Chapter 79: Arc 2: Chapter 34: Dark Covenant

"What's the card?"

At the entrance to papa Midnite's Nightclub, a muscular man holds a card backward to Merlin.

"Wizard."

Merlin glances at the card, says the answer, and the muscular man lets him in.

He walks into the nightclub at a fast pace, it had been over a year since he last came here, and there were still plenty of irregulars partying here. Merlin ignored them and heads to the bar under the ear-piercing music.

The bartender was no longer the half-angel from a year ago, instead, it was a coquettish succubus.

She casts a wink at Merlin and asks in a slightly flirty tone:

"What will you be having, dear customer?"

"A glass of 'Siren's Tongue', and, I need to see Papa Midnite."

Merlin lightly tells the succubus.

The latter was briefly stunned, then she lets out a giggle; she speedily brandishes the cocktail shaker in her hands and places a glass of beautiful light blue wine in front of Merlin.

She covers her mouth and looks at Merlin with her smart eyes, telling him:

"No can do, customer. Papa Midnite's appointments have already been scheduled for half a year later. If you don't have an appointment, I can't let you in...Papa would punish me."

A succubus was indeed a succubus, a few simple movements made the eyes of the men around her go straight.

But Merlin was not one of those men.

He had a traditional aesthetic, he was completely uninterested in the irregular in front of him who had horns, wings, a tail, and recurved legs.

Merlin sighs and takes something out of his pocket then places it on the bar table, saying:

"To be honest, I do have an appointment with Papa Midnite, this here is my proof..."

Merlin lets go of his fingers and reveals a pinless grenade being held down by his hand.

All it takes is for him to let go of his fingers, and a violent explosion would destroy everything, from the extravagant decorations to the rotten atmosphere here.

 "You're here for trouble!"

The succubus screams and takes a few steps backward, then, a few tall, muscular yet dangerous men stand up and surround Merlin.

But Merlin did not panic, he reaches out and picks up the glass of 'Siren's Tongue', takes a sip, and tells miss succubus who was glaring at him angrily:

"I'm not here for trouble, I just have some things I need to meet Papa Midnite for."

"Or you could pass on my message to Papa Midnite, saying..."

Merlin lightly tells the succubus:

"Just say that I'm here to deal with that lunatic half-demon that ran amok in Hell's Kitchen these past 2 days, all I need is its hiding spot."

"Just you wait, Papa Midnite will crush your heart for a cocktail! Leave now and I'll pretend that none of this ever happened!"

The flimsy succubus looks at the grenade under Merlin's hand and snorts fearfully. The point-blank explosion from a military grenade may not be enough to kill her, but it surely is enough to wound her, and once an explosion happens, Papa Midnite's business and reputation would be ruined.

Facing the succubus' threat, Merlin shrugs and says:

"That'll be my business. All you need to do is pass on the message."

The succubus saw Merlin's attitude, she grits her teeth, and eventually flicks her hand and walks to the compartment behind the bar. Seeing the succubus leave, Merlin turns and looks at the muscular men around him and says:

"What happens next is between me and Papa Midnite, it'll have nothing to do with you small fries."

"Sit, it must be tiresome standing up."

A few minutes later, the succubus bartender walks back with a folded paper in her hand, she throws the paper in front of Merlin, puts her hands on her waist, and says angrily to Merlin:

"Papa Midnite says that you owe him one!"

"Take it and leave!"

Merlin did not mind the succubus' sharp compelling, he picks up the paper and reads it, the address on it belonged to a dock near the Hudson River.

That was his target location.

"Alright, thank Papa Midnite for me."

As he finishes, Merlin lets go of his fingers and stands up.

Seeing Merlin let go of his fingers, Miss Succubus was shocked and she pounced onto the bar table in an attempt to block the explosion using her body, so Papa Midnite's Nightclub would not be damaged and that she wouldn't lose the job she found after so much work.

But a few seconds passed, and nothing had happened.

She lifts her head in a daze to see Merlin looking at her with his head lowered.

"Such a silly one."

Merlin reaches out and helps Miss Succubus straighten her hair, then he lightly says:

"A grenade without its fuse doesn't explode...but, it is fun to do."

"Have a good night's rest, miss."

As he finishes, Merlin turns and leaves without hesitation, letting Miss Succubus curse with her sharp voice behind him.

Merlin walks out of the nightclub, and from the midnight breeze, Merlin picks up a scent of blood, causing Merlin to speed up his pace and rush to where Fury had parked his car. Then he sees Fury smoking while leaning against the car.

How odd...

Fury never smokes, he always says that smoking exposes where an agent's location.

Merlin grabs his wand and walks over, through his dark senses, he could sense a bleeding corpse right by Fury's legs. Fury's car window had been smashed apart, and there were glass shards stained by blood all over the ground.

Fury himself was unharmed and was perfectly healthy.

"Are you alright? Fury."

Merlin asks, to which Fury turns around to look at him, proceeding to shake his head. The agent looks down at the corpse whose head had been blown apart, and the not-so-normal green blood next to it, he says:

"I just...saw a man's head stretch open and try to eat me with his teeth-filled mouth, sh*t! I'm probably never gonna forget that scene in my life."

"You shot and killed it, right?"

Merlin glances at the distorted corpse and shakes his head, he opens the car door and sits into the car:

"Let's go, Fury, someone will clean this up."

"You found it?"

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Fury was currently still recovering from the shock, Merlin dared not let him drive, so he sat on the driver's seat himself. Fury seats on the passenger seat with his gun in his hand, he throws the cigar out of the window and tells Merlin:

"Also, what the hell was that thing that attacked me just now?"

"It should be a shapeshifter if I'm correct."

As Merlin turns the steering wheel and drives towards the Hudson River, he answers:

"It's a low-level demonic creature that disguises itself as humans, normal bullets work on them, and they're weak against fire, they don't have any outstanding abilities aside from scaring people."

"Yeah, scaring people."

Fury sighs and looks out at the brightly lit atmosphere outside the car window, he says:

"Guess I won't be having a night snack...that thing was nasty."

A dozen minutes later, Merlin parks the car on a street a few hundred meters away from the harbor, he walks out of the car, takes out the black sniper rifle from the car trunk, and hands it to Fury along with an ammo clip of holy silver bullets.

The latter holds the gun in his hand and loads it skillfully.

"I'll go find a sniping position, try to fight him in the open, Merlin."

Fury puts on the sunglasses Merlin had gifted to him and tells him:

"I'll cover you."

"Stay safe, Fury."

Merlin loads the Colt pistol agent Barton had given him with holy silver ammo before keeping it into his holster, He keeps a long box into his spatial pocket, then hides the combat knife he had soaked in holy silver into his sleeve, he tells Fury:

"If you find yourself in a pickle, get out immediately! That Morris organized a cult organization before, it may have some followers under it following its reappearance this time, so be careful! Don't fight them, those defect half-demons are still dangerous to you!"

"Relax, Merlin."

Fury carries the sniper rifle on his back and puts on protective gloves, he then tells Merlin:

"I've been on the battlefield and I've killed people before, I just blew the head off a demonic creature, from this, I'm more dangerous than you are."

"Go, Merlin, time to go on the battlefield."

As he finishes, Fury strove into the darkness with his rifle, he's going to find a vantage spot that can overlook the entire harbor, then use the weapon in his hand to neutralize all enemies!

"Mmm, Clint, if you were here, I need not worry so much."

Seeing Fury off, Merlin had a slight sense of pity.

Agent Barton and Black Widow Natasha whom he fought alongside before are currently in a place called The Fridge, according to Fury's description, it should be somewhere in the middle of the ocean, so they can't make it back on short notice.

Merlin takes out his wand and turns into black fog, he follows the night wind and assimilates with the darkness of the harbor.

---

Beneath the harbor, in a large warehouse.

Darkness grows here, but in the darkness were 2 burning flames similar to braziers.

Atop those 2 clumps of fire, 2 poor people who have been tortured brutally were being hanged upside down by black chains.

"Speak, tell me more...about Merlin, about my 'brother'."

A ruthless and tyrannical voice resounds and echoes in the warehouse. But the two people who've been hanged upside down have been tortured for so long they could hardly even speak.

"You won't? Huhu."

In the darkness, Morris curls his finger, the flickering fire splashes upward, igniting what little hair one of the people had like lit paper.

"Ah! Argh!!!"

The person with his hair lit screamed in pain, he struggled desperately, causing the chains to collide with each other; the noise akin to the desperate struggles of a trapped beast made the half-demon hidden in the darkness feel a twisted sense of happiness.

It places its gaze on the other person and says:

"Why so loyal? My dear friend Constantine, if my memories serve me right, you are not one of such loyalty. Speak, and I will lessen your suffering, go on."

The man who was hanged upside down was John Constantine, who had gone missing a week ago, the cunning bastard who racketeered Merlin before.

He was hired by Morris to seek out Merlin, yet he defected and allowed Merlin to know of Morris' presence.

Right now, he was hanged here by Morris. But compared to the willful Sitwell, Constantine was sleeker. In the past few days, he had told Morris about Merlin's address, the church Merlin often went to, but Constantine kept the most key information inside his heart.

"I'm not your friend."

Constantine uses a coarse tone and says with mockery:

"I know better than anyone else how you half-demons act...I'm toast once I'm useless."

"You know, and eventually, you will tell me everything I want to know."

As the ground shook lightly, Morris, who had permanently lost his human form and has turned into a distorted monster, walks out of the darkness. There were red scales spread across its body, sharp ferocious bone spikes were sticking out from its shoulders, elbows, and back. There were a pair of black demon horns on its forehead, and its four eyes glowed in the darkness like four lanterns in the dark.

Its height had far exceeded that of a normal human, its muscles were all distorted, and there was fire intertwining around its scales, looking like clumps of flowing lava, it looked like a giant monster that came straight from hell.

It extends its claw and grabs Constantine's chains, lifting him to match its eye level; this half-demon whose body and soul had been distorted, tells Constantine:

"You are but sesame under the grinder, insignificant! I will squeeze out your secrets bit by bit, leaving only your flesh, then I'll devour you entirely as you beg desperately for my mercy! You third-rate trash..."

"Now, enjoy the burning flames."

Morris grins ferociously and prepares to throw him into the fire.

"Bang"

Following the sound of a gunshot, blood splatters from the half-demon's back; the bullet made of holy silver tears through its tough scales, and the heating bullet tears a treacherous wound that makes the half-demon let out a furious roar.

It turns around, and another bullet soars past its ugly face, breaking the chains binding Constantine. The third-rate wizard lets out a scream and shakes his body, narrowly escaping the pit of fire.

"Ah, so you finally showed up, my dear brother!"

Morris looks at Merlin who appeared from the darkness, bloodthirsty happiness flashes in its four eyes.

Facing the half-demon, Merlin keeps his gun and takes out his wand.

He looks at Morris and lightly says:

"Yes, my unprecedented hideous-looking brother. I did not want to miss spending this night with you..."

"Even if it's..."

"One must stand, and one must fall."

 

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