I was contemplating another sever when a purple beam the size of a passenger plane washed over Sebastian and erased him. It skimmed just by the hairs on my chest, sparing me barely, and I dropped to the grass, gasping and surprised.
Congratulations! You have reached lv 51.
"Fuck me…"
It'd taken all of five seconds. Five seconds till I was painfully reminded of how human I still was. I'd been riding so high on getting one of my techniques to level 10, only to nearly lose my life a moment later.
A strange and rather obvious thought crossed my mind: You are never going to be invincible. Not truly. No matter what Inverse says, or how high your stats climb, or how much better you think you are than the other sorcerers.
The gorge George's hollow purple carved ran perfectly perpendicular to mine, and I saw that it went on for much, much longer, probably reaching the next county.
I looked back his way at the hunched-over form of George and a flabbergasted, terrified Raven. That'll never get old. I pulled myself up slowly and found that everything was hurting.
Checking my curse energy pool, I confirmed my hunch about the soul-sapping thing had been right.
It was down by 20% and had a worrying notification flashing beside it.
Soul Damage! Estimated time to recovery is 2 days. That was… ?a lot less severe than I expected and was a frankly small price to pay for what we'd be getting.
Artisan in hell forever.
A small arc of black lightning wrapped around my body, and I took a single step, appearing beside the group. Raven flinched, and I felt the slightest of twinges in my chest as well.
God, the next few days were going to be hellish.
I looked at George straight in his blue and green eyes and nodded once. It was the most thanks the psychotic nut and his sister were ever going to get from me.
Raven stared at both of us. "What kind of macho nonsense was that? Does any of this even phase you?"
"You hear that?" George said, his ears looking in the direction of the highway, and I listened closer.
Sirens. The authorities weren't far behind, and neither would be the news helicopters and the United States government. We needed to be out of here yesterday.
"Maybe we should've put a veil up after all?"
"The Hollow Purples and what do you call your maximum technique again?" he asked, looking my way.
"...Expanse?"
He raised a brow, looking thoroughly unimpressed. "Expanse would've ripped through it like tissue paper if Sebastian's magic didn't do that first. No veil was the economical choice."
"Economical choice?" He sounded just like Artisan. "So, got enough juice to portal us all out of here?"
"Just about?"
"Well, fuck me?' I heard Constantine say from behind me, and I whipped around, coming face to face with the British sorcerer as he stepped out of a shimmering portal.
"You don't do subtle, do you?" He looked apathetic as ever, with his stubbly chin, trench coat, and dress clothes combination. It was almost a uniform. His blue eyes fixed on Raven, who, for the umpteenth time, was thoroughly surprised. I introduced them before further confusion ensued.
"Raven, meet John Constantine, the asshole who hired us to save you and neglected to mention that your captor would be the high priest of a fucking magic cult with bullshit blood powers."
I was practically shouting by the end. George seemed to approve of my little outburst.
"Between the five of you, I figured you'd be okay."
"The hell you did!" I snarled.
"Fine, fine," Constantine conceded. "It was part of the deal with Luci. He wanted to see if you could all hack it on your own. And well, at least the two of you could. You both get to meet with him to finalize the deal. But first, we need to get the princess over here to safety."
He looked in Raven's general vicinity.
"I never agreed to leave with you after all of this was over," Raven said cautiously, taking a step back and eyeing us suspiciously.
"George, you might want to grab the rest of the guys," I said to the sorcerer while I turned to the twitchy half-demon girl. George threw me an irritated look but did as I said, vanishing into the forest.
"You could take your chances with the cops, explaining all of this. Might even fly away and end up with the Justice League for a while. Did the whole thing. They've got a very strict no-kill policy, and seeing as we wiped out a town of people to save your ass—"
"I didn't ask for that," she pointed out with a grimace.
"Ah, but it was either that or let the earth go kaboom," I said, "so yeah, we made our choice, and here you are now, not that the League would appreciate our sacrifice."
I saw that I had her attention now.
"Look with me; what you see is what you get," I said. "And I've kept my word to you so far. So, about a little more trust."
I offered an open hand. The sirens wailed louder in the background, and George teleported back in with the limp body of his fellow sorcerers, a question on his tongue.
"Well?" he almost demanded.
Raven took my hand.
"That settles that. Come on now, Kids, before the little illusion I threw up around the crater pops."
I looked at the borders of the crater in surprise. When did he…
George brushed past me, and then Raven started to pull me towards the floating, shimmering disc of energy Constantine was standing in front of. My improved energy senses let me perceive the beginnings of the geometric shapes, runes, and constructs that made up the spell, but I'd need another binding vow for an even closer look. Or a skill upgrade.
Energy danced across my skin as I passed through the portal, appearing somewhere in the suburbs. I smell ocean water not too far from here.
"Wait, did you bring us to California?" I asked.
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