Marvel Magic Case Files

Chapter 1624, Chapter 1620: Kamar-Taj - Offering

"I can give you nothing, Mordo. You only have the choice to believe or not believe."

Distance, time, speed—the fundamental properties of the material universe—all lose their meaning here. This palace is the only place where order exists in this mad and chaotic world. The palace is not so sturdy; in the storms that tear the stars apart, the plaza outside the palace is constantly peeling away, and the exquisite statues and the stone bricks on the plaza are weathered into dust in the storm.

A carnivorous plant, thousands of meters long and defying all logic of biological evolution, swam through areas beyond the reach of the lighthouse's spire, its countless tentacles casually slicing off small pieces of stone. The man wielding a long staff retaliated, and the bizarre ethereal entity, half-plant and half-animal, fled frantically like a startled animal. The pure white flames cast by the lighthouse spread like phosphorescence, incinerating the kilometer-long behemoth into primordial ether energy in the blink of an eye.

Its very existence was completely erased, and the remaining, relatively weaker ethereal entities surged forward with cheers, drawing upon the soul energy upon which they depended for survival. They were born from the emotions and souls of any sentient being in the universe—perhaps a deeply unforgettable betrayal, the courage a soldier displayed in a life-or-death situation, or the pain and regret of a terminally ill patient before death. They were too weak to approach the palace's aura; their instinct to seek advantage and avoid harm drove them away from this tranquil place yet untouched by the storm.

Mordo said nothing; the emperor's power had far exceeded his imagination.

The emperor raised his cane high and closed his eyes tightly.

A rapidly spinning etheric storm parted, creating a rift in the air. Aetheric energy churned and accumulated on either side of the rift as if crashing into an invisible barrier. Mordo saw rows of figures emerge from the etheric waves, walking towards the palace on the outward-spreading halo of lighthouses—judging from their robes and insignia, these people came from Kamar-Taj. Mordo had never seen these people before; he had only heard that the Sorcerer Supreme would select a group of people each year for secret training and then send them to guard the dimensional rifts. Even he, the chief instructor, only knew that some of those on the annual casualty lists had not actually died—yet the attire of these arcane mages was completely different from what Mordo had imagined.

They were not only clad in Kamar-Taj robes and wore swivel rings, but also sterling silver helmets adorned with baroque reliefs. The helmets extended dramatically backward at the back of the head, with numerous cables connecting to their neck collars. This was the legacy of the Brotherhood of the Shield, worn only by the wise. The Brotherhood of the Shield's Round Table Council consisted entirely of psionicists, and this device was also the current rectifier helmet used by psionicists in the Immortal City, a prototype of the psionic suppressor and stabilizer worn by Wanda Maximoff. Arcane mages, seemingly nonexistent in any sense, approached the Emperor, their expressions cold and their silence stern, while the Emperor's eyes, hidden beneath his hood, coldly fixed on Mordo until he could no longer bear the pressure of his gaze.

"Why are you standing by his side?" Mordo felt he could no longer control his anger. "His authority was given to him by the Venerable One, and now that he has betrayed the Sorcerer Supreme, why are you still loyal to him?"

"What did you see?" Sorcerer Daniel asked slowly. He gazed into the distance, seemingly indifferent to whether he would get an answer. He truly didn't care whether Mordo would get an answer. The Sorcerer Supreme had his reasons for demanding that he become the Guardian of the New York Sanctum; the family curse that made him powerful wasn't the only factor.

"Can what you see convince you?"

"I saw an illusion." As the dazzling stars returned to his body, Mordo opened his eyes. "Only lies, nothing more. He tried to convince me with fabricated glitz and glamour, tried to convince me with the horrors of the Ether Sea, to make me believe the lies hidden within these realities."

"Has he been corrupted?"

"His aura is still pure." The words scraped his throat like sandpaper. He desperately wanted to tell Mage Daniel that the person they knew had changed. But he couldn't lie, couldn't say what he didn't want to admit. "This only means his ambition has always been there, but we haven't been able to detect the truth." Mordo took a deep breath. "He summoned the arcane mages stationed in the dimensional rifts—those who no longer exist in name. I believe he will teleport those mages here after meeting the Sorcerer Supreme, using those who have been deceived to attack the Sorcerer Supreme."

Master Daniel sighed, never once glancing at Mordo.

"He went too far."

"Um?"

“He’s gone too far in exploring the Aether Sea,” Mordo said. “He’s lost his sense of restraint. Mage Daniel, send the ascetics to the surface; I need them.”

"Those ascetics were chosen to bear the etheric energy mutations for the Supreme Master; they voluntarily offered everything to him. No one can command them; you can only persuade them, as long as they believe you are protecting the world."

"We don't have time, and he won't give us any," Mordo said coldly. "This is an order, not a demand. Tell them that the Sorcerer Supreme needs their dedication."

Each impact of the subatomic heat flow struck an invisible barrier. Tatiana impatiently released the trigger of her individual thermoelectric gun, picked up her explosive pistol, and fired a shot at the door. The seemingly fragile wooden door was unusually sturdy; a .50 caliber explosive round, capable of easily penetrating light armor, failed to destroy a single fiber of the door.

A powerful barrier cleaved through this space, forcing even the movement of microscopic particles to a standstill. Behind the thick secondary defensive fortifications (city walls), dozens of black-robed arcane mages used their will to carve through space. Every bomb, laser, and plasma cluster was intercepted and transformed into a butterfly that could not survive for more than a few seconds in the frigid high-altitude winds.

"Such a powerful psychic barrier is not easy to maintain; its duration is directly proportional to the force of the attack it withstands," explained the sorcerer behind the Royal Guard, Amphitriteon. The Royal Guard then relayed this conclusion to Tatiana. These sorcerers quickly determined the extent of the invisible barrier, starting from the walls of the fifth courtyard, Anima, and extending to the palace atop Kamar-Taj. From the deep valleys on either side of Kamar-Taj to hundreds of meters in the air, a spherical psionic shield enveloped the entire area. As a surprise attack, they were ultimately a step too late. Psionicists possess a wide variety of methods; they cannot always find the most effective way to break through and shorten the operation time. Furthermore, the distribution of personnel at Kamar-Taj allowed Mordo time to organize his most powerful sorcerers to construct the psychic defensive barrier.

"But our armored units can't get here; the climbing stairs are not suitable for tracked armored vehicles."

Tatiana replaced the magazine in an annoyed manner.

The Imperial Guard summoned gunships to launch an air raid. The golden gunships circled in the air with maneuverability unmatched by conventional aircraft, then swooped down with a piercing neigh. The golden warhorses in the sky unleashed terrifying firepower, and the rain of bullets from the heavy machine guns even pulverized the buildings outside the barrier into stone, with stone dust mixed with thick smoke rising into the sky.

Every few seconds, the mages on the Emperor's side would cast simple psionic spells to test the strength of the barrier, or use their second vision to observe the psionic energy radiation that the physical walls couldn't block, or try to use mind-reading to shake the will of the mages behind the walls. Tatiana saw air-to-ground missiles launched by gunships and drones crash into the barrier above the courtyard, and flames and thick smoke rose from the valley. Then, a large swarm of butterflies flew out of the smoke, rising into the sky with the hot air; the expected flying shrapnel and projectile debris were nowhere to be seen.

As several plumes of smoke rose from the distant valley, a tearing noise echoed through the valley. Long-range rockets positioned on the other side of the mountain slammed into the barrier with their thermoelectric warheads. However, before the smoke cleared, officers at all levels of the command chain assessed the expected damage of this joint strike as utterly disastrous. Reconnaissance drones, using various observation modes, failed to detect any effective damage. The barrier seemed unusually sturdy, and even the thermoelectric warheads intended for destroying underground bunkers had failed to destroy it.

As time went on, Tatiana's expression grew increasingly irritable.

Following orders, soldiers of the First Secret Regiment established firing positions in the courtyard to prevent a counterattack by the arcane mages of Kamar-Taj. Tatiana saw this as a pure waste of time and resources. The psionicists could never retake the courtyard, but they also couldn't enter the Anima Courtyard to arrest Mordo—whether or not to kill him afterward was a matter for the Royal Guard and the Emperor to consider. Tatiana felt the barrier was a mockery of her; she had once activated the audio grid and loudly proclaimed the arcane mages hiding inside as cowards, but received no response. What she didn't know was that not all the arcane mages who erected the barrier obeyed Baron Mordo's orders. The Sorcerer Supreme hadn't shown himself since returning to Kamar-Taj, and some arcane mages from lineages who studied prophecy had even foreseen the impending disaster. Everyone had their own agenda.

"This attack killed four mages." The mage behind the Royal Guard, Amphitriteon, gazed into the void. "I also saw eight other souls torn apart, falling into the Aether Sea. Fear spread through their hearts like wildfire across the autumn plains."

"Speak plainly," Tatiana said impatiently. "If Mars were willing to support us with some fighter soldiers, our advance might be faster. At least I wouldn't have to listen to this nonsense I don't understand."

"Their morale is starting to crumble. Artillery, continue firing."

The guard, Amphitryon, paused for a moment, then unconsciously turned around to look back.

The others, including the combat sisters and the First Secret Regiment who were constructing fortifications, felt the same way, as if some strong intuition told them that something undeniable was approaching from behind. Soon after, they saw the Emperor, accompanied by the Imperial Guard, enter the courtyard and ascend the mountain steps. His figure, like lightning frozen on a mountaintop, stung their eyes and throbbed in their temples, as if branded with a red-hot iron; his image was deeply imprinted into every neuron of their brains.

The Royal Guard, Amphitryon, had never seen the Emperor so openly display his spiritual power.

The Emperor's spiritual power was sufficient to alter natural phenomena—a power He had never displayed in the Yugoslav Federation, in the Immortal City, or in any other human society. He believed that excessively displaying His power would only lead to despair, undermine human confidence, and plunge them into nihilism and superstition, negatively impacting the physical and mental health of ordinary people.

[Continue, Amphitryon.]

The Imperial Guards were filled with anger when they heard the Emperor say this.

Before I step onto the final step, I will destroy their will.

(End of this chapter)