Marvel Magic Case Files

Chapter 1422 The Dark Side of Kamar-Taj (Second Update)

Laura Crawford closed the thick file with a sense of lingering satisfaction, as if she had just finished reading a captivating novel, eagerly anticipating the sequel. The Vatican has always been a crossroads of money and power. No matter how much the doctrine denigrates money and wealth, the intrigues and power struggles flowing through the Vatican court can never be separated from the jingling of gold coins; otherwise, the Medici family could not have produced so many popes. Even now, in an era of rapidly declining papal influence and wealth, the Vatican still wields unparalleled power.

In such an environment, having heretical tendencies is not surprising; the important thing is the degree and nature of the heresy. Colluding with wizards is undoubtedly the most serious act of heresy, punishable even by the Pope's impeachment or excommunication. She now possesses a document that denies the legitimacy of John XII's papacy, as well as that of all subsequent popes. Combined with John XII's promiscuous life—his affairs with widows, his father's mistresses, and even his niece—and his reign, which was even dubbed a "prostitute regime," this document might slightly shake the Vatican's control over the Catholic world.

However, Laura Crawford wasn't naive enough to believe that this document could negate the rule of the Roman Catholic Church. After all, the "opposite pope" Leo VIII, appointed by Holy Roman Emperor Otto I, had already been deposed, followed by the deposition of Benedict V, and John XIII was forcibly installed by Otto I, who led his army into Italy. The confrontation between papal and royal power had begun, and the "opposite pope" was the legitimate Vatican figure. The Roman people's referendum to elect a pope was meaningless.

The Vatican City today is a neutral territory, a product of multi-national peace, concessions, negotiations, and consultations. Even if it were discovered that so many priests in the Papacy had a fondness for young boys, secular law could not contend with divine authority or shake the sanctity of the Vatican; a document of dubious origin could do nothing. Even so, these stories still captivated Laura Crawford; her favorite stories were those hidden secrets of history not recorded in stone tablets or documents.

But the file she had now was only the first half of the compiled document; the second half remained on the bookshelf. She waited until the woman finished her hot cocoa and then crawled back into her sleeping bag. "I need to borrow your yarn ball and your watch," she said, holding up her notebook. Laura Crawford had already made a note in her notebook when she brought the supplies here, anticipating that she would one day return to this bookshelf to finish reading the file. "Could you hold the other end of the yarn ball for me? I'll be right back, I promise!"

The woman turned the silly-looking, wide-eyed blindfold toward Laura Crawford, sending a chill down the latter's spine.

"Of course," she said. "Could you bring me a bag of marshmallows when you come back?"

“If we can get out of here,” Laura Crawford said somewhat seriously. She didn’t put herself in the woman’s guardian’s position, nor did she deceive her because the woman was mentally ill. Lord Crawford’s title and upbringing made her refuse to make promises she couldn’t keep. “I promise you, I’ll be back in three minutes. Once we’re out of here, I’ll buy you a whole bunch of cotton candy and fill your room with it.”

Thanks to her excellent sense of direction, Laura Crawford quickly found where she and the woman had originally been stationed. Although she felt she had walked a long way, in reality, excluding the narrow stone passages and the gap between two bookshelves, the straight-line distance between her and the woman was no more than two hundred meters. She also found some supplies that she had forgotten to take in the panic—including a half-opened Ellen Chocolate, a sealing gauze and a roll of duct tape, and a small metal ring for hanging the ice axe on her waist—Winston didn't know what kind of adventure his young lady was going to undertake, so he had entrusted the ice axe and its accessories to the Royal Guard to be delivered to Kamar-Taj, and this metal ring was one of the many accessories.

"Well, you've come at just the right time."

Laura Crawford picked up the windproof matches from the shockproof box on the ground. The candlesticks on the bookshelf had gone out, shrouding the entire row of bookshelves in darkness. In fact, the library wasn't completely dark; it was just that too many candlesticks had gone out. Neither the ghostly cleaners nor the giant robots were clearly capable of lighting candles.

The frost-covered hydraulic system remained undisturbed; the heavy armor and continuously operating heating prevented the hydraulic oil from solidifying. The blast-proof door slowly retracted into the wall, the blood-freezing cold seeping out from the cracks, instantly condensing any remaining moisture into icy mist upon contact with the warmer outside air. Many magical artifacts originally stored in the temples had been moved here. These artifacts were generally unused and dangerous; removing them from the three temples was the first step in the Emperor's effort to reclaim the power that had been dispersed across Kamar-Taj.

With the help of His Holiness the Venerable Master, this step was taken smoothly and without any objection.

The Emperor wasn't in a hurry to descend the passage into the underground. He first inventoried all the magical artifacts, from the cursed, fist-sized Kadavus crystal carved into the shape of a skull, to the Shadow Scimitar capable of slicing through souls, to the 15th-century Undead Hand that could appear in multiple locations simultaneously. He checked everything to ensure that none of Kamar-Taj's dangerous assets were missing—given the trouble those old mystic families had caused him, the Emperor would no longer show them any leniency, nor would he give them any room in the assessment—he didn't believe they had merely slightly opened the library's defenses, allowing those power-hungry extradimensional spiritual entities to intrude into the real universe; he wanted to ensure everything was under control.

He compromised with Kamar-Taj's millennia-old sovereignty in the past, but he will not do so in the future.

A special legion of knights will be permanently stationed in Kamar-Taj, completely transforming it into a fortress. This will dismantle and reorganize the power structure that spontaneously formed due to the Sorcerer Supreme's unwillingness to manage it, creating a more suitable vertical management system for future warfare. In other words, Kamar-Taj will expand while simultaneously reducing its personnel, shedding millennia-old burdens to become more flexible and consolidating its power—he did this with confidence, as the Sorcerer Supreme had already given him a list of sorcerers stationed on other planets monitoring local sorcery, along with their secret contact methods. Some sorcerers had even fought for years in dimensional rifts, conducting the most radical and dangerous theoretical research in places far from Earth.

These people were the dark side of Kamar-Taj, and also the source of the Emperor's confidence in taking it over. Apart from the Commander of the Royal Guard, Constantine, and Regent Victor von Doom, no one knew this information. Even the sorcerer Hamil didn't know why he had the confidence to imprison all the elders of the mystical families, even at the cost of bloodshed. After confirming that everything was safe, the Emperor breathed a sigh of relief towards those old men. He could temporarily assure them that they wouldn't destroy Kamar-Taj for their own selfish desires; in other words, they would remain alive until the Sorcerer Supreme returned.

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(End of this chapter)