Chapter 77: Arc 2: Chapter 32: Going Home

Time is a wonderful thing, the deep-rooted memories that have happened that one thinks to be unforgettable would slowly begin to fade in time, and eventually become normal memories.

Occasionally one would think that it was just yesterday when it occurred, but more often, the alienation brought by time would make people think that it happened a million years ago.

Memories too are a wonderful thing.

Time flies as it was now spring of 1994, Merlin sat in his office in Paris, quietly writing a report. He was concluding his missions of inciting defects and absorbing former Soviet intelligence agents in his year in the Europe branch.

After finishing his adventure in Norway, Merlin had spent the rest of the year helping Garrett in inciting defection amongst opposing agents; they had made several trips towards East Europe, the Middle East, and even Moscow, to take in the intelligence officers that were desperate and cornered from the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Just as Merlin and Barton had recruited Natasha in Sokovia back in 1992.

During this year, Merlin witnessed the brutal and cold 'transformation' of multiple large-scale intelligence organizations left by the ex-Soviet Union.

According to the news he had collected in Europe, the organization 'Red Room' which had trained the top agent Natasha was being attacked and devoured by other intelligence organizations.

It had quickly declined over the year, leaving very few members left; this organization which was one of the SSR's greatest opponents had finally died out.

And across the ocean, the SSR is facing the same situation, but its members are still holding out.

Recently, there has been a change in the situation.

According to the news Merlin had received from Fury, the nominal director of SHIELD, the Incompetent Keller was being suppressed harshly; his terrible working ability not only made him unable to successfully suppress Nick Fury, Fury, under the secret support of Pierce, began his counterattack.

In the organization right now, there are fewer and fewer agents who're willing to obey Keller's commands, the whitewashed authority of the Incompetent was crashing down, and the nominally level 3 non-military agent was regaining his strength by the days.

The secret plot to devour the SSR of the other organizations that were hiding in the dark had basically perished, it would seem that the incompetent Keller had been outcasted, and it was hard for him to receive support from his higher-ups.

All he needed was a chance, and Fury had the confidence to rid Keller from the director's seat.

The most direct expression of Fury's dominance was:

Last month, Merlin's suppressed agent level had risen from level 1 to level 2. This meant that Keller's grasp on the personnel system in SHIELD had been broken.

Aside from that, Merlin's condition had changed vastly over the year.

Following Merlin's growing level in magic, the dark mana inside his body was getting more docile and tame, and it was no longer a terrible problem.

On the other side, Merlin had finished learning all the spells in <Standard Spells - Elementary> just 2 months ago, and he was now beginning to learn more complex magic.

He also begins to self-learn Potionmaking, which was basically the wizards' medication and treatment method; Merlin has medical experience, so his progress in the field was fine.

 But Potionmaking involves the use of many odd materials, so Merlin had to spend the second half of 1993 traveling between Paris and London once per month; like many other wizards, he had become a regular in Diagon Alley, occasionally asking young Hermione to look for some rare materials for him.

In other words, Merlin had crossed beyond the introductory stages of being both a wizard and agent.

"Di Di Di"

The sudden ringing on a phone interrupts Merlin's writing.

Over the spring of 1994, another thing that made Merlin happy was that he could finally rid himself of the brick-like communications device.

Earlier this year, Stark Industries had released a more slim and convenient communications device, supposedly designed by Tony Stark himself, its appearance was surprisingly similar to the phone Alfred had given him.

It was after the press conference that Merlin could finally use his small phone in the open.

He picks up the phone, presses the answer key, and places it next to his ear:

"Hello, Fury? Do you have something important to tell me in this cross-ocean call?"

"Your secondment is over, Merlin, head back to New York."

Fury sounded exhausted and slightly serious, he says:

"Constantine went missing a week ago, agent Sitwell who was responsible for helping him went missing a day ago...Merlin, 2 hours ago, your house along with my car went up in flames."

"Pa"

The pen in Merlin's hand makes a light snap under the pressure. The level 2 agent squints his eyes and contemplates, moments later, he asks:

"Are young Erik and May fine?"

"I'm at Queens right now."

Fury answers:

"For the time being, they're safe, I've set some manpower at St Matthew's Church. But the attacker was mysterious, I've checked every camera in Hell's Kitchen yet I could not find anything useful. That fire that burned down your house appeared too bizarrely."

"Alright, I got it."

Merlin stands up, takes his coat, walks out the door, and tells Fury:

"I'll be heading back as fast as I can, please keep my family safe."

"Mmm."

Merlin ends the call and returns to his hotel room as fast as he could, a dozen minutes later, Merlin in his grey casual suit and luggage sits on a taxi and heads to the airport.

He did not forget to give Garrett a call, he simplified what happened in New York to Garrett, and the latter did not stop him, instead, he pulled some strings and arranged Merlin on a plane that was heading to New York.

After nearly 9 hours, it was daybreak as Merlin stood outside his house in Hell's Kitchen.

In front of him was his house, but now, it was just the remnants of a fire.

Merlin walks into the ruins that still had a burning smell, he squats down and uses his gloved hand to touch the burnt wreckage. The fire had burnt thoroughly, and there weren't many leftover traces.

But it wasn't so in Merlin's eyes.

He reaches out and takes off his frameless glasses, he could see a faint marking left on the debris under his second sight. There was a very faint trace of sulfur in the ruins undetectable by normal humans.

In fact, it wasn't even really sulfur, but the remnants left by demonic energy, a type of magic energy.

Merlin grabs a fistful of ash, opens his hand, and lets them scatter from his fingers. He carefully identifies the trace of sulfur in the ash, a few seconds later, Merlin puts his glasses back on.

It was a familiar scent.

And he finally knew who the culprit was.

Morris...

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Rabid Morris is one of Trigon's 'sons', the one who built a cult organization in Hell's Kitchen. Merlin had seen him once before his trip to Europe. And under Fury's facilitation, Kohler had once joined forces with NYPD to permanently root out Morris' cult, Rabbid himself went missing that time.

Merlin had forgotten all about him over the year, but now it has reappeared.

And this time, it was clear that it was targeting Merlin.

In the night, Merlin picks up his phone and dials Fury's number, then he tells him:

"I know who the attacker is now, Fury. Can you get in touch with Ulysses Bloodstone?"

"It's been nearly 4 months since I last contacted Ulysses."

Fury replies in a deep tone:

"Master Bloodstone doesn't respond to outside calls when he's on missions, but this time, I suspect that he has gotten into trouble. From what you're saying, the attacker is a dark being?"

"Yes, a half-demon."

Merlin says:

"Remember Cerberus, which Kohler rooted out last year? The missing cult leader is back. And you're right, it's targeting me, can you please..."

"BOOM"

Before Merlin could finish his request, a weird bang resounds in the distance, like a bomb had been triggered.

Merlin raises his head and sees a wisp of crimson red and white lights appearing in the night, like a flash of thunder that's torn apart the darkness, that direction was...St Matthew's Church!

"Keep my cousin safe, Fury! That half-demon has appeared, I'll hang up now!"

Merlin closes his phone and takes out his wand, his body turns into boiling black fog as he swept up his luggage and heads towards St Matthew's Church a few blocks away.

In less than a minute, Merlin's figure reappears in front of the church; in front of him, the historical door of the church had been blown to pieces, the fire was burning inside the church, and cries for help could be heard from inside.

Merlin holds his wand and storms into the church, he sees the burning flames in front of him, as well as the sisters that were evading the fire.

"Aguamenti!"

Merlin flicks his wrist and a slightly complex spell releases out of Merlin's fingertips along with the flow of mana; where Merlin points his wand, water begins pouring out into the fire, like a miniature rain that was happening inside the church.

Aguamenti.

A supportive spell that conjures a jet of clean, drinkable water that when mixed with food-making charm, would instantly create a not-so-delicious yet fulfilling lunch.

The flames in the church slowly began to extinguish under the scour of the rainwater, there were strong traces of demonic energy, yet Merlin could not see any traces of demons.

He places Lola back into the box on his waist and walks into the messy church, the startled sisters had gathered together to pray, and Merlin saw a familiar figure under the pulpit of the church, Father Paul.

The latter seemed to be terrified, he was limp on the stairs of the pulpit, there were burn marks on his black priest's robe; he tight;y grasped a Rosary in his hand while chanting holy scriptures. But his shaking body was the aftereffect of a normal person who had just experienced something supernatural.

"Father, are you alright?"

Merlin squats down in front of Father Paul and pats on his shoulder, he lightly says:

"What happened just now? Can you tell me that?"

Hearing someone calling for him, the praying Father opens his eyes, he sees Merlin in front of him and says in surprise:

"Merlin? You've been gone for over a year now, Erik said that you're on a trip to Europe..."

"Yeah, I just came back."

Merlin gently says:

"I just got off the car and saw the church on fire, I'm here to help. What happened just now? I heard a loud bang, and then the light that appeared in the sky, the crimson red and white lights that had intertwined together. What was that?"

"That...that was..."

Merlin recalled what had happened just now, and his body shook even more, he held his Rosary even more tightly, closed his eyes, and mumbled:

"It's a demon! I saw...a distorted, ugly, ferocious demon storm into the church, savagely smashed the door apart, and spewed out hellfire trying to burn us all. But...it must be god's blessings, a white light appeared in the church and wounded the demon, it escaped soon afterward..."

"My god! Jesus Christ, there are demons in this world."

As he spoke, the Father quickly got up and walked below the icon by the wall, he stood there with more sincerity, and while crossing his chest, he thanked his god with appreciation.

The sisters, who were dazed, prayed alongside the father, and for now, the messy church seemed holy.

Merlin did not interrupt them, he takes a step backward and begins searching the burned-down ruins of the church; eventually, he found a puddle of magma-like blood by the floor near the church's main door.

He half kneels in front of the blood puddle, takes off his glove, wipes it with his fingers, and places it under his nose.

The stinging smell of sulfur made Merlin frown deeply.

Father Paul wasn't lying, it was the blood of a demon or half-demon; a demon had been to the church, but it had been expulsed by a mysterious force. If it was half-demon Morris, then his target for coming here was young Erik.

Merlin feels a sense of urgency, the half-demon clearly knew a lot about him. It's trying to harm those around Merlin, which meant that his next move should be...

It should be May.

His cousin, the last blood-related family he's got left.

"Sh*t!"

Merlin stands up and puts on his glove, he looks back at the praying father and sisters and shakes his head, then he pulls his luggage and leaves the church.

On this near Christmas cold night, a deadly light flashes in Merlin's eyes, he picks up his phone, dials a number, and places it next to his ear. He lightly says:

"Hello? Tuck?"

"I'm Merlin...I need some weapons! Yeah, real weapons!"

 

 

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