Marvel Magic Case Files

Chapter 127 The Investigator's Joining and the Principle of the Teleportation Portal (First Update!)

"We have to report this." Agent Coulson reached into his headset. "Chief Fury ordered us to find him, but he didn't say we had to find a ghost. Sir, we..."

"Wait, Agent Coulson." Natasha Romanoff moved her flashlight, the beam extending from Salomon's footprints towards the cave entrance. Surprisingly, where there had initially been only one inward-facing footprint, a new line of outward-facing footprints slowly appeared on the ground—the distinctive low-heeled boot footprints of Kamar-Taj. Agent Coulson noticed this at Natasha Romanoff's prompting. Along with the footprints came a faint rubbing sound, as if someone were rubbing the sole of their leather shoes against the granite wall. He stared in surprise, mimicking Natasha Romanoff's movements with the flashlight, even cautiously reaching his hand above the footprints, but felt nothing.

“I’ve seen him. In fact, I’ve been investigating him for a while.” He took a breath. “But he’s alive, possibly a person with special abilities, but definitely not a ghost. If he is… perhaps we need a priest.”

"If you only attend Mass at Christmas and Easter, then you're a pretty devout Catholic [Note 1]," Agent Romanov said. "I like your sense of humor, Agent Coulson. Contact the operations team; we need them to follow the footprints. I have a feeling these footprints are our clue."

"I think we could send scientists from the Quinjet to explore the cave; perhaps that would help us understand the cause of these phenomena," Agent Coulson said.

Natasha glanced at Agent Coulson; now she was certain that Coulson truly didn't know Salomon's identity. In fact, Natasha herself had some doubts about "magic," but since Director Fury believed her, she wouldn't question it. However, the good mood from a newly discovered clue rarely lasted long. Coulson repeatedly pressed his earpiece, but the team members who should have been speaking remained unresponsive. He tried contacting others, but the result was the same. Agent Coulson quickly informed Natasha Romanoff of the situation. He believed it wasn't electromagnetic interference or a bad signal, as he hadn't heard any static. The only possibility was that they had all been eliminated, and an unexpected enemy lurked in the thick darkness outside the cave.

When Agent Coulson and Natasha Romanov cautiously emerged from the cave, they discovered that the Quinjet parked nearby had vanished. However, they heard no engine noise whatsoever; had the Quinjet flown away, they would have certainly heard the deafening roar. Besides this, there were no spent shell casings, no signs of gunfire, and the radio was completely silent. The team members and their vehicle had simply vanished without a trace.

Besides, there was a large, suddenly appearing forest. "They've disappeared." Natasha Romanov shone her flashlight on the spot where the Quinjet had been. She lowered her guard, holstering her pistol in her thigh holster, because she had come to an even worse conclusion.

"Or perhaps... we've disappeared."

Salomon was naturally unaware of the situation in the cave, nor did he know that Nick Fury was currently slamming his fist on the table and cursing, having suddenly lost two of his best agents. In fact, he had been on edge ever since he entered that eerie forest. He had tried using his slingshot to open a portal to leave, but every time he cast the spell, no matter how he chanted the incantation or made the hand gestures, the portal simply wouldn't open; only a small ball of swirling, scattered sparks mocked him. He hadn't noticed that a spell similar to a [Dimensional Anchor] had been cast, but the fact remained that the portal wouldn't open. He could only grip his Magic Missile Wand tightly, tuck his other Fireball Wand into his sleeve, ready to teach any who dared to attack him a lesson.

As darkness fell, the light illuminating the tops of the deep forest faded, and the lingering warmth of the setting sun was quickly swallowed by the shadows stretching from the mountain ridge behind him. Salomon no longer hesitated to use his magic; he took out a scroll and cast a spell to try and make some vision in the thick, fog-like darkness. The forest was eerily quiet, save for the crunching of fallen leaves beneath his feet. Since the Agamotto crystal ball hadn't indicated the direction of the strange magic, Salomon had no clear target. He could only walk roughly towards the town, hoping to encounter someone. Even though he could see some things, the forest was eerily quiet. He desperately wanted to encounter something, human or monster, because he had an unsettling familiarity with this environment.

He understood why he felt familiar with this place; it wasn't because of the environment, but because of the atmosphere. An omnipresent sense of dread permeated every corner of the forest, as if a terrifying monster lurked in the darkness behind every bush. This familiarity stemmed from the memories of the Great Old One, the sorcerer, originating from the Stigmata, which he had always avoided touching.

Salomon had once tried to peek into that memory out of curiosity, but he forgot many things—he knew what he was trying to peek into, and the memory was vivid enough to immerse him in it; if it weren't for the second-circle spell [Mechanized Mind] taking effect, he might have remembered even more. But subconsciously, the accompanying, bone-deep madness lingered in his mind for a time, and it took him a long time to shake off that feeling. Yet he still remembered the sect leader's name, a name that couldn't be uttered by human physiology; He was…

Salomon immediately stopped thinking and recalling, forcing himself to focus the images in his mind on the fruit yogurt parfait and roasted lamb chops. This was difficult, as difficult as "not thinking about the pink elephant," but years of meditation practice had some effect. Salomon quickly entered a state of concentration (thinking only of the fruit yogurt parfait and roasted lamb chops), clearing all images from his mind.

The soft whispers echoed through the woods again. This time, the sounds had direction and distance. Salomon stopped and closed his eyes. He focused, trying to pinpoint the source of the sounds. It was the singing of several little girls, their voices innocent and clear, their voices intertwined, making it difficult for Salomon to understand what they were saying. He slowly walked towards the sound, and gradually, the previously indistinct and faint sounds became clearer.

Ash branches are magic wands.

Knock three times on the earth, knock three times on the unseen door, and the Holy Spirit will appear and deliver divine revelation.

The Holy Spirit will whisper to us the opportunity to fulfill our true desires.

On the other side of the door lies the future we yearn for.

Salomon slowed his pace, trying not to attract attention. Everything he had encountered since leaving the cave pointed to one thing: the space and time he was in were abnormal. The sunset and the warm breeze had both confirmed this fact, and the portal's inability to open was also due to this.

From a higher perspective, everything in this universe is a predetermined fact; everything has already happened. These realities are like a thin film covering the three-dimensional world, constituting its predetermined fate. Since three-dimensional beings cannot comprehend higher-dimensional existence, a simple and clear example can be used.

Imagine a stack of blank sheets of paper. Imagine humans are two-dimensional beings, and the sheets of paper represent a flat space. Two-dimensional humans live on a single sheet of paper. Each sheet has a cross-section of a cube drawn on it. The patterns on these stacked sheets together form a cube, but to two-dimensional humans, they are simply individual two-dimensional cross-sections. As time passes—that is, jumping from one sheet of paper to another—these cross-sections change over time and space. However, the cube itself remains fixed; its length, width, and height do not change. Only the cross-sections observed by the two-dimensional humans change, and these cross-sections represent the reality they perceive.

The portal spell works by folding a piece of paper, allowing a two-dimensional human to travel from one end of the cross-section to the other. Unless Salomon repositions himself in spacetime and finds the piece of paper he is currently on, he cannot know which piece of paper to fold, and the portal cannot be opened.

There are several ways to reposition oneself in space and time.

The simplest way is to ask the people living here. They don't need to know the exact day, just the approximate year. The greater the time error, the more paper needs to be folded at once, making the spell more difficult to cast. However, a single-digit year error, while somewhat challenging for Salomon, isn't a major problem.

Another method is to find a place to meditate, call upon the Vishanti, and ask the Vishanti for the time. As an extradimensional being, that is, an existence living on another stack of papers, the Vishanti can tell Salomon from a third-person perspective which paper he is currently on, that is, tell Salomon the precise time—but the problem is, this time is calculated from the birth of the Earth Mother Gaia, rather than Jesus.

In fact, many Kamar-Taj sorcerers use the Gregorian calendar, as few people encounter time discrepancies. Salomon, to reduce the calculations required for casting spells, didn't bother to consult the Vishanti—a consequence of his previous laziness. Had Salomon not encountered any locals, he would have done so, though it would have been troublesome to explain to the Vishanti, and who knew if the Vishanti would burn him again because of the three rings that forcibly extracted magic power.

The last option is to leave this place and walk to New York. Unless Salomon is currently in the time of King Arthur, there must be a Kamar-Taj Temple in New York, where he can meet the Sorcerer Supreme, explain the situation, and find a way back. However, this method is questionable, because Salomon doesn't know if this is a time anomaly within a small area, or if he has truly traveled to another time from the cave—if it's the former, then it's like stacking several cross-sections from other papers on a two-dimensional cross-section, and he might not be able to easily cross this boundary; if it's the latter, he could try to go to New York.

Salomon decided to start with the simplest method.

P.S.: [Note 1] Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. S3E17, Coulson's faith issue.

Oh well, I had a weird dream, and then inspiration struck, so I got up in the middle of the night to write. My neck is really sore, I'll find some medicated plaster to put on it tomorrow. Oh, and I also need to ask for some votes, I can't forget that.

(End of this chapter)