A small, proud smirk worked its way onto my lips. Sybil had been a timid little thing when I found her, but she had fully blossomed now.
She applied more pressure, closing his airway. Luthor's clone choked and clawed at her invisible grip but found no relief. Finally, just as he was about to asphyxiate, she let go, dropping him onto the sand.
He screamed and writhed and panted like a wounded beast, but his eyes burned with a defiance that reminded me of the boy. He was another issue I would rather resolve sooner rather than later.
"Tell me where the original is, and I won't trap you inside your own mind and make you die a thousand deaths."
He spat on the sand and scowled at her.
"Go to hell, Witch."
Luthor's stomach abruptly distended, and the air ignited.
The world moved in slow motion as cursed energy surged through my tense body, and I exploded into action. I grabbed the space surrounding Luthor and turned it skyward. The explosion split the air a moment later, and my maneuver mostly worked, but enough pressure and flame traveled down the patch of space I was holding that it still burned me and my forces.
I stumbled back as shards of Kryptonite peppered my skin.
Not even a second later, I felt vibrations race through the structure below us.
Rocketing over to Sybil, I grabbed her and launched us skyward with Sky Manipulation even as my body rebelled. I got us well above the Nevada desert when the base exploded. First came the light and the heat, then the deafening crash, and finally the mushroom cloud of radiation.
We barely got clear of it, but I had not escaped unscathed.
My Kryptonian cells were dying.
My body was rapidly falling apart, and Sybil was covered in third-degree burns and barely holding on.
A complicated swell of emotion overcame me. There was a healthy dose of anger, directed mostly at myself for not anticipating Luthor's suicidal strategy. I might have caught the bomb if I had bothered to scan the clone's chest with my X-ray vision.
A smaller part of me regretted the lives lost. A few of them had been so promising.
But more than anything else, I felt admiration.
Luthor had certainly given it his best shot.
I flexed Idle Transfiguration and engaged its fine control, forcing my body to expel every last ounce of Kryptonite. That stopped the deterioration. The microscopic traces would have to be manually worked out over time.
I healed Sybil as well, dragging her back from the edge.
I flew into Vegas and settled in one of the many safe houses controlled by my organization.
The local leader greeted me. He was a former street rat blessed with Cursed Speech. He lorded it over the humans like he was a god. It was pathetic, really.
But he was useful.
I picked up the local landline and dialed Callum's number. He was Shelim's temporary replacement, and I had gone to great lengths to free him from military incarceration after the Justice League turned over the Crucible agents captured following the New York incident. He had been swapped with a willing look-alike.
"Do you have it?" I asked.
An eternity passed in the space it took him to answer.
"Yes. I have the location of every person who viewed the struggle through the remote LexCorp satellite over the base. Luthor is in..." He began listing the names and locations of every member of the Light, much to my satisfaction.
"Excellent work, Callum," I said. "I will not forget this."
The line cut, and I rose to my feet, working the kink from my neck.
I was weakened, but I still had enough strength for another slaughter.
The Light would die tonight.
Every last one of them.
If I waited any longer, Klarion would return, and I would be right back where I started.
It was past time I stopped playing with my food.
I've wasted enough lives.
There would be no more half-measures.
And that meant Julius as well.
Constantine's POV
I stepped through the portal and onto white sand.
I groaned.
Of all the blasted meeting places in all the universe, that prick had to pick a bloody beach.
The sun was just setting, and the light danced across the slowly encroaching waves.
Dare I say it, it was fucking beautiful.
I absolutely hated it.
But my caller didn't.
I found him swaggering down the coastline dressed in a fruity shirt and shorts that put his impressive physique on full display. Beside him walked a kid nearly a head taller, with the body of an amateur bodybuilder. His blood-red eyes were fixed on me, and even from a distance, I could feel the mystical pressure behind them.
There was something off about them.
But his eyes were not what bothered me most.
His cursed energy was.
The sheer weight and volume of it reminded me so much of her.
"Constantine!" Shelim grinned, spreading his hands wide as they approached. "So glad you could join us. I question the drip. Business casual to an island paradise?"
"You know how I feel about beaches."
"It's a perverted slice of hell," he parroted back to me. "Well, let's agree to disagree."
He smacked the kid on the back, but he did not budge an inch.
"This is the kid I told you about. He's the madman who's going to kill Artisan for us."
"Julius, right?" I asked. "You're taller than I expected."
"I hit a growth spurt," he answered, his voice almost monotone as he looked behind me. "The portal that shut behind you. Where did it lead?"
I blinked, unsure what he was angling for.
Shelim and I exchanged a brief look. I did not need a signal from him to figure out that the boy was jumpy. It was understandable, given his past experience.
I chose to tell him the truth—or part of it.
That was why I was here, anyway.
"Japan," I said. "I had some business there."
"Was it with the sorcerer twins?"
My eyes widened.
"How did you know?"
"I can sense cursed energy better than most people," he said. "So, they're the backup he said you were bringing."
The boy was quick.
"Snipped the girl's cord to Artisan last night," I said, rooting through my pocket for a cigarette and lighting it with a flick of my finger, "but they're not the only people I can get. How do you feel about the Justice League doing your dirty work for you?"
Julius folded his arms.
"I'm listening."
After the way the League had dragged him through the media, I had expected more of a reaction, but the kid gave me nothing. I wondered if he was like that with everyone.
A hunch told me he was.
I couldn't decide whether that was a good or bad thing.
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