"VPUs..." John repeated, his voice reflecting just how deep the man was thinking in attempt to . Without even flinching, he'd fish out a cigarette and light it, calming himself with a puff to aid him in searching his previously clouded mind.
The man fished deep into his memories, the unorganized gallery of tens of thousands of images that those were to him. The term rung a bell for the man, that much was obvious to the goddesses. A fact that gave the four women a mix of surprise and relief as he opened his mouth to speak.
"Viral Pernicious Units... Nasty things they are, beings made of literal pure evil," Constantine droned, finally finding what he was searching for. "While I'm yet to face one head on myself, I've had to keep quite a lot of their lackeys at bay during my travels. Which was much easier said than done."
"Ever heard of one called Vinaya?" Noire, ever the go getter, instantly questioned the man.
This time, the goddess of Lastation sounded a lot less whiney than the chapter before. Instead, her tone was leaning much further on the curious side. Despite this, John's eyes widened a little at the mere mention of the Lioness's name.
"Pride?!" He gasped, saying the word like it was a slur of some sort. Interrupting himself right when he about to explain more about the VPU hierarchy.
Previously, Constantine was pretty nonchalant. Thanks to a mix of him being accustomed to evil superpowered bullshit, and the half-done cigarette between his lips. But now? He was looking a bit panicked. Even with that cig's help. In fact, the thing was almost done already.
"Yeah... Her" Mugen chimed, not sounding very distraught with the exorcist's reaction. his slumping shoulders pretty much spelling out his growing discomfort as the conversation carried on.
Neptune, who'd been uncharacteristically silent up until now, was also starting to show quite the bit of malaise herself. Most likely due to the side character levels of participation she'd put in during her last interaction with the Sin. Then again, she got snuck in the first place. What exactly could she have done there?
Noire, Blanc, and Vert were pretty much on the edges of their seats. Neither of the three wanted to interrupt what was happening at that moment, they were getting voluminous amounts of exposition as is anyway. So why interrupt the flow of free info?
"I-we...ended up fighting her in the Planeptune Basilicom," Mugen explained, his usual cheeky grin gone and replaced by an annoyed grimace. "And by we I mean Gynesis and I."
It didn't take much for John to pick up on the other man's sudden shift, or the reason for his sudden switch. "Okay nevermind, this is turning out to be far worse than last week Sunday...' The older blond thought as he opened his mouth to speak.
"Wait..." Putting two and two together, Constantine asked a question he had in the back of his mind since Mugen's arrival. "Where's my student?"
The room grew silent. Mugen didn't answer since he didn't have a concrete one. Vert, Blanc, and Noire suddenly found the ambient details of the apartment's walls rather interesting. More interesting than the brit before them aparently.
"About that..." Neptune cringed, clearly uncomfortable but powering through nonetheless to drop the important news. "He's... We don't know where he is."
'Mother fu-...' Constantine grimaced internally, cutting himself off before he made himself angrier than he needed to be. 'Yeah, I think I'd rather relive that damned Sunday. The only good thing about all this is that he's alive. Otherwise I would've gotten told where he ended up.' The conman found himself dropping the finished cigarette, hating the fact that the cancer stick had to run out on such a crucial moment, but keeping that internal. What he couldn't keep internal, however, was the growing anger he was feeling.
"We don't exactly know. He was stuck in a 1v1 with her and went missing," Mugen added, not sounding happy to report that at all. "After that she went after me, shoving some weird artifact into me and disappearing."
'How in the bloody blue hell did my student manage to get himself up against Vinaya?! VPUs usually just show up and destroy shit leaving no survivors! But ' Constantine sneered internally, trying and failing to wrap his head around how he managed to meet such a power house so early in his exorcist career.
As if reading his fellow blond male's mind, Mugen gave him the answer to his question. In the form of a lengthy explanation, one Constantine found himself leaning in to listen properly.
"From what I've gathered from these women here and my own experience," He began, his usual accent replaced with aa more streamlined one, almost like he was speaking using text-to-speech. "He touched a rock known for turning those worthy, who are usually women, into CPUs. Those who are unworthy, turn into hideous monsters"
"And these women there are goddesses?" Constantine asked, using those immaculate critical thinking skills to conclude that the man he trained didn't turn into Temu Godzilla. "While I'm not too sure on how CPUs function, I'm assuming they're the opposites of VPUs? With my student having joined their ranks?"
Mugen nodded, alongside the four goddesses offline. 'This is going smoother than I thought it would.' Mugen mused internally, somewhat liking the state of things thus far.
"He didn't get turned into a CPU. But something different. They're called ALUs." Mugen added, his tone switching slowly but surely back the usual.
"Apparently they're supposed to be like bodyguards to CPUs." Blanc added, unable to help herself and adding to the conversation first out of the goddesses. "So while Goddesses rule and protect their nations, ALUs ensure the safety of CPUs."
The Loweean closed her statement with a shrug, clearly uncertain as to how exactly that dynamic was supposed to work practically speaking. She'd spent her entire life singlehandedly keeping her Nation safe, so why would she need a bodyguard?
Hell, every goddess there kept their nations safe without the help of these fabled 'bodyguards'. Then again, that was before the introduction of VPUs, so maybe ALUs are specifically designed for those?
'That would explain a lot.' Mugen thought to himself, coming to a similar conclusion before continuing the conversation.
"Hold on, how've you fought the VPUs' lackeys before the goddesses?" Mugen asked, looking confusedly between the four women he brought to London.
Constantine put a hand on his chin, obviously asking himself that very question instead of answering.
That was until Mugen got hit with a wave of energy he'd regrettably and luckily began growing accustomed to: Fear Energy. It felt like a cold chill running down his back, starting from the brain stem and running all the way to the base of the spine. Quite the uncomfortable sensation for the man if you asked him. A similar feeling John felt himself, calling his attention to the source.
Where was the source? Why, it was across the hallway, In the form of some guy walking with a knapsack in his hand. He looked pretty average all things considered, thanks to him wearing a hoodie and jeans with some shoes, there wasn't much aside from his stature that could be considered in the first place.
Upon realizing Constantine's glare on him, the hoodie wearer instantly dropped his bag and started to run away. Only to get ran up on by the conman, get a cross thrown at him, teleported behind, pushed into a window, then said window shattered by the cross from earlier. And like that, the source of Fear Energy disappeared on the spot.
After that, John started making his way back to the group. His clothes covered in water and small glass shards due to rain having began falling at some point. Rain that was accompanied to severe winds seeing as how much water was now pouring into the apartment from the skies.
"Sorry about that..." The occult detective sighed loudly, dusting his drip of moisture and silicon as he made his way over.
The four women found themselves staring instead of reacting, even after the conman had already dealt with the entity. They were astounded by the short period of time the man spent dealing with whatever that was. So much so they were collectively at a loss for words. A rarity for the patrons of Planeptune and Lastation.
Mugen had decided on doing nothing, believing he'd just get in the way if he tried helping, due to his inexperience with facing creatures of Fear. Which wasn't too far off of a guess seeing how easily John dispatched the threat.
"Damn." Vert gasped, unsure of what else to say after bearing witness to what had just taken place.
There was no conversation, nor banter, zero dialogue exchanged between Constantine and his victim. He just hopped straight to ending the guy and moving on. 'Is this the power of a human who's tired of everyone's shit? Or are all veteran exorcists in the England this powerful?' Vert internally pondered. Her thoughts not too far off from the rest of her fellow goddesses.
As if accustomed to awkward stares, John didn't flinch on his way back. Instead opting for leaning on the wall after returning to ear shot.
"Now, where were we?" Asked John, casually moving his golden locks that fell out of place out of his neutral face.