Chapter 42

After helping me fill out the paperwork, Fury went into detail about how my actual time with SHIELD would operate. Natasha, Clint, and a few agents would instruct me in Safehouses designed to contain and test high-powered individuals like myself.

In other words, Superhero Prison. To say I wasn't worried about these sites would be a lie, but I was certain Fury would not betray me so soon after we signed our agreement.

...Hopefully.

While I was in training, it was agreed upon that I would also get assigned missions to handle special-case missions, A.K.A., other superhumans.

I also got a small apartment a few minutes away from the training facility and a base salary. It was 100,000 dollars a year after taxes, plus 20k to 50k for every mission I completed successfully.

It was more money than I ever made as an M.M.A. fighter, but I still felt underpaid, considering the risk I would be taking every time I faced a super-powered individual.

Finally, my time was mine when we weren't training or on missions. All they asked was for me to wear a trackable watch and a standard-issue SHIELD phone so Fury could always reach me when he needed to.

As soon as Fury came through with the paperwork, I received my SHIELD badge and swaggered out of the safehouse and into the apartment they'd set up. It was fully stocked with modern amenities, which I obviously ripped out and sold.

Even if I couldn't say whether they were bugged, I preferred to do my own interior design. There are new couches, electrical work, and the nine yards.

It took a week to sort out, and I saw SHIELD's detainment site turned training facility.

There were empty rooms designed to withstand the near-titanic amount of power I could now dish out. It had machines and weight stations that could support thousands of pounds of weight, high-speed treadmills that put the facilities at conventional Gyms to shame, and all manner of weapons.

Devil Hunter weapon mastery was among the few aces I revealed while talking to Fury. Watching Clint swear whenever I hit a bullseye with a bow was particularly entertaining.

I put off practicing with my Demon and Angel weapons in front of them. Until I unlocked Aquila and Eryx, I preferred to let SHIELD think I couldn't summon my weapons on a whim. It also meant I needed a private space to train myself.

For now, I showed SHIELD more of what I could already do, drilling my aim with guns on site, practicing with various weapons, and spamming focused shots and demonic bursts as often as I could while I blitzed through obstacle courses. The plan was to reach Adept Tier in both techniques.

One week after I started training SHIELD, I took a train into New York proper, with my hair dyed black, of course, and a hat to hide my features.

Fury had said Pierce would back off for now because I was officially in the system, but you could never be too sure. Besides, he was not the only one I'd managed to piss off.

The Hand, the X-men, and the Brotherhood still wanted my ass. And while I was confident in handling the Hand to an extent, the other two were…debatable.

I came to a stop in front of a familiar building. It was a Brownstone in Manhattan and the New York branch of the Sorcerers of Earth. It looked unassuming, but with a flash of my Devil's eye, I saw through the tapestry of illusions.

Congratulations: Devil Eye has reached Adept level. Can now better perceive energy and pierce through illusions.

The upgrade caught me unawares. I hadn't even known I was close to the upgrade, but I took it in stride nonetheless. I walked up the stairs, and my knuckles rapped on the door frame.

There was no response.

I was about to knock again when I saw it. Golden energy surged in a circle around my feet. Burst carried me far back in time to escape the Portal, bumping into a young lady.

I was about to offer an apology when the world splintered, and a wave of energy swept by me. Suddenly, I was alone, standing on a street, and above me, I saw a mirror of the street I was on, but it was completely deserted. Several identical streets meshed into the first one, forming a strange hexagon of parallels.

I recognized it immediately. The mirror dimension? Whatever happened to bloody diplomacy?

"You're certainly bold to come here," a voice boomed across from me. It came from a bald black man in flowing golden robes who'd not been standing there a minute ago. He was flanked by 10 other sorcerers, glaring at me in malice.

"Look, guys, this is some big misunderstanding. I need to talk to the Sorcerer Supreme."

"So, it was ignorance that has brought you here, not confidence," the man said, assuming a martial stance. Twin mandalas of golden light manifested on his fists.

"Couldn't we, like, talk this out first?" I said with an awkward smile.

The man glared at me. "No."

Strings of golden whips lashed out at me from all angles, and I immediately used Demonic Burst. My entire body blurred as I was catapulted forward, dancing and snaking through a labyrinth of golden chains, twisting and bending.

Another Burst brought me half a step away from the stunned lead Sorcerer's face. I was about to grab the trigger-happy bastard when the world around me suddenly inverted.

Gravity went topsy-turvy, and suddenly, I was flopping through the air. The main Socerer clapped his hands, forming strange Mandalas that shone with deep crimson energy.

Uh oh. That didn't look good.

"Bands of Cyttorak," he whispered as he threw his hand forward, sending the whips in my direction.

With a frantic prompt, I summoned Osiris and spun it in front of me to generate a basic buffer, pumping tons of Angel energy into the weapon just as the bands crashed into me.

The force sent me spinning, but oddly, the bands never made it past the wall of energy. They flew in every which way, slamming into other sorcerers and windows. One thick band even lashed at the lead Sorcerer's head.

I saw the slight panic in his eyes as he leaned out of the way, and I moved again. But this time, I wasn't going for the head honcho.

It was the ten others who escorted him.

My body turned an ethereal blue before it vanished, reappearing in front of a sorcerer. A punch dug into his gut, half-force, punting him a fair distance. Somebody yelled something as I came down with a spinning Axe kick on the second guy.

A Mandala Shield sprung to life at the last possible second as a portal opened underneath me, but I was ready this time. A burst threw me backward, and another launched me forward with Arbiter in hand.

The first strike had the Mandala flickering, but the second never came as I Angel Evaded away just in time to avoid a concentrated beam of red energy.

Another beam followed, and then a third, and finally a fourth. I dodged everyone but was growing increasingly worried at their ferocity. If these motherfuckers kept going like this, I might be forced to actually take this fight seriously.

I had the feeling that the Ancient one would be less willing to hear me out if I killed some of her sorcerers.

Thankfully, the leader took the time to gloat before escalating the fight further.

"It was foolish of you to come here alone, Demon brat," he said. "You should know better than to approach a Sanctum. Have you forgotten that we are at war?"

It was a real struggle not to react when I heard the news.

Of course, they were at fucking war, dumbass!

The sorcerers of Earth were created to protect the world from threats outside our dimension.

Belasco and his Nephilim spawn fit that bill perfectly.

Sparda's memory hadn't mentioned a conflict, but I would assume they've been fighting for centuries.

What was more dangerous than a half-demon, half-human that could get by Agamotto's protection spell?

Given all of this context, the bald sorcerer guy was right.

It was incredibly stupid approaching the Sanctum as I did, but I've talked my way out of worse situations.

"Of course, I've not," I snorted. "Seeing the Ancient one is just that important. I bring news of a threat that can end the Earth if it's not dealt with delicately."

"Lies!" One bald Sorcerer yelled, clutching his stomach. "It's demon trickery."

When I squinted my eyes, he looked oddly familiar.

The leader silenced him with a wave but seemed to agree with his enthusiastic underling.

"We are guardians of the Earth, and we have no knowledge of the threat you speak of."

"You might not," I said, "but your boss might. The news I bring is too sensitive for the ears of anyone but Yao."

I saw the man's eyes grow wider as I casually dropped the name of the Ancient one.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"The name is Dante."

The bald Sorcerer seemed to examine me for a long second before he waved his hand, forcing the other sorcerers to stand down reluctantly.

"I am Daniel Drumm. Master of the Sanctum Sanctorium, and I will relay your message to her, but understand this. If you step out of line, there will be no warning, only retribution."

"I've got chills," I smirked, "but I got the idea loud and clear. I'm here to talk, not fight."

Drumm said nothing and waved his hand, and suddenly, we were standing in the Sanctum Sanctorium. The interior was spacious, with old fixtures, rugs, floorboards, and glass cases with strange artifacts hanging mid-air.

"Wow," I muttered as I spun, trying to take it all in.

"Wait here," he said. Seven of the ten sorcerers that'd fought with him opened golden gateways that they stepped into, leaving me with two men and one woman, all with pronounced snarls on their faces. The angriest of the trio was the man who'd spoken up against me.

I was now also realizing that he'd been the sucker I'd punched earlier. No wonder he was a bit miffed.

My first instinct was to apologize, but I had a feeling that would only make things worse, so I settled for just standing there awkwardly.

Luckily, I didn't have to wait long for the Ancient One to arrive. She elected to startle like a proper master of the mystic arts.

"You certainly know how to make an entrance, Dante Sparda." A voice sounded from behind us. None of us had even seen the portals she'd come through.

"Ah well, I aim to please," I said. "I'm just glad we could talk things out before things got more serious."

"I will relay to Master Drumm that you're grateful for his restraint."

 (Read 10 chapters ahead on Patreon.com/ArtandCreativeWriting. We just concluded a major arc, and let me tell you, me and the boys had a lot of fun with it.)