In the water tank, Angela floated on the surface like a piece of lifeless driftwood.
Sephirot kept his eyes fixed on Angela.
Just then.
A man in ragged clothes walked slowly in from outside the door.
He completely ignored Sephirot and the others hiding in the corner, moving like a puppet controlled by invisible strings as he walked straight toward Angela in the pool.
He reached out both hands, death-gripping the back of Angela's neck and pushing her deeper into the water.
The bone-chilling water submerged her, and the intense sensation of suffocation caused Angela to jerk awake.
Angela's hands flailed in the water, trying to break free from that grip.
But no matter how hard she struggled, she couldn't budge the man an inch.
As the suffocation grew more intense, Angela snapped her eyes open.
However, what met her eyes was a dim, crimson sky filled with thick smoke.
All around her, a crowd of corpses missing half their heads stood packed tightly together.
They seemed to be guarding something, or perhaps welcoming a supreme monarch.
Angela felt something and whipped her head around.
Behind her, a humanoid demon over two meters tall, with skin stretched tight over bone, approached her with staggering steps.
Looking at that hideous face, Angela was struck with terror.
She wanted to scream, wanted to run, but her body felt as if it were held fast by some invisible shackle; she couldn't move at all.
Angela could only watch helplessly as the demon walked right up to her.
"Angela..."
As the demon caressed Angela's face, her mouth opened uncontrollably.
It transformed into a cloud of black mist and, just like that, flowed through her wide-open mouth into her body without any resistance.
In reality, the vagrant who had been holding Angela down was suddenly hurled back as if struck by a blast, his body flying through the air and slamming into the concrete wall.
The water's surface rippled as Angela slowly stood upright. Her pupils had vanished, leaving only the whites of her eyes.
She turned her head blankly, her vacant gaze shifting toward the corner where Sephirot and the other two were hiding, an inscrutable hiss escaping her mouth.
In Sephirot's eyes, a massive and oppressive demonic power was radiating outward, centered on Angela's body.
"Boom!"
In the sky, a bolt of lightning tore through the night, illuminating the water tank.
"Holy shit!"
Hiding in the corner, Papa Midnite felt his heart seize when those eyes locked onto him.
Fortunately, the carrion incense was working.
Angela, her consciousness possessed by Mammon, merely glanced at them before withdrawing her gaze.
It slowly looked up, as if waiting for something.
But in the next second. Inside the room, red light abruptly flared across the floor.
The voodoo ritual circle that Sephirot had previously instructed Papa Midnite to set up was fully activated upon sensing the demonic power.
The blinding red light transformed into invisible chains, winding tightly around Angela's body.
At the points where her skin met the chains, a sizzling sound erupted as white smoke began to rise.
"Ah!"
Angela let out a roar that sounded nothing like a human.
Mammon's body writhed constantly beneath her skin, thrashing left and right in an attempt to burst out from within her.
Fortunately, while Papa Midnite was a mercenary businessman, he actually delivered results once paid.
As the overlapping magic circles and runes sensed the demon's resistance, their glow intensified, forcibly suppressing Mammon back into Angela's body.
In the center of the water tank, Angela's eyes shut as she collapsed weakly into the water.
"Only someone with her psychic gift could withstand Mammon's demonic power. An ordinary person would have been sent to their next life long ago."
Sephirot watched the scene silently from the shadows.
Everything was going according to his plan.
Next, he only had to wait for Gabriel to personally step in to deliver Mammon; then he could seize the opportunity to kill Mammon once and for all.
Just then, a figure he hadn't expected appeared outside the water tank room.
Constantine?!
Sephirot watched as he rushed into the reservoir, surprised that he had managed to find his way here after all.
He suppressed the urge to step out and knock the man unconscious.
Gabriel might already be present; if he went out rashly now and got spotted, the loss would outweigh the gain.
"Angela!"
Constantine hauled Angela out of the water and laid her on the ground.
"Angela? Wake up! How do you feel?"
Seeing no reaction, Constantine frantically patted her cold cheeks.
Angela suddenly gasped for air, jolting awake from her coma.
She didn't bother responding to the man before her, instead looking down at herself with a face full of terror.
"What is it?"
Constantine followed her gaze downward, and his breath instantly hitched.
There, on Angela's flat abdomen, the grotesque head of a demon protruded.
Mammon?!
Constantine's head began to throb. He had never expected Mammon to move so quickly.
"Get it out! Get it out of me!"
Angela gripped Constantine's arm in agony, her eyes rimmed with red.
"Don't be afraid, hang on!"
Constantine forced down the panic in his heart. Pressing his hands against her bulging stomach, he began to rapidly recite an Exorcism incantation:
"Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus–"
But this kind of incantation had no effect on Mammon whatsoever.
Just as Constantine was beginning to feel helpless.
The red light on the floor, which had grown dim, flared up once again.
Stimulated by the demonic power, the voodoo ritual circle reactivated, once again suppressing Mammon as he attempted to break free. Constantine slumped to the floor, staring in shock at the runes lighting up around him, completely unable to grasp the current situation.
"You really are full of yourself, John."
A mocking voice drifted down from the void above him.
A figure descended from the air, planting a foot firmly onto Constantine's face and pinning him to the ground.
Constantine let out a muffled groan, a flash of disbelief crossing his eyes as he looked at the holy face before him: "Gabriel! Why you?!"
He gritted his teeth, his fury unchecked: "Allowing a vile demon to rule the world, what do you possibly stand to gain from that?!"
"Are you criticizing me?"
Gabriel patted Constantine's cheek with the sole of his foot, sounding amused: "I merely wish to use this to provoke the true nature of humanity."
"So that's why you chose to hand Earth over to the Son of the Devil?!"
Constantine glared.
Gabriel slowly crouched down, gripping Constantine by the throat, and said: "You humans were born favored by God."
Gabriel gazed at him, his eyes cold, "Whether it be murderers, rapists, or child abusers, as long as you are willing to repent before death, you can return to the embrace of the Divine."
He shook his head sorrowfully: "In a universe so vast, why is it that you humans alone possess this privilege?!"
"It is not fair."
With a flick of his wrist, Gabriel tossed Constantine into a far corner like a piece of refuse.
"If a merciful God loves mankind so much, then I must make you worthy of that benevolence."
Having pronounced judgment on the sins of humanity, Gabriel slowly stood up.
As if discovering something novel, he looked toward the corner where Sephirot and the other two were hiding.
"I thought it was just a few little mice scurrying in."
Gabriel raised his chin slightly, a hint of surprise in his voice, "I didn't expect it to be you–"
"Sephirot."
A