Chapter 34. Psychic Link

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Psychic #2.

I deserve a break. But this psychic bullshit just had to get in the way.

I had finally gotten my reprieve. For a second there (lasting 30 days) I was all in my head wondering if Poseidon would live up to our deal.

The gods might be selfish and cunning, but he was certainly not going to break a pact forged by the Divine.

As such, whether the Vengeful Curse in Themyscira had been broken or not, there were no more Cursed Amazons to exorcise, freeing me from the pact.

Poseidon experienced the clutches of the Divine pact thereafter, causing his godly power to misbehave and fully collapse Themyscira.

Knowing that it could lead to his instant death, he upheld his end.

I ended up washing up ashore with unimaginable treasures from the underwater domain, setting the path for my desired lavish lifestyle that awaited me.

Things had finally began to look up for me - until the nightmares started. It began to feel as though I was back in Themyscira.

My nights have become glum, and all I can do is stay up at night to forge weapons with my cursed energy. If I dare to sleep...

"This psychic link must go." I tell myself, my eyes locked to Constantine and my ears popped to the sound of the notification I know all too well.

"But I can't risk trusting a con-man with what could be the thing that frees me from it." I caution myself. "He looks nervous, which means that if it works, it works for only one of us, leaving the other to be tormented."

"The artifact, Hunter." He demands again for something I could trade all my riches for.

"Who's rushing headlong into things now?" I throw his words back at him.

Cursed energy flares around my fists as I read the notification displayed in blue in front. Not my first fight in a week. Not the first one I'm going to lose either.

"The heaven is in chaos, and the underworld is in motion. I didn't summon both of you here so that you could test who's stronger." A supreme voice breaks our tension as a shadowy figure approaches us, walking gracefully without rush.

"You don't have to, your Eminence." A companion to this new intrusion advises but is dismissed with the wave of his hand. It looks as though a shadow is following him as he walks closer to where we are.

But what either of us can think of is what he has just said. "Summoned us?"

"You," he turns his face to Constantine's direction, "I have heard so much of. The disgraced John Constantine. It was never a pleasure being your namesake."

He turns his face to face me. The constant shadow surrounding him makes it hard to make out his face, but one can tell, his head is bald. "You, I was hoping would stay dead. Now the world will turn to face the truth of things because you staggered into this realm."

Our tension broken, Constantine is the first to ask the obvious question. "Who the hell are you?"

"Who am I," he responds, "what am I. That's not what matters. What matters is what I need you both to do without question."

"But if you must insist," he contradicts his decision to remain a mystery. "I am your Psychic link."

I scoff and stare at him. "I may not be a committed church goer-"

He cuts me off with a gesture from his face to his shoulders and chest. "God bless your soul."

I continue, "but I know that only one man in the entire world is referred to as 'your Eminence'. And you just signed the cross."

"Bloody hell!" Constantine realizes. "What is this bloody Pope doing here?"

"That I can answer." The presumed Pope says. He waves his hands and two black cards levitate before us. On it is the face of a woman we both recognize. "She must be killed before the sun dawns on the next Sunday."

"You've got some nerve." I'm about to blow his head off for thinking he can tell me what to do.

"If you must know," I don't know what he is about to explain, and why he's about to explain it. "She's the reason the Underworld is in motion."

"The Presence has Awakened, and the Darkness is stirring." He continues. "In this world of the Dead, both of you are its key players."

"Constantine - the man that broke a timeless, godly seal. For that, Zeus and his allies want The Cursed Millennial dead." He reveals.

"As for you, Wan." The Pope turns his attention to me. "You forged a pact disallowing any gods from interfering with you, putting Poseidon in an awkward position. If that were to happen, he would die."

"You can understand why he's chosing to lead the rebellion against his brother." He adds.

He's barely moving as he says all this. But I can tell from the vein popping on Constantine's head, this supposed Pope is a pain to him as he is to me.

With that...

Pow!

A giant hole forms on the Pope's head as a blue smoke curls from the nozzle of my mini-shotgun. It's current capacity is only one bullet.

"I just figured out how to break our psychic link." I say to Constantine as I retract my new weapon. "He said he's the psychic link. There's no psychic link if he isn't alive."

The body of the Pope falls to the ground, a giant hole in the head. The dark shadow is still masking it. That doesn't bother me anymore. I'm satisfied.

"I have more of these weapons ready to shoot back at anyone who tries to follow me." I caution Constantine. "Tell you buddies to stay off my radar if they want peace. Batman, especially."

"We're done here." I say as I walk to the edge of the rooftop. I wonder if Constantine will try to follow me and acquire the artifact he thinks I have.

But strangely, he hasn't moved a muscle. All his frustration had seemed to dissipate away once the title 'Pope' was revealed. What's he thinking about?

I give him one more look before deciding on jumping from the elongated cathedral building.

"If you plan on following the task to kill her, I suggest you come up with a way to lock souls permanently in the underworld." I tell him before jumping off. "I tried once, but she just came back to life."

"John Paul II." Constantine finally manages to let out the words as he looks at the lifeless, grey, body on the concrete top. "Bloody Hell."

"What is the soul of this dead man doing back on Earth?" Constantine's mind is running wild. It's not a surprise to occasionally see a soul stray from the underworld into the world. But not one straying from Heaven, back to the land of the living and looking all tarnished and dark!

"Blimey!" He's run out of cigarettes at such a crucial moment. Right when he needs to think straight.

The air ruffles his clothes strongly at the sound of a large wing flapping. He can tell that I'm getting away, but his desire has been shifted a bit. He doesn't worry about me for the moment.

"The Presence has Awakened." The words of the Pope run at the back of his mind. "The Darkness stirs."

"What happened to Heaven?" He wonders to himself, recalling a not-so-long ago run-in with an angel.

"Could it be the reason Gabriel was easy to beat?" He wonders a bit more, his heart pumping in his chest. "Bloody Mary! What the hell is going on?"

"Very little." A familiar voice suddenly answers back, but Constantine doesn't flinch.

"Took you long enough." Constantine says to the body of the Pope, now standing in front of him.

"That's gotta hurt." He takes notice of the giant hole in the Pope's head.

"You're telling me." The Pope says, looking very weak and out of energy. "Cursed energy is stronger than described. But the only user in the entire Universe is too naive to suppose that one bullet would suffice. How nice."

"What's this bloody nonsense you just brought up at the worst of moments?" Constantine asks the Pope.

"It's a gateway to your salvation, Constantine." The Pope says as the giant hole starts to heal up. He dangles something on his chest. A cross with a model man nailed to it.

"An artifact." Constantine recognizes.

"Yes." The Pope acknowledges.

"Your former artifact is now in shambles, leaving you empty handed." The Pope narrates. "Yet, you still have the Curse."

"Even if you got the artifact from Wan, you'd still need another to link them and break the Curse." The Pope explains the obvious to Constantine.

"Do as I have explained and I will give you this artifact, alongside helping you acquiring the artifact The Cursed Millennial possess." The Pope attempts to cut a deal. "You must know that both your fates lie mostly in his cooperation. Nothing can be accomplished without him."

"He just put a bullet through your brain." Constantine said. "What do you think he'll do once he realizes it didn't work? He'll just up his game, and we both know how that could turn out. I have a better chance of getting the artifact on my own."

"But you'll still need this one ." The Pope gestures to the cross. "Do what you must to follow my instructions and set yourself free."

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First rule of Exorcism - make sure the body disappears.