Lord of Cinder in American Comics

Coulson was now gripped by immense fear; accepting a blessing from someone who looked like a demon was definitely not a good thing.

"Let's stop testing each other. You know I'm not going to give up on Coulson. Get straight to the point and give me your plan."

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Author's Remarks

Happy second day of the Lunar New Year! Wishing everyone all the best, smooth work, success in postgraduate and civil service exams, happiness in life, family reunion, good health, and peace.

2022-02-02 00:30

Chapter Twenty-Two: Hunting the Undead Amulet

The two old coins, testing each other, couldn't do anything to each other, leaving Coulson, caught in the middle, constantly under immense pressure.

In the verbal exchange between the greedy man and Fury, the greedy man ultimately prevailed. Fury would do his best to keep Coulson, so Fury conceded and directly asked the greedy man to provide a solution and then state his conditions.

"Hmm~ Let me see what good stuff I have." The greedy one rummaged through the air as if he had a backpack in his hand.

"Oh, found it. This is a creation of hunters, made specifically to hunt the undead."

As the greedy man spoke, he pulled a talisman with a rough, silvery mirror surface from his air backpack and tossed it to Coulson.

[Undead Hunting Amulet: An item used for hunting undead. Within a certain time and effective range, it prevents elemental regeneration. It is a legacy of the Lloyd Knights who once led the hunt for the undead. The White Church's chief god, Lloyd, is long since abandoned, but the hunt for the undead continues. It merely seals off the undead's regenerative abilities, allowing for a fair and square fight.]

Coulson caught the amulet that was thrown to him and kept looking at it, trying to remember as much information about it as possible.

Holding the chain attached to the amulet, Coulson said to the Greedy One, "Can I just wear this?"

"How could it be that convenient? You need to throw it on that guy outside the door. The broken amulet will imprison its abilities, allowing you to destroy it with bullets."

The greedy man provided instructions and explanations on how to use it. Coulson held the amulet, counting the bullets in his pistol magazine, without a shred of confidence that he could use those bullets to eliminate the candy man at the door.

Just as Coulson raised his gun, attempting a desperate attempt, Fury's voice came through the earpiece once again.

“Coulson, I’m near the warehouse. I’ve brought a whole special forces team. All you have to do is throw the amulet at the Candy Man, and we’ll take him down.”

Upon hearing the news of Fury's arrival, Coulson was overjoyed. "Sir, weren't you in San Francisco? How did you get to New York so quickly?"

Without answering Coulson's question, Fury simply said that they would act once they were ready.

Coulson, holding the amulet, walked to the doorway created by the car crash, took a few deep breaths to calm himself, then aimed at the candy man at the door and decisively threw the amulet.

The amulet landed smoothly on the candy man following a parabolic trajectory, and after shattering, it released a white smoke that completely covered the candy man.

Immediately afterwards, bullets found the Candy Man, piercing his body and then flying out from the other side, knocking out a pile of dead bees in the process.

Gunfire continued unabated, and bullets flew incessantly. Coulson, hiding behind cover by the doorway, watched as the Candy Man's body was gradually weakened until it vanished, leaving behind only a pile of dead bees.

As the candy man was scattered into a pile of bee corpses, two fully armed soldiers walked over from around the corner, each carrying a metal can.

The two walked to the bee carcasses, put down the two jars, took a hose from their bodies, attached one end to the jars, and the other end to the spray gun-like weapon in their hands.

One of them took the lead, spraying a gray powdery substance onto the black bee carcasses on the ground until the entire area was covered.

After spraying, another person raised their weapon, which then emitted flames. Unlike the orange flames produced by ordinary flamethrowers that use accelerants, this one emitted a bluish-green flame.

Blue flames licked at the gray powder, the two merging together and bursting forth with dazzling white light. The white light quickly spread to the entire ground covered by the powder, generating extremely high temperatures.

Coulson shielded his eyes with his hand to avoid being harmed by the burning white light. Then a voice came from behind him; the Greedy One had somehow appeared behind him, watching the soldiers' movements alongside him.

"A smart approach is to use thermite to destroy these disease vectors. But that flamethrower is quite interesting; it's difficult to apply that temperature to weapons using chemical fuels as accelerants."

The greedy man shared his opinion, but Coulson was not prepared to talk to him, lest he be tricked into revealing any information.

I just got a call from Fury. Let Fury handle the negotiations with the greedy ones.

Natasha also came to Coulson's side, and the two of them and the monster stood together at the door, waiting for the matter outside to be dealt with.

The flames gradually died down, leaving only a few black metallic polymers left after the thermite burned; everything else turned to ashes at a temperature of over two thousand degrees.

A bald man with a black leather jacket walked straight from across the warehouse and stood in front of it, staring into the eyes of the greedy man.

“Mr. Greed, release my men and state your demands.”

"You just said you wouldn't meet with me in person, so who is it that's standing in front of me now?"

The greedy man didn't answer Fury's question, but instead let out a tsk-tsk mocking sound. However, the mocking sound gradually subsided and eventually disappeared.

After staring at Fury for a long time, the Greedy Man said something that shocked Coulson and Natasha.

"What are you? You're not Nick Fury."

In the eyes of the greedy, Fury's soul was different in quality and shape from that of an ordinary Earthling. Its shape was as distorted as Rosalia's soul and was constantly changing.

A moment of silence fell over the scene. The probing between the two sides ended, and the greedy one broke the deadlock and won.

At that moment, Nick Fury's voice came through the earpiece held in the greedy man's hand, breaking the silence.

"The person in front of you is my double. To prevent this from happening again, I must be careful."

Nick Fury offered a flimsy explanation, but nobody cared; their subsequent negotiations were just the beginning of the outcome.

“Mr. Greedy One, state your request.”

"Hmm... let me think about it."

The greedy person then adopted the pose of a thinker, attempting to gain inspiration from this posture.

"Are you going to bomb the Bartlett Cathedral? Or burn down the Basilica of Our Lady? Or perhaps shoot some cardinal?"

The greedy person makes everyone around him hear the 'voice' of his thoughts.

"Let's get down to business. The transactions will only be in my collection, or as far as I can go."

Fury, through the headset, also heard the greedy man's contemplation and issued a warning.

"Your chips aren't very high quality."

Fury stated his position directly. The greedy man's only bargaining chip was providing information and supplies to deal with the Candy Man; it was Natasha who saved Coulson, and Natasha had already paid the price.

If Fury had abandoned Coulson and Natasha and resolved the issue directly with missiles, the deal with the greedy would have been canceled. Therefore, the greedy's attempt to inflate the price would have failed.

“Then I want a portrait of Dorian Gray.”

## Chapter Twenty-Three: The Portrait of Dorian Gray

The greedy man finally made his demand: he wanted Fury to give him a portrait of Dorian Gray.

After much deliberation, Fury on the other end of the phone finally agreed to the greedy man's request.

"How should the transaction method be determined?"

Fury inquired about the details of the deal, trying to have everything under control and avoid any unexpected events.

However, the greedy man's answer took Frey by surprise.

“I’ll go with you until you give me the portrait.”

Fury readily agreed to the greedy man's demands. From a transactional perspective, this was a good approach; once the transaction was completed, the money and goods were settled, and there were no outstanding debts.

But this is not a good option for the greedy. As long as Fury doesn't hand over the portrait, the deal will continue, and the greedy will stay at the location arranged by Fury, unless something else happens later.

After the two sides finished their discussion, the greedy one shrunk down and transformed back into the shape of a treasure chest. It was then carried by two soldiers to a helicopter.

Following Fury's instructions, Natasha and Coulson boarded another helicopter. Coulson, on the helicopter, didn't see Fury's double, nor did he notice when the double left.

After experiencing all these strange and bizarre events, Coulson and Natasha were constantly on edge until they finally breathed a sigh of relief once they were on the helicopter.

The helicopter flight didn't last long, and it soon landed in the yard of an unnamed farm.

As Coulson disembarked from the helicopter, he saw Fury standing not far away, waiting for him.

Coulson silently pressed the earpiece until it connected, while Fury, who was not far away, heard the ringing of his phone.

Having confirmed that this was indeed Fury, the man he had been speaking to, Coulson stepped forward, saluted, and said, "It's a pleasure to meet you, sir."

Fury ignored Coulson's subtle actions; maintaining suspicion is a basic quality for an agent.

"Natasha, I need to see your mission briefing in an hour. Coulson will give the verbal explanation first."

Fury gave the two men the same task, but separated them to prevent them from colluding. He trusted Coulson to some extent, so he wanted to hear Coulson's side of the story first.

After Natasha indicated that she understood, she followed a ground crew member to another location. Coulson followed behind Fury, and the two walked around the farm.

Coulson gave a concise account of everything that had happened since he met Natasha, accurately repeating every word the greedy man had said.

"You mean, that monster took a coin from Natasha?"

"Yes, according to him it was a blessing."

Coulson, without any personal bias, relayed the greedy man's explanation to Fury, including how the greedy man received a rusty coin with a flick of his finger after Natasha agreed.

And so their conversation continued for quite some time, ending with Coulson's question.

"Sir, how are we supposed to find that painting?"

"Actually, there's no need to look for it; I know where it is."

Fury's words surprised and delighted Coulson. He was delighted because he no longer needed to search for the portrait, but surprised by Fury's intelligence.

"Coulson, do you know Captain America?"

When Fury mentioned Captain America, Coulson instinctively puffed out his chest.

"Sir, Captain America is a hero, he is my idol."

"The battlefields of World War II gave rise to the superhero Captain America, and similarly, there were superheroes on the battlefields of World War I, some of whom possessed abilities no less than Captain America's."

Nick Fury's words shocked Coulson. Coulson was unaware of the hidden stories of World War I; for him, Captain America, the first superhero with the title of Superman, was enough.

"Coulson, have you heard of the Gentlemen's League?"

One hundred years ago, Britain was still under the rule of Queen Victoria, and the whole of Europe was in chaos. An evil force, like a ghost, attacked various countries, causing endless wars.

Queen Victoria made a decision: she sent the Holmes family as special envoys to gather seven exceptionally gifted human elites to form the "Special Gentlemen's League" to fight against evil.

"Among them are great adventurers, navigators, geniuses, eccentric doctors, vampires, and people with superpowers. They have been organized to investigate this evil organization."

"So they successfully saved the world? Just like Captain America!" Coulson was thrilled to hear the superhero story, especially since it featured superheroes who came before Captain America.

"Yes, but they almost failed. There was a traitor among them. And that traitor is exactly what that monster, the Greedy One, wants."

Coulson was somewhat confused. The greedy man wanted a painting, while Fury was talking about a traitor—the two were unrelated. Coulson, a model employee, knew not to interrupt when the leader was speaking, so he patiently waited for Fury's explanation.