章 150: New acquaintances
As soon as we left the warm interior of the car, having created warming charms beforehand, and walked a little towards the ruins of the church, Harley waggled her head suspiciously, becoming like an alarmed animal.
No, it's too sweet.
Having experienced a fit of mortification, I petted my faithful companion a little, who, though she swam from the tenderness, did not let her guard down.
"It's gotten kind of quiet..." she said, taking her time to open the embrace.
"Indeed. Even the sounds of the city are almost inaudible," I confirmed the girl's words thoughtfully, starting to feel a vague uneasiness.
The world around us was pressing on my shoulders, and to my sensitive ears I could hear the too muffled noise of the nearby road, where, in spite of the lateness of the hour, various vehicles were passing along the road, illuminating the gloomy trees with their headlights and casting long, distorted shadows. It was as if we had crossed an invisible and intangible barrier, and at first I hadn't even noticed the decrease in noise, absorbed in gazing at the too "deserted" underside of the world and fondling my adorable companion.
That can only mean one thing. A joyous grin appeared on his face.
"Huh... How interesting..."
"What's interesting, Mr. J?"
"It looks like a distraction and deterrence spell. Yeah, they're definitely here. That's probably why no one wants to live here, even though it's not a bad place to live, despite its grim reputation."
As soon as I remembered the kaleidoscope of the Between Worlds, the feeling of incomprehensible anxiety disappeared and my mind started working at full speed.
Eh, it was a good thing I hadn't explored any suspicious places in search of free mana as soon as I'd gotten my hands on a mountain of gems and condensation runes, because there were clearly users of mystical power at work here, and when you add to that the lack of grotesque creatures on the nearest levels of reality, things got a lot more serious. Before, I definitely wouldn't have wanted to accidentally run into sorcerers or witch doctors, especially in their territory, but now... A beautiful medallion with a large sapphire in the center that seemed to glow from within with a mesmerizing blue light appeared from my pocket.
"What's this? - Harley looked at the jewelry with interest.
"It's a protective amulet we'll use as a last resort. It's where the senior air elemental sits," I managed to break the long hug and continue on my way.
"Really?! Isn't he gonna rip our heads off when he gets out? Or do we have to throw it like a grenade and run away quickly while it turns the enemies into bloody mincemeat?"
-Ahem," the rich imagination showed in colors the consequences of the powerful creature's rampage, "in theory, it shouldn't. The amulet was created using shamanic practices, so it's more of a home than a prison. And the elemental itself is closer to the spirits, so it shouldn't harm us.
"Oh," the girl cheered up. - The girl cheered up, but activate the amulet away from you.
The magical world of the DC universe is incredibly rich in various creatures, and fortunately, most of them live on other planes and rarely interact with the material world, simply because they are not particularly interested in it. And what kind of creature with the intelligence of an animal without good reasons would agree to exchange its native home, where everywhere literally splashes the power of the right color, for the energy-poor world? On the contrary, it will strive with all its might to return, which is what some mages take advantage of.
Create a limiter with a torture spell, pour in a lot of mana as bait, draw a summoning rune, wait for a response, and then get away and hide your presence so you can watch from afar as the creature that emerged from the spatial vortex massacres your opponents, trying to get rid of the pain and get back. Of course, no one excludes the existence of a softer approach, when a kind of contract is signed instead of a torture spell, but it requires much more skill, time and knowledge. Most often the first way to call it is the elementals, because they are a revitalized element, and therefore strong enough simply due to their nature. At the same time, they always try to take revenge on "offenders" or fulfill the terms of the contract to quickly leave the material world, unlike the same demons who devour human flesh and absorption of soul energy gives a decent increase in strength.
It's a completely different conversation when it comes to the older elementals. It cannot be said that they must be stronger than their "younger" counterparts, but the presence of reason and the level of control over the element, and sometimes over several elements at once, more than compensates for even a strong gap. For example, an ordinary ice atronach can almost endlessly shoot ice spears, and an intelligent atronach of the same element and with the same energy expenditure can freeze the nearest territory, instantly turning enemies into ice sculptures, or in general create some bullshit on a conceptual level, like a cone of cold, whose temperature is below zero degrees Kelvin, or "freeze" time itself. I've only read about the latter, and it's not worth attracting the attention of such creatures, since I simply have nothing to offer in exchange. From all of the above to conclude that intelligent magical creatures are very dangerous, and Harley's reaction is quite understandable, but if you take into account the fact that the senior elemental voluntarily went to the deal, settling in the stone just for the sake of learning the world around, the appearance of an additional element and the transition to the level of spirit, then here begins a completely different conversation. True, all this does not mean that it can be pulled for every little thing. Despite its reasonableness, the logic of such a creature is too far from human logic, and it may well, after being summoned, quickly complete the task and go to its place, deciding that the second appeal in thirty years is too often.
The amulet itself, by the way, was created by Giovanni Zatara, so I'm a little surprised that Zee entrusted the thing to me.
No. I understand that we have a surprisingly good relationship, and that a reasonable air elemental can even give Mammon's projection a good thrashing, but that doesn't change the fact that the jewelry is the legacy of the sorceress's father. And I still don't know what happened between them, since the girl is in no hurry to share her problems, and I don't insist, letting her decide for herself when the time comes. Eh, I hope he at least wishes her happy holidays on Waynestagram.
Soon we finally reached the center of the burned out church, discovering that the place is much more popular than it first appears.
The snow that has been falling all day has partially obscured the tracks, but the brightly colored scrap of yellow police tape tied to a stick stuck in the ground is pretty hard to miss, and afterward reveals the forgotten little plaque that detectives place at crime scenes.
"How's it going? - I asked my faithful assistant after a couple of minutes of careful inspection of the area. Unfortunately, under the thin layer of snow, I could only find two frozen pools of blood, which did not want to share their secrets.
"Well, how can I put this... I got access to the local precinct's databases, but the coroner is on the case, and he's not going to write a proper report yet."
"Give me what you got."
I was a little surprised at the negligence. The coroner's office determines the cause and manner of death and, in the case of a violent death, passes the data on to a detective who conducts further investigation. Right now, the Eastern District Police Department is probably under a lot of pressure from Darkseid's attack, but that's no reason to skimp on the reports.
"First body, male, age 50-60, medium build, no tattoos. Bullet hole in the back of the head. Body number two, male, age 35-45, no tattoos. Died by decapitation. Possibly with fishing line or wire. The cut is very clean, presumably some kind of device, and there's a photo here.
"Or a meta did it," I continued my thought, looking at the screen. - Maybe a ritualistic killing?
Even the bone was cut, without a single nick. I can't think of any villain who has cut heads so cleanly, used firearms, and yet been associated with magic.
"Maybe, but then it's stupid to tip off the police," the blonde shrugged.
"Okay, let's take another good look around, and then we'll visit the morgue and look for answers there."
This time we widened the search area a bit, focusing on the dilapidated walls of the church, and it bore unexpected fruit. At a height of two and a half meters in a small gap between the blocks, I suddenly found a human eye. The remains of the optic nerve and muscles hinted that the sensory organ had been torn out.
"Did you find something? - Harley came up to me, noticing the hesitation.
"Yeah, an eye..." I activate my true sight, noticing the dark red veins inside. - Hmm, it smells a little demonic. I just don't know how it got there in the first place. Someone's head was blown off with a baseball bat? - I made an assumption, feeling a little wrong.
The blonde poked at the find with her finger, and I noticed with great surprise how sharply the hitherto motionless pupil narrowed.
"Alive! Oh, maybe it's a magic camera? - The girl created a couple of glyphs under her feet, promptly reaching the gap, and looked at the wasteland. - There was a pretty good view from here, and the eye itself was practically invisible from below.
"Maybe."
I quickly searched my memory, but I didn't find anything similar, unless you count vision artifacts, but there's a completely different principle of operation. Though it should be taken into account that my knowledge of demonology is mostly limited to the methods of fighting, and not all the cool stuff that is available to blacksmiths and sorcerers. The silence was broken by a blonde who jumped to the ground.
"I've read that at high ranks, metamorphs can detach their own flesh and control it remotely. Even a severed finger can turn into a very dangerous thing, like growing thorns or spreading poisonous vapors."
"This thing definitely doesn't have enough mana for such a feat, and the coloring of the energy hints specifically at the demonic brotherhood."
But that didn't stop us from putting the strange object on the ground and applying the recently learned scanning charms to it, just in case. The result was so bad, because we didn't learn anything new, and the saddest thing is that even auric search is useless here, because the owner of the eye thought to protect himself from it. Basically, if it really is a spare part of some weak demon focused on tracking, there is one option how it can be lured out.
Fiery writing with instructions appears in the air, and then I cast holy flame and begin to slowly burn the find. The frantic twitching of its pupil told me that the thing felt the pain.
"Do you think he'll actually fulfill the requirements and come alone?"
"I doubt it. The master behind the demon must be aware of the situation, so we're waiting for a mob of creatures."
I felt no fear for two reasons: the still active euphoria of fun memories, and an amulet with an elder air elemental that would at least help us get away.
Having finished with the execution and stowed the eye in a special box for dangerous artifacts, we set about organizing an ambush. In fact, the likelihood of encountering someone powerful in Gotham is extremely low. The real fanatics and sorcerers, like Melholm's followers, prefer to settle far away from the usual civilization, which means that at most we should count on possessed adepts with firearms and weak demons, who will be only a little more dangerous than ordinary bandits.
***
At the same time, in a remote warehouse in the Village District on Bristol's west side, a man was lying on the floor, silently cursing a green-haired superhero while holding onto an empty, bloody eye socket. His strict black suit had lost its luster in just a couple minutes, tearing in several places and collecting dirt and dust as the owner rolled around on the ground, howling in horrible all-consuming pain. How was Joker to know that there would be an idiot who, instead of summoning some demon scout, would throw away his own flesh, not knowing how to break the bond with it quickly?
As soon as the man fell silent, an alarmed subordinate immediately came to him.
"Sir, are you all right?"
"Ha-as-as... Can't you tell?" the one-eyed man snapped angrily, writhing in phantom pain. "Damn, that bastard's going to pay for daring to cross Geo Populus," his gaze fell on the surprised prisoner tied to the chair, from whom they had already begun to beat the crap out of, wanting unimpeded access to the soap factory along with the delivery schedule.
After the Parademon attack, the police and other city services are scrambling, unable to register victims and respond to crimes, so the secret mystical order has a perfect opportunity to stealthily pull off a massive plan that will elevate them and finally plunge Gotham into the depths of chaos. But only now the man was not up to it, because all his thoughts were occupied with revenge on a psychopath with a creepy smile.
"Take this one to the brig. Tom, assemble the Centuria, we have a new mission."
"Sir, the magistrate has ordered access to the plant..."
"The Master is far away now, but I'm right here."
"But...kh-ha...
Tom felt a sharp pain, and looked down to find his boss's hand had placidly pierced the top of his stomach just below the solar plexus.
"Wrong choice."
With a deafening crack of tearing flesh, the one-eyed man pulled out the heart beating in agony and tossed it aside right under the feet of the other two helpers.
"Anyone else want to challenge my order? Jim? Elliot? Feel free, I'm always willing to listen to your useless opinions."
"No, sir. We'll have the Centurion assembled in five minutes," one of the fanatics replied cheerfully, trying not to look at the wheezing fellow on the floor and the bloody organ that continued to move sluggishly.
"That's good. I'm counting on you."
"Vincent, you bastard, I don't know what you've got in your head, but you're not going to get away with this," the tortured prisoner said, glaring hatefully at the executioner as he was dragged along with the chair toward the stairs leading to the basement.
"It'll do," Vincent grinned wryly, then his eyes fell on the blood and dust stained sleeve of his jacket, making him frown. He'd better clean himself up so he could present himself to the younger Adepts in a more appropriate manner, and he'd better get rid of his vulnerability.
Half an hour later, two minivans were parked near the ruins of the burned-out church, and out of them sprang a group of men armed with pistols and wearing dark canvas bags over their heads. They quickly scattered around the grounds while their leader, with a patch over his right eye, calmly strode down the aisle.
"Show yourself," came a commanding voice. - I know you're here.
The shadows on the far wall distorted, becoming several times thicker and more voluminous, and then exploded into a multitude of purple confetti swirling around the smiling Joker.
"Hello," the madman waved his hand. - I see my message got through? I thought I told you to come alone.
"Now, I make the rules. Even if you managed to learn a couple of tricks, it doesn't mean you can compare yourself to a real magician who has spent his entire life studying the mystical arts. You shouldn't have gotten involved in this case in the first place."
"Well, maybe I can't compare to a "real" mage, but you're a demon worshipper," the budding superhero shrugged indifferently. - By the way, who do you serve?
"I serve only the Master of the Order of Geo Populus."
"Oh... You know, you stink of demon stink, but you don't even seem to be aware that your soul already belongs to one of the lords. Let's face it, that attitude shows you're not very far-sighted. Ha ha ha ha, farsighted. You get it, right?
The man's face contorted in a grimace of anger.
"Oh, you! Kill him!"
The old ruins were covered with the rumble of multiple gunshots, and the entire space was covered with a thick purple smoke.
"Am I in? Where did he go? What's that? It's burning! - There were panicked cries, fewer and fewer with each passing moment.
Five minutes later, only a couple of the fanatics were left alive, along with the leader, who had managed to escape the trap. Vincent was badly wounded, but he was still on his feet, as if his shot lungs and the bubbling skin on his face like a burn didn't bother him at all, and the occasional clots of humming red flame around his palms hinted that he was still a dangerous opponent.
"I told you not to come here again," a calm voice suddenly sounded behind him, and a thin fishing line was placed around his neck.
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