Chapter 113: The Arcane Barrier (Part 5)

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Nick Fury did not hide anything and nodded directly.

"That's right. When our team was dealing with the Arclay Genetic Corporation base, we found some shell casings with the Stark Industries logo on them.

So, I suspect that the person who rescued Tony Stark from the Ten Rings, altered your memories, and destroyed the entire Arclay base is this George, about whom we can find no information.

Or rather, it's the mysterious organization that George belongs to, one we know nothing about."

"Director, have we still not found any information on him?"

Coulson's face showed clear surprise.

It was one thing not to find George's information in the database earlier, but now, after several weeks of investigation, it was astonishing that SHIELD still hadn't uncovered anything about him.

Given SHIELD's resources, if someone had even changed dozens of false identities, they should still have been able to track him down.

"No," Fury replied, his tone grim. "It's as if this guy just appeared out of nowhere. There's not a single clue."

"Last night, I even met with Tony Stark, but I couldn't get any useful information about him."

Fury's expression grew more serious.

"So, from now on, stop all ongoing missions and focus entirely on memory recovery treatment."

An organization that suddenly appeared, one that was completely outside his control and understanding, and possessed the power to alter memories, could not be left unchecked.

He needed to figure out where they came from and what their connection to Tony Stark was as quickly as possible.

*Half a month later.*

With the assistance of cutting-edge technology, psychologists, and hypnotists, Coulson and Black Widow finally began to recover some of their lost memories.

"So, he was a mutant created by the Arclay Genetic Corporation. No wonder there's no record of him."

After combining Coulson and Black Widow's accounts with the intelligence SHIELD had previously gathered about the Arclay Genetic Corporation, Nick Fury was finally able to piece together the situation.

George was a mutant created by the Arclay Genetic Corporation, but he later broke free from their control. He escaped the base with a group of other mutants and found Wolverine, who had been missing for many years.

With Wolverine's help, they escaped to New York, then went to Afghanistan to rescue Tony Stark. With Stark's assistance, they destroyed the entire Arclay Genetic Corporation base.

Of course, many details still remained unclear—such as how George and the others had located Tony Stark in Afghanistan.

But the general situation seemed to be as follows.

When it came to mutants and superpowers, many things couldn't be explained by normal reasoning.

"Coulson, you're still in charge of Tony Stark. Conduct his Avengers qualification assessment."

After assigning the task, Fury turned to Black Widow.

"Your mission is to find out where George and Wolverine's group of mutants are hiding in New York. We can't let a group of super-powered mutants roam freely."

Originally, Fury had planned to assign Black Widow to monitor Tony Stark. However, given that Stark had probably already met Black Widow, sending her would likely provoke his distrust.

It was better to send Coulson instead, as they had already built a good rapport.

As for George and the mutants, although they didn't seem to be causing any major problems for the moment, Fury felt that such unpredictable elements needed to be monitored and kept within his control.

Otherwise, if something unexpected happened, he wouldn't be able to manage the situation properly and respond in time.

On the other side, at the Mutant School, Wolverine was puffing on a large cigar, watching George as he repeatedly wrote strange symbols on the walls of the school. Curious, Wolverine asked:

"What are you doing?"

"I'm setting up a magic barrier," George replied without turning around, continuing his work.

Wolverine looked utterly confused.

"What's a magic barrier?"

George waved his hand dismissively.

"You wouldn't understand. Just think of it as a special ability that prevents outsiders from invading the school."

"It's almost time for history class. Aren't you going to go?" George gestured for him to leave.

Wolverine didn't take offense and put out his cigar before happily heading off to teach the kids.

After his past experiences, Wolverine had come to really enjoy teaching history to the students at the school.

Now that Wolverine wasn't around to bother him, George was able to set up the magic barrier even faster.

Rebi's text-based magic was one of the primary forms of magic George had been focusing on recently.

Unlike other forms of magic that required self-study, text-based magic allowed him to frequently get guidance from Rebi, with whom he had a good relationship.

Unlike other mages, who were often out on missions for weeks at a time, Rebi was usually like George, spending most of her time at the library, reading and accumulating magical knowledge.

This allowed George to ask her for help on a regular basis.

The key challenge in learning text-based magic was the accumulation of magical knowledge. Ever since joining the Fairy Tail guild, George had kept up with his studies, making it easier for him to get started.

This was unlike transformation magic, where even after completing missions in Croba City and asking Erza for help, he still hadn't made much progress.

But during his time learning text-based magic with Rebi, George's focus wasn't on the 3D text (which was also part of the text-based magic system) but rather on the magic formulae used to create magical symbols.

Text-based magic is generally divided into several categories: 3D text, magical formulae, dark text, and demonic text.

In the library, the books mostly covered 3D text and magical formulae, while dark text and demonic text were considered forbidden magic, so there were no books on those topics available.

3D text involves bringing words to life in a physical form for combat, such as writing "fire" to conjure flames or "wind" to create a gust of wind. Writing "silence" would mute everything in the vicinity.

However, because of the variety of effects possible, it was difficult to improve the power of each manifestation. Even Rebi, after many years of research, was still at a moderate level with her abilities.

George felt that many of the effects could be replaced by spells from the "H" magic system.

So, he preferred to focus on magical formulae for now, learning 3D text only at a basic level.

Unlike 3D text, magical formulae were harder to use directly in combat but had great effectiveness.

This type of magic involved writing magical formulas on the surface of objects or in space, which would create an invisible barrier once completed.

Anyone who stepped into the area covered by the formula would automatically trigger the rules, and the barrier would be hard to break by brute force. Only those who met the formula's requirements could enter or leave.

However, because the writing of the formula was so strict, any mistakes or modifications would render the original rules ineffective, or worse, change them in a way that benefited the enemy.

(End of Chapter)