agreed that this plan was worth a try. It was very important to confirm the status of the Dream God. This would determine whether their subsequent battle style would be aggressive or steady.
Once the plan was confirmed, they started to implement it. Constantine's excellent professional skills meant that he didn't need to spend a lot of time finding complex materials to set up the magic formation.
As he put it, most of the chaotic summoning ceremonies and formations invented by humans are useless. If a demon is interested in your soul, you don't need to call it, it'll give you harassing calls every day.
Constantine was setting up stones into a weird pattern and said, "That's the way with magic. If you can use it, you know everything. If you can't use it, you'll be useless even if you've studied all the books."
"Was magic something that you are born with?" Batman asked while he stood on the side watching.
"Maybe, but when I found out that I could use magic, I didn't need anyone to instruct me and I didn't read any books. I learned these forbidden knowledge, but at the same time..." Constantine paused in his movements, he seemed to have lots of stories to tell, but he ended up not saying anything.
Constantine fiddled with the lion for a long time, then fetched some sewer water, and finally formed a strange shape. It didn't look like a formation but was more like a childish pattern from a child's playhouse.
"Alright, that's it." Constantine stomped his paw on the ground, and Victor walked over to look at the pattern, "Are you sure this is enough? It does seem a bit sloppy."
"You don't understand, the essence of summoning a demon is not relying on this, it's just to let the incoming demons know that I've put in the effort to set up a formation, but the materials were limited, I've done my best." Constantine didn't care.
The others were speechless. It turned out this wasn't a functional formation, but an ornamental one, used to fool the demons. But given how it was set up, won't the incoming demons feel insulted?
Regardless, Constantine is the only expert in magic. The others have little understanding of this field. As long as Constantine says it's ok, then it's ok.
Constantine chanted a spell and cut the side of his palm with one of his claws. This produced a small drop of blood which he placed in the center of the array.
He assigned different cats to different stones' positions and had them perform a variety of poses. After a series of adjustments, the drop of blood at the center of the array started to glow.
However, despite the glow, no demon appeared. Constantine instructed the cats to halt and went forward to examine the array.
While inspecting the array, a puzzled look crossed Constantine's face before his eyes lit up. He was planning to rearrange the stones when the whole array suddenly illuminated.
A viscous black sludge started to form and took the shape of a massive demon, with flaming eyes, sharp claws, and... cat ears?
Constantine stood there stunned and said, "Uh, hello, Cat Demon I haven't seen before ... or should I say, Demon Cat? You …"
Before Constantine could finish his words, the cat-shaped demon released a howl, asking,"What is your reason for summoning me?"
"Don't you know me?" Constantine responded. The Demon Cat appeared stunned. He hadn't expected the first question from the summoner to be this.
At this moment, Constantine, who was closest to the array, smelled a strange odor. Unable to place the scent, which was rather unpleasant, he leaned in for a better whiff but the Demon Cat vanished in a blink, leaving the other cats startled.
After a short silence, Constantine spoke, "Something feels off here, doesn't it?"
"True," agreed Batman, adding, "You said this array was merely a decorative piece but why did the stones start to light up in a certain sequence?"
"I'm quite sure that it is just decoration. How could these ordinary stones have any magical conductivity? They aren't any kind of enchanted material. How did they glow?" Stanton walked into the center of the Array, carefully examining every stone. But he found nothing unusual; they were just ordinary stones that could be found scattered around in the sewer.
Constantine and Batman exchanged a glance, both refraining from speaking. Batman turned around and told the others, "You guys rest up. I need to do some investigating."
"Aren't you going to rest too?" Clark asked. "Though I'm not very tired myself, we have work to do tomorrow."
"Don't forget; the night is my domain," said Batman before leaving into the dark.
A voice echoed behind him, "But…where are you going? What will you investigate?"
Batman's voice faded into the night as he responded, "…the murder case that happened at the bank."
After Batman's departure, Clark asked, puzzled, "Why is he so interested in that particular case?"
"Oh, I don't mean we should ignore the murder case, it's just… aren't there more serious problems at hand than that case?" wondered Clark.
Unlike Clark's naive thinking, Victor considered the various anomalies and imagined some problems. Subsequently, he said, "I'll go and chat with the Freeze Cat. Maybe he'll have an interesting topic of conversation."
After stating his intention, he turned to leave. Constantine swung his tail, saying, "I'll stay here and examine the array. Go get some rest."
"How can I rest while you guys busy yourselves like this?" sighed Clark, "Is there anything I can do? I'd like to help."
Constantine looked up at him, saying, "Go outside and find the Crocodile Cat. He might have some repair work that you could assist with."
"But I meant more useful work."
"There's no such thing as useless work, Clark. It's not solely your superpower that gets jobs done. You need to clear your mind."
"Really? Alright then." Clark nodded, appearing to understand.
After about ten minutes, the Crocodile Cat was left in awe, watching as Clark flew into the air and retrieved the tire he'd asked for.
"Oh my gosh! You! How can you... how can you fly???"
"Your exoskeleton... No, that's not. Even an exoskeleton can't facilitate such agile flying. That's like… technology even Bat Cat doesn't have..."
"Well, it's alright, I guess." Clark modestly laughed, went over, and nudged the Crocodile Cat, finding it genuinely comforting to rub fur with other cats.
What he didn't see was a green cat slowly closing its eyes in the dark alleyway behind the Crocodile Cat.