Although he had not made direct contact with Voldemort before, Merlin had learned enough about the dark lord who had caused a great disaster in the British wizarding world dozens of years ago from Harry and the young wizards, along with the American Aurors Essinus and Crow.

Voldemort was a powerful dark wizard, he was like an old-fashioned villain in those bizarre stories.

Ruthless, cruel, disregarding life, knowledge-seeking, and he contempts death, claiming that he will conquer death.

Yes, he yearns for eternal life, and he wishes to achieve this grand feat through the use of dark magic.

He has his own followers, formerly called the Knights of Walpurgis, but later they followed their master and renamed themselves 'Death-Eaters', meaning to conquer death.

And now, Voldemort's return from the dead seems to prove that this dark lord was even more powerful than before.

This allowed the Death-Eaters that had spread out due to the dark lord's death dozens of years ago to have a chance to gather, they returned to Voldemort's side either submissively or passively. They were willing to act as the vanguard of the dark lord.

Of course, Voldemort's own powers aside, his mysterious and crazy followers were not a group of people who could execute orders perfectly.

They had lots and lots of faults.

Being just as ruthless and crazy as their master is just one of those faults.

And the worse of all of their faults is that they would leave something called a 'Dark Mark' on the scene after they act.

It was special magic, like fireworks.

They used this to proclaim their identities and show off the power of the Death-Eaters and Voldemort through destruction and slaughter.

One had to say, that this was a very useful tact for the weak. But to those who are bold, this thing that had more symbolic than practical meaning would leave a lot of unnecessary trouble.

Merlin's car soon stops by a small pier in hell's Kitchen, several police cars had already parked nearby and the police had put up warning tape.

Merlin and the children exit the car, they could see the green skull and snake emblem in the sky as they raise their heads. That thing was now right above their heads.

But this thing was just like other magic, it could not be seen by muggles.

Merlin shows the officer his identification, he then pulls the warning tape and brings the children into the locked-down pier.

They could smell the stinging smell of blood from such a distance.

And in front of Merlin, agent Coulson was already collecting samples with his men on the scene of the murder.

By his feet were several corpses covered with white cloth, near the container that seemed to be distorted by some force, blood splattered across the ground, looking to be very terrifying.

"Found anything?"

Merlin walks behind Coulson and asks in a low tone.

Coulson was looking at the weird emblem above his head while wearing his sunglasses. He was a normal human, but the glasses Merlin gave him allowed him to see all kinds of weird things.

The focused Coulson was frightened by Merlin's question, the latter takes off his glasses, looks at the children next to Merlin, and tells Merlin:

"No useful discovery for now, but I assume that it's quite serious."

He squats down and flips open the edge of the white cloth covering the corpses to Merlin, whose expression changes after seeing the corpse.

He grabs the curious Hermione and Ginny while covering their eyes with his hand.

Harry and Ron were not so lucky.

They saw the corpse that looked like a large creature had bitten off one-third of it, the corpse filled with blood and broken limbs caused the two's expression to turn pale, they immediately turned around and ran to the trash can nearby.

Mmm, so much for their breakfast.

"Get back in the car or now."

Merlin says to the children next to him seriously, Hermione and Ginny had guessed something after seeing Harry and Ron's reaction, they dared not stay and quickly returned to the car.

The orange cat Goose lays on the bridge while taking a lazy nap.

After seeing the Dark Mark, Merlin had specially brought him along to act as the children's final defense.

As the children left, Merlin takes the glove Coulson hands over and quickly scans the 6 corpses, distorted container, and sunken freight around him with his medical knowledge before the forensics arrived.

Dozens of minutes later, Merlin throws away the bloody glove and says to Coulson:

"Should be the act of some large creature, but the ship's crew were already unconscious before they were bitten to death. They have signs of Stupefy on them, they weren't attacked, they were treated as the beast's food...there can't be so few bodies, let the divers search under the water, they'll probably find more bodies."

"This is a smuggling ship, sir."

Agent Coulson holds the data he found on the freight and tells Merlin as he looked:

"I asked the workers on the pier, they told me that this ship would smuggle some smugglers here every month."

"Oh? Is that so?"

Merlin frowns while looking at the surroundings, moments later, he picks up his phone and dials a number:

"Hey, Tuck? Something happened on the pier, do come by for a moment."

Ten minutes later, the black man Tuck appears next to Merlin, he looks at the blood on the ground fearfully. Merlin points at the half-sunken freight and tells Tuck:

"Do you know this ship?"

"I do."

Tuk dared not to hide after seeing such a big incident, he tells Merlin truthfully:

"They're a bunch of guys who do smuggling, they bring people from the outside, and the Russian gang in Hell's Kitchen will help them with the rest."

"You know these guys?"

Merlin points to the body by his feet, Tuck squats down, pulls the white cloth, and takes a glance; his expression immediately turns pale, he stands up, covers his mouth, and nods to Merlin, he says with difficulty:

"I know him from the tattoo on his arm, this is probably the leader of those smugglers...my god, what a miserable way to go."

"Help me look into it, Tuck."

Merlin reached out and grabbed Tuck's shoulder, he says in a low tone:

"Find out what the hell did they bring in yesterday in the fastest way possible, and where exactly did those things go! Tuck, you must know that whatever that thing is, it's somewhere in Hell's Kitchen right now; this is for your business and safety, got it?"

"Mmm, I'll go now!"

Tuck immediately runs out, Merlin exhorts Coulson and sees someone he's surprisingly familiar with as he looked back.

Auror Crow.

The indifferent guy was standing within the warning tape and was contemplating the scene with a frown, The police nearby did not react to him, like he did not even exist.

It was a special magic effect.

Muggle-Repelling Charm.

This was oftentimes used to repel Muggles who accidentally enter the wizarding world, but in this situation, it can also be used to lower the presence of wizards.

Merlin looks around and makes a hand gesture to Auror Crow; moments later, on a remote edge of the pier, he and Crow were sharing the information they had collected.

"Should be some type of large carnivorous magical creature."

Crow says with certainty:

"From the scene, it should be the doing of a hungry sasquatch or a crazy big-foot, only creatures like these can sink a boat in such a short time. Added with the Dark Mark in the sky, it's clear that the Death-Eaters plan on creating a disaster here."

The serious Auror keeps both hands in the pocket of his coat and glances at the car Merlin had parked in the distance, he says:

"They should be here for Mr. Potter, you best send him away from here now."

"The situation is unclear."

Merlin shakes his head, he says warily:

"The enemy is in the dark, we may fall into their trap if we simply send Harry off like this. I've contacted Harry's wizard friends in England, and they'll be here soon."

"Then send him and the children to the Magical Congress' headquarters!"

Crow says in a deep tone:

"That's the safest place in New York, we must secure Mr. Potter's personal safety."

"What I want to know more is something else."

Merlin says:

"Haven't you been monitoring New York? How come you didn't even discover a group of smuggling Death-Eaters?'

"Merlin..."

Crow's expression was somewhat depressed, he says:

"Didn't Essinus tell you the reason?"

He looks at Merlin and says:

"There are less than 170 senior Aurors in New York, and we're under-staffed. Death-Eaters aren't our problem either, they've never set foot on the North American Continent ever since they failed dozens of years ago."

"But now they're back!"

Merlin says:

"Alright, we'll not talk about this, anyways, I need you to make a plan, Auror. You're the real experts on this!"

"I plan to first send Mr. Potter off."

Crow lets out a breath and says seriously

"Then we'll catch those smugglers and battle them, until we kick them out for good."

"Quite the upright plan..."

Merlin complains, he waves his hand at Crow;

"Then come with me, take us to the Magical Congress' headquarters. I don't know where your main base is."

"I've contacted my superior, soon all the Aurors in New York will be mobilized."

Crow follows behind Merlin and says in a low tone:

"But we don't have enough people to sweep through New York, so we need SHIELD's help. We'll pinpoint their location, you'll go the checking while our people protect your agents."

"Mmm, sounds like a good plan."

Merlin walked while dialing Fury's number.

He tells Fury everything about what had happened at the pier, their assumptions, and the Magical Congress's request for help. Fury did not hesitate for long and began to mobilize all of SHIELD's forces in New York.

NYPD and other security agencies have also received search orders.

The Aurors of the Magical Congress have officially stepped out of the darkness and have begun to search for suspicious the city from above while riding on broomsticks or flying rugs.

Merlin and Crow escorted Harry and the young wizards to a building in New York in the fastest time possible.

To be honest, without Crow's instructions, Merlin would not have guessed that the wizards' main base was hidden right in the bustling city.

But as Merlin drove out of Manhattan, Tuck gives him a call.

"Merlin, I looked for a lot of people and finally know about the news on the smugglers from last night."

On the phone, Tuck's voice was distorted as he spoke quickly:

"They were a group of British people, some homeless people saw them head north after reaching the shore, I'll message you the specific address."

"Nice work, Tuck."

Merlin praises him so.

An underground snake-like Tuck may seem insignificant, but no one's better than them in looking for a group of strangers in a specific area.

"We found them!"

Merlin waves his phone at Crow, bloodlust appears in his eyes as he says:

"Tell your colleagues to get ready, after we send the kids off, we'll go catch those damned rats!"

"Ow"

A deep roaring resounds from a remote warehouse somewhere in Hell's Kitchen. But with the guise of soundproof magic, this odd and fear-inducing sound was not heard by the surroundings.

In the dim warehouse, dozens of oddly dressed people were gathered together while fiercely discussing something.

They were a group of Death-Eaters, Voldemort's loyal lackeys.

"Silence! Shut up!"

A somewhat bald man shouts so, he seemed to be the leader; this sick-looking guy was wearing a dirty yet worn-out purple suit, looking to be someone from the last era.

His biggest characteristic was his right arm.

That palm reflected a cold silver glow under the dim lights, looking to be made of metal, yet his silver hand was agile like it was of true flesh and bone. He screams at the others:

"Master requested that we bring back the boy! We must do as he commands!"

His voice was sharp and odd, just like his ghastly pale skin. He heavily flaps on the table, seemingly trying to cover the uneasiness in his heart with a ferocious expression, he tells the others:

"Quit yapping! Go now! Master did not give us much time!"

"Bring that hungry Horntail, listen, how hungry it is..."

The man with a silver palm opened his mouth and let out a rat-like laugh, he looks into the darkness that was dyed red from the flames, and ferociousness flashed in his odd eyes.

He says softly:

"Hehe, then let it feast!"

"There's not much here, but there's more than enough foolish muggles!"