Sorcerer in the Marvel Universe

"I want to see it with my own eyes."

Clarea spoke without hesitation.

"I want to see what the ordinary world is really like. Whether people are ignorant or enlightened, compassionate or cruel... I don’t want someone else’s answer. I want to judge them for myself."

Olivan regarded her for a long moment before nodding.

"I’m glad to hear you say that."

Then his expression grew more serious.

"Ordinarily, this journey is undertaken by apprentices. You’re already a full sorcerer. That means if you leave Kamar-Taj for this pilgrimage, your magic will be sealed."

"I accept."

Her answer came instantly.

"If I can rely on my spells whenever things become difficult, it wouldn’t be much of a trial."

A hint of approval flashed across Olivan’s face.

"Where do you intend to go?"

As one of Clarea’s mentors, he couldn’t help worrying. She was gifted beyond her years, but still remarkably innocent.

"I want to go somewhere poor."

"Somewhere chaotic."

"The places where life is hardest are often where people reveal who they truly are."

S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters

Director’s Office

"Director, we’re about to open the Abomination’s skull."

Nick Fury straightened in his chair.

Finally.

After what felt like an eternity, they had reached the moment he’d been waiting for.

"Patch the live feed through immediately."

He’d been trapped in the office for nearly three hours.

At first he’d expected the autopsy to take half an hour.

Instead, two hours had passed with virtually no progress. Every call he’d made to the laboratory had produced the same answer.

The skull was simply too hard.

Conventional equipment had accomplished nothing.

So Fury had ordered something less conventional.

Someone had hauled in an industrial laser cutter capable of slicing reinforced concrete.

That should have solved the problem in ten minutes.

Instead, it had taken another hour.

If Abomination’s regenerative abilities had still been active, Fury suspected they’d still be trying to cut through the thing next week.

He reached across the couch and slapped Alexander Pierce lightly on the shoulder.

"Wake up. It’s starting."

Pierce stirred from what had long since progressed beyond a nap.

He adjusted his glasses, rubbed the sleep from his eyes, and turned toward the television.

On-screen, technicians were disconnecting the overheated laser cutter before securing a heavy extraction clamp to the top of Abomination’s skull.

A masked female researcher stepped into view.

"Director, we’re ready to remove the cranial plate. Awaiting authorization."

Fury leaned forward.

"Proceed."

Pierce unconsciously mirrored the movement.

Hours of waiting had dulled their curiosity, but now that the moment had finally arrived, both men were watching with renewed anticipation.

The extraction mechanism strained.

The skull resisted even after being cut nearly all the way through.

Then...

Pop.

The top of the skull came free.

Silence filled the laboratory.

Inside Abomination’s head wasn’t a brain.

It was a mass of thick, viscous green sludge.

As the corpse lay on its back, the gelatinous liquid slowly oozed out onto the examination table before dripping onto the floor.

"...That’s disgusting."

One researcher blurted it out before thinking.

The colleague beside him immediately jabbed him with an elbow.

"The Director’s watching."

The researcher cleared his throat.

"I mean... that’s highly unusual."

Neither Fury nor Pierce cared about the outburst.

Both were staring at the monitor.

"What exactly are we looking at?" Fury asked.

Surely Abomination’s brain hadn’t literally turned into soup.

The senior researcher who had spent the last several hours cutting through the skull frowned.

"At the moment... we’re not certain."

"It could be accumulated fluid."

Fury raised an eyebrow.

Accumulated fluid?

Inside Abomination’s skull?

"Run every test you’ve got."

The brain was the body’s command center.

Whatever had happened inside Abomination’s head demanded an explanation.

Could this be the physical mutation Evenson had attributed to changes in the soul?

"I don’t think we’ll need laboratory analysis."

The female researcher crouched beside the puddle of green fluid and picked up a small solid fragment.

Then she leaned over the open skull and examined the interior.

"I believe I know what this is."

Everyone in the room looked at her.

"So?"

She reached carefully into the cranial cavity, probing through the remaining tissue.

"I believe..."

"...this is what’s left after his brain dissolved."

Pierce frowned.

"Dissolved?"

"You’re saying his brain liquefied?"

Abomination had been dead for less than ten hours, and the body had been refrigerated almost immediately.

Natural decomposition couldn’t explain something like this.

She nodded.

"Yes."

"And it began while he was still alive."

She held up the fragment she’d recovered.

"This is a piece of brain tissue."

Reaching into the skull again, she carefully removed something roughly the size of a clenched fist.

"And this..."

"...appears to be everything that’s left."

She held it up for everyone to see.

"There are obvious sections missing here... here... and here."

"I believe those missing portions gradually broke down into the fluid covering the floor."

Pierce ignored the revolting sludge.

His attention remained fixed on the shrunken organ.

"...Can something that small actually function?"

The researcher answered immediately.

"Minister, given Abomination’s current body mass, his brain should be at least four times this size."

She looked at the specimen again.

"With so little remaining, higher reasoning would have been severely compromised."

"He likely lost the capacity for abstract thought altogether."

"So his intelligence had already fallen to that of a wild animal."

Pierce’s eyes narrowed.

"If that’s true..."

"...animals can be trained."

Silently, he added another thought.

Hydra had always excelled at training dangerous animals.

"I’m afraid not."

The researcher shattered that hope.

"Given the amount of tissue that’s left, even conditioning would have been extremely difficult."

"Training relies on forming complex behavioral responses."

"I don’t believe his damaged brain was capable of sustaining them."

She frowned thoughtfully as she continued examining the remains.

"There’s something else."

She looked up.

"The surviving portions of his brain..."

"...almost appear to have been selectively preserved."

As though someone had deliberately chosen which parts to leave intact.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!