Marvel Magic Case Files

Chapter 1016, Part 1012: The Blood of Latveria (Second Update)

Victor von Doom returned, the air around him thick with anger. A crimson lightning flashed, and Salomon immediately sensed his emotions. Victor von Doom made no attempt to hide his feelings; the once-fierce mascot goose, upon seeing him from afar, fled without looking back. He didn't speak, but instead used magic to relay his entire negotiation with the Latverian royal family to Salomon in a mere two seconds. To others, it appeared as if Victor von Doom and Salomon exchanged a single glance, and then the air grew heavy.

"As expected." Salomon's expression was as calm as his emotions; the Latverian royal family's reaction was entirely predictable. After the Immortal City imposed a communications blockade, their minds became as shallow as a dish of water, their depths easily discernible.

Victor von Doom once attempted to influence the decisions of the Latvian royal family through magic in the dead of night. However, he was astonished to discover a spellcaster among them. The foul odor emanating from this spellcaster's soul was masked by the layers of bricks and soil beneath the castle, preventing Victor von Doom from immediately detecting him. This discovery heightened Victor von Doom's suspicions about the Latvian royal family, fearing they intended to use the lives of these commoners for some evil ritual to reverse their defeat. This is why Salomon was able to defy the opposition within Kamar-Taj and join the war, ostensibly as the war's overseer, but in reality, as another leader of the Latvian regular army.

As for the wizard that Victor von Doom cared about, Salomon didn't pay much attention to him.

His consciousness, stretching out in the dead of night, wandered through the minds of the common people of the royal city, sensing their fears. His thoughts swept through the brains of the Latvian royals as easily as strolling along a riverbank on a summer night. As for the dark wizard hidden deep beneath the castle, his brain was nothing more than a door with decaying chains to Salomon. The sorcerer infiltrated the dark wizard's soul without attracting anyone's attention, savoring every fragment of the plan that passed through his mind—the American instructors who had been found in the castle had escaped, and the Latvian reconnaissance forces had caught up with them; a member of the royal family was attempting to leave the royal city independently in a helicopter, but was shot down by well-prepared anti-aircraft artillery; the secret passage beneath the castle leading outside had long since collapsed, and now the royal guards were working hard to dig it out, trying to evacuate the city before the attack began.

"After bombarding the castle with concentrated artillery fire, send tracked armored vehicles with elite troops directly into the city to eliminate the royal army and evacuate the civilians. Bombing drones will assist from the sidelines. Quick in and quick out, dismantle the resistance in two hours. Don't worry about the houses; they'll be rebuilt into a new city anyway. Latvinia will be a high-tech metropolis in the future. Transforming from an agricultural country to an industrial country naturally comes at a price." Salomon's words revealed a pragmatic style and a wicked sense of humor. He believed that the underground passage would collapse under the heavy artillery fire, and cutting off the royal family's escape route at the right moment perfectly demonstrated his sense of humor.

The elite troops he referred to were soldiers personally selected by Viktor von Dum, who were not only determined and skilled but also possessed an astonishing talent for tactics and strategy. These soldiers were drawn from among to form a heavy infantry regiment of one hundred men called the "Exemptors."

These soldiers are equipped with full sets of black, closed-body bulletproof armor, closed breathing masks and helmets, high-powered laser guns, and a large number of heavy individual weapons to meet the needs of special operations. Even if they are injured, they will be given priority for cybernetic modifications (in fact, they also receive a small amount of brainwashing to reduce the brain's response to fear). They are a precise and deadly dagger on the battlefield, and the royal family's private guards are no match for them.

Salomon was more concerned about the northern defenses than the war here, where there were bigger problems than with the Latvian royal family.

The war machines deployed there are like springs compressed to their limit, as are the interstellar satellite missile launchers suspended above Latvinia's orbit, ready to be released when NATO forces are mobilized, showcasing the Immortal City's destructive war potential. Semi-finished products in the bio-engineering labs have already been lightly armed and transported to the front lines, where Constantine oversees and commands the genetically modified warriors until Salomon resolves the issues there, after which he will lead the genetically modified warriors and Latvinia's auxiliary forces.

"Two hundred shells can easily thwart that dark wizard's plan," Salomon said. The evil of that soul is only about the size of a little finger; it's not a big problem.

He was unwilling to use supernatural powers to change the decisions of the Latvian royal family. The Latvians had to undergo a painful transformation that would shape the will of all Latvians for centuries to come. They had to sacrifice themselves to forge the soul of the "United Truth".

No one cherishes what is readily available. A far more devastating war awaits them. Every Latvian here knows the situation on the northern front. They have no time to rest or train. Every young man must rush to the battlefield—even if this decision means that the Latvian girl who just tried to hand him a glass of water and a plate of biscuits might be blown to pieces by a shell, even if it means that the middle-aged man repairing the off-road vehicle will struggle in agony and eventually die. They must turn their thoughts on paper into a raging fire.

In the Immortal City's plan, Wakanda and the Avengers are both nearing their end; no high-end individual military force in the world can stop the rise of "Unified Truth." As for other issues, Victor von Doom and Salomon will resolve them through decapitation strikes—the reason Earth's regimes fear the Asgardians so much is because they possess cosmic-level large-scale military projection capabilities, coupled with their formidable individual combat abilities. No organization in the world can withstand such a high-intensity decapitation operation. Salomon and Victor von Doom also possess the advantages of the Asgardians; once the operation begins, any regime will have to carefully consider the consequences of its organizational structure being instantly wiped out.

"If that guy isn't dead, I'll go and chop off his head. Don't forget, I'm nominally the Inspector of Kamar-Taj, so doing this is perfectly legal," Salomon said cheerfully. He hadn't been in a fight in a long time, and even a lousy dark wizard could make him happy for a while.

Accompanied by a suggestive mental pulse, Viktor von Dum intuitively sensed his emotions and immediately rolled his eyes.

Even without Victor von Doom's discovery, Salomon would have found a way to join the war. The Sorcerer Supreme demanded that Salomon do what he believed was right, and with the Supreme's tacit approval, Kamar-Taj's control over him was reduced to a thin parchment. Even something as extremely dangerous as the Dark Book was kept in the Immortal City rather than in a dungeon deep in the Himalayas.

Without this tacit approval, the Immortal City could never have been established. All dissenting voices would have long since vanished, and the future Kamar-Taj would have only one voice—provided Salomon finds an opportunity to kick some idiot while he's down, creating two candidates for the Sorcerer Supreme to form healthy competition. This is something only he can do personally; after all, adjusting someone's fate is no simple matter, and he doesn't want Stephen Strange to die in a car accident.

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(End of this chapter)