On the outskirts of Winters Manor at night, Zatanna stared at Constantine in disbelief.
"How did you get away?" she asked, surprise evident in her voice.
They stood under the moonlit sky, the great manor looming behind them. Zatanna had assumed the man was gone for good, but here he was, alive as ever.
Constantine pulled a cigarette from his pack, lit it slowly, and took a long drag before answering in his usual unhurried tone.
"The magic only did limited damage. I have a few tricks that keep me going. And honestly, neither Heaven nor Hell wants me. I got lucky again, just like always."
Zatanna's eyes narrowed. "You must have made another deal with a demon. My father always said that when you're being hunted and running for your life, you still manage to come up with some reckless plan to escape."
Constantine lifted an eyebrow and feigned hurt. "I did save your life, Little Zatanna. I'm allowed to feel a little offended."
Zatanna pointed toward the manor. "Forget that. Why aren't you going in? Mr. and Mrs. Kent are inside. Baron Winters is obsessed with the child Mrs. Kent carries. He wants to be the child's godfather."
The infamous Winters Manor did not obey normal rules of space or time. Its entrance could appear anywhere, even in Metropolis.
Constantine shrugged. "Winters won't let me near that room. Ever since I set three people on fire in his living room, he's never let me use the front door again."
Zatanna snorted, cold and unimpressed. "So you weren't wronged at all."
Constantine exhaled smoke. "Can we skip the insults? How is the investigation into the magical cascade failure progressing? Baron Winters must have told you something."
"Yes," Zatanna replied. "We understand what happened on the surface, but the secrets behind it are still hazy. The real cause was the magical debt owed to the gods of magic."
Constantine scoffed. "My debts are with Hell, and from what I know, God doesn't owe anyone. He sits back and counts favors like they're currency."
In truth, God's power came from the origin of the universe itself. He didn't borrow magic from the gods of sorcery and had nothing to do with Hecate's domain.
Zatanna continued with Winters's account. "The goddess Hecate stole the magic of the Upside‑Down Man from beyond the Source Wall and trapped him outside our reality. She passed that fire to humanity, but the first Prometheus turned on her and imprisoned her instead."
She paused and met Constantine's eyes. "Now she wants what is owed. Those who used her magic without payment and betrayed her must repay that debt."
Constantine nodded. "Fine logic. Debts must be paid."
Zatanna raised an eyebrow. "That surprises me. I hear you are deep in debt yourself. A scoundrel who never pays what he owes, and yet you agree this is fair?"
"My situation is messy," Constantine admitted. "Hell owes Heaven, Heaven owes the magical factions, and everyone is tangled. It's a nightmare."
He took another drag, smoke curling around him. "Hecate wants her magic back, the Upside‑Down Man wants his magic back from her, and everyone is calling something a debt. It's a complicated knot."
Zatanna's lips curved in a rare smirk. "No one is more complicated than you."
She refocused. "Back to the point. Hecate cannot enter our world directly. She needs conduits, humans marked by her power. Girls once cursed by her carry her magic into battle as her instruments."
"Enforcers," Constantine guessed. "What do they do?"
"Their objective is the three great pillars of magic," Zatanna answered.
At that moment Wonder Woman stepped forward, flanked by Supergirl and Green Lantern. This was clearly the Wonder Woman from the future.
"The three girls from Smallville might not be cursed by Hecate, but if they are possessed by her followers, they could wield her power anyway," Wonder Woman explained.
Zatanna added, "Those girls have become allied with Hecate's plot to tear down the pillars that uphold our world."
"Why would they want to destroy the pillars?" Green Lantern asked.
"These pillars are not literal columns," Wonder Woman clarified. "They are magical array eyes. They stabilize the barrier between Hecate and reality. Destroy them and she returns fully."
Zatanna paced once, eyes troubled. "The first pillar is Nanda Parbat."
This place was not the League of Assassins's Arctic sanctuary. It was the mystical realm, known to outsiders as Shangri‑La, existing beyond normal time. There, the Deadman spirits lived within bodies of monks and served Rama Kushna, their silent protector deity.
"The second is in Salem, Massachusetts," Wonder Woman continued. "A four‑faced tower without doors or windows, people call it the Tower of Fate. Doctor Fate once guarded it, but he has been missing for years, and there is no one watching now."
Constantine exhaled another plume of smoke, eyes glinting. "Shangri‑La and the Tower of Fate. So what is the final place?"
He turned to Wonder Woman. "Olympus. Am I right?"
She nodded, a hard expression in her eyes. "Zeus was one of the first Prometheans to steal Hecate's magic. He cannot rest now. Those girls — Lois Lane and the others — are making their way to these three sites to destroy them. We must stop them or our world ends."
Constantine lowered his head. "Magic users without magic will not make this simple."
"If it were simple," Wonder Woman said, "we would not be facing so much doom."
In downtown Metropolis, at the headquarters of the city's "Thug Gang," Clark's eyes flashed red and his Heat Vision cut through the chest of the gang member in front of him.
The man had been part of a rival crew causing trouble, but Clark had crushed them all. This was the first gang Clark had brought under his control.
Once called Eric by others, he was now Adrian — ruthless, calculating, and focused only on his goals. He had turned away from becoming mayor despite Kara and Green Lantern's warnings. His vengeance against the magical world and Metropolis drove him instead to seize power through force.
His crimson eyes locked onto Malcolm Merlyn. "I do not care about your investigation. I want to know one thing. Where are Lois, Chloe, and Lana?"
Malcolm swallowed hard. The intensity of Clark's stare chilled him deeper than facing any enemy.
"I checked Lana's lineage," Malcolm said cautiously. "Her ancestors came from France in the 1800s. Countess Elizabeth Sorrou was part of her family. She worshipped the Trinity Goddess of Magic, Hecate, and performed rituals in her name."
"Hecate?" Clark's brow tightened.
"Yes," Malcolm continued. "There is a sweeping magical catastrophe, and everything points back to her."
Though a magician himself, Malcolm did not fully grasp the larger forces at play.
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