"Ah!" Clare screamed in terror, retreating into her room, trying to block the resurrected demon from entering. However, a door was hardly a barrier for even a lesser demon.
With a loud "Bang!", the door shattered, intensifying Clare's panic as she watched the demon lock eyes with her, revealing a ferocious smile before charging in her direction.
Cornered at the edge of her room, Clare had nowhere to hide or defend against the demon's attack. She desperately grabbed a chair next to her and, closing her eyes, swung it towards the demon.
A "Snap!" was heard, but Clare felt a strong force stopping her chair. Fearing to witness her own demise, she dared not open her eyes, expecting the demon to tear her apart.
However, amidst her fear, Clare heard an angry roar that seemed a bit distant, not directly beside her.
Instinctively, Clare opened her eyes and saw a young man with spiky hair holding the demon mid-air. Despite the demon's furious howls, it couldn't escape the young man's grasp.
Yes, the young man was none other than Robert, who had followed the guidance of the angel's blood in Constantine's possession to Clare's location. Unaware of why the angel's blood led him here, he wouldn't just stand by and watch Clare get devoured by the demon.
Thus, Robert intervened but chose not to kill the demon immediately, needing to understand the situation first.
"Why is this demon after you?" Robert turned to Clare and asked with a slight frown.
"I... I don't know!" Clare, calming down from her fright, looked bewildered. She didn't understand where the demon came from. She only knew she had just returned home to find her mother, Joslin, missing, and then the demon started pursuing her.
"What about you? Do you know anything?" After giving Clare a deep look, Robert turned his attention back to the struggling demon in his hand. His aura condensed and bound the demon's form, shrinking it until it transformed into a hunting dog that Robert held effortlessly.
The demon, now a dog, continued to growl without barking, showing no intention of communicating with Robert. It seemed Robert would have to find out the necessary information himself.
With a "Hum!", realizing this, Robert shook his head and used telepathy, sifting through a jumble of memories that appeared in his mind, causing him to frown.
The memories showed no people, just the demon in its dog form, looking down, waiting for its master's command: "Remember, you must bring back the Holy Grail. It is key to our plan."
"That's it?" Robert's eyes flashed with surprise, as the memory was incredibly brief. However, it did provide a crucial piece of information.
The Holy Grail! That was the demon's goal, though Robert was unclear why a demon needed an artifact of Heaven. This might be why the angel's blood guided him and Constantine here.
"Who are you?" As thoughts raced through Robert's mind, Clare hesitantly asked, looking at his silhouette from behind.
Clare was sure she had never seen Robert before. So why had he come to her rescue? Especially in her own home.
"You can call me a Saiyan." Robert turned to look at Clare and spoke softly. Then, the aura in his hand exploded, obliterating the demon dog without leaving a trace of blood, turning it to dust.
"Ah!" Clare jumped at the terrifying sight, looking at Robert with fear before something clicked, "Wait, you're a Saiyan? The one who livestreamed killing demons? Are you here for the demons?"
"Maybe I'm here for you. Have you heard of the Holy Grail?" Robert suspected the angel's blood's guidance wasn't for a weak hunting dog demon but for the seemingly ordinary girl before him.
In fact, Robert sensed a mysterious, yet unawakened, power within Clare.
"The Holy Grail?" Clare's eyes filled with confusion. She had no idea what Robert was talking about. Her mind was already a mess from the recent events, and the question about the Holy Grail only added to her confusion.
"Do you know anything about the Holy Grail, given your research on Heaven and Hell?" Facing Clare, who seemed to know nothing and appeared to be an innocent target of the demon's pursuit, Robert turned his attention to Constantine and asked.
Constantine, being a knowledgeable NPC magician, held Robert's expectations for possibly knowing more on the subject.
Indeed, Constantine did not disappoint. After giving Clare a deep look, he turned to Robert and said, "Regarding the Holy Grail, I do know a thing or two. Especially after seeing her. Long before Kamar-Taj set up the dimensional barriers, Earth faced even more demons than now, albeit slightly better than when demons were rampant everywhere..."
"Back then, all divine pantheons had left Earth, and the resistance against demons was weak. Without divine protection, countless lives were lost on Earth, and everyone sought a solution. The most numerous followers of the Heaven's magicians started to communicate with angels. Eventually, an angel named Racheal heeded the followers' pleas. He dropped his angelic blood into the Holy Grail, creating the first half-human, half-angel Shadow Hunters to combat the demons..."
"Angel's blood can be used like this?" Robert looked at Constantine with some surprise. After all, Constantine held a drop of angel's blood in his hand, piquing Robert's curiosity.
"Theoretically, this drop shouldn't be from Racheal, since his blood was used to create the Shadow Hunters," Constantine said softly, touching the angel's blood in his hand, "But the angel's blood fell silent upon arriving here. Maybe there is a connection?"
"Wait! My mother..." Clare, listening to Robert and Constantine discuss something she didn't understand, suddenly remembered her mother, Joslin, was in trouble. She had rushed home because of her mother's disappearance but was attacked by the demon before she could investigate any clues. Now, remembering her mother's situation, Clare hurried out of her room to search for any signs left by Joslin.
However, Clare's search turned up nothing, increasing her anxiety.
Meanwhile, Robert and Constantine continued their discussion about Clare's situation. Constantine glanced towards Clare and said softly, "Remember the half-human, half-angel Shadow Hunter I mentioned? She is likely one, just not awakened yet..."
"No wonder I sensed a mysterious power within her!" Robert's eyes brightened, then he looked at Constantine expectantly, "How powerful are these Shadow Hunters?"
"Well, if it were the Shadow Hunters initially trained by Racheal, they were quite formidable. But with each generation, their strength in the supernatural world isn't considered powerful anymore..." Constantine gave an objectively measured response.
"Of course, their power is still stronger than many beginners in supernatural forces. At least, they can handle lesser demons, unlike many novice magicians who struggle to exhibit tangible combat power."
"Hello? Uncle?" Clare's anxious voice was heard outside, apparently making a call, "My mom has been taken. I don't know who did it. Can you send someone to help me find her? Please..."
"I won't interfere with your matters. My status is special; helping you would be harming you," Robert overheard the voice on the phone, recognizing it as Nick Fury's.
"But..." Clare tried to say more, but the call was disconnected, indicating her not-so-close relationship with her uncle Nick Fury.
"What should I do..." Realizing the call had ended, Clare's eyes dimmed, and she murmured softly.
Clare knew her family wasn't close to Nick Fury, not just because of his special status but also due to the strained relationship between her mother Joslin and Fury.
Joslin and Fury shared the same father but had different mothers, evident from Fury's skin color, indicating his mother was African American. Their relationship wasn't great, even worse than ordinary friends, exacerbated by Joslin raising Clare alone, severing ties with the Fury family.
Desperate, Clare reached out to her influential uncle Nick Fury for help, not expecting him to ignore Joslin's disappearance, even before she could mention the supernatural event...
"Did you find any clues?" Robert and Constantine approached Clare, asking softly.
"No, can... can you help me?" Clare, seeing Robert, grasped at him like a lifeline, but Robert stepped aside.
"We came because of you, so helping you is no issue," Robert reassured Clare, seeing her bewildered reaction after missing her grasp.
"You came for me? The Holy Grail you mentioned, are you here for that?" Clare quickly regained her composure, asking Robert and Constantine hesitantly.
"No, I don't care about the Holy Grail. What interests me is that you caught the attention of the angel's blood. I want to see if there's a conspiracy behind this. If there is, we'll crush it!" Robert's eyes flashed determinedly.
"You mean, there might be demons behind this? Could my mom have been taken by demons? But why would demons target us?" Clare's voice trailed off in confusion.
"It could be because you're a Shadow Hunter. The Holy Grail might be in your possession, making you a target..." Robert glanced at Constantine, who remained silent, then back at Clare.
"Shadow Hunter? What's that? Wait, I'm a Shadow Hunter? You mean half-human, half-angel? How is that possible?" Clare's eyes widened in disbelief, recalling Robert and Constantine's earlier conversation, her expression turning from shocked to silent contemplation.
"What we need to do now is either find the so-called Holy Grail or find your mother. That way, we can uncover more clues and confront those after the Grail," Robert advised Clare, who remained silent.
"Right! Let's start by looking for clues about my mother. If there's nothing at home, maybe we can ask the neighbors," Clare suggested, quickly heading downstairs, followed by Robert and Constantine. However, as they reached the bottom of the stairs, both Robert and Constantine raised their eyebrows in surprise.
On their way to Clare's home, focused on the demon's presence, Robert had rushed to save Clare without noticing anything unusual around her building...
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