Chapter 177: Arc 5: Chapter 21: Spiritual Quest

The afternoon sunlight shone down on the seaside town, the warm sunlight seemed to dispel all shadows, but in reality, no matter how bright the sunlight shines, the shadows will always follow along.

Merlin's infiltration of the temporary military base was successful.

A warehouse and some patrolling soldiers were not enough to prevent Merlin's silent infiltration.

After spreading the fog to its limit, one could hardly detect Merlin's presence even under the bright sun. The warehouse was armed to the brink with security cameras by the cautious soldiers, but there were no advanced laser and sonar detectors, thus this place was like a public structure that Merlin could wander around freely.

"Secrets, where do you hide secrets?"

Merlin searched through the warehouse, he passed by a group of patrolling soldiers like a phantom as he searched the warehouse for anything useful.

But a few minutes later, a disappointed Merlin discovers that there were no paper records that he could flip through here. Those operating computers were also simply executing the search of a certain signal frequency.

Looks like the DoD's operation this time was very covert.

Merlin looked around and was not willing to leave like this, thus he decides to take a risky move.

The dispersed black fog gathers in one corner of the warehouse, Merlin squats in the shadow and whistles softly to the patrolling soldier closest to his position.

The somewhat fat soldier then turns around, but as he turned around, what appeared before him was a pair of glowing crimson red eyes.

"Legilimens!"

Merlin slightly moves his lips, and as mana disperses, the soldier's eyes begin to lose focus.

Merlin's eyes were like a mystical whirlpool that was sucking in all of the soldier's attention.

As the two pairs of eyes stared at each other, Merlin's will began to seep into the soldier's mind like a pair of invisible hands, and the soldier's memory fragments begin to flow into Merlin's conscience.

Like the door of memories had been opened to him.

Legilimens, this was a rather unpopular spell Merlin had learned from Bellatrix's recollections. It could hardly be called dark magic, albeit its effects were very evil.

Legilimens was an effective way to extract crucial information from the target's mind.

It can be used to extract the casted's memories and emotions, and while it sounds powerful, there's a reason it's not widely known.

First off, Legilimens' effects vary across different people.

For those with a weak will, it is enough to extract all of the secrets in his/her mind. Yet against those with a strong will, one can become immune to Legilimens by focusing their will, and even if the spell is successfully cast, the information one can extract from the casted would be limited.

And most importantly, the effects of Legilimens cannot be strengthened through mana, so this was more of a luck-based spell; when you're lucky, you may be bountiful, and if you're not, you may expose yourself.

Secondly, there are plenty of spells in the wizarding world that can be used to strengthen one's will, there's also a specialized spell to withstand the effects of Ligilimens. Of course, that kind of magic is scarcely known, very complex, and has limited effect while normally being useless.

Lastly, using Legilimens would damage the casted's spirit, and the Aurors of the Ministry of Magic can track and hunt the user from the magic scent left on the casted.

So many factors added together caused the powerful-looking spell Legilimens to go downhill ever since its creation.

And up until now, aside from some dark wizards and knowledgeable grand wizards, very few people would research Legilimens specifically.

But...whether a spell is useful or not, depends on the environment in which it was being used.

At least, in this situation, Merlin had caught onto a major breaking point using his newly learned Legilimens.

The memory fragments of this unknown soldier begin to spread in Merlin's mind, from his birth, growth, relationship, and breakup; Merlin practically saw them all.

Mmm, seems like this soldier has a rather weak will.

Merlin quickly browses through the memories like he was watching a miniature movie.

"Not this...this is useless. Wow, you sure have a messy personal life."

Merlin frowns as he skips through the 18+ memories, and a few seconds later, he successfully finds what he was looking for.

It was in a dim base, and a tall figure in a military uniform was giving out orders to the soldiers in front of him.

"Jace! You take team 1 and protect Dr. Powell in the main base."

"Team 2 will go with me, and agent Simmons will be our guide...our mission this time is important! Do not let down your guard!"

"Colonel Burns, we got something, that signal's appeared in California!"

"What're you waiting for then? Move out!"

The short memory then pauses here, the soldier whose memories were being checked was wobbling, any longer, and Legilimens would cause permanent psychological damage to this soldier.

"Obliviate!"

Melin immediately retracts his conscience and flicked his wrist, then, Obliviate is cast onto the soldier as Merlin's figure disappears from the spot.

This entire process took no longer than 10 seconds, but Merlin had found what he was looking for.

In that soldier's memories, he discovered three key personnel.

Dr. Powell, agent Simmons, and Colonel Burns.

Among them, Dr. Powell remained at their headquarters, while the other two led this operations team.

Merlin could be sure that he would find the secrets he'd been looking for from the memories of those two people, the secrets about those mechanical lifeforms.

As a highly efficient agent, having a target means he can begin moving. Merlin's black fog quickly searches through the temporary base, and a few minutes later, he finds an agent that was writing something in the corner of the tent.

He wore a black suit, had curly hair, and looked to be in his 30s, he also had a serious temperament; he was currently frowning as he muttered something while writing in his notebook.

And his appearance matched the intel Merlin had collected, this guy must be Simmons...an agent of the DoD.

Merlin thought that he was writing some confidential documents, so in curiosity, he hovered above him to take a glance. But the contents of that notebook greatly disappointed Merlin.

This guy wasn't writing some secret document, he was writing some kind of memo according to his past experiences with him as 1st person.

"An agent's hobby?"

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Merlin shakes his head and appears behind agent Simmons, he waves his wand, and a green glow representing Bewitching Sleep is launched from the tip of his wand and onto agent Simmons. 

An agent's will was much stronger than the soldier with a chaotic personal life from just now.

So before casting Legilimens, Merlin has to weaken the will of this person who likes to write. And as people know, a man's will is at its weakest when he/she is asleep.

Agent Simmons, who was hit with Bewitching Sleep, nearly instantly fell onto the table in front of him, and a few seconds later, soft snoring could be heard from the tent.

Merlin walks forward and raises his head, he lifts his eyelid and looks at it.

"Legilimens!"

"Shwa"

The same memory shards flow into Merlin's mind, but there were fewer this time, meaning that the agent before him was someone with a truly strong will.

But as a secret agent, this guy knows plenty of secrets, and even then Merlin was happy enough with what little memory he could find.

"Judy, no! Don't leave me..."

The first thing he saw was the young agent Simmons breaking up with his girlfriend.

Looks like this is a person with unreasoning passion.

But unfortunately, Merlin was not here in search of soap operas. He quickly checks another memory fragment.

"The Allspark's activity has become 60% weaker than our last observation, it should be in some state of sleep.

Following a conversation, a fuzzy image appears before Merlin.

It looked like a secret base, and in front of agent Simmons, was a silver-grey mechanical pyramid filled with odd characters; it was fixed on the top of the base while pointing downwards.

Agent Simmons looked at the giant metal obelisk from below, he then says to someone who seems to be a researcher:

"How are the results of the awakening experiment?"

"It's going normally."

The researcher says:

"And though the Allspark has weakened, its effects are still intact, it can still give any mechanical construction unbelievable amounts of lifeforce. But this awakening is uncontrollable and irreversible."

"Its secrets may be the beginning of a new era for us."

Agent Simmons says in an awed yet cautious tone:

"But if fallen into the wrong hands, it can also easily destroy our world. And what I want to know most right now is, these mechanical lifeforms...NBE-1, where do they come from?"

As he spoke, agent Simmons turns around.

Merlin's breathing then becomes heavier.

In the last moments of agent Simmons' memory fragments, what appeared before him was a large yet terrifying mechanical giant frozen n the wall.

It was much alike Cliffjumper's mechanical warrior form, but be it its looks or size, it was much more ferocious-looking than Cliffjumper.

The mechanical giant frozen in ice in the secret base was silver-white, its body gave off a sharp feeling, and while frozen in ice, one could still be fearful from the belittlement on its human-like face.

Like how ancient citizens would act when they face those mysterious creatures of legends...

They could not help but be in awe.

"What exactly is this?"

Extreme astonishment and confusion arise in Merlin's mind:

"Is NBE-1 a Cybertronian too? Why is it frozen in one of the DoD's bases? Most importantly...will it awaken?"

"And that mysterious Allspark, it can give life to mechanical constructions, what exactly is the connection between it and those Cybertronians?"

Merlin has found the answer he was seeking from this base, but more questions arise afterward. He was sure that Cliffjumper had hidden some things from him, but the problem was, did Cliffjumper know about the Allspark and the mechanical titan frozen in ice?

Merlin squints his eyes and continues searching in agent Simmons' memories.

But what he found were recollections of agent Simmons' past career, he had found nothing useful, nor was there the location of that secret base.

Seeing the sleeping agent Simmons begin to shudder from the psychological pressure, Merlin retracts his conscience with pity.

He was not a cruel butcher, he could not kill an up-right person to fulfill his curiosity.

Agent Simmons may not be in the same department as he is, but one could tell from his memories that he had done his best to protect order.

Albeit he has some strange hobbies, they're nothing much.

"Shwa"

Obliviate is cast onto agent Simmons' body, and as he saw the agent fall into a deep sleep, Merlin turns around and leaves the tent.

He plans on looking for that Colonel Burns, as he has a gut feeling that the final answer regarding the Allspark and that mechanical giant is in that colonel's head.

But as Merlin plans on venturing deeper into the base in search of that colonel, his communicator is activated.

Cliffjumper's emotionless voice then resounds from it.

"On the beach at the end of the 3rd street, northwest of your position, under the reefs 1454 yards away...I found B-127, but it's with a human girl, and it's in an odd condition...come quickly, Merlin!"

"I need your help!"

 

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