After giving detailed directions, Mister E escorted the entire group—including Constantine and Zatanna—out of the castle as if sending off a plague. He pretended not to see the shattered statues or the blown-open gates along the way. Zatanna also failed to notice that the pile of pulverized debris on the ground had once been her father's statue.
Only after their figures disappeared into the night did the blind old man finally breathe a sigh of relief. At the same time, excitement stirred in his heart—the foundation built by the four of them back then now belonged entirely to him.
Leaving aside the blind old man who had just turned a joint venture into a sole proprietorship, Thea began counting her gains and distributing the spoils on the return trip.
"Take it."
Thea tossed a katana glowing with green light to Deathstroke. An acid enchantment had been embedded into the blade. Each strike dealt enhanced physical damage along with corrosive acid damage. There were plenty of enemies immune to fire or ice—but those immune to acid were extremely rare.
Poison Ivy received a pair of bracers designed for rapid movement through forests. To others, they were somewhat underwhelming, but they suited her perfectly. She could generate massive amounts of plant life at will, which qualified as a "forest." These bracers significantly compensated for her lack of mobility and were equally useful for offense or retreat.
"This one's for you. It should help nourish your little skeleton."
Thea sifted through the loot. There were very few voodoo-related items. In the end, she selected a stone tablet about the size of a tablet computer, covered in crude, childlike drawings of strange symbols. Within it was a small space saturated with death energy—perfect for Papa Midnite. His super-prehistoric civilization skeleton was too severely damaged; with this tablet, it could at least recover part of its former power.
After the loot was distributed, she watched them return to camp. With over three hundred people and a large amount of equipment, taking transport aircraft was the better choice—opening portals for that many would have been far too exhausting.
Thea removed the magical power cores from the two iron golems and handed the constructs to Deathstroke to take back to Metropolis. She planned to study them later. As for herself, she intended to head alone to Northern Europe to find Felix Faust. The man owned an observatory usually hidden in an alternate plane. There would only be a single enemy—bringing more people would be pointless.
The mercenaries departed in formation. Not one of them asked who the mysterious black-clad figure was or why she remained behind.
They left quickly. In the end, only Thea, Constantine, and Zatanna remained.
"My two worthy juniors, do you still have business here?" Thea asked them curiously.
Worthy your ass.
Constantine had lost track of how many cigarettes he'd smoked. Annoyed, he spat one out after only a few puffs.
"The compass is split into three parts. The Cult of the Cold Flame only obtained two. The remaining part is in a friend's hands. I want you to hand those two parts over to me. This thing is dangerous—if it falls into the hands of ordinary people, it'll cause major trouble."
Thea hadn't paid much attention to the compass before. But seeing how seriously Constantine spoke about it, she immediately raised its priority by two levels.
"My gifts are not to be refused. But if I'm unwilling, no one can take anything from my hands. John Constantine—you're not my opponent."
Her voice was as cold as a winter gale.
"Hey, easy there, easy. Aren't we talking things out nicely? Zee, say something too—attack!"
Grinning like a clown, Constantine raised both hands as if surrendering. When he thought Thea's attention was drawn by his antics, his hands suddenly traced red arcs in rapid succession. A rose-colored magic array appeared beneath Thea's feet.
"Old senior, hand it over. You hid it well, but… my nose tells me you're a woman. This array only works on women!"
Constantine flipped up the collar of his trench coat, trying to destabilize her mentally and find an opening.
Thea remained unmoved. A joke—this spell was recorded in the Constantine family's own grimoires. Breaking it was trivial. But simply breaking it was meaningless. Drawing on Mage Sargon's knowledge and the principles of magic arrays, she chose a method no one before her had ever used.
She lifted her hands, following the flow of mana within the array, and forcibly pulled the entire formation out of the ground. Like displaying a product, she rotated it twice through a full three hundred and sixty degrees.
"Little John, for something drawn in a hurry, this is decent. But there's excessive mana buildup at this node—too easy to sabotage. And this node here? The lines are overly complex. You could simplify them…"
Like a teacher instructing a student, she critiqued the array inside and out. Then she tossed it aside like trash. After a faint wisp of smoke, nothing remained.
"To make sure you remember this lesson, the teacher is assigning homework."
As she spoke, Thea produced the Dead King's Staff. Under the horrified gazes of the two, the staff emitted a silent black beam that struck them directly. The rolling darkness engulfed them, dragging both into the interstitial space between the material world and the Shadow Plane.
This was an improved version of the Huntress Goddess's Maze Spell. Even Ares had once been trapped for over ten minutes. Against them, such a high-grade labyrinth was unnecessary—a pitch-black shadow maze where one couldn't see their own hands would keep them occupied for days.
These two had far too much nerve. Ignoring the Cult of the Cold Flame, beaten into utter ruin, they still dared to bare their fangs at her. If she didn't teach them a lesson now, they'd suffer far worse later.
Thea lightly clapped her hands, confirmed her bearings, opened a portal to Norway, and left.
Once in Norway, how was she supposed to find someone in a sea of people? Fortunately, Constantine had already provided the solution—Croydon's Compass.
After rummaging through Mister E's "gift" for quite a while, she finally found the pointer and the dial. Strictly speaking, it was a compass. The missing component was the lens, which—unsurprisingly—was in the hands of Constantine's friend.
In its incomplete state, ordinary people couldn't use it at all. For a magic user, however, it posed no problem.
Between locating Malcolm and tracking down the unlucky Felix Faust, Thea chose to find Malcolm first.
She injected mana into the pointer. It hovered in midair and spun rapidly.
In less than ten seconds, it transmitted a vague signal.
Found him.
"This thing's pretty good. I should complete it later."
Thea was genuinely pleased. It was far faster than scouring mountains and wilderness with the Eye of Horus.
After casting invisibility on herself, she continually adjusted her course, flying from the city toward the outskirts.
As she drew closer, the signal from the pointer grew stronger. After a third adjustment, she arrived at the foot of a mountain. The mountain was rich in metal deposits, severely obstructing her vision—but she still spotted Malcolm standing at the entrance of a cave.
She quietly let out a breath.
So many innocent lives had been sacrificed just to find him. (Cult of the Cold Flame: We died unjustly!)
"Thea!"
Malcolm's expression had been stern. When he saw her remove her hood and step out of the darkness, heartfelt joy immediately spread across his face.