Marvel Magic Case Files

Chapter 1256 The Eternal War (Second Update)

The laws governing celestial motion suddenly became disordered, asteroids and planetesimals deviated from their orbits, and solid methane and ethane planetesimals continued to aggregate under the influence of abnormal gravity. The huge kinetic energy collisions led to a huge accumulation of heat, just like the constant collisions between planets and asteroids at the beginning of planetary formation, which caused the Earth's core to heat up.

The relatively low gravity barely holds the newly formed magma plates to the surface, separated from solid combustible gases by a thin line. Dense fog rises from the rough, still-unformed planetary-bound plates, bringing gaseous water—essential for a habitable planet in its early stages—to life. Though inaudible, this epic spectacle, using materials from the formation of the solar system to rapidly recreate the ice and fire of early planetary life, is enough to captivate and awe, prompting reflection on one's own insignificance and ignorance.

Unless the culprit behind these scenes is a pair of inhuman giant hands reaching out from hell, forcibly and violently binding together asteroids that do not belong to the same orbit. At the center of that scorching core, a giant serpent tens of kilometers long is struggling within the gradually forming, dense, molten iron core. A warrior clad in golden armor, like a comet, passes through the magma curtain floating due to the low-gravity environment and the burning solid flammable gas, holding a long sword and facing the rising flames and white smoke below, falling towards the giant serpent in the newborn core like an angel falling to hell in ancient mythology.

His crimson battle robes were completely consumed by the lava, his veins throbbed like cannon fire, and supernatural power emanated unnaturally from his eyes. His helmet had long since been tossed aside, and his long, black hair, secured by a golden laurel wreath, was blown backward by the rapidly expanding gas below. The closer one got to the Earth's core and the giant serpent, the higher the temperature became. Every moment, magma strong enough to vaporize bones and frost capable of freezing steel would rush past him, only to be swallowed and burned by the tens of thousands of protective runes. It was like jumping into a summer stream; the sunlight, the warmth, all beauty vanished in an instant, blocked by the thick layers of rock.

Besides the glowing lava and toxic gases, the collisions between the protective spells and dangerous objects became more frequent and intense. Under the influence of gravity and magic, the Emperor's speed increased and his brightness grew, eventually even exploding in the thin gas. The white light and sparks from the shield left two faintly visible chasms radiating extradimensional energy in the fall path, as if the hazy glow of stars from the outer solar system's scattered disk rose and stretched on the Emperor's golden armor, forming a huge stream of light.

He crashed into the sea of ​​molten iron like a meteorite burning fiercely in the atmosphere, his holy sword spewing golden beams of energy that pierced precisely through its target. The scorching energy pierced through outer-dimensional flesh, bones, and rock, emerging from the other side of the asteroid and extending into the endless void below the ecliptic plane of the solar system, leaving behind a vast amount of electromagnetic radiation noise invisible to the naked eye. The giant serpent's cold pupils immediately contracted, revealing a chilling, bone-chilling hatred. It twisted its body with all its might, opening its massive jaws towards the emperor; the crackling sound of its bones rubbing together was even louder than the collision of asteroids or the lava flow of the Earth's crust.

[This is the third time! You should have been in Uruk (4000 BC) back then, and Tiamat couldn't stop you!] Its mental power struck the emperor's mental defenses like a cannonball. In that instant, the emperor understood his long entanglement with the behemoth before him. [I curse you a thousand times! This is an eternal war, and we will always be the final victors! And you, you have betrayed everyone!]

"No," the emperor said softly, "they betrayed me."

The giant serpent pulled its wings from the magma. The magma enveloping the feathers instantly solidified, shattered, and drifted into space in the frigid void. Dark clouds appeared out of nowhere and gathered overhead, accumulating large amounts of flammable gas. Accompanied by lightning born from electrical friction, a violent explosion engulfing the entire planet ignited the asteroid in the blink of an eye. Even in the silent, dark void of space, the flash of the Koboi Belt asteroid was as dazzling as a celestial eruption. The rapidly expanding gas pushed the rock layers outward, then cooled and contracted rapidly due to the frigid void. Under the abnormal gravity created by the energy of the outer dimension, it pushed the rock layers inward with even greater kinetic energy, burying the emperor and himself beneath the red-hot boulders.

Beyond the newly formed lava planet, the short-haired witch stood unprotected on a high-speed gray asteroid, watching the distant exploding celestial body. In one hand she held Pegasus's golden reins, and in the other gripped a longsword shimmering with deep purple extradimensional energy. The golden embellishments on her magnificent dark combat suit billowed in the wind due to inertia. The next moment, a pitch-black portal, its edges shimmering with deep purple light, formed on the barren gray asteroid, then swallowed the witch whole. Even the giant demonic hands woven from strands of black energy vanished into thin air.

"Ms. Laura Crawford, don't be superstitious about documents, especially when it comes to mythology. All documents are written by humankind, and naturally, they will also contain human imagination and conjecture. No matter how much imagination humans have added to mythology, or how many legends ancient rulers added to it to unite society and enhance the legitimacy of their rule, there is still a huge gap between them and objective reality. Facts will not change because of humankind's beautiful imagination. I believe the events in Asgard are enough to make you understand this, aren't they?" Victor von Doom reminded her. "Whether it's the feathered serpent or the Yinglong, their appearance was a disaster for humanity. Humanity's enemy is our enemy."

Laura Crawford nodded, her romantic notions as an archaeologist swept away by the bloody reality.

"However, it wasn't all bad news. A training camp of the US military and the CIA in Moldova was flooded, and the Moldova government requested our assistance," Victoria Hand said. "The CIA is planning to replicate a coup in Cuba, and the soldiers in the training camp are people who fled the country during the first expansion war of the Yugoslav Federation. Now I plan to add combat personnel to the aid team heading to Moldova from the Romanian provinces, and look for opportunities to arrest CIA agents or US officers."

“Agreed. Modova has many rich non-metallic mineral deposits that are needed for the upcoming infrastructure projects.” Viktor von Doum nodded. “But we don’t need to annex Modova into the Yugoslav Federation. Soft control is much better than hard control, so I need a detailed implementation plan to ensure things don’t go as planned.”

"clear."

"You're discussing this kind of thing here?" Natasha Romanov crossed her arms. "Have you forgotten that the most important person isn't here?"

"There's nothing we can do, Agent Romanov," Victoria Hand said.

"Don't call me that, V." Natasha Romanov wrinkled her nose, deliberately using the nickname Victoria Hand hated most. Victoria Hand's department was now equivalent to the defense intelligence agency of the Latvian/Yugoslav Federation, possessing considerable authority. As far as she knew, the cybersecurity department under Victoria Hand's control had already achieved technological superiority over the National Security Agency (NSA), destroying America's cyber information hegemony at both the network and physical levels (referring to the destruction of thousands of communication satellites of US telecommunications operators and the implantation of spyware).

"I see it very clearly: all of Latvinia's enemies fear him now. The state visit to Cuba ends in nine hours. What if he doesn't show up then? What if the CIA's spies within the Cuban government discover he's gone?"

“He’s already left contingency plans, Agent Romanov,” Victoria Hand retorted sharply. She waved her hand, and the holographic projection of the Earth in front of her immediately magnified to its location in Cuba. This was achieved through an algorithm that used satellite remote sensing of the actual Earth's surface and then rendered it in real time in the holographic projection, accurately providing information invisible to the naked eye, such as atmospheric oxygen levels. The information transmission between the detection satellites and the SkySword space station command system was achieved by compressing an image to a few kilobytes and then transmitting massive amounts of information, which placed extremely high demands on Latvinia's technical capabilities. “He will appear in public to give speeches; that’s all you need to know.”

"You mean, he'll be back on time?"

“Not necessarily,” Victoria Hand said. She pointed to another holographic projection, which displayed real-time simulations of Koboj Belt stars by astronomers. “We recently detected a peculiar flash in the Koboj Belt and are currently conducting spectrochemical analysis. I have a feeling that once the report is out, we’ll know whether he will return in time.”

Please vote for me!

P.S.: The protagonist's past identity and experiences were foreshadowed and hinted at. I wonder if anyone can guess them.

(End of this chapter)