In a penthouse suite in one of the tallest buildings that overlooked the Boston skyline...
Standing by the full-length window in one of the rooms that offered a full view of the city of Boston, Constantine looked down and the sleeping city that was completely unrecognizable to him.
Constantine was shirtless, and he wore only slim shorts on his body. The room was dark and the air conditioner was turned on and blowing at full intensity, making the room very cold. But despite how cold it was in the room, Constantine, who was shirtless, did not feel the cold at all. Instead, he felt like his body was on fire.
There was a steady flow of electricity running along Constantine's veins, providing him with constant heat and keeping his vitals active.
It had been three days since Constantine had woken up in the hospital following the attack of the doom. In these three days, Constantine had gone through a number of tests to make sure he was okay. Through the tests, Constantine was found to be in perfect health, much to the surprise of the doctors who had attended to him.
Normally, for a coma patient, the best you could hope for when they woke up was that there would not be any brain damage. As for other problems like atrophied muscles and nerves due to a long time in disuse, they were the least of a coma patient's worries. with dedicated recovery therapy, these problems could be treated given time.
But in Constantine's case, not to talk about suffering brain damage, there was not even a sign of muscle damage. His body was as healthy as if he had not been laying on the bed for a year but had instead been keeping up a stable exercise routine.
If this was before the space rift to the other world opened one year ago, Constantine's case would have been seen as a miracle in the medical world and countless research would have been conducted on Constantine to know the specific reason for this. But now when bizarre and extraordinary cases had become commonplace in the world, Constantine's case only drew a few raised eyebrows from the doctors.
Normally, when something like this happened, the hospital was expected to contact the united government and report the case, and Constantine would still be detained in the hospital to undergo further testing. But because Constantine's family was very influential in Boston and they had a lot of power even in the current world, Constantine was able to be discharged after only a day in the hospital.
For the rest of the time, since Constantine woke up, he had stayed inside the penthouse without going out at all. Except for his sister Fan, who came occasionally to check up on him, Constantine had been on his own.
Speaking of Fan, she was the Asian girl who had been present when Constantine had woken up. Obviously, the two of them were not biologically related, and Fan had been adopted by Constantine's parents when she was nine years old.
Currently, Fan was fourteen. While she and Constantine's relationship could not be said to be all that great like real siblings, the two of them were not at odds with each other. At least from her reaction in the hospital when Constantine woke up, it was clear that Fan truly loved Constantine and acknowledged him as her big brother.
During the two days that Constantine was home alone, Fan had been his only company. His parents had not had the time to be with Constantine because they were busy taking care of the possible aftermaths of Constantine's unusual awakening.
During these two days, Fan was no longer as cheerful as when Constantine had woken up and she now behaved like a typical brooding teenage girl. Constantine was used to Fan being this way, as this was usually how she was with him. But through Fan, Constantine had learned about everything that had happened during his one-year-long coma.
Through Fan, Constantine learned about the opening of the space rift and the invasion of the dooms. He also learned of the mutations that had occurred to every creature on earth. most importantly, Constantine learned about Baron's disappearance.
Strangely enough, Constantine was not affected much by all the things he learned and the changes on earth. Perhaps it was because of the long dream he had experienced during his coma. Those magnificent scenes of a strange and beautiful new world far away from earth dulled whatever surprise Constantine was supposed to have about the changes on Earth.
Although everything felt like a dream to Constantine and he could not remember every detail of that dream, Constantine knew that what he saw was actually the memories of someone else and that the world he saw in the dream was actually real. With this knowledge, what was happening on earth seemed more mundane in comparison.
Constantine did not care about the changes on earth at all... to be accurate, Constantine cared more about something else. That was the disappearance of his best friend Baron.
For an entire year, Baron had been missing and there had not been any signs of him anywhere on earth. With the changes happening on earth, it was even harder to locate him. But Constantine had a guess as to what became of Baron.
According to the dream, Constantine had, the lightning that had struck the two of them was actually the manifestation of the souls of the powerful evolvers who had wanted to possess them both. That means that just like Constantine, Baron's body had been hijacked by another person.
Constantine did not know if the person who had attempted to possess baron had succeeded but based on the fact that he was nowhere to be found, Constantine suspected the worst and believed that baron's body was possessed by another being who had later disappeared with his body which was why he was nowhere to be found.
As for why the person who had attempted to possess Constantine had not succeeded but had instead gotten his soul assimilated with Constantine's and his memories devoured by him... Constantine was not sure himself. The only thing he could say was that he was glad this was the case since it meant he could keep his life.
As to whether Constantine could still remain himself or not with the soul of another person inside him, he didn't know. But he was willing to find out.
Constantine spent some more time by the window looking outside at the streets of Boston before finally moving away and heading to the bed in his room.
Right now, Constantine was the only one in the entire suite. His sister Fan had left for home earlier in the day and there was nobody with him.
Sitting on the bed, Constantine thought for a brief moment before closing his eyes as if he wanted to think deeper.
When Constantine closed his eyes, he suddenly heard a deep and vigorous voice sounding out in the depths of his mind speaking to him.
"So boy, are you finally willing to listen to me?"
Hearing the voice that sounded in his mind, Constantine was not surprised by it at all. This was not the first time he had heard this voice in his mind. In fact, if it weren't for this voice, Constantine would not have been able to wake up at all and he would still be sleeping peacefully. When Arran had first regained consciousness, it was because the owner of this voice had spoken to him at that moment when the doom had attacked him. Before Constantine had woken up, his consciousness was hazy, and it had been floating in a space filled with clouds. Those clouds flowed freely in the air, forming many bizarre shapes that looked were actually pieces of Constantine's and Ruger's memories. At that time, the voice had spoken to Constantine saying, "Hey kid, you've been sleeping for so long already, don't you think it's about time you woke up? If you don't, you will die, you know!" The voice had not been loud, but the words he had spoken had impacted Constantine's hazy consciousness, sen
"Heh!" Ruger Whitebrook scoffed when Constantine asked that question. Ruger looked at Constantine like he was looking at an idiot. In fact, he actually insulted Constantine straight to his face as he replied to him. "Idiot!" "What do you think this looks like?" "Obviously, when I was trying to destroy your soul in order to possess your body, something went wrong and I was the one who ended up with his soul almost destroyed and fused to yours. As for why this happened, don't ask me because I don't know. If I did, I would have definitely prevented it from happening and I wouldn't be in this mess." "Also, before you ask, I don't know how to resolve this issue. Like before, if I have a solution, I would have already resolved this issue, so I wouldn't have to put up with an ignorant mortal like you." Ruger's words were harsh and direct. He didn't feel guilty at all as he insulted Constantine and he even mentioned how he wanted to possess Constantine's body with a straight face. It wa
If Ruger was so powerful, why then did he not just strike Constantine dead instead of going through all this grandstanding? Constantine did not take Ruger as the kind of guy that would allow others to provoke him without retaliating at all. He got this much both from Ruger's memories that he had assimilated, and their current interaction. Through Ruger's memories, Constantine could be said to have gotten an impression of what Ruger was like and his character. Through this impression, Constantine knew that Ruger wasn't feigning his carefree attitude, as he really was carefree in reality. He also knew that although this was the case, Ruger was spiteful and can be petty at times... His previous words about how the weak should be beneath the strong were an honest representation of Ruger's views on this topic. But why then did someone like this not attack Constantine as soon as he offended him? Instead, he put on a grand display of power that, after further thought, was insubstantial and
Constantine stood on a patch of cloud in dumbfounded silence as he stared at Ruger, who had already assumed his carefree attitude once more. He could not recover in time from the sudden turn of events and before he came back to his senses, some time had already passed. Ruger watched Constantine make a fool of himself in silence and he did not say anything. When Constantine finally came to his senses, he quickly looked at Ruger warily, as if he could not believe what he was saying. "Is it really over just like that?" Constantine asked once more. "This is not a trick for me to let down my guard so that you can attack me unawares, right?" Constantine was still finding it hard to believe that Ruger was just going to let everything go like that without doing anything to him. Looking at Ruger right now, he had adopted his usual carefree expression, as if what had transpired before was nothing and he couldn't be bothered to care about it at all. Suddenly, Constantine felt like a clown..
Various worries troubled Constantine as he thought about his current situation. But there was nothing he could do about this since even Ruger couldn't think of any solution to the problem. He could only deal with it as time went on.Since there was nothing to talk about anymore, Constantine was about to leave this space and get away from Ruger.Ruger also noticed Constantine's intention, but he did not try to stop him. He probably had other things to consider himself and couldn't be bothered by him.But just as Constantine was about to leave, he suddenly remembered something that Ruger had mentioned before. when Ruger had mentioned this, because Constantine had been worried about his future, he had not paid attention to it. But now, after calming down a little, Constantine finally recalled it.After coming to a stop, Constantine turned around and looked at Ruger.He asked, "Before you mentioned that, apart from your memories, I inherited other thin
Learning that he had inherited the Heavenly Constellation Lightning from Ruger, Constantine was on cloud nine. But then his mood suddenly plummeted as he hurriedly tried to calm himself down.Constantine did not lose his mind to euphoria, and he was still conscious enough to hear the rest of Ruger's words."You're blessed, but you're cursed too!"That was what Ruger said to Constantine, and hearing it gave him ominous feelings that all was not well.Looking at Ruger apprehensively, Constantine asked, "What did you mean when you said I was cursed? Did I inherit something else from you, apart from your powers?"This day was really set up to be a bad day for Constantine. it was not enough that he found out his soul was fused with another person's soul. But now he might have also inherited an unknown curse because of this.The joy that Constantine felt previously from inheriting the Heavenly Constellation Lightning was quickly dampened because o
It was in the dead of night and the streets of Boston were completely silent, with not a soul to be found. Right now, the night was a dangerous place to be in, with countless nonhuman entities prowling the streets and alleys looking for prey to feed on.Occasionally, one could make out the distant sounds of sirens ringing out in the night sky. Usually, sirens were used as a warning signal by the military to warn residents in the area to stay in their rooms and not come out because of a Doom or some other malevolent creature was found in the area.Constantine lay awake in his bed right now and he listened to the distant sounds of fighting that came from a long-distance away.Pricking up his ear, the sounds that a normal person wouldn't be able to make out from his location entered his ears clearly, as if he was present on the scene. This just proved that Constantine was no longer an ordinary human.It had been some time since Constantine spoke to Ruger. Af
Constantine found himself on a boundless plain, with nothing in sight around him. There was a blanket of gray fog everywhere around him, covering everything in sight and stretching far into the distance.The fog was very heavy...It was so thick that Constantine could not even see three feet away from himself into the distance."Hello!" Constantine called out into the fog."Anybody there?""Can anybody hear me? If you can answer me!"Over and over Constantine called, but he received no response. Even when he tried to move forward in the fog, there was nothing that came to sight apart from endless soil, earth, and fog.With the heavy fog blocking his vision, Constantine did not know where to go. He could not make any direction as he walked around blindly, hoping to find something or someone that could help him understand where he was.Constantine was confused... he didn't know how he had ended up in this place. The last thing he