Chapter 60: Arc 2: Chapter 15: Rabid Morris

Usually, demons' powers are generally fire-related, probably due to the environment they survive in.

Using fire against demons is akin to death because demons have an unbelievable resistance to fire. But as a vessel for demonic powers, the half-demon in front of Merlin was not completely immune to fire.

He stands up from the flames of the explosion, his entire body had been lit by fire and torn by shrapnel, making him look miserable.

But the dark mana was quickly healing his wounds so he could persist the absolute pain.

Unfortunately, Merlin's weapon testing was coming to an end.

"Fwaa"

As soon as the man walked out of the flames, a ball of black fog entangles onto his body like a breeze. Merlin stuffs two items into his broken body and quickly retreats.

2 seconds later...

"KABOOM"

The impact of the hand grenades was much larger than that of a rifle grenade, this explosion blew the half-demon into pieces, this time, regardless of how strong his regeneration was, he could not get back up.

The flames of the explosion are quick to dissipate, and Merlin reappears.

He walks to the remains in front of him, he squats down and picks up a burnt black bone from the burning remains.

He could sense a faint trace of black mana from the bone, but what made Merlin frown was that although the dark mana indeed had Trigon's scent from it, it wasn't pure once you looked close enough.

It was very unlike the dark mana inside his body which was given by Trigon, it's more like...it's been handed off.

There was another scent in the mana.

"Pa"

Merlin throws the bone back to the remains and flicks the ash from his fingers. He frowns and walks towards the motorbike; he rummages the motorbike and finds something akin to an emblem, before returning to his car.

Before the cops arrive, Merlin drove his car out of the parking lot.

Merlin could guess that the half-demon he just finished off was not the half-demon Constantine had warned him about.

This guy was probably the half-demon's underling or follower.

Something akin to a cultist.

He's just a pawn sent to die, to bait Merlin to reveal himself. The real half-demon was probably still hiding in the dark, or even nearby, observing Merlin's fight with its follower to evaluate Merlin's power and threat level.

That cunning half-demon will strike at the moment it grasps Merlin's complete situation.

This made Merlin feel threatened, he was once again treated as prey.

But this time, Merlin won't just run.

---

"Here are the pictures and names, search and record them."

On the second morning, as Merlin returns home from his daily jog, Silvey had already prepared for work. Merlin gives Silvey his spy camera and points at the pictures on the screen, telling him about their names.

He pats on the trainee agent's shoulder and tells him:

"Look them up in the database, try your best to fill in all the details, addresses, etc. Can you do it all by tonight?"

"Mmm, sure, it's not that hard."

Silvey presses his glasses and begins moving his fingers on the keyboard, this young Indian was in working mode.

"Good, I'll leave you to it then."

Merlin bids the working Silvey goodbye and walks into his room, he makes a call, changes into casual clothing, and walks out with his baseball cap and sunglasses.

A dozen minutes later, in a cafe somewhere in Hell's Kitchen, Merlin's awaited guest arrives.

The young black man Tuck whom Merlin met before walks into the cafe, he wears a fawn smile and sits on the chair opposite Merlin, then he says:

"Boss Merlin, what can I help you with?"

"Call me Merlin, Tuck, I'm here to ask you a favor."

Merlin orders two cups of coffee, then he hands the emblem he found on the motorbike yesterday to Tuck, then he says:

"Last time, you said that you know Hell's Kitchen. Have you seen this before?"

Tuck takes and holds the emblem in hand, with one glance, he nods and says:

"Of course, I've seen it, it's the emblem of Cerberus."

"Cerberus? What's that?"

Merlin had never heard of that name before, so Tuck explains to him:

"On the surface, it's a brotherhood of long-distance truck drivers."

"Their members are a complicated bunch, they all like motorbikes and occasionally organize motorbike parades, but in reality, they also do some illegal businesses. I heard that the Rabid Morris controls a drug supply route from Mexico to New York. About 20% of the drugs in New York are transported by them."

"Their main base is in Hell's Kitchen, not far from Josie's Bar. You can always find some people in leather jackets gathering there when you walk by."

Tuck gives the emblem back to Merlin and says in a cautious tone:

"Cerberus has a high influence in Hell's Kitchen, ever since they took out the Ireland Gang a few years back, not many people are willing to mess with them."

"Mmm."

Merlin nods, the half-demon he met yesterday had a motorbike rider-look, so it's plausible that he is a member of Cerberus.

Merlin thinks and asks:

"Are there any...mmm, cultist-like guys in Cerberus? Praising the devil, making sacrifices, etc."

"Erm, this I never heard of."

Tuck had a troubled face as he says:

"Merlin, you've seen how Hell's Kitchen is, there's a lot of different kinds of people here, even self-proclaimed devil worshippers."

"But I have heard some rumors, supposedly, Cerberus' leader is a mysterious person, and he meets with his members in his main base every month. On that day every month, they would shut the doors of their main base and not take any business. Some elderly people say they may be engaging in cult activities, but there's no proof to support that claim."

The young man shrugs and tells Merlin:

"Other than that, there's not much to say, in recent years, Cerberus has been expanding its influence in Hell's Kitchen, many of my friends have joined in. They have an official cover so the local police won't mess with them, thus joining them became a great idea."

"What about you? Tuck."

Merlin spreads his dark senses and looks at Tuck's eyes, he asks:

"Why don't you join them?"

"I dislike motorbikes, I was almost killed by a drunk motorbike rider when I was young."

Tuck pouts and says with a dissatisfied expression:

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"And the work that Cerberus does is dangerous, people go missing every month, selling drugs is a risky job after all. And I, don't like taking risks."

"People go missing every month?"

Merlin nods thoughtfully and ends the topic, he then tells Tuck:

"I need to buy some more things for 'self-defense', do you have anything that packs a bigger punch?"

"Yeah!"

Tuck let out a gleeful smile as soon as he heard Merlin say that.

"I'll give you a tour of my warehouse. If you're unsatisfied, I can contact Boss Yuri for you, he can get second-hand tanks and landships, err, though they're not the best choice to use in Hell's Kitchen."

"Look over there! That's Cerberus' main base."

A few minutes later, as Tuck was driving his pickup truck past a remote street, he points to a building on the side and tells Merlin:

"You see all those motorbikes parked at the entrance, they're all high-class. As much as I dislike motorbike riders, you have to give it to them for how cool they look."

"Oh, is that so."

Merlin turns back and looks at the slightly aged building, that place must've been a warehouse-turned-bar.

On the wall of the four-story building was a fierce-looking Cerberus symbol surrounded by flames.

And as Tuck had said, there were multiple high-class motorbikes parked outside the bar, they were using this simple yet effective way to show how rich they were.

Mmm, they do look cool.

Merlin memorizes the location, light flashes in the eyes behind his sunglasses

He had a hunch that the half-demon Constantine had warned him about was the mysterious boss behind Cerberus. As for the organization Cerberus itself was most likely a cult the half-demon had built.

There should be plenty more of those guys in there like the guy that was sent to his death yesterday.

"Talking about that, Tuck, do you know a guy named Constantine?"

Merlin sits on the passenger seat, and while sharing a smoke with Tuck, he asks:

"Probably a detective, wears a yellow coat, has short blonde hair, always looks dispirited, and has a slight British accent."

"Mmm...let me think."

Tuck thinks hard as he drives, a few minutes later, he shakes his head:

"No, I don't think I've seen him. But if you need, Merlin, I can ask some of my friends to look around since they know people from other streets, but...it won't be free of charge."

"Then go look for him!"

Merlin who had lots of operation funds was lavish, he asked not of the price and directly entrusted his request to Tuck.

The latter did not mind, although he was young, he had seen his fair share of things as he grew up in Hell's Kitchen.

It's only to find someone, the easiest way to make money.

As the two conversed, they arrived at Tuck's warehouse, it was in the most remote port by the edge of the sea; there were plenty of containers here, and Tuck's warehouse is in one of those containers.

"Please enter, Merlin."

Tuck unlocks the lock and makes a 'welcome' gesture to Merlin, he proudly says:

"Look all across Hell's Kitchen but you won't find a more complete source than me! There are even specialized people from Brooklynn that buy their stuff from me, trust me, you will not be disappointed!"

---

Later that night, Merlin drives his car and arrives outside of Cerberus' main base.

He parks his car two blocks away and approaches the building under the cover of the night.

It was already midnight, but the main base was still crowded, it would seem that the members of Cerberus are preparing for some midnight fun. Merlin goes to the back door and finds a muscular drunkard playing around with a woman with an excellent figure in the darkness.

The back door was wide open as if they did not worry about anyone sneaking in.

Merlin did not interrupt the man's secret meeting with his lover(?), he easily snuck into the building under the cover of his Shadow Cloak.

The interior design of the building was that of a regular brotherhood, it was like a bar, with loud music, muscular men drinking and females pole dancing to entertain them. 

How very erotic!

Merlin slightly scorned them before moving up the stairs in the darkness.

The second floor was an open area with many tools for repairing motorbikes, there were a few motorbike riders here working on a very cool-looking motorbike.

Again, there was nothing here that piqued Merlin's interest, there were no traces of mana.

He continued upwards, on the third floor was a design similar to a dorm. Here, Merlin detected a faint scent of dark mana, similar to the motorbike rider he finished off yesterday.

Merlin spent a few minutes checking all the dorms, he found a few half-demons sleeping in some of them.

Or, defective half-demons.

They were all normal people who were forcibly injected with dark mana through special means, then tied to a bed to endure that excruciating pain.

Merlin had experienced that pain before, it was a pain hard for normal people to handle.

No wonder the half-demon he killed seemed out of his mind like a wild beast. Being transformed in such an inhumane way, anyone would've gone mad from the torture.

Merlin knew he had guessed right, the Cerberus Brotherhood was indeed a cult organization built by Trigon's 'sons'.

But Merlin still had questions, why did the half-demon transform so many defects?

What goal does it have?

With this question in mind, he approaches the fourth floor; he focuses his mind on his Shadow Cloak since he did not know whether or not the half-demon was here, or whether or not it could detect him.

As Merlin stepped onto the fourth floor and was slowly infiltrating the glamorous living room through the window, his wristwatch which was also a BP suddenly vibrates.

The sudden noise surprises Merlin and he stops the infiltration and stops the watch.

Then, the shut door in front of him abruptly opens.

A fierce-looking, bald, muscular man sticks his head out and looks towards Merlin's location.

It was Morris, nickname Rabid!

The mystery boss of Cerberus.

As he appears, a thick and suffocating, violent presence looms over Merlin. It was a half-demon! A strong half-demon! Trigon's true 'son', the Demon Son!

And at this moment, in this silent room surrounded by darkness, Trigon's two 'sons' look at each other, eye to eye.

 

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