American comics start with Zha Kang’s apprentice

John Constantine stood on the dock in front of the dilapidated hut and lit a cigarette. The old house surrounded by vines in front of him almost merged with the shadows cast by the twisted and strange trees around it.

The entire house's wooden boards were rotten, but it actually didn't collapse. The black walls were covered with moss, and some overgrown weeds even came out of the cracks, appearing ghostly without wind. Lights flickered in the dust-obscured windows, but Constantine thought the house was uninhabited.

Moreover, Constantine was certain that this was the haunted house he had seen. While secretly looking through some of Batman's records about Gotham, he found files about an abandoned building in the Slaughter Swamp, where some unconfirmed murders had occurred. The reason why those are unconfirmed murders is more or less because of the legend about the Slaughter Swamp. Batman once found the remains of some children, but those were all clues decades ago. Now, that building It was also uninhabited, and no one knows what happened, neither in official records nor in police files.

But there once was a terrible song in Gotham. It seemed to be an adaptation of a children's song from a fairy tale, or maybe it wasn't.

Solomon Grundy.

Batman wrote this bloody name on an old photo. He seemed to have lived in the Slaughter Swamp, but he seemed not to have existed. Like Batman, he was more like a nightmare under the Gotham night. For To ordinary people, he is just a legend.

Constantine doesn't think so. He is a guy who plays those dark tricks. He is a madman who walks at night. He knows that the old photos of the house and the old photos of the man that Batman kept are not groundless. And legends must at least have a shadow, and this is the birthplace of that legend.

Yes, Constantine was absolutely convinced of this.

Solomon Grundy, the villain in the nursery rhyme who killed the children, once lived here. He was born here, died here, was resurrected here, and was given new meaning.

Or some kind of evil curse.

Constantine looked up at the dark sky while holding a cigarette, and then looked back at the calm swamp river. There was no ripple in the river. Even if Diana shook the oar, she could only push away the thick liquid like a black curtain, but there were no ripples, no ripples, no sound of running water, nothing.

damn it!

Constantine's scalp tingled again, he was afraid of this place, it was instinctive. Like prey sniffing out the hidden scent of a predator, the fear is innate and intensifying.

Constantine really wanted to turn around and run away, but at this moment, when Diana came over, the boat sank untimely.

It was as if it had finally completed its last mission and could finally retire.

But to Constantine, this is a fucking black joke, or maybe the house knows that Constantine has a bad habit of rubbing oil on his feet. It knows Constantine too well, and it just helps this bad guy get rid of it. The idea of ​​​​escape.

"It's alive." Constantine said calmly with his hands in his pockets, "It's watching us."

"Don't be stupid, Constantine." Diana walked towards the ajar wooden door. The shadows inside the door peeked out a little. As Diana approached, they swallowed up the blurry shadow under Diana's feet.

"You've been here, you should know this. The concept of living is not limited to living beings. I can't be damned wrong. This house is full of malice." Constantine didn't want to go in. , but he couldn't leave either.

The sky is now filled with those black flowers, and the worms are swooping down as densely as mosquitoes. They gather and seem to be able to cover the sky soon, but near the dock of this building, they are There was no attack on Constantine. This is obviously not because they are afraid of Constantine and Diana. In fact, Constantine thinks that these Tatars have no scruples. They just can't get close to this building yet, as if this side of the dock is another level of space. , the Tatars couldn't get in at all.

The reason why Constantine can come in is because of Diana. She mentioned the thread of fate and her upcoming attempt to enter time.

"If you continue to stay here, the Xitars will eventually pounce on you and bite you to death." Diana opened the wooden door. She observed the situation in the dim corridor with a serious look, "They are eating time, they have been given Such a responsibility, and we are under the shelter of this space outside of time, once time returns to zero, this place will also lose its barrier, and it will be pulled into the same space."

Constantine raised his eyebrows, and he finally followed reluctantly, and then said angrily, "I think I have tricked someone, and that liar is definitely not you, madam. You are also a pawn, I can see Come out, but you are more convincing than me, and you seem to be much more honest, so you were deceived into coming here to induce me..."

"No, Constantine. I made my own choice. I could choose to leave, but I still came back. I did not return to nothingness at the end of my life. I hope this world can continue to exist. If I was Being chosen by the Olympus gods to protect the world and bringing them a steady stream of faith, now, I am willing to protect the world with my own intention." Diana walked into the house, she He stepped forward on the decayed floor that he had walked on before but was slightly different, "And you, it's very simple, Constantine, do you want this world to end? Are you willing to live alone in the darkness of nothingness? Or for eternity? Reincarnated in endless nightmares? If that can be called living."

"What I know is that no matter how hard I fight, the world will always find a way to defeat me." Constantine followed Diana. There was no smile on his face because he had been through a lot. He has seen the tragic death of many relatives and friends. He has been racing against his destiny since he was born. He has not lost yet, but he has never won. He just escaped again and again, and then licked his wounds alone in the darkness.

Like a lost dog.

Today, angels and demons are walking in the world, and Constantine believes that the entire world will usher in a tragic ending that he will be unable to turn around.

But Diana appeared, and in this sinful swamp where countless lives had been buried, this woman said there was still a glimmer of hope.

"What on earth is here?" Constantine looked at the open doors in the darkness ahead. On the floor, there were some scattered comic books, some with only their covers remaining, and some with their contents as if the paint had been scattered. All the contents are generally blurred, and some are completely blank.

In the house, the jumble of sounds was replaced by one sound.

It was the creaking sound of a loom.

"Three doors." Diana said, "They all lead to the same ending. We will enter these three doors respectively."

Constantine frowned, "Three doors? But there are two of us? Is there anyone else in this house?"

"Long time no see, Constantine... Oh, or in this possibility, we have never met." Lucifer emerged from the darkness ahead with an object covered by black cloth in his arms.

"Damn..." Constantine really wanted to turn around and run away this time.

No one wants to be with Satan.