Dangerous Maneuvers

"Holy... shit!"

Constantine suddenly heard a thunderous roar erupt from his own chest.

Then his vision went black, and through the haze, he saw something dark whoosh past his eyes, whipping up a gust of wind.

"I've hit the jackpot! Get him—!!"

When Constantine opened his eyes again, he saw clearly what had whistled past him. It was a hammerhead glowing blue, something he had once thought was a magic lantern before confirming it was a Chain Hammer. Constantine swore on the lump on his head that it really was a Chain Hammer.

"Wait... Lynn! Don't!"

In the blink of an eye, Constantine finally snapped out of it. Just as Lynn grabbed Kitty and tossed it into the air, preparing to punt the tactical cat into the "crowd," Constantine lunged from behind and wrapped his arms tightly around Lynn's waist. Lynn dragged him across the ground as he ran forward, Constantine's head pressed against Lynn's side.

"Don't! Bro, please, I'm begging you... please be reasonable, man!"

"Meow—!! Lynn! You set me up again!"

As Constantine clung to Lynn's waist, Kitty took advantage of Lynn's weakness to go for his life, unleashing a barrage of Meow-Meow Fists straight at his face.

"Stop, stop, don't hit anymore! If you keep hitting, you'll beat Constantine to death!"

Kitty stopped in confusion and tilted its head at Constantine, whom Lynn had raised in front of himself to serve perfectly as a human shield.

His handsome face had not survived...

Ten minutes later, at the familiar entrance to the town.

Lynn dragged Constantine along while holding his waist, while Kitty followed beside them, cautiously sweet-talking him the whole way. Tears streamed endlessly from Constantine's blackened eye sockets as he kept his head down and trudged onward.

"Bro, stop sulking. I was just trying to liven things up. Look at you—why are you holding it against me?

How about you beat up the cat instead? It can take a beating."

"Meow?!"

"Hey, let go!"

Constantine's physical pain barely affected his mood now. It was the emotional damage that truly made him miserable.

For all these years, Constantine had never suffered this kind of humiliation or endured this kind of hardship.

He had always been the one screwing over his teammates. Why was it that ever since meeting this bastard Lynn, he was the one embarrassing himself every single time?

Whenever he thought of what had happened in town just now, Constantine had the urge to put two hundred curses on Lynn.

I refuse to stoop to his level...

I brought these people here myself...

I'm the senior here. I'm a big shot...

I still need him to help soak up damage...

"Hiss... haa...!"

Only after several deep breaths did Constantine finally suppress his urge to seal Lynn away on the spot. He shoved aside Lynn, who had been reaching into his pocket to fish something out, then scared Kitty back into Lynn's arms with a single look.

"Hiss... haa... Now! From now on! Without my instructions, do not act on your own!

Lynn!"

"Yes!"

"I'm begging you."

"Ah, no need to be so polite. We're fucking bros, aren't we?"

"What? Chinese?"

"No, nothing. You heard wrong."

This time, Constantine gave up on using some grand spectacle to scare Lynn. There might not even be a nerve in this man's brain responsible for processing fear.

To keep Lynn from doing anything else that would make his friends suffer and his enemies rejoice, Constantine decided it would be better to explain everything clearly out here.

At least then, he could die with some peace of mind.

Thus, after Constantine's extremely patient explanation, Lynn finally understood what had happened in the town, as well as the full sequence of events.

As it turned out, Constantine had been wandering the world, reining in demons causing trouble among humanity while collecting—forcefully seizing—dangerous magical artifacts that had been sealed away and were on the verge of losing control.

For Constantine, the latter was the more important task.

About a month ago, Constantine sensed an unexpectedly immense and pure demonic aura. Its location was somewhere between Metropolis and Gotham.

At first, Constantine thought some sealed magical artifact containing demonic power had emerged, because demons with such pure magic usually could not break free from spatial restraints and descend into the human world.

The stronger the demon, the more tightly it was bound by the rules themselves. That was common knowledge.

So Constantine hurriedly set aside what he had been doing and rushed over, hoping to pick up something valuable.

But along the way, Constantine encountered one or two demons in nearly every inhabited place he passed. Some were mindless low-level demons, while others were ordinary demons that had always wanted to wreak havoc in the human world.

Whether they had harmed humans or not, Constantine certainly could not turn a blind eye. They either became his magical artifacts, or he sent them down to Hell or sealed them somewhere.

One problem after another was resolved, but Constantine knew this was not normal.

Thinking back to the aura he had first detected, Constantine concluded that some demon that had been sealed for a long time must have broken free and escaped.

But after a demon of that level broke its seal, it should have gone on a killing spree, with demonic flames towering to the heavens, without the slightest intention of hiding.

Yet reality developed in precisely such an abnormal way.

Constantine waited for several days, but no major incident like that occurred anywhere.

Still, the demons he had personally sealed away were real enough.

Left with no choice, Constantine began searching actively.

Under those circumstances, he found Lynn, who carried a demonic aura. Later, because Lynn's demonic aura was weak and mixed, Constantine assumed Lynn was some unlucky fool who had picked up a shoddy black magic book and abandoned him as a target.

Later... something happened that gave him a headache, and afterward, Constantine resumed his search.

Then he found this place.

"Lynn, there is not a single living thing in this town. Yet you can see that this town still carries the traces of life.

Because during the day, they are wandering souls. At night, they take visible form and pretend to be normal people—working, living—and then turn back into wandering souls when the sun rises.

Over and over again."

Constantine sighed. Rarely, he looked somewhat compassionate, though his bruised, blackened eye sockets greatly diminished the effect.

"I don't know how long this has been going on, but for them, it may be an eternal prison, an eternal torment.

To accomplish something like this, to affect so many people across such a vast area, Lynn, what we may be facing is likely a high-level demon—perhaps even a top-tier demon!

And...

I have reason to suspect that it may be in this town right now. Maybe it has fallen into some kind of slumber. Maybe it is planning some terrifying event. Maybe..."

"Maybe it's holding binoculars and watching us from town from far away.

Look, the light is reflecting onto my face.

Hello, hello~ Nice to meet you~"

A circular spot of light flickered across his face. Lynn raised both hands and waved cheerfully.

P.S. Tomorrow's updates will be a little earlier: one chapter around 3 PM, and another around 6 PM.

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