"They really didn't bother us for a whole month…"
Tony commented as he continued hammering on a piece of metal, his gaze landing on the white haired man who was leisurely fiddling with various parts of the armor he had made.
The man was currently drawing something on the inner side of the armor, he was using what looked to be a fountain pen but when its tip touched metal, a sound akin to that of welding echoed. Though not as bright and loud, Tony could clearly see that something was being burned on the metal's surface.
Curious, Tony quickly finished his work on the armor piece he was handling, after completing it, he strutted towards the white haired man with the armor piece. He placed the armor piece in one of the marked spots on the ground next to the man.
The ground had an enlarged blueprint drawn on it, Tony placed the part he had completed on the spot where the part was designated.
Another drawing was made in the other side of the cave but this one had a "magic circle" drawn around it and a few pieces whose inner side all had various things drawn on them were placed meticulously within the diagram and magic circle.
Tony did not tap on the white haired man, instead, he simply stood behind him, taking a look at the work he was doing before asking.
"So that's magic huh?"
"Actually, it's magecraft"
"Isn't that the same?"
The man, Merlin smiled, he completed his drawings before turning towards Tony and responding.
"Mr. Stark, I believe I already told you the difference between Magecraft and Magic"
Tony, upon hearing the all too familiar response rolled his eyes and shrugged his shoulders before replying.
"Yeah, you told me about it but knowing and understanding are not the same thing"
Merlin let out a sigh, he stood up and carried the piece of metal with engravings on it towards the magic circle located in the opposite side of the cave. A faint smile still lingering on his lips as he moved.
Tony did not disturb him, simply giving the "magus" a curious look, waiting for something to which Merlin responded.
"Mr. Stark, I understand your curiosity but there are things in the world that people are destined to have, and things that they are destined to never touch. As much as I would like to pass onto you the knowledge of Magecraft, you are, unfortunately, unable to learn it."
As he spoke, Merlin took slow deliberate steps towards the magic circle, Tony followed him and after hearing the response of the magus, Tony squinted his eyes as he said-
"What do you want? I know you were sent here to help me, who's your employer? What does he need? Money? I could give you a lot, Influence… well that's gonna be a bit tricky but I have ways to give it to you. Come on Mr. Magus, aren't you someone who talks about "equivalent exchange"? I have lots of things! I want to learn this- magecraft of yours, and I have many things to trade for it! Tell me! Ask and you shall receive!"
Hearing Tony's words, a speech that Merlin was already familiar with as he had heard those very same words spoken by Tony in multiple different ways.
Although he had only been with Tony for a month, this month was long enough for him to make Tony and Yinsen believe in magic.
In fact, Tony was now cured of an ailment that would have taken him years to deal with.
The operation that saved Tony from the plague of palladium and the struggle with life and death took less than an hour to complete. All Tony had to do was lay down on a mat and while Merlin "extracted" the shrapnel from his body through a wondrous non-invasive procedure.
Moreover, the sight of the whole process was something both Tony and Yinsen could never believe if they didn't see it themselves.
All Merlin did was hold his hand over Tony's heart, his hand glowed with a green light and as it did, Tony felt a bit uncomfortable as a mercury-like substance exited his body.
This mercury-like substance was the shrapnel that was in his body, in his blood, the pieces of metal that threatened to kill him had turned into liquid metal and seeped out from his skin like sweat. Moreover, the whole process only felt a bit uncomfortable at worst!
But if that weren't enough, Merlin then instructed Yinsen to help with the process of removing the metal block that was inserted into Tony Stark.
Initially doubtful, Yinsen and Tony decided to proceed with the operation. Of course, Merlin had his hand over Tony the whole time and a miraculous scene happened once more.
When Yinsen extracted the core that was inserted into Tony's chest, the splurt of blood he and Tony expected did not occur. Instead, it was as if something was blocking the bleeding. Of course, the most miraculous thing was the fact that Tony did not feel any pain from the whole process- yet.
Although Tony was expecting to get out of this operation without feeling any pain, what happened next was something that both shocked the two scientists and also made Tony a bit… annoyed.
Merlin did not tell them of the final process, but the healing of the hole that was made on Tony's chest made the billionaire experience a pain he never experienced before. And he believed that he was already numb to pain as the feeling of having a hunk of metal shoved inside one's chest was not something that was… painless.
The procedure was invasive as hell after all, even after it had healed, Tony still felt a constant Stinging pain in his chest.
He had long gotten used to it but now, he found out that the pain he had experienced in the past was not the worst.
That said, amidst Tony's screams of pain, the image of his ribs, flesh and blood rapidly regenerating was a scene that Yinsen never expected to see in his life.
It took a mere 5 minutes for a wound that would have taken months of intensive care, lots of modern medical technology and modern stem cell research to achieve had been accomplished in a mere 5 minutes by Merlin.
Moreover, all he had to do was have his hand over Tony emit a green glow-
Since then, both Yinsen and Tony kept pestering Merlin about magecraft.
Initially, Merlin was willing to teach them but upon looking over their "potential" Merlin had confirmed that it was near impossible for them to learn magecraft.
Apparently, to learn magecraft, there was one baseline requirement that had to be fulfilled. That was the existence of magic circuits.
In Merlin's explanation, Tony understood that these "magic circuits" were akin to nerves, these nerves existed in ones spirit and this is what allows a magus to tap into their magical energy, called "Od" based on the concept of Odic Force, it's simply the life energy of any one individual. Throughout one's life, any one being would continuously produce life force, it is constantly produced but there will be a limit, like a container being filled.
Upon learning of this, Tony couldn't help but question the purpose of magic circuits and that was when he was made to understand.
Life force itself was not capable of magecraft, what is used in magecraft is magical energy, in a way Od could be considered as "crude oil" and magical energy would be the various forms of gas.
Magecraft does not use life force directly, it uses magical energy that would be converted from Od and magic circuits are responsible for this conversion.
Unfortunately, neither Tony or Yinsen had magic circuits, although Merlin consoled them by saying that magi were not that common. In fact, the sole reason that magi did not dominate the world came from the fact that they would never outnumber non-mystical beings as even within long standing lineages of magi, there would still be children born without magic circuits.
In a way, magic circuits could be seen as an extremely recessive trait.
Yet, even with such information, Tony was adamant on learning magecraft.
Moreover, Tony knew that the white haired man, this magus, would not have come to his aid without a purpose.
The moment Merlin started to help Tony in making the armor, the billionaire adept at handling crafty capitalists knew that he was being targeted by the mystical powers for his knowledge.
He did not know if the higher ups of Merlin's organization were aware of his lack of magic circuits but Tony was not going to let this opportunity pass.
Others may call him crazy, they may even laugh at him for his choice but he had already made a choice the moment he started to conceptualize his armor.
Tony was a man who always thought on the spur of the moment, although he rarely looked at the bigger picture, he wasn't ignorant of it. He just thought it beyond him to care about such matters, his expertise did not lie in maneuvering and crafty deals.
He could make them, he could deal with such matters but Tony knew that he was just one man.
The moment he saw the weapon he developed himself land in front of him, Tony had already long made a choice.
Initially, he was already expecting backlash, a long and annoying battle to keep the greedy hands from his plans. But the appearance of magecraft had given him a new idea, a new possibility.
'Rare and only few people could use it… if I could use magecraft… even if people were to obtain my tech… none of them would be able to use them'
It was a simple idea, to merge technology and magecraft, to create an amalgamation only he could use.
Mages who were most likely unable to master technology and scientists who had no access to magecraft would find it difficult to reverse engineer his "magitech".
Even when Merlin claimed that Tony was unable to learn magecraft due to a lack of magic circuits, Tony knew that there was more to this matter than that.
Maybe, just maybe, there was an opportunity for him to obtain magic circuits-
After all, Merlin was capable of rapidly healing the hole in his chest. No abnormalities occurred in his body and it seemed to be even stronger than before actually.
Merlin also confirmed that the years of alcoholism and the impurities that built up due to pollution and drug use had been extracted along with the shrapnel. It was an unintended benefit but one that gave Tony an idea of the medical capabilities of magi.
'They know about modern healthcare and biology… moreover, Merlin talked about inheritance in relation to magi families… I wouldn't put it pass them to study methods to artificially create magic circuits. After all, what kind of magus family would not try to resolve the issue of having descendants without magic circuits?'
Even if a magus were capable of performing various mystical acts, they were still human by the of the day.
And Tony out of all people would be aware of one thing all humans have in common-
Desire.
Following this line of thinking, Tony did not stop pestering Merlin. He pushed every time he had an opportunity. After all, Tony would not let any opportunity pass without taking a shot at it.
And as it so happens, at that moment, Merlin let out a sigh as he turned to Tony and said.
"There is a way for you to obtain magic circuits"
Hearing Merlin's words, Tony's eyes went wide with shock before turning into croissants as his lips formed a smirk. His joy was evident but Merlin shook his head as he responded-
"This matter is out of my control though, unfortunately, unlike my student, I have little knowledge in this field"
"Student?"
"Yes, my student, the kid who sent me here and cast a curse that prevented me from forcefully taking you out of this cave and sending you to the nearest US military installment. A curse that made me stay here with you to complete your armor all while protecting you… he's the one who is interested in your… potential"
Tony listened intently as Merlin explained the reason why he was here, why the magus was helping him complete the armor and why he didn't just bust him and Yinsen out of there.
After Merlin finished his explanation, Tony thought deeply as he contemplated the matter.
For a few minutes, the two men remained silent until Tony raised his gaze, his eyes carrying a hesitant look as he asked-
"Since when?"
"Since you arrived in this country"
"..."
Merlin's answer shocked Tony, he did not want to believe it but if the words were true-
"He knew that I would be kidnapped? He knew of the attack?"
To answer Tony's questions, Merlin gave the man a helpless sigh as he silently nodded his head.
Seeing the actions of the man, Tony's expression changed, he felt a something snap inside him but then-
"Does he know who it was that wanted me dead?"
To Tony's question, Merlin did not respond with a gesture instead he answered flatly-
"He knows, I know as well, though neither he nor I mentioned you, remember, I only learned of you when I was transported here"
Although his words did not explain much, Tony could understand the hints that Merlin was giving him.
In essence, both Merlin and his student knew of Tony, they knew of his predicament and the reason why he was in his current state. They also knew who the mastermind behind the scenes were, yet neither of them-
Well, Merlin at least did not really bother about Tony until he was sent here.
Maybe Merlin's student had been stalking Tony for some time but Merlin, he only got to know Tony after meeting him in the cave. Yet, Merlin was aware of everything without his student informing him which meant-
"Magecraft?"
"Guess~"
Merlin dropped his solemn and serious attitude, now taking a more lax and carefree tone as he smiled and left Tony there.
Tony, upon being left hanging did not quickly follow, instead his mind was in a flux. Various thoughts were flashing in his mind as he tried to make sense of what was happening. He tried to use the knowledge he obtained to make a guess at the powers that were trying to manipulate him.
At this moment, Tony felt dozens of invisible chains wrapping around his body.
The freedom he believed he had was now shattered as he realized that he was nothing more than a caged bird-
When Tony realized this, he clenched his fist. Biting his lip, Tony closed his eyes, mixed emotions of anger, indignance, desire and hope were conflicting in his mind.
Tony maintained this state for a few minutes before letting out a long sigh as he walked towards the furnace-
"I could really use some alcohol…"
Merlin shot a momentary glance at Tony who was moving towards the furnace with mixed emotions. Seeing the "strength" he had, a smile formed on the lips of the centuries old mage as he turned back to his own workbench as he continued with his task of engraving runes onto the armor.
James watched this scene in the comfort of his own room, in his embrace was Hilda, previously tasked with training Frank, she was now assigned as his personal maid. Her job was to take care of his "home" and "his needs".
It was the middle of the day but James laid on his bed naked, in his arms was the blonde Hilda and one more woman. She sported a pixie cut, her eyes going wide in shock as she saw the image of Tony Stark reflected on display.
"Surprised?"
James turned towards the short haired woman, his hands moving down under the sheets.
A blush appeared on her face as she squirmed, despite showing hints of discomfort, she did not push James away.
"Wanna know?"
"..."
The woman remained silent but her actions did not match the expression she tried to show.
James could feel her athletic body, the outline of her muscles, a result of her years of training that did not create a body that was overly muscular. Instead, her figure gave her strength, enough to accomplish her tasks but more than strength it gave her endurance, endurance which James personally tested and found to be quite commendable.
"If you entertain me, I would give you what you want and more"
James whispered to the woman who immediately moved her body closer to him, she clung to him as tightly as she could. She rubbed her body on him, moans escaping her lips as she moved her hands to show him her own resolution-
This lasted for a minute before the woman looked up to James with upturned eyes, she leaned forward as she whispered-
"Please, Master"
Opposite her, Hilda did not mind, instead the blonde maid moved her body, unlike the short haired woman, Hilda, without any reservations moved atop James, as she inserted his rod within her once more.
Seeing this, the short haired woman did not know what to do but James smiled at the reaction of the two woman.
Smirking, he took control, Hilda stopped, James moved, he raised his body and laid the two women on the bed.
Towering over the two women, James recalled their appearance hours before.
Hilda- well she was long gone, but the short haired woman was different, she was brought there by Red and he saw the look of defiance in her eyes.
Now though-
James proceeded to enjoy himself, loud moans and the sound of flesh slapping echoed in the room for hours after that.
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