Marvel Magic Case Files

Chapter 1294 (Second Update)

They were the people present, besides the Royal Guard, who understood best what this meant. This conclusion led Kamar-Taj to further increase the number of sorcerers stationed there, making the already scarce manpower at the Himalayan headquarters even more strained. Even Mordo, the instructor who had just been able to get out of bed, had to lead his newly qualified apprentices here to work tirelessly with Supiluliumas of the Royal Guard to supervise the Kamar-Taj sorcerers in drawing protective and isolation arrays, and to take on the task of sanctifying all bullets and weapons.

Queen Yasok, who claims to be able to open the stone gate through ritual, is now under strict guard by Mordo. Although she only casually mentioned certain elements of the ritual, the Kamar-Taj sorcerer, through Queen Yasok's words and his own analytical work, recognized that the sacrifice among the ritual elements was actually the souls of those who died after the awakening of Quetzalcoatl. Even considering only the death toll from the volcanic eruptions in the Andes Mountains of South America, this sacrifice is incredibly heavy, enough to create a massive upheaval in the outer dimensional ethereal waves and block the detection of most prophetic spells.

Perhaps it was because she hadn't seen the Emperor for so long, perhaps it was the inexplicable hostility from Modu, or perhaps it was because the discrepancy between reality and mythology was causing superstition to gradually fade, but Queen Yasok kept approaching the Royal Guard, demanding the return of her people who had been taken away, and also demanding to see "Huhunap," her name for the Emperor, once again. Those emaciated primitives had made a complete mess of their assigned living quarters on the Skysword Space Station, and Victoria Hand wished she could lock those hundreds of people in a warehouse to prevent them from further polluting the station's environment.

Supiluliumas readily agreed to Queen Yasok's first request. He didn't take the trouble caused by the Yasoks to heart, but he still complied with Victoria Hand's request to transport the supplies and the Yasoks back to the surface, temporarily relieving Skysword Space Station of some burdens, since water resources were very precious on the space station.

Supiluliumas would never prioritize Queen Yasok's request to see the Emperor, as there were even higher priorities on the list—the Royal Guard desperately wanted to move the main battle tanks underground, relying on the powerful firepower of the surface battleships to confront the Silver Gate. However, due to the narrow and rugged underground passages, excavating a tunnel to accommodate the armaments would take an extremely long time, estimated to exceed two months. Therefore, the Martian foundry technicians could only arrange for the construction of a light rail transport system to move some heavy weaponry and ammunition from the surface to the underground; otherwise, once the gate opened, they would have to rely on firepower platforms and man-portable missiles to solve the problem.

The fortress-like automated combat robots recently moved underground gave Laura Crawford a strong sense of security. Wanda Maximoff told her that one of the robots had participated in the annihilation of the U.S. Sixth Fleet, which both surprised and reassured Laura. With the subsequent arrival of the Kamar-Taj sorcerers, surrounded by professionals and advanced technology, this sense of security reached an unparalleled level. It wasn't until Wanda told her about past incidents involving extradimensional beings at Kamar-Taj that the female archaeologist realized the gravity of the situation; according to Wanda, each incident resulted in numerous deaths.

"Will this really work?" Laura Crawford asked worriedly. "Can we really afford the consequences?"

As the work progressed and the severity of the situation became apparent, along with her increased need for personal defense, she also took up her own weapon. However, instead of using live ammunition, she opted for the Latvian standard laser rifle, because the Royal Guard had told her that if explosives were not an option, the laser rifle's penetrating power would be far more effective than the dragging power of live ammunition currently available to ordinary humans when facing supernatural dangers.

“Whether we can or not, we have to solve this problem.” Wanda shook her head. “In a few hours, the work at Kamar-Taj will be finished. Then we must open the stone door. If it leads to an outer dimensional portal, we’ll seal or destroy it; if it’s a group of outer dimensional beings, we’ll eliminate them, and then we’ll address that spacetime structural wound. It can’t be worse than the awakening of Quetzalcoatl, can it?”

"How many times have you seen something like this, Wanda?"

During this time, Laura Crawford's cot remained next to Wanda's, and the two women, of similar age, often chatted late into the night about women's topics. At first, Wanda was somewhat shy, as there weren't many women in the camp, but under Laura's enthusiastic guidance, their relationship gradually grew closer. Laura even received a disc-shaped black amulet made by Wanda herself, said to have the power to attract wealth. She also took this opportunity to learn about Wanda's tragic past and why she had embarked on this arcane path. For an ordinary woman yearning for a life of luxury, this path was far too arduous. The work of a Kamar-Taj sorcerer was a complete epitome of altruism, demanding the sacrifice of everything, including one's life, without expecting anything in return. However, Laura Crawford saw a reflection of herself in Wanda, and therefore encouraged Wanda to continue on this path and achieve unprecedented success.

"I can't quite remember, there have been too many times. There have been vampires, resurrected corpses, cultists, worm-men, winged monsters called angels, and that time I told you about the giant worm that emerged from the seabed and caused the earthquake on the East Coast. That one was resolved on the high seas, and the Avengers were involved too." Wanda shrugged, completely oblivious to Laura Crawford's curious expression as she tried to delve into those stories. "My teacher used to lead me through those problems, and in those situations, no matter how troublesome the scene, it wasn't considered dangerous." Laura could hear a strong sense of pride in Wanda's voice. "Although there are many arcane mages here, they are not on the same level as my teacher. The difference between them is like a pistol versus an intercontinental ballistic missile. It's said that my teacher even killed a god with the help of a war engine. On Earth, in Kazakhstan, I was in New York with Kamar-Taj dealing with the incident last Christmas Eve when a National Guard F-22 fighter jet was shot down by extradimensional beings."

"You always tell outlandish stories, Wanda. People will definitely think you're exaggerating," the female archaeologist joked. "But now that Quetzalcoatl is completely gone, what you're saying isn't so far-fetched. Will your teacher come to the ceremony to open the stone gate?"

"I don't know. The Imperial Guard won't reveal any information about him. I don't even know what he's been doing lately," Wanda Maximov answered truthfully. "If he doesn't come, it means he thinks the people here are enough to handle what's behind the stone gate."

"Really?" Laura Crawford asked in surprise. "But I see everyone here is so tense, even that three-meter-tall giant appears every day. Do you know the true origin of those giants? I don't really believe they're products of some kind of super-soldier serum; there must be more to it than I know. The golden-armored giant only appeared after the Kite City incident in Siberia. Is there a connection?"

"I don't know," Wanda replied truthfully. She wasn't as wary of Laura Crawford's curiosity; after all, not everyone had received systematic training in secrecy, and Wanda didn't think it was anything particularly noteworthy, since Laura Crawford was just an ordinary person. "He won't tell everyone everything. For practitioners of the Arcane Path, curiosity is a poison. I've seen people driven mad by curiosity imprisoned in the dungeons of Kamar-Taj..." It seemed that Wanda Maximov preferred talking about the days she and Pietro were imprisoned in the castle, receiving daily lessons, rather than recounting her own Arcane education.

"But don't think my teacher was a particularly serious person. You've had experience with him, so you shouldn't be surprised when you learn that he could do childish things like putting a cowboy hat on a frog and letting it ride on a turtle's back. When I was still in prison, one morning during class, he asked Pietro and me if we wanted to see something funny... and then they started a frog-cowboy race!"

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(End of this chapter)