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

"Come in."

Any humans who entered the Manor's grounds belonged to its master. No matter how much the pig-headed man craved them, it did not dare hunt them without permission.

The interior was spacious, but it looked like a long-abandoned haunted house.

The first thing the two men saw upon entering was a massive oil painting hanging in the center of the hall.

It depicted all kinds of demons amusing themselves by torturing and slaughtering humans in countless ways. It was enough to make one nauseous.

The pig-headed man leaned in. "Lord Belial will be down soon. Stay here."

With that, it turned and left.

Unfortunately, neither of them was the type to follow the rules, so they quickly began looking around.

Beside the painting in the hall, they found a side door.

"I think you'd better stay here," Constantine warned kindly.

But Batman did not appreciate the advice. He merely looked at him.

Constantine could only shrug helplessly. "Fine. Stay close."

With that, he walked forward, while Batman, following close behind, melted into the shadows.

At the end of the passage was a vast space. In the center lay an enormous rectangular pit like a swimming pool, filled with naked human corpses.

A few carrion flies drifted over the sea of bodies, while the stench of rotting flesh rushed at them.

Constantine covered his mouth in shock, nearly vomiting.

"I thought you would have gotten used to scenes like this by now."

Upon hearing the unfamiliar voice, Constantine's first reaction was not to look toward its source, but behind himself.

Batman was no longer there, and he relaxed slightly.

Only then did he turn to face the speaker—or rather, the demon.

It was enormous and bloated, with yellow lamp-like eyes, rough, foul-smelling skin, and countless stitch marks across its face and body. It looked like a monster assembled and sewn together from chunks of corpses.

"Belial?"

"That's right. It's me."

"You deliberately lured me here by using Tracy?"

"Very clever. Someone like you would never show yourself voluntarily unless something extremely urgent and dangerous was troubling you."

"Mr. Chandler is one of the few people you still care about. I knew you couldn't refuse an old friend's request."

Chandler was Chas's surname.

Everything was clear now. Tracy had been a trap Belial set to lure Constantine here.

As for why it had gone to so much trouble, it was because it was extremely difficult for demons from Hell to manifest in the human world.

The dimension of reality was bound by a powerful law.

Unless humans on this side actively summoned them, demons could not reveal their true forms.

The Nightmare Nurse was different. It was a life-form symbiotic with humans, so it could travel between the realms of the living and the dead like an exorcist.

Belial was also constrained by that powerful law. Only within this Manor could it use demonic power, and even then, it was far from its full strength.

Unable to leave the Manor in the flesh, Belial could only use nightmare dark magic to seize human souls. That was probably how it had captured Tracy.

Belial introduced Constantine to its blueprint for Hell. It wanted to open a chain of Hell franchises in the human world.

Those who yearned to sell their souls for fame and fortune could come here to make deals with demons.

In Hell, fallen souls were hard currency.

Demons were even willing to repeatedly torture a human body just to obtain a soul filled with negative energy.

"Where did you hide Tracy?"

Belial giggled and patted the area over its heart.

"She's right in my heart!"

"John Constantine, there are still five tiny obstacles standing in the way of my grand blueprint for Hell. I need you to eliminate them."

"Let me guess. Other competitors?"

"That's what I like about you—you're smart. Help me eliminate my rivals, and I'll return that poor little girl to you. How about it?"

Belial placed a hand on Constantine's shoulder and revealed an unpleasant smile.

Constantine slapped its hand away with a dark expression.

"I'll do it. When it's over, you give me Tracy's soul, and we're even."

Belial shrugged and said nothing.

Meanwhile, Batman had already infiltrated the interior of the house. He saw the evil within it, and...

Blasphemy!

Sin and Blasphemy

Inside, it looked like a party, but it was gloomy and horrifying, without a trace of the joy that belonged at a human gathering.

The attendants were faceless demons with their brains exposed. They wore nothing at all except ridiculous bow ties around their necks.

The trays in their hands held human heads frozen in expressions of terror.

Their skullcaps had been removed, exposing the brains and blood within, with several bloodshot eyeballs arranged as garnish.

Some impatient demons gnawed on human corpses that had been tortured beyond recognition in the corners.

Some demons were even doing unspeakable things to the bodies...

Along the pillars on both sides of the hall, humans were nailed up in the pose of Jesus's crucifixion, barely alive and too weak even to scream.

Some demons in suits held whips, lashing well-dressed humans and forcing them to dance to the music from the stage.

On the stage, strange-looking demons played all kinds of music.

Their instruments were pieced together from human bodies, and those humans were still alive in agony.

Seeing this, Batman felt that even Dante's depiction of Hell had been restrained.

He was stunned by everything before him. This was the first time Batman had witnessed the darkness of Hell.

At the same time, he made up his mind. He absolutely could not allow these demons to run wild in the city!

Just then, the ballroom doors opened, and a huge, ugly demon entered with Constantine.

Batman spotted them and put a small respirator over his mouth.

Belial was about to introduce Constantine to its Hell party when a grenade exploded on the floor.

Smoke rapidly spread through the hall.

"Who dares!"

Belial instinctively covered its face, but quickly came to its senses.

It was a demon. Why should it fear such a trivial thing?

With a wave of its huge hand, a fierce wind scattered the smoke, but Constantine had already disappeared.

Belial's yellow eyes darkened. But the Manor was its territory, and it had absolute control over this place.

It soon discovered Constantine standing with someone dressed entirely in black.

"You little pests, where do you think you can run?"

Batman led Constantine toward the doors.

"Have you figured out the key to this?"

"Of course. By the way, when did you leave?"

"That doesn't matter. We need to get out of this damn place. Fighting here is too disadvantageous for us."

"Huh? You were actually considering fighting them? I think we'll be lucky just to escape."

Just as the two were about to reach the doors, Belial suddenly appeared in their path.

"Why are you in such a hurry to leave? Hmm?"

Belial's nose suddenly twitched. It turned its gaze toward Batman and took a deep sniff.

"Ah~ What an intoxicating scent. Your soul is special. Very special~"

Like the pig-headed man, Belial displayed an unusual craving for Batman's soul.

Belial extended its long tongue and stared at Batman greedily.

Batman did not foolishly rush forward to fight. Anyone could tell that would be pointless.

"Do you have any other tricks?"

Constantine stared at Belial with a grave expression, thinking over what magic he could use against it.

"Yes." Batman raised his head.

"What..." Constantine had just started to ask when he saw the Batwing outside the glass window.

A three-barreled weapon mount extended from beneath the aircraft.

Holy shit!

Constantine immediately dropped to the floor. The next instant, gunfire louder and denser than a Gatling gun roared over his scalp.

Belial's body was instantly torn to pieces by the bullets fired from the Vulcan Cannon. Inside were organs and tissues just like those of a human.

Constantine stared at the sight in shock, then Batman effortlessly hauled him up with one hand.

With his other hand aimed at the Batwing, Batman fired a small arrow trailing a thin cord from his wrist.

The grappling line caught the aircraft's wing, and the Batwing, in autopilot mode, rapidly climbed into the air.

It carried Batman and Constantine away from the Manor.

Inside the hall, Belial's body, which had been reduced to a puddle of flesh and blood, suddenly gathered itself back together as if time were reversing.

A few seconds later, it had returned to its previous ugly form.

But the shattered house and the demons killed in the blast were dead for good.

Although it had just been killed once, Belial was not angry. Instead, it watched the Batwing's retreating direction with great interest.

"Interesting."

On the aircraft, Constantine roared at Batman.

"Are you insane?"

"Tracy's soul is inside that thing! If it dies, Tracy dies too!"

Batman was calm to the point of coldness.

"We cannot allow the demons in that Manor to leave that place, no matter the cost!"

Constantine suddenly turned to glare at him.

"You knew, didn't you? You knew Tracy was inside its body!"

Batman did not answer, but that was answer enough.

Before leaving Constantine to act alone, he had planted a listening device on him.

So Batman had heard every word of the conversation between him and Belial.

It was regrettable. Batman was agonized by it too.

But he had to make a choice. Between one person and the whole city, he could only choose the city.

"You. Son. Of. A. Bitch!"

Constantine flew into a rage and punched Batman.