American Comics: Godhood Unlocked, I Choose Sci-Magic Dual Cultivation

Batman's guess was correct. In the "Newcastle Incident," Constantine had indeed been the primary culprit.

At the time, he had only just learned a little magic when he tried to use it to help a little girl imprisoned by an evil magical cult escape.

The cult intended to sacrifice the girl to summon a demon.

Constantine used his own dark magic to summon a demon ahead of them.

Did that sound absurd?

That was because Constantine believed that only a demon could defeat another demon, so he had chosen to fight poison with poison.

And, unsurprisingly, he caused a disaster.

Because he had not placed a binding spell on the demon, the summoned demon went on a killing spree at the Playboy nightclub.

Other than Constantine and his childhood friend Chas, no one at the scene survived.

Even the little girl they had originally decided to save was ultimately dragged into Hell by the demon.

That was the first time Constantine understood his own helplessness. He paid the price for his arrogance.

For the first time, he understood that magic was a miracle that could only be performed at a terrible cost.

The scattered limbs and mangled corpses throughout that nightclub, along with the little girl's scream before she fell into Hell, became a nightmare Constantine could never shake.

After tearing open the bloody secret in his heart and showing it to Batman, Constantine instead calmed down.

He lit a cigarette for himself and took a deep drag.

"After that day, I came to understand something too. Trash like me might just be born to deal with dark magic and demons."

"So when I run into thorny problems, I'm more willing to borrow their power. I understand your concerns, because I'm the same way."

"If you aren't planning to help me, then using my own methods, I can't say I won't end up causing another huge mess."

After hearing the story, Batman pondered for a while, then pressed a button on the aircraft.

The cigarette Constantine had not even finished was sucked away in the blink of an eye by a device like an extractor fan, disappearing who knew where.

"No smoking here," Batman said.

At the same time, Dane, who was at JLA Tower, received Batman's request for help through Cortana.

"Looks like our magical consultant has run into a little trouble."

He opened the file Batman had sent and read it for a while, gaining a rough understanding of the situation.

The plot of "Constantine: City of Demons" had begun. With Batman's abilities, he really could not handle it.

In the story, Los Angeles was targeted by demons, who intended to turn it into part of Hell.

This was also an attempt by the Hell dimension to use it as a foothold in the real world.

However, six demons wanted to become Hell's agents in the human world at the same time, so internal conflict broke out among them.

The demon entangled with Constantine intended to use him to drive out the other five competitors and monopolize Los Angeles.

Dane remembered that Constantine had ultimately used a scheme of letting the tiger devour the wolf.

He summoned a primitive indigenous god to eliminate the five demons, then banished that god as well.

Finally, he used Chas and Renee's love for their child to kill the last demon.

That was one hell of a borrowed knife and a free ride, though the ending was not exactly happy.

The final battle exhausted Renee and her daughter's love for Chas, causing the mother and daughter to no longer recognize him as their husband and father.

Because that love was not enough, Constantine also sacrificed the friendship between himself and his childhood friend.

As a result, Chas lost all memories of having lived with Constantine.

Well, that last part might not have been such a bad thing.

Dane rubbed his chin. He remembered that the Spirit of Los Angeles had appeared in that movie. That was quite a rare thing.

To this day, he had never witnessed a City Spirit in any city.

With a City Spirit's cooperation, there would be much more room to work with in magical arrangements.

In the movie, the Spirit of Los Angeles had ultimately been so helpless against the demons that it had even considered allowing them to set up a Hell ritual in Los Angeles.

Dane had recently been thinking of making a move on Kandahar. If he could contact the Spirit of Kandahar and reach an agreement with it—

Then, in a magical sense, the entire country would belong completely to him.

He could even rule over the lives and souls of the people of Kandahar, becoming a true god with authority!

So, whether for public or private reasons, Dane immediately agreed to Batman's request for help. He planned to personally meet that City Spirit.

This time, he did not plan to use a Portal, nor did he plan to fly there.

Unlike his previous opponents, most great demons daring enough to meddle in the human world knew some dark magic. Using magic would make it easy for them to notice him.

Besides, if the Spirit of Los Angeles thought Dane could solve the problem directly and chose not to appear, he would suffer a huge loss.

"Cortana, prepare a plane for me."

"Understood, Dane."

With Umbrella's technology and Pioneer Technology's money-making methods, his private jet was no worse than Hawkman's Nth Metal aircraft. He simply rarely had any use for it.

"Trouble?"

At that moment, Diana entered in casual clothes. She was wearing the white dress from her first appearance in "BVS," and Dane walked over to greet her.

"Weren't you supposed to be working today?"

Diana had not quit her museum job, so aside from holidays, she still had to go to work as usual.

"I just got off work. I heard Cortana's report. Do you need my help?"

Though Diana was asking a question, she was clearly eager to get involved.

Something stirred in him. Diana was decked out in divine artifacts, and fighting demons was right in her wheelhouse!

"You understand the situation?"

She nodded. "Cortana told me about it. We're dealing with demons this time."

"That's right. This time, I plan to wipe out all of their forces in the human world."

"So we can't alert them yet. We'll go as ordinary people."

The Demon "Belial"

Los Angeles.

Batman flew the aircraft near the target location. It was a very secluded Manor.

Several thousand meters above the ground, he brought the Bat aircraft to a hover.

"Wait, why are we stopping here?"

Constantine began unfastening his seat belt when he saw Batman doing the same, and panic rose in his heart.

"We're getting out here," Batman said calmly.

"What?" Constantine stared at him in shock.

"What? Do you see a landing pad down there?"

"No, but..."

Batman did not listen to what he had to say. He simply strapped a parachute pack onto him, then opened the cabin door.

The wind pressure instantly shoved Constantine's impending curse back down his throat.

After adapting to it for a moment, he shouted at the top of his lungs.

"I'm saying, shouldn't we get some kind of training first?"

Batman thought that made sense, so he kept it brief.

"Jump, then press it at the right time." As he spoke, he gestured toward the button on Constantine's parachute pack.

"That's it?" Constantine was dumbfounded.

The corner of Batman's mouth lifted slightly, and then he gave him a hard shove.

Constantine fell out of the cabin, flipping Batman off with one hand while cursing with the other.

"Fuck. You, Batman!"

Batman was not wearing a parachute. He simply jumped after Constantine.

When Constantine noticed, he cursed the man for being insane.

But Batman spread his cape, which unfurled like wings and transformed into a glider in the blink of an eye.

Air resistance immediately slowed his descent, and he truly descended slowly like a massive bat.

Constantine had no idea when he was supposed to deploy the parachute, but when he could not resist pressing the button Batman had shown him, nothing happened.

He immediately began cursing again. What kind of shitty teammate was this? Was Batman trying to get him killed?

Just as he hesitated over whether to use magic, the parachute suddenly opened while he was still a kilometer above the ground.

Constantine felt as though his ribs were about to be crushed, but at least he landed safely in the end.

"Are you fucking insane? This parachute is broken!"

The moment he landed, Constantine furiously tugged at the parachute straps on his body, but could not get them undone no matter how hard he tried.

Batman landed easily as well and picked up Constantine's words. "It is functioning normally."

"What did you say..." Before Constantine could finish, he saw Batman tap the display on his wrist.

With a bang, the parachute cords he had been unable to undo suddenly snapped apart all at once.

Only then did Constantine understand. The parachute's release switch had been in Batman's hands all along.

Batman turned his head and looked at him expressionlessly. "I said it is functioning normally."

"I. Hate. You!" Constantine's face darkened.

"Let's go. Don't keep our hosts waiting."

Batman and Constantine walked forward a short distance before seeing the enormous Manor.

"1247 Enstrom Street."

That address was written on the pillar beside the Manor gate.

Batman studied the address for a moment, deep in thought.

"A design with ulterior motives, right?" Constantine sneered.

Enstrom. Rearrange the letters in that name, and it became Monster.

The owner of this place had made no attempt to hide it.

They walked in and knocked on the front door of the residence.

In situations like this, Batman would usually infiltrate directly.

But considering that the people inside were all demons, and some might know dark magic, he did not make the decision on his own.

This time, Constantine was the lead.

The door opened quickly. The one who answered it was a pig-headed man in a suit.

Not like Gotham's Professor Pigface. This was a real "pig-man."

Batman had already prepared himself mentally. Even if this pig-headed man could speak, he would remain unfazed.

The pig-man revealed a humanlike, sinister grin. "Welcome."

It looked Batman over. Could this person be some family's new demon?

It sniffed deeply, revealing an intoxicated expression. "What a fragrant soul aura!"

Batman's arm beneath his cape began to transform, forming a spike. His suit had also been upgraded with nanotechnology.

He was confident he could kill this pig-man the moment they came to blows.

But the pig-man merely showed a regretful expression, then stepped aside and opened the door.