Chapter 316: The New Umbrella (Part 2)

"So, you're saying I should hold this broken umbrella and firmly believe it can expel the curse within me?"

Constantine looked at Schiller's old umbrella on the table, then looked up at Schiller and said, "Even if you're unsatisfied with the story I told, you don't have to treat me like a fool, do you?"

"I'm not unsatisfied with the story you told," Schiller said, shaking his head. "It may not be particularly brilliant, but it's better than nothing."

Schiller spoke the truth; that day, Constantine revealed his entire plan to Batman and Schiller.

As expected, in the previous version of the story, he still withheld part of the truth: the part concerning Lady Sanchez.

"The magic array in Cooper's room was indeed used by Ghost Mother to sacrifice children's souls, but we played a trick and scammed the demon."

"Present at the time were not only me and Cooper, but also Lorena, and at that moment, she was already pregnant with a child. She drew the array to sacrifice the child's soul to the demon, then activated it, using the child in her womb as bait to lure the demon over."

"When the demon arrived, Lorena and I demanded he pay first before we offered the sacrifice. In deals with demons, this method is actually quite common; some demons even inject power into you first before collecting payment..."

"That demon agreed. Our condition was that he must kill Cooper and devour his soul. In an instant, that demon's power caused Cooper's corpse to fill the entire room. However, what that demon didn't know was that I had drawn another array, and the sacrifice was Cooper himself."

"The demon attracted by my other array saw his Sacrificial Offering killed by another demon, so the two of them fought. In the end, the demon attracted by Ghost Mother was no match for the demon I attracted; he was killed and turned into a pile of ash."

Schiller and Batman, present there, exchanged a glance, recalling the pile of ash they had seen in the middle of the magic array.

"The demon I attracted gave me no power and ate no Sacrificial Offering; the deal never truly began, so he cursed me and returned to Hell."

"Then why did Cooper's corpse lose one-third of its mass?"

"I used it to create a clone. That ash clone wasn't made by the demon for me, but by myself. However, making such a thing requires some... materials, so I used what was available on the spot..."

"Alright, what happened next? Why did Lady Sanchez become a demon?"

"That is because we had a small disagreement afterward," Constantine sighed. "As I said before, Lorena desperately wanted to break away from the Dark Sacrifice and leave Cat Getan, but she was unwilling to leave with nothing."

"Previously, she had already traded candy with many children, controlling their souls. She wanted to sacrifice all these souls to a demon at once, exchange them for power, and then leave Cat Getan with that power."

"To a black mage, this is commonplace. Due to an accident, I too became what they consider a vicious black mage. Therefore, when Lorena discussed this plan with her lover, she did not hide it from me; I heard their entire plan."

"Because of this, I turned against them. However, Lorena becoming a demon was indeed my doing."

"Just as you saw earlier, we exchanged two blows in the room. Her lover was a half-baked amateur; before I even went all out, he was burned to a crisp."

"Lorena knew she was no match for me, so she tried to run toward the altar. Going to the altar was indeed to sacrifice those children's souls for more powerful strength."

"As I said before, I have many acquaintances in Hell. While Lorena was running toward the altar, I redrew an array and summoned a demon. I demanded he be the first to respond to Lorena's summoning and inject the demon's power into her body, turning her into a half-demon..."

"So, when Lorena activated the altar, the first to respond to her was that demon who had made a deal with me. My price was obviously much higher than Lorena's. The demon prioritized completing my deal, turning Lorena into a demon. What happened afterward, you all know..."

"What price did you offer?" Batman asked.

"Very simple. I promised that after my death, he would receive my soul. As you know, the curse from my biological brother is killing me. That demon saw this too; he was eager to get my soul, so he hurriedly went to fulfill my request."

Schiller shook his head and said, "Was that demon a newcomer? Didn't he know about your habit of selling the same item to multiple buyers?"

"He knew. He just saw that I was near death. He was betting that he would be the last demon to complete a deal with me, so that when fighting over my soul, he would have the stronger claim."

"So, you're still a good person, saving all the children of Cat Getan?" Schiller asked Constantine. Constantine, however, shook his head and said, "I'm not that noble. I just knew Lorena's plan would not succeed."

"That mysterious Dark Sacrifice would never allow her to drain the souls of all the children; if that happened, Cat Getan would be finished. They would not permit it."

"The Dark Owl Sacrifice..." Batman murmured the name.

"The Dark Owl Priest?" Constantine looked at the broken umbrella on the table, asking with a puzzled expression, "Are you saying these priests created this umbrella?"

"As far as I know, those wealthy people of the Court of Owls certainly lack the ability to create such an umbrella. We have already verified it; a special metal was added to the umbrella, capable of resisting Cat Getan's unique rain and possessing special resistance to magic."

Constantine hesitantly picked up the umbrella. He touched the metal on it, sensing some unusual power, but he still said, "Even so, it shouldn't be able to achieve the effect of removing a curse..."

"How strong a weapon is depends mainly on who wields it."

Schiller reached under the table again and pulled out a new umbrella. He moved his hand down from the handle to grip the shaft. Before Constantine could put down the broken umbrella, seeing Schiller's movement, he suddenly had a bad feeling and said, "Hey, wait!"

"Bang!" Constantine was knocked to the ground by Schiller again.

If this motion were slowed down many times, at the instant the umbrella handle touched Constantine's chin, a wisp of imperceptible gray mist entered Constantine's body.

This thin gray mist scanned Constantine's entire body and soul almost instantly, then, in a certain corner, wrapped around a wisp of black curse shaped like a fetus.

Just as the gray mist wrapped the curse, the curse began to resist fiercely, but the metallic luster of the umbrella in Constantine's hand flickered, and the black curse paused for an instant.

In that instant, Schiller's umbrella struck Constantine's chin. The metallic luster on the new umbrella was stronger; "Bang!" the gray mist and the curse were both knocked out of Constantine's body.

Schiller's figure vanished instantly, reappearing behind Constantine. He then pinched the gray mist wrapping the curse. More gray mist surged from between his fingers, wrapping around the curse layer by layer.