The climb was short and intense. The Legends – or rather, Constantine – believed their Giant was at the top of the hill. The slope was steep and the climb did not seem to come to an end. Still, when the slope became a little less steep and the forest around them grew more densely, they found a man lying under a lonely tree.
This man was lying on his back and his reed hat covered his face. His hands were resting on his stomach and his left legs crossed his right one. The Legends quickly noticed the man and remained relatively quiet when they pointed him out. It seemed he was holding a siesta in the shadow of the tree. Except that between three and five PM wasn't the regular time when people did hold their siesta, according to many of the Legends.
The group collectively decided to wake up the man and talk to him. There was a chance he had seen the Giant walking around from his current comfortable position. The Legends walked up to him, but it was a pain to wake up this man.
"Hey!" John shouted into the man's ear. The man promptly jumped up; his hat fell on the ground. He picked it up and placed it back on his head before lifting his fists and looking at the group of strangers warily. John and the others were unimpressed – this was a big, slow man with sloppy clothes that screamed 'homeless guy'. Still, that was no reason not to be cautious.
"Who're you?" the man shouted. "What are you doing on my farm?"
The Legends frowned and glanced at one another, many thoughts crossing their minds.
"You're in the nature reserve, mate," John broke the news to him. A surprised and confused look came to the man's face.
"Really?" the farmer glanced at the environment and nodded. He too now saw that he wasn't on his farm anymore. "I hadn't noticed."
"You didn't notice walking uphill?" Zari asked him – it seemed to be something you would remember doing. The man shrugged nonchalantly.
"I was drunk," he said. Mick nodded, in a way that would suggest that he once was in the same place this farmer was now. Nobody doubted Mick got wasted that way.
"You climbed this high?" Sara then asked. Surely someone couldn't climb this hill in one sitting in a drunken haze.
"Very drunk," was the man's response, followed by a somewhat proud nod.
"While you were walking, did you happen to see a Giant?" Ray then asked. The farmer slowly turned his head to Ray and looked at him as if he was crazy. Ray could interpret the answer by the look on the farmer's face alone.
"Not that drunk," the farmer said. He had not seen a Giant walk around the nature reserve. Ray shrugged – someone had to ask that question, but they all expected to hear a semi-positive answer: 'Yes, I saw a Giant, he's right over that hill there!' Or maybe even: 'No, but I saw this impossibly tall tree over there.'
"Okay," Sara nodded. "Thank you for your help." The Legends walked away from the farmer, who glanced suspiciously at them. He did not exactly trust these random sober people who'd walked into the reserve. Still, the farmer shrugged his shoulders and made his way down the hill, presumably back to his farm.
After they'd walked away from the strange farmer on the kill, Constantine turned his head in the direction of the farmer and stared suspiciously as he walked away from the group. Sara tried to stop John from staring, but that did not work. John then turned his head back to the group and stopped them.
"It's him," he said in a serious tone.
"What?" Zari said in a confused but calm tone.
"No way!" Ray exclaimed with a shocked expression on his face, while Nora did not say anything at all.
"How can such a small guy be a Giant?" Mick wondered out loud. Giants, in Greek mythology, were at least thirty feet tall – that was five to six times a normal person. Such a length could not be easily disguised and he suspected the Giant was lying somewhere around the trees, where one of his fingers could be mistaken for a thick log in the middle of the forest.
"It's a disguise," John continued. "How else could he have gone unseen all this time? Don't tell me he's an ordinary farmer, because he's not."
John turned to the farmer again. The man seemed to be keen to leave the nature reserve and return to his farm. John extended his arm and cast a spell before any of the Legends could stop him.
Some Legends believed it might be a malevolent spell that was cast too quickly based on assumptions hastily made. However, John had cast a spell that detected illusions and briefly removed them. For just a moment, that farmer turned into a thirty-one-foot-tall Giant with long hair and a greasy appearance.
Everyone stared at the sudden appearance and their jaws dropped to the ground.
"How is this possible?" Mick muttered under his breath. He and the others came to the realization this was only the first time they would face a Giant – there still was the Giantess Periboea, who would be a similar size and possibly more aggressive than this Giant.
"I don't know," John responded. "I'm not a Greek mythology expert. It seems he shrunk himself to our size to come by."
There was one disadvantage to the spell – the Giant Clytius noticed this sudden shift as well.
When John's spell wore off – almost immediately after being cast – the Giant turned to face the Legends again. He took one step towards them. At least, that's what it looked like; they couldn't see it from this distance. Still, Clytius took this step and shed his illusion before his foot hit the ground again. He revealed his full form to them and anyone else who might be looking on.
It was a strange sight. At a glance, he looked menacing with his hardened skin, long red hair and enormous length. The Legends themselves barely reached the Giant's knee, if they were to stand next to one another. His face itself was terrifying as well, with an uneven set of yellow teeth and sunken eyes that would glare at trespassers in any normal situation.
But this wasn't normal. Clytius seemed mad, annoyed even, and his sigh sent a warm breeze with a horrible scent their way. The Legends almost fainted because of the strong smell.
"Leave now," he said in a not-so-threatening tone. "You don't want to do this."
He was more annoyed than angry about the situation. He did not want to fight them and was giving them a chance to run. That was a completely different image from the one Nate and John had presented of this creature, which was supposedly a great fighter that did not back down from any challenge, that especially liked eating humans and thwarting the gods – now Clytius had a chance to do both and he declined.
This did not necessarily throw off the Legends, but they did know Clytius had to be captured – but if he wasn't doing anything wrong and only seemingly lived his life out here without getting into too much trouble, according to Gideon, then did they have to do this?
John did not fall for the 'act' Clytius put on. He still looked as determined as always, his gaze on the Giant's ugly face the entire time. With all his might – not even giving the Giant an answer beforehand – he cast another spell, one that was longer than the previous one, one that required more arm and hand movements, one he almost shouted once it came to an end.
Clytius did not hear John cast the spell. Only right before it hit him, he noticed something was off. He had no time to dodge the spell as it hit him right in his chest. It stunned him and should have knocked him out upon impact. It did make the Giant fall over forward – in the direction of the Legends – and he remained on the ground.
The Legends hiked the direction of the Giant John had stunned. Clytius somehow managed to land on his back despite falling forward.
"I might be able to shrink him to our size," John said when they almost reached the Giant again.
"Really?" Ray asked. Every time he was amazed at how much John could do with his magic. And when he thinks he's seen it all, John pulls something else out of his sleeve. That man never ceased to amaze Ray.
"Yes," John said. When the Legends looked at him, as if expecting something more, he gave them that something more. "Haven't I mentioned? The goddess of magic has elected me to be her champion. It comes with new perks and stronger magic."
"Congratulations," Zari said in a flat tone. It would have been nice to know this beforehand. Then the question popped up: when did Hecate name him her champion? Where did she fit into John's explanation?
John performed the complicated spell in ancient Greek. The Giant shrunk in size until he was the size of his human farmer persona. They had to walk a little bit further to reach him again, but that wasn't too far anymore.
They finally had the Giant pinned to the ground. After John had done his work, he knelt next to Clytius' right arm. Zari believed she heard him mutter another spell under his breath. When she turned her head to the demonologist, she did not see him doing anything that would raise suspicion. He remained seated on his knees and had his eyes fixated on the Giant, who was waking up.
At first, Clytius was just confused. When he realized he could no longer move, he struggled to free himself from the binding spell John had placed on him, turning and twisting his body – especially his right arm, where John was kneeling – but to no avail. The Giant remained on the ground and panicked.
"No!" he said. "No, please! Don't do this! Don't send me back there."
Back there. The Underworld, the prison of death he had escaped from. Was it truly that bad down there that he didn't want to go back?
"Give us one good reason why we shouldn't," Sara said. She stood at the Giant's left side. He moved his gaze from his right wrist to the captain of the Legends. When she looked into his eyes, she saw something she hadn't seen before in any Fugitive's eyes. Clytius was genuinely afraid of what might happen to him – he was terrified.
"I have information," he immediately responded. This sudden reaction raised a few eyebrows and had some Legends exchanging glances.
"You would betray your own kind?" Nora asked and her that one moment, she kind of felt connected to the Giant trapped in a human-sized body. Of course, there weren't many similarities between them, but she could recognize herself in his current situation. If her father was still around and evil, she would betray him in a heartbeat. Not to evade capture or death, but from the goodness of the heart he had tried to corrupt.
Slowly, the Giant nodded his head. "It's better than going back to that terrible place." He did not look away from Sara while he spoke.
"What do you know about the Giantess?" Sara asked.
"Periboea…" Clytius began. His gaze was unfocused now; it seemed he was trying to remember who she was, or maybe he was trying to focus on the information. "She wants to destroy the world. She plans to bring Destruction into the world. It's a monster, it's a mess, and it will be the beginning of the end of the world. She'll break out every one of the family. She's going to… she's gonna…"
Clytius was physically unable to continue. His face had grown sickly pale. He coughed a little and groaned loudly. At the same time, John finally moved for the first time since the Giant had woken up. While he stood up, Zari's earlier suspicions were confirmed. The Giant's wrist had been cut and some blood still flowed out of it. most of it had been caught in a large jar that John must've conjured up, which John had already sealed. John himself had drawn the knife that cut the wrist and which he now dropped to the ground. If he had planned to hurt Clytius in any other way, he did not go through with that.
"John," Zari said, looking at him. "What are you doing?"
John didn't answer. He either had not heard it or he deliberately ignored the Legend. He tightened his grip on the jar filled with Giant's blood and glanced at the different Legends. They were not happy about his actions. Everyone was shocked and Mick probably wanted to set something on fire, which could be him. He could not convince them he was certain of his actions, especially because he didn't go through with the possible murder of the Giant.
"John?" Sara said, hoping he would tell them what was happening. But he was too far gone to consider telling them what was going on in his head. He could not back down now and wasn't going to let the Legends talk him out of it. He already had the blood on his hands and Astra's afterlife depended on it. He could make it up to them later.
"I've got to go," he responded. Not even a second later, he turned around and ran away from the Legends.
"You stay with the Giant, I'll go after him," Sara said as she was already chasing John. But Mick did not stay; he followed her. She did not send him back; maybe the two of them could be enough to overpower John, if he stopped running from them and decided to stop them in some way or another.
Fortunately for them, John did not seem to have his head in the game. He stumbled over a wayward tree root and nearly dropped the jar, but he caught it right on time again. While he found his footing again, Sara had her batons ready while Mick aimed his gun at John. Mick glared at the demonologist.
"Put down the jar," Sara calmly said. "Whatever is going on, we can help you." And even if they couldn't, they could figure out what John's problem was.
"You can't help me," John responded, shaking his head. "You wouldn't understand."
"Maybe we can," Sara continued, taking one step closer to him. "But we only can if you tell us why you're doing this."
Whether John considered telling Sara and Mick what had led him to collecting the Giant's blood, it was taking too long for Mick's liking. Mick fired the gun and John quickly fired a spell back at them, sending both Mick and Sara flying through the air. They landed rather painfully and when they stood back up, John Constantine was long gone.
"Damn it!" Sara exclaimed. She and Mick could not follow him anymore, and so they returned to the Giant and the other Legends. Zari, Ray, and Nora had stayed behind at Sara's commands, so they could take care of the Giant who was going to reveal more secrets about Periboea's plans.
The Giant was still pinned to the ground. The blood had already dried up and clotted, but John had tapped too much from him. Clytius stared off in the distance and did not move even an inch. Zari, Nora, and especially Ray's facial expressions were enough to know they had bad news.
"He's dead," Ray said. If they had a white blanket available to them, he would've used it to cover the body with.
"Did he say anything else?" Sara asked. "The location and time or something?"
Ray shook his head. "He didn't." Their one chance of getting any inside information about the Giantess' plans was dead and probably on his way back to Tartarus. Hopefully, the gods were kind enough to let them know where they needed to be and what they best prepare for. There would be a monster, if they were to believe Clytius, but that was still too vague to construct a concrete plan of attack around.
"What was that all about?" Zari then asked. John's behavior and actions raised a lot of still unanswered questions.
"We don't know," Sara said. "He wouldn't say."
"He doesn't usually do this, right?" Nora wondered. She had no prior experience with John Constantine except hearing of his reputation through everyone – mostly Ray – who spoke about him.
Ray shrugged. "It's John. We never really know what he's going to do."
Nora did not know whether this was supposed to be comforting or not.