Marvel Magic Case Files

Chapter 1321 The Foreshadowing of the End (First Update)

The sound of a silver-plated knife cutting through dough, meat fibers, and plant fibers is almost negligible, but the noise of cutlery clattering against exquisite ceramics is unsettling. Athena, known for her elegance, rarely made such a rude, clanging noise. Even the emperor could tell she was in a bad mood. In the past, if he had been so rude at the table as a child, he would have certainly received a scolding.

The future was bleak, and the Emperor didn't know Athena's plans for his future. He was certain that her vision of the future would be vastly different from her actual plans. Although he had always known his foster mother had her own agenda, he also knew that Athena was telling the truth; she genuinely cared about him. He could sense the true emotions rippled through the etheric waves of Athena's feelings, like a snake flicking its tongue to catch scent molecules. Perhaps it was the affection that had grown from their long time together, or perhaps it was the despair after their plans failed, but Athena was beginning to guide him in a different direction.

The noise stopped, and the surroundings became utterly quiet. Even the faint noise that lingered outside the apartment after passing through double-glazed windows vanished. The Emperor felt a gentle, shimmering consciousness enter his mind, softly parting the layers of mental defenses he had meticulously designed and reinforced on paper before embarking on the path of arcane magic. He closed his eyes, cooperatively unraveling the labyrinth of his surface consciousness and the false memory illusions formed by hundreds of spells, embracing it in his arms.

He ignored the cold wind that whipped up against his skin and wholeheartedly embraced that consciousness.

When he opened his eyes again, he saw a world composed of layers of clouds, towering mountains, and floating islands. Soldiers clad in golden Spartan full-body armor, wearing Collins-style helmets and human-faced visors, wielding gleaming spears and shining shields, marched in orderly squares across wide, straight bridges adorned with mosaic tiles depicting great victories. Riveted brown leather draped from layers of shoulder and skirt armor, swaying with every synchronized march. Kilometers away at the end of the bridge, however, lay a hellish scene: countless bodies charred beyond recognition, their original shapes unrecognizable. Thick, blackened, toxic smoke rose endlessly from below the horizon, piercing the sky. The hard soil was soaked with the blood of humans and non-humans, and every small crater held a pool of putrid, blackened, aged blood.

Smoke and dust mixed and rubbed against each other, and rolling thunder descended from the sky, turning everything in sight into scorched earth.

The wildly growing, twisted buildings stretched towards the black sky like towering trees, while mocking laughter pierced the clouds, ridiculing the fate of the defeated. Blood seeped from every dark window, evaporating into crimson mist on the weapon-melted earth. Fear, anger, indulgence, and many other emotions transformed into venomous snakes, attempting to climb onto the emperor's ankles.

"This is the end, the end for you and for humanity."

Athena stood atop the bridge, the once pristine white mosaic floor now stained with blood and entrails. Her bare feet gently trod the sharp edges of armor, stepping over the ever-growing mountain of corpses, stepping over desecrated and dismembered bodies, sinking deep into the slick, still-smelling, hot, and foul-smelling entrails blasted, cut, and squeezed out. Corrosive, greasy smoke seeped from the crevices of flesh, sounding like sighs. With each step, murky blood dripped from her slender toes, yet her movements remained elegant and light. The pure white, pleated skirt brushed against the blood-soaked lake like morning mist, untouched by its filth.

A colossal, luminous metallic star plummeted from the sky, its debris, heated by friction with the atmosphere, crashing to the ground, raising dust and flattening mountains. "This is just one of millions of battlefields," she said to the emperor beside her. "Battles are raging everywhere, and the great enemy behind the veil has ultimately triumphed. Even my father, Zeus, who called himself a god, met his end in such a battle. No rational being can prevail; the entire galaxy will be reduced to ruins and terror, and heat death will descend upon this universe."

He did not see the enemy; to be precise, he just did not see them at the moment.

He knew what was happening here, who the enemy was, and that what he was seeing was not a real scene from the material universe, but something bizarre that defied common sense. He had once stepped through the silver stone gates of Paititi and witnessed its horrors, but long before that, he had read descriptions of it in the ancient books of Kamar-Taj.

Nothing in the etheric ocean can be defined. Perhaps it's an artist's suicidal thoughts fueled by illicit drugs, the malicious intent of someone driven to desperation to break societal norms, the fleeting jealousy and anger between a man and a woman, an adventurer's desperate gamble and prayer, or a lie that brings smug satisfaction to a swindler—all could potentially bare their fangs and devour the souls that gave birth to these thoughts. The Emperor's ability to see things within the realm of common sense stems entirely from the metaphorical images jointly presented by the etheric ocean and Athena—images Athena retrieved and interpreted from the etheric ocean. Everything is metaphorical, allegorical, not a literal depiction.

Even after careful analysis, the counterintuitive and illogical existence still reveals itself in inconspicuous details: scattering that defies the principles of optics, anomalous gravitational phenomena, or sizzling ice. Everything suggests to the observer that this is not reality. If an ordinary fortune teller or dream interpreter were to accept the ripples formed by such a transdimensional reflection, they might have to pay the price of a burned brain or utter madness to decipher it. In this vast ocean, a moment's distraction can capture fragments of thought and transform them into reality—symbols, gestures, songs, or limbs. What those with weak minds see is even more terrifying; any gap in reason projected will be absorbed, amplified infinitely, and given birth to something irresistible. His soul was resilient enough. The being behind the veil roared at him, but he fearlessly stepped forward and crushed the slippery, cold, malicious entity beneath his feet, causing the predator lurking behind the increasingly fragile veil to flee in panic, melting away like a ghost in the sunlight.

"Destruction!" roared a cacophony of corpses.

A colossal beast with several horns emerged from below the horizon, its body billowing smoke. Only then did he realize he was wearing armor forged from a mental protective spell. To be precise, it was power armor; the surface of the golden armor was covered with layers upon layers of runes—his mental protective spell. The soft-seal sections and cables that hugged his body could be intuitively understood as a mental labyrinth forged by logical programming, giving him time to react and resist even the most overwhelming mental shocks.

"I didn't want it to come to this." Athena lowered her eyes, her smooth golden hair falling beside her ears. Standing atop the pile of corpses, she reached out to the emperor, who instinctively wrapped his arms around her slender waist, pulling her onto his lap and placing his palm on her flat stomach to prevent her from falling backward. She was light, almost weightless, her long legs arched as if she were on a swing. "This ending is a failure for everyone. You must make a choice."

"Death!" the serpentine behemoth screamed.

The air was thick with the smell of blood and ash; he could smell the iron-rich blood of the genetically modified warriors. The madness of many hidden forces was being revealed, and the shocking reality and horror failed to break his spirit. He watched coldly as the mountain-like behemoth dragged its claws, crushing everything in its path, shattering the soil of metaphor and allusion. Athena jumped off his arm, wrapped her arms around his neck, and gently kissed his cheek.

"Remember," she whispered in his ear, "make the right choice."

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(End of this chapter)