In the end, Constantine still got his way. Wanda generously lent him a large amount of Scarlet energy, so much that even Hison would be envious. Of course, he also promised to create a perfect body for Anya.
"You know I'm the Supervisor, right?" Shiller said, leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed, looking at Constantine, "Embezzlement won't work with me, you'd better not intend to pocket anything yourself."
"Of course not," Constantine shook his head, "What do you take me for? I do understand the importance of designated use. However, this kind of energy is very special, and even if it's given to Batman, he might still need me to use it in the end. But I will report it truthfully."
Seeing how cooperative Constantine was, Shiller didn't relax a bit; instead, he squinted and said, "This means you're planning to pocket some other energy, right?"
"Can you stop treating me like a criminal suspect?"
Shiller seemed to hear a hilarious joke and said, "The crimes you've committed could fill a cosmic crime guide."
"But those are all in the past. You can't judge the current me with past crimes."
"Screw you." Shiller answered him straightforwardly.
Constantine got busy again, and he was at it all night. Near dawn, Primary Universe Batman called Shiller to inquire about the current situation.
"You're already prepared on your side?" Shiller asked in surprise. He really didn't expect Batman to mobilize so quickly, but on second thought, it made sense. Batman is a true strategic genius and naturally understands that so-called thorough preparation is often less important than decisive action.
"Are you asking about the situation on my end? How should I put it..." Shiller put one hand on his waist, turned around to look at Constantine, and asked, "Do you know Zuma?"
"Yes, that game where the frog spits balls... No, I'm not saying you're the gemstone. What I mean is, you're the one obsessed with spitting Constantine between two balls."
"What does 'two balls' mean? You have to ask Magneto and Professor X, Thor and Loki, Jarvis and Wanda. To put it bluntly, if you let Constantine wreak havoc in the World again, this won't just be a drill."
After hanging up the phone, Shiller rolled his eyes in exasperation. Suffice it to say, Primary Universe Batman somewhat understands Constantine's combat power but still underestimates it.
Or perhaps everyone is like that; they think they already know how evil Constantine is, but the evil they recognize is just the tip of the iceberg of Constantine.
By noon that day, the two of them drove to The Sanctum to receive the agreed-upon energy. The speed of the Mutants was fast indeed. To be precise, those Demons who would be deceived were not significant figures, much less a match for the Mutants, and were quickly subdued. The collected energy was also delivered to The Sanctum.
Even though the energy level of a single Demon might not be high, the quantity was considerable, and the energy gained was quite substantial. Even after sharing, Constantine still got a good amount.
This time, Strange was the one receiving Constantine. Standing in the office with his arms crossed, he looked at Constantine and said, "Thanks to you, His Royal Highness the Prince is back in confinement, so I have to receive you."
"I like your white sideburns," Constantine smiled at him, "and the Red Cloak looks quite dashing. Promise me, it will always be the last piece of clothing on you in any situation, okay?"
Strange couldn't resist giving him a punch. Constantine coughed a couple of times, touched his face, and shook his head, saying, "I heard you're known as the Hand of God—what an honor."
Strange packaged Constantine and the energy he deserved together and threw them out. Don't misunderstand, not out of The Sanctum, not that close, Constantine was directly thrown off the Earth.
When Shiller found him, he was embedded in Mars, but fortunately, the Mars rover hadn't caught sight of him. However, he ran into Eddie practicing space photography techniques nearby.
"Let's get out of here, Eddie," Shiller said to him.
Eddie turned his head and saw Shiller, raising an eyebrow in surprise, "You ate a Golden Apple too? You were more... um, serious than I imagined in your younger days."
"Are you listening to me?" Shiller said somewhat helplessly, "Forget about the person lying on the ground, just leave here quickly."
"Who is he?"
"The infamous Constantine."
"Oh my God. Venom!"
Venom instantly covered Eddie's entire body.
Shiller's words of advice hadn't even left his mouth when Venom jumped to the surface of Mars. What Shiller actually wanted to say was, if you don't call for mask support, he might not be that interested in you; calling Venom out, Constantine is going to take an interest in that.
Sure enough, Shiller turned around and saw Constantine leap up like a carp, saying something to Venom that made Venom howl angrily and chase after him, almost biting Constantine's head off.
Fortunately, he used a clone technique to dodge the fatal blow. After Venom left, Shiller turned around to see Constantine shrugging on Mars' satellite: "Jeez, this Venom is quite hot-tempered, I told them they should be on a magazine cover."
"What did you say to him?"
"I asked if he could eat me so we could have some cellular interaction. He refused, but judging by his later actions, he was probably just playing hard to get."
Shiller couldn't help but send a message to the Primary Universe Batman—"Start the fight already!!!"
Constantine handed the gathered energy to Shiller and then said, "Now that the task is complete, it's my free time. You won't object, right? If not, I'll be off."
"Wait," Shiller quickly called him back, "No, you can't roam freely in this universe."—what a joke, if Constantine really took off with those two balls, Greed wouldn't be fighting him for no reason?
"I'm just going for a stroll," Constantine said, "I'm not a kid, are you afraid I'll get lost? I'll just be out for a little while, will be back soon to build a body for Anya."
"No way," Shiller said, "Who knows if you're planning to set some trap in the cosmos? Batman specifically instructed me not to let you out of my sight, so you'd better not think about any underhanded tactics."
Constantine sighed, but soon vanished in a burst of flame. Shiller gave a cold snort, thinking Constantine probably didn't realize that now humans have spies across the universe, he wouldn't be able to run far.
Shiller returned to Earth, and by this time, Prime Universe Magneto had finally finished savoring his old memories and began formal negotiations with The Avengers. As for Greed, being a second-line hero responsible for transportation, he wasn't qualified to attend the negotiations, so he had to go to the Elders Council Hospital to help Strange with his medical cases.
The two of them met in the office. When Greed looked up, he saw the agent push the door open and place a cup of coffee in front of him. Greed picked up the cup, sniffed it, blew gently, and then let out a satisfied sigh after drinking.
"Constantine made you quite disgusted, didn't he?" Greed asked.
"Not too bad, I believe someone is even more disgusted than me." The agent found a chair to sit down on and then said, "He helped Batman gather a lot of energy, what do you think about that?"
"What do I think? I watch it sitting down. If I didn't want him to gather energy, he wouldn't get a single bit," Greed said, sipping his coffee unhurriedly, "Besides, do you think Constantine would obediently work for Batman?"
"But Batman should know him better than we do. Actually, I'm also a bit puzzled, such an important task of gathering energy was handed to Constantine, isn't Batman afraid he'll mess up?"
"Batman must have a backup plan, or rather, bringing Constantine over is to mislead our focus. The war had already begun before it officially started."
The agent frowned and said, "But energy is indeed a big problem. If Batman doesn't rely on Constantine, he should think of other methods, but there doesn't seem to be any noticeable anomalies."
"He doesn't have to gather energy in our universe," Greed shook his head, "As long as it's from the same world, bringing it over from other universes would work the same, wouldn't it?"
"So, Constantine is a blind eye technique to mislead us? He's trying to find a solution in other universes?"
"Can't be certain," Greed continued, "In theory, no matter how much energy is gathered on this side, it's unreliable, because after all, the essence of energy is borrowed, though it can be unpaid, those demon gods can play their tricks. If critical energy has a problem, their front lines might quickly collapse, Batman wouldn't take that risk."
"But they need energy, superheroes like Wonder Woman need sustained combat, the base also requires a lot of energy for defense. If they can't count on the energy here, what else can they do?"
"Although Batman sometimes behaves like a question-and-answer style AI, he's far more flexible than an AI. Trust me, he'll make a surprise appearance."
"What's happening in the Prime Universe?"
Greed smiled and said, "Batman's best move was sending Bruce and the others over here; the Prime Universe will soon be in chaos."
In the conference hall, members of The Avengers were intensely discussing, mainly haggling with the Prime Universe over transaction terms and post-war compensations, while also confirming the current powers held by the Prime Universe. These were tedious and troublesome matters, yet they had to be discussed.
Magneto, actually a skilled negotiator, wasn't very talkative but extremely stubborn; once he took a stance, no one could persuade him to change it, no matter how tempting the conditions were, he wouldn't budge. Perhaps he couldn't gain much benefit, but he could surely hold the line. The Avengers were quite troubled by this.
Just as they were attempting once again to persuade Magneto to make concessions, Magneto's expression suddenly changed, he stood up with a clatter, and the surrounding magnetic field almost solidified.
"What did you say? Mechanical Overlord Iron Man invaded our universe? Why would he do that?!"