Marvel: Chapter 143

Chapter 143: Enchanted

[[Markus Hanley]]


Mobius seemed quizzical at the riddle. "Where does this come from?" 


"From someone special to me." Even after years, I couldn't figure out what it meant. And this was the chance to figure it out.


"I hate that we gave you the authority to keep your thoughts hidden even inside the headquarters." Mobius closed the file that he had been so engrossed in writing on. He calmly thought about the riddle and placed a finger over his chin. 


"What do you think 'Holy and Gold' means in that riddle?" Mobius cross-questioned. "I want to know what you have figured out."


Leaning back comfortably on the seat, I thought of the countless answers that might have been possible. 


"Holy might be referring to something related to gods or saints and gold might either be referring to the actual element of gold… or its value which is equivalent to that of gold."


"You are pretty close actually." He said, assuring me that he had the answer.


"So?" I still couldn't figure out the answer. "What is it?"


"I will give you one last chance to ask for something else as the answer to your question is pretty simple and once you get the answer, you might be disappointed that you wasted your reward on it."


I shook my head. I already knew that the answer might be something ridiculously simple but it was something that I had to find out. 


For my mother at least.


"I know and my decision is final."


Mobius raised an eyebrow before extending his hand on the table. The magical and scientific elements of the TVA instantly created a hologram before my eyes.


"This is…" I widened my eyes at the slight realization of what he was insinuating at. "A Mountain."


But not just any mountain.


"Mountain of the Gods, Mount Olympus." Mobius stated. "A holy black mountain inlaid with gold."


It was a ridiculous revelation. I wasn't worried that I was stupid enough to not consider Olympus but I was shell-shocked to find that my father linked with the Greeks. 


"How is that possible…"


"Thanks to Hephaestus, the glory of Olympus has been beyond just its holy aura. The blacksmith god laid the mountain with gold, making it one of the most valuable places of living of any god out there." Mobius elaborated. "Other than a few Hindu gods."


At this point, I wasn't even paying attention to what he was saying.


Olympus? Greek Gods? That's ridiculous! 


You know what? As long as I am not related to Zeus, I am fine with being the son of an orc as well. 


There has never been any god that disgusted me, other than Zeus. 


Wait no. Quite a lot of Greek gods disgust me.


"Why did it have to be the Olympians…"


"Pardon?" Mobius asked. 


Shaking my head I let out a tired sigh. "Nope. It's nothing, absolutely nothing."


…

…


Mobius was successful in gaining the upper hand over the forces of Kang that had previously managed to escape to different timelines. He finally took them down one by one. 


The TVA kept their promise and let Markus return without meddling with his way of doing things at the promise of him not messing with the other timelines. 


And Markus didn't seem to find any reason to mess with other timelines, at least not yet.


He had returned the Inhumans to their home and erased the memory of everything related to Kang. Everything was back to normal in Attilan and Markus decided to stay away from that place for the time being. 


The threat of Blackheart was still there and he had no intention of fighting the son of Mephisto, instead he planned to reseal him as soon as possible. 


But for that he needed a few things and one of them happened to be the infinity gems.


"Is everyone prepared?" Markus asked, calmly sitting at the center of the room. "Strange?"


The Sorcerer Supreme nodded. "I am."


Giving him a smile, Markus looked at Selene. "What about you, Selene?" 


"I am prepared. "


"And finally, Morgan." 


The evil sorceress affirmed. "Everything is ready."


Markus slowly breathed and took out the pendant that he was wearing. They had already enchanted and engraved it for the pendant to be able to handle the usage of the gems multiple times. However, Markus wanted to make sure that it was safe enough to not cause any harm to the user.


He didn't want to end up like Tony or Thanos. 


The soul stone was placed on the pendant and it was also reacting to the time stone inside the Eye of Agamotto. 


It took a bit of convincing and a bit of manipulation to show Strange the importance of allowing the usage of the time stone. And while he will keep the stone, Markus can take it from him when the world is at a threat. 


"Get ready." Strange instructed and Markus gave the man a nod. 


The three magic users surrounded the mutant and started chanting, changing the temperature of the room. 


"By the law of magic, I unbind you from the chains of time! Eye of Agamotto!" 


"By the law of magic, I unbind you from the chains of decay! Mortem Lanţ!"


"By the law of magic, I unbind you from the chains of curses, Gwár Unbáu!"


The rays, three colours, three different spells shot towards Markus and surrounded him. He felt his powers flaring up in an attempt to prevent the unknown magic from invading his body. However, he prevented them from affecting the process and allowed the magic to enter his body and then pass onto the pendant.


The soul stone helped to synchronise the magic with his soul and Strange's time stone reversed his body and the effects to the past whenever it seemed to harm him.


Markus' body was insanely strong which made it possible to handle the strain of magic without much pain. But the same couldn't be said about the others. 


They shook violently as the magic passed on from them to Markus. The drops of magic perfectly synced the pendant with him and before long he had achieved perfect symbiosis with the pendant. 


*Boom*


The three magic users flew away the moment the pendant synced with Markus. The force was so strong the three crashed onto the wall with Strange barely preventing them from harm. 


He huffed tiredly, "It's… It's… a success!"


…

…


[Suburbs of New York]


Magnus knew far less about his father than people believed. But he didn't blame his father. He knew that his father's life was not easy. He saw how little time the man got for himself and how often he had to keep rushing for things that could harm him or his plans. Compared to Markus, Magnus considered his life far easier. 


And he wanted to help his father as much as possible. That's why he cleaned up whatever his father left or forgot in his free time. 


Once his father became a being comparable to a god, he stopped caring about the small thugs. Those were handled by his men but Magnus was of the belief that there was no better person to clean up the mess made by the father than their children. And thus he cleaned everything up. 


"You shall die, Hanley Son!" The roar of the green monster before him didn't scare Magnus in the least, instead he chuckled. 


"We will see, Abomination." 


Abomination gritted his feral teeth as he protected the man behind him.


"How long are you planning to hide, Kingpin?" Magnus taunted, making the fat man fume in anger. 


"I am not hiding, you fool! I am just staying on the sidelines! Abomination, kill that man!"


Abomination grinned and pulled out his claws before sprinting towards Magnus like a mad dog. 


However, what none of the criminals expected was Magnus' strength. He never revealed his true strength to anyone and that gave him a massive edge over others. 


"Well, pardon me for the mess that I am going to create." Saying that, Magnus created a ray of energy that shot straight towards Abomination. 


Abomination's eyes went wide as he saw the approaching ray of light, however it was too late for him to dodge and the ray of light shot right through him. And within second—


He exploded. 


Pieces of meat and droplets of blood fell from above as the explosion splattered his body over every corner of the alley. 


Kingpin stood shell-shocked at the display and was afraid for his life. As he saw Magnus walking towards him, he looked at him.


"C-Can I give you m-money to leave me alone?" He asked fearfully.


Magnus smiled. 


"No."