"Take back your feather and get out of my sickroom. Oh, and take him with you." Shiller pointed at Constantine.
Both Constantine and Lucifer were stunned. Then they heard Shiller raising his voice, "You keep calling yourselves my friends, where were you when I was dying?"
"Now that I'm awake, both of you barge into my sickroom and chatter on. Just a few minutes ago, I was lying on a hospital bed, my life hanging by a thread. After I wake up, you want me to get to work. If that's the case, I should have the right to resign, shouldn't I?"
"What did you just say? You're giving the feather back to me?" Lucifer looked at Shiller in surprise, saying, "Looks like you've taken a knock to the head, you've suddenly seen sense?"
"I take back what I said earlier. I have no special interest in a feather that's no better than a goose feather. I'm not going to display it in my study. It's too tacky," Shiller said.
Shiller looked critically at Lucifer, "Even if it was a full pair of wings, I wouldn't be interested. It's not the shade of grey I like. If I kept it in my trophy cabinet, my friends would laugh at my lack of originality."
Seeing Lucifer's face darken, Constantine stepped between the two with hands up. "No, wait a moment. Shiller, have you lost your mind? Why are you insulting him without cause?"
"Um…Lucifer, don't get angry. He might not know. Shiller, wings are taboo for angels, much like human hair. You can't call their wings ugly, it's an insult."
"Oh, really? Why don't you look at your own hair?" Shiller then turned to Constantine, "Now you have an excuse to enter Wayne Manor upright. As long as you stand upside down, Alfred will think his new mop has arrived."
Constantine's face also darkened. He looked at Lucifer, expecting him, the former king of hell, to give Shiller a piece of his mind. To his surprise, Lucifer paused, then turned to Shiller: "It seems like you want me to kill you. How come?"
"You can read minds? ...Oh, of course, you can." Shiller suddenly remembered. The omnipotent Lucifer would certainly read minds. Provocation would be pointless in front of him.
Shiller did wish Lucifer to kill him. He felt he had found the reason why neither side of death accepted him.
Lucifer didn't know where Shiller had hidden the feather, but Shiller knew it was within his soul.
Meaning, his soul now belonged to Lucifer. Lucifer, the second in command of the DC Universe, was unmatched by the Endless Family. This meant if Lucifer didn't allow him to die, he wouldn't encounter Death.
He originally wanted to provoke Lucifer. If Lucifer killed him personally, that would be equal to Lucifer releasing some of his authority, so he could then find Death.
However, there was still a contradiction. If the original Shiller's soul also belonged to Lucifer, and Lucifer didn't permit him to die, why had he disappeared? Moreover, it seemed that Lucifer was not aware of this.
As mentioned before, Lucifer is held in high regard. He is not nearly omnipotent, but indeed omnipotent. Under these circumstances, he didn't notice that Shiller's soul had been substituted. What did that imply?
Seizing this rare opportunity, Shiller decided to conduct an experiment, in which he planned to provoke Lucifer. However, unexpectedly, Lucifer's power was too strong and he had mind reading abilities. Thus, he saw through Shiller's plan.
"You want to find Death?" Seeing even more, Lucifer quickly asked, "The Death from the Endless Family? Wait … why does it involve the dream god??"
"You even became the Pope of the dream god?!!" Lucifer was completely angered. He said, "You betrayed me! Don't you know the relationship between me and Morpheus isn't good? That stupid dream god…"
"I'm sorry, I really didn't know. How does hell usually deal with heretics? I guess it kills them, right?"
"You..." Lucifer wanted to say, "You think I dare not kill you?" Then he thought it over. If he killed Shiller, wouldn't that be exactly what he wanted, to see Death?
"Although I can't kill you, I can extract your soul and imprison it in Hell until..." Lucifer said angrily.
"Wait!" Constantine suddenly stepped forward, held out a hand, and stopped Lucifer, " ...You better not do that."
Obviously, Constantine had to stop Lucifer. If Lucifer were to bring Shiller's soul to Hell, it would immediately descend into chaos - the Kingdom of Dreams being an example?
Evidence showed that any sentient being could be deceived and tempted. As long as Shiller went down with a mouth, Constantine believed, a Hell war of unprecedented scale would break out in a few days.
Warring in Hell was no big deal. Constantine wouldn't weep over demons dying. But if all the demons were busy fighting the war, whom could he borrow power from?
The debt he owed was not only to the demons. He depended on their power to repay his other debts.