Lord of Cinder in American Comics

Having finally finished the last piece of grilled crab, the Greedy One patted his flat belly, let out a satisfied burp, and said, "That's a mage who maintains the safety of the earth, you know. Those violent guys must be guarding the gate themselves! Who would be so bored as to knock on the door and find those violent lunatics?"

"You... good boy, the sun shines on the beach."

They received the news, but it had no effect whatsoever. Just as those with ideas were about to blurt out a few curses, they saw the sharp teeth of the greedy and swallowed their words back, changing their tune to something else.

Although Fury had more questions and information about Constantine, he wasn't prepared to share it with the others present. As a result, Ash's prepared countermeasures were no longer needed.

Then came some questions about the composition of the demon world and hell. In the end, the greedy ones handed over the position of demon leader and king of all demons to Mephisto.

As for how S.H.I.E.L.D. will try to get information from Mephisto, or ask other demons to question him, we can only wish that person good luck and hope that the other demons can leave this poor guy with a whole corpse.

"Oh, but I heard that something big happened at Dragon Academy recently, but I don't know what it is."

The greedy man casually mentioned something that piqued everyone's curiosity.

Constantine and the Dragon Academy—it's clear that only the Dragon Academy's systematic education could cultivate such a powerful magician.

Although Constantine is hailed as a genius by the greedy, systematic education and training are what everyone cares about most.

The greedy man's words didn't elicit any response from the others. But Nick Fury made a connection to something.

Recalling Natasha's report from a few days ago, Fury remembered. Constantine had received notification from others that someone was to be buried, so Constantine should be returning to Dragon Academy, right?

The idea of ​​seizing this opportunity to find out more about the Dragon Academy, or even sending someone there to study, lingered in Fury's mind.

However, with other people present, Fury couldn't say much. He could only suppress his impulse and cooperate with the others to ask for more information.

After a long period of questioning, all the information obtained from the greedy individuals was vague and ambiguous, with answers ranging from "probably" to "maybe" to "possibly." Even information of interest to the Security Council was classified as false intelligence because it could not be verified.

Now everyone understood why Constantine's demand for information was as simple as just having a young lady dance.

Leaving the vault that housed the greedy, Pierce lagged slightly behind, staying at the very back of the line.

When Pierce emerged from the bunker, he did not appear on the surface with the others.

Fury watched as the Security Council representatives boarded the helicopter and disappeared into the clouds before finally letting out a sigh of relief.

Back in his office in the bunker, Fury found someone already sitting on his sofa, holding a glass of cheap red wine.

It was Pierce who disappeared from the team.

Pierce took a small sip, but couldn't stand the sourness of the wine. He frowned, put down his glass, and said, "Nick, you really should try buying some good wine."

"I don't have enough money, so this is all I can afford."

Fury walked to his desk, pressed the button under the desk, and sealed off the entire room.

Pierce looked at the windows and doors locked shut with armored steel, the entire room instantly becoming a Faraday cage, blocking all means of communication.

Pierce remarked admiringly, "You're still so careful, Fury."

"Just in case, Pierce, what exactly is the Security Council's stance on me?"

Fury's biggest concern right now is the Security Council, since his deal with the demons has been exposed, and the Security Council has now confirmed the demons' exact location and existence.

Although this incident occurred at the Pentagon building, given Amy's consistent attitude towards S.H.I.E.L.D., there is still room for maneuver.

"Uh... how should I put it..."

Pierce hesitated. After all, Fury's actions this time were obvious to all, and he had just inquired about information regarding the wizard Constantine. Pierce felt that he could get some information from Fury to pave the way for Hydra.

“Fury, you have to understand, I did my best to get you into the position of San Francisco police chief. Now they want to use me as an example, but I can’t get any information about you at all.”

Upon hearing Pierce's explanation, Nick Fury simply did not believe his former superior. After all, they were both from intelligence backgrounds, and maintaining skepticism was the first principle, and the second was that all intelligence was tradable.

"What do I have to give up to regain the trust of the World Security Council?"

Chapter 118: Coulson Rebooted

Regaining the Security Council's trust? Is it even possible?

Fury knew this was impossible for him; he was merely trading intelligence, and the value of that intelligence would determine whether he would remain in his position.

Pierce's decision to stay was partly due to the Security Council's intention to have him see if he could obtain more valuable intelligence from Fury.

“Their biggest interest right now is Constantine. After all, Ash has been taken over by the Pentagon, and there’s a new power structure backed by the military. They need another force to counterbalance them, since it’s about using magic to defeat magic.”

As he spoke, Pierce rummaged through the liquor cabinet in Fury's office, but couldn't find a single bottle of liquor that cost more than ten dollars.

'Looks like this base is one of Fury's backup plans. I need to prepare in advance.'

Having confirmed the importance of the base to Fury, Pierce turned around, waiting for Fury's reply.

Fury hesitated for a long time, wondering whether to expose Natasha's clue. After thinking it over, he decided to only tell Pierce part of it and keep the choice in his own hands.

“I have an agent who has established a good relationship with Constantine, and we can speak directly with him.”

Building a good relationship? Direct dialogue? These tricks are child's play for Pierce.

Law enforcement can treat taxpayers well no matter how they treat them. They can have direct conversations with taxpayers, whether it's a summons or a raid.

Pierce took out a cigar from his pocket, lit it, and the smoke drifted through the enclosed room, filling the entire house with the sweet aroma of cigars.

Pierce slowly exhaled a puff of milky white smoke, his eyes somewhat vacant, and said, "Fury, that's not what they want. They want results. The military's support for Ash's establishment of a department has entered the preparatory stage. As long as they are given enough money, the entire department will be filled with those laid-off special forces members in an instant. They can immediately pull out a battle-hardened army, not to mention with the blessing of that chaplain who accompanies them."

Pierce kept pressuring Fury, telling him about the timeline for the Pentagon building so he would understand the urgency involved.

"Oh, right, the pentagonal building also made a decision. They bypassed Ash and went directly to their Pope Saliva to invite a saintess, a guardian knight, and two church knights to help the new department."

Pierce's words, delivered in a tone of sudden awakening, were the final straw that broke Fury's defenses.

Ash's power has grown even stronger, especially considering she's a priest capable of directly summoning angels. Although rumors suggest Ash's relationship with Pope Salvador isn't good, who can guarantee that the people Salvador sent also have a bad relationship with Ash?

Moreover, in religious stories, would a priest who can maintain contact with his god be suppressed by mortals?

If the god behind Ash really gets involved, she might be the only one who can resolve this problem.

Gripping the pager in his pocket, Fury recalled the woman's strength and encouraged himself.

"I'll have the agents question Constantine, and I'll let you know as soon as I have any news."

Fury eventually compromised and let Natasha handle this impossible mission. All she needed was an order from her superiors; how her subordinates handled it was up to them to improvise.

If it goes well, everyone's happy; if it goes badly, we can just replace it with another batch of agents.

After receiving verbal confirmation from Fury, Pierce finally put down his cigar and stubbed it out in the ashtray next to him.

Reaching the door, he knocked on the armored steel above. After Fury opened the door, Pierce walked out, leaving behind only a faint remark.

"I'll wait for your news. Good luck, Fury."

Opening the door altered the Faraday cage structure of the room, allowing previously blocked information to flow in one after another.

Looking at the warnings and decisions issued by the Security Council, Fury touched the scar under his blindfold and looked at the amount of money on it, feeling even more troubled.

The Security Council transferred the original deal with the greedy to Fury, tasking him with building this doomsday database.

And because it's a deal with the devil, this database can't have any cutting-edge technology, but it also can't treat the devil like a fool.

The data also needs to showcase the true goodness and beauty of humanity. After all, we don't know what the devil will do with this data. What if he gives it to some higher alien race that thinks humanity is a problem and sends a fleet to Earth to help improve the ecological environment?

Looking at the densely packed requirements, Fury abandoned his idea of ​​smuggling location devices and personal tasks into the documents. After all, he still had to wait for the Security Council to review them again, and it wouldn't be good to anger his superiors again.

However, this operation fell completely into the calculations of the greedy one, namely Ash.

The birth of the Samaritans marks another step for the Dark Souls world into Earth, requiring a completely new assessment and learning of the planet.

Through the creation of Rudolf, Carla, and the Fire Keeper, the Samaritans became this link.

The Samaritans will be responsible for learning the basic knowledge and culture of both sides and integrating and updating them.

In suspect tracking, if a machine with only 24-hour information filtering capabilities can become a god of the internet, it's no problem for the new Samaritan to emerge as a completely new entity to suppress the machine.

After reviewing the documents in his hand, Fury realized he didn't have enough staff. There was too much to do, and not enough people.

"I'll embezzle a little more money, just a small portion, because I still need to build another new base—no, two new bases."

Not only were his men insufficient, but the new base was also lacking. Fury was sending mission documents to his agents while searching for projects from which he could extract funds.

'A space-based carrier project? Building three at once is too much. Let's build one first, and we'll deal with the remaining two later.'

After making notes on the document in his hand, Fury stamped it with his seal.

On the other side, Coulson, who had just received Fury's mission file, held his breath, pinched his nose, and squatted down next to the toilet, putting down the toilet brush in his hand, moved.

Ever since Pierce held a grudge against him last time, Coulson, under Fury's arrangement, actually came to S.H.I.E.L.D. to clean toilets, specifically the public restrooms on the first floor.

Just when Coulson thought Fury had forgotten him, he finally received a new activation notification.

Coulson, moved to tears, wiped them away with his sleeve, but the stench from the nearby toilet made it even harder for him to open his eyes.

I retreated, getting far away from the toilet, and could barely open my eyes to see the task files on my phone.

"Oh, no..."

Upon seeing Constantine's name on the document, Coulson couldn't help but let out another wail.

Chapter 119: Back to Dragon Academy

That day, Natasha returned to Constantine's storage room in Brooklyn after shopping.

In recent days, given the situation in New York and the constant gunfire, Natasha has been staying with Constantine to take care of him.

Since Carcharus arrived, Constantine has been holding his book wrapped in black cloth, remaining motionless, and has even stopped smoking.

For two days, Natasha deliberately didn't come back on time to cook for Constantine in order to test whether he was faking it.

However, in the surveillance footage that Natasha secretly placed, Constantine remained motionless in the same position for two whole days.

Out of a sense of responsibility for the mission and some unnecessary curiosity, Natasha stayed with Constantine.

Every day at mealtimes, at Natasha's urging, Constantine reluctantly changed from sitting on the edge of the bed to sitting at the dining table, and then changed back to sitting after finishing his meal.

But today is different.

Today, after Natasha finished shopping in an area protected by NY police, she was blocked in an alley by a group of people in their vehicles.

Just as he was about to draw his gun, Coulson's bald head appeared through the slowly descending car window.

"Long time no see, Natasha."

Picking up the shopping bag she had hastily dropped, Natasha checked its contents for any damage. Without even looking up, she turned to leave.

"Hey~ wait a minute, Natasha, wait a minute."