42: Sorcery

  "Tch, it seems the information about you was wrong; you're strohan I expected," the demon growled, as he stood up and rose bato the sky. The shadows covered his face for a moment before retreating, revealing that the fist mark on his cheek had disappeared along with the other wounds the sudden attack had inflicted on him.

  “But a mortal will always be a mortal! Surrender now, and maybe I grant you some mer—”

  Once again, his words were abruptly interrupted, but this time by a crushing pressure that suddenly covered his entire body from head to toe.

  With his hand stretched toward him, John ched his fist, making the bones crad the skin tear, spilling streams of blood. Then, as if gravity had suddenly increased a thousandfold, the demon began to plummet.

  In a matter of seds, he was buried several kilometers into the ground. Of course, John did not think this would be enough to finish off something that was clearly her human nor monster.

  He just o send it away for a moment.

  Trying to calm his inner fury, John took a deep breath ahe aura surrounding him recede until it was almost imperceptible. Then, he began to observe all the destru in the area, his green eyes mainly analyzing the Sword base beh his feet.

  “John!” The booming voiterrupted his thoughts and made him turn in the dire it came from. For a moment, he even fot how angry he was, surprised to see an enormous woman, dozens of meters tall, running toward him.

  “Ja?” Seeiill alive, he couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief, but he quickly became armed when he saw how, midway, she lost her band her body began to shrink in midair.

  In a blur of movement, he shortehe distaween them and caught her, cradling her in his arms before she could hit the ground.

  “Are you okay?” Although she didn’t seem too injured, she had clearly been in quite a few battles—if all the blood c her was any indication.

  “I-It looks like I’m out of energy,” Ja said wearily, while at the same time feeling her entire body tremble, f her to g to him due to the sudden dizziness. The sensation of beiy’ for the first time almost made her faint.

  She had been pushing herself to the limit, using even the smallest reserve of energy within her, but wheiced John's arrival, it seemed that her body finally decided that it was enough.

  "You did well. Rest now and leave the rest to me," he said fidently, and upon hearing him, she nodded and gave him a soft smile. Then, her eyes rolled to the back of her head, and she lost sciousness.

  "el."

  "Isaac." John looked at the android, roached flying in his dire, engulfed in fmes.

  He had too many questions, but for now, there was only ohing he o know.

  "Hoeople have we lost?"

  The android remained silent for a moment before responding, giving a quid well-summarized rundown of everything he knew.

  Hearing that Hank was missing was a hard blow, but knowing that Peggy and Howard were safe and with the andos, using the secret passage in the main office to evacuate those still alive, was enough t him some calm—though, of course, he was still boiling with rage inside.

  Notig how the ground began to shake, Johhat the time for talking was running out.

  " you carry her?" he asked Isaad the android looked at Ja before nodding, making the fmes c him begin to recede until they were only present on the lower part of his body, using them to stay in the air.

  "Good. Take her back to Peggy and the others, then make sure to protect them and clear the way so they get away from here." With those instrus given, John pced Ja in his arms, but Isaac did not leave immediately.

  "What about you, sir?" he asked with slight hesitation.

  "I will finish this."

  John watched Isaac leave and, using his telekinesis, easily crushed the remaining monsters still in the area, his gaze finally falling oill-open portal in the ground.

  For a moment, he was tempted to gh it, but he didn’t know what was oher side. In the best-case sario, he could end up in one of Hydra’s bases; in the worst, he would end up in some unknown pce or dimension.

  He also doubted that Red Skull would be stupid enough to be present oher side, although just in case…

  Raising his hand, he made his energy gather and trate in his palm until it formed a fireball the size of his head, and with a swift motion, he hurled it straight at the portal.

  There was a loud bang followed by a blinding fsh of light.

  The portal that had previously remaiable suddenly began to fluctuate until, with a small burst, it finally colpsed and disappeared.

  "How dare you?!" Along with the roar of indignation, the ground exploded, and a pilr of shadows rose into the sky.

  "Sorry, but there's no escape route for you, my friend," John mocked, and with a flick of his hand, he made his shield fly at full speed from the ruins of the Sword base, pulling it ba.

  "Escape?! Do you think I o escape from you?"

  That was enough! He wasn’t going to tolerate any more insults! With a sihought, hundreds of dark tentacles shot out from his body at high speed like sharp spears, flooding the sky like a tsunami of shadows about to sweep away everything in their path.

  But before he could revel in the destru he was about to unleash, the demon’s expression ged as he felt a firm hand gripping his shoulder tightly from behind.

  "I think you've already done enough damage to this pce."

  "What?!" He tried to resist, but in an instant, everything around him became blurry. His body sailed through the air untrolbly until he crashed into the top of a distant mountain.

  "Still alive?" John asked, looking at the impact site. He was still getting used to his rength, and if he was ho, it wasn’t like he cared much about holding back at the moment.

  The mountain trembled, the snow c it began to fall in an avanche, and then part of the summit exploded as the demon crawled out of the hole his body had created upon crashing.

  His entire arm, from his right shoulder down, was gone.

  Seeing the wound, he growled in frustration. ‘Damn inferior body!’ The shadows rose, c him from head to toe, and a new arm made of darkness grew to repce the previous one.

  Notig how he was healing, John raised his eyebrow curiously,. Was this magic? Or some kind of different power? The truth was that he had never really been ied in mystical or supernatural matters, which left him with a severe ck of information that he would o correct at some point. But right now, he didn’t o be an expert to uand that his enemy was at a clear disadvantage against him.

  "Before you die, I want you to crify something for me. Were you the only one who came? Or did Red Skull bring more of your kind into this world?"

  "Ha! Why do you think I would answer you holy? Besides, it’s still too soon for you to think you’ve already won!" Without any fear of his threat, the monster lunged forward, creating a shockwave in its wake.

  He was fast, but not fast enough. John intercepted the blow with his arm, defleg it to the side, and without hesitation, terattacked—smashing the edge of his shield into his enemy’s ugly face.

  As quickly as he had charged, he was sent crashing into the mountain again, and John followed shortly after, nding smoothly on the edge of the crater that had formed from the impact.

  "This isn’t your real body, is it? It must be some kind of possession. That’s really annoying, but if you still feel pain, you should know that things will only get harder for you if you keep resisting."

  It was more of a guess than anything else, but he didn’t think he was wrong. He seriously doubted that creatures from other dimensions or worlds would look so simir to the monsters Hydra had beeing.

  "Stop uimating me!"

  Following the shout, dozens of dark spikes shot up from the ground like sharp spears.

  John dodged most of them with ease and, tentatively, used his shield to bloe. The near-iructible metal once again proved its worth, as there wasn’t even a scrat its surface, while the dark spike shattered into pieces.

  ‘They’re not too tough, but maybe they have some kind of hidden curse.’ With magi py, he couldn’t afford to be careless, even if the attack seemed weak.

  He wao step back a little further, but suddenly, his body froze in pce.

  "Hahaha! Stupid!! Now your shadow is mine!"

  The demo great joy upon seeing John fall into his trap. Earlier, when they were in the air, the shadow John cast had been too far away for him to catch it, but now that both had nded on the mountaintop and were closer, he had finally mao reach it and begin turning the tide of this battle.

  ‘Just as I suspected.’ John didn’t seem too ed about finding himself in this situation.

  Maybe he hadn’t been too aware of popur culture in his previous life due to his circumstances, but ah even a slight knowledge of sce fi and fantasy had a certain level of creative thinking with them.

  From the moment he first saw the monster trolling the shadows, his mind had already begun thinking of all the possible abilities it could possess reted to this power. trolling the shadows of others? That was among the top three that instantly came to mind.

  Trying to move his body, he realized he could still exert a certain level of force. If he pushed hard enough, he might even be able to break free from this trol.

  ‘If this were before, this guy would have definitely caused me serious trouble.’

  "Hmph! No matter how much you struggle, your fate is now pletely in my hands, little mortal." Misinterpreting his probing as an attempt to escape, the monster ughed in satisfa and began approag him with deliberately slow steps.

  He was already anticipating the desperation ahe human would feel.

  But when he was less than a meter away, John smiled, making him stop at the sight of his expression. For some reason, a bad premonition was born within him, and purely on instinct, he wao back away—but John was faster.

  In an instant, his body exploded into stelr fire, and a dazzling light illumihe entire mountaintop.

  "NO!"

  The light, like a deadly poison, made the demon fall to his knees as the shadows c him began to disie.

  Feeling trol of his body return, John took a step forward while the demon tried to crawl away from him on the ground.

  "I see. All your strength es from darkness, but when it disappears, you bee weak. Fighting you at night would surely be hell, wouldn’t it? Well, not that it matters when it es to me." Who would have thought—Being a walking fshlight actually turned out to be pretty useful.

  "W-Wait! Don’t e any closer!"

  The demon wasn’t stupid, and as arrogant as he was, he was also smart enough to know when he had lost. Before, he might have still thought he had a ce, but now he knew he never had oo begin with.

  "Maybe it’s time for you to start talking." And to make it even clearer that it wasn’t ay threat, Johed a ball of energy in his hand that burned intensely.

  Seeing this, the demon could only ment his bad lud curse the mortal who had summoned him into the earthly world, swearing that if he ever entered him again, he would make him pay for this for all eternity.

  With no escape and ered in this way, any lesser creature would have pletely surrendered. But even if his instinctive fear of the light made him tremble, he still had his own pride.

  "Heh! Look at you, so desperate to know… So what if you've defeated me? You already said it yourself—this body is just a puppet for me. Torture it all you want, it’s useless!" he mocked, though inwardly, he mented a little. After so much time, he had finally been able to return to the mortal world, only to have to abandon it almost instantly. A real shame, but it didn’t matter—sooner or ter, he would return.

  "Fine." John decided he had already wasted enough time and prepared to kill him, but just at that moment, a circur portal formed by golden sparks opened a few meters away, and a person hurriedly stepped through it.

  "Wait!"

  "Sorcerer!" the demon shouted in arm upon seeing the figure that appeared.

  "You are?" John slightly furrowed his brows and asked upon nnizing the voice. It was feminine, but she was not the A One. Moreover, he could see signs of battle ohick e robes, as well as faint but still fresh bloodstains.

  "Looks like I arrived just in time," the woman said with a sigh of relief upon seeing the demon still alive. Theuro John and bowed, bringing both hands together in a gesture of greeting, causing a bit of her long white hair to fall from uhe hood that covered most of her features.

  "Greetings, Captain. I am one of the apprentices of Kamar-Taj. The Master sent me as soon as she could to provide assistand inform you about the situation in Warsaw."

  Warsaw? John blinked in fusion, but prehension quickly dawned on him.

  'Warsaw was attacked too!' Knowing this made bile threaten to rise in his throat, but he forced himself to suppress his disfort. There was no point iing—first, he o know how severe it had been.

  Seeing his expression darken, the sorceress knew what he was about to ask, but before he could do so, she looked at the demon and pulled out a dark metallic box adorned with various golden engravings.

  "Let me take care of him first." At the sight of the box, the demon's eyes wideo the extreme.

  "No, no. No, no! You 't do this!"

  He tried to stand and run, but before he could succeed, the sorceress stretched out one of her hands toward him, unleashing a fiery whip that ed around his ne a tight grip.

  The demon growled in pain, but even though he couldn't use his shadow powers due to the light Johed, his body remaihat of a monster.

  And no matter how much magic a sorcerer had, they were still human... right?

  "Impossible!" he shouted in disbelief as he realized that, despite his superhuman efforts, he couldn't break free from the sorceress's grip.

  John observed this with some i and prepared to help, but before he could, the sorceress tightened her grip on the whip, and it began to ge, shifting from a golden-e color to a bright violet.

  "This power!? You are—!" The demon screamed with even more fear and desperation, but he couldn't finish his words as his body was effortlessly yanked backward.

  Seeing him approach, the sorceress pced the box in front of her and, murmuring words John couldn't identify, caused the engravings on the objeit a soft light.

  And with tha a whirlwind formed in front of the box, and like a powerful vacuum er, a monstrous su force emerged and struck the demon, sending him flying toward the vortex, where he began to be sucked in until he was pletely swallowed, leaving no trace behind—except for the increasingly distant sounds of his screams.

  'Well, that was creepy,' John thought as he let his aura fade.

  "He shouldn't be a problem for anyone anymore," the sorceress said, then stashed the artifaewhere in her robes and turoward him.

  "You mentioned Warsaw. How bad is it?" Not wanting to beat around the bush, John asked directly. The woman uood his urgency, so she quickly expihe situation.

  "It's bad. Many people died, but fortunately, the situation was resolved thanks to your team."

  That st part took John by surprise. As much as he trusted James, Charles, and Cassandra—and, to a lesser extent, Erik—he khat aied to the mystical could be beyond their current capabilities.

  "I'm irely sure what happened, but it seems they somehow mao expel the demon Hydra sent to Warsaw."

  "Was there... did anyone die?" Johated, but he o know.

  To his relief, she shook her head.

  "No, they're all alive, though some are much more ihan others. Fortunately, the portal iy was forcibly closed before more monsters could e through and harm them further. I suppose that was your doing."

  Iy, the sorceress had goo Warsaw first at the A One’s request. But when she arrived, she noticed the portal was already beginning to close, and the demon had also vanished, leaving behind only ay husk.

  With no enemies in sight, she teo the wounded she found in the room and then, using a few quick spells, took care of the hellish fmes iy before hurrying to where John was.

  Letting out a long sigh, John nearly colpsed to the ground from the immense weight lifted off his shoulders. If any of them had died, he didn't know what he would have done.

  'Since when do I worry so much about them?' Maybe he had spent too much time with them. Shaking his head, he decided he would think about it ter.

  "I have another question. If I'm not mistaken, Kamar-Taj maintains a great shield that surrounds the entire po preveernal threats from entering—or, at the very least, to anticipate their arrival. Isn't that right?" Holy, he didn’t remember exactly how it worked.

  Hearing him, the sorceress nodded. "It's more or less like that." Of course, it was more plex than that, but an excessively detailed expnation seemed inappropriate at the moment.

  "Then… why are you the first sorcerer I've seen besides the A One? Wasn't Kamar-Taj alerted as soon as this started?"

  He was angry. If more sorcerers had acted in time, the S.W.O.R.D. base wouldn’t have beeroyed, Hank wouldn’t have disappeared, and his teammates wouldn’t have been injured.

  He uood why the A One couldn't intervene, and he had theorized earlier that maybe other sorcerers couldher, but with the appearance of the oanding before him, that theory was instantly discarded.

  Upon hearing the reproa his voice, the sorceress audibly ched her fists.

  "Do you think you were the only otacked?" she asked through gritted teeth.

  And John didn’t o be a genius to uand.

  'That's why she looks like she’s been in a fight,' he realized, looking once more at her robes and the bloodstains on them.

  "I see, I apologize, it seems I was mistaken." He didn’t apologize very often, but he felt it was better to do so and not make an enemy of the magical woman. Besides, this matter was more plicated than he had initially thought, and he might end up needing her help much more, so it was best not to add unnecessary tensions.

  She huffed a little but quickly calmed down.

  "Don’t apologize, it’s not your fault. No one expected it… it happeoo fast, and without the Master around, things didn’t turn out very well." The fact that she was outside Kamar-Taj was the clearest indication of that, though John couldn’t know it.

  John decided not to keep discussing it. Of course, he wao ask more questions, but before that, he o find Raven ao Warsaw to check how things were. Peggy and the others would be fih Isaad the andos nearby. Italy had other Allied army bases they could go to, but Pond was still a try with a strong German presence.

  "I o move quickly. Do you think you could open a few extra portals for me?" Of course, he could fly, but even if he was fast in the air, he was still much slower than a portal.

  The sorceress remained silent for a moment. She wasn’t sure if she should say yes or no. Her Master had only allowed her to leave Kamar-Taj because of everything that had happened, and if she took too long to return, she might get into trouble.

  Oher hand, she was already here. Helping a little more should be fine, right?

  "Alright."

  Hearing her agree, John smiled. Theuro look at the ndscape around them, and taking advantage of the mountain’s height, he began searg for the pce where he had left Raven waiting.

  "You know, when I suggested to the A Ohat they lend me one of their apprentices, I didn’t expect them to have one as strong as you," he ented absentmindedly, recalling how she had been able to hold the demon with just one hand. Was that purely magic, or did she have some kind of superhuman strength?

  "It wasn’t supposed to be me…" she fessed, making him raise an eyebrow in curiosity.

  "What do you mean? It seems to me that you would definitely be one of the first choices without a doubt." Even if he had only seen a little of what she was capable of, it was enough for John to think she had to be one of the stro sorcerers in Kamar-Taj—at least in this era.

  She smiled a little upon hearing that, but quickly shook her head and expined further.

  "Normally, I’m not allowed to leave Kamar-Taj, but… I suppose things have ged now."

  Her words, of course, made John's curiosity rise a little more, but delving too deeply into other people's personal matters wasn't his thing, so he decided to selectively ig and think about it ter.

  "Do you see that pce over there? you open a portal hat area?" At st, his eyes mao identify a spot he clearing where Raven was, and he quickly poi it with his hand.

  "Yes, I see it," the sorceress nodded, squinting toward the pce he ointing at and preparing to open one of her portals.

  "By the way, I still think of you as 'the sorceress' in my head. Do you have any other name I call you by?" he asked, finally realizing he didn't know her name.

  "Hmm?" She hesitated, pausing for a moment before answering with slight hesitation.

  "You call me Clea."

  John stopped, repeated the name several times in his head, trying to find something, but when no memory came to mind, he simply shrugged and didn't give it much importance.

  "Alright, you call me John."

  With that said, the portal opened, and both of them stepped through it.

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  Note:

  And one more chapter!—this mini-arc has finally "ended."

  It stretched out a little more than I initially intended, but I think everything turned out more or less as I wahere are still some mysteries to solve and things to expin, but we'll get to that ter. For now, there's finally a bit of "peace" before the terattad the final battle against Hydra begins.

  Of course, I've also id some groundwork for what's ing after that, but it's still too soon to talk too much about it. For now, I hope you liked the chapter. Don't fet to ent and point out any errors you may notice—that way, I fix them. Thanks in advance!

  Remember that if you want to support me, you do sh my Patreon ( patreon.maCruzader )