In The DC World With Marvel Chat Group

Chapter 301: Three Detectives (5)

In the next two minutes, Constantine self-indulgently described the beginning of his one-night stand with Morpheus, although most of the vocabulary was manually censored by Schiller. Constantine continued, "But just as we were about to, uh, get busy, trouble found me..."

"You know, I have a wide circle of friends and I'm a generous person. I have friends in both heaven and hell. Sometimes, they get too enthusiastic and impatient when they need me, and they can't wait even for a moment..."

"Originally, things were getting hot between me and little Mox, but then an impolite fellow showed up at that very moment. He was in a hurry, and I had to come up with a plan. I woke up to deal with him..."

Constantine wore a helpless expression and said, "You know, it's really impolite to leave suddenly at such a crucial moment. I abandoned such a beautiful and passionate lover. Oh my..."

Schiller glanced at his watch and said, "It has already been ten minutes, and you still haven't gotten to the point."

"It's coming soon..." Constantine took another drag from his cigarette and said, "Probably... I forgot how many days ago it was. The dreamweaver I collaborated with before to travel to the Dreamrealm suddenly told me that he needed to go on a trip and stay in the Dreamrealm for a few days. He asked me to take care of his body."

"As his friend, I naturally couldn't refuse. But I asked him why he was going and he said there's a madman who messed up the Dream God's realm. As a believer, he had to help his deity clean up the mess."

"He said the Dream God told him that there was a 'professor' who created a 'madness potion' that could draw people's consciousness into the dream space. That's how he pulled a madman's consciousness into his dream and let him dig deeper until he entered the Dreamrealm, where he could wreak havoc."

"I was very interested in this because our last date, the Dream God and I, was interrupted. It was a very regrettable thing that always lingered in my mind and kept me awake at night."

"I had been praying in my dreams for the beautiful Dream God to appear again and meet me, but he never came, and as a mortal, I had no way of entering the Dreamrealm on my own."

"When I heard about this 'professor' who created a potion that could make people sink into the Dreamrealm, of course, I wanted to get my hands on this magical madness potion..."

"The dreamweaver told me that the entrance for that madman is located in Gotham, so I planned to come here and have a look. But I'm not a local in Gotham, and I didn't want to visit recklessly, so I contacted one of my colleagues, Lorena Sanchez..."

"What I said about her is true. She's a ghost mom who specializes in using children's souls for cultivation. Gang leader Cooper hired her to resurrect his son. Cooper gave her a large sum of money and assigned her as the headmaster of a boarding school."

"People in the circle all know that resurrection is nonsense, and Lorena knows that too. She's just out to swindle money."

"But she also knows that this lie can't be maintained forever. She set up various difficult conditions, but Cooper fulfilled all of them. She demanded an exorbitant reward, and Cooper gave it to her."...

"In the end, Lorena started to fear that she couldn't escape from this scam unharmed. After all, Cooper is one of Gotham's most famous gang leaders. He's wealthy, powerful, and ruthless."

"At this time, I contacted her, and Lorena saw me as a savior because she knew I had a good relationship with the demons in hell. She proposed some conditions and wanted me to fetch someone from hell."

"I agreed to help her, but I asked her to pay the bill first. I asked her to help me investigate a person called the 'professor' in Gotham and provide me with his complete background and materials."

"Lorena had been in Gotham for a long time and had dealings with these gang leaders. Soon, she told me that the family tutor of The Godfather's son was a psychology professor at Gotham University. This professor had quite an astonishing background, and perhaps he was the person I was looking for..."

"Yes, I saw your background, Professor Schiller. Because some of the information on your background was indeed astonishing, I don't intend to confront you directly. You should know that I'm a peace-loving person. I'm just here to steal things, not to kill..."

"So, I planned to lure you out and then search your manor."

"And then?" Gordon suddenly had a hunch and asked Constantine, "You're not..."

"I saw on Professor Schiller's background that he's very keen on investigating serial murder cases. So, I thought if I created a serial murder case, he would probably go to investigate. Surveying the scene would take at least a few hours, which would be enough time for me to search his manor."

"But I also knew that if a small-time person died, the police might not come. So, I chose one of the heads of the Twelve Families, a guy named Lawrence."

"I hadn't done something like this before, but I had read some reports and knew what those serial killers liked to do. I tried to mimic their methods as much as possible..."

As he told the story, the walls of the mental hospital extended, and the space of another room appeared on the right side of the room. A bed descended from above, and Lawrence lay on it. Another Constantine stood up from the chair and walked to the bedside.

Standing beside the bed, Constantine conjured a magic circle in his hand. However, he suddenly clenched his fist, extinguishing the magic's radiance. He muttered to himself, "No, can't use magic..."

Then, he disappeared. After a while, he returned holding a damp towel. He uncovered Lawrence's blanket, grabbed his neck, and before he could scream or struggle, Constantine pressed the cloth soaked with anesthetic over his mouth and nose. Soon, Lawrence went silent.

He took out a sedative from his pocket and injected it into Lawrence's neck. Then he dragged him off the bed and faced him on the floor. Constantine scratched his hair and said, "Alright, let me see... nailing him to a cross. But where can I find such a big cross? Should I go steal one from a church?"

"...Forget it, it's just an imitation."

As he spoke, his figure disappeared again. After a while, he returned with some long nails in his hand and began inserting them into Lawrence's body...

The intense pain woke Lawrence up, but Constantine showed no intention of stopping his actions. He continued until he pierced a long nail through Lawrence's head. He then patted his hands and said, "That should do it, right?"

"Hold on, something is missing..." Constantine arranged Lawrence's arms in a straight line and brought his feet together, facing the window, forming a cross shape. He continued, "Alright, now the religious factor should be strong enough, right?"

Then, the room disappeared, and Batman squinted his eyes and asked Constantine, "So, did you kill Hawk too?"

Constantine shook his head and said somewhat helplessly, "I know a series of cases can't be called a serial murder case, so I had to create another one. But just as I was about to take action, I heard that a gang leader named Hawk died, followed by a guy named Richie. I didn't know what was going on, so I didn't make a move."

"You didn't kill Hawk and Richie?"

Constantine shook his head and said, "I already told you I killed Lawrence. There's no need to deceive you about the rest."

"And then?"

"But I didn't expect that even three consecutive murders wouldn't bring Professor Schiller here to investigate. I didn't understand why, so I carefully read his file again..."

"Then I realized that this professor seems to be very picky. He only likes to get involved in extremely bizarre murder cases..."

Constantine took another drag from his cigarette and flicked the cigarette butt away before continuing, "In that case in Coast City, the killer liked to peel off people's skin and leave a living person struggling in the same spot until he saw the police come to save him, then he would detonate a bomb to kill him..."

"There are many similar cases, and the commonality is that the killer's methods are very strange, and the victims often meet a gruesome fate."

"So, I understood that it was because the crime scenes I created weren't gruesome enough to capture the professor's interest, so he didn't come."

"Although I don't know how those two gang leaders died, it didn't stop me from finding another target..."

"Just at that time, Lorena recommended me to Cooper. It was like a gift delivered to my doorstep. Why would I let it go?"

"I used some tricks of magic to gain Cooper's trust. He told me that Lorena had given him some methods to control children, and he could exploit the children in Gotham to make a fortune and provide it to Lorena to resurrect her son."

"I told him my method was different from Lorena's. I wanted to make a deal with a demon. I told him I could pay the price for the deal, but he would have to give me a large sum of money afterward. Cooper agreed."

"We performed a ritual in his meeting room. I drew a magic circle in the middle of the floor. Of course, Cooper only had a superficial understanding of occult knowledge, or else he would have noticed that it was a summoning circle for demons"...

"I summoned a demon, and the sacrificial offering happened to be Cooper himself. The power of that demon crushed him instantly and partially devoured his body."

"After offering the sacrifice, I could negotiate the conditions with the demon. The condition, of course, couldn't be to resurrect Cooper's son since Cooper was already dead. Who would bother coming after me?"

"I had the demon create an ash clone for me. It's a common thing in hell, a kind of illusion. I can actually create one myself, but it's a bit troublesome. Since there was a ready-made sacrifice, I let the demon do it for me."

"That's why you turned into a pile of ashes in that basement?" Gordon asked.

"Yes, that was just one of my clones."

"Since I already investigated the scene of Cooper's death, why did you go through the trouble of creating a clone?"

"Because of your astonishing background. When I read it in detail, I realized you might not be as easy to deal with as I imagined. It would be risky to infiltrate your Manor, so I had to keep you as far away as possible and delay as much time as possible."

"What about the part in the boarding school?"

"Well, the trap-like room, the key administrator who led the way, the ghosts and Mrs. Sanchez in the corridor, they were all my doing. As for my purpose..."

Constantine turned his head up and looked at Schiller.

"You want to get rid of me, don't you?"

"I think it makes sense." Constantine looked into Schiller's eyes and said, "After looking at your resume, I believe it would be doing the public a favor to get rid of you. Don't tell me a normal person would constantly pursue these horrible cases and enjoy it..."

"Tell me about the specific process."

"Because I didn't know if you had any knowledge of mysticism, I set up a series of traps."

As he finished speaking, the group arrived at the entrance of the boarding school once again. Another Constantine walked through the main gate of the boarding school and entered Mrs. Sanchez's office, where there was another man besides Mrs. Sanchez.

"Hold on," Gordon paused the scene and said, "Who is that? Who is the man?"

"He should be Mrs. Sanchez's lover or something like that. I don't know, but they should have a close relationship," Constantine said.

Schiller continued to ask, "He should be the dead body in that room, right?"

Constantine nodded, and the scene continued to play. Constantine and Mrs. Sanchez were engaged in a heated argument that quickly escalated into a fight.

The man and Mrs. Sanchez joined forces to confront Constantine, but it was evident that Constantine was superior to them. He held a black book and summoned a small magic circle. The flames of sacrifice engulfed the man, burning him into a corpse.

Mrs. Sanchez erupted into a furious roar, but she also knew she was no match for Constantine. So she started to flee towards her own altar, intending to use the power of the demon to deal with Constantine.

Mrs. Sanchez swiftly moved underground with the help of magic, but Constantine's clone didn't rush to pursue her. Instead, it stayed in the original room and set up a trap.

[Read /shanefreak, without ads and support the work.]