Marvel Magic Event Book

Chapter 1747

The weather conditions had improved slightly, and the pilot from the Immortal City parked the helicopter on the ice cap, waiting for Salomon to board. Just as he had told Tony Stark, the helicopter would take off in 12 minutes.

"Why don't you use..." Tony Stark held up a hand and drew a circle, "...a portal?"

"The barrier to reality here is very fragile; using teleportation magic will further weaken it."

"So you can't open the portal right now. This is extremely important intelligence, and you actually told me. If your enemies are planning to assassinate you, now is the perfect opportunity." Tony Stark shrugged. "Are you planning to kill me here?"

“Your value is higher than this intelligence, and you can’t verify its authenticity,” Salomon said calmly. Now that the sky was gradually brightening, the only thing to watch out for on the ice wasn’t slipperiness, but glare; even a tiny bit of light refracted through billions of ice crystals would become blinding.

"That's true, I mean the value part."

Tony Stark casually stroked his chin. He sensed Salomon's goodwill; after all, the hostility between Yugoslavia and NATO was a matter of official position and interests, not a matter of personal relations. Besides, what Salomon had done to these former Avengers was, at most, to prevent them from revealing his information, like a little elf bound by a contract… well, that wasn't exactly friendly. But for the sake of secrecy, Stark decided to tolerate it for now. Who knew what terrible things might happen if someone leaked Salomon's information!

He had seen on the news how soldiers cleared out local militias.

"I still have some questions about your age. You know, Nick Fury has always suspected you're a young-looking old wizard, and he thinks your birth certificate is fake. But you insist your age is real... If I'm telling you, his suspicions are justified. If Agent Hill's intelligence is correct, then our female spy is facing very serious criminal charges."

Salomon ignored him.

"I'm curious how she won you over. And that red-haired little witch, she's never liked me. Do you like red hair, so you used some strange magic to make them like you? But Nick Fury told me your girlfriend is black..."

Tony Stark kept rambling on as he walked until Salomon forcibly interrupted him.

He stuck Tony Stark's tongue to his palate, the sudden attack nearly choking him on his own saliva. He only managed to catch his breath after sticking his fingers into his mouth to straighten his cramped tongue. "Shut up, and you'd better be quiet for a few minutes. I need to be in a good mood before dealing with official business," Salomon said, putting on noise-canceling headphones, patting the pilot on the shoulder, and looking at Stark, whose face was covered in tears and snot.

“If you don’t want to attract NATO’s attention, you’d better take this helicopter. I’ll take you to see Dr. Banner, but you have to do it my way. You only have one hour for the visit, starting now. I don’t have that much time to waste.”

"I want to... sit on the right..."

"Only the left side, because I boarded the plane first."

“I… hate you!” These were the first words Tony Stark uttered fluently after his recovery.

He was curious why it only took him an hour to reach the place where he was supposed to visit Dr. Banner. Had those mysterious sorcerers brought the Hulk here? Or was Dr. Banner being imprisoned in Oslo? He secretly glanced at his phone, intending to record the coordinates later—even if Dr. Banner didn't release him as promised, he could still come to rescue his friend—that was his plan. But during the long hour-long flight, he found himself approaching Oslo, yet still unable to land.

He was about to say something when he heard the white-haired girl in the co-pilot's seat say something in a language he couldn't understand.

Immediately afterward, Tony Stark noticed that the coordinates displayed on the armor's positioning software were flashing wildly, as if they were frantically jumping around the world, their backsides moving from Fifth Avenue in Manhattan to Cape Town, South Africa, in just a second. He was quite certain that his backsides hadn't sparked or burned to a crisp due to faster-than-light travel, because outside the helicopter was still a vast, shimmering ocean.

The sea was unusually calm at that moment, as smooth as a mirror.

If he opened the door, he would surely feel the icy sea breeze. But now the sunlight had vanished, abruptly like a stage curtain rising, as if the wind itself had disappeared; they were trapped inside a giant iron box, even the noise of the propellers had lessened. There was only one explanation for all this: damned magic.

"Shut up and don't disturb my sleep."

He was about to ask something when Salomon's voice came through the earpiece.

Diana, in the passenger seat, glared at Tony Stark as if he had committed some unforgivable sin. Stark wisely chose to shut up, swallowing his joke, otherwise he felt that the pretty girl would definitely roll over from the passenger seat and slit his throat with a dagger.

Stark shrugged, deciding it was best not to provoke the girl.

He recognized the girl; she was the android who had used Jarvis for big data collection. Sometimes he had to admire the so-called magic's sophistication in certain areas; at least current science and technology were completely incapable of customizing humans from the mind to the body. A dozen minutes later, Tony Stark saw a city shrouded in night.

The helicopter landed on the helipad, where five white-haired girls in black power armor, armed with large-caliber rifles, greeted Salomon as he disembarked. Tony Stark looked up curiously, only to hear a tremendous roar echoing across the rock-built canopy above, his lungs filled with the smell of ozone filtered through the air.

"Where is this place?" he couldn't help but ask.

"The real S.H.I.E.L.D."

Diana handed her handbag to one of the androids, while the other brought over a lit bronze incense burner, white smoke slowly rising from its holes. Salomon took the chain from the burner. "Your father, Howard Stark, once served the organization S.H.I.E.L.D., which was his attempt to rebuild it. I think it's time for you to know this secret."

Tony Stark was speechless with shock at the news. He couldn't even comment on Salomon and the androids' unusual behavior. "This is an organization that has existed for eight thousand years. Its purpose was to unite all human power to fight against an alien threat—the Chitauri are just locusts; they weren't the first aliens to arrive on Earth, and they're not really a threat—the first to arrive on Earth were the blue-skinned Kree, who were also the Brotherhood of the Shield's first enemies. During the first war against the Kree, there was an organization that worshipped alien creations. You must have heard of this organization: Hydra."

"Wait, you mean..."

"Then, in Egypt, we fought against an alien insect species that could travel faster than the speed of light. The Brotherhood of the Shield split into two parts: one part was responsible for defense, with my shield as its emblem; the other part was responsible for offense, with my spear as its emblem."

"Wait... your shield and spear?"

“I founded this organization,” Salomon said with a mischievous grin. “Haven’t you always been curious about my age?” “Damn it, that was just a joke!” Stark’s voice was almost a scream.

“To be precise, it was a time travel experience. The enemy I faced possessed the ability to alter reality, so I had to add to my own history to ensure they couldn't change reality and erase me or other important people from time. Therefore, at the age of twenty, I chose to live on Earth for eight thousand years, not a second less.” Salomon shrugged, turning to the Sisterhood androids who were waiting to pick him up. “Christina—”

The android girl, holding a tablet computer, calmly said, "The purification ritual is ready and can begin at any time."

“I’ll preside over the ceremony.” Salomon placed his hand on Tony Stark’s shoulder and picked up the incense burner, circling it twice around the latter’s head and shoulders.

"What ritual?" Tony Stark had a bad feeling, and the urgency of his emotions made him try to break free. He found that the hands gripping his shoulders and elbows were like steel clamps, impossible to break free of thanks to the strength granted by his armor's mechanical structure. He was being forcefully pulled forward. "You're planning to lock me up? Just like you did with Dr. Banner!"

“You brazenly barged into the Kamar-Taj work site. Don’t you need to pay the price?” Salomon continued his work. Tony Stark found that his armor had lost most of its power, and the outer shell protecting his fragile body had become a metal prison for him. “Now that I’m here, we can shorten the process. After all, I don’t have much time to waste.”

Tony Stark tried to raise his fist, but the weight of his armor made him move like a snail. He could only smell the pungent smell of burning spices, the smoke stinging his eyes. He watched helplessly as Salomon reached for his eyes. He tried to lean back, but couldn't stop the hand from getting closer and closer, even reaching into his brain—he was horrified to find that he could still think and speak, even though all he wanted to do now was scream—then a violent headache struck, and if it weren't for the armor supporting him, he would have collapsed long ago.

The pain subsided quickly, and when he refocused, he saw Salomon holding a large puddle of thick, asphalt-like black mud. Salomon contemptuously tossed the mud aside, and then the mud suddenly stood up, extending thick, short limbs. This creature, about the height of a human's calf, grinned, revealing a huge mouth that took up half its body, displaying its crooked, rotten teeth to the people on the tarmac.

Salomon crushed the little thing with one stomp.

The asphalt-like substance, like water droplets falling into hot metal, made a loud sizzling sound before disappearing.

“What is that?” Stark screamed.

“A kind of extradimensional spiritual entity, born from the Sea of ​​Souls.” Salomon released his grip on Tony Stark. “The souls and emotions of intelligent beings attract this kind of thing. Generally, extradimensional spiritual entities that are too weak will perish immediately after birth, or become nourishment for other individuals. Some powerful individuals can draw power from the Sea of ​​Souls to survive, like the one parasitizing you.”

“I…” Tony Stark felt a slight vibration from the armor, a sign that the armor was activating.

“No, you didn’t have this before.” Salomon nodded. “Christina, take him to see Dr. Banner.”

Stark, feeling dizzy, followed the gun-wielding android forward and got into a jeep.

He didn't even realize that the car he was riding in was traveling on a wide street, nor did he pay attention to the distinctive architectural styles of the buildings; his entire mind was still reeling from the "extradimensional entity" he had just encountered. Now, with his eyes closed, he could almost see that disgusting, terrifying thing opening its mouth and saying something to him, and he could almost smell the stench emanating from its decaying cavity, and hear its mocking laugh before it died. He couldn't control himself, constantly recalling, as if trying to pull what he wanted from the depths of his memory.

He wanted to figure out what that thing had told him.

The car stopped in front of a building. He got out, looking dazed, and followed the android inside. The cold, clean air hit him, and Tony Stark shivered, snapping him back to reality. Only then did he realize his back and forehead were covered in sweat, and that he had been ignoring Friday's warnings from the AI. "Sir, your temperature is too high," Friday said calmly, "but my blood sample didn't show any abnormal white blood cell count."

"Do you remember... why the armor automatically shut down just now?"

"The startup logs show no abnormalities, sir."

“What… okay, damn it. I need to upgrade the firewall. When did they gain control over Stark's technology?!” Tony Stark cursed as he followed the android through corridors and layers of metal doors until they entered a room made of bulletproof glass—his friend, Bruce Banner, lived here. In the middle of the glass room was a metal bunk bed covered with plain white sheets and blankets. Stark carefully examined Dr. Banner and found that Bruce Banner did not appear to have been abused. In fact, he looked very healthy, except for a slight weight loss, but without the weariness that used to linger on his face.

"Dr. Banner, your friend has come to see you."

“Tony, what brings you here?” Bruce Banner looked at Christina. “Your master…”

“I insisted on visiting you in prison, Banner,” Stark said with a smile, tapping on the bulletproof glass. “Looks like you’re doing alright.”

“Yes, I don’t have to worry about losing control of my emotions here, and I don’t even have to pay for the tranquilizers myself.” Dr. Banner breathed a sigh of relief. He had been worried that the master of the Immortal City would also capture Tony Stark. “Aside from the fact that the nutritional meals here are a bit unpalatable, I don’t think I have anything to complain about.”

Christina wanted to defend the institute's meals, since they were scientifically formulated to meet the daily needs of the research subjects. However, she couldn't claim they were particularly delicious. In fact, she greatly admired Dr. Banner, who ate his meals without batting an eye every day. If she had that kind of treatment, the first thing she'd do was escape and strangle the cook.

“That’s good. Do you know how worried the Pentagon is about your disappearance?” Stark turned to the android. “Can I come in and talk? It’s all transparent here. You’re not worried about me smuggling contraband to your prisoners, are you?”

“You should stay outside, Tony. I’m not fit to interact with humans right now,” Dr. Banner shrugged. “I know what the Hulk is now. Although this lab claims to be able to exorcise the Hulk, I know what the Hulk is. It’s now a part of my soul. I wouldn’t be surprised if they fail.”

“You should trust the professionals. After all, you don’t have a PhD in mysticism, so it’s best to listen to the experts,” Tony Stark suddenly lowered his voice. “If you don’t want to, I’ll come and take you away. Do you know where this is?”

"This city? No, I don't know. I woke up here, my whole body aches like I've been beaten up, and I have surgical braces to fix my bones..."

Do you remember the Secretary of State?

“I know, he… he experimented with my blood. I sensed it even before he transformed. That anger, buried deep within his muscles and ribs, will never be extinguished…”

"Have you met him?"

“No, all I know is that dangerous experimental subjects are being held on the other side of the research institute; perhaps that’s General Ross.” Dr. Banner licked his lips. “How is Betty?”

“She’s Pepper’s assistant now. You know, our beautiful spy has sided with the city’s master and abandoned all work at Stark Industries!” Stark said sullenly. He planned to talk to someone later and see if he could go to the other side of the research institute to check on Secretary Ross’s situation. “Who knows, Natasha might suddenly jump out with a dark-haired kid and give us a good scare! When I see that smug look on that bastard’s face, I know that day isn’t far off!”