Marvel Magic Case Files

Chapter 1201 Armor Conferment Ceremony (Second Update)

For other cosmic empires, the Asgardian Empire is a formidable adversary.

These barbarians possessed exceptional physical strength, and their fierce sense of honor drove Asgardian soldiers to relentlessly hurl themselves at the Empire's enemies. However, for the Emperor of Latvinia, technology was paramount in Asgard, which is why he was willing to go to any lengths to profit from Ragnarok.

Asgard's most terrifying weapon is the Bifrost, a planet-destroying weapon. No matter how sturdy a starship's armor, it appears utterly vulnerable before the Bifrost. Elite Asgardian soldiers ride the Bifrost to directly attack the bridge, destroying the enemy's command system with decapitation strikes – a tactic Asgard has employed for tens of thousands of years. Even without the Bifrost, Asgardian longship-like void-based spacecraft can approach and surround their enemies like a pack of bloodthirsty wolves, constantly probing and bleeding them dry until Asgardian soldiers can leap from the damaged hulls into the enemy starship, then use their physical prowess and superior equipment to slaughter the weaker foe.

These void-based gliders resemble hovering longships, employing void engine and hovering engine technologies far more advanced than those used in Wakanda and the Martian foundry. Their onboard thermoplastic launchers can penetrate hull armor in an extremely short time. Even the melee weapons used by Asgardian soldiers are equipped with high-powered disintegration fields and high-energy capacitors. Without the vibranium resources and technological support from Wakanda, the Royal Guard and the Infernal Knights' weapons would likely not be able to match their capabilities in using disintegration fields.

All of this technology originated from a race in mythology called the Dwarves, a race that could not escape the chain of catastrophes triggered by Ragnarok. The Emperor sought to secure the Dwarves' loyalty by offering them protection, just as they had loyally pledged allegiance to Odin. He wanted them to forge weapons and equipment for his army to achieve his conquests and to help him complete the essential and time-consuming Bifrost project.

In general, Asgard's ability to dominate the galaxy largely relies on its exceptional individual combat skills, long lifespan, and advanced equipment. However, the Infernal Knights are superior in physical attributes and military prowess. Even using identical melee weapons, an Infernal Knight can defeat an Asgardian soldier in a one-on-one duel. This is because Infernal Knights are faster, stronger, and have a more brutal and bloodthirsty fighting style. Every ability they possess is designed for war; they are living destroyers. In the minds of the Yugoslavs, the Infernal Knights clad in dark gold power armor represent the emperor's extermination of a person or organization after losing patience.

Sometimes, simply having the Fire Knights gathered on the outskirts of a city is enough to force the enemy to surrender.

However, the people of Belgrade never mentioned this. Instead, they fabricated an even more legendary story. This story omitted the giant war engines that flooded the city's horizon, the gunboats that filled the sky, the steel tanks that were airdropped onto the city's main roads, and the fire knights wielding explosive guns. Instead, it featured only the emperor, wielding a burning greatsword, wearing golden armor, and riding a pure white white horse, who entered Belgrade alone and loudly proclaimed to the Serbs the end of the Balkan ethnic wars and the beginning of the war of unification.

The story ends with the citizens of Belgrade submitting to the Emperor, calling him the Savior of the Balkans, kissing his blood-red cloak, and pledging to set aside racial hatred and prejudice to unite under the banner of the Eagle and fulfill the Emperor's grand vision of uniting all humanity to march towards the Milky Way. This bizarre story has been repeatedly examined by later historians and labeled as highly credible, as the truth has long been obscured by the information black hole created by the communication controls of the time and by the local people's pride.

Surrendering to someone who sounds legendary and even divine is better than telling others that you were forced to kneel because of force and the threat of the emperor's previous conquests. The only problem is that the people of Budapest also tell a similar story, one that also only features the emperor and makes no mention of the two war engines in the Parliament Building or the Fire Knights in the square. Therefore, when people from the Hungarian and Serbian provinces meet, they immediately accuse each other of lying, claiming that their own version of events is the truth, and expressing strong support for the local garrison troops in the mortal auxiliary army, named the Budapest Lions and White Falcons by the emperor, with a pride no less than that for the local football team.

Of course, these folk tales hadn't yet reached the Emperor's ears, nor did he care about such trivial matters; attending the Royal Guard's armor-donning and oath-taking ceremony was far more important. These guardians of humanity, stripped of their original identities and meticulously nurtured in artificial amniotic fluid within incubation chambers, needed to pass a final trial of life and death before they could don the Royal Guard's golden armor and fully unleash the potential and talents bestowed upon them by the Emperor—some were perpetually vigilant and valued secrecy, some were adept at governance and skilled in checks and balances, and some were unparalleled in bravery, surpassing all others in the army. The Emperor valued the training of each Royal Guard member and considered the high price paid well worth it. Although each Royal Guard member specialized in different areas, each possessed the ability to defeat a full-strength Asgardian elite army head-on and was capable of becoming the last guardians of human civilization in the event of a cataclysmic event.

The first thing to happen was a ceremonial duel that lasted ten minutes.

The emperor ordered the candidate for the Imperial Guard to take up arms and duel with him, while continuously posing questions on politics, military affairs, history, philosophy, and art to test whether the new Imperial Guard could immediately fulfill his duties. In this process, the emperor would examine the Imperial Guard's character, the completeness of his combat instincts and subconscious knowledge, the strength of his basic mental structure and spiritual barriers, and whether his mental and combat training could be effective.

The key to this ritualistic duel was not combat but spirit. For the Royal Guard, the challenge far surpassed the life-or-death struggle they had experienced on the alien planet just two hours earlier. The Emperor wanted to test their absolute loyalty, ruthlessness, resilience, and tireless dedication; to test whether discipline and organization were ingrained in their souls and marrow, becoming second nature. Only those with the Royal Guard's physique, forged through rigorous training, undergoing thousands of hours of psionic and chemical psychological adjustments, and receiving extremely complex indoctrination, could earn the most stringent recognition in this ritualistic duel. Behind these successful candidates lay countless piles of bones from the defeated and unimaginable resources. Every successful Royal Guard member was born carrying the weight of all hopes.

After the inspection, Constantine, following the assigned number, ordered a candidate wearing electronic muscle inner armor to step forward and kneel at the bottom of the obsidian steps. As the mechanical servant installed the last heavy shoulder armor piece onto the guard's shoulder, scalding steam billowed from the mechanical arm structure connecting the armor plates, until the power armor's mechanical structure tightly locked onto the tank-like thick protective plates, at which point the mechanical arm slowly moved away.

The candidates for the Imperial Guard remained kneeling, swearing allegiance to the Imperial Guard's banner and the Emperor's flag, which hung silently in the hall of the Obsidian Tower in the Immortal City. Then, the Emperor would take up a garrison spear and, standing before the candidate, recite the name that would accompany them for life. This name represented the Emperor's expectations of the candidate, the talents and potential bestowed upon them, and also the duty the candidate would fulfill for a lifetime—a heavy burden that only those with an iron will could bear.

After being granted armor and weapons, Constantine, as commander of the Royal Guard, led his new comrades to familiarize themselves with the facilities of the Immortal City, personally testing the various types of weaponry and organizational functions of the Royal Guard. The Emperor, accompanied by Hammurabi, returned to Latvinia through a portal. These Royal Guards would begin their duties early the next morning, each taking on different responsibilities, but due to their extremely small numbers, they would have to juggle multiple roles in a short period.

One of them will become a guardian and herald, working alongside Hammurabi to protect the emperor's safety; another will become the lieutenant and champion of the sword of Constantine, participating in the mission of leading the Knights of the Fire in battle and beginning the purge of religious armed guerrillas; the remaining two will be sent to Kamar-Taj and to the regent Victor von Doum in Romania, respectively, to guard the Kamar-Taj library and to assist the regent in purging populist rebels in the province. The former will always remain vigilant, while the latter will carry out the purge with absolute ruthlessness and loyalty.

The new royal guard meant that the emperor had time to focus his energy on more important matters.

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(End of this chapter)