Marvel Magic Case Files

Chapter 1181 South American Guerrillas (Second Update)

The Vatum Wand is one of the most famous artifacts collected by Kamar-Taj. The Sorcerer Supreme created a batch of replicas of the Vatum Wand for arcane mages to use, based on its working principles and effects. However, the original was sealed in an underground prison in the Himalayas, guarded by unwavering sentries. Only a select few can use it without supervision, enduring the artifact's side effects—the original wand is inlaid with real demon heads at both ends, bound to the souls of two powerful extradimensional beings. It can unleash destructive explosions or deploy protective spells to safeguard the user without incantations, or redirect the user's arcane energy, enhancing the user's efficiency in absorbing extradimensional energy.

The most important function of the Vatum Wand is to open a passage to outer dimensions through the veil of the material universe. Therefore, the sorcerer Hamil was extremely careful when retrieving the wand from the underground prison, trying his best not to damage the parchment seal. The assistants chosen by the sorcerer Hamil were all from the previous generation of a mystical family. Thus, when they arrived in the city near the Vatum Temple, ordinary people only saw a very incongruous group of elderly tourists; some even kindly warned them to leave the city as soon as possible.

An armed force of unknown origin, in league with guerrillas, was waging war against the cartel in several nearby cities, disrupting the daily lives and livelihoods of residents to varying degrees. Sometimes they would see rockets streaking across the sky and crashing into the forests at night, or find the bodies of cartel members or corrupt police officers shot dead in the streets. Such an environment was clearly unsuitable for elderly middle-class Americans traveling in. The well-meaning man, who appeared to be a drunkard, advised Master Hamil that for their safety, they should leave as soon as possible.

After hearing the kind man's description, the mage Hamil extended his mechanical prosthetic hand and sincerely thanked him. He then handed the man several large-denomination US dollars and made a perfunctory promise to leave the city as soon as possible. In fact, the mage Hamil had received intelligence shared by the Sorcerer Supreme: the ongoing war in several nearby cities and the surrounding countryside was actually a drug bust funded by Salomon. To allow farmers cultivating poppies, marijuana, and avocados to focus on growing crops and to ensure Latvinia had sufficient food, Salomon funded local guerrillas with weapons, equipment, and even armed personnel to eliminate corrupt police, local government, and cartels in the region, thus consolidating control over Latvinia—just as the Immortal City had done in Africa.

Local residents sometimes see a giant in golden armor, wielding a halberd, on the streets. Even when facing the heavy firepower of the cartel's fortified strongholds, the giant can still slaughter everyone before announcing the Emperor's orders to all the nearby locals. This is the Imperial Guard of Supiluliumas, a crucial means for Salomon to monitor the local guerrillas. The presence of this Imperial Guard signifies the fiercest fighting between the guerrillas and government forces/cartels, and also the area where the guerrilla forces are most concentrated.

Supiluliumas was not only responsible for monitoring the local guerrillas, but also for teaching them guerrilla warfare experience and tactics, guiding them on how to achieve victory through people's war, rather than cooperating with cartels in drug trafficking as in the past. South American guerrilla groups were fragmented, more like warlords than guerrillas. Supiluliumas and the Peruvian rebel colonel Camila's task was to reorganize all the guerrillas and integrate them into a unified group with a shared will. Therefore, while protecting Laura Crawford on her archaeological expedition, Camila also acted as a guide, helping the First Secret Regiment and the Royal Guard from the Immortal City to recruit guerrillas who had lost their income due to the collapse of cartels, or to eliminate guerrillas who had simply degenerated into cartels.

This story is enough to fill a book, yet no one reads it now, a book filled with secrets. As the only person outside the First Secret Regiment to have frequent contact with the Guardians, Colonel Camilla, a Peruvian rebel and former lover of Agent Coulson, can only keep it on her bucket list, planning to start writing it after her retirement; whether it will ever be published is another matter entirely. Supiluliumas promised her that even if the memoir couldn't be published due to secrecy, it would be included in the Guardians' archives as a case study for future Guardians to learn about guerrilla warfare.

The intelligence received by the sorcerer Hamil indicated that six days prior, Supiluliumas had appeared on the outskirts of the city. Shortly after, a drug manufacturing fortress hidden in the rainforest, which the local guerrillas had been unable to breach, was razed to the ground, and all the cartel's armed personnel were killed. This "tourist group" from Kamar-Taj even discovered that, in addition to their mixed beliefs about death and Christ, many locals erected statues of the Praetorian Guard, placing them alongside the Grim Reaper of the Day of the Dead, because the Praetorian Guard was the most tangible embodiment of destruction they had ever witnessed.

After a short rest, the Archmage Hamil led the leaders of the arcane families into the rainforest, arriving directly at the location of the Temple of Watum via teleportation and on foot. To ordinary people, it was merely a cluster of pyramid ruins left behind by the Spanish colonists who destroyed Mesoamerican civilization, but beyond the ruins lay a vast new space. This was a demi-plane entrance, also known as a pocket dimension, a temporary dimension that could exist permanently, like a mailbox nailed to a wall. Although the leaders of the arcane families still didn't understand why they had come to the Temple of Watum in the South American rainforest, none of them questioned the Supreme Archmage's orders. Instead, after the Archmage Hamil gave the command, they cooperated by casting a combined spell to seal off the area around the Temple of Watum.

Constantine was reviewing the intelligence sent by Supilulius on the data panel.

The Temple of Vatum remained under Supiluliumus's surveillance. To investigate all the details of the feathered serpent's awakening, not only were local anti-government forces and Laura Crawford conducting their own investigations, but Supiluliumus was also secretly investigating dangerous ruins where humans could not possibly survive. Constantine looked at the markings Supiluliumus had made on the satellite images of the Temple of Vatum. Thanks to the Praetorian Guard's powerful memory and cognitive abilities, each mark indicated that someone had recently visited the temple.

"Continue to execute orders and ensure the safety of the area surrounding the temple." Constantine issued the order to Supiluliumas via the Guardian Order's internal communication. "Priority: Crimson Gamma, after the Temple of Quetzalcoatl. Do not allow anyone to approach the Temple of Vatum except for the mystics of Kamar-Taj."

"Received," Supiluliumas said cheerfully. "Next time you resupply, please include razor blades and shaving foam. You can't buy properly sized razors here, and I can't have too much contact with the local anti-government forces. If you want to know, I'll tell you my beard is almost down to my throat, which makes me look at least a thousand years older."

“A thousand years isn’t enough to wrinkle the Praetorian Guard, Supilulius.” Constantine seemed pleased, perhaps because he’d found someone to joke with. Hammurabi was too serious at work, and Constantine himself, as commander of the Praetorian Guard, had many war missions to handle, so opportunities to relax were few and far between. “Don’t you consider growing a beard?” he said. “The monarch needs your support on his upcoming trip to South America; I guarantee you’ll give him a shock.”

"If you think a monarch can tolerate a bug in his beard, I won't mind either. Hello, John... this is my friend, a damn flea."

Please vote for me!

(End of this chapter)