21 Peace Has To Be Earned

With the sound of glass breaking, the spell broke and Constantine came back to the physical plane.

"Cough! Cough!", "Angela", "Cough! Cough! Cough!", he called out to Angela while caughing violently.

She was just right outside the door, "Click!", so she opened it and came in.

Only to find Constantine caughing violently and breathing with difficulty. His clothes were smoking like he was just on fire.

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"Jesus!", she called out in surprise. For her, only a few seconds had passed.

She walked forward to help him, while asking, "Constantine, what happened?".

However, when she touched his shoulder, she found that his coat was unusually hot, like it had just been on fire.

"Cough! Twins.", he replied while caughing.

She asked, "What?", as she bent down and raised his head to make him look at her, "What did you say?", and asked again to clarify.

At this point, Constantine wasn't caughing anymore, but he was still having trouble breathing, "You were twins.", huh! huh!", "She killed herself.", he spoke while lifting his trembling hand to show her the hospital ID band that he brought back from Hell.

"And she's damned for it.", he finished his sentence with a tone of surety.

Angela was surprised by this discovery, "How is this possible!". If she was still a little a skeptical before, then seeing that ID band cleared all her doubts.

However, before Constantine could answer, a voice suddenly interrupted their conversation.

"Actually she's not damned anymore. I brought her here with me.", it was the voice of a man, speaking softly in a cheerful tone.

Constantine and Angela were startled by this sudden interruption, as they looked in the direction of the kitchen where the voice came from.

Two people were standing there, or more specifically, one person and one soul, which only Constantine could tell.

A purple eyed man wearing a black suit, and soul of a woman that looked exactly like Angela. She was wearing a white hospital gown.

Angela was surprised to see that woman as she called out, "Isabel! Isabel, sis you.. you're ok!", and tried to hastily run ahead.

Only to be stopped by Constantine as he commanded, "WAIT!", and grabbed her wrist and pulled her back.

He recognised this man, or some sort of Demon or whatever this guy was. Constantine had seen him suddenly appear out of nowhere, in Hell. When he went there to find Isabel.

"What are you?", Constantine asked warily.

"There's no need to be so anxious. I'm not a Demon. You can check. They can't enter physical plane anyway. Plus a Demon wouldn't have saved her, would it?", the man spoke lightly while pointing at Isabel's soul. In a tone that would inspire a sense of calmness in whoever listening.

"That depends on the circumstance. Something's happening that's breaking all that balance. Usually I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't actually see Demons appearing in physical plane. But here we are!", Constantine spoke while taking out a holy cross from his pocket.

Then he continued, "You were in Hell, and just because I can't feel a Demonic presence, doesn't mean it's not there.".

The man didn't show any reaction to the holy cross, and replied calmly, "Those must all be low level Demons, small enough to slip through the cracks created from her sacrifice.", while pointing at Isabel.

Then he took a few steps forward and grabbed the holy cross in his hand.

And continued, "They aren't strong enough to hold the holy cross.", then he released the cross to show his palm to Constantine.

And spoke, "And that too, without even a burn mark or scratch. The only one who can do that is..", but he was interrupted.

"The Devil.", Constantine completed his sentence, "Lucifer is the only one who can hold the holy cross without it burning his hand. And you're clearly not him.".

The he took back the cross and asked, "That still doesn't answer the question. Why did you save her? What do we have to pay? And what are you?".

"I am a God. Well, a Demi-God to be exact. It's complicated. I'll explain later. I saved her, just because she doesn't belong in Hell.", the man replied.

Then he continued, "Even though she's just a ghost now, I thought it would be best to bring her here with me. I'm new here. I do need a guide.".

Constantine had seen a lot in his life. Like those Greek Gods or Egyptian Gods. So he didn't outright reject the Idea, but he was still skeptical about why this guy saved Isabel's soul from Hell.

Constantine pondered over it for a bit, and then spoke after a short silence, "I guess it's possible that you're one of those guys. But what are you doing here? You want me to believe that you saved her only out of the goodness of your heart? Please!! Who do you think I am? You guys always have an angle. Some sort of perverse goal. And it's never good.".

"You seem to accept the possibility of me being a God, yet dare to actually talk to me in such manner? It's fascinating! Are you not scared?", the man asked back in a curious tone.

"There's only one God I am scared of and you're not him. Who are you? Really?", Constantine asked back.

"Hmm. I see.", the man pointed at Constantine and spoke, "I LIKE YOU.", then he continued while offering his hand for a handshake, "You can call me Kol. Kol Mikaelson. You wouldn't know me, but I can explain more over dinner. About your recent predicament too. You need to eat and I'm feeling a bit peckish myself. Plus it's not nice to keep these ladies waiting, they must have a lot of questions.".

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.

Currently, Angela, Constantine, Isabel and Kol were sitting in a diner, not far from Angela's house.

After Kol and Constantine had talked, Angela and Isabel had their sisters reunion.

A lot of crying and apologizing was involved, but eventually they made up and resolved their issues. Then the four headed for the diner.

"So you're from ANOTHER UNIVERSE!!?", Angela suddenly exclaimed, startling the waitress who had come to get their orders.

"Shh.. Easy!", Isabel lightly reprimanded her while elbowing her from underneath the table.

On the other hand, Kol comforted the poor waitress, "It's alright. She's schizophrenic, but otherwise harmless. I'll have a steak. Medium rare, with the side of lettuce in mayo.", speaking in a tone that inspired calmness.

"Two omelettes for me.", Constantine continued in his usual sarcastic monotone.

And then Angela was next.

However, Isabel was a soul so she couldn't eat.

In fact, besides psychics like Constantine and Angela, and special beings like Kol, other people wouldn't even be able to see Isabel.

The only reason she could be seen here was because before coming here in physical plane, Kol had spent a few hours in Hell teaching her how to use her ghost abilities.

Time flies differently in Hell. It moves a lot slower there. A few minutes in physical plane is a few hours in Hell.

Ghosts had many inherent abilities, like telekinesis, possession, teleportation, appearing in physical plane, and being able to actually touch or move things physically. It was all about practice and experience.

Anyway, at this point, the waitress had already forgotten what she heard, but Angela was still pouting over the excuse that Kol used for her.

It wasn't her fault. She was just a regular person yesterday, and in just one night, she was introduced to a whole new world she didn't even think was possible.

"So you came here looking for an adventure huh? Well, I doubt THIS was what you had in mind.", Constantine spoke to Kol.

"Actually, it's not so bad. In my world, we're still in the fifteenth century. It's really boring there.", Kol replied.

Then Isabel spoke, "You sure don't seem like it. Unless people in fifteenth century wear suit and tie in your world.".

"My usual clothes don't look like this. But I didn't know where I was, so I just copied Constantine's clothes with some good old matter manipulation.", Kol replied casually.

"Wow.. I never thought I would ever dine together with an actual God.", Angela spoke like a fan would speak to their idol.

But Kol seemed unamused, "It's nothing extraordinary. You want my autograph? Want to shake my hand perhaps?", he spoke while offering his hand for a handshake.

Angela seemed embarrassed, and after seeing Constantine and Isabel, who were observing her with rapt attention, she had a sudden urge to dig herself a hole in the ground then jump in and hide there forever.

Then for a while, the only sound made was the sound of cutlery, and munching.

"So you were saying... you know something about what's going on?", Constantine broke the silence.

"Yeah. Before following you up here, I was just trying to find out where I was, but I happened to overhear a few things I find disturbing.", Kol replied with an expression that showed disgust.

"Like?", Constantine asked.

"Some Demon named Momon or something. He is the son of Devil and Prince of Hell, and found a loophole in Lucifer's barrier. Which he wants to use to come up here in physical plane and turn it into a world of blood and fire.", Kol replied in an irritated tone.

Constantine nodded, "I thought it would be something like this. Do you have any idea how?", and asked.

However, before Kol could answer, Isabel cut him off, "Yeah I know. He needs the body of a psychic. He can enter physical plane through the body of a psychic, but only as long as he has their consent.".

"Their consent? That doesn't seem right.", Constantine seemed confusion.

But Kol cleared his doubts, "No it's not their consent that he needs, but Devine assistance. That was why he didn't enter through your body Isabel, not because he needed your consent, but because he needed Devine assistance which he didn't have.".

Isabel asked in surprise, "What do you mean?", "Devine assistance? What the hell does that even mean?", and Constantine also asked at the same time.

Kol replied calmly, "Devine assistance! Anything that can count as God giving his consent. Like an Angel wielding his energy, otherwise known as a blessed Angel, or God's blood in some form.", here he paused.

The continued while looking at Isabel, "That's what he needed Isabel. Not your consent. He made you believe otherwise, only to make you believe that there was no hope. To make you despair and give up completely.".

Hearing this, Isabel gritted her teeth and clenched her fists in anger.

For a while, no one spoke. In an uncomfortable silence, only Angela tried to support Isabel by holding her shoulders and speak a few words of comfort.

However, her hand passed right through her body. In her anger, Isabel had lost consentration as her body had started flickering in and out of existence.

But Kol promptly casted an illusion spell to make everything seem normal. Otherwise it could cause a scene.

"Isabel!", Kol spoke to get her attention, and continued, "Remember. You are not a normal person. In fact you never were. All that had happened to you was because you were weak. It's plane and simple.".

As he spoke, Isabel raised her head to look at him.

Then he held her shoulder for support, and continued, "If you want it to stop. If you want revenge, then you need to get stronger. For Demon, ghosts are even more vulnerable than humans.", Isabel's soul had stopped flickering by now.

Kol then released her, looked her in the eyes and continued, "In this world, FREE WILL sure exists. But only PEACE we can get is what we earn. Not by being kind and going to Heaven. You get it now, don't you? Otherwise you wouldn't have jumped.".

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.

Not long after they had done eating, Angela received a call from her precinct, for a case involving a man's sudden and unexpected death in a store by undetermined cause.

Constantine couldn't leave Angela alone by herself and Kol couldn't leave Isabel, so the party of four soon headed for the crime scene together.

Usually they wouldn't be let in, but Angela, the detective vouched for Kol and Constantine, while Isabel turned herself invisible. She couldn't be seen walking around after her death.

The victim was a priest, Father Hennessy. And he turned out to be a friend of Constantine's.

After seeing the body, Constantine first took a deep breath and controlled the searing anger boiling in his chest.

Then he bent down to examine the body to find any clues that could lead him to the one responsible.

Due to his profession, he was used to the feeling of loss. He knew that he had to find the culprit first, before thinking about things like revenge.

Not long after, he seemed to find something unusual, "This was done by a Demon. Look at this mark, does anyone recognise it?".

There was a weird looking wound on victim's palm that seemed self-inflicted by a bloodied glass shard held loosely in his other hand.

It was a smaller circle on top of a bigger plus sign, with the centers of both figures converging.

"This is the mark of Mammon.", Isabel's voice drifted through the air, just loud enough for Constantine, Angela and Kol to hear.

"I can find out who killed him.", Kol spoke.

Hearing him, they all jolted their heads to look at him, and Constantine replied, "Do it then. What do you need?".

"Nothing. It's just a simple time spell.", he answered and looked down at the body with concentration.

Then a few seconds later, Kol concluded, "A half-breed killed him. Someone named Balthazar. You know him?".

"I see.", Constantine replied calmly. But seething anger was clearly apparent in his undertone, as he nodded to Kol and headed outside.

With Angela chasing after him, "Wait! Where are you going! Constantine?".

The spell that Kol just performed here was a very basic, beginner level time spell, that didn't even need a magic circle.

This spell answered ONE QUESTION of the user in ONE WORD, as long as this question was related to the PAST of a specific object or a place that still existed in the PRESENT, but only if it could be answered in ONE word.

Kol simply asked, 'who killed this man', and he got his answer in one word, 'Balthazar'.

As for knowing that Balthazar was a Half Demon Half Human, Kol remembered that from the movie. After all, even though they were not as engaging as Marvel movies, DC movies were still hard to forget. And he was in a world where all DC movies were real.