45 The Mirror

I started searching for a collapsed underground cavern, mainly in the upper western part of Africa where several millennia ago in around 5000 B.C. there was a legendary African empire of Kor.

As I did not know the exact place, I had to search underneath every inch of land. While doing the scan, my mind wandered to the prior happenings.

The Eternity Book was made by the Archduke of Hell, Belial. He is a very powerful immortal demon. He is also the son of the celestial conqueror, Trigon.

Now Belial once invaded the land of the powerful serpent queen Ran Va Daath inside Hell. After their armies' mutual massacre they both copulated on their corpses. The serpent queen tried to kill Belial after but was subdued by him and brought back to his palace.

She gave birth to his first child Etrigan. Etrigan was increasingly wild and even the Ruler of Hell Lucifer commanded Belial to control his offspring. But Belial couldn't punish Etrigan with beatings as he enjoyed the pain.

Once Etrigan tricked Belial into mating with a gorgeous goddess who was originally only an animal spirit but Etrigan had put a glamour charm on her. Later he finds out, as he sees his second son born a goat, Belial grew angry and killed the animal spirit in anger.

He went away from Hell for many years and came back with his third son, Merlin who was born from a powerful human witch. Hoping that Merlin would subjugate Etrigan.

Yes, Merlin is half-demon and Etrigan is his half brother. Eventually, Merlin did enslave Etrigan and bound him to a mortal, Jason Blood.

Now during the conception of Merlin, Belial's seed was spilled on a rock. Due to the surrounding magic, a link was created between Belial and the stone, and hence Philosopher's stone was created accidentally from sympathetic magic.

There were many powerful stones created in DC verse which will take the name of the Philosopher's stone, but this is the most powerful one, as it has a direct link to Belial's magic.

Philosopher's stone also has the magical property of providing good luck, immense magic and could even transmute objects by just holding it.

The Eternity Book allowed the wielder to cast magic and had the profound magical knowledge of Belial recorded within. But as Merlin said it was made by Belial the Demon and hence it will try to corrupt the user's mind.

While I was reading the books in the library of House of Mystery with Zatanna, I found a Blood ritual. It was basically a ritual to change ownership of an artifact. It needed an object which was linked to the previous owner and the blood of the new owner.

The stronger the link between the object and the previous owner, the easier it is to sever the bond with the artifact. As Philosopher's stone was created from sympathetic magic by Belial, the ritual succeeded easily.

Now I need the last link in my plan.

I found the cavern, drilled inside it, and came in front of a mirror.

There were fallen rocks everywhere inside this cavern but the mirror reflected my face perfectly with no dust on it. It was just hanging on the cavern wall. It had a golden frame with strange designs engraved and gave off a very antique feeling.

As I touched the mirror, a purple-haired tanned woman suddenly appeared in the mirror. She had transparent blue eyes with no iris in it. She had a very odd black tattoo on her chest which extended down to her impressive cleavage, which was visible in her low cut black dress.

"Ohh at last someone finally came to my rescue. Release me and I swear I will serve you for eternity.", The woman looked incredibly happy seeing me and I felt like she was speaking with all her sincerity. She had a unique accent to her voice which sounded very pleasant to hear.

Before I could answer her, the mirror returned to normal and she disappeared. I touched it again but the mirror did not respond.

Feeling strange, like someone was watching me, I looked back at the new arrival.

He was clad in black from head to toe. Black Hat, Black overcoat, Black shirt, Black undershirt, Black gloves, Black pants, Black boots, Black eye mask.

The only thing which struck out was the shiny pieces of round silver, which were attached together and fashioned around his neck like a necklace. I counted there were 30 in total.

He looked like he was in his 30's but I knew that he was old, very old, as old as Jesus Christ. I had a strange thought in my head of why today all the old people were getting in my way.

"You cannot release her my friend, you may not know about her, but I can tell you that she is an evil demoness and a mistress from hell. " He spoke in a very deep gruff voice.

"And did that voice inside your head tell you to stop me? … Phantom Stranger!"

He goes silent for a moment, "No it did not … but it's good that you know of me, I have fought her for a long time and stopped her and her evil plans every time. So it's best if she is kept imprisoned here."

"Then without that voice's order, you cannot directly interfere with my actions" , I say as The Eternity Book appears in my right hand.

"Hsinab mih"

The book glows red and before he could speak anything he disappears from this place.

"so long … strange guy."