Marvel Magic Case Files

Chapter 163 Good Man Coulson (First Update!)

Salomon roughly guessed the location of the base, since he had been picked up here by Agent Coulson. It probably wasn't some top-secret base; otherwise, given Nick Fury's mystical nature, Salomon would never have known of its existence.

"I don't have time, Agent Coulson." The sorcerer was a little impatient. He looked up at the thick gray concrete ceiling above him and then at the agents hurrying back and forth at both ends of the corridor. He felt the glaring white light from the fluorescent tubes shining into his eyes, and the cramped space made him feel uncomfortable.

Salomon suppressed his frustration and leaned closer to Coulson, lowering his voice. "I have advanced mathematics and Latin classes tomorrow morning. You know how strict Eton's rules are. I need to retrieve that tattered page from the Book of Ebony as soon as possible—it's extremely dangerous. You know how bizarre what we've been through; if an ordinary person sees that book, those scenes could very well happen in our lives."

"How did you know...?" Agent Coulson stared in disbelief, unable to believe that Salomon knew he had obtained the book.

In fact, Randolph Carter had already discovered Coulson's theft of the book, but he didn't say anything—Coulson was no longer human, and human notions of good and evil couldn't be applied to an Ancient One. Moreover, Randolph believed the local magical department, Kamar-Taj, could handle the matter well; it was better to leave local issues to the locals.

"Cold Storage 5-1-084-A1." The arcane mage glanced at the astonished S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and decided to cut to the chase. "I know where you put the book. Nick Fury told me... In fact, he didn't say it aloud or write it down; his memory told me. The reason I didn't go get it was because I didn't know where your base was."

"You need to know, that thing is very dangerous..." Coulson was certain of Salomon's method of obtaining memories. It could only be magic; he had already witnessed it firsthand.

"That's why I'm taking it back. In my view, you're all ordinary people who can't withstand madness. Any ordinary person who reads those books will go insane." The sorcerer turned around, glancing at the agents coming and going behind him. "Ordinary people without mental protection are incredibly vulnerable. Humans aren't exactly powerful creatures, not to mention this kind of madness might be contagious. If you go insane, I'll kill you. If I go insane, my teacher will kill me. You should know I have the ability to kill all the agents in this base, right?"

“Okay, I’ll give you the book, but not now, because I won’t have time to go to the cold storage until tomorrow. I guess you don’t trust anyone else to handle that book, right?” Coulson shrugged; his performance had been excellent. Nick Fury had already informed him that Salomon might come to inquire about the book, and the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. had prepared a contingency plan when Salomon extracted his memories. To prevent the relationship from deteriorating, Nick Fury decided to give the original book to Salomon, while the contents would be scanned and stored in an electronic archive.

"You didn't leave a copy, did you?" The arcane mage felt that S.H.I.E.L.D. seemed to have agreed too readily, which was unusual. Yes, even though Salomon was bluffing with the lives of all the agents in the base, and everyone knew that the threat wouldn't be carried out, Coulson agreed very quickly, instead of spouting routine American democratic platitudes like "oversight" or "cooperation."

This made Salomon realize that Nick Fury and Coulson were prepared.

"No." Coulson smiled, but Salomon wouldn't believe a word of his answer, because spies were masters of lying. According to Natasha Romanoff herself, skilled spies could completely fool a lie detector, so a sorcerer couldn't tell from appearances whether an agent was lying—he couldn't even tell if Romanoff's statement was a lie.

"Should I remind you what I'd do to prevent the contents of that book from leaking out?" The arcane mage narrowed his eyes, his tone quite pleased. He was already convinced Nick Fury would leave a copy, and now this convenient opportunity to relay these words to him was perfect. In Salomon's view, S.H.I.E.L.D. loved to dart around in unfamiliar territory, constantly causing trouble, and Kamar-Taj was always left to clean up the messes of these idiots.

“Tribulation Wing Headquarters,” he said. “I know there are still many innocent people inside. But if sacrificing all the innocent people inside Tribulation Wing Headquarters can completely isolate ordinary people from that knowledge, I'm willing to do it. And as long as you have a copy, I'll divine it all. Besides the Book of Ebony, there are many other extremely terrifying magic books. I've already spoken to Nick Fury, and he'll hand them over to me as soon as he finds them. Our discussion is over, Coulson. I hope Nick Fury heeds my warning: your fighter jets can't stop me.”

For example, even an idiot could use the Azathoth summoning spell. Salomon doesn't want the world to be destroyed because of some fool who doesn't realize the danger. He'd be willing to wipe out the entire S.H.I.E.L.D. to prevent that from happening.

"I know, although I've lost some of my memories (a side effect of temporarily lowering my sanity), I still remember what you looked like when you abandoned Agent Romanoff. You were like...like an agent back then," Agent Coulson said, "but not a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. We are the shield, and we operate differently from you. Killing isn't the only way to solve problems."

“Unlike you, Coulson. You’re a good man, everyone’s happy to be your friend, and I’m no exception.” Salomon licked his dry lips. “As for me… I’m learning how to be a bad man. And in this matter, perhaps only a killing would be the best ending.”

"I think we can move on to the next question." The agent paused for a moment, then changed the subject.

“You mean, Captain America, Steve Rogers?” Salomon pointed to the monitors. The American soldier seemed somewhat displeased with the numerous surveillance cameras pointed at him, but he obeyed orders and awaited action. Coulson nodded, then shook his head. “It’s somewhat relevant,” he said. “The main problem is, we’ve found the Flaming Skull…”

"A flaming skull? Is this your naming ability? Well, I should have known this from the name of this organization. That's Ghost Rider, not a flaming skull!"

"Alright, Ghost Rider, we've found out his real identity. To be honest, he doesn't seem to be hiding it at all; even the local police were able to find out his identity." Coulson was a little helpless. This wasn't the first time he'd been criticized for his organization's name, but it was the first time he'd seen a special ability user who didn't hide his identity. Even Salomon would disguise himself as someone else when he was in Colin Town.

"The local police have requested armed support, but we blocked the request—Agent Hand planned to have the team disguised as SWAT to capture Ghost Rider. She believed that as long as the team was equipped with heavy weapons, they wouldn't repeat the same mistake. However, I really didn't expect that the greatest stunt motorcyclist of this century would be some kind of special ability user. I've even seen him perform! I never imagined he was connected to magic. Is he human? Or some kind of demon?"

"He's human, but the thing attached to him isn't." Salomon took the tablet from Agent Coulson and quickly reviewed Johnny Blaze's information, including his family background. The Spirit of Vengeance attached to Johnny was indeed from Heaven, but it had been in Mephisto's hands for who knows how many years. Who knows if Mephisto had modified the Spirit of Vengeance—most likely he had. Salomon put himself in Johnny's shoes and believed that if the Spirit of Vengeance hadn't been personally modified, he probably wouldn't feel comfortable releasing Ghost Rider, and the cunning Mephisto was even more so.

"Don't you have any suggestions?" Agent Coulson took the tablet and glanced at what Salomon had been looking at. He wanted to know why Salomon was interested in this information, but now was not the time to ask. He planned to study it carefully at a later time to avoid missing any important information.

"No." The sorcerer shook his head. "My only suggestion is to have the team members write their wills and prepare an empty small ceramic jar."

“Every member of the task force writes a will. But what’s the ceramic jar for?” Coulson asked. “We don’t even know what Ghost Rider’s purpose was, we only know that he burned several people to ashes.”

"The ceramic jars were used by the mission team to hold their own ashes. As for his purpose..." Salomon said, tapping his nose as he spoke.

"What do you mean?" Coulson asked.

"I know."

"Well, that's an adorable way of expressing it," Coulson said after a long pause. "I didn't know you could tell puns. Speaking of which, aren't you planning on going to capture Ghost Rider?"

"I'm busy. Ghost Rider's target is my target. We're on the same page." Salomon made a face. "It's just that Ghost Rider can't distinguish friend from foe, so I didn't stop your actions."

"What's the goal?"

"A damned smuggler from hell, the son of the Lord of Hell."

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(End of this chapter)