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The Sanctum Sanctorum loomed before Constantine like something out of a fever dream all impossible architecture and windows that showed views of places that shouldn't exist. Even after months in this reality, the building still made his skin crawl. Too much power in one place, too many wards layered on top of each other.
The door opened before he could knock.
"Punctual," Stephen Strange said from the entrance hall, levitating cross-legged three feet off the floor. The Sorcerer Supreme wore his usual blue robes and the Eye of Agamotto around his neck. "Though you look terrible."
"Been a long night," Constantine muttered, stepping inside. The door sealed itself behind him with a sound like a bank vault closing. "Your text said you know something about "
"The girl from Newcastle. Yes." Strange descended to floor level, gesturing for Constantine to follow. "Your guilt has been... resonating. Creating disturbances in the mystic frequencies."
They walked through corridors that seemed to rearrange themselves, passing rooms that contained entire libraries, laboratories, what looked like a jungle ecosystem behind one door. The Sanctum was bigger on the inside an old trick, but Strange did it on a scale Constantine had to grudgingly admire.
Strange led him to a circular room dominated by a massive map table. But this wasn't any ordinary map. It showed overlapping dimensions, realities bleeding into each other, zones of mystic significance glowing like embers. Constantine recognized some landmarks Hell's Kitchen, the demon portal in Brooklyn that Zatanna had helped him seal last month but most of it was alien to him.
"This is my working chart of the dimensional landscape," Strange explained, waving a hand over the table. The map zoomed and shifted, focusing on a particularly dark section. "And this... is where things get interesting."
The dark area pulsed with a sickly red light. Labels appeared in shimmering text: Limbo. Otherdimensional space. Ruled by Belasco. Extreme danger.
"Limbo," Constantine repeated. The word tasted like ash. "Another bloody Hell dimension."
"Not quite." Strange's expression was grave. "Limbo exists between realities. A pocket dimension created by the sorcerer Belasco thousands of years ago. It's where he trains his apprentices, conducts his experiments, and... collects souls."
Constantine's blood ran cold. "You're saying Astra is there."
"I'm saying a soul matching her mystic signature appeared in Limbo approximately six months ago." Strange manipulated the map, and a tiny point of light appeared in the darkness. "Right around the time you first manifested in this reality."
"But that's impossible." Constantine paced around the table, mind racing. "She was damned in my universe. Dragged down by Nergal. How could she "
"Dimensional rifts don't follow logical rules," Strange interrupted. "You yourself are proof of that. You were transported here by forces you still don't fully understand. Is it so impossible that something else or someone else could have followed?"
Constantine lit a Silk Cut with shaking hands, ignoring Strange's disapproving look. "You're telling me that when I crossed over, I dragged a little girl's soul with me into this nightmare?"
"Not necessarily. The causality is unclear." Strange enlarged the section showing Limbo. "But the result is the same. A soul fragment bearing Astra Logue's essence is trapped in one of the most dangerous dimensions adjacent to our reality."
"Belasco." Constantine spat the name. "I've heard of him. Demon sorcerer. Bad reputation even by demon standards."
"Worse than bad." Strange's jaw tightened. "He's corrupted and destroyed countless souls. Used them as raw materials for his magic. If he has Astra or even a fragment of her soul the torments she's experiencing are beyond comprehension."
The room swam before Constantine's eyes. This was worse than Newcastle. At least in his home universe, Astra had been damned by a demon he knew, in a Hell that followed rules he understood. Here, in this strange reality, she was trapped in an in-between place, suffering at the hands of a sorcerer he'd never faced.
"I have to get her out," he said flatly. "How do I reach Limbo?"
"You don't." Strange's tone was absolute. "Limbo is a death trap for any sorcerer foolish enough to enter. Belasco controls the very fabric of that reality. Time flows differently. Space bends to his will. He's had millennia to perfect his defenses."
"I don't care." Constantine leaned over the map table, his reflection distorted in its glowing surface. "That girl is suffering because of me. Because I was too bloody arrogant to know when I was out of my depth. I've carried that guilt for years, and now you're telling me she's still in Hell because of me? No. Not happening. I'm getting her out."
"You'd be walking into certain death."
"Won't be the first time." Constantine met Strange's eyes. "And if I do die trying, at least I'll have done something right for once."
For a long moment, Strange studied him. Then, surprisingly, the Sorcerer Supreme's expression softened slightly.
"I understand," Strange said quietly. "I too have made mistakes that cost innocent lives. Arrogance born from skill, certainty that we knew better." He looked down at his trembling hands scarred from the accident that had ended his surgical career. "We are not so different, Constantine."
"Spare me the bonding moment. Just tell me how to reach Limbo."
Strange sighed and waved his hand over the map again. A route appeared, marked in golden light, threading through dimensional barriers and mystic gates.
"There are three ways to reach Limbo," Strange explained. "The first is through a Stepping Disc a teleportation system used by demons. You'd need either a demon's cooperation or one of their devices."
"Not likely."
"The second is through the Space Stone one of the Infinity Stones. Which is currently in the possession of parties unknown and entirely too dangerous to pursue for this purpose."
"And the third?"
"The direct approach." Strange highlighted a location in the Sanctum itself. "A gateway ritual, performed here, with significant power requirements. It would create a temporary breach into Limbo ten minutes at most before Belasco's defenses sealed it. You'd have to navigate to Astra's location, free her soul, and return before the portal closed."
"And if I don't make it back?"
"Then you spend eternity in Limbo as Belasco's plaything." Strange's expression was grim. "He particularly enjoys collecting sorcerers. Uses their power to fuel his own magic. You'd be aware, conscious, suffering for thousands of years while he slowly drained everything that makes you... you."
Constantine stubbed out his cigarette on the map table, leaving a small scorch mark. "When can we do the ritual?"
"We?" Strange raised an eyebrow. "I never agreed to help with this suicide mission."
"But you will." Constantine smiled without humor. "Because you understand. Because you've felt the weight of innocent blood on your hands. And because deep down, you know it's the right thing to do."
Strange was silent for a long moment. Then he nodded curtly.
"Three days," he said. "I'll need that long to prepare the ritual and gather the necessary components. And Constantine?" Strange's eyes flashed with mystic power. "If you're going to walk into Hell itself, you'll need more than cigarettes and bravado. I'm going to teach you every defensive ward and escape spell I know. Whether you survive will depend on how quickly you can learn."
Constantine felt something loosen in his chest not quite hope, but close. For the first time since Newcastle, he had a chance to make things right.
"When do we start?"
"Now." Strange gestured, and the map table folded away into another dimension. The room rearranged itself, walls sliding back to reveal a training space marked with protective circles. "Lesson one: shielding against psychic assault. Belasco's first move is always to attack the mind."
Constantine shrugged off his coat. "Right then. Let's get on with it."
For the next three days, Constantine barely slept. Strange proved to be a demanding teacher, drilling him relentlessly on techniques and spells that didn't exist in his home reality. Mystic shields that could deflect demon fire. Escape teleportation that could work even in dimensionally locked spaces. Mental disciplines to resist psychic torture.
"Again!" Strange barked as Constantine struggled to maintain three protective wards simultaneously while dodging phantom attacks. "In Limbo, you won't have time to think. It has to be instinct!"
Constantine gritted his teeth and focused. The wards flickered, then stabilized. A phantom demon lunged at him, and he teleported three feet left, landing in a defensive stance with a banishment spell already forming in his hands.
"Better," Strange acknowledged. "But not good enough. You hesitated. Belasco won't give you that luxury."
By the third day, Constantine could feel the new magic settling into his bones. It wasn't comfortable this reality's sorcery felt different from his own, more structured, more rigid but he was adapting. He'd always been good at that. Survival was his specialty.
"There's one more thing," Strange said on the evening of the third day. They stood before a vault door deep in the Sanctum's lower levels. Wards covered every inch of its surface. "What I'm about to show you, very few have seen. I'm trusting you, Constantine. Don't make me regret it."
The vault opened with a sound like reality tearing. Inside was a single pedestal holding a small crystal vial filled with glowing silver liquid.
"Holy water from the Sacred Timeline," Strange explained. "Blessed by the Living Tribunal itself. One drop can banish even the strongest demon temporarily. I have three vials. You'll take one."
Constantine accepted the vial reverently, tucking it into an inner pocket of his coat. "I don't know what to say."
"Say you'll come back alive." Strange's expression was uncharacteristically warm. "Despite your reputation and your abrasive personality, I've come to respect you, John Constantine. This world needs men willing to walk into Hell for the innocent."
"Don't get sentimental on me now, doc." But Constantine's voice was rough with emotion he didn't try to hide.
They returned to the ritual chamber. Strange had spent the three days preparing it hundreds of candles arranged in complex patterns, crystal focusing lenses, bowls of ingredients Constantine didn't recognize. At the center was a circle of salt mixed with something that glittered like crushed diamonds.
"Once I open the portal, you'll have exactly ten minutes," Strange reminded him. "I've marked a compass spell into your coat. It will point you toward Astra's soul signature. Follow it, grab her, and get out. Don't stop for anything. Don't engage Belasco if you can help it. This isn't about winning a fight. It's about extraction."
"Understood." Constantine stepped into the circle. "If I don't make it "
"You will." Strange's hands began moving through the ritual gestures, mystical energy gathering around him. "Because you're John Constantine. And you're too stubborn to let something as trivial as interdimensional Hell stop you."
Constantine laughed a short, sharp bark. "Damn right I am."
"Then let's begin." Strange's voice took on the deep resonance of power. The Eye of Agamotto blazed with light. "Hoggoth, Oshtur, Agamotto! By the Vishanti's power, I command the veil between worlds to part! Open, ye gates of Limbo!"
The air in the circle began to shimmer and warp. Reality bent, twisted, screamed in protest. Constantine felt the pull of another dimension, dark and hungry.
"Fiat lux et patet via!" Strange's voice rose to a shout. "Open!"
Reality tore.
A portal erupted in the center of the circle, a swirling vortex of red and black. Beyond it, Constantine could see a nightmarish landscape jagged obsidian towers, rivers of molten metal, a sky that writhed with tortured faces.
Limbo.
"Ten minutes!" Strange called over the portal's roar. "Starting now!"
Constantine touched the vial of holy water for luck, checked that his lighter and cigarettes were secure even in Hell, a man needed his vices and stepped through the portal into damnation.
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If you'd like to support me or read EARLY ACCESS Chapters, you can find me on Patreon
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