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Staff Of All Things II
🕑 Added 2022-05-19 15:07:06 +0000 UTC.................
Chapter 75: Staff Of All Things II
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"Give him the hints needed, but tell me if anything comes up. Remember, if he does anything you don't like at all, eliminate him, but for now, we need him to keep the Bat off our tracks."
Ian spoke as he put on a black winter coat, and straightened himself a bit.
"Why are you leaving again?" It was a question Ralf asked many times but ended up receiving the same exact answer.
"To borrow something." This same answer. Batman wasn't too much of a nuisance, but he did intercept several of their illegal moves, apprehending some of the lower bracket Roses.
He didn't go after Ian but just made sure the Roses don't go too far. They had to go so far because Ian deemed it necessary. He had to eliminate most of Gotham's criminals before they rise up, the ones he knows from their memory. Even if they have yet to become criminals.
In an outsider's eyes, that'd look like a massacre, and it's just that. Gotham will be the center of his future operations as the country pays very little attention to it. In fact, if they could, they would just outright disown it.
Due to that, he wants to have absolute influence in Gotham and a bit of influence in other places, that should garner the most benefits with the least risk and losses.
He found Rachel also known as Raven waiting for him. She had only started to at least open up for him a little bit recently, just a little bit.
Selina was standing next to her, attired in casual clothes with a duffel bag.
"Everything is ready on your side?" Ian questioned, to which she nodded as she approached him and gave him a sweet hug.
"Good luck with whatever you want to do."
Ian pinched her chin and gave her a peck on the lips, "Luck is my bitch, so don't worry. It's you who needs luck... Or just skill, I'm looking forward to your performance."
"Hmm, it's gonna be a cakewalk."
"Confident huh? I like it."
"Ok, stop it you two!" Raven couldn't bear it anymore, acting all lovely dovely in front of her, "Can we be on our way now? Like now?"
The two looked at Raven strangely because making a few annoying remarks, annoying to Raven at least.
"She's gotten cuter."
"Yeah, now she's acting like children her age do."
"I know, she was all grumpy, reeking with depression at first... Now she's adorable."
Raven just stared at the two in a daze before letting out a pout and hurriedly walking away.
"Pffft hahahaha, she is adorable."
They then said goodbye and each went on their own way. Selina was on a mission suitable for her, doing what she has come to love, simply stealing.
Ian on the other hand made his way to the airport with Raven and took a flight to New York City.
"Are you ready to finally tell me what you want to do? Or why do you want to bring me with you specifically?" The purple-haired magician wondered.
"Because you're a magician, and we're meeting one."
"Who?"
"Someone you know actually, the magician you went to for help before meeting me."
"Her? Why?" Raven frowned, certainly not having a good impression of her since the said magician had refused to aid her for the simple fact that she shares the same bloodline as Trigon.
"Knowledge my dear, knowledge." He started to gently stroke her silky purple hair which she would've stopped if his next words didn't get her full attention.
"You have an enemy, that much I figured. You have yet to tell me who it is, but I will tell you how to defeat him... All it comes down to is knowledge. Do you know how powerful he is? Do you know if it has any limits? Any weaknesses?
What if you know locations of things, people, or artifacts strong enough to annihilate him? If one is not enough, collect more. Prepare a trap, if done well enough, he'll surely fall to it.
I can promise you that there are plenty of ways to eradicate him. The simplest of which is creating enmity between him and someone of the same level of power or stronger... Even better, you can just become that strong, it shouldn't be too hard.
The point of what am saying is you just need to know. Know how to become more powerful. How to make him weaker. Places where he will be at a disadvantage. Strong forces that have an inflict of interest in him or can have such inflict if you interfere... Just think and you'll know what you need to know and how to know it, then you'll know it."
Raven remained silent for a while, perhaps contemplating his words before wondering, "Why do I feel like you know who my enemy is?" She has yet to tell him that. In fact, she didn't even tell him that her enemy is actually a demon, and is her father at that.
"Perhaps I know? All you need to know is that the Roses have your back. We've already started spreading throughout the world. Our information network is one of the best and is only improving, so use it however you like."
He patted her head one last time before leaning back in his seat and closing his eyes, focusing on all of his rings, specifically the pocket dimension within the.
He was working on quite an interesting project, one of many. A project related to Trigon's scroll, an idea he came up with when he was studying the scroll with Raven.
They landed in New York soon after, finding a car with a driver already waiting for them in front of the Airport. He booked everything in Gotham, one of the booked things is a hotel suite and a ticket to a show, a magic show.
They arrived at the hotel by nightfall. Ian went ahead and took a shower before bringing his laptop out and started looking through some information.
'First, I'll meet john Constantine, and acquire my goal. Perhaps even...' His thought process was interrupted by Raven, "And where will I sleep? Why didn't you get another room."
"Hm? It's safer beside me. Just sleep on the other side of the bed, and don't care about me. I will likely just stay here the entire night reviewing some stuff." He didn't lift his head but kept looking at the laptop as he casually responded.
"Likely?" Raven frowned, still unsure.
Ian finally looked at her with a strange expression, "What are you afraid of? Like, you're just a child. Go sleep as we'll wake up early, you have homework to do tomorrow... Hahahaha, I'm just joking. I will just sleep on the couch."
Raven found herself pouting yet again as ran to the bedroom, something she found herself doing quite a lot since meeting him. She's not used to anyone treating her like this, even her mother as they had to live under the fear of Trigon getting to them at any moment.
"Adorable." Ian shook his head in amusement and continued reading through all the information collected by the Roses. It was information about an assignment he gave not too long ago, about the location of Olympus.
'Should I find him or let him find me? I did defeat Deathstroke after all, and the method used shouldn't matter to them. If not, then I can only use harsher methods to acquire it.
The other target should either be easier or much harder. I just need the lamp, so it's not necessary to obtain the ring. That makes things much easier.
With the thing I obtain from Constantine, it'll make it so five vessels are filled and five more to go... Not enough, I hope it'll work out as I imagined it would. Now, for some more thinking...'
A lot of thinking that didn't stop until morning, not a minute was spent sleeping, something he was used to, especially recently as he found himself to be much more energetic than he used to.
He attributed that to his constant increase in life force output and control. One may assume the opposite would happen but he doesn't make any sense.
Ian walked into the bedroom to wake Raven up only to find her sweating, and somewhat sleeping uncomfortably.
He gently woke her up, ending up scaring her a bit, "Nightmares?"
"Huh? n-no," She was still a bit dazed as she stuttered her words. Ian ignored her obvious lie and gave one of his strange bits of advice.
"Think about it this way? What's the worst that can happen, everyone dies? You die? I die?"
"That... doesn't make any sense?" Raven responded with confusion apparent all over her face.
"Exactly."
"Huh? I still don't get it?"
"I don't get it either. Put on your clothes and let's go. We have a show to watch..."
