The Ritual (2)

How to hide my identity was one of my biggest worries while growing up. In comics, Clark was very timid, easily bullied and a forgettable existence in school. He was an introvert and thus for almost everyone in Kansas town he was invisible.

The same Clark persona is kept when he works as a reporter on the Daily planet. Initially, even Lois hated Clark, as she considered him weak and pathetic even questioning if he was a man.

This contrast was the real reason, not his glasses why his identity was a secret.

Once Luthor programmed a highly intelligent A.I. to find his real identity and when Clark Kent came as the result, he refused to believe it and thought there was some problem with his program.

It was because he could never accept such a powerful god-like man to be acting timid, shy, weak, and even went to work on a low tier daily job to just hide his identity.

But I wanted to enjoy my superhero as well as daily life so that kind of life was never an option for me. In a world of the Internet and magic hiding your identity especially if both your personas are famous can be very difficult.

As the star quarterback, my face was pasted on the newspapers, people knew about me in my school, I was even friendly with many people in Kansas. So I had decided that if anything can provide me the way out then it should be magic.

Why I wanted to hide my identity was clear in my head. To protect the people close to me and to enjoy a normal daily life when I am not going out as a superhero.

I knew that this kind of ritual should be present in the Eternity Book at least. And I did find one but it was a high-level magic ritual which could conceal anything or anyone the caster wanted.

What I wanted was a bit different, I wanted to conceal my identity, so even if someone had a picture of me as Superman and another of Clark Kent side by side he wouldn't be able to figure out my identity.

I wanted even the best technology to fail at finding a connection between Superman and Clark Kent. Only when I reveal my identity to them could they know.

So I wanted to change and customize the ritual a bit, but even if I knew all the knowledge of the Eternity book when I became its master, I had no experience in chaos and demon magic.

That's where Tala came in, as she was a master in both of them. And she didn't disappoint. She changed it and made it into a grand concealment ritual.

As it was affecting everyone for an indefinite amount of time and even was changing their thoughts a bit so that they could never find out my real identity, it was almost reality-altering magic.

So the amount of magic used for the ritual, from both my Book of Eternity and Amulet of first magic and even a small amount from the philosopher's stone was justified.

The blood of a Demon, preferably Demon Lord's, used for making the array, which was Etrigan in this case was also justified.

The sacrifice of a very high-level human soul, preferably very old. I chose Carter Hal, who would become Hawkman in the future and will be a pain in my ass and would even continue harassing Hawkgirl who I have already considered mine … so it was also justified?

But he wasn't a villain and can be considered even a hero, more so that he was just an innocent 16-year-old boy right now. I know that this should feel wrong, I should feel even guilty, but why do I still feel that this was the best outcome.

I look at the Book again in my hand. I still can't tell if my thoughts are being corrupted or not.

2 more hours and I would know, anyways it has happened already. Now I can live my life as Clark Kent without worry, and my future plans will be easier to implement.

There are some limitations to even such a powerful ritual, like if someone or something uses more magic than the combined magic of what I used for this ritual than he can find my identity. But I doubt someone would go to that extent, I sure hope they do not.

"Master, I am sorry but I think I used almost all the magic in the amulet you gave me." Tala hands me the amulet. I take it and look at the dim purple gem and I could feel that there was only a small amount of magic remaining in it.

I should stop relying on these items for magic and try to find a solution for it soon enough. I still wear the amulet as it could still work for some time.

Tala starts to clear all traces of the ritual and even goes as far as absorbing the residual magic. She explained to me that rituals of such scale, especially one in which chaos and demonic magic were used, will alarm many beings and they could be trying to locate our location.

Just then I hear Jor-El tell me in my ear that John Zatara was calling. I tapped my ear twice and the Liquid-geo changed to a wireless Bluetooth instantly.

"Hello John what happened, why are you calling me such late at night?"

I look in his direction and can see that he was standing outside his mansion in his magician's costume.

"She is coming, Clark." He sounded unusually serious.

"Who?"

"Allura, she is coming for Zatanna right now."