Chapter 1 The Man who obtained magic
Waking up on the sun hot pavement isn't exactly the worst thing that's happened to me. Not that I keep a list. I was lost No phone, no wallet, no id. All I had was a brown coat I was inexplicably wearing it had seen better days black slacks, a white button-up, and a red tie that had definitely been in a fight with something sticky and lost.
"Am I cosplaying constantine??" I questioned
Palm trees swayed above me like judgmental green fingers, cars honked, and pedestrians gave me looks like I was under every drug under the sun who could blame them cuz that
Exactly how I felt but not in a good way
I tucked my hands in my pockets and walked.
I noticed 2 things a match book and pack of cigarettes and the craziest part was…
"No"
"Fucking"
"Way"
"Silk cuts?" I opened the pack "and still full."
I never smoked a day in my life, but this was like straight out of a comic book. I just had to try. I instinctually grabbed a match, and without the book my hand made a motion like I was striking the air itself. as it lit in a small flame as I took the first drag I felt a head rush like never before. I continued to be lost gaining what I could until. Instinct pulled me down an alley used for the homeless and the hopeless. From the back of my mind I could feel it like something was tugging at my strings something was watching. That's when she appeared: a woman, blonde, black corset-tight white dress, with a smile that was all to perfect. I saw through it tho a glow in her eyes a bright gold that glimmered only for a blink as she spoke
"What brings you round here handsome"
"Rough night?" she asked, voice a mix of honey and venom Behind her, the lights around her dimmed as if even electricity feared her.
I smirked. "Funny you should ask. Just woke up on my ass. Discovered cigarettes taste better than air. And now a beautiful demoness of a tour guide wants to keep me company hospitality has gone to hell
Ohh honey it never left
She laughed. Body splitting in half, human parts retreating, a monstrous jaw with serrated teeth forming in her torso as they moved like saw blades. Homeless flew away like flies. Her tongue lashed out like a blade. I instinctually rolled out the way, and hit the brick wall, as my hand held a match
"The bloody hell am I going to do with this."
My body moved remembering things I could not. I whispered words a mix of old English and Latin, sparks burning blue, whipping around her like a whip. She screamed, smell of sulfur and burnt perfume hitting me in one godless punch. Ash remained where she fell, like some cursed confetti. I was stunned and amazed all in one as I turn.
At the alley's end, a man in a cheap suit—widow's peak, slicked-back hair, full black-and-white beard—lifted a coffee cup, smiled like he knew every bad decision I'd ever made, and vanished.
"Who the hell was that?"I said to no one as a small voice in the back of my head whispered. "Mephisto"
I learned a few things during my time walking around, cigarette dangling. I was in Los Angeles the city of angels it was, February 1, 2005. Pats still won the superbowl. I looked in a broken mirror and found out I wasn't cosplaying and was actually John Constantine
It was a shock and I thought I was shocked about reed Richard's being real at first. The sun so bright yet so far it bleached the sin in the air until it made everything look expensive.
Eventually, I found myself in the Black Room.
A bar in the middle of space and time where nothing and everything existed and exist at once at least one thats what the bar tender told me who was also the owner of the place.
I was still lost and after making on to many left turns ended up in a dark abandoned street with only one abandoned store front with a working neon sign of a giant eye I was tugged by my magic and followed the feeling walking through the door.
"Well, you're a new face first drinks on the house!" Said a tall black hair woman with one good eye while the other looked like a pocket galaxy with a huge scar on her neck that said someone tried and failed.
"What's the best drink to have after killing a demon in a shit infested alley?"I quipped
"Whiskey!" She answered as she continued "Odin black label"
"Odin makes whiskey"
"Technically no. Since its made in Asgard but it's whiskey in the ways it matters"
I nodded, parked at the bar, drowning in it. Everywhere around me—demons, fairies, vampires, werewolves. Loki surprisingly was in a booth laughing as I continued I spotted a man roughly unkempt ginger hair with white side buns with a clean shaven beard as he had bags under his eyes. I ignored it for know
"So what the Payment around here?"
"Souls" she smiled
Figures I muttered. Anything else I can get around here besides a drink
Depends what it is
"Information," I asked.
The bartender raised a brow. "Go ahead."
I needed information on a guy slick back black hair with a widows peak and full beard wearing a cheap patterned suit.
You meet the devil welcome to Hollywood he usually watches and uses people like pawns in a chess match
Does he ever do anything or is he just a full time cuck.
Don't let him catch you saying that but it a surprise you meet him however be warned if come for you again it means he wants something
So you're telling me the devils type is 6ft blondes with a nicotine addiction! I said sparking a cigarette
Then the ginger man showed up and was quick with an introduction
"No name"
"No home"
"No id number"
"No recognition in face matching data"
"You're a complete ghost"
"You a member of my fan club or something" I inhaled blowing smoke
"The names agent Nicholas Keller I work for shield"
"You an unknown killed a demon this morning. I Need to know how."
"You know I don't usually go around giving information to people who call me unknown"
"Then what's the name kid"
"It's Eli Constantine and why should I tell you how"
I didn't always work for shield said Keller
I used to be apart of wand a branch of shield that dealt with the supernatural
"Go on"I replied wondering why he was so trusting then I saw his eyes clearly a man of resolve and nothing left to lose
Until her
Who?
Carol Danvers during 1995 stoped a war between 2 alien factions and saved the world
Thanks to that the detector now thinks everything is just cosmic science with alien accents
Sounds pretty classified Boy Scout why tell me
Cuz you're my last hope and besides you think anyone would believe you were in a world of magic and yet people have been blind for centuries.
To Shay so all this to get you're old job back
No. wand doesn't just go and kill vampires and werewolves we maintain wards for city's to stop mass possession we protect and keep archaic seals up that keep old and outer gods asleep and the worst part we have to reseal the gates of hell I've been trying my best alone but it's impossible
Why not just show your boss this place I said Keller only laughed as he spoke
The black room is alive if someone who doesn't carry the spark of magic were to come here they would be swallowed by the void
Don't you have magic
I have wards and ancient words that can hurt lower level demons but do nothing to skeptics let alone be read by an machine shield has
So what's you're plan
So you're in
Yeah but I expect to be paid
Fine I'll pay whatever you ask
A man of desperation perfect piece to move on the board.
⸻
Texas and the Spirit Pond
Turns out Keller isn't shield right now
He apparently used all his paid time off to save the world we couldn't fly to Texas where the true seal was kept a pond of magic that was a super lay line that housed all the sealed gods. It's not like a car would get us their quick so I place my hand on Kellers shoulder about to explain how we're fucked only for my Latin to spew from my mouth as we both ended up in the middle of but fuck nowhere Texas. We found the lay line thanks to me using my cigarette ash to track it. And that's when I didn't know it at the time Red Wolf made himself known: brown pants, bare chest under the wolf-head he used like a shirt, dual revolvers holstered as he carried two tomahawks as he fought of people trying to harness the power or awaken the old gods I wasn't sure
Red Wolf POV:
I moved like the wind, my spirit axes ripping through illusions, dodging bursts of eldritch fire from three warlocks aligned on the ley line. Punches sent them into trees, kicking up shards of bark like projectiles. Revolvers flared, bullets infused with spirit energy striking with the force of small meteorites. Each foe staggered, leaving the clearing a trail of scorched, and disoriented corpses.
"This is our hunt," I growled, feeling Owayodata's power thrumming through me. "They will not desecrate the pond."
The names agent Keller and my consultant Eli where here to maintain the seal
Faer not owayodata spoke of you I shall keep guard. for an advisory of old who once challenged my patron god resides here.
⸻
Eli:
The pond itself was alive, half-pure blue, half-black sludge, feeling the energy of still-awake outer gods trapped below. I knelt, eyes glowing faint gold as I traced sigils, twisting them, inverting, layering illusions. Fire spells became sand traps, light spells became blinding flashes to confuse intruders.
An earth spirit rose, massive, clay-colored, eyes glowing emerald. It pulsed with the ley line's rhythm, maintaining equilibrium, preventing the outer gods' power from spilling wildly.
Internal monologue (Constantine tone):
"Okay, Eli, you daft son of a bitch. You can't put them all back to sleep—too powerful, too awake—but you can make the seal feed off them. Like a parasite that actually pays rent. That's right: make the outer gods pump power into the seal so the seal gets stronger. No one said saving the world was clean work. Also, if anyone asks, that earth spirit is totally sentient. Don't argue. You'll die."
I chanted, weaving old Latin with my own concoctions. Illusions layered atop reality—trees that weren't trees, puddles that were traps, shadows that weren't shadows. Each ward took minutes to perfect, a domino effect in raw magic.
The pond responded. Blue intensified, black diminished, the ley line thrummed, now synchronized with my additions. The outer gods' energy funneled into the seal, purified, then feed the seal. As I added another clause to this contract I can use the magic here like my own piggy bank using it to fuel my magic not only that I re-engineered the magic used here to create a whole new system very similar to existing ones it used faith as a whole weather you're self a god magic or demon it powers the magic letting you make spells and buy using a special bank the power they use is not of the god they have faith in no it's power from the pond while I feed on the faith usually giving to gods but now it goes to me
"Look at that, who would have thought it would take a skin walker, an alcoholic ginger and a nicotine addicted half-demon to run a magical power grid straight out of the Old Testament. I said
Red Wolf, watching the pond stabilize, nodded once. "It is balanced. For now."
Keller, still catching his breath, just muttered, "You… did all that? With what, some prayers and a cigarette?"
"Yeah. Cigarette was optional tho," I replied.
⸻
Aftermath
The clearing glowed with residual magic. Trees hummed. The pond shone like a beacon of pure mystic energy. Outer gods remained awake but contained, now feeding the seal and me. The Earth spirit remained, vigilant, towering over us like a guardian from myth.
Red Wolf sheathed his tomahawks. "The pond is safe. For now. I will continue to help for my god says your mission is far from over."
You're not wrong red I quipped
Keller shook his head, looking at the residual sigils I'd drawn in the dirt. "This is insane. You're insane. I can't believe this works."
I lit another Silk Cut, inhaling deeply. "Sanity's overrated anyway. And yes, it works. Mostly because nobody sane could have pulled it off. That's where the magic of being completely, unapologetically stupid comes in."
The air was thick with ozone and old power. The world, temporarily, was safe. The outer gods still existed, the pond still thrummed, but the ward held—for now.
I looked at the mirrored surface, reflecting me, Red Wolf, Keller, and the lingering glow of magic. And Mephisto's grin, somewhere, probably watching.
"Hell," I muttered, "the day's only halfway through, and I'm already exhausted. Let's get a drink."
Red Wolf chuckled, looking towards the forest. "And keep the wards intact. I will remain vigilant."
Keller just shook his head. "I'm supposed to report this… how? 'Yeah, sir, we stabilized an ancient god prison with a half-demon exorcist and a… Native superhero?'"
"Exactly," I said, flicking ash. "That's how you survive this business. Complicated, messy, and above all, marginally legal."
As we walked back toward civilization, the pond's glow receding behind us, I couldn't help thinking: The world doesn't need heroes. It needs idiots who can improvise like they've got nothing to lose. Guess I'm one of them.
And that's how you fix a Spirit Pond by using gods as makeshift batteries.