The deafening clamor and the bright, blinding lights of Las Vegas turned the night into an surreal spectacle for anyone who had never witnessed it before. Aurelian Gaunt strolled calmly along the crowded sidewalks of the Strip, observing the city's chaotic nightlife with a mixture of fascination and disdain.
At his side, trying to make himself as small as possible, walked Stinky. The faithful house elf was dressed in an impeccable uniform, but he looked around apprehensively. Every time a car roared past at full speed down the avenue or a casino sign flashed violently, Stinky flinched.
"Master Aurelian… Where exactly are we going?" Stinky asked in a trembling voice, cowering as a group of clearly drunk Muggles passed by, laughing loudly right next to them.
Aurelian looked down at his loyal friend and gave him a reassuring smile.
"Since I brought you all the way to this continent, Stinky, I've decided I need you for something very important tonight."
Stinky straightened his back a little, his ears quivering with anticipation at his master's latest crazy adventure.
"What's so important, Master? Stinky will do anything!"
Aurelian didn't answer with words. He simply placed a hand on the elf's head and quickly guided him into the darkness of a narrow, empty alley between two enormous casinos.
Space warped around them. Moments later, the noise of the machines, the people, and the cars vanished completely, replaced by the silence of the Nevada desert.
They had appeared in the middle of nowhere. The cold sand crunched under Aurelian's shoes as the wind blew, kicking up small clouds of dust.
"According to the scant information I managed to gather this week and the ridiculous speculation from the people at the casinos…" Aurelian began, gazing at the dark horizon, "the place we're about to enter is very close to here."
Without wasting any time, Aurelian pulled out the Cloak of Invisibility and threw it over both of them, completely concealing them from the rest of the world. They began walking across the uneven terrain.
Under the magical protection the cloak provided, Stinky looked around, dragging his little feet through the sand.
"Stinky still doesn't understand what we're doing here in the middle of nowhere instead of taking care of the young ladies and our future little friends…" whispered the elf, frowning with concern. "But if Master Aurelian wants me here, Stinky will stay with the master until the very end, no matter what."
Aurelian smiled at the little creature's unwavering loyalty.
"I thank you for that, my friend."
They continued on in silence until they reached the top of a rocky hill. Looking down, they could see their target. In the middle of the arid basin, illuminated by powerful floodlights, lay a vast restricted area bordered by tall fences topped with barbed wire. At the main entrance, a small guardhouse was heavily guarded by two soldiers armed to the teeth.
"Listen to me carefully, Stinky. Don't make even the slightest noise while we go in," Aurelian ordered in a whisper that the elf could barely hear.
The house elf nodded frantically, raising both hands and pressing his long ears against his face to make sure he didn't accidentally brush against anything.
Taking advantage of the Deathly Hallow's invisibility, they walked right in front of the officers and passed through the middle of the security checkpoint. The soldiers didn't even blink; to them, it was just a gust of desert wind.
Once inside the perimeter, they walked for quite some time to cross the runways and approach the main military complex. Aurelian mentally thanked his lucky stars that it was nighttime; if they'd tried this during the day, the relentless, scorching desert sun would have slowed their progress for a long, long time.
Finally, they reached what appeared to be an ordinary aircraft hangar—a corrugated-metal building set apart from the main barracks. But if there was one thing Aurelian had learned from both magic and Muggles, it was that the best way to hide something of incalculable value was to leave it in plain sight, its grandeur disguised as mediocrity.
They made their way into the hangar, dodging a few supply crates and transport vehicles. Near the back, a soldier who was supposed to be guarding the area was sitting in a folding chair, his head bowed, slowly drifting off into a deep sleep on his shift.
Out of nowhere, the soldier heard a metallic hum coming from inside a canvas structure behind him. He startled, grabbed his rifle, and cautiously peeked his head through the opening.
To his utter confusion, he saw only the heavy doors of a freight elevator—an industrial elevator hidden in the floor—opening and closing as if no one were nearby. The soldier blinked, looked around, and, seeing no one, shrugged it off as what he believed to be a simple malfunction or a figment of his imagination. He sighed with relief and sat back down, settling in to go back to sleep.
Inside the secret elevator, rapidly descending into the depths of the earth, the atmosphere grew thick.
Under the cloak of invisibility, Aurelian leaned down slightly until he was at Stinky's eye level.
"I haven't the faintest idea what we'll find down there, Stinky," Aurelian whispered, his eyes betraying the caution he felt about the place. "Whatever happens, never stray from me—understood?"
Stinky looked at him with wide eyes and nodded slowly, swallowing hard as the elevator continued to descend toward the secrets of Area 51.
As the elevator descended into the depths of the earth, a prayer repeated itself endlessly in Aurelian's mind: "Please, let there be no aliens. Please, let them not be holding alien life forms captive here," he pleaded.
If humans had real evidence of extraterrestrial life, that would not only completely ruin all his long-term plans for space conquest on behalf of the magical race, but it also terrified him immensely. The "Dark Forest Theory," which he had read in his past life before reincarnating into this magical world, was still deeply ingrained in his mind. The idea that the universe was full of hostile, predatory civilizations lurking in total silence made him sick.
Aurelian nervously rubbed his forearm, feeling a slight chill beneath the fabric of his shirt. Entering Area 51 filled him with both curiosity and a deep terror of what he might discover. They said that ignorance was a virtue, a blessing for minds that preferred to live in ignorance, and at that moment Aurelian thought that perhaps it was true. Knowing too much—knowing the incomprehensible horrors of the universe—could drive you completely mad. But not knowing something—being blind to a threat, or in this case, to the unknown—also drove you mad. Therein lay the cruel and ironic paradox of that phrase. Just imagining biomechanical creatures—with a stupid god complex like the fearsome "Qu"—roaming freely through the cosmos, mutating species out of sheer boredom, made him feel as if his head were about to explode if he kept thinking about it.
Finally, with the heavy clunk of the elevator's hydraulic mechanism as it came to a stop, the metal doors swung open.
The hallway stretching out before them had an unsettling feel to it—an architectural mix that seemed straight out of the gloomy laboratory of a survival horror movie and the biohazard containment facilities seen in some video games. The walls were made of concrete, reinforced with steel plates. Thick exposed pipes and ventilation ducts ran along the exposed ceiling, while flickering fluorescent lights bathed the room in a cold, pale, clinical glow. Despite the intimidating and almost oppressive appearance of the design, the facilities were in perfect condition.
Under the Cloak of Invisibility, Aurelian moved slowly, making not the slightest sound on the epoxy resin floor.
Through the armored glass windows flanking the hallway, he could see large rooms filled with all sorts of things. He saw fragments of dark metal that didn't reflect light, strange isolation capsules connected to dozens of monitors, and ballistic diagrams spread out on various types of tables. Dozens of scientists in white lab coats and military officers with folders under their arms were moving about the facility.
However, what really surprised Aurelian was the lack of internal security measures. It was clear that the U.S. government placed blind trust in the facility's isolation in the desert and in surface-level controls. Of course, the officers inside remained alert and heavily armed, but with no access-controlled doors or any additional detection measures, Aurelian could pass by the soldiers with great ease.
Noticing a small, completely empty supply room with the lights off, Aurelian quickly went inside and closed the door behind him.
He knelt on the floor and gently held Stinky by the shoulders. The elf looked at him with his enormous eyes, trembling in the darkness.
"Listen to me carefully, Stinky," Aurelian whispered. "Your mission here will be this: every time we pass through one of these research rooms or laboratories, I want you to take any papers, files, objects, or interesting items you find and send them straight to my office at the mansion."
Stinky opened his mouth, raising a little finger as if to ask how he was going to carry so many Muggle things without dropping them.
Seeing his confusion, Aurelian stepped forward to clarify.
"You don't have to carry anything, my friend. You just need to approach the documents, touch them, and use your magic to make them disappear from here. Make sure they land directly on my desk or on the floor of my office. That's all you have to do."
Stinky nodded frantically, immediately grasping the nature of his new task. A determined smile spread across the little creature's face.
With the plan set and his fear of cosmic horrors tucked away in the deepest recesses of his mind, Aurelian stood up. He covered them both once more with the Deathly Hallow, and they left the supply room, setting off once again through the intricate corridors of Area 51, ready to "search" and plunder every secret, project, and anomaly that the Muggles were trying to hide deep underground.
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