CHAPTER 190

[Natasha Romanoff POV]

It's like every single time we get the chance to just kick back and enjoy some downtime, the world absolutely loses it and throws the most annoying and irritating shit our way. 

I have powers; that alone was enough reason for me to trip out for the entire week and the next, but what happens? I get called out of fucking nowhere to fight some fanatical idiots cooperating with demons. 

My ability wasn't the most direct one in the house, it was actually the least direct one. Steve, Draul and Bucky were just tailor made to brute force their way into any situation with zero fucks about subtlety. Ororo was basically a walking and flying homing explosive, just light 'em bastards up. Even Yelena had super speed. She was fast, direct and precise – it was the basic culmination of her abilities. 

Mine however were just too… broad. Yes, I was a bit good at it given the impossible time I've had it but when compared to the others, mine really needed a lot of work. It also didn't help that I was facing a bunch of sorcerers and demons who were quite adept in magic. It was like they could do what I could, but with more ease, flair, and myriad ways of implementation. 

They sometimes used spells that could cut through the force field that I used in protecting myself. It was like a novice with huge magical powers fighting an experienced magician… Thankfully I wasn't all magic. 

Despite them being more experienced than me due to how similar some facets of my abilities were with magic with things like force fields, telekinesis and even energy blasts, their experience didn't save them due to the simple fact that I could just overpower them. It was like a veteran soldier who fought in both world wars suddenly coming face to face with an atomic bomb. Being fucked was an inevitability. 

"That was a bit harder than I expected." Thankfully, this was not the first time I've fought against someone with abilities nor was it the first time I've fought against someone using magic. At least their spells were nowhere as torturous as Draul's. 

Looking at the rather apocalyptic scene before me which was caused due to our fight spiking out further than originally intended, I finally understood why Draul stresses the fact that I had a lot to learn when it came to using abilities. I would be lying if I said I didn't feel a little bit, just a weeny bit, jealous over the fact of how easy to use everyone's abilities were. Having trained in chi and being an assassin actually helped a lot as my abilities were more on the lines of actively focusing on it as opposed to someone like Yelena who all she basically had to do was run… like every other human being on the planet did. 

"Next stop is Texas." The swirling blue portal swallowed me and I found myself on a ranch, welcomed by a scene of carnage. 

This place wasn't an obscure one as the line was directly underneath a ranch with houses nearby which made the demons and their occult friends slaughter every single person and animal in sight. 

"The news's gonna go crazy about this. Well, it's not like we can do anything about it." I could feel that there was something, something like a barrier, obscuring my view or at least diverting my view from something. 

Regulating my energy with the same meditation exercise I trained with, I focused all my energy and tried looking at what had been hiding itself from me and what I saw almost made my stomach retch. 

Bodies upon bodies of half eaten and crudely mangled humans were heaped up upon a pile. It was as if someone had cast a spell that would divert people's attention from the place. 

Looking at it now and based on how large the pile was stacked, I reckon this is where the whole townspeople were gathering, or were gathered. The demons had slaughtered an entire town just because it was a populated area which made me wonder how the other locations that were unfortunate enough to be in the middle of civilization were. After this event makes the news, because it absolutely will as there was no way for us to wipe this under the rug, people's eyes will become a lot clearer. 

I walked in silence, erasing my presence to the best of my supernatural abilities and stalked towards where the demons and humans were gathered. There were fewer cultists here as opposed to demons and most of the demons were feasting on the corpse of their recent hunt why the humans just stood off to the side in boredom, not even the least bit repulsed by what the demons were doing. 

I maintained my camouflage as I got closer, easily weaving my way as I got nearer to where the humans were located. The demons were easier to deal with, at least these types were, but it was the humans that were the problem. These ones were dressed differently  than the others I've seen and if the dress code of any organization were to go by, those who dressed differently from the majority were usually high up the hierarchical ladder. 

"I applaud your stealth but unfortunately the same can not be said about your intelligence." A voice spoke behind me which caused me to jump sideways and attack where I pinpointed the voice came from. 

The person wasn't fazed a bit by the close range attack as they were all stopped by the magic shield in front of him. "You certainly are quite dangerous, attacking someone who just came to say hello."

It was at this point that I finally got a good look at who was speaking. "Baron Mordo." I remembered Draul speaking about him a few times and also because he was the one who actually helped Draul get started with magic. Draul also said something about how he left Kamar-Taj after the Hong Kong battle that apparently never happened. 

"Oh, you know of me? Forgive me but I don't think we've ever been acquainted. I have quite the memory so trust me when I say I would remember if we had once crossed paths." His tone was the only indicator of his surprise. His body had been relaxed since the beginning, a sign that he probably didn't see me as a threat, and all I could read from him was just a fleeting curiosity of how I knew of him. Right, Draul did mention that he was as strong as Stephen Strange and the Sorcerer Supreme. And given that both people Draul compared him with were the only people he personally knew that was on par with him when it came to magical knowledge was not a good sign for me. 

"A friend of mine told me about you in passing. Draul." I said that in hopes of gauging his reactions and that I did. 

His countenance changed as soon as I mentioned Draul's name. He was frowning in distaste as he spoke. "So the coward came out of his shell. I half expected him to slave away at his mansion even after knowing what was going on. How is he doing these days?"

The way he was talking was actually getting on my nerves and also the way the others didn't even react to the noise my attacks made were all sending me wrong signals. "He's been trying out different things recently. I'm sure he would have loved it if you dropped by at least once in a while after you disappeared."

"Ha, funny. The only reason a person as selfish as Cross would involve himself in this is only one of three reasons: One being the Ancient One or Strange practically begged him to. Two being that whatever we are doing personally affects him in a bad way and he is trying to nip it in the bud. And three being he has something to gain from this. Out of these three options, the first one is the most natural while the third is the most unlikely, though it's still a possibility. The second however is where I, as Cross would put it, place my bets on. So would you mind enlightening me on what the fearless Cross is actively worrying about?"

Honestly, it felt as if I was looking at Draul, a feeling that sent the coldest chill down my spine. This man was dangerous, absolutely so. And it was not just his deductive intellect as he was actually correct as even I knew that Draul had an uncanny connection to this dark dimension place they were all talking about. I still vividly remember the night he had a nightmare since it was the first time I've ever seen Draul actually terrified.

Despite the mental turmoil going on in my head, I kept my movements as natural as possible while trying to call out to Draul with the mental link we had but it wasn't working, the situation growing dire by the second. "Well I don't know anything about any of that but what they actually made stressfully clear was that someone was trying to bring about an apocalypse by summoning two different versions of the biblical Devil. I never thought that someone like you would betray what you once stood for and side with the demons."

"I didn't betray anyone, little girl. You could say in fact that it was they that betrayed me and in doing so they opened my eyes to the truth of this world. The Ancient One preaches about the vileness of drawing powers from the dark arts and yet she uses it every passing moment of the day to extend her life, cheating death and accumulating karmic debts which we undeniably have to point at some point in time. Did I betray her or did she betray me by stepping on how she taught me to live?" He asked but I knew a rhetorical question when I saw one. 

"What of Strange? The one she chose was one of the most unscrupulous sorcerers I've ever met. One who had no respect for the arts and would skirt the lines as long as it benefitted him, having no respect for the teachings and the rules in which all we sorcerers live by. And yet she had the gall to pick him as the next Sorcerer Supreme. Even the Eye of Agamotto chose him and now he has the Time Stone in his hands, giving him the power to pervert time as he wishes. He's done it more than a couple of times in the past so I know what I'm talking about." Maybe I should not have mentioned Draul's name in hopes of gauging his reactions because the dangerous air I was feeling from him was getting heavier by the second the more he spoke. 

"And then there's Cross. If I say I absolutely loathed the first two people I mentioned with all of my being then Cross would be the person I despise the most. Everything about him is something I will never bring myself to like or respect. I respect both Strange's genius and the Ancient One's wisdom and strength but despite the fact that Cross has all these qualities in abundance, he still refuses to act. At least in Strange's case, it could be argued that it is his greed for knowledge that propels him to overlook traditions and try to avoid the consequences but Cross doesn't do this. He has the power, the knowledge, the wisdom, to act and yet he simply does nothing. He didn't call out the Ancient One when she was exposed nor did he rebuke Strange's actions of rewriting the flow of the universe. He did not even make a comment about Kaecillius' betrayal, even his intervention in that battle was due to the sole fact that Kaecillius had attacked him first. He didn't even help us in our fight against Kaecillius, only focused on his battle with Doom. I wonder, will he come for you if you call out for him or will he come for me? With Cross you can never know."

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