Marvel Magic Case Files

Chapter 1626 Kamar-Taj: The Future Algorithm

Wanda Maximov ascended the last step, surrounded by laser rifles and grenades whose muzzles reeked of hot metal, and followed Guard Amon into the courtyard known by the frontline staff as "Prime Minister Anima, the Fifth Hub." The sight before her caused her to gasp, covering her mouth to prevent a scream from escaping her throat.

Many sorcerers lay bleeding from their mouths and noses, receiving treatment from the First Secret Regiment's medics.

The medics used the rapid surgical drill on their gauntlets to open the skulls of the unconscious sorcerers, releasing excessive intracranial pressure and removing portions of their temporal lobes to prevent epilepsy and save their lives. However, several other corpses, declared completely lifeless, were placed beside the Emperor's boots. Amidst the acrid smoke and bloody stench of the drills piercing the skulls, Wanda Maximov caught a fleeting glimpse of rare anger on the Emperor's face.

No more than six bodies were hit by laser and explosive weapons, with their chests and foreheads pierced and charred. The eye sockets of the remaining bodies were completely burned into empty holes. This indicates that many arcane mages had already died before the long-range rockets destroyed the barrier and before the First Secret Regiment and the Combat Sisters quickly stormed in to carry out the suppression operation.

A military medic had already used an electric saw to open the skulls of the corpses for a quick autopsy; the brain tissue of these sorcerers had been burned to ashes. With the tacit approval of the Imperial Guard, Wanda Maximov, suppressing her nausea and fear, half-opened her eyes and stretched out her arm as far as she could to pick up a small handful of ashes from the cut-open skull.

Wanda Maksimov quickly came to a conclusion.

After several years of study, she could be considered a reasonably capable psychic, yet she still harbored resentment over the question the Emperor had posed to her as she ascended the steps. She didn't know why the Emperor had invited her to Kamar-Taj—was it a lesson similar to the Battle of Attilan, or some unknown experiment and observation? She glanced at the bloodstains and ashes in the courtyard, deducing that the combined spellcasting ritual performed by these arcane mages was either the classic Celestial Extreme Defense or the Great Chanting of the Zodiacal Cycle. She was intimately familiar with these rituals, a wisdom gained through over two hundred exam papers and twenty books.

"Their brains were burned out by the backlash of psychic energy; they can't control that energy, like those unfortunate souls undergoing brain surgery. But this only happens in extreme cases; other arcane mages haven't encountered this, and because their souls remain intact. I haven't observed any predators surging towards this place in the Aetheric Sea, nor can they come to this world for the time being, nor can they bestow such powerful psychic energy upon them. Where did their souls go?"

"The military medics calculated that the mass of these ashes, plus the water and smoke that evaporated from the brain tissue, still far exceeds the weight that brain tissue should have," Amon whispered in the witch's ear. "The organic matter that produced these ashes came from another dimension."

Wanda Maximov suddenly recalled the scene the emperor had shown her.

Among the ascetics in the photograph who participated in the festival in Kathmandu, Nepal in 1995, one had a rather difficult-to-pronounce name. She had a hunch that the ascetic was still alive, and that she had witnessed his impoverished childhood, his hungry adolescence, and his period of ignorance in a fleeting glimpse—a feeling that clung tightly to her heart, directing her intuition towards the mountaintop courtyard. Wanda Maximov recalled some of the more brutal psychic techniques she had studied, techniques that could be categorized as black magic. Although she had only studied them superficially, she knew the principles of these psychic techniques and the possibility of extracting the psychic energy of others to enhance specific targets.

She tilted her head and took the data panel handed to her by the Imperial Guard, Amon.

Because the faces distorted by death and craniotomy made it impossible for her to identify these sorcerers, the Royal Guard, under the Emperor's orders, had created files on all the sorcerers at Kamar-Taj, including complete records of fingerprints, irises, and genetic codes. Wanda was astonished to discover that these sorcerers seemed to have met her before, and she had even interacted with them during her brief time studying at Kamar-Taj. It was said that the Emperor had lived at Kamar-Taj for several years, and his time with these people would have been even longer; he must know these sorcerers. However, the Emperor quickly composed himself; apart from the reddish tinge of his psychic energy, no one could discern his former rage.

Explosions continued in the distance as rockets tore through the blizzard and slammed into the shrinking barrier.

Thick smoke and dust outlined the general shape of the barrier, with shrapnel and smoldering debris either falling into the deep valley or splashing onto the stone walls and mountains that had remained unchanged for millennia. After a brief exchange with Amon, the Royal Guard's Amphitryon and Amon stood back on either side of the Emperor, awaiting the end of their communication between the combat sister Tatiana and the frontline commander of the First Secret Regiment. Seemingly to accommodate mortals, the Emperor had deliberately suppressed his psychic radiance, but judging from the expressions on Tatiana and the mortal soldier's faces, the psychic radiance still had a significant impact on them.

The mortal soldier never dared to look up; his gaze remained fixed on the emperor's breastplate.

Wanda found the scene somewhat amusing, but she was quickly overwhelmed by worry.

The Emperor's invitation to her must have stemmed from factors unknown to others, factors she was completely unaware of. The only thing she was certain of was that the Emperor wouldn't harm her. She feared this was a test she had never prepared for, and one of immense significance. If it was a test, it was certainly not the simple task of hunting vampires or confiscating the books of a rural cult in Salem (though the result was a massive earthquake on the east coast of North America), but a mission that would impact the future of the entire human race.

This put her under a lot of pressure.

Mordo gazed at the high-temperature subatomic flower blooming on the telekinetic barrier.

Aetheric energy, visible only through a second eye, rose from the heads of the ascetics chanting incantations, then merged like smoke into a telekinetic barrier high in the sky. Several occultists sat around the courtyard, four-dimensional geometric runes formed by orange-red sparks swirling before them, manipulating their own and the ascetics' spiritual energy to strengthen the barrier. This was a forced absorption of spiritual energy; the ascetics, bleeding from their mouths and noses, endured the pain to fulfill the mission given to them by these occultists—the "superiors," the "higher castes," the "chosen ones of God."

"The ether is gathering in a direction we can't see, relentlessly blocking our gaze into the etheric tide. If this continues, even the most basic protective magic on this land will be destroyed, and we'll be observed by satellites launched by mortals." Although reluctant, and despite the fact that Mage Daniel always contradicted him, the Temple Guardians were, after all, the decision-making body of Kamar-Taj, and Mordo, as a rule-abiding arcane mage, felt he should communicate with Mage Daniel. "I believe he's using the exposure of Kamar-Taj as leverage to force us to withdraw from the barrier."

The mage Daniel watched the courtyard where the Sorcerer Supreme was with a worried expression. Now, no one except the mage Mordo could enter that courtyard. Anyone else who took a step inside would be violently repelled by unseen magic.

"Your summoning of a sorcerer skilled in defense will naturally not stop him, but the power of fire and lightning will be amplified. This is a natural law caused by countless events in the universe; schools of thought always rise and fall, and this has nothing to do with him," said Master Daniel. "But no matter what method you choose to stop him, you have not explained why you ordered the ascetics here. They voluntarily offer everything, and that is not a reason for you to oppress them."

“I repeat, this is His Holiness’s order, and His Holiness must have a valid reason. Do not question the Supreme Mage’s order, Venerable Daniel. Now is not the time for disagreement.” Mordo frowned. “I have already ordered the other mages to begin preparing the ritual. If he insists on stepping into this courtyard, he will understand that the other mages combined are not necessarily weaker than him.”

“I will join the esoteric rituals. This is not His Holiness's command, but my own will. I cannot tolerate his betrayal of His Holiness.” Mordo acknowledged the final fact as Daniel turned his gaze to him. He produced a thick stack of parchment. “These are what I found in his room,” he said. “We never noticed the dark ambitions festering right under our noses, nor should we have agreed to his idea of ​​expanding outwards. You can look at these parchment, look at his vision for Kamar-Taj… restricting psychic powers, merging Kamar-Taj, eliminating external influences, making Kamar-Taj a department under his control… He calls it the eternal path to lead humanity to lasting peace, prosperity, and reason, but all I see is his ambition sitting on his throne!”

Master Daniel remained silent.

He could not refute the manuscript. Even from the perspective of a sorcerer skilled in prophecy, the so-called prophetic calculation model in the manuscript could be called absurd. However, he could not deny that the chaotic model and precise calculation algorithm compiled by the emperor in the manuscript had merit. Its ability to calculate the movement of every atom in a closed system was almost comparable to Laplace's demon.

"Did he offer any explanation for this manuscript?" asked Master Daniel. "After all, he was the editor of this manuscript."

"I didn't ask, and there was no need to ask."

"So when did you get your hands on this manuscript, Mordo?" Mage Daniel pressed on. "You couldn't possibly have read through it in such a short time. At least from the start of the attack until now, in just half an hour, you couldn't have seen the rest, unless you hadn't seen that fascinating algorithm. Anyone who sees it will be captivated by its mathematical beauty and rigor, and I don't think you wouldn't be curious about it."

"Do you know how long it's been since he last returned to Kamar-Taj?"

The artillery officers reported that the short-range artillery was running low on its basic load of guided glide munitions. The Guardsman Amun immediately ordered the artillery positions behind the lines to cease fire, and then ordered two logistics convoys heading to the artillery positions and Kamar-Taj to speed up and deliver artillery ammunition and mortars to where they were needed.

"But the psionic barrier..." the officer asked, "without artillery, how are we going to destroy it?"

"Not really necessary now. What we need next is precision artillery." Amon's voice was muffled by his helmet; apart from the officers of the First Secret Regiment and the Combat Sisters, everyone else standing next to him could only hear a "beep beep—". Amon believed that artillery fire was not necessary now because the telekinetic barrier retracted with each step the Emperor took forward. "Initiate connection with the reconnaissance drones. I will direct the artillery fire and precision-guided bombs."

(End of this chapter)