The oppressive heat hit them the moment they stepped through the tear. The midday sun blazed overhead, turning the desert air into a shimmering haze. Fine grains of sand crunched under their boots, and the endless expanse stretched in every direction—golden dunes broken only by jagged rocks and the faint outline of distant mountains.
Happy squinted against the glare, sweat already beading on his forehead. "So… are we in Afghanistan?"
Before Nova could reply, a third voice—smooth, calm, and perfectly modulated—spoke from somewhere near Happy.
"Yes, Mr. Hogan. Your current coordinates place you in the Kunar Province of Afghanistan."
Nova's gaze flicked down toward Happy's shirt pocket, where a faint blue light pulsed from a small device. He raised an eyebrow.. "So… it's the rumoured AI created by Stark, huh?"
The voice answered without hesitation.
"Correct, Mr. Nova Ashbourne. I am J.A.R.V.I.S., the artificial intelligence designed to assist Mr. Stark in his various endeavors."
Nova gave a single nod and looked at Happy, who caught the unspoken cue. Without a word, Happy set the slim reinforced case down and unlatched it, revealing its contents.
"This has a few of Mr. Stark's personal items," Happy explained. "Some of his watches… a couple pieces of clothing… things he used regularly."
Nova's gaze moved over the neatly arranged contents. Expensive suits in perfectly pressed folds, shirts of fine Egyptian cotton, and several gleaming watches—each clearly handcrafted, the kind of timepieces that didn't just tell time but announced wealth. Even without touching them, Nova could tell a few were rare limited editions.
He reached in without hesitation, fingers closing around one of the watches. Cold metal met his skin, smooth yet carrying faint traces of wear. Perfect.
In his mind, he began silently reciting an incantation he'd memorized from a cracked leather-bound volume in the Black family library—a tracking spell. Old magic, simple in theory but strangely restricted. It could track only non-magical individuals, a limitation Nova had never fully understood. Why the Black ancestors had bothered creating such a spell for muggles specifically remained a mystery.
The air around the watch shimmered faintly as the magic took hold. A flash of light—brief but sharp—burst from its surface, and in the empty air above it, a black-glowing arrow materialized. The arrow rotated slowly before locking in one direction, its edges pulsing faintly with dark light. Above it, glowing numbers appeared: 50 km.
That last detail was Nova's own improvement—a modification to the base spell so it would display precise distance instead of just vague direction.
With a flick of his wrist, the black blade reappeared in his hand, its dull edge catching no light. He traced a swift vertical slash in the empty air, and reality parted once again. The searing desert wind was instantly replaced by the stale, dry heat that leaked from the other side of the tear.
"Stay close," Nova said, stepping through without looking back.
Happy followed, one hand instinctively brushing the concealed sidearm beneath his jacket. The world twisted around them for a heartbeat, and then they were somewhere else entirely.
They emerged on a rocky outcrop overlooking a sunbaked valley. Below, carved into the jagged terrain like a scar, was a fortified compound—weathered concrete walls, rusted corrugated roofs, and guard towers bristling with armed men. A cluster of battered trucks and motorcycles sat in the yard, heat mirages warping the air above them.
A black flag snapped lazily in the wind. Even from here, they could hear the faint clatter of voices, the echo of metal striking metal, and somewhere deeper inside… the muffled hum of generators.
Happy's face hardened as his eyes swept over the scene. "That's it? That's where they're keeping Tony?"
Nova didn't answer, instead he waved his hand and a faint ripple passed over them, like heat distortion in the air, and in the blink of an eye, their forms shimmered and vanished from sight.
Happy glanced down at himself, eyes widening slightly. "Huh… cool," he muttered, turning his hand back and forth as if half-expecting it to reappear.
Jarvis's voice came again, crisp as ever but now tinged with mild interference. "Mr. Ashbourne and Mr Happy… I am unable to maintain a visual or satellite lock on either of you. The cloaking field you've deployed is… most effective. The only reason I am still aware of Mr. Hogan's presence is due to the secure uplink through the device he carries."
Nova allowed a faint smile to curl at the corner of his lips. "Exactly as intended." His voice was calm, but his eyes stayed locked on the compound below. "Let's enter the base quietly. We find Stark first. No heroics, no explosions, no giving the terrorists a reason to shoot him before we reach him. Once he's safe, we leave. I'll pass the coordinates to the nearest U.S. military base—they can deal with what's left."
He said it with practiced ease, but inside… the truth was different. With his current strength, Nova had no trouble turning the entire compound reduced to ash in a few seconds, but the image of actually killing someone still made little uncomfortable.
In both his lives, he had only taken a single life: Lucius Malfoy's. Even that, had left a lingering weight he couldn't fully shake.
He didn't understand how other transmigrators in the stories he'd read became cold-blooded killers overnight. If they were Soldiers, assassins, seasoned fighters, in past life—then sure, they could end lives without flinching. But for a normal citizens, that first kill wasn't just a step; it was a chasm.
Even when he'd played the part of a "hero" before, subduing criminals, he had never ended them. Bones could be broken, joints dislocated, but death was a threshold he hadn't crossed.
Lucius Malfoy was first person he chose to kill, one because it was necessary for his plans, two because he wanted to overcome the fear.
He knew he would eventually have to stain his hands again—this world wasn't forgiving to those who hesitated—but a part of him still felt uncomfortable. Maybe in future he could kill others without blinking an eye, but currently his mindset is to not kill unless absolutely necessary.
The Demon Dweller sword shifted slightly in his grip as he refocused on the task at hand. Somewhere in that nest of rust and concrete, Tony Stark was alive—waiting.
"Let's move," Nova murmured.
They began descending the rocky slope, their invisible forms blending seamlessly into the sun-bleached terrain. Dust shifted under their boots, but not a single guard's gaze wavered toward them.
As Nova hadn't relied on mere invisibility, their approach was far more secure. In addition to the optical cloaking field, he had layered several enchantments—Notice-Me-Not to divert wandering gazes, Sound Suppression to cancel out footsteps and fabric rustle, and a localized Thermal Masking Charm to make them blend seamlessly with the surrounding heat signature.
These overlapping protections created a composite stealth field that even Jarvis could only partially detect through Happy's secure uplink. For anyone else—human or machine—they were as good as air.
As they closed in on the compound's outer structures, Happy's gaze drifted to a nearby weapon rack. The sight made his jaw tighten. Stamped across the crates and along the metal of rifles was the unmistakable Stark Industries logo—faded, but still clear. He bit back a comment, knowing now wasn't the time for moral outrage.
The two moved like shadows through the maze of rusting corridors, past distracted guards and piles of scavenged machinery, until Nova finally stopped in front of a reinforced steel door.
He looked curiously at the door in front of him.
It wasn't just an ordinary thick metal door. The alloy composition alone was far beyond standard military-grade—multiple layered composites with electromagnetic shielding and a dense nano-carbon weave, making it resistant to both brute force and energy-based breaching. Integrated along its frame were micro-frequency disruptors, designed to scramble scanning signals before they could even penetrate the first layer.
After a brief analysis, Nova confirmed that the room where Tony Stark was held captive had actually been designed and constructed by Stark himself.
This room had only one function—to block or nullify mental power detection. The walls were lined with a multi-spectrum interference lattice that could distort psychic waveforms, scattering them harmlessly before they reached the target. This was why Charles Xavier couldn't locate Stark, even when amplifying his abilities through Cerebro.
After all, Tony Stark was imprisoned inside a room he had personally engineered to counter the very mental abilities Xavier excelled at detecting. What an irony…
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→ 30 REVIEWS= 3 BONUS CHAPTER's
→ 200 POWER STONES= 1 BONUS CHAPTER
→ 400 POWER STONES= 2 BONUS CHAPTER's
CURRENT PROGRESS:↓
– FIRST OBJECTIVE:- 23/30 REVIEWS
– SECOND OBJECTIVE- 77/200 P.S
– THIRD OBJECTIVE- /400 P.S
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CHAPTER:- [87 - NOVA'S OFFER] IS AVAILABLE ON MY P@TREON.