Chapter Summaries

Evenson blasted the Abomination with an overpowered Soul Fire, but the badly injured enemy survived and entered Blood Frenzy, becoming stronger and more violent. With his mana nearly gone, Evenson summoned a Nightmare Steed and fled, leaving Tyler to follow.

• Evenson used Backdraft to charge a three-crystal Soul Fire and blasted the Abomination more than fifty meters away.
• Evenson sent Tyler to check whether the Abomination was dead, but the Abomination kicked Tyler away and proved he was still alive.
• The Abomination entered Blood Frenzy, losing what remained of his reason as his strength increased and Evenson's negative Magic effects wore off.
• Evenson summoned a Nightmare Steed, threw a powerless Burning Pain at the Abomination, and fled; Tyler chased after him.

Hulk, Evenson, and Tyler fought Abomination after Evenson led him to the pier where Ross and the others had gathered. Evenson’s Chaos Bolt killed Abomination, bringing the battle to an end.

• Hulk rescued the people trapped in the crashed helicopter as Evenson and Tyler arrived with Abomination pursuing them.
• Abomination abandoned Evenson and charged at Hulk, who drew its attention while Tyler joined the fight.
• Evenson used Life Tap to restore his Magic, then weakened Abomination with curses and draining spells.
• Hulk gained the upper hand and trapped Abomination in cracks in the ground after Tyler severed its calf tendons.
• Evenson fired a Chaos Bolt through Abomination’s body, and Abomination collapsed dead.

Evenson reflected on his inexperience after helping Hulk defeat Abomination, then negotiated with General Ross over Abomination’s body and confronted him about his wrecked car. Ross agreed to hand over the corpse, but Evenson left him facing a personal demand.

• Evenson recognized that his lack of combat experience had led him to choose Soul Fire instead of Chaos Bolt against Abomination.
• After Abomination died, Evenson extracted his soul and formed a plan involving the Soul Crystal.
• Hulk left after deciding he could no longer live an ordinary life with Betty, while General Ross watched him go.
• Evenson revealed that he was a specially appointed consultant for S.H.I.E.L.D. and demanded Abomination’s body from Ross.
• Ross agreed to hand over Abomination’s body, and Evenson grabbed him by the collar to demand compensation for his smashed car.

Nick Fury questioned Evenson about intervening in the Hulk and Abomination rampage and arranging for S.H.I.E.L.D. to cover up the military’s role. Alexander Pierce arrived and challenged Evenson’s authority to make that promise, then said the Council had praised S.H.I.E.L.D.’s response.

• Nick Fury confronted Evenson over the destruction in New York and Evenson complained that the rampage had wrecked his car despite Fury’s assurances.
• Evenson told Nick Fury that he had promised Ross S.H.I.E.L.D. would help conceal the truth about Abomination.
• Nick Fury questioned Evenson’s authority to make that promise, and Alexander Pierce entered his office.
• Pierce introduced himself to Evenson and said the Council was satisfied with S.H.I.E.L.D.’s response.

Pierce secured increased funding for S.H.I.E.L.D. by portraying its response to Abomination as a long-prepared success, while Nick Fury agreed to keep the truth from the public. Evenson explained that Abomination’s soul had been deliberately damaged, prompting Fury to send him away and discuss the matter privately with Pierce.

• Pierce told the World Security Council that S.H.I.E.L.D. had prepared for Hulk and stopped Abomination, winning approval for increased funding.
• Pierce reminded Nick Fury that the Council expected S.H.I.E.L.D. to keep the incident secret, and Fury agreed.
• Pierce questioned Evenson about negotiating with Ross, and Evenson said he had promised secrecy to secure Abomination’s body for S.H.I.E.L.D.
• Evenson told Pierce and Nick Fury that Abomination’s soul was incomplete and deliberately cut, possibly affecting his ability to control himself.
• Nick Fury asked Evenson to leave so he could speak privately with Pierce, then refused Evenson’s request to reimburse his totaled car.

Nick Fury told Pierce about S.H.I.E.L.D.'s investigation into Umbrella Corporation and suspected Ross had used samples from the Super Soldiers to create Abomination. They planned to verify the theory through a military informant and an examination of Abomination's brain.

• After Evenson left, Pierce guessed Nick Fury had ended their conversation to discuss something privately, and Nick Fury said he wanted to talk about Umbrella Corporation.
• Nick Fury explained that he would limit what Evenson knew because his informal network and lack of agent training could make him a security risk.
• Nick Fury briefed Pierce on Umbrella Corporation, and Pierce was shocked by the company's history and worried that Nick Fury might uncover Hydra's secrets.
• Pierce summarized Nick Fury's suspicion that Ross had used Umbrella Corporation technology to create Abomination from the Super Soldiers' bodies, and Nick Fury said the bodies had remained at the base for eight hours.
• Nick Fury said a military informant could soon explain Abomination's creation and proposed examining Abomination's brain to test whether part of its function was missing.
• Pierce agreed to wait, noting that Abomination's skull would be difficult to penetrate.

S.H.I.E.L.D. struggled to open Abomination’s skull for an autopsy while the city dealt with the aftermath of Hulk and Abomination’s battle. At the site where Evenson had fought, New York Sanctum sorcerers found traces of a spell they considered extraordinarily dangerous and decided to investigate it themselves.

• S.H.I.E.L.D. researchers failed to cut open Abomination’s skull, so Nick Fury ordered them to borrow a laser cutter while Pierce waited with him.
• Mourners gathered at the battle sites, but police kept them out and authorities removed the monsters’ dangerous blood.
• A group of hooded sorcerers entered the site where Evenson had fought without being noticed by civilians, police, or hazmat teams.
• The master examined the ash left by Evenson’s Demon Arrow and identified the spell as exceptionally dangerous, possibly beyond the work of an ordinary dark sorcerer.
• The sorcerers said they could not trace the concealed magic, recalled that the New York Sanctum had detected an unfamiliar Mental Power, and decided the New York Sanctum would handle the matter without notifying the Sorcerer Supreme.

At the New York Sanctum, Olivann and Klayya debated how to handle Evenson, the dark wizard whose magic they had been investigating. Olivann considered sealing Evenson’s magic to prevent him from exposing magic to the public, while Klayya questioned whether that was fair; the chapter left their disagreement unresolved.

• Olivann told Klayya that dark wizards would receive a fair trial, but described many of them as evil.
• Evenson woke from a nap after sneezing and wondered why he felt as if someone had cursed him.
• Klayya argued that Evenson might have acted in genuine goodwill by stopping the monsters and saving people.
• Olivann said he might seal Evenson’s magic because a public superhero could reveal magic to ordinary people.
• Olivann explained that the Sorcerer Supreme’s rule against exposing magic existed to protect ordinary people and the world.

Olivann explained why the Sorcerer Supreme had forbidden mages from becoming too involved in the mundane world, and Klayya argued that the rule seemed outdated. On the Sanctum’s terrace, Olivann revealed that ordinary people learning about Magic could expose the energy sustaining magical structures.

• Olivann explained that the Sorcerer Supreme, Ancient One, had established The Order’s rule about avoiding deep involvement in the mundane world to prevent mages from exploiting and restricting humanity.
• Klayya argued that modern science and Mutants had changed the world enough to make the rule unnecessary, and Olivann praised her for recognizing that ordinary people were not inferior.
• Olivann told Klayya that powerful mages followed the rule to preserve their status, while weaker ones could be stopped by organizations such as S.H.I.E.L.D.
• Klayya asked why the rule still mattered, and Olivann said people in the mundane world had become too smart.
• On the Sanctum’s terrace, Olivann explained that ordinary people learning about Magic could also discover the energy that sustained the Sanctum’s magic array.

Olivann explained to Klayya why The Order kept Magic nodes secret: ordinary people could turn their power into weapons and fight over their unevenly distributed resources. Klayya accepted his reasoning but questioned who decided when humanity was ready, then asked to travel among ordinary people.

• Olivann warned Klayya that ordinary people might use science to harness magical power and create devastating weapons.
• Olivann explained that Magic nodes were distributed unevenly, which could drive nations into war over them.
• Klayya asked when ordinary people would be considered ready, and Olivann said The Order would decide when they earned its approval.
• Klayya told Olivann that she wanted to go out and gain experience among ordinary people.

Klayya chose to travel through the mundane world with her magic sealed so she could judge ordinary people for herself. Meanwhile, S.H.I.E.L.D. opened Abomination’s skull and discovered that most of his brain had dissolved while he was alive, leaving him with little intelligence or value to Hydra.

• Klayya told Olivann she wanted to travel to a poor, chaotic place, and she agreed to have her magic sealed.
• Nick Fury ordered the researchers to remove Abomination’s skullcap after they cut it open with a laser cutter.
• The researchers found green fluid and fragments of brain tissue inside Abomination’s skull.
• A female researcher concluded that Abomination’s brain had dissolved while he was alive and that the remaining brain was too small for him to be useful or tamed.
• The female researcher observed that the surviving portion of Abomination’s brain appeared to have been selectively preserved.

Dr. Helena determined that most of Abomination’s brain had dissolved, leaving only the regions governing anger, appetite, and sexual desire. Nick Fury and Pierce suspected someone had deliberately altered Abomination to make him persistently enraged and dangerous.

• Dr. Helena showed Nick Fury and Pierce the damaged regions of Abomination’s brain and said they had lost their functions.
• Dr. Helena ruled out damage from Hulk’s attacks because the dissolved regions were scattered beneath intact brain tissue.
• Dr. Helena identified the remaining functional regions as those governing anger, appetite, and sexual desire.
• Dr. Helena explained that the surviving regions would amplify Abomination’s rage and hunger, while unfulfilled sexual urges would make him more aggressive.
• Nick Fury told Dr. Helena to rest in the laboratory and said he would send someone to take custody of Abomination’s corpse.

Nick Fury and Pierce concluded that Ross had created Abomination by recklessly combining Umbrella Corporation technology with an unfinished serum, and decided the corpse must be destroyed while other Super Soldier remains would only be researched. Melinda then told Fury that Evenson had requested a year’s salary to repair his car, leaving Fury baffled by the blacksmithing supplies Evenson had bought.

• Nick Fury and Pierce learned that Ross had injected Franski with Super Soldier tissue fluid and an unfinished enhancement serum, which had turned him into an uncontrollable Abomination.
• Nick Fury and Pierce agreed to destroy Abomination’s corpse and forbid human experimentation on the other Super Soldier corpses in S.H.I.E.L.D.’s custody.
• After Pierce left, Melinda told Nick Fury that Evenson had asked for a year’s salary in advance to repair his car, and that she had approved it.
• Melinda listed the hammers, anvil, tools, metals, and coal Evenson had bought, leaving Nick Fury wondering whether Evenson planned to open a blacksmith shop.

Evenson visited Agatha in the Fel Scar Rift to obtain Legion technology for an engine to repair his car. Agatha directed him to what he wanted, leaving the deal about to begin.

• Evenson described how he had repaired Red Skull’s Hydra Schmidt but could not build a safe engine for it.
• After collecting Soul Crystals from the deaths caused by Hulk and Abomination’s battle, Evenson decided to use Legion technology and entered the Void.
• Evenson told Agatha he disliked Lord, and Agatha warned him to watch his words before letting the insult pass.
• Evenson admitted he had come to see Agatha, and she pointed him toward the item he wanted.

Evenson visited Agatha to trade for gold, but discovered that she had kept a pile of demon-summoning catalysts in stock for him for thousands of years. The chapter ended with Evenson realizing that the items could summon stronger demons than the common spells he knew.

• Evenson inspected Agatha’s gold jewelry and noticed a pile of broken weapons and damaged books beside it.
• Agatha explained that the Fel Scar Rift had once been a busy Legion front line but had been forgotten after the Legion advanced.
• Agatha revealed that Evenson was the only Sorcerer to visit in ten thousand years and blamed him for leaving her prepared stock unsold by trading only for gold.
• Evenson learned that the discarded items were catalysts for summoning demons, which were required for powerful demons beyond those covered by common virtual-catalyst spells.

Evenson bought two damaged summoning media from Agatha after learning that most of her stock had become useless when its demon owners died. He left with a weakly connected staff and sword, along with gold, intending to summon demons he could control more easily.

• Agatha recalled how she had expected to sell premium summoning media to Evenson, but their first deal began when he asked whether she had gold.
• Evenson inspected Agatha’s old stock and accused her of trying to sell him junk, while Agatha explained that the Legion’s losses in Azeroth had ruined most of the media.
• Evenson selected a half-broken staff and a hilt-only short sword after sensing that their connections to their owners were weak.
• Agatha explained that the owners were likely weak or injured, and Evenson decided that would make them easier to control.
• Evenson paid Agatha with a crystal and took the two items along with the gold.

Evenson asked Agatha to take him to the Gargans so he could find a foreman to design his Fel engine. They found Gernos, a once-renowned Gargan scientist fallen into obscurity, and Evenson offered him Soul Crystals to secure his help.

• Evenson asked Agatha to help him find Gargan laborers, preferably a foreman, and she agreed to lead him to the Lower Rift.
• Agatha explained that Gargans lived in the remote Lower Rift partly because their status was low.
• Gernos reminisced about his past as a powerful Great Scientist before the Fel Scar Rift became a forgotten outpost.
• Gernos mistook a pile of Soul Crystal fragments for mockery, then recognized their value and saw Agatha and Evenson.
• Evenson told Gernos to take the crystals and warned him not to default on a debt with Agatha as witness.

Evenson negotiated with Gernos for a Soul Engine, learning that Gernos had built the engine powering the Rift Fel Cannon. He left Gernos agreeing to make a larger engine that could run on Soul Crystals, with a full warranty.

• Agatha charged Evenson a Soul Crystal to witness his deal with Gernos.
• Gernos inspected Evenson's crystals and agreed to discuss what the Sorcerer wanted.
• Evenson asked Gernos to make him a Soul Engine, and Gernos pointed out the dormant engine he had built for the Rift Fel Cannon.
• Gernos explained that the engine had stopped because it had run out of souls to use as fuel, while Agatha said the Legion's stronghold faced no threat.
• Evenson asked for a larger Soul Engine that supported Soul Crystal power and insisted on a full warranty, which Gernos accepted.

Evenson commissioned Gernos to build a miniature Soul Engine and uncovered his attempt to sell him ancient surplus parts. After securing a new engine, Evenson asked about Gernos’s mechanical limbs and offered Soul Crystals to learn the Gargan demons’ methods for replacing limbs with machinery.

• Gernos questioned why Evenson wanted such a small Soul Engine and tried to persuade him to order a larger Fel Mech engine instead.
• Agatha revealed that Gernos wanted to sell engines and parts he had stockpiled during the Legion’s front-line war, which had ended at least ten thousand years earlier.
• Gernos agreed to deliver a crystal-powered miniature Soul Engine in three days, and Evenson forbade him from modifying his old stock.
• Evenson asked how Gernos controlled the machinery embedded in his body, and Gernos explained that his mechanical limbs were connected to his nerves.
• Evenson offered Gernos five Soul Crystals to learn about the Gargan demons’ mechanical limb replacements, and Gernos accepted them.

Evenson obtained Gernos's Mechanical Neural Link blueprints and engine, then built and named his car Black Scythe Vanguard. He tried to start it using Abomination's soul, but Sarah pointed out that a Soul Engine did not need a car key.

• Evenson made Gernos promise to deliver genuine blueprints and an engine in three days, and Gernos agreed to explain how to link the nerves.
• Evenson left Fel Scar Rift after thanking Agatha, who teased him and said she was thanking him on behalf of her mistress.
• Evenson added concealment runes to his car, gave it a crossed-scythes emblem, and named it Black Scythe Vanguard; he chose Black Scythe Lord as his own possible title.
• Gernos delivered the engine and blueprints exactly three days later, after making Evenson wait until the deadline had passed.
• Evenson installed the engine and inserted Abomination's soul into it, then tried and failed to start the car with a key.
• Sarah told Evenson that a Soul Engine did not need a car key to start.